Enjoy Your Stay

by Carmen Jenner

  “I don’t … kn … know.” I sob into his chest. God, he smells so good. Like cologne, and hot boy, and fuck—all I wanna do is throw his arse down on the veranda and ride him like my favourite pony, but my heart hurts, and my head is confused, and I can’t stop crying.

  He smooths circles on my back, and I sob harder. “Hey, Hols, come on. Whatever it is, it’s okay. I’m here, and we’re gonna do this thing together, okay? Just you and me, and that beautiful, perfect little baby of ours. I’m gonna teach him to play the guitar, and he and Daddy are gonna play the Sugartown Hotel every Friday night, and my pretty lady’s gonna be sitting front and centre. I know this shit is scary. I’m scared too, but we’re gonna do this together, yeah? I’m not gonna miss even a single minute of this kid’s life. Of our lives.”

  He leans down and kisses my hair, and then when I turn my tear-streaked face up to his, he wipes away the salt from my cheeks and kisses each of them tenderly before placing a chaste kiss to my lips. It’s odd, the sense of security I feel in his arms. I mean, this is the guy who knocked me up and pissed off to become a rock star. Who knows how many women he’s fucked since the second he left Sugartown. Who knows if he’d even still be here, if there wasn’t a baby involved? But the point is, he is here. He’s here, with his pretty words and his warm protective arms, and his presence that doesn’t make my heart hurt the way that Jack’s does. He’s here, he’s the father of my child, and right now, he’s exactly the sort of stability I need. So even though I know I shouldn’t, I breathe into the kiss and the bond between us, and I kiss Jackson Rowe goodbye.

  I SLIDE my hand up the length of my cock and stretch out on the sofa, attempting to knock one out before everyone and their dog gets home. Yeah, that’s not exactly true, I know Cade and Ana will be gone for several hours more because they just left for the movies, and I’m expecting Holly back any minute. Am I hoping I get caught? Hell yes.

  I’m still fucking torn up about the fact that she’s chosen that cocksucker. I know, I know, I pushed her into it by being a stupid-arse fuck, and then I pushed her further away by telling her I couldn’t deal with her baby being his. Honestly? My blood boils when I think about him being anywhere near her, much less having a piece of him inside her. The minute he arrives I wanna smack down in the worst possible way, but I don’t, because I know how much it would hurt her. She’s chosen him, and though it fucking kills me, I’m not man enough to suck up the idea of being called Daddy by a kid who’s not mine. I know it’s not fair, not to her, and not to the kid, but it is what it is.

  Fuck. Why am I thinking about this now? Why the fuck can’t I just purge that woman from my system? No matter how much I drink, or try to forget, I can’t.

  I grip my hand tightly around my Johnson, pumping it up and down with a punishing fist. I think of Sports Illustrated models, and the last porno I watched, Scarlet Johansson, and then, of course, Holly, as I fuck my hand and pretend it’s her sweet cunt I’m ramming into. My breath comes faster, my balls tighten, and my phone goes off. I groan. I’m so fucking close I think about just letting it go to voicemail when panic comes from out of nowhere, and slams me in the chest. What if there’s something wrong with Holly and the baby?

  I slide my arm over to the coffee table and pick up the phone. Sure enough, the screen is flashing up a picture of Hols’ cute-as-fuck pregnant head that I snapped one day while she was curled up sound asleep in my sheets.

  “Great timing, Hols,” I groan, releasing my grip on my cock and answering the phone. “Yeah?”

  “Jack, where are you?” Holly asks.

  “Uh, home.”

  “I might need you to come pick me up.”

  “I’m kinda in the middle of something here, Hols.”

  There’s a beat of silence, and then she clears her throat. “Right, don’t worry then, I’ll call someone else.”

  And now I feel like a complete arse. “No, I’m here,” I say before she can hang up “Whaddya need?”

  I sigh and tuck the man meat away, then grab my keys and fly out the door. “What’s happening?”

  “Snickers got out. Well, that’s not true. I got this intense craving for ice cream, not that fake, watered-down stuff they sell at the corner store—the good stuff. Ice-cream cake. You know, that one with the little chocolate frogs in it? Only our supermarket didn’t have any, so I drove to that weird store, you know the one in Broadwater that kinda smells like pee?

  “Anyway, I didn’t wanna leave Snickers in the hot car, so I made him wait outside, and then when I came back he was gone. So after freaking out for the last half of the day and waddling my fat arse around that shithole of a town—seriously, the people are fucked up there—I drove back here, because I know they don’t have a pound, and I thought that maybe someone might have found him and brought him here to the Sugartown Shelter, but they’re closed, so I kinda broke in and I found him, and I even found the keys after searching through like five hundred of them. The good news is I got our dog back, but the bad news is I’m kinda locked in, and—”

  “Whoa, whoa, wait. You broke into the pound to get our dog back?”

  “Maybe?” she squeaks, then after a beat says, “Okay, yes. I broke in. I need you to come and bust me out.”

  “Why didn’t you just call Vickie? She would have just come in there and opened up for you.”

  “Well I didn’t think of that, otherwise I would have.”

  “Okay, I’m gonna make a few calls and see if we can’t get you out without your crazy arse winding up in jail.”

  “No, no, no, you can’t call anyone.”

  “What? Why?”

  “Did you ever hear about that time that someone modified the town sign from Sugartown to Boogertown?”

  “You didn’t?”

  “Yeah, that was me. Do not judge me, Jackson Rowe. It was years ago, long before you and Cade came to town. Ana and I were drunk off our faces on peach schnapps. You know what that shit does to me. Anyway, Davis always suspected me, but he never had anything concrete. I think that mean old bastard has been itching for me to slip up ever since, so he can throw me in the slammer and lock away the key.”

  Shaking my head, I lean against the Ute and try not to laugh. “Okay, so no cops. I still don’t know why you didn’t call Vickie.”

  “I panicked. Snickers was crying, and you know how much I hate it when he whines and gives me that sad little puppy-dog face. So I just kinda jimmied the bathroom window opened, but then the bathroom has some kind of deadbolt on it, and I accidently locked it on my way through. I found Snickers and got him out, but then once the other dogs saw I was letting him out they all kinda got whiney, and I may have done something really bad.”

  “Hols, what did you do?”

  “I may have let them all out, but now we’re all stuck in here, and they’re shitting and pissing all over everything, and they won’t go back in their cages. I need you Jack.”

  I laugh out loud. I gave up a wank with a fucking happy ending for this? Fuck me. I have issues.

  Holly bursts into tears, and I can’t help but laugh again.

  “It’s not funny. I’m gonna get arrested, and all these dogs don’t have a home to go to, and I have to pee really bad.”

  “I’m on my way, sweetheart. Sit tight.” I jump in the truck and slam it into reverse.

  Five minutes later, I’m pulling up to the kennel outside of town. I’m surprised the noise alone hasn’t drawn the police. The barking is almost making my ears bleed from here, so I don’t know how Hols is coping with it. I check the front door and dial her number, only she’s not answering. Fuck. Please don’t tell me she’s gone into early labour and the dogs have eaten the baby.

  I bang on the door. “Holly!”

  The only response from inside is that the barking reaches epic proportions. “Fuck! Hols? Where are you?”

  I dial her number again. Nothing. FUCK! I’m gonna have to kick the door down. I stand back and kick the fucker in with my sole of my steel capped bo
ots. It takes a few good kicks before I get it open, and then I rush into the dark-as-fuck pound trying to find Hols. I scream her name, but I can’t hear a thing over the fucking dogs. I run through the building, bumping into just about everything, the only light coming from the moon outside and the green glow of the exit sign.

  “Hols!” I scream again, and run out to the area where they keep the dogs. “Fuck it, Hols, where are you?”

  “I’m in here.” I follow her voice through another room. There’s a wire door between the main part of the pound and the outdoor area, but it’s padlocked. I give it a few hard kicks, and the whole thing falls off its rusted hinges.

  Holly rushes forward, followed by Snickers and around fifteen other dogs. “Where the fuck were you? Why didn’t you answer your phone? I thought you’d gone into labour, and the dingos had eaten your baby.”

  “I had to pee. I left my phone behind, and I couldn’t go with all the dogs watching me.”

  I glance around, wondering where the hell she’d pee in a place like this. The bathroom she mentioned before meets up with this part of the kennel; that’s more than likely how she got back here without having to tackle the door I just kicked in, but she said she’d accidently locked the bathroom door behind her. Holly flushes and answers my unasked question by pointing to a patch of outdoor carpeting.

  “You peed on the carpet?” I double over with laughter, and then straighten and wag my finger at her. “Bad girl, bad.”

  “Shut up.” She gives me this fucking adorable little frown and then begins laughing too. “Do you know how hard it is for a pregnant woman to hold it?”

  “Come on, let’s try getting these dogs back inside their kennels where they belong before we get arrested.”

  “I tried, they don’t want to—” Hols’ is cut off by the wail of a siren, and blue-and-red flashing lights slicing through the dark night.

  “Shit.”

  “We’ll, they’re not going to arrest us, are they?”

  “Hols, we’re breaking and entering.”

  Her face crumples, and the waterworks are back in full swing. “I was just trying to get my dog back.”

  “Yeah, by breaking and entering, and not using that pretty head of yours,” I say, as I wrap an arm around her and kiss the top of her head. And then I remember I’m not supposed to do shit like that because she chose him, and I didn’t choose her and her baby. I inhale the scent of her hair, and then I quickly step back and turn away.

  Constable Davis rounds the corner with his gun raised. “Hands on your head,” he says, as his partner flashes the torch over our faces. I place my hands above my head. I sure hope Holly is too; I can’t see on account of the blinding light shining in my eyes, and I really don’t feel like having to watch her get shot tonight, so I’m hoping her hands are held real fucking high.

  “Jackson Rowe?” Constable Davis asks.

  “Hey, Greg,”

  “What are you doing’ here, son?”

  “Getting our dog back?”

  “I gotta say, I’d expect that from young Holly Harris here, it’s not the first time I’ve found her in a place she shouldn’t be. Ain’t that right, Holly?”

  “Oh my God, you go skinny-dipping at the creek one time, and suddenly you’re that girl who always gets into mischief,” she mutters.

  “I’m gonna have to take you kids into custody.” He holsters his gun and glances down at the dogs milling around his feet. “I got a busted front door, a shitload of dogs on the loose, and Vickie’s away til tomorrow.”

  “Look, we’re really sorry. Holly was in here, and she wasn’t answering her phone. I thought she might’ve gone into labour, or been eaten by dogs or something.”

  “Way to throw me under the bus, Jackarse,” she whispers.

  “Hey, if you had just waited until morning, none of this would have happened.”

  “Come on you two, the station awaits.”

  “Well, what about Snickers?” she asks, as she struggles to hold onto him. He’s not a wriggly little puppy anymore, so much as beast of a thing. He’s got these long legs that he hasn’t quite grown into, and his paws are the size of tennis balls. Hols’ having a hell of a time trying to keep him in her arms, but the stubborn shit won’t let go. She came here to get her dog back, and that’s what she’s gonna do.

  Constable Davis sighs, and shakes his head. “Never bloody well could say no to a damsel in distress.” He turns to me and smirks. “I think that might be your problem too, son.”

  “Yeah, I’m starting to think that, too.”

  “Bring him with us. I’ll have Sargent Johnson stay here and put the dogs away until we can get Trevor out here with some new locks.”

  We follow him out through the pound and into the awaiting police car: a happy dog, a bipolar pregnant woman, and an idiot, head-over-arse in love.

  Holly slumps back on the metal bed with her arms crossed. We’re sharing a cell on account of there being only two in the Sugartown police station, and they’re using the other for storing their confiscated crap and office supplies. “I mean, it’s not as if we broke in to steal the dogs, or anything.”

  “Just ours.”

  “Right. But if she hadn’t been away, we wouldn’t have had to break in.”

  I lean back against the wall and roll my head towards her. “You didn’t even ring her, Hols.”

  “Well no, but it wouldn’t matter if I had. She’s obviously not in range, and Snickers had to get out of that place.” Snickers is curled up in the space between us. He lifts his head and wags his tail.

  “Snickers had to get out, or you just couldn’t calm your impatient arse down long enough to wait the night until someone came in the morning to feed and walk the dogs?”

  “Hey don’t get all pissy with me. What if we’d left him there and some other family had adopted him in the meantime?” She scratches his ear, and he pants and closes his eyes. Lucky bastard. “What are you so angry about, anyway? It’s not like they’re going to charge us with anything.”

  “You don’t know that, Holly. Fuck! Sometimes, I just wish you’d think before you do shit. This is gonna look great when I go to the bank for a loan on Monday.”

  “The bank? What the hell do you need a loan for? I thought you were just freeloading off the government?”

  “Seriously, you think that’s what I’m doing? Just living it up and freeloading? Let me tell you something, sweetheart, with the exception of my time in Sugartown, I’ve worked my whole goddamn life. First it was to help Mum pay the bills, then it was to pay for her medical bills, then funeral costs, her mortgage … I was even fucking working when I should have been in the hospital saying goodbye. Instead, I got to say my goodbyes to an empty body with a machine pumping her lungs in order to keep her alive ‘til I got there.”

  She flinches, no doubt remembering my time in hospital. Either that, or the baby’s kicking her vag again. That kinda makes her throw a bitch-fit. “Until Mum died, I never used a red cent I didn’t work for. I’ve been living on the estate she left me, but I got plans for something more, and I need the bank’s help to do it. So yeah, I’m a little fucking pissy at the moment. Why didn’t you call the rock-star boyfriend to come buy you out of this shit?”

  There’s a beat. She opens her mouth, and then closes it again. “I didn’t think about calling him.” I can tell she’s ashamed to admit that, because immediately after the words leave her mouth she drops her gaze and blushes. I don’t know whether to be giddy with relief or pissed that I got roped into Holly’s shit again, like a fucking sucker. “I didn’t know you had a meeting with the bank. I’m sorry, Jack. Next time, I’ll call Coop.”

  “That’d be nice, since he just spent half the night going crazy trying to find you.” Cooper just appears from nowhere, walking right up to our cell alongside Constable Davis. He gives her a lazy smile that makes me wanna beat the shit outta him. “If only I’d looked here to begin with, huh?”

  Davis opens the cell, and steps back to
let us out. “Vickie’s not pressing charges. So you’re free to go, providing you can cover the cost of the locksmith.” He hands me a slip of paper with Trevor’s logo on it. It’s a hefty five-hundred bucks, plus a quote for a new kennel door that I busted beyond repair.

  “Yeah, I got it,” I say, as I watch Holly and Cooper walk down the hall and out to the front desk to collect her belongings. Snickers sits at my feet and whines.

  “I know you and I don’t know one another that well, but I’ve known your family a long time, and I like you, kid, so I’m gonna give you a piece of advice,” he says, and I turn around and face him. “That girl might seem like trouble, but she’s a good kid. And right now, she’s a confused and very pregnant kid. Unless you’re in it for the long haul, unless you can say without a doubt in your heart that you’re gonna be there for her and her baby, no matter what, you walk away and you let them be a family. Because she might not love this guy the way two parents- to-be should, but she’s gonna love that kid more than anything in the world. He’s gonna be the one who understands that because it’ll be the same for him. There’s nothing like holding your child in your arms to put life into perspective. So, unless you’re prepared to feel that right alongside her, she’s gonna choose him.”

  Fucking small towns. Just once I’d like to live somewhere where not everyone knows your business.

  “She already did,” I mumble as I walk past the officer and follow Holly out to the reception area. Seems like I’ve been tagging along behind this girl for a little too long now.

  I SLIDE my head down onto Coop’s shoulder as the opening credits start. Ana and Elijah are sitting in their chair, and I swear to God, if I have to witness the two of them going at it again like the Fingergate incident, I’m gonna call them on that shit. I mean, yeah, I get it, the lights go out and boys turn into instant horn-dogs, proving they haven’t changed any from the time they were teenagers and trying to hit second base in the cinema—I once had a guy web-sling my hand at the movies by shoving it down his pants right before he came. I mean, what the fuck is up with that shit? You can’t give a girl a little warning, and maybe a tissue before you fizz your jizz all over the place? Rude!