Running Away

by Jen Andrews

  “What is it Jeremy? You look pissy,” Zoey replied.

  I smirked as Hannah moved on to pinching my nose. “Guys don’t get pissy, sis. That is strictly a woman trait . . . but speaking of pissy women . . . Nicole came to see me this morning.”

  Zoey’s expression immediately soured. “What did she want? Please tell me you aren’t screwing her again, Jer. You can do so much better than her.”

  I shook my head. “No. Trust me. There will never be anything like that with her again. She wanted me to tell you she was sorry for everything. She wanted to tell you herself, but I think she knew you wouldn’t speak to her.”

  Choosing my words carefully so I wouldn’t upset her, I told Zoey all about Nicole’s visit, how sorry she was, and that she’d been to rehab. I really, truly thought she was telling me the truth, but I kept that to myself.

  “Okay, Jeremy,” she said finally. “Thanks for telling me. I’ll talk to Andy about it later. What else did you need to talk to me about?”

  I smiled big and rubbed my palms together. “You interested in a project?”

  Zoey was only working part time between the shop and the store so she could take care of Hannah full time, but I knew she was getting antsy being home too because she did most of her work while Hannah napped in the portable crib we’d set up in the office for her.

  “You have my attention,” she said as she arched her brows.

  “I want to buy a house, Z. This dating thing isn’t working, and I’m too old to be living in a bachelor pad apartment. I want something that is mine. A real home.”

  Z’s expression went from interested to elated. “I’m in.”

  We sat in the office for the next forty-five minutes while I told her what features I wanted in a house. She scribbled notes like a mad woman while I played with Hannah.

  Adam poked his head through the door as Zoey and I were finishing up. “Hey, asswipe, you gonna work today or fuck around and let us do your work for you?” He smirked.

  Zoey spun her chair around and chucked her pen at him, hitting him in the side of the neck. He flipped her off.

  I handed Hannah off to Zoey then stood, and pretended to stretch.

  “You are so dead!” I said, lunging at Adam. I picked him up and tossed him over my shoulder then carried him out to the shop.

  Thank God he was small. He struggled and punched me the whole way to the shop. I had a hard time keeping hold of him between the punches, and because I was laughing so hard.

  “Andy! Get the duct tape!” I yelled when I saw him standing at his toolbox. “Jay, get his feet! Noah, you get his arms!”

  I dumped Adam down by one of the support beams of the shop, as my brothers captured his hands and feet.

  Andy pulled the end of the duct tape out from the roll as we pinned Adam to the beam. Starting at his feet, Andy wrapped the tape around the beam and Adam’s body clear up to his neck.

  “What should we do to him now?” Jason asked as we eyed Adam and contemplated our next move.

  Zoey came over holding Hannah, and a small girly-looking bag. She looked us all over from head to toe.

  “Here, Jer. You’re the cleanest, hold my girl. I need to get our baby brother here all pretty for his photo shoot.”

  Andy and my brothers pulled out their cell phones and snapped pictures while Z did a very nice job putting makeup on Adam. Once she finished with his makeup, she found two rubber bands, and pulled Adam’s chin length hair into two pigtails. If he were wearing a dress, he’d look like a male prostitute posing as a female prostitute.

  “You’re all assholes!” Adam muttered, whining like a little bitch. “Oh man, now I gotta take a piss. Cut me down you bastards!”

  After we sent a few pictures to his girlfriend Angie, I handed Sweet Pea back to my sister and went to work.

  We left Adam duct taped to the beam for over an hour before he became so annoying and loud we had to cut him loose. We should’ve duct taped his mouth shut when he started singing. After his tenth time singing God Bless America, we’d had enough of him. If anyone knew how to be irritating and drive us up a wall, it was Adam. He’d been perfecting it since he was born.

  A couple weeks and several houses later, I received a frantic call from Zoey while I was installing new headers and an exhaust system on a 2012 Camaro.

  “Jeremy, you need to come and look at this house, right now! I was going to look at another house in the same neighborhood and found this one on the way there. It’s for sale by the owner and perfect for you.” Zoey finally took a breath and waited for my response.

  “What’s the address?” I jogged to her office and wrote down the address she gave me. “I’m on my way.” I ripped the paper off the notepad then went out and let everyone know I was leaving for the afternoon.

  I washed up and changed my shirt, then went to my car where I typed the address of the house in to my GPS. Twenty minutes later, I parked my car behind Z’s black Tahoe in a nice, older neighborhood.

  Hello, suburbia! However, the house was closer to the shop than my apartment—which was awesome—but the white picket fence surrounding the front yard was throwing me off. I wondered why Zoey thought I might like this place. I wasn’t the white picket fence type of guy.

  Zoey and Sweet Pea met me on the sidewalk in front of the house and she laughed when she saw the look on my face. “I know what you’re thinking. Try to ignore the fence for now.”

  I looked over the outside of the house, which had been updated and looked brand new. The attached two-car garage was a great aspect. We walked through the gate and up the sidewalk, where we found a covered front porch.

  “It’s a three bedroom, with two full baths, Jer. And there’s an in-ground pool!” She went through the front door then stopped and turned, looking a tad worried. “Okay, it needs some work.”

  “Some work?” I lifted an eyebrow.

  “Wait till you see the potential.”

  “That sounds like a lot of work, Z.”

  She shifted Hannah to her other hip. “Did I mention it has an in-ground pool?”

  “Yes, you did.” I put my hands on her shoulders and turned her. “Now show me what the big deal is, already.”

  I entered the house behind her, into a decent sized living room. The hardwood floors were recently redone and built-in bookshelves lined the back wall.

  After looking over the living room, we walked in to what I assumed was the kitchen. It was completely gutted. Next, we checked out the dining room, two bathrooms that were in the same gutted condition as the kitchen, and then the three bedrooms.

  “It needs a lot of work,” I said as we walked through the house again.

  “I know it seems that way, but the owners have everything to put the house back together. One of them lost their job here, so they’re moving back to Texas,” she said. “All the cabinets for the kitchen and the bathrooms are still in boxes in the garage. The only thing we have to do is put it all back together, Jer.”

  That intrigued me for sure. If all I had to do was install everything, it wouldn’t take long at all. And I could most likely do it on my own.

  Standing here, looking all around the house again, everything clicked in to place. It felt right. “Where are the owners, Z? I am definitely interested.”

  She smiled brightly and clapped her hands. “They’re waiting for us on the back patio.”

  I grinned at my sister as I faced the possibilities of my new life. “Let’s do this.”

  “You ready to run, Shan?” I asked my sister as I stuck my head in through the open bathroom door. She was pulling her long black hair back into a ponytail. She’d recently dyed the entire underside of her hair hot pink, so when she pulled it up, the hot pink stood out boldly.

  I would love to do something like that to my hair, but unfortunately, nothing really matched my dark red hue.

  “I still have to get dressed,” she groaned. “I still can’t believe I let you talk me in to this.” Shannen brushed past me and went back to
her bedroom to change, so I went to the living room and waited for her on the couch.

  After Shannen and Brian’s break-up, and whatever it was that happened between Jeremy and me, we’d decided to stick together and keep each other’s spirits up. I’d admit I was still confused about Jeremy, especially since I couldn’t stop thinking about him.

  He’d sent flowers to Tammy twice since that night in the parking lot at Dub’s. She made sure to rub it in my face, so to speak. Even though I’d told Tiffany I’d only met Jeremy that night and wasn’t dating him.

  I was baffled. If he wanted Tammy, why had he come looking for me at the hospital? It made no sense. But he’d made his choice, and his choice was Tammy.

  Yes, I realized I was the one who left the bar first, but now I wasn’t sure it was the right thing to do. Would Tammy be in the picture if I stayed? Who the hell knows? Ugh, I groaned. There was no point in dwelling on it.

  Besides, I was dating Jared, and I’d decided to let things get a little more serious. We were seeing more of each other now, and had gone out on several dates outside of the hospital.

  Shannen came into the living room dressed in her running clothes. She and I couldn’t look any more different if we tried. She was about five-five, had naturally black hair that was stick straight and thick, and gorgeous snow-white skin. She had the biggest, palest blue eyes I’d ever seen. However, I had peachy skin and crazy red hair that reached my waist when I stretched it out straight and was a whopping five foot two in height.

  My cheating prick father and my mother hadn’t married, because it turned out, my dad had already been married and had a family in Ireland. He’d left my mom before I was even born. He was a piece of shit cheater, just like Gary, and I was the product of an affair.

  When I was two, my mom, Belinda, met and then later married Lucas Jennings. A year later, my sister Shannen came along.

  Lucas legally adopted me as soon as they were married, but they hadn’t changed my last name because my mom had named me after my nanna to keep a part of our Irish heritage. So here I was, Teagan Shea Donnelly. When I was older, they had given me the choice to change my last name to Jennings, but I loved my nanna so much, I’d declined.

  Nanna Teagan was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland. She and my papa immigrated to the United States when my mom was six. I had no idea how they ended up in Sacramento of all places, but they had.

  “Yo, space cadet,” Shannen said as she waved her hand in front of my face. “Are we going or what? You’re the one who got me doing this shit every morning, you know?”

  She was right. I had dragged her out running with me every morning after Brian had dumped her. She had a hard time keeping pace with me, and only made it a block or two before she slowed down to walk, but she was working on it, and I had no doubt that within a few more weeks she would be able to keep up with me.

  We ran down the sidewalk for almost two blocks before she fell behind. She always made me go ahead of her so I could get in my full run. I would go to my stopping point then turn back and meet her wherever she was along our regular route.

  Today we met in front of my favorite house. The “For-Sale” sign was gone, and someone was working on the house. The yard was freshly mowed and the sprinklers were on, watering the grass. It didn’t seem like anyone had moved in yet though.

  We jogged home and I hit the shower first since I had to be to work before her. Shannen was a hairdresser at a trendy place uptown, and didn’t have to be to work until ten.

  After I showered and dressed, I ate breakfast, packed my lunch, and went to work. When I entered through the secure employee entrance, I headed straight to the locker room to drop off my purse.

  As soon as I walked through the door, I saw Tiffany and Tammy waiting to give me my daily dose of “Jeremy did this, and Jeremy did that.” Frankly, I was getting tired of it.

  “I wonder if he’ll send me more flowers today. Last night was amazing!” Tammy said.

  I rolled my eyes as I put my purse into my locker.

  “The two T’s,” as Jackie, Nat, and I referred to them, continued their discussion as I left the locker room. I tried my hardest to ignore them.

  I knew I needed to stop thinking about Jeremy, but I was still having a hard time believing everything they said was true. The guy I’d briefly gotten to know didn’t seem like he would do the things they said he had.

  I could see him sending flowers, for sure. But, to have multiple “girlfriends” at the same time? That was a tad much. He seemed smart to me, and that many girls at once . . . not so smart.

  If Tiffany had been one of them, and thought he was an asshole like she’d said, why was she okay with her friend Tammy dating him now? It made no sense.

  In my opinion, neither of the two girls seemed very smart. They were young; I’d say around twenty-three or so, and they were immature. Granted, I was only twenty-seven, but still.

  I hurried down the hallway toward the ER to clock in, and when I passed the residents’ room, a hand snaked out through the doorway and pulled me inside. I yelped as the door swung shut behind me. When I realized it was only Jared, I playfully smacked him on the chest.

  “You scared the hell out of me!” I giggled.

  “Good morning, sexy lady,” he said and backed me against the closed door.

  I hated it when he called me that. We hadn’t even come close to having sex, but we’d had some heavy make-out sessions.

  “Good morning to you too, Jared.” I checked around the room to make sure we were alone.

  “We’re all alone for now, Teagan,” he murmured, kissing a path from my collarbone up my neck to my ear. It felt good, but it also kind of irritated me.

  When Jared pushed his hips forward, I felt him growing hard against my stomach. Did he really think I was going to get it on with him in here?

  He kissed across my jawline to my lips. He sucked my bottom lip into his mouth and bit down lightly. My lips parted for him freely, so he slipped his tongue inside, probing and exploring. Not thinking clearly, I kissed him back.

  Apparently, he took it as an invitation to proceed. His hands wandered from my hips back around to my butt. His hands gripped me tightly, pulling my hips forward, pushing his very obvious erection against me.

  I wasn’t about to have sex with him in the residents’ room. Someone might come in at any time. Not to mention, I needed to get to work, and honestly, I was not the type of person to have sex in a public place.

  “Jared, stop. I need to get to work,” I said after I broke our kiss.

  “Come on, Teagan. Nobody will come in, I swear.” He groaned, and then pushed his hardness against me again. “Can you feel what you do to me?”

  I put my palms on his chest and slowly pushed him backward. “Jared, I really need to get to work. I’m still a temporary employee here for another three months. I can get fired simply for being late.”

  My job at the hospital had a six-month “trial” period during which my abilities were being assessed to see if I was a competent employee. During that time, I could be let go for minor infractions.

  “Don’t you think it’s time we took this relationship to the next level?” he asked, closing the distance I’d put between us.

  Seriously, was this a joke?

  “No, actually I don’t, Jared. Last time I checked, we were merely dating. I’m not even sure I’m the only girl you’re seeing anyway since we haven’t made anything official regarding our relationship.”

  “You’ve been the only one for the last month Teagan. That’s pretty exclusive in my opinion.” He grinned and pulled me toward one of the beds.

  Unwilling to let this go any further, I locked my feet in place, halting his momentum.

  “Jared, this is not going to happen right now . . . and honestly, it’s not going to happen any time soon. I’m not the girl for you if you expect to have sex here, plus I’d prefer to be in an actual relationship.”

  “That’s not what I heard,” he smirked.
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  “I guarantee you, whatever you heard isn’t true. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get to work. I’m late now,” I said, gritting my teeth.

  I was pissed. Pissed that I was late to work, and pissed that someone was saying crap about me that wasn’t true.

  “How about a blow job then? I heard you like to give those,” he said, his tone filled with spite.

  “What’s gotten in to you, Jared?” I was disgusted with the way he was acting.

  “Nothing. I think we’ve been fooling around long enough, and it’s time for you to do a little more.”

  He was trying to intimidate me and I was prepared to knock him on his ass if he touched me. No man would ever lay his hand on me again like Gary had. Regardless, I needed to end this now because Jared had just proved he was as big of a jerk as Gary. I deserved to be treated like a human being, not a play toy for a man who obviously had no respect for me.

  “Goodbye, Jared. If you really want a blow job, I hear there are a couple of MA’s on the fourth floor who are more than willing.”

  “Where do you think I got this tidbit of information, Teagan?” He huffed out an irritated breath and scowled at me. “The girls on the fourth floor were very forthcoming with what they know about you.”

  Tammy and Tiffany—I should’ve known. “I think they were talking about themselves, not me. Maybe you should try there. I really, really need to get to work now.” I spun and left the room.

  After clocking in ten minutes late, I went to the ER and spent the morning running around like crazy. A kid came in with a burst appendix then a construction worker who’d cut off his thumb. That one made me queasy!

  Sure enough, our day wouldn’t have been complete without the various bogus illnesses, and addicts coming in trying to get more drugs for pain that didn’t exist.

  Overall, it was a typical day.

  When it was lunchtime, I clocked out and headed back toward the break room. As I neared the residents’ room, the door opened and Jared peeked out the door before ushering Tiffany out when the coast was clear. He squeezed her ass as she passed him.