by Jenna Jacob
“I assume you’re leaving your ex?”
“You bet your badge I am.”
Estes smirked and nodded, then handed her his business card. “Leave a number with the desk sergeant where you can be reached. I’ll keep you updated when he goes to trial.”
“Any chance he’ll get the electric chair? I’d buy a ticket to see that.”
Detective Estes laughed and shook his head. “Nope, sorry.”
She sent him a disgruntled frown.
“Miss Gates,” he began tentatively. “I know it’s none of my business, but you’re a bright, funny, and seemingly smart woman. How did you get mixed up with someone like him?”
Her throat constricted. Because I wanted him to love me. Shoving down her pathetic reasoning, she shrugged absently. “I’m not sure…especially now, but you can bet money I won’t make that mistake again.”
Oh, but she had, repeatedly…shitloads more than once, and it depressed the hell out of her. It was past time for Brea to finally learn something from her endless mistakes. It was time for her to change her ways.
With a nod, Estes led her out of the holding cell. As she signed for her purse, Brea inwardly vowed to live her life totally differently from here on out…starting with the ridiculous notion that she needed a man.
Suddenly, a light bulb went off in her head.
“I’m going to give up men.”
“Excuse me?” The cop arched a brow in confusion as he handed Brea her purse.
“Oh, nothing. I was thinking out loud.”
And it was a marvelous idea. So what if she turned into the crazy, celibate cat lady from Denton. Brea was done letting dicks screw up her life. She didn’t need a man. She had toys! Her vibrators and dildos took way better care of her needs than Weed’s hardest boner ever had.
Yeah, life without a man was going to be great.
Brea would finally be free.
Free to eat a microwave dinner if she wanted.
Free to read a book.
Free to watch something other than NASCAR.
Free to listen to her own choice of music.
Okay, so it might be a little boring, but it was safe, and she’d stay out of jail.
Pushing past the security doors, Brea found Colton and her long-lost bestie from high school, Jade Hollis, sitting beside him. Like a gong, it finally dawned on her. Jade was the woman who’d answered his phone.
“Jade? Oh, my god!” Brea screamed as she rushed to hug her friend. “Where the hell have you been?”
After Jade’s mama died, the girl had dropped off the planet. Colton had spent years trying to find her to no avail. Obviously he’d finally succeeded.
“Please tell me you two are…finally together?” Brea asked, squeezing the daylights out of Jade.
“We are.” Colton beamed with a smile so bright it rivaled the sun. “In fact, we just got married.”
“What? Oh, my god. Oh, my god!” she wailed. “I’m so happy for you two. That’s fantastic.”
“Yes, it is.” Colton laughed, then glanced around the police station and sobered. “What do we need to do to get you out of here? Post bail or…”
“No. Oh, hell, I’m sorry. I was so excited to see Jade again, I didn’t even say thank you for coming to save me.” Brea felt like a ditz for ignoring the man. “They’re not charging me with anything, so…I’m free to go. I’ll fill you in on all the gory details later. Right now, I just want to get out of this place. That and hear how you two finally found each other.”
“She found me,” Colton stated before relaying how he’d found Jade on the sidewalk in Haven.
Brea pinned her with a scowl. “Do you have any idea how worried we were about you?”
Her chastising tone, was so reminiscent of her mother’s, made Brea cringe. Guilt for jumping Jade’s shit thrummed through her. Making it worse was the look of remorse lining her friend’s face.
“I didn’t mean to worry you guys. I was going through a bad time and needed time alone to get my head on straight.”
“No. I’m the one who’s sorry. I was stupidly preoccupied with another Mr. Wrong and wasn’t there when you needed me.”
“It’s all right. Life is perfect now.” Jade gazed up at Colton with such love it was beyond blinding. “I don’t miss this town a bit.”
“Denton?”
“Yeah. I lived here for a while.”
“Shut up!” Brea gaped. “I’ve lived here with Weed for almost five years.”
“You shut up!” Jade blinked in disbelief.
“Both of you shut up, and let’s get the fuck out of here,” Colton teased. “We can catch up on the way home.”
As they headed toward the parking lot, Brea slung her purse over her shoulder. “Would it be too much trouble to run by the house so I can pack my things?”
“Can I torch the prick’s place when you’re done? Of course, I’d rather to do it with that cock bag beaten bloody and unconscious inside, but…” Colton grinned evilly.
“It’s tempting, but the cops are still there.”
“Damn.”
Wanting to keep from focusing on her own troubles, Brea listened as Jade explained her exodus from Austin. After burying her mother, the bank repossessed her friend’s home. Bereft at losing everything, Jade pulled inside herself instead of leaning on her friends. Brea knew pride was an evil bitch. It’s what kept her from reaching out to her parents, after all.
“Good thing is, Colton and I are together now.”
“By the looks on your faces, it’s better than good.”
“It is,” Colton piped up. “It’s incredible.”
“Spare me the X-rated details, please.” Brea held up her hand. “I’ve decided to give up men.”
She didn’t know why she’d blurted out her strategy. Maybe she subconsciously hoped it would stop her from tumbling into bed and playing house with the next man who showed her the slightest hint of attention.
“Yeah, right,” Colton scoffed in disbelief. “There’ll be a star in the east and another virgin birth before that happens.”
“Laugh all you want, but I’m serious. Until I find a guy who worships me for more than doing his laundry, sucking his junk, and scrubbing the toilet, they can all pound sand.”
Colton sent her a frown. “Not all of us are pricks, sweetheart.”
“I know that, but I’m a jerk-wad man magnet. I’ve played the fool so many times I should have a collection of Tony Awards in my thong drawer.”
“Oh, honey,” Jade sympathized. “One day you’ll find—”
“Someone who deserves me? Yeah…yeah, my folks tried drilling that into my head since my first menstrual period. All the good men have either climbed out of the dating pool or drowned.”
“Don’t give up on the entire male species yet,” Colton insisted. “There are lots of good men out there waiting for the right woman. You’ll find your guy. You’re too special not to enjoy a solid, loving relationship.”
She was special, all right…a special mess.
Instead of telling Colton he was full of shit, Brea sent him a tight smile. “Maybe, but I know one thing. I’m done handing out my heart like a Hallmark card to every guy who thinks he’s deserved it by giving me the best fifteen seconds of my life.”
Jade gasped.
Colton frowned and shook his head. “Fifteen seconds? That’s just wrong.”
When he pulled the truck to the curb in front of Weed’s house, cops were still milling about. While her friends waited in the truck, Brea approached the crime tape stretched around the porch.
“Miss Gates?” asked a blond-haired man in a dark suit.
“Yes.”
“I’m Detective Nickel. Estes told me to be expecting you.” Raising the yellow tape, he nodded for her to duck under. “I’ll escort you through the house.”
“Thank you.”
Stepping inside her soon-to-be-former home, she blinked. The cops had turned the place upside down. A brief smile curled her lips
knowing Weed, the lazy prick, would have to clean up the mess all alone.
She knew she wouldn’t get far on the seven hundred dollars—she’d withdrawn from the bank to make the house payment—in her purse. But Colton had offered her a place to stay, and with any luck, she’d find work in Haven and soon be supporting herself. Ready to be rid of all memory of Weed, Brea stormed into the bedroom. Shockingly, nothing had been disturbed so far.
“We’re working our way through each room,” Nickel explained.
Like a robot, she nodded and glanced at the bed. Revulsion that she’d let herself fall for the asshat pulsed through her veins. After grabbing a couple of duffle bags from the back of the closet, she tossed them on the bed.
“I’ll need to look inside those,” the detective stated.
“They’re not Weed’s, they’re mine. And they’re empty…see?”
Pulling the zipper apart, she shook out each bag over the bed. With a curt nod, the man watched while, like a Tasmanian devil, Brea filled the totes.
“I’d like some privacy to change out of my work clothes if you don’t mind?”
Nickel sent her a blank expression. “I’m sorry. There aren’t any female officers on site. If you’d like to wait, I’ll be happy to call the station and have—”
“Never mind.” Brea shook her head. “If you haven’t seen a woman’s bra and panties by now, then today’s your lucky day.”
Nickel chuckled. “If it’s any consolation, I have a wife and three daughters.”
“Good. I didn’t want to scar you for life.”
Turning her back on him, Brea whipped off her uniform shirt. Weed’s actions had stolen not only her freedom but her home and privacy as well. She yanked on an oversized T-shirt before tugging off her skirt, then quickly pulled on a pair of black yoga pants and slipped into her sandals. Unabashedly, Brea opened the drawer of the nightstand and retrieved her sex toys.
One corner of the detective’s mouth twitched as she shoved them into her bag.
“At least my BOBs won’t send me to jail or break my heart like every other man in my life,” she quipped.
“Indeed they won’t.” The detective had the good grace not to laugh.
Snagging the photo off the dresser mirror, Brea looked at the smiling image of her seven-year-old self, dressed in an elaborate princess costume for Halloween. If she could go back in time, she’d erase all the fairy-tale bullshit about Prince Charming and happy ever afters from her naïve little brain. Endlessly searching for the cocksucker on his white horse had been the catalyst for every bad decision she’d ever made. Especially the one with Weed.
Fucking rat bastard! she inwardly screamed, sliding the photo in her bag.
“I’m done,” she announced to the cop. Way the fuck done…with ALL men!
Back in the truck, the three headed toward Haven. Brea struggled to put thoughts of Weed, jail, and drugs behind her. But Estes’s question remained, haunting her: Why did you choose someone like Weed Sherman?
She knew the depressing answer. She was a hopeless romantic with too many imperfections. It was safer to choose a man who had more flaws than her. Someone who’d be content with her mousy brown hair, matching eyes, and the curves of her five-foot-one body. She’d hoped that if her lovers could ignore her imperfections—as she did theirs—one day, she’d find the storybook ending she’d always dreamed of. Unfortunately, her romances always turned into yelling trilogies brimmed with hurt and drama. Or platonic, sexually frustrating sagas of boredom.
In reality, her love life was nothing but a library of horror novels.
Stripping back the layers of fantasy and staring at her reality head on, Brea had been living nothing but a fool’s paradise. The sobering enlightenment only bolstered her boycott of men…or at least a long dry spell until she came to terms with her own inadequacies. Hell would probably freeze over first, but she had to try, if only to save her own sanity.
“Jade and I haven’t had dinner yet. Are you hungry?” Colton asked, interrupting her musings. The thought of food made her stomach cramp. Instead of answering, she simply shrugged.
Jade sighed sadly. “Don’t crawl inside yourself. Take it from one who’s been there. Solitude is a cold and empty place. Lean on us. We’re here for you.”
Colton nodded. “I’ll be more than happy to vet the next guy you want to date.”
Brea quirked a brow. “Gee, thanks, Dad.”
“Aw, what a sweet offer,” Jade cooed, all starry-eyed and shit. “You are such a love.”
He flashed her an equally lovesick expression. “No, sweetheart. You are.”
“Lord, I’m definitely going to need insulin injections around you two,” Brea moaned.
“I can stop by Donnie’s Drug and Ditch Witch after dinner if you’d like,” Colton teased.
“What the hell is a Ditch Witch?” Brea drawled.
“It’s a trench digger.”
“I won’t be needing one of those anytime soon, since I won’t have any asshole men’s bodies to bury,” Brea drawled.
The couple kept her engaged in conversation, staving off another round of Dr. Phil internalization. Before long, Colton had turned onto the main street of Haven and pulled in front of a café called Toot’s.
Brea couldn’t hold back a giggle. “You’ve got to be shitting me. Toot’s? Is the food so toxic it gives everyone gas?”
Jade cracked up laughing. “Oh, my god. I thought the same thing.”
“Ha ha.” Colton turned off the motor. “Toot’s has great food. You’ll see.”
“It really is to die for.” Jade nodded.
When Brea entered the café, the luscious aromas assaulted her senses, and her stomach growled loudly.
“Heavens.” Jade grinned. “I think you just woke the old folks at the nursing home across town. When did you eat last?”
“Dinner yesterday, I think.” Brea couldn’t honestly remember.
She’d skipped breakfast that morning, fighting with Weed—for the umpteenth time—about him refusing to find work. Unbeknownst to her, the dumb ass had a job…an illegal one. The coffee shop had been so inundated with customers ordering the special twenty-five-cent mango-passion iced tea, that her lunch break had been nothing but a distant dream. Though she’d thought she’d never want to eat again sitting in that holding cell, Brea was suddenly famished.
After passing several booths and tables draped in red-and-white-checked gingham, Brea sat down next to Jade on a red spinning stool at the U-shaped Formica-topped counter.
A teenaged waitress handed them menus and ice water before darting away. When she returned, Brea ordered the chicken-fried steak before excusing herself and trekking to the ladies’ room. After sitting in a dirty holding cell, bawling her eyes out, she’d have given her well-worn virginity for a steaming shower or the silky bubble bath she’d been fantasizing about while driving home from work. With neither luxury available at the moment, she washed the scuzzy residue of jail from her hands. After splashing cold water on her face, she peered up at the mirror.
Brea looked and felt like she’d been shit through a rusty sieve. Blotchy skin, swollen eyes, and her hair a fright, she dragged a brush from her purse and tried to tame her wild mane.
“Aside from soaking overnight in Clorox, this is the best it’s gonna get.”
Tossing her brush back in her purse, she strolled from the bathroom.
When Brea spied the hunky cowboy who’d hijacked her seat, she stopped dead in her tracks and nearly swallowed her tongue. Though she wanted to peel her eyes off his über-broad shoulders, thick, russet-colored hair, and sun-kissed muscles, she couldn’t. When he smiled at something Colton said, rippling tingles spread over her flesh. And when Jade’s retort had him throwing back his head with laughter, the vibration of his silky, rich tenor caressed her spine, awakening primal feminine desires Brea had no clue were hiding inside her.
Down, girl. You’ve given up men…remember?
She did. But if Brea had still b
een shopping the man market, she would have already stuffed the gorgeous cowboy in her cart and hauled ass to the cashier stand.
As if sensing her stare, the man turned his head. Her pulse leapt. His emerald-green eyes rimmed in flecks of gold locked on to her with such intensity she felt him delving deep into her very soul. He flashed her a seductive smile that dismantled her defenses and turned her knees to rubber.
She dropped her gaze to keep from tripping over her own two feet and swallowed the ball of lust lodged in her throat.
Man ban? Hello? her conscience mocked.
Like a newly converted vegan staring at a fat, juicy steak, Brea’s hormones screamed in outrage.
The cosmos had once again aligned with a giant…fuck you!
“There she is,” Colton announced. Forcing her feet to move, she plastered on a polite smile. “Brea, I’d like you to meet my cousin Sawyer. Sawyer, this is our good friend Brea. She’s staying with Jade and me for a while.”
“My, my, you sure are a pretty little thing.” Sawyer tipped his white Stetson and flashed her a confident wink.
His deep, silky voice slid over her like thick honey, sending a hard quiver to clutch at her empty core. As Sawyer rose from his seat—well, technically it was hers—Brea suddenly felt like an Oompa Loompa. He was six foot million, towering over her miniature five-foot-nothing frame like a mountain.
He was too tall.
Too gorgeous.
Too cocky.
Too intense.
Too…everything.
Brea could feel her no-penis pledge melting into a puddle, like the one in her panties. She wanted to look away from his dissecting stare but couldn’t. Instead, she stood like a deaf-mute, drinking in every inch of the sinful man, imagining what his dark, sexy scruff would feel like raking her thighs. And his lips…good Lord, they needed to be ranked as the eighth deadliest sin…so full, firm, and tempting she wanted to gorge on them for days.
Nope. Not going to do it. Not going to rescind my man ban. Men like him were the reason she’d landed in jail. Okay, so the only thing Weed and the Adonis standing before her had in common was they each had a dick. That alone made Sawyer as dangerous as all the other men in her life. This guy was totally off-limits.
