Just what I needed.
Resting my forehead on the frigid tile, I squeezed my eyes closed and banged my fist against the wall as the icy droplets continued to beat spitefully against my skin. “Son of a bitch!”
The sharp words echoed all around me as I gave in to my anger. I hit the wall a few more times and threw out a litany of curse words for good measure, lamenting my epically shitty luck before pulling myself together, shutting off the water, and climbing from the shower. No matter what I did, I just couldn’t seem to catch a break.
My hands trembled and my teeth chattered as I wrapped a towel around my body and yanked the bathroom door open with so much force it slammed into the wall.
“Jeez, crazy. What’s with all the shouting?”
I stopped short at Rhodes’s voice, cutting my eyes at him from where he stood at the kitchen counter, stuffing a snack cake into his mouth. “Water heater finally kicked the bucket. Silver lining though—I’d been dragging ass, but now I’m wide awake thanks to the unexpected ice bath.”
Dropping his head back, he stared up at the ceiling and hissed, “Shit. I knew that was just a matter of time.”
“Hey,” I scolded. “Watch your mouth.”
He snorted, bugging his eyes out. “Seriously? You just rattled off every cuss word I know, and some I’d never heard of before today, and you’re getting on me for saying ‘shit’?”
“Damn straight,” I answered with a mischievous smirk. “You might be bigger than me now, but I’m the adult here. I can say what I want. And back off the snack cakes. They’re for everyone,” I added when he went in for a second. He stuffed the plastic-wrapped goodie back into the box with a roll of his eyes, mumbling under his breath about being a growing boy and starving to death.
At seventeen, my little brother wasn’t so little anymore. He already topped me, now sitting an inch over six feet, and there weren’t any signs that he’d stop growing in the near future. Like me, he’d gotten his height from our dad. But while I was tall for a woman, standing at five foot seven, Rhodes was just tall in general.
And that hadn’t been all he’d gotten from our father. The little boy who used to come running to me with tears in his eyes when he scraped his knee or had a bad dream was quickly turning into a man. Our dad might have been a sorry excuse for a father, but there’d been no denying he was attractive. Rhodes had the same dark hair streaked with auburn when the sun hit it. His brown eyes were a couple shades darker than my own and flecked liberally with gold. He had the same build as our dad as well, and for a kid who didn’t play any sports, he had filled out like a football player. He even possessed the same crooked, cocky smirk that had made Danny Bradbury such a hit with the ladies—in spite of the fact that he was married to our mom. Not that she cared. She was too drunk most of the time to notice his carousing.
Rhodes knew he was a good-looking kid, and as he’d gotten older and come into his own, he started using his looks to his advantage. It hadn’t come as a surprise that the girls at his school were calling the house constantly. Eventually I’d started noticing behavior in him that didn’t sit well with me, so, much to his dismay and embarrassment, I sat him down one day and discussed—in length—the importance of not only safe sex, but also having respect for the girls he was with.
He was young, and I wasn’t stupid. I knew he was going to do what he wanted. But it was my job to do everything in my power to raise him to be a good man and have faith that he’d take my lessons to heart. Then I did the hardest thing I’d ever had to do and stepped back to let him make his own choices.
“What are you staring at?”
I blinked, coming back to the present where I was currently standing in the hallway with freezing water still clinging to my hair. “Huh? Oh, uh, nothing.”
He shook his head and smiled wryly, muttering, “Okay, weirdo,” affectionately as I scooted into my room and began to dress in a pair of cutoff jean shorts and a coral-colored camisole.
“Hey,” he called, his voice coming at me through the flimsy wood door, “who’re Nick Singleton and Trina Ward?”
At my brother’s question, I felt a chill that had nothing to do with that uncomfortable shower skate over my skin. Throwing my bedroom door wide open, I saw him standing at the counter, staring down at something in his hands. “What?”
His focus shifted to me, and he held up what he’d been reading. The thick piece of cardstock was embossed around the edges, and the shiny gold of the swirly script glinted beneath the dull kitchen lights.
“You got an invitation to their wedding but I’ve never heard you mention them.” It was a wonder I’d been able to hear a word he said over the sound of my own blood rushing through my ears. But I had. And I suddenly felt like I’d been punched in the stomach so hard that it caused my lungs to deflate.
“Gypsy?”
Rhodes’s voice drew me out of the unhappy fog of my past. “They’re nobody,” I answered in a monotone voice. My feet began to move of their own accord, and I found myself ripping the invitation from his hand and throwing it unceremoniously into the trash can.
“Uh, okay….” Rhodes arched an eyebrow in bewilderment. “That reaction doesn’t really say those people are nobody, sis. Am I missing something here?”
“Not at all,” I lied, pinning a fake smile to my face. “And it’s nothing you need to worry about.” With that, I turned and started for the door, slipping my feet into the flip-flops I kept there.
“Where are you going?”
“I have to get Lee from Detty’s. I’ll be back in a bit.” I booked it out of the house before he could ask any more questions, my heart beating against my ribs like I’d just chugged three Red Bulls back to back.
Slowing my pace, I used the short walk to try and calm my frayed nerves. Hearing those names was a blast from the past I had no desire to revisit. I knew why I’d received that invitation. It wasn’t because either of them wanted me there on their big day. No, it was meant to be a slap in the face from the girl who’d once been my best friend. A reminder of what she’d said the last time I ever saw her.
“You were delusional if you actually thought Nick would pick you over me. You aren’t the girl a guy keeps. You’re the one he screws when he wants fast and dirty to brag to his friends about. You’re a joke, Gypsy. Just like your mom. A poor, slutty piece of trailer trash.”
That hadn’t been the first time I’d been called those names, and it certainly wasn’t the last. But hearing them from a girl I’d loved with all my heart—who I’d stupidly thought loved me just as much—had made the pain of her betrayal so much worse.
It had been that conversation that sent me on a downward spiral that had taken me far too long to pull myself out of. But once I did, I was forever changed. It took me years to construct the reinforced steel wall around my heart, complete with rabid pit bulls and razor wire, but once it was done, I was determined to never, ever let anyone through again.
Determined not to let that vile bitch infect me with her poison more than she already had, I stiffened my spine and held my chin high as I took the steps to Odette’s front door. “Detty?” I
pushed the door open and called out in lieu of knocking.
“In here, child.”
I rounded the corner into her living room and immediately felt the last of the tension ebb from my shoulders as my baby brother looked up at me with a big drooly smile. “Cee Cee! Cee Cee!”
Every day, Raleigh seemed to add a handful of new words to his vocabulary. But since he started talking, my name had been a challenge for him, so I’d been lovingly dubbed as his Cee Cee.
“Hey there, punk.” I smiled so wide my cheeks ached as I lowered to my haunches and held my arms wide. “How’s my baby, huh?” He ran across the room as fast as his chubby little legs could carry him—which wasn’t fast at all—and crashed into me. I peppered his cheeks and neck with kisses until he gave me that squeal I loved. “Did you behave for Auntie Det?”
“He was a perfe
ct little angel, like always,” Odette declared.
“Angel?” I snorted. “I love this turkey with all my heart, but I think you meant to say monster.”
“Angel, monster—same thing when you’re talkin’ about a toddler,” she teased, standing slowly from her rocking chair. She’d been doing everything slower than normal lately, and it was really beginning to concern me. I tried not to let it show, because she couldn’t stand to be fussed over, but knowing me as well as she did, she caught my look before I could hide it. “You can just go ahead and wipe that worry from your eyes right now, honey. There’s nothin’ wrong with me other than my body not agreeing with my mind about just how old I am.”
I let out a giggle, bouncing Raleigh on my hip as Odette shuffled into her kitchen and started pouring each of us a glass of fresh lemonade. “What’s that saying? You’re only as old as you feel?”
She scoffed. “I’m calling bullshit on that one. My brain’s still sharp as a whip, but these damn hips just won’t get with the program.”
“You know, you’re just as bad as Rhodes with that mouth of yours. I blame you for his foul language.”
“I’ll accept that.” She grinned cheekily, her brilliant white smile beautiful against her dark brown skin. “I’m seventy-three years old, Gypsy girl. I’ve accepted that I am who I am, and there’s no changin’ that. And who I am is a proud woman with a mouth that could make a sailor blush. Now sit,” she ordered, tipping her head toward a chair and placing a glass on her small kitchen table. “And tell me what’s caused that sadness in your eyes.”
Sometimes her ability to read me like an open book was a pain in the ass.
“Now who’s the one worrying?” I grumbled but did as I was told. When it came to Odette, it was just like that. My brothers and sisters and I would never dream of disrespecting her.
Raleigh began to squirm, eager to get back to the floor so he could play with the toys Odette kept stocked just for him. I placed him on his feet and watched as he teetered off and plopped down on the living room floor before turning back to Odette.
“You might be a grown woman, Gypsy, but you’ll always be my baby girl. And as you’re well aware, the kind of worry that comes with raising kids never goes away, so quit stallin’ and start talkin’.”
“Our water heater’s finally shot,” I admitted, giving her a piece of what was weighing on me in the hopes that she wouldn’t keep digging.
“Well, you know my door is open to you and the rest of the rug rats any time of any day, so that can’t be all that’s got you so blue. Gimme the rest, child.”
I flopped back in the chair with a weary sigh and took a sip of the lemonade. “Just the past rearing its ugly head. It happens every now and again. I’ll get over it.”
“It wasn’t Danny or Peggy, was it?” she asked, her face like thunder as she mentioned my parents’ names.
“No, nothing like that. They’re long gone.” I started chewing on my thumbnail, a nervous habit I hadn’t noticed myself doing until Odette reached across the table and pulled my hand away. “Got a wedding invitation in the mail today. It caught me by surprise and dredged up some nasty memories.”
“Whose wedding?”
I pulled in a fortifying breath before admitting, “Nick and Trina.”
The clouds in her eyes didn’t disappear at all. In fact, she began to look even madder. “That hateful bitch,” she sneered several seconds later.
“Detty!” I cried on an astonished laugh.
“Well, she is!” Odette proclaimed, smacking the tabletop for emphasis. Odette was the only person in my life who knew me completely. She’d earned my love long before that wall formed around my heart and had proven herself worthy of it time and time again, so she was the only one I’d ever trusted with everything. The good and the bad.
“Never did like that girl,” she continued. “Even before she showed her true colors. You couldn’t see it, but she never fooled me. There was something seriously ugly lying beneath the surface.”
“Yeah, well, I learned the hard way, didn’t I?”
“Well, she’ll get her comeuppance. People like her always do, and my guess is hers’ll be in the form of a miserable marriage to a terrible man, ’cause that’s exactly what that boy’s always been. A bad seed. You lie with a dog, it’s just a matter of time before you get fleas, baby girl. I promise you, in no time, that girl’s ass is gonna be itchin’ like the dickens.”
I threw my head back on a loud belly laugh, unable to keep it in. Odette had a way with words that just made everything so much better.
“God, Detty.” I sighed, feeling a thousand times lighter. “I love you like crazy. You know that?”
She rolled her eyes at me like I was clueless. “Pfft. Of course you do. I’m the best.”
“That you are, sweetie.”
Finding Odette was the only time in my life that Lady Luck had deemed me worthy enough to shine her light upon me. And in spite of all the pain I’d suffered through, I’d be forever grateful, because the truth was, Odette was the only reason I was still standing today.
Chapter Three
Gypsy
Staring at myself in the harsh lights of the vanity mirror, I let my mouth fall slightly open and dragged the cold, waxy lipstick across my bottom lip, painting it in a deep, seductive blood red.
The brown eyes looking back at me were flat and hard. Not that it mattered. The men out front weren’t paying a bit of attention to my eyes. As long as I faked enthusiasm while I shook and gyrated in front of them, giving them the illusion that I viewed them as more than bottom-feeding perverts, they were happy campers. And I was really good at faking it.
“Hey, Gypsy girl!” McKenna, the newest girl to join our fine establishment, parked herself on the bench of the vanity next to mine, both of us oblivious to all the half-naked women covered in oil and body glitter that packed the dressing room in the back of Pink Palace.
“Hey, hon. How’s it going?”
“Good,” she chirped, her bright smile making her doe eyes even bigger. McKenna was a great girl. Problem with that was, she worked here. She was still so sweet and excited about life in general that I felt an uncomfortable ache in my chest, knowing she’d eventually become just as jaded as the rest of us. “It’s packed out there. Good night for tips, right? Fingers crossed!”
My face softened. McKenna was so innocent and optimistic, it brought out that protective instinct that had been instilled in me since I was eight years old and my brother Rhodes came into the world.
“Yeah. Fingers crossed.”
“Three weeks, and I still get so nervous every time I’m about to go out there. Does that ever go away?”
“It does,” I assured her. “Eventually, you won’t even see the men’s faces.”
“Yeah,” she said, lowering her voice as she looked to the door. “That would definitely make going on that stage easier.” She gave me a small, self-deprecating grin. “I love to dance. I’ve always thought it would be so cool to work at a burlesque type club, you know? Where the girls put on shows and acts? But… I’m not really a fan of this kind.”
Reaching over, I placed my hand on top of hers and gave it a comforting squeeze. “I feel the same way, babe.”
“Really?” Her chest rose and fell on a deep breath, and her shoulders sagged in relief. “But you’re so damn good. I thought… well, you just make it seem easy.”
“I’ll let you in on a little secret.”
She leaned in, eyes big like she thought I was about to unveil state secrets or something. “Yeah?”
I scooched closer and lowered my voice to a whisper. “It’s all an act.”
McKenna sat up straight and scrunched her face in confusion. “Huh?”
“It’s an act, Mac. You’re just playing a part, that’s all. I smile and shimmy and make them think they get me hot, but the truth is, I don’t even see them. Not anymore. Used to be, their slimy smiles and cheap cologne made my skin crawl. I’d get done with my
set and want to scrub my whole body with a Brillo pad.”
“I know the feeling,” she muttered quietly.
Damn, I thought sadly. I’d been hoping she had a little longer before the shine dulled off her world, but it looked like it was happening faster than I’d expected. “When I go out there, I’m not taking my clothes off for all those assholes. They don’t even exist. It’s just me and a song. And the only reason I’m working that pole is because it’s an excellent form of exercise.”
McKenna let out a little giggle. “It is pretty good for my core.”
“See?” I grinned. “There’s a silver lining to every single dark cloud.”
“Truth, girl. But hey!” she started excitedly. “Maybe the new owner’ll dress this place up a bit. Make it better for us girls so we don’t have to dread walking out there.”
My eyebrows dipped in a frown. “New owner?”
“You didn’t hear? Doug’s gone. Sold this place and took off to some island resort.”
Well damn. I wasn’t a fan of Doug’s. In fact, I didn’t like the guy at all. He was a massive pain in the ass. A chauvinistic pig who thought that since he owned a strip club, he owned the women who danced in it. He was a handsy asshole, and most nights it took everything in me not to break his fingers when he tried to cop a feel. But when it came to most things in life, I firmly believed that the devil you knew was better than the one you didn’t. Even if the devil I knew was far too lax with his “no touching the dancers” rule, and not-so-subtly pushed the girls to offer “extras” for more cash during lap dances.
“Any clue who bought the place?”
She shrugged. “None. But it can’t get any worse than Doug, right?” McKenna crossed her eyes and stuck her tongue out, her goofy face making me laugh.
A sharp pound landed on the dressing room door, followed by the deep rumble of the security guard’s voice. “Five minutes, Marilyn!” the security guard Bruce called out, using my stage name.
Wrong Side of the Tracks: a Hope Valley novel Page 3
