Dirty: The Complete Series (Secret Baby Romance Love Story) (182 page)

I’m also not stupid enough to think my
luck will hold out forever. That’s what makes this surfing contest so
important. Ten grand would be the jump start I needed. If I could get a real
place to stay just for a little while and enough money to have my hair done in
something besides the long dreadlocks I keep it in to make things easy…and a
set of decent clothes to cover my tats, then maybe I could get a job and live
like a “normal” person for a change.

I followed Bennie across the crowded beach
and back towards the cove. La Jolla Cove sits between a couple of
three-hundred-foot cliffs that are riddled with sea caves. The caves are
popular with tourists and kayakers, but there are so many of them that we
lucked out a few weeks ago when Ace found one that sits so far back from the
little beach and cove that a visitor is rare, if not unheard of. There are six
of us in our little ragtag band and we’ve made ourselves a pretty comfortable
little hide-out there. We are all well aware of how that can change at any
given moment, unfortunately. We had been camping down by the river before the
police came and ran us off in the middle of the night. Any pathetic belongings
we each possessed had to be left behind. We went back the next morning to get
them, but it must have been some kind of community service project because the
city had already sent in a crew to clean up the “mess.” When you’re homeless
and you lose your stuff, it’s comparable to your house burning down, I think.
It’s the stuff you can’t replace that really hurts…like the only photo I had
left of my grandfather.

We left the
beach and walked the rest of the way through the park. The park is our
lifesaver. It has barbecue pits, picnic tables, public restrooms, and showers.
I might not have pretty clothes or a socially acceptable hairstyle, but I’ll be
damned if I’m going to stink and have hair covering my body like Sasquatch.
Bennie lets me go to the dollar store once in a while and buy razors. The poor
guy is probably hoping to have a chance to cop a feel again....

“Hey! You two
almost missed lunch.” As we got closer, I could see that Ace had a couple of
foot-long hot dogs coming off the grill.

“Where the hell
did you get those?”

“Do you always
have to cuss?”

“Sorry,
Reverend,” I said with a roll of my eyes. “Where did you get them?”

He tossed his
head in Hailey’s direction. She’s the newest member of our little group. My
guess is she’s only about sixteen, but she claims to be my age. She only speaks
when spoken to, and she has the most haunted pair of brown eyes that I’ve ever
seen. “Hailey? Where did she get them?”

Ace shrugged.
“I’m just the domestic help, I don’t ask questions.”

Ace used to be a
hardcore heroin addict. He overdosed about three years ago and ended up
spending two months in the hospital as a John Doe. He wasn’t unconscious; he
just pretended that he didn’t know his own name or where he was from. They put
him through rehab and he found religion and then they sent him to a halfway
house. He once told me that he felt like he would suffocate if he spent another
night inside of four walls. He honestly believes that the way we live from hand
to mouth is the way God intended it. I think he just fried too many brain cells
with the heroin. I left Bennie talking to Ace and went over to where Hailey sat
at the picnic table.

“Hey, girl,
where’d you get the meat?”

“At the store.”

“Did you steal
it?” I know that most “average” citizens wouldn’t believe this, but being
homeless doesn’t mean you have no morals. Bennie has strict rules for belonging
to our group and one of them is that the only time we steal is when we’re
starving or in desperate need of medical care. He’s making a huge concession
for me about the surfboard.

“No,” she said,
offended. “I bought it.”

“With what
money?” Phoebe is the only one of us who panhandles. It’s another safety
measure, according to Bennie. If too many of us are out in the public eye,
there’s a bigger chance we’ll draw unwanted attention.

“I was on the
beach and there were a couple of surfers there. One of them gave me a twenty.
Mikey and I bought lunch, and we have change for Bennie.” I looked around, but
I didn’t see Mikey. I looked over and could see Bennie looking around, too.
He’s our unofficial leader. Ace probably told him Mikey had the rest of the
cash. We’re supposed to all share what we have, but Bennie doesn’t trust Mikey.
His other main rule for joining the group is that no one uses. It gets too
expensive and too dangerous for the rest of the crew. Bennie hasn’t said
anything, but I’ve seen him with his eyes on Mikey a lot lately.

“Why did this
guy give you twenty dollars, Hailey? He didn’t make you do something for it,
did he?”

“No!” If I had a
dollar for every time I’d been propositioned by some creep since my grandfather
died and I hit the road, I’d own one of those mansions I could see from where I
sat right now. I promised myself a long time ago that no matter how hungry I
got, I’d never cross that line. Hailey went on to say, “I would never do
anything like that. There were some young guys, rich little teenagers…they were
bothering me and he was just being nice. He threatened to kick their asses if
they didn’t back off and then he stuffed the money in my pocket before I took
off. I didn’t even know it was there until I got back here.”

“Okay, good. I’m
sorry, Hailey.”

“Don’t be sorry,
Summer. Just know that no matter what happens, I ain’t no prostitute.”

“I know. Thanks
for the hot dog!” I smiled at her, and she smiled back. She was coming around.
That one almost reached her eyes.

I went back over
to Ace and got my dog. We even had buns and ketchup! It was the best meal I’d
had in a week. Last night we had seafood, but Ace had fished it from the
dumpster behind one of the fancy seafood restaurants in town and it kind of
tasted like coffee grinds. Every once in a while we snag a Garibaldi fish. It’s
illegal to fish in the Cove, but they’re so abundant you can practically grab
them right out of the water. We don’t do it often because they taste like shit,
but sometimes beggars can’t be choosers.

“Ace, where’s
Phoebe?”

“She hasn’t come
back yet.” Phoebe panhandles at one of the busiest corners in La Jolla every
morning. It’s a prime spot, but she’s had it since the old guy that used to
cover it died three years ago. It’s an unwritten law on the streets that you
don’t take someone else’s corner unless they get locked up or they die. Ace cut
his dark eyes over to the side to make sure Bennie was out of earshot before
saying, “Are you two going after the surfboard tonight?”

“Yeah, and it’s
okay. I told Bennie.”

“Did he give you
shit about it?”

“He’s not happy
about it, but he’s not going to let me go alone. He’s going to help.”

“Yeah, Bennie’s
not going to risk losing you, that’s for sure.”

I rolled my
eyes. I hope one day Bennie realizes that I’m not his to lose. Ace is right, though,
no matter how much Bennie disagrees with one of my plans, he won’t ever tell me
no. I just hope we both know what we’re doing because as confident as I tried
to sound when I went over my plan with him this morning, I’m as nervous as
hell.

CHAPTER TWO

DRAKE

“Hey, Kobe!”

“Spence, my man!” My buddy Kobe was born
in the wrong decade. He’s only twenty-eight, but he talks and acts like he
lived through Woodstock.

I wrapped hands with him and said, “I’m
headed over to Land Lubber’s for some lunch, I’m starving. You want to come
with?”

Kobe looked around at the empty store.
“Hell, since my last customer was…what day is this?”

He also smokes a lot of weed. His memory
is not so good. “It’s Tuesday.”

“Okay, then, my last customer was Friday
so I guess it would be safe to close up for an hour.” I laughed and he said,
“Go ahead and laugh it up, but just remember to put some change in my cup when
you pass me on the street, man.”

“I’m sorry, is it that bad?” I had no idea
what Kobe’s financial situation was. I guess the way I was raised made me kind
of clueless about finances in particular. When I wanted something, I used the
Amex card the old man gave me when I was twelve to buy it. He was recently
spending a lot of time reminding me of that.

“Nah, not yet, man. I got a big
settlement, you know, when that boat hit me in the head. Most of that money is
still in the bank.”

“What the hell? You got hit by a boat?”
This is what I love about Kobe – it was something new every day.

“Yeah, man, I told you about that…”

“No, Kobe, you didn’t. But come on, you
can tell me at lunch. I’m seriously ready to chew off my own arm.” My friend
Lance and I had been surfing all morning. I was trying to get ready for a
competition in Laguna in a few weeks. I had been in the zone and I’d forgotten
to eat. If Lance hadn’t had to quit and go to work, I’d probably still be out
there. I waited for Kobe to lock up and we walked down Main Street towards Land
Lubber’s. It’s a little hole in the wall restaurant facing the beach; they make
the best damn burgers in the entire free world. We were about halfway there
when I saw Kobe checking out the homeless girl that sits in the center of the
island. It was the second time since I’d been home I’d seen him watching her. I
guess she’s kind of cute, but the fact that she’s homeless and begging for
money was a turn off to me. It was also hard to tell how old she was. “I’d be
careful if I were you, horn dog… I doubt she’s legal.”

“I talked to her a few days ago,” he said
with a stupid grin on his face. I worried about him sometimes. He had no idea
that there were some people you just can’t let into your life, no matter how
hot you think she is.

“So, what did she have to say?”

He tripped over a crack in the sidewalk
and finally turned to watch where he was going. “She says she’s nineteen, which
is perfectly legal, and her name is Phoebe.”

“Yeah, perfectly legal, she says. How much
does she charge?”

“Dude, you’re so negative. She’s not a
prostitute.”

“She sits on the corner and begs for
money. I’ve been home almost a week now and she’s been wearing the same clothes
every time I see her. You think she’s going to give up her only worthy
commodity for free?”

“Fuck you, Spence. Don’t talk about her
like that.”

I laughed. “Wow,” Kobe never got
aggressive with me, or anyone for that matter. “You’ve got it bad for this
girl. But, man, she’s homeless…even I’ve never been with a chick that doesn’t
bathe regularly.”

“You don’t know if she bathes. She always
smells like flowers to me. I don’t care if she lives in a house or a fucking
tent, either. I like her. You’re too judgmental. You don’t even realize how
good you have it.” We reached the restaurant, and I pulled open the door. My
stomach rumbled as the smells of grilling beef assaulted my senses. I’d been
all over the world and I’ve eaten in some damned fine restaurants, and I still
crave these burgers.

“Maybe.” Kobe’s probably right about that
much anyways since my father had been singing the same song lately. I guess I
really don’t think about how good I have it because I don’t know anything else.
That’s not really my fault, though. My parents have made my life easy – what
was I supposed to do, turn it down? I think I’m still a decent person at heart,
though. As a matter of fact, when I saw those little assholes on the beach this
morning picking on that little homeless girl, I didn’t hesitate to help her. I
ran them off and gave her the cash I had in my pocket. I started to tell Kobe
about that now, but then I decided that patting myself on the back for giving
the girl twenty bucks would make me look and sound like an even bigger dick.
Instead, I simply said, “I’ll work on it.”

We took our usual table by the window.
After the waitress left with our orders, in an effort to take the heat off of me
for being a rich asshole, I said, “Hey, maybe that surfing contest that Ruckus
is putting on in a couple of weeks will bring in some business for you.”

“I was thinking the same thing. I picked
up a bunch of flyers the other day. I’m gonna put them on the counter and out
front and have a sale on all the stuff a beginner would need.” The contest was
being put on by a local surfboard company. It’s only for beginners who have
never competed and the first prize is ten grand. I think that’ll stir up a lot
of wanna-be surfers that might buy a lot of gear they’ll never use again.
Hopefully, there will be a lot of medics on standby.

We got our burgers and fries and while we
ate, I said, “So, what’s this about a boat hitting you?”

“Oh yeah, man, I can’t believe I never
told you. It was about nine years ago, I guess. I was living out of my Kombi
back then, following the coastline from one end to the other. I’d been in San
Diego for a few weeks and was thinking about pulling out that night, but I went
in for one last midnight run before I did. I was paddling out to the break and
these little bastards in daddy’s speedboat barreled past me. They had some
girls on the boat, and I could tell they’d been drinking. They were in a part
of the cove they weren’t even supposed to be. I remember thinking that last run
wasn’t worth dealing with the little punks, so I turned around. That’s the last
thing I remember until I woke up in the hospital. I was in a coma for a couple
of weeks and there was an attorney at my bedside when I woke up. He sued their
daddies and that’s where I got the money to open my place. I put the rest in
the bank for hard times.”