by Holly Hood
He moves me around the dance floor like an expert. I’m not surprised that he’s so light on his feet.
“I can tell your mom loves you.” I smile at him. “Can’t say I expected anything less.”
“I told you about complimenting me,” he says. “It only makes me like you more.”
“I can’t help it,” I inform him.
“It also makes me do things like this.” He dips me, and I scream. He brings me back up and wraps his arms around me, laughing. “Everyone is watching us.”
I tuck a strand of hair behind my ear. “I don’t care. Do you?”
He shakes his head. “Not at all.” He looks at me with those blue eyes of his, gives me a devilish grin, and I can’t help but smile.
“Have I told you how much easier you make all these parts of my life?” He kisses my cheek.
“No.” I touch his face. “What do you mean?”
“I don’t like this stuff. I never have.” He shrugs. “Did I ever tell you the first time I met Lee?”
He’s changing the subject, but I just listen. “No, you haven’t.”
“Lee once had a lot of money. But he was so hung up on losing his daughter that he lost everything.” I see his mother celebrating with her rich friends, not a care in the world. “My father sent me to buy out his business.”
“That’s sad.” I frown.
“I’ve never seen someone so lost without another person. That’s all he is. He’s a shell of what he once was because he lost his daughter.” Jackson looks at me. “And when he sees you, just like when I see you, everything seems a little better. I don’t think that’s a coincidence, do you?”
I turn my head away from his piercing stare.
It’s hard to deny that Jackson is getting to me.
Chapter 13
I clap my hands when I see Ryker’s face in the airport.
He saunters over, his eyes showing signs of jet lag but when he gets to me, he pushes all that away and lifts me up. “God, you smell good.”
I kiss him over and over on the cheek before he sets me back down. I don’t care who’s looking. I’m pretty sure they are jealous.
“You don’t know how amazing it is to see a girl after that last tour.” He studies the luggage going by and finally grabs a big black suitcase.
“Oh.” I link my fingers with his. “So it doesn’t matter what girl. Just the fact that you see one is good enough for you?” I smirk.
“You’ll do just fine.” He follows me through the airport tugging down his hat so nobody notices him. We both know the moment someone sees him we are never going to get back to Sophie's.
“Monty didn’t come with you this time?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “Monty met someone back in Orlando.”
I frown, and he shakes his head. “Don’t do that. Sophie knew what she was getting herself into.”
“Fine. But still seems kind of sleazy.”
Ryker raises my hand, studying my nails. “Nice nails.”
“Thank you.”
Someone behind us yells his name and the crowd starts calling out for his autograph.
He throws an arm around me. “Not today. Sorry guys.”
I can’t believe the glares coming my way. “Just sign them.”
“Are you sure?” He grabs a pen from the group of people.
“Yes, I’m sure.” I watch one person after another push hats, arms, shirts and just about anything else his way. Camera flash after camera flash assaults my eyesight. After about twenty minutes, he refuses to touch anything else and pulls me through the crowd.
“Insane.”
“Oh, that was nothing,” he informs me. “Where did you park?”
I point. “Way down there.”
“Well, what are you waiting for?” He raises an eyebrow, cracking a smile. “Run.”
At first I think he is kidding, but he isn’t. I take off after him, praying I am not taken out by a car backing up.
“This isn’t funny,” I say breathless. “I have bad ankles. They could give out any second.”
“I’ll make sure to roll you out of the way, so you’re not run over by a car.” He keeps going.
“Are you saying I am fat?” A slight cramp starts up my thigh, but I push through, determined not to give up.
“No, I’m saying I want to get out of here before they swarm us again.”
We finally make it to my car. My chest burns, and I try and catch my breath. Ryker drops his suitcase at the back of my car, and I pop the trunk. He tosses it in and comes around to my side. “I’ll drive.”
“Fine. After that run I think I need a nap,” I say.
He slaps me on the ass and climbs in, and I walk around to the other side of the car wishing I had an inhaler.
***
Ryker has an event at a club.
And being a part of his entourage gets Sophie and me free drinks and special privileges. It’s kind of nice.
“To Ryker,” Sophie announces, lifting her champagne. “For being so wickedly popular.”
Ryker smirks and throws back another shot. He’s wasted, and I’m tipsy. Sophie can handle her liquor, so she’s just even more colorful than normal.
Ryker plops down next to us. “You’re welcome, Soph. I’m glad you’re enjoying all the love.”
Sophie lets him kiss her hand. “I don’t know how you do it. Always in the spotlight. Someone always wants a piece of you.”
“It becomes a way of life after a while.”
I nod, looking around at everyone. Nobody seems to be enjoying themselves; they’re just sipping drinks and waiting to see if Ryker will come and strike up a conversation with them or take a photograph.
“I think it’s adorable you and Savy found one another again,” Sophie tells him probably for the fifth time tonight.
Ryker squeezes my leg. “Like old times.”
I plaster on a smile. “Right.”
He makes a face. “What does that mean?”
“It means right.” I pull away a bit confused. “Why?”
“Are you having a good time? Or is this growing old already?”
I sigh, but it doesn’t end, he continues to put me on the spot. “I’m fine. I think you're overly sensitive.”
“I’m being myself. You’re the one that looks like you’re not having a good time.” He scoffs and shakes his head.
Sophie touches his arm. “Now, now you two. We’re not in high school anymore. I feel like I’ve gone back in time.”
“Some things don’t change.” Ryker tugs down his hat. I yank it off him and throw it.
“Stop treating me like that.” I stand up. He stands up, too, and plants a kiss on my cheek. “You know I love you, Sav.”
I push him away. “You’re being annoying right now. I thought you came to have fun, not berate me for trying to adjust to this lifestyle.”
“I thought by now you would have learned how to work out your feelings instead of ignoring them and lashing out.” He waves at a group of people.
“I am not lashing out.” I refuse to look at him. “I’m leaving if you say one more thing.”
“I want to fuck you in the bathroom.” He teases, grabbing my hand. “Or the car.”
I close my eyes refusing to budge.
“One day you are going to understand the way that I feel about you.” He is obviously drunk.
“Stop. I don’t like emotional drunks. You cannot talk about feelings when you have had more than one shot. It’s not okay.” I pull away and cross my arms.
“I fucking love you, Sav.” He touches my arm. “More than you realize.”
“Ryker stop.” I grab his arm when he starts through the crowd. “Don’t do anything stupid.”
“Why would you care? You don’t do feelings.” He goes down the stairs of the VIP section.
“Come on,” I tell him, leading him through the club and down the hallway.
“What are you doing?” He leans against the wall. “I’m drunk.”
<
br /> “I know.”
He pins me to the wall, his hips holding me in place. “You know just what to do to piss me off.”
My heart skips a beat when I look into his eyes. “Cameras.” I remind him.
He grabs me by the chin. “I don’t care about cameras.”
I pull him to me. “Neither do I.” His hands are in my hair. I accept his tongue, tasting the beer and shots he just downed. He guides my mouth against his, sucking on my lower lip. I don’t care who is watching him feel me up right there in the hallway. I can’t believe I was upset with him just a few minutes ago.
Chapter 14
Day after day we bond. Week after week we get even closer. Jackson and I. Ryker and I. I’ve created two totally different relationships, and I don’t want to get out of either one. Two perfect souls in two perfect human beings. What one has, the other one rivals. What one doesn’t give me, the other one does.
Nobody can tell me that I’m doing wrong, and I wouldn’t care if they did.
Jackson is content; Ryker is fine. We’re all spinning around in our circles of lust—or is it love--I’m not really sure.
I like when I’m with Jackson. I miss Ryker when he’s away, and he makes me crazy when he’s here.
I’m Ryker’s biggest fan. I sit in the crowd while he’s skateboarding or backstage at an event when he’s in town. I worry he’s going to break his neck.
When I work alongside Jackson, I put my all into everything he asks of me. I support his ambition; I push him into getting things done when he grows bored or tired. We complement each other.
I am Ryker’s shoulder to vent, his sex buddy, his best friend.
“What are you making?” I ask, coming into Jackson’s enormous kitchen. It’s truly impressive.
“The only thing I can make,” he says pointing to the empty macaroni and cheese boxes on the counter.
“Yum.” I take a seat at the counter.
We still haven’t slept together. We’ve come close a few times, but we don’t want to give in to our desires until it’s right.
My stomach clenches with lust as he backs away from the stove wearing nothing more than dark gray sweatpants. He’s perfectly sculpted in all the right places.
“After we eat we can hit up the shelter. I have a few things I want to check on.” He lifts the big spoon and gives the pasta a stir.
“Sounds good.” I frown staring at my phone and Jackson notices.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” I shake my head. “Just my brother. He keeps bugging me to help with my parents’ anniversary.” It wasn’t that I didn’t want to help. We did the same thing every year, and I was bored. I couldn’t imagine they weren’t.
“You know,” he says. “It’s not often people our age can even say their parents are still together. It’s kind of nice.”
“Your parents are together,” I point out so he can stop telling me that I am so unique because my parents haven’t killed or divorced each other yet.
He shakes his head. “My father remarried when my mother died.”
“I’m sorry.” I sigh. “I thought with the way you two were the other day she was your mother. And she looks like you.”
Jackson smirks. “No. My mother died when I was fifteen. Diane did all she could to take her place.”
“That’s sweet.”
“That’s noble. Not too many women would take on two teenage boys. But she did, and I think that’s what saved me from becoming the big asshole that I otherwise might have been.” He makes a face, his dark eyebrows lifting.
“I don’t think you could ever be an asshole.”
He takes the pot off the stove. “I think I am getting used to all of these compliments.”
He finishes the macaroni and cheese and makes two bowls. I take mine. “I don’t even notice anymore. Maybe it’s your eyes.”
He looks down, trailing his spoon across the top of his mac and cheese. “These old things.” He smirks.
“I never knew I was a sucker for blue eyes and dark hair until now.” I watch him take his first bite and grin, his beautiful mouth working perfectly against the spoon.
He licks his lips and saunters on over to me. “There are a lot of things I didn’t know until now.”
He presses his lips into mine.
When we stop I look up at him. “What didn’t you know?”
He shakes his head. “Nope. Not going to go there.”
“Go where?”
He proceeds to eat and ignore my question.
My brother texts me again. “Why don’t we drop by and help out?”
“You want to come to my house and help with my parents’ party?”
He nods his head and sets his bowl down. “I think so.”
***
He’s kind. So kind that I forget that he is also very sexy. So sexy that I forget that we haven’t had sex.
He wants to do things for me that most guys would never even consider.
“So, this is your house?” He checks out my modest, two-story home with a big front porch. After being in Jackson’s house, everything else seems very shabby. But I know it doesn’t bother him.
“This is it.” I unbuckle my seatbelt. “And my brother is already here.”
Jackson gets out and follows me up the sidewalk.
“Hello. We’re here.” I call out looking around for my parents or brother.
Ben pops his head out from the dining room. “I’m in here.”
He has the room full of old boxes of pictures. And it looks like more of a mess than any attempt at a celebration for our parents.
“What is all this?”
“Jenny wants to do a collage.” Jenny is my sister-in-law. He starts sifting through some more photo books. “So I have the job of picking the right pictures.”
I sigh, crossing the room. “How many do you need?”
Ben ignores me and looks at Jackson. “Hi. I’m Ben, Savy’s brother.”
They shake hands. “Jackson Luckman.”
Ben scratches his head. “The boss, right?”
I give Ben a weird look.
“Yes, the boss.” Jackson looks at me giving me a weird look himself. “I guess you could say that.”
I quickly change the subject. “What else needs to be done?” This moment has become more awkward than I want it to be.
Ben rubs at his brow. “I still need to pick up the cake.”
Jackson walks around the dining room studying my mother’s abstract paintings.
“Go do that, and I’ll find the pictures,” I tell him.
He nods, taking the opportunity to leave me with the brunt of the work just like every year. This is why I hate celebrating their anniversary. I pull up a chair and bring one of the hundreds of photo albums down on my lap.
“I am sorry about that.” I push some hair behind my ear. “My brother, he likes to run at the mouth sometimes.”
“Must run in the family,” he teases. “It’s fine if all you see me as is your boss.” He sits down across from me lifting a photo album. “This is your mother?”
I look at the photo and nod. “Yep.”
“You must look like your father.” He moves on to another one.
“I never thought about it before,” I tell him. “I guess we’re similar.”
“When’s your birthday?”
I flip through page after page of photographs. “January 8th.”
“How’d you get the name Savy?”
“I get asked that all the time. If you knew anything about my mother, you would know that wasn’t something she would name me.” I smile. “I would expect her to have named me Joanne or Sue.”
Jackson’s not smiling. “Were your parents married when you were born?”
“Yeah. They got married a year before my brother was born.” Jackson gets quiet. “Everything okay?”
He shakes his head. “No, I don’t think it is.”
“What do you mean?” I stare at him, waiting for him to
say something. He struggles for the right words.
“What is your mom’s name?”
“Laura.”
“Have you ever seen your birth certificate?” His eyes are dark, and he’s chewing on his bottom lip.
I stand up and go around the table. And he hands it over. I see my name. Savy Andrea Arnold. But something has to be wrong because my mother isn’t on this birth certificate. Jackson takes my hands in his when they start to shake, and he forces me to sit down.
“Sara Rose Gately,” I read. I look at Jackson; I know he is thinking the same thing that I am. “What is Lee’s last name?”
He sighs. “Gately.”
I pull at my hair. “Where did you find this?”
Jackson shakes his head throwing up his hands. “It was wedged between the pages of this book. Stuck to a bunch of photos.”
My legs are shaking.
”I can’t believe this.” My heart sinks.
When Ben comes back in the house, I shove the paper at Jackson, and he puts it in his back pocket before my brother sees what we are doing.
“I forgot my wallet.” He searches the table. Jackson keeps his eyes on me, and I don’t say anything. Once he leaves I exhale. I can’t move; I can’t do anything but stare at the table.
Jackson touches me, bringing me back to reality. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Ben is going to be back soon. I can’t just leave.” I start cleaning up the books and then remember I am supposed to be finding photos. I tear several pictures from the little plastic sheaths and slam them down on the table.
Jackson grabs my arm before I can do anything else. “Let’s go. You don’t need to be here right now.”
He takes the book out of my hand and tosses it on the table. “I know a guy who can throw something together in no time. I’ll call him right now.”
I follow him outside. He gets on his phone and helps me into his car. I catch a glimpse of the paper that quite possibly changed my entire life in seconds. I clutch my stomach; I think I might need to throw up.
