“You said that last time. I think you should go.”
Something tells me Goth Girl has come to her senses and is cutting me off. I down my beer and go to the fridge to grab what’s left of the case.
She’s standing at the door when I turn around, running a hand over her short hair.
“I’ll give you some space,” I say as I trudge to her. I wrap my injured hand around her neck and bring her to me. I kiss her cheek, and she shakes her head.
“I’ll never figure you out. If you ever get your shit straight, come find me.”
“If I were to ever get my shit straightened out, which isn’t going to happen, I wouldn’t be available.”
She gives me a faint smile. “I knew a girl was responsible for this.”
“No,” I say sharply. “It’s not her fault. I’m the one who fucked up both our lives and cost someone else theirs.”
Mindy winces from my words.
“Take care of yourself, Travis.”
I walk out her door and plan to never look back.
***
The pounding on my driver’s side window has me sitting up. Link is staring at me through it with wide eyes, so I start up my truck and roll down the window.
“I’m worried we were robbed. I need you inside now,” he says.
“We weren’t robbed.”
“How do you know?”
“I made the mess in the store. Give me a minute, and I’ll be in to clean it up.”
He shakes his head. “You better fucking hurry. Your brothers will be here soon, and they’ll come unglued if they see the place like that. Are you hurt? There’s blood all over the wall and floor behind the counter.”
I hold up my right hand, and he shakes his head again. “I feel like I don’t even know you anymore.” He marches away, and I let my head fall back against the seat. “He’s not the only one,” I mumble.
Scrubbing my hands over my face, I once again rummage through the clothes in my seat. I find one of our company t-shirts, but it looks like shit, so I toss it in the floorboard.
I spot the cardboard box of beer and look inside. There are two cans left, and are surely warm, but I pop them open anyway and drink them down fast.
I get out of the truck and lock it up before I stroll inside. Without a word, Franklin helps me clean up all the mess. There’s so much blood splattered on the floor from my hand that I have to get a mop to clean it up.
“Could you cover for me while I run home to shower?”
He nods as he rakes a hand over his sandy hair, but he doesn’t speak. Damn, he’s really pissed at me.
“Man, I’m sorry. Becca showed up here last night, and after she left, I lost it.”
His grey eyes flash to mine. “Shit, she just showed up here without warning?”
“Yep.”
“Well, what happened?”
“I was a dick; she cried and fled the scene. That pretty much sums it up.”
“I don’t get it. You still love her, and if she came here after all this time, I imagine she feels the same. Why don’t you try to fix things with her?”
“No.” I shoot him a look, warning him not to spin that broken record again. I go to the back of the store and put the mop away.
When I exit the storage closet, I almost run into Reese. She’s heading to her office for the day.
“Good morning, Travis,” she says icily. Her eyes scan all of me. “You look like shit.”
“Thanks. It’s the look I was going for.”
“When are you going to stop being an asshole? And how could you hurt Becca that way?” Her hands are firmly planted on her hips. Her purse slides down her arm, but she doesn’t move as she glares at me.
“It’s none of your business, Reese.”
“Like hell it isn’t. I was up half the night with my sister trying to console her. I guess you thought she hadn’t been through enough this year, so you wanted to drive in the next nail.”
“It’s not like that. I was trying to show her it’s time for her to move on.”
“Right. Like that’s what’s best for either of you.”
“What’s going on here?” Everett asks after walking up on us. He takes a look at me and grimaces.
“Have you been here all night?”
“I’m going home to shower. I’ll be back in an hour.”
“Come see me the second you return.”
I squint my eyes. “Did Dad give you instructions to parent me before his heart exploded? If so, you’re doing a shit job at it.”
Everett’s eyes widen in shock, and in a flash, I’m being grabbed by the arm and dragged down the hallway.
He pulls me into his office and slams the door behind me. I’m yanked up against him until he’s in my face. He blinks fast. “Fuck, is that alcohol on your breath?”
I swallow and glance away.
“I can’t even look at you right now.” Grabbing the phone on his desk, he pushes buttons.
“Franklin, I need you back here right now please.”
He keeps his back to me after hanging up. His hands are fisted on his hips, and he’s taking deep breaths. I don’t know what to say. All I know is I fucked up. Franklin steps through the door.
“Hey, what do you need?”
“Take Travis home. I’ll follow behind with his truck.”
Links eyes are bouncing between us.
“OK. Let me go tell someone we’re leaving. I’ll meet you up front.” Link walks out, and Ev glares hard at me.
“Don’t come back here until you can do it sober. I don’t know what help you need to straighten your ass up, but you better figure it out fast.”
I haven’t got a clue how to fix my problems, so I don’t respond. I leave and head toward the front of the store. Franklin spots me from behind the counter as he talks to one of our other employees.
I storm to his green pickup and eye my own parked next to it. My faithful truck. It’s the only thing I can depend on to not talk shit to me. I’m not even drunk. I swear Ev is always on my ass.
He follows Franklin out.
“Keys,” my brother demands. I fish them from my pocket and toss them to him before I get inside Link’s truck.
“What the fuck happened?” he asks, starting it up.
“I’ve been drinking.”
He’s quiet for a few seconds.
“You need to call Becca and work this shit out. Apologize to her. It’s killing you, man, and it’s killing me, too, to see you like this. Just fix it.” He turns on the radio, so I lean my head back against the seat and close my eyes.
Becca …
Link says to fix this like it would be so easy. I imagine she really hates me after the hurtful things I said to her last night.
Chapter Six
Becca
My phone ringing wakes me. I don’t open my eyes as I reach around on my nightstand to find it.
“Hello,” I murmur.
“Becca … it’s Travis.”
I sit straight up in bed and rub a hand over my eye and cheek.
“What do you want?”
“I need to see you.”
“Why? Are you wanting to humiliate me a little bit more? I guess the nasty things you said to me last night weren’t enough.”
“I’m sorry. I want to talk, and I won’t be mean. Can you come to my apartment?”
I sit silent, wondering why he’s not at work and weighing whether or not I should go.
“I need to shower. I’ll be there in an hour.”
His sigh of relief makes my heart ache.
“Thank you. I’ll see you soon.”
As I shower, scenarios of what he might say crowd my head. Can he even make up for his absence over the last couple of months? He was cold last night like it didn’t matter that he’s never checked on me since the accident.
Frustrated and nervous, I scrub my hair and body, washing fast. Once I’m out, I pile my long, wet hair on top of my head with a hair tie.
Having got abou
t four hours of sleep, my stomach is in knots, so I fix a piece of toast to eat before I leave. Maybe I’m stalling … unsure of my decision to meet with him.
The guards keeping watch on my heart are telling me to stay put, but the desire to see him is too great. I don’t want to feel for him or dwell on what-if’s. Most of all, I don’t want my heart broken more than it already is.
The problem is, I’m still in love with him, and it’s in my nature to worry about others. I could hear his pain and remorse through the phone.
I believe he was sorry, so I want to comfort him even if it will hurt me in the end. Maybe he wants us to have a fresh start. Just maybe …
***
“Hi,” Travis says.
“Good morning.”
Scratching the back of his head, he looks behind him. “Uh, come in, but please excuse the mess. I haven’t cleaned in a while.”
My eyes catch sight of a bandage on his hand, and I wish I felt comfortable enough to ask him what happened.
I step inside and follow him down the hall. We enter the living room, and the first thing I notice is the stark contrast from when Reese lived here. The walls are bare of any décor, and the place is a mess.
Old food containers and beer cans are everywhere and clothes strewn about. I glance to the kitchen, and the counters are undetectable, and garbage is overflowing.
It would probably smell if Travis’s familiar cologne wasn’t lingering. His hair is still damp, and I long to run my fingers through it.
“I’m sorry. I would’ve cleaned up if I’d had time.”
I pull my gaze from the mess and look at him.
“It’s fine. What did you want to say?”
“I’m sorry for how I treated you last night. There’s no excuse, but I was shocked to see you, and the pain of everything came rushing back.
“Ever since we broke up, I’ve wanted to talk to you, but I didn’t deserve to. I screwed up letting you walk out of my apartment, and it cost Molly and our baby their lives. It’s the only reason I haven’t checked on you, but I wanted to. God, Becca, I longed to more than anything.”
My eyes water from his sincerity. His words said everything my heart needed to hear.
“Travis, none of it was your fault. The drunk driver who hit us was to blame. It was a horrible accident.”
Without thinking about it, I throw my arms around his neck and capture his lips. He groans and squeezes my hips to ground me where I’m at, but I push my tongue inside his mouth, and it’s only seconds until he’s pulling me flush to his fit body, giving in to my kiss.
My fingers slide up his damp hair, and he swallows me up inside his fit arms. Our kiss is comforting, yet it’s new in every way, too.
We fall into the deep well of our once lost love, and I never want to climb out. Not ever. The only thing wanting to escape is the lust that’s been imprisoned for months.
A hand glides over my ass, and I moan against our tangled tongues. He jerks my body away without warning, his eyes narrowing.
“No,” he says roughly.
“Why not?”
“I don’t believe it wasn’t my fault. I’ve already told you I don’t deserve to love you.”
“That’s ridiculous. I don’t blame you, so you shouldn’t either. We could be together again. It could be like we’ve never met. We can have a fresh start and go slow if you want.” I smile at him. “We can avoid kissing again until the third date even.”
“No, now leave. I gave you the apology you deserved, but I didn’t ask you over here so we could be together again. I have a life sentence for Molly’s death, your burns and pain, and especially for the baby we’ll never know.”
“Seriously? This is how it’s going to be?” Breaking free from him, I throw a finger out and poke his chest. “This stupid decision of yours hurts me, too. Not being with you only brings me more pain. I’m suffering, Trav. Is that what you want?”
I shield my chest, physically feeling my heartache. “My heart longs for what we could’ve shared … for the babies we could still have. You playing the martyr is you being a selfish asshole.”
I scurry down the hall, and a loud sob bursts from my lungs as I sling the front door open. This time, I can’t look back. He rejected me, and the finality of us leaves me wrecked inside my car.
I lean my head against the steering wheel and release the pain I’ve been carrying for two months. Another person ripped from me …
Travis
I drive to the liquor store again, but this time it’s one near my apartment. I get a bottle of Wild Turkey and head back home.
My place is empty, quiet and a fucking disaster. The living room still smells like Becca’s scent of apples and jasmine, and I can’t bear it.
I go to my bedroom and sit on the side of my unmade bed. Twisting open the bottle of whiskey, I take a long drink before wiping my mouth on my arm. I look around my room…. My life is chaos, much like this mess.
There are empty cans scattered about and old pizza boxes, too. Clothes and dirty towels are strewn across the floor. Needing the fucking pain to stop, I take another swig from what will be my companion for the day.
I’ll drink and sleep. Hell, maybe I’ll stay drunk for days until Ev fires me. Then, I’ll have an excuse to find another job where I’m not under his and my other brothers’ thumbs.
Reese
“Baby, wake up. Didn’t you say you had to pick up Becca at seven?” Everett asks. I open my eyes and stretch.
“Yes. What time is it?”
“Six-thirty.”
“Shit, I need to shower.” I climb out of bed after taking a nap. I’d come home at five and crashed, exhausted after being up most of the night with Becca.
When I left her home at two this morning, I promised I’d take her to dinner this evening. I grab my phone off the nightstand and send her a text, asking her if she can pick me up instead so I have more time to get ready.
She agrees, and I hurry past Everett and straight into the bathroom. Realizing what I’ve done, I go back to the bedroom. He’s sitting on the side of it, staring up at the ceiling.
“Sweetie, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to ignore you.”
“I know. I’m thinking about everything that’s happened over the last couple of months. It might be selfish of me, but I feel like Becca and Travis’s ordeal majorly disrupted our new relationship. It’s getting old.
“I also feel like I’m losing my baby brother. He’s not the same person, and I don’t know how to fix it. Dad didn’t have a chance to say it before he died, but he would have expected me to watch out for Trav, so I have to stop this destructive path he’s on.”
I cup Everett’s cheeks. “Like you’ve been telling me since Becca got on that plane in July, there is only so much we can do.”
“Yeah, but this is getting dangerous now. Please don’t tell my brothers, but Travis had been drinking this morning, Reese. At eight in the morning, he had alcohol on his breath.”
“Wow. Do you need me to stay home tonight so we can talk about it?”
“No, go comfort Becca. She needs you right now.” Standing, he sighs and kisses me. “I think I’ll see if your dad wants to fish this evening.”
I smile. “I’m sure he’d love that.”
Chapter Seven
Becca
While I tell Reese about the latest incident with Travis, we stuff our faces with queso and chips at our favorite Mexican restaurant.
Since I’m driving, she indulges and orders a margarita. The waiter returns with it, and I laugh for the first time today.
“That’s like three margaritas in one,” I exclaim.
“It’s humongous. I think I could swim in it.” She blushes, so I kick at her shin under the table.
“Why are you turning several shades of red?”
Hiding her face, she shakes her head.
“I can’t tell you.”
“Oh, you have to now.”
She grins and takes a long drink of her bowl of
margarita. “Let me say first that we chlorinate the pool regularly.”
Slinging my head back, I laugh hard, and Reese shushes me. In a singsong I chime, “You and Everett had sex in the pool.”
She covers her face again and giggles.
“It was amazing.”
“Gross. You’ve now ruined any chance of me enjoying your swimming pool.” I take a sip of my soda and grab a chip.
“Please don’t tell Everett I told you. He would tease me about it forever.”
After I chomp on my chip that is smothered in delicious cheese sauce, I ponder some things.
“So, did his hard weanus bob around in the pool like a buoy in water?”
Reese sputters out her margarita that she’s just taken a drink of.
“It’s attached to him! It doesn’t float around in the water.” She’s wiping her mouth with her napkin as we both laugh hysterically.
I glance around, and people at nearby tables are smiling, finding our laughter entertaining. They probably figure I finished off my own drink, but it’s only soda for me tonight.
“OK, if it doesn’t float around like a buoy, does the jiz float?”
“Becca! That’s disgusting. We didn’t wait around to see.” She becomes serious, her forehead creasing from concentration. “Do you think it floats?”
I cover my mouth so I don’t cause a bigger scene.
“Oh, my gosh, sis. I was joking. I don’t really want to know.” I wipe the tears from my eyes, which then reminds me of all the tears I’ve shed since last night.
“This has been fun, Reese. I almost canceled after what Travis did to me today and last night, but this is exactly what I needed.
“I should surround myself by those who love me and want to be a part of my life. I’m moving forward from here on out. I’m not going to become trapped in the past.”
“I needed it, too. I love when we hang out together.”
Reese and I finish our meals and begin our drive home. It’s already 9:30 p.m., and we’re both tired after the minimal sleep we got last night.
I reach her driveway and feel my heartbeat accelerate. “Isn’t that Travis’s truck?” It’s parked in the grass, which seems odd since the whole driveway is empty.
Fail to Trust (The Casteel Trust Series Book 2) Page 4
