Pisser.
Jackie grinned and flicked on the spout with her wrist, squirting out a dollop of lemon soap from its dispenser and thoroughly scrubbed her hands. Even at home, she didn't fall out of practice with ServSafe regulations. Even though she might be the only one sampling the new, hopefully award-winning trail mix variation she was masterminding tonight.
Shutting the spout and flicking the water off of her hands, she turned back to the blue berries, sighing before setting to the task of cutting each one in half.
Cashews would go nicely with this.
She pushed past the reoccurring thoughts of Liam rising up in her mind, attempting to throw her back onto the fence.
She set her jaw, slicing the berries. No, Ma'am. She would not think about those fingers, those lips, that tongue. She didn't have time to dwell on the surge of electricity that rose to hum the surface of her skin from a simple glance. Didn't need to be reminded how the sound of his name buzzed through her and settled in her gut.
Setting the knife down, she leaned against the counter and sighed.
She was in trouble.
And thanks to dear old mom's exceedingly poor choices in men, she couldn't turn back on her blooming inner diva if she wanted to. Because even if she might be okay with having a relationship with a man who would be her stepbrother in less than a month, the nightmare it would cause in the media for their businesses just wasn't something she could risk.
Frowning, she drew up the knife again and sliced into another blueberry.
Last time I listen to you, bad angel.
Liam
Just like that she was gone.
His fingers tightening around the steering wheel, Liam accelerated his speed along the Breeman Fairway. He was giving a perilous inch to the beast within right then. There wasn't anything else for it. He'd get it out of his system and return to the work of the day. Eventually. Right now, he needed to forget everything. Gravity. Want. Need. Everything.
Following the curve, he laid into the gas all the more. He knew how to handle himself, and there weren't many cars traveling the private road at this time of day. Jackie had left him with a pit in his stomach that couldn't be reasoned with, a sense of loss that hurt him more than it should for it to come from a girl he barely knew.
He had half a thought that his reactions weren't even about her, that maybe he was just lonely and ready to settle down. Maybe she'd been the first woman to cross his path while he was going through some sort of early life crisis. Stranger things have happened. Hell if he knew how to explain the way his heart rate accelerated whenever she was in the room.
How keenly he remembered the scent of her. Saw her in his mind's eye with vivid clarity.
With Dina, things had been different. Desperate, but different. He'd been able to let other women nurture his sorrows when she walked out on him, calling it quits time and time again only to return weeks later.
He couldn't imagine taking someone else to bed after Jackie, and it was perfectly ridiculous because she was obviously over it. Whatever he'd thought they'd shared didn't seem to resonate the same with her, and he was growing angrier with himself by the second for the damnable fixation he had on her.
It shouldn't be this way when two people wanted to be together. Hell, even the barrier of his father's bullshit engagement seemed opposed to it.
Maybe he should take the hint, huh?
Swerving to avoid a squirrel taking an errant notion to cross over the northbound-lanes, Liam grit his teeth and forced himself to reason. He was going too fast.
Fuck.
Why didn't he care?
He had to care. He had a life to maintain. This was silly. School boy shit.
A kind of polarized relief sunk into his veins when he realized he was slowing down, that that unreachable part of him had taken note of his logic. Yeah. That's it. Sometimes, a dude just has to man up. That's all.
Slowing his speed even more, he resolved to take the next right off of the fairway into town. Wouldn't kill him to take in some of the fights before he headed back to the studio. A good spar always settled his nerves, didn't matter if he wasn't the one fighting. Taking a right onto the woodsy strip leading to the back roads by the lake, he leaned back in the driver's seat, feeling more himself now.
A good show would help him change track.
~
“Liam. My man. What's good, buddy?”
Rico clapped his hand into a shake that quickly morphed into an over-muscled hug before settling back against the ropes.
Liam grinned at Rico, marveling that the guy didn't seem to age at all. He'd been Liam's mentor since his preteens, but the dude didn't look like he was a day over 30. Maybe it was all the body work, or the community work keeping his soul right.
“You getting in?” Rico asked him, bouncing a rope for emphasis with a daring glint in his eye.
“Nah, man. Just came to watch.”
Liam folded his arms over his chest. Rico had an uncanny way of looking him in the eye and figuring out whatever was wrong with him. Girl troubles were the last thing he wanted to share with the guy. He felt silly even categorizing it that way. It felt much bigger than something as simple as “girl trouble,” but in the end, it was what it was, wasn't it?
Silly.
“One of those days, huh?”
Rico gave him a knowing glance.
Not the talk, Rico. I can't do the talk today.
“You know... Men and women are different creatures. A good burst of adrenaline helps us forget whatever's bothering us. Women... their shit sits with them.”
He gave Liam a meaningful look that half-made him wonder if he was really that transparent.
“Thank gods for the gym, ah?”
Clapping Liam on the back, Rico laughed heartily.
“Come on, man. Let me get you a bottled water. You've got ringside seats whenever you come through. You know that. Biz and Mike Rowdy are up next if you can wait a few minutes.”
Warming, Liam felt himself relax almost instantly.
“Hell, yeah. I can wait for that.”
Rico gave him a smiling nod and headed off to the kitchenette to get his water, tossing the bottle to him before he disappeared in the back again. He'd been running the shop since his father retired. Well into his forties now, it seemed to have become his life.
Liam had extremely fond memories of the place. It was a home away from home. Hell, he'd slept here. Walked under the bridges and around the lake to get there on the bad nights. Rico's dad never let on that he knew, and Liam didn't abuse the privilege. Around that time, Corey had been safe. He'd been too little to knock around. Mom was still protecting him. But Liam? Liam was “stubborn as a mule.” A “bad seed.” Fucked up thing to say in the ear-range of a 14 year old, but there you had it.
As long as mom's boy toys were bringing the supply when they paid her a visit, she didn't care how they treated Liam. Corey was her golden baby at that point.
Until he hit about 13.
It'd been a rude awakening for him that Liam didn't think he'd ever really recovered from, but he was better off seeing the reality of her before she had a chance to break his heart clean in two. 'Cause she would have. That's just the type of woman she was.
Uncapping the bottled water, Liam took a swig, savoring the cellar-smell of the gym, hints of laundered towels steeped and rinsed in heavily-scented fabric softener pluming the air. It over-powered the sweat most of the time, making the place seem a lot more upscale than the actual budget it ran on. Rico kept it clean and renovated every few years or so, but most of his profits went right back into these walls.
It was a back woods sort of gym, nestled in the trees at the end of a dirt road paved especially for it. Passed down from father to son in succession from sometime in the early 1900s. Something about all of the time it had been standing lent a spirit to it that made you feel like you were being watched over by the old-timer fighters who'd passed in and out of its doors.
This place
had seen illegal betting, fights of all sorts, and even prohibition-era poker games. It was steeped in history. And right now, it was just the thing he needed.
By the time the rowdies marched toward the ring, beating their gloves together with playful menace, Jackie was very far from Liam's mind. Right where he needed her to be if he was going to keep his head at all.
Jackie
“Hey, Baby girl,” Roxy's voice crooned through the phone, velvet and cool, just like her demeanor.
“Roxanne! Shit, girl. How've you been?”
Near squeaking, Jackie cradled the phone to her ear. God, she'd missed this chick.
“Just fine, Sugar plum. I'm in town for the night. You free for drinks?”
An effervescent surge of bubbling rose up in Jackie's gut. Hell, yeah she was.
“You know it. Name the spot.”
“Dwight's. I'll get you at 8.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
Clicking off the call, Jackie smiled to herself, widely, and probably goofily. She loved the hell out that girl, and a visit with the ol' sage was perfect timing. If anyone could talk sense into her, and set her back on her course it was Roxy.
Huh. She was in town? Just like that.
It wasn't like Roxy to call while she was traveling. She was too much a free spirit for that. Hence the random postcards and unchecked email inbox. No, Roxy moved with the wind. She was the sort of spirit who made an adventure out of life. A woman most people could learn from.
Dusting the flour off of her hands, Jackie gave them a good rinse, and secured the saran wrap over the dough, depositing it in the fridge for later. Glancing at the clock, she put a little more pep in her step.
She had about an hour to get ready.
Most of her day had consisted of trying a million and one recipes, and it had mostly succeeded in keeping Liam off of her mind, even if it didn't do a thing about the hollow feeling settling in her gut.
Usually, cooking and her many experiments gave her a sense of satisfaction, but she was having trouble getting into her groove. Lifting her chin, she shrugged it off. A night out would give her the distractions she needed, and then she could get back on her regular course. With classes starting back up, she had a world of demands just waiting to pile themselves on top of her.
Passing by the computer desk, she forced her eyes away from it and slipped out of her clothes, tossing them in the hamper. She'd left her Two of Hearts account open for some stupid reason, and the temptation to check her inbox to see if Liam... Yeah, it was stupid.
Putting it out of her mind, she rushed to the shower. Roxy was a punctual chick. Not someone you ever willingly ran late on.
~
Jackie squeezed Roxy so tight, her eyes nearly bulged out of her head. God, she'd missed her. And she was just as beautiful as ever, long, electric-blue hair trailing down over her arms, wide-slanted eyes, overly lashed like they were kissed by the goddess of love herself. Grinning, Roxy pulled back, looking her over.
Her grin widening, she pulled the gum from her mouth and tossed it into the garbage can outside of the apartment building.
“What's his name?”
“Hmm?”
“Come on, Jackie. Do I know you, or do I know you?”
Sighing, Jackie threw her hands up.
“Alright. His name is Liam.”
Nodding in an assessing way, Roxy gestured her toward the car.
“We'll talk about it over drinks.”
Sliding into the passenger seat of Roxy's pick-up, Jackie nipped her lip in that preoccupied way she was sure would tell Roxy everything she needed to know. Her love interest was of the scandalous variation. Not at all good for her. Someone Roxy was sure to warn her away from. And that was fine. She was hoping they'd get on the subject at some point. Jackie desperately needed the voice of reason to intervene.
She'd been half out of her mind without someone to talk to about it. It wasn't the sort of thing she'd ever share with her cousins, and talking with her mom about anything that mattered was typically out of the question.
Rumbling the truck to a start, Roxy turned it onto the quiet, college street and made her way toward the lower fairway toward Dwight's. It was a total dive bar, but one that held memories for them. They knew all the regulars, and as a result, they never had to pay for drinks. It would be good to see the old crew. Most of them probably hadn't done much more than take on factory jobs since high school, but they were good people. The type that grounded you. Jackie was looking forward to seeing them.
“So this new guy-”
“Liam.”
Roxy grinned, her eyes firmly glued to the road.
“Liam. What's the story with you two?”
Drawing a breath, Jackie scrambled for where to begin. She wanted to cut right to the chase, but their story needed build up. Deserved it, really. There was a flaming foundation they'd stood on before her mother and his father had dropped their little bomb.
“He's... Someone I met on a dating site.”
“You're shitting me. Like Lela?”
“Something like that.”
“Same site?”
Jackie grinned.
“Yeah.”
“Well, you're not the only girls to get hit by Two of Hearts. They've tied a bunch of people together from what I hear.”
“Seriously?”
“Seriously.”
Turning onto the fairway, Roxy settled back in the driver's seat.
“What's he like?”
Feeling a weight in her gut, Jackie pushed past the emotions she'd been battling since she'd ran out on him at the breakfast. Pretty fucked up pattern she was creating there. She needed to just cap it at that without any repeat episodes.
“He's hot. Really hot. And established.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah, he runs Raw Ink.”
“Oh that's his shop?”
“Yeah.”
“So... what's the deal? The two of you hot and heavy, yet?”
Inhaling sharply, Jackie cracked her knuckles distractedly before lifting her eyes to stare out at the lit-up fairway through Roxy's smudged front window.
“Uh, we were. But... I was only looking for something casual, and there's the other matter.”
“What other matter?”
“He's about to be my brother in a few weeks.”
“Huh?”
Taking her eyes off of the road for the first time since they'd gotten into the truck, Roxy studied Jackie for a long second before turning back to the road.
“Did I hear you correctly?”
“You did. I didn't know that when we... spent time together, but we know now, so...”
Creasing her brow, Roxy flicked her blinker and passed over into the left turning lane.
“Rewind to the part where you said you wanted to keep it casual. When did this version of Jackie emerge?”
“It's a long story.”
“I've got all night, Baby girl.”
Liam
Clinking brews, Liam leaned back against the wall, tilting the bar stool up slightly as he took in the bar. He hadn't been to Dwight's in ages. It was one of Rico's haunts, and someplace he rarely came to after a sparring match. But he'd been able to get loose today after several days of tension, and it just felt right to follow everyone back there.
The whole experience was wholesome in a way that his current circles weren't. Most of the people who stopped in there were hard-working people letting off steam after work or snatching a bit of peace before heading home to less than happy domestic situations.
They reminded him of the kind of life he would have lived if his early, home life had been even moderately functional. If he hadn't had something to prove, he wouldn't have had enough ambition in the fuel tank to launch Raw Ink. So being here with people who represented his roots was a reminder he needed of where he'd come from.
Taking a swig of beer, he settled into that warm feeling of home he'd never really had. Funny how he still lacked
that feeling, even with tons of money and notoriety.
“Yeah, Mother-fucker? Show me something.”
Craning his ear, Liam leaned forward on his stool, setting it firmly back on the ground. He knew that voice. Shit. He knew exactly who that was. Panning the bar, he grit his jaw when his eyes fell on Corey. Little shit. Still up to the same bullshit. How many times did he have to tell him to get out of this life?
Corey wasn't like him. He didn't have even the slightest control over his taste for violence. There was so much rage pent up in him, he didn't know what to do with it. Liam had found an outlet. Corey just wanted to get it out. Setting his bottle on the bar, Liam rose up from the stool.
“Someone you know?”
Turning to meet Biz's eyes, he gave him a grim nod.
“Who's that Corey?”
Rico turned toward the direction Liam had been looking in and immediately rose up.
“Nah. This is no good. He doesn't want to start shit with the Loko MC.”
“It's alright. I got it.”
“Not by yourself you don't.”
Fire pumping through his veins, Liam hated to admit that Rico had a point. Corey was mouthing off to at least four of the bikers. Who knew how many more would join the conflict? He didn't like involving Rico in anything, though. Rico kept his nose clean, and he was too old for this kind of shit.
“Alright, but don't get too deep in it.”
“I'm coming, too,” Mike Rowdy chimed in.
Biz rose from his stool, as well, without a word.
Well, that outnumbered the fuckers Corey was about a second away from going to blows with. Making their way over to them, Liam steeled himself for the possible worst. The Loko MC were reckless bastards. The types to pull out a knife for no fucking reason. They had a tendency to create trouble where it didn't need to be.
“Everything alright over here?”
Jerking his head in Liam's direction, clearly ready to tell him off before he realized who'd addressed him, Corey's eyes widened, and in that misstep, the bald-headed biker he'd been doing the majority of the mouthing off to caught him square in the jaw.
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