“I’m still trying to believe I’m actually back here in Sarasota. It’s like everything’s falling together in a good way for a change.” Skye took a long pull from her bottle.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. I mean, look at…” She glanced around and dropped her voice. “Look at Sunday night. It’s like the Universe is trying to tell me yeah, I’m finally on the right track with my life.”
“Better late than never.” Susie stroked her baby bulge. “We’re proof of that. That second chances can be around any corner.”
“I guess we take a couple of months off after you…” Skye pointed at Susie’s belly.
“Oh, no. As long as it’s not the day of or something.” She grinned. “Darryl and Grant can play my character for me if I need to take a night off, but having the game here, that’s a bonus.”
* * * *
Axel had stepped into the bathroom at the far end of the hall just before he heard the muffled sounds of Rusty and Eliza welcoming someone at the other end of the house.
Good, we can get started soon.
As he sat there and skimmed through e-mails on his phone, over the noise of the bathroom’s exhaust fan he could barely hear the muffled sound of Susie talking and showing someone around the house, giving them a tour. Then it sounded like most of the gang congregated in the spare bedroom that had been converted into a full-time game room.
If Grant and company didn’t mind an extra person, neither would he. It was their house, and they had the room at the table. He always kept his campaigns flexible in that way.
He finished, washed his hands, and opened the door just to literally run into a red-haired woman over a foot shorter than him who’d been heading for the bathroom herself, apparently.
He blinked. “Skye?”
Her eyes widened. “Holy crap, Axel?”
He finally found his voice. “Hey!” He leaned in for a hug, glad for the industrial-strength fart fan in the bathroom.
Otherwise, that would have definitely been embarrassing.
She didn’t seem inclined to let him go. “It’s so good to see you. They didn’t tell me you were part of the group.”
“I’m the DM.”
He wasn’t inclined to let go of her, either. Her hair smelled great, something floral, and she was still slim and trim.
Finally, he realized Rusty, Grant, Mike, and Eliza were spying on them with grins on their faces from the game room doorway.
“We’ll be there in a minute,” Axel called to them.
Rusty threw him a wink before following the others into the room.
Axel finally let go of her. “How’d you…I mean…how? Welcome. How?”
She smiled, sparing him. “I ran into all of them Sunday night at dinner with friends. Mike’s wife is a friend of Mom’s and got me my job down here.”
“Oh. Oh! That’s…that’s cool.” He felt like the world’s biggest idiot, like he’d forgotten how to talk. “That’s great. Glad you’re here. Are you going to be a permanent player?”
“I’d like to be, if that’s okay?”
“Um, sure. Yeah. I mean, yeah, of course it’s okay. Absolutely. Yeah.” He felt his face heat. Suddenly, he was once again a tongue-tied junior trying to figure out how to ask the pretty girl if she’d like to go see a movie with him that weekend. “Yeah. That’s great.”
“I’ve missed you,” she softly said, giving him one last, quick hug and ducking around him, into the bathroom, leaving him standing there looking at the closed door and trying to process that comment.
Me?
He finally shook himself out of it and returned to the game room. They’d already set her up in the seat to his right.
He just hadn’t known it was to be her seat.
“You guys are dicks,” Axel hissed at Rusty.
His face fell. “What? We all thought you’d be happy to see her.”
“I am! I mean…” He took a deep breath. “A little warning so I wasn’t standing there babbling like a fricking idiot would have been nice.”
“You’re single,” Eliza said. “She’s single. Maybe you two should go see a movie or something this weekend.”
Now his face felt inflamed, scorching hot, too close to his own thoughts only seconds earlier. “Why would she want to go out with me?”
Darryl poked his left shoulder. “Maybe because we are living proof there are second chances in life, dude.”
Chapter Six
Skye thought she might be close to hyperventilating. She splashed some water on her face before she even made it over to the toilet.
She’d made a total ass out of herself right there, staring up at Axel and spitting out the conversational equivalent of baby-talk noises at him. Looked like he’d gained a couple of inches from when he was in high school, when he’d towered over her already.
Holy crap, it was as though she thought about him, and suddenly he was back in her life.
He’s probably married, dumbass.
Which would be just her luck, since he looked even more handsome now than he had when they were kids.
Not that she was complaining, but she was going to kill Rusty and them for not warning her that Axel was not only part of their group, but the DM.
And even worse, now she was going to have to—
Oh, crap!
She knew a set-up when she saw one. Eliza had deliberately seated her next to Axel. Well, to the DM.
Who she now knew was Axel.
Maybe that means he’s single?
Great, after three hours of her babbling like an idiot, he was going to hate her guts.
Wonderful.
She pulled herself together, washed her hands, and took a deep breath before opening the door and heading back to the game room.
Not the kind of dungeoneering I’ve been doing lately.
But that was something she couldn’t talk about. Not with Axel. Not without outing a majority of the group to Axel. Based on what Rusty said, Axel was a ’nilla.
Which…really was a shame.
Because she knew she couldn’t be happy in that kind of relationship. She needed more.
Wait, what? I don’t even know if he’s single or would be freaking interested in me!
Aaaannnd there was that.
She had to walk around Axel to get to her seat next to him. When she looked at him, his sweet blue eyes, it was like a psychic punch in the feels.
Maybe it was her, but he seemed at a loss for words, too. “Um, have you played 3.5?” he asked.
“No. Whatever we were playing in high school.”
“Oooh, AD&D, baby,” Rusty teased from her other side.
Axel dipped into a messenger bag next to him and pulled out a small compartmented plastic storage box. “Here, you can use a set of my dice.” He plucked out a set of translucent dark purple ones with white numbers on them, a full set of seven polyhedral dice.
“Thanks.”
“And do you have a preference what you play?”
“Not really.”
“How about barbarian? Non-spellcaster. Less to keep track of.”
“Sure.”
He handed her a character sheet that vaguely resembled what she remembered using, but had more stats on it. It had also been computer-generated.
Somehow, that didn’t surprise her. Axel had always been practically OCD when he was doing a stint in the DM chair.
They got her caught up to what had happened thus far, and it turned out Axel worked her character into the party at the same inn where Rusty’s respawned and renamed character rejoined the merry band of murderhobos.
Although, technically, since they hadn’t murdered anyone yet, they were still just hobos of the nonmurdery kind.
Based on the back-and-forth teasing, she suspected the murders would soon commence.
Her nerves ratcheted tighter as they played. She desperately didn’t want to make an idiot out of herself in front of Axel, and he was being extremely patient as he and Rusty helped her out. Co
mbat had changed somewhat. She knew there was no way she’d remember everything tonight and made a mental note to herself to jump on Amazon and order a set of rule books so she could get up to speed on the basics.
Despite her nerves, she was having a blast and enjoyed catching up with everyone. In some ways, she could see the gulf that had separated her from all of them.
In other ways, it felt like they hadn’t spent a day apart.
The other interesting thing she noticed was how Axel’s smile still managed to set butterflies loose in her stomach.
* * * *
At least Rusty wasn’t busting Axel’s freaking balls so hard tonight and was sticking with the program. Skye seemed to be enjoying herself.
Yeah, okay, so he stacked a couple of rolls behind his screen in her favor.
So sue me.
That’s what DM screens were for. He really wanted her to enjoy her first night back.
Because I want her to keep coming back.
Shit.
So she was divorced from a stupid cheating asshole—Axel’s good luck.
Maybe.
If he could find the balls to ask her out. Just dinner. Friends.
No pressure.
Hell, if there was pressure, at this rate he thought he might choke on his own damn tongue.
When his phone belched out the wheezing TARDIS chime at ten o’clock to signal the end of their night, Axel wished time hadn’t passed so quickly. As everyone packed up and headed out, Axel took his time and noticed Skye wasn’t in a hurry to leave, either.
“Oh, here’s your dice.” She handed them back.
“Thanks.”
“I’ll pick up a couple of sets.”
“No worries. You, you know, you can use mine. I have plenty.”
She stared up at him with those fern green eyes he’d been madly in love with for a brief time when they were kids. “Thanks.”
They spoke at the same time. “So, listen—”
They laughed. “You first.”
More laughter, and Axel realized they were alone in the room now. He could hear the others talking in the hall, making their way toward the entry.
Axel got it out. “Go ahead.”
She sucked on her lower lip. He wanted to help her, but managed not to lean in. “Would you like to go out and have dinner or something sometime?” she asked.
“Friday?”
“I can’t Friday or Saturday. I have…a prior commitment.”
His heart tightened. “Ah.” That would be his dumb luck, if he missed a connection with her by days.
“How about Thursday? Or Sunday?” she suggested.
He didn’t want to wait until Sunday. “Thursday would be great.”
She offered him a bright smile he suspected might be his undoing. Unlocking her phone, she handed it to him. “We’d have had a lot more interesting times if we’d had cell phones when we were kids.”
He remembered nights talking on the phone to her, the cordless handset from the living room carried to his room for privacy. “Yeah.” He entered his number, as well as his address and e-mail, and returned it to her. “We would have.”
She texted him. “There’s mine.”
They stared at each other for a long moment.
“I missed you, too,” he quietly said. Then Darryl returned to the room to help tidy up and anything Axel might have said next locked in his throat.
They walked out together. Her Lexus was a lot nicer than his Toyota.
“Nice car.”
“Yeah, one of the few perks of my prenup.” She opened the back driver’s door and set her stuff on the floor. “Sonofabitch had to give me a brand new car. His stupid family runs a string of dealerships up there, so it’s not like it was a hardship or something.”
“Ah.”
“Trust me, I could not have afforded this if I’d had to pay for it.” She patted the roof. “But it’s mine, free and clear. Hopefully I won’t have any repair expenses for a while. Consider it a war trophy.” He hated how her expression turned somber. “Felt like that sometimes. A war.”
Before he could respond, she hugged him hard. He couldn’t hug her back as well as he wished he could, because of the messenger and laptop bags slung over his shoulders. He didn’t want them to swing around and whack her in the side.
“I guess I’m parking a couple of people in. I’d better get going. Text me what time and where on Thursday. I’m usually home from work by five thirty.”
“Okay.” He stepped back as she got in. He had been parked in by her, but he hadn’t thought to stop and dump his stuff in the car first because he’d been too willing to have even a few extra seconds of time with her.
You’re an idiot. What’s she going to want with you after all these years?
Still, it was impossible to reel his mind back in after it’d already taken off down that path.
* * * *
Skye drove home in a daze. Tonight had been great. Fantastic.
It was the first time in a long damn time she hadn’t felt lonely. Living in the same house with her parents, or being at work, wasn’t the same as having a tight cadre of trusted friends.
Which was what had been missing from her life for too damn long.
Her life felt like night and day, from before Sunday until now. She’d have D&D, her friends, volunteering at the club—she’d made a rapid transition from isolation to whatever the hell the opposite of that was.
Most of her friends outside of work in Pennsylvania had been Kelly’s. Any time she tried to have friends of her own, somehow, Kelly always managed to get in the way. Vanilla or kinky, it didn’t matter. As her husband and Master, even though he hadn’t outright said, “You can’t be friends with ____,” that’s what it had amounted to. She could see it all when she looked back.
He’d come up with reasons they weren’t people he wanted to spend time with. Or imply they were “beneath” her to spend time with them because of his family.
Or that she was a horrible judge of people.
Well, on that last point he’d been correct, except the “people” she’d been a horrible judge of was Kelly.
Kelly only tolerated her parents because they came up to visit her and, duh, they were her parents. He must have known that was a line he shouldn’t cross or it would have triggered her leaving a lot sooner.
She’d been able to rationalize pretty much everything else within the context of their marriage and BDSM dynamic. Especially early on.
Even the damaging—and untrue—things he’d told her about herself over the years, all couched as “helpful” criticism to try to get her to be a “better slave.”
With all of that added to the mix, it hadn’t felt like it was worth the effort to get him to change his mind about people, sometimes.
Most of the time.
Sure, the woman who had recently celebrated four decades of converting oxygen to carbon dioxide on the third rock from the sun could see all the red flags and warning signs now.
Some people—many people—might be turned off from the lifestyle after going through something like she’d been through.
Except it wasn’t a problem with the lifestyle. It’d been a problem with Kelly.
She’d grown, matured.
Smartened up a hell of a lot.
Just like she wouldn’t settle for less than what she wanted and needed in a BDSM relationship, she wouldn’t put a vanilla person through trying to become kinky just to make her happy.
That would be criminally unfair to him.
She sighed, knowing that meant she and Axel would only be friends.
She also hated how sad that thought made her.
Chapter Seven
Axel lay in bed for a few minutes after his alarm went off Wednesday morning and studied the ceiling. Last night, after he’d returned home, he saw where Eliza had taken pictures of them at gaming like she frequently did and posted them on Facebook.
Tagged everyone.
She’d managed to
perfectly snap one of the two of them looking at each other, him smiling and Skye laughing at something he’d just said.
It was like the only picture taken of him in the past five years where he was really smiling.
He’d spent a good twenty minutes or so staring at the picture.
Then he’d downloaded it to his phone and saved it in Favorites.
How sad am I?
It would be too easy to close his eyes and see that as a reality for them long-term, instead of an oasis consisting of a few hours once a week.
This is crazy.
If he couldn’t get this mood out of his head, he was liable to scare the crap out of Skye on Thursday night at dinner. She’d think he was some stalkery, crazy asshole.
Which led him to contemplate where to eat. He wanted to take her out. He was an adult with a credit card and driver’s license now. He didn’t need his parents to drive them to a movie or something and give him an advance on his allowance so he could pay for her evening.
He finally peeled himself out of bed, got the coffeepot started, and headed for the shower.
Still, Skye lingered on his mind like a clinging mist. The harder he tried to shift his focus, the more there she was.
Darryl’s words had pierced through his brain. Darryl was right—their triad was proof of second chances.
And he and Skye were both single.
But was it really worth torpedoing the game group or scaring her off if he dated her and it didn’t work out?
Could his heart take that kind of rejection again?
If he shattered his group of friends, it would gut him. His mom lived in Texas with her second husband. His father had died five years earlier. He didn’t have any brothers or sisters.
D&D was it.
We can go out as friends, can’t we?
There was no law against that. If he kept his feet firmly planted in reality, everything would be fine.
Right?
Right.
Yeah, and even he didn’t believe that.
Still, as he drove to work, he kept his eyes open for ideas where to take her and wondered if she liked sushi.
Okay, maybe not sushi. That could be hit and miss. Italian. Sigalo’s was good, and reasonable. Plus they had a diverse menu that she should be able to find something on there she’d like.