We’re at Cunningham’s, down in Charlotte, and putting our fake ID’s to good use.
I take a shot and wipe my mouth with the back of my hand, belatedly wondering how we’ll get home. Cabs don’t go all the way to Forrestville, do they?
“Seriously.” Julia makes a face. “He made a promise? What is he—the mailman or a politician?”
“West does deliver,” I drunkenly giggle. “Over and over. So, mailman?”
Julia snorts. “I caught him with Charlie once while they were going at it on her deck. She sounded like a cat in heat. But his rear end. Dear God, you could bounce a quarter off his ass.”
My face falls, the nice buzz I had going dashed by the cold reality that the guy I’ve been sleeping with used to sleep with my biggest enemy.
Julia slams a hand over her mouth, and then crosses her finger over her heart. “No more. Swear.”
“Think his ass could survive a backhoe bouncing off it?”
“I have no idea what that is, but if it’s heavy equipment doing serious damage, I’m all about it.” She holds up another glass. “Cheers?”
I take the last shot I plan to drink tonight and clink it against hers. “Cheers.”
“Oh!” Julia’s eyes light up like she’s just had the best idea ever. “You can go as my date Friday night.”
“Worst idea ever,” I gasp as the liquor burns a new path down my throat. “I’ll look pathetic.”
“We’ll look fabulous.”
“You’ll look fabulous and I’ll admire from afar, like way far at home.”
“Not listening to that kind of talk.” Julia stands up, waving a twenty in the general direction of the bartender. “SHOTS!”
Oh dear Lord. She’s going to get us kicked out.
“I think your friend might have had too much to drink.”
I turn, finding a really hot guy in the barstool beside me. He’s dressed for work, like he’s a banker or something. His tie is loose around his neck, but his light brown hair is still office approved.
“You think?”
“I’m Mason Stone, by the way, and you are?”
“McKenzie.”
“Just McKenzie?”
“Walsh. McKenzie Walsh.”
“Nice. So, McKenzie Walsh, can I buy you a drink?” I laugh as the bartender makes Julia sit and gives her shots of water instead. But Julia, bless her heart, is too drunk to notice.
“Wow, that’s smooth,” she exclaims, and I smother a giggle.
“It’s why I come here when I’m in town,” Mason says dryly.
I smile at him. “You seem like a really nice guy, but—”
He sucks in air through his teeth. “Ouch. Nice and a but in the same breath.” He places a hand on his muscular chest. “You wound me.”
I can’t help but keep grinning. “I think you’ll be okay. There are about a dozen women just waiting to take my place.”
“Yeah, but none of them will be you.” Smirking at something over my shoulder, he lifts my hand to his lips and kisses it. “Maybe another time.”
“Mmm-hmm,” I say noncommittally as Mason leaves.
I turn to Julia, only to find West, his eyes flashing with anger, and his mouth drawn tight.
*** *** ***
West
“We’re leaving,” I growl, taking her hand.
Instead of protesting or pulling away, she follows me outside. Once there, however, she snatches her hand away, and starts walking in the opposite direction.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“To find Julia.”
“She’s with Parker.”
“That makes me feel sooo much better,” she says, and then whirls around. “What are you doing here?”
“I could ask the same of you.” I rake my gaze down her, taking in her red boots, black miniskirt, and halter-top. She shivers. “Here.” I wrap my coat around her.
“So you’re not going to go all caveman on me, drag me into the nearest alley, and then screw me against the wall?”
I give her a wicked smile. “The thought had crossed my mind.”
“Guess the thrill wears off once you’ve already done everything and then some with someone else,” she snaps. “Everything and everyone else seems boring in comparison.”
“There’s no comparison, McKenzie. I haven’t given any other female a second thought.”
“Because you’re too busy with your first ones.”
I ignore her reference to Charlie. “I went to your house to pick you up, and imagine my surprise to learn that you weren’t there.”
“Did it hurt your feelings?”
“A little.”
“Good,” she says. “Now take that little and multiply it by a whole hell of a lot, and you might get a tenth of how I felt the next day, when you didn’t show up.”
“I don’t remember everything I said to you,” I finally admit, my cheeks heating. “All I remember is being with you, but the rest is a blur. I was drunk, McKenzie. Too drunk to have ever touched you.”
Her eyes widen, humiliation filling them. “Is that supposed to make me feel better?”
“It’s the truth, baby.” I take a step toward her, but she holds up her hands, warding me off. Exhaling, I steel myself, knowing that what I’m about to tell her will probably make her hate me more than she ever did, that whatever feelings she’s developed for me will probably disappear. But I deserve it, and she deserves the truth. “All I knew the next morning was that I felt guilty as hell, and instead of talking to you, instead of being a decent human being, I took the coward’s way out and bailed. I rationalized my actions by thinking that if I left you alone, everyone else would, too.”
“You were wrong,” she snaps. “Charlie found out about us, and she made my life more of a hell than you ever could the last two months of school.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Sorry doesn’t fix it or erase the past, no matter how many times you say it, no matter how many times we have sex, or how many gifts you give me!”
Reeling from the vehemence in her voice, I step back. “If you still felt that way, then why are we together? Why are you spending time in my bed, in my arms?”
“I made a mistake,” she says, and it feels like I’ve been sucker punched. I reach for her, but she shakes me off. “Don’t… don’t you dare touch me.”
Damn it. This isn’t the way I’d envisioned tonight going. “I made a mistake too, but I came by tonight to fix it.”
She takes off my coat and hands it to me. “Thanks for being honest with me this time, West.”
“What?” I have no idea what’s happened. Or what’s in her head. Before I can find out, Julia comes busting out the door, screaming McKenzie’s name.
Parker’s right behind her, exasperation written all over his face. “Sorry, but that girl is a menace. She almost started three brawls just by winking at the wrong guys at the same time.”
“You look okay.”
“Dude, I told them I was her brother.”
I cut my gaze to Julia and then back at Parker. “Were they drunk?”
Parker grins. “Julia started calling me her brother from another Latin mother, and gave me a noogie.”
He always did have the luck.
I turn back to McKenzie, only to see her and Julia climbing inside a cab. I shout McKenzie’s name, but Julia looks me dead in the eye, flips me off, and slams the door shut. The cab takes off for parts unknown, and it would take too long for the valet to get my car so I can chase after them.
“Men-ace,” Parker reiterates. “Still, she’s a cool girl.”
“You think all girls who look like Julia are cool.”
“Yeah, but I stay the hell away from her. She’s Beau’s cousin, and I sure as hell don’t want him or his older brother kicking my ass for touching her.”
“Might be worth it,” I say, trying to get a bead on whether or not he’s really into Julia.
“Seriously, bro. I don’t want to protest too much
, but Julia and I… yeah, not happening. She’s too damn wild for me.” Which is code for Julia reminds him of his mother and he won’t touch her with a ten-foot pole.
“Just checking.”
“Thanks.” A BMW slows down, and Parker just stands there, staring at the tinted windows as it passes by. “Besides, I’ve got my eye on someone else.”
“I appreciate your help tonight,” I say.
“Can’t stay mad at your forever,” Parker says, hitting my shoulder.
“You underestimate yourself.”
He cocks his head to one side. “Look, I figure anyone who goes to that much trouble to prove he’s sorry, especially stripping down to his bare ass in public, deserves a second chance.”
“I wasn’t down to my bare ass.”
“Are you really going to ruin our moment?”
“Did you really just call this moment our moment?”
“Damn right I did.”
This time, I punch Parker in the shoulder. “I’ve missed you, bro.”
His grin falls, face turning serious. “Maybe you’ll start coming home more?”
“Yeah. Thinking of transferring to Carolina next year.”
“Sweet. I need all the help I can get beating Wyatt and Beau at Texas Hold ‘Em.”
I nod at the bar. “Beer?”
“Don’t mind if I do.”
He slings his arm over my shoulder and we head back inside. Tomorrow, I’ll take care of everything.
*** *** ***
McKenzie
Weeding the nonexistent weeds in the Foster’s flowerbed is exactly how I want to spend a Thursday morning. Even better, my head is killing me, and the painkillers have yet to kick in.
But as I prune the deadheads on the mums with my shears, I start to feel better. There’s something about working with nature; it makes me feel like I’m a part of it, like it’s the one place I do belong and have always belonged.
I can still remember my mother taking me outside, naming flowers and how to talk to each one.
“They have a language all their own,” she says, her long hair, the color of leaves in fall, brushes my face and tickles my nose.
I giggle. “But I can’t hear them, Mommy.”
She gives me a sad smile. “Don’t listen with your ears, Meadow.” She presses her hand against my small chest. “Use your heart.”
Funny how I still remember the things she would say, the way she would call me by my middle name, but I can’t remember exactly how her voice was pitched or the color of her eyes, without watching a video of the three of us.
“Hope you’re happy.”
Charlie’s shadow looms over me, though she stands a couple of feet away. I peer up at her, and for a moment, I’m back in high school and she has me cornered in the girls’ bathroom. My heart races and my muscles gather, all too familiar with the top predator of Forrestville High School.
I think Charlie Foster is the epitome of “the female is the more dangerous of the species” saying.
Only we’re not in high school anymore, and she’s nothing but a client. Actually, she’s nothing at all. Her parents are clients, and we do damn good work.
“I’m always happy to make your lawn look nice.” The customer might be a heinous bitch, but I will not be less than proud of what put food on my table and a roof over my head. Besides, I have no idea what I should be so happy about.
She won, not me.
“If you come Friday night, then everyone will talk about you, like before,” she says, reminding me of a petulant four year old. Although, that might be an insult to the four year old.
“I told Julia I’m not going as her date.”
“You’re such a lying bitch,” Charlie snaps.
“That’s me, a lying bitch,” I say, pruning the last deadhead. Gathering my courage, I finally ask her the question that every victim of a bully wishes they could get the answer to—why? “What did I ever do to you, to make you treat me so horribly?”
I stand up, taking off my gloves and tossing them, along with my pruning shears, inside my bag.
Charlie blinks at me, as if the butterfly had just pinned the lepidopterist and was studying her under a magnifying glass.
“I didn’t steal your boyfriend, no matter what you say or thought… we weren’t in the same league. I didn’t want to be a part of your group. I wanted to be left alone, while y’all went out of your way to hurt me.”
Charlie steps closer, but I don’t back down. I refuse to be intimidated anymore.
We’re eye to eye, toe to toe. In high school, I used to think she was tall, invincible, but now I know she’s nothing more than a mortal like me.
She looks me over, her mouth pinched and her nose tilted up. “Because I could.”
“You treated me that way because you could?” I gape at her, entirely stunned by her answer. “Are you kidding me?”
She shrugs. “Some people are born victims. I can’t help that you attract your superiors and make them want to—”
Anger boils inside of me, and I’m so furious that a part of me wishes I still had the pruning shears in my hand, because I want to cut off that perky ponytail she’s styled her hair in.
“My fault?” My jaw clenches as I shake my head. “God, you’re a piece of work.”
“But I’m honest, which is more than I can say for West,” she says smoothly, crossing her arms.
I think of West’s non-excuses, of his insistence to make things right. To even go as far as to throw away his keys and strip down in a public place, to know how it felt for me to be so exposed.
I think of every conversation we had, how we stayed up all night talking about everything and nothing, and how he held me, how he kissed me. How vulnerable he allowed himself to be with me.
Of his insistence to keep his word, even to a witch like Charlie. He was trying to do the right thing, even if I had thought it was the wrong thing.
Maybe I had been wrong and right about him. Maybe I needed to give him the benefit of the doubt. People can change for the good. Sometimes, they just need the chance to prove it to the one they wronged.
West keeps calling me, my phone constantly lighting up like it’s the Fourth of July with his text messages. But I’m not ready to make nice. I’m not ready to talk to him again. I need more time to sort out my feelings. More time to assess our situation.
“Thanks for the insight into your brain.”
There’s nothing more to say to Charlie, nothing more to glean for her. She’s a big fish in a small pond and she’ll always be one, until all the other fish realize that they’re part of an ocean.
And I’m ready to swim with the dolphins.
Smiling with a lighter heart, I gather my things and begin to walk away.
“God, you’re pathetic,” she says. “Go home and cry yourself to sleep, you little slut.”
Pausing, I turn to her, taking in her designer jeans and pink sweater, with the letters of her sorority on a pendant around her neck.
“Grow up, Charlie.” There’s so much more I’d love to say, so many names I’d love to call her, but I refuse to be like her.
Standing up to someone doesn’t mean you have to stoop to their level.
Chapter Twelve
McKenzie
It’s Friday afternoon, and I’m hanging out at Julia’s house, watching as she gets ready for tonight’s Christmas party at The Oaks.
“I have something to tell you,” she says to my reflection.
“You’re secretly dating Liam Helmsworth, now that Miley’s out of the picture?” I say dryly.
Julia gives me this odd look, like she’s wavering between confessing a huge secret and sucking a lemon through her nose. “So what if West told Charlie that he’s not taking her to the Christmas party tonight?”
My heart gets all poundy and my palms go clammy. “What?”
Julia sighs. “Her mother told my mother that Charlie and West have broken up for good. He came by their house the other night and did
the,” she makes air quotes, “dirty deed.”
Her information rocks me. “As in the night we went to Cunningham’s?” I croak.
“The one and the same,” she says with a little smile. “Maybe you’ll be my date tonight?”
I take a deep, shaky breath. “Would it make me the weakest woman in the world if I went?”
She shakes her head. “Considering who’ll be there, your presence will make you Atlas.”
“Let’s suit up,” I say, and Julia cheers.
*** *** ***
West
I shouldn’t have come here tonight. I should have gone to McKenzie’s in person instead of calling or texting her.
But I’d taken the easy way out, the leave a message and call me later way out. I’d thought by giving her time and space that she’d naturally gravitate back to me.
Obviously, I’d been wrong.
My dad smiles at me, my mother and Charlie’s mother deep in conversation. Their joint future wedding plans stalled for the moment.
Charlie is standing with our usual group, holding court. Our eyes meet and she smiles sadly at me. I want to feel sorry for her, but I can’t.
Because of her, McKenzie isn’t here with me. Okay, so I played a big part in that too.
Still…
Charlie’s smile freezes, her brown eyes icier than I’ve ever seen them, before she turns away. “Does anyone remember McKenzie Walsh?”
“You mean lawn girl?” Joe Kline says. This from the guy who liked to be called Big Papa by the girls he hooked up with. But he’s always had a hard-on for Charlie, and would do anything to get her attention.
“The one and the same.” Charlie laughs. “Guess who hooked up with her again, and lived to regret it?”
Some people in her group laugh nervously, others with glee, while one walks away, a look of disgust on his face. I make a mental note to talk to that guy later.
“Seriously, West? Did you get all the dirt off your dick this time?” Joe practically shouts at me.
My grip tightens on the glass in my hand. I stride closer, anger growing with each step. “Enough.”
All For You (Boys of the South) Page 7