“Okay.”
They headed out of the vineyard. Jason picked up her shoes on the way out and she slipped them back on. She found her mother as they made their way back to the barn.
“Erin. Are you all right?”
“I’m fine, Mom. But I need to get away from here.”
Her mother took Erin’s hands in hers. “I understand, my sweet girl. Go do whatever you need to do.”
“I’m sorry about the party, Mom. I thought I could handle it.”
Her mom smiled. “The party will be fine without you. Take care of yourself.”
When Mom pulled her into her arms, Erin nearly sobbed in relief. She’d been so much trouble. This whole wedding-slash-non-wedding thing hadn’t exactly turned out the way she’d envisioned. She thought she could handle being here, thought she could be the queen of the night—show everyone how unaffected she was about Owen dumping her. Instead, she just wanted to get out. She knew her mother would understand her need to flee the scene.
She turned to Jason. “I’m going to go upstairs and change clothes. It’ll only take me a minute.”
“I’ll bring my truck up front.”
She nodded and dashed into the house and upstairs to her bedroom, took off the dress and slipped into a pair of jeans and a button-down shirt. She pulled her hair into a high ponytail, then slipped into a pair of flats. By the time she went downstairs and out the door, Jason was waiting there outside his truck.
Her savior. She slid into the seat and he closed the door.
When he got into the driver’s side, he turned to her. “Where to, Cinderella?”
She grinned. “Your place?”
He shook his head and put the truck in gear. “Okay.”
Time for some fun.
CHAPTER
four
THIS WAS A really bad idea. Jason kept mentally repeating that to himself over and over again all through the drive to his house. But Erin seemed to be in a good mood. She sang along to the radio, she was wriggling in her seat and she was much livelier than she’d been at the party, so if escaping what would have been her wedding reception had brought some life back to her—at least for tonight—who was he to question it?
He stopped at the fried chicken place to grab a big bucket of chicken and all the accessories, along with two large iced teas. He was determined to get some food into her.
He pulled into his driveway, a cacophony of barking coming from the front gate.
“Oh, Puddy!” Erin unbuckled her seat belt and hopped out of his truck, so Jason punched the button for the garage door. Before he even had the engine turned off, Erin was through the door and into the house.
Jason shook his head. He got out and locked the truck, then went inside.
“You’ve grown so much since the last time I saw you. You’re such a sweet boy. I love you so much, Puds. So, so much.”
He rounded the corner of the hallway to see that Erin had let Puddy in and was on the floor, her legs crossed, and Puddy, who was not as tiny at six months old as he was the last time Erin had seen him, was sprawled on his back on Erin’s lap while she rubbed his belly. His white-tipped paws were up in the air and moving furiously while she patted him.
She looked over at Jason. “He’s freaking adorable, Jason.”
“Thanks. He thinks so, too.”
She laughed. Puddy rolled off her lap and came over to Jason. He set the food on the kitchen counter and bent down to rub his hands along Puddy’s back. The dog’s tail whipped back and forth, then he went over to his water bowl in the kitchen to take several sloppy drinks before running off to his dog bed to pick up his stuffed toy and settle down to go to sleep.
Jason walked over to Erin and held out his hand. She took it and he hauled her to her feet.
“Now we eat,” he said.
“Okay. The chicken does smell good.”
He was relieved to hear she had an appetite.
He spread the food out on the kitchen island and got plates and utensils out. He piled chicken and mashed potatoes and coleslaw and a biscuit on his plate. He was surprised to see that Erin had a similar setup on hers.
“What?” she asked. “I’m hungry. I haven’t eaten all day.”
“Hey, I’ve got no complaints. Let’s eat.”
They took the food over to the eating area in the kitchen, a small round table that seated about four people, plenty of room for the two of them.
He dug in, and so did Erin. She had put away quite a few glasses of champagne, so he was happy to see her eating her fair share of the food. And if she hadn’t eaten much of anything today, it was no wonder she’d been so affected by the alcohol. He’d nibbled a bit on the appetizers, but since he’d hung out with her, he missed the main course dinner, which was too bad because it had looked amazing.
Still, sharing fried chicken in the privacy of his home with Erin wasn’t a bad thing, either, and if it got her away from memories of what would have been her wedding reception, that was even better.
After finishing the biscuit that she’d loaded with honey, she licked her fingers. He couldn’t help but respond with a tightening in his stomach, watching her tongue swirl around the tips of her fingers, and imagine what her sweet pink mouth and tongue could do wrapped enthusiastically around the head of his cock.
Back the fuck off from that fantasy, dude. Because it’s not happening.
He sucked in a breath and got up to clear the table.
“That was so good,” she said, clearly oblivious to his state of discomfort, as she should be. “I was starving.”
“Yeah? I’m glad you ate.”
“Me, too. I was a little tipsy.”
“More than a little, I think.”
“Uh-oh. What did I do?”
“Nothing embarrassing. I could just tell that you needed to lay off the liquor and get some food.”
“Oh, good. Because I haven’t done naked table dancing since college.”
He frowned. “Wait. What? I missed naked table dancing? We both went to the same college, Erin.”
“You graduated two years ahead of me.”
“And then I stayed for vet school, so I was around the entire time.” He’d polished off his tea, so he filled a glass with ice water and came back to the table. “So when did naked table dancing happen?”
“It wasn’t exactly naked. Or fully naked. And it wasn’t on campus. It was at the lake. I’m surprised you didn’t see the pictures.”
His eyes widened. “There are pics?”
“Well, they tried. But Honor and Brenna both threatened to kill people, so they came down pretty fast.”
He leaned back in the chair. “Okay. Now I need to hear the entire story.”
“It was a bachelorette party for Rachel Novinski, one of my sorority sisters. And let’s just say that tequila and I are not besties. And there were shots. Lots and lots of shots. And then dares and music and suddenly my top is off and everyone’s laughing and I’m dancing and someone took a picture and fortunately it was dark so you can’t really see my boobs all that well, but there you have it.”
She took her phone out of her back pocket, scrolled to an album, and handed the phone to him, which surprised the hell out of him.