Feeling a little guilty that earlier he’d been so ready to slam her with all the obnoxiousness he had in him, Nine smiled, shaking his head. “We’re cool. Your assessment of me isn’t so off, but you’re not right about everything.”
He left it at that, and she didn’t ask him to elaborate. He watched as she got back in the truck and drove off; then he turned to walk into the taco place. After ordering a couple of tacos, he’d only just begun to ponder the night he’d had. But it was fleeting because thoughts of Drew were quickly drowned out when he got the call from O, who updated him on Beast.
Chapter 3
Nine
Not only had the entire assault on Ali been caught on video, the video going viral helped Beast beat the charges. As bad as things had seemed for a minute there, all things considered, it was what Nine’s moms called a blessing in disguise. The attempted rape and Beast’s reaction to it, had played out in front of the entire world. With the video going viral, the whole world was weighing in on the situation. Even television talk shows. Most people agreed they would’ve done the same thing and that the world was better off without the piece of shit Beast killed, who had long rap sheets for each of the several fake identities he’d used over the course of his life.
After all was said and done, with the help of the heavy-hitting 5th Street attorneys, it was quickly ruled Beast had only acted in defense of his girlfriend, and all charges were dropped. He signed a boxing deal, and taking advantage of the hype, his publicist insisted he book his first fight immediately. Beast had been hesitant, but his publicist obviously knew what he was doing because the fight sold out within minutes. With everyone seeing what he could do with his lethal fists on that video, it seemed the whole world tuned into the pay-per-view amateur fight. They called it unprecedented, and it was the first of its kind. Before he was even out of the ring from his first fight, he was offered an obscene amount of money for his next fight.
In a matter of what felt like a blink of an eye, Ali nearly getting raped changed, not just Beast’s life but, Nine’s and Orlando’s as well. Now here they were, just a few short months after that chaos started, ready to sign papers for the purchase of their very own auto shop. Things couldn’t have worked out more perfectly. For years, Nine and his roommates had been talking about saving their money to do this, and it was really happening now.
Another thing that worked out was that, while Beast had contributed the bulk of the financing to purchase the shop, with his boxing career being on fire, Nine and O would be running the business on their own until Beast retired from boxing.
According to Beast, he didn’t plan on being in it for more than maybe a few years tops. So with him not being around full time for the first few years as they got the business off the ground—which were always the hardest in any business—Beast insisted they’d all be equal partners.
Even better, the shop they were purchasing had a two-room apartment just above it. Beast’s girl was knocked up now, and he’d purchased a home for him and his new family. So Nine and O would be living in the apartment above the shop, rent free. Life couldn’t be better.
Nine stood there staring at the fish in the huge fish tank in the realtor’s office. Each time they’d been here he’d been intrigued with it. Already, Nine had decided, when he had a place big enough for one, he was getting one.
The same blue-and-black-striped fish he’d noticed bullying one particular fish the first time he’d been here, was at it again. The fish it was chasing around and harassing seemed scared out of its mind, almost to the point where it seemed zoned out. It would swim in place in the corner of the tank and just stare straight ahead in a sort of trance. The striped fish came around again and nipped it, making the scared fish nearly jump out of the water.
Nine remembered seeing the receptionist open the door below the tank the last time they were there and pull out food and some other stuff. Seeing the bully come around again pissed him off. He glanced around the waiting room. Beast was on the phone, with his pregnant girl no doubt, and O was reading a magazine. They were the only ones there, and the receptionist had stepped away.
Nine opened the door and immediately saw the net. The handle was long enough for what he had in mind, and he grabbed it. Lifting the top of the tank open, he reached in, just as the striped fish started toward the petrified one. Nine tapped him on the side, making the fish dart away in the opposite direction. “Take that, you little fucker!” he muttered under his breath.
As he proceeded to chase the striped fish around the tank to see how he liked it, the splashing got a little louder. “What are you doing?” Beast hissed as he approached.
“Giving this little shit a taste of his own medicine. He has that other one over there all zonked out he’s so scared.”
He poked the fish again, making another loud splash. “Stop it,” Beast urged a little louder and glanced around, but Nine had the asshole fish cornered. So he poked him again, knocking over the decorative castle it hid behind in the process. “Give me that.” Beast reached for the net in Nine’s hand and snatched it. “Swear to God, can’t take your ass anywhere.”
“He’s a fucking bully,” Nine argued as Beast put the net back under the tank and closed the door.
“He’s a fucking fish,” Beast shot back with a scowl. “Now can you just sit down and try to act like a grown-up for once?”
They walked back to where Beast had been sitting near O, who was smirking. Tugging at that stupid beanie he was always wearing, O laughed outright as they got closer. “You showed that fish?”
“Shut up,” Nine muttered, taking a seat across from Beast.
Annoyingly, Beast’s grown-up remark brought back memories of someone he hadn’t thought of in months. After their night in the backseat of Drew’s car, Nine and Drew had stayed in touch for just a bit. Just as she’d said, their only communication had been regarding Ali and Beast. Once that mess was over, any correspondence between them had ceased.
Nine wasn’t even sure why, but he’d given into the curiosity of knowing what she was up to and sent her irrelevant shit a couple of times. This was after there was any need for them to stay in touch regarding anything to do with Beast’s ordeal.
Both times she’d kept her responses short, making it obvious she wasn’t interested in staying connected with him in any other way. But as the time passed, her comments from that night and insinuations that while she may’ve been into guys like him at one point in her life, until she grew up, had begun to grate at him. Yet, all this time he’d refused to ask Ali anything about her.
As he did every time he thought about it, he shook it off. She was just a chick—a white chick with a kid and a man and an ex she admitted to still being very amicable with. Fuck that shit. He didn’t need to complicate his now near-perfect life with all that.
“Hey, guys.” Sammy, their realtor opened the door to his office. “Sorry to keep you waiting. That last call went on a little longer than expected. Come on in and we can get this deal locked up.”
They went into a conference room where they all sat across from Sammy as he explained every document all three had to take turns signing. It’d been Nine’s job to look into and set up their LLC for their new business. Sammy said he was very impressed with how it’d been set up.
“Always smart to have an LLC. This way, in case you ever get into any financial problems or anyone tries to sue you—especially you . . .” He pointed at Beast. “You’d have the biggest target on your back in this case. They can go after the LLC, so your personal savings, credit, and record can’t be touched. Good move.”
Nine smiled then smirked at Beast. How’s that for acting like a grown-up? Of course, Beast gave him his typical bored and unimpressed look, but Nine caught the flicker of humor in his eyes.
They were there for what felt like forever. It was ridiculous the amount of docs that needed to be signed and filed. Once done, they couldn’t pass up the chance of stopping by to check out one more time the empty build
ing that would soon be theirs. Since the first time they’d seen the place and almost immediately agreed it was perfect, they’d gone back several times. Now it felt even more like theirs. Nine could already picture his furnished room, but more than anything, he was excited about the state-of-the-art equipment the shop came with.
Beast spared no expense. When they talked about their dream of opening up a shop in the past, they were realistic about the fact that they’d likely have to start off small. Wait and save to be able to buy higher quality more modern equipment.
With the exception of this not being a franchise shop, because none of them wanted to have to answer to any higher-ups, the place was tits up. It was right up there with all the big name auto shop chains. Nine could hardly believe he’d soon be part owner of the place.
Walking through the place, he was almost giddy. For a moment, he entertained the idea of throwing a celebratory party right there at the shop. They could do it the moment they were officially handed the keys and title, but before it was furnished—well, except for their beds—so they could get as wild as they wanted.
That only brought back thoughts of acting and thinking like a grown-up. Throwing a wild party at their place of business before they’d even made a cent, but most importantly run the risk of lawsuits especially when people caught wind of who one of the now famous owners was, wasn’t smart.
Again these thoughts wouldn’t even be crossing his mind if it weren’t for all of Ms. Until I Grew Up’s comments, and it was really getting annoying.
“He said the title records Monday, right?” O asked as they strolled around the shop.
“Yeah, Monday it’s a done deal.” Beast said, inspecting the hydraulics machinery.
“Good, the appointments for the gas, internet, alarm, and cable are all set for this week. I made them way back because those are usually the ones that take the longest.” O turned back to them from where he stood at the bottom of the stairs. “Any idea when we’d like to get this place up and running? Once all the utilities are on and we have enough trained staff, we’re pretty much good to go.”
“Coming Soon sign’s been up for weeks,” Beast reminded them, still looking at the machinery up close. “Aside from you two, we got three seasoned mechanics already on the payroll just waiting to hear when they start. But it’s up to you two. You’ll be calling all the shots for now.”
“I’m thinking we should have everything good to go,” O paused, turning to Nine. “Whatta ya say in a week?”
“I think we can handle that,” Nine said, feeling excited just thinking about it.
O explained how everything else they needed would be delivered that coming week and how he’d already set up the help-wanted ads online for any additional help they might need.
Nine pulled out his phone. “Does the tenth work for everyone? It’s next Saturday. We can plan a grand opening, with free oil changes for, say, the first ten or twenty customers.”
The adrenaline rush was building the more they talked about all the details of getting the place going. Beast’s younger brother, Byron, was already in as another one of their first employees, and he said he had reliable friends he could recommend.
“Oh wait,” Beast said with a wince. He pulled out his phone, tapping the screen a few times, then nodded with a frown. “Nah, we’re good. But whatever you do, keep the sixteenth of next month open. So make sure you have enough coverage by then. That’s the day of the double baby shower for Ali and Lila. Ali already asked me to make sure the baby’s two other uncles would be there.”
The Rocky theme music, which had only begun to get louder in Nine’s head, suddenly warped. O and Beast began throwing out a few more things that should be done before the opening, but all Nine was still stuck on was the double baby shower. He’d finally been distracted enough to stop thinking about the whole grown-up shit. But if he was being honest with himself, ever since this whole shop thing started coming together so quickly, Drew had slipped into his mind more and more often. But only because of that now infamous conversation.
He’d since pondered everything she’d said about being more responsible and about relationships and life choices in general—more times than he cared to admit. Nine may not have a kid or anything, but he was no spring chicken. He’d be hitting the big three-O soon. It didn’t mean he needed to start locking things down and starting a family or anything crazy like that, but it was high time he started taking his future more seriously. Talk of something this huge—his own business—inevitably had him wondering what Drew thought about it since he was sure Ali must’ve mentioned it to her.
Did that change her impression of him? Instantly, that had him frowning. The girl didn’t even have to say it in so many words. It was totally obvious. Anything between a girl like her and a guy like him would be ridiculous, even if she was single. They had zero in common. And in Drew’s case, not only was she not single, she had a kid. Nine had never even been in a serious relationship with a single chick much less one with all this baggage . . . Shaking his head, he shook the thoughts away as well.
Even if he did run into her at this shower, she’d likely be with her grown-up man. No sense in trying to overthink what, if anything, he might say to her if he got the chance to talk to her again. More than likely, he wouldn’t even get the chance.
Drew
The wedding was beautiful. As cliché as it sounded, the bride, Phoenix’s sister, really did appear to be glowing. Everything had gone without a hitch. Chelsea had been the perfect little flower girl. Bringing Brad around Phoenix for the first time had worked out as well. Though Drew never had any doubts. Brad was a charmer. Of course, he’d blown Phoenix away with his wit and perfect responses to everything Phoenix threw at him.
“So does the idea of having an insta-family panic you?” Phoenix asked Brad, and Drew refrained from rolling her eyes.
As expected, Brad responded without a hitch. “Not at all.” He turned to Drew with a big smile. “As I told Drew when she first told me she was a single mom, I love kids and Chelsea’s an absolute dream. You know I’d hoped to have at least one child of my own by this time in my life, but career and life just got in the way, and I just hadn’t had much time for a social life. So this is actually perfect.”
“You’re a planner?” Phoenix nodded in approval. “I like that. You know Dani mocks me, but I started looking into the schools in the area that concentrate in the performing arts years ago. Chelsea’s got some natural talent, and I wanna make sure we encourage it so she can make the most of her potential.”
This time rolling her eyes just couldn’t be helped. Fortunately, Brad and Phoenix were too into the conversation to notice. So far tap had been the first of the many extracurricular activities Phoenix had signed Chelsea up for that she actually liked. But she was two weeks into her first tap class ever. All she really liked about it was the noise her little tap shoes made. Just because she insisted on wearing them every day so she could tap around the house and quite frankly drive Drew crazy, did not a prodigy make her. And Drew hated to break it to Phoenix, but tap dancing wasn’t exactly sweeping the nation. But whatever.
Of course, the first chance Phoenix had alone with Drew he was ready with his full assessment of Brad. “I was worried for nothing.” He took the seat next to her. “He’s great—so far,” he added with an air of caution. “I mean he seems mature and responsible, unlike the usual guys you fall for. But most importantly, he seems truly into you.” He stopped to smile and take her in. “You see. I knew you’d find someone good enough for you eventually.”
“For me?” She lifted a brow. “Or for Chelsea?”
“Don’t say that.” Phoenix sounded genuinely hurt. “You know I care just as much for your well-being as I do for Chelsea’s. I love you, Dani. I just want the best for you, and hearing about some of those assholes you’ve dated these past few years really worried me. This guy seems like the real deal. I have a good feeling about him. Don’t you?”
Drew nodded as
she glanced across the beach to where Brad stood chatting with some guy he’d obviously just met at the bar as he waited for his drink. The guy laughed loudly suddenly at what she assumed was one of Brad’s perfectly timed punch lines.
“Yeah, he’s a good guy.” She smiled, remembering his gentleness and patience with Chelsea. “I’m glad you approve.”
Of course, her mother had had the same reaction to Brad. The last time Drew had flown any guy out to meet her mother in Maryland before Brad, had been Phoenix. Her mom and her bullshit mother’s intuition had immediately declared Phoenix the one back then too. Now she’d said the same thing about Brad. But at least with Brad, Drew knew the man was as hetero as they came.
He was pretty damn perfect, and Drew was proud of herself for giving the “nice guy” a shot for once. After years of searching for the perfect guy, for the guy who’d make her heart do flips like some of the guys she’d dated in the past who’d turned out to be nothing but players, she’d given up and decided when the right guy came along she’d know. Heart flips or not, if Brad had everything else she was looking for in a man, she was doing the right thing by Chelsea
Since she and Phoenix had really been the best of friends before anything happened between them, and because they now shared custody of the most precious thing in either of their lives, they’d remained more than cordial. He’d been there throughout her pregnancy as promised and was now as hands-on as any dad could be. They also worked together, so staying close was almost a necessity. Because of all this, Drew had kept him in the loop about her dating disasters. He really was a good friend and someone she could count on to listen intently to all her vents. Unfortunately, in her quest to find the one who could make her melt, she’d blown through so many assholes, cheaters, and downright deadbeat losers, Phoenix had begun to call her a douche magnet.