Battered Hearts 3: Crossing the line (22 page)

“Don’t tell Tabitha,” Jules said as she stood up. “Don’t tell
anyone
. Y’all just keep your traps shut ’bout everything, and eventually Daddy will give up. Do you think Vaughn or Brett are going to say anything?”

“I doubt it,” Clay said with a snort. “He annihilated them. I’m sure they’re scared to death.”

“Then I’ll work on distracting Daddy today. We’ll make sure it all blows over.” Jules walked around the table and placed her hand on Wyatt’s head. He would’ve shoved it away if he didn’t know the action would hurt him worse. She just stood there for a long moment before she announced, “You’ll be okay.”

“Glad she thinks so,” Wyatt groaned when his sister turned to leave.

“I can’t believe you told her,” Clay said in disbelief.

“I can’t believe you thought I was going to be able to keep it from her,” Wyatt countered. “Have you met my sister?”

“I guess you have a point,” Clay said sullenly. “That sick vibe thing y’all do freaks me out.”

“Try it from my end,” Wyatt grumbled. “I wish I could see Tab today.”

“I think that’s one of your more idiotic ideas, and after yesterday, that’s saying something.”

“Let’s go to the rec center,” Wyatt said rather argue. “Maybe she’ll show up.”

“She does make you stupid, you know?”

Wyatt shrugged. “I don’t care.”

* * * *

The strangest thing about the entire incident was Tabitha suspected Wyatt
did
fix the problem just like he’d promised.

Brett had been avoiding her like the plague since he’d gotten released from the hospital. At first she thought it was just the pain and the big bottle of pills he’d come home with, but those ran out fast, and their mother didn’t have money to take in him for more no matter how much he whined about it.

So he turned to drinking instead, which her mother was more than happy to oblige him with. She was a big believer in self-medicating aches and pains. Tabitha was starting to suspect her mother enjoyed the company, and it left Tabitha even more on the outside of her family because she wasn’t part of the club.

But she was sort of okay with it even if her mother and Brett were bonding over Jack Daniel’s. It gave her an excuse to be out of the house.

Vaughn showed up a few times once he was able to get around again, but he wouldn’t even look her in the eye, let alone say something inappropriate. That spoke volumes about what transpired, even if Tabitha never found out exactly what happened to her brother and Vaughn that afternoon.

“Do you know what a vigilante is?”

“Like Batman?”

Wyatt’s eyes were closed. His head was resting on her knee. His hands were tapping rhythmically against his bare chest as he lay sprawled on the mat in the middle of the rec center’s boxing ring.

“Mmm,” Tabitha agreed as she stroked his sweaty hair away from his face. “You wanna know what I think?”

Wyatt smiled. “I love knowing what you think.”

“I think you’re one,” she mused thoughtfully.

Wyatt blinked up at her. “Oh yeah?”

“Yeah, I think you beat up the bad guys in your spare time.”

“Then who’s my sidekick?”

“You know who he is.”

Wyatt flattened his hand against his chest and laughed. “If you call Clay
Robin
, he will lose his shit.”

Tabitha giggled with him. “Tell me y’all did it.”

“No, I ain’t telling you that.” Wyatt’s grin faded. He looked up and studied her seriously for one long moment. “But I will ask ya if it did any good.”

“It seems like it. They’ve both been treating me like I’ve got some sort of infectious disease for the past four months,” Tabitha said softly as her fingers continued to run through his hair. “But Wyatt, you got to promise me you’ll never do something like that again. What if your daddy had found out? That’s what scared me the worse about that whole thing. The thought of you getting caught. I ain’t worth that.”

“I didn’t do anything, Tabby.” Wyatt’s eyes drifted close again. “You’ve just got a really fantastic imagination. It’s one of the things I like ’bout you.”

Tabitha finally dropped it. He never admitted to it. No matter how many times she asked him.
Not once
. It drove her crazy, but a part of her knew Wyatt was probably right not telling her. It was better she didn’t know the details. She just let them flourish and bloom in her imagination. They grew more fantastic with every passing day. She had even stopped feeling guilty for writing about her brother dying in the battle rather than ending up with a crooked nose and a taste for pain pills.

For some reason, in all the stories she’d written over the past few months, Vaughn never died in them. If
he
died, then the story would be over.

Heroes needed really terrible villains to battle, and in her mind, Vaughn was about as terrible as they came. So much so, she tried not to think on him too much. When she did she would remember villains like that always came back bigger and stronger in the second half of the movie. Maybe that was why she was so willing to sacrifice her brother in her stories. He wasn’t a villain; he was just an evil minion to something much more sinister.

“What kinda superpowers would you have if you
were
a vigilante?” Tabitha asked to distract herself from thoughts of Vaughn. “If you could do anything, what would it be?”

“I’d make pretty redheaded girls fall hopelessly in love with me.”

Tabitha giggled again. “You’re silly.”

“No, really, that’d be my superpower.” Wyatt opened his eyes and gave her a wide smile. “I’d wield it shamelessly.”

Tabitha arched an eyebrow at him. “All redheaded girls?”

“Nope.” He rolled on his side and slipped his hand underneath the cuff of her jeans. He caressed her calf and pressed a kiss to her knee. “Just this one.”

“Well,” Tabitha whispered as she stroked his hair and felt her stomach do that little flip it did whenever Wyatt was being touchy-feely and playful like this. “Maybe you really are a superhero, then?”

Wyatt lifted his head, staring at her in surprise. “What does that mean?”

Tabitha shrugged, feeling her cheeks heat as she admitted, “If that’s really your superpower, then I think it’s working.”

Wyatt’s gaze got hot as he looked up at her. Then he got on his hands and knees and leaned over her. Tabitha met him halfway, her eyes closing expectantly as he wrapped one hand around her neck and tugged her forward.

She moaned into his mouth when his lips met hers. His kiss was hard and confident, very different from the first one, because they’d been practicing—a lot.

They didn’t break apart until Tabitha was flat on her back on the mat, and Wyatt was lying over her. He pulled up, resting all his weight on his forearms as he looked down at her with his chest heaving.

“Say it.”

“Say what?” She panted as she fought to think after that.

“Say you love me.” Wyatt pushed her hair away from her face, studying her intently. “I wanna hear it.”

“I love you,” she whispered softly and then reached up to wrap her arms around his neck and tugged him back down.

He kissed her again, softer, gentler than the first time, but it was every bit as nice. Wyatt made everything golden. Life was beautiful around him, and she loved him for it. So much so, she wanted to stay right here forever and never open up another notebook. She wanted the story to end with this one perfect moment.

And they lived happily ever after.

If only she believed it was that easy.

Part Five

The Age of Innocence

When I step in the ring, I bring everything I have.

—Floyd Mayweather, Jr.

Chapter Eighteen

April 1996

When Tabitha was young, she believed in heroes. Cookies and kind words were more than enough to teach her how to see the good in people when she should have been as hardened as Clay by the end of her formative years. Despite the cruelty her life inflicted on her, she had been set to head into her teen years as idealistic and hopeful as every other girl her age. Then the egos of two prepubescent boys killed her romanticisms as quickly as they had once formed.

That should’ve ended it—but it didn’t.

Life got very complicated instead. Heroes turned into vigilantes, and villains became more real than she ever wanted them to be.

She read once that impressions made in childhood formed the basis for someone’s personality for the rest of their lives. Somewhere along the way, Wyatt Conner had been imprinted on her soul. The threads that tied them together were unbreakable and bone deep. No matter how desperately she tried to untangle herself from him, somehow it just ended up pulling them tighter together. What if she was destined to never get over him and always harbor that unrealistic hope of knights in shining armor and happily ever afters?

“He’s staring at you again.”

Tabitha looked up from her book, casting a glance across Maple’s One Stop shop, where she’d been working since last summer. She found Wyatt casually picking through the candy aisle that was conveniently close to the lottery counter where she sat waiting to ring people up. He was tossing random things into the basket hanging on his arm without looking at them. There was a bounce to his step, as if he knew he was causing havoc. His well-worn black T-shirt was stretched tight across his massive chest, because he’d grown out of it two years ago but hadn’t bothered to throw it away. His jeans hugged his ass, showing off his long, powerful legs, and Tabitha couldn’t help but stare. How very unfortunate that he’d grown into one of the biggest, sexiest eighteen-year-olds to ever set foot in Garnet County. It made a difficult problem even more challenging.

He sent her a wide smile as if reading her thoughts. His blues eyes sparkled even from a distance.

God was punishing her for something.

“He comes in here deliberately to mess with you. He couldn’t be more obvious ’bout you two if he tried.”

Tabitha sighed and turned to look at Terry, who was leaning against his mop, grinning at her. “I know.”

“Why won’t you just go to prom with him? You know that’s the reason he’s been pestering you at work more than usual.”

“You of all people should know why. You weren’t my pretend boyfriend for the first two years of high school for nothing.”

“You shouldn’t let Brett rule your life. You’re a month from graduation. Things are different. Y’all can have your own lives now.”

“Don’t you have a store to mop?” Tabitha countered because she wasn’t going to get into this argument when Wyatt was twenty feet away, causing trouble.

As if sensing they were talking about him, Wyatt came up to the counter with the basket in his hand. He set it on the counter in front of her triumphantly. “Ring these up for me, Miss.”

“This is the lottery counter,” she said drily and then pointed to the register where Sara was standing there bored out of her mind because it was nine thirty at night and no one was in the store. “But Sara would be happy to help you.”

“I have to buy something from you to be rung up here. Okay.” He looked over the counter, staring at the tickets on display under the glass. “Well, I don’t gamble. So what’re we gonna do ’bout that?”

“Seems to me like you’re standing in the wrong place then.” Tabitha set her book aside and gave him an annoyed look.

“You hear this?” Wyatt cast a glance at Terry. “Your employee’s being rude to me.”

“I’ll be sure to voice your complaint to my mother.” Terry laughed. “What’re you doing tonight, Wyatt?”

He shrugged. “Heading to work dispatch.”

“All night?”

“It’s the weekend.”

“Dang, you Conners are always working. Makes me tired just watching you.”

“I like working the late shift with my dad.” Not to be distracted from his original task, Wyatt pointed behind the counter. “How ’bout those? You can ring me if I buy a pack of those, can’t ya?”

“Cigarettes?” Tabitha gasped in shock. “Wyatt!”

“No,” he said quickly, pointing once more. “Those.”

Tabitha followed his gaze, seeing that he was staring at the condoms hidden on the bottom shelf. She turned around and shoved his shoulder. “Get the heck out of here.”

“Maybe I got a date later.” Wyatt laughed. “Jealous?”

Tabitha stiffened at the taunt. She narrowed her eyes at him for one moment, before she got off her stool. Two could play this game. “Fine. Which ones would you like?”

“I dunno. Can’t see ’em hidden way down there. Bring ’em up here.”

Tabitha’s cheeks were hot, but she bent down and gathered every brand of condoms they sold. Then she lined them up across the counter with exact precision while Terry laughed so hard the sound echoed around the empty store. She glanced up to see Sara was tilting her head to see what was going on and then covered her mouth and giggled.

“See any you like?” Tabitha asked in her most professional tone as she sat back down.

Wyatt leaned his elbow on the counter, appearing to be studying them with great interest. He picked up a box that advertised being
ribbed for her pleasure
. He turned the box, showing it to her. “You think that’s true?”

“I wouldn’t know.” Tabitha shrugged.

Wyatt gave her a long, hot look that stole her breath. “I could remedy that.”

“Oh my God.” Tabitha yanked the box out of his hand. “I am fairly certain you’re breaking several laws right now, not the least of which is sexual harassment.”

“I don’t work here. I can harass you.”

“You’re disturbing the peace.”

“No, I ain’t.” Wyatt’s grin was wide and mischievous. “I’m allowed to tease my girl.”

Tabitha cast a concerned looked at Sara, which was sort of pointless when Wyatt had gotten downright blatant about the two of them as graduation neared. “I
am not
your girl.”

“I got a hickey to prove otherwise. Wanna see?”

“Get out.” She shoved him once more for being as obvious as he always was when it was just the late shift on staff. “Right now. Or I swear, I’m calling your daddy for harassment or disturbing the peace or something else equally illegal.”

“Whose peace am I disturbing?” Wyatt asked innocently as he turned to Terry. “You feeling disturbed?”