CHAPTER TWO
When Landyn finally got home and the surprise ensued, I was more than ready to go up to my garage apartment, watch Real Housewives of New Jersey reruns, eat Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream and go to sleep. Then, wake up, go to work and do it all over again tomorrow.
But all of that was made impossible when Landyn asked… no, he ordered me to stay for dinner. He said he considered me his sister and that a new baby should be celebrated with family.
I mean, really? Who could say “no” to that? Not to mention, the smell of steak and Lex’s special mushroom wine sauce made my stomach growl and reminded me that I hadn’t eaten much today.
God, I was exhausted.
My life was exhausting.
Lex assumed that I drained myself and body of energy because I was depressed, but that wasn’t necessarily true. I wasn’t depressed. I admit I worked twelve hour days at the VA Animal Clinic to keep my mind occupied, but I’d only been working there a little over a year so I was paying my dues. It was something all new Vets were required to do.
I spent the majority of my extra time taking care of or spending time with Layla and Laura. Like today, I offered to watch them while Lex and Adam (Landyn’s hot as hell, also crazy obsessive, somewhat whacky, overbearing half-brother. The brother I always wanted… or never wanted… I couldn’t decide) went grocery shopping for this surprise dinner.
I loved Layla and Laura, and I loved Lex and Landyn, so I’d do anything for them.
However, it took a while for me to like Landyn, but he grew on me. He was like a fungus. The kind people got under their toe nail. They treat it and treat it, but eventually they just have to say “Fuck it” and cover it up with nail polish to forget it’s there.
Not that I had that problem, but I knew someone.
That’s how I felt about Landyn, or not so much him as a person, but it was what he did to Lex that made me want to rip off his finger nails one by one with tweezers. It was years ago, that Landyn cheated on Lex. He’d destroyed her. I’d vowed to hate Landyn until the day I died, but when Lex told me she was four weeks pregnant, I’d decided to kill him and the bitch he’d cheated on Lex with.
Destiny; the whore whose gift in life was the ability to ruin people’s lives. Whether my ruined life was actually her fault or mine… semantics.
I didn’t agree with Lex when she kept the news of Layla to herself though. It was cruel, really, but there’d been no persuading her otherwise, and ultimately, it was her life and her decision to live with.
Gotta say though, I was pretty fucking happy when Landyn came back into their lives, and in my opinion, he saved Lex and Layla from a life full of misery. Now that they were one big happy family, Lex was popping out babies like a popcorn vending machine.
And I had no one.
“Aunt T, can I sit next to you?” I heard Layla ask at my side as we walked to the dining room. I was happy to be taken out of my inner trip down memory lane before my emotions got the best of me. I looked down at her beautiful face, long, shiny black hair, bright amber eyes and said, “Sure, babe,” as I pulled out a chair for her and moved to sit in the next seat over.
“Lexi, baby, you wanna say grace before we eat? I think we have a lot to be thankful for,” Landyn said as he looked longingly at my best friend. I knew right then that I was going to have to force dinner down my throat because my stomach was already full of ridiculous jealousy.
Lex opened her mouth to say something, but just as quickly snapped it shut when the sound of a car horn filled the dining room.
“What the hell?” Landyn growled as he stood up.
Lex jumped up and looked at me, “I’m gonna go check it out,” she said excitedly. She stood, followed Landyn out and it was only seconds later that I heard banging at the front door.
Damn, someone was impatient.
I double checked that Laura was locked securely in her high chair and told Layla to keep a close eye on her while I went to check things out.
What could I say? I was nosy too.
The only thing I could see as I turned the corner was Landyn and Lex’s backs, both rock solid. Landyn’s hand held the front door open so I had to walk a little closer to peek around him, but when I heard that voice… his voice, I froze.
“I need Trish. Where is she?” Tony demanded to know deep, low and anxiously. I peeked over Landyn’s shoulder and around the edge of the open door. I saw him. My body shook and butterflies filled my already knotted stomach.
He was absolutely, undeniably breathtaking. I got chills.
He wore a red and blue plaid, long-sleeved flannel over a plain white t-shirt, just like he used to. But he held his side like he was hurt and his t-shirt was torn. His jeans were dirty, so were his knuckles.
Is that blood?
He didn’t look like he was bleeding, but his eyes were bloodshot. He looked like a man possessed.
“What happened to you?” I asked softly. I was freaked and I had no idea what to do. I knew he wasn’t here for any reason that I’d hoped for, but something about this situation was wrong… all wrong.
Landyn obviously heard me, because he replied in a deep, irritated voice, “She’s here,” as he opened the door wider, silently inviting Tony back into my life.
When Tony’s desperately searching eyes hit mine, his body locked tight. His face grew taut and his eyes speared mine with hatred. He looked murderous. I already knew he hated me, but if I ever thought for one second he might forgive me, the look on his face told me I didn’t have a shot in hell.
I could feel them. The damn tears burned behind my eyes, but I had too much pride to let him see me cry. And why, on top of everything, did he have to look so much more beautiful than I remembered? Angry expression, dirty clothes and all, he was a dream; a panty wetting, moaning in your sleep, dream.
He still kept his raven black hair trimmed short on the sides, longer and messy on top. My hands clenched at the memory of running my fingers through his silky hair. His eyebrows were dark and thick, but not wild or unruly. They defined his almost innocent eyes perfectly; eyes the color of liquid caramel.
Those eyes screamed vanilla ice cream and I wanted to be drenched in him. I wanted roll around in him and make him to lick me up… every… last… drop.
He had strong cheek bones, a perfectly straight nose and an equally chiseled jaw line that was covered by at least two days’ worth of scruff. He was six-foot-two and looked every bit of it. He was still lean and muscular, but his shoulders were wider. The muscles at the base of his neck near the top of his shoulders were still prominent, yet broader. My teeth clenched at the memory of nipping him there.
He wore his flannel long-sleeved shirt with the sleeves rolled up and it made his defined forearm muscles visible. His sexy olive skin glowed as Latino blood ran through his veins and the memory of his deep, smooth voice speaking Spanglish made my stomach quiver.
And his smile...
If you looked at his angry face now, you’d never think he actually knew how to smile, but it was so wide, and bright, and flawless, and genuine, that it lit up any room he was in. The little crinkles at the corners of his eyes told a story; one filled with laughter. There was a playful, yet seductive twist to his smile. He was trouble with a capital T, but from the moment I laid eyes on him, I couldn’t stop myself from falling hard.
Silly ole me, had to go falling for somebody way out of my league.
I was pretty, I knew that. I’ve always known that. I wasn’t one those women that only said they weren’t pretty just to get attention or an ego boost, but I was in no way conceited. My hair was long, layered and the color of dark chocolate. I had brown eyes, long lashes, high cheek bones, big lips and a small nose. My wide hips and my ass was fat. I also had huge size ‘D’ boobs too and it sucked since I was only five-six and one hundred thirty pounds. They were big, but they looked bigger than they actually were.
As I moved around Lex and Landyn’s frozen bodies to get a closer look at Tony, as impossible as it should have been, his body tensed even more, and I stopped in my tracks.
“Are you okay?” I asked quietly because he looked far from it.
“Go pack your shit!” he shouted at me so loud that his voice echoed throughout the foyer and I recoiled. Landyn’s body instantly moved to protect me and Tony glared at him.
“I’m not going to touch her,” he said and his expression said that the idea was ludicrous, but Landyn still didn’t move.
“I’m going to stay with the girls,” Lex chimed in. She turned and walked away. She probably thought the same thing I did… that things were about to get bat-shit crazy.
I ignored her and so did everyone else.
“What’s going on?” I asked in a shaky voice because I had absolutely no idea.
“Where were you last weekend?”
“Ummm… here?” I answered his question with a question because he seemed to already know the answer.
“No… you were at the track last weekend causing trouble and fuckin’ up your life, that’s where. Do you have any idea how much shit you’re in?”
Suddenly, all the air was sucked out of the room when Landyn and I inhaled breaths so sharp you could hear the combined hissing sound.
“What the hell is going on?” Landyn demanded to know before I could ask myself.
Tony faced Landyn then. “This is none of your fuckin’ business; this is between me and her,” Tony said as he nodded in my direction.
Landyn crossed his beefy arms over his chest and that action alone screamed “Caution”. “You’re in my fuckin’ house demandin’ to talk to my wife’s best friend after I watched her shed tear after tear for you… and you’re gonna tell me this is none of my business?” He shook his head. “I don’t fuckin’ think so.”
That was a lot of funkins.
Tony’s angry eyes met mine and they studied me for a long moment. My stomach was doing backflips. I wanted to refute what Landyn said, but how could I… it was the truth. I hated that Landyn told on me though. I felt betrayed. Before I could let my emotions get the best of me, Tony straightened his spine, walked further into the house, straight up to Landyn until they were chest to chest.
Landyn was bigger than Tony, not by much, but still bigger. It’d probably have been a good fight, but Tony was already hurt and I immediately jumped into action. I pushed my way through until I managed to separate them with my body; my front faed Tony, my back to Landyn. I shoved at Tony’s chest to move him back, being extra mindful of his ribs, but he barely moved. I shouted, “What are you doing?”
He ignored me, never took his eyes off Landyn and shouted, “She’s my goddamn business, not yours!”
I didn’t move a muscle after he spoke. I was scared to death, but his words filled my heart with hope. I kept my hands on his chest, looked over at a furious Landyn and spoke quickly, “He’s hurt and you know it.”
“Only reason I haven’t touched him yet,” Landyn responded just as fast. Tony obviously didn’t like Landyn’s dismissal of him because he moved to step around me, but I clung to him with every bit of strength I had.
“What is wrong with you? I’m begging you to stop. You’re hurt and there are kids in the other room,” I shouted, using the quickest excuse I could think of to stop him from starting a fight.
Thankfully, it worked.
Tony and Landyn remained in a stare down for what felt like hours until I accidently pushed on Tony’s side and he inhaled in a sharp breath.
“Please let me look at your ribs. They’re probably broken,” I said quietly.
“I’m fine,” he grumbled.
“You can talk to her, but I want to know what the hell is going on first,” Landyn said.
Tony sighed and ran a hand down his face as if he was trying to clear it. When his hand moved away, he looked down at me and my knees nearly buckled at the fear I saw in his eyes.
He pointed in my face and spoke low, “You fucked up last weekend. I wanna know exactly what you did to Zacharias… in detail.” He paused, shook his head. “You’re in so much fuckin’ trouble.”
“Who’s Zacharias?” I asked, and at my question, Tony’s eyes narrowed. I had a good idea where this was headed, but the guy it involved was someone named Zek.
“What do you mean “who’s Zacharias”? He’s the guy you got banned from the race track last weekend.”
“I didn’t have anyone named Zacharias banned. The guy’s name was Zek and he was an asshole.”
Tony closed his eyes and took in a number of deep calming breaths, clearly searching for patience.
“The guy was abusing his horse, Bow & Arrow… whipping him. That was his training technique… to whip him. He showed clear signs of abuse and he would have injured himself further had I let him race so I had him pulled. Zek and I had words, he was pissed, he grabbed me and got himself banned. I didn’t do shit, but the right thing.”
Tony’s eyes flew open. “What do you mean he grabbed you? How?” he growled violently.
I shrugged and told him. I still wasn’t sure what the big deal was.
“He grabbed my upper arm; it hurt and it freaked me out, but he did it font of everyone and got himself banned, not me. I just had to file a police report.”
“Why the fuck didn’t you tell me?” Landyn jumped in and I faced him.
“I don’t know, I didn’t think it was important.”
“Jesus, you have no idea, do you?” Tony said. He sounded in complete disbelief, and when I turned back to him, he continued. “Can we sit down somewhere? My side hurts like a bitch.” He looked back at Landyn and so did I.
Landyn nodded shortly in approval.