Aidan frowns. “Why?”
“She got smart with me after I got smart with her. I actually thought it was quite entertaining but Russell yelled at her in front of everyone.”
“He’s starting to get on my last nerve,” Aidan says under his breath.
Russell hasn’t exactly kept it a secret that if he had the chance he would steal the business right out from under Aidan’s feet. Like we would ever let that happen. If we were going to lose the diner to anyone, it certainly wouldn’t be that jackass. The only reason that Russell even has a job here still is because he can keep the place running somewhat smoothly on the rare occasion that Aidan takes the day off.
My eyes flick back over to Gracie, watching her as she jokes around with a couple of locals. She throws her head back and laughs. I wish I was the one making her do that, but I can’t imagine that happening anytime soon. My gaze wanders down her body, taking in the curves of her breasts and the flatness of her stomach. I have never seen a waitress uniform, which really is just a white shirt, black slacks and an apron, look so unbelievably hot before.
Suddenly, I imagine her in my basement, bent over my black slate table, while I am standing behind her, my fingers digging into her hips as I pump in and out of her as fast as I can. I don’t remember the last time the sight of a woman had such an impact on me. Linley was probably the last one, but somehow this is different. I want to make love to her, hot and slow, I want to dominate her and make her mine, I want her in my bed, in her bed, on the couch, in the backseat of my Jeep, on the side of a building in the middle of the night with her back pressed up against a brick wall…
“How about different locations around town?” Aidan asks, pulling me out of my dirty thoughts.
I didn’t say all of that out loud, did I?
“I’m sorry, what?” I ask, my throat feeling suddenly dry.
“For the paintings. Do you think you could paint different locations around town, like the town hall building, maybe the clock tower in Brooksville Square? Stuff like that.”
“Uh, yeah, I could, uh, I could do that.”
Aidan looks at me and frowns. “You okay?”
I slam my sketchbook shut, pick up my mug and chug the rest of my coffee. I need to get out of here. I don’t even know this girl and she is evoking feelings that I don’t want. Feelings that I don’t need. I slide the plate of half-eaten Spanish omelet towards him. “Here, finish this. I gotta go.”
Standing up, I pull my wallet out of my back pocket, remove a couple of dollars and toss them down on the table. “Make sure Gracie gets that.” I say. Grabbing my stuff, I bolt out the door before he has the chance to say anything else.
As soon as I am in my Jeep, I take a deep breath of relief. What the fuck is going on with me? It’s only been what, maybe two hours or so since I kicked Mel out of my bed? I haven’t given her a second thought and I’m already fantasizing about someone else. Even more fucked up than that is knowing that, even though I know I can’t have her, I don’t want her with anyone else either.
“Get your shit together, asshole,” I mutter to myself.
Turning the key in the ignition, my Jeep roars to life. I quickly throw it in reverse and peel out of the parking lot. My tires screech loudly, announcing my hasty departure to everyone. As I head away from the diner, my thoughts mirror the same ones that I had when I arrived.
I am fucked.
Chapter Four
Gracie
Dressed in skinny jeans, a sparkly tank top and black heels, I arrive at The Rusty Nail at exactly ten o’clock. Molly is already inside, seated with a bunch of other people.
Molly grabs a hold of my hand, pulling me down into the empty seat next to her. “You look amazing!” she gushes.
She waves her hand wildly in the air, signaling for the waitress to come over to our table. Molly orders us each a shot of whatever the hell ‘Woo Woo’ is and I ask for a shandy to go along with mine. The waitress nods and disappears, returning a few moments later with our drinks on her tray.
Molly takes one of the shot glasses and slides the other one over to me.
“Bottoms up, pretty lady,” she says, tapping her glass against mine before tossing her shot back. I quickly swallow mine, closing my eyes for a moment as the delicious combination of peach and cranberry slides down my throat.
“All right,” she says. “You want the scoop on Brooksville’s sexiest bad boy, Travis Foster.”
“Keep it down!” I shush her. “His brother is sitting right there!”
“So?” Molly glances over at Nathanial, who is in a deep conversation about sports with the guy sitting next to him. “I highly doubt he is paying attention. He never does.”
Molly looks sad for a moment and I wonder if there is something deeper behind the words she is saying. She shakes her head and her face brightens up. “Anyway, so the Foster boys are all pretty close. You know Aidan, Nathanial and Travis. They also have two younger brothers named Remy and Liam. They had the typical upbringing, their dad owned the diner and their mom was the typical doting mom. If she wasn’t hanging out at the diner gossiping, she was baking cookies or making fruit kabobs to hand out after their sporting activities. Travis was doing really well until he got mixed up with that hussy, Veronica, when he was sixteen.”
She breaks off from what she is saying, shaking her head. She rolls her eyes and glides her tongue across her teeth. I lean in, knowing the story is about to get good. I am eating up every word she is saying. “Veronica introduced Travis to the fast life of sex and drugs. He got caught with her baggie full of joints one night, getting himself into a shit-ton of trouble. He said it was hers, she cried boo hoo, and he got blamed for it. Shortly after that, she tried to get him to go into town and score some drugs for her and he said no. So she slept with my boyfriend, Marcus, and sweet talked him into doing it instead.”
My eyes widen. “Sometimes I can’t believe the things some girls do to get what they want.”
Molly shakes her head and waves her hand through the air. “Really, she was doing me a favor. Marcus was a jackass. Anyway, after that Travis went through this phase of dating the skankiest girls he could find, he was partying, drinking, getting high and fighting…a lot. He got evicted from wherever he lived with this one girl and had to move back in with his parents. This is a small town, people talk and no one would give him a job based on everything he was doing. That only caused him to drink and use more, only this time, from what I hear, he had upgraded from pot to heroin.”
Nathanial turns around and glances back and forth between me and Molly. I’m not sure if he can hear what we are talking about, but if he does, he makes no effort to ask us to stop or stick up for his brother. He gives me a wave and a smile before his gaze settles on the curly-haired brunette sitting next to me. I can clearly see the lust in his eyes and it amazes me that Molly doesn’t notice it, or maybe she does and she just chooses to ignore it.
“Travis’s addiction hit the family hard. I only know because I have been working at the diner for six years. I’ve heard the boys talking, Connie talking, I’ve seen them come in to open up after only getting two hours of sleep because they were driving around looking for him all night long.”
“So what happened?” I ask curiously. “Is he still using?” He didn’t seem like he was high or hungover in any way when I saw him yesterday morning, but I also know that some people can hide it very well.
Molly shrugs her shoulders and shakes her head. “He went to rehab and came out a new man. He’s moody the majority of the time and he can be a dick sometimes, but, all in all, he’s a nice guy. He always was one whether he wants to remember that or not.”
The DJ announces that karaoke is going to begin in a few moments. Molly jumps up and dances her way over to his booth to grab the song book. She brings it back to the table, plopping back down in her seat.
“Are you going to sing?” she asks me.
“Uhhh…no. You are going to have to get me drunk before that happens,” I laugh.
Molly sticks her hand up in the air and snaps her fingers. “Two more Woo Woo’s over here!” she shouts out.
Nathanial shakes his head and laughs.
“What?” she asks him as she flips through the pages in the song book.
“Nothing, I just find it funny that one waitress would snap her fingers and shout her order to another waitress. What would you do if someone did that to you in the diner?” he asks her.
“Sneeze muffin,” she says without hesitating.
Nathanial’s eyes widen and his mouth drops open in disbelief. “Please tell me you are joking.”
Molly rolls her eyes and whips her head towards him. “Do you really think I would do something like that, Nathanial Foster?”
“Molly, there isn’t anything in the world that you could do that would surprise me,” Nathanial says with a chuckle.
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah.”
Molly tosses the karaoke book into my arms as she leaps out of her seat and into Nathanial’s lap, straddling his hips. She grabs him by the back of his head and lunges forwards, pressing her lips against his. All conversations cease at the table as everyone begins hooting at the sight of Molly attacking Nathanial with her lips. After a moment, she pulls back, climbs off of his lap, smooths her black skirt and sits back down in her seat. Nathanial stares at her with a stunned look on his face, as if he is trying to figure out what the hell just happened.
“Proved him wrong,” Molly mutters as she grabs the song book out of my hands.
She glances over the song list, running her long, red fingernails over the titles of the songs. She stops at one and her eyes widen. “That’s it. This is the one that we are doing.”
I glance over to see her pointing at ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ by Guns ‘N Roses. I shake my head as I glance up at her.
“I am pretty sure I am not cool enough to sing that song,” I tell her.
Molly swipes her hand through the air. “Nonsense. We are singing this. This is seriously about to go down.”
Molly jumps up and hurries over to the DJ to put in our song selection before I have the chance to say anything else to her. I turn towards Nathanial, who is still staring at her intently.
“She’s crazy,” I say.
“She’s something all right,” he mutters.
“All right, all right, all right,” the DJ calls out as he fades the sounds of Justin Timberlake into the background. “We’ve got our first duet of the night and one of them happens to be a newbie. I’m going to need Gracie Whitmore to make her way over to the stage.”
“Let’s go Gracie!” Molly shouts as she cups her hands around her mouth.
“Go ahead.” Nathanial nudges my arm with a smirk on his face.
Reluctantly, I scoot my chair back and stand up. I feel like I am doing the equivalent to the walk of shame as I move towards Molly. The DJ tosses me a microphone, which, to my surprise, I actually catch. I can’t believe I am really about to do this. I don’t even like singing in my shower. I sang in my car once, forgetting the windows were rolled down, and actually got dirty looks from other drivers when I was stopped at a red light.
“Alright, everybody! Let’s make some noise for Gracie and Molly as they try their hardest to not butcher Guns ‘N Roses,” the DJ announces.
The music starts playing and the lyrics pop up on the screen in front of us. I feel like I could pass out at any moment; I am so nervous. My palms are clammy and I am starting to sweat, which is so not sexy. Molly is bopping all around the stage, shimmying and spinning around in circles. Then she starts singing and I freeze in place. That girl can sing! The crowd starts clapping along to the beat and cheering us, well her, on.
Molly prances over to me and points to the microphone and then to my mouth, without breaking song. I close my eyes and take a big gulp before I start singing along with her. A few seconds in, I open my eyes and the first thing I see is Travis Foster. He is sitting on the other side of the room from where our group is. His arm is draped loosely around the shoulders of a girl with dark burgundy hair.
My heart stops, and for a moment, I fumble over the lyrics. I turn away, trying my hardest to focus on anyone else, but my gaze keeps shifting back to him. Travis is staring at me, watching every move I make with an expressionless look on his face. The girl he is with turns in his arm so that she is facing him. She says something in his ear before planting a kiss on his cheek. Jealousy boils in my stomach and I find myself in a staring match with him. I don’t know why he has this pull over me and I’m not sure how I feel about it. The last thing I want is to make a fool out of myself because I obviously have a thing for a guy who is clearly with someone else.
The song ends and Molly grabs my hand, bowing dramatically. I make my way through the crowd, back to our table, as the next act gets ready to go. A guy with blonde hair styled in sort of a faux hawk has taken up residency in Molly’s seat. She doesn’t seem to mind, though. She sits at the opposite end of the table. There aren’t any other seats open down there, so I sit back down where I originally was.
“That was awesome,” Faux hawk says to me.
“You think so?” I ask.
“Absolutely.” He flashes me a smile, deep dimples forming in both of his cheeks.
“You may want to get your hearing checked,” I tell him.
He laughs and extends one of his hands. “I’m Evan.”
“Gracie,” I say, returning his handshake.
“Can I buy you a drink?”
I open my mouth and hesitate. Do I want him to buy me a drink? He seems nice enough. He’s cute. Sure, he doesn’t make the butterflies in my tummy dance around like a certain brooding tattooed guy, but, let’s face it, Evan is more the type I typically go for. My eyes flit across the room at Travis, who is now practically getting a lap dance from his little burgundy haired friend.
“I would love a beer.”
“All right, a beer it is.” Evan’s smile deepens, flashing a set of pearly white teeth.
He gets up and walks over to the bar, turning to look at me as he waits for our drinks. He returns a few moments later, handing me a bottle of Yuengling. He pulls his chair closer to mine and sits down, resting one of his hands on my back.
We spend the next thirty minutes discussing everything from what we do for a living – he’s in construction with his dad – to what our favorite movies are. Taking the last sip of my beer, I glance down at my phone. My eyes widen when I realize how late it is.
“Shit!” I exclaim. “I have to go. I have about six hours until I have to be at the diner.”
“I’ll walk you out.”
“Oh, you don’t have to do that.”
“I insist.”
Standing up, I wave goodbye to everyone, telling Nathanial and Molly that I will see them at the diner in a few hours. Evan slips his arm around my waist as he leads me towards the exit. Glancing around, I catch Travis’s eye. His gaze travels from my face down my body, stopping when it gets to Evan’s arm wrapped around me. Travis’s eyes narrow and he looks positively furious. I have no idea why. He’s been a little preoccupied tonight with his friend, who has noticed that she doesn’t have his attention anymore and is now rubbing herself up against him to get it back.
We step outside and are immediately greeted by the warmth of the mid-July night. I hate being cold, so I welcome the warmth. Evan walks me to my car and leans up against the back door as I unlock the front.
“I, uh, I know we just met and all, and this may seem a bit forward, but would you like to go out sometime? I’d really like to get to know you better.” Evan reaches one hand out and runs his fingers through my hair.
I feel torn about what I should say. Is Evan cute? Yes. Nice? Absolutely. Do I feel a spark? Not so much. Travis’s image floats into my mind, and I wonder, if it wasn’t for him, would I have that insta-spark for Evan?
Who knows, but really, I guess it is crazy to expect that from someone I just met tonight. There is no harm in gett
ing together with him. The worst thing that could happen is I make a new friend.
“I, I’m not really looking for a relationship,” I say honestly.
“Well, I mean, I’m not proposing marriage here,” he jokes. “I get it, though, I just recently got out of a long relationship and I”m not looking to jump right back into another one. I just figure you’re new in town and hanging out with me can’t be any worse than sitting at home by yourself.”
“True.” I laugh. “Yes, I would like to hang out with you sometime.”
“Great,” Evan says, flashing me that dimpled smile again. “Can I see your phone?”
I hand him my phone. He taps a couple of buttons and I see his own phone light up. “I will give you a call and we can set something up.”
“Sounds great,” I say.
“Goodnight, Gracie.” Evan leans forward, brushing his lips against my cheek.
“Good night, Evan,” I say, wondering how honest he is about wanting to be friends.
Chapter Five
Travis
My mind is racing. I can't turn it off, the thoughts of using. I don't know why I thought I could stop. It was stupid of me to ever think that I could. I need it, just as badly as I need to breathe.
My hands are shaking uncontrollably, my body is drenched in sweat and I feel like I am going to die.
Why?
Why, why, why?
Why do I feel like this?
Something is wrong. Something is very, very wrong.
"Dr. Stuber!" I scream.
I scream his name over and over and over again until he comes into my room flanked by two burly aides.
"What can I help you with Travis?" he asks calmly.
Why is he so calm? Can't he see there is something wrong with me?
"I need to get out of here. I need to get...I need one hit. I need it bad." I run my shaking hands through my wild hair, pulling tightly on the ends.
"I can't let you leave, Travis," he says.
Travis Page 3
