Page 82 of The Fast Lane
“Oh, definitely.” His eyes shone with mischief. “Do you think to rescue her, little girl?”
“Save me, Hallie. Save me.” I reached a hand to her dramatically.
Thus began a rousing game of Catch the Pirate. Theo moved comically slow, so Hallie had a chance of catching him, his arm still wrapped around me. Finally, Hallie caught up with us and demanded my release.
“And if I don’t release her, heh? What then?” Theo asked in his awful pirate voice.
Hallie narrowed her eyes, her mind working overtime. She smiled. “My daddy will get you and tickle you. He’s good at that.”
“Captain Ramos? My most feared enemy.” Theo clutched his heart. “Fine. Fine. I’ll release her…for a kiss.”
I gasped. “There will be no kissing, you cad.”
“Aye, I am a cad. You best not forget it either.” He tapped a finger on his cheek. “Right here, ya pretty thing, and then I’ll let you go.”
“Do it, Aunt Ali. Do it.” Hallie clapped her hands.
“Fine. It will be a great sacrifice but for my freedom, I shall kiss you.”
He waggled his eyebrows and Hallie giggled. In a move that made my stomach dip, Theo flipped me around in his arms, both his hands spread across my back. I gasped but when he pulled me closer, I didn’t stop him.
“You’re being flirty again.”
His grin was wolfish. “Oh, not me. The Dread Pirate Goodnight though? Total reprobate. Demanding kisses, kidnapping women, and kicking puppies when the need arises. Now, kiss me, you wench.”
I rolled my eyes and pressed a kiss to his cheek, my thoughts racing back to the last time I’d tried to kiss his cheek and missed. And maybe he was thinking the same thing because when I pulled back, his eyes, full of heat, dropped to my mouth. I licked my bottom lip. His hands dug a little deeper into my back. The pool, Hallie’s laughter, Mack in the corner probably watching this, the reasons I’d fought whatever was happening between us—it was gone. I couldn’t remember any of it.
I wanted him to kiss me, really kiss me, like I wanted my next breath.
But we’d said we were only friends. We’d both agreed to keep things that way. Yet every second since, it felt like I was sticking to the rules and Theo wasn’t. I didn’t know what that meant.
“Hey, what’s going on over here?” Abe hopped into the water.
I pushed against Theo’s chest and turned, plastering a smile on my face. “Playing a little pirate game.”
“You’re free. You’re free.” Hallie clapped her hands. “You got away.”
“Aye, she did.” Theo crept closer to Hallie, wiggling his fingers at her. “It means I’ll need to find another wench to kidnap.”
Hallie screeched and tried to kick away, but alas, she was no match for the dreaded Pirate Goodnight.
The four of us played for over an hour before I called it quits to take a break. Theo joined me. At the chairs, Mack was deep in conversation with Mimi. I caught bits and pieces of a story she was telling about a birthday dinner and, bizarrely, Spanx ending up on the meatloaf.
Theo took the empty lounge chair next to me. After drying off, I slid on my oversized sunglasses and arranged myself to receive maximum sunlight. The nice thing about sunglasses is that no one can quite see what you’re looking at. My eyes drifted to one of my favorite things in the world—Theo.
The tattoo I’d noticed was even more beautiful up close. A large white and pink lily sat on his shoulder, the leaves and stem leading over and down his back. Without overthinking, I trailed a finger over it, feather-light.
“It’s beautiful. For your mom?”
She’d loved lilies. Every inch of free space in the Goodnight yard had bloomed with rain lilies in the spring and summer, fat white blossoms that faded into pale pink. Just like Theo’s tattoo.
His smile was small and a little sad. “Yeah. I started it after she passed and add a little more every few months. It’s close to being finished now.”
“She would have loved it.” I dropped my hand.
“She probably would have gotten a matching one.”
“Nothing like mother and son matching tattoos to up your street cred.”