“You wanna come to the store with us?” Alice looked at her watch. “And if you guys want beer, then we need to go now. They stop selling alcohol at eight.”
Pipe took another drag and shook his head. “What the hell kind of town stops selling alcohol at eight o’clock on a Friday night?”
“The kind that lives in the stone age and has a population of five hundred,” I explained. If Pipe didn’t like it, he was more than welcome to go back to Weston.
“There's that sass,” he mumbled.
I didn’t want him talking about my sass. He used to tease me all the time about it, but that was when I actually wanted to be in the same room as him.
“Okay,” Alice whispered. She moved around to the other side of the car and slipped into the driver’s seat.
I rested my hand on the door handle. “Try to keep u—” My words died in my throat when I heard the Alice lock the door. I yanked on the handle, and the door didn’t budge. Oh, hell no. “Alice, open this door,” I demanded.
I hunched over to look in the car and saw she had a huge smile on her face and was shaking her head. “Nope. You need to catch up with your friends. I’ll go to the store, and I’ll meet you at your place.”
“What? I thought we were going to your place.”
She shook her head and started the car. “No. I’ll run to the store, grab a movie from the rental place on Main, and then I’ll be over.”
No. I did not want them coming over to my house. That was the last place I wanted Pipe to be. “Alice, we are not going to my house.”
She shook her head and shifted the car into reverse. She cranked up the radio and slowly crept the car backward.
Pipe stepped back from the car, and I tried not to think about that damn cigarette in his mouth.
Focus, Nikki.
“I can’t hear you,” Alice shouted. “See you in half an hour at your place!” She stomped down on the gas, rocketing the car out of her parking spot.
“I hate her,” I growled as I watched her taillights fade as she pulled out of the parking lot and down the street.
Karmen clapped her hands together and gave a little jump. “Well, Nickel and I will run to the hotel, and we’ll meet you at your place.”
“No,” I insisted. “I can ride with you guys to the hotel, and then we can all head over to my place.”
“Nonsense. There’s no reason why we all need to go. Nickel and I will only be a few minutes.” Karmen grabbed Nickel’s hand and pulled him over to her car. “You don’t by chance have ice cream, do you?” she asked.
“Does it snow in Alaska?” I asked. I don’t think I ever had a freezer lacking ice cream. “Cookie dough, mint chocolate chip, and butter pecan.”
Karmen pumped her fist in the air. “I knew I could count on you to satisfy my weird cravings.”
“Hey, hey,” Nickel called as he opened her door. “The only one who is going to satisfy your cravings is me.”
Karmen rolled her eyes and ducked into the car. “You’re such a man,” she mumbled.
“Last I checked, that was something you liked about me.” He slammed her door and rounded the front of the car. “Try not to kill each other,” he called.
Once again, I was watching the taillights of a car I wished I was in.
“You know, I really thought you would have been a bit more excited to see me, sugar.”
I looked at Pipe and tried not think about everything that drove me crazy about him. “If I had wanted to see you, I knew where to find you.”
He shook his head and inhaled deeply. The end of the cigarette burned bright, and his eyes stayed trained on me. He tossed the half-smoked cigarette on the pavement and stomped on it. “That mean you never wanted to see me again?”
Truer words had never been spoken. “It wasn’t on the top of my list.”
“You mind telling me why that is?”
I looked around and decided this was not the place I wanted to have this conversation. Hell, I never wanted to have this conversation with him. “No.”
He shook his head and strutted over to his motorcycle. “You can’t shut me down that easily. But I’ll let you have a little reprieve ‘til later.” He tossed his leg over the bike and looked over at me. “I promise not to bite, sugar, even though I know that’s something you’re into.”
Why that rat bastard. A smirk spread across his lips, and all I wanted to do was punch his lights out and walk home. He would, of course, bring up something from the one and only night we had spent together.
“You don’t get to do that.”
“Do what?”
“Act like you can talk to me like I’m someone you care about.”
He frowned and tilted his head a little bit. “Who said I didn’t care about you, Nikki?”
“Sometimes it’s not what you say, but it’s what you do.”
He shook his head and cranked up the bike. He grabbed the helmet that was hanging from the handlebars and held it out to me. “Hop on.”
Good. He wasn’t going to argue the fact that he did care about me.
As I strapped on the helmet, I remembered the first time I had ridden on the back of Pipe’s back. The feel of my legs wrapped around his strong, muscular body combined with the rumbling of the motorcycle was enough to drive me to the brink of ecstasy. When I first met Pipe, I thought he was handsome, but when my body had touched his, I went up in flames. The man was beyond hot.
“Do you know where I live?”
Pipe smirked and revved the engine. “I was just there, sugar.”
I swung my leg over the back of the bike, sitting back as far as I could without falling off the back end.
Pipe looked over his shoulder. “You don’t think you need to hang on?”
I gripped the seat between my thighs and shook my head. “Just don’t go fast and I’ll be fine.” It was less than a five minute ride to my place, and there was no reason for Pipe to drive like a bat out of hell.
“Suit yourself.”
Pipe rocketed out of the parking lot, and I lasted two point five seconds before I plastered myself to his back and wrapped my arms around his waist.
Damn man.
*
Pipe
I didn’t want to go to her house.
The feel of her body wrapped tightly around me was something I didn’t want to end. She had only been on my bike a handful of times before, but I remembered each time vividly.
Once we got to her house, I wouldn’t have her to myself anymore. Karmen would squirrel her away, taking all of her time.
“What are you doing?” she hollered over the roar of the engine.
I was getting five more minutes alone with her. I wasn’t familiar with Kales Corners, but it was a tiny town. It was virtually impossible for me to get lost.
By the time we made it back to her house, I knew she was pissed. Her friend was waiting on the front porch of her duplex, a perplexed look on her face and plastic bags were at her feet.
“What in the hell was that?” Nikki hissed. She catapulted herself off the bike, whipped off the helmet, and shoved it at me.
I shrugged and didn’t answer. The problem was, I had no idea what that was. I wanted to be next to her, but I knew that wasn’t something I should want.
“Well, gee golly. I thought for sure I was going to be the last one here.” Alice scooped the bags off the porch and watched Nikki climb the steps to her. “I had no idea what kind of beer to get. So I got three different kinds.”
Nikki grabbed two of the cases of beer off of the porch, pushed open the door to her house, and disappeared inside.
“You think you can grab the other one?” Alice called to me.
“Got it.” I hung Nikki’s helmet on the handlebars but didn’t move from the bike.
Alice watched me for a few seconds, her head tilted to the side before she followed Nikki.
I hung my head and closed my eyes.
What in the hell was I doing?
*
&nb
sp; Chapter 6
Nikki
“You have ten point three seconds to tell me what in the hell is going on.” Alice dropped the bags onto the counter and stared me down.
“Nothing is going on.” I grabbed a case of beer and twisted around to open the fridge.
“Oh yeah, nothing is going on. Everyone has a motorcycle club tracking them down. Totally normal,” she scoffed.
“The club wasn’t looking for me, Karmen was. Nickel is her ol’ man.” I set the beer on the bottom shelf and reached for the other case.
“You know the words ol’ man just came out of your mouth, right? No one around here talks like that, Nikki. This is like a whole new side of you.”
I shook my head, grabbed the other case of beer, set it down, and slammed the fridge shut. “I don’t really think you know me that well, Alice. I’ve only been here one month.”
Her face fell, and she fidgeted with the handle of one of the plastic bags.
Shit. I didn’t mean for it to come out so harsh. “I mean, you know me, Alice, it’s just there are somethings I haven’t told you.”
She rolled her eyes and started pulling food out of the bags. “That much is obvious.”
I leaned against the counter and lowered my voice. “I honestly don’t know what is going on. Well, I get why Karmen and Nickel are here. I just don’t know why Pipe came with them.”
Alice ripped open a bag of red licorice and held it out to me. “I knew there was something going on with you two. No way a man stares at a woman the way he did you without something more between them.”
I grabbed a piece of licorice and glanced at the open door behind us. I fully expected Pipe to walk through it at any moment acting like things weren’t beyond weird between us. “He wasn’t staring at me.”
“Of course you would think that. You didn’t actually look at the man until we were outside. He couldn’t take his eyes off you when he walked in the bar.”
I wagged my piece of licorice at her and shook my head. “No, I don’t accept that.”
“What don’t you accept?” Karmen asked. She had the last case of beer in her hand and kicked the front door shut behind her. “Pipe was smoking. Nickel said he’ll hang out there until he’s done.” She dropped the beer on the counter in front of me and leaned against it. “That should give me enough time to ask you what the hell is going on between you and Pipe.”
“She doesn’t know either? I thought she was your best friend,” Alice squawked.
“Nikki has kept her lips zipped about Pipe since whatever it was that happened, happened.” Karmen crossed her arms over her chest. “You have two minutes to give us the condensed version.”
Karmen and Alice stared me down, and I had nowhere to run. Pipe was outside, and that was the last place I wanted to be. I sighed and slid the case of beer toward me. “It was nothing. Well, at least to Pipe it was nothing.”
“Did he say that?” Alice asked.
“No, but I know that’s how he feels.”
Karmen grabbed my hand and squeezed it. “Nikki, you haven’t seen him the past month. He hasn’t been the same.”
I shook her off and grabbed the case of beer. “Well, you may say that, but you didn’t see what I did. I know Pipe is not interested in me for more than what he already got.”
“Did you see him at the club with a girl? They hang around the common room like flies. I’m sure what you saw was nothing more than them trying to move up from a hang around to something more.” Karmen had been around the club for a while now and knew more of the going ons than I did, but I know what I saw.
“It wasn’t in the common room.” I opened the fridge and managed to squeeze in the third case of beer. Alice wasn’t kidding when she said she didn’t know what kind of beer to get.
“So where was it?”
“I don’t want to talk about this,” I mumbled into the open fridge. I relived that shitty night enough on my own. I didn’t need Karmen and Alice’s commentary on it.
“That’s fine. I’ll just go ask Pipe.”
Alice gasped, and I spun around. “You wouldn’t dare.”
Karmen shrugged and pulled a piece of licorice from the bag. “Try me.”
I tossed my hands up in the air. “Fine. We had sex. Great sex. The best I’ve ever had in my life.”
“Now we’re talking.” Alice pulled a chair out from the kitchen table and plopped down. “How did you go from the best sex of your life to he wants nothing to do with you?”
I ran my fingers through my hair. “Because it must have been only good for me because I went to his door a couple of weeks later and he was with another chick.” Jesus. Those words hurt coming out.
“Shut up. You’re kidding me. Why the hell wouldn’t he want you again?”
I laughed and dropped my arm to my side. “Thanks for the vote of confidence, Alice.”
“That can’t be right, Nikki.”
“I’m pretty sure she would know the difference between Pipe being with a chick or not.” Thank goodness for Alice. I didn’t want to tell Karmen about Pipe because she was dating his best friend and she might side with Pipe. Which is exactly what she was doing.
“I’m pretty sure she called him sugar plum, Karmen. So yeah, he was with another chick.”
She shook her head and waved her hand at me. “That’s not what I mean. I believe he was with another chick. He’s a dick.” Alice cackled, and I couldn’t help but smile.
“Thank God you are back on Nikki’s side. I thought you had defaulted to the dick’s side.”
“He’s a dick, but I know h—”
“Baby girl,” Nickel called from the doorway.
Karmen and Alice had been so into finding out what had happened between Pipe and me, I had completely forgotten to keep watch for the guys coming back in.
Karmen spun around and crossed her arms over her chest. “Sup, dude?”
Jesus. Karmen was so great at acting casual.
“Dude?” Nickel laughed.
Alice snorted and clapped her hand over her mouth. “Ignore that,” she mumbled.
I shook my head. “That shit is not ignorable.”
“You guys done talking about Pipe, or should we stay outside longer?”
My face heated, and I knew my cheeks were bright red. How the hell did he know we were talking about Pipe? “We were just talking about which movie to watch,” I blurted.
Nickel gave me a knowing smile. “Sure.”
Son of a damn monkey's uncle.
“How did you know we were talking about Pipe?” Alice asked.
Karmen kicked the leg of Alice’s chair and shook her head. “Admit nothing,” she said through clenched teeth.
Nickel hitched his thumb toward the window. “It’s open, doll.”
Ugh. I had opened it before Alice had picked me up because it was supposed to be a cooler night and I was looking forward to sleeping without having the A/C blowing on me.
“How much did you guys hear?” Karmen asked.
“Enough to know Pipe is a fucking idiot.”
Hmm, well, it was nice to know Nickel thought what Pipe had done was dickish.
Karmen plastered a smile on her face and trotted over to Nickel. “You may enter, although I’m not sure Pipe is allowed to come in.”
Nickel wrapped his arms around Karmen’s waist and pressed a kiss to her lips. “Easy, tiger. It’s not any of our business.”
Karmen growled.
“It’s in the past, guys. Don’t make a big deal about it, okay?” It was bad enough everyone knew I was dumb enough to sleep with Pipe, I didn’t need to have Pipe know it still bothered me. I saw movement behind Nickel and knew Pipe was coming.
Nickel’s eyes connected with mine. “I don’t think he heard.”
Well, that was a bit of relief.
Alice jumped up from her chair and started ripping everything out of the bags.
Nickel moved to the side with Karmen in his arms, and Pipe walked into my duplex.
Hell, this man messed with my head.
“I’ll get the snacks ready if you want to get the movie going.” Alice threw me a look that screamed get it together. I must have looked like some pathetic puppy whose bone had gotten taken away.
“Uh, I’ll, well…” What the hell was going on? I was having a brain meltdown in the middle of my kitchen.
How did I get here?
Karmen wrapped up in Nickel’s arms, Pipe standing next to my couch from the local thrift shop, and Alice in a cow print onesie pulling every snack imaginable out of plastic bags.
“Nikki, movie, now,” Karmen prompted me.
My eyes darted to her, and I slightly shook my head.
I was lame with a capital L because I couldn’t remember where the movies were. Hell, I couldn’t remember my own name at the moment.
“I know, I’ll get the snacks, Karmen can get the movie from on top of the TV that I rented, and Nikki can run to the bathroom to freshen up.” Alice stood in front of me and put her hands on my shoulders. “I’ll help her to the bathroom.” She pushed me to the side, and I stumbled down the short hallway that lead to the bathroom and two bedrooms.
She reached around me, pushed open the bathroom, and pushed me in. “Get it together, woman. You have five minutes to walk out of this bathroom and act like that hunk of a gorgeous man has no effect on you.” She flipped on the light, stepped back, and slammed the door shut. “Get it together, Nikki,” she called.
I face-planted against the door and closed my eyes. That was way easier said than done.
How do you act like your world wasn’t changed after one kiss?
How do you ignore your feelings?
How do you ignore Pipe Marks?
I had all the questions, but none of the answers.
I was so screwed.
*
Pipe
“You sure you shouldn’t maybe go check on her?”
Karmen looked over her shoulder down the hallway. “I’m sure she’ll be out any minute. Just watch the movie,” she tsked at Nickel.
Pipe Page 3
