Empty Net
Page 21

 Toni Aleo

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“Hey…”
Yup, his name wasn’t clicking at all. Eek, she was such a slut! How did she sleep with a man and not know his name!? And why did he look younger than he did the other night!? He looked like he was sixteen! Oh, goodness! What had she done!? She was a child molester! She was going to go to jail for sleeping with a minor!
Oh, good Lord!
Her one-night stand laughed as he looked around, “Should my feelings be hurt that you don’t know my name?”
Ooo, he had an accent. She seemed to have forgotten that, but man, accents were sexy, but not coming from an infant! Audrey needed to get rid of him and fast.
She smiled and looked around for something to pull her from this conversation, “Not at all, I was very drunk that night. I doubt you even remember my name.”
“Audrey Jane Parker.”
Audrey whipped her eyes back to him, shock all over her face, “How’d you know that?”
The guy smiled, and Audrey’s pulse kicked up in speed.
He had a gap in his teeth.
Audrey LOVED gaps!
Another reason she probably went home with him, man, she was such a little hussy.
“I Googled ‘most beautiful girl ever’, your name came up.”
Audrey face broke out in a big grin as her face flushed, “Smooth.”
“I thought so. No, I play with Lucas.”
“Lucas? Lucas Brooks? My new brother-in-law?”
The guy nodded and Audrey decided this was getting worse by the moment. Not only was he an infant, but he also played hockey with Lucas. Not good. She pinched the bridge of her nose and gasped out, “Does he know?”
“That we slept together?”
“Yeah?” Audrey asked.
“Not at all. I don’t want to get killed.”
Audrey couldn’t help but giggle as the guy looked around the room. Probably to see if Lucas was in earshot. Ever since Fallon finally decided to stop being an idiot, Lucas and Audrey had become close. Lucas was the brother she never had, and she loved him dearly. Audrey couldn’t count how many times Lucas yelled at Levi for dating Audrey, he hated it, said that Levi wasn’t good enough for her.
Maybe she should have listened sooner.
Even though she knew she shouldn’t, she asked, “So what is your name?”
Audrey needed to know, there was something about him. Maybe his eyes, such a bright blue, that she swore she could hear the ocean. They were mesmerizing and she could get lost for days in his eyes. Or maybe his swagger, he was confident and his eyes never left hers. It was like he was taking in everything about her, and for some reason she liked that, but she knew that nothing could ever happen between them. She just needed to get him to promise never to mention that night and everything would be fine. Audrey needed to make sure that Lucas and Fallon never found out about them, they would freak.
“Tate. Tate Odder,” he said. Tate flashed her a winning grin, taking her breath away. He had beautiful white teeth with sweet little gap between his two front teeth. When Audrey’s eyes set on his gap, her breath caught. Man that had to be the hottest thing ever on a guy. It was the simple imperfections that always made Audrey’s heart race.
“Odder?” she asked. By the way he kept grinning; Audrey knew she had said his name wrong.
“Ooo-der,” he said breaking down the sounds for her.
“Oooooooooder?” she asked. Tate smiled.
“Works for me.”
They shared an intimate grin before Audrey looked away, “Nice to meet you.”
“You too. Thank you for the cupcakes.”
WHOA!
“You’re my neighbor? Lucas’ best friend?” she gasped out. Oh God, how did it not click? Fallon had said countless times that Tate was young and that he was gorgeous! Was she that distracted by the gap and his eyes that she didn’t even realize that he was her neighbor!?
“Yup, that’s me.”
Oh God, she couldn’t breathe. The guy who she slept with was not only her neighbor but also her brother-in-law’s best friend and the guy for whom she sat up for hours just to listen to him play. No wonder he was good with his hands and fingers, ACK! Don’t think about sex with him, Audrey! Dumb girl! Ah!
“Oh my God,” she gasped out.
“What?”
“Oh nothing, I just f**ked up royally.”
Tate face twisted in confusion, “Royally?”
“Yeah. I got drunk and slept with my brother-in-law’s best friend, who is also my neighbor, who probably isn’t over the age of 18. I am a winner.”
“I am twenty-one,” he said sternly and Audrey could tell he was a little irritated.
“Well, thank God, you can drink! Oh my God, I am sick,” she muttered before taking a long pull of her own drink. She needed to get away from him. She was pretty sure she couldn’t embarrass herself anymore and really, who sleeps with a kid? He was seven years younger than her! When he was being born she was in first grade, begging Bryan Richards to hold her hand! When he was seven, she had sex for the first time with Bryan Richards! And when he was 14, she was getting an abortion! No, it wasn’t Bryan Richards’ baby, wouldn’t that have been something, but still! She was eons older than this kid!
“So I take asking you to dance would be a waste of my time?”
Audrey nodded, “Yup, sorry, but what we did was a onetime thing, I hope that you keep that to yourself because we do need to live by each other and more than likely this won’t be the last family event we are at together.”