Even if AJ hadn’t been in my way, I would’ve fumbled over my words. I wasn’t intimidating. I wasn’t commanding.
I was Ezra Johnson, the cripple.
And that was why a girl like Kayla Reynolds would never be interested in a guy like me.
Her gaze briefly met mine before Gavin snagged her attention away. Tipping his head toward her, he whispered something I couldn’t hear, and she giggled.
“Guess we know who’s getting some from the new girl,” AJ remarked crudely, earning a few laughs.
And there was nothing I could do about it. If I told him to shut up, he’d just remind me how powerless I was.
My chest burned with anger as I opened my brand-new sketchbook to the first page and started to draw.
As Mr. Marks droned on about American history, my pencil moved over the paper. I didn’t need to look at my subject to get the details right; the image of her was etched into my mind.
Her heart-shaped face. The slight upturn of her nose. Plump lips. Corkscrew curls.
After I was satisfied with the rough outline of her beautiful features, I wrote the first of many letters she’d never see.
Dear Kayla,
Today is the best and worst day of my life. The best, because I found out love at first sight really does exist. The worst, because I had to watch someone else be your hero.
MAGIC MAN Sneak Peek
JAY
The first time I met Casey Maxwell, I told her two lies and a truth. After all, deception was one of my best talents.
Knocking on the screen door of her doublewide trailer, I stepped back on the rotted wooden porch. I studied the faded yellow siding while mentally rehearsing the answers to the questions she would ask.
She’d be curious about the stranger on her doorstep with a mysterious wad of cash, and I had the lies locked and loaded on the tip of my tongue.
Seconds ticked by, and I knocked again.
I knew she was home.
I knew a lot of things about her I shouldn’t.
Like the fact that she’d turned sixteen two months ago, her favorite color was blue, and she worked at the diner down the road. She rode her blue bike everywhere because she couldn’t afford a car. She got straight A’s in school, and she lived in this piece of shit trailer with her mom. Her dad had been out of the picture since before she was born.
And, if she hadn’t gotten knocked up by an abusive psycho, she would’ve been going into her junior year at Brenton High School at the end of the summer.
I heard the rattling of locks before the door opened a little. One apprehensive blue eye peered at me through the crack.
“Can I help you?”
“So,” I started, my tone jovial as I raked a hand through my hair. “Last night was a shit show, huh?”
A quizzical quirk of her eyebrow was the only agreement I got, and I could read the sarcastic comment running through her mind.
Ya think?
My assessment of the events that led me here were accurate—an illegal fighting match at an abandoned farmhouse, bloodshed, and the biggest drug bust this small corner of the world had seen in decades.
And Casey was at the center of it all.
Although my memories from the past twenty-four hours were hazy, I remembered seeing her last night. Out of place, too young to be there, heavy makeup meant to make her look older.
After her boyfriend got knocked out, she’d fallen to her knees next to him and quietly admitted she was having his baby.
“Jaxon didn’t even tell me where he was taking me last night.” Casey’s jaw worked with annoyance. “I’m not a fan of violence.”
Well, she was dating the wrong guy then.
She probably didn’t even know what a bad guy Jaxon Meyers was.
But I did.
Casey wasn’t the first vulnerable girl he’d pursued. At least that fucker got the ass whooping he deserved, courtesy of my buddy, Jimmy.
Jimmy had been blood-thirsty on behalf of his girlfriend, Mackenna. She’d been a victim of Jaxon’s abuse years ago. The bastard almost killed her. In the couple months since Jaxon got released from prison, he’d been harassing Mackenna with threatening letters.
And apparently also getting a sixteen-year-old girl pregnant. Busy guy.
“Hi, I’m Jay.” I offered Casey my right hand.
Without opening the door further, her skeptical gaze landed on it, then flitted back up to my face. No handshake then.
She was afraid of me. Good girl.
I dropped my arm. “I’m a friend of Jaxon’s.”
That was the first lie. The words felt wrong coming out, but I needed Casey to trust me enough to accept the gift I wanted to give her.
“What does he want?” Her voice was hard. “I’m not bailing him out. Even if I had the money, I wouldn’t do it. If I’d known he was dealing drugs, I wouldn’t have been dating him. I’m not that kind of girl, so if he gets out you can tell him to stay away from me. I already told him it’s over.”
Okay, so maybe being friendly with her ex wasn’t the right angle to play. Unfortunately, it was the only angle I had.
“No bail for him,” I reassured her. “Thanks to the meth the cops found in his pocket, I don’t think Jaxon will be seeing life outside bars for a long time.”
A relieved sigh left her and some of the worry vanished from the one eye I could see. She opened the door wider until I had a full view of her heart-shaped face. That trust I was seeking? I could sense Casey’s defenses coming down a little.
But I wasn’t innocent either—not when it came to drugs. I’d been selling and using for years, and it was only a matter of time until I got caught.
After the fight was over, all hell had broken loose when we’d heard the sirens approaching. High on painkillers and panic, I’d tried to outrun the police.
I just wasn’t fast enough.
My biggest regret was almost taking Jimmy down with me. Instead of pulling my car over and keeping my cool like any sane person would’ve done, I drove into a ditch then took off on foot into a cornfield, leaving Jimmy behind to deal with the consequences.
While searching my car, the cops found my stash and took Jimmy in for questioning. It was probably a good thing he was oblivious about my ‘pharmaceutical occupation.’ He gave his full cooperation and walked out of the station a free man.
I wasn’t so lucky.
There was a warrant out for my arrest, and it was the final nail in the coffin of my downward spiral.
After this last good deed, I was going to turn myself in.
I’d been on the wrong path since I was too young to know better, directed there by the one person I should’ve been able to look up to. I was my father’s son. He’d made sure of it, and now I was going to suffer the same fate as him—a dark, lonely cell.
In an attempt to redeem myself, I’d promised Mackenna I’d find some things out about Casey, because when she’d heard about the baby situation, she was concerned.
Hence, the reason why I was at Casey’s house.
I told myself it wasn’t because I wanted to personally check on her. It wasn’t because I wanted to catch one last glimpse of her before I went away for a long, long time.
Because no matter how pretty she was, I wasn’t a pervert. I didn’t fuck around with girls who were four years younger than me.
I only had one thing to offer her.
Extending my arm, I held my palm out, facing up. “Here, Jaxon wanted you to have this.”
Lie number two.
Casey stared at my empty hand, then glanced from side to side like she was questioning her own sanity. “Um, there’s nothing in your hand.”
“Oh, silly me. I forgot to do this…”
Closing my fist, I turned it over. I tapped the back of it with my fingers, then opened it again. Seeming to appear out of nowhere was an envelope. The white rolled-up paper uncurled, and Casey’s eyes widened in wonder.
It was a magic trick I’d perfected. An illusion.
An entertaining sleight of hand.
Snatching it quickly, she made sure our hands didn’t touch. When she looked inside, she frowned, then speared me with a glare.
“This is four hundred dollars. Jaxon didn’t win the fight.” She tossed it back to me. “If it’s his drug money, I don’t want it.”
I just shrugged because she wasn’t entirely wrong—it was drug money, only it wasn’t Jaxon’s. It was mine.
I held it out to her again. “Please? For the baby.”
“Shh!” Quickly glancing behind her, she clamored out onto the porch and slammed the door behind her.
Stepping close, Casey ran a hand through her dark strands.
The space suddenly felt much smaller with her out here. I could smell the fruity scent of her hair in the breeze. Needing distance, I stumbled back ungracefully, leaning my ass against the unstable railing.
Casey crossed her arms over her light-blue tank top and she quietly muttered, “My mom doesn’t know yet, okay? She might kick me out when I tell her.”
Shit.
It’d been a long time since I’d cared about anyone but myself, but for some reason, the thought of this girl alone and scared made me feel weird.
“All the more reason for you to take this.” I shook the envelope.
Indecision warred in her mind as she toyed with her necklace. A small prism hung from a silver chain, and she ran it back and forth as she considered my offer.
Studying her face, I looked for signs of recent crying, but there were none. No splotches on her cheeks. Her eyes weren’t red or puffy. Just determination shining in her crystal-clear blues.
Without the makeup, everything about Casey screamed of youth.
Innocence that had been stolen too soon.
Her rosy cheeks were slightly rounded, and her body was thin. Her hips lacked curves, and her denim shorts hung loosely on her slender frame. Her lips weren’t overly full, but the shape was attractive. The corners naturally turned up, like she wore a constant smirk. The arm that was lodged under her breasts pushed them up, creating cleavage that was extremely distracting.
I smiled a little when I looked down at her knobby knees.
She was totally rocking that awkward stage between childhood and maturity, and hints of the woman she’d grow into peeked through.
Someday, she was going to be a knockout.
And I shouldn’t have been thinking of her that way.
Averting my stare, I waved the envelope again and the tense muscles between my shoulder blades relaxed when she reluctantly took it.
My mission was complete.
“You have red hair,” she blurted out, then blushed the prettiest shade of pink. “I just didn’t notice it last night because it was dark, but in the sunlight, it’s really obvious.” Flapping a hand toward my head, she looked down at her bare feet and rubbed her toes together. “Sorry. You know what color your hair is. I just don’t know any ginger guys.”
Throwing my head back, I laughed. She wasn’t saying it like it was a bad thing. Just a curious observation. The light-hearted moment was a sharp contrast to what the rest of my day would be like.
Trapping her bottom lip between her teeth, Casey tried to contain a grin while lifting her shoulders in an awkward shrug. When her smile won out, dimples appeared in both cheeks.
Aw, fuck, she was cute.
Gazing at her, I imagined the what-ifs.
What life could’ve been like in an alternate universe where I wasn’t a fuckup. A place where I took the straight and narrow, did well in school, went to college. Got some job with a suit and tie. Another world where Casey wasn’t too young for me, and I wasn’t too messed up to be good for someone like her.
One last glance at her knobby knees put me back in my place, and the tremble in my fingers reminded me of the hellish drug withdrawal I was about to experience.
“Well, good luck with everything.” I nodded my head toward the trailer, hoping her mom would be supportive. Then I added, “Keep your chin up and your standards high. You hear me?”
The amused twist of her lips sobered as she hugged her middle. “I hear you.”
“Promise,” I demanded.
“I promise.”
When I turned away, I trailed my hand over the rough wood of the railing as I soaked up the last remnants of my freedom.
Wind rustled the tall maple trees surrounding the trailer park. The sky was a perfect cloudless blue. The summer breeze smelled like fresh-cut grass and cornfields.
I’d miss all this.
Just as I made it off the bottom step to the cracked concrete, Casey asked, “Will I see you around?”
I hadn’t expected that question, or the hopeful expression on her face when I glanced over my shoulder.
I gave her a sad smile. “No.”
And that was the truth.
Good Guys Series:
Trucker
Dancer
Dropout
Outcast
A Trucker’s Christmas (Short Story)
The Night Time Television Series:
Untamable
Untrainable
Unattainable
His Mimosa
Jamie Schlosser writes steamy new adult romance and romantic comedy. When she isn't creating perfect book boyfriends, she's a stay-at-home mom to her two wonderful kids. She believes reading is a great escape, otters are the best animal, and nothing is more satisfying than a happily-ever-after ending.
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The Good Guys Box Set: TRUCKER, DANCER, DROPOUT, and A Trucker Wedding Page 78
