"Yeah, but you see my point. What if I had been in my bedroom getting high? What if I'd been in the bathroom taking a shit? You're really messing with my ego woman."
"You weren't in your bedroom were you? You told me that you wanted me. Are you trying to tell me that Carl wouldn't have let you know I was there and kept me distracted until you could get done being busy? I seriously doubt that Carl would have had a second thought about pounding on the bathroom door if you were in there taking a crap."
"You know me too well don't you? Did that shithead tell you that I told him to look out for you specifically?"
She hid a smile. "Nope."
"Liar. He has such a big mouth. What exactly did he tell you?"
"Something like watch out for that cute green eyed blonde who's always with that loser Jude. Like you didn't know my name."
"I made sure I knew your name. I've been trying to play it cool when my cousin's told you everything. Did he tell you what I was gonna do if you never showed up at my place without Jude?"
"No. Do I want to hear this?" He shrugged. "Can we pull over somewhere and have a cigarette? We'd better start heading back soon and I feel like I'm gonna die if I don't have a cigarette."
"Ah, the joys of nicotine addiction."
He pulled over into a strip mall where all the stores were closed. When they got out of the car, he handed her a cigarette and a lighter.
"Did you tell Langston I smoke?"
"Nope. You tell him yourself if you think he needs to know. Didn't tell him we were having sex either, but I think he kinda figured anyway."
"Oh well. Just as long as he's not gonna chop your penis off. So what was your big plan to steal me away from Jude?"
"Well, if you showed up at my house with Jude, Carl was gonna distract him, get him drunk and really high so I could get you alone."
"I can guess how well that would have gone." She snorted.
"You don't think you'd have come around?"
"Hell no. Even if you had managed to get me alone when I was with Jude, there’s no way in hell I would have had sex with you."
"There you go again; killing my ego. If you never showed up at my house with or without Jude, I was gonna hang out around town, and accidentally on purpose run into you. Sweet talk my way into your heart. Let you see the error of your ways. By the time I was done with you, you'd be dumping Jude and you'd be mine in no time."
"So you were going to stalk me?"
"What a way to put it."
"How else are you supposed to put it? What would you have done if that didn't work? Trick me into dating Carl so I'd be over at your house all the time and then casually start walking around without a shirt on so I'd be after your hot bod?"
"I didn't think of that. It would probably have worked though, huh?" He gave her a cocky grin.
"You're an ass.”
"But I'm all yours baby.” He pulled her into his arms.
"Don't sweet talk me now. You're an evil mastermind. You're as bad as Lindsey."
"Yes Tor. I'm only after you for your money. All that money you don't want to take from your stepdad."
"Don't remind me. I wonder if my mom will stumble in to lunch drunk. Wouldn't that be a pretty sight? Everyone at that fancy restaurant would have a cow."
"I doubt it. Langston said she's really into this guy. He doesn't think she'll be back until it's time to hand him the divorce papers."
"Lindsey has never really been into a guy. He's blinded because he's dumb enough to think he loves her."
"He doesn't just think he loves her. He really does. You should have heard some of the shit he told me that she's done to him."
"Yeah, just what I want to hear. As if I don't think she's a big enough bitch already. So you and Langston are real tight now? Why don't you ask him for a loan so you can get out of dealing? I think he can probably afford to spot you some cash."
"Yes, Tory, I'm going to tell your stepdad that I'm a drug dealer but it's okay because I want to get out of it. Why don't I also tell him that my uncle's a cop and he lets me get away with it? That would make him want to marry you off to me right here and now."
"Yeah, yeah. Why don't you tell him you need the money to start your own business? Tell him that your dad died right before you graduated and you've been taking care of your mom ever since."
"Exactly what business am I starting Tor? You're expecting me to ask Langston for a loan when you don't want to take his money when he's been married to your mom for four years. I'm supposed to want to take his money when I've known his less than four days?"
"It's for a good cause."
He shook his head at her as they got back in the car. "And your college education isn't?"
"Yeah well, you're getting along so well with him, what the hell right? Hey, maybe we can get my mom's new husband to shell out some cash. I'll tell him if he gives me $25,000 I'll pretend Lindsey isn't my mother and never speak to her again. That sounds fair right? That would make both of us happy."
"You are insane Tory."
"Hey, that's not nice. You just told me you were going to stalk me until you got me into bed and I'm the one who's insane?"
"I'm a romantic. You want some guy that isn't even married to your mother to pay you to never talk to her again."
"It's romantic to stalk someone? Shit, let me call up all the women whose ex-boyfriends follow them home from work and tell them that it's not creepy, it's really romantic. Oh shit, I can't. Because all of them are fucking dead."
"I would never hurt you Tor. You know that."
"Of course I know that. I guess it is romantic in a creepy kind of way. Hey Tony?" Something had occurred to her and it was going to bug her until she asked him.
"What darlin’?"
"You had parties over the summer right?"
"Of course I did. Why?"
"Did Jude show up with another girl at any of them?"
"Um." He looked away from her then, his eyes glued to the road though they were stopped at a red light. She had her answer.
"Was it Molli he was with?"
"Um."
"Spit it out Tony."
"Just once, towards the end of summer. You must not have made it into town yet. It was a weekend or two before school started I think."
"So he only brought a girl to one of your parties that one time?"
"Well. . ."
"Tony come on. Just tell me."
"No. It was just Molli that one time. There were other girls though. Local girls."
"Like how many?" She was getting pissed.
"I don't know. I didn't exactly keep a tally Tor. I had a party every other weekend during the summer at least. I wanna say Jude was at somewhere around half of them."
"Did he always bring a girl with him?"
"Not all the time. He brought a girl I don't know; half the time. Tried to pick one up the rest of the time."
"You are so kidding me."
"No baby, I'm not."
"Why didn't you tell me this before? You let me go on about Jude like a complete idiot when you knew he'd been screwing around the whole time."
"It was hard enough for me to deal with you going on about Jude all the time. I didn't want to add insult to injury by telling you that he was chasing after anything in a skirt all summer. You had to come to the conclusion that he was an ass yourself. And it took you sleeping with him to figure it out. Do you think me telling you would have done any good? You probably would have called me a liar and walked out on me. I didn't want that."
"Why the hell did he give a shit if I screwed him if he was already screwing the whole town? Damn, I'm a bigger moron than I thought."
"You're not a moron Tory. You thought you were in love."
"No, I am a moron and I was in love. How'd you know I was his girlfriend and not just another one of his conquests?"
"I asked around. You and Molli are the only ones he ever called his girlfriend."
"No one is faithful. Jude screws anyone who will let him.
What the hell is wrong with people?"
"I don't know Tor. Just human nature I guess. Some people say that monogamy isn't natural."
"So everyone in the world is supposed to cheat and lie? Money and sex are what make the world go round. That's why prostitution is the oldest profession right? Now my mother's going to further embarrass me by getting married to someone who's barely older than me. What if this guy knocks her up? Just what I need, a brother or sister twenty years younger than me. Gross."
"She’s had a hard time having any more kids."
"How do you know this?"
"Langston said that she got weepy one night when she was drunk. She had an abortion when you were little. This really expensive doctor that a lot of rich women were going to messed her up. Langston said that she was very upset. Said she's always wanted more kids."
"She didn't want the one she had. And how the hell does having an abortion mean that you want more kids? You think I'm messed up, look at my mother and you'll find out exactly where it came from."
"I don't think you're messed up. Confused, hurt and angry yes; but I don't really think you're messed up. Langston said that she had to have the abortion. There was something wrong with the baby and it wouldn't have lived."
"So she gets an abortion from some fancy doctor who screws her up and she didn't sue the guy? I find that really hard to believe."
"She did sue. But the guy died before it went to court. Some guy killed him. His wife got an abortion that he didn't approve of and the doctor screwed her up too."
"Lindsey told Langston all this when she was wasted and he felt the need to pass it on to you?"
"I think he was trying to hint that if you got pregnant it wouldn't be a good idea to have an abortion."
"That's crazy. Do you believe that shit?"
"I remember my mom talking about it when it happened. Well, that doctor being murdered. I think I must have been like twelve which would have made you what eight, nine?"
So Lindsey would have been married to good old Luther at the time she thought. That explained it. Tory couldn't blame her for not wanting to give birth to that guy's kid even if it had been healthy.
"The things you find out about your parents huh?"
"Yeah, it's wonderful. Can't wait to hear the rest of what Langston told you."
“Ah, not much else really. Just that he thinks she's been screwing around for a while. Six months or more. They talked about adopting when they first got married. Since both of them both have a hard time having kids."
"Ugh, I could have had a little foreign baby brother or sister?"
"Nah, they were going to adopt an American kid. Langston told Lindsey she needed to pay attention to the kid she had before worrying about another one."
"And she never has so he gave up on the idea huh?"
"I guess."
"I think she wanted a kid she could mold into her own likeness. I was never good enough for her when she found out I wasn't going to grow up to be like her. You know how soon the luster faded from having all these expensive toys and fancy clothes after I'd started spending time with my dad's parents? There may not have been a thousand toys or any of the fancy outfits she always dressed me up in but there was actual love and caring there. Do you know how messed up it is to be a kid and figure out that your mother doesn't love you? She just loved the idea of you. And then she found out that you weren't what she thought you were going to be so she gave up bothering to pretend she cared. Lindsey wasn't always an alcoholic. I think I drove her to drink."
"Tor don't say that."
"Why not? It's true. She started up right after I started school and decided that I liked to read and hated shopping and stupid frilly clothes. She didn't come to any of my school plays. Dad came, Grandma and Grandpa came. They never missed one until they died. Then of course my dad quit bothering with me too. Maybe he was pretending to love me so he wouldn't disappoint his parents."
"Tory stop it. Your dad loves you."
"Is that why he's going to visit someone for the holidays when I haven't seen him in damn near five years?"
"What if it's for business?"
"What business? My dad's a hermit who sometimes works as a guide for hunters. Besides, he said it was an old friend. I'll bet you it's a woman. At least he loves her."
"Baby please. You're driving yourself crazy. Why don't you ask your dad who he went to visit?"
"Because I don't want to know."
"Then quit agonizing over it."
"I'm not."
"You are too. Hell, give me his number and I'll ask him."
"Yeah, so you can buddy up with my real dad like you did with my stepdad?"
"Do you want me to be an asshole to your stepdad? Is that it? You want me to tell him that I'm a drug dealer? You really want me to screw you in your bed? You make no sense sometimes Tory."
"So what?"
"Damn baby, I didn't mean to make you mad. I don't wanna fight. C'mon honey, let's both chill and have a nice lunch with Langston okay? Then we'll go to his play, tell him that we want to go for a drive and we'll slip off to the motel and make love. You need to get rid of some of that tension."
They had pulled onto Langston's block. He was standing in the driveway, talking on his cell phone.
She sighed. "Fine. But you're going to drive. You're getting to know your way around well enough and I don't want to."
"You're gonna make Langston feel bad. He'll think that you hate your car if you never want to drive it."
"I'll be nice to Langston. I just don't want to drive the car okay?"
"Okay baby, calm down. Put a smile on that beautiful face of yours."
She gave him a fake smile as they pulled into the driveway. He shook his head at her and handed her the keys. She gave him a dirty look and shoved them into his pants pocket.
"You two ready to go?" Langston glanced at his watch.
"Sure," Tony said. Tory nodded.
"Good. Are you going to follow me to the restaurant? I know it's not fun to be young and stuck waiting on old folks for a ride."
"That would be fine." Tony gave Tory a grin.
For the first time in as long as she could remember, she wasn't in the mood for sex she thought. She was too busy feeling guilty for taking a car from a man whom her mother had tried to kill with an ashtray.
She was too busy wishing her grandparents were still alive so she could be eating a real Christmas dinner instead of expensive crap at a fancy restaurant that could never come close to tasting like her grandma's home cooking. She was too busy wondering what STDs Jude might have given her since he was balling every other girl in town. She was too busy feeling guilty for being a bitch to Tony, who didn't deserve it.
Tony squeezed her hand as he walked around and got in the driver's side of the car. Langston was still too distracted to seem to notice that it was Tony who was driving the mustang. She wondered who he'd been talking to on the phone. Could it have been her mother she thought? She hoped not.
But as much as she hated to admit it, as much as she told herself that she hated her mother, there was still a childish part of her that yearned for her mother's love like any child. There had been a part of her for years that had always felt she wasn't worth loving. Lindsey had proved it over and over by ignoring her. Her father had proved it by refusing to fight for her when he knew her mother made her miserable. Jude had proved it by leaving her for Molli.
And Tony; what was he proving to her; she pondered as she watched him fiddle with the radio while they were stopped behind Langston at a stoplight? He who called her his angel, his savior? She suddenly wanted to cry. Just looking at him, turning the radio off in disgust when he couldn't find anything besides Christmas music, giving her an offhanded smile when he followed Langston back into traffic, looking like anything but a drug dealer, dressed in his slacks and dress shirt, behind her the wheel of her brand new mustang, it made her love him so much that it hurt.
What would she do without him she thou
ght? She had saved him? He had saved her. He made her believe in the future; in something better. So they were both a couple of idiots, believing in love and romance and hope for the future when the world was filled with jerks like Jude and stuck up money hungry bitches like Lindsey she thought.
"I love you Tony." They had stopped behind Langston, waiting for the valet at the restaurant.
"I love you too Tory."
She had never understood valet parking. Why did you need to pay someone to park your car when you could just as easily do it yourself? Rich people so made no sense she thought.
Tony handed the car keys to the goofy looking guy in his twenties who looked like he'd rather be anywhere else in the world, saying "Don't hurt my girl's car."
The guy gave him a funny look and said "Yeah," as he took the keys.
Langston was standing in front of the restaurant talking on his phone again. He waved a hand at them to hold on, and then quickly wrapped up the call, shutting his phone with a sigh. "Sorry. More business. The place looks busy. I'm glad I made a reservation."
Tory followed Tony inside as Langston held the door, reaching for Tony's hand. She hated places like this she thought. They'd come here last year and everyone was so uptight. Wearing clothes that cost a month's salary for some people and eating expensive food that didn't taste good. Why would you want to be rich if it reduced you to this? Sitting in some fancy restaurant on Christmas and getting drunk. Bragging about how many thousands of dollars you'd spent on Christmas presents for kids that would grow up to hate you because you could only buy their love for so long.
She stood uncomfortably next to Tony, and waited for someone to come and take them to their table. Langston had already explained to the maître d’ in his fancy suit which only succeeded in making him look even more gay than he sounded; that the fourth member of their party was under the weather and wouldn't be coming. Nice way to put it she thought as she noticed a run in her panty hose. If under the weather means you're in someone else's bed while your husband takes your daughter and her boyfriend out to lunch.
A young looking waitress appeared a few minutes later. She gave Tony an appreciative glance. Tory glared daggers at the back of her head as they followed her to a booth at the back of the restaurant. Tony squeezed her hand and gave her an amused smile.
Misty Reigenborn Romance Boxed Set Page 124
