Spiked Lemonade: A Bad Boy Sailor and a Good Girl Romantic Comedy Standalone (33 page)

I DON’T TRUST
that dipshit. I don’t care how good of a man he is to pick up a pretty blonde on the side of the road, I don’t trust him. While whipping into the parking lot of the gas station where Sasha told me she’d be, I take inventory of every vehicle in the lot, not seeing a truck. The sinking feeling I’ve had in my gut since the second I saw the opened door of Tango’s house, has just grown larger. I knew I shouldn’t have trusted that dick, but I had no choice.

I park in front of the diner and run inside, scanning the place from right to left. At the last table on the left, I see a blonde-haired chick with her back facing me. The dude facing her has a stupid smirk etched over his crooked features, and the dark look in his eyes doesn’t sit well with me. That’s gotta be them. I run down the row of tables and place my hand on the girl’s shoulder, but I’m immediately disappointed when she turns around with a pair of brown eyes that don’t belong to the girl that I have ridiculously fallen for.

“Sorry, I thought you were someone else,” I tell her as the man stands up from his seat.

“No problem,” she says sweetly. The guy isn’t being so sweet, though.

“What’s your deal, bro?”

I raise a brow. “Chill, man. It was a mistake.” The guy eases and sits back down in his booth.

“Jags?” I hear her voice; the voice I’ve wanted to hear in person all fucking day.

I turn around and find Sasha running toward me with open arms and tears in her eyes. She’s a mess, and her wrists are cut up and bloody. The anger already brewing is in a full-blown boil right now, and there’s not much getting in the way of me hunting Landon down, then killing him slowly and in the most painful way.

I lift her up, and her legs wrap around my waist as she squeezes the life out of me. Her head is draped over my shoulder, and her arms are tight around my neck. I carry Sasha out of the diner and over to my car where I place her down on the hood. My hands find her face, forcing her to look at me. “Where’s the guy who picked you up?”

Her eyes grow wide, tears gathering in the corners. “He wasn’t a soldier,” she tells me.

“Where the hell is he?” I growl.

“I think I scared him off,” she says, looking away from me.

“How?”

“When a blonde girl is screaming rapist in the middle of a diner parking lot with a dozen truck drivers and bikers around, it doesn’t end well for the accused,” she explains through a crying laugh.

Holy…this girl. Wow. “I’m impressed, doll-face. You can obviously hold your own.”

Regardless of what she’s been through, she looks a little proud hearing that. “Thanks,” she says. “I had no choice.”

“What happened to your wrists?” I ask, inspecting the wounds.

“Landon had me in handcuffs the whole way here. One of the truck drivers at the diner helped me out of them.” Even the thought of someone helping her out of cuffs makes me want to kill someone, but I’ll try to keep that to myself.

“Wait, where is Landon now?” I
was
going to ease up but, Jesus, I just realized he’s still on the loose.

“I attacked him. I don’t know. He has his car, though.”

“You attacked him?” Miss Sasha, who’s all of five feet plus a few inches and a hundred and ten pounds, attacked some man? Besides the fact that I would pay to see something like that, I don’t see how it’s physically possible. Cali, I can see doing this, not Sasha.

“Well, I head butted him and kicked him more than a few times in the…”

“Baby, say it for me…” I press with a smile. I shouldn’t be smiling right now but I have my girl, and she’s safe, so I can’t control it.

“I kicked him in the dick at least three times,” she blurts out. “And it felt amazing.”

“Ouch,” I shudder. “Note to self: Don’t mess with this bombshell.” I try to imagine the beauty of this scene playing out and it’s just awesome. “So, do you know where you left him?”

“About twenty miles back that way,” she points toward the highway. “His car was on the side of the road.” I didn’t see any car on the side of the road when I drove by.
Fuck
.

I pull my phone out and send Tango a quick message, letting him know I have Sasha but that Landon is still on the loose. God knows where the loser is now but at this point, he’s got to be taken out.

“I’m sorry,” Sasha says.

“You had no idea this was going to happen. We don’t know how he gained access to their house still, but this guy knows what he’s doing, which makes him a little more dangerous than we thought.”

“He didn’t show any hint of danger in the years I spent with him. How does someone just turn out to be like this? I don’t understand,” she says. “Am I really that stupid that I didn’t notice any odd behavior all that time?”

I lightly press my finger under her chin and urge her to look at me. “There’s no way you could have known.” There’s also no way to make it sound less offensive so I’m not going to say it but she’s lived in a bubble her whole life, and people like her don’t look for the bad in people. Being friends with Cali for so long, I would think she’d be more suspicious of everyone, but I know a lot of people have the mentality that things don’t happen to them. “There are some screwed up people in this world.”

“I don’t want to be around this anymore,” she says quietly. “This isn’t the kind of life I want.”

“You’re kind of a badass now, though, you know?” I tell her, wrapping my arm around her shoulders and joining her on the hood of the car. “And the way you got rid of Manny…that was just fucking smart as hell.”

Sasha pulls in a sharp breath and tucks her hair around her ears. “Yeah.”

“I have an idea,” I tell her.

She looks over at me with question. “There’s a hotel a few miles down the road. A nice one. Want to hide out there for tonight?”

She bites down on her bottom lip and offers a small smile, so small it’s hardly there but it gives me something to work toward. “Your phone’s buzzing,” she says.

I look down at the three messages displayed on my phone. One from Tango, one from Cali, and one from Bambi. Bambi doesn’t know I found Sasha yet, and I have a text of nothing but ten question marks from her. “Everyone is pretty worried about you, doll-face. Even Bambi.”

“Greta,” she corrects me.

“Same thing.”

“I want to leave Texas,” she says. I’m not sure I expected to hear this from her, but I can’t say I’m overly surprised either. Especially after today.

“What about Cali and Tango?” I sort of figured she’d never leave them.

“I don’t know. I realize this stuff could follow me wherever I go but Texas is all I know, and I feel like I need a fresh start. I need to break away from what I’m on my way to becoming.”

“I’m not following,” I tell her.

She smiles a little and looks over at me. “I’m on my way to becoming someone’s housewife. That’s not what I want.”

“An apron, heels, and nothing else underneath? That
does
work for me.” I know that’ll earn me the incoming slap she’s preparing, but I’m kidding. Kind of.

With a light clap to the side of my face, she giggles. “I’m serious.”

I won’t dare tell her I am too. “Okay then.”

“You’ve talked about Boston a lot. You said the women are bitchy and tough as nails, and that the environment is completely different than Texas. Is that all true?”

“Well, yeah, it’s completely different out there. They get this white stuff too…it’s cold, and it turns black after a day. Sometimes yellow if you have a dog.”

“Snow?” she questions with a wry grin.

“Yeah, that shit.”

“I haven’t seen snow,” she tells me.

“How?”

“I’ve lived in South Texas my whole life. I don’t get out much, I guess.”

“Well, that explains it.” I get this feeling the conversation between us is about to fizzle, and I wish I had more insight to this split decision, or what appears to be a split decision.

“I’m going to leave. I am. I need to. For me.” She sounds like she’s still getting used to the idea herself.

I’d sound a lot like a chick if I asked about us right now. So I don’t. Us. It’s been less than a few weeks. There isn’t a defined
us
. This is the perfect time for her to pick up and leave. She has no commitments. She’s been polishing cars at my shop instead of working for her pissed-off dad, and I can’t think of one good reason why she should stay. Other than me.

“Then you should,” I tell her.
But, I really don’t want you to
.

A weak smile forms over her lips and I want to know what’s going through her head. Is this just in response to the trauma she went through today? If so, it’s understandable, and maybe she’ll change her mind in the morning.

Sasha wrenches her hand around the collar of my shirt and pulls me into her, kissing me so damn hard it almost hurts. Although that could be the pain in my heart I’m feeling too. With her legs resting over mine, I know exactly what this all means and I sure as hell wish it wasn’t a goodbye kiss.

“What’s that for?” I ask as she pulls away.

“You’ve changed my life in just a few weeks. I’m not sure I could thank you enough for that.” She’s saying goodbye.

“You want my car? It’s a rental anyway. I’ll settle the finances with it, and you can have the car. Make your way over to the east coast. Do you what you need to do, doll-face.”

She inhales a deep lungful of air and exhales the same way. “I can’t take your car,” she says. “But…you’d do that for me?”

“I’d do just about anything for you,” I tell her. This conversation is getting heavy. Heavier than I can handle. I don’t like when shit goes down like this.

She rests her head on my shoulder, nuzzling it into a comfortable crook and releases another bout of air. “Will you hate me?”

“I couldn’t if I tried,” I tell her.
But you might unknowingly break my damn heart
. “I’d offer to go with you out there, but I’m getting the sense you need to find yourself a bit. You know, alone. Unless…that’s not what you want?”

She closes her eyes and thinks for a long minute. “I want you to come with me, but—” Yeah, the but. “I’m afraid I won’t end up finding myself if we do that.”

“I can respect that,” I tell her, feeling that ache grow in my chest. I didn’t think my chances with her were a possibility in the first place, so this shouldn’t be so shocking. She’s on a different level, one among a different class of people. I’m dirt, and she’s a polished piece of gold. I’m Jack, and she’s lemonade. Spiked drinks don’t always taste so good, I guess.

“Take it. Take the car. Go,” I tell her.

“I have nothing with me. Not even my license or phone.”

“I have your purse. I figured you’d be missing it. I know how chicks are with their purses. It’s in the car with your phone. I brought you a change of clothes and your makeup too. I even have your charger. I figured we wouldn’t be home tonight, so I wanted you to you have your stuff.”

“You did all that? My charger?”

“Yeah, the one you lent to me weeks ago. I have it. The other stuff, I didn’t even think about, I just did it.” My mind was everywhere while I was grabbing shit to leave and come get her. I wish I had known while I was racing to find her that when I did, I would have to let her go. Here I was imaging the worst being that she wouldn’t be here when I got here. Now the worst is that she’s here and leaving here without me.

“I’ve been thinking about this for a long time,” she says. “I’ve been too scared to make the move, and I didn’t know where to go. Now, I think I’m too scared not to go. and Boston seems like a good idea, I guess. But right this second feels a little soon.”

I hand over the keys to my car. “If you need this, you should just do it. Don’t think about it.” What am I saying? Fucking think about it.
Don’t leave me, Sasha. God, I feel like I finally found you, someone, maybe “the one,” and you’re leaving. And I’m pushing the car over the ledge again.
“Will Cali be okay?”

“She’s told me to go a million times, just so I can experience something.” I slide off the hood of the car and pull her with me. “How will you get back if I have your car? This is absurd. I’m not leaving right now. I need to plan things out first.”

“What’s left to plan?”
If you’re leaving me, just do it. Don’t drag this out. Don’t take my heart and make it melt a million more times before you wave your last wave to me. Damnit to hell, this fucking sucks.

“How will you get home?” She asks again.

“I have people for that,” I tell her, laughing to put her at ease. Laughing to hide how I truly feel because I feel something I haven’t let myself feel before. I feel so much that I just want to do what’s best for her and what will make her happy. That’s a lot of feelings for me. I liked it better when I felt nothing at all.

“People, like them?” Sasha says, pointing behind us.

“I couldn’t stop them from following me. They had to get Tyler from school first, so they got a little behind.”

Cali’s running across the parking lot, and she throws herself into Sasha in non-Cali-like fashion. “I was so worried about you,” Cali says. She pulls away and looks her in the face. “Are you okay?”

“I’m okay,” Sasha says.

“You’re my sister, Sasha. You’re my family. I can’t lose you too.” I know she lost her blood-sister, and Sasha has been there for her ever since, so I can’t see how Sasha picking up and moving across the country so suddenly will be easy on her.

When Cali backs away a bit, I grab Sasha’s hand and drop the keys into her palm, squeezing her fingers around it.

“Cal,” Sasha says softly. “I’ve had a lot of time to think today and…I’m going to make that move.”

“What are you talking about?” Just as the conversation begins getting heavy again, Tango limps across the lot perched on crutches, and Tyler is on his back. The plates came out last week, and he’s in more pain now than he was right after the accident, but at least the man can get a pair of pants on now. The hospital gown was getting a little nasty after the second week of him wearing nothing else.

“I’m making my cross country trek. I’ve made a decision that I’ve needed to make for a long time. I could sit and think about it a little longer, or I could just go. I guess it’s possible that if I don’t do it now, I won’t ever. This could be my chance to start over and leave all this crap behind me. Landon, especially. Wherever he is.”
If she doesn’t leave now, she may never go.
I can change her mind. Then she might hold it against me some day, and that won’t end any better.