At nine o’clock exactly, Justin pulled up outside Natalia’s house. As he waited for her to answer the door he began to tug on the hem of his shirt. “In or out?” he asked as the door swung open.
“Umm.” She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth. “Out,” she decided.
“Aww but, Nat, you can’t see my butt as good, then!” He turned around and wiggled his hips for effect.
“Dork.” She slapped him on the backside and he turned around with a wide grin, brushing her lips with his as he stepped inside.
He glanced at the time on his wristwatch. “Do we have to pick your friend up?”
“No, she’s here in my room.”
“We’ve got to swing by JC’s and pick him up on the way. He’s in a funk today and I’ve got a feeling he’s going to drown his sorrows.”
She frowned. “Is he okay?” She liked JC a lot. He was easy to talk to and had always been one of their biggest supporters. From what she gathered JC had been urging Justin on in pursuing her from day one. That won him big points in her book.
“Who knows. It’s like pulling teeth trying to get him to talk, lately,” he sighed. “Are you ready?”
“Almost, just let me grab some shoes.”
Justin headed for the living room to talk to her mom as she trotted down the hall to her bedroom. Stephanie looked up as she entered the room. “Was that him?” she asked from where she sat perched on the end of the bed.
“Yep. You all set?” She slipped her feet into some heeled boots and straightened her black pants as she checked her appearance from all angles in the mirror.
“Yeah.” Stephanie closed the old photograph album she had been flipping through as she stood. “Man we looked young in those photos.”
Natalia looked over at shoulder and smirked. “That’s because we were young.” She fluffed her hair a little before deciding she looked acceptable. “Okay, let’s go.”
Stephanie followed her into the living room where they found Justin laughing about something with her mom. Natalia marvelled at the way her mother still looked. The wheelchair she was confined to could not take away from the true beauty she still held. Her hair remained its natural colour and her face still glowed, showing only a few laughter lines, which gave her character. And there was a new light in her eyes of late. Natalia could only hope the good genes had been passed on from mother to daughter.
“Well don’t you two look nice,” Eva smiled, spotting the two girls.
“Thanks Eva.”
Justin whistled. “I couldn’t agree with you more Mrs Thomas,” he piped up, winking at Natalia.
The colour bloomed on her cheeks, which only caused Justin to laugh. “Stephanie, this is Justin. Justin, meet Stephanie.”
“So you’re the boyfriend?”
“Eh, until she gets fed up of me,” he shrugged.
“We better get going if you’ve got to stop by JC’s.” She turned to her mom. “Alex will be home in a couple of hours. He said he was coming straight home after the movie.”
“But he did have a date with him,” Stephanie chuckled.
“I’ll be fine,” Eva argued. “Go…have fun.”
She bent down and kissed the top of Eva’s head. “Bye, mom.”
Stephanie whistled lowly when she’d stepped out of the house. “Nice car. Sure beats the heap of junk Nat drives.”
“Hey!” she cried. She would have defended the old banger but she didn’t have much to back up her case with.
“Nat, that thing rattles as soon as it moves. I had to look out the back window to make sure we weren’t losing parts.”
Justin threw his head back laughing as he opened the doors for the girls. “Don’t pout, hun, that’s my job.” He pecked her lips before she ducked into the car.
The three talked amongst themselves as they headed across town. Soon, Justin pulled up to a set of tall gates and punched in the security code. As the gates eased open, Justin slowly pulled onto a gravel driveway, the stones crunching under the car’s tyres.
Simultaneously, the girls’ eyes grew wide as they took in the sight before them.
Justin stopped his car next to an old Jeep, which looked out of place in the grandness of the property.
“I’ll just go get C. I won’t be a minute.”
As soon as the door closed Stephanie unclipped her seatbelt and poked her head between the front seats. “Whoa. I though we were going to a club, not the Playboy mansion. This place is huge!”
“You’re telling me,” Natalia murmured, shaking her head.
“You’ve never been here?”
“No.”
“What about Justin’s place?” Stephanie asked.
“It’s nothing like this. I mean it’s big, but this is—"
“Nuts.”
Natalia chuckled. “Yeah.”
Stephanie slid back into her seat and refastened her seatbelt as she caught sight of Justin striding towards the car, JC trailing behind him.
Justin appeared impatient with his friend as he opened the door, pushing hard on JC’s shoulder, causing him to practically dive across the backseat.
“Jesus, Justin! You wanna watch what you’re…hi.” His tirade stopped abruptly as he finally noticed his backseat buddy.
Stephanie’s mouth twitched in amusement. “Hi.”
JC straightened in his seat and brushed his hair out of his eyes. “JC.”
She took the hand he offered and shook it firmly. “Stephanie.”
“And now we all know each other we can get the hell out of here,” Justin announced, putting his foot down and tearing down the drive.
Just as Natalia had thought, Lance and Joey made Stephanie feel comfortable straight away. In fact Stephanie had been whisked onto the dance floor almost as soon as they’d arrived.
“Do you want a drink?” Justin asked. She turned in his arms and nodded, passing on her order.
As Justin headed for the bar she slid into the booth beside JC. He gave her a warm smile but seemed a little preoccupied.
“Bet you were happy to get a few days off,” she said, attempting to start a conversation.
“I guess,” he shrugged, looking out onto the sea of dancers.
Pulling teeth. Maybe Justin was right after all.
“Thanks,” she said as Justin slid a glass in front of her.
Justin’s eyes slid to JC and he shook his head, reaching out and snapping his fingers in front of JC’s eyes, trying to break his absolute concentration. JC blinked and his eyes slid to Justin.
“What?”
He regarded JC’s slumped form. “Snap out of it, man.”
JC pulled himself to his feet, shrugging out of his denim jacket and throwing it onto the space he had just vacated.
“Where are you going?”
“To dance.”
JC walked away without another word, leaving the two of them to talk amongst themselves.
Natalia leant in close so she could be heard. “What’s wrong with him? He’s not usually like this.”
“He had a few boxes piled up by the door when I went in. Seems he had a call from his ex. They broke up months ago but apparently she’s only just got around to asking for her stuff back. Nice welcome home, huh?”
Justin took a sip of his drink as he watched JC disappear into the sea of bodies.
“Does he still love her?”
“God I hope not.”
Natalia raised an eyebrow. “You didn’t like her?”
He shrugged. “We got along okay I guess. I just didn’t like the way she treated Jace. He put so much into their relationship and she didn’t seem to want to give a single thing back. That’s how he ended up with that monstrosity of a house he calls a home. When he couldn’t get her love the regular way he tried to buy it.” He looked pensive before he turned to her. “Guess that didn’t work in the end either seeing as she’s gone.”
She slid closer to him and rested her hand on his thigh. “Poor JC.”
Justin covered her hand with his own. “That’s life I guess.”
“Oh man, Joey is making a total fool out of himself out there,” Lance chuckled as he slid into the booth, pushing JC’s jacket out of his way. He reached over and picked up Justin’s glass, holding it to his sweaty head.
“Lance! Dude, that’s sick!” Justin cried.
Lance laughed and pushed the glass back in front of Justin. He scooted back and pulled a face. “I don’t want it now.”
“How do you put up with his whiny ass, Natalia?”
She held her hands up. “I’m staying out of this one.”
“Yeah,” Justin huffed indignantly, “Stop trying to turn my woman against me.”
Lance grinned. “Man, you need no help in doing that.” He ducked as Justin threw a beer mat at him. “But seriously you’ve gotta check Joey out. Pimp Daddy himself is on particularly good form tonight.”
He turned to Natalia. “You wanna?”
“Sure.”
“And while you’re at it you might wanna try and separate your friend and C a few inches.”
Natalia stopped in her tracks and arched an eyebrow. “Oh?”
“Yep they’re steaming out there. JC didn’t waste any time.”
Justin tugged on her hand and guided her through a maze of people until they were nearer the centre of the floor. Sure enough Joey had made himself centre of attention and had a group of females at his beck and call, all trying to get closer.
She was aware of a few looks as she moved; some women in particular making it obvious that they wanted to get their hands on Justin. As if he read her thoughts he pulled her closer and just by body language the girls knew he was shutting them out, and for that she was thankful. He had the only person he wanted to be with in his arms.
As her hands slid up his muscular arms she looked over his shoulder and spotted something towards the edge of the floor. It was a lot darker there, which meant she had to look closer. Justin sensed her distraction and followed her gaze. “What is it?”
She didn’t need to tell him, for a couple of seconds later his own face showed a mix of surprise and worry.
“Jeez, Lance wasn’t lying.”
JC and Stephanie were acting out their own version of Dirty Dancing right before their eyes.
Amazingly enough—perhaps because of the light or quite possibly due to distraction Joey was causing—they hadn’t drawn a crowd of their own.
“You think we better split it up before they make tomorrow’s headlines?” she asked, concerned for both parties.
The question remained unanswered as they watched the pair separate and walk away hand in hand.
“Where are they going?”
Justin tried to peer over the people surrounding them, but despite his tall frame he was unable to spot them. “I have no idea.”
“JC’s not on the rebound is he?” She frowned at the thought.
“JC’s a lot of things but he’s not like that.” Justin squeezed her hand reassuringly.
They danced for a good twenty minutes longer before Justin headed to the bathroom. Stephanie appeared as she was making her way back to the table.
“I’ve been looking for you.”
“Where were you?” Natalia asked. “You and JC just disappeared.”
“He bought me a drink,” she shrugged nonchalantly. “Do you mind if I go? I know we haven’t seen much of each other lately but I figure you wanna spend some time with Justin anyway.”
“Why, where are you going?”
“JC knows some place across town. It sounds really cool and he said he’d show me. Do you mind?”
She wasn’t sure of the answer to that. They’d barely known each other an hour and already were taking off together. She thought a few words of advice were needed. “Stephanie be careful, okay? From what Justin has told me JC just got out of a pretty serious relationship.”
Stephanie grinned at her friend. “Relax, Nat. It’s nothing like that.” She spotted JC hovering nearby. “Listen I better go.” She began to walk backwards. “I’ll call you tomorrow. Say bye to Justin for me.”
At the table Lance noticed her pensive look and put two and two together. “What did I tell you.”
“Tell her what?” Justin asked as he sat back down with new drinks for both him and Natalia. He eyed Lance before swiping his own glass across his brow.
Lance rolled his eyes. “Whatever Justin. And as for your question I told you guys about JC and Stephanie.”
Joey, taking a mini-break before he resumed tearing up the dance floor, piped in, “Turning up the heat! Oh yeah baby!”
“They just left together,” Natalia informed Justin.
Justin raised an eyebrow. “They did?”
“JC in the luck tonight, I say JC—ow!” Joey rubbed his leg where Justin had kicked him.
“Serves you right. Where have they gone?”
“Some bar,” Natalia shrugged helplessly. She had to admit she was a little more than a little worried.
“They’ve gone to that hole-in-the-wall jazz bar Jace likes,” Lance offered his own limited information.
Justin noticed Natalia’s worried face and squeezed her thigh. “Sometimes JC can’t handle this type of club. He probably wanted a change of scene. She’ll be fine, I’ve been there a few times myself.”
“You sure you want to stay?” Justin asked as he turned to set the alarm system. He didn’t have a clue why he was asking again. She’d already agreed to stay, phoned home to let her mom know where she was, and he sure as hell didn’t want her anywhere else, so why he was giving her a get-out was beyond him. He was stupid…thoughtful, but nonetheless stupid.
She dropped her purse on the coffee table and nodded. “Yeah.”
He brushed his lips across her forehead. “Good, cause I want you here too.” He dropped his keys next to her purse and walked towards his answering machine. He could see the number flashing from across the room. He hit the play button as he removed his jacket.
“Hi Nat, I’m guessing you’re there. I got the number off JC in case you’re wondering; I know how you like to worry. And yes I’m safe so you can relax now. Go get Justin to massage that tension out of your shoulders. Hi Justin! Okay I’m outta here. Be good!”
Justin chuckled. “Interesting girl.”
Natalia smiled lazily, her lashes fluttering down. “Hmm.”
“You going to sleep on me?”
She opened her eyes and held out a hand for him to join her. “Just resting my eyes.” She swung her legs up to settle on his lap and he pulled her shoes off.
“Thanks, babe.”
“How do you think Stephanie knew you were here?” he asked, beginning to massage her feet.
“Oh that feels good. As for Stephanie, she probably figured there was a fifty/fifty chance…plus she knew my mom would kill her if she called my house at this hour,” she giggled.
“You two were close back in the day, huh?”
“Back in the day?” she chuckled. “Yeah we were. She was like my sister I guess. Bossed me around when we were little and then looked out for me later on. I’m glad she called, I feel better about everything now.”
“JC wouldn’t take advantage of her,” Justin reiterated.
“I know,” she conceded.
When she yawned he pushed her legs off of him. “Come on, missy, let’s get you to bed.”
“Carry me?” she asked pitifully. Moments later she was swung up into his arms. “Whoa, I was joking!” Justin headed for the stairs. “Justin, put me down, you’ll break your back!”
He ignored her and continued up the stairs.
Chapter 29
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