Now Leaving Sugartown

by Carmen Jenner

  “Then we’ll be crazy together. Welcome home, Little,” he says, and he kisses me. It doesn’t matter that there’s a crowd of people that just witnessed the full extent of my crazy, or that my illness is always going to be there, because he’s right—I am home.

  Sammy Belle is my home, and no matter where we live, no matter where we go, or how hard the demons try to pull me under. As long as we have one another, neither of us will be alone. Because I’m exactly where I’m meant to be—right beside him.

  Six months later

  I STAND outside and stare up at the sign above the newly renovated ice-cream van. The opening of Sweet Ink was going better than any of us had expected. Throughout the day Pepper’s had a long line of residents gathered beneath the pink and white candy-striped awnings, and all of the tables with their fold-out chairs are taken as people stuff their faces with cupcakes and buttercream and await henna tattoos. Elijah had renovated the van, turning it into a mobile tattoo shop, though we’d bought the vacant lot next to Dad’s auto shop and stationed it there, complete with a small white picket fence, imitation flamingos and fixed awnings.

  Realising she probably wouldn’t have that many Sugartown residents requesting permanent body work before they’d had time to wrap their minds around the idea of a tattoo shop popping up in their neighbourhood, Pepper decided to stick with henna and rub on tattoos of her own designs for the opening.

  She’s been trying to convince me for months to let her ink me with a design she’d begun when she first came back to Sugartown, and I would in a heartbeat, but the novelty of having her cover my body in tats using only a set of coloured sharpies hasn’t worn off yet. When she figures out I’m holding off because I love having her undivided attention focused solely on my naked body, I’ll let her mark me with her gun as permanently as she has my heart. Until then, I’m gonna enjoy every second of being under her pen getting dirty because the long showers afterward spent getting clean together are so much fun.

  “Ow, that fucking hurts.” Jake’s complaints can be heard from outside the van and across the street.

  “Jesus Christ you’re a pussy,” Pepper snaps back. “Thank god this isn’t a real tattoo or you’d be crying for your mummy. Oh wait, you already are.”

  “Hey, you two are scaring off all the customers.” I poke my head inside her work station. Jake is lying face down on the bed as Pepper inks a large henna tattoo over his back. I do a double-take and then lean into the doorway to get a closer look at the design. I chuckle quietly.

  Pepper shoots me a warning glare that promptly has me shutting up. She puts the finishing touches on Jake’s tat and smacks his arse. “There you go, Jakey boy.”

  “Sweet. You watch the ladies’ panties just disintegrate when they see this sucker on my back. Chicks love tats.” He rises from the bed and hedges over to the mirror, eager to see his new ink.

  “I think it’s some of my finest work,” she says, as she stands stretching out her back, and poking her head through the door to look out at the customers, she smiles wryly. She may not say it, but I see the pride in her eyes as she appreciates where she is today compared with six months ago, and I couldn’t be prouder.

  Pepper catches me staring and she kisses me. It’s sweet and unassuming, but like every other time her lips have ever met mine, my dick turns to concrete in my pants. I grasp the nape of her neck, smiling as I stare into her eyes.

  “What the fuck?” Jake shouts, and Pepper snickers. “What the fuck did you do to me?”

  She gives me one last peck on the lips and turns to face the music. “What’s wrong, Jake? You’re not happy with the design?”

  “You crazy motherfucker. This had better wear off, Pepper.”

  “Oh it will,” she reassures. “In about seven to twenty-one days.”

  “Fuck. I have a date with Olivia tonight. What the fuck am I supposed to say when we get naked and she sees this fuckhead’s face”—he points to me—“tattooed on my back?”

  Pepper smiles sweetly. “You could tell her it’s just a phase.”

  I laugh. “Or you could finally admit that you’re madly in love with me.”

  “Fuck both you cunt-burgers. I actually like this bitch, and she was this close to taking her clothes off for me. Tonight was gonna be the night I got all up in her shit. Now I’m gonna have to cancel and tell her I got gastro for the whole fucking week,” Jake says, throwing his shirt on over his freshly inked skin.

  “Because nothing says I want to have sex with you like gastro,” Pepper mutters, stepping outside the van. Jake follows her out and Tom, one of the local teenagers, snags the corner of his shirt.

  “Hey Jake, what did you get?”

  “None of your fucking business,” he growls and stalks away.

  “He’s a little sensitive. He didn’t want anyone to know about his Plushophilia,” Pepper says to Tom, and then she leans up on tiptoes to kiss me open-mouthed in front of everyone.

  “Dude, your girlfriend’s so fucking hot,” Tom says, as if he’s fantasising about Little, my Little, while her tongue is in my mouth. I break away from Pepper to glare at the kid. “Sorry, but it’s true.”

  “He’s right. Even though you guys are like, old, I’d totally tap that,” Reece—another local punk-arse kid who’s permanently attached to Tom’s hip—says, as he stuffs a cupcake from the table in his mouth. “Holy fuck, her cupcakes are the best I’ve ever eaten.”

  “Firstly, thank you, although you kids talking about how good my cupcake tastes sort of enters a whole new level of creep factor. Second, I am not old. And third, you douches are like, five. Trust me when I say neither of you will ever be tapping this.”

  “You know who is legal for you guys to be interested in?” Sam asks with a smirk and turns to the table that our family is gathered at. “Little Lil.”

  Hearing her name, Lil squeaks and sinks farther down in her seat, holding her smart phone in front of her face like a shield, as though we can’t see her behind it. Elijah can be seen though. He makes sure of it by standing up, his face turning puce when he shouts, “No. Don’t even fucking think about it!”

  Ana shakes her head. “Sit down before you have a goddamn coronary, Cade.”

  The kids scatter and Pepper yells after them, “Come see me when you’re legal, boys, and I’ll ink you up to Elijah’s standard.”

  “At this rate Lil’s going to be a virgin at forty,” Holly chimes in, setting down her coffee.

  If it’s possible Lil shrinks even lower in her seat, chanting, “This is not happening” under her breath.

  “She’s gonna be a virgin forever,” Elijah says, and then turns to his daughter. “You got that kid? FOR-EV-ER.”

  “I’m pretty sure that’s not going to happen,” I say, hooking an arm around Pepper’s waist and pulling her into my side. I press a kiss to the top of her brightly-coloured pink head, and she wraps an arm around my waist.

  Jack leans back in his chair, clasping his hands behind his head as he stretches out long legs beneath the table. “Yeah, just wait ’til she starts fucking a dude six years her senior, and then you have to see her do that every motherfucking day of the rest of your life.” He points at the two of us, and clearly he’s unhappy with the fact that I’m holding his daughter as if she’s the most important thing in my universe. I’m not unhappy, because she is my universe.

  “Jack, you really need to get over it,” Pepper says, pulling away from me to glare at her dad. “Sammy and I were going at it like rabbits waaaaay before you ever found out—”

  “Arrrrgh!” Jack covers his ears while the rest of the family sit and laugh. “Fuck. Holly, make it stop.”

  “Oh, you should probably keep covering your ears,” Pepper says, grabbing my hand and tugging me toward the van. “Actually, shop’s closed. All of you get the fuck off my property because I’m taking Sam into my ice-cream van and we’re about to christen the fuck out of this sucker.”

  “Jesus Christ, has she stopped talking yet?” Jac
k complains again, but when Pepper pulls me into the van and slams the door, shedding her clothes as she makes her way to the bed, I forget all about our insane, crack-pot family and I yank off my shirt and jeans, leaving them in a pile on the floor. Pepper jumps into my arms, and I stumble backward and then slam her back into the wall, knocking several bottles of ink and disinfectant off the shelf above our heads.

  Pepper gives me a wicked grin, and then her hot, perfectly painted-up mouth is on mine as I push inside. The entire world falls away as I move into her and she moves into me, and I know we’re going to have one hell of a mess to clean up later, but knowing that we get a “later” is the sweetest thing.

  No matter what we have to endure from here on out: her illness, our crazy family, and a father-in-law out for my blood, with Pepper beside me, life in Sugartown will always be sweet.

  Read other books by Carmen Jenner

  Carmen Jenner is a thirty-something, USA TODAY Best Selling Author, doctor, pilot and CIA agent.

  She’s also a compulsive, flagrant prevaricator who gets to make things up for a living.

  While Sugartown may not technically exist, Carmen grew up in a small Australian town just like it, and just like her characters, she always longed for something more. They didn’t have an Elijah Cade, though.

  If they did, you can be sure she would have never left.

  Stay up to date with Carmen at

  www.carmenjenner.com

  With every book it becomes harder and harder to write my acknowledgements. That’s not because there is less people to thank—just the opposite, really—but because it becomes more difficult to find new and interesting ways to thank the people that are instrumental in helping nurture a book and see it come to life.

  To my darling non-husband Ben, I owe you the world, Mister. Thank you for being you. Thanks for loving me, even though some days I make it hard—get your mind out of the damn gutter. ;) If some day you find yourself reading this book, thanks for the inspiration and for believing that even my feet were beautiful. Love you, Gigantor.

  To Ava and Ari, for sharing mummy with the voices in her head, I love you guys more than CHICKENS! Thanks for being the coolest tiny humans walking the planet. Dream big, babies!

  To my family, thanks for the crazy. I love you all.

  For the sake of their privacy there is one person whose name I’m not going to mention—but who was instrumental in helping me hone into Pepper’s thoughts. Thank you for sharing your experience with me, even though it differed from Pepper’s experience, I don’t feel like I would have done her justice without getting inside your head. So, thank you. You won’t ever know what it means to me.

  Kristine Barakat, gurrrrl, you own the other half of my brain. Thank you for the late night chats, for talking me off the ledge, the wine, the ABCs—never again—that crazy night of laughs, tears, champagne, more tears, and even more laughs on the balcony. The LINE! OH GOD, THE LINE!!! Thank you for sharing that with me, and allowing me to take it and work it into this book. Thank you for the endless read-throughs, the feedback, for feeling everything so much that you have to talk out those feels with me, and for loving Pepper and Sammy as much as I do. I loves ya, lady.

  Ali Hymer, woman, there’s not a single day that goes by that I don’t thank the universe for you being in my life. Making you cry is my favourite thing ever. No, really. There’s this crazy sense of pride I feel when I read your beta notes because your reviews are the ones I’ve always looked to in order to determine my next read. You do so much for me and none of it goes unnoticed. I don’t know what I did to deserve you, but I couldn’t be more thankful for it.

  Alexis Moore, girlie, I adore working with you and I still kinda pinch myself every time I get your beta notes back. Thanks for always being willing to read whenever I need you. I don’t know how many times you’ve dropped what you were doing to fit me in. I appreciate it more than you know.

  Simone Nicole, thank you for beta reading yet another of my books when I know you have so much of your own fabulousness to write. Thanks for being in my world, sweets! You make it better!

  To Lauren McKellar (McStellar!!!) you’re a doll, baby. I’ve said this a million times over but you really do bring out the best in my work. I adore working with you. I feel like I’ve grown so much as an author from all of the things you’ve taught me. Watching the way my manuscript evolves under your meticulous gaze is always my favourite part of this process.

  Arijana Karčić from Cover It! Designs, thank you for creating such beautiful covers. Working with you doesn’t feel like work at all. Your creative genius knows no bounds, lady.

  Heartfelt thanks to Emily from E. M. Tippetts Book Designs. You and your team go out of your way to accommodate me and you deliver beautiful interiors every single time.

  SYDVEGAS: #LYFF waking up to you women on chat is the highlight of my day. I love you all.

  To my beloved little Sugar Junkies, you girls make me smile every day. I don’t know what I’d do without any of you. Thank you for loving my books, and in particular this crazy little fictional town and all its inhabitants. And thank you all for your tireless support, comments, shares and love. My life has been enriched in some way by every single one of you.

  And finally, to the readers of Sugartown, when I began Ana and Elijah’s story, I’d only ever intended for it to be a standalone. Now, three years later, you’re holding the fourth and final book in your hands, I have two Sugartown spin off series in the works, and the love for these characters and their worlds just keeps growing—even when I think it’s already run its course. I have you guys to thank for that. It’s been a wild crazy ride. From pies to nudie runs, rabid wombats to biker shoot-outs, sex tapes to rabbits, rock stars, unplanned pregnancies, self-harm, forbidden love, misplaced bodily fluids … and that infamous bathroom scene. If I made just one of you feel something throughout all that, then I call it a pretty good day at the office. These stories may be fictional, but I hope everyone who picks them up can find a kernel of truth somewhere within the words I’ve written. Thank you to everyone who bought these books, reviewed on a sales platform, told a friend about them, and loved these characters—and their little town—as much as I’ve loved writing them. Your love, support and kind words mean the world to me.

  More from Carmen Jenner

  Taint #1 by Carmen Jenner

  Cooper Ryan is living the dream. Between the parties with rock royalty, booze, groupies and performing to crowds of thousands with his band Taint, life seems pretty sweet. There’s just one thing missing: the feisty little red-head that took his baby and ran off with his heart. Throwing himself into music is the only thing keeping him sane.

  Until a run-in with a nonplussed, package-wielding PA throws everything off balance.

  Ali Jones is having a craptastic life. Her grandmother died, leaving her homeless, penniless, and alone, and her boyfriend left her for a tramp who takes her clothes off for money. That’s why when she lands her dream job at a record company it seems like it’s too good to be true.

  Because it is.

  Slapped with an ultimatum, Ali must decide if facing the horror of the unemployment line is a fate worse than going on the road with four rowdy rockers hell-bent on making her life misery.

  He’s adored by millions.

  She’s not even loved by her cat.

  Can they ignore their hatred long enough to survive the tour from hell? Or will their chemistry force everything to come crashing down around them?

  Savage Saints MC #1 by Carmen Jenner

  When I was ten, my father indoctrinated me into the family.

  A brotherhood who would fight, protect, and give their lives for one another. A club whose ties ran thicker than blood, murkier than the dirt and grime that tainted my soul. Stronger than the bonds that connected me to my own family.

  A band of brothers, where loyalty was kept and paid in a currency of blood.

  When I was twenty-seven, I betrayed that brotherhood.


  I’ve spent every day since running, avoiding paying back that debt.

  My name is Daniel Johnson. I have betrayed everyone I ever loved.

  And I’ll betray her too.

  This is my story—if you’re screwed up enough to want to read it.

  Warning: KICK contains graphic violence, profanity, drug use, and explicit sexual situations of a taboo nature. Intended for an 18+ audience only. Not intended for pussies.

  Read KICK Now

  Now Leaving Sugartown

  Copyright © 2015 Carmen Jenner

  Published by Carmen Jenner

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  This is a work of fiction.

  Names, characters, businesses, organisations, places, events, and incidents are either of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return it to the seller and purchase your own copy.