Page 20 of Breathless With Her

“One of them is a force to be reckoned with. Two of them? It’s the end of all your control. All of your power…gone.”

Both women punched him in the arm, and he winced, laughing. “Hey,” Tobey growled out.

“Hey, what?” Amelia asked, going nose-to-nose with him. Tobey just grinned and kissed her forehead before pulling back. “Nothing. You always win.”

“Yes, I do.” Amelia’s words were a little whispery, and I couldn’t help but notice the blush on her cheeks. I met Zoey’s gaze, and we both looked away. I really did not want any part of that. So, I helped my sister for a little bit more, mostly because I didn’t want her to have to lift everything on her own. Tobey and I took care of that. And then I headed home. Erin’s number in my phone.

I should have gotten it the night she stayed over, but I hadn’t. There hadn’t been any reason to. Because she had been married at the time. It didn’t matter that she had been breaking because of it. She had been married. And that was too much of a complication for me. I didn’t want any part of that, especially not with how my parents’ marriage had blown up the way it had.

I looked down at my phone and wondered…

Before I could stop myself, I did the craziest thing I could. I called. I didn’t text. I called.

Like it was 1999, and I was using a cordless phone instead of a cell. I called.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Erin, it’s Devin. Zoey gave me your number. But you don’t have to keep talking to me if you don’t want to.”

“Oh. She said that she might do that as a joke, but I didn’t think she actually would.” Erin let out a soft, little laugh. The sound went straight to my balls.

Well, fuck.

“Is it okay that I called?”

“Yeah, it’s nice. I just…is the cake okay?”

I let out a soft laugh. Zoey and Amelia had been right. Talking about work was helpful.

“The cake is fine. I dropped it off. I’m heading out to the party in a couple hours.” I cleared my throat. “Actually, I was wondering if you wanted to go with me.”

There was silence. So much silence, I was afraid that I had made a mistake. I was really damn good at making them when it came to women—or anything for that matter.

“To check on the cake?” Erin asked, her voice a little high.

I could have lied. I could have said that it was just about the cake, about wanting her to check on her work. But I didn’t want to do that. It sounded like she’d been lied to enough. And I didn’t want to be that man.

“No, but you could while we’re there. I just thought maybe you’d like to come with me. I know it’s short notice, and you probably have things to do. You don’t have to say yes. But if you want, I’d love to take you.”

“Did Zoey put you up to this?” she asked quietly.

“She mentioned it. I’m not going to lie. I don’t want to do that.”

“I’m glad you don’t want to. Because that would be a deal-breaker for me. Okay? No lies.”

“I can do that for you. I’ll be honest. So now I’m going to be really honest and say that I thought you looked hot in that dress that night. And really hot today with that flour on your cheek. And I wanted to ask you out, I just didn’t know if you were still married or not. So, now that I know that you’re not, if you’re ready to go out with someone, I hope it’ll be me. Tonight. If that’s what you want.”

I shut my mouth, knowing if I kept going, I’d probably talk myself right out of a date.

“I think that would be fun. And nothing too scary. Just a nice birthday party with friends. That you’ve known forever. Okay, maybe this is a little scary.”

I laughed, shaking my head even though she couldn’t see me. “Greg and Laney will be good. And there’ll be tons of people that I don’t know, so it won’t be too much. It’s not like my entire family will be there or anything. Plus, you already know some of them.”

“I do. And you know my family.”

“I do.” I paused. “Is that going to be too much for you?”

“No, I don’t think so. We’re not the people we used to be. I’m seriously not the person I used to be,” she said with a harsh laugh.

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