When she didn’t look back up at me and I couldn’t take seeing her like that anymore, I broke the silence. Clearing my throat, I explained why I was here – well, the lie I’d come up with.
“I need my truck checked.”
Her head had snapped up when I’d cleared my throat and she’d looked at me like she’d forgotten I was there. What an ego boost! When I gave her my explanation, she blinked rapidly for a couple of seconds and then moved toward her desk.
“Uh,” she said as she shuffled some papers around and then tapped the screen of her phone looking at something. “Yeah, we have a space. What do you need done?”
Fuck, what did I need done?
“It sputtered when I was driving this morning,” I lied – again.
Nodding, she tapped on the screen and waited. Within a few seconds it beeped and she was typing something back. I was only slightly uncomfortable standing there, mostly because it gave me the opportunity to look at her and take everything in.
She had golden hair that fell in big loose curls to around the middle of her back and I’d say she was roughly five-foot-six inches tall. I could tell that because she came to slightly above nipple height on my body.
I really shouldn’t have thought of nipples because as soon as I did, my eyes flicked to hers and took in the pointy tips poking through the t-shirt she was wearing.
Was it the temperature in the room making them do that, or was it me?
She also had a beautifully curvy body. I’d never gone for the thin look, even in high school. It wasn’t that I had anything against it, it just wasn’t my type. But curves? I was a sucker for those.
And those nipples…
I only just managed to look away from them before she looked back up at me and smiled.
“Okay, take it to bay seven and they’ll have a look at it for you.”
That was it?
Something inside of me screamed at me not to walk away without asking her out. I wasn’t a forward guy, I tended to be more reserved than most, but with her I would break every rule I had for myself at this moment.
So, I did.
“Do you want to go for lunch?” I tried to sound as soft and inviting as I could, but this was a new situation for me so I probably sounded awkward as fuck. When she just looked at me with a stunned expression on her face, I carried on. “I’m meeting the Townsends for lunch. It’s Taco Tuesday at La Cantina and they’re forcing me to join in on their traditions.”
And it was true, they totally were. Monday meatloaf, Taco Tuesday, whatever Wednesday, Thirsty Thursday which involved alcohol and nachos at a bar in town called Rocket, franks ‘n beans Friday… it was never ending. And once a month they had a totally different week where they mixed it all up.
It was hell!
My dad was a great guy, in fact the best dad you could ask for. We had a blast together, and he’d had my back from day one. He’d also tried to foster Luna when I’d told him about how she was living – with a mother who was snorting and shooting everything into her body she could, and her father who was a complete asshole. I didn’t know the extent of what he was doing to her at the time but fuck me I wish I had. Maybe if we’d gotten her, she wouldn’t have gone through what she did just mere months ago or been dragged around the state by the abusive bastard.
I had to shake my head to get my mind away from those thoughts because they took me to a dark place and I didn’t want to waste any time I had with Dahlia. It had been a long week mulling over what it was about her that was different, and I’ll be damned if I could figure out the answer to that question. I also couldn’t find it in me to talk myself out of the decisions I was making about her.
I was the definition of discombobulated when it came to this woman.
“Are you sure?” she eventually asked me quietly. “You don’t look like you’re happy at the prospect.”
A smile made my lips twitch, drawing her eyes to them and then back to my own. “I’m not the most social person,” I explained. “They keep making me do shit with them.”
Rather than look at me like I was crazy, Dahlia nodded her head in understanding. “I get it. I like my space too,” she shrugged. “I grew up with just me and my dad, so I got used to doing my own thing,” she paused and then took a deep breath and blew it out. “Okay, I’ll go with you.”
At that moment, I gave in and just let it happen.
I smiled. And she didn’t run away screaming.
Winner, winner, taco dinner!
Four
Madix
I t was after I’d dropped the truck off at the bay and we were walking toward La Cantina in silence. It wasn’t uncomfortable or tense, just two people enjoying the walk.
I was still intrigued though. I wanted to know more about her.
“You said you grew up with your dad?” I asked, looking over at her as I ducked to avoid a tree branch which was hanging just a little too low for my height.
She cringed and then nodded, but thankfully started to explain rather than leaving it at that.
“My mom was…” she paused and nibbled at her lower lip drawing my attention to it.
Her lips were smooth and puffy – was that what it was called? Fucking kissable? Edible? I didn’t know, but I found my eyes flicking to look at them more than I was comfortable with.
“She is a mess, a total mess,” Dahlia sighed and wrapped her arms around her chest. “She wasn’t happy being a mother. She didn’t like the changes to her body and had a breakdown over every inch her waist grew while she was pregnant. When she got her first stretch mark, she screamed and threw plates around the kitchen. She caught my dad on the side of the head right here,” she said, pointing to her temple on the left side of her face. “When I was born, she hardly held me or looked at me and left everything to Dad to do.”
“What the hell?” I growled, shocked at what she was telling me. I’d been expecting her to say something like an illness or some shit.
“Yup,” she nodded and looked at the road ahead of us. “On my first birthday, she walked into the room, where there were around forty family and friends celebrating, and announced to Dad she was leaving him for Mrs. Keegan – the Pastor’s wife.”
At that moment, I breathed in as I swallowed and ended up choking on my spit.
Stooping over to cough it out of my lungs, I took a savage gulp of air as she smacked me on the back.
“She left you for the Pastor’s wife?” I croaked, still choking and trying to breathe. I wasn’t laughing, I just didn’t think anything could ever surprise me anymore, yet here she was turning my world upside down even with this.
“Yeah. Said she didn’t want the responsibility of being a wife and a mom, and that Mrs. Keegan understood her and loved her even though I’d wrecked her body,” she replied, sounding very matter of fact about it all.
Part of me wanted to hunt the woman down and throttle her for what she’d done, and part of me was beyond impressed that Dahlia had turned out how she had with that as her starting point in life. Her dad must be one hell of a man to have got her to the person she was today, but it also spoke volumes about the person she just was. Few people would come through that with their heads on as straight as Dahlia’s seemed to be, piercings and craziness aside.
Thinking over what she’d just told me, I thought about her mom and her obvious hostility toward her daughter. Who the fuck did shit like that? Well, my mom hadn’t been a shining example of maternal love I guess, but still!
When I looked up at her, she was standing staring at the ground with that lost expression on her face again that made me want to wrap her up and tell her that everything was okay. The only person I was like that with was my sister though, and I was worried I wouldn’t be able to do it with Dahlia. If I did it, would she laugh in my face? Would I make her feel worse?
She took the choice away from me with what she said next.
“I guess she was right to get out when she did,” she whispered, absently scratching her ar
m. “I’m kind of a jinx.”
“Bullshit,” I snapped, finally able to talk without coughing, and stood up straight. “Bull… shit,” I stressed the last word. “Bad things happen, it doesn’t make you a jinx. My mom was an addict who died with a needle in her arm. Does that make me bad luck? No, it makes me a lucky guy who wasn’t around to see her spiral into what she became and then get raised by an abusive son of a bitch who beat and tortured his daughter. As if that wasn’t bad enough, he sold his daughter to three depraved perverts who would have let any guy use her body to pay off his debts.”
When she just stood staring at me with her mouth wide open, I nodded and put my hands on my hips.
“Yeah, bad things happen. It’s the way of life. I used to be a cop. I saw so much messed up shit that I still to this day can’t get my head around. Bad things happen, babe. It’s the way of life. But then I got out of law enforcement, moved here and started over near my baby sister. I got a chance to be a bigger part of her life and remove myself from all the fucked up stuff that most people are lucky to never know about or be touched by. I finally got the chance to breathe fresh air around good people. Then I got invited to a New Year’s Eve party at The Bar, and I met this woman who had golden curls, beautiful hazel eyes and the most kissable mouth I’ve ever seen in my life.” She flinched at this like I was talking about someone else, so I gave her the details she needed to make one plus one equal two. “She was wearing a short, tight, pink dress and was dancing like she was loving every second of her life. Through some miracle, we ended up kissing and then I lost her in the crowd of people. The best fucking kiss of my life, and then she was gone.”
I could see her mind ticking through the information, but it still wasn’t adding up for her.
“I thought about that woman a lot and wondered if I’d ever bump into her again.” I took a step closer to her so we were roughly an inch apart. This meant that she had to tip her head back to look up at me, and that’s when I saw her put the pieces of the puzzle together and figure it out. “And I did, Dahlia. I saw her on a plane from New York of all places and thought she was having an allergic reaction.”
“Holy shit!” she gasped and raised her hand like she was going to cover her mouth, but I caught it before she could.
Not giving her a chance to pull it back, I used my hold to tug her into me, and then let go so I could cup her neck as I lowered my face down to hers.
“Yeah! So, you’re not bad luck. Far from it.”
Deciding that I’d said enough seeing as how I’d just spoken more words than I’d ever used all at once in my life, I gently pulled her up to me and kissed her. Nothing too much, just enough to feel her lips and get that connection to her again.
I had to know if the first time was a fluke. I had to know if it would feel like it had then - like I couldn’t breathe and that it didn’t matter because, for the first time in my life, I felt complete.
And it did. It really fucking did.
Lifting my head slightly, I grinned when she tried to follow and kiss me again.
“So, Serendipity, do you want to go for lunch with me?” I asked as I ran my nose down the side of hers.
“I’m more of a calamity, but if you’re sure you can take it, then hell yes I will,” she replied, still looking slightly doubtful that I could withstand whatever might happen. “And serendipity’s a ship. In fact, I think it was the Titanic’s real name, they just didn’t want people to think the word was bad luck.”
What the fuck?
I was so organized and methodical in my approach to life, that I probably shouldn’t have been attracted to someone who constantly blew my mind with her hilarious, random, possibly insane personality, but I was.
Grinning again, and deciding that I kind of liked the feeling of doing it, I reached my hand out and caught hers, tugging her in the direction of the restaurant.
Dahlia
I was still in a fog when we arrived at the restaurant, but all it took was one look at the huge table full of Townsends for it to lift.
“Dahlia!” Levi shouted and then patted the free seat beside him. “You can sit with me.”
The deep growl that came from Madix made me squeeze his hand as I grinned back at Levi and then waved at the rest of the family who were shuffling closer to each other to make space for an extra chair.
“I want her to sit next to me,” Tate shouted as he shuffled closer to his sister Ariana. She just rolled her eyes and shook her head at me.
When Madix stiffened and slowly turned his head in Tate’s direction, their dad Jer stood up and went to get a chair from an unoccupied table and then placed it next to the empty one.
“Here you guys go,” he grinned and held his hands out. “Dahlia, you sit here,” he pointed at the chair he’d just moved over, which was next to Luna. The fact he’d remembered my name surprised me, but then again with Dad running the business he did, most people knew my name before I knew theirs. His first impression of me had also been a swollen tongue, stupidity and me embarrassing myself. I guess that was kind of hard to forget. “Madix, you can sit here,” he added, nodding at the chair beside Levi.
All of the tension left Madix’s body once I was sandwiched between him and his sister. When she passed me the menu I breathed a sigh of relief and hid behind it. Random social conversation often left me feeling overwhelmed, especially in situations like this. They were the best people, but man alive the entire Townsend family was intimidating. I also didn’t know what Madix expected of me, or what I was even doing here which made me feel even more awkward. I’d wanted to come and spend more time with him though, especially seeing as how I could talk this time without using my hands or a piece of paper and a marker.
“Have a margarita for me, will ya?” Luna muttered as she looked at her own menu, unable to drink because she was pregnant.
Nodding, I scanned the page and chose what I wanted to go with my margarita. The alcohol would be long gone by the time I finished work today, and one wouldn’t kill me. Right?
What I should have done was double fisted them, or even quadruple fisted them, because no matter what, the Townsends were not normal people.
Alas, I had only ordered one.
Maybe that was actually a good thing, though? Especially with what happened once we had finished eating.
I’d noticed something the night that I went to Madix’s house, and over lunch it became even more obvious. With how uncomfortable he seemed to be when he’d mentioned lunch with the Townsends and his general unease toward them, I would have expected him to be like an outsider when they got together. Nothing could be further from the truth though. He totally fit in with the family, who had blatantly claimed him as one of their own. I watched their interactions throughout the meal and was left wondering if he wasn’t aware of it, or if he just hadn’t accepted it? Then again, I was awkward and wary around people I didn’t know well, and they were acting the same way toward me. In my case though, I was willing to work past my issues and enjoy being part of them.
“So, do you wanna go to the ranch with us to visit our cousins?” Levi asked Madix, proving my point, as he was working his way through his fifth taco.
Five freaking tacos! The ones served here were huge and stuffed full of meat, salad, cheese and the best refried beans and salsa I’d ever tasted. I’d struggled to finish two though and was now battling my self-control as I looked at the last one staring up at me from my plate.
Maybe if I took it home with me I could eat it tonight? Or have it as an afternoon snack? Or I could stop breathing and then there would be a space in my abdomen for it right now?
I was distracted from my taco contemplation and consumption theory by the voice of a woman I detested hugely. Mrs. Crane, the oldest, most over opinionated, bigoted harpy in the history of life. And I say life meaning from the first amoeba to ever exist on Earth.
“I can’t believe that you would sully this place with your filth,” she sneered at the table.
Su
lly? Who the hell used sully nowadays? An old, bitchy, bigoted harpy is who.
“Well, Mrs. Crane. Good afternoon to you too,” Jer responded, leaning back in his chair with a grin on his face, rubbing his stomach.
“Don’t you dare,” she hissed, her bent finger that looked like a knobbly tree branch pointing at him. “You should all stay on that land of yours, Townsend. Keep the rest of us clear of your dirty ways.”
“Our dirty ways?” Erica, Jer’s wife, replied in a tone that would caution a normal person to shut up and get gone. Not Mrs. Crane though. Oh no, that old bitch could survive a tornado – and she had! Even the damn twister hadn’t wanted her and had spat her out.
“Homos,” she spat out. “Fa…” she started to say a truly awful word for a gay person, when she had the good sense to pause.
This was most likely because all at once, all of the occupants of the table sat up, and an eery tension filled the space. This old bitch just got worse.
“We don’t use that word,” Jer shrugged, trying to play it off like he wasn’t pissed. The clenched fist on his thigh said otherwise. “It’s insulting.”
“They’re insulting,” she sniffed, looking around the room and nodding as if everyone else was in agreement with her.
Chancing a quick look around, it appeared she was on her own on this one because every single patron of the restaurant was looking at her in disgust.
“Oh, and look, the town’s whore and lesbian’s offspring is sullying the place as well. We don’t cater to your kind here either,” she informed me, glaring like I was a piece of dog shit on the ground.
Normally, I would have shrunk down, doing my best to hide from what was being said. Yes, I was ashamed, damn ashamed of what my mother had done. Not because she was a lesbian, but because of how she’d treated her family. How she’d acted toward her daughter. The fact it had been a religious man’s wife for Christ’s sake… shit – sorry, Christ.
Mad Gold (Providence Gold Series Book 2) Page 4