AJ
Six weeks later
Something was up with Bess, and it wasn’t just recovery bullshit. It was more, and I knew it since the day after Christmas when she fucked me like I was nothing but a hard cock, then pretended to be exhausted afterward, putting off spending time together.
Since then, she’d asked me to “slow things down.” She rattled off some bullshit like, “I care about you, AJ, but I don’t want to take advantage of you. We’re better off as friends, I think. Either way, we need to slow things down. Think about what we want. Blah, blah, blah.”
What the fuck? Slow what down?
She’d never used the key I’d given her to my place, she picked up all kinds of extra shifts at work, including dinner, and she’d started going to the morning meeting on her day off. She knew damn well I couldn’t go to morning meetings. That was when I checked on my crew, and if I didn’t show up, they goofed off.
Fuck! I punched the air as I paced my large wraparound deck. It was nearly Valentine’s Day, and this had been going on for too fucking long.
I’d just come home from a meeting, one that Bess said she would try to attend. But she texted and said she took someone’s dinner shift and added, I don’t think we should go to the same meetings. Too much hidden baggage and not good for the group.
Why not? We weren’t together anymore. We’d done nothing but hug since the day she used me and tossed me out. I’d made a proclamation, given her a key, and apologized. She’d been dismissive of everything—except the thorough fucking. And now she was worried about the group.
Fuck the rest of everyone else.
And I still loved her. I’d been infatuated with the dumb girl since she stepped foot out of the treatment facility and opened the passenger door to my car. I’d be damned if I didn’t make this work. She needed me.
I decided to do something about it and stomped down off the deck, heading straight for my truck. I threw the door open so hard, it almost fell off the hinges, then I climbed in and sped off.
As I entered the bottom of the very long and pretentious driveway leading to the WildFlower, I experienced a single moment of regret. Perhaps I was acting irrational? But then I tossed that thought aside and climbed the steep drive up to the main hotel in my four-by-four, pulling right up to the valet circle.
“Hey, man, I’m just stopping in to see someone who works here. Want to leave it out front?” I asked the young dude.
“We’re not supposed to do that, but as long as you’re quick, no problem, sir,” he answered, all professional in his little valet vest.
I tossed him the keys and walked toward the entrance.
“Who’re you visiting?” he called after me.
I hesitated, not wanting to answer, but felt like the asshole was doing me a favor.
“Bess Williams,” I called behind me.
“Sorry, man, but I think she just headed out. She needed another one of the staff to do a favor for her, and they left about five minutes ago. I was on break, so I saw them leaving out the rear entrance.”
He tossed my keys back, dismissing me.
“What favor?” I demanded to know.
He shrugged. “Don’t know, buddy.”
I wasn’t his buddy, but I let it go.
“Do you know which direction they were heading?”
“Listen, I shouldn’t have even got involved. I’m not supposed to discuss staff comings and goings.”
“Yeah, I got you,” I bit out, before jumping back in the cab of my truck.
My tires crunched along the wet gravel as I pulled up in front of Bess’s place. The porch was backlit from the house, and I could make out Bess leashing Brooks and handing him off to another woman.
What the hell?
Brooks never went on a leash. Who was the other woman? What was Bess doing with her precious dog? So many questions ran through my mind as I jumped out of my truck and stomped toward the two women. They both were staring at me like two does caught in the headlights and it was hunting season.
Actually, they were, but I didn’t have a gun. Just lethal anger pumping through my veins.
“AJ, what are you doing here?” Bess called from the porch.
“Oh, I don’t know, maybe looking for you? After all, we were dating, getting to know each other real well, and then you dropped me like a hot potato. Kind of like it looks you’re about to do with your dog.”
My words dripped with venom, and my muscles were tense from anger. A thick cloud of negative energy circled me that even I could sense.
“Um, I don’t know what you mean. I’m not dropping Brooks and I didn’t drop you. And I have company, so I don’t feel comfortable discussing this right now,” she answered back.
I’d made it up the front steps by now, and I didn’t care that she had company.
“Hey, I’m AJ.” I stuck my hand out to the other woman, who was much older than Bess. Probably mid-fifties, and wearing a WildFlower housekeeping uniform.
“May,” she said quietly, holding Brooks on his leash.
The dog’s butt wriggled on the porch as his tail wagged for me. At least someone was happy to see me. I bent over and scratched him on top of his head.
Clearing my throat, trying to dislodge the lump that had formed, I said, “May, would you mind giving Bess and me a sec?”
She nodded as I took Bess by the arm, only just noticing she was in her waitress uniform and not her usual jeans and sweater. Breathing deeply, I noted she smelled like potatoes au gratin and whiskey. I should have realized this woman had been at work since six o’clock this morning serving food to less-than-appreciative people.
But I didn’t. I couldn’t.
After pulling her aside, I said, “Bess, what the hell are you doing? Why are you avoiding me? What are you doing with your dog?”
“AJ, I told you. This was going too quick for me. I’m overwhelmed, and it’s all too hard to figure out. Balancing who we are as friends and lovers—with you being my sponsor—it doesn’t work for me. I needed you as a support, and now I’m feeling that loss. Since I need some space, I’m going away for a few days, and May is watching Brooks.”
She waved her hands between the two of us the whole time she talked about that balancing bullshit, finally letting them fall at her side before dropping the real bomb.
“Away?” I roared into the night.
Now I’d gone and done it. She backed up a step.
“You’re scaring me, AJ.”
Reining in my emotions, I reached out with a gentle touch to her arm. “I’m sorry, Bess, but you caught me by surprise. Where are you going? When were you going to tell me?”
She focused her brown eyes on me, soft with emotion, and said, “Florida, for a few days of rest and relaxation. I was going to text you tonight. I apologize, AJ, but I need this. I need to get my head on straight.”
I spun around, stamping my foot on the ground, finally landing back face-to-face with her and replied, “This is fucked, and you know it. If you’re holding a grudge about Christmas Day, I said I was sorry. You said you accepted that! Now, you’re hauling off to Florida? By yourself?”
“It’s not that. I just need to figure some stuff out.”
She averted her eyes and slipped past me as she said, “I have to go say good-bye to my dog and pack. I’ll call you when I get back, and we can talk, okay?”
It didn’t escape me that she’d completely ignored my question about whether she was traveling solo. My temper popped another notch higher.
“No, that’s not okay, but you don’t leave me much choice,” I said before walking back to my truck and kicking the door before opening it.
I sped away for the second time from Bess, wondering if she ever watched me drive away.
Even once.