by Rie Warren
I pushed off the wall, but Leelee’s hand on my chest stopped me from stomping his face in with my boots. Suddenly, absolute emotional terror sliced through me.
“You came all the way from Shreveport?” Her fingers grazed his face.
“I was so wrong. I’m not gay.” Patrick glimpsed up.
Oh, now you’ve gotta be shittin’ me. I was the one who wasn’t gay, goddammit.
“Tell me this is not happening.” I grabbed Leelee’s hand before she made another pass over his face. “Tell him this is not happening.”
Camera flashes blinded me. Whispers niggled at me. Leelee glared at my hand.
“I want you back, Leelee.” He anchored his arms around her legs.
Screw this. I wanted her back too. I kept my hands off him by clenching my fists at my sides. My knuckles already bruised and bleeding, I hoped my expression was as scary as I felt as I stared down at him. “Okay, you? Shut the fuck up. Your voice is not heard in this conversation.”
Leelee extricated herself from Patrick. “You ditched me for the guy in the china shop when we were picking out wedding patterns. You left me with a mortgage on the home we lived in. I’ve heard the gossip—you got laid off, you’re in deep trouble. You think you can just weasel your way back now that I’ve finally found success with the writing you called a self-absorbed pastime? You destroyed my confidence! But you know what, Patrick? I’m a phoenix. “ Her voice was honey all over, poison underneath. “I hope you choke on my flames. Get the hell outta my sight.”
She turned her wrath on me before he even wriggled away. “You said you and Nicky were over.”
I grabbed her hand and planted it on my chest, over my pounding heart. “Goddammit, woman. You’ve got a stubborn streak a mile long.” Her gaze dove between my lips and my hand that held hers in an unbroken grip. I wanted to kiss her so badly. I stepped closer. “I like it. No, I love it. I love—”
“Stone?” Nicky’s smooth voice rolled over me.
Shit-fuck.
Everyone gawking, squawking, Christly tweeting every single second of my public stoning, and I didn’t give a flying fuck as the words flew from my mouth. “I’m not a foreign car dealer. I’m a mechanic. And I’m not gay!”
“Oh my God. Not you too.” Leelee peeled away from me.
“I’m not gay and I never was. I’m not Patrick. I’m nothing like him. You know that.” Darting in front of her, I wouldn’t let her escape.
“I let you in.”
“I know you did, and I honor that. I have no excuse, Leelee. I did it because, because . . .”
“Because I asked him to,” Nicky said.
Her head whipped between the two of us. “Bullshit.”
“It’s not bullshit. Never with you, darlin’. I’ve never felt like this about anyone else before.”
“You’re a liar, Stone. Just like him.” She screeched like bald wheels on blacktop, pointing toward Patrick’s exit.
“I’m in love with you, Leelee. Every sweet and sassy thing about you.” Tipping down toward her ear, I whispered, “No woman has ever gotten inside my heart like you have.”
When she backed away, her bottom lip quivered, and I silently begged her not to cry. Leave me in a fire of flames as well.
Leelee jabbed at me. “Let’s get this straight. I’m not a damsel in distress, and you’re not a knight in shining armor.”
I begged to differ about that. LaForge was still a skin-sack on the floor.
“We aren’t living in a romance novel. I don’t care if you’re bi-straight-gay. Because I don’t care about you,” she spat. “You, Stone, are a liar and a scoundrel. You probably don’t even have a son.”
From one of the onlookers, I heard a quiet, “This is an epic black moment.”
I clasped my hands behind my neck. “Fuck.” She couldn’t have hurt me more about the kid. “He was never a lie. Neither were you.” My voice rasped.
“I didn’t mean that,” Leelee whispered. She was pale and shivering.
“Yeah, you did. It’s okay.” My smile was wintry. “JJ’s mine. He’s real. No one messes with my kid.” A blanket of regret spread across her face. “About everything else, maybe you’re right.” I angled my fedora over my eyes.
This was done.
I watched her walk out, her head held high. At least that was something to be thankful for. She hadn’t been defeated, at least not in public.
“Show’s over, folks.” I slumped against the wall.
Nicky appeared beside me. I couldn’t meet his eyes, couldn’t meet anyone’s. “I’m sorry, bro,” I said.
“Yeah, me too.” He ran a hand through his hair then over his face. “Are you coming up to bed? Long drive tomorrow.”
I glanced around the emptying room, never at him. “Nah. I’m goin’ nowhere.”
I never had. I’d been content with my life. My garage. The kid. My Friday night tits-and-ass. I hadn’t ever wanted anything else until Leelee hit me like a fucking hurricane. I laughed darkly, shrugging away from Nicky.
So raw my emotions were bleeding out, I staked out the lobby. I sat unmoving, oblivious to the commotion around me. The giant undertaking of the convention being cleaned up and cleared out. I wasn’t leaving until I saw Leelee one last time.
A couple hours later, the lobby finally silent, I caught a streak of red all the way across the room. Leelee was sneaking out the far doors. Clever. I jogged across the lobby, stumbling through the merry-go-round doors. I stopped behind her as she struggled with the cobbled-together luggage cart. A car idled next to her.
“Leave me alone.” She kept her face angled away from me.
I grabbed the cart in one hand and steadied the sliding suitcase formation with the other. “You’re not getting away that easily.”
“You think this is easy? My heart is breaking, Josh.” Turning to me, she hugged herself tight, looking so small and so hurt.
I staggered back on my heels, breathless from pain. “Then don’t do this.”
The downward crescent of her mouth tugged at my heart like a goddamn hook had ripped through it. “I can’t do anything else. This is—you, me . . . Nicky, my writing—it’s a mess! And your son . . .”
My vision got watery. I swallowed, the lump in my throat immoveable. “So you’re just gonna run away?”
“Don’t you dare judge me.” She popped open the trunk and yanked her belongings into it, any which way they landed.
“At least let me help you with your stuff.” Anything to buy a few more minutes with her.
Leelee nodded, moving out of the way.
I jigsawed it all into the tight space of her compact sedan, making sure nothing would jostle during the ride. Too soon, everything was organized. I closed the trunk. The finality of the sound banged inside my head.
Gathering her hands, I pulled them toward my chest. “Tell me you’re not drivin’ through the night.” The idea of her driving in the dark on her own just about threw me into a tailspin of worry.
“Just a few hours. I need to get away. I’m so overwhelmed.” She lifted up until her face pressed against my neck.
Oh Christ, she felt good, so right. I wrapped my arms around her, caressing up and down her back. What if I never felt her again?
I choked out, “Are you calling someone to check in on the way home?”
Call me, please call me.
“My folks. I’ll be safe.”
I cupped her face. My fingertips grazed her cheeks to her bow-shaped mouth. I kissed her forehead, her temples. Brushing my lips over hers, I waited a heartbeat. She returned that simple kiss, winding her arms around me. Her moan was all the surrender I needed.
Dragging my hand through her hair, I held her the way I wanted to, needed to. In full possession, slanting her face and sliding my lips more deeply against hers. The touch of our tongues was the perfect invitation to groan in pleasure. To hold on before the pain of goodbye. It was a kiss I hoped she wouldn’t forget, couldn’t walk away from.
Br
eath rushed from me when Leelee stepped back. I held my hand out to her for more. So much more.
She’d melted during the kiss—but not enough. The hurt in her eyes was worse than straight-up hate. And with it was anguish, desire. One hand pressed to her mouth, she stumbled to the car door. I was there in an instant. I hung over it, hungry for every last sight of her.
Reaching to stroke my face, Leelee leaned up for what I expected to be another kiss, but she turned away at the last second. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry!”
The car door slammed as soon as I stepped away.
There on the walkway I crouched down, bracing my hands on my knees. Pain punched me in the gut. But I wouldn’t look away, wouldn’t blink. Not until she was out of sight.
Leelee left in a May haze of heat, exhaust fumes, red taillights. She left me with a hard stone taking center place in my heart.
My woman got away.
Chapter Sixteen
Not Romancing the Stone
AFTER UMPTEEN HOURS ON the road, driving on autopilot, Nicky and I arrived in Mt. Pleasant. Sitting in my ma’s drive, I prepared to rip the door handle off the rented Volvo to get to the kid when Nicky placed a hand on my knee. My stabbing glare made him remove it.
“Next time, we’re flying,” he said.
“Next time?” I turned in my seat. “Dude, I pretty much just wrecked your reputation and screwed my love life. Or did you miss that tweet?”
“I’ve been checking all day long, in fact.” A wicked grin slid across his mouth. “That stunt gave me more hits than a whore spreadin’ her legs for a two-for-one-fuck.”
Crude, but effective. Aaaaand, that goddamn fucker. At least he’d forgiven me. I didn’t even have to send flowers. Asshole always came up smelling like roses.
I shouldered through the doors of the house ahead of Nicky. Ma sat on the sofa with her cross stitch, which she used to camouflage her current book-smut-of-the-month from the Sunday clutch of church ladies who called at all hours of the day.
She took one look at my face and slapped both book and fake old lady’s craft project aside. “Uh oh, trouble in paradise?”
“It was ’Lanta. I wouldn’t exactly call that paradise.” I dropped my head. “Fell in love, fucked it all up.”
Nicky squeezed my shoulder before we were wrapped in a tight maternal embrace, encompassing both of us.
Slipping back, Ma narrowed her eyes. “Now listen here, sonny boy. Unless this woman spat on your name, slashed your tires, or tried to run you over, you ain’t fucked it up. And kindly don’t use that word in my house. Leave that garbage at the garage, I don’t need you dirtying up my domicile.”
Nicky snickered behind me. I elbowed him, fighting a smile myself. Yeah, she had her dirty books to dirty up her domicile already.
Ma clapped both hands over her mouth. “Leelee! Leelee Songchild! Oh, son, you caught yourself a live one, didn’t you?”
A flush heated up my neck to my cheeks, cheeks she pinched to pull me forward for a loud smack of lips on my mouth.
I wrestled back and swiped at my lips. “Ma!”
“Oh, you’ve gotta get that woman now. Mah Lord in Heaven. I swear, if you did her wrong, I’ll be givin’ you a dressin’ down the likes of which y’all never seen. Mm hmm.”
At the sound of the patter-patter-skid of bare feet on bare floorboards, I turned around, opened my arms, and caught a wriggling bundle of boy. My eyes welled up. I sniffed hard, the knot in my throat swelling until I couldn’t speak.
“Daddy!” JJ’s scream about shattered my eardrum. It was the best sound I’d ever heard.
I tucked myself around him, breathing in sticky sweetness, baby shampoo, wet dog, and dirt. I kissed every inch of skin I could find. Bouncing him in my arms, I pretended to groan due to his weight because it was either that or break down and cry. “Jesus. You’ve grown. What’s Jamma been feedin’ ya?” Tickling his little potbelly, I nuzzled his neck.
“Daddy, you scwatchy.” JJ was giggles, wiggles, all things good.
Setting him down, I crouched at his level.
Pudgy toddler fingers touched beneath my eyes. “Daddy, your eyes is weaking.”
“Yeah, I guess they are leaking.”
As soon as that mystery was solved, he barreled into Nicky. “Uncle Wicky! I missed you. I missed Daddy more. Viper and Jamma kept me company. Can I come stay with you soon?”
Ma met my questioning eyes. “Orange Fanta and a Creamsicle an hour ago.”
Sugar rush plus galactic levels of excitement . . . tonight was gonna be awesome. But it didn’t matter. I couldn’t wait to get the kid home, snug in his bed and sung to sleep so I could ease half the ache in my heart.
No sooner had Nicky answered the sucrose-fueled fire of questions than the kid jumped back into my arms. “What’d ya bring me?”
I’d brought myself a whole lotta heartache from a woman who’d driven away in the night, but I shook that off. I pulled JJ’s gift from my back pocket. The pint-sized Georgia Bulldogs baseball cap was snatched from my hands. He didn’t give a shit what it was. He whooped and hollered, racing around until Viper joined in the mad dash of boy and beast.
“Just might not wanna wear it in public round here, unless you wanna get your ass kicked,” I warned.
The kid didn’t hear me, but Ma sure did. She cuffed me on the back of my head. “Language.”
“C’mere, c’mere.” He towed Nicky and me to the sofa side table. Grabbing Ma’s phone, he scrolled down like he knew what he was doing—more so than me—and tapped the screen. “Lookie. Jamma took pictures of me and Viper.”
In the photo he used the massive, sleek-haired Rottie as a headrest. One had a tongue lolling out between big boy-eating teeth; the other had his hand tucked under the muzzle. Both were asleep.
“Sweet, dude-man.” Nicky ruffled his hair.
Yeah, that’s fuckin’ precious. I loved seeing the kid snuggled up to eighty pounds of vicious-looking bitch.
An hour later, with the kid passed out and Viper hogtied in a car-harness, Nicky dropped us off at home. I carried JJ upstairs to his bed while Nicky brought in our bags. After slipping off JJ’s sneakers and shorts, I left him in skivs and T-shirt, covering him up with a kiss.
Nicky waited on the porch. My house sat on a little knoll above the Cooper River. From this vantage point of the Old Village we could see the Charleston Bay as it narrowed into a deep waterway delivering cargo ships to the port terminals farther up.
Under the moon, sleek silvery bodies of dolphins arced through sluggish waves. Briny water scented the air, and night blooming jasmine. Damp, heavy heat clung to my skin like the honeysuckle vines on my porch. The swing moved with the breeze, just big enough for two, the perfect place to sit with Leelee.
Pulling me to him with an elbow crooked around my neck, Nicky inhaled. “Home.”
“Yeah.” I squinted out over the famed Ravenel suspension bridge that was always lit up like every day was the Fourth of July.
“You worry too much.”
“And you don’t get laid enough.”
We grinned.
Viper slobbered on the rental’s windows.
“I’m headin’ off. Thanks for the week, man. Thanks for . . . you know.” Brief, but hard, profound, Nicky’s hug meant a lot. Friends. Best buds. That shit was important. “Leelee will come around.”
“Of course.” I gestured over my body. “I mean, look at all this.”
He snorted all the way to the Volvo, flipping his hair out of his eyes for one last wink. As soon as he rumbled off, I slumped to the steps. Glossy black wood, sanded and painted by me and my dad.
I sat there for a while, breathing it all in. Harbor and river, flowers and heat. Slapping my hands against my thighs, I stood up. There could’ve been a million miles between Mt. Pleasant and Shreveport—it sure felt like it. I wanted to kiss the kid goodnight one more time before I loaded the laundry and had a shower. Before I sat out back with a beer, cursing the crickets and bullhorn
bullfrogs.
I had work tomorrow.
The boys better be on their A-Game. And that did not mean Ass Game, for a change.
****
In the morning, I dropped the kid off at Ma’s with more scratchy, stubbly kisses and squeezes, addicted to his laughs. Grabbing a mug of coffee and a homemade ham biscuit, I drove back down 17 to the shop. Red awning, huge sign, pre-dawn, renewed pride jolted through me.
This was where I belonged.
I let myself in the side door and switched on the lights. The bays filtered into bright illumination. Clean surfaces, scrubbed-down floors, cars undercover—fucking perfect. The scent of motor oil after a week away almost made me high. I’d come dressed in clean coveralls, as clean as they’d get, and checked a clipboard. Pulling the sheet off a truck, I started right in.
Half an hour later, all four tires were changed. Sweat dripped down my neck, and I hunkered back to enjoy a job well done.
Dusting my hands on my thighs, I cruised through the other bays and into the front of house. Tidiest motherfuckers on earth. Loved those grease monkeys. The magazines had been switched out, restrooms Spic and Spanned. Roses chilled in the fridge. I sat on the counter waiting for clocking-in time. That was when I spied the banner slung above the neat rows of chairs in front of me:
Welcome Home, Stone!
Fuckin’ crackers. There better be some cake later, too, since I’d already brought them Krispy Kremes.
Ray’s key scraped in the lock. The bell jingled. The men filed in. Fourteen of them, all dressed in their dark blue jumpsuits with red and white nametags stitched on, grins in place.
I hopped down and stood at the forefront. Fuck if I was gonna cry, but this shit was emotional. Back slaps, hard hugs, a little razzing, I greeted everyone and got it all back in return.
Idjits.
Gerald stuffed his massive hands into the pockets of his uniform. “No way he’s been into the office yet. He’s being too lovey-dovey.”
Ray whistled, off-tune, and that was my clue the bastards had been up to something other than welcome backs and back slaps. Warning bells went off.