Forever Mine (Providence Series Book 1) (24 page)

Leaving Cole talking to Ren in the car, I ran across the forecourt to him not making a sound until I got right beside him and squeezed between him and the wall, shocking him. His head snapped up, his expression changing instantly as he looked down at me.
 

Cupping my face, he slammed his lips against mine kissing me as if I was going to disappear. Pulling back, I stroked his face with my hand and smoothed his eyebrow with my thumb, staring into his beautiful eyes the whole time.
 

“Are you alright?” He whispered, looking me over like he was checking if I was hurt or bruised in any way.

“I'm all right, he was just dick,” I giggled making the side of his mouth turn up to in a semi-smile. “Shall we go to your mom’s now?”
 

Tugging him towards his car while Cole idled in Hulk near us, Ren breathed out a deep sigh and walked with me.
 

“I love you, Maya. I’ve never loved a female that wasn’t my family, but you — you’re everything. The thought of anything happening to you kills me, and it may seem over the top, but I would do anything to protect you and to stop anyone who could hurt you from getting close to you.” He said as we pulled up in front of his parents’ home.

Undoing my belt, I crawled into his lap, and with my head in his neck, I whispered, “I love you for looking after me so well and for caring so much for me that you would protect me, but you’ll make yourself ill if you don’t relax and stop worrying.” I couldn’t stop myself from stroking his handsome face and the tension that had lined it was gone as he closed his eyes and leaned into my hand.

“I needed to hear that, baby. Let’s go in before Mom sends out a search party,” he smacked my ass and got out the car with my legs still wrapped around his waist.

“Lemme go, Ren. I can’t see your parents like this.” I was twitching my body trying to get my legs from around his waist, but he wasn’t having it. From behind me, I heard the sounds of the front door opening and froze. “I hate you,” I muttered, just knowing that his family was standing behind me.

“Dessert usually comes after dinner, don’t it?” Hurst chuckled.

“What can I say, Gramps. We pulled in, and she just threw herself at me,” Ren said giving my ass another smack and topping off my embarrassment.

“That’s nothing. You shoulda seen where she was putting her hands while I was driving,” Cole piped up. Quick as a flash one hand left my ass, and a smack sounded. “Mom, Ren hit me! It was all Maya’s fault, though, she kept grabbing my…”
 
smack “Dad, Mom hit me!”

We all turned and walked into the house closing the door behind us leaving Cole still whining on the other side of it.

Ren

Later at the table, Gramps was acting like the old schmo that he was cracking jokes and mooning over Maya every chance he got.

“So old Mo, bless his old ass crack, passed away two weeks ago,” Gramps says shaking his head with a forlorn look on his face. Maya, who had been laughing seconds ago, sobered up and reached for his hand.

“I’m so sorry, Hurst. How did he die?” I looked from their joined hands up to my Gramps' face to see him sitting with a smug smirk on his face and considered throttling him quickly so he could join ‘old Mo’ in his casket — the man had no class, cashing in on his friend's death with his Grandson’s girlfriend. Where was the loyalty?

“He…” he paused and shook his head slowly, “man this is hard to get out.” Gramps leaned back taking Maya’s hand with him and looked at Gram, who was glaring at him like he was ten seconds away from meeting his maker, before taking a deep breath and continuing. “He died of a Viagra overdose!”
 

Maya gasped and leaned back with her hand over her mouth staring at him. “Oh my God, that poor man!”

By this point Gram was grinding her teeth, Mom was staring at the table, and Dad was looking way too interested in whatever the fuck was on the wall behind us. I pulled Maya into my side and looked down at her face; poor baby looked so sad by Gramps story that I didn’t have the heart to tell her it was a joke. The betraying bastard couldn’t leave it there though, could he? Oh no, he suddenly piped up from his chair, “Yep, went to his funeral last Wednesday, and they couldn’t close his casket.”

Dad started spluttering, Mom’s shoulders were moving, Gram had her hands over her eyes and was muttering something and poor Maya was sitting staring wide-eyed at Gramps, who was holding his side and laughing.

Before I could whisper to her that it was a joke, she said, “Oh Hurst, what a shame for his poor family, and for you too. I’m so sorry for your loss.” I squeezed her hand to get her attention to tell her it was a joke, but when she looked at me, she gave me a quick wink. Looking at Mom, her face lit up with a beaming smile as she caught it and Gram was now sitting with a smug yet slightly sinister smile on her face. “How’s his family? Did he have any kids?” She asked sounding so sincere and caring that I saw the smile on Gramps’ face start to drop; he didn’t have the heart to trample on her good soul, so he didn’t know what to do.

“We should organize some sort of memorial event for him don’t you think?” She continued and then launched into ideas on how to best honor ‘Old Mo’. “Of course, if we planted a tree in his honor, people could look at the word and think of him,” she said straight-faced.

Gramps looked up at her and glared. “Damn, you’re good,” he snapped, before getting up from his seat and storming away muttering about joke wrecking bastards.

20

____

May
a

Landing in Tampa, I saw the familiar
views of my old home. I thought I’d miss it or feel something, but all I felt was an increasing desperation to get back to Piersville. Saying goodbye to Ren, even just for a week, had been so hard.

Walking through the airport after getting my bag, I headed in the direction of the taxi stand when I heard, “Maya Price!” Turning around, there was Tony grinning at me with a huge sign with my name on it…was that glitter?
 

“Wow, that’s…” I started as I walked toward him grinning. I was about three feet away when he lunged and picked me up off the floor making me scream as he spun me around.

“Well, I had to welcome you back in style,” he put me back on my feet so hard that my teeth clunked together. “Shit, have you put weight on? I think I pulled my back.”

“No, you mean bastard I haven’t.”
 

“Uh huh, if you say so, piglet. Let’s go to the car.” We exited the terminal and went towards the short-term parking lot. After walking around for a while looking at each car and not finding his, Tony was starting to get irate. I would say I was surprised, but this was normal for him - the guy never remembered where he parked.
 
“Fuck it, I swear I parked over here.” He flipped his hand from side to side and then flicked it at a parking spot that had a lime green VW Beatle in it.

“I’m glad you think this is funny,” he sniffed glaring at me as I laughed.
 

“Sweetie, you do this every time. Do you remember when we went to Mall of America, and you called 911 because someone had stolen your car?”

“How was I to remember that it was parked on the other side of the Mall? I mean, there was a sale on, and those shoes that I’d wanted forever were in it!”

“Uh huh, and the store wasn’t even in that Mall,” I reminded him, by which point I swear he was trying to melt me with his eyes.

“OK memory bitch, move your fat ass and find my car,” he said turning around and prancing off making me laugh even harder.

An hour later we found his car with the help of Airport Security, parked in long term parking; at least, I’d managed to stop him calling 911 this time. He’d started jumping up and down while clapping his hands and squealing when we got to his car and then jumped on Ron, the huge security guard with a shaved head, wrapping his legs around his waist and kissing him all over the face. To give him credit Ron took it like a champ, but as soon as Tony jumped down off him Ron was gone.

“You staying with me at the hotel?” I asked as we drove towards where I’d been made reservations by the Mackays in one of their hotels. They only had two in Tampa, but both were the definition of luxury, and I couldn’t wait to check in and lie down. As Tony took the turning to get to his apartment to pack some of his stuff, I turned my cell on and waited for it to start up so that I could text Ren.

Just as the carrier appeared on, the screen texts started coming through.

Sexiest boyfriend in the world: Hope you got there safe, baby. Miss you and love you <3

I laughed when I saw the new name he’d saved himself under in my phone; when he’d done it I didn’t know, but I liked it.
 

The prick: Does my ass look big in this?

Ren had apparently also changed Cole’s name in my phone and looking closer at the photo attached I felt my cheeks heat as I realized he’d somehow got hold of a pair of my panties and was wearing them. Jesus Christ, that guy had no boundaries.
 

Texting back Ren, I forwarded him the message and said:

Me: how did Cole get my panties? This photo is just wrong!

Thirty seconds later:

Sexiest boyfriend in the world: He’s fuckin dead! And paying for my therapy.

I decided to get Cole back and sent the photo to my cousins, Ava, Scarlet, his mom, Isla, LeAnne and a couple of other people from Piersville. Putting my phone back into my bag, I focused back on Tony’s excited chatter about what we were going to do while I was there; before broaching a subject that I’d been waiting to talk to him about.

“What happened at work, honey?” Last week he’d called and in a voice that I’d never heard him use before he told me he’d lost his job; a job that he’d done for years and was damn good at.
 

“Oh, you know,” he flapped a hand around in a never mind gesture before yanking the wheel for the next turning, leaving it just a tad too late and ending up on the wrong side of the road. I always dreaded getting into a car that Tony was driving; he tended to use speed limits and turning times as ‘guidelines’, meaning that the fact that he hadn’t had a serious accident was a fucking miracle.

“The head of the practice was pissed that I wouldn’t do what he wanted,” he suddenly said.

“And what did he want?”

Slowly the full story came out.
 
Tony’s boss cornered him demanding he get on his knees and give him a blow job one night, which I’d known about. Tony had said no as the man was married, to a woman, and he wasn’t going to degrade himself like that and after it, his boss had continued to sexually harass him while launching a hate campaign against him. Finally after three weeks of hell, his boss had fired him for sexual harassment against him.

“Are you shitting me?” I yelled. “Tell me you’ve spoken to a lawyer!”

“No, Mymy, I just want to forget about it,” he whispered, and it was then that I noticed how tired he looked.

“What else has happened?”

“He won’t quit, Maya. He keeps calling.”

“How do you feel about seriously moving to Piersville and working for me?”

Thankfully we’d just pulled up in front of his apartment block because his entire upper body swung towards me including his hands that were still on the wheel.

“Are you serious?”
 

“Of course! I told you that I need a PA, and we worked well together when I was here, and you helped me with projects.”

Biting his lip, he looked down at his hands while he considered what I’d just said. I knew it was a massive move for him because he’d lived here most of his life and loved Tampa, but I also knew from my experience with the fuckwad that this stuff weighed on you like a ton of concrete. Getting away from it would be the best thing for him.

“Come on,” I said shaking his shoulder. “Just think - new hot guys to perve over, you’ll live with me; we’ll have fun.
 
And I swear I won’t ask you for a beej!”

“Well, when you put it like that…” he turned to me, and I saw the excitement in his eyes.
 

*
 
*
 
*

We’d packed up a bag of Tony’s stuff and had then checked into the hotel to find out the Mackays had put me in the Presidential Suite. After we’d unpacked and had some lunch I’d called Ren and we’d talked for ten minutes with Cole whining in the background about his junk being on fire. I’m pretty sure that had something to do with Ren’s revenge for the picture, but he wasn’t admitting anything. The more I thought about Ren, the faster I wanted this week to go so that I could get back to him, especially now that Tony was coming with me.
 

We’d just finished dinner with the Mackays where we’d caught up, and I had outlined my plans for the week and were just walking out of the restaurant when suddenly there was the screeching of tires to my right. The security guy, Ray, grabbed me and pulled me off the road causing me to drop my handbag and land roughly on my ass just as the black SUV drove over my bag.

“Maya!” Dale and his parents yelled as their security ran after the SUV.
 

I knew I was sitting on the sidewalk shaking and that the Mackays and Tony were checking me over, but all I could see was the couple small space between my leg and the car as it had sped past me. If it hadn’t been for Ray, I would have been hit.