Follow You Down (6 page)

I know I’m a dick for dragging Candice along, but I’ve told her I don’t want a relationship on more than one occasion. It’s not my fault she can’t take a hint.

I walk back into Ricky’s, shoving my phone in my pocket. Dani is trying to make what I assume is a tequila sunrise from the stuff she’s got out on the counter, and she’s failing miserably from the looks of it. I laugh and rush across the bar, intercepting the drink before she hands it to the college girl sitting across from her. I pour it out and run through how to make the drink for what has to be the third time tonight.

The bar finally closes down and I can tell Dani feels better about her bartending skills. Even though she has fucked up a number of drinks tonight, she’s starting to exude some confidence in her abilities.

“So, Red, you ready for those pancakes?”

“Yes, sir. You want to ride with me? I don’t really know where I’m going.” I want to ride her, but riding
with
her will have to do for now.

“Sure, Red, I’ll
ride
with you.” I raise an eyebrow when I say ride, and from the way she bites the corner of her lip, she catches what I’m implying.

“Well, come on then.” She walks toward her jeep with me hot on her heels, staring at her ass.

“Oh, don’t you worry, Red. I’m definitely coming.” I watch her falter for just a step or two at my statement.

Oh, yes, Dani Hartley, I will be coming with you sooner than you think.

We pull into the diner parking lot laughing like we’ve known each other for years. The ride over was full of jokes from Lucas regarding my music tastes. Apparently, Taylor Swift isn’t his thing.

We sit down at a corner booth, across from each other, and both order pancakes when the waitress arrives. As we sit, talking about nothing in particular, groups of people start to flood in around us. All the local bars have closed now, and we aren’t the only people who thought pancakes at two .a.m. would be a good idea.

Lots of people acknowledge Lucas as they walk by; some nodding in his direction, some patting him on the shoulder, and some stopping to say hello and ask how he’s been. Then, a group of girls walks in. The gorgeous blonde, who is obviously leader of the group, spies Lucas and strides over, swinging her hips the whole time.

He sees me staring and turns around to see the girl walking toward us. “Shit.” He curses under his breath and turns back around to face me with an apology in his eyes.

The blonde strides right up to Lucas, sitting down next to him with her group of minion’s right behind her.

“Long time no see, Lucas.”

“There’s a reason for that, Nikki.”

She laughs at him, “Oh, come on, Lucas. You know you’ve missed me.”

He looks so uncomfortable, which, even though I’ve only known him for twenty-four hours, doesn’t seem like him at all. I can see him holding back the lashing that is on the tip of his tongue, and decide I have to help.

“Excuse me, Nikki is it?” She glances across the table at me like she’s just now noticing I have been sitting there.

“Yeah,” she raises her eyebrows and gives me a look that I know is supposed to convey the fact that she is better than me, “who are you?”

“I’m Dani, and right now, you’re interrupting us. If Lucas wants to talk to you, I’m sure he will. You can move along now.” I wave my hand dismissing her.

“Who the fuck do you think you are?” She looks at Lucas. “What, is this your current fuck buddy?” She looks like she should have smoke coming from her ears and lasers shooting from her eyes.

“As I said, I’m Dani, and I think it’s time for you to leave now, before I make you leave.” I smile the whole time I speak to her, but I’m deadly serious. I don’t know what significance this girl has in Lucas’ life, but whatever is, it isn’t good.

“You can’t tell me what to do!” Her voice raises a few octaves and I can tell she really wants to tear into me. Lucas intervenes before I get a chance to say anything. “Nikki, get the fuck away from me. I don’t want jack shit to do with you, and you know it. Now, don’t make me embarrass you in front of all these people, ‘cause you know I will. Fuck off, Nikki.”

I see Nikki’s eyes widen and her cheeks flush. Lucas knows something about her, something she wants him to keep to himself.

“Fine, Lucas, but when you get bored with this one,” she nods in my direction, “you know who to call.” She runs her nails down his arm before sliding out of the booth and walking across the restaurant to another table.

“I’m sorry, Red. Nikki’s a major bitch.” He readjusts his hat, sitting back, trying to act like he isn’t fazed by the interaction that just occurred.

“Okay, spill, Lucas. What the fuck was that about?”

“No offense, Red, but we don’t know each other at all. Why the fuck would I tell you anything?”

“Because we don’t know each other. There’s no judgment here because we aren’t trying to impress each other with bullshit, neither of us care. So, tell me because you don’t know me.”

“Are you going to return the favor?” He sits back, crossing his arms, raising his eyebrows.

Return the favor? I don’t have a lot of things that I keep to myself. Well, I have two things, stripping and Reggie. Those are two things I should just keep to myself, but for some reason I feel compelled to tell Lucas all about them both. For the same reason, I tell him he should tell me about whatever is going on with him. We don’t know each other. I don’t want a relationship with him, and I don’t care at all if he judges me. Do I want to fuck him? Yeah, I do, but I’m not looking for any kind of approval from him.

“Sure, why the fuck not? You go first though.”

He looks surprised for a few moments before the corners of his mouth turn up in a smirk. “Really? I didn’t think girls went around divulging secrets. Isn’t it like a girl code or something to keep secrets to yourself?”

“I wouldn’t say that it’s girl code; I would say that’s life code. But like I told you, we don’t know each other, we aren’t trying to impress each other, so why not? You don’t seem like the kind of guy to run around like a little bitch and spill what I tell you, right?”

He laughs and shakes his head. “Not at all, Red. I tend to keep shit to myself.” He takes a deep breath and leans back as our waitress brings us obscenely large stacks of pancakes. He pours syrup all over his and takes a few bites before he starts speaking again.

“So, I’ve never been a relationship kind of guy, but I have been friends with benefits since high school with the same girl.” He diverts his eyes from mine as he says it, like I’m going to rip him a new one for being a man-whore. “Her name’s Candice, and she’s a nice girl. We’ve never dated, but we’ve known each other a long time. Anyway, a few years ago, her cousin Nikki moved to town. I met her a few times, thought she was hot, and eventually ended up fucking her one night. Like I said, I don’t do relationships, so after we fucked I expected I would see her around town, but that would be the end of it. About five months after our one-night stand, she called and told me she was pregnant and the kid was mine.” I choke a little on my pancakes. Lucas has a kid! Talk about a fucking curve ball. “Anyway, to make a long story short, I believed her that it was my kid. She wanted us to move in together, and have a real relationship, but I wasn’t interested. I supported her and the baby though. She had a little girl and we named her Lisa, but I refused to sign the birth certificate till we got a DNA test, just to be sure. Come to find out, Lisa wasn’t mine. It fucking sucked to hear that. I kind of knew, but I had grown attached to Lisa. Hell, I loved her. She was my daughter. But she’s not my daughter, and Nikki is a lying crazy bitch who I wish would jump off a fucking cliff.”

I take a few moments to take in what he’s just told me. He thought he had a kid. The kid wasn’t his. Nikki is his fuck buddy’s cousin. And Nikki is a crazy bitch. Part of me wants to cry for him. I can only imagine the hell he went through finding out not only that he was having a kid, but once he came to terms with that, finding out the kid wasn’t even actually his. Part of me wants to walk right over to Nikki and knock her the fuck out. The biggest part of me wants to do that actually. How the hell do you do that to someone? I guess there’s a chance she really thought Lucas was the father, but more than likely she knew he wasn’t, and for whatever reason, she decided to lie to him to get him to take care of her and the baby.

“What happened to Lisa?”

He pauses, eating for a second and looks at me with a surprised expression. “I tell you I have a fuck buddy and that I just have one-night stands, and you ask about Lisa?”

“Well, yeah, I mean, she’s a baby. It isn’t her fault her mother’s a whore. And I don’t give a fuck that you have a fuck buddy or that you like one-night stands. To each his own.” I shrug with the last statement. I really don’t care. I feel like the feminist in me should be offended that he thinks it’s okay to fuck women and then walk away from them like they don’t mean shit, but I’m not offended at all. These girls know what they’re getting themselves into. I truly doubt Lucas is walking around spouting bullshit to these girls and making them believe he really wants to be in a serious relationship with them just so he can fuck them.

“She lives with Nikki’s parents now. Candice says Nikki goes to visit her once a month or so, but she is more concerned with getting fucked up than being a mom.”

“And what about Lisa’s real dad?”

“He didn’t want shit to do with her, said he was too young to have a kid, so he signed his rights over.”

“And what about you?”

“What do you mean what about me?”

“Well, I mean how are you handling all this? To go from having a daughter to not, so quickly?”

“It fucking sucks of course, but I can’t change it. Lisa’s not mine.” He stares at his now empty plate like he’s hoping it will hold some infinite wisdom or insight into his situation. I want to tell him that blood doesn’t make a father. That if he wants to be in Lisa’s life he should, but I don’t say that. It’s not my place. And this is supposed to be a nonjudgmental purging of our dark secrets. Me putting my two cents in defeats the purpose of that.

“So, Red, what about you? Spill your secret.”

I flash a smile at him. I should be nervous about telling him about stripping and my affair with Reggie, but I’m not. What’s the worst that could happen, he tells me I’m a whore? He wouldn’t be the first person to do that.

“Well, let’s see, where should I start?” I can’t decide if I should just dive in head first and spill everything, or if I should ease into it. I decide head first is really the only way to go.

“Well, before I moved here I lived in Dallas and I was a stripper. Not just a stripper, I was
the
stripper in Dallas.” He chokes on his coffee, using his hand to wipe the few drops that have leaked onto his mouth.

“You were a stripper? Like take your clothes off, dance around a pole for dollar bills kind of stripper?”

“You’re partially right. I did take my clothes off and dance around a pole, but I danced for hundreds.” I’m sure there is an edge of cockiness in my voice, but I’m okay with that. I am cocky when it comes to my dancing abilities, on and off the pole.

“Shit, Red, hundreds? You were that good?”

“I was the best.”

“Well, if you were the best, why did you quit and move here?”

Here comes secret number two.

“Well, I had a bad breakup. I guess bad breakup is an understatement.” I sit up straight, bracing myself for the judgment in his eyes that will come once I tell him about my affair.

“I had an affair with a married man, a very rich married man. And when his wife found out, she gave him an ultimatum, her or me. He picked her, and I moved here to get away from the heartbreak that choice caused.” Huh, that was a hell of a lot easier saying out loud than I thought it would be.

“Holy shit, Red. You got yourself into some shit, huh?” He doesn’t mean it in a degrading way; he’s laughing when he says it and shaking his head.

“Looks like we both got ourselves in some shit, Lucas.”

He nods in agreement, before raising his coffee cup. “A toast, Red.” I raise mine also, with wary eyes, wondering what the hell he could want to toast about after what we just told each other.

“Here’s to two things in life that are always certain; heartbreaks are a motherfucker and pancakes can fix anything. Cheers.”

I can’t help but laugh hysterically at his toast. He’s so right, but there is something about it coming out of his mouth at three a.m., with coffee cups as our beverage of choice, that makes this moment a truly laughable one.

The waitress places our ticket down, glancing between us with questioning eyes since we have been laughing out loud for the better part of ten minutes now.

I reach for the check, but Lucas gets to it before I do.

I know I look confused because our deal was that I would buy breakfast. So I don’t know why he’s taking the check.

“Naw, Red, this one’s on me.”

“But you said I had to buy you pancakes so you would help me tomorrow night.”

“I know what I said, but I changed my mind. I feel like I kind of owe you. You’re the only person I’ve ever told about Lisa beside my mom and Candice.”