CHAPTER SIX
Don’t cry… don’t cry… stop thinking about the past.
As I came out of my memory and stared unseeingly out the passenger window, I realized that I never got the chance to tell Tony that I loved him.
I silently swore to myself that if I ever got the chance, I’d never stop telling him.
I didn’t even look at Tony when the explanation poured out of my mouth.
I needed him to know.
“I know you don’t want to hear this, and please don’t cut me off before I finish,” I started, speaking rapidly, “I need you to know that I never cheated on you, Tony. I know you think I had sex with your sister’s fiancé, but he never touched me that way… not even close. The only thing I took off was my shirt so I could stage those pictures. I was drunk. I was angry that you actually took me there in the first place, but on top of that, every time I turned around you were standing with a different woman. You left me by myself. I’m not blaming you for my childish mistake, but you have to know, when the opportunity to pay your sister back for what she did to Lex came up, I felt like I had to take it. I swear I just took those pictures and left. I wasn’t even going totext them to Destiny, but I blamed her for all the bad shit that my best friend went through. I know now that it was stupid and immature, but I was hurt too, but you knew how much I hated her.”
“Can we not do this now?” he asked warningly.
“Why? Because you can’t run from me? Because you have to listen to me now that we’re locked up in your truck together?”
“Why? Because you have no choice but to listen to me since we’re locked in your truck?”
He glared at me quickly.
“My sister’s a bitch, I get that. I love her, but ever since she was a kid, she was a spoiled brat. She grew up with her mother who is also a bitch. If she would have lived with our dad, he would have whipped her ass in shape, but she didn’t. When you found out Destiny was my sister, I believed you when you told me she practically forced Landyn into fucking her while he was dating Lex. I got that then, but I never would have imagined you’d turn into a bitch too. You really expect me to believe that you didn’t fuck Brian? I know what I saw in those pictures, so don’t try to play me. Destiny might have been foolish enough to believe Brian, but I’m not that stupid. Funny thing, though. I could never figure out why you would fuck some random guy for a little pay back, but you wouldn’t fuck me!”
“I’m not a bitch,” was my immediate response. “And not having sex with you wasn’t all my fault. If I remember correctly, you felt so guilty about parading all your sluts around in front of me when we were just friends, that when we actually became a couple, you didn’t want to rush things. I tried. We did everything else except that and I would have let things go further, but it was you that stopped it from happening.”
Tony glanced at me with narrowed eyes and turned back to the road before he drove the stake through my heart. “You’re right. We hadn’t been together that long and I didn’t want to ruin things after the stupid shit I put you through, but now I know I should have fucked you like I did the rest. You turned out to be nothing but a whore in end anyway,” he said, and every word dripped with biterness.
I knew this was going to be a bad idea!
I would have punched him in the face if he hadn’t been driving and could have accidently killed us. I might have wanted him to go to Hell, but I didn’t want him to die.
“Pull over,” I demanded and he glanced at me again. His eyes roamed over my face before he turned away.
“No.”
“Pull… Over!” I demanded again and my voice grew louder. This time he didn’t respond at all, not one single movement.
I picked up my purse, dug around for my phone and as soon as my hand came into contact with it, my heart picked up speed. I shook with fury as I scrolled through my contact list.
“What are you doin’?” Tony asked and I stupidly, stupidly told him.
“I’m calling Adam. He’ll come pick me up because I don’t want to bother Lex with this. I knew this was a bad idea. I never lied to you before and I’m not lying now!” I ended in a shout.
I found Adam’s number and hit the send key, but it was too late. Tony snatched the phone away from my ear and threw it in the back seat.
“Pull over!” I shouted and then punched him in the arm hard enough to let off some frustration. I unbuckled my seatbelt and reached over the center console. When I found my phone on the floorboard I shouted, “Got it!”
I pulled myself up to sit back in my seat, but my whole body was thrown into the passenger door when Tony swerved off the highway. The truck came to a complete stop, and he threw it in park. I fumbled with the handle of the door as he moved to take my phone again, but he was too slow. When the door flew open, I jumped down from the truck and ran.
“Trish! Get back here!” Tony roared, but I was quick. There was a gas station about a football field away. I knew I could make it, I was in shape, and as I ran, the phone in my hand rang.
Adam…
I answered it quickly and huffed, “I’ll call you back,” then hung up on him.
I made it about fifteen yards; only fifteen freaking yards before Tony grabbed me around the waist, spun me around, ripped my ringing phone out of my hand and tossed it to the other end of the field. I watched the lighted phone as it sailed through the air and landed on the ground somewhere far, far away.
“I can’t believe you just did that!” I screamed in his face while still looked in the direction of my phone. If he’d been looking at me, I would have seen the vicious expression on his face and never would have screamed a word.
I tried to back away, but his hand lifted and I flinched. He palmed my face and lifted it to to meet his. My breathing became erratic and my muscles tensed.
“Stop flinching from me,” he muttered, as his eyes did a quick sweep across my face. I didn’t respond.
“Is Adam your man?” he asked.
I had to whisper, “What?” because I was still trying to catch my breath.
“You heard me. Is he your man?”
I shook my head and blinked a few times before I answered. “Adam is Landyn’s brother. He’s not my boyfriend.” Tony tilted my face up a little further. His face dipped until his nose almost touched mine.
“You gonna lie to me and tell me he doesn’t want you?” he asked quiet and deep. His tone dared me to lie.
I answered by shaking my head again. As much as Adam joked around and flirted with me, I knew that if I gave him a chance to get in my pants, he’d take it.
“Why do you care, Tony? You’re not mine either,” I informed him, again still whispering, but with a little more confidence this time. At that, Tony’s hands dropped from my face and he backed up while he spoke. “You’re right, I’m not yours, but you’re not his either and you can forget about calling him.” He paused before ordering, “Get back in the truck, Trish.”
It took me a minute to compose myself.
“You’re an asshole. Adam is my friend and I’ll call him if want, so stop trying to tell me what I can and can’t do,” I snapped with attitude. His eyes narrowed to slits.
“Get used to it. You want us to get along… don’t mention Adam again.”
I glared at him and muttered, “I hate you,” but knew damn well I still loved him.
“Yeah? Well, not as much as I hate you. Now get back in the truck.”
“Say please!” I shouted.
“Please get back in the fuckin’ truck before I carry you back,” he ground out between his teeth. I rolled my eyes at his poor attempt at being polite and muttered, “You’re an asshole.” I turned and headed back to the truck. After I climbed in, I watched Tony round the hood, open the driver’s side door and groan deep and loud as he climbed in. He sat quietly for a long moment as he held his side. It wasn’t until he took a few deep breaths that I realized I’d forgotten he was hurt.
“Oh my god. I’m so sorry.” I leaned over the center console, reached over and moved his flannel shirt out of the way. I lifted the hem of his t-shirt, wiggled my hand underneath and pressed lightly on his hurt side. He hissed from the pressure.
“Tony, we need to go to the hospital.”
“I’m fine. They’re just sore,” he mumbled. When I glanced up, he already stared down at me. I couldn’t tell if it was pain or longing behind his dreamy eyes, but it sure as hell wasn’t hate.
“I’m sorry,” I said again, this time very, very quietly as I backed away.
“Just put on your seat belt and don’t even think about jumping out of the truck again,” he growled and paused a moment before he finished with a grumbled, “Please.”
He started the truck and another silent twenty minutes into the drive passed before I spoke again.
“I’m sorry about your dad. I know I only met him a few times, but I thought he was a sweetheart.”
“Thanks,” he said softly without taking his eyes off the road.
“Have you seen your mother’s family since you’ve been back?” I probably shouldn’t have asked, but I was too curious not to.
Tony was only four years old when his mom, Roxanne, passed away in a car accident. He’d been too young to remember much about her, but from what he told me, her family sort of took over and helped him and his father keep it together. I used to love hearing Tony speak Spanglish to his aunts, uncles and cousins on phone.
I never got the chance to meet that side of his family, but the stories he told about his childhood all included them and they sounded amazing.
I’m talking traditional, all-day Sunday gatherings with the whole familia. The aunts that lived in the kitchen and made a ton of food; things like posolé, menudo, frijoles a la charra, homemade tamales and perfectly rounded tortillas.
I mean, who in the heck makes perfectly rounded tortillas? I make them, I get a stack of all fifty-two states and half of Europe.
I sighed.
He and his cousins played every sport imaginable and he broke bones in his hands, fingers and collar bone on both sides, all on more than one occasion. But the way he described it, it almost sounded worth it. He was also the trouble maker of the group, and let’s just say… he never forgot his cleats before a fight.
His girl cousins had Quienceañeras, and when he was old enough, yeah right, he would get drunk with his uncles, pick up chicks and dance.
He said he actually danced! I could only imagine how bad that was, but regardless, it all sounded wonderful and so much damn fun. I couldn’t complain though, I had a pretty good childhood myself… at least after my mother left.
“I haven’t seen them as much I’d like to. I’ve been too busy working,” was all he said and he didn’t sound happy about it. I didn’t push it.
Five minutes later he spoke. “Your Dad and Gayle still livin’ up in New York?”
I missed my parents and tears stung my nose at the mention of my dad and stepmom. Talking to them on the phone a few times a week wasn’t enough. Shortly after I started college, dad and Gayle moved to New York for business. With dad position, Senior VP at Brammal Oil and Gas, they didn’t have much of a choice.
Even though Dad and I had a rough time when we left my birth mother, he made it work and never took the difficulties of life out on me the way my mother had. He never let the hard times of that first year show. Luckily, he didn’t have to wait too long to find Gayle, who was the epitome of everything a real mother should be.
Her inability to have children might have played a role in why she became mother of the year, but I didn’t care. She was amazing… homemade dinners, cookies, cakes and even homemade ice cream growing up as a kid. She cuddled me when I was sick, talked to me about boys, taught me how to wear makeup without looking like a street walker... but more than anything, she helped me get over the things my mother did to me; I never forgot, but she made dealing with the past so much easier.
Nothing could have been better than that.
“Gayle and Dad are fine, but I miss them. I’ll call them when we get to your house to let them know what’s going on,” I answered. I knew Gayle was going to freak out when I told her I was staying with Tony. Gayle and Dad had met him, they flew in just to meet him and it was well worth the trip because they adored him. I knew Tony liked them too.
My parents were upset with me for the whole picture incident, but they also understood. They also never blamed Tony for leaving me.
But I didn’t want to think about that anymore. I was tired of remembering the past. All I could do now was pray that he’d forgive me soon or at least not make my life miserable.
“Will you tell me how you got hurt?” I asked to change the subject.
He glanced at me.
“Can we talk about this at the house? I’m not sure my ribs can take running after you again.”
“I’m sorry about that. I won’t jump out of the truck,” I promised.
He switched hands on the steering wheel and rested an elbow near the window.
“There’s not much to tell. I saw the picture of you and it pissed me off.”
I waited, but when he didn’t elaborate, I prodded, “And?”
He shrugged. “He got in one good punch to my ribs, but he’s probably still laid out on the floor of Big Times Bar. It took two security guards to throw me out.” He glanced at me then and one side of his mouth was tipped up at the end in a smirk.
I didn’t smile back.
“I don’t like this,” I said, and in all honesty, I was a little scared. Tony’s smirk instantly vanished.
“You’ll be safe with me. Someone will always be around. I won’t leave you alone and I won’t let anything happen to you,” he declared. I felt the weight lift a little, but not much.
“I trust you,” I whispered.
He glanced at me again, this time letting his eyes linger on my face. He reached over, grabbed my hand and gave it a squeeze before he rumbled, “Good.”
I knew, at that precise moment, I was in trouble; trouble dressed in a flannel, white t-shirt and jeans, with black hair, caramel eyes, caramel skin and a bossy attitude… an attitude that maked my own pale in comparison.