by Devney Perry
“Allegedly?”
He inched closer so he could talk in a low voice. “I’ve seen patients like him before, Gigi, when I worked in bigger hospitals. I’m sure you ran across them during your time in Spokane too. They come in complaining of an ache or pain. Something almost impossible for a doctor to diagnose. Back pain. Knee ache. Sprained joints. Other than giving them medication and telling them to rest, there isn’t much else we can do for treatment. They know that. So they come in with the same pain, over and over, and leave with a brand new prescription.”
“Oh,” I mumbled. “You think he’s a pain pill addict? That he was faking it?”
“I don’t know. The only other option is that Ida made a mistake and didn’t give him enough oxy,” he said.
“I doubt it.” Ida was the senior nurse at the hospital and the epitome of thorough.
He nodded. “Me too. She isn’t likely to have made a mistake like that.”
Mr. Johnson had shown me two very different versions of himself in the last hour. But a painkiller addict? He didn’t seem the type.
“An addict?” I asked.
“Maybe. I’m just speculating. The addicts I’ve seen in the past came into the hospital on a fairly regular basis. But that was in much bigger hospitals. It was easier for them to blend in. They could avoid seeing the same doctor over and over. Here, it would be much more difficult.”
“His chart said he’s been in a couple of times but that was spread out over five years.”
“True. He might be traveling out of town to other hospitals. I just don’t know. It could legitimately be that his body just didn’t respond to the oxycodone,” Everett said.
Jess was still trying to find out who was selling prescription drugs in Prescott. If I didn’t know there was a dealer on the loose, my mind would have never suspected Mr. Johnson of drug abuse. But now I couldn’t rule it out.
We were sitting across from each other in Jess’s booth at the café. The Mustangs had an away game and Rowen was finally having a sleepover with Bryant’s daughter. So, much like our first date, Jess and I were alone for dinner.
“I’ve known Gus Johnson for years. He’s no drug addict,” Jess said.
Nurses weren’t supposed to share patient information with people outside of the hospital staff, Hippocratic oath and all. So if I needed to share something about my day with Jess, I always used general terms to describe the situation. And I never used a patient’s name.
I was surprised when he knew exactly who I had been talking about.
Correction. I was shocked.
“How did you know who I was talking about?” I asked.
“I was at Silas’s place today when Gus came in and said he tweaked his back.”
“Oh. Well. Still, you don’t know he isn’t an addict. He could be an expert at hiding it,” I said.
“Freckles, believe me when I tell you he’s no drug addict.”
“But don’t you think it’s all a little too suspicious? I mean . . . he works at Silas’s ranch. He could have picked up hidden pills there and known exactly where to look. Maybe he was the one that hit and killed that baby calf. Plus he had to have been faking it when he said he was still in pain today. No person can get that much oxy and not be feeling good an hour later.”
He chuckled.
“What? What’s funny?”
“Gus works on the ranch. He’d be the last person to hit a calf with his truck. He’d know exactly where they were and he’d stay away.”
“Oh,” I grumbled. “I guess that makes sense.”
The waitress came over and took our orders while Jess told me about his day. We were so wrapped up in our conversation that we jerked in surprise when Wes Drummond slipped into our booth. He slid right next to me, pushing me further toward the wall and trapping me in.
Before Jess or I could say anything, he held up both hands and said, “No trouble, Brick. I swear.”
“What do you want, Wes?” Jess asked through a clenched jaw.
Wes scrubbed both hands over his face and then ran them through his hair, making it stand up in all directions. “Nothing. Shit, I don’t know.”
Wes wasn’t clouded with his usual air of confidence and defiance. His eyes were clear. Bloodshot, but not glassy like I’d seen before.
“Wes, we’re not talking with Georgia here,” Jess said.
Wes ran his hands through his hair again before saying, “I called Lissy.”
Jess’s face turned hard as stone. I wasn’t sure who Lissy was but the fact that Wes had called her was clearly not something Jess liked.
“Stay the fuck away from her. Don’t fucking call her. She’s gone. A memory for you. Don’t pile your shit on her.”
“I miss her. Fuck. I just needed to hear her voice. Get some perspective. Shit is coming down fast.”
Wes’s rambling made no sense and I hoped Jess understood.
“Wes, we gotta talk about this somewhere else. You gotta come clean before that shit crashes down on your head,” Jess said.
“Can’t. He’s closing in, Brick. Crazy as fuck. Not just about money. Wants the town. Power. He’s obsessed. Fuckin’ smart.” Wes talked without looking directly at Jess. His body squirmed and he bounced in the seat.
“Who? Who is, Wes?”
Wes flinched at Jess’s question. It was like a light switched on and he realized where he was. As quickly as he’d come into the booth, he slid out, mumbling, “Sorry.” A few long strides, and he was out the door.
I didn’t know what to say so I just sat there. I wanted to ask who Lissy was and who she was to Wes but didn’t dare break the silence. Jess was pissed and needed a minute to calm down.
His hands were fisted on the table and he was staring down at the space between them. He stayed silent until the waitress brought us our food.
“Fuck,” Jess muttered.
I reached out my left hand and covered his right fist.
He forced a smile. Only one side of his mouth tilted upward.
I started to take my hand away but he grabbed hold before I could. Neither of us had anything else to say after that. We just ate our dinners with one free hand. Him using his left, me using my right.
Walking out of the café, I asked Jess to take me to his place. I was curious and had been looking for an excuse to visit. Without Rowen, tonight was perfect. He always spent the night at the farmhouse and it seemed strange that we’d been dating for this long and I hadn’t been there yet.
“It’s not much, Freckles,” he said.
“I don’t care. I just want to see where it is. What it’s like.”
We drove away from the café and headed toward the side of town closest to the river.
Four blocks from Main Street, we turned into a cul-de-sac. The homes all matched, every one with a similar layout but all in different colors. A couple of them had large garages at the back. One had a big swing set in its fenced yard.
Of course Jess’s house would have a big garage. It wasn’t as huge as mine but it certainly wasn’t small. His was a typical garage with a big white door. Garagey.
The house was a single story plus a basement. The yard was well kept, but there were no accents. No flowerbeds or planters.
Jess unlocked the door and pushed it open, letting me walk in first.
“Go ahead, Freckles. Explore away.”
The only way to describe Jess’s place was “bachelor pad.” All the walls where white. The carpet was a plain, shag tan. He didn’t have any extras. No knickknacks. No area rugs to add color. No painted walls. No framed pictures. No toss pillows or comfy blankets on the couch.
Just the manly man essentials. Reclining chair. Fridge for beer. Big TV.
“I like your bachelor pad.”
“Thanks, baby,” he said, thumbing through a stack of mail.
What Jess’s place lacked in décor, it made up for in cleanliness.
“Did you come here and clean today? It’s spotless. If you can clean like this, I’m putting
you on the chore wheel with Rowen.”
He chuckled. “Neighbor comes over once a week and cleans for me. She owns the cleaning service here in town. Cleans the station too.”
“Gotcha. Well, she’s talented. I don’t see a speck of dust anywhere. I might have to pick her brain for what she uses.”
“Want me to see if she can clean the farmhouse?” he asked.
“Uh . . . not right now. It isn’t hard to clean. I just try and do a little every night. Plus it gives me chores for Roe to do. Haven’t you noticed?”
“Yeah. I noticed. Just thought it might be nice to have that extra time. She’s reasonable, Freckles. Wouldn’t cost too much.”
I shrugged. “We’ll see.”
If things got busier, I’d consider it. But right now, I liked cleaning the farmhouse. It was a good stress reliever and the more I cleaned, the more familiar I became with each room, making the farmhouse feel like it was mine.
“You ready to go?” he asked.
“We just got here, Jess. What’s the hurry? Don’t you want to stick around for a while? Actually be in your own house for once?” I asked.
“No.”
“Uh . . . why?” I reached out to touch his bicep. “You know, we could stay here tonight. Switch it up. We were going to stay here a couple weeks ago but that never happened. Now we could.”
“No.”
“You’re going to need to give me more than just ‘no.’ ”
He turned, placing one hand on my hip as the other slid down and palmed my ass.
“I’ve been waiting to take you all over the farmhouse. Now’s finally our chance. We’re gonna take advantage,” he said.
Sex someplace other than my bed at the farmhouse? Hot.
“Time to go,” I blurted and walked straight to the door. Jess and his chuckle followed close behind.
Jess was all over me the instant the front door closed. He attacked my mouth, his tongue plundering relentlessly. I matched his intensity and we frantically stripped off each other’s clothes, leaving them in a pile in the entryway. Once we were both naked, he pushed me into the house toward the living room.
“Turn around, baby,” he said, breaking our kiss.
I spun around and saw that I was right behind the couch. Jess’s hands wrapped around me from behind and started kneading my breasts, his thumb and middle finger pinching my nipples, making them rock hard.
He moved his mouth to my neck and started peppering kisses from behind my ear down to my shoulder, then working his way back up, the entire time tweaking my nipples. His erection prodded my ass. I pushed my hips back, grinding against his hard cock. I moaned as I started to build, thankful that we could be as loud as we wanted tonight.
He stopped kissing me. His hands grabbed my hips.
“Bend over.”
I bent at the waist and leaned into the couch, my forearms keeping me from toppling over the back. He lined himself up with my entrance, and with one smooth stroke, he was buried deep. It took a minute for me to adjust but soon my wetness began to make us both slick and I relaxed to the feel of him inside me.
“Gonna make you scream tonight, Georgia,” he said.
“Oh, god,” was all I could say. I wanted that. Badly. To be brought so high that when I burst, nothing could stop my screams of ecstasy.
He started pounding into me. Hard and fast. Each stroke slapping our skin together, the sound echoing through the living room.
“Harder, Jess.”
He took my plea as his permission to let go and release all of the restraint in his strong body. He slammed into me relentlessly, each hit taking me higher and higher, his hands pulling my hips back onto his cock as he thrust forward with his powerful hips.
I rose up on my toes and the change in angle sent me over the edge. I screamed his name before I buried my face into the couch and exploded around him, coming harder than I ever had before.
He kept pounding through my orgasm as my inner walls clenched and pulsed. I was starting to come down when he groaned with his own release. When he had emptied himself inside of me, he planted his cock deep and bent down so his stomach was resting on my back.
“Fuck, baby,” he moaned.
“Hmm.” I sighed, totally relaxed and sated.
We stayed there in the living room for a few minutes, naked with Jess inside me. Having finally been able to let go and enjoy each other’s bodies without the fear of my daughter barging in on us.
“More sleepovers,” I whispered.
Jess chuckled and slowly pulled himself out.
I stood back up and turned to wrap my arms around his waist and kiss his chest.
“I like seeing my come drip down your leg, Freckles,” he said.
“Then you get to clean up your mess, honey,” I teased.
“You let me fuck your mouth in the shower, it’s a deal.”
Jess had endurance. I had a feeling tonight he was going to show me just how much.
I tipped my head back to look at his face. Then I lifted my eyebrows and grinned. He grinned back before hauling me upstairs in a fireman’s hold.
Straight into the shower.
After that, we came downstairs and went at it on the dining room table. Then the kitchen.
We were absolutely scheduling more sleepovers.
“If you two want to make it to town while there’s still candy left, we gotta go. Now!” Jess bellowed from downstairs.
“Coming! One more minute,” I shouted back. “Okay, baby girl. What do you think? Is it okay?” I asked Roe.
“I love it, Mommy!” she squealed.
She was standing in front of my full-length mirror, assessing the final touches I had just placed on her purple princess costume.
Jess had warned me that the forecast was calling for snow, so I’d had to make a few modifications to her Halloween costume so she could trick-or-treat without catching pneumonia.
Weeks ago, Jess had shattered my Halloween plans by telling me that the farmhouse was too far from town to get any trick-or-treaters. I loved handing out candy and I had been disappointed, but then he had offered his house as a replacement and I’d gotten to work, planning.
But before we went to his place, we were participating in Main Street’s annual trick-or-treating event.
I put on my hat and Rowen and I hurried downstairs.
“Ready!” I said with a smile, ignoring his disapproval of my outfit.
I never wore a full costume but I liked to add Halloween touches to my normal clothes. Tonight, I had on orange and black socks, black heels and a floppy witch’s hat.
“Roe, you’ve got your bucket,” I said, seeing her swinging it wildly at her side. “Okay, let’s roll.”
We stepped onto the front porch, now decorated in country Halloween chic, and navigated our way down the front steps piled with eleven pumpkins. Smiling at the Halloween splendor I had created, I rushed to the car in my not-so-practical shoes, giddy with excitement.
Fifteen minutes later, we had picked up Jess’s mom and were pulling into his driveway.
“Oh my,” Noelle mumbled.
Earlier in the week, I had asked Jess if we could invite his mom to come trick-or-treating with us. I thought it might be nice to get to know her better, and with a flurry of Halloween activity, it would be easy to avoid any awkward silences if she got spacey.
“Yeah, Ma. It’s not over the top at all,” Jess drawled.
“Hey!” I said, backhanding him on the arm.
Jess thought I had gone too far with the decorations. There were a lot, but I didn’t think it was too much. Just some spiders, webs, bats, ghosts and spooky lights. I’d also put up a couple of clever tombstones (“RIP Anita Shovel” being my favorite) because they were hilarious. And there were a couple of skeletons scaling the house too.
“I don’t know why you’re hitting me, Georgia. I told you to stop two days ago. Did you listen?”
Instead of answering, I scrunched up my nose.
Guilty.
I had been planning to stop. Really. But I kept finding new decoration ideas on Pinterest.
Every night, Rowen and I would sneak over and augment the spooky décor and then race to the farmhouse before Jess could get there for dinner.
“No. You didn’t. I see I’ve got some new additions since I was here Tuesday,” he said.
“You know, I’m not sure why you’re so worked up about this. Roe and I did all of the decorating and I already promised you we’d come take it all down. And besides, look at how amazing it is! I just don’t see how this is really even affecting you. Really. You get to just sit back and enjoy.”
“It’s not affecting me, huh? Was it you who had to threaten David down at the paper with a night in a cell if he put a picture of my house in the newspaper next week?”
Okay, maybe it was borderline excessive.
“This shit’s getting me noticed. Something I do not want, Freckles. And here you are, hitting me.”
“Well . . . sorry. But it’s too late now. Besides, it’s Thursday. You only have to endure it for one more day and then we’ll clean it up over the weekend. It’s not like you’re here much anyway.”
He grumbled something under his breath I didn’t catch, but I was pretty sure it included the f-word.
I wasn’t going to let his annoyance wreck the night. He’d just have to get over it. The Ellars girls loved all things Halloween. Decorations. Costumes. Candy. All of it. The end.
Roe hauled in a load of candy on Main Street. Everyone commented on how cute she was in her costume. She beamed under the praise, spinning and twirling her dress.
The whole town of Prescott seemed to be out on Main Street. Jess introduced me to more people in that hour than I had met collectively in my entire life. By the end of the trip, I started warning people that I might mix up names.
Jess and Roe left to walk through his neighborhood while Noelle and I manned the house, doling out handfuls of candy to all the monsters, superheroes, princesses and fairies that visited. The one little girl who was dressed as a police officer got two handfuls.
