Painted Lines

by Brei Betzold

“Date,” he said looking at me. “I can handle just dating you, for now, if that’s what you want, but I do have a stipulation.”

  “What’s that?”

  “As soon as you want more, you tell me, because I am not the one in control here, for now.”

  “For now, huh?”

  “Oh I will take control at some point Scout, believe me, and I will enjoy every moment. I think would you too, but not until you say.”

  “Hmm, why do I think we are talking about two different things?”

  “Uhm, probably because we are,” he said with a smirk then leaned down and kissed me. “Take the time you need, Bella.”

  “Thank you,” I told him sincerely.

  “You’re worth the wait, Bella, plus I still get to date you,” he said with a wicked grin.

  “So how’s the face?”

  “Eh, I’ve had worse.”

  “Why does that not surprise me?”

  He sighed, “I went a bit wild for a while, fights, tagging, drugs, alcohol, all of that crap but then mom got sick.” He shrugged, “I had to take care of my family.”

  “Yeah, you’ve told me some.”

  “Yeah well, I was stupid back then and between my mom getting sick and some girl popping up at my door saying she was pregnant with my kid, and I didn’t even remember her, I figured it was time to stop being a screw up.”

  “Oh,” I breathed, “so you have a kid?”

  He shook his head, “No, she lost the baby shortly after that, but it was a real wake up call. I mean, I was some dumb eighteen-year-old screw up, what the hell was I going to do with a kid? So I went to work at the shop, took care of mom and Nik, and got my life together.”

  “Do you want kids?” I asked biting my lip.

  “Someday, sure I guess, right now I want to get Nikki through high school.”

  I nodded but felt my heart break a little at that, I couldn’t give him that.

  “Hey, I know what you’re thinking, and it doesn’t matter. I don’t care if we ever have kids or not, if we decide we want them we can adopt, become foster parents, it really doesn’t matter to me.”

  “You say that now,” I whispered, “until you get older and want a son of your own.”

  He reached up and grabbed my chin making me look at him, “It really does not matter to me, Bella, passing on a name and all that crap doesn’t matter to me, and being a dad has nothing to do with genetics. I learned that at a young age when my perfect family broke apart and the perfect dad split.”

  I bit my lip watching his eyes, and all I saw was the truth. “Okay,” I whispered.

  “Okay,” he whispered back before leaning down and kissing me gently.

  Soon after, people started showing up then it was time for work. We all filed in and waited on Eddie as had become our routine. Finally, he showed up.

  “Today you will finish your tanks and prepare to paint tomorrow. You have four hours.”

  I looked over at the guys and smiled, “Ready?”

  They all nodded and we took off towards our stall. Liam went to work finishing things he needed to do before handing the tank over to me.

  I spent the rest of the time sanding, wet sanding, and cleaning the tank so that I could paint the next day. I looked forward to that, I was beginning to have withdrawals.

  I was walking out the door with Thayne and he slung an arm over my shoulder, “So what’s your plan for the rest of today?”

  “Uhm, pharmacy and grocery store.”

  “Want company?”

  I looked up and smiled, “Would love it.”

  “Good, because you still haven’t told me all you decided.”

  “Huh?”

  “This morning you said you had made some decisions, you told me only one so I am guessing there are more.”

  I nodded, “There are.”

  “You going to tell me?”

  “Hmm, I guess.”

  “Come on, we’ll take my car.”

  I nodded and followed him to his car. He trapped me between the door and him and kissed me for a moment then leaned away and opened the door for me. I climbed in and he shut the door after winking at me. He was too cute sometimes.

  Once we were on the road, he looked over at me, “So?” he asked.

  “So, I decided to move out.”

  “Uhm, I think you did that already.”

  “No, well yeah, but I meant in San Diego. I am going to move out of Cas’s and find my own place.”

  He nodded, “You’re sure about this?”

  “Yeah, why don’t you think I can do it?”

  “It’s not what I think, it’s what you think, and is this what you want?”

  “Yeah, this is what I want.”

  “Okay then do it, what else?”

  “Uhm, I am going to start looking for a therapist when I get home.”

  He looked over at me, “Don’t you have a therapist?”

  “Kinda, yes I have a psychiatrist but it’s not the same. I think I need a female therapist that I choose, someone I can talk to.”

  He nodded, “Okay, I can understand that, anything else?”

  “I think I want to take some business classes.”

  “Okay,” he said slowly, “any reason why?”

  “Because I want to understand how my business is ran, and I don’t want to be dependent on someone else to take care of it all.”

  “I can understand where you’re coming from, but Scout there is nothing wrong depending on other people,” he said reaching for my hand and lacing our fingers together. “Sometimes you need someone to help you, and that’s fine. If this is something you want to do, then do it, but don’t forget that it’s okay to lean sometimes.”

  “I know that in theory,” I murmured, “but in practice not so much, and I want to do this for me.”

  “Then go for it, Bella.”

  We pulled up in front of the pharmacy, hopped out, and went to collect my prescriptions. Luckily, this time I didn’t have a problem getting them. After almost emptying my bank account we headed to the store to finish it off, I was going to have to pull money from my savings, I really hated to do that since I had been saving for the shop. I kept out enough just to live on, the rest of my paychecks were put into savings, oh well it couldn’t be helped.

  “So are you really moving to San Diego?” I asked while walking into the grocery store.

  “Yeah, that’s the plan.”

  “Any job prospects?”

  “Matt offered me a job at his shop.”

  “He has a good shop,” I told him. “I sometimes work over there when they need help.”

  “Yeah, he told me that.”

  I grabbed a cart and began going through, grabbing what I needed, “Want dinner?”

  “Sure, you cooking?”

  “Well, you sure as hell aren’t, I’ve heard about your cooking skills.”

  He laughed taking the buggy from me and pushed it before hopping up on the bar riding it down the aisle. I shook my head. What is it with boys and anything with wheels?

  Once we had everything we needed, we headed to the checkout line, while Thayne was putting everything on the conveyor belt, I watched the cashier checking him out. When he was finished and came to stand beside me she was still ogling him. He didn’t seem to notice which was amusing me to no end.

  “Anything else?” she asked putting a suggestive note into her tone and looking straight at Thayne ignoring my existence.

  “No thanks,” I answered and smirked at her as she looked me over.

  After we paid and headed out, I started to giggle, then turned into outright laughing.

  “What’s so funny?” Thayne asked looking confused.

  “The cashier,” I got out between peals of laughter, “was totally checking you out.”

  “Huh?” he asked looking even more confused.

  “I’m starting to really notice how much that happens,” I told him when we reached his car and I had stopped laughing, “and you never notice
it.”

  He looked at me strangely, “And you find this funny, why?”

  “I don’t know. The way she was just so blatant and you just stood there missing it completely.”

  “You’re not jealous?”

  “Well no, if you would have noticed it, maybe. If she would have done what she wanted to do she would have come back with a stub for an arm.”

  “Uh huh and what did she want to do?”

  I looked at him, “She wanted to strip you naked, coat you in chocolate sauce and whipped cream, and lick it off.”

  “Well, that’s an idea,” he muttered looking back at the store.

  “I swear, Thayne, I will remove your balls slowly with a rusty spoon, dull knife and a fork then feed them to you.”

  He burst out laughing. “I was just thinking about going and picking up chocolate sauce and whipped cream for later, with you.”

  “Now that’s a plan I can get behind, just not tonight.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because I have other plans,” I told him with a wink and shut the trunk to his car.

  Chapter 38

  Thayne dropped me off at my bike and went to pick Nikki up from Cam’s. I headed to his place, once I got there, I decided to call Saul to check in with him like I had promised.

  “Girl,” he answered, “how are you?”

  “Good,” I said smiling.

  “You sound happy.”

  “I am happy,” I said still smiling.

  “I just wanted to make sure you’re okay,” he said gruffly.

  “I’m fine, about to cook dinner.”

  “You’re staying with Thayne?”

  “No, just hanging out for a while, I have a motel room.”

  “Okay, we’ll need to talk soon. I’m leaving on Saturday, so sometime before then.”

  “How about tomorrow, after we’re done, you can come up to the shop and we can go get dinner.”

  “Sounds good, Girl, see you tomorrow,” then he hung up.

  I shook my head at the phone. Saul wasn’t big on talking on the phone, showing emotion, or well, any of that, but he loved me. I knew that, I’ve always known that.

  A few minutes later, Thayne pulled up with a bouncing Nikki, I didn’t know how he did it. She was energetic.

  “You’re cooking?” she squealed jumping out of the car.

  I nodded, holding my hands up to keep her from hugging me. “I don’t like to be touched,” I whispered.

  She nodded, “Got it.”

  Then spun around and bounced back to help Thayne with the bags, I followed at a slower pace.

  “So how’s Saul?” he asked.

  “How did you know I called Saul?”

  “I was there, he smiled, called you Girl, wasn’t hard to figure out.”

  I nodded grabbing some bags and went up the stairs following a still bouncing Nikki.

  Once we were inside, I went to pulling out what I needed for dinner, “Nikki want to help?”

  “I’d love to,” she squealed. “Mom was teaching me to cook when she got sick, but we had to stop.”

  “I’m sorry, Nikki.”

  She looked up at me and smiled, “It’s okay.” She shrugged, “She was in pain, it was a relief for her.”

  I nodded not sure what else to say to that.

  “So what are we making?”

  “I was thinking something simple, grilled veggie pizza.”

  “That’s simple?” Thayne asked in awe.

  I nodded, “Yeah, not making my own pizza dough or anything like that this time.”

  He stared at me for a moment then shook his head, “Sure you won’t move in?”

  “Nope, but thanks for the offer,” I told him then leaned up kissing him. “Now go do something.”

  “Yes ma’am,” he murmured kissing me once again, slapped my ass, and ran.

  I stood there staring at where he had just left, the fucker slapped my ass, and he was so paying for that later.

  Nikki giggled and I looked over at her, “He just slapped my ass”

  She nodded and giggled again, “Yep and your face was priceless.”

  I shook my head then started pulling the veggies out of the bags and washing them. Once we were done with that, I handed her a knife and showed her how I wanted them sliced. When she had that started, I focused on the sauce.

  Nikki was fun to cook with, she kept up a one-sided conversation. I only had to give occasional sounds that I was listening and agreed or disagreed at the right places. After she had everything sliced, I showed her how to grill the vegetables then when everything was ready we went to assembling our pizzas.

  “That was fun,” she squealed, “and easy.”

  “Yeah, that was fun,” I said a little surprised at how much fun it had turned out to be.

  “We’ll you teach me more after we move?”

  “Yeah, I can do that,” I told her. “Are you okay with moving to San Diego?”

  “Well, it’s going to suck leaving my friends, but yeah, I am okay with it.”

  “Okay, dinner will be ready in about twenty minutes.”

  “Okay, I am going to go call my friends,” she said once again bouncing out of a room.

  I went into the living room and found Thayne lying on the couch watching TV. I walked over and laid down beside him. He tossed a leg and an arm around me pulling me close. I laid my head down on his arm and watched the news with him.

  He leaned down and gently kissed my neck. “Thank you,” he whispered.

  “What for?”

  “For doing that.”

  “It was fun. I’ve never really had much female interaction in my life.”

  “Hmm,” he murmured running his lips up my neck then back down. “She is very feminine, you will get your practice now.”

  I moaned when he gently bit the place where my neck met my shoulder. “Like that?” he whispered.

  “Mm hmm.”

  His hand drifted softly back and forth across my stomach, I snuggled further into him.

  “Gah,” a voice shrieked, “take it to your room.”

  Thayne groaned and I giggled looking up at Nikki, “I’d say I’m sorry, but I’m not.”

  She sighed dramatically then turned around and headed back to her room, I started laughing at her dramatics.

  “You’re going to boarding school,” he shouted after her, peals of laughter floated out of her room, causing me to laugh harder.

  “Oh you think it’s funny being cock blocked by my sister?”

  “Yes,” I said between giggles.

  “You suck,” he groaned and reached around and started tickling me. I shrieked jumping up off the couch and running towards the kitchen.

  “Cheater,” he shouted after me, and I checked the pizzas laughing.

  Dinner was interesting, the two of them bickered throughout the meal, and I laughed at their antics. It was kind of telling when I couldn’t remember a time I had laughed like this. It was refreshing, they weren’t constantly asking how I was, watching me cautiously, they just were being normal. After dinner Nikki and I elected Thayne for kitchen duty and headed to her room. I smiled when I looked around, unlike the rest of the apartment, this room was not sparse. It was covered in posters, and lots of pink. I shook my head at all the pink.

  “Hmm I think your favorite color is pink,” I commented.

  She nodded, “Yeah, though it will probably change again, what’s yours?”

  “Grey like a storm rolling in grey.” I replied immediately then stopped to think about what I had said, if I was asked a week ago I would have said black or purple. Huh, I filed that away to dissect later.

  I saw a copy of Catcher in the Rye sitting on her bed beside a copy of To Kill a Mockingbird I smiled and picked the latter up, “Good book.”

  She sighed loudly, “It’s so boring,” she whined.

  I breathed out a laugh, “I was named after her.”

  “Huh?”

  “Harper Lee, I was named after her.”<
br />
  “I thought your name was, oh,” she said as realization lit her eyes.

  “Mmm, my mom loved to read and named both me and my brother after authors she’s loved.”

  “Who was your brother named after?”

  “C.S. Lewis, but his nickname was Prince Caspian after a character in Narnia.”

  She nodded, “I’ve seen the movie.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Mmm the books are better.”

  “So the C in his name isn’t for Caspian?”

  “Nope.”

  She looked at me confused, “Then what is it for?”

  I snickered, “Clive.”

  She laughed, “And the S?”

  “Staples.”

  She looked at me for a moment and broke into pealing laughter, “That’s like the worst name ever,” she gasped out.

  “Yeah, that’s why he prefers Cas.”

  “I am so calling him that tomorrow.”

  “Hope you run fast,” I murmured.

  Just then, her phone started playing some song I didn’t know and she jumped up answering it. I took that as my queue to go and headed back into the living room. I curled up in the corner of the couch and watched some TV while Thayne banged around in the kitchen. I was dozing in and out when Thayne sat down beside me and handed me a cup of coffee.

  “Thanks,” I whispered taking the coffee from him.

  He smiled over at me then put his arm on the back of the couch and started playing with my hair.

  “Thayne,” Nikki screeched running out of her room into the living room. “I have to go Kristy needs my help, hair emergency. Can I go over and just stay the night?”

  He kept playing with my hair and looked over at her, “Fine, just be back in time to go.”

  “Thanks,” she squealed jumping up and down turned and ran back into her room only to race back out a moment later. She stopped, kissing him on the cheek, and with a bye shouted over her shoulder, she was gone.

  “She’s like the energizer bunny on crack,” I muttered watching the door slam behind her.

  He huffed out a breath. “She’s energetic, but a good girl.”

  I nodded, “Yeah, you’re doing a good job with her,” I told him looking over at him.

  He smiled softly. “Nah, my mom did.”

  “You two were lucky.”

  “Yeah we were. She was amazing.”

  “My mom and Matt were having an affair, I was a mistake.”