Secure Love

Chapter 3

  “There you are Tom! You were gone for so long daddy thought you must have gotten lost. It’s not like you to wander away!” Angela’s shrill voice cut through Tom’s haze and he straightened up so fast Lisa didn’t have time to react, leaving her standing open mouthed for a full second, wide eyes focused on Tom before she remembered herself and turned back toward the game to cover her embarrassment. She was gasping slightly after the onslaught she’d endured and tried to focus on keeping the heat from her face. She looked back toward Connor for a moment, just to collect herself and then turned back to Tom.

  Once his brain started working again he had immediately released Lisa and faced the ball game again. His whole body had been shaking with desire, but now he felt like his heart had leaped out of his body, like a criminal being caught red-handed.

  “Oh…yeah…I just needed to…stand…for a bit. I didn’t want to get in people’s way, though.” After all those minutes of being brain-dead that was the best he could come up with. He was burning with embarrassment for nearly taking the woman next to him in such a public place. They’d only exchanged a few words and he was acting like a dog in heat. He looked down at her with an apologetic look, but she was still trying to collect herself by looking for her brother, and wouldn’t meet his eye. Damn it, he might have already blown this. She would think he only wanted one thing from her, and he wanted so much more. He wanted to explore every part of this feeling that had him going crazy.

  “Oh never mind all that, people know how to go around. But you left your poor uncle alone and you know how he needs help to keep up with the game. I tried my best once I realized you were gone, but I’m afraid I’m just not as good at calling out plays as you are, sweetie!” She gave a small pout and grabbed his arm nearest her, tugging at it like a child. She stood slightly right behind the couple, but this move brought her more in between, a motion that did not go unnoticed by Lisa.

  “Sweetie?” The word replayed in Lisa’s head like a hollow echo in a cave.

  “I’m sure you’re doing just fine. It’s the effort that means the most to him, anyway.” Tom gave her a small grin, his pulse starting to return to normal. He turned a little towards Angela so he wasn’t talking to her over his shoulder. He was used to Angela’s sometimes childish behavior and how handsy she tended to be, and found it endearing most of the time. She may have been raised to be an heiress, but she had a child’s innocent heart.

  Angela stepped forward as if to look at the field, wrapping her right arm around Tom’s left and pressing herself against his body. Lisa, not wanting to be rude stepped a little to the side to make room for her, but when she stepped a little back and noticed how close Angela was leaning into Tom she froze. They looked like a happy couple as Angela began chattering away about the plays she had described imperfectly, causing him to chuckle at some of them.

  She was much taller than Lisa, with long blond hair curled to perfection, decorated with soft braids here and there. Her golden eyes sparkled as she pointed to where the balls had gone and her vivacious laugh pierced Lisa’s ears, even as Tom’s low chuckle tore at her heart. These two were obviously close. In two minutes he had forgotten all about her.

  “Well what did you expect? You barely spoke two words to him before practically jumping his bones. He may have felt what you felt or…he just saw your reaction and played on it. i***t! Of course, with a girl like that on his arm, why would he want you?” Her eyes started burning and she had never before wished so much for a sinkhole to swallow her so she could leave without a trace. She stood for a moment and just gazed at the ground, willing a hole to form. When she looked back up her eyes were caught by Angela’s golden ones, narrowed at her in a cold glare.

  The message was clear. Back off.

  Lisa’s felt a whole new level of shame she had never experienced before. She couldn’t blame Angela for hating her right now after she’d just been caught making out with her boyfriend….or fiancée…or whatever he was. Lisa hadn’t even asked if he was here with someone else. She’d just jumped right into his arms.

She backed away with her head down and went to the restrooms to take a moment to collect herself. At least she had only embarrassed herself in front of Tom and his woman. She could still go home and pretend it had never happened. When she made her way back to Connor she noticed they were still standing there, the woman still with her arm around his. She waited until the woman drew his attention to the batter before she moved past with her head turned away so they wouldn’t notice her.

  She got back to her seat safely, where Connor had barely even noticed she was gone.

  “This second pitcher is good, but they're going to be able to get more past him.” Was all the greeting she got. She heartily agreed with him and went back to staring at the game, determined not to look at the seat   Tom had occupied before, just in case he came back.

  Tom didn’t even notice Lisa’s disappearance until he saw Adam making his way up the steps towards him. “We have to go, emergency at the company.” Was his only explanation as he started to move off. Tom turned to where Lisa had been standing to ask for her number since he had to leave so sudden, only to find her not there. He looked around but could not see her, and only then realized Angela had taken up two innings worth of his time. He couldn’t help but slap himself, and turned to ask Adam to give him a moment, but the whole group had already begun to move away. Uncle Larry stepped up beside him, but gave him a disapproving look as he took in Angela letting him go, finally, and the green eyed girl no where around.

  Tom was too distracted to notice as he hurried to catch up with the group, doing quick scans. He already felt miserable to be leaving her behind without a solid way to find her again (he mentally kicked himself for not getting her last name, normally he’d have known better), but he was also ashamed of his own actions. He had lost his mind when she opened her mouth to him and been much rougher than he ever had with a woman. 

  "Damn it! I probably scared her off. I just had to go ballistic on the perfect woman and act like damn animal!" He knew he had to find her again. He had to apologize for his behavior and show her he was serious about wanting to get to know her. Angela had probably saved him from losing her forever by interrupting before he really lost control, but next time he would be better and wouldn’t need saving.

  And he knew just the guy to help him find her again.