Skid Row Kings Complete Series

by Winter Travers

  “And you are the reason you are the only one who knows. I swear, you couldn’t say Lily until you were ten and by that time, everyone thought my name was Leelee.” I rolled my eyes and grabbed the loaf of Italian bread off the counter. “So, keep that Lily business to yourself.”

  “Hey, I did you a favor. You are more of a Leelee than a Lily any day.” Jay grabbed a soda out of the fridge and popped the top. “You going to the race tonight? I had heard about the accident before I got back. You know the guy?”

  I sliced into the loaf of bread and set it on the sheet pan. “Knew of him. He was kind of an ass. Grab the butter out of the fridge.” I finished cutting the bread and grabbed a butter knife. “And no, I don’t plan on going to the race. Violet was begging me to go at work today, but I really don’t feel up to it.”

  “You haven’t felt like doing anything since I’ve been home.”

  “I’ve just been tired. The shop has been crazy busy since Kurt quit.” Busy was an understatement. I had been running around trying to fix every car that came into the shop, and at the same time, I was dodging all the questions Luke and Mitch kept asking me about Kurt.

  “I was going to go to Mike’s tonight if that’s okay with you.”

  I shrugged and grabbed the garlic salt down from the cabinet. “I guess that’s fine. You planning on staying the night there?”

  “I don’t know. We were going to GTA or maybe hit up the mall. I’m not sure.”

  “I’m fine with either, just let me know what you’re doing.”

  “Yes, mother,” he mockingly joked. “What time is Kurt going to be home?”

  “I’m assuming the usual time.” I heard the front door open and shook my head. “Which would be right about now.” Kurt had been getting home later from whatever the hell he was doing, and the only good thing was he would come home looking like he had been actually working—grease on his hands, pants, and sometimes on his face. I swore the man never looked in the mirror.

  I finished buttering the bread, sprinkled some garlic salt on them and shoved them in the oven. “Go wash up, Jay.”

  “I played video games all day, not played in the mud,” Jay complained.

  I pointed down the hallway, and he stood, shook his head, and grumbled all the way to the bathroom.

  “Smells good,” Kurt said as he walked into the kitchen.

  “Meatloaf, carrots, and garlic bread. I was going to make mashed potatoes, but I didn’t have time to boil them. Jay thankfully stuck the meatloaf in the oven, or we would just be having carrots and bread.” This was also new. I rambled. A lot.

  “Whatever you make is good, Lee.” This was Kurt’s new thing. He was nice. Like, I’m talking super nice. Not that he had been mean to me since his accident, but it was like he was walking on eggshells around me and I had no idea why. “I’m gonna wash up quick.”

  I turned back to the stove and bowed my head while I listened to Kurt’s footsteps down the hallway. I was losing it. I didn’t know what to do anymore. Ever since the race, I had barely been talking to Kurt and staying in my room most nights. I was trying to give him the space he wanted, but it felt like I was running away again. Running was the last thing I wanted to do, but I didn’t know how to give him his space but still be in his space.

  “What’s burning?” Jay asked as he came back into the kitchen.

  “Son of a bitch,” I cursed as I opened the oven and pulled out the bread. “I only had it on broil for two minutes. How in the hell did they burn?”

  “Because you can’t make toast, Lee. You burn it every time,” Jay noted, laughing.

  “They’re not that bad. Just the edges are a bit crispy.” I set the pan on the stove and turned off the oven. “Put a piece of meatloaf on it, and you won’t even be able to tell.”

  “Burn the bread again?” Kurt asked as he glided into the kitchen and grabbed a beer from the fridge. “You want one?” he asked as he turned his head to look at me.

  “Yeah, please.” He used the hem of his shirt to twist off the top and handed a Corona to me. “Dinner’s ready. Burnt bread and all.”

  Kurt shook his head and laughed. “I’m acquiring a taste for burnt bread, Lee.” He winked at me and sat down at the table next to Jay.

  I tossed the bread on a plate and tried not to let the butterflies take over my stomach from the wink Kurt had given me.

  “Trust me, Kurt. No one gets used to burnt toast. Especially Lily’s.” Jay slapped his hand over his mouth. “Shit,” he mumbled.

  “What?” Kurt asked looking at me as I sat down.

  “Carrots?” I asked, as I held up the bowl.

  Kurt grabbed it from me and set it down next to his plate. “Please, Lily,” he said, smirking.

  Jay laughed, and I tossed a piece of burnt toast at his head. “Ass,” I hissed as he snatched it out of the air and bit a huge bite out of it.

  “It’s your damn name. You can’t be mad at me.”

  “It’s not my name,” I fussed. I cut off a huge chunk of meatloaf and forked it onto my plate. “My name has been Leelee for the past sixteen years.” I grabbed my fork and knife. “Use it,” I said pointing my knife at Jay.

  Kurt had his elbows on the table and one arm holding his head up as he looked at me “Lee, we got married. I saw your name on the marriage certificate.”

  Jay laughed and slid half of the meatloaf onto his plate. “He’s known this whole time, and you didn’t even know?”

  “Lee is hard to picture as Lily, but I’m getting used to it,” he said. “But now I need to know the middle name to make this complete. Lee only put a C in that line.”

  “It’s C—”

  “Don’t you even dare,” I said, pointing my fork at Jay. “You’d be amazed at the things I can do with a fork.”

  Jay held his hands up and tried not to laugh.

  “It’s hard to believe,” Kurt said. “But I am oddly turned on right now.”

  Jay busted out laughing and picked up his fork. “This is some strange foreplay going on right now.”

  I felt a blush rise on my cheeks but tried to keep my focus on Jay. I didn’t need to think about Kurt being turned on. “You shouldn’t even know what that word means.”

  “What word?” he asked, baffled.

  “Foreplay.”

  Jay scoffed and popped a carrot into his mouth. “Lee, come on. I knew what that was years ago. Redtube and Pornhub have been great teachers to me.”

  “I’m gonna need something stronger than beer,” I mumbled, as I grabbed my bottle and downed half of it.

  “And that is the difference between when I grew up and now. I had to sneak nudie magazines into the house and hide them from Luke and Mitch, so they didn’t steal them.”

  “Really? That would suck. I can watch all of that shit on my phone.”

  “That’s it. I’m cutting off the phones tomorrow.” I didn’t want to think about Jay watching porn, let alone knowing he was doing it on the phone I paid for.

  Jay scoffed and stuffed his mouth full of meatloaf. “I think you might be overreacting a bit, Lee.” Kurt laughed as he grabbed the carrots and piled some onto his plate. I handed him what was left of the meatloaf, and he scrapped it onto his plate.

  “I may be, but I don’t need to hear about my brother watching porn.”

  “Hey, you’re the one who wanted to know where I learned about foreplay.” Jay shrugged. “I know a lot more than foreplay.” Jay winked at Kurt, a smirk on his lips.

  “I think that’s enough about this. Why don’t you talk about something else, Jay,” Kurt said, trying not to laugh.

  I rolled my eyes but thanked God Kurt had told him to change the subject. “You think I can use the car the first day of school?” Jay asked me.

  “If you give me a ride to work and then you have to pick me up.” I knew Jay was getting to the age where he didn’t want to walk to school anymore. I couldn’t blame him. When I had turned sixteen, I saved every penny I could to get my first car. It was an even
bigger pile of crap than the Caprice I was driving now.

  “Monday the first day of school?” Kurt asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “Leelee can drive my car, you take the Caprice and then you don’t have to worry about dropping and picking her up.”

  “What?” Jay and I said at the same time.

  “Since when do you have a car?” I asked.

  “I’ve had one for a month. I’ve been fixing it up.” Kurt finished his meatloaf and piled more carrots onto his plate.

  “What kind of car is it?” Jay asked.

  “GTO. Newer body style. She was wrecked but fixable.” He grabbed two more pieces of bread and used them to shovel carrots into his mouth.

  “Sweet. You planning on racing it?” Jay was sitting on the edge of his chair, clearly excited about Kurt’s new car.

  “Probably, but who knows.” Kurt shrugged.

  “When can I see it?”

  “I can’t drive yet, so you and Lee are going to have to help me get it here.”

  “Where is it?” Jay was playing twenty questions with Kurt, and I was just sitting there, speechless.

  Kurt had a car? Kurt had been building the car the past month? Why in the hell didn’t he want to tell me? What this the secret he had been keeping the whole time?

  “Shop over on Meadow.”

  “You been doing the work?”

  “Yeah.” Kurt finished off his plate and pushed it away.

  “Cool. Well,” Jay said as he pushed his chair back, “I’m going to head over to Mike’s. Okay if I take the car?” He held his hand out to me for the keys.

  “He lives two blocks over, Jay. I think you can walk.”

  “Come on, Lee,” he pleaded. “You said you weren’t going anywhere tonight.”

  “I had planned on going to the race, but I really don’t feel like it. You can take the car, but if you spend the night at Mike’s, you need to be home by nine so I can do the grocery shopping tomorrow.” I fished the keys out of my pocket and placed them in his hand.

  “Sweet. Thanks, Lee.” He brushed a kiss to the side of my head, waved to Kurt and he was out the door.

  “I’ll clean up the dishes. I thought we could watch a movie tonight.” Kurt grabbed the empty plates and took them to the sink.

  “Um,” I muttered. “I’m kind of tired.”

  “That’s fine. You can lay out on the couch, and I’ll take the chair.”

  I helped grab the rest of the dishes and dumped them into the sink. “You don’t have to do the dishes tonight, Kurt.”

  “I know. I plan on doing them tomorrow.” Kurt put his hands on my shoulders and pushed me into the living room. “Pick out a movie to watch. Don’t worry about the dishes.”

  What in the hell was Kurt up to? I turned around and watched him walk back into the kitchen and finish clearing all the dishes off the table. “Did you hurt your head or something?”

  “Huh?”

  “Did you fall and hit your head? Is this like side effects from your accident?” I strode up to Kurt and put my hand on his forehead. “Do you have a fever?”

  “Lee, knock it off.” Kurt brushed my hand away and shook his head. “I don’t have a fever, and I didn’t hit my head.”

  “Then why are you so nice to me again?” I propped my hands on my hips and tilted my head to the side.

  “I’m always nice to you.”

  My jaw dropped, and I rolled my eyes. “Sure, and I’m the queen of England.”

  “I just figured some things out, Lee. That’s all.”

  “And what is it that you figured out?”

  “Just things.”

  “You’re crazy if you think I’m going to be okay with that answer. I need to know what things changed so I can make sure those things don’t change back to the way they were when you were a royal douche to me. Tell me.”

  “Lee, no. Just go with it.”

  I shook my head no and crossed my arms over my chest. “Hell no. I am not going with it. I’ve done that with you before. Not falling for it again.”

  “You were the reason I changed the last time, Lee. You told me to get lost.”

  “I didn’t tell you to get lost. I just didn’t want you to feel that you had to stick around for Jay and I. I was a burden to you.”

  “I think you should have let me decide if you were a burden.”

  “But you didn’t know I was a burden then. You would have gotten sick of me, and then you would have started resenting me and then we never would have talked again.”

  “Do you know how crazy you just sounded, Lee? You thought that you were going to be a burden so you decided to end us before we could even start. That’s fucked up.” Kurt shook his head and reached for the light switch. “Go find a movie to watch.”

  “Why?”

  “Jesus Christ, Lee.” Kurt ran his fingers through his hair and shook his head. “I’m going to need to spell it out for you, aren’t I?”

  I shrugged and shifted back and forth. “I don’t know what to do, Kurt.”

  “I wanna spend time with you, Lee. Not because I have to, but because I want to.” Kurt limped down the hallway and disappeared into Jay’s bedroom.

  “I thought you said you wanted to spend time with me,” I called.

  Kurt steps out of Jay’s room and into the bathroom across the hall. “I’m gonna shower, Lee. Like I said before, find a movie to watch.” He shut the door behind him, and I heard the water in the shower turn on.

  I stared down the hallway, my eyes on the spot I had last seen Kurt and my mind was racing. “Where am I?” I asked, dumbfounded. Kurt Jensen had just admitted he wanted to spend time with me and I couldn’t wrap my head around it. I was half-tempted to walk into the bathroom and make sure it was Kurt in there.

  Although, if I did that, I’d probably make an ass of myself by just staring at him as the water cascaded over his body. “Hmm, that idea isn’t half bad,” I contemplated.

  I shook my head and made my way back into the living room. As much as I’d love to see Kurt naked, I first needed to figure out this while being nice to Leelee business.

  Was it a fluke, or was the new Kurt here to stay? I picked up the remote and flipped on the Hallmark channel. A sappy romance I never watched was playing, and I flopped down on the couch.

  It was time to find out what I was dealing with.

  ********

  Chapter 19

  Kurt

  I wanted to gouge my eyes out with a dull knife and wish for a slow death.

  Leelee was passed out on the couch, and some sappy romance bullshit was playing on the TV. Leelee had the remote, and I was too lazy to get up and change the channel.

  This is what I got for being nice.

  When I had walked out of the bathroom after taking the world’s quickest shower, Leelee was sprawled out on the couch, a smug smile on her face and she told me to take a seat. As soon as I glanced at the TV, I knew she wasn’t playing fair.

  Ten minutes into the movie, she had passed out, and I was left to watch the shitty movie by myself.

  The credits were now rolling on the screen, and I stood, knowing I couldn’t sit through another movie like that. Leelee had the remote in her hand, a firm death grip on it, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to pick it up without waking her.

  I glanced at the clock, saw it was barely nine o’clock and knew I wasn’t ready for bed, although even if I was, I couldn’t go to sleep since Lee was asleep on my bed. The couch may look uncomfortable, but it was actually perfect to sleep on.

  So, now I had to decide my next step. Grab the remote from her hand and wake her up, or wake her up and tell her she needed to go to her room. Each option ended the same, Leelee awake and possibly pissed at me.

  “Now who’s staring at who?” she mumbled sleepily. Her eyes were still shut, but there was a small smirk on her lips.

  “I’m trying to figure out what to do, and I wasn’t staring at you.”

  “Mmhmm,” she hummed as she grabbe
d the blanket off the couch and pulled it over her body. “You don’t get the remote.” She tucked it under her body and rolled away from me.

  “That’s fine, Lee, but you’re on my bed.”

  “I’m not moving. You can sleep in my bed.”

  “Nope. I want the couch. Get up or move over.”

  She snuggled into the couch and lifted the blanket. “This invitation lasts for five seconds. One…two…”

  She barely made it to three before I tossed the blanket back, slid in next to Lee and wrapped my arms around her. Her body went stiff against mine, and she gasped as my hand lifted the hem of her shirt and touched the soft, warm skin of her stomach. “I’ll never say no to that invitation, Lee,” I whispered into her ear.

  “What are we doing, Kurt?”

  I brushed the hair back from her neck. “What I wanted to do a year ago, but you wouldn’t let me.”

  “And what makes you think I’ll let you now?”

  “Because we both want the same thing, Lee. Each other.”

  She rolled over in my arms and looked me in the eye. “You really think this is a good idea?”

  I shrugged. “We’re married. I don’t think holding my wife is something I shouldn’t do.”

  “Don’t you think it’s crazy you have a wife, but you’ve never kissed her?”

  “Crazy, yes. But I think that’s something we can fix right now.” I cupped her cheek and stroked my thumb across her soft skin.

  “Please don’t kiss me if this is all a dream and I’m going to wake up tomorrow, and you’re going to act like nothing happened.”

  “Something happened between us over a year ago, Lee, and I haven’t been able to forget since.”

  “You’re gonna do this, aren’t you?” Her voice shook, but she didn’t move away from me.

  “You want it just as much as I do, Lee. I’m done acting like I don’t care about you.”

  “This is going to chan—”

  “Lee, just shut up and let me kiss you.” I brushed my lips against her sweet mouth, and she gasped. “Don’t tell me to stop, Lee. I won’t be able to,” I said against her lips.

  “I don’t want you to stop,” she whispered.