“What would you suggest I do to get through to her?” I asked PD’s wife, July.
July smiled sadly at me.
“Angie has always been a very private person,” she apologized. “I never even knew she had a kid until you told me about her.”
I gritted my teeth and looked out the window of our project house.
PD, July, Able, and I had driven right in after the tornado destruction had made itself known in our small, quiet town.
We’d, unfortunately, been quite busy outside of work, and had been for the last two weeks.
Two weeks of hell.
We’d been busy helping our fellow Kilgore natives rebuild, and probably would be for a while.
The house we’d been working on had suffered quite a bit of damage, but we’d been able to turn it around and make it livable in about eight days.
We were now on project house number two, after the storm, and it looked like we were going to finish this one in the next hour as well.
“Doesn’t she graduate tomorrow?” PD asked, not sounding the least bit concerned that my love life was in the dumps.
“Well,” I said. “She graduates in a few days.”
“Then go to that,” he suggested.
“I already planned on doing that,” I informed him. “I’m trying to figure out what to say to her to get her to listen to me.”
“Man,” PD dropped his arms to his side. “If she doesn’t want to listen to you, she’s not going to. You’re going to have to make her.”
July’s outraged sniff had me covering a laugh.
“What?” PD asked. “You act like it’s that big of a surprise that I would suggest that.”
“Well, it is,” she grumbled. “Go away and let me talk to Bowe on my own.”
PD shook his head.
“No,” PD disagreed. “What you’re going to do is go get us some sandwiches so we can finish this. You’re only making this take longer than it needs to with your constant yapping about how Bowe needs to do this or that to get his woman back.”
I dropped the wrench I was holding to the floor and exited the room, knowing exactly where this was going to take them if my assumptions were correct.
So, in order to get out of ear-shot, I went and got my own sandwich at the corner store nearest our project house, and ate it in my truck.
I’d just finished off the last bite of it when I saw none other than Troy pull in with Jade sitting next to him their Escalade.
He snarled something to her when she went to follow, and I watched him move.
He didn’t notice me.
But Jade did.
The moment Troy disappeared inside, Jade waved like she hadn’t just been seen pulling in with her husband.
“How are you, Mr. Tannenbaum?” Jade asked sweetly.
“Fine,” I mumbled. “Thanks.”
She frowned at me.
“Angie told a couple of the girls in our class that you and she broke up,” Jade pushed. I guess everyone in her class had figured out our relationship when the tornado hit. We were on the news.
I nodded my head, reaching down to grab my half-filled cup of sweet tea.
“We did,” I confirmed.
“Well, that’s too bad,” she frowned. “I thought y’all were great together.”
I wanted to roll my eyes, but managed to stay facing front. Otherwise she might think it was an invitation to keep talking to her if my eyes accidentally went her way.
“It’s too bad that she moved on so fast,” Jade continued as if I’d been accepting of her musings. “But that’s life.”
When I continued to ignore her, she started to huff in annoyance.
“I saw that she wasn’t too brokenhearted at school today,” Jade smiled. “I have a couple of friends that would just adore a shot at dating you.”
I gritted my teeth.
I had, of course, seen Angie with the man after class today. He was one of the lower level students, and it looked like they were getting along great as I walked past them.
When I’d waited to talk to her by the front doors that led outside, she’d never showed.
And I found out why, a couple minutes later, when I went looking for them and found the pair cozy as fuck in the corner as they spoke about something they found humorous.
Angie had spotted me the moment I’d walked back in the door, and it angered me that she wasn’t even giving me the time of day.
I’d had to get updates from fucking Alec, and by calling the hospital myself and acting like I was Alec—who had given me permission to do so when I bothered him too much.
Then I’d started to visit Elise while Angie was at clinicals.
Lucky for me that Angie’s family was being more understanding about this whole situation than Angie was. Angie’s mom, Kara, had welcomed me into their home and had let me hang with Elise whenever I had some spare time.
Although Angie didn’t know that I was doing this at her house, since Kara’s had been destroyed by the tornado. I hated to visit while Angie wasn’t there. It felt like I was breaking a vow, and I hated being so secretive about it all.
I was sure she’d find out over the last week that I’d been visiting, but she hadn’t yet. Which also had a lot to do with her family.
They were all on my side, and had even gone as far as to say that Angie was overreacting, as she was prone to do.
I did think she was overreacting. Kind of.
It was a big damn deal that Elise had been nearly killed by the transformer that’d fallen through that little building, but it also wasn’t my fault. I had no earthly idea that something like that would happen.
I also had absolutely no control over Mother Nature. Never would I put Elise in danger if it was within my power to do so, and Angie damn well knew it.
Which was why I’d started to get mad.
After realizing that Angie had no intention to come speak with me after class, I’d driven straight to our project house and immediately started working.
Now, six hours of hard labor later, I was still pissed.
In fact, after hearing all that Jade had to say, I was a little bit past pissed and leaning more towards irate.
I hadn’t fucking meant to!
Any harm that had come to Elise wasn’t ever my intention and that should fucking count for something!
And it would, if I had anything to say about it.
Putting my truck into reverse, I backed out of the parking spot without another word to Jade.
I didn’t make it without Troy seeing me, though.
The moment he saw me, his gaze went back to where his wife was sitting, and a scowl overtook his face. Red started to creep up the sides of his neck, and by the time I was out of the parking lot and heading toward Angie’s school, I was fairly sure he’d let me know next time I saw him just how much he despised me, too.
The drive to the college was short. Either the traffic had cooperated well with me, or I’d been driving like an asshole.
Either way, I got there just in time to see her walking to her car, her arms laden down with books.
She was laughing with the stupid man that she’d been talking to when I left, and I had to grit my teeth to keep from throwing out a vicious curse.
Not caring if her new friend could hear what I had to say or not, I pulled right up to the back of her car and blocked her in, making it to where she couldn’t leave without doing serious damage to my truck.
Once in place, I hopped out and crossed my arms over my chest, letting her know in no uncertain terms that I wasn’t letting her walk away this time.
No, this time I was going to talk it out with her whether she wanted to or not.
Something in which she saw for what it was, taking in my relaxed stance against the truck, as well as the determined look on my face.
“Al, I’ll have to catch you later,” she smiled. “I think Mr. Tannenbaum has something he’d like to discuss with me.”
Damn right I had something to
discuss with her, and it wasn’t going to be a pretty discussion, either.
If everyone wasn’t already aware of mine and Angie’s relationship, they would be soon.
Very fucking soon if they walked out the doors in the next five minutes.
“We have some things to discuss,” I said once Al said his goodbyes.
Not that he wanted to.
It was more than obvious he wanted Angie.
Hell, the woman was fucking beautiful. But she was mine, not anybody else’s.
“I can’t have this discussion that you’re hinting at,” she shook her head, and then opened her passenger side door, dumping all of her books. “I have somewhere to be.”
“Where?” I asked. “I’ll follow you and we can have this discussion there.”
“You can’t.” She shut the car door and looked at me.
Her face was blank. Her eyes, however, were not.
They clearly said how much she liked seeing me. How much she longed to throw herself into my arms.
“That’s right.” She nodded. “I have a date.”
“You have a date,” I deadpanned.
She nodded her head firmly, her mouth thinning into a pissed off line.
“Yeah,” she confirmed. “And I’m pretty sure we’re going to sleep together.”
With that she flounced off, her perfect ass teasing me as she left.
My hands fisted and I couldn’t help the anger that was even now making me want to strangle some sense into her.
“You can’t fucking date!” I yelled at her back.
She turned just her head, and then lifted one single finger before continuing her flounce all the way around her car.
The moment she dropped inside, I stomped to the door of my truck, threw myself into the cab, then sped off, uncaring about the amount of people from inside the school that’d just witnessed that debacle.
***
I stewed for hours, and the longer I sat in my parents’ pool house, the angrier I became.
I’d pulled up my computer, and a moment of weakness had me turning on my Skype to see if I had any missed messages or calls in the last two months.
Low and behold, I’d had multiple from Sierra.
Once she realized I was online, she’d immediately tried to call.
And like the low life I was, I answered it.
Sierra looked good, I’d give her that.
She wasn’t Angie, though.
So without even waiting for her to speak a full sentence, I closed out of the chat, turned my computer back off, and fell back into my bed.
I had to work tomorrow.
Early. I’d told Able that I’d go in early for him since he had to take his daughter to a doctor’s appointment three hours away.
Since it was nearly nine now, I really should be going to bed.
However, I couldn’t get past the fact that she’d said she had a fucking date.
Really, really couldn’t get past it.
I was to the point that I was literally about to beat the shit out of something or someone.
And I wanted it to be someone.
Mainly the date that Angie had said she’d had.
Which had me in my truck, driving straight over to Angie’s, without a backward glance.
I pulled into her driveway and immediately breathed a sigh of relief when I found her car already there.
Her mom’s car, as well as Ariel’s little hatchback, were there as well.
Which had a lot to do with why I went around the back way to the porch where Angie’s door that led out onto the back porch stood.
My anger only rose when I went to try the knob and found it unlocked.
To make matters worse, when I walked inside, it was to find her asleep. Naked on top of the sheets.
“This is some date,” I said, staring down at a sleeping Angie.
Chapter 21
Maybe she’s crazy. Maybe she was born with it. Maybe she just needs carbs.
-Things to consider
Angie
The sound of that voice, that achingly familiar voice, pulled me so hard from sleep that I was sitting up in bed before I’d even realized I’d done it.
My eyes snapped open, and I glared hard at the man standing at the foot of my bed.
I should’ve known he was going to come over here. Should. Have. Known.
“I didn’t say the date wasn’t going to be boring,” I snapped. “What are you doing here?”
He crossed his arms over his chest.
“I walked inside and didn’t even have to use a key,” he snapped back at me. “Do you want to be raped? Do you want to make it easier for someone to get into this house without the least bit of problem?”
I bared my teeth at him.
“Dramatic much?” I crossed my arms over my chest.
To be honest, I was tired as hell.
I’d stayed the entire day studying with Al for our final text next week, and I was not in the mood to deal with Bowe’s shit.
After the way he’d been acting the last week, I was seriously glad I’d ended it with him.
Okay, that was a lie.
I was happy that he was persistent.
What I wasn’t happy with was the fact that I still didn’t have an answer to why I’d overreacted. And overreacted big time.
I also sucked at apologies. Had a sick baby who fucking hated me and wanted Bowe, and I was a coward.
I hated to admit that seeing him made my heart do funny things in my chest.
I also hated that I was so stubborn that I couldn’t admit that I was the one who was wrong.
“No,” he uncrossed his arms and stared at me. “What’s dramatic is that I fucking love you. I want to marry you, and then you treat me like a fucking loser who purposefully did everything he could to make your life shit. Which, I might add, I didn’t. I did absolutely everything I could to make this work between us. And you shit on it.”
“I didn’t shit on it!” I yelled. “I didn’t…”
He interrupted me by yanking my foot, pulling me down the bed so roughly that I had no other recourse but to go or my foot would be yanked off.
His eyes were hard, and I had to swallow a cry of dismay at seeing that look aimed at me.
“You listen here,” he said. “I fucking love you. Every once in a while, I’m going to screw up. I’m going to piss you off and make you cry. I don’t mean to. I don’t want you to cry. But I will, because I’m a fucking human being. I’m not a machine. I have feelings. And this shit you’ve pulled these last two weeks was fucking trivial. You could’ve done just about anything to me, but leave, and I’d have been okay. But taking you and that little girl I’ve come to love with all my heart is not okay. It’s not even close to okay.”
I snapped my mouth shut.
He took my silence for what it was, agreement, and pulled me up by my hair while he came down at the same time.
Our lips met in a rush, his tongue sweeping into my mouth as if that was where it was meant to be all along.
My hands went to his skin, right under his ribs, cupping his large, tapered muscles that lined his sides. I immediately dug in with my nails, my heels slamming into the bed as I pushed up with my body.
That was what Bowe’s mouth on my neck did to me, though.
That was my spot. That was the one area he could always kiss that would automatically equal sex in some way, shape, or form.
“Jesus, Bowe,” I gasped, my hands going up under his arms to clutch his strong shoulders. “What are you doing to me?”
He pulled back and looked me dead in the eyes, the only light shining was the full moon from outside. But it was enough. It was enough to see everything in his eyes all at once.
“Loving you, Ang. Loving you.” He moved down the bed, his tongue trailing down my naked body.
And the story of why I was naked was a funny one.
I’d just gotten out of the shower when I realized that all of my panties were in the washing machin
e. Elise had spilled a sippy cup of chocolate milk in my underwear drawer right before bed, and I’d hastily grabbed the whole drawer and dumped every article into the machine without thinking about the fact that I’d need them after my shower.
When I’d gotten out, I’d been torn.
Usually, I wore something.
But since I had no panties, I figured it’d be just as easy to not wear anything at all.
Subconsciously, I’d wished that Bowe would see me sleeping naked and force my hand.
Logically, I’d known that wasn’t a possibility, but low and behold, Bowe was here, forcing my hand.
He’d called my bluff, and I was fucking ecstatic that he wasn’t wasting time getting down to the important things…such as my clit.
His fingers delved between my folds as his hot mouth fastened onto one nipple.
Feeling such greatness all at once was hell on my body. I couldn’t decide which way to move toward, so I chose to stay still and take it all in.
Bowe didn’t say a word as he devoured first one nipple, then the other.
All the while his fingers stayed busy as he thrust his fingers into my pussy, allowing his thumb to slip deliciously over my clit.
His hand came down and thrust my leg up and out, splaying me even wider for his fingers.
And when I thought that I was about to come, he completely withdrew from me, standing up so fast that I cried out in dismay.
“No!” I cried, my hand automatically going down to the ache between my legs.
“You touch yourself and I don’t get you off,” Bowe boomed.
My hand froze in the thatch of hair between my legs, and I looked at him in shock.
“But Bowe,” I started.
He unbuttoned his pants, letting them fall to his feet, letting gravity do all the work.
His underwear wasn’t as easy since his erection tented the front of his boxer briefs.
After some maneuvering, though, he was able to kick them off as well, leaving him in nothing but his skin.
His large erection jutted out in front of him, long, thick and mean looking.
Put Out (Kilgore Fire Book 5) Page 16