I wrap my arms around his waist and nuzzle the sweaty skin of his neck. My chubby is pressed nice and snug against his bubble butt. My dick is going to get a treat tonight.
“Fuck, let’s get out of here.” He turns his head to murmur in my ear.
“Your friends?” I ask.
“Covered. Yours?”
I glance over at the three of them. Sawyer and Logan, my besties from work, and Connor, whose boyfriend, Donnie, also works with us at Mars Fitness. They’re all partnered up with the loves of their lives, leaving me the sole bachelor holding down the fort. They wave at me from their spot at the edge of the dance floor and I wave back.
“All good. Let’s go.” I need to get my dick in some ass before I burst. I take the cutie’s hand and we make a beeline for the club’s exit.
It’s early spring in New York City and the temperature plummets after sunset. Despite growing up in Massachusetts, the few years I spent on the West Coast have turned me into a sunshine and beaches kind of guy. The cold night air cools the sweat on my skin, leaving me shivering, and I cuddle closer to the cutie to stay warm.
“You wanna call a car?” he murmurs between kisses.
“Mmhmm.” I reach for my phone in my back pocket. As soon as I have it in my hand, it starts vibrating.
Ugh. Another spam call. Nobody actually calls anybody these days.
Without taking my lips from the cutie’s, I bring my phone over his shoulder so I can end the call without answering it.
Except… I stop and blink. That’s Eden’s phone number. Why the hell is my sister calling me now?
“Uh…” The cutie pulls back when my lips stop moving against his. He glances at the screen displaying my sister’s picture and cocks an eyebrow. “Do you need to answer that?”
I stare at the screen for a second, tempted to send her to voicemail. She can shoot me a text and I’ll deal with whatever it is in the morning. Except, it’s the middle of the night and she wouldn’t call unless it was important, right?
“Sorry, hold on.” I reluctantly step away from the cutie and swipe to answer the call. If she’s just bored and wanting to bust my balls, I’m going to strangle her. Way to cock block her little brother. “Hello?”
“Hi, uh, is this Everest?”
The voice one thousand percent doesn’t belong to Eden. It’s about twenty years too young. I pull the phone away from my earto check the screen again. I didn’t hallucinate Eden’s picture, did I?
Nope. That’s Eden, all right. From when she was in high school and came home piss drunk, hair all over the fucking place, and vomit down the front of her shirt. I took the picture as blackmail. She hates that I use it as her profile pic.
But then I notice the actual number on the screen. It’s not Eden’s cell phone. It’s the landline from her house. Some stranger is in her house? What?
“Hello?” The young female voice jolts me out of my stupor.
“Yeah, sorry. This is Everest. Who are you?”
“I’m Adeline. Ivy’s babysitter.”
That explains the landline thing, but why the hell is my niece’s babysitter calling me? “Okaaayyy.”
“So, um, Mr. and Mrs. Lambert aren’t here yet. They were supposed to get home two hours ago.”
“Oh.” That’s… weird. Eden’s not the most on-time person in the world, but Jeremy pretty much operates like clockwork. He’s never late. “Have you tried calling them?”
“Yeah, of course I did. They’re not picking up.” Adeline’s eye roll is so loud, I can hear it from here. “You’re the first person I’m supposed to call if I can’t reach them.”
“Oh.” That’s… super weird. Both that they didn’t pick upandthat they told the babysitter to call me. I can never be trusted to answer the phone, but Eden and Jeremy are annoyingly fond of actually talking to people. They wouldn’t ignore a call, especially if they’ve left Ivy with a babysitter.
“So are you coming or not?” Adeline’s teenage annoyance comes through the phone full blast, so strong I wince at the impact. “Because I love Ivy and everything, but I gotta get home.”
“Uh…” Fuck. What am I supposed to do? I’m not anywhere near their brownstone in Park Slope, and I was gonna bring thisguy home with me, and why am I the first person the babysitter is supposed to call? How the hell would I know what to do?
“Hello?”
