Heart of Stone

by Tess Oliver

  I looked over at him and took another hit on my cigarette. “Reflect on my reflection? Thank you, Dr. Phil, for that brilliant fucking suggestion.” I leaned forward and cranked the radio. Led Zeppelin blasted through the speakers. Of course it was the song.

  Slade laughed and pointed at the radio. “Hey, it’s the song about the street corner girl. I guess even the damn radio is trying to tell you something.”

  I slumped down in the seat. “Just drive, you ass.”

  Chapter 11

  Amy

  I turned the corner toward home. The usual blanket of fog wasn’t hanging over the town but the moon was nonexistent. It was hard to see where the sea ended and the coast began. Most of the houses were dark. Our neighbors were quiet, keep to themselves types and most liked to look the other direction when it came to the two shabby houses in the center of the block. I suspected that had more to do with the people living in the houses than the overgrown front yards and peeling paint. They’d looked the other way too when the houses weren’t so rundown and the brothers were struggling to survive a horrible childhood. When I was younger, my mom would stop and talk to neighbors on her stroll to the mailbox or picking up the paper, but that had stopped long ago when she’d decided everyone was out to get her.

  Our television flickered through the broken blinds on the front window. The new medication was making her sleep a lot, and I was actually thankful for that. She couldn’t tape up the house or hit people with vases or poison her only kid with cookies when she was sleeping.

  Tonight had been my third date with David. The first dinner had gone all right, but he’d seemed preoccupied by something and I wasn’t feeling myself either. Our conversation hadn’t flowed like it had in the coffee shop, and I was still being constantly plagued with the stupid habit of mentally comparing David to Hunter. David was always coming up on the short side of the comparison.

  Tonight, we’d given it another try. As usual, he’d been a perfect gentleman, something I wasn’t used to. So far, he’d only kissed me and taken hold of my hand. Tonight, he’d picked me up after my shift at Lazy Daze. We’d driven to the beach with a blanket and bottle of wine. We’d talked awhile and kissed a lot, but I wasn’t ready for anything else. David had accepted that with some disappointment. But he’d kissed me goodnight and told me he wanted to see me again.

  My head was swirling like fudge ripple ice cream when it came to David. One minute I thought he might be someone I could fall for, and the next, I was telling myself to end it before things got deeper.

  Hunter’s motorcycle was in the driveway, but the house was dark. I had a strange, very fleeting desire to talk to him about this new situation with David. Hunter was the person I always went to when I needed to talk. Jade was fairly new in my life and our friendship had been sealed almost immediately. Still, there was only one person who I’d always told all my deepest secrets and feelings to and that was Hunter. He knew me better than anyone, and while he wasn’t always the best listener or advisor, I had always counted on him to be there for me. I smiled at the idea of discussing my newest dilemma with him.

  I saw the tiny red glow of a cigarette or joint on his front porch as I pulled into my driveway. The giant silhouette sitting on the front porch was easy to recognize. No one else had shoulders that nearly spanned the entire top step. Immediately, my pulse raced. That alone might have been the reason I was so on the fence about David. He hadn’t made my pulse race or my knees weaken or even my hands tremble, physical reactions I always had when I saw Hunter.

  I stepped out of the car on jelly knees. His handsome face was halfway hidden by the shadows of the porch, but I could tell he was looking at me. We hadn’t spoken in a week and everything about that felt wrong, almost as if I hadn’t taken a decent breath for seven days.

  “You’re out late,” he said.

  The sound of his voice caught me off guard. It was a sound that could leave me breathless or filled with heartbreak. I willed my feet forward. “And you’re in early.” I pushed out my most casual tone but just having to push it, made it sound completely forced.

  I sat on the porch next to him, took hold of the joint and stuck it between my lips. He stared out at the street. It seemed he was straining not to turn and look at me.

  “Jade said you met someone.”

  “Huh. Did not expect you to lead with that.” I handed him back his joint.

  “Seemed like a good topic.”

  Jade had a theory that the only thing Hunter needed was a little shove, and she was sure me dating another guy would do the trick. But I wasn’t at all convinced she was right. “Guess I was tired of going in circles, chasing my tail like a puppy.”

  He nodded, but I could feel the tension radiating off his body. Apparently he was having a hard time trying to act casual too. “I made no promises. Not saying that this isn’t twisting me up inside, Street. Cuz it is.”

  A rare confession of feelings from Hunter was hard won, and this one was particularly hard because I missed him badly. Not talking to him for a week was sucking the wind from me. Talking to him now was keeping me just as breathless.

  “Who is he?”

  A dry laugh shot from my mouth. “Should I write down his address so you can go stand on his porch and glower at him?”

  “Nope, just making sure you’re not hanging out with a bad element.” A smile turned up the corner of his mouth. “But I guess just about anyone who isn’t me is a step in the right direction.” He extinguished the joint on the porch step. “Just want to make sure you’re safe, Amy. Old habits die hard.”

  “Tell me about it.” I tossed my keys on my palms, weighing just how much I wanted to tell him. “He’s got money, but I’m not sure what his business is. Just like I have no real idea what you and your brothers are doing. All I know, is he treats me well.” I looked over at him. His profile with his straight nose and long dark lashes was always heartbreaking. It somehow made him look more innocent, hiding all the ugliness he’d been through. “He treats me like I matter.”

  He faced me. His eyes flickered with something, a emotion that I’d rarely seen in his expression. “Don’t fucking sit here and pretend you don’t matter to me, Street. Just don’t.”

  I wrapped my arms around my knees to hold myself tighter. There was no damn way I was going to cry in front of him. We both fell silent.

  I looked out at the other houses with their neatly trimmed lawns and thoughtfully planted hedges. It was no wonder everyone looked the other way. “Sometimes I think our crappy childhoods stunted our growth. Our asshole fathers are gone, but they both still have control of us. We never grew past what happened in these houses. We never allowed ourselves to say— hey I survived and dad is gone and good fucking riddance.”

  Hunter stared down at the ground. “Sometimes the memories are so tightly wound around my throat, I can’t even take a decent breath. Colt, Slade and I were living in hell.”

  “And I wasn’t? Sure, my dad wasn’t nearly the monster that yours was, but he was pretty fucking low on the fatherly love scale. So don’t try to bottom out your upbringing, Hunter, because I’m still dealing with my fun.” I waved toward my dark, pathetic little house where my mom slept in her drug stupor.

  He reached back to the cut on his head. “Yep, the stitches in my head remind me of that.”

  “Didn’t you go back to the doctor to get them cut out?”

  “Nah. Slade’s going to cut them out tomorrow.”

  I remembered, then, about an unexplained wound on his arm that Jade had mentioned. I could still see the gauze under his shirt. “What happened to your arm?”

  “It was nothing. Something that happened on the job.”

  “The job. Right.”

  “See. I live a sketchy life. That’s why I’m not worth the bother.”

  I shook my head. “Hang on while I go get my violin, Mr. Woe is me.” I released my legs and leaned my hands back behind me. “I’ve decided I’m done being held hostage by my past. I’m
going to clean up my house, maybe paint it, and I’ve decided to have someone fix the engine on my dad’s boat.”

  “Why? Are you going to start fishing?”

  I rolled my eyes. “I can sell it and use the money to fix up the house. My dad left us with some bitter memories, but he also left us with a house and boat. I’m moving on.”

  “With some guy who has cash in his pocket and treats you well.”

  “Nope, I’m moving on alone, and if I find a nice guy in the meantime then that will be the frosting on top.” I stood up. “I’ve been waiting for—”

  He gazed up at me, and I lost the words for a second. It was him. I’d been waiting for him to come around. But he hadn’t.

  The light on our front porch turned on. My mom was up. I stood up, but before I could walk away, he took hold of my hand.

  I couldn’t bring myself to look down at him as he gripped my hand. Or as he spoke. “I’m not going to lie, Street. Nothing is right without you. Feels like the ground beneath my feet is giving way, but—” His words were interrupted by the squeak of his front door.

  A tall brunette walked out dressed in just a t-shirt and panties. I was pretty sure her name was Shelly, but I didn’t care enough to puzzle it out. “Hunter,” she said sweetly, “aren’t you coming back to bed?”

  Now I turned to face him. He kept a grip on my hand and stared up at me as if a half-dressed girl hadn’t just asked him to return to bed. I yanked my hand free and ran across the weed covered yard to my house.

  As I put my foot on the first step, our screen door popped open.

  “Off my porch!” I heard my mom’s voice but didn’t see the garden shovel until it glinted in the light. As I covered my head to block the end of the shovel, I squeezed my eyes shut to brace for the imminent blast of pain. But it didn’t come. Heavy footsteps pounded the wood steps and a thudding sound followed.

  “It’s your daughter, you fucking loon. It’s Amy,” Hunter yelled over my mom’s hysterical cries.

  I lowered my arm and lifted my face. Hunter had hold of the shovel, and he held my mom’s arm. Mom stared at me for a second as if she was trying to figure out why I looked familiar. Her eyes were glazed and unfocused from the medication.

  “Amy, my god,” she sobbed and covered her face and ran back inside.

  Hunter’s chest rose and fell with deep breaths. I glanced back to his house. He’d crossed the space between our houses as if he’d had rockets on his feet. His visitor was still standing on the porch. She’d witnessed the whole embarrassing episode.

  Hunter lowered the shovel and reached for my face. But I stepped back. The last thing I needed was to feel his touch. He looked at my front door and then at me. “Fuck, Amy, you’ve got to—”

  I held up my hand to stop him. “No, don’t Hunter. I don’t want to hear this tonight. She’s just on new meds is all. They always take awhile for her to get used to.” I was holding it together, but it was an act. Inside, I was ripping apart. “Go back to your slumber party.”

  He stood there towering over me and staring down at me as if I’d just pulled out any final strings still holding his stony heart in place. Then he stomped down the steps and swung the shovel at our tree, hitting it hard enough to wedge the metal end into the trunk. I turned around and went inside.

  My mom had climbed into bed and had already fallen back asleep. I went down the hall to my room, shut the door and slid to the floor. I wrapped my arms around my legs, pulled my knees closer and cried.

  Chapter 12

  Hunter

  Slade and Colt were already sitting in our usual booth when I walked through the door at Lazy Daze. I didn’t see Amy, but her car was in the lot. It had been three days since our conversation on the porch. Shelly had stepped out to interrupt and remind Amy that I was a complete asshole. Not that she ever needed reminding about that.

  We hadn’t gone on a job in a few days. The boss was dealing with shuffling in new people and getting rid of old, namely Nelson, his ex-right hand man. While we waited for our next job, I’d carried my tools down to Amy’s father’s boat. She’d mentioned wanting to fix it up, and working on engines was the one thing that could keep my mind out of the black hole that kept wanting to swallow it. The hard, cold reality was that I missed Amy so much it hurt. I shifted between wishing I’d been a real guy with a real job and a future and wanting to fall into an abyss and get sucked down into hell where I belonged. It was the darkest my mood had been since I was fourteen. My dad had beaten me so badly, I’d actually plotted how I might kill him. It had only ever been a fantasy, a macabre plan that had him in the bathtub with me tossing in a radio or hairdryer, something that would fry him up good. It had been one of the darkest periods in a life that had never seen too much light.

  Slade and Colt were staring at me as I slid into the booth. “Shit, is my hair on fire or something?” I asked.

  Slade grinned at Colt before turning to me. “No. But it might be soon.”

  Jade came over with a beer and tequila shot. “Thought you might need this.”

  “Yeah? If you say so.” I threw the tequila back. All three of them were staring at me. Amy came out of the office. She wasn’t wearing her apron and had put on the green curve hugging dress I’d always loved, a dress that I’d nearly ripped off of her more than once. She glanced our direction and paled the second she saw me.

  “What the fuck is going on?” I reached up to my head. “Did I forget to tuck my horns in? Or are all of you just nuts?”

  Jade looked at Colt. “You didn’t tell him?”

  Colt lifted his hands in surrender. “You didn’t give me time.”

  Jade scurried away as if I really had sprouted horns. I took a long drink of beer. Something told me I was going to need it. I slammed the mug hard on the table. “One of you asswipes should tell me what the fuck is going on.”

  Slade leaned forward with a small, almost gleeful smile as if whatever was happening was entertaining to him. “Well, brother dearest, it seems Amy’s new boyfriend is coming to pick her up here. She’s off for the night, and they’re going out— on a date,” he added unnecessarily and with another heap of glee.

  Colt looked over at him. “Fuck, Slade, should I get you a tub of popcorn. You look excited like you’re about to settle down to a good movie.”

  “What can I say? It’s boring here tonight. No hot single girls and the beer is sort of flat. But now my big brother has walked in to provide some entertainment.”

  Colt turned to me. “Seriously, bro, maybe you should just head back out. Thought you were going to play poker tonight.”

  “It got cancelled.” I stared across the room at Amy. She was trying her hardest not to look my direction.

  Colt elbowed me. “Might be better if you take off, don’t you think?”

  I was trying to tamp down my anger and figure out what the hell I was going to do. The thought of Amy with another guy wasn’t just a suggestion, an irritating idea that I kept brushing out of my head to keep from going fucking nuts. It was a real thing, and the real guy was coming to meet her. And I had only myself to blame. I moved to slide out of the booth, thinking I needed to go somewhere else and get fucking plastered.

  “What the hell? Why is Rincon here?” Slade asked.

  I looked across the room. “What the fuck?” I got up and walked toward him. Colt and Slade followed. Our deliberate movement across the bar made every other patron sit up and take notice. They knew that trouble usually followed when the three Stone brothers moved in one direction together.

  Rincon’s mouth dropped open when he caught sight of us. He looked equally shocked to see us. He was dressed up as if he was off to an expensive nightclub or snob-filled party. He glanced around almost nervously as if we were the last people he wanted to meet in a public place. This particular public place wasn’t exactly his style either.

  “So, this is your usual haunt?” Rincon asked. He nodded as he took in the shabby decor and faded leather seating. “Guess that ma
kes sense.”

  “Maybe you should explain why you’re here,” Colt said.

  “Don’t worry, boys, not here to tread on your territory. I’m just here to pick up my date.” He leaned to the right and looked past me. “And there she is now.”

  We all turned.

  Amy was walking toward us looking as if she might fall down in a dead faint. Even her lips were white. “What are you guys doing?” she asked all of us but looked straight at me. “This is my date. Remember,” she said pointedly to me. “Please, Hunter,” her voice had dropped to a whisper.

  Rincon looked confused. “You know these guys?”

  “Yes, they’re my neighbors.”

  Rincon nodded. “Ahh, the neighbors.” He laughed. I’d always fucking hated his laugh, but now I just wanted to smother it with my fist. “I never would have guessed. Well, Amy, we should get going. The club gets really crowded after midnight.”

  Amy pulled her pleading gaze from my face and smiled weakly at Rincon. “I’ll just get my coat.”

  I grabbed her arm. “Yes, I will help you get your coat. Excuse us,” I said without making eye contact with Rincon. Amy stumbled along next to me, having to take two steps to match every one of mine.

  We got to the office, and I slammed the door shut. Amy swung around to face me. The color had returned to her face, and it was the color of rage. “We had a fucking deal. You were going to look the other way when I started dating someone.”

  “Don’t know where the fuck I was when this deal was made, and looking the other way isn’t going to happen, especially when you’ve hooked up with a guy like Rincon.”

  “What? You mean rich, nice looking, well-mannered?”

  “No, I mean a fucking drug dealer.”

  Some of the color left her cheeks again. “How do you know that? You’re just making that up because you’re pissed.” She shoved her small hands at my chest and tried to slide past me, but I caught both her wrists.