by Lee Rose
Drake looked behind him and shrugged carelessly. “She is overly affectionate, that’s all.”
“Drake. I thought we had a lunch date,” Nancy yelled out loud. People turned to look and even Matt and Noah stopped talking and stared. Drake looked angry. “One minute, Nancy.”
He turned to Jasmine. “She is just a friend, Jasmine. It’s you I’m interested in.”
“Really? That’s hard to believe when you have a date with her. Just go and forget about our date,” Jasmine snapped and walked away. She blinked back a few tears and knew she could not let her aunt see her upset. She used the time it took to get to the store to tell herself it was better she found out about Drake now.
* * * *
Drake watched Jasmine walk away angrily. She looked so hurt by seeing him with Nancy. He had no interest in Nancy but she always greeted him by hugging and kissing him lightly on the lips. He never thought about it and he had not been expecting to see Jasmine here. Damn Matt for bringing Jasmine over at the wrong time. He had been looking forward to seeing her again.
He walked back over to Nancy. Why was Nancy acting like a possessive girlfriend all of a sudden? She knew they were just friends. It wasn’t a date. She asked him if he would sit and eat with her because her friend canceled on her and she hated eating alone.
“Why are you yelling that we have a date?” he asked her angrily.
Nancy folded her arms across her chest and huffed. “You said you would have lunch with me, then you run off to talk to some hood rat. What could you see in that tattooed hoodlum is beyond me.”
Matt heard Nancy’s speech and his eyes darkened with anger. He stepped away from Noah and closer to them. “Hold up there, Miss Snottypants. That hood rat is my best friend and I don’t appreciate anyone tearing her down like that. She is a genuine and kind woman.” He folded his arms across his chest and showed off his own tattoos. Nancy saw the mean look on Matt’s face and took a step back. Matt could intimidate anyone.
“Drake, are you going to let him talk to me like that?” She pouted, grabbing on to his arm with her nails digging into his skin.
Noah stepped up next to Matt, dripping with water and looking mad. “Matt is right. We don’t judge people by their looks around here.” He looked at her revealing attire and her cheeks got red when he looked disgusted.
“Let’s get out of here, Drake,” she said coldly, flipping her hair over her shoulder. “You are so above these men.”
She grabbed his hand but he pulled away from her angrily. “No, Nancy, I am not. Noah and Matt are not only my co-workers but my friends. Jasmine is someone I like very much and you just ruined things for me. I was being kind when you said Lora stood you up and you wanted company. It was not a date.”
“You can’t honestly tell me you prefer to let people see you with that freak show over me.” She snapped her hands going on her hips.
“Yes, I am saying that, Nancy. I’d better not hear you say any more bad things about Jasmine,” he said through clenched teeth.
“Your loss, deputy. I have plenty of better men who want me.” She flipped her blond hair over her shoulder and walked off.
Helen shook her head sadly. “You boys need better taste in women, Drake. I was about to loan her my sweater to cover up. Her boobs were about to fall out of that too-tight shirt. This is a family event, not a strip club.”
Matt and Noah snorted with laughter but agreed with Helen. Drake covered his face with his hands and shook his head. This day was going downhill.
“Damn it. Jasmine will never talk to me again.” Why had he been so nice to Nancy? He knew how stuck up she was but he had not wanted to be rude and tell her to eat alone.
“Go talk to her,” Matt suggested. “She looked so sad. I hate seeing her like that. She has become like a little sister to Tony and me. Her ex was a playboy and it’s hard for her to trust another man. I gave her my word you had honor. Don’t make me a liar, Lopez.”
Drake took his break to go and see Jasmine.
Drake practiced several speeches in his head as he walked to the store. It was all for nothing. When he got there the store was closed and Jasmine and Kate were both gone. He leaned his head against the door and wondered how he would get Jasmine to talk to him again. How was he going to prove that Nancy was a past mistake he now regretted?
Chapter 10
Drake stomped into the station with an angry look on his face. He didn’t stop to greet anyone. He marched straight to the locker room where he kept his extra uniforms. He just never thought he’d need one because of a bad-tempered, black-haired witch who didn’t know the meaning of forgiveness.
Matt and another deputy, Sam, were talking about the fair. Sam wanted to take his kids that night. They stopped in mid-sentence and sniffed the air loudly.
“What the hell, Lopez?” Sam waved his hand in the air. He made a distasteful face and scrunched up his nose.
“Onions?” Matt looked at the big wet stain on his shirt. He sniffed again and shook his head. “Salsa.”
Drake opened his locker and threw his stained shirt in there with a curse. He glared at Matt and Sam, who were trying hard to stifle their laughter. “If you two have nothing better to do, why don’t you go to the Hacienda and arrest a certain witch for assaulting an officer?”
“She threw an onion at you?” Sam guessed, his eyes filled with amusement. His blond hair was slicked back out of his face. His blue eyes were filled with laughter.
Drake sprayed some cologne on himself and grabbed a clean shirt. He put it on and started buttoning it up in an agitated manner.
“Jasmine and I were getting along just fine. Jasmine had forgiven me when Nancy and Lora walked in. Nancy blew a kiss at me and said, ‘Hello, lover, thanks for last night.’ Jasmine threw a bowl of salsa on me and called me a few insulting names while Alicia laughed her head off. That is assault on an officer.”
“You’re right, Lopez.” Matt let a small laugh slip out but quickly contained it and tried to look serious. “We should probably have a talk with her. Right, Sam? We can’t have the women in this town running amok and throwing food at officers.”
Sam nodded but couldn’t speak.
They left the locker room and Drake heard them burst out with loud, booming laughter. Drake slammed the locker door so hard it rattled. He walked out and his two so-called co-workers were bent over with laughter. Matt was wiping tears from his eyes.
Helen rolled her eyes but kept on typing. “I don’t want to know what you boys are up to. Take it outside.”
Greg, another deputy, was just walking for his afternoon shift. He looked at Matt and Sam with interest. “What’s going on?”
They burst into laughter all over again.
“Some help you guys are,” Drake muttered and gave them a disgusted look. He walked out and thought he smelled onions. Maybe some had fallen in his hair. Well, damn. Relationships sucked. He had been right all along. It was better to be free than having to explain his movements.
* * * *
Jasmine let the loud rock music soothe her battered emotions. Alicia, Alana’s younger sister, had invited her to see the current band playing. Alicia had laughed so hard when Jasmine threw salsa all over Drake. Alicia had dubbed him Deputy Don Juan when Jasmine told her the whole story. After inviting Jasmine to go out with her, she went to tell her sister what Jasmine had done.
“My friend Holly and I are going to see Cage the Rage, that rock band playing tonight. You should come with us and forget about men. We are.”
Now the three girls were in the front row watching the rock band play under a huge tent set up in a field on the edge of town. It was loud and crowded but it was just what Jasmine needed. A night out with girls and no Drake. She had told Holly what had happened and Alicia admitted she knew Drake well. He was like another brother. “He is a Don Juan, just like my brother Ray. All they really are is fools.”
“I don’t know him that well,” Holly spoke up. She was a nurse and was working at t
he hospital. She was young and very pretty. “I work so many hours. My last boyfriend broke up with me because I cancelled too many dates.”
“There’s plenty of fish in the sea,” Alicia told the girls. “Let’s forget about guys and have some fun. I am. I don’t even want to think of my dating life right now. It gives me a headache.”
Jasmine felt much better by the time the concert was over. She should feel bad for what she did to Drake. There they were, getting along again, when Nancy walked by. When she blew him a kiss and said thanks for last night, Jasmine lost it. He liked the female attention and probably thought it was his due for being so handsome. Well, she was not falling for that again. No way.
Afterwards they went to the local bar. It was crowded since it was the weekend. Country music was blaring loudly through the doors.
“Are you sure I look okay?” Jasmine asked, looking down at her faded jeans and turquoise halter top. Her hair was loose and flowing down her back. She had applied eyeshadow and dark liner to her eyes, but that was it.
“No one dresses up,” Holly assured Jasmine. Holly was wearing a denim skirt with a red casual shirt and red flip-flops. Her curly blond hair landed on her shoulders. She had pretty blue eyes that were free of makeup.
“Well, a few snotty bitches like Nancy get all fancy.” Alicia laughed. “They think they are in some high-class club in Austin or Houston. This is small-town America, and jeans are always fashionable.”
Alicia wore jeans too, but she wore a white snug shirt that showed her belly button off which was pierced. A small dangly diamond hung from her belly button. She had taken a weekend trip to Austin, she told Jasmine, and had gotten it with some friends. “My parents were okay with it but my brother Ray flipped his lid. I reminded him each of his girlfriends had some kind of piercing but he just got that tic in his eye.”
Holly laughed and handed Jasmine and Alicia a beer. They found a corner table away from the dance floor so they could hear each other over the loudness. “Ray only gets that with you, girl. Remember when you were dating Troy Decker? I never heard so many curse words before,”
Alicia nodded and laughed. “I’m twenty-three but he acts like I’m still fifteen and need his approval on who I date. He dates every loose woman that comes his way but I am supposed to stay virginal until I get married. It’s a bullshit double standard. The only reason Alana stayed a virgin was because she fell in love with Noah when she was still in high school.”
Jasmine understood Alicia’s frustration. The world was filled with unfairness. She sighed. She was here to have fun, not mope around. She decided to get attention off the subject of men. “I thought about getting my belly button pierced but my friend Lisa convinced me to try the eyebrow. I had a ruby stud in my nose but I kept losing it.”
“Next time we go to Austin, you can come with us and I’ll take you to where I go. My friend Hanna knows the owner and he runs a clean shop. Holly has gone with me but she refuses to let anyone touch her with a needle.”
“I’m not that brave.” Holly sighed. “Although I do love your tattoo, Jasmine. It’s so amazing. Maybe I might get a teeny tiny heart and if I don’t pass out I might go with something bigger.”
Jasmine was having fun until she spotted Nancy. Nancy spotted her and walked up to them. She was wearing a short, tight red dress that clung to her slim form. “Well, if it isn’t the hood rat and her little friends. Drake is my man, so stay away from him. You embarrass him. Why do you think he comes to my house at night and sleeps with me?”
It was just what Grant’s mistress had told her. It brought back the ache in her heart that she thought she had gotten rid of. She had no snappy comeback. She sat still in shock.
Alicia stood up and pushed Nancy. “Shut up, you slutty bitch. Drake and all the guys around here like you for one reason: because you have no morals and spread your legs for whoever. Now get lost.”
Nancy turned and left but not before she flipped Alicia off.
Alicia handed Jasmine a napkin. Jasmine hadn’t even realized she was crying. “Don’t listen to her,” Alicia said. “Drake likes her because she is easy. That kind of women ruins it for the rest of us.”
“Maybe men don’t take me seriously because of how I look,” Jasmine mumbled. ”Grant’s mistress said he was embarrassed by how I looked. Maybe she is right about Drake too. He did let her kiss him in the middle of the day in broad daylight.”
“If you like how you look, then that’s all that matters,” Holly insisted fiercely. “Men are idiots. It’s a known fact. I have never known one who hasn’t put a woman through hell. That is why I am staying single. Adam put my sister Faith through hell before giving in. My mom has a good man now but it took her twenty years to find one. Doesn’t seem worth it to me.”
Alicia nodded. “Noah broke Alana’s heart and his ex-girlfriend tried to kill her. Romance sucks except in movies and books.”
Jasmine wiped her face free of the tears. She took a sip of beer. “That’s true. Decent men are harder to find than a needle in a haystack. This calls for a shot.”
“Tequila?” Alicia brightened up and flagged the waitress. “Yes. Now we’re talking.”
They lifted their shot glasses in the air.
“To being single,” they shouted together and laughed.
Chapter 11
Drake patrolled the fair but his mind was far away. He had brought Julia earlier in the day before his shift began. He won her the pink panda to go in her newly decorated room. He sent her home exhausted and filled with junk food. He was glad Jasmine wasn’t around. He was still annoyed over that scene in the restaurant. And Nancy—what the hell was her problem? He barely talked to Nancy and their time together had been brief. Now she acted like she owned him. Women. Even Kate wouldn’t let him in the store. How had things become so complicated in his once-simple life?
“I trusted you not to hurt her, Drake, and you have sent her back to being sad and hurting,” Kate had reprimanded him. He felt like a little boy when she wagged her finger in his face. He told her Nancy was just an old friend.
“I know what kind of old friend she is. Every man in town has been with Nancy and I am ashamed that you would degrade yourself by letting her hang all over you, kissing you in broad daylight. Matt told me how she put Jasmine down. If you feel the same, then you need to forget about Jasmine and myself. No one needs a friend like you.”
He had not even had the chance to defend himself before she kicked him out of the store with one of her friends nodding in the background. It had been a humiliating experience.
“Hey.” Matt patted him on the back, a little too hard to for Drake’s comfort. “Doing okay, man? At least you smell better or I would have walked ten feet behind you.”
“Ha ha,” Drake muttered. He had taken two showers before he stopped smelling onions. And some wise guy had left a jar of salsa in his locker. He knew they would be teasing him for days about this. Alicia probably recorded the whole episode. She was bratty enough to do it and post it on social media. He would kill her. “Who needs women? They are confusing and make my head hurt. I was right to stay foot loose and fancy free.”
Matt chuckled. “Well, that’s what happens when you play the field with several women at once, boy. They are jealous creatures, Lopez.”
“I had one date with Nancy and left her on the front porch. Why she is acting all crazy now, I don’t know,” Drake complained. “Months ago we had a casual fling for two, maybe three weeks. She was all in agreement that it was just a bit of fun.”
“Jasmine is a good girl but she had her heart broken by that ass in Fort Worth. Now she has a lot of self-esteem issues going on.” Matt told him seriously. “Treat her right or you will answer to me.”
“Do you like her?” Drake really wanted to fix things with Jasmine but part of him held back. Did he want the emotional distress he always seen between most couples?
“We clicked from day one but just as friends. She has no one in her life to look out for he
r. Her mother never did, and her father was a deadbeat dad.” Matt said as they walked.
Drake hated that Matt knew her better than he did. He still wanted Jasmine but he would wait a few days to let her cool down.Then he would try talking to her one more time.
“She’s lonely and hasn’t been treated well. If Nancy is more your type, then stick with her and leave Jasmine alone.” Matt said seriously, giving him a hard look.
“Nancy was just a casual affair and she knew it.” Drake sighed. “Jasmine is different. I felt something the day we met. We had one date but I already care about her. I know her ex was a jerk and I don’t want to hurt her, Matt. I should not have let Nancy place that kiss on me. It was so quick that I didn’t protest. I didn’t think.”
“Good,” Matt said firmly. “Jasmine cried all over me the other day when she saw you kissing that snotty bitch, um, I mean your ex. Crying scares the shit out of me. I never know what to do or say. I tried patting her on the back but she said I was going to leave bruises. Then she cried all over Tony and he looked just as scared as I felt. All of a sudden, he said he had to work the night shift. What a liar.”
Drake laughed. It was hard to picture the Smith brothers scared. He wished he had been there. He would have held her and kissed her and assured her he was only interested in knowing her.
“There are some boys fighting by the Ferris Wheel,” A lady with two small children complained. “Their language is horrible.”
Drake nodded and assured her they would break it up. He and Matt headed that way and broke up a fight between two teen boys fighting over a girl who looked scared of both of them. Matt lectured them until they left. The girl was comforted by her friends and the crisis was over. Oh, the joy of working the carnival, Drake thought. He spotted Sam with his wife and kids. He wasn’t going to talk to the traitor but Matt stopped and asked the kids if they were having fun. They had wide smiles and nodded.