Jamie Lynn slid a cocktail over to Violet. “You have a lot of catching up to do, girlie.”
Violet looked over to where the men from WtF were drinking and talking, and mumbled, “I sure do, JL.”
An hour and a lot of drinks, laughter, and more spilled drinks later, the women were talking about shoes when Slade came over to the booth, flanked by Cain.
“Hey, ladies,” Slade said. “Chrissy, Jack just called and asked me to make sure you get home safe.”
“Oh, I’ll be fine.”
“Yeah? How you getting home?”
The four girls burst out in a fit of laughter.
“Violet?” Cain asked, startling all four women.
“Um…hi,” Violet stammered.
Just then Francesca and Travis walked over.
“Vi?” Travis bent down in order to get a good look. “Hell, sugar, I haven’t seen you in a long-ass time. How you doin’?”
Violet, who not five seconds earlier had looked as if she’d seen a ghost, was now smiling from ear to ear. “Trav, how are you? You look great, darlin’.” She stood up and gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek.
Watching this, Cain clenched his jaw tight.
“Now that you’re here, I’m great, baby.” Travis winked.
“Wait, no fair. I’m baby,” Chrissy pouted.
“There’s plenty of me to go around, ladies.” Travis tipped his Stetson at the women.
“I suppose I could share you,” Chrissy said thoughtfully.
“You definitely need a ride home,” Slade told her. “Flirting with Texas…Jack’ll have a coronary. I’m Slade, by the way.” Slade stuck his hand out and Violet shook it.
“Wow. You are dreamy,” Violet said. Slade’s lips twitched, and Cain’s jaw was now clenched so hard that the vein by his neck was pulsating. “Did I just say that?” Violet looked at the girls, who nodded.
“Off-limits, Violet, babe,” Jamie Lynn reminded her.
“Oh I know.” Then she turned to Jessica. “I didn’t mean any harm. Just stating the obvious, ya know?”
Jessica nodded because it was true. The man was dreamy—any woman with eyes would agree. Either way, Jessica’s eyes were fixed jealously on Francesca, who was standing back but still very much part of the men’s group. She was obviously not a girls’ girl. In fact, she seemed very uncomfortable at the moment. She whispered something to Slade, who nodded.
“It was nice to see you all,” Francesca said to the women, and waved goodbye.
“So, what’re you doing in town, darlin’?” Travis asked again.
“I’m a nurse. Looking for work. Staying with JL for a while. Amarillo is b-o-r-i-n-g. Needed a change—”
“You still talk a lot,” Cain said.
That shut her up. “Oh. Sorry.”
“That’s rude,” Jessica scolded Cain.
“Yeah, Cain. That’s not nice,” Chrissy added.
“Was it a secret?” Cain said.
“Ass!” Violet said as she stumbled out of the booth. She tried to push Cain aside, but he didn’t budge, so she maneuvered around him. “It was nice to meet y’all. JL, I can take you home, my car’s here, and you told me you didn’t have a car last time we spoke. Oh wait…I should shut up…I wouldn’t want to overtalk.” She nearly tripped as she finished her sentence, and Cain instinctively grabbed her forearms and steadied her. Violet’s spine stiffened at the contact.
“No. Don’t think so,” Slade broke in. “Come on, we’ll drive you all home.”
“I’m perfectly fine to…She’s right, you’re so dreamy,” Jessica said to Slade.
Slade laughed.
“I miss Jack. Where’s my Jack? I love drunk sex with Jack,” Chrissy pouted.
“Please, stop with the sex talk,” Slade begged. “My best friend and my sister…No, please, just don’t.”
Chrissy pulled out her phone and drunk-dialed Jack. “Hi, babe. I want to have sex….No, not drunk. Horny.” Everyone laughed. “Oh, yeah! Really?…Yes.” Chrissy put her phone down for a second, pulled at the elastic waistband of her linen pants, and looked down. Then she grabbed her phone again. “Pink lace.”
“Oh my God! Seriously stop that. It’s disturbing,” Slade said, snatching the phone out of her hand. “I’m taking the girls home,” he said to Jack. “They are all drunk. Have one of your guys come pick up her car.” He clicked off and handed Chrissy her phone.
“I can drive. I’m really okay. I just had…” Jessica counted off on her fingers. “One, two, five…like fourteen drinks.”
“Ha. I had twenty-seven drinks.” Chrissy laughed.
Cain picked up the bill on the table and scanned it. Without comment he handed it to Slade, who snorted. “Combined, you all had like thirteen drinks,” Slade said as he threw some money on the table and shuffled the four women out the door. Cain and Travis followed.
“No. I drive. I just got into town. I can drive. I don’t want to leave my car,” Violet insisted.
“Ass in Slade’s car, Chatty,” Cain ordered.
“Seems like you both have the same nickname,” Travis said.
“Shut up, Texas,” Cain said.
“Don’t call me Chatty, you big ogre.” She pushed Cain, who again didn’t budge. “I’m driving,” Violet yelled, and stomped off.
Cain didn’t hesitate: he grabbed her by her thighs with one of his arms and lifted her over his shoulders. Chrissy, Jessica, and Jamie Lynn’s mouths opened in surprise, then they began to laugh and giggle.
“Put me down this instant,” Violet yelled, kicking. “This is illegal. Kidnapping. Plus I’m too heavy. You’ll get hurt.” She continued to kick and scream. Her hair cascaded down Cain’s back.
He moved toward Jamie Lynn, who took a step back. “Car?” One word—that was all he said. Jamie Lynn pointed to a small blue Prius.
“Clown car,” Cain said under his breath. He strode toward the clown car, set her down, grabbed her purse, pulled out her key, and opened the passenger door. Violet stood with her hands on her hips, swaying lightly, but Cain wasn’t done. He lifted her up again and none too gently tossed her into the passenger seat. Then he walked to the driver’s side, awkwardly folded himself into the car, revved it up, and took off.
“Well, then, I guess he’s taking her home,” Jamie Lynn said. No one spoke for a few seconds before they all began to laugh again.
“That’s the most emotion I’ve seen from Cain in all the years I’ve known him,” Slade said. “Not to mention the most words.”
“I’ll take you home, sis,” Travis said to JL. They said their goodbyes and took off. Then Chrissy and Jessica got into Slade’s big truck.
“You girls drank too much. You’re going to feel terrible tomorrow morning,” Slade said as he drove.
“Poor Jack. He’s going to have to deal with my bitchiness tomorrow.”
“As opposed to your regular delightful disposition?” Slade teased.
“Screw you, Slade. I am so totally delightful. Jack loves me.”
“You’re lucky. I don’t even have aspirin for the killer headache I’m going to have in the morning,” Jessica said.
“That’s the best part of having an awesome fiancé,” Chrissy said, and yawned. “Jack always takes care of me,” she mumbled, and a moment later she was snoring.
Jessica couldn’t help but look at Slade, who was staring at the road, his grip tight on the steering wheel. Before she too fell asleep all she remembered thinking was, Yes, Chrissy is one lucky woman.
—
Who the hell is shining a spotlight on my face? That’s the first thing Jessica thought when she woke up the next morning. She opened one eye and then shut it again. She really needed to invest in blackout curtains. She also needed a couple of aspirins as soon as possible.
She sat up slowly, trying to recall the previous evening. There’d been alcohol and alcohol and more alcohol involved, of that she was sure. Then there’d been Slade. She remembered getting into his car, and that was about it.
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She glanced down and saw that she was in her favorite T-shirt, but she didn’t remember changing into it. She looked around her room and noticed that the clothes she’d worn the night before were neatly folded over the chair in the far corner. Reaching up, she felt the tangles in her hair. She cautiously threw her legs over the side of the bed and attempted to get up, but a surge of dizziness stopped her. Then her bedroom door opened and there stood Slade, clad in only navy blue gym shorts, looking gloriously sexy.
What the hell?
Suddenly her stomach churned, and she hastily threw the covers aside and ran to the bathroom.
As she heaved over the toilet, Jessica felt warm hands reach around the back of her neck and hold her hair back.
“I’ve actually had worse hellos than this,” he teased as he rubbed her back.
At last, spent, she stood up slowly and wobbled over to the sink to brush her teeth.
“Can you hold yourself up for a minute?” he asked. She nodded, and he stepped out.
She hadn’t bothered looking at herself in the mirror before, but now she did. She had raccoon eyes, and last night’s red lipstick was smeared around her mouth. Quickly she washed her face and combed her hair as best she could. Then another wave of nausea hit. She kneeled in front of the toilet, dry heaving. She laid her head on the cold tile.
Slade returned with some water. “That bad, huh?”
“Nah, I’m good,” she said weakly. “Just such pretty tile. I need to be close to it.” She closed her eyes.
Slade laughed and handed her a glass of water and some aspirin. “Drink some water, take this, and get in a cool shower. I’m making you toast. You’ll feel better as soon as you’re out of the shower.”
“Promise?” Right now she felt like hell.
“Promise.” He smiled, and her heart melted.
—
He was back in her good graces. How could he not be? When he’d heard Chrissy talk about how Jack took care of her, something in him felt…off. Jessica looked so alone; he knew he had to take care of her. No, he wanted to. She was his woman. He’d never wanted to do much for anyone before, but something about this woman made him want to do all sorts of things that had nothing to do with sex. Well, sex too, but that wasn’t all. He took Chrissy home first and sent Jack a text telling him to hurry home because it was an ugly-drunk kinda night. Then he went to Jessica’s.
She was blitzed. He’d had those kinds of drunks on many occasions, so he knew how it felt. He stripped her of her clothes (and spent more time than he should have staring at the body he hadn’t had for too long now), and then grabbed her favorite T-shirt and slipped it on. She hadn’t even stirred. He took off the T-shirt he’d been wearing and laid next to her on the bed. Sleeping with her, even though it wasn’t at all sexual, made him sleep better than he had for the last few weeks.
Now she was in the bathroom showering. He wanted to be in there so bad. They’d had a lot of fun in that shower before they’d started playing this ridiculous friends-only game. He was lying on her bed, legs outstretched and crossed at the ankles, when she emerged with only a towel covering her body, still looking a little green.
“Better?” he asked.
She looked at him quizzically. “Uh…yeah. Thanks.”
“Good. Here.” He patted the mattress next to him and handed her a plate with a slice of dry toast. “Eat this. You’ll be good as new.”
She followed his directions without fuss. When she’d finished her toast and drunk some more water she finally spoke again. “Thanks, Slade. Thanks for everything. Again, you took care of me. I don’t even know what to say. You’re always taking care of me.”
“I want to take care of you, Jess.”
Jessica closed her eyes and pushed the plate aside. She took a deep breath and released it. “Slade…”
He saw her face and knew what was coming. “Don’t say it, Jessica. Just…don’t.”
“I have to say it, Slade. I just…” She paused, noticing two sunflowers in a vase on the table. “Where’d those come from?” she asked as she walked over, grabbed the vase, and tossed the whole thing into the garbage.
“They were on the ground outside by your front door last night. No vase, no bow, no card. I almost threw them out because I know you hate them.” He looked at the garbage can. “Guess I should’ve thrown ’em out.”
Dennis had seen them together. That was his warning. Shit. Shit. Shit. “Slade…I’ll be gone soon. Thank you for taking care of me last night, but I don’t want you to get the wrong idea. I don’t want to start something that’s going to make it harder for me to leave.”
“So don’t leave.”
“I have to.”
“You don’t.” Slade looked around and saw the two boxes in the corner. “You’ve barely started packing.”
“I only have a few more days left at work and then I’ll finish packing and leave. I tried to tell Patsy I could only give her two weeks’ notice, but she insisted she needed me longer.”
Slade pushed himself off the bed. “Damn it, Jessica, you don’t have to go. I know I fucked up. I said hurtful things. I’m a dick. I get it. But I didn’t mean to be a dick, and normally I’m not.”
“It’s not just that, Slade.”
“Then why?”
“I have to go, Slade. I just do. I have things I want to do and I can’t do them here.”
“The yoga studio?”
“Yes. For starters. And also I don’t have anyone here anymore. I came here because of Dennis, and now he’s gone. Time for me to move on and get my life in order. Not to mention I obviously have jealousy issues, and I can’t deal with that. There are too many things.” She was pacing the room.
“You know what? I’m sick of hearing you say that, Jessica, and even though right now you’re pissing me the hell off, I’m going to keep fighting for us. I’m not giving up, even if I have to chase you all the way to Charlotte.”
“Can’t we just be friends? Please? I thought we agreed to be friends.”
Slade shook his head as he dressed and made his way out of her bedroom. “Yeah, Jessica. We’ll be friends. You and I, we’ll be friends. I call you, you avoid me, we don’t see each other or talk. Friends. Great.” He stomped out, and then she heard the front door open and slam close.
She grabbed the plate and threw it against the wall. It broke into a million little pieces, just like her heart. Fucking Dennis and his threat. It was destroying her, and now it was hurting Slade, a man who had done more for her than anyone ever had. Why did it all have to be so complicated? She couldn’t stay with him, knowing that loving him could destroy him. She crumpled into her bed and cried—for the pain she felt letting him walk out, for the guilt she felt about pushing him away, for all she’d put up with from Dennis, and for the control he still held over her. But most of all, she sobbed agonizingly for the love that would never be.
For the rest of the day she filled boxes with her belongings. When evening came and she surveyed the stacks of boxes in her house, the reality of the situation set in. Soon she wouldn’t be seeing Slade Martin anymore.
Chapter 11
Slade started his day with his Peeping Tom activities at the Om Spot again. He hadn’t wanted to do it, but he just couldn’t help himself. The Om Spot would be closing in two days, and soon after that Jessica would be leaving. Things were changing, and it all seemed out of his control. With a last look in the window at Jessica, he went straight over to the Academy. Fighting had always been a constant in his life, the thing that had always managed to take the edge off, but that was gone now. It had been months since his last fight—the fight that had completely screwed him up. According to the doctors, one more concussion and he was likely done for, a vegetable. As it was, his hands shook slightly from time to time and his memory had gone to shit. Early signs of dementia—that’s what the doctors had called it. But, the doctors had also said that those symptoms could reverse over time.
He still missed fighting. He’d sta
rted boxing at sixteen years old with Jack, which had led to backyard MMA fights. And now, at thirty-three, he’d been fighting more than half his life. He loved the adrenaline rush that came with it, and the intensity of training. He was looking forward to being instrumental to the next generation of fighters by training them, but he’d be lying if he said he didn’t long to be up there in the cage himself.
Fighting had been his entire life for so long that the only reason he hadn’t fallen into a real depression after being told he couldn’t fight anymore was the time he’d spent helping Jessica recover. But now that she had recovered—and kicked him to the curb—his mind needed something to fill the huge void. He knew the Academy would eventually keep him busy and fulfilled, but until the remodeling was finished and he could actually take on a full slate of training, he had to do something. To make a shitty situation even shittier, with the Academy in its current state, he couldn’t even use it to work out his aggression. Until the renovations were finished, the gym was limited and just plain uncomfortable. A few punching bags hung by boxes of lighting fixtures that needed to be installed. The free weights were full of dust from the construction. His haven was in a state of chaos. And then there was Jessica. He couldn’t seem to get her out of his mind.
He decided to go for a long, mind-numbing run. He popped his earbuds in, slid a beanie on his head to keep his hair from sticking to his face, cranked up the music, and hit the pavement. An hour later, when he finished running, the empty void that sat in the pit of his stomach was still there.
He spent the rest of his day literally hammering out his stress, working on the renovations at the Academy for the next six hours until his muscles shook and his hands cramped from gripping the hammer for so long.
“Hey. You know we have a crew coming later this week to finish that up, right?”
Slade wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand before looking up at Francesca.
“Frances, hey. Yeah, I know. Just needed to blow off some steam. I didn’t see you come in.”
She was standing amid a mass of boxed equipment, dust, and power tools, wearing a tight light blue dress, a jacket, and super high heels. She grabbed an empty white bucket, flipped it over, and sat down, crossing her long legs. “You were so in your head, I didn’t want to bother you. I’ve been in the office for the last hour. You okay?”
Full Contact (Worth the Fight #2) Page 16