I had just come from the school after getting a scathing message on my answering machine from the school telling me to get there now.
When I had walked into the school office, I was greeted by the principal and child protective services. But the thing that surprised the hell out of me was when they told me my aunt who lived three states away had said she would take Jay if there weren't a place for him to stay here.
“No!” I had screamed. Jay was all I had left of my family, and there was no way in hell he was going to move away to live with Aunt Jill. Hell, I had only met the woman once in my life, and Jay had never met her, but for some reason, CPS thought Jay living with a woman he didn’t even know better than living with me, his sister.
“What’s shaking, Lee?”
I didn’t raise my head but knew exactly who had just sat next to me.
Kurt Jensen.
The bartender set my shots in front of me then grabbed a beer for Kurt. I tossed back both glasses of whiskey and motioned for the bartender to refill them.
“Whoa. Double-fisting it tonight, I see. Your parents finally roll back into town? I’ve only seen you drink like that when they’re causing fucking problems.”
I pivoted on my chair and turned to look at Kurt. And as always, my first thought was how hot he was. It was truly a miracle my panties didn’t instantly combust when he turned his head and smirked at me. “I wish that was my problem. At least then, the state didn’t try to take Jay away.”
“What?” Kurt asked.
“It’s nothing, Kurt. At least, nothing you can help me with. Although, this might be the last time you see me before I have to move to Tennessee.” Ugh, just thinking of moving put me in an even shitter mood. I liked where we lived. Well, I mean, I liked the state we lived in. My neighborhood was less than desirable, but at least in Illinois, we had all four seasons. The further south you went, you had two or three seasons. Winter was non-existent, at least a snowy winter.
“You’re talking crazy, woman. Why don’t you start from the beginning and then maybe, I can follow.” Kurt picked up his bottle and pressed it to his lips. I couldn’t help but become mesmerized by watching the muscles in his arms twist and bulge. “Yo, Earth to Lee,” he called.
I turned forward and shook my head. Jesus, my life was falling around me, but here I was, daydreaming about Kurt Jensen. Focus, Lee. Kurt Jensen wasn’t interested in me before, and he certainly wouldn’t be interested in me when I moved away. “You know my parents took off, right?”
“Not hard to miss, Lee.”
“Well, the school finally figured it out, and now CPS is going to take Jay away from me because I don’t have a stable environment to raise him in.”
“I highly doubt that. Hell, he’s been living with you for the past two years.”
“I know that, but CPS just sees the fact he’s fourteen with no parents.”
“Lee, you’re what, twenty-three? There are fifteen-year-olds having kids, and no one is taking them away. Why in the hell won’t they let you take care of Jay?”
“I’m twenty-five,” I mumbled. “And, I’m not his legal guardian, I live in a hell hole, and according to them, I’m not the stable environment that a fourteen-year-old needs.”
“Utter bullshit. What the hell do they want?”
“Apparently, a picket fence, me to be married, and probably age ten years and then maybe, they might let Jay stay with me.” I grabbed the refilled shot the bartender set in front of me and downed it. “So, if you could point me in the direction of the perfect life, that’d be great.” I winced at the burn of the whiskey and grabbed the other shot.
“They let Luke take care of Frankie.”
“They let Luke take care of Frankie because Luke is stable and makes a ton of money. Well, I am not Luke. I work at Tire & Lube making eight bucks an hour and last night, I’m sure I watched a family of mice make a home in my front hall closet. If that doesn’t scream stable, then I don’t know what does.” I said, laughing. Jesus, when I said that out loud, I realized how shitty my life was. I thought when I had left my parents’ house at the age of eighteen that I was going to take on the world and have it at my feet by dinnertime, begging for mercy. I was wrong. So wrong.
“I could talk to Luke about maybe getting you some hours at the shop.”
I shook my head and tossed back the shot. “That only solves half of the job problem. I doubt Luke would give me a six-month advance to show CPS I have money now.”
Kurt grunted and shook his head. “I can barely get him to give me my paycheck a day early. I think a six-month advance might be asking a bit much.” Kurt set his beer on the bar and turned his stool toward me. “I can give you the money, Lee.”
I shook my head and couldn’t help but let out a manic laugh. “I think this is the one time money is not going to solve my problem. Unless, you think I can bribe the social worker and principal.” At this point, I was not above greasing the hands of whoever might let Jay stay with me.
“Um, I think you might want to rethink that idea. Might get you into more trouble than you are in right now,” Kurt replied with a laugh.
“Good idea.” I grabbed the next refilled shot and held it in my hand. “I have to talk to the social worker again. Maybe if she sees that I’m the best thing for Jay, she’ll back off or help me legally become Jay’s guardian.” I needed to be positive, no matter how much I wanted to throw in the towel and bury my head in the sand.
I set my glass on the bar, wishing I had more money, but I knew I was about to be cut off after only five shots. I barely felt buzzed, and I knew by the time I got home, I would be stone-cold sober. “Well, I’m going to head home and pray that my apartment magically turned into a two-bedroom house.” I grabbed my wallet off the bar and tucked it under my arm. “You racing this week?”
“Every Friday.”
“Maybe I’ll see you there. I have to work the late shift for the suits who get off work late but still think they can get their oil changed at seven o’clock on a Friday.”
Kurt opened his mouth but instantly closed it, changing his mind about what he was going to say. He nodded and took a swig of his beer.
“Nothing more to say?” I smirked.
“We’ll talk Friday. I might have a solution to your problem.”
I shook my head and knew Kurt was just trying to be nice. There was no way anyone was going to be able to help me. “Whatever, Kurt.”
“Just come find me, Lee. Promise.”
I waved my hand at him and headed out the door. The only way Kurt was going to help me with my problem would be to give me a shit ton of money and marry me.
A laugh bubbled out at the ridiculous thought, and I pulled my coat tight around me.
I was going to be the only one to save me. Now, I just had to figure out how the hell to do that.
I leaned my head back against the hard hospital chair and closed my eyes. That was where this all started eighteen months ago, and little did I know back then, Kurt was going to be the one who saved me.
Now, it was my turn to save him.
********
Chapter 3
Kurt
I jerked awake with a start, regretting it immediately. My leg and arm felt like they weighed 500 pounds and everything ached. I tried to pry my eyelids open but only managed to let a sliver of light in before I closed them. I could add my eyes to the list of things that hurt.
“Shh…” Someone hushed me, but I couldn’t place whose voice it was. “The nurse is coming with more pain medicine. They didn’t come when I told them before that you were getting restless.”
Huh? I assumed the person talking was the nurse. “What?” I croaked out. I barely recognized my voice, and each time I swallowed, it felt like sandpaper.
“Here we go. Let’s just pop this into his IV, and he’ll be good to go for a little while.” Someone had walked into the room, and I could hear them messing with something by my head. “Good to go. Holler if you need anything else.”
“Thank you,” the first voice mumbled. The door clicked shut, and then, I felt a hand brush the hair from my forehead. “Stupid woman. She acts like I’m some stupid girl that can’t tell when someone is in pain.” Her voice was heated, but she still spoke quietly. “Thankfully, there should be a shift change soon, and Judy will be back.”
Judy? I had no idea what this person was talking about. I wanted desperately to open my eyes and see who was standing next to me, but I couldn’t get my damn eyes to cooperate.
“The medicine should start kicking in. Sleeping and resting is the best thing for you right now.” She continued to run her fingers through my hair, and the soothing touch lulled me back to the darkness where I had spent so much time. “Sleep, Kurt,” she whispered softly.
I tried one last time to open my eyes, but I knew it was pointless. I drifted back to sleep, wondering who the angel beside was when my family wasn’t even here.
********
Leelee
It had been six days since I landed in California and Kurt had yet to open his eyes or mumble more than the one word he just had.
The doctor reassured me daily that with every day that passed, Kurt was healing and getting better. I wanted to scream at him each time he said that. Then, why in the hell wasn’t he awake for more than a minute at a time.
Luke called me daily, asking for an update on Kurt and spoke to the doctor personally. Both Mitch and Luke insisted on flying out, but I told them that until Kurt woke up, all they were going to do was sit by his bed and stare at the walls. Lord knew that was what I had been doing.
Even though the doctor said this was just the way Kurt’s body was dealing with the trauma, I was still worried something more was wrong with him. He wasn’t exactly in a coma, but it was damn close. When he would wake up, he would grunt and groan while he tried to lift and move his arms and legs. Each time, I would try to calm him down and talk to him.
I was told the more I spoke to him, the more likely he would wake up fully. I didn’t have the heart to tell the nurses and doctor that my voice was probably not the best motivation for waking him up. Kurt and I were husband and wife on paper only. Although there had been about a week where it felt like there was more than a piece of paper between us.
“Just, please wake up, Kurt,” I whispered. I would give anything to have him wake up, sneer at me like he always did, and ask me what the hell I was doing here. But what I really wanted, was for him to open his eyes and not hate me anymore. I scoffed at the thought and knew my lack of sleep was starting to catch up with me. It would be a cold day in Hell before Kurt Jensen would look at like I wasn’t gum on the bottom of his shoe.
“Knock, knock. Shift change.” Judy, the nurse I loved, peeked her head in and I couldn’t help but smile. “How’s he doing?”
“No change. At least, that’s what they tell me.” I leaned back in my chair and stretched my legs out. My butt had molded to the shape of the chair, and I wouldn’t be surprised if after Kurt got out of here, I wouldn’t sit for a week.
“No change is good. Flipping a car nine times going over eighty miles an hour tends to shock the system,” Judy commented, laughing. “I just need to check in with the night nurse, and then I’ll be back around.” She slipped out of the door, and I wished she would have been able to stay. Judy had been my only form of human contact these past six days, and I was becoming dependent on her to help break up staring at the wall all day. And it also kept me from beating myself up for making all the mistakes I did with Kurt in the past.
God knew there was a list of them.
Seventeen months and two weeks ago
“Lee. Just listen.”
“No, Kurt. I’m not going to listen to this. I can’t even believe that you think that this is going to solve all of my problems.” I paced the short length of my living room, my hands propped on my hips and wondered if Kurt Jensen was a crack addict and he was on an ultimate high right now.
“Lee, it’s a good fucking idea that is going to solve all of the problems you have right now.”
“You’re talking like marrying me isn’t a life-changing decision!” I threw my hands up in the air and stopped in front of Kurt, who was sprawled out on the couch.
“It doesn’t have to be. No one needs to know about it if you don’t want them to.”
“Marriage isn’t something you easily hide under your bed, Kurt. You have a family, and, well, I have Jay.”
“Lee, we get married, you tell CPS you got a husband with a steady and healthy income, and they lay the fuck off.”
I shook my head and turned my back to him. “It isn’t that easy, Kurt. I can’t keep something like this from Jay. He’s going to have to talk to them, tell them that I’m married. He’s going to have to lie and act like our marriage isn’t out of left fucking field, and Jay lying is the last fucking thing I want him to do.”
“He won’t be lying. We’ll be legally married.”
I ran my fingers through my hair and plopped down on the couch next to him. “You’re high right now, aren’t you?”
“What?” Kurt laughed. “I don’t do that shit, Lee. I’ve seen too many lose themselves doing that.”
Ha, wasn’t that the truth. I saw first-hand both of my parents self-destruct because of drugs. “If you don’t do drugs, I don’t know what to think about the fact that you think this is a good idea.”
“I’m trying to help, Lee, and you know that this is the only thing that has come close to fixing the problem.”
God dammit, he was right. It was a fucking insane idea, but it was at least an idea. In the past two weeks, the only idea I had come up with was running away to Austria and joining the circus. “Why? Why do you want to help me? As you can see, there isn’t a line around the block filled with people wanting to help Leelee Perez fix her fucked-up life.”
“You don’t need a line of people; you just need me. I’ve known you for a while, Lee, and I know that you are trying your hardest to give Jay the life he deserves. Just let me do this to help you out.”
“It’s not going to work, Kurt. They are going to want to do a home visit, and as soon as they step one foot into this apartment, they are going to take Jay away from me quicker than Twinkies at a Jenny Craig meeting.”
“Then, you need to move to a better place.”
He was killing me. Seriously killing me. “Don’t you think if I had money to live in a place better than this, I would be? I can barely afford this roach-infested hell hole.”
“Then, I help you get into a better place, we get married, CPS sees that we’re one big, happy family and then, they leave you alone.” He said it so easily that I believed it could work.
“This is insanity. Why are you doing this, Kurt? Knowing me for a while doesn’t mean shit. I’ve known lots of people for years, and none of them would help me out like this.”
Kurt shrugged and stood. “I’m going to check on apartments, see what I can find.”
“No! Kurt, I can’t live in a fantasy land thinking that this is going to work. Even if you find a nicer apartment for me, I have no way to afford it.”
“That’s all details, Lee. We’ll just get you a better job. Hell, everyone knows you’re better than working for that shitty chain store.” Kurt twirled his keys around his finger and headed to the door. “Just don’t worry about it, Lee. Let me see what I can pull together, and I’ll talk to you on Friday.” He breezed out the door, pulling it closed behind him without another word.
I leaned my head back and looked up at the water-stained ceiling. “Fucking madness,” I mumbled. Kurt Jensen was out apartment shopping for me, and there was a very good chance I could become Leelee Jensen. Well, Lily Jensen. When Jay was younger, he couldn’t quite figure out how to say Lily, so I had been dubbed Leelee since.
Jay strode in the front door and tossed his backpack on the coffee table. “I hate school. I don’t know why they think they need to give so much homework.”
“Because you ne
ed to learn, kiddo.”
Jay walked into the kitchen and opened the fridge. I cringed when I heard him moving everything around, trying to find something to eat. I didn’t get paid for another day, so the slim pickings we had in the fridge were all that we had. “Was that Kurt I saw getting into his car?” he asked as he slammed the fridge door and started looking in the cabinets.
I hated to break it to him, but he wasn’t going to find much more in there. “Um, yeah.”
“You see the car he drives?” Jay whistled and shook his head. “That thing just looks fast sitting at the curb. I’d kill to see what he has under the hood.”
I knew what he had under the hood. At the last race, Kurt had popped his hood, and my jaw had dropped. Kurt drove a 2016 Chevy Camaro 2.0 that, out of the box, pushed two hundred and seventy-five horsepower and scrambled from zero to sixty in 5.4 seconds. Fast wasn’t even the right word to describe Kurt’s car. I could spend hours under the hood, learning all her secrets. Although all the Jensen boys drove cars I would kill to get my hands on, Kurt’s was the one that piqued my interest the most.
“Earth to Lee,” Jay called, waving his hand in my face. “Zone out over engines again?” he asked, laughing.
“Um, yeah,” I mumbled. What could I say? I was a girl who liked cars.
“So, what was he doing here?”
“Oh, he just wanted to run something by me.”
“For the next race?”
“No.”
“You two dating?” Jay reached back into the fridge and grabbed the last soda. He popped the top and drained half of the can in seconds. It was no wonder my grocery bill was massive. Jay could eat me out of house and home and still be hungry.
“Um, no.” More like engaged. “He was just over trying to help me figure something out."
Skid Row Kings Complete Series Page 41