“Oh my God, why have you got a photo of my man on your phone crab factory? And you must be Ren; I’d say it was a pleasure after everything that I’d heard about you, but I’m one second away from…”
“Leave it, Tony,” Luke interrupted glaring at me. “You’ve just lost the best thing that ever happened to you, but don’t worry man. In years to come when she’s married to a guy who treats her like a princess, with his baby in her belly, I’ll make sure we laugh about this. If our families weren’t so close, I’d beat the shit out of you, but I reckon knowing how badly you fucked up will break you more than I could,” he growled and turned around to walk out of the door.
Shoving Francheska away from me, I stood up and ran to my SUV to go after Maya with Cole and Mace on my heels. I needed to speak to her to explain and to tell her I hadn’t been kissing the psychotic bitch and that every word that she’d spewed had been bullshit.
“Ren,” Mace grabbed my arm. “Give her time to calm down. That whole situation was so fucked up that right now if you go after her, you’re only going to make shit worse. Sober the fuck up, get your head into gear, and speak to her tomorrow.”
“He’s right bro,” Cole said, looking at me with pity. “Let’s head to Mace’s and talk shit out, then tomorrow you can talk to her.”
Shaking my head I got into Cole’s car and headed to Mace’s; I couldn’t lose her.
* * *
After a bottle of Jack between the three of us and four hours of talking, we’d eventually passed out in Mace’s lounge. Waking up the next morning, I lay there feeling like shit and playing through it all in my head. I couldn’t get the look on Maya’s face as she left the bar out of my mind; it was betrayal, heartbroken, disappointment, and almost hatred. Pretty much what I felt towards myself. I also couldn’t understand Francheska’s interest in me; we’d hardly spoken since we left high school so why was she suddenly leading the one-membered Renwick Townsend fan group?
I was struggling to remember everything we’d talked about last night, but with the mental image of Maya’s last look towards me right there in my mind, I felt my stomach churn. I ran to the bathroom just getting there in time to empty the contents of my stomach into the toilet and heaving for long minutes after it until I slumped down next to the toilet with my back against the wall panting.
“There’s spare toothbrushes in the drawer there. Do us all a favor and use one and then come out into the lounge - Cole has an idea.” Mace shouted through the door.
Doing as he suggested and washing my face I walked slowly back through, hoping that Cole’s idea was a good one and didn’t involve kidnapping her. Sitting down on the couch, I looked up as Mace passed me a cup of black coffee and waited for Cole to start.
“Ren, I think though the best course of action is for me to go and talk to Maya,” he began, using his formal tone. “I don’t want to get involved, but as it stands, I love that girl to pieces and hate that she’s hurting. I also don’t think she’ll be ready to see you and speak to you man; you fucked up badly even if you hadn’t planned on last night happening.” Every word was like a knife to my heart.
“I agree,” Mace’s deep voice sounded from beside me. “You’re in no state to see her and would probably make shit worse.”
Looking down at my hands I nodded. “Okay, whatever you think, just make sure she’s alright Cole, please,” I looked back up at him. “Her hand was bandaged, and she wasn’t walking properly still, I should be looking after her not causing her more shit.”
“I’ll do my best to try and fix it and find out about her hand and leg, I promise. Let’s get your car back to the house and you can speak to Mom, she’ll be able to give you ideas too while I talk to Maya. We need to keep our fingers crossed that we can figure out a way to fix this,” he paused frowning. “Hey, can you cross your balls?”
Mace’s head snapped around to look at Cole with a horrified look on his face. “What the fuck is wrong with you man?” He snapped, glaring at Cole. I’m sure I had the same look on my face too; I mean what the fuck?
“What?” Cole asked, still looking deep in thought as we walked out the door.
Jesus, this was the best I had to work with? I’m screwed!
Cole
Walking up to the door, I was worried about how Maya would act towards me. I mean, I know it wasn’t me who was the twat, but Ren’s my brother and all so maybe she’ll tell me to fuck off?
Doing a mental inventory and remembering that yes I do have a pair of balls, I knocked on the front door and waited for someone to answer. After a couple of seconds, I heard shuffling coming towards me and took a deep breath as the door opened and there stood Maya in a pair of leggings and a vest looking hot as usual until I saw how swollen her eyes were.
“Come here gorgeous,” I held my arms out hoping that she wouldn’t reject me. This girl meant a lot to me, and it broke my heart seeing how upset she was. Thankfully she lunged forward, and I wrapped my arms around her as she sobbed into my shirt. I could hear cars driving behind me on the street, so I walked her backward back into the house and shut the door. I know I act the dick, but that’s not all there is to someone sometimes; I have my reasons for it, and so far it’s done me well, but there are exceptions to my rule.
I picked her up and carried her to the couch and sat down with her on my lap rocking her until her sobs calmed down. “You alright?”
“I got snot on you,” she wailed. No matter how gross that was and how much I wanted to gag, only Maya could make snotting on me look and sound adorable. She had been so good for Ren, and everyone knew that they’re meant to be together, so I need to fix this.
“Meh, what’s some boogers between family?” I snorted.
“I’m not your family, though,” she looked so lost that I felt like kicking Ren’s ass regardless of how torn up he was. Sitting back I listened as she told me everything that had had happened to her in Tampa. As she spoke about the accident and how close she’d been to getting hit I froze; it sounded like someone had intentionally aimed for her with the SUV. She was so lucky just to get away with stitches, glue, and bruises.
“What happened to Ren while I was away Cole? Why did he do it and with her of all people?” She asked as she finished her story.
Leaning back I explained it all to her. Around halfway through the story I could see the look of devastation in her eyes had changed to cold fury.
“He’s a fucking…he such a freaking…” she jumped up off my lap and started pacing in front of me. What do I do now? Usually, I avoid tears and drama like the plague, but I couldn’t on this occasion and was now smack bam in the middle of it. Did I leave? Did I make a drink?
Just as I was thinking about making a cup of tea or finding chocolate like they do in the movies, that guy Tony walked in wearing just a pair of boxers.
“Oh my heavens and all things hot and holy, how many of you are there? Please tell me, at least, one of you is gay?” He’d gestured throughout flinging his hands off to the left and right, so it took me a couple of seconds to catch up with what the hell he was saying.
“Uh, not that I’m aware of. In fact, I think the answer is no to that,” I knew I was fidgeting, but come on. The closest I’d come to this was the drag queen strip club that Brett and Ren had taken me to blindfolded for my birthday one year. That was a sobering moment when the blindfold was pulled off, and there was this ‘woman’ grinding her junk in my face. To each their own, I’m not judging, but I like being the one with the dick in a relationship.
“Why is God so cruel?” He squealed, dropping back onto the sofa with his hand on his forehead making me laugh. I think I like this guy, and I know Ren would appreciate the humor too.
Maya interrupted the dramatic moment and, still pacing, filled him in on what had happened bringing us back on track.
“What a stupid twat,” Tony said standing with his hands on his hips and starting to pace too. Is this part of the healing process? Should I be doing this too?
&nbs
p; “That’s exactly what I said. Anyone want some tea?” I slapped my knee, jumped up and headed in the direction of the kitchen and went searching for tea, chocolate and ice cream; most of which Maya had none of. Fabulous!
Walking back into the living room empty handed, I found Tony was gone and Maya sitting on the couch staring into space. “You OK beautiful?” What had I missed?
“I can’t believe he thought that little of me, Cole. I was almost killed, and my phone was crushed by the car that should have hit me so I couldn’t call him; because who remembers numbers these days? And he believes the first bullshit story he hears about me?”
Seeing as how I agreed with what she was saying, I guess I had to go back to Ren and tell him he had his work cut out for him - tit flap. For now, though, “hey, want me to go to the store and get some ice cream and chocolate? Anything you want or need, so long as it’s not tampons.” I shuddered at the thought. That shit was just so fucked up.
Maya burst out laughing, and I’ll admit, but never out loud, that at that moment if she’d asked me to buy tampons I’d have done it in a heartbeat.
“Thanks, honey, I’d like that.”
“Your wish is my command m’lady. I’ll even make you tea when I get back too.”
I walked toward the door, stopping when I remembered a small issue with my plan. “Hey, Maya?”
“Yeah?”
“Can you show me how to make tea first?”
I couldn’t understand why she was laughing so hard. It was a valid request because how could I make her tea if I didn’t know how? It always looked so technical in the moves with brewing and bag dunking, damn that sounded dirty.
Remembering that she had a coffee machine in the kitchen, I altered course to check the brand. I’d just get her tea pods for it. And people said they worried about my sanity, pshaw!
23
____
Maya
Ava had text telling me that we were all due a night out at Sheeve’s since last night had been cut short. I’d much rather sit at home watching cable and eating junk food, which would have been a lot given everything Cole had bought at the store.
After a couple of bottles of the champagne that magically seemed to appear on the table, the conversation turned to men.
“What’s the V shape that guys have?” I asked, almost falling off my chair as I swung around to look at Tony. “Is it V for Vagina happy maker?” I snorted, and I had to catch the table so that I didn’t face plant on the floor. Damn the stools were wobbly in here.
“No, it’s heaven’s arrow,” Tony replied with the goofiest grin on his face.
“No,” Isla cried, who was starting to sway a bit. “It means V for Vagina Vendetta,” she crowed making us all laugh catching the attention of the other patrons in the VIP lounge.
“Ah fuck,” a deep voice said behind me, and I regretted turning so quickly when the room continued moving after I’d stopped. Seeing Ethan behind us, we all yelled his name as he stood glaring at us with his hands on his hips. “Do you have any idea the amount of shit you’re about to bring to my club? Could you, at least, come here ugly?”
“Ethan, it’s cool we’ve got Tony here,” Scarlett piped up gesturing to Tony who was sitting there mouth wide open and taking in the hotness that was Ethan. It was unfair how hot he was and sadly he didn’t even come close to Ren.
Ava, who’d gone to the bathroom as we started talking about men’s v’s, bounced up to the table. “I have the answer, V for vagina perch - no batteries required!”
Normally Ava was a bit more reserved, so we all sat staring at her for a couple of seconds before Ethan broke the silence. “Oh, fucking hell! You too? Mace is gonna murder me in my sleep.”
“He has no say in anything to do with me. Not that he’d give a shit anyway, so you can sleep soundly,” she informed him in a cool voice. What the hell had Mace done now?
Ethan blinked and then turned to me, looking me over. “You okay? You seem different.”
“Maybe because she’s sheeengle….no wait shiiiiggle,” Scarlett slurred.
“What?” Ethan frowned at me. I had no desire to join in the conversation, so I turned back around to the table and stared at my drink. “What happened?”
“Well,” Scarlett began and told Ethan the events of the past three days, not missing one single detail in her inebriated state sadly.
“That dumb asshole,” Ethan said walking away and over to the bar.
“Sorry honey,” Scarlett said looking at me and realizing that I had gone quiet and was no longer giggling and laughing.
Giving her a weak smile I was about to give her the standard ‘it’s fine’ response, but Ava who was the soberest out of us all leaned across the table in Scarlett’s direction. “I was kicking you to get you to stop, but you just kept on going like the energizer bunny with verbal diarrhea.”
“Actually, that was me you were kicking,” Tony said following it with a hiccup and a tiny burp. Classy guy!
“Ohh, I’m sorry!”
Waving it off Tony launched back into different names for the V on a man's pelvis. I was still having a good night, but I wasn’t feeling as carefree anymore.
“These are for you ladies and gentleman, courtesy of the boss,” the hot bartender said setting a tray with more shots and a bottle of champagne on the table.
“Uh, oh,” Ava sing songed, looking wide-eyed behind us. Turning around, I saw Luke, Mace, Cole and Ren walking towards us reminding me of the last time we were here.
Turning back to the table I picked up the bottle of champagne and started to take the lid off of it so that I had something to do with my hands. Luke leaned over my shoulder giving me a kiss on the cheek and then went to Isla to give her a kiss hello. Mace walked around to Ava, who didn’t even acknowledge him as Ren pulled up a chair beside me. Cole sat down the other side of me giving me a wink and then looked at the bottle in my hand with wide eyes.
“Maya, how drunk are you?” He asked looking from the bottle to me and back again.
“Roasty toasty my man,” I sniggered working on the cork bit by bit so that I could ease it out of the bottle. As if it happened in slow motion, the cork went shooting out of the bottle and hit Cole in the center of his forehead stunning him until it sank in and he turned to glare at me. I really needed to start giving this job to someone else.
“Really Maya? That fucking hurt,” he whined rubbing his forehead. I couldn’t help it, the laughter just burst out of me and once I started everyone else joined in. “Fuck you guys!” He grumbled as he got up and walked away.
As the laughter finally died down, an arm went around my waist.
“Can we talk baby?” Turning slowly I nodded.
Taking a deep breath, he said, “I cannot apologize enough for what happened. I swear I didn’t touch her,” he leaned over and grabbed my hand, refusing to let it go when I gave it a tug. “I swear on everything I hold dear I didn’t, and I didn’t kiss her either. She put her mouth on mine; I wouldn’t do that to you. I do trust you; I’ve always trusted you, but…,” he ran his hands through his hair making me realize how much I missed doing that. “I saw the photo and the name and jumped to the wrong conclusions, and for that, I’m so sorry baby.
Forever Mine (Providence Series Book 1) Page 22
