Enzo could hear the sound of a banjo from the parking lot. It was such a foreign sound to him, not quite unpleasant but harsh against his ears. He’d had a lot of trouble fitting into the town when he first arrived, but after spending time with Jamie Lynn, he now felt completely at home—more so than he’d ever felt in Brazil.
He dusted off his new cowboy boots, straightened his red plaid shirt and crisp dark blue jeans, and stepped out of his hundred-thousand-dollar sports car. JL had told him a dozen times about the Pier’s western-themed fiftieth-anniversary party, and if he was going to make Tarpon Springs his home, he needed to try to blend in. As he looked around at the motorcycles, pickup trucks, and old cars, he knew that a wardrobe change wouldn’t really do the trick. He held a new Stetson in his hand as he opened the door of the Pier, feeling too self-conscious wearing it. The first person he saw when he walked into the bar was Travis. Enzo couldn’t help but laugh because the man looked exactly the same way he looked every single day. “Texas,” Enzo said with amusement.
“Enzo, my man. Lookin’ sharp.” Travis patted his shoulder. “Hat goes on your head.” He pointed to the Stetson.
Enzo put it on and walked with Travis toward their usual booth in the back by the pool tables, except the pool tables had been replaced tonight by a giant dance floor and a live band. The gang was all there: Jack and Chrissy, Slade and Jessica, Tony and Francesca, and Cain and Violet.
“Well, don’t you make a nice cowboy, sugar,” Jamie Lynn said, looking more like herself than he’d seen her in weeks. “What are you doing here?” she said in that slow southern drawl he loved. He felt her body press close behind him, and her sultry voice reverberated through his body, causing his cock to stand at attention. Even when she didn’t mean to, she turned him way the hell on. He turned and stepped half a foot back to take her in. He hadn’t seen her before she left because he’d been at the Academy training, and his hat almost fell off his head when he saw what she was wearing: short Daisy Dukes and a plaid shirt tied above her navel. Her hair was spiky with blue streaks today; one hand was on her waist and the other one held an empty tray. Her stomach was still flat, but her breasts were fuller. Her lack of clothes put all her tattoos on display. “Are you here to check up on me, Pretty Boy?”
The nickname that used to bother him didn’t anymore. But it did represent the very reason she thought they couldn’t be together. She thought he was a preppy, entitled snob, which was precisely why he was at the Pier on a Tuesday night instead of at the office or at her house working, as he’d been doing since returning from Brazil. He was going to show her how fun he could be.
Before he had a chance to respond, Jamie Lynn was lifted off her feet by a man with similar blue hair in a fauxhawk, gauges in his ears, and rings in his eyebrows. She squealed, dropped her tray, and wrapped her arms around the man. “Leo! Oh my God, where’ve you been? You okay?”
“Yeah, hon, I’m fine. Was staying with some friends while on probation. Heard the cops stopped hanging around.” Leo put her back on her feet.
Jamie Lynn glanced at Enzo. “Yeah, they’ve stopped coming by. I’m almost done with my painting.”
“Yeah? Can’t wait to see it.”
“That makes two of us,” Enzo said, standing next to her.
“Leo, this is Enzo. Enzo, this is Leo.” She led them to the rest of the group and introduced Leo. Leo shook everyone’s hand, and then Jamie Lynn pulled him toward the bar, leaving Enzo to yet say one single word to her. He looked back at the group of friends to find Violet glaring at him.
“What?” he asked.
“Unless someone else steps up to the plate, she has a right to date.”
“Is that what that is, a date?” he asked, looking back at Jamie Lynn mixing drinks while Leo leaned over the bar chatting with her.
“Not sure. Never met the dude. But I could see the wheels turning in your head.”
“Nah. There’s no wheels. I’m just giving her space to grieve. But she knows how I feel.”
“JL’s a tough nut to crack but once you get in there, she’s warm and gooey and will do anything for you. The problem is that you have to get in there. Keep digging, Enzo. You don’t want someone else raising your baby.”
The thought made him see red. Violet was the sweetest woman he’d ever met, and Cain was a lucky man. She squeezed his forearm and gave him an encouraging smile before going back to sit on Cain’s lap. He gazed at Jamie Lynn from across the bar; she looked like some sort of hot goth cowgirl, with her heavy black eyeliner and red lipstick. She was a tiny thing, couldn’t measure even five foot one, hadn’t been able to fill an A-cup until now, yet he’d never wanted a woman more. From first sight, he’d wanted her. He stood and with resolve stalked toward the bar.
“Macallan, neat,” he said, looking at her mesmerizing blue eyes. “I like the hair,” he said, pointing to her blue streaks and ignoring the guy who was obviously there to see her. Well, to hell with that…so was he. He was living with her and would be raising a baby with her; he had a right to see her.
“Thought today was the day to get on with my life.”
All of a sudden he realized that in twenty years, if he had to think back to the moment he knew he’d marry JL and be with her forever, it was now. That statement—it encompassed her. She’d had a hard life, topped off by an especially hard few weeks. But today she’d gotten up, dyed her hair purple with blue streaks, and gone to work with a new outlook on life, and that outlook was so fierce because she willed it to be so. She was so resilient. She was now okay just by merely declaring it to herself.
“I’m going to marry you one day soon,” he said, completely serious. She looked at him for a moment before laughing it off as a joke. He wasn’t joking, though.
“No glasses tonight?” she asked. He shrugged and turned to see Leo watching them, but she didn’t seem to care or perhaps she hadn’t even noticed, so Enzo opted to ignore him too. “So, you dressed up. Gotta say I’m surprised you played along, darlin’,” she said, reaching out to Enzo and tapping his hat.
“We don’t do cowboys in Brazil. I wasn’t sure what to wear,” he said, looking down at his shirt.
She leaned over the counter and looked at him before climbing back down. “You going to be line dancing later?”
Enzo chuckled. “Wouldn’t even know where to start.”
“Maybe I can teach you.” She winked at him as she handed a nearby patron a drink.
“Hon, I’m heading out. See you tomorrow,” Leo said as he leaned over the bar and kissed her cheek. “Later, man.” He gave Enzo a brief nod before leaving.
“Bye, Leo. Glad you’re okay.”
“Me too.” He smiled and walked away.
Enzo hung around a few minutes longer, but he could see that even though she seemed completely in control, as she always did, she was too busy for him, so he slid off the stool and went back to his friends.
The next hour was a blur of noise and commotion as people line-danced, drank, and hung out for a relaxing good time. Enzo drank with his friends and watched most of them embarrass themselves on the dance floor. He caught a few women taking notice of him, but he was only interested in one, and she was currently carrying a tray full of drinks to another table. Her small, perky ass was practically on display, and her flat stomach and tiny waist tempted him.
Enzo noticed when she finally took off her apron and headed over to the group of friends. “Finally! Shift’s over,” she said, grabbing Travis’s beer, holding it to her lips, and then putting it back down. Enzo pushed a glass of water toward her, and she smiled sweetly.
“How are you feeling?”
“Pretty good,” she answered.
“Hey, Penny. How are you doing?” Jamie Lynn said as Penny walked in, hurriedly putting on her apron.
“It’s been a hectic day.” Penny looked miserable. “And you?”
“Much better.”
“Oh, good. Probably almost through with that first hump of the dreaded first trimest
er.” Penny smiled, then realized what she had said and added, “Or that’s what I’ve heard.”
Jamie Lynn gave Penny a sympathetic smile. Enzo realized there was obviously a secret there; he’d have to ask her later about it.
“First trimester?” Travis asked.
“Uh…” Jamie Lynn fumbled for words. Why hadn’t she told Travis? Was she scared? Ashamed?
Enzo pulled her close. “We’re having a baby,” he said in solidarity.
Travis slammed his hands on the table. “What the fuck? You are not having a baby.”
“Excuse me?” Jamie Lynn said.
“He knocked you up?” her brother said angrily. “You barely know each other. JL, what the fuck were you thinking?”
“Just ’cause you don’t like kids doesn’t mean I don’t. I want kids, Travis. This may not have been planned, but I don’t regret it!”
“You don’t like kids?” Penny asked.
“Fuck no,” Travis deadpanned. Penny’s eyes widened before she headed off to the bar.
“You’re an idiot, you know that?” Jamie Lynn said. “I’m a grown woman and you can’t tell me what to do. Women have kids without being married nowadays, Travis.”
“I’ve supported everything you’ve ever done, JL. But this…” He took off his Stetson and ran his fingers through his hair before placing it back on. “How could you have been so irresponsible? Both of you.”
“Travis!”
Enzo broke in. “Because you’re my friend and her brother, I’m going to warn you once: you’d better back the hell off, Travis. I love her. We’re having this baby and he’ll be loved, and even though we didn’t plan it, he wasn’t a mistake.”
Travis threw some money on the table. “Need some air,” he said before storming out of the bar.
The Pier was packed, and Enzo realized she’d probably worked hours on her feet. He didn’t know how it felt to work the way she worked. Normally he had long eighty-hour weeks, but those hours were spent behind a desk for the most part. He brought her in closer and she laid her head on his chest. “It’ll be okay.”
“I hope so.”
“You want to go home?” he asked.
“Not yet.” She looked up at him. “You called the baby ‘him.’ ”
“You’ve gotten me used to it. I can’t wait for the doctor appointment next week.”
“We won’t know the sex for some time, but at least we’ll hear the heartbeat.”
“I also said that I loved you. Did you pick up on that too?”
“I did.” She got on the tips of her toes and cupped his face. “I’m about to get really fat and irritable. I probably won’t be able to have sex outside as often.”
He chuckled. “As often? So only like, what…once a week?”
“Maybe twice.” She winked. “And I’ll probably eat everything in sight and ask you to bring me all sorts of weird things.”
“That’s nothing new. You did that before you were pregnant.”
“And the tattoo of a sun by my belly button will probably look like an entire solar system.”
“Sweetheart, nothing you can possibly tell me is going to change my mind.”
“And how about when things get real? When the baby wakes up at night? When he gets sick? When he gets caught skipping school, when—”
“I’ll be there for all those things with you.”
She rested her head on his chest and closed her eyes. “I love you too, Enzo.”
Finally, he was able to breathe.
—
Enzo sat back and slowly sipped his expensive whiskey. Tonight he wasn’t wearing glasses, which allowed her to get a good view of his dark eyes and long eyelashes. She normally dated men who looked much like Leo did: tattoos, piercings, rough around the edges with beards or unshaven faces. Men who worked with their hands and enjoyed beers and a burger on a Saturday night. Men with whom she could wear jeans and a tank top on said beer-and-a-burger date and not feel uncomfortable.
Enzo was not that.
Not at all.
He was clean-shaven. Always. The man must shave every hour on the dot, she often thought. But since returning from Brazil he’d been different. The change hadn’t gone unnoticed. And the man loved her. He’d done nothing but prove it to her time and time again.
“You done looking?” Enzo asked, his smile exposing those perfect teeth. He sat back casually, an out-of-character gesture, and crossed his arms over his chest, causing the fabric around his biceps to strain.
“Yep. I’m good.”
“See anything you like?”
“Sugar, there’s nothing I’ve seen that I haven’t liked,” she said with a smirk. She loved to flirt with him because it got him all riled up. She snorted a laugh and hopped off the stool. “Come and dance with me.” She took his hand and pulled him to the dance floor.
“You goin’ to teach me?”
JL winked over her shoulder and said, “Honey, you can’t handle me teaching you anything anyway.”
“Promises, promises,” he said, pulling her close to him when they hit the dance floor. She pushed him back. “That’s not how this is done, darlin’. Follow me.”
For the next two songs JL tried to teach Enzo how to line dance. He hadn’t laughed this much in a long time.
“You’re terrible,” she laughed back.
Travis stumbled to the dance floor and spun her around. “I’m sorry I was a dick. I can’t believe I’m going to be an uncle.”
“That was a fast tantrum,” JL said.
“I don’t like seeing you sad, and I don’t want to ruin your happy occasion. You deserve to be happy. I shouldn’t impose my opinions on you.” He hugged his sister tightly. “Love you, little sister.”
“Love you too, big brother.”
Travis turned to Enzo. “You’d better fucking marry her. You haven’t listened to shit I’ve said so far.”
“This I’ll listen to. I can’t wait to marry her,” he said.
JL just shook her head in disbelief.
When Travis left, Enzo picked her up, twirled her around quickly, and dipped her so fast she almost lost her footing. She squealed with joy. He was a little rough with his moves, but it was exciting and fun—exactly what she needed. She could feel his breath on her neck as he swung her in and out quickly.
Some of the patrons had moved aside to give them space. And even though JL had given up on teaching Enzo proper line dancing, she realized that while a few months ago he’d have been embarrassed and awkward, now he was just happy.
By the time the song ended, JL was laughing hysterically, her hair stuck to her face from sweat and her cheeks were red. Her breath was shallow and she felt giddy. Enzo too had a big smile.
—
Jamie Lynn in his arms was nirvana. It brought him peace. It reminded him of home. Of being in the right place with the right woman. He wanted to bottle that feeling up and take it with him everywhere he went.
The tempo changed to a slow song, and she was about to walk back to the booth when Enzo swung her around and brought her in close, making her laugh. “It’s been weeks since I felt your lips against mine.” The words were like a jolt of electricity down her spine. Her heart hammered in her chest. She had missed him too. Would it always feel like this? The way he turned her on with just a look or the inappropriate words that came out of that very proper and highly educated mouth. When she didn’t respond, he took what he wanted. The kiss started off slow. Just a taste. His tongue flicked to her lips before it delved deeper. Her hands wrapped around his neck, and his arm tightened around her waist. As he probed even deeper, his body bowed over hers as hers arched back.
“Get a room!” someone catcalled. He pushed her hair out of her face and ran his hand down her cheek. She smiled at him, her head tilting. It was such a sincere smile, full of so much love. He wanted to tell her right then and there how completely in love he was with her.
“Let’s get out of here,” he croaked in her ear. “Tonight I sleep
in your bed. Inside of you.”
Chapter 21
Warm air and a light drizzle hit his face when they stumbled out of the bar. They hadn’t even said their goodbyes to anyone.
“Eek! It’s raining.”
He picked her up in one swift motion, one arm behind her knees and another one behind her neck. He opened the car door, placed her inside, and buckled her up before going around and buckling himself up.
“Love seeing you happy,” he said.
“It’s you. You make me happy.”
She put her hand on his lap.
“I know that face.” He glanced over to her and put her hand back on her own lap. “Keep that hand away from me. It’ll get me in trouble and I want to make it home in one piece.”
She smiled cheekily. “Are you telling me to keep my hands to myself?”
“Yes,” he said as he drove.
“If you insist,” she said as she began to unbutton her top.
“W-what are you doing?”
“Keeping my hands to myself.” She smiled. “Take us home, Pretty Boy.”
He groaned as she slipped her shirt off and cupped her breasts. He was having a hard time focusing on the road while she made little noises next to him. “It’s been a long time, Enzo.”
“I know!” he yelled, and she laughed.
“I don’t know if I can wait.” She lowered the back of her seat and slid her hand down her chest and stomach and into her shorts. “You did say to keep my hands to myself.”
“Oh no. No, no, no.” He drove a little faster, but he also didn’t want to get in a wreck or get pulled over, so he kept it at the speed limit. He tried not to look at her squirming next to him and he tried to ignore her moaning. Finally he arrived at her place, and he ran over to her side and threw her over his shoulder, not bothering to dress her. She giggled as he jogged to her apartment, unlocked the door, kicked it closed behind him, and set her down.
Fighting Dirty Page 21