by Tess Oliver
David was tall and nice looking, not Stone brother handsome, but then few were. But this guy might have had enough more gentleman-like qualities to make up for it. Maybe it was time to move away from the Neanderthal type and onto something a little more evolved. That thought made me smile.
David returned to the table with the coffee. He pointed to my cup. “Took the liberty of having some cocoa powder sprinkled on top. Thought you might appreciate it.”
“Good call. I like your way of thinking.”
“What were you smiling about just a second ago? Looked like something amused you.”
I picked up the cup and cradled it in my hands. “Guess I was just thinking how nice it was to have a good-looking guy bring me a cup of coffee.”
“Uh, I hate to break it to you, but that thing your holding stopped being coffee three caramel squirts ago.”
I laughed. “Guess I do sort of order coffee that a ten-year-old might like.”
He took a drink from his cup and leaned back. “Actually, it’s refreshing not having my date order a cup of hot water with a side of lemon.”
I laughed again. “So, is that what this is? A date? I thought it was an apology for taking my parking spot.”
“I think this transitioned from an apology to a date when I watched you walk into this place and thought— holy hell, when did this angel land on earth.”
I shook my head with a smile. “O.K., that line just had more sugar than this cup of coffee.”
“Too much?”
I pinched my fingers together. “Little bit. Listen, you don’t have to try so hard. My usual male companions think ‘hey, get me a fucking beer from the fridge’ is a term of endearment.” I stuck the tiny stirrer into my cup and scooped up some whipped cream. He watched with great interest as I licked it off the stirrer. Apparently, I still knew how to flirt, after all. Of course, whipped cream was always a good tool for drawing in a guy’s attention.
“So, there is a male companion? Actually, you said companions, didn’t you?”
I took a sip of my extra sweet drink and twisted my lips. “Wow, that almost makes my teeth hurt. My kind of coffee.” I’d avoided his question, but he seemed to be waiting for a response. It was a question that sort of hurt my head just thinking about. I’d been so damn attached to Hunter and his brothers, that it was hard not bringing them up in every conversation. “My neighbors,” I finally blurted. Sometimes in my own mind it was just easier to talk about Hunter as my neighbor rather than as the person I was more connected to than anyone else on the planet, my own mom, included. “We all grew up together.” I shrugged to assure him that they were nothing more than acquaintances. It was sort of like saying my nose was just the center point of my face, but I was going to have to stop thinking about Hunter. And dismissing him as unimportant was the first idea I’d come up with in a pinch. The last thing I’d expected on my way to getting my mom’s drugs was to meet a hot guy and have to discuss my personal life.
“Good to hear.” David seemed genuinely relieved. Or at least I convinced myself of it. Free coffee samples dispersed, the crowd in the coffee shop dwindled to just a few people working on computers and a couple of women who looked as if they could be sisters.
I glanced out toward the parking lot. The pale green surfboard jutted up over the expensive car. I motioned toward the window with my head. “Now that you know a little bit about me.” I lifted my drink. “Like the fact that I have a monstrous sweet tooth, and I live next to guys with caveman manners, and that overdone compliments make me cringe— tell me a little about you.”
“What would you like to know?”
“Well, you can start by explaining the really weird inconsistency of a man with a wax covered surfboard and salt faded board shorts driving a sleek, black Jaguar. Shouldn’t you be driving a beat up jeep or something?”
“I like to head to the waves in style. I make good money, and you only live once. Besides, the Jag helps get girls.” He swirled his cup around and took a drink. “I mean would you be sitting here having coffee with me if I’d just climbed out of a run-down jeep?”
“Actually, I would. Let’s just say you sort of drove into my parking spot at just the right time. I needed this. And this.” I lifted my coffee. “Thanks, by the way.”
His phone buzzed. “Excuse me.” He took it out and checked it. I was sure a guy like him had to get a flurry of phone messages and texts from girls. Or maybe I was just so used to it with Hunter, I just assumed it was the case with any guy. Ugh, Hunter again. In my head, this was turning out to be one of those lame dates where the one person spends the entire night talking about their ex. At least the conversation was only going on in my mind, otherwise this man would have walked off with his coffee long ago. And I didn’t want him to walk away. In fact, I hoped he’d ask for my number.
“Where were we?” he asked as he stuck the phone back in his pocket. “Oh, that’s right, my unusual beach bum mobile. I guess I like nice things.”
“What do you do, if you don’t mind me asking?”
He paused. A pause when answering a pretty simple question was never a great thing. “I’m self-employed. I’m in import and export.”
A short laugh spurted from my lips. He looked slightly insulted. “Import and export?” I repeated. “Isn’t that the default answer for people who don’t want to go into the sketchy details of their shady side business?” Sometimes my straight forward tongue shot out ahead of my brain. I wanted to retract the question the second it’d left my mouth.
He took a long, slow sip of his coffee, and I was sure I’d just ended our coffee date. He stared at me over the rim of the cup and then lowered it to the table. “Or, I could actually be in import and export.”
“You’re right. That was bitchy of me. Sorry. I think I’m getting a sugar rush and then my mouth just sort of runs off with itself.” I took another drink to shut myself up.
David checked his expensive looking watch. “Speaking of business, I’ve got to meet some people.”
I’d blown it. My big mouth had pushed this one away.
He tossed me his napkin. I instinctively touched my mouth to see if I had whipped cream on my lips. He smiled. “It’s not for your face. I was hoping you’d write down your phone number.”
This time I paused. I was leaving my cocoon, and I wasn’t completely sure how I was going to adapt out in the real world.
“Of course, if you don’t want to—”
“No, I do.” I shuffled through my purse and found an eyeliner pencil. “This is the extent of my writing utensils.” I quickly jotted down my cell phone number and pushed the napkin back over to him.
He picked it up and put it in his pocket. “I should get going.”
“Yeah, me too. I’ve got to get ready for work.”
“And what is it you do?”
I sighed wishing I had something exciting to tell him. But I made good money, and Jack had me practically running Lazy Daze. I needed to remind myself that I’d done pretty well. “I serve drinks and help run Lazy Daze. It’s a bar off the highway.”
“Yes, I know the place. Do you live nearby?”
“Yep. I live in Trayton. I have to admit, as a teenager I was always itching to get away from it, but now I’m not sure I’d ever want to leave the place. It’s small and everyone has their noses in everyone’s business and sometimes the smell of the ocean and the fishing boats makes everything you eat smell like fish, but in the morning, after the fog lifts and the view over the ocean stretches on forever, it makes you feel like you’re living on the edge of the world. You know? Damn, I’m rambling.” I looked into my empty cup. “And I don’t have any more coffee in my cup to shut me up.”
He was listening to every word. I wasn’t used to it. I liked it. “You’re not rambling, and I’m enjoying it. Best conversation I’ve had in a long time. And I do know what you mean. I love the ocean. I guess that’s obvious.” He stood up. “I’ll walk you to your car, if you don’t mind.”
We walked outside. The late afternoon breeze had brought a clammy cold with it. I pulled up the hood of my sweatshirt. We reached my car. I smiled up at him from around the edge of my hood. “Thanks for the coffee.”
He reached up and pushed the hood back off my head and pressed his hand against my waist as he lowered his face to mine. It was a nice kiss, nothing earth shattering but I hadn’t really expected it. “I’ll talk to you soon, Amy.”
He headed back to his car. I climbed into mine and watched him in the rearview mirror as he pulled his phone out before getting into his car. He drove off. I lifted my face toward the mirror and touched my lips. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d kissed someone other than Hunter. David’s kiss had been fine, but it was just that, a kiss, two mouths pressing together. When Hunter kissed me, it felt as if my core was melting and turning every part of me into Jell-o. Damn. I was doing it again. I had to stop.
My phone rang as I started the car. It wasn’t a number I recognized. With my mom, I always expected the worst. “Hello.”
“There’s this great seafood restaurant about an hour up the coast. Tomorrow night around seven?”
“Wow, I guess I won’t have to waste any time in the next few days wondering if the new guy is going to call.”
“When I see something I want, I don’t believe in wasting time. So, what about the dinner?”
“I just happen to have tomorrow night off. So yes.” It felt so strange making plans with another man. I wasn’t sure if my heart was beating so hard because I was excited or scared. A little of both, it seemed.
“Just text me your address, and I’ll pick you up at seven.”
My heart fell to my stomach. There was no way I could let this guy come to my shabby house where masking tape was dangling off kitchen cupboards and weeds choked the front path. And Hunter. What if Hunter was home when David came to pick me up? I’d made it clear that I wanted to see other guys, but I had no idea how that little plan was sitting with my oversized, overprotective neighbor. “Uh, I’ll meet you here again. I’ve got to pick up the prescription I dropped off. It won’t be ready until tomorrow after five. It’s for my mom’s arthritis,” I added unnecessarily.
“All right. See you tomorrow night, Amy.”
“Bye.” I hung up. Today, I was Amy and not Street. It felt weird and sort of lonely to hear my real name, instead of my nickname. Not completely sure I was ever going to get used to that.
Chapter 10
Hunter
Rincon was out by his pool, a massive rock-bordered stretch of turquoise water that looked as if it was spilling off the side of the cliff that his house sat on. His usual bevy of half naked, beautiful female guests were draped in tantalizing positions across the chaise lounges and pool floats.
Slade groaned inwardly as he gazed out at the number of naked tits bobbing in the heated pool. The air temperature was a tad cold for a day by the pool, but the sun was out and Rincon had had a lot of heat lamps installed to make the area around the pool feel like a damn tropical island. Perpetual summer was what he’d instructed his landscape architect to give him. Rincon had told me his theory that keeping his yard in everlasting summer meant everlasting bikini season. Guess that’s why he was making the big bucks.
“When I die, I want my ashes spread out over this pool area,” Slade said.
Normally we both looked forward to a quick visit with Rincon. It always meant expensive booze, good weed, a line or two of coke and, of course, the likely event of a raunchy fuck with one of his pretty pool partners. But today, I wasn’t in the mood for any of it. Yesterday’s drop had not gone smoothly, and Rincon would have to be told that his closest partner had betrayed him.
Several of the girls had now noticed us walk in. “Hey, Stoney hunks,” Bridget, a spunky blonde with gigantic fake tits, said with a wave of her hand. “Haven’t seen you boys in awhile.”
Rincon leaned forward out of the shade of an umbrella and pushed his sunglasses up on his head. “Hunter, Slade, got your message that you needed to see me. Come on over and get some lines before Penelope and Chloe snort it by themselves.” He smacked Penelope on the ass as she leaned over the small table. She shrieked and nearly blew away the white powder but then quickly licked her finger to clean up the mess from the table. She rubbed it on her gums.
Rincon waved them away. As they sashayed past, Choe made a point of rubbing against me. Penelope was a little more forward. She reached down and brushed her hand across Slade’s fly.
“If you’re going to tease me like that, sweetie, you better expect me to follow-up with my own tease,” Slade said.
“Oh, I’m always ready for you.” She pursed her lips and blew a kiss at him before strolling away. He shot me a pleading look, but he knew we had business with Rincon. And it wasn’t pretty business. The last thing I needed was him wandering off with Penelope while I broke the news to Rincon.
I hated having to be the one to tell him. We’d been on shaky ground lately. But it had to be done. I didn’t give a damn about the rich asshole stretched out on the lounge. It was for our own safety. Even though we were all grown up, I still hadn’t gotten past the idea that I was the big brother and I had to protect Slade and Colt.
I didn’t see Nelson’s big head anywhere around. “Hey, do you think we could go inside?” I asked. I wasn’t about to tell him with all his party buddies hanging within earshot.
“Sounds important,” he said with a smirk, a smirk I would have liked to have wiped off his face. He leaned over and snorted two lines of coke and reluctantly got up from the lounge.
We followed him into his living room. One entire wall was glass windows, giving you an uninterrupted view of the ocean from any place in the room. Rincon liked to strut around like a rich fucker, as if he’d earned all the money himself. But I knew his father had been a stock broker who’d eventually died from an alcohol soaked liver. He’d left behind a small fortune, and Rincon was really good at spending it.
He sat on his white leather couch and motioned for us to sit.
“We’re not going to be here long,” I said remaining on my feet. Slade propped himself up on one of the stools sitting in front of the wet bar.
“You should stay. The women won’t forgive me if I let the infamous Stone brothers slip out of reach.” He leaned back. “Where’s the third musketeer today?”
“He didn’t come with us.” I grabbed a cigarette out of my pocket and held it up to ask permission to light it. Because Amy had always been bugging me about it, I’d cut my habit down to three smokes a day, but right now, I needed something to take the edge off. Hell, with the week I’d been having, I was surprised I wasn’t back up to two packs a day.
“Go ahead.”
I lit it and took a long drag. “Don’t know if you heard but the drop yesterday didn’t go too well.”
He’d been leaning casually back against the seat as if he wasn’t really interested in anything I had to say, but now I had his attention. “What do you mean? The deal was completed. I got the payment.”
“Yeah, it was completed after we fought off the guys who showed up to steal the cargo.”
“Why the hell am I just hearing about this now?”
I shrugged and took another hit. “Where’s your man, Nelson? He’d know.”
“What do you mean? I haven’t seen Nelson since yesterday morning.”
“You mean your contact on the other side didn’t mention it?” Slade asked.
“Not a fucking word.” He pulled his phone out.
“Wait,” I stopped him before his finger pushed the button. “They probably didn’t know. I doubt Ace even told them. It would make him look bad. Besides, we already found out where the problem started.”
Rincon lowered his phone. “You did?”
I glanced back at Slade and then turned back to Rincon. “Your buddy, Nelson, is double-crossing you. The men who showed up told us they got the coordinates from Nelson. He was part of it.”
Rincon stiff
ened, then an unexpected laugh shot from his mouth. “Impossible. I don’t know who these clowns were or how you extracted this supposed information, but you’re wrong.”
“Figured that’d be your response. Someone who knew the coordinates was in on this. Ace was the only person who knew on the other side.”
His jaw tensed with anger as he got up and walked to his bar. He poured himself a shot and then smacked the glass hard on the granite counter. “I’ll talk to him later. Damn, and my day started out so well, but now it’s turned to shit.”
“Sorry about that. We can see ourselves out. But next time, no one knows the coordinates but you. Otherwise, you’ll need to find yourself another boat.” I motioned for Slade to follow me. He looked longingly out at the pool.
“Next time you come, plan to stay longer,” Rincon said. “The girls will be pissed that you left so soon.”
Slade shot me another pleading look like a kid being dragged out of the pet store where they’re giving out free puppies.
“Yep, next time,” I answered. My disappointed brother plodded behind.
We got out to his car and climbed inside. “Don’t know why we couldn’t have stuck around for awhile.” Slade slammed the car door hard. “A week ago you would have been the first to suggest it. This thing with Street has you walking around with your underwear jammed up your crack.”
“What the hell are you talking about? She’s got nothing to do with this. Just didn’t feel like hanging out there.”
“Yeah, right. Nothing to do with it.” He turned the car around and headed down the steep driveway. “You need to take a good long look in the mirror, bro, and see just how twisted up you get when Street’s not around. Reflect, buddy. Reflect on your reflection.”