Chapter Two

 

Wyatt

 

Fuck me. When I told my mother I’d spend the summer living at home since we’d barely seen each other over the past eight years, the last time being my father’s funeral a year and a half ago, I didn’t expect Zoey Goodrich to be back in town. Through Riley, I knew she’d graduated from college last May but Riley wasn’t chatty when it came to his sister and like hell I could ask.

Would never ask.

I’d been on leave four years ago and had promised Zoey I’d stop by her graduation party. I was proud of the girl and if I’m being honest, really wanted to see her. That afternoon turned into night and the night turned into the sweetest moment I’d experienced in my life. Remembering that moment made me wonder if she still tasted like cherry due to whatever it was girls smeared across their lips to make them shiny. Every chance I’d gotten, I’d opt for something cherry flavored. Slushes, pie, it really didn’t matter. It was torture just to be reminded of that night. The best kind.

She still looked almost the same. A little older, sure. A little more mature in the way she carried herself and there was something different about her hair. It was still long and blonde enough to make her look like an angel and those blue eyes were just as big, innocent even. Though she had a bit of a naughty glint in there now, too.

Fuck. I wanted to know what that glint meant. Her skin looked just as soft and silky as she had at eighteen and damn it his fingers ached to find out if that was true.

“Let’s go back outside,” Riley said and nodded toward the door. I followed as we wandered back through the cold. “So you’re out for good?” Riley asked bring my mind off Zoey and back to the present.

“Yup. Don’t know what I’m going to do but Mom’s alone now.”

“I never thought there’d be a time you didn’t re-up. Hey—” Riley clasped me on the shoulder and hauled me through the garage door. “The shop is opening in a couple of weeks. You always have a job there if you want it.” We both glanced down to the abandoned tire iron. “Besides, it looks like I’m going to need help with Zoey. She might be able to string words together but her English major didn’t teach her how to change a tire. She still needs some looking after.”

Riley went to work on the tire because it did actually need to be changed. I leaned back against the nearby table watching my best friend work. Working on cars wouldn’t be so bad. Looking after Zoey on the other hand…

“What do you say?” Riley asked bringing me out of my own head once again.

“Sorry, what?” I asked because I’d obviously missed something he’d said. Distracted by Zoey Goodrich again.

“Dinner tonight. Mom and Dad would love to see you.”

Giving a nod, I began questioning that decision right away. Riley gave me the name of the restaurant in Detroit before I could change my mind and said they were meeting at seven. I just went with it and needed to get out of there before beauty personified returned to fuck with my head.

Over the next few hours, I’d grabbed my phone more than once to shoot off a text telling Riley I couldn’t make dinner. Something stopped me each time whether it had been that I actually wanted to see Zoey or I didn’t want to cancel on my best friend.

Worse than seeing her at the house was sitting at the table with the Goodrich family, who I’d known my entire life, waiting for Zoey to show up so we could order. Mr. and Mrs. Goodrich welcomed me with open arms when I’d arrived which sort of made me miss my own dad. But I pushed all those depressing thoughts out of my head. That’s the way life was. One day you’re schlepping away at your day job, the next someone hits a deer on the highway sending it through the windshield killing you instantly. A person didn’t have to go halfway across the world to find danger.

“Zoey sent a text saying she’s on her way in. Traffic, she said.” Riley shoved his phone back in his pocket.

I really wanted to ask where she’d been but I kept my mouth firmly shut. Good thing, too because right then I caught a glimpse of Zoey coming through the restaurant and a breath stumbled in my chest.

She headed right toward us like a heat seeking missile that had more effect on me than anyone else. Her five feet and two inches given added height with four-inch stiletto heels that I tried not to picture digging into my ass.

Christ, McCann.

She wasn’t dressed for a fun night out. She was dressed to impress and even though I shouldn’t have I hoped it was me she was trying to impress. That should’ve been the last thing I hoped for. The black pencil skirt stopped right above her knees and hugged every curve her small frame possessed. Those red shoes matched her red top with three buttons undone and the blonde hair that had been messy in the garage earlier, now laid in soft curls past her shoulders.

I much preferred the messy look but this completely put together thing she had going on gave me a whole new set of ideas. Ideas that might mean me coming home was just as terrible an idea as I thought it might’ve been back when I made it.

While she said hello to her family, her voice became drowned out by the rush of blood in my ears as it left my head to pool somewhere else. Somewhere much further down. No girl got me as hard as quickly as Zoey Goodrich. It’d been that way since we were teenagers. Her frame may have been small, but she’d grown into it. The curve of her hip was the first tip-off that while she still looked young, she was now a full grown woman.

“Now I know you didn’t get dressed up just for us,” Mrs. Goodrich finally broke through the haze of lust that had taken me over.

“I needed to fill out paperwork at the school board office. Had to look the part of a teacher.”

“You don’t look like any teacher we ever had,” I said before I could stop myself.

Luckily, everyone let the comment pass as if I hadn’t said it at all. Instead, they focused on me being back home and my service.

Except Zoey. She didn’t say anything during my interrogation. Riley helped me dodge most of the questions because neither of us liked to talk about the shit we’d seen or done. Some things were best left back in the sand.

“Were you ever shot?” Zoey asked out of nowhere.

At first I considered not answering her but the look on her face and I knew I had no choice. Since I didn’t trust my voice, I nodded instead.

“Wait,” she sat up straighter, “You were shot?” I’d swear her face paled three shades.

“Just a flesh wound,” I said with a shrug.

“Where?”

“Here.” I tapped my left arm. “You seem concerned.” Zoey squirmed in her seat and sipped on what was now her third glass of wine. Not that I was keeping track…

“Not at all,” she finally answered. “I’ve just never known anyone who’s been shot.”

It took everything in my power to not look over at Riley because the rest of the table would see the question on my face. I definitely wasn’t the only one at the table who’d been shot.

“Actually,” Zoey continued. “I was kind of hoping the bullet hit your dick.”

The sound of multiple people choking on their drinks filled the immediate area around our table as I suppressed the urge to laugh. That was the first time I heard a little of the Zoey I’d left behind. Instead, I hid the smile I couldn’t control by scrubbing a hand across my jaw.

“Zoey Goodrich! I know I raised you better than that,” her mother chastised.

“Yes, but you also let me hang out with two guys who became Marines, Mother.”

Now I snorted because that was true. Riley and I hadn’t exactly censored ourselves around her growing up or ever really. That had been part of the problem with me and her. Staying away from her was the only way to keep how I felt to myself.

There were no more Zoey outbursts at dinner for which I was incredibly thankful. I wasn’t sure I could’ve controlled my reaction again. But I was confused by Zoey’s attitude toward me in general. She wasn’t mean exactly. More cold. Everything she talked about remained superficial.

She couldn’t have thought I’d taken advantage of her four years ago, could she? I didn’t see how.

That sure as hell wasn’t how I remembered the encounter. I didn’t force her to do anything and I’d been the one to stop it from going any further so I had no idea what her fucking problem was. I’d only meant for it to be a kiss because I couldn’t imagine going my entire life, with the very real possibility of early death, without knowing what she felt like that once.

“You’re not driving home are you?” Mr. Goodrich looked pointedly at his daughter as he asked.

“I’m fine,” she waved him off.

“You’ve had five glasses of wine. You’re not driving.” Mr. Goodrich was old school Army, not career, and became a lawyer when he got out. Everything about him said don’t argue and for anyone not blood related keep your hands off his daughter. He’d idled at scary when I was a kid and not much had changed now that I was an adult. “Your mother and I are staying in the city. Riley?”

“Yeah, I’ll take her,” he said with a sigh as if driving Zoey home was the last thing he wanted to do. It probably was.

“Weren’t you going to see Alaina?” I asked. Shut up, shut up, shut up. I really shouldn’t have said anything. “I can drive Zoey home.” Oh, god, it was like I had no control over my own mouth. Her usually soft blue eyes blazed with fury when her gaze fell on me.

“I’m fine,” she bit out.

“It’s settled, Zoey. You’re not dying in a drunk driving accident. Wyatt will get you home safely.” Mr. Goodrich’s word was final when it came to most things in that family. It was the military persona he’d honed early on that the others didn’t push unless they had to. Zoey usually pushed more than any of them.

When I looked over at her to check for a reaction, she swept her pink tongue over those full lips to capture the last drop of wine that had settled there. My body sprung to life partly from neglect and partly because I imagined just what she might do with that tongue.

It was going to be a long ass ride home.