Page 52 of Last First Date
"Aunt Opal," I murmur, then lean forward to kiss her on the cheek. "How have you been, beautiful?"
She smiles up at me. "Oh, I'm having the best day in a long time. Thanks for asking, hot stuff." I love our town's resident dirty old lady. If I didn't already have the hottest girlfriend in the world, I might have given in to her demands.
But then my eyes snag on Darcy and nothing else matters to me. I still can't believe I'm lucky enough to be the man that she chose, but I'm trying my best to be the man she deserves.
I let go of Aunt Opal and head toward the woman of my dreams. But on the way, I pause just long enough to slap Daniels on the butt. "How was that, Aunt Opal?"
She peers out from around the side of the camcorder. "Think you could do it again? Maybe with a little more feeling this time?"
Daniels snorts. "We don't actually love each other like that. You know that, right?" He gestures between his wet, naked torso and me in my uniform shirt. "This is a strictly platonic bro-mance. No kissing. Minimal, strictly sports-related butt grabs."
I pucker up and act like I'm going to plant a wet one on him, and when I'm deeply invading his space, I lean forward and grab his butt again, rough this time. "You don't have to be shy now. Our secret is finally out." I lean forward and lick him on the ear.
Daniels shoves me away."Ugh, gross. I can't believe someone as smart as Darcy puts up with an idiot like you."
Aunt Opal licks her lips and leans around the camcorder to talk to us. "Maybe you could fight a little bit then, if you're not going to make out with one another."
We both laugh at that one. "You want us to get in some Jell-o? Isn't that a thing?" I bat my eyelashes at her, all fake innocence.
She cackles so hard that she almost drops the camcorder. "Don't act like you don't know about Jell-o wrestling. You probably have your own private collection of Jell-o wrestling videos, don't you?"
My lips quirk up at the accusation. "I'm going to plead the fifth on that one." I slide up next to Aunt Opal one last time. "But Darcy's favorite might be lime green."
She gives me a swat, and I head toward my Darcy. She's squatting on the floor next to a younger girl I don't know, their heads close together and peering down at the display window on the girl's fancy camera.
I sit next to her and wrap my arms around her. "Whatcha doing there, baby?"
"Oh hey. This is Lily, our photographer. I was looking at some of the shots she's been taking. They're amazing."
I huff. "Are you seriously looking at other men? Don't you like what you have at home?" I grab her hand that's closest to me and rub it along my thigh.
"Quit that, you big oaf." She swats at me, but then she accidentally ends up rubbing my thigh anyway. I laugh at her and hold out my hand to the other girl.
"Hey Lily. Nice to meet you. I'm Thomas Abernathy, Darcy's very favorite firefighter."
Darcy snorts and shoves me with her shoulder. "You're the worst."
I lean closer to her and murmur in her ear, "That's definitely not what you said last night."
Her cheeks flush, and she takes another swat at me. And this time she ends up rubbing my upper arm. Ha, I win again.
"How's the photoshoot going?"
"Oh, uh, really well." Lily smiles at me. "I'm hoping some of the pets we're featuring will bring in donations for the animal shelter too, or even end up getting adopted. It was a really great idea."
"Thanks," I say, pride puffing out my chest somewhat. "But I wouldn't have come up with it without Darcy. Did you know she has a pet cat that she rescued from a call?"
Lily's eyes light up. "Your sweet kitty Honey Boo Boo was a rescue from a fire? How did I not know this about you?"
Darcy squirms a little bit under her gaze. "Well, I don't talk about it much. I got made fun of a lot when I took him home from the scene. The other firefighters said I was too soft to make it on the job."
My face tightens. I know that it was a long time ago, but I also want to go rough up anybody who has ever made her feel bad about who she is. Even if it is just about her ridiculous, vicious little ankle-biting cat.
"Well, I love your pussy." I bury my face in her neck and place noisy kisses along her jawline until she's squirming and swatting at me again.
Lily sighs. "You two are the freaking cutest together." She shows us a picture that she took of us wrapped around each other. "I wish I could find that with someone special."
Darcy pats her on the hand. "You will. I promise. I mean, look around. One of these half-naked beefcakes could be the man of your dreams." She flashes a look over at me. "I first got to know Abernathy at one of these photo shoots. It was... life changing for us both."
