Nothin' But Trouble (4 page)

Lilly
started laughing and nodded. “Yeah, I know.”

Diera
reached across the table and patted her hand. Today was a good day. Her mom
could actually get out of bed, wasn’t throwing up, and was even smiling.

“I’m
feeling good today, and called Roan to see if he wanted to come over for
dinner.” She pushed the pill box away, and her smile widened.

“What?”
Lilly asked, suddenly very interested in what her mom was going to say.

“He
said he is seeing someone new.”

 
Lilly rolled her eyes and leaned back in her
seat.

“I
know, I know, but he acted really excited about bringing her over tonight.”

Roan
Winters
, her older brother, and the other person she
leaned on for strength, was a good man, but he was also a slut. “Mom, how many
girlfriends has he had?” Although Lilly knew her mother knew the answer, Diera
didn’t answer, which had Lilly laughing. “Yeah, a lot but he never seems to
keep them around for more than, I don’t know, like a week it seems.”

“Oh,
Lilly, go easy on him. He’s just one of those guys who
attracts
a lot of female attention. He looks so much like your dad when he was that age
that it isn’t a wonder.”

There
was this silly smile on her mom’s face, and she always got it when she brought
up Davis Winters, their father and her husband. He had died in a car accident
when Lilly was really little, and she didn’t have a lot of memories of their
time together. But her mom had told her story after story about her dad, so
many in fact that Lilly could close her eyes and imagine that she had been
right there experiencing it too.

“Well,
I hope you don’t get your hopes up when it comes to him settling down. I think
I heard him say a hundred times that he had no intention of ever going down
that road.” Lilly started laughing and stood. She grabbed her cup of tea and
her mom’s coffee cup, and took them to the sink.

“I
thought it might be nice if I reached out to Court and saw if he wanted to come
to dinner, too.”

Lilly
stilled and looked over at her mom. “What? Why?” Lilly’s hands shook, but she
forced herself to relax.

Her
mom shrugged, but smiled. “I don’t know. I have been thinking about him lately,
and it’s been forever since the three of us have been at the same table.” Her
mom moved up behind her and set her medicine on the counter.

“Mom,
it’s been a long time, and you know he and Roan don’t really talk anymore.”
Lilly’s nerves were working overtime in her. She hadn’t told anyone that she
had slept with Court, not even her best friend at the time. The fear that
Alexandria would have opened her mouth by accident, or when she was trashed,
had Lilly too fearful that it would get back to Roan and Court. Her brother
would have gotten pissed. By that time Court had already distanced himself, and
she hadn’t wanted to make it any worse.

“Honey,
if it’ll make you uncomfortable then I won’t. It was just a thought.”

Lilly
wiped her suddenly now sweaty hands on jeans and shook her head. “What do you
mean? I’m fine. Invite whoever you want.”

“Lilly,
you’re starting to sweat. Are you sure everything is okay?”

“Mom,
I’m fine. Just nervous because we have a clinical tonight, and they are having
a bunch of volunteers come in to be our human pincushions.”

Her
mother was watching her very intently, and Lilly knew that she didn’t believe
her, but she didn’t press her.

“Well,
it was just a thought. But it is short notice, so maybe I’ll ask him another
time.” Diera put a piece of hair behind Lilly’s ear and smiled. “You’ll be home
by six tonight?”

 
“I’m not sure.” Lilly took a deep breath and
felt herself calm. She didn’t know why she had freaked out so bad at the
thought of Court eating dinner with them. He had practically been a fourth
family member while they had been growing up together. “I hope, but it depends
on how slow everyone is with their blood draws, and if anyone passes out.” She
attempted some humor to ease her frantic emotions inside of her, but she just
sounded like a high-pitched freak. Her mom wrinkled her nose in disgust. “I
asked Roan to be my human pincushion, but he is a pussy.”

“Lilly,
I don’t want to hear you say things like that.” Her mom was smiling though, so
although she tried to sound stern, it didn’t quite reach the mark. Her mom
rubbed her back and leaned in to kiss her on the cheek. “Okay, well call me
when you know. If you can’t make it maybe we will reschedule.”

Lilly
turned to face her mom. “No, don’t cancel, especially if Roan actually wants to
bring a girl here. I’ll try and make it, okay?”

Diera
nodded and smiled.

“You
look tired.”

“I
am, honey.”

She
took her mom’s hand and led her into the living room.

“Lilly,
I can manage myself.”

“Mom,
just let me help you. Here.” She gently pushed her on the couch and turned the
TV on to one of those sappy love stories about the guy falling in love with the
geeky girl.

“You’re
such a good girl, Lilly.”

She
gave her mom one of the throws and looked down at her. Today might be a good
day, but it was definitely taking its toll on her mom. The bags under her eyes
seemed overly dark against her pale skin, and her blue eyes looked big and
sunken in.

“Well,
I have some errands to run, and then I have to head right to class, but I’ll
call you before I go in, okay?” She leaned down and kissed her mom before
heading to her room and grabbing her bag. On her way out the front door she
took her cell out of her bag and sent a quick text to Roan.

Mom’s excited for you to bring the new
grl
to dinner ;)

His
reply text was almost instant.

Roan:
She’s
just a friend

Lily
didn’t return the text, but she did grin. Roan never had girls that were just
“friends”, so that meant this one was pretty special to him. The sound of
engines roaring had Lilly’s heart instantly pounding fast and hard. Their house
wasn’t too far from the center of town, so although she could still hear the
motorcycles she couldn’t see them. But she didn’t need to see them to know that
amongst all those Harleys would be Court.

Court.

That
damn beautiful male that she still compared all other guys to. In the last five
years he had changed considerably. He no longer worked at the salvage yard, had
joined The Grizzly MC—those bad, mean, and tough bikers—and was a hell of a lot
colder and bigger than she ever remembered. She didn’t know if something had
happened in the time they hadn’t spoken, or the fact that he was now in a biker
gang, but the few times they had locked gazes she hadn’t seen the guy she had
known her whole life. It was strange, surreal even, but she still harbored
these feelings for him. Feelings that weren’t just of a sexual nature, but of
a closeness
that spoke of years of friendship. One night had
ruined all that, and ruined the relationship her brother had with Court.

They
hardly talked, and although life and priorities, and the fact they were all grown
adults now were a good enough cause for the fact that distance had come between
them; but Lilly knew what it really was about. Court probably felt guilt and
anger for sleeping with his best friend’s sister, and she had all but pushed
him to that conclusion.

She
sighed. This had been the longest five years of her life. With the combination
of her mom’s health declining over the years, the stress of life in general,
and losing a guy that had been just as much a part of their family as if he
were blood related, Lilly just wanted to climb in bed and sleep until
everything was back to the way it was. She had known sleeping with him would
change things, but she had never thought it would have changed it to the point
they didn’t even speak anymore, and their extent of communication was stilted
looks and awkward run-ins. Not that they had had that much communication
before, seeing as she was so much younger than Court and Roan, but still, it
just sucked now. But after their little romp at the party, well, she felt like
she had never really been in Court’s life at all. And of course it had all been
her fault because she thought sleeping with Court had been a really good idea.

Well,
lesson learned for sure.

Chapter
Three

Lilly
pushed open the door of River Run Career Center and waved at a few of her
classmates. It was going on eight, longer than she thought she would still be
at class, but they had a surge of volunteers come in to get their blood drawn.
The phlebotomist course she was taking was nearing its end and although she had
never seen herself going into the medical field, after her mom’s diagnoses,
going through remission, and then the cancer coming back, Lilly decided she
wanted to help more people. Sure, drawing blood wasn’t surgery or anything, but
it was still a step. Besides, she didn’t have a lot of extra time and if she
wanted to take a nursing course she wouldn’t be able to spend as much time with
her mother as she liked; and that wasn’t what she wanted to do right now.

She
had called her mom on a break and told her she wouldn’t be able to make it for
dinner, which was a shame as Lilly wanted to meet Roan’s friend that just
happened to be a girl. The sun had already set, and she made her way away from
the front doors of the center and to the parking lot. There were lights that
illuminated the lot, but they were a muted yellow and spaced out too much for
Lilly’s comfort. But the sound of her classmates behind her as they, too, made
their way to their cars eased her uneasiness. She unlocked the door and climbed
in, and once in\ the driver’s seat she tossed her bag beside her and locked the
door. Her car was an older model, and although it got her to where she needed
to go, Lilly knew the bitch would just one day not start. But, thank God, when
she put the key in the ignition and cranked the engine it flared to life.

Although
River Run wasn’t a horrible town or overly dangerous, she did know from hearing
Roan and Court talk years ago that there were a lot of girls that sold
themselves behind the one and only strip club in town. Not that
women
prostituting themselves was what had Lilly scared, but
the shady guys that came in from other parts of the state tended to freak her
out, and also made her feel like River Run wasn’t safe at all.

Her
phone buzzed with an incoming text. The reception was spotty at best out here,
but was better inside. Getting her phone out, she saw it was from her mom
telling her to drive safe, but of course she couldn’t reply since all of her
bars for her coverage decided to disappear. Headlights flashed in front of her,
and she
squinted
her eyes from the glare. Car after
car left until she was the only one still in the parking lot.

She
pulled out of the parking lot and onto the main road that ran through River
Run. The side of town she was on was quieter and away from the square, which
was where the bars and strip club were located. That suited Lilly fine but she
rarely stayed at class late enough that it was dark, and being out in the
middle of nowhere did tend to unnerve her. She headed toward the main part of
town which was a necessary evil in order to get back to Steel Corner. A
clicking sound had her turning the radio off and leaning forward to listen to
where it was coming from.

“Shit.”
The clicking was coming from her engine, and she knew from hanging around Roan
and Court that
a sound like
that was most definitely
not a good thing. She pulled over and cut the engine. It was dark, she was out
in the middle of nowhere, and the creepiness of her surroundings sure as shit
wasn’t comforting. Lilly looked in her review mirror, just barely saw the
career center, and cursed. No way in hell was she going to walk that in the
dark. She made sure her doors were locked and grabbed her phone again.

And
still no bars.
“You bastard piece of shit phone.”
Of
course she had to be the last car that left the parking lot. But she knew the
instructors stayed later than the students, and it looked like she would be
waiting until she saw possibly one of them driving down the road. Problem was
she didn’t know how long that would be. Lilly rested her head on the back of
the seat and cursed her shitty luck. She was tired, her feet hurt, and she just
wanted to get home. But of course nothing ever worked out the way it was
supposed to.

It
had been thirty minutes, half a damn hour that she had been sitting on the side
of the damn road, and although normally that wouldn’t have been any time at
all, it felt like a lifetime. She had constantly checked her phone for a
signal, and a few times those bars had flashed, but they had disappeared just
as quickly. Before she got comfortable again headlights flashed in front of
her, and she lifted her arm to shield her eyes. Her hazards were on, and
fortunately the car slowed and pulled up in front of her. The headlights from the
vehicle in front of her made it impossible for her to see who was driving, but
she could see that it was a truck.