by Frost, Sosie
But, with everyone so focused on me, no one saw how badly Quint hurt.
Honey quieted, but she didn’t run screaming from the garage. Figured that was a win. She kept her voice low, pointing toward Spencer.
“And that’s why you’re helping him,” she said.
As if it were amazing someone like me could think of somebody else. Especially Spencer. Especially a kid so like myself I swore I was looking back in time to re-watch every mistake I’d ever made.
I met her gaze and instantly regretted it. She wasn’t scared. Wasn’t angry. Wasn’t even intimidated.
Honey simply wanted to help. What the hell was wrong with her?
“You know what happens when a bad boy grows up, when he becomes a bad man?” I asked. “It’s not so cute anymore. Much more dangerous. Once everyone stops trying to help, once they realize how toxic that man truly is, they move the fuck on. Then one day that man wakes up only to realize his whole life has passed him by, and all those memories he has of the drugs and drink and fun start looking an awful lot like regrets.”
“Do you regret your past?”
Hard not to, but what good did it do? “When everyone thinks you’re a pile of shit, eventually you start believing them.”
And yet, Honey confused misery for opportunity. “So…change.”
That was the stupidest goddamned thing anyone had ever said to me, and she delivered it with a smile. Like changing wasn’t something I’d hoped for every day of my life. But how the hell could I explain it to her? She’d never needed to escape her problems with a shot of whiskey, a joint, or that damned prick of a needle.
She made it sound so easy.
“Change into what?” I asked.
She bit her lip. “Prince Charming?”
“Pass.”
She didn’t let me escape under the truck. She grabbed the dolly, pinning it in place. “What if you could be a better man?”
“Why would I want to do that?”
“To find the real Tidus Payne.”
I laughed. “Christ, I don’t even like that guy. He’s a bastard. Nothing ever pleases him.”
And a girl like Honey would take that as a challenge. “Then why don’t you do it for somebody important?”
And there was the catch. If someone was that important to me, I’d be a fool to let them get anywhere close.
I glanced over the garage. Spencer was a troublemaker, but he was one hell of a worker. Three of the tires shone in the light—spotless, scraped, chiseled, and scrubbed of every last bit of mud and dirt.
The kid stayed out of trouble while he had something to do. But how long could that last?
We could do right while somebody watched us, standing over our shoulders, ensuring we stayed clean, polite, and functional. But once we were left to our own thoughts, doubts, and memories?
Not a lot of men had the strength to withstand that darkness.
It wasn’t just addiction poisoning my veins. It was blood. Secrets. A truth that never should have come to light. It’d almost ruined my mother. Wasn’t gonna let it ruin my brothers and sister, no matter how much it killed me.
“You talk a lot for someone getting her truck fixed for free,” I said. “I got a couple ideas for you to start paying off that debt.”
Honey rolled her eyes. “Let me guess. You take me. Ravish me. Deliver me to the heights of pleasure. And then what?”
“Well, I can’t have a cigarette or Cassi would kill me.” I studied her, admiring Honey’s perfect curves, molasses skin, and the damned smile that needed kissed off her face. “I guess I’ll just have to take you again.”
“Are you ever satisfied?”
“Who’d refuse a good time?”
She turned serious, crossing her arms. “Maybe a man like you needs more than a good time. Maybe he needs a meaningful time. Something romantic. Important. Cathartic.”
“Are you offering?”
“In your dreams.”
I held my arms out. “You can make them come true.”
“No way. I know the thoughts running through that head of yours. They’re awfully dirty.”
I grabbed her hand, amused by how she wrinkled her nose as a thin layer of grease soiled her skin.
“You have no idea how dirty I am,” I said. “I’ll whisper it in your ear. It’ll be our little secret.”
Honey smirked. “And what will you tell me?”
“All the terrible things I’d do to you.”
I expected her to shirk away, but her eyes widened. Enjoying the game. “Go ahead then, Tidus. Enlighten me. Tell me how you want to bend me over, rock my world.”
She was too innocent to corrupt, and I was too impatient to fuck around. I tugged her closer, letting my lips graze over her ear.
“If I could do anything, I’d take you in my arms.”
She hummed. “Doesn’t sound so naughty.”
“And I’d carry you to the door.”
She bit her lip. “You wouldn’t take me in the garage?”
I wasn’t an animal. “No, I got better plans for you.”
I nipped her earlobe to earn her squeal, then gently licked the sting away. Honey’s shudder rolled through me, and she nearly collapsed in my arms.
“I’d carry you to that door…” My voice lowered. “Hold you tight against me…”
“Yeah?”
“…And then I’d drop your ass on the curb and lock the door behind me.”
Her mouth dropped open. There was the shock I wanted. A perfect “O” face.
She pushed me away. “That’s not very sexy.”
Wasn’t supposed to be. I turned my attention back to the truck, snorting hard to clear the lovely scent of her from my lungs.
“You want to learn all about me?” I laughed. “Fine. But I’ve already figured you out.”
“Really?” Honey dared me with an arch of her eyebrows. “What did you learn?”
I grinned. “I realized that seducing you isn’t worth my time.”
“What?”
“Look, I can either chase you around town or fix the damned truck. But I’m gonna need a lot more incentive to do both than just the grease under my fingernails.”
Honey bristled. “If you think I’m gonna let you anywhere near my tailpipe…”
I was a man who like to barter, but this woman was already on my last nerve. “Hell, you won’t even give me a crack under the hood.”
“I’m gonna need a lot more than a couple insults to rev my engine.”
“Why? You already run hot under the top.”
She spoke through gritted teeth, standing only to kick my repaired dolly. I rolled across the garage with a laugh. That pissed her off more.
Good.
She stiffened. “I’m putting on the brakes before you check any of my fluids...”
“Don’t have to. I already know I won’t need any lube.”
She snarled. “You’re dirtier than the engine.”
“Wait to you see the size of my lug nuts.”
“Not interested. That truck isn’t the only thing you’ll be jacking tonight.”
Spencer had long abandoned his punishment. He entertained himself by studying the pin-up calendar on my office wall. He lowered Miss March and glanced over to us.
“Are you guys talking about sex?” he asked.
Honey covered her face.
I scowled. “Shut it, Spence. You’re not supposed to know about that.”
The boy rolled his eyes. “I’m eleven. Not dumb.”
“No, you are trouble.” I pointed at Honey. “And you’re a pain in the ass. This is been fun and all, but my time is as precious as my pride. I don’t say this to a lot of women, but you are not worth the chase.”
“You are such an ass.”
“Then we know where we stand, don’t we?” I laughed, returning to her truck. “I’m done. You’ve toyed with my heart for the last time.”
Honey practically sputtered. “I haven’t toyed with you at all.”
<
br /> “And that’s the problem.”
“I can’t believe you’re this much of a bastard.”
No one could. But I loved that indignation. Love seeing her get worked up, angry, absolutely beside herself with insult.
Something told me no one ever really challenged Honey Hudson.
“You know what I like about you, good girl?” I asked. “You loved all that flirting and propositioning and dirty talk, but you only really got mad when I decided not to fuck you.”
Honey gnawed on her lip until I envied her teeth. She turned, attempting to storm away, then flipped back just to get in my face.
This kitten had never intimidated anyone in her life. She sure as hell wasn’t starting now.
“You know what you are?” She tapped her index finger on my chest. “You are gristle.”
I’d been called a lot of things. Never that. “I’m what?”
“Gristle.” She spat the word. “You are that tough, chewy, un-digestible bit of meat that gets stuck between molars.”
I can live with that. “USDA prime, baby.”
“And the worst part about it, is that you like it. You like insulting people. Irritating them. Seducing them. And then you get off by not seducing them. By thinking you’re better than everyone else.”
“A man’s gotta get his kicks somewhere.”
“Well, don’t you dare kick me. I’ve been nothing but kind to you. Trying to talk to you. To figure you out.”
I smiled. “And what did you learn?”
“That there’s a reason why I’m the only person who’s ever tried to get to know you.”
Honey grabbed her purse and stormed from the garage, slamming the door behind her.
Spencer had stolen my office chair. He rolled over towards me once the coast was clear.
“Jeeze…” He whistled. “Are women always that angry?”
I ran a hand through my hair. “Around guys like us? Yeah.”
“What did you do to piss her off?” he asked.
“Watch your mouth.” Another life lesson. “I should’ve watched mine.”
“Why?”
“Because we gotta be nice to girls like Honey.”
Spencer frowned. “Because they’re hot?”
“Because she’s better than hot.”
The boy laughed. “What could be better than hot?”
The very reason it was wrong for me to chase her.
Because Honey Hudson was absolutely perfect.
5
Honey
Sometimes, a girl had to make her own luck.
Other times, a girl just needed to make some brisket.
So, that’s what I did. Twenty pounds of it, in fact.
But I wasn’t done there. I’d learned a lot about life in the last week, and I wasn’t taking any more chances. That’s why I smoked fifteen racks of ribs too. Then, just to give myself an edge, I fired up the stove and stirred up seven pounds of mac and cheese, chopped three heads of cabbage for coleslaw, and filled a pot to the brim with collard greens.
Sure, I was stranded without a drivable truck, but I didn’t need a functioning engine to start cooking. No sense sitting around waiting for a miracle when I could spend two hundred and fifty dollars on a Hail Mary supermarket trip for all the ingredients to make one hell of a barbeque lunch.
Like Daddy always said—the meat don’t smoke itself. The sooner I made some food, the sooner I’d recoup the money.
And the quicker I’d be on the road, joining the barbeque circuit…
And rid of Tidus Payne.
If frustration had a physical form, it was buried somewhere under Tidus’s vulgar tattoos and thick muscles. He was insulting to the core, had absolutely no redeeming qualities, and got off being cruel and heartless.
But I’d never wanted anyone so much in my whole life.
Tidus toyed with me—an endless tease that promised me every pleasure if I surrendered my pride and admitted that he was right. Not just about my inhibitions and inexperience, but about the things that mattered most. He deliberately poked, prodded, and pushed just to destroy my confidence.
He knew I doubted Daddy’s barbecue sauce. Yes, his was good, but my recipe was better. And it was a secret I’d take to my grave…provided Tidus didn’t reveal it first.
But I had no complaints from my customers—ten very satisfied customers.
Daddy’s recipe might not have won Finger Lickin’ First Prize, but it’d always pleased a church crowd on a warm spring day. Butterpond was no different. The wind wafted the smoke towards the church, and my converted ice cream truck supplied the tinny music. Within minutes, word had spread throughout town of a cute little barbeque popup stationed outside of Payne Autobody and Repair.
Maybe barbeque didn’t make a lot of money, but it sure as hell boosted a girl’s confidence.
A line formed outside my truck. Not a bad haul for no advertising and a spur-of-the-moment lunch special.
Sure, I hadn’t technically asked the garage owner if I could operate my food truck on his property, but at least I had a valid excuse.
Tidus had gone missing all weekend.
According to the locals, he often took off for days at a time. Weekends especially, the best days for benders, mistakes, and bail. That didn’t bode well for my struggling business. While the after-church crowd ravenously devoured my food, I needed my mechanic present, sober, and unhandcuffed to put me back on the road.
But Tidus was nowhere to be found. And the man stumbling from the apartment above the garage probably didn’t remember his own name, let alone the location of his brother.
I’d met Quint yesterday…but he’d been pretty drunk, crashing through the garage in an advanced state of undress with an equally intoxicated lady friend. He’d dropped his pack of condoms on the stairs and, while he was gracious that I’d retrieved them for him, I thought better of formal introductions until the alcohol had worn off and the clothes went back on.
Quint did a good job sneaking his date down the stairs and through a growing crowd of churchgoers. The woman escaped out a side exit, and he returned to admire the picnic tables, balloons, and streamers I’d used to decorate the garage’s gravel, weed-eaten parking lot.
“He’ll kill you when he sees this.” Quint squinted at me. “…Who are you?”
Drunk Quint had seemed a rather easy-going fellow, but sober Quint was just as pleasant. Cute, with close cropped hair, a t-shirt that clung to his pecs and abs, and a grin that dazzled with dimples. His date however…wasn’t his type. Too much makeup at night, not nearly enough in the morning. He wasted his charisma on a girl who wouldn’t bother putting his name in her phone.
I extended my hand. “Honey Hudson. We met yesterday.”
He blinked, stared at the truck through his hangover, then shook my hand. “Oh. You’re the condom delivery girl!”
Always good to have a Plan B if the cooking gig fell through. “I’m actually the owner of that food truck. Tidus is doing my repairs.”
“Holy shit—is that barbeque?”
“Homemade and home-smoked.”
“For real?”
“I’m at your service.”
His eyes were the color of fun—mischief, mayhem, and pure masculinity. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”
“Don’t get cocky when you’re still drunk.”
I led him to my truck and handed him a bottle of water. He accepted it with an ungodly amount of gratitude, but something told me a hangover that severe needed a bit more to cushion the headache. Maybe I didn’t party as hard as him, but long nights serving barbeque required a fully stocked medicine cabinet. Aspirin was a necessity, and a good antacid was worth its weight in gold. I offered him both.
“Bless you,” he said, guzzling the water before downing a palmful of pain-killers.
The drink perked him up, but not enough. His hands trembled, and his face went pale.
What had that woman done to him?
“You okay?” I ask
ed.
“I’m fine. Blood sugar is out of whack. Nothing new.” He glanced longingly over my menu. “What I really need is a little breakfast…”
I checked my watch. “Try lunch, lover boy. What’s your poison?”
“Anything.”
A fresh batch of meat waited for me in the smoker. “Do you like ribs?”
“Marry me.”
I’d heard it all before. “Just wait until you taste them. You’ll add a caret to my engagement ring.”
Quint watched me work, practically salivating over my truck’s ordering window. “That’s it. Next time I go out, I’m coming home with a woman who can cook.”
I loaded a paper plate with ribs, smothered it with coleslaw, and tossed a hunk of cornbread on top. The man seemed hungry, so I added a good helping of mac and cheese as well.
“On the house,” I said, passing him the plate.
Quint snickered. “You mean, Tidus will cover it.”
I patted the wall of my truck. “After what these repairs will cost, he’ll forgive the lunch.”
“What’d he say?”
“Two thousand dollars.”
Quint nearly dropped the plate. “How the hell did you do two thousand dollars in damages?”
What hadn’t I done?
“Everything. The engine is toast, the body rusted, the tires rotten. And Tidus thinks the previous owner hid some damages from an old accident.”
“What did it hit—a goddamned brick wall?”
“Apparently a person.”
Quint thought I was joking. He had a sweet smile, one that would have no problem attracting any woman he wanted. Why he chose the floozy from the club was a mystery.
And a shame.
“I’ll be paying this debt a long time,” I said.
Quint snorted. “Pretty sure he’d do you a favor if you play your cards right.”
“I know.”
“And by cards, I mean strip poker.”
“…I know.”
“And by poker…I mean stripping.”
I rolled my eyes. “I get the idea. But my food will make plenty of money. Got brisket, pulled pork, collard greens. Everything homemade.”
Quint obliged me with a bite of the mac and cheese and immediately professed his undying love.