“You ready to have some fun?”
“Yes, where are we going?”
“It’s a surprise, but I figured you could use some fun and to get some frustration and aggression out.”
I laughed. “You couldn’t be more right.” He drove us to the outskirts of town I joked, “you aren’t bringing me out here to murder me and dump my body, are you?”
“No, ravish you a little maybe, but not murder.” We talked and bantered back and forth. I told him about Grams and how I was following her instructions moving here and finding my own life. I told him about Mac and our funny stories and our business venture that we were starting. “That sounds awesome, when is your grand opening?”
“I don’t know for sure yet. As soon as I get back home tomorrow, I have to go talk to the contractor.” My voice was strained. I had to talk to Brice regardless of what happened between us and I had to do it without letting on that it hurt.
“He’s your contractor, isn’t he?”
“Good guess. He also happens to be Jed’s son which, I’m sure, is why Jed had to get back today. He’s probably tearing into him right about now.”
“Alright, well, Abby, I expect you to call me with the date of your grand opening because I want to be there. In fact, I’d like you to call me any time you need something or if you just need to talk.” His offer was genuine and sincere. Why I couldn’t want him with the same intensity I wanted Brice, I had no idea. “Now though, it’s time to go work out some frustration.”
We were at some batting cages. “It doesn’t look open.”
“It is to us. I came by earlier and paid the owner five hundred dollars to let us have the place to ourselves tonight. You can scream as you hit the ball. It’s very cathartic.”
“Let’s do it.” I have to say, it was the most fun I had had in a long time. Philip helped teach me how to swing, which involved him wrapping his arms around me. “You are a smart man,” I said when he was showing me how to stand and follow through. His hips curved around mine. “I bet you do this with all the girls.”
He laughed. “No, only the special ones.”
It took several swings before I even hit one ball and I was nowhere near accurate, but it was a blast. He and I kept taking turns batting, he hit almost every one. “You are just showing off.”
“I do my best to impress.” He grinned.
By the time we finished, my arms felt like they would fall off. I knew that I was going to be paying for it later, but it was worth the fun. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped off and got burgers to take back to the hotel.
“What movie do you want to watch?” he asked me, making himself comfortable on the bed.
“Action or Sci-fi, no romance or horror,” I said as he was flipping through the channels. I changed into pajama bottoms and a tank top then headed for the minibar. “How do you feel about spiking our drinks?”
“Favorable, but you have to promise not to take advantage of me.”
I laughed. “You have my word, I will behave as a lady, but I need your word that you will behave as a gentleman.”
“On my honor, how about Die Hard?”
“I love John McClain.” I grinned. “Excellent choice.”
“I would not have pegged you for a McClain fan.”
“I’m a total surprise. Would you ever have pegged me as wanting to open a bar?”
“No, I can’t say that I would have said that either.”
We ate, watched the movie, joked around, and drank our rum spiked sodas. Philip and I fell asleep holding hands. Sometime later I heard a phone ring and Philip say hello, but I was half asleep not sure if it was real or if I was dreaming and then I fell back asleep, not even caring.
<<<<<>>>>>
I drove back to Belle about one the next afternoon. Philip and I had went our separate ways early that morning with the promise that we would both stay in touch. He kissed my cheek and said goodbye. I went straight to the restaurant. The crews were busy at work. I couldn’t believe how much was done. We were getting close.
Mac looked up when I entered then came around to give me a hug, “How’d it go?”
“Oh, be careful, I’m a little bit sore this morning.” Mac pulled back and looked at me.
“A good sore?” She grinned.
“A very good sore. Let’s go upstairs and I’ll tell you all about what happened.” We headed up the back stairs.
“So, what happened?” she asked when we got up into the almost finished apartment.
“Well, Philip Worthington is very attractive and nice. He’s really a great guy. Oh, he wants me to let him know when our grand opening is happening so he can come. I was going to ask you if it’s ok if he stayed at the house when he visits.”
“Sure, I’d like to meet him.” I gave her a rundown of what all happened. I left out the stuff about Brice, but I told her about the “date” with Philip and how much fun we had. “It sounds like you have yourself a new boyfriend.”
“Nah, he’s just a friend, though I must say it is the first time that I’ve actually given the thought to friend with benefits. Who knows, maybe feelings can come slowly after a couple orgasms.”
We walked around upstairs. The apartment was almost done, but what I really wanted to see was the bar. I walked downstairs and came up short. On one of the walls was painted a huge phoenix. It was engulfed in flames the reds, oranges, yellows, and streaks of blue were bursting in contrast to the black wall they were painted on. The bird appeared to be burning from the inside out. It was beautiful. “Who did this?”
“Ink, he’s the demon that owns the tattoo parlor in town. We painted the wall black yesterday morning and then he came in to paint the phoenix. I think he was here all night. He’s damn good isn’t he?”
“Yeah, he is. I think I’m going to be visiting the tattoo parlor.” I grinned at her.
“Not without me you aren’t.”
“Have they said when we will be able to get the inspectors in here to clear us to open?”
“Yeah, I already called the inspector. He’s coming in two weeks. I’m thinking we should open on the twenty-sixth. It’s a Friday.”
“Sounds good. I have an idea of what I want to do in the bar that night.” Titan walked in from the kitchen with a strange look on his face. He came over to me and gave me hug. “Thank you for the wall. That was really sweet. I love it. In fact, I’m going to make an appointment to go get it as a tattoo.”
He just smiled and nodded. “Did you have a good trip?”
“Yes, it ended up very successful. Ember was just telling me that we are just two weeks from opening. I was about to tell her my idea for the grand opening of the bar.”
Titan let loose a small smile. “Let’s hear your idea.”
“Well, I was thinking of starting grand opening drink specials at four that way everybody can get good and drunk to do karaoke start that from seven to midnight. We can call it Kick off Karaoke or something like that. What do you think?”
Mac loved it. I knew she would though, it was a man’s point of view that I wanted more. I looked to Titan. “You don’t expect me to sing, do you?”
“Not if you don’t want to.”
“Then I think it will be good. Men will be here for the women and booze anyway,” he said.
“Awesome. Ok, I have work to do, so I will talk to you later. The place looks awesome.” I looked at Mac. “I’ll see you back at the house. Are all the interviews scheduled for tomorrow?”
“Yes, I’ve narrowed them down a little, but we still have quite a bit to weed out which we will do when we interview.”
“Great.” I looked at Titan again. “Hey, can you give me Ink’s number? I need to talk to him.”
“What do you need with Ink?”
“I want to buy rights to his work,” I said pointing at the wall. He grabbed a business card from his wallet and jotted down a number on the back. “Thanks.” I smiled at him as I turned around. There he was looking hot as ever and angry too
. What the hell did he have to be angry about? Was he not the one that disappeared with the waitress? “Grit,” I said trying to keep my voice from showing any emotion. I never called him by his road name. He noticed and I caught a brief flicker of something, not sure what, flash in his eyes.
“Phoenix.”
“The place looks great, y’all have done a wonderful job.”
“Thanks.”
“Great, well, I will send your last payment with Ember tomorrow. I’m going to be busy. In fact, I have to go because I’ve got things to do.” I turned back to Mac. “I’ll see you later.”
I walked out and drove away before I let the breath I had been holding since walking out. I was afraid he would stop me, and I would not be able to keep my turbulent emotions inside. He confused me, excited me, and tortured me. I needed to keep my own distance, otherwise he could destroy what life I was pulling together.
Chapter 10
Brice
I was in the kitchen talking to Titan when I heard Ember greet Abby. When she made the comment about being sore in a good way, I almost put a fist in the wall. My wall at home already had a hole from where I hit it when I called her hotel room and a man answered the phone. I didn’t say anything, I just hung up. Titan ended up trying to calm me down. It didn’t work, but I didn’t charge after her and throw her over my shoulder to take her to the nearest bed and erase any memory of the man she spent last night with.
I knew when I was leaving with that waitress that I was making a huge mistake, but I truly underestimated the gut wrenching anger I would feel at the image of her in another man’s bed. My guess is the feelings I’m having about her with that suit are the same feelings she had about me with the bimbo from yesterday. I had nobody to blame for my current suffering but myself and I had no idea how to make it right or if I even could.
After I came back, I went to Ink and told him what I wanted done to the wall in the bar. I wanted it to be special, kind of a way of apologizing to her. Dammit I fucked up what could have been a good thing, a great thing.
When Gavel came back to town, without Abby, I just figured she was upset and decided to stay in Amarillo another night. I called her thinking to apologize, but a man answered her phone. I didn’t expect her to sit around and wait for me, but I didn’t expect her to jump into another man’s bed that fast either. Not that she was ever really in my bed to begin with.
“You going to tell me what happened?” Titan said after the girls went upstairs.
“I fucked up.”
“That much is obvious if she spent the night in another man’s bed when she has been stuck on you from the start. I’m asking what happened.”
I told him about our hot phone sex and explained how it freaked me out, so I felt the best way to distance myself was by pushing her away. When I explained about the waitress, Titan sucker punched me in the gut. It’s what I deserved, hell I was kicking my own ass for doing it.
They came down into the bar and I heard her reaction to the phoenix. I was pleased she liked it though she didn’t know it came from me. Then I heard her and Ember talk about making a trip to see Ink. Titan walked out of the kitchen to join their conversation and gave me a minute more to calm down. I walked out the restaurant side of the building and in the front door of the bar.
She looked good. I studied her as she talked knowing she didn’t see me and I wondered what she would do when she did. I couldn’t get out of my mind the fact that a man had been in her bed last night. Some man touched her, kissed her, made love to her, and it wasn’t me. She turned around, my anger barely banked, then she called me “Grit”. It was a slap in the face. She had always called me Brice. When she talked to the other guys she used their road names, but she had always called me Brice. Now she was using Grit. She was letting me know in no uncertain terms where I stood with her. Fuck.
<<<<<>>>>>
The next two weeks passed by really fast, probably because we were so damn busy. I didn’t see Abby too much, but I finally caught her alone upstairs one day.
“Abby,” I said her name. She turned to look at me. Her face had a pleasant expression though forced. She was still pissed as hell and I didn’t blame her because I was too, at myself and at whatever man had answered her phone.
“Grit.” I clenched my teeth at the use of my road name. “What can I help you with?”
“First of all, I came up here to apologize. I’m sorry. I have a past and after what happened over the phone, I guess I viewed you as a threat to my world.”
She gave me a blank look. Fire didn’t burn in her eyes anymore, it was actually worse. If there was fire, it meant she still cared, but there was nothing, no emotion, and that worried me more than anger and hurt.
“It’s fine, Grit. Don’t worry about it.”
“Second of all, stop calling me Grit”
“No, you are Grit from now on. If I call you by your first name, it feels intimate, and I have no wish to be on intimate terms with you.”
I would rather have a pummeling from Titan than to hear her speak those words. I knew she was hurt, because Gavel had come to see me. I had never seen him so angry.
My front door slammed shut. “What the fuck were you thinking?” I lifted my head off the couch where I had crashed after a long night with a bottle of Jack.
“Dad?”
“Get the fuck up right now and tell me what the hell happened. Last night, you disappeared into the bathroom with the phone for a while. I can take a guess as to what you were doing. This morning, you fuck a waitress basically right in front of her. Shit, son,that was low. She did not deserve that. I told you to make sure before you messed with her. My God, I don’t know how much more she can take. People have shit on her, her whole life. I’ve never in my life been disappointed in you, not once, not until today. Why did you do it?”
“Monica.”
“It’s been eight years, plus the seven years you were together. You have given that bitch fifteen years of your life that she did not deserve. Are you going to continue to give her your life by not living?”
His words kept playing in my head. Even now, a week and a half later, I was still thinking of what he said. The grand opening of Phoenix Bar and Phoenix Grill was two days away and everybody was going. Whether Abby and Ember realized it or not, they were unofficially part of the club. They were protected by me, Titan, Jed, and the crew that had been working on their business. Hell, even Ink was taken with Phoenix and Ember. The only ones that didn’t feel protective of the two women were the few that had not yet met them.
I decided to confront her and try to fix my major fuckup. “Abby, I fucked up. I know I did, but I want you.”
She laughed. I did not expect laughter; anger, bewilderment maybe, but laugher was not what I was expecting. “Grit,” she cleared her throat, “if you wanted me, you could have had me. I was almost ready to tell you everything. Thank God I didn’t. If you could call me and instigate phone sex, turn around hours later and have sex with a waitress you just met, then you used me to get you off and nothing more. It’s okay, it’s not the first time I have been used and I’m certain it’s probably not the last.” She took a deep breath. “Look, like I said, it’s ok. I will get over it, but in the meantime, give me space. Maybe one day I can get over it enough for us to be friends.”
“You really think that you and I can ever be just friends?” I said as I moved close to her. I swept my thumb over her cheek and despite her anger and hurt, I felt her respond with a shiver. Desire sparked in her blue eyes, but I saw the battle wage within the blue depths.
“No, Grit, you’re probably right. We could probably never be just friends. Which is all the more reason you need to back off and leave me alone. I cannot trust you again.” She would have stepped back, but I put my hand on her waist to hold her to me.
“I’m so unbelievably sorry.” I pressed my forehead to hers. “I’ve been hurt, Abby, and after our experience on the phone, I realized that you could hurt me far more than she e
ver did. I promised myself after her that I would never feel that strongly about another woman again. Since her, I rotated the women I’ve been with.”
“So, you pushed me away and hurt me to keep yourself from getting too close.”
“Yes.”
“How do I know you won’t do the same thing again? How can I trust you to not hurt me again?”
“I don’t know, sweetheart, that’s something you will have to decide, but I’m going to do everything I can to convince you that you can trust me.” Her eyes were closed as she listened to me. I lifted my head and kissed her forehead where mine had been resting. “I’ll wait, because I want you that much. We could be great together and I think you know it, too.”
“I don’t know if I can.”
“Give it time, honey, you can, and eventually you will. I messed up and I know that I will have to make it up to you.” I kissed her on the forehead one more time, then drew back. “I know you have a lot to do and I have things to do as well, so I’ll see you later. And, Abby, I didn’t sleep with her.” I turned and left so she could think on what I said.
<<<<<>>>>>
I went to my dad’s office. He had called me that morning and told me to come in this afternoon. There was something going on and he wanted to discuss it. “Hello, Ms. Janet,” I greeted his secretary. When we started the Belle chapter, dad’s old secretary decided to go into retirement rather than move with him here. Janet was her replacement and she was just as efficient but a lot sweeter.
“Grit, it’s good to see you,” she said with a smile. Her grey streaked brown hair that was cut short but looked good on her. “Your father is waiting for you.”
“Thanks, have you given any more thought to running away with me?”
She laughed. “I thought about it, but my husband wouldn’t be too happy with me and I think you have another person you are thinking about running away with if the rumor mill is accurate,” she not so subtly questioned.
Phoenix Bar: A Steel Demons MC Novel Page 7
