Four Horsemen: A Small Town Romance (A Good Run Of Bad Luck Book 5)

by Giulia Lagomarsino

  “Think about what?” he snapped.

  “If I can make her happy.”

  “Oh, and you think she would be happy with you choosing to stay away from her? Do you think walking away is a smart idea?”

  I thought about it and he slapped me upside the head.

  “Don’t fucking think about it. You’re never going to find another woman like Christy. She loves you, despite the fact that you chose another woman over her. She’s wanted you for years, and she can cook! You’re going to be skinny as hell if you don’t start eating some real food.”

  “Are we back on the food?”

  “Hey, you threatened me with it. I have half a mind to drag you down to the cell and lock your ass up. Remember those thirty ways to apologize to a woman? Your time is coming, buddy.”

  “Fuck,” I swore. “How do I make this better?”

  He chuckled. “There is no way to make this better. You’re going to have to crawl and plead and beg, and then maybe she’ll consider taking you back. But let me tell you this, if you go for it—which you fucking better—you’d better be sure that she’s the one you want. Because if you fuck this up again, there is no getting her back. There are no more chances after this. And I’m not spending the rest of my days as deputy with a sad sack that lost his woman.”

  “Are you threatening to leave me?” I smirked.

  “No, I’m threatening to get Antonio and make sure no one ever finds your body again. Friend or no friend, I have enough health issues because of Abby without getting an ulcer on top of it all.”

  I stared at her front door, still on the last cup of coffee Carter brought me. After he left me, he returned with a fresh coffee for me, and every two hours after that. Now it was close to seven in the morning and I was desperately low on energy. No amount of coffee would keep me going at this point.

  Laying my head back against the seat, I thought of all the different things I could say to Christy. I could tell her I was falling for her, or that I was a huge jackass. Would that be enough? Would explaining my line of thinking be enough to bring her around? I couldn’t stand the thought of losing her. There was nothing I wouldn’t do for her, so I was going to have to pull out all the stops to keep her on my side.

  Her garage door opened and she started backing down the drive. I jumped out of my truck and ran behind her, but she didn’t slow down. My eyes widened in horror as I realized she was going to run me over. Jumping out of the way, I landed on my side just as she rolled past me. Getting up, I leapt on the hood of her car, holding onto the windshield wipers with everything I had.

  “Christy! Stop the fucking car.”

  “Get off, Jack!”

  “Not until you talk to me!”

  “You’re causing a scene!”

  “Just give me one minute,” I pleaded. “That’s all I want from you.”

  She turned on the windshield wipers, along with the wiper fluid. I squeezed my eyes shut, shouting as the fluid hit my face and ran down my clothes.

  “Fuck! I just want to talk to you. Be reasonable!”

  Her eyes narrowed in on me as she shifted the car into park. Her seatbelt came off next and she flung her door open. I scrambled off the hood, backing up slightly with my hands raised as she stalked toward me.

  “Now, Christy, calm down.”

  “Calm down? Be reasonable?” she spat. “You know what, Jack? I’ve had a really shitty month. I’m tired, I’m angry, and you’re standing out here pleading for me to listen to you after you fucked me on the table and then told me it was a mistake!” she shouted.

  I glanced around at the crowd that had gathered outside. Fuck, I was becoming Carter. Now the whole town would be talking about me.

  “I just wanted to explain.”

  She threw her head back in laughter. “You know, I’ve had enough of men explaining themselves. I have a job to get to. I have a life to live, and as of last night, it doesn’t include you in it. So, get the fuck out of my way, or I swear to God, I will run you over with my car. I don’t care if I go to jail! I will do anything to get away from you.”

  Swallowing hard, I nodded slightly. What other choice did I have? This definitely wasn’t helping my situation. And by now, someone had for sure uploaded this to the town page. Everyone carried around a phone, just to see if they could capture a fight of some kind for the page.

  Turning on her heel, she marched back to her car, got in, and swerved around me as she drove away, flipping me the bird as she passed. Sighing, I stared down at the ground. I really fucked that up. I heard footsteps come up behind me and then a pat on the shoulder.

  I turned and eyed Plaid Man warily. “Why is your hand on me?”

  “I just came to console you. That was brutal.”

  I stepped away from him and shook my head at him. “Why don’t you mind your own fucking business?”

  “Oh, I am. After that little display, I’d say Christy is up for grabs. I want to thank you on behalf of all the single men in town for screwing up so badly.” He winced slightly. “No pun intended.”

  He walked off, leaving me alone in all my humiliation. Stalking back to my truck, I got in and roared away. I should probably have gone home and changed, but at this point, my day was already fucked up. I was just about to march into the station when I remembered Brody.

  “Fuck!” I shouted, getting back in my truck and driving over to Josh’s house. Pulling up, I could see Brody already waiting at the window. As I stomped up the steps, Josh opened the door grinning at me, but when he saw the state I was in, his smile dropped.

  “Bad night?”

  “You could say that.”

  “Why are you all wet?”

  “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  He nodded. “So, not a good kind of wet.”

  “I fucked things up.”

  “How bad?”

  “She tried to run me over this morning.”

  He winced. “Yikes. You know, there was this one time with Carly that I almost got us killed because I didn’t know how to fight back when we were attacked.”

  “What happened?”

  “She took care of it for me.” A sly grin spread across his face. “Those were good times. She really kicked ass that day.”

  “And how does that help me here?”

  He shrugged. “I guess what I’m saying is you can get past anything. If Carly could look past the fact that she had to wear the pants in our relationship, I’m sure Christy will get past whatever happened last night.”

  “Do you think she’d look past me telling her that sleeping with her was a mistake?”

  His eyes went wide and he glanced behind him, pulling me out the front door. “You did what?” he hissed.

  “I didn’t mean it that way.”

  “It doesn’t matter how you meant it. You just fucked yourself over.”

  “I know that,” I snapped.

  “Look, I get that we haven’t been friends in a long time, but here’s my friendly advice to you.”

  I listened intently, but Brody flung the door open and rushed outside, pulling on my arm. “Let’s go, Daddy.”

  I was dragged down the steps, looking back at Josh, wondering what he was going to tell me.

  “Daddy, why are you wet?”

  I looked to the sky in irritation. Story of my life, right there. “Thanks for watching him,” I shouted, still wishing I had heard his advice.

  “Sorry it didn’t turn out better,” he said, smothering a laugh.

  Shaking my head, I walked Brody down to the truck, listening as he jabbered on about how great it was to stay at Josh’s house and how amazing Carly’s cooking was. I almost snapped at him, but he was just a kid. When I pulled up to the daycare center and walked him inside, Ellen was waiting there. I tried to walk around her, but she wasn’t having it.

  “Jack! It’s so good to see you,” she purred, rubbing her hand up and down my arm.

  I watched for Christy, but couldn’t see her anywhere. She was prob
ably hiding from me again.

  “Ms. Engleman,” I gave a slight nod.

  “Brody, why don’t you go hang up your backpack?” Ellen said to him, bending over to give me a good shot of her cleavage. I forced myself not to snap at her for being inappropriate, but almost lost my shit when she pulled him in for a hug. This woman was going to get me thrown in jail.

  I pulled Brody back and gave him a hug. I was going to have to find a way to get Ellen away from Brody. “Have a good day. I’ll see you at five.”

  “Or whenever you get here,” Ellen smirked. “I’ll be waiting.” She pushed out her lips in some sort of pouty face. I grimaced, backing up to get away from her. I wasn’t even comfortable leaving Brody here with her, but I didn’t have anyplace for him to be at the last minute. I’d handle this tonight.

  As soon as I walked through the doors of the station, I knew I was fucked. Carter was laughing hard, and I knew it was because of me.

  “Man, you should see this video,” he laughed as tears rolled down his face. His feet were kicked up on his desk as his shoulders shook. “Why did you have your hands up? You’re the one with the gun.”

  “I was trying to show her I wasn’t a threat.”

  He tossed his head back and roared. “Oh my God, this just gets better and better.” He pointed at his phone. “You know what this reminds me of?”

  “No, please tell me.”

  “This reminds me of when you had to drag me out of Chili Man’s house. Remember?”

  “Yeah,” I bit out. “I remember.”

  “Because of the whole cat hissing thing?” he continued to laugh. “Man, those were good times.”

  Walking over to my seat, I sat down and turned on my computer, ready for this day to be over. “You’re still not out of the woods with that one yet.”

  “No, you’re right, but at least I have Abby. Maybe I should take this down to Mary Anne’s for the big screen effect. I bet she’d love the customers this morning.”

  “You do that and you’ll be looking for a new job.”

  “Right, like it’s that easy to get rid of me.”

  “All I have to do is sic Chili Man on you.”

  “But you wouldn’t do that. How would you survive without me?”

  “It’s beginning to look like a better option every minute of the day,” I muttered.

  He finally sat up, looking at me seriously. “You know, when I said you needed to talk to her, I thought I made it pretty clear that you couldn’t fuck it up.”

  “She tried to run me over,” I argued.

  “Oh, I know. I saw the video. Multiple times,” he added. “Just to be clear, that’s not not fucking it up.”

  “Don’t you think I know that?” I spat.

  “No, I don’t think you do,” he said as if I was stupid. “Because if you thought that was not fucking it up, you need a lesson or two in how to apologize to a woman.”

  “She tried to run me over,” I repeated.

  “Yes,” he nodded. “And when a woman is that mad, you turn and walk away. You never engage. That’s like waving a red flag at a bull.”

  “I was desperate,” I shouted. “I needed her to listen.”

  “Yeah, but not in front of the whole fucking neighborhood. Hell, even Plaid Man saw that. Did you know he lives next to her?”

  “No, what the fuck does that matter?”

  “Because I see him walking over to her house with a bottle of wine and that sexy plaid shirt. Trust me, it almost worked on Abby. It could happen to Christy, and then where will you be?”

  I rubbed at my eyes, swearing under my breath. “I’ll fix it.”

  “You’d better. Otherwise you’re going to have to watch as she marries Plaid Man. They’ll probably have a plaid wedding and all the guests will have to wear plaid.” He leaned forward in his seat. “I’m not fucking wearing plaid. Fix this.”

  24

  Christy

  My day was going terribly. I spilled coffee on myself as I drove away from Jack this morning. I couldn’t believe that he embarrassed me like that. I didn’t know what had gotten into him, but that was absolute insanity. The whole neighborhood was staring at us. And I knew I played my part, but he turned me into this crazy person.

  He slept outside my house! All because a rock was thrown through my window. I wasn’t even worried about it. Like Carter said, it was probably kids messing around. No, what kept me up all night was the horrifying realization that I had handed myself over to Jack and he did exactly what I thought he would. He discarded me like garbage.

  Sitting at my desk as the kids took a nap, I leaned into my hands and wondered how I could be so stupid. I told myself not to give into him, yet I did that anyway. And look where that got me.

  I picked up my desk phone as it rang. “This is Christy.”

  “I saw the Facebook footage,” my mother whispered, like she was trying to stay quiet so she wouldn’t be overheard. “Now, that’s nothing you can’t come back from. I’m sure Jack will still take you back. We just need to do some damage control.”

  “Who says I want to take Jack back?” I hissed, looking around to make sure I wasn’t overheard.

  “Honey, you said you loved Jack.”

  “Not after last night. I think he cured me of any lovesickness I had.”

  “What happened?”

  “You don’t want to know,” I snapped.

  She sighed heavily. “Honey, the word around town is that someone tried to break into your house last night and Jack came running over.”

  “Nobody tried to break into my house.”

  “Then what happened?”

  “You really don’t want to know. Trust me, it’s not a story a daughter tells her mother.”

  “Oh,” she said, as if she caught on to the gist of things. “Well…”

  “Mom, trust me, Jack doesn’t come out as the hero in this story.”

  “There are two sides to every story and—”

  “Oh my God! Will there ever be a time when you side with me over him? Jack isn’t the perfect man you and Dad seem to think he is.”

  “I’m not saying he is, but honey, remember that no one’s perfect. Now, that doesn’t excuse whatever happened, but you should at least hear him out.”

  “And why should I do that?”

  “Because he was once your best friend. Now, think about whatever happened, and then ask yourself if whatever happened last night is the Jack you knew.”

  She had a point, unfortunately. Jack would never hurt me like that, not in a million years. So, as much as I didn’t want to take her advice, I couldn’t ignore what she was saying.

  “Fine, I’m not saying it’ll be right away, but when I’m ready, I’ll hear him out.”

  “That’s all I ask.”

  “I have to get back to work, Mom.”

  “Okay, honey. Have a good rest of your day. And try not to run anyone over. Remember, someone always has their phone on in this town.”

  I rolled my eyes and hung up with her. I just had to get through the rest of the day. My problems with Jack could wait.

  I finished cleaning up my area, glad that Ellen was Brody’s teacher and I didn’t have to spend all day with him. I could seriously fall in love with that kid, which would only make it harder with his dad. I looked over my shoulder and waved to Ellen, getting a cheery wave in return. Slinging my purse over my shoulder, I almost got to leave when I heard the director call out to me.

  “Yeah?”

  “There’s a phone call for you.”

  Sighing, I walked over to the phone. “Hello?”

  “Christy,” Jack’s voice rumbled over the phone. “Please don’t hang up.”

  “Jack, if this is about last night, this really isn’t the appropriate time to—”

  “It’s not,” he interrupted. “I need you to do me a favor.”

  I scoffed at him. “Wow, I can’t believe you’re calling me and asking me to help you out.”

  “I wouldn’t ask if it
wasn’t important.”

  “Jack, I’m leaving right now. I’m going home.”

  “Perfect,” he said a little too quickly. “Can you take Brody home with you?”

  “Why would I do that?”

  “Because I’m running late.”

  “Ellen doesn’t mind staying,” I said in a tone that was just a little too bitchy.

  He sighed heavily. “You’ve seen how Ellen is. She’s been putting ideas in Brody’s head, making him think that something’s going to happen between us. And this morning she was…I don’t want him staying with her.”

  “Then why don’t you tell her to stop?” I didn’t want to be inserted into his problems.

  “I’ve told her as much, but she’s not getting it. I was planning on talking to the director about it tonight, but I got held up.”

  Glancing over my shoulder, I watched as Ellen sat in her tight dress and colored with Brody, even though she still had other kids in her section.

  “Look, I know I don’t have any right to ask you for help, but I really need you to do this for me. Please, just take him back to your place. I’ll swing by the daycare on the way and talk with the director, and then I’ll pick up Brody.”

  “I’m not on the release form, Jack.”

  “I’ll call the school and make sure they know it’s okay for you to take him home. Then I’ll add you to the forms.”

  “You can’t just add me, Jack. I didn’t agree to that.”

  “Alright, I won’t add you. Just…please take him home with you.” I chewed on my lip, trying to decide how to get out of this. “I’m waiting on the results from the lab. They said they would send them over this afternoon. As soon as we get this, we can file a restraining order against your ex with proof that he’s been in your house.”

  Damnit, he was doing this for me. And as much as I hated him right now, he was trying to help me keep Thomas off my back. Now I couldn’t say no to him. Still, I didn’t want him to think this would be a regular thing, or that I had forgiven him.

  “This is a one time thing, Jack. I’m not his parent.”

  “I know that, but it’s not like I have a lot of help around here. My parents don’t live in town anymore, and all of my friends have their own kids, aside from Carter. And he works with me. Believe me, I know I’m asking a lot, but I can’t leave him with Ellen. She’s putting ideas in his head and I can’t have that.”