Wildflowers (JACT 2.5)

by Jennifer L. Allen

  “Is something wrong?” she asks after a minute.

  Placing my hand on her cheek, I tilt her face up so she can see me. “No. Nothing is wrong. Everything is perfect…amazing.”

  “Why’d you stop?” Her expression is hesitant, and I hate that I made her feel unsure. “Is it me?”

  “Hell, no!” I say, maybe a little too loudly since she startles. I roll over to face her, placing my hands on her cheeks. “You are amazing, Evie.” I kiss her lips. “There’s definitely nothing wrong with you.” I lightly thrust my hips against her so she can feel the effect she has on me.

  She blushes and closes her eyes for a moment. “Then why’d you stop?”

  How can I tell her this without freaking her out? “I’m kind of crazy about you, Evie. I know it’s fast, but we’ve both said that we want to know what this is between us. I’m just afraid…I’m afraid if we jump right into the physical stuff, that we’ll miss learning all the other stuff that couples learn about each other in the beginning.”

  “Couples?” she asks with a smile.

  I did say that, didn’t I? I shrug. “Maybe…we could be…if we like each other enough.”

  “I’m kind of crazy about you, too, Joey.”

  “Good,” I say, giving her another quick kiss.

  “But we don’t have a lot of time…” she says, letting her thought trail off.

  She’s right; we don’t have a lot of time. So I can’t exactly court her the way a guy would his girlfriend. I’ve got two more full days in Dallas before we leave. That’s not nearly enough time.

  “I get where you’re coming from,” she tells me. “I really do…but Joey, when you drive outta here on Monday morning, I don’t wanna regret not being with you in every way possible.”

  Well, if that isn’t a shot straight to my pants, I don’t know what is. “Evie,” I groan. “You’re not making this easy.”

  “I’m not trying to,” she smarts back.

  “I’ll make you a deal,” I tell her, holding up my pinky. She giggles and loops her pinky with mine. “We spend the day together again tomorrow, and if we still want to do this…”

  “Then we do it,” she says, completing my thought.

  I nod. “We do it.”

  “This is so mechanical,” she laughs. “Pinky promises and making plans to have sex? How sexy.”

  I smile. She’s absolutely right. There isn’t anything sexy about this conversation. “I think I can fix that,” I tell her, leaning in to nuzzle her ear. I gently bite the lobe and she gasps. I trail my tongue down her neck, across her collarbone, and down between her breasts. I watch the rise and fall of her chest as she pants.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I said no sex,” I remind her as I continue to lick my way down to her panties. “But I didn’t say we couldn’t do…other things…” I pull her panties down her legs and throw them over her shoulder before settling myself in between her legs and tasting her with one quick lap.

  “Ohh,” she moans. “I do like other things.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Evie

  Joey wakes me up this morning the same way he put me to sleep last night…what a way to wake up. The man is talented with his tongue and hands. I feel guilty he’s gotten no relief, but he’d assured me last night, and again this morning, that it was not a problem. He’d also taken a really long shower after he placed a breakfast order with room service.

  I’m lying on his bed, dressed in one of his t-shirts, snacking on the assorted fruit that was just dropped off, when the hotel room door pops open. I freeze. Alex freezes. Then I quickly pull the covers up over my lower half.

  “Sorry,” he says, quickly turning around.

  “Don’t you knock?” I ask, looking down to make sure everything is covered.

  He looks at me over his shoulder and raises an eyebrow. “My room, remember?”

  How can I forget? “Right,” I say quietly.

  “No big deal,” Alex says, strutting further into the room. He lifts one of the metal lids off a plate and picks up a piece of bacon.

  “Easy for you to say. Your ass wasn’t hanging out.”

  He shrugs. “You’ve got a nice ass.”

  I can’t help it; I laugh. As awkward as this moment is, it could have been worse. Hell, I’ll probably never live this down from Alex as it is, but he seems to be the most easygoing of the group, so yeah…it could have been worse.

  “Joey in the shower?” he asks, flopping down on the other bed.

  “Yep.”

  “Wear him out?”

  “Alex!” I throw a melon ball at him, and it bounces off his head.

  “Hey! What was that for?” He sits up, rubbing the spot on his forehead where the cantaloupe struck. There’s a little red dot…yeah, it might bruise. Serves him right.

  “You need to learn some boundaries. It’s not polite to ask those kinds of things.”

  He wiggles his eyebrows. “Yeah, I bet you did wear him out. You’re a fireball.”

  I roll my eyes. “You’re incorrigible.”

  “So I’ve been told.”

  “What the hell is going on out here?” Joey asks, stepping out of the bathroom with only a towel wrapped around his waist. Drops of water drip down from his hair to his shoulders to his pecs to his abs to his…

  “Earth to Evie…” Joey says.

  “Sorry, hmm?” I look up from his waist and meet his eyes and almost moan at the heat I see in them. I have to remind myself that Alex is still in the room and unless I want to give him a show—which I don’t—I need to keep it cool. Cool as in cold shower. Stat.

  He smirks. The jerk. “I said I have to take off for the interview.”

  I frown. I was hoping we’d be able to spend the day together.

  “Don’t look so sad, girl,” Alex says, chipper as ever. “We’ll be gone an hour…tops. Then I’ll personally hand deliver him back to you.”

  “You’re not hand delivering shit,” Joey counters.

  “So sensitive,” Alex says, standing up.

  “I’ll meet you in the lobby in a few minutes,” Joey tells Alex before he slips out the door. “Sorry about him,” he tells me.

  I shrug. “It’s no big deal. He’s pretty harmless.”

  Joey laughs. “That he is.” He walks over and sits on the bed, staring down at me with a look of adoration on his face. “You’ll still be here when I get back?”

  I can’t think of anyplace else I’d rather be…but I do need some clean clothes…and a shower. “I need to clean up.”

  “You can shower.”

  “I need clothes.”

  “You can wear mine.”

  “Joey.”

  “Evie.”

  I sigh. It’s like arguing with a child. It’s no wonder he and Alex appear to be so close. They’re more alike than I’d realized.

  “How about while you’re at the interview, I run home and change—”

  “But—”

  “And I’ll pack a bag and come back.”

  “You’ll pack a bag?” he asks, and I can’t read the expression on his face. Did I overstep my bounds here?

  I sit up and fidget, trying to figure out how I’ll get myself out of this one. “I don’t have to…I mean…it’s a long drive. I can get my own room—”

  “No,” he says. “You’ll stay with me.”

  “If you’re not sure…”

  “I’m positive,” he says, and he wraps his hand around the back of my neck and pulls me to him. This kiss is different. It’s full of promises of what’s to come.

  I can’t wait.

  ***

  I race home at speeds I’d rather not discuss and quickly pack an overnight bag. My parents aren’t in the house, and I assume they’re in the barn—my daddy working with the animals and my momma in the office. I know I have to poke my head in, but I’m dreading it. For all they know, I’ve been working for the magazine and spending some time with Tommy. They know nothing of Joey, and I’m not s
ure what to tell them.

  Yes, I’m an adult—still technically a teenager at nineteen, but an adult nonetheless—but I’m their baby, their only daughter after four sons, so I think sometimes they don’t know what to do with me, especially given my free-spirited nature. When I’d first started dying my hair random colors of the rainbow and got multiple piercings in my ear, my daddy had freaked out. I’d heard him lament more than once about how and why God was testing him with a daughter. I’ve always known he loves me—I was the biggest daddy’s girl as a child—but I also know I’ve been a bit of a challenge. My brothers are all so conservative, following in the family business and all that. Then there’s me…I’m simply cut from a different cloth, as my momma would say.

  After showering, I get dressed and pack the rest of my toiletries. I grab a granola bar and an apple from the kitchen and head outside. Here goes nothing. I head down to the barn and enter through the side door, closest to the offices. There are five office spaces in the barn: one for my momma, one for my daddy, two my brothers share, and one that serves as a copy room and spare office, if needed.

  It’s quiet back here, but I can hear the light tapping I recognize as my momma’s fingertips hitting the keyboard. I approach her open door and knock. “Hey, Momma. Where’s Daddy?”

  She spins around to greet me with a big smile on her face. “There’s my little Wildflower!” she says. She’s been calling me that since I was little and loved picking bluebonnets. I think I grew into the “wild” part, too. “Your dad and John are off at an auction.”

  “Rams?”

  “Horses. John is hell bent on getting another horse,” she says, shaking her head.

  I step around her desk and lean down to give her a hug and a kiss on the cheek. My momma is a small woman, with blonde hair and green eyes like me, but she’s fierce. She’d have to be to put up with my daddy and brothers.

  “So how did it go in the city? Did you have a good time?”

  I sit down in the visitor chair across her desk and blush thinking about just how good a time I had. “It was a lot of fun.” So much fun that I’m going back.

  “What’s that look?” she asks with raised eyebrows, not missing a thing. If possible, my blush deepens. “Evie Marie Carson…did you meet a boy?”

  “Momma,” I say, dragging out the endearment. “I’m a grown woman; I don’t hang around boys.”

  My momma rolls her eyes. “So who is he?”

  I smile. I can’t help it. “His name is Joey Adams. He plays drums for one of the bands on tour with Tommy.”

  She narrows her eyebrows. “Do you think that’s wise? Getting all goo goo over a guy who is just passing through town?” I’d be annoyed at her skepticism if she didn’t just echo the thoughts I’ve been having.

  “Probably not,” I admit. “But I can’t help it. There’s just this connection between us, Momma. I don’t know what to do or say or think…”

  “You’ve got it bad,” she tells me with a sad smile.

  I nod because she’s right. I do have it bad. “You and daddy only knew each other a short time before you got married. How’d you feel?” Her eyes widen. “No, Momma. I’m not gonna marry the guy. I just like him a lot and want to spend more time with him.”

  “With your father, I just knew. There was a connection that couldn’t be ignored. But we were in college together, so we had time to explore it.”

  “You met the final semester of your senior year and got married right after graduation,” I say flatly, giving her a “don’t bullshit me” look. I’ve heard the story countless times. She can’t pull the wool over my eyes.

  She laughs. “You’re right. It was fast. But when you know, you know.”

  “Yeah…I think I know.”

  “Oh, Evie,” she says, holding my hand across her desk.

  “He leaves the day after tomorrow,” I tell her, tears filling my eyes. “I’m going to go back to Dallas and spend time with him before he goes.”

  “I don’t know if that’s a good idea, honey.”

  “I don’t either…but I have to know. Momma, you of all people should understand. Think about what would have happened if you hadn’t seen daddy a second time.”

  She sighs. “This is different, Evie. This guy isn’t sticking around. Your dad wasn’t going anywhere. I want this for you, honey, I do. I’m just afraid you’re going to get hurt.”

  “I’m more afraid I’ll regret not finding out.”

  “Well, you never did do things the conventional way,” she says, shaking her head with a smile on her face.

  “I can go?”

  She laughs. “Evie, you’re a grown woman,” she repeats my words from a few moments ago. “You don’t need my or your dad’s permission. Though I appreciate the consideration. You may be a ‘grown woman,’ but we do still worry about you.”

  “I know, Momma. But you don’t have to worry; Tommy is always nearby.” She smiles at that, knowing that Tommy will protect me as fiercely as my own brothers would. “I’m going to head out. I’ll probably be back tomorrow night or Monday morning.”

  She stands up when I do and walks around her desk to hug me. “Be careful,” she whispers into my hair.

  “Tomm—”

  She steps back and holds my face in her hands. “I’m not talking about your safety. I’m talking about your heart.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Joey

  The interview went well, and we had a blast talking with the DJs and the fans who called in. After the female disc jockey announced that we were all single—a result of Alex’s endless flirtations—the number of female callers tripled. Usually, I’d eat that crap up…but this time, I could only think of Evie. Where was she? What was she doing? Was she listening? Was she on her way back to Dallas? Did she change her mind?

  Being on the radio and talking with fans makes this entire tour experience that much more real. It’s an even bigger reminder that in a few days, I’ll be in another city, and my time with Evie will only be a memory.

  The guys decided to grab an early lunch after the interview, but I declined, choosing instead to return to my room and get ready for my day with Evie. On the walk back to the hotel, I let Alex know he was bunking with Trevor and Chase again tonight. He groaned about it, but his smirk let me know he had my back. “I’m just happy you’re happy, dude,” he said.

  So here I am, pacing the lobby as I wait for Evie to arrive. She’d texted me ten minutes ago, letting me know she was looking for parking. I’d written her back, telling her to use the valet or even the garage, but I didn’t get a response. I know she hadn’t been thrilled about using the valet—or my generosity—last night, so it didn’t surprise me.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I spot a hint of pink. I quickly look to my right, and there she is…making her way in through the revolving front door of the hotel. My smile stretches across my face as I make my way to her. When she spots me, her eyes light up, and she smiles brightly. The closer she gets to me, the faster my heart beats. We meet in the middle, and I give her a soft kiss on her lips before pulling her into a bone-crushing hug.

  She grounds me. She makes me feel peaceful.

  I’m totally screwed.

  ***

  Evie and I have lunch in a small bistro a few doors down from the hotel. I chose that location because there was less of a chance of us getting interrupted there than there would be if we’d eaten at the hotel restaurant since that’s where the bands have been hanging out. It’s bad enough Alex spotted us in the lobby and invited us to join everyone at Six Flags tomorrow. I said no, Alex pouted, Evie caved, and Alex found a new BFF.

  Over sandwiches and sweet tea, Evie tells me more about her family—her parents and brothers—and the roles they all play on the sheep farm. Evie said she’d always stuck out like a sore thumb, wanting different things from the rest of her family. She shared her passion for photography and how she’d love to get into photojournalism.

  “So tell me about your family,�
� she asks, taking another sip of her tea. I’m a little distracted by her lips on the straw, so I don’t hear her until she repeats the question.

  “Not much to tell. The band is my family,” I shrug the question off, but I should have known she’d revisit this eventually after she let me off the hook yesterday.

  “Well, that’s pretty obvious given the way you all act around each other. Tommy and his band are the same way. What happened to your mom and dad?”

  One thing’s for sure, Evie is a straight shooter. Nothing like getting to the point. It’s not that I’m ashamed to tell Evie about my family; it’s that I don’t care to waste my time talking about them.

  “Nothing happened to them…that I know of. They were lousy drunks.” I debate telling her this next part, but I figure since we don’t have a lot of time left together, if it’s a deal breaker, then I’d rather know now. “I dropped out of high school,” I say, watching her. She doesn’t even flinch. I guess that’s a good sign. “And I worked my ass off so I could get out of their house as soon as possible.”

  “They didn’t…hit you…did they?”

  “No, they never got physical.” Verbal abuse? Every damn day.

  “So did you end up moving in with Alex?”

  I nod as I take another drink. “Yeah. After their parents died, Chase and I were crashing there so much that Trevor offered us the apartment over their garage.”

  “It’s pretty cool that you get to live with your best friends like that.”

  “It is cool,” I agree. “We’re all pretty lucky to have each other.”

  We continue talking about everything and nothing, and I can’t help but feel relieved. Evie didn’t balk at the fact that my pedigree isn’t nearly as good as hers. She came from a loving family, full of people who support one another, while I come from a couple of useless wastes of space. I dropped out of high school, and she has some college under her belt. We couldn’t be more different, yet in some ways we’re exactly the same. We’re two artistic people, embracing life and eager to take on new adventures.