I knew I should probably visit the store, but I hadn’t seen a reason to.
Especially when June’s place felt more like a home than this one did.
Thinking of how her face would scrunch up when she got pissed when she learned how close I was to her, I answered the phone without looking at the caller ID.
“Hello?”
“‘Bout fuckin’ time, boy.”
I grinned at hearing my father’s voice. “Hey, Pop.”
“You over what crawled up your ass before you left?”
I snorted. “It was your overbearing ways that crawled up my ass. But yes, if you have to know for your delicate sensibilities, I’m over it. Happy?”
“Fuckin’ aces,” he retorted.
I rolled my eyes. “What’s up, Pop?”
“I want to know about this girl that answered your phone.”
I started to laugh. Out of all the things that he’d want to hear, it didn’t surprise me that that was the first thing he asked about. “June.”
“Your Pops is gonna fuckin’ love this,” he chuckled.
I had no doubt in my mind that he would.
Chapter 20
Look, we gotta stop acting like it’s not okay to call kids assholes. Sometimes, there’s nothing else to call them.
-Sebastian to Johnny
June
“I’ll meet you at your place and we’ll head over to mine. We can eat dinner before I head on shift,” Johnny said.
“Okay,” I said, feeling downright excited that we were headed to his place.
I don’t know what it was about the fact that we were heading there that made me so giddy, but I wouldn’t question it.
Maybe later I’d examine my near euphoric excitement over the matter, but for now, I’d leave it alone.
My phone rang moments after hanging up with Johnny, so instead of dumping my bags in my apartment, I waited in the hallway and answered my grandfather’s call.
“Hey,” I said, a smile breaking out over my face. “I heard the news.”
My grandfather started grumbling under his breath.
I giggled.
“All’s well that ends well, Grandpa,” I said. “Your money’s back where it belongs, and charges were filed against Dad. Seriously, it’ll be okay.”
“I have to memorize a new bank account,” he countered. “And I had to get new checks. I liked my old checks. Do you know how much those damn things cost?”
I grinned, loving the way that Grandpa sounded so much more like himself today instead of sounding rundown and sad.
“Yes, I know how much they cost—from the bank. But if you’d order them off of a check site like I told you to, they’d be about a quarter of the cost,” I explained, again.
This was an old argument for us. Grandpa didn’t like paying with his debit card—so it was either check or cash for him. Each month when his social security check from the government came in, he’d put half of it in the bank, and he took the other half to pay those bills he could pay in cash and have a little spending money.
Despite my trying to get him to join us in the twenty-first century, he decided he liked living in the past.
If it made him happier to write a check out or pay with cash, who was I to say otherwise?
“I don’t want my identity stolen,” he explained stubbornly.
“Your son stole your identity and used your checks,” I pointed out, a grin still in place, even though this hadn’t been funny at all a few days ago. “I’m pretty sure that it won’t matter if you pay Walmart to make your checks, or Capital One.”
He grumbled. “I guess you’re right. I won’t be needing my identity much longer anyhow.”
My stomach clenched at that.
He was so nonchalant at his impending death that sometimes it made my chest hurt.
I had no clue what I would do when he was gone.
“Grandpa…” I started.
He sighed.
“We are gonna have to talk about this at some point,” he told me.
I knew that. But it didn’t have to be right now.
“I left everything to you, in case you’re wondering,” he said.
I wasn’t. My grandfather owned a couple hundred acres on the north side of town, and I’d begged him to sell it. But, since his family had lived on that acreage for a hundred and seventy-five years now, he hadn’t been willing to let it go.
Now, I would have to keep the property just because it meant something to him—even though I was scared to death of the property taxes on something that large.
But, again, he was protecting me by making sure I had a few years’ worth of saved up assets to pay the property taxes with before I had to think about what I was going to do with it.
And I would keep it. Even if I had to work an extra job to make that all work out.
“I heard from Mooney, who heard from his grandson, who heard from the judge, that those four people you hit with your truck—and that other one they found who ran off—are standing trial next week. Did your cop boy tell you?” he asked.
My cop boy.
I couldn’t wait to share that one with Johnny.
“Yes,” I lied. “So, don’t worry. It’ll be okay.”
“Oh, I know it will. I just hope that the four of them don’t bring a civil lawsuit up against you. The cop boy is protected by the department. You, not so much,” he said.
My belly clenched.
That would be awful.
Really awful. I was making ends meet now, but I sure the hell didn’t have the money for a lawyer to fight something if they decided to pursue a civil suit against me.
I shook. “I’ll keep my fingers crossed.”
Grandpa grumbled underneath his breath. “Anyway. Are we still on for dinner tomorrow night?”
I grinned. “Yeah. But Johnny is working nights this week, so before you ask, no, he can’t come.”
At least, I didn’t think he could.
Since we were doing our usual dinner at seven in the evening, and Johnny normally had to be at work by six, we’d have to do a really early dinner for him to come. Although I’d willingly do an early dinner time for Johnny, my grandfather was super rigid when it came to his dinner times. Dinner was served at seven o’clock on the dot, and not a moment sooner.
We always arrived at our usual dining location promptly at six thirty and ordered moments after that. If dinner hadn’t arrived by seven, Grandpa would surely be tied in knots—and maybe even turn into a pumpkin.
“Darn. I like cop boy. Maybe he can make next week.” Grandpa sighed.
A door down the hall opened and my eyes turned to survey the area almost automatically, meaning I got a bird’s eye view of Johnny coming out of the apartment two doors down from mine.
I frowned as confusion washed over me.
“All right, girl. I’ll see you tomorrow, be good.”
“Yeah,” I said. “I’ll be good. You, too. I love you.”
After returning the words, he hung up, and I was left to stare at Johnny who was biting his lip as he looked at me warily.
“So, I should have mentioned that I live two doors down from you,” he started.
I opened my mouth, then closed it. “You little shit!”
Then I burst out laughing.
And he was right. When he took me in there a few minutes later after I’d collected myself, I saw that he didn’t, indeed, have much. Amanda’s and my apartment was downright luxurious compared to his. No wonder he’d rather spend time at ours.
***
“I can’t believe you’ve lived two doors down from me all this time and haven’t said a word. Nor have I seen you. How does that even happen?” I asked, still confused on how he’d gotten something this monumental past me.
He shrugged. “Graveyard shift. Freight elevator. And I take the stairs most of the time. The stairwell is right beside my apartment door.”
I shook my head. “That’s insane.”
He started to laugh.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “But, to be fair, at first you were a skittish filly that wanted nothing to do with me. Once I hid it once, I had to keep hiding it.”
That was true.
I sighed. “You’re right.”
He winked. “I’m always right.”
I picked up a piece of shredded lettuce off of my plate and threw it at him. It hit his throat and fell into the small gap between his shirt and his collarbone.
He tried to fish it out and then grimaced. “I think I only pushed it down farther.”
I started to giggle, then got out of the booth and walked to his side, looking down his shirt.
The Kevlar vest that he was wearing made it damn near impossible to get my hand down inside, but I did manage to finally get the piece of lettuce. I did accidentally pull some chest hairs, though.
“I think you did that on purpose,” he said, pinching my ass.
I squeaked, happy that there was a wall on the side so that his hand had been hidden from view, and then looked around to see if anybody had seen his wandering hand.
I had the attention of two people. Beatrice, who was glaring at me with hate in her eyes, and Rosie, who was glaring with a lot more than hate. Unconcealed rage was more like it.
At least I knew why Beatrice hated me. She tried to talk to Coke at least twice a day while at work, and I fielded her calls. Either I took messages that Coke never returned, or I told her he was busy and to try back later. Either way, Coke never spoke with her, and I knew that she partially blamed me for that problem.
Not that it was my fault. Coke damn well got her messages because I took great pleasure in telling him why his ex-wife was mad at him that day.
It was nice to have someone else being hated on who wasn’t me for a change.
But Rosie? Yeah, my best guess was that she was jealous of mine and Johnny’s relationship—though she had no one to blame for that but herself.
She was the one who’d cheated on him, after all.
She’d dug her own grave.
“You ready?” Johnny asked, his hand sliding up the back of my thigh.
I looked down at him, and then leaned over and placed a soft kiss on his mouth.
I felt the eyes of more than just two people this time.
We were in the middle of one of the only restaurants in Hostel at dinnertime. Half the town was either here or out in the parking lot.
It was inevitable that we would draw attention.
Only, I wasn’t embarrassed like I would have been at one time. Who the hell would be embarrassed to be seen kissing a man like Johnny?
It sure the hell wasn’t ever going to be me.
I groaned and stepped away, reluctant to let him go, and even more reluctant to allow him to go to work.
I didn’t want our time together to end. We only had a very short amount of it today, and it’d been like this for the last few days since he’d been working nightshift.
I’d found that the longer that I had to deal with him working nights while I should be sleeping, that I did more worrying about him instead of sleeping.
Not that I’d tell him that.
Hostel really wasn’t all that dangerous of a town, but then I thought about those men who had nearly beaten the crap out of Johnny, and my ability to be rational flew out the window.
Though they were no longer a problem—thanks to the judge being very quick about handing out sentences since they beat the hell out of a cop—but there was always going to be someone else for me to worry about.
“You okay?”
I backed up a bit more, allowing Johnny to get up out of the booth.
He did so, and we came chest to chest. My breasts were rubbing against the planes of his vest.
“Yeah,” I smiled, offering him my cheery grin that always seemed to make the corners of his mouth soften. “I’m just thinking about tomorrow morning.”
He grinned. “You mean tomorrow morning when you’ll allow me to break in and join you in bed again before you leave and then let me crash there all day?”
He’d done that twice now. Yesterday and this morning.
It had been magnificent.
Right up to the point when I had to leave my warm, cozy bed and his hard body to go to work.
That part had sucked big donkey balls.
Though, thankfully, tomorrow I didn’t have to go to work.
“Come on.” He placed his hand on my hip and guided me to the counter to pay.
When he reached for his wallet, I rolled my eyes.
He’d yet to let me pay for a meal, even though I had tried to multiple times.
While he was signing the receipt, I let my eyes roam around the room, and they stopped on my mother.
I just barely kept the sneer off my face.
She was staring at me with unconcealed hostility, and I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I wasn’t going to get out of here without her saying something.
Shit.
I stiffened at Johnny’s side, and he felt it because his hand hadn’t left its place on my hip since we got up from the table.
He looked down at my face and then over to where I was looking, and he growled low in his throat.
Then he turned to the young girl working the counter. “You got a different exit we could use?”
Relief poured through me at his quick thinking.
He knew just as well as I did that this wasn’t going to be pretty. In an attempt to head it off, he was trying to get us out of here before she realized that we’d left.
“The only other door we have is to the back porch,” she gestured to the side exit. “But it has a fence.”
Johnny nodded, then took my hand and led me to the back porch.
Once we were out there, I shivered due to the rapidly cooling air that came with the cold front that had blown in earlier.
“Come on,” he gestured to the part of the fence that was about five feet high. “I’ll help you over.”
I grinned and walked with him to the wooden fence. “If the pretty part of the fence was facing the other way, I could probably do it myself.”
Then I was up and off my feet as Johnny damn near lifted me over his freakin’ head.
I squeaked as I clamored up to the top, gripping the fence with my hands as I tried to catch myself so I didn’t just fall over to the other side.
Once I steadied myself—and he hadn’t let go despite my jerky movements—I jumped.
My boots landed in the grass on the other side, and moments afterward, Johnny followed me over with much more grace and ease.
“Showoff,” I muttered.
Johnny grinned and then winked, crowding me so that my back was resting against the wooden fence we’d just scrambled over.
His mouth came down on mine, and I found myself clutching his bare biceps.
“You need a coat,” I whispered.
“I’ll be fine,” he disagreed. “And it’s only fifty-five.”
“It’s supposed to get down to twenty-five,” I argued, my breath mingling with his as we spoke.
“This is beginning to become a habit of y’all’s.” Rosie’s acidic voice filled the night air.
I jumped, but Johnny didn’t seem the least bit surprised. He must have seen her when I didn’t.
“Go away, Rosie,” Johnny said to the annoying woman. “I’m trying to say goodnight to my girl.”
I felt my insides warm.
“Go. I have to go try to catch some sleep before you get there in the morning, and I have about eight piles of laundry that I need to try to get through,” I teased, curling my hand around his neck and pulling him down to me for one more kiss.
“Bitch.”
Both of us ignored Rosie as we broke apart, and he walked me to my truck and waited for me to get inside and start it before closing the door.
On
ce I put it in reverse, he offered me a wink and then watched me back out.
I didn’t miss my mother coming out of the building, but I knew that she wouldn’t approach Johnny. Not with him in his uniform, anyway.
Smiling, I drove home and tackled the laundry.
Then I went to bed, tossed and turned a bit until I finally found sleep.
Chapter 21
No, it’s not okay to call the cops because you hear cats fighting outside your window. Common sense, people! Get it.
-Hostel PD FB page
June
I woke up when cold feet—and an even colder body—curled up against me under the covers.
I gasped in surprise as my warm body was surrounded by Johnny’s cold one.
“Holy shit!” I squeaked, trying to get away from the cold.
Johnny wrapped his arms and his legs around me, and then shivered, refusing to let me go.
“You were right, I was wrong,” he admitted. “I needed a coat. It’s fucking cold.”
His beard tickled my naked chest as he tucked his head under my chin, and I had no other choice but to wrap my arms around him.
“I’m sure they would’ve allowed you to leave to grab your coat,” I told him.
He grunted. “I know. But I wouldn’t have been able to resist stopping by and ravishing you, so I decided against it.”
I laughed huskily. “Is that right?”
He pressed his hips against me, letting me know that he was just as naked as I was, and grunted. “I want you.”
I rolled onto my back, spreading my thighs wide, as he maneuvered himself on top of me.
“I hear that body friction helps push back the chill,” I told him teasingly.
He grunted, and then circled his hips so that his cock ground against my ready and willing lower half.
“Just put it in me,” I teased, biting his ear. “I’m ready. I went to bed ready.”
Thinking about him this morning had been torture, but I’d refrained from touching myself in any way, despite wanting to desperately.
He growled and moved his knees until they were resting up against my hips on the bed. My thighs rested high and wide on top of his as he pushed himself farther in between mine. Then he started to move, pushing his cock into me without moving his arms or his lower half.
Get You Some- To format Page 15
