Wild Angel

by Shari Copell

  “Is that when you found out about Asher?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I’m sorry about that too. We should’ve been honest with you. I have no excuses except my damned pride.”

  “Daddy, I understand. I could feel Mom’s panic when I read the notebook. It sounds like the whole thing was a hot mess. Keeping quiet about me must’ve seemed like the easiest thing to do.”

  “Yeah, but most of the time the easiest thing is not the right thing. And that’s nearly twenty years of hindsight talking. I want you to know I loved you right from the moment your mom told me she had you inside her. You were my daughter. Always. I don’t feel any differently about you than I do Reese, Lindsay, Aimee, or T.J. I love you more than I could ever tell you.”

  The tears in his eyes triggered a few in her own. “Do you think I don’t know that? Do you think I can’t tell?”

  “I wanted you to hear it from me, straight and sober. A little sick, but sober.”

  “What are you going to tell the other four?” Nicks asked.

  Chelsea walked behind them to deliver toast and scrambled eggs to the table. “You’ll have to let me think about that one. I want to be honest with them, but it makes me seem like a floozy. A woman of questionable morals. I’m not sure how I’m going to tell them without making myself look bad.”

  “It makes you look human, Mom. You made mistakes. You fixed them. I like that about you.” Nicks took a seat at the table next to her father. “Lindsay will surely have something smart to say. And I’m worried what T.J. will think of me now.”

  “He loves you,” said Tage. “You’re his big sister. That isn’t going to change.”

  Every Monday should be like this, Nicks thought as the bell rang, signaling the end of the last period of the day. She was finally starting to catch on to calculus, but the best part of the whole day was the perfect score she got on the world history test.

  Mrs. Dorvat, Marius’s replacement while he was on leave, walked past her as she went to her locker. The older woman had a thousand-watt smile on her face. “Have a great day, Nicole. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “You too, Mrs. Dorvat.” Blinking, shaking her head, Nicks opened the locker.

  Wow, what a difference. Pauline Dorvat and Albert Marius were complete polar opposites. The whole mood of the school had lifted now that the asshole was gone.

  She hoped he stayed gone.

  Nicks was halfway down the concrete steps in front of the school when she noticed a crowd of men hanging around in the parking lot near the back of her car.

  She slowed, trying to see if she could put names to faces. Some of them were guys who’d graduated a year or two ahead of her. Jocks mostly. Wrestling, though there were some football players.

  It wasn’t until she got to the bottom of the steps that she saw him. Some asshole was lying across her hood, hands behind his head, one cowboy boot planted on the fender.

  “Get off my car!”

  The men stopped talking and turned toward her. The idiot perched on her hood feigned surprise. “What? Is this your car?”

  The arrogance rolling off this dude was staggering, just as it’d been with Mike Dorton. She stopped abruptly. Yeah, arrogance with a side order of too much testosterone. A voice inside her screamed, tread lightly.

  “Did you need something?” she asked.

  He slid off the hood, ran a hand over his short brown hair, and advanced on her. He was handsome, but he was...scary. Aggressive. She held her ground, along with her breath.

  “Nicks Sorenson.” He swaggered toward her and stuck out a hand. “Seth Garrett. It’s a delight to finally meet you.”

  So this was the infamous Seth Garrett, brother of Bobby Garrett, the hottest guy in Lindsay’s class. She couldn’t remember ever seeing him at Tapestries, but she remembered seeing him around the high school. Wrestling star. Bit of a blowhard. Two years older than she was.

  Against her better judgment, she shook his hand. “Nice to meet you, Seth.”

  Her apprehension kicked up a notch when she went to move around him. He stepped to the side and blocked her. “I saw you at the Point on Saturday, playing with Heavy Remedy. You fucking rock, Nicks.”

  Blocking her like that was a surefire way to piss her off. The bullies used to do that. Surround her. Keep her from getting to class on time. She wanted to kick him in the nads, but she sensed a hair-trigger temper if provoked. Perhaps some diplomacy was in order.

  “Thank you. It was fun.” Nicks willed him to move out of the way with her eyes, but he didn’t budge.

  “You’re so hot, Nicks. I want to get to know you. I’m having a party Saturday night. I want you there.”

  Oh, he wanted her there, did he? Way to Piss Off Nicks #2: Demand instead of ask.

  “I’m not interested. I’m seeing someone. Please move. I’d like to go home.”

  The words “not interested” resulted in the most amusing blank expression. Seth Garrett clearly didn’t get turned down by women very often.

  He recovered quickly. Shrugging, he took another step toward her. “So? Break up with him. I give great parties. And I don’t let just anyone in. You are one of the elite few.”

  “I don’t think so. I’m sure your parties are all the rage, but I already said I wasn’t interested. Get it?”

  She hoped he could hear the dripping sarcasm. Not likely though. This idiot’s brains were centered between his legs. Time to apply a bit more pressure. “Move. I want to go home.”

  Laughing, he half turned to face his gang. When he turned back, his face had hardened. She knew her first moment of real fear.

  “No bitch is gonna diss me like that in front of my guys.” Gritting his teeth, he lunged at her. She ducked and slammed her right knee hard into his groin. Seth dropped to the pavement like a rock, groaning and clutching at his crotch.

  Nicks didn’t waste any time pulling the pepper spray her father bought her out of a side pocket of her backpack. Holding it out in front of her, she stepped over Seth and advanced on his posse, pushing the button on the key fob to unlock her car with the other hand.

  “Stay away from me. This shit will burn your eyeballs right out of your head. I’ll laugh my ass off while you bleed all over the pavement.”

  The dude in the stupid, barely-there, black tank top twitched, as if he were going to rush her. “Stay back! I will use it,” she threatened.

  That she’d gotten physical with Seth seemed to convince them she was serious. They backed away as she reached the driver’s side door of her car. They were still walking backward when she whirled, jerked the door open, and threw herself into the seat. A quick press of the key fob locked the doors behind her.

  What the hell is wrong with people lately? Do I have a “fuck with me” sign on my back?

  She started the car, backed up, and roared across the parking lot. When she was safely out on the highway and headed for home, she grinned. Never let it be said you couldn’t smoke tires in a little Chevy Cobalt.

  Nicks pulled onto Torvil Street and blinked at the sight before her.

  Stone’s Camaro was sitting in her spot in the driveway. He wasn’t supposed to see her on school nights. So what was he doing here?

  Her Monday had been a roller coaster ride. Good, then more good, then very bad. And now—excellent. Pulling her backpack over her shoulder, she went into the house.

  Her mother sat at the island eating a bagel and reading one of the romance novels she was so fond of. She glanced up when she heard Nicks come in then turned her attention back to the book.

  “Hey, sweetie. How was school?”

  Nicks threw the backpack on the table. “Not bad. Loved the half-day.”

  She wasn’t going to mention the whole Seth Garrett thing. Her mother would tell her father and that would totally ruffle his feathers. Poor guy. He’d had his feathers ruffled enough for one week.

  “What’s Stone doing here?”

  Chelsea looked up. “He’s in the sunroom.”

&
nbsp; “Doing what?”

  “He’s with T.J.”

  “Doing what?” Nicks asked again.

  “Go and see.”

  Curious, she made her way to the sunroom.

  Stone was sitting on the wicker loveseat with a black Fender bass guitar across his lap. Her little brother was sitting beside him clutching a smaller replica of Stone’s guitar. They had amps and everything set up. She smiled. Stone was giving T.J. his first bass lesson.

  “Hey,” she called from the doorway. “Whatcha got there, little guy?”

  “Nicks!” T.J. jumped off the loveseat and ran to her with the guitar. “Look what Stone bought me!”

  She gave T.J. a hug then looked at the man who’d stolen her heart all over again. “He bought it for you, huh? What’s the occasion?”

  “My birthday,” T.J. said.

  “But your birthday isn’t until August, monkey.” Nicks ruffled the boy’s hair.

  “Yeah, but I didn’t know you then,” Stone said with a sheepish grin. “I missed his birthday.”

  Nicks walked into the middle of the room and bent over to examine the amp T.J.’s miniature bass was plugged into. It was an Orange Crush PiX CR35LDX. “Where did you get this stuff?”

  “Where do you think, silly?” T.J. said. “We went to Guitar Center.”

  “Your mom wrote a slip giving me permission to pick him up from school today,” explained Stone.

  Her mother and Stone must’ve done this on the sly. T.J. was lousy at keeping secrets. If he would’ve known, she would’ve known. “You took him to Guitar Center with you?”

  Stone shrugged. “Well...yeah. A man needs to pick out his own axe and amp. Right, T.J.?”

  “That’s right. It’s what men do, Nicks. And I got to ride in his car. He let me pick the radio station.” Her brother sat down beside Stone and balanced the little bass across his knees. “I picked WDVE, of course.”

  “Of course.” Nicks couldn’t take her eyes off Stone. He was grinning like an idiot. “You didn’t buy all this stuff new, did you?”

  It was a stupid question. Tags, boxes, and plastic were strewn all over the sunroom.

  “I got a new bass and amp too. So now we match.” Stone looked highly pleased with himself. “Your mom said I could leave all this here in the sunroom. I’m coming back on Wednesday.”

  Nicks raised her eyebrows. Her mother agreeing to band clutter in her precious sunroom? Surely the world was coming to an end.

  “Go get a guitar, Nicks,” T.J. said. “I want to play something with you. Stone taught me a blues run.”

  How perfectly, wonderfully awesome was Stone Jensen? All kinds of love bubbled up inside her. Being kind to T.J. this way sealed the deal for her. If she had any doubts before, he’d just taken care of them. She was staring into the eyes of the man she was going to marry someday.

  “I’ll get a guitar, but I don’t have anything to plug into,” Nicks said.

  “Plug into my amp.” Stone gestured toward a fairly large Peavey Vypyr.

  “Did you plan this?” she asked T.J.

  “I didn’t!” T.J. said.

  “Nah, it was a surprise your mother and I cooked up. I wanted to get him started on the bass,” Stone answered for him. “He talked the whole way home about playing something with his big sister. He picks stuff up quickly. Don’t underestimate him. We’ll make a Geddy Lee out of him yet.”

  Stone was clearly proud of the little guy. Nicks caught her breath as she imagined him doing the same thing for their son someday.

  “Give me a minute,” she told T.J. “Then you can show me your new skills.”

  “Hurry up! I want to play.”

  T.J. fidgeted horribly as Nicks pulled up a wicker chair and began to tune the white Les Paul.

  “No, she’s doing the right thing. You have to make sure you’re in tune before you play. It takes some time, but it’s time well spent,” Stone said. “You don’t want to sound like a rookie in front of thousands of people, do you?”

  T.J. shook his head. “No. I don’t.”

  She listened to the two of them banter back and forth as she hit the strings and fiddled with the tuning keys. Finally in tune, she poked at T.J. “What should we play?”

  “I’ll play what Stone taught me. You play along.”

  “Okay.” Stone Jensen had made a big impression on her little brother. He couldn’t possibly know how much that meant to her.

  T.J.’s small fingers ran haltingly up and down the neck of the guitar. Nicks listened for a moment then started to play a bluesy, Bonnie Raitt-type solo along with him.

  She bobbed her head as she watched him. He was pretty good for just having his first lesson. He kept a steady beat for her to follow. Maybe she wouldn’t be the only musician in this family after all.

  When they finished, she bent forward and kissed him on the cheek. “You were amazing. You’ll be playing in a band in no time.”

  “You and Stone play something now. I want to hear you play together,” T.J. said.

  “Like what?”

  “You know thousands of songs, Nicks. Pick one,” T.J. ordered.

  “Stone, plug your bass into T.J’s amp while I think about it.” After a moment, she gave Stone a sassy smile. “Ready, ace?”

  “What’re you going to play?” Stone asked.

  “You’ll see. Try to keep up.” She stood, counted off a beat in her head, and began to play the intro to Journey’s Stone In Love.

  He threw his head back and laughed at the intentional irony. Shifting in the seat, he surprised her by joining in with vocals. They didn’t have mics, another guitar, drums, or keyboard, but if he was going to sing like that, she was going to keep playing.

  God, he had the perfect rock voice. Stone continued to sing, sliding his fingers down the neck of the bass at the appropriate time. Her heart soared as they joined their voices in harmony at the chorus. They sounded amazing together.

  He sang the lyrics to her, his eyes never leaving hers. The words had a special significance for both of them now. He poured his heart and soul into it, sang it to her as though she were the only person on the planet that mattered to him.

  When they reached the bridge of the song, she and Stone held the harmonies together, drawing them out, ending at the same time. Oh. My. God. This was so good. She closed her eyes and launched into the guitar solo.

  When she opened them, she was surprised to see her whole family crowded into the sunroom. Her mother. Reese. Lindsay. Aimee. T.J. Even her father had come up from taking a nap in his man cave downstairs.

  The last chord reverberated through the air. Gasping as though she’d just run a marathon, she could only stare at Stone. Saturday with Heavy Remedy notwithstanding, that had been one of the most amazing experiences of her life.

  There was a heartbeat of stunned silence then everyone broke into applause. Two quick steps and Stone was by her side, kissing her hard right in front of everyone. “I love you, Nicks,” he said. Her family clapped even harder.

  “You are so going to play that with Wild Angel this coming Friday,” Nicks told him.

  Stone gave her a curious look. “You guys played that song?”

  “Yeah, for a while. We thought we could get away with one guitar and no keyboards, and it sounded like shit. We also thought it was kind of weird for women to be singing about golden girls and stuff, so we dropped it. We all love the song though. And with two guitars...” She cut a glance to her father. Sometimes he growled about the noise they made at Tapestries.

  Chuckling, Tage threw his hands in the air. “Ear plugs for everyone this Friday!”

  “Will you do it?” Nicks took her guitar off and laid it in the case.

  “If Charm and Pip are okay with it, I’ll do it. I think we’ll sound amazing, especially the vocals. My God, your voice and mine were meant to sing harmony together,” Stone said.

  Nicks slammed her book shut and swore under her breath. It was Wednesday— only T.J’s second bass lesson ever—and she
already knew they were going to be the death of her. It was hard enough to study with a mind full of Stone Jensen. It was damn near impossible knowing he was downstairs in the sunroom.

  She bounced off the bed with her chemistry book and went into her walk-in closet. She pushed the door shut, snapped on the light, and settled on the floor. It didn’t kill the low notes drifting up to her bedroom entirely, but it muffled them enough for her to concentrate. Order was soon restored to the universe.

  She reached the end of the chapter, studied her notes, and was about to get up off the floor when Stone pushed the door open.

  “What’re you doing in there?” he asked.

  “Trying to study,” she answered with a smidgen of irritation. “I have a quiz tomorrow. I wanted to be down there with you.”

  “T.J. concentrates better when it’s just the two of us. And you would’ve been a terrible distraction for me.”

  “Oh, really?” She laughed and got to her feet.

  “Can you come out here a minute? A couple of people you know want to say something to you.” He swung the door wide. She could see Reese, Lindsay, Aimee, and T.J. standing in the middle of her room.

  Nicks followed him out of the closet. All four of them looked as though they’d been told Christmas was cancelled this year. The only one smiling was Stone. “Okay. What happened?”

  Reese stepped forward. “Mom told us you have a different father than we do. She explained everything to us. We wanted you to know that we love you, no matter what.”

  T.J. ran forward and wrapped his arms around her hips. “I’m glad you’re you. I wouldn’t want you to be anyone else.”

  Nicks lifted her gaze to Stone. He nodded. “Your mother had a talk with all of them in the sunroom a few minutes ago. They wanted to come up and see you.”

  Tempted to be pissed that she hadn’t been included in the conversation, she took a deep breath instead. Maybe that was for the best. It was, after all, her mother’s tale to tell. These four were her children with Tage. The explanation needed to come from Chelsea, and it was totally up to her how best to deliver that message.