Hearts Series Bundle: Books 1-6

by Sabrina Lacey

  “You’re out of the hospital. I guess that means you’re on the road to recovery.”

  I nod. “Yeah. They let me out last night. How are you?”

  She nods her answer, a polite, curt motion reserved for strangers she looks down upon. She looks again to my hand holding Annie’s tightly. Her breath catches and she says, “I have something I have to tell you, Brendan.”

  All of my muscles are tense. “Okay.” Annie’s watching Rebecca, her palm becoming sweaty.

  Rebecca’s head is high and she’s blinking too much all of a sudden, having trouble with what she wants to say. She gulps and looks at Annie, then meets my eyes as she says, “I found out that…”

  “Americano!” the cashier calls out.

  We all look over. Rebecca says, “That’s you,” her whole body crumbling.

  I know exactly what she’s thinking. “Yeah. What were you going to say? The coffee can wait.”

  Rebecca’s hand goes to her throat and her eyes mist up. In a pained voice, she launches in. “I found out that… the donor I was hoping for, just came through with a huge grant for Global Girlfriends. I had told you about it. Remember?” She brings her hand up and wipes away a tear, shaking her head like she wishes she had Dorothy’s slippers on.

  For a split second, I’m confused by the information, but then I realize that what she’s really saying is goodbye.

  “Oh. That’s great news. I’m really happy for you.”

  She nods and looks toward the tables, avoiding my eyes. Annie’s staring at her and her hand has gone limp in mine. She turns to look up at me and releases my hand altogether.

  “Chai Latte!”

  “Excuse me.” Annie looks at Rebecca with kindness. “It was good to see you again. If you’ll excuse me.” She glances back at me to let me know she wants me to talk to Rebecca, take however long I need. I’m stunned, but grateful. Would I have done the same?

  “Let’s go outside.”

  Rebecca lets me guide her out the exit, blinking back tears as we go. She looks up at me when we get to the sidewalk.

  “That’s not really what you wanted to say, was it?”

  She smiles the saddest smile I’ve ever seen. “No… but I changed my mind. You looked so happy. I didn’t want to take that away from you.”

  “You couldn’t have.”

  She smiles with a weird faraway look in her eyes. “Mmm.”

  “We had some really great times.”

  She’s looking past me to someplace in her mind, to a better time. “Yeah. We did. Thank you for those. You really made the time fly.”

  I reach out for her arm. “Rebecca, you’re beautiful and---”

  She pulls away, shaking her head, eyes flashing. “Please don’t, Brendan. I don’t want to hear that.”

  “What do you want to hear?”

  She sighs, staring at the traffic. “That I meant something. That I changed your life in some way. That you care. That it wasn’t all for nothing.”

  I look up into the sun and take this in, thinking of her. “I do care. You did change my life. You were the only woman I’ve spent that much time with. I wouldn’t have done that if I didn’t care about you. I grew up with you.” She rolls her eyes, looking away over a raised shoulder. “Seriously. Look at me.” I reach out for her hand. “I’ve watched you; your grace, Rebecca, and the way you talk to people, the way you’re helping the world – you’ve showed me what a good person is.”

  She stares at me, fresh tears rising. “Thank you. I really needed to hear that.” She gives my hand a squeeze. “I hope you’ve found what you’re looking for, and that you stay happy.” Letting it go, she quietly says, “For what it’s worth, I love you.” I watch her walk to the edge of the sidewalk and hit the button for the light, a chapter of my life ending, the pages turned with every step she takes away from me.

  With one last look over my shoulder, I walk back inside and see Annie sitting at a table, faced away. If it had been me in her place, I would’ve been at the window, but I’m glad she wasn’t. I lower myself slowly into the seat beside her and she watches my face as I pick up my coffee. “Have you checked the times for movies?” I ask, lifting the lid to blow away the heat.

  Both hands are around her cup and she waits for me to look at her again before she asks, “You okay?”

  “Yeah. It was weird, but it's good it ended well. Thank you for not being insecure about waiting.”

  She shakes her head against an ironic smile. “You think I wasn’t insecure?” Her gaze slips left and she makes a comically pained face, but then shrugs. “But it’s between you and her. I just had to wait and see what happened. Let it play out as it would. Which was very, very hard.”

  I put my coffee down and lay my hand on the table, facing up. Her hand slides across my palm and she grips my wrist. I go with this and grab hers, too. “You keep surprising me.”

  She leans in. “Well, then we’re even. You’re the biggest surprise I’ve ever had.”

  A feeling waves through me as I look at her, and I look to our hands, because it’s too much for me to meet her eyes right now. “Okay. Even.”

  We stay like this for a while, drinking our coffee in silence and listening to the other conversations around us, never letting go of our grip. Time passes and neither of us feels like rushing it or filling the silence. When we eventually rise, I take her empty cup and throw them both in the recycle-bin. She waits, calm and peaceful. We walk out with me leading the way. At the cross walk, we wait at the same light I watched Rebecca walk to. It strikes me that this little strawberry-blonde is my new chapter, or maybe a whole new book. I look down at her, thinking something made me get Mark out of the house that night, something made me not want to go into Knockout, something told me to try someplace new. Something made us meet, and I think that something is fate.

  “Hey.”

  She looks up and smiles. “Hey you.”

  I lean down and kiss her. The light changes, ignored. She slips her fingers into my hair and I hold onto the small of her back and open her mouth with mine, tasting her. “Chai Latte’s are sweet,” I say against her lips as they spread into a happy smile.

  She murmurs, “Mmhmm…”

  11

  Annie

  Gone: one problem.

  ________

  After a day of fun, we decide to go to Knockout, and as we arrive, Brendan asks, “Have you been here before?”

  I shake my head, looking around the bar.

  “B-man!” the bartender calls out..

  Brendan lets go of my lower back to shake the guy’s hand and introduce me. “Bobby, this is Annie. She owns the new bar up the street.”

  Bobby’s eyebrows fly up. “Oh yeah? The one with the police tape? What happened?”

  I smile ruefully, letting Brendan explain, “The last time I saw you? I went over to Annie’s bar, and we got robbed. I got shot.” Brendan pulls up his shirt and shows Bobby the bandage, but all I can see are his abs. Holy fuck.

  With his eyes wide, Bobby puts both hands flat on the bar and stares at the taped-up gauze. “No way! Pull it up!”

  Brendan laughs and shakes his head.

  Bobby leans on his elbows. “You know, some girls came in here with T-shirt decals and tried to get me to take ‘em, but it’s a conflict of interest, you know? Sorry,” he says to me.

  Brendan sits down on a bar stool and I follow suit, looking around the place. There’s a small stage with a local band playing loudly. It’s gritty. It’s small. All and all, I’d say this is a very laid-back, neighborhood, dive bar where things have the potential to get rowdy. I like it!

  Brendan’s argument pulls me quickly back to the conversation. I want to listen to his skill, see if he can do what he said he could. It’ll be very fun to watch. As he presents his case, Brendan leans back sometimes, forward others; animated, serious, louder, quieter, working off his audience of one all the while. It’s like he trained in the art of persuasion. The whole time Bobby is leaning in, suckin
g it all up like a baby bear drinking his mother’s milk. Do bears have milk?

  “Bobby. You’re making the classic, shortsighted mistake. You know when there are four gas stations on one corner? Why do they do that? Because that way, people know where the gas is! It’s a destination point. Look at The 5.”

  “The freeway?” Bobby asks.

  “Yeah. You ever drive it to Los Angeles?” Brendan jogs a thumb south through the air.

  Bobby nods and picks up a bar towel to have something to hold onto, a common thing amongst us bar-folk. “Yeah. My sister lives down there. I’ve driven down it a bunch of times.”

  “You know how when you’re coming up on one gas station, you wait for the next stop because you’d rather go where there are more? You know you’ll get a better choice in price, in convenience stores, coffee, more food places… all that stuff. That’s why the solo gas station charges more. They know you’re only stopping there because you’re about to run out of gas, and you have no other option. Given the option of more – people always choose more.”

  Bobby drops the towel and scratches his growing beard like someone who loves how long it’s getting. “Oh, I’m catchin’ what you’re throwin’ down.”

  Brendan sits back on his stool. “But this goes deeper. What I just said, well, that’s just smart capitalism. But get ready for this, Bobby. See, the way I’m thinking is… she’s the new kid on the block, and the new kid got bullied. If you come to the rescue, what does that make you?”

  Bobby puts his arms over his head. “Holy shit. The hero!”

  I grin from ear to ear and Brendan laughs. “Damn fuckin’ straight. You’ll be the hero. You and Knockout will have a shine that no one can tarnish. Excellent buzz for you, and more people coming down to Mission.”

  I chime in, “We’re stronger together than we ever were apart. People forget that because society teaches fear. Fuck fear.”

  Bobby shakes his head. “Fuck fear!! That’s fuckin’ right!” He turns and sweeps his arm through the air in front of the bottles. “What can I get for you guys? It’s on me.”

  Brendan starts to order an Oban, but then stops and changes it to a Jameson, neat. I ask for the same and Brendan looks at me with respect, as men always do when you order whiskey and you’re not an alcoholic. “I’m going to text Taryn and Laura, see if they can come down.”

  Brendan pulls out his phone, too. “I’ll see if Mark wants to come.”

  As I key in a group text to the girls, I smile down at my phone. “Oh man, it’s too bad Mark is taken because Taryn would looooooove him.”

  About forty-five minutes later, the only two people left to arrive are Laura and her husband. I texted Manny, too, and he arrived with his cousin, the two of them now sitting a few barstools down, watching the television with smiles on their faces over who knows what. And I was right; Taryn is talking to Mark with a look on her face like he’s Zeus and she’s thunder, waiting to do his bidding. I whisper into her ear, “He’s taken,” and she deflates.

  “Of course he is,” she mumbles back, rolling her eyes. “Lucky girl. Have you met her?”

  I shake my head no, as a really pretty woman with shorter dark-brown hair comes over to say hello. Brendan introduces us. “Teri, this is Annie and Taryn.” Then he takes my hand purposefully and I watch Teri’s eyes change as she shifts her weight, her head going back a little, signal received loud and clear. Which means I’m getting the signal even louder. How many of these women am I going to have to meet? But when he squeezes my hand,

  and Mark looks at him with amusement, I feel better.

  “Nice to meet you,” Teri says, mostly to me. She smacks Mark on the shoulder, holding her hand there like a friend. “I’m meeting some people to watch the band. I’ll catch you creeps later.” She smiles and walks off, with Brendan the only one not watching. He’s looking down at his lap.

  Mark’s eyes flit to my face and I raise my eyebrows at him, defiantly. He laughs, “I like you, Annie.”

  Everyone looks to the booming voice of the hot momma walking up, yelling, “Well, well! Hail to the wounded out in the real world!” Laura’s grin is lopsided and her husband Dan is right behind her, the perfect Allen to her Burns. He’s got longer hair since he’s a musician and that seems to be the requirement.

  I introduce them to Brendan and Mark. Manny and his cousin wave and turn back to the T.V. Taryn and I hug her and Bobby leaves a customer to come over, because he recognizes her immediately. Who wouldn’t?

  “Hey! I need a bunch of those decals.”

  She cocks her head to the side. “You said you didn’t!”

  Bobby puts his hands on the counter and leans well over the bar, moving his head around in a funny way. “I changed my mind!”

  Laura and Taryn try to highfive, but miss, which is fucking hilarious. Taryn cries out, as we’re all laughing, “Try it again!” They get it right and whoop like they just won The World Cup.

  “Oh!” I reach out and grab both of their arms. “I spoke to the contractor today! He’s going to install one of those security gates, you know, those iron ones that fold into the sides of a building?” They nod, everyone listening. I glance to Brendan. “And Brendan asked if he could do that first so we can open while they’re remodeling! We get to open this weekend! Probably not before Sunday, but that’s still the weekend and it’s better than being closed!”

  They both freak out and we start planning. I describe what the patio will look like, the cocktail ideas Brendan and I came up with. Everyone interjects ideas about new drinks, and Mark offers to send out an in-house email to the company where he works, which spurs offers from everyone to post on social networking sites and help. Manny, who must have been listening with those eagle-ears of his, calls over, “We’re sharing stupid shit from people we don’t know anyway. How hard is it to put up a picture and spread the word for a friend?” He rolls his eyes and turns around, disgusted by the way society has become. We all stare at him for a second, then go back to talking.

  Dan asks, “What’s it like to be shot?”

  Brendan glances to me. “It wasn’t so bad.”

  I melt and lean over to kiss him. The girls in our party get all mushy-faced, but it’s Mark who’s the real surprise. He excuses himself to call Nicole, his love in New York, looking like he wishes he wasn’t here anymore.

  Taryn joke-offers to bartend one night topless, “if that’ll help. What?” She smiles, looking adorable, and everyone launches into offering their bodies up for display in the new patio window. As they’re laughing and suggesting costumes like loincloths and tassels, I look around the faces as though I’m drifting outside of my body and watching from above. It’s one of those moments like in the movies where individual voices go away, a musical score begins, and you can see all the things you have to be grateful for, and those ‘things’ are always friends and family.

  “What’re you thinking about?” Brendan asks, putting his hand on my leg.

  I look over and see his deep, thoughtful eyes waiting for an answer, and I smile. “How lucky I am.”

  12

  Brendan

  Annie: So fucking beautiful, I can’t share her anymore.

  Besides: I just got half-hard.

  ________

  I stand up. “Excuse me, guys. We have to go.”

  Everyone reacts to the abruptness; some surprised, some not, depending on who you look at. “What? No!” “Oh, you’re probably tired.” “I was thinking of calling it a night, too.” “We were just getting started!” And Manny and his cousin look over.

  Annie and I stand up. “It’s not because I’m tired. I want to get this one alone.” I look to see her reaction and am gratified by a pink flush growing on her cheeks. Her girlfriends make funny noises and Mark walks back in, in time to hear me, and just smirks at me, the asshole. Dan grabs his wife to dip her in an impromptu kiss, making everyone whoop and holler, even Manny. His cousin just smiles. I don’t think he’s said one word since he got here. My kind o
f guy.

  I shake Dan’s hand. “Sweep her off her feet every chance you get, Dan.”

  Mark’s eyebrows go up. “Who the fuck are you?”

  “Shut it.” I hit his shoulder. “You don’t get a handshake, just for that.”

  “What about a hug?” His huge wingspan spreads out, but I take Annie’s hand and move around him, telling him he’s a dick, which as usual garners no argument from him.

  Bobbi calls after us, “You didn’t pay for the last round, B-man!”

  “Mark’ll get it for me.” I lock eyes with Mark over my shoulder. “Won’t you, Mark?”

  “You suck!”

  “You wish!” I make my way through the crowd with my hand out in front of my chest for protection against accidental bumps; Annie happily in tow. As soon as we step outside, she looks at the NOPE sign. “They should change that sign to ‘YEP.’”

  “Yeah, it’s great that he’s going to help you. Bobby knows a lot of people.”

  She stops walking and tugs on my hand. “He’s going to help me because of you. What have I done to deserve this?”

  She looks like she’s really asking, so I take her chin in my hand. “Other than save my life?”

  “I was only following your example. Now would you please do me a favor?”

  “What’s that, Freckles?”

  She smiles and receives a quick kiss, waiting to say, “Please stop being so fucking perfect.”

  “No can do.” I slip my left hand into her hair, just above her ear, and pull her to me for a longer, heated kiss, her hands resting on my pectoral muscles to keep a safe distance. I whisper against her lips, “I wish there didn’t have to be any distance between us. I want to feel your breasts crushed against me.”

  Her eyelashes are half-mast and her lips lightly touch mine as she speaks in a volume so quiet only I can hear it. “I want that, too. I can’t wait.”