Page 12 of Ugly Duckling (Content Advisory #6)

Six

Not friendly.

—T-shirt

GUNNER

The words had come out of my mouth twenty minutes ago, and I still couldn’t believe that I’d said them.

Yet we were headed to my hot tub with nothing on but towels.

Sutton had shaken her head, studied my face for a long moment, then said, “Fine. If you’re okay with that, so am I.”

My dick was so hard it hurt, and I was silently freaking out, wondering how the hell I was going to hide that from her as I got in naked.

The hot tub had automatic lights that didn’t go off, and there was no way to hide something as big as my dick from someone that I knew to be very observant.

We got outside and I lifted the lid.

The steam from the hot tub fogged my glasses, and Sutton’s sweet giggle from beside me had me glancing over at her.

“I didn’t think you’d still be wearing glasses,” she said. “I figured the big bad baseball player would fix his eyes with the bookoos of money he made when he signed that contract.”

I shrugged. “It was a lot of money. I invested it wisely, and now have even more. My business is thriving. I just have no desire to get Lasik. Have you ever walked into an eye place and noticed people not wearing glasses? Especially places that do Lasik? There’s no way that they don’t get it if it’s safe when they work there and could probably get a percentage off. ”

She tilted her head in that cute way that I’d always thought was sexy as hell.

Her eyes, those huge, brown eyes that I’d always loved, went thoughtful. “I guess you’re right. I did watch a video on social media a few months back of a horrible Lasik procedure.”

“Exactly,” I said. “I just feel like if I was meant to have good eyesight, I’d have it.”

She stuck her hand in the water and hummed.

Pulling my towel off, I ignored the way her breath hitched and slipped into the water.

I groaned when the heat hit my sore muscles.

The splash of water had me glancing over to see her white ass—and a very bad tan line to boot—slipping into the water.

“Wow, that’s some tan line.”

She snorted. “Running outside, all day every day, in the Texas heat will do that to you,” she pointed out. “We can’t all have cushy, inside jobs that keeps us in the air conditioner all day.”

I laughed. “That’s definitely not what I do. I spend quite a bit of time outside. In fact, I’d say that it’s about fifty-fifty. Running wires through roof rafters. Installing fencing. Building guard shacks.”

“You do all the work?” she asked as she leaned back in my favorite spot and closed her eyes. “I would’ve thought you’d delegate.”

“I do.” I stretched out in the lounger opposite her and let my own head fall back. “But I’m not going to make my guys do anything that I’m not willing to do myself. Plus, if a guy is out sick, then I usually take over the work he was going to do. It’s easier than trying to shuffle crews around.”

“I coached for a few months at a school that you secured,” she said softly, her hand skimming through the water. “Took over for a track coach that was on maternity leave. Was there for a little over two months, and I have never been more impressed with the security.”

I smiled at that. “I’m glad. That’s what I like to hear.

I go to a ton of conferences and meet with as many people as I can to help stay on top of security for schools.

I hire all ex-military, too, to make sure that I know what can and will go wrong.

My Uncle Parker also helps. My club participates in shooter drills with me with the school.

They act like armed bad men and I work with the teachers and staff to make sure that they understand everything that needs to go down during a drill such as that.

Then, I work with them over and over until everything is second nature for them.

I want to give those kids the absolute best chance. ”

“Gunner?”

I looked over at her. “Yeah?”

“Your son’s loss, it’s the worst possible scenario, and I commend you for going out of your way to use your time, knowledge, skill set, and your own finances to make sure that another parent doesn’t have to go through what you went through,” she replied softly.

I rubbed at that familiar ache in my chest, the one that just never quite went away, and said, “The day that I found out that Jett was gone, I called Aleah.”

She looked at me sharply. “What did she say?”

I rubbed harder at that ache. “She said ‘good riddance.’”

Her mouth fell open in shock. “You’re joking.”

“She was tired of paying child support,” I explained. “Every time that she found herself with a job, she quit it because she didn’t like that they’d garnish her wages for child support.”

“I hate her,” Sutton said. “She was the absolute world’s worst person. She was one of my biggest tormentors in high school, and to know that she felt that way about her son dying…I want to ram her face into a concrete wall a couple of times.”

“She was your worst tormentor?” I asked in confusion.

“Yep,” she said. “She was so pretty, and she made sure to always point out how much better looking she was. How she ‘pulled the hottest guy in high school.’ She made fun of me because of my teeth, and I begged my mom to get me braces when I was eleven. I had to have them a second time when I was fourteen because I wouldn’t wait.

When I was in ninth grade, she made fun of me for my clothes, and I begged my mom for a new wardrobe.

But the bullying never stopped, no matter how much I changed. There was no fixing the real issue.”

She gestured toward her face, and my jaw clenched.

“Sutton, babe. You’ve always been pretty.

Aleah was just a fucking bitch. A jealous bitch.

If she wasn’t making fun of you for the way you look, she would’ve just been doing it to someone else.

You just let her get to you, so she found it fun.

She chose you, mostly, because you were everything she wasn’t. Smart, athletic, and nice.”

The confusion on her face was adorable.

“What do you mean?” She shook her head. “I wasn’t a pretty anything.”

“What do you mean, what do I mean?” I asked. “You were gorgeous. You always have been. But you’ve done a lot of growing up over the years since we were in high school. You’re fucking smoking now. Your tits and ass. God, running behind you today was the highlight of my entire month.”

And I wasn’t lying, either.

I loved athletic girls.

All of their muscles and their dedication to their bodies. I found nothing sexier.

Give me strong thighs and defined backs over a supermodel any day.

“I think you’re sweet.” She smiled, though it didn’t reach her eyes. “But seriously. I was a very unattractive girl when I was in high school. I had plenty of people tell me so.”

This again. “I think that you’re going to have to trust me on this, sweetheart. You were a star in my every teenage fantasy. Every girl I was ever with was always compared to you.”

She shook her head. “You don’t mean that.”

She really thought I was joking.

“Text Rocky,” I said. “Ask her about senior year, and how I asked her if I thought you’d say yes if I asked you to prom.”

“And she told you that I would say no?” she wondered.

“She told me that you would probably say yes, but then back out last minute.”

She winced.

“I probably would’ve done exactly what she said.” She shook her head. “You were really popular in high school. We would’ve drawn a lot of attention, and I would’ve had to hear everyone’s whispers about what the hell was going on.”

“Not that popular.” I chuckled. “I lost my popularity real fast when I had Jett. Everyone hated me, and even worse, hated that I was no longer interested in spending time with them. Plus, a baby is a real mood killer. No teenage girl wants to go out on a date with a guy that has to bring his infant with him.”

“I would’ve been more than happy,” Sutton said softly.

I reached for her foot that was floating in the water between us and gave it a squeeze. She let out a groan.

“Hurt?” I asked.

“Like the devil,” she admitted, shifting in the water.

The way she moved caused the bubbles of the hot tub to disperse slightly, and I got a good look at the juncture of her thighs before they were once again covering her.

The small peek made my dick, which hadn’t gone down an inch, bob just shy of the surface of the water.

Fuck, but she was so pretty.

I slowly started to massage her foot, using both hands to do it, but the position was awkward for her so I said, “Scooch to the middle seat.”

She moved to the seat that was directly next to mine. My feet were on the bench next to her chair, and she reached down and planted her hand on my shin for purchase as she extended her leg out to me once again.

I took her foot into my hand and really started to dig into the arch of her foot.

She groaned. “That hurts and feels good all at the same time.”

“Most good things in life do,” I teased.

Our eyes met, and I knew she got what I meant.

Something passed between us, a knowledge that this was leading somewhere that neither one of us expected.

I’m not sure who moved first, but seconds later I had her pulled into my arms and I was kissing the hell out of her, and she was kissing me back.