by Marika Ray
“We’ve been best friends since puberty, you’d think it’s time to etch my name on your skin for all eternity. You’re putting a fuckin’ bird on your back because of a damn peacock encounter, but not my name?”
I laughed at that, Jimmy tsk-tsking at me for moving. “I’m not getting the bird because of the peacock. It’s a phoenix, T. It’s a rebirth symbol. I’m changing course. I’m making better decisions about my life. I’m done with assholes like Douchebag. My life is going to be what I make it from now on. That’s what this tattoo is about.”
Titus gave me a smile I felt all the way to the tips of my toes. He held my hand until it went numb and he had to switch to his left. Hours passed and he didn’t complain, just kept me company in silence and across conversations about anything and everything. When other clients and artists started coming into the shop, Jimmy cleaned up and pronounced step one done. I’d have to come back in for the shading and detailed color work.
I stood up and Titus nearly choked helping me get my shirt pulled down in front. Jimmy walked away to clean up his tools while Titus backed me up to the full-length mirror so I could check out my phoenix. It was beautiful. Absolutely perfect. She looked fierce and determined, just like me, and when Jimmy added the color to the tail feathers at my next appointment, she’d evoke images of that damn peacock. The thing had woken me up that night of Jayden and Lenora’s wedding, so I’d immortalize it by way of tattoo.
I looked over at Titus, who couldn’t seem to take his eyes off my image in the mirror. An overwhelming sense of wanting to set things right with us took hold of me.
“Are we back to being friends again, T?” I whispered.
He looked over at me then, his face just inches from mine where I could see how the sun had left little spokes of white skin fanning out from the corners of his eyes. “We always were. You just walked away for a bit.”
Arrow to the fucking heart. “I’m sorry. So sorry.”
Titus grinned. “It’s all good.”
Just like that. A year of ignoring him and he forgave me that easily. My heart lurched hard and that damn burning came back to my eyes. “But I’m just not sure I can be friends with you while you have that fucking hideous mullet. It’s embarrassing.”
Titus grinned wider, knowing all my tricks. Sarcastic humor was my love language.
“I’ll be sure to grow it out even longer. Just for you, sweet tits.”
My eyes went wide. “Excuse me? What the fuck did you just call me?”
He moved back like a smart man. “Hey, I wouldn’t know since you haven’t shown me yet, but that’s how I imagine them.”
Titus spun and walked to the door, waiting there while I stared after him and then made my next appointment with Jimmy in a shocked haze. I wasn’t sure what to make of Titus. He’d always teased me and gave me back as good as he got, but he’d never been outrageously flirtatious either. What had gotten into him this morning? And why did I kind of like it?
I huffed at myself. I knew exactly why I liked it. I ran toward danger like a gnat to a flame. Flirting with my best friend seemed like the next dive off a cliff an adrenaline junkie like me was looking for. Problem was, I couldn’t mess up my friendship with Titus. He was literally the only thing I’d done right my whole life. Every other relationship I’d damaged at some point with my smart mouth and brusque behavior. I mean, I had my Hell Raisers, but we hadn’t been friends since middle school. There was still time for me to mess things up.
“Ready to go?” Titus interrupted my train of thought, which was just as well. “The guys said we’re all doing a bonfire tonight. Want me to drop you off at the hotel so I can get to my job and then I’ll pick you back up tonight?”
I looked up at him, seeing him through new eyes. “I have a car, you know.”
He shrugged and opened the passenger side door of his truck for me. “I know. But I figured if you wanted to drink with your girls, it’d be safer for me to drive you home.”
Damn these new eyes. Had Titus always been this good looking? Or this kindhearted? Did he treat all women like this or was I somehow special? His huge body got into the truck and sucked all the oxygen out.
“Don’t you want to drink with your guy friends?”
He shrugged again and turned the truck toward home. “Nah. I’d rather one of us be the designated driver. So, I’ll pick you up at eight.”
I guess it was decided.
People, men especially, making decisions for me wasn’t something I normally appreciated, yet Titus doing it just made me feel cared for. And if that wasn’t a red fucking flag if I’d ever seen one. What was wrong with me? I’d just gotten out of a bad relationship that had crushed my self-esteem. I shouldn’t even be thinking about my best friend like that. I’d done enough stupid things in my life. Titus couldn’t be one of them.
Decided. Done. End of story. Time to get new eyes.
5
Titus
After flirting with Amelia and nearly losing the ability to speak at the sight of the hot-as-fuck tattoo on her naked back, I took a step back. Flirting with her had been fun, natural even. But then she’d asked me if we were still friends in that little voice that betrayed her mushy center underneath all the layers of toughness and I couldn’t deny her that. I’d taken her to the bonfire, but made sure all my interactions with her were only as friendly as I’d ever been. Flirting? I’d squashed that urge no matter how much it killed me.
The wind whistled through the pine trees surrounding the little house Rip and I lived in. It had gotten dark, not because the sun went down, but because some intense-looking gray clouds had moved in. Fall was hitting early this year.
“It’s gonna be a frog strangler out there,” Rip muttered, headed to the fridge to see what we had to eat for dinner. The storm coming in had forced him to dock his boat and cancel his afternoon tour.
My cell phone vibrated before I could tell him to be careful of the bag of lettuce in the drawer. It had turned into a puddle of liquid somehow. I guess you had to eat that natural crap within a few days of buying it, which was why I stuck to frozen meals most of the time. That and protein shakes for the muscles all the ladies liked. Except for the one lady who didn’t look at me that way.
I didn’t recognize the number, but that happened often. Maybe it was a potential client.
“’Lo?” I answered, looking out the window at the storm brewing.
“Titus?” the man on the other end asked, voice rough.
“Depends who’s asking, pal.”
“This is Nugget down at Hell’s Tavern. I have Dom here causing some trouble. Need you to come down and get him or I’ll have to call Chief Waldo.”
I sighed and closed my eyes. Shit. Not again. “Yeah, I’ll be right over. Don’t call the chief.”
“What’s up? Dom again?” Rip pulled his head out of the fridge, his eyebrows drawn, all too familiar with the times I’d had to swoop in and set things right. At my nod, he asked, “Want some company?”
Shame, the kind that comes along with having a brother the whole town knew as the drunk troublemaker, made me shake my head. “Nah, I got this. See ya in a bit.”
I grabbed my keys and headed out, pulling on a jacket at the last second when the cool wind hit me the second the front door opened. The last thing I wanted to do was drive into town during a storm and deal with my jackass of a brother. No, scratch that. The actual last thing I wanted was Chief Waldo, Amelia’s dad, to have to deal with my jackass of a brother. He’d already arrested him more times that I could count, which didn’t exactly ingratiate me with Amelia’s dad. He begrudgingly let us be friends, mostly because he knew making me off-limits would only be like waving the red flag in front of the bull named Amelia.
I drove right past Hell Hotel, my neck craning for any sight of the dark-haired vixen who’d stolen my heart in junior high. Thankfully, I didn’t see her, which meant she was inside and safe. Probably running around that place keeping all her residents happy and calm. She w
as damn good at what she did, which was why I always supported her in her dream to own her own bed-and-breakfast instead of working for the absentee owner of Hell Hotel. Her dreams hadn’t happened yet, but I knew they would.
It was quiet inside Hell’s Tavern, most of the patrons having gone home like levelheaded citizens who wanted to ride out the storm at home. Then a crash from the far side of the bar broke the quiet. I looked over to see Dom in a pile of barstools, looking around in a daze.
I strode over and pulled him up. “Come on, brother. Let’s get you home.”
Dom fell into me and then pushed back hard. Damn drunks were always stronger than they looked. “I don need you. I got wh-whiskey comin’. Huh, Nugget?” He whipped his head left and right, looking for the bartender cleaning glasses and watching us carefully from behind the bar.
“The bar’s closing, Dom. Time to go home.” I shuffled him across the floor and almost made it to the door when he reared back and cracked the back of his head against my nose.
“Fuck!” I let him go to grab my nose. He slid to the floor and rested against my leg, unaware he’d just hit me. My hand came away wet.
Nugget appeared at my side with a stack of square white napkins. I took them gratefully and tried to stop the blood while picking up Dom again. We made it to my truck, the cold wind whipping his face rousing him enough to get the job done.
He fell asleep on the way to the tiny one-room cabin he kept in the woods north of town. I’d helped him buy it and the postage stamp of land surrounding it. I couldn’t keep my brother from drinking, but I felt better knowing he’d always have a roof over his head. Mom and Dad had washed their hands of him when they caught him stealing their hard-earned retirement money. While I wished they’d stayed in town, I understood they needed a fresh start in Florida. Mom’s joints felt better in the heat and Dad couldn’t stop going off about the lack of taxes. Part of me wondered if they’d left mostly just to get away from the disappointment of Dom. And if that was the case, why couldn’t they have stayed for me?
By the time I got Dom in his house and made it back home, the storm was in full swing, rain pelting my face as I raced into the house. I shook off the drops and made myself a quick protein shake before heading to bed. I was done with today.
As I lay in bed trying to get to sleep while a storm did its best to rip the trees out of the ground, I wondered if maybe Chief was right. Maybe I wasn’t good enough for Amelia and she knew it deep down too, which was why she never saw me as dating potential. The thought was disturbing and so were the dreams that came after. The ones where Amelia was walking down the aisle with Daire and all I could do was scream silently. Never heard, never seen, as I watched the love of my life give her life to someone else.
“Titus,” Chief’s gruff voice had the hairs on the back of my neck rising. Had he heard about my brother last night?
“Hey, Chief Waldo, how are you today?” I pasted on a smile and held the door for the man as he exited Coffee with a steamy cup and a bag of something that smelled delicious. His uniform didn’t have a stain yet, so I could assume his work day was just getting started. The morning had dawned bright, the storm moving on as quickly as it had come.
“Doin’ fine. Just came from the hotel. Had a tree situation there last night.”
My smile froze. Tree situations were never good. Especially right after an intense storm. “Is Amelia all right?”
“She’s fine. All the excitement has put her in fine form this morning. You have been warned.” He lifted a bushy eyebrow and walked to his cruiser parked at the curb.
My stomach lurched as I got in line. I knew Chief said Amelia was fine, but I wouldn’t believe it until I saw it with my own eyes. The tall pine trees around here made Auburn Hill beautiful, but they became hazards when big storms ripped through and downed a tree near a structure. We’d had a few run-ins with houses being completely demolished in a storm in my lifetime.
“Hey, Lukas. Can I have a black coffee, a mocha with extra whip, and a dozen assorted donuts?” The kid behind the counter, Lenora’s brother, rang me up quickly.
“Got a job this morning?” he asked as I handed him a twenty.
I quirked a smile despite the anxiousness churning in my gut. “Nah, these are just for sharing. Although I could eat the whole dozen without blinking an eye.”
Lukas smirked and shook his head. “You should hit up Charlie for some green juice every now and then just to balance things out.”
I grimaced. “Yeah, no, thanks. Tried his shit once and lost my taste buds for a whole week.”
Lukas’s laughter followed me as I moved down the line. When my order was up, I grabbed it and nearly ran out the door to my truck. If Amelia was in trouble, I wanted to be there to help. Why hadn’t she called me? I got to the hotel and parked, instantly seeing the tree that tilted over the far-left side of the hotel. The roots were exposed on one side, and though it leaned mightily, it hadn’t fallen over completely. She’d have to get a crew in here to cut the tree down as soon as possible. Some of the taller branches had damaged the far corner of the hotel.
I took the donuts and coffee inside the lobby, watching a couple check out, their drawn faces showing a long night of little sleep. Amelia stood behind the counter, watching them go with a frown on her face. Her hair was down and loose, her face makeup-free. A black silk robe covered her body, but had me wondering what she had on underneath. Jesus, she was beautiful.
Ambling over and placing the box and coffee on the counter, I drank in her face, seeing with my own eyes she wasn’t injured in any way.
“Rough night?” I asked lightly.
Amelia took a deep breath and then blew it out, the frown line between her eyebrows finally leaving. “You could say that. Had hysterical guests in the halls when the tree fell. Just comped the couple in that room their whole stay to appease them. Now I gotta call Wayne and see if I can get him to get the damage fixed ASAP. He’s not exactly known for being on it, so we’ll see.”
She grabbed the coffee from my hand and took a huge sip. “Thank you. I’m going to need the caffeine and sugar.”
An idea hit me. A way to help her out. “Why don’t you show me the damaged room?”
She nodded and spun, heading to the stairs in flip-flops. I scrubbed a hand over my eyes and tried to focus on what I was here for and not on the bounce of her ass beneath that silk. Big Foot, the official mascot of Hell Hotel, darted down the hall next to me, his crazy eyes looking more crazed than usual. Poor feline had probably been half scared to death when the tree fell.
We made it to the room in the back on the second floor. I could see why that couple had been freaked out. A branch had come right through the wall. Structurally, there wasn’t a lot of damage inside, but I’d have to check out the roof to know the extent of it. If a crew came in and got that tree out of here before it fell further, this wouldn’t be a huge job.
“Why don’t you work on getting Wayne to hire a crew to cut down that tree. That’s the most pressing issue at the moment. I’ll send him a low-ball proposal for the repair work. An offer he won’t be able to refuse if he knows what’s good for his bottom line.”
Amelia’s eyes went soft. “You’d do that?”
I nodded and got out my phone to put together a bid. If I looked at her any longer, I might do something I’d regret later.
The wind shifted and suddenly Amelia was wrapped around me, her arms squeezing my neck. My phone dropped to the rug on impact, leaving my hands free to land on her back and then move quickly to her hips.
Fuck.
She wasn’t wearing a bra and those breasts were pressed against my chest as she lifted on her tiptoes to reach me. She smelled good too. Like shampoo and a hint of perfume from the day before.
“I don’t know where to touch you. Is your tattoo still healing?” I whispered, my words scraping along my throat.
Her head nodded against my shoulder, but still she didn’t let go. So, I held her hips tighter and found th
e limits of how hard I could grind my teeth before pain lit up the side of my face. I would not slide my palms down and grab her ass. Nope. I had more self-control than that. I knew I did. Somewhere.
“You’re the bestest best friend a girl could have, T.” Her lips tickled my skin as she spoke, every inch of my body hyper-aware of hers.
The whispered words rained down like ice water, reminding me my reaction to her was anything but appropriate for a friend. I shifted subtly, hoping she couldn’t feel the evidence of my attraction to her. I gave myself the count of three to gather the strength needed to release her hips and step back. I hated it, but I needed to create some much-needed space between us.
Amelia tightened the belt on her robe and smiled at me, oblivious to how twisted she got me with a simple hug.
I winked at her. “I like the new uniform.”
Her cheeks heated, which was an interesting response, considering almost nothing flustered Amelia. She glanced down at her red-painted toes and then back up.
“I guess I should put some clothes on and attack the day, huh?”
I walked her out of the room, shutting the door and leading her to the room she occupied on the opposite side of the hotel. Thank God the tree didn’t fall on her side. I didn’t know what I would have done had she been injured or worse.
“How about you get dressed and I’ll put together a bid for Wayne?” I stopped outside her door, not wanting to enter her personal space if she’d be changing.
“Sounds perfect.” She unlocked the door and entered, looking back at me. “You can come in. I’ll change in the bathroom.”
I swallowed and nodded, trying to act like being in her room wasn’t awkward between two friends. She didn’t seem bothered by it, but I certainly was. Plopping down in the chair and pulling my phone out gave me the distraction I needed to tear my gaze away from Amelia in that sexy robe. I couldn’t believe she walked around the hotel in that thing. Probably caused all kinds of fights between couples when the men stared. I tapped out an email to her boss, careful to keep my bid ridiculously low. I wouldn’t make more than a cup of coffee off this job, but what it would actually give me was priceless.
