It Wasn't Me

by Vale, Lani Lynn

  The walls on the inside were the exposed timber, and the ceilings were a beautiful pine.

  The living room/dining room/kitchen was all one massive open room, and the ceilings for them all were high. At least twenty feet high if not more.

  Then there was the beautiful, modern but still country kitchen that had what looked to be fresh eggs on the center island.

  “This place is…wow,” I breathed.

  “Yeah,” he said. “I get that reaction a lot. It’s definitely a stunner.”

  “And you did it all yourself?” I breathed. “Holy shit.”

  “Mostly. Remember, didn’t do the wiring.”

  I still shook my head. “But still.”

  He shrugged and walked to the fridge, plucking off a bright red key that was stuck to the fridge with a massive magnet.

  “Do you want something to drink while I bring your car up here and fix it?”

  I shook my head. “No.”

  He nodded. “If you change your mind, there’s tea and chocolate milk in the fridge.”

  And with that, he was gone, leaving me in his massively stunning house with his elegantly beautiful cat staring at me.

  And, like the snoop that I was, I took a better look around the house.

  When he came back an hour later, handing me my keys, I bit my lip that he’d finished so fast.

  I didn’t want to go.

  I wanted to stay here forever.

  Chapter 4

  Dear big girls, don’t be afraid to get on top. If he dies, he dies.

  -Text of a meme from Downy to Jonah

  Jonah

  “You’re calling in sick?” my brother, Downy, asked.

  “Yeah,” I said. “I have one day at work, and since I’m still technically on desk duty and modified work capacity for the time being, and only work one day before I have a three-day weekend that I asked off for anyway, I’m going to just go ahead and call in. Plus, I was given some sweet ass tickets to the car show in Vegas. I’m headed there now.”

  “You’re fuckin’ kidding me,” Downy grumbled. “Jonah, you can’t just call in sick like this.”

  I snorted as I handed the security TSA agent my ticket. “Watch me.”

  “Jonah…” Downy started ranting.

  I shoved the phone in my pocket and smiled at the TSA agent. “Thank you.”

  The woman winked at me and waved me through to the express security line. “Thank you for your service.”

  I grinned wider. “Have a good day.”

  The express security line was a breeze. There were all of eight people in the line, and three of them stepped back to empty their pockets. Since I only had my phone, wallet, boots, and belt, which was already in my hand, the agent nodded me through her personal line and said, “Drop those on the belt.”

  I did, placing them all on the belt sans bin—another no-no but she didn’t seem to care—and went up to her.

  She patted me down, I had a feeling thoroughly enjoying herself seeing as she took her time, and then patted my shoulder. “Thank you.”

  The woman laughed. “That was the first time I ever had someone get patted down and thanked for it.”

  I shrugged. “You did it fast. I can’t complain.”

  She winked and gestured for me to move, which I did moments later, allowing her to move to a mother with two infant children in a stroller.

  I shoved my feet back into my shoes and then picked up my shit, only then pulling the phone back out of my pocket.

  “Are you even listening to me right now?” Downy growled.

  “Sorry, I was getting manhandled by security,” I apologized, though it wasn’t in the least sincere. “And no, I wasn’t listening to you. Not when all you have to say annoys me.”

  Downy sighed. “This is your job, Jonah. I went out of my way to get it for you, and so far, you’ve done nothing but shit on my efforts.”

  I gritted my teeth as I glanced around, looking for my terminal.

  The airport was unusually busy today, and almost every single terminal was full.

  “Listen, bro,” I said, trying to keep my temper in check. “I realize that you stuck your neck out for me. I also realize that you think I don’t know what I’m doing, but I do. I got a house. I got land. I got a paid-for truck and a zero-percent financed tractor. I realize that you think that you’re doing me a favor by telling me to be at work today, for six hours at that, for a pity desk duty job that your fuckin’ friend thinks he’s doing me a favor by placing me in so I can get some cash, but he’s not. I don’t need the cash. I’m making it just fuckin’ fine on my own right now. In fact, if I wanted to not work for the next goddamn year, I could do it. So how about you take your good intentions and shove them up your ass.”

  Downy sighed. “You’re really okay?”

  “Yes,” I said firmly.

  “Fine,” he grumbled. “I’ll call Luke and let him know that you don’t need the shift. But, just sayin’, Jonah, you better be here when your shift starts in a couple of days. I really did pull some strings to get you back on the job, and I think you’ll like the new area they’re putting you in.”

  That was the first time I’d heard anything about a ‘new area.’

  “What’s that mean?” I asked as I stopped next to my gate and groaned.

  There wasn’t a single space to sit available except next to a hacking woman who looked like she was on her death bed.

  No fucking thank you.

  “It means that you have a job,” Downy replied.

  I growled.

  “And, as of today, Lock will be joining this job with you,” Downy replied excitedly.

  Lock, aka Downy’s son, Lachlan Downy Jr, aka my nephew, was all grown up and shit now. He’d served a couple of tours of duty in Iraq, and this was the first I was hearing about him coming home.

  “He’s home?” I asked, feeling a pang of regret hit me at the realization that I’d missed his arrival. I’d missed the little shit.

  But, I guessed, he wasn’t exactly a little shit anymore.

  He was a grown ass man just like I was now.

  Damn, I was getting old.

  “Yeah,” Downy confirmed. “He got home about three days ago. He didn’t waste time asking Luke for a job without me knowing. He was signing paperwork when I came into work today.”

  “Fuckin’ awesome,” I said. “What about the academy, though?”

  “Since his old job put him through it at the civilian school close to his old base, he only had to have the shit transferred to Texas,” Downy rumbled. “What is that sound?”

  I looked over at the hacking lady that’d moved from her seat and was making her way toward the bathrooms that I was standing next to.

  I quickly moved out of the way, hoping that her germs didn’t spread to me, and spotted a seat off in the corner next to a woman that had her hood up. She had her head facing downward at an iPad and was clearly ignoring everyone and everything going on around her.

  My kind of seat partner.

  “Some lady that clearly shouldn’t be fuckin’ getting on a plane,” I muttered darkly, making some guy’s mouth quirk in a semi-smile.

  “A-fuckin’-men,” he agreed. “If I make it back home without hacking up a lung, it’ll be a goddamn miracle.”

  I snorted and kept walking as Downy continued to speak to me in my ear.

  “Anyway,” Downy said. “This new department we created is going to be good. I think you’re going to like it.”

  I had a feeling I probably wouldn’t, but at this point, a job was a job.

  “All right,” I grumbled. “Have a good one. I’m going to get reading on my school work.”

  “Okay,” he said. “Safe flight. Let me know when you get there, and don’t do anything stupid.”

  I snorted. “I won’t.”

  Hopefully.

  I mean, other than getting another tattoo. Which was my second reason for go
ing to Vegas.

  “Later,” he said, then hung up without waiting for me to reply.

  I shoved the phone into my pocket and dropped my baggage onto the empty seat, about to start searching for my headphones and iPad.

  Except, before I could get them out, the loudspeaker caught my attention.

  “Mr. Jonah Crew, please come up to the counter for seating assignment,” I heard over the loudspeaker.

  Dropping my hoodie in the seat so my spot wouldn’t be stolen by the hacking chick that was headed back this way, I turned and scanned for the counter.

  Spotting it in the far corner, I headed in that direction, knowing that I was likely going to be put into the shittiest spot there was on the plane since I was on standby and lucky to get any seat at all.

  “Hi,” I smiled wide at the attendant that was standing all prim and proper in her gray business suit the airline likely required that she wear.

  The flight attendant flushed.

  I grinned wider.

  I hadn’t done so much smiling since I’d talked to the curly-headed woman that I couldn’t seem to get out of my head two days ago.

  And before that, it’d been fuckin’ years.

  What the hell had the woman done to me?

  After fixing her tire the other day, I’d yet to get her out of my mind.

  When I’d come into my house to find her sitting at the kitchen table, nursing a cup of coffee, with my traitorous cat in her lap, I’d found something about the sight deeply comforting.

  After that, I’d gotten her out of my house as quickly as I could manage, and then had hated myself for the rest of the day for going against my instinct.

  “Umm,” the attendant stuttered over her next words. “I, well, I have a…” She looked at her computer screen and flushed guiltily. “I have a first-class seat available.”

  I blinked, stunned to hear her say those particular words.

  “You do?” I asked in surprise.

  She nodded once.

  “Nice!” I smiled. “Thanks!”

  Okay, I was overdoing it a little bit, but my brother had taught me well. You can get more being charismatic and smiling than you can being broody and scowling.

  “You’re most welcome.” She flushed even further. “Here is your ticket.”

  I took the proffered piece of paper and grinned my thanks.

  Walking away, I headed back to my hoodie, surprised to see that the woman next to my chair was now looking up at me…and glaring.

  The closer I got, the wider my smile became.

  “Pip,” I said, blinking. “You’re getting on another plane?”

  She glanced down at the ticket in my hand.

  “You got upgraded to a first-class ticket?” she gasped. “And you were on standby?”

  I blinked. “Yes. How did you know that I was on standby?”

  She furled her nose up in distaste.

  “Because I heard her say she was going to start calling passengers up there one at a time that were looking to be put on the flight,” she answered. “Of all the luck. I asked her if I could be upgraded because of the…you know.” She shook her head in disgust. “I have to pee.”

  She picked up her bag and walked away without another word.

  I moved my hoodie over to her spot to save it and then began to pull out my iPad before I finally realized just why she was upset.

  She needed the spot because it gave her more room to freak out. I understood that.

  Frowning in concentration, I turned to the man beside me.

  “Do you mind saving this seat for me?” I requested.

  The man nodded. “You can have my coat.”

  “Thank you,” I said as I got up and went back up to the counter.

  I saw Piper walk by with not a little amount of annoyance on her face and regain her seat.

  I also watched as she took my hoodie and shrugged it on over her own.

  Lips tipping up in laughter, I turned to the attendant who was once again staring at me with a flush on her face.

  “Hi,” I said. “I’d like for you to switch the tickets around for me. My fiancée, over there is deathly afraid of flying and she does better where there are fewer people to watch her freak out. That, and she tends to pass out due to the medication she takes to keep her calm. Would it be possible to switch my ticket over for hers? Can she have my first-class seat?”

  The woman’s face went to Piper in the corner, who was doing a good impression of being really upset, then back at me.

  Her entire demeanor changed.

  “I’ll see what I can do,” she said. “Give me a second.”

  She went to typing away on the computer, her lip going between her teeth in concentration.

  About five minutes later, she smiled, turned her head up to look at me, and grinned.

  “Success,” she said, the printer whirring.

  I grinned back. “Thank you so much.”

  But instead of handing me a new ticket for both Piper and me, she just handed me one.

  “I got her seated right next to you,” she said. “We had a pilot that was going to ride with us, and we were going to put him in the first-class seat next to you, but we’ll switch some more stuff around.”

  With that, she handed me Piper’s first-class ticket.

  Holy shit. Nice!

  “Thank you again,” I smiled. “Have a good day.”

  “You, too, Mr. Crew.”

  With that, I walked over to my seat, handed the jacket back to the man next to me with a muttered ‘thank you,’ then sat down next to the still pissy Piper, and handed her the new ticket. “Welcome to first class, Ms. Mackenzie.”

  She took the ticket with hesitant hands.

  “I’m sorry, Jonah,” she whispered. “I’m just…nervous.”

  I knew she was.

  I also knew she wasn’t trying to be a little shit.

  “No worries,” I said. “Now you get to sit next to me and hold my hand again.”

  She looked at me gratefully.

  “At least this time I have some meds to keep me calm,” she sighed. “I stole them from my mom.”

  I rolled my eyes. “I’m fairly sure you’re not supposed to tell a cop that you’re doing drugs that aren’t yours.”

  She tilted her head. “I didn’t think you were a stickler for the rules, Jonah Crew.”

  I shrugged. “I’m not.”

  “I also learned why you sound so familiar,” she continued. “I didn’t realize you were related to Downy, the SWAT officer.”

  “Downy, the retired SWAT officer,” I corrected her.

  “Downy, the retired SWAT officer,” she agreed. “The different last names threw me off.”

  Giving her the condensed version of the truth, I said, “Downy and I grew up years apart. He’s thirteen years older than me and was already out of the house by the time I came around. We had different fathers.”

  “Ahhh,” she said in understanding.

  Though, that wasn’t technically true.

  We’d grown up with what we assumed were different fathers when, in actuality, Aspen, my sister, and I also shared the same father that Downy had. Only, we didn’t know that at the time.

  Without going into the lurid details with her as to why my childhood had been a shit show, I left it simple so she wouldn’t pry and ask questions.

  “Now boarding group one.”

  “That’s us,” I said, standing up. “Let’s go.”

  Piper stood and gathered her belongings, throwing the hood of her sweatshirt backward so it no longer covered her head.

  “I noticed you procured a new article of clothing,” I teased.

  She looked down at the sweatshirt.

  “I was cold,” she admitted. “In fact, I’m freezing my ass off.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  “Medicine,” she answered. “It does strange things to me.”

  I co
uld imagine it did.

  “Interesting,” I said. “Well, if you feel like doing anything weird later, let me know.”

  Chapter 5

  I don’t get offered drugs anywhere near as much as the DARE officer said I would.

  -Piper’s secret thoughts

  Piper

  He held my hand the entire hour and a half flight. He’d never let go, not even when the flight attendant had handed him his drink or his complimentary meal.

  He’d eaten one-handed. Then, when he was done, he’d wiped his hand one-handed.

  I was honestly on cloud nine.

  I didn’t know how the hell I’d lucked out getting the man on my flight again, but I was thanking my lucky stars.

  We were seconds away from deplaning, waiting on the hacking lady who’d coughed the entire goddamn flight to move her ass, when Jonah muttered something under his breath.

  “What?” I asked, hoping he’d repeat himself.

  “I feel like I need to scrub myself with disinfectant wipes,” he said, much louder this time.

  The woman with the hacking cough looked back at him, and Jonah didn’t try to hide the fact that he was disgusted.

  “My daughter is getting married,” she said. “I couldn’t miss it.”

  “Well,” Jonah said as the flight attendant finally opened the door. “I just hope you realize that you exposed every single one of us on this plane to your sickness.”

  She scrunched her nose up.

  “I covered my mouth when I coughed,” she defended.

  “Yes,” Jonah rolled his eyes. “Like that is really going to help anything at this point. We were in a sealed cabin with all your bullshit for over two hours. Hopefully we have some immune systems that can handle it.”

  The woman’s face flamed.

  That was when I decided to interfere.

  Squeezing Jonah’s hand and bringing his attention to me, I said, “I’m ready to get married, dear.”

  His eyes twinkled.

  “Yeah?” he asked, then turned to the old lady. “Which chapel is your daughter getting married at?”

  The woman blinked, then croaked, “Clover Hill on the strip.”

  Jonah turned back to me and gestured his head for me to go ahead of him.

  I did.

  As we passed the old lady who’d stopped to repack her bag, he said, “I want to go to any chapel that’s not Clover Hill. I think we’ve been exposed to the plague enough.”