“I didn’t say a word.”
“I fell asleep for a minute. Oh well.”
“I’m not saying a thing.”
“What time is it right now?”
“After nine.”
“Nine?” I asked, spinning around. “I was asleep…”
“Who cares, sweetheart?” Jett asked. “I love the new look. The ink makes it look like you have tattoos. Like you’re some badass chick.”
“A badass chick with tattoos on her cheek?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Jett said. “Who would mess with you, right? What does your cheek say? Two cups of flour…”
I shoved Jett away. “Get out of here.”
He stumbled back and laughed. “Come on. Close up and let’s get out of here. Unless you want to fool around in the office. Like we did that one time…”
I pointed to him. “Never again. I told you that. I ended up with a receipt stuck to my back and Aunt Bea got so mad because it was for something important.”
“Even more of a reason to leave with me right now,” Jett said.
“I was in the middle of something.”
“Yeah. Sleeping.”
“Shut. Up.”
Jett moved toward me. “Close. Up.”
“Make. Me.”
“I. Will.”
“How. So?”
Jett shook his head. “Fine. I have something for you. I’ll just give it to someone else. I’m sure I could find another pretty girl like you in a second.”
I curled my lip. “Doubt it. Not with these badass tattoos.”
I pointed to my cheek.
Then I slammed the bathroom door so I could wash the ink off my face.
When that was done, I looked at my notebook and bit my lip.
I had everything figured out for the next day.
I had Jett waiting outside for me.
I left the notebook right where it was and ran out of the back of the bakery.
Keeping to my promise, I not only locked the door but I pulled on the door four times to make sure it was definitely locked.
Jett stood at his motorcycle, smoking.
I wasn’t sure there was anything hotter to look at.
That was a lie.
He could have been shirtless.
* * *
We sat in the sand, my head on his shoulder.
The deeper the breaths I took the better I felt. So relaxed. Almost like I was going to melt into him.
Being with Jett was just… perfect.
“What do you see when you look at the ocean?” I asked.
“Is this one of your sign things?” Jett asked.
“No. Stop it. Signs are real. Okay?”
“Yeah. Like a STOP sign. It tells you what to do.”
I lifted my head. “You really don’t believe in signs?”
Jett stared at me. “Maybe I just had to live too fast. So maybe I never saw one before.”
“They’re everywhere,” I said. “Whether you believe it or not. If you took a second to realize that, you never know what could happen.”
“See, that’s what I don’t get,” Jett said. “Are you telling me if I stop and look around… what? I’m going to see tomorrow night’s winning lottery numbers or something?”
“It’s not about money, Jett.”
“I know. But what other signs do you want?”
“It could be anything. Making a decision. Feeling a certain way.”
“What signs are you looking for right now, sweetheart?”
“I don’t know. When I’m with you I kind of don’t look for signs. You’re… you’re like my biggest sign.”
“That’s cute,” Jett said.
“Yeah, make fun of me.”
“I’m not. I get that part. I feel the same when I’m with you.”
“But just…” I sighed. “It could be anything. We have a lot going on at once right now, Jett. Sometimes signs help. You find a penny. Or see a cloud. I sound so stupid right now. You don’t believe in this.”
I moved away and Jett turned to face me. “Don’t say that. I do believe in signs.”
“Like what?”
“Six months ago. Do you remember that horrible road trip we took with Scotty?”
I rolled my eyes. “Stop. What was that woman’s name?”
“Giggle Gidget,” Jett said.
“Ohmygod,” I said. “She was the worst person I ever met in my life.”
“Scotty knows how to pick them.”
“I wanted to cut my own ears off so I’d never hear her voice again.”
“But, sweetheart, there was a sign.”
“Of what?” I asked.
“When I got pissed at Scotty for fucking up booking that motel, we went for a walk. Remember that? And we walked through that little town. With the main street that had all the lights.”
“We found a bed and breakfast and slept there,” I said.
“Before that. Right next door. There was that little shop.”
“The one with the jewelry. Those horrible looking necklaces and stuff.”
“Except the one you wanted,” Jett said.
“Yeah right. You know how much that stuff costs. I’m not some pretentious bitch…”
I lost my voice when Jett lifted his left hand.
The ugly heart necklace dangled from his pointer finger.
The chain was thick and crinkled. The shape of the heart was filled with little diamonds. And the heart itself was a bright red color. It was obnoxious looking.
Yet I loved it.
Jett remembered.
I made fun of it so much because I secretly wanted it.
I had crouched in front of the glass and stared for a few minutes.
“That was my sign, sweetheart,” Jett said. “To remember where it was and that I needed to work my ass off to get it. Because you wanted it.”
“Jett… this… this cost…”
“It’s yours now,” he said. “There’s no returns allowed at that store either. The old lady who runs it is a really big bitch too. She thought I was going to rob the place. She got all flustered when I walked in. Gave me a hard time too.”
“You did this for me?” I asked.
“Of course I did,” Jett said. He touched my cheek with his free hand. “Anything and everything for you, Julia.”
“But this?”
“Yes,” Jett said. “Why not?”
“You did this for me?”
“Nobody has ever surprised you before?” Jett said. “Damn.”
“Stop.”
“Put the necklace on, sweetheart.”
“I’m afraid to,” I said. “I might break it or lose it.”
“It’s yours now,” Jett said. “Do whatever you want with it.”
I lifted my hair and turned so Jett could put the necklace on me.
It was heavy.
It was so annoying.
Definitely not something I would probably wear.
But I loved it.
I smiled and felt heat racing across my cheeks.
I had never saw something in a window before, pointed to it, then had someone buy it for me.
It was amazing.
It was… Jett.
I turned around and hugged him.
His strong arms held me tight.
“Trust me, sweetheart, you deserve this and so much more.”
“Shut up,” I said. “Just hold me. Don’t think about anything else.”
“Not even the sign right behind you?”
I broke away from Jett. “What sign?”
He laughed. “The sand. It’s all around us. It’s… it’s like we’re at the beach…”
I took a handful of sand and threw it at his shirt. “You’re such a jerk, Jett.”
He lunged at me and kissed me down to the sand. “But you love me.”
“Yeah, Jett… it’s something like love…”
Chapter 17
THEN
Jett
It had been a h
ell of a week.
That was the only way to put it.
The shop was busy. I had a few meetings to talk about some custom work. Pop was in a mood. He wanted to hire some new guys and had been calling up old friends to give suggestions. I suggested actually going through a hiring process and he told me the only process I needed to learn was how to take my process and shove it up my ass.
He talked to some guy and the name Rhyno was thrown around.
That was the exact kind of shit I wanted to avoid at the shop.
Bringing in friends of friends.
But as I was reminded each and every day, the name on the shop wasn’t mine. It was Pop’s. He told me someday he was going to change the name, but that day wasn’t today, and that it would never be my name.
He had a way of making you humble and then he’d give you a shot of whiskey to drown your tears.
Fucking asshole.
But I loved the guy.
On top of that, I had some side stuff going on with that piece of land Pop told me to deal with. Well, it wasn’t the land itself. It was other opportunities.
I opened the office door and Pop sat in his chair, staring at me.
“You think Johnny keeps his mouth shut, son?”
“What?”
“Johnny knows Petey. You don’t know Petey but Petey knows Jaries. And I know you know Jaries. He’s the slime ball prick trying to get you to buy something off of him. Except he introduces himself as Benny and smiles all the time.”
“This town loves to talk.”
“What are you doing, Jett?” Pop asked.
“Nothing going through your mind,” I said. “I was coming to talk to you about it right now. He said he has some undeveloped stuff he’s looking to get rid of. I’m half tempted to see if I can get it cleaned up and sell it.”
“That’s a risk,” Pop said.
“You want me to make something of myself, right?”
“You’re never going to wear a suit,” Pop said. “You’re never going to bullshit your way through a meeting.”
“But I can bullshit my way in and feel goddamn secure for once in my life. And take care of those I love.”
“Those?” Pop asked. “You mean her.”
“Point?”
Pop stood up. “You fuck up here one time, Jett, and I’ll fire your ass. And if Jaries tries to take you to that fancy steakhouse over on Buckley you tell him Pop said to stick his porterhouse up his ass.”
“What’s with you sticking things up peoples ass this week?”
“Who knows,” Pop said. “That doesn’t matter. What does matter is that he will do anything to take the shirt off your back and then blame you for it.”
“I’ll keep an eye on him then,” I said.
“I’ll keep an eye on him,” Pop said. “Nobody’s going to screw over my boy.”
My boy.
My throat twisted a little.
But I kept my composure.
We stared at each other for a few seconds before Pop slowly sat back down.
He looked at me again and frowned. “Don’t you have some work to do?”
I nodded. “Yeah, Pop, there’s always work to do.”
* * *
Tension.
That was the word of the day. Week. Whatever.
I leaned against Scotty’s truck and just had the sudden urge to knock his jaw off of his face. And the way he looked at me, he felt the same way too.
He’d had just as much of a fucked up week as me.
I hadn’t seen Julia in a few days because she’d been working extra hours at the bakery. That only made things worse.
And Scotty…
“She never showed up,” he said for the fifteenth time.
“Maybe you gave her the wrong directions,” I said.
“No. She was a bitch. She knew what she was doing.”
“Maybe you’re just too ugly,” I said.
“Yeah, fuck you, brother,” Scotty said.
“I’m in the kind of mood where I want to fight,” I said with a grin.
Scotty clapped his hands together. “Let’s go.”
“Where?”
“To fight,” he said. He got into the truck.
I got into the passenger seat and he started to drive. “Scotty…”
“We’ll hit the dive,” he said, referring to Anthony’s bar. “You know someone will be shooting pool.”
“We pick a fight and Anthony will never let us back there,” I said.
“Who cares?” Scotty asked. “We need this. Shit has been too real lately, brother. It’s a lot at once. You know? I’ve been feeling… I don’t know. I’m just feeling it.”
“You’re not getting out of hand again, are you?” I asked.
“No, no, no,” Scotty said.
“Hey, man, you just got yourself all cleaned up not that long ago. You shouldn’t even be boozing, but I haven’t said anything…”
“Because you’re a good friend,” Scotty said. “You’re a brother to me. You see things nobody else does. And you know in your heart if something was wrong you’d say something. Like before.”
That was Scotty’s calm way of telling me to shut the fuck up. There were two sides to Scotty. The lovable Scotty who was my best friend and most of the time annoying. The other side… I had only seen twice. And I never wanted to see that side again.
And if picking a bar fight was going to keep that side calm and away, then so be it.
That’s what I told myself ten times.
I repeated it again as we walked into the dive bar.
And I threw it around my mind one more time as I cracked my knuckles and walked into the back of the bar.
There were four guys playing pool.
“Let’s let it play out,” I whispered to Scotty. “Watch.”
I dug in my pocket and got some change.
I found some quarters and walked them to the table.
In a neat stack, I put them on the table and nodded to the first guy that looked at me.
“We’re playing for a bit,” he said to me.
I put my fingers to the quarters. “Next game.”
“Why don’t you take those quarters and stick them up your ass?” another guy asked.
It made me think of Pop. And the entire week…
I looked at the guy. “How about I go pay your mother for a little fun? Then I’d still have seventy-five cents left over.”
The guy stepped toward me.
“Jett!” a voice yelled.
Before I could turn, someone grabbed my arms.
I heard the sound of wood cracking and I was free again.
I looked back and Scotty threw a broken pool stick to the floor.
The guy he hit was on his knees in pain.
When I turned back, a fist hit my nose.
And just like that… the fight was on.
It was a blur.
But a fun blur.
Maybe there was something wrong with me. Or me and Scotty.
Because for every punch we took, we laughed.
And for every punch we took, we gave out two.
Four against two wasn’t a fair fight, so we had to do what we had to do.
That meant jumping over the pool table and grabbing another stick or two.
It turned it into the worst looking sword fight ever until Scotty threw his stick down and tackled a guy.
“Shit,” I whispered.
I had the other three coming for me.
I just started swinging.
There was no other choice.
My madness scared them enough that they slowed for a few seconds before grabbing my arms, leaving one guy free to hit me.
He got two hits to my stomach before I jumped and kicked him.
When I did, the other two guys stumbled back and all three of us slammed against the wall.
I broke free and got back up, running for the pool table. I grabbed the eight ball and threw it like a pitcher striking someone out.
W
hen the ball clunked against the guy’s head, he dropped hard.
I looked over at Scotty and he snatched a dart out of the board and jammed it into the guy’s hand.
The painful scream made Scotty laugh harder.
And I realized he was reaching that edge. Where a fun fight was going to turn into something much more.
I jumped over the table and grabbed Scotty and pulled him away from the guy he was fighting.
“We’re good, man. We have to get out of here.”
Scotty nodded. “Fuck you! Wwwwooo!”
He laughed like a madman as we ran through the bar.
“You’re dead to me!” Anthony yelled from behind the bar. “Come back and I’ll call-”
We were outside and on the run.
We got to Scotty’s truck and he started it and punched the steering wheel a few times.
“Goddamn, yeah,” he growled. “I needed that. Now I need a drink. Then I need to find someone to spend the night with. Fucking right, brother.”
“Just take me to my place first,” I said. “So I can get cleaned up.”
“Not a fucking problem,” Scotty said.
He started to drive.
Then he started to whistle.
This calm and random note song.
We were both fucking crazy.
I looked at my right hand and flexed it.
My knuckles were sore.
I knew my face was dinged up a little. I could feel pain. But it was something I could ignore.
We didn’t say a word to each other either.
But I could feel the tension was mostly gone.
It was a messed up thing, but that’s what Scotty needed.
When he made the last turn to go to my house, I saw a car waiting for me.
“Oh, shit,” I said.
I looked at Scotty.
He was already laughing.
“How do I look?” I asked.
“Like you got into a fight,” he said.
“I think I’m about to get into another one,” I said. “And this one I won’t win.”
* * *
“What are you doing here, sweetheart?” I asked Julia in the happiest voice I could possibly throw at her.
“What happened to you?” she yelled when she saw my nose.
“Bar fight,” I said. “It looks worse than it actually is. I swear.”
“What?” Julia asked. “A fight? Are you kidding me?”
HIDDEN CREEK THEN: a hidden creek high novel Page 14
