Mom came out of the kitchen holding a big serving platter, atop which sat a huge, steaming hunk of roast beef.
“That smells amazing,” Jinx said, breathing in deeply.
Dallas grabbed a fork. “You really outdid yourself, Ma.”
I just smiled. I didn’t know what else to say.
“Well, it’s not every day that my little girl moves out on her own,” Mom and gestured over to me. “Or that my little boy finally gets his head out of his ass and finds himself a nice girl.”
And there she was. I wondered when my mom would stop acting like Martha Stewart.
“How come I didn’t get a dinner when I moved out?” asked Derek. He was the next youngest to Delaney, though he was still older than her by eight years. Mom had a couple miscarriages after him, so we’d all assumed he would be the last born. And then came Delaney, the miracle baby.
“Well, maybe if you’d picked up after yourself once or twice when you lived here, I would have been a little sadder to see you go,” Mom snapped back.
Everybody laughed, including Jinx. And it looked genuine.
“You’re quiet,” Jinx whispered as my mom started to cut into the beef.
I snorted. “I’m the quiet one.”
She raised a quizzical brow. “You’re never the quiet one.”
“He is in this house,” Dallas countered. “He may be older than me, but he let me talk for him most of the time, and then when Derek was born, no one could get a word in edgewise ‘til Delaney took over.”
“It was self-preservation,” I muttered.
“You’ve just got to speak louder,” Delaney said. “That’s how the rest of us do it.”
Dallas nodded from the far end of the table. “Or do what Derek does and just start throwing shit if you’re not being heard.”
Dallas balled up his napkin in his hand, ready to throw it across the table, but he quickly smoothed it out again when Mom gave him a sharp glance. I watched the exchange with amusement. I loved my family, and I loved that they’d simply accepted Jinx into the mix. She seemed to be enjoying herself too, and that pleased me more than I’d expected.
By the end of the night, all of that was wearing thin, and all I could think of was getting her into my bed. Not some hotel bed, but mine. One where I’d be able to imagine her in it on the nights I was alone. It would be Jinx’s first time at my place, but I wasn’t sure I’d be able to hold off touching her long enough to give her the tour, no matter how much I wanted to show her everything, to have her see the home I’d made for myself.
“I almost expected you to live in a cave somewhere,” Jinx said, walking hand and hand with me up to the front door. We’d been quiet the whole way here, enjoying the silence after the chaos of dinner with my family.
My place was a modest little rancher, but it was more than big enough for me. And it was home. I’d missed it, all those nights I spent in the motel. But I wouldn’t have traded those nights for anything, especially not when they’d brought me her.
“Why’s that?” I asked.
She grinned. “I dunno. You’re kinda gruff and dirty.” She dropped me a wink. “Seemed about right.”
And there went the last of my restraint.
“Gruff and dirty, huh?” I growled, pulling her flush against my chest.
Her eyes widened with arousal. “Maybe a little.”
Her voice was so faint I could barely make it out. But I was less interested in words and more interested in action. I tugged her inside the front door and then slammed her back against it, stripping her bare right there in my entrance hall. I didn’t bother undressing myself, taking a moment only to take a condom from my pocket before shoving my jeans down far enough to get my cock out.
She didn’t have to go back to Rhett’s that night, which made her mine until morning. And I didn’t waste a second. She practically screamed my name when I slammed into her, all that tight heat scorching me to the bone. I fucked her right against the door, her legs wrapped around my waist and her moans filling the whole house.
I’d found a girl who could act like a perfect princess around my family but wasn’t afraid to get down and dirty with me as soon as we were alone. She fit into my life more than I thought anyone ever would.
And the little voice in the back of my head warned me that nothing this good ever lasted.
11
Jinx
“To my best friend and confidant,” I said, raising my glass. Rhett brought his up to meet mine, eyes filled with glee. “And to the generation of kids that will be shaped by your able hands.”
He frowned. “You make it sound so weird. Why can’t you just say ‘good luck being a teacher?’”
I chuckled and tapped my glass against his. “Because toasts are supposed to be dramatic.”
He snorted. “I didn’t think that you’d end up being the dramatic one.”
“Just shut up and drink your drink.”
It was Saturday night, and we were out on the town. It was probably the first night since I’d gotten here that Rhett and I had made plans to hang out all night, though Drew was coming to join us later on. He’d been busy all day making plans for his next show, which he assured me would be much bigger and more exciting than the one for the little Holmwood Fair.
“I still can’t believe I got the job,” Rhett said, sighing wistfully. “It’s like a dream come true.”
Seeing him so happy made my heart glow. I wanted the best for him, and I knew how worried he’d been that his sexuality would hold him back from following his dream. I still didn’t understand why his dream was to be a small-town teacher, but everybody had their thing.
“Just don’t screw it up.” I took a chug of my beer and licked my lips.
He flattened his lips into a scowl. “That’s encouraging.”
I laughed and patted him on the shoulder. “I don’t think you’ll screw up,” I assured him, then sighed. “I guess I’m a little jealous.”
Rhett’s whole demeanor softened. We hadn’t talked much about my future in the time I’d been there, not since my disastrous interview. Up until we’d left Boston, my future had been all I could ever think to talk about. No wonder Rhett had wanted to drag me out to the middle of nowhere.
And even though his little plan to help me relax had worked, the anxiety was settling in again. This time, though, the reason behind it was a little different.
“You’re a great writer and an amazing journalist,” he told me. “You’ll have no problem landing a job when the time is right.”
That was part of the problem.
I smiled weakly at him and changed the topic to what kinds of classroom things he planned to buy before he started in September. I didn’t want to discuss the fact that after having a quasi-relationship for less than a month, I was already freaking out about where Drew fit into my future. I hadn’t planned for another person when I’d pictured my future life. It wasn’t that I thought I’d be alone forever, just that when I found someone, they would be on a similar path, and we wouldn’t have to make too many compromises.
But Drew and I were so wildly different, and headed in such opposite directions, that even if I got my dream job this second, my future wouldn’t be set.
The thing I was most certain about at this moment was that I wanted to keep whatever this was with Drew going as long as humanly possible. But that was easy to say now, when I was unemployed and hanging out in Holmwood on vacation, but would be another matter entirely when it was back to reality. And reality was coming up faster than I liked.
Our conversation was interrupted by the arrival of a cute guy at our table. Though this bar seemed to be younger and livelier than most of the places in Holmwood, I still hadn’t seen that many attractive guys. Or maybe I hadn’t been looking. But this guy was fine with a capital F. Big blue eyes, corn silk blond hair, and a jawline that could cut glass.
And he didn’t even spare me a glance.
Rhett must have been hypnotized by those big baby blues
because neither of them said a word to each other before the guy slipped a piece of paper onto the table and left.
“Do you know him?” I asked.
Rhett shook his head, still staring at where the stranger was disappearing through the crowd. “Nope, but I’d sure as hell like to.”
“What does the note say?”
Rhett picked it up and studied it. His features spread into a wide grin. “It says to meet him outside.”
My smile widened too. What an amazing night this had been for Rhett. He’d gotten his dream job, and now a hot guy had virtually dropped into his lap.
“I’ll be back.” Rhett wiggled his eyebrows and jumped out of his chair. “Don’t worry, I’m not abandoning you for a pretty face.”
I rolled my eyes, laughing as I watched him hurry away. Good for him. He deserved the chance to meet someone great.
But when he didn’t return after a couple of minutes, something started to feel wrong. Why had the guy wanted to meet him outside? And why hadn’t Rhett returned? He’d promised that he wouldn’t leave me here, and I knew him well enough to know that if he’d decided to hook up with this guy, he would’ve come back to tell me. One of the reasons we’d gone out together in college rather than going alone was so that someone would always know where we were.
After another minute, the knot in my stomach was unbearable. I threw some cash on the table for our beers and headed out the front door.
But Rhett wasn’t there. Nobody was.
I was just about to go back inside to see if I’d missed him when I heard a noise. I stopped and listened harder, and heard it again. Not just one sound, but several, and coming from around the side of the building. My heart racing in my chest, I sprinted toward it, my gut telling me that something was horribly wrong.
Rhett was on the ground, and three guys – including the blond guy from inside – were beating the living daylights out of him. Fists and feet striking my friend as he covered his head with his hands, pained sounds muffled as he tried to protect himself.
“Fag!”
“Fucking queer!”
“Hey! Get the hell away from him!”
My shout made them pause just long enough to get a look at me, then two of them continued while the blond came my way. I didn’t wait for him to do whatever he was planning to do. I didn’t give a damn that they were all bigger than me. That was my friend on the ground, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to run away.
I sprinted forward, darting around the blond, and slamming my whole weight into the smaller of the two other guys. Momentum was on my side as he staggered back, but then we both tumbled to the ground.
Gravel scraped up my bare arms, and I couldn’t stop a pained sound from escaping. The blond had come back for me by then, and I was rewarded for taking down his friend with a solid kick to the ribs. It shouldn’t have surprised me. Any assholes who took on someone three to one were the sorts of cowards who wouldn’t have a problem hitting a woman too.
I wanted to believe that help would come soon, but it was a small town. There was nobody out on the streets. And a part of me wondered if anyone would have helped even if they had been there.
12
Drew
I understood why Jinx wanted to have a night out with her best friend, but that didn’t mean I liked it. I wanted her all to myself. Always. I knew that wasn’t possible, but it didn’t help me not want it.
I pressed my foot down harder on the gas and shifted up. I’d told Jinx that I’d be at the bar around nine, but I’d finished early and hadn’t wanted to wait. Apparently, the thought of seeing her again was great motivation. Maybe that was why people did this whole dating thing in the first place.
A parking lot behind O’Reilly’s connected to the front entrance via a small alley. This early in the evening, there was barely anybody parked out back. I drove into the spot and hopped out, nearly forgetting to lock the damn truck.
What the hell was wrong with me?
Before I could mull over the possibilities, I picked up the sounds of a fight nearby. Within seconds, I realized the noise was coming from the alley.
Something in my gut twisted. I didn’t see any reason why Jinx would get involved in a small-town brawl, but that didn’t stop my pulse from speeding up. I picked up the pace as I approached. It was probably nothing, but I was on the defensive just in case.
Then I saw a shock of white blonde hair and familiar long legs on the ground, and some tall asshole delivering a kick to her side.
My vision went red.
I charged forward with a roar, tossing myself at the guy who’d just kicked Jinx and sending my fist slamming into his jaw. I heard a crack, and I couldn’t tell whether it was him or my knuckles. I didn’t care. I was going to kill the bastard who’d dared to put his hands on my girl.
I’d hit him hard enough that he went down, and then I saw two guys behind him, beating on someone else. A man. Lean. Brown hair. Rhett.
I didn’t think. My instincts were telling me to make sure Jinx was okay, but I knew how much she loved her friend. She’d never forgive me if I hesitated a single second and Rhett got hurt even more. Protecting him was protecting her.
When their friend hit the ground, the other two assholes abandoned Rhett in favor of coming at me together. Cowards. I swung out and clocked the first one in the nose, but the other took the opening and slammed his fist into my stomach. The breath whooshed from my lungs, and I staggered back. One thing I had going for me was an insane pain tolerance, which was probably why they looked so surprised when I took only a second to recover before I was at them again.
The fight didn’t take long after that. Sure, they got a good few hits in, but they were drunk, uncoordinated, and dumb as fuck. I broke a nose and knocked a few teeth loose, then kicked their friend as he started to come round. Then the guy who’d lost the teeth took a good look at me and swore. He muttered my last name, and that was it. They grabbed their friend and took off, half-dragging him behind them. I’d never been so grateful that my brothers and I had a reputation for being tough. I would’ve fought them to the ground if they’d kept going, but I was glad that hadn’t been necessary.
I turned as soon as I was sure they weren’t coming back, but Jinx was already on her feet. My initial inspection revealed no bruises or blood, and the relief that went through me chased the anger away.
I took a step, and the world began to spin a moment before my damn knees decided to no longer hold me up. As the concrete reached for me, Jinx got there first, doing her best to catch me. I was way too heavy, though, and I ended up dragging her down with me to my knees.
Fuck. What was happening?
I could see the concern written on her face. The anxiety. And I didn’t want her to feel any of that. It was bad enough that I couldn’t pick her up and carry her to my truck right this instant, take her some place safe, but I didn’t want her worrying about me too.
So I played it off.
As my knees hit the pavement, I scooped her up into my arms and sat back on my heels. She gasped in alarm, and I quickly silenced her with a kiss. When I pulled back, I saw my hand had smeared a little blood on her cheek. I wiped it off with my sleeve, the sight of it there disturbing me more than my own injuries.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“Of course.” I gave her a lopsided grin. “I always get weak in the knees when I see you.”
A bitter laugh echoed through the alley. Fuck. I’d forgotten all about Rhett.
He’d rolled onto his side and was slowly sitting up, groaning in pain. Jinx jumped from my lap, and I didn’t try to stop her. I knew she’d have been pissed if I had, and that meant more to me than holding her.
“You okay, man?” I asked.
Rhett nodded despite the fact that his face was covered with blood. I hoped it was all from the cut above his eye. Those things bled like a motherfucker, always looking worse than what they were.
“Nothing broken, I think. Though I’m not a doctor so wh
o fucking knows.” He winced, putting his hand to his side. “Thanks for jumping in there though. I really appreciate it.”
“Did you know those guys?”
He shook his head, his expression saying there was something he was holding back.
Jinx decided to say it out loud. “One of them lured Rhett outside. They did it because he’s gay. Fucking homophobes.”
Fury swept through me, and I suddenly wished I’d given them a fiercer beating, not that I would have likely been able to do better than I had. I swore under my breath and rose to my feet. I wasn’t dizzy anymore, so I hauled Rhett to his feet and put my arm around his waist as I looped his over my shoulders.
“Hospital?” I asked. Rhett shook his head, grimacing as he did so. “Then let’s get you home.”
He nodded, and we began walking, Jinx under one arm, me under the other. I usually loved my hometown, but at that moment, I fucking hated it.
13
Jinx
He was my knight in shining armor...or on a motorcycle. I’d never seen someone take on so many guys at once in a fight, and I hoped I would never see it again. It had been terrifying. I’d thought for sure that Drew would lose – just based on numbers alone – and I’d barely been able to breathe while I watched.
But then he’d knocked them down like bowling pins, and despite the part of me that knew it was wrong to think so, I couldn’t help thinking he was the sexiest man I’d ever seen. My warrior. And he hadn’t only been fighting for me. He’d been fighting for my best friend too, and that made it even hotter.
We dropped Rhett off at his parents’ house, ignoring his protests and telling them what happened. Drew agreed with me that we couldn’t exactly drop off their beaten and bloodied son without an explanation. Once we’d put Rhett in their capable hands, I left with Drew, figuring it would be better for them to have some time alone as a family.
“Where do you want to go?” Drew asked as we got into the truck.