“You take your clothes off when you read?” I definitely had to interrupt Paige when she was reading if that were the case.
“No, you dope.” She slapped my shoulder and stumbled into my arms. “Meta… metafor…” she ran her fingers through her hair and stood up straight. “Metaforkaly.” I smothered a laugh with the back of my hand and turned my head away. “Shit, there shouldn’t be a fork in there,” she mumbled.
“Yo, Rigid,” I called over Paige’s shoulder. “Can you run and get Paige a coffee for me?” Rigid eyed me up, ready to tell me off when he saw Paige stumble to the left and figured out why I needed him to get coffee. It was either he needed to hold Paige up or go get coffee.
“Be right back.” Rigid grabbed Cyn’s hand and headed to the mobile coffee cart that was on the other side of the track.
“Drink a cup of coffee while I race. It’ll help you feel better.” I wrapped her arm around my waist and pulled her to me as we walked over to Gwen who was glaring at me.
“How many drinks did you give her?” Gwen demanded. Gwen put her arm around Paige and pulled her out of my arms.
“Two. She’s a lightweight apparently.”
“Two, seriously?” Meg asked, shocked. “Hey, what happened to your to-go cup?”
Paige reached out, patting Meg on the shoulder and shook her head. “It’s for the best, Meg. I should stick to wine. Tag-teaming with Tom and Jerry was not a good idea.”
Meg’s eyes bugged out, and Gwen put a hand over her mouth, smothering a laugh. “Ugh, yeah. I hate being tag-teamed,” Meg laughed.
King walked over and put his arm over Meg’s shoulders and shook his head. “Meg got drunk on our first date, too, Paige.”
“Hey,” Meg protested. “I’ll have you know that I am not a lightweight. Cyn and I each had over eight drinks that night.” Meg elbowed King and a smirk spread across her lips.
“Best eight drinks I’ve ever bought. Although, it should have taken only five drinks to get you to let me go back to your room with you.”
Meg shrugged her shoulders and grinned. “I’m born and raised from Wisconsin. If it only took me five drinks to get me rip-roaring drunk, I would be a disgrace to the state.”
“She’s right,” Cyn called.
“Now I really feel like a lightweight.” Paige closed her eyes and rested her head on Gwen’s shoulder.
“Don’t worry, hun. Not everyone can drink like a sailor, or like Meg.” Gwen patted Paige’s head and giggled.
“I’m pretty sure Meg could drink a pirate under the table,” King mumbled.
“Here’s your water. I walked past Hammer and Turtle. They’re waiting for you.”
I handed the bottle to Gwen and looked over Paige. “You sure you’re OK?”
Paige nodded her head and opened her eyes. “I’m fine. The water will help.” She waved her hand at me. “Go race your shitter, I’ll be here, leaning on Gwen.” She took a sip of water and gave me a small smile. “I’m good, I promise.” She looked pale and tired, but she was at least standing without falling over.
I nodded my head and headed down the track to where Turtle and Hammer were waiting for me.
“It’s about damn time you decided to make your way down here. They were five minutes away from disqualifying us. You can’t run a shitter with only two people.” Turtle crossed his arms over his chest and tried to look like he actually cared about what he was saying. “Hell, I was hoping you’d stay down there, and we wouldn’t have to push the shitter anymore.” Hammer leaned against the outhouse and took a drink from the beer in his hand.
“Three more races, boys, and then that trophy is ours.”
“Come on, can’t we just throw this next race and call it a day? Pushing a shitter up and down the ice was not how I pictured my day going.”
“Well, things change, Hammer, and it looks like it’s your lucky day to push a shitter up and down the ice.”
Turtle and Hammer both grumbled, but they took their places on either side of the outhouse, and I sat down on the toilet inside. I heard Turtle and Hammer mumbling that this was one of the stupidest things they had ever done, and I knew right then that they were right.
I had to get out of my comfort zone to show Paige that I had changed and the man she had known back there was gone, replaced by the guy who was going to make her fall in love with me again.
I was going to make Paige mine again, and the first step to getting her back was to win this damn shitter race. I was going to win, even if that meant I would have to get out and help these two fuckers push.
Nothing was going to keep me away from Paige.
________
Chapter 14
Paige
“You know you’re going to have to tell me what the hell went on between you and Demon. When Meg said we were trying to get you to come to the festival to meet Demon, I was speechless.”
I rolled my eyes and cupped my hands in front of my mouth and blew into them. “Well, that doesn’t happen often.”
Gwen bumped me with her hip and laughed. “I know, right? Gambler couldn’t believe how quiet I was.”
“Wait, Gambler knows about, well, me and Demon?” Gwen and I were standing by the hot chocolate booth waiting for everyone. Demon and his team had won the outhouse race, and they were loading up the championship winning shitter right now.
“Gambler knew before I did. I swear, Gambler and all the guys are worse than women when it comes to gossip. Although, with them, it’s not really gossip. They more like say what their problem is and then they all figure out how to fix it.”
“Wait. I’m a problem?” This was going from bad to worse. Not only did everyone know that Demon and I used to date, they thought that I was a problem.
“No, I didn’t mean it like that. They just talk about shit.”
I crossed my arms over my chest and shook my head. “That really doesn’t make it any better.”
“Knock it off. We’re not talking about the guys, we are talking about the fact that you dated a guy in a motorcycle club, and you never told me.”
“I was away at college, Gwen. I did have somewhat of a life.” Honestly, the time I was with Demon was the extent of the life I had. After I had finished that last semester, I had moved back home and began living my hermit ways. You never got hurt if you didn’t put yourself out there.
“So, why did you two break up?”
“Things happened, we changed.”
“That’s not what Meg said. She said that Demon cheated on you.”
I didn’t know what to say. I used to think that he had cheated, but ever since I had talked to Marg, I wasn’t so sure. Yes, he did something that was way wrong, but he didn’t actually cheat. He claimed he was never going to touch them, and a part of me believed him. But there was still a part of me that was too hurt to see past anything. Plus, that was just the cherry on top of the fucked up sundae that was our relationship. We had way more problems than Demon watching ‘live porn’, as Marg liked to call it. “I really don’t want to talk about this, Gwen.”
“Well, obviously since you dated him years ago and this is the first I’m hearing about it.”
I shoved my hands in my pockets and looked at Gwen. “A lot happened, Gwen. A lot that I never want to think about. Demon and I have a messy history that honestly, I never can get sorted out. We both hurt each other because we were too young to know our asses from our elbows, let alone navigate the kind of relationship we had.”
Gwen looked me up and down and put her hand on my shoulder. “What happened, Paige?”
I wasn’t going to tell her. Especially not standing next to a hot chocolate booth. “Too much, Gwen.”
Gwen pursed her lips and nodded her head. “It’s never too much if you love each other, Paige. Just remember that. I get that you don’t want to tell me, but maybe now that you’re both older and know more of who you are, maybe things can be different. I know if I had met Gambler seven years ago, we never would be where we are right now.”
“Well, the difference between you two and me and Demon is that we did meet all those years ago, and we messed it up royally.”
Gwen wrapped her arms around her middle and took a step back. “Just give him a chance, Paige. I don’t know Demon extremely well, but he doesn’t seem like the kind of guy to ask for help, let alone from Meg and I. I think he knows what he did, and he wants to make it right. Whatever it is since you won’t even tell your own flesh and blood what happened.” Gwen pouted and pulled her hat down over her ears. “Here comes everyone. You don’t need to decide right now what you are going to do, but I do think that you need to give Demon a chance. Everyone deserves a second chance, Paige.”
I turned away, looking down the row of food booths and vendors and felt the tears coming. Gwen was right, but I didn’t know how to give Demon a second chance without remembering everything that happened. I was becoming one of those whiny girls in the books I read that I hated who couldn’t make up her mind of what she wanted.
“I don’t know what you’re thinking right now, Paige. But I do now that if you didn’t care about Demon anymore, you wouldn’t look like you were ready to cry. Maybe you two aren’t as over as you thought.”
For once Gwen was absolutely right.
I still loved Demon, and I had no idea what to do next.
________
Demon
“I'm telling you, the only way to watch fireworks is laying in the back of a truck.”
“We can’t all fit in the back of one truck, babe. Why the hell can’t we, just stand up or use the damn chairs I loaded up before we left?” King had a smirk on his face, and I could tell he was doing everything he could to keep it together while Meg went on a tirade of how to watch fireworks.
“We each have our own truck, so we can just park them next to each other and watch them that way.”
Paige raised her hand. “Um, I don’t have a truck. I’ll just take a chair.”
“Nope, not happening. To get the full effect of the Snowflake Festival fireworks, you need to be laying down in the back of a truck,” Meg insisted.
“Well, then I guess I’m going home since I don’t have a truck,” Paige laughed.
“Nonsense, Demon drove his truck here. You can watch them in his truck.” Meg clapped her hands, a look of satisfaction on her face like she had just solved world hunger and headed in the direction of her truck with everyone following behind her. They were all smart, knowing that Paige was about to have an aneurysm about the fact she was going to have to watch the fireworks in my truck.
She turned towards me, her arms crossed across her chest. “So, is this another part of the throw Paige and Demon together plan?”
“Baby, I have no idea, but I’m going to assume that this is Meg’s not so subtle way of getting you to talk to me.”
“I’m tired, Demon. All I want to do is watch these fireworks and then go home. So if that means I’m going to have to watch them with you, then let’s do it. Which way is your truck?”
It was half an hour to the fireworks, and everyone was clearing out, heading to the big field that they plowed where the parking was. “I can take you home now if you’re tired, Paige.” I didn’t want her to feel forced into spending time with me. Yeah, I had wanted Meg to get Paige here, but I didn’t want to make her resent me for wanting to be with her.
“It’s fine, Demon. I think you and I can handle being by each other for half an hour with no one around.” Paige shoved her hands in her pockets and looked up and down the road.
“This way,” I motioned to the left, and we headed in the opposite direction everyone else headed. “So you like working at the bookstore?”
Paige shrugged her shoulders and huddled into her jacket. “I do. I actually love it, although might have to do with my boss more than my actual job.”
“I’m surprised you’re not doing something with your degree.”
Paige looked away and brushed her hair out of her face. “I don’t have a degree.”
“What?” Paige had been going to school for her nursing degree when we had been dating and had planned on graduating in a couple of years. She had planned on putting school on hold after the baby was born, but she was adamant about going back and finishing school.
“I don’t have a degree,” she repeated.
“I heard you the first time. What I don’t get is why the hell you didn’t finish school?”
“It wasn’t for me.”
I grabbed her arm and spun her around to look at me. “That’s bullshit. You were making the damn dean’s list when we were dating.”
“Things changed, Demon. I finished up my semester and then I moved back home.”
“You only had three semesters left after that one. You were so close to finishing.”
“Not close enough, Demon, and I wasn’t on the dean’s list for much longer. It was the best choice for me to quit and just go home.”
“Why? Why did you leave? Becoming a nurse was the one thing you talked about all the time, and you always said you couldn’t wait to be able to help people. Why did you quit?” I was fucking pissed. I couldn’t believe that Paige had left.
She looked up at me, tears in her eyes but an angry scowl on her lips. “I couldn’t be there anymore. I couldn’t walk around like everything was OK when inside I was dying. Everywhere I looked, I saw you. Or I saw you and our baby. I kept seeing the life we talked about all the time, and I couldn’t take it anymore. I was failing half of my classes, and all I wanted to do was die or sleep. Every day that went by, dying looked more and more appealing until one day I woke up, and realized I needed to leave.”
Each word she spoke slapped me across the face. Paige quit school because of me and losing the baby? When we were together, after we lost the baby, she acted like everything just went back to normal. I had no idea that she was so upset. I reached up and cupped her cheek. “I’m sorry,” I whispered as I wiped away the tears that were sliding down her cheek. “I had no idea.”
“No one did, Demon. I just went home and told my aunt that I was homesick. She knew something more was wrong, but I refused to tell her. Thankfully Gwen was too much into herself back then that she never noticed anything out of the normal.”
“You should have come to me, Paige. We were both so messed up after we lost the baby.”
Paige looked around and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “I don’t want to talk about this here, Demon. What happened in the past needs to stay there?”
“No, we need to talk about this, Paige.”
She stepped away from me and shook her head. “I changed my mind, I just want to go home now.”
“Wait,” I grabbed her arm as she turned away and pulled her to me. “I can take you home, Paige.”
“No.” She tried to twist her arm out of my grasp and shook her head. “I only live five blocks away. I can walk. Please, just let me go.”
“No, I did that once. I’m not letting you go again.”
“Demon, please,” she pleaded.
I knew if I let her go now, she would never talk to me again. “Come with me.”
“No, I want to go home. I just want this day to be over.”
“Just please come with me, Paige.” I was desperate. I knew by the way she looked, she was done with me, but I couldn’t let that happen. She hadn’t given me a chance to explain and make up for all the shit that had happened. “One week.”
“One week for what, Demon?”
“Give me one week. No interruptions, just you and me. No one else interfering, trying to throw us together, one week.” I was flying by the seat of my pants right now, not exactly sure what I was going to do, but I knew I needed to do something. If Paige and I kept going the way we were, we wouldn’t be talking within a day.
“Demon, I have no idea what you are trying to say.”
“Come with me.” I grabbed both of her hands and pulled her to me. “Come with me for one week. There is so much between us and no way to talk abo
ut it here.”
“I know, that’s why I want to go home.”
“No, you don’t get it, Paige. Come away with me for seven days, just us. Talking and finding out if we can get back to the way we were.”
“I can’t just run away with you, Demon. I have a job and responsibilities here. I have a life that has nothing to do with you.” She crossed her arms over her chest and scowled. “I have my aunt to look after. She’s the whole reason I moved here.”
“You have vacation time, and you have Gwen who can help your aunt for a week. You don’t have pets or any other pressing matters that need to be taken care of. Call your boss, ask her for the week off, then text Gwen and tell her this week she’s checking in on your aunt.”
“It’s not that easy, Demon.”
“Yes, it is, Paige. Life is only as hard as you make it. I’m not asking for a month or a year. I just want seven days with you. I’m not going to force you to do anything you don’t want to.”
“You’re forcing me to go away with you.”
“Well, after this, I won’t make you do anything you don’t want to. Just come with me and then everything is up to you.”
“This is kidnapping, you know that, right?” Paige crossed her arms over her chest and tapped her foot. “Seven days isn’t going to fix us, Demon.”
“Talking and discovering who we both are now is going to fix us. Just say yes. You used to trust me, Paige. Trust me again. Please.” I was not above begging. The more I thought about this, the more it made sense.
“I don’t know if I want to be with you for seven days straight, Demon. Right now, all I want to do is punch you in the balls and go home.”
“Well, why don’t we skip the ball punching, for now, head to your house, pack some clothes, then swing by the clubhouse so I can pack a bag and then we can get out of here.”
“Why do you even think that I’ll agree to this?” she asked.
“Because I know deep down, you want to know why. You want to know why things happened the way they did back then, same as me. We loved each other, Paige. Even before you got pregnant, I knew that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you, but then all hell broke lose, and we lost each other.”
Fighting Demon: Devil's Knights Series Page 8
