Down & Dirty 1_A Shameless Southern Nights Novel

by J. H. Croix

  They talked quietly at the door before Jeremy turned to give a quick wave. “Bye ladies. I’ll be seeing you.”

  A chorus of byes rang out, then the door shut behind him and all gossip-hell broke loose. So many of the customers and stylists began talking at once that I couldn’t make out what any of them were saying.

  “Isn’t he Roy Lovett’s boy?” Mrs. Rollins, an elderly woman who was having her hair blown out for her weekly date with her husband, asked. I had to give it to her for getting her hair done for date night after forty-five years of marriage. Though I couldn’t imagine doing it myself, it was romantic.

  “It is,” her stylist, a girl a little younger than me with platinum blonde hair and a bubblegum pop attitude, answered. “I saw him with his brother a couple of weeks ago, and Mandy told me all about it.”

  I remembered Mandy. She was a couple of years older than me and if you told her a thing, you’d better be prepared for the whole wide world to know. It made sense that this newcomer would know all about Jeremy’s family troubles if she’d been with Mandy.

  “That Roy had so much promise when he was younger,” Mrs. Rollins chimed in again. I struggled to keep from rolling my eyes. Mrs. Rollins was a retired teacher, a woman with a beautiful heart who thought every child had promise when they were in one of her fourth grade classes.

  “From everyone in this town, I never would’ve pegged him to do what he did. I mean, my word, he was our favorite mayor for years before he went on to become a Senator,” another client said, glancing up from the magazine in her lap. “He’s so handsome, and those boys of his too. It’s a wonder no women in this town have managed to tie down a single one of them. In my days, men who looked like that got snapped up right quick.”

  A woman with purple rinse in her hair scoffed, though I wondered if scoffing when one was sitting with purple rinse in your hair was ever justified. “Don’t be ridiculous, June. Would you have let you daughters go after criminals?”

  “The boys aren’t criminals,” the woman apparently named June exclaimed. “I mean, the eldest boy is the DA and the youngest is a cop. Then there’s the architect one, he’s always at the community meetings. Their father turned into a criminal after their mother died. That doesn’t mean the boys have done anything wrong.”

  “That’s true you know,” Mrs. Rollins informed us. “I heard that too, that it was his wife’s passing that caused Roy to go off the rails.”

  “Stole from a lot of people, that man,” Mariah, my client, added her two cents worth. “But his boys are gorgeous from what I’ve seen. Especially that one who was just in here. What was his name again, Marie? Was it Jeremy?”

  I coughed, trying my best to stay out of this conversation, but then Mariah’s eyes locked with mine in the mirror and I knew I had to give her something. “Yeah, it was. Jeremy. That’s it.”

  All this chatter about him made it difficult to stop dwelling on him. And sweet hell, I wanted to dwell. In all my high school crushing on him, nothing came close to how electrified I felt with his eyes on me. Hot and bothered didn’t even come close. More like on fire and about to burst into flames. Thank god my work station happened to be near one of the air conditioning vents. The cool air was about the only thing saving me at this point.

  “You two would’ve been in high school around the same time,” Mrs. Rollins piped up, keeping her place in her magazine with her finger while looking at me curiously. “He didn’t seem mighty friendly to you as an old classmate.”

  Well, good thing she didn’t notice I almost melted on the spot. But dammit. Damn it all to hell. I really didn’t want to be a part of this conversation. I felt terrible for Jeremy and his brothers that people gossiped about their family like this after they left a room. I didn’t want to be part of it. Why did they have to keep trying to bring me into it?

  “I wasn’t a classmate of his. I’m a few years younger. We weren’t friends. I don’t think he meant to be rude, I just doubt that he even realizes we went to school together.”

  I wondered if my crazy wild reaction to him had been more one sided than it felt, but I wasn’t about to comment on that.

  “Mandy said,” the young stylist interjected. I nearly groaned out loud. Any sentence that started with ‘Mandy said’ wasn’t one I wanted to hear, but Mariah was glued to the conversation and wasn’t going to give me an out by changing the topic. I couldn’t exactly send her on her way with her hairstyle only half done, so I was going to have to suck it up and listen.

  “The Lovett boys were the most popular guys in school,” the stylist continued, lowering her voice and peeking out of the windows as though she was half expecting one of them to come in here and bust her for gossiping about them. It would’ve served her right if they did, but of course they didn’t.

  The stylist glanced toward me with a hint of pity in her eyes that made me want to pull her fake blonde hair out. “So you know, they probably only knew the most popular girls in school too.”

  I bristled, but I took a deep breath and fought to maintain my cool. I wasn’t getting into a pissing contest with a colleague over a time that she knew nothing about and men neither of us really knew. It wasn’t worth it.

  As a single mom, I’d learned to pick my battles and having an argument with this girl, full of gossip and hot air, would be beyond pointless.

  Sarah clicked her tongue and shot a warning look at the young stylist. “Now, now Angie. Let’s not dredge all that up. The boys were older is all. Besides, I think Jeremy and our Marie would make an adorable couple. Don’t you agree?”

  My cheeks heated, and I ducked my head, pretending the color I was mixing for Mariah’s hair needed something added to it. There were a couple of hoots of agreement, but then someone mentioned the new development that one of the Lovett boys was working on right outside of town, and they all forgot about me.

  Thank freakin’ god.

  My first day at work passed quickly after that and by the time I was headed to the daycare to pick up Austin, I wanted nothing more than to spend some quality time with him, have a bath and head off to bed. He was waiting for me when I got there, tired but excited.

  After giving him a hug and getting him buckled in, I slid into my seat and headed home. “How did your day go, sweetie? You have as much fun as it looks like you did?”

  His clothes were filthy, which was always a sign that he’d had a good time, and his eyes shone. “I did. I’m the top dog at daycare.”

  “You are?” I gave him a quick glance. “After only one day?”

  “Oh yeah. I stopped a girl from getting picked on,” he said, his tiny chest puffing out from how proud he was. My own was threatening to do the same.

  “That’s great, buddy. High five.” I raised my hand and turned it awkwardly so it faced the backseat, but Austin scooted forward, giving me a big smack despite the strange angle. He proceeded to tell me the story of Alison, a girl in his glass who got picked on by some of the other kids because she had so many freckles.

  I was so proud of him for standing up for her. He was such a sweet boy. I was beyond relieved to watch him grow up, becoming kind and protective. It hadn’t escaped my awareness that witnessing his father’s actions could have pushed him in a different direction. My words from earlier on in the day came back to me. I’d told Sarah that Austin was the only man I needed in my life, and he really was. It was me and Austin against the world, and for the first time in a while, it felt like things might be looking up for us.

  Chapter Nine

  Jeremy

  It was no surprise Arcadian was still sound asleep when I woke up. He didn’t stir when I heaved myself out of bed, forced myself through an ice- cold shower so I could wake up properly, or when I banged around in my closet searching for a clean pair of jeans.

  I located what I suspected was the last clean pair I had. Good thing it was Friday, and I didn’t have to work tomorrow. I tugged them on and slid into a black button up shirt. Rolling the sleeves to my elbows, I stuf
fed my feet into my boots and walked over to shake Arcadian awake.

  “Come on, boy. It’s time for breakfast. Don’t you want breakfast?” My entire morning routine took less than ten minutes from alarm to being ready to go. Arcadian didn’t even have to shower and we were on almost twenty minutes already. “Lazy bones, food!”

  Arcadian still didn’t move, although he heaved a deep sigh in his sleep. I left him to sleep off whatever dreams dogs had, and filled his water and food bowls after scarfing down some dry cereal.

  It was no surprise Arcadian hadn’t woken at first, but with the smell of his food tempting him from oblivion, he was trotting down the hallway in no time and reached the kitchen as I was chugging down a glass of water. Watching him while I sipped, I reflected on the day I had ahead of me. With Doc still out, so far so good. I was starting my first completely solo project that morning, the renovation project for Sarah at the salon.

  It felt strangely good to be doing it by myself. Excitement wasn’t something I was used to feeling anymore. I couldn’t say I minded it. My mind spun back to yesterday afternoon. I didn’t even bother trying to pretend I wasn’t excited about running into Marie again. I’d managed to casually get her name from Sarah yesterday afternoon. Her clear green eyes and lush little body had been dancing along the edges of my thoughts ever since I’d seen her. Just thinking about her now sent another jolt of electricity humming through me. This job would give me plenty of time to run into her, and I didn’t mind that one bit.

  I still couldn’t quite place her, but figured, if anything, I probably knew her from growing up in Cypress Creek. This town’s social circles overlapped, so if she’d ever lived here, I’d likely encountered her.

  I just hoped Marie wasn’t one of the girls one of my brothers had dated, if I was to use the term ‘dating’ loosely. Between the five of us, we’d made our rounds in this town with an unspoken rule to keep clear boundaries between who we dated. Too complicated and messy otherwise. None of us appreciated complicated and messy, so it was an easy rule to abide by.

  Seeing as Marie was the first woman who’d caught my attention like that in too damn long, I hoped like hell none of my brothers had been involved with her. Actually caught my attention didn’t quite capture the effect she had on me. A simple look at her had been like getting caught inside of a flame.

  I was more than interested if she was, even if my interest only spanned a night or two usually. It wasn’t that I had anything against relationships. In fact, my parents had been deeply in love right through to the end. The death part in ‘til death do us part, that was what scared me. Going through what I saw my father go through after we lost our mom… It wasn’t pretty.

  So for now, I chose to keep things casual. Brief.

  Arcadian finished his breakfast and went sniffing around by the backdoor, a sure sign that he was ready to go outside. I opened the door for him, made sure he had water outside and then took the cue to get on with my own day.

  Before I left for the day yesterday, I’d arranged with the team for the salon project to be there early for our briefing before we left. To my surprise, the entire crew beat me to the site. I’d been expecting at least one or two to be late, maybe even to take some chances with the acting boss.

  “Good morning everyone,” I started, leaning my hip against a yellow excavator in the yard. There was a chorus of ‘mornings’, ‘hellos’ and ‘heys’ in return. Most of the guys already had mugs of coffee with them, which meant I’d have their attention. No use talking to the men before their first fix in the mornings, especially not if you wanted them alert and ready to start working just about immediately.

  “Everyone got something strong and bitter in those mugs, or do we need to take five?”

  The foreman held his mug up to me. “Ready to go, boss.”

  The others nodded their agreement. “Okay, good. As you know, we’re starting on the expansion of the hair salon today. Sarah and the girls will be keeping the shop open while we work in the back, so we’ve got to make sure we keep the disruptions to a minimum. Can’t have our client losing clients over this.”

  Most of the men probably had girlfriends, wives, or daughters who had their hair done at Sarah’s because they all nodded solemnly.

  “Sarah asked me to come in earlier in the week to have a look at the space we’ll be renovating for her. She wants to expand the salon itself, but she also wants an area where her girls can rest and some more storage space.”

  I took the team through the plans for the expansion, dividing up the jobs and making sure everyone knew their responsibilities. Usually, there was a little talking or grumbling at this point: disagreement with the proposed project plan, or about the jobs they were told they’d be doing.

  To my surprise, there was no grumbling today. The entire team kept quiet, their eyes stuck to me as they listened. That was what surprised me the most, that when I talked, they were really listening to my voice. Tyson and Beau had that quality, but it wasn’t one I’d ever attributed to myself.

  When I was done with the briefing, the men moved away from me with purpose. Each one went where he was needed, and there was a sense of determination in the air. They were ready to work for me. It was kind of a heady feeling. For the first time, it felt like I really could take over from Doc if he was serious about retiring. That thought itself narrowed my focus and fueled me. Not that I doubted my skills with planning and construction, but this wasn’t exactly a small company. Doc ran as many as six crews out of here at any given time, and it took a lot of juggling and management.

  We were ready to hit the road in the record time and arrived at the salon early. Sarah bounded out to greet us, Marie hot on her heels with a plate of cookies that she set down on one of the tables outside the shop.

  “Good morning, gentlemen,” Sarah sang out. “We’ve got some coffee and treats set up out there for you. Please help yourselves and let us know if you need anything.”

  Crossing the sidewalk to Sarah, it was hard to keep my eyes from Marie behind her. Her green eyes tracked my every move, an almost unavoidable pull urging me to lift my eyes and look into hers. I barely managed to fight it, holding out a hand to Sarah and grinning when I got to her.

  “Thanks for the refreshments. They weren’t necessary, but we appreciate them all the same.” Tossing a look over my shoulder to where the men were heaving equipment off the trucks, I called out, “Don’t we, boys?”

  The team stopped what they were doing, all nodding and flashing quick grins at Sarah. “Sure do.”

  She beamed in response and clasped her hands together. “We’ll just get out of your way then. Again, please let me know if you need anything.”

  “Will do,” I assured her, watching as she backed away and into the shop.

  With the guys at a distance getting gear out of the trucks, that left me alone with Marie. Just as with yesterday, the second my eyes snagged hers, I couldn’t look away. A bolt of lust shot through me. Fuck me. What was it with this woman? She grabbed a hold of me and electrified me—simply by existing. My eyes meandered on their own, tracing the sweet curve of her shoulder and dipping down into the shadowed valley between her breasts. When I forced my eyes back to hers, her cheeks were stained pink, and I wanted to kiss her. Like crazy.

  Her lips parted, her tongue darting out to swipe across the bottom. Blood shot straight to my cock. Hot damn. I needed to get some kind of grip. Someone called my name, snapping me out of my lust-fueled haze.

  Marie’s gorgeous green eyes widened, her cheeks flushing a deeper shade of pink. “I have to go,” she blurted out, her voice raspy.

  Before I could form a reply, she spun around and hurried inside the salon. My eyes tracked her until she was out of sight, savoring the swing of her hips. I gulped in air and turned to walk toward the trucks. I didn’t even know who the hell called my name. That was how out of it I was.

  It was becoming increasingly clear to me I needed to get laid. My brain wasn’t functioning the way i
t should’ve been, but I was powerless to stop it. I tried to call on the focus I’d had earlier, but it had fizzled out some and I couldn’t quite get it back.

  Forcing my feet to move in the direction of my team, I quickly put them to work and then jumped in myself. As I’d instructed the guys, we tried to cause as little disruption to the operations of the salon as possible. Yet, throughout the morning, I caught myself on more than one occasion standing close to the door leading into the salon, a spot where Marie was moving in my periphery.

  Attraction felt like a weak word to describe what lay between us—more like a bonfire of need. I didn’t think much about how to approach women. To be honest, it had always come easily to me. Being the football star in high school put me a position where the girls chased after me. I didn’t think of it like that back then, but I was no idiot. Since then, I’d simply carried on. Whenever a woman caught my fancy, somehow things slipped into place. If anything, the only problem I had was making sure no one read too much into anything. Casual was the name of my game.

  Marie was different. My draw to her was so powerful, the air practically heated when I was near her. All of twice so far. Curiosity drew me to her, no doubt encouraged by my raw attraction to her, but there was also a definite vibe about her—a shield a mile high that screamed ‘Approach with Caution’. Despite her shield, she looked innocent and wholesome. I doubted she’d put out that vibe if she didn’t have some kind of past. I wasn’t after a challenge. Usually. But nothing about Marie fell into usual. I wanted her, and I wanted to know her, to know every piece of her puzzle.

  Chapter Ten

  Marie

  Every inch of me was constantly aware of Jeremy Lovett. It was one thing to fantasize about him from afar. It was another thing altogether to have him circling the edges of my space. My workstation happened to be in the back of the salon, just close enough that I could hear his gruff drawl as he spoke to his crew and my eyes, my naughty eyes, could sneak peeks of him throughout the day.