by Jamie Pope
But that wasn’t true anymore. Wylie had moved here when he got out of the service to be near her. She knew without a doubt that her brother would give his life for her. But that didn’t mean they got along. She was fairly certain her brother didn’t like her at all.
“Go away, jarhead.” She turned back to the game, her eyes glued to Teo. “You’re going to give me away. Can’t you go put a damper on someone else’s day?”
“If you didn’t want him to see you, you shouldn’t have come. You aren’t one of those women who blends into the crowd.”
“I don’t think she knows how,” Nova heard a deep voice say and goose bumps broke out all over her flesh. She recognized the voice of her brother’s best friend all too well. She didn’t want to remove her eyes from the spot on the field that she had fixated on, but she couldn’t help but look at the man whose deep, almost commanding, voice did something odd to her insides. Tanner Brennan was no ordinary man. He was a giant. Six foot six. Long body, wide stance, powerful shoulders. His skin was just a shade darker than sun kissed and he was beautiful. If someone wanted to create a race of perfect men, Tanner Brennan would be the man they modeled them after. He was a former Army Ranger, a war hero, and good with his hands.
He annoyed the hell out of Nova.
“Tall, dark, and dummy,” she said, passing her eyes over him. He was in a navy blue T-shirt and well-worn jeans. His arms were folded over his chest, his biceps bulging beneath the sleeves. “I’ve always heard that the freaks come out at night, but here you are in the light of day for all to see.”
His eyes narrowed as the shot hit him. She could never describe their color. Hazel didn’t seem to encompass it. They were brown with flecks of gold, but sometimes they looked green. Whatever they were Nova always had a hard time looking away from them.
“I was made this way,” he said. “Can’t help it.” His gaze travelled down her body in a slow leisurely way. “Unlike you. Red shoes, red lips, red nails. You say you don’t want to be seen but looks like you’re shouting to the world that you’re here. I think someone didn’t get enough attention when they were a kid.”
“Isn’t there a short person in need of something on a high shelf? Go bother them and disappear from my presence. It’s straining my neck to look up at you.”
“I wasn’t aware that you were a queen and could banish people.”
“I wasn’t aware that you were the king of the pains in the asses,” she snapped back.
“I—”
“Enough,” her brother barked in his most authoritative voice. “There’s a bunch of five-year-olds here and they are better behaved than the two of you. Nova, go say hi to your kid. Tanner, stop trying to get my sister charged with assault.”
He walked away from them then, heading back to the stands where most of the parents sat. They fought, she and Tanner. Every single time they say each other. She wasn’t sure why. She wanted to say that there was something disrespectful about him. He stared at her. She had been stared at by men her entire life. Men who wanted to get into her pants. Men who would use her and discard her, and she wanted to put Tanner in that category, but she couldn’t. He didn’t stare at her breasts or ass. He never made a move on her, but he still stared. Into her eyes. Every time he spoke to her, he gave her unwavering eye contact. It was disconcerting. It was like he was trying to strip away something beside her clothes every time they spoke.
Nova turned back to watch the game. Tanner came to stand by her, his body close to hers. That was another thing he did to bug her. He never gave her space, but he never stepped over the line. He never groped or grabbed her. It was a touch of the hand here and there. It was an arm brushing hers. And now it was his side, not exactly touching her but close enough that she could feel his heat radiating to her body on this cool morning. She wanted to stand closer to him. Feel his long hard body pressed against hers. It was a crazy urge considering that the thought of any man touching her in the past five years turned her stomach. But she had very different feelings in her stomach whenever she saw him and that made her really dislike Tanner. It made her dislike herself.
“Why are you here?” she asked him. He didn’t even live in town but she ran into Tanner seemingly everywhere. At the grocery store, at the post office, and family functions. He even came to her to get his hair cut once, and now he was here at her son’s soccer practice. It wasn’t the first time he had come, but it never ceased to surprise her when he did.
“You know why. Teo asked me to be here.”
“You could have told him you couldn’t make it. You’re a single man in your thirties. Surely you must have something better to do.”
“My father wasn’t around, even when I asked him to be. You think I could deny your son? Besides, I like him. His mother is a loud-mouthed, hostile pain in the ass, but the kid is damn near delightful. Cantankerousness must skip a generation.”
And there it was . . . The reason she couldn’t really hate him. Only he could manage to be so sweet and so shitty in the same breath.
“You bug the hell out of me,” she said truthfully and without heat.
“You’re no goddamn picnic yourself. But the real reason I’m here is because I like to see the daggers the other mothers throw at you.”
“Judgmental bitches. They don’t even try to get to know me. I may not have been born with a silver spoon in my mouth, but I work hard. Harder than they ever have.”
“You know it has nothing to do with your work ethic, Nova. Even you can’t be that dense. It’s how you look that has them wanting to brand you with a scarlet letter.”
“Because I’m Native?”
“You may look dumb, but Lord knows you’re not.” He sighed in frustration. “Don’t make me say it.”
“This is one of the few times I actually want to hear you talk. Speak, man, speak.”
He glared at her. “You’re walking sex. You have to know that. Your thousand glances in the mirror a day should confirm that.”
“I’m wearing jeans, a T-shirt, and a cardigan!”
“And heels. High red heels and tight jeans that make your ass phenomenal. It’s not you personally they hate. It’s the way you cause their husbands to look at you.” He turned to fully face her.
She had always had this problem, even when she was a teenager. Men looked. They always looked. And sometimes they touched, and it didn’t matter what she was wearing. She had tried to cover it all up, tried to hide her body, but it never mattered. She had waist-length black hair. She had brown skin and wide slanted eyes. She would always stand out. She might as well feel good while she was doing it. “I don’t ask for it, and if you are suggesting I am in some way inviting these men not to pay attention to their wives and look at me, you can shove it. I shouldn’t have to wear a potato sack just to make other people feel comfortable.”
He grinned, showing off his perfect teeth, before he leaned over and spoke into her ear. “You have no idea what kind of effect you have on them, do you? A man sees your pouty red lips and all he can think about is the way they would feel on his body, traveling down his body and wrapping around his . . .” He trailed off. “And your nails . . . A man sees them and can only think about how they would feel scraping down his naked back. And your body . . . It doesn’t matter how much you cover it up. It’s the type of body that begs to be undressed.”
She was feeling breathless. Excited. These were new sensations for her. Only they weren’t so new right now. They were becoming commonplace whenever she was around him. “You want to undress me?” she asked him, knowing she shouldn’t, but the question had just popped out. He managed to suck her in to his sensual vortex. Her clothes felt too tight and too hot all of a sudden. Her nipples tightened in her shirt and she could see herself running her nails down his bare back. She could see herself kissing him all the way down his long hard body. She could envision herself wrapping her body around his and letting him explore her every dip and bend. But she shouldn’t be having those thoughts about him.
She had never considered herself a sexual person despite what the world thought of her. But whenever she was around Tanner, sex popped into her mind at the most inconvenient times.
“Me?” He pointed to himself with a shake of the head. “No. I can see right through your act. Undressing you is the last thing I want to do.”
* * *
Tanner looked down at Nova, watching as her eyes widened as she took in his words. He was waiting for the returning shot, one of the barbed comebacks that Nova was so quick with. But it never came. She just turned away to watch her son. He turned back too and then he felt her inch closer to him, and felt her lean against him. Slightly. Just her arm resting against his. It would have been an odd reaction to that exchange from anyone else, but he knew enough about Nova to know that men had been trying to sleep with her since she was a girl. She was that rare kind of woman who could walk around wearing a garbage bag and still make men go crazy with desire.
People assumed she was a bad girl because of that body. The talk around town was that she dated a lot. She told people she dated a lot, but he knew she didn’t. No man in the area had boasted that he’d had her. No one had actually ever seen her with anyone. She was all talk.
He hadn’t lied to her when he said undressing her was the last thing he wanted to do. Undressing her was the last thing he wanted to do before he tumbled her into bed. Somehow she had become the first thing he thought about when he woke up in the morning, which was crazy. He had a million other more pressing things to think about. But there was Nova.
All the time.
Driving him insane even though she was nowhere near him. She was an extraordinarily beautiful woman. Astonishingly so. And he didn’t use those words lightly. He had been around socialites and beauty queens, exotic women from all over the world. But they couldn’t compare to Nova, a true American beauty.
She had the body of an old-school burlesque dancer and a strut to match. She was glamourous. The type of woman that women emulated.
He wanted her. It was a fact of life. Earth was round. The ocean was wet. And he wanted Nova with every cell in his body. But she was the sister of his overly protective best friend and she was the mother of a sweet kid who didn’t need any drama in his life. And Tanner knew that as much as he wanted Nova, he couldn’t have her. He had made up his mind that she was strictly off-limits, even though she was leaning slightly against him, making him want to feel even more of her.
He knew he should walk away, go sit with Wylie, wait for Teo to be done with practice, but he didn’t move. He simply couldn’t move away from her. This was the only contact he would allow himself to have with her and he wasn’t about to break it.
“Mommy?” Teo spotted her and ran full speed toward them and through the opening of the gate. It was clear he was excited to see her there, but he didn’t leap into her arms as most five-year-olds might do. He stopped before them and approached her slowly, looking up at her with uncertainty in his eyes. Nova looked back at her boy, just as uncertain. Mother and son had an odd relationship; it was distant and yet incredibly close at the same time. Tanner always found it interesting to watch them together. It made him think of his own troubled relationship with his mother. He hadn’t seen her in years. Neither one of them bothered to attempt to make contact.
“Hi, love,” she said softly.
“Hello, Mr. Tanner,” Teo said, sparing him a quick glance, before returning his attention to his mother. “I didn’t know you was coming.”
“I didn’t want you to see me.”
“Why?” He scrunched his face in confusion. He looked just like her. Same beautiful brown skin. Same jet black hair.
“Because it’s man day. And I’m not a man, little one.”
“You can always come see me, Mommy,” he said, sounding like a little adult. “Everyone else’s mommy is here.”
“I’m glad you don’t mind.” She knelt down beside him. “You look so gorgeous in your uniform. Can I hug and kiss you?”
“Yes,” he responded, and before he could get the entire word out Nova had swept him into her arms and was kissing his apple-round cheeks.
“You are a perfect boy, do you know that?”
“You tell me that,” he said with his eyes closed. The boy looked damn near blissful, adoring every moment of his mother’s affection. Tanner couldn’t take his eyes off Nova. There was tenderness in her face, overwhelming love combined with a little bit of sadness.
And that sadness intrigued him. It made him want to know more about it, about her.
“I only tell you that because it’s true.”
Her tough chick shtick was all an act. He could see right through her. There was a sweet, sensitive lady inside of the woman with the bad girl body, and as much as he knew that he needed to stay away from her, a bigger part of him wanted to know every little piece that made her up.
“I’ve got to go back to play now, Mommy,” he told her when she let him go.
“Okay.” She stood up again, looking sad. “Have fun.”
“Are you going to stay the whole game?” he asked so hopeful, that Tanner would tie Nova to the bleachers himself if she refused.
“Of course.”
“You could come to man day if you want. I have to ask Uncle Wylie, but he’ll say yes. Right, Mr. Tanner?”
“I’m sure he will,” Tanner agreed.
Nova shot him a look before she looked back to her son. “This is man day. I’ll go see Mansi. You have a good time. Go play.”
“Okay, Mommy.” He turned away, giving her one last look before he walked back to his team.
“Why do you ask your son if you can hug him?” Tanner asked when Teo was out of earshot.
“Because it’s important for him to know that no one can touch his body without his permission. If I ever teach my kid one thing, it’s that.”
The hairs on the back of Tanner’s neck stood up. “Did something happen to him?”
“No. Not to him.”
But to her. The words were unsaid, but were hanging thickly in the air between them.
He grabbed her hand. It was an impulsive, probably foolish thing to do, but he did it and he didn’t want to let it go, promises to himself be damned. “You’re coming out with us for man day. We won’t take no for an answer.”
Chapter 2
Mama had moved them to Texas two years ago, chasing after some boyfriend who was on the rodeo circuit. Max had been a heavy drinker, a world-class bar fighter, and an all-around wreck, but he was one of the few boyfriends that Nova had liked. He had been fatherly to her. He warned his friends away from her, gave her a curfew, took her to get her first job. He had set boundaries for Mama, too. He only let her drink on the weekends. He made sure she went to work every day. He made her be an adult. She bristled at it and ended up sleeping with one of his friends. He had kicked her out that night.
Max told Nova that she could stay, that she would be better off with him, and for one traitorous moment she thought about it. But she had gone with Mama. They had stayed in Texas because there was no home to go to, moving from town to town, only staying long enough to piss off a new landlord, or to cheat some man out of something valuable.
Texas was such a huge place, it was easy to get lost in it. But Nova didn’t want to get lost here anymore. She kept seeing Archie’s naked bloody body on the kitchen floor, and when she ran out of her apartment that night she knew she had to get the hell out of Texas. She had gone right to the bus station. Her first bus took her to Oklahoma. Then she headed to Missouri before getting on this bus to take her to Florida.
It seemed like a good place to get lost.
She was running like hell again. It seemed as if so much of her life had been lived on the run. Her long black hair was hidden under a hooded sweatshirt. She bought cheap sunglasses to wear over her eyes. She didn’t speak to anyone on those long bus rides. She didn’t look at anyone. If she could have melted into her seat she would have.
She thought about the scene th
at she had left behind. Thought about her mama and what she would think about all of it. Wondered how her mother was going to survive without her. But the thing that was in the forefront of her mind was how the hell she was going to survive alone in a new state. She had every dime she had ever made on her. Almost two thousand dollars. She could get a cheap room for a while. Eat cups of soup, packages of mystery meat hot dogs. But then what? She had no ID. She couldn’t tell anyone who she was.
She looked out the window. They were heading into the city now. To another bus station, to drop off and pick up another set of people who looked like they were trying to get lost. They were at the station a little longer than usual and an unnatural hush fell across the passengers. Nova looked up this time to see two state troopers walking up the aisle. Her hands started to tremble and she clenched them into tight fists to try to stop it. She looked back out the window, hoping they would pass by her. But they didn’t.
“Excuse me, ma’am,” one of the officers said.
She slowly turned to look at him, warning herself to stay calm. “Yes, Officer?”
“Would you mind removing your glasses?”
She did, her eyes unaccustomed to the brightness because they had been on her face since she had started this journey ten days ago.
“Take down your hood.” She swallowed but did as she asked. The urge to barrel through them and run overwhelmed her, but she knew that she wouldn’t get anywhere. “And your hair, ma’am?”
She unwound her tight bun, her heavy hair cascading around her shoulders. The police officer’s eyes widened. “It’s not her,” his partner mentioned.
“I can see that.” He looked troubled, but Nova felt more than relief. She almost sagged into her seat. “You’re travelling alone?”
She nodded.
“You shouldn’t be.”
