by Gorman, A.
She exhaled a frustrated sigh.
“Rough day?” The sound of that familiar smooth voice made her jump.
“You could say that.”
“Anything I can do?”
She smiled sadly. “No. Not really.”
She sat up and moved her feet, and he took the seat.
“We need to talk,” she said.
“That doesn’t sound good.”
“Jasper, where do you see this going?”
He smiled lasciviously and raised an eyebrow. “All kinds of places.”
“No, seriously. Like would this ever be a relationship? Anything other than a casual, occasional roll in the hay, as they would say?”
His smile fell, and he went quiet.
“You can’t answer, can you?”
He looked away. “I think you know the answer.”
“I think I do.”
Gemma stood up, gave him a bittersweet smile, and went back into the shop. She didn’t look back.
Chapter Five
Four weeks later…
Jasper
He walked into the courtyard area of Bite Me. Four weeks had passed, and despite his best efforts, he had not been able to stop thinking of Gemma St. John. He had picked up his phone countless times to send her a text just to see how she was doing. Then he would talk himself out of it. He’d even gone so far as to park in a new place that didn’t have him walking in front of her shop. His brothers had raised eyebrows but said nothing—a rare smart move on their part. He was grumpy, fidgety, and overall miserable.
He had come tonight to see Lucky’s artwork on display. He was so proud of his brother. Photography had always been a passion of his, among other things; at least this one was a bit more productive.
After talking with his brother for a moment, he realized he could not leave without seeing Gemma. Just to see how she was doing.
“She’s in the back,” Lucky said, answering his unspoken question. “There’s a live band tonight.”
He glared at Lucky.
“What? You wanted to know.”
“You know too much sometimes.”
“I just know you, brother. Go see your woman.” He reached out and gave Jasper a not-so-gentle push toward the door.
He let that slide and continued the momentum outside, spotting her instantly. She had her back to him, but that hair and that body was unmistakable. He walked over to the bar area and ordered a beer. After all this time of wanting to see her, he was content to wait. To enjoy the anticipation. Did she want to see him? Did she hope he’d come in to see Lucky’s artwork? There was only one way to find out.
He recognized the band; they were local. He had done some contracting work on the drummer’s house. He smiled, a plan forming in his head. He grabbed his phone and hoped he still had the guy’s number.
He did. He typed out a quick text and prayed that the guy would check his messages. When the song ended, Jasper was pleased when he saw the guy look down and pick up his phone. The guy’s eyes searched the crowd, and he smiled and nodded when he spotted Jasper. He whispered something to his bandmates.
Jasper’s heart began to beat faster. He felt like a high school kid all over again. He’d never done something like this before for a woman. Jasper LeBlanc did not get all gooey over women. He also did not woo them or do crazy things like he was about to do.
He watched Gemma, waiting to see her reaction when the song began to play. What if she didn’t make the connection? What would he do then?
He didn’t have long to wait. When she heard the first few notes of the song that had played the night they danced in the moonlight at Turtles, he saw her stiffen. She turned and looked around as if searching for someone. As her eyes met his, she went still.
He smiled and made his way through the crowd, never taking his eyes off her. He stopped in front of her and held out his hand. When she took it, he let out a breath he didn’t even realize he was holding.
As they began dancing, he leaned in close. “I’ve missed you.”
She looked up into his eyes. Probably to see if he was real. She cocked her head to the side as if debating what she should say.
“Can you answer me now?” she asked finally.
He leaned down and placed a soft kiss on her lips.
“Baby, when you find a jewel, you don’t throw it away. You keep it. You treasure it. You never let it go.”
Her lips quivered just for a moment before Jasper covered them again with his. “Gemma, you’re my diamond…my very own gemstone.”
About the Author
A.L. Vincent is a teacher/writer who lives in the heart of Cajun Country. Born in Oklahoma, Vincent became fascinated with South Louisiana after reading Interview With A Vampire. Finally, she became a Cajun transplant in 2001. When not getting lost in a story line, Vincent can be found cooking or enjoying live local music. She has one son and a furball of a dog aptly named Furby.
Want to read more of the Boonies, including Emily and Noah’s love story? Read Tangled Up in You, the first book in the Fleur de Lis Series.
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/AL-Vincent/1482509838726737
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https://twitter.com/soonergirl1975
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https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/12945977-a-l-vincent
Country Road
By Genevieve Lynne
Chapter One
Ashley
Ashley Sayers sighed. “Is it the grass on this side of the road?”
“Nope.”
“The grass on that side of the road?”
“Uh huh.” Javier covered his mouth to stifle a laugh.
“Something green, something green.” She looked around the backseat of the Tahoe where she and Javier had been sitting since they left Dallas. “Are you sure it’s not something inside the car?”
Javier nodded and then removed his hand from his mouth. “Give up?”
“I must be the worst I Spy player in the world.”
“Don’t feel bad,” Ben, Javier’s brother and Ashley’s soon-to-be brother-in-law, said while looking at her through the rearview mirror. “He beats me all the time. Don’t you, hermano?”
Javier beamed. It always got to Ashley when he smiled like that. Normally, he looked like any other thirty-five year old with kind eyes and a handsome face, but when she got closer, looked deeper, she could see that he was different. She could see the surgery scars. She could see what the brutal attack that happened years ago really did to him. She could see the damage below the surface, which was what made her certain that if there was anyone in the world who could understand her, it would be him. She loved him, needed him for that.
“Okay.” She shrugged. “I give up.”
Javier stifled another laugh. “The green bug guts on the windshield.”
He was also, essentially, a fifth-grade boy.
“Well, that’s green and not inside the car. You win. You wanna play again?”
“We have to stop for gas. You want a snack, mano?” Ben said as he pulled into the gas station that looked like something out of a Stephen King novel with its dirty windows and outdated gas pumps. They’d stopped here many times while they were in town, but Ashley still couldn’t figure out the name of the business. In town, it was known either as the station next to the old tire store or Shorty’s, but there was no sign with the name Shorty on it. No tire store, either.
Everyone scrambled out of the Tahoe except for Ashley, who couldn’t stop staring at the metal building. The first time she walked in there, the cashier had leered at her while Ben paid. She'd been so creeped out that she’d left her bottle of water on the counter in her rush to exit. When she went back in for it, he’d offered her a hit. How could someone who didn’t even know her see the damage underneath the surface? Now he made the same lewd gestures and offered her the same hit every time she went in, but she never told her sister.
“Hey.” Mackenna, her sister, opened her door.
“You okay?”
“Yeah.” Tears pooled in Ashley’s eyes as she stared at the ugly building with the faded sign advertising last year’s Independence Day parade. “I just was thinking about how much easier it’s getting.” That wasn’t a lie. It was getting easier. But this stupid gas station always seemed like some kind of test. Could she buy herself a bottle of water and a bag of pretzels without showing that, like Javi, she was permanently damaged?
She didn’t know everything Mackenna had gone through to rescue her from the life she’d been stuck in, but she knew it was bad. Something dark had gotten ahold of her sister; she could see it now just as clear as she had during their FaceTime visits while Ashley was still in rehab. While Mackenna tried to hide it, sometimes the shadows overtook her. Sometimes Mackenna could be standing right in front of her, but she wasn’t really there. She was somewhere lonely, a place with dark corners and closed doors. It broke Ashley all over again that she couldn’t go there with her sister because she was terrified of the dark.
Ashley pointedly avoided making eye contact with the cashier as they joined Javier in front of the ice cream freezer.
“What looks good, Javi?” Mackenna asked, but he was too engrossed in the display to answer.
“I’ll tell you what looks good.” Ben walked up behind Mackenna, wrapped his arms around her waist, and said softly, “Your ass in those jeans.” Then he moved in closer and whispered something in her ear.
She blushed and then slapped his hand, which was inching its way into the top of her waistband. “Tell me again why I’m marrying you.”
“For my money, right? Isn’t that what you said?”
“That’s right.” Mackenna laid her head back on Ben’s chest, closed her eyes, and smiled. “How about this week you stay here with me, and your money can go on the business trip to Tulsa?”
“Don’t you know? Money doesn’t solve problems.”
Ashley felt the itch again. Maybe if she’d made better choices, been a stronger person, she’d have the perfect man for her. Or maybe she had. She smiled to herself. She’d been doing a little more smiling lately.
The three of them stood there and watched Javier contemplate the ice cream choices. Actually, Mackenna and Ben watched Javi; Ashley watched Mackenna and Ben. Her sister was finally happy, and in one month, once they got Ben’s old family house fixed up, she would marry the perfect man for her. He was a forensic accountant, and she’d become an internet security consultant for some of the biggest retailers in the country. They were a crime-fighting duo.
The cashier cleared his throat. When she glanced in his direction, he motioned for her to come to him. Why did she have to look at him? She told herself she wasn’t going to look at him again. She turned and flipped him her middle finger.
“Did one of you drop this?” he called out and pushed something across the counter underneath his tattooed hand.
Dammit. She could not let Mackenna know that this idiot was constantly offering her drugs. The last thing her sister needed was to worry about Ashley while they were finishing up the work to the country house and finalizing wedding plans.
“No,” Ashley answered back. “We didn’t.”
He drummed his fingers on the counter, revealing a small bag of pills underneath. She stared at the snake tattooed on his hand, following it as it coiled around his arm and disappeared under the sleeve of his black T-shirt. His sunken face and hollow eyes gave him away. He had the look of someone who rode life hard. She could just go take the bag from him and throw it away in the bathroom, but she knew better. She wouldn’t throw it away. She’d hold on to it, safekeeping she’d call it.
“Go ahead,” he mouthed and then pushed his hand farther across the counter.
How did he know to target her? Maybe that first hit of oblivion she took when she was seventeen changed her in ways only visible to those who had the same hit. Funny thing was she could never remember taking that first hit; she could only remember why she took it. She pushed that memory down. It didn’t belong to her anymore. She was not that person anymore. She looked up at her image in the curved security mirror above his head. She may not be the same person who lost herself in that world Mackenna saved her from, but she still looked like her—distorted, uneven, awkward.
Ashley could feel her legs restless to move closer to him, her fingers tingling at the thought of reaching for whatever was under that snake tattoo. Before she could move a muscle, a strong arm wrapped around her waist and twirled her around to face him.
Matt. Her second chance. Her reason for smiles. As relentless as the cashier was with offering her drugs, Matt, the local mechanic, showed the same determination offering her a night out. She’d been turning him down in public, not wanting to take anything away from Mackenna’s wedding. In private, stolen moments, though, she couldn’t get enough of him.
She pretended to push out of his grasp, but she really didn’t want out. Right now, in his arms and completely inaccessible to the snake tattoo was exactly where she needed to be. “Are you stalking me now?” She laughed.
“You’re stalking me. I thought you weren’t going to be back until Friday.”
“We’re a little behind on the remodel. Ben took off work for a few days so we can get the place finished in time for the wedding.”
He searched her face with his soft, brown eyes. “I’m still invited, right?”
“Of course.”
“Y’all mind if I borrow Ashley for a few minutes?” he asked without taking his eyes off her.
Ben and Mackenna both looked over their shoulders at them and smiled. Obviously, they knew about this thing she and Matt had going. So much for trying to stay under the radar for her sister’s big day.
With his arm still around her waist, Matt led her outside to the side of the building, pushed her up against the wall with his body, and held her chin. The way he looked at her was nothing like the way the cashier, and so many other men, looked at her. He was the first man in her life who made her feel beautiful. But eventually, he’d find out who she really was and what she’d really done.
He smiled down at her. “Meet me tonight?”
“I can’t. We’re going out to eat at the restaurant that’s catering the reception.”
“Tomorrow night?”
She should say no. She really should. This was Mackenna’s time. “Maybe.”
“Well, all right then. I’ll text you tomorrow.” He adjusted his cap and stepped back.
It scared her to watch him move away from her like that. She knew it would happen eventually. Matt Hansen was the kindest person she knew, and she had no doubt once he found out who she used to be and what she used to do, he’d lose all interest in her. In another act of utter selfishness, she grabbed his shirt, pulled him back to her, and kissed him. One day she’d be strong. Just not today.
Chapter Two
Matt
Matt hurried to his truck, resisting the urge to pull Ashley back to the side of the building and kiss her for another five minutes…or longer. Those stolen moments with her were the best thing in his life, and they always ended too soon. Since pulling her back to him was out of the question, he could go back and slam Theo’s face into the cash register for trying to push drugs on her. He watched the whole thing go down, the despair in her eyes when her body seemed to give in to the call. He felt the rigidity in her when they walked past Theo and out the door. Maybe he should’ve told her he knew what she was struggling with, but the time never seemed right. One day. He’d tell her he knew and didn’t care. He’d tell her he loved her. He wasn’t sure if she was ready to hear that, but even if she was, there was no way around the complications in his own life. He was sure he loved her, but telling her that would only bring her heartbreak.
He climbed into his truck and watched Ashley open the door for Javier. She turned and waved to him before getting in herself. Yes. He loved that woman, and one day…if he ever got everything in his own life straightened out, he’d tell her that.
&
nbsp; The house was dark when Matt walked in the back door. He should’ve left a few lights on, but he didn’t think he’d get home this late. He flipped on the light to the kitchen and called out, “It’s me!” When there was no answer, he hurried down the hall to Pop’s room. He turned on the light and saw Pop sitting in his wheelchair in the same spot in front of his window where he’d left him a few hours ago. His eyes were closed, and for a moment, Matt thought he might be dead. Despite everything, he wasn’t ready to lose the old man.
“Pop?”
Pop opened his eyes, blinked a few times, and smiled. “You caught me resting my peepers.”
“Sorry I was gone so long. Joe Scruggs had a problem with his ignition switch, so I had to go out there, and you know how that goes.” He unlocked the brakes to Pop’s wheelchair and wheeled him to the kitchen. “Ready for your chocolate milk?” He took the carton out of the refrigerator, poured some into a glass, and put a straw in it. “Drink this while I heat up your soup.”
Pops grabbed the glass with both hands, took a sip, and smiled. “I haven’t had chocolate milk in years.”
Hours, actually. Matt gave Pop chocolate milk every night while he heated up his chicken noodle soup. They were the only two things he cared to eat anymore. He pulled up a chair and offered Pops another drink.
“How’s the shop, son?”
“Busy. Can’t keep up sometimes.” Because he had to come home every few hours to check on Pop, but he would never tell him that.
“You have to take vacations, give yourself some rest.”
“I know.” Rest was more exhausting than work. If he wasn’t working with his hands, then his mind was free to wander off into all kinds of dark places he tried to stay away from.
“You need a nice girl.”