CHAPTER TWENTY
Nash
“Howdy, stranger.”
Damn, it was good to see Grant again. I thought he might be glad to see me too.
We did the manly chest bump, shoulder clapping hug before settling into a real one that felt more right for two soul brothers to share.
“You back in town for a while?” he asked and went to the bar to pull out two bottles of beer. Popping the tops, he handed me one and sat down.
“For a few days at least. I need to fly out sometime to do site checks in Texas, Arizona, and LA. Probably be gone a couple days. This concert tour is turning into a monster, and Mama hasn’t admitted it, but I’m guessing this will be her farewell tour.”
Grant laughed. “Didn’t she say that a couple tours ago?”
I grinned and lifted the beer. “She did indeed, but this time, she’s more emotional about it, ya know? Super picky about the details because she wants it to be perfect.”
Grant’s grin faded. “Is she okay? I mean health wise?”
Fuck.
I hadn’t even thought to ask about that. I scratched my chin, worry crawling across my skin.
I met Grant’s eyes. “She’d tell me if she wasn’t, wouldn’t she?”
His forehead creased. It was the look he got when he concentrated intensely. “Yeah. You’d be the first. She wouldn’t want to risk it getting out and you hearing it in the tabloids. So, yeah. She’d tell you. I’m sure of it.”
That relaxed me a little, and I laughed. “Damn, I’m a mama’s boy at times.”
I immediately regretted saying it because Grant lifted a finger to that damn scar. The man had more money than sin and he refused to fix his face or that damned tooth. It was like he wanted to punish himself for living.
To take his mind away from the path I knew my comment would lead, I diverted. “Want to catch some dinner later? Hit a bar. I’m feeling a little stir crazy.”
He looked at his watch and frowned. That would be a big fat no.
“Can’t. I have plans at four. How about tomorrow? Six or so?”
I thought about Journey. Maybe it was time I introduced her to my friend. At the park, we hadn’t put anything in stone about the rest of the weekend. I could give her a yell later. Hell, I didn’t even know when that craft thing was going to be done.
“I might bring someone with me,” I said.
Grant’s brow lifted. “Is that so? The Wicked girl?”
I grinned. “Yep. And wicked she is, trust you me.”
He seemed pleased for me. “Yeah, bring her along. I’ll bring the girl I’m seeing too.”
I snorted. “A double date. We haven’t done that since college.”
He lifted his bottle. “There’s a lot of things we haven’t done since college.”
I kicked my shoes up on his coffee table and ignored him when he glared at me. “Those were wild and fun times, my boy. Too bad they had to end.”
Looking at the grown man on the sofa across from me, most people wouldn’t have been able to connect him to that scrawny college freshman I’d been unlucky enough, or so I thought at the time, to have to room with. And I mean scrawny. Buck fifty pounds soaking wet, and that was being generous.
Nervous.
Quiet.
Introverted.
Bookworm.
Never laughed. At least he didn’t until I’d gotten my hands on him.
By the end of the first semester, I’d gotten him to loosen up. By the end of the second, we’d ended up getting into some crazy shit.
And it shocked everyone I knew. Not that I could get Grant to follow my lead, but that I ended up genuinely liking the poor bastard. But I had. A fucking ton.
Grant was solid. And a steel-trap. I never had to worry about him spilling stories about me to the tabloids or anyone else. And that had meant everything to me. After growing up in the spotlight with my mother, and under the microscope of my grandparents, having one person I could trust to have my back meant everything.
And he’d never take anything in return.
If I bought beer one night, he bought it the next. Then Mom started finding him ways to earn money and force-fed him meals, and the chip on his shoulder started to slide off a little.
It wasn’t until our second semester that I learned that he’d changed his last name to Sommerfield, his mother’s maiden name, when he turned eighteen. He said he didn’t want people to be able to research his story, which had seen a heck of a lot of press at the time. He wanted a clean slate. He didn’t want to answer questions about his family or his past.
He leaned forward and clicked his bottle to mine. “Yeah. Those were good days for sure.” Then he downed it and stood. “I need to go make some calls. I’ll be gone for the night.”
“Seeing your little sweet thing?”
Damn. I hadn’t seen him grin like that in… ever. “Yeah. But we’ll be back tomorrow. I’ll show her off at six.” He pointed at me. “Be there.”
I held up my hands. “Hey, now. I’ll be there. I’ll call my own sweet little thing and see if she can make it. Hopefully, we’ll be a foursome. If not, we’ll be a…” I waggled my eyebrows at him, “threesome.”
Grant chuckled. “That’s funny. I was giving her hell about threesomes the other day.”
I spread my arms wide. “Like the good old days. All about pleasing the little lady.”
He snorted and headed off to his bedroom. When his door clicked shut, I pulled out my phone and tapped Journey’s number.
She sounded breathless when she answered. “Hey, Nash.”
I grinned. “Hey, sweet little thing. You all finished at the park?”
“Yep. Already left and heading back to my place.”
“Now, you be careful bikin’ and talkin’, you hear?” I knew she liked my Tennessee talk so I poured it on a little thicker.
She laughed, and my cock twitched. Damn, I loved that laugh.
“Alrighty, pumpkin pie, I’ll be careful. I’m using my earbuds so both hands are on the wheel. Don’t worry yer pretty little head about it.”
It was my turn to laugh. “See? I’ll be havin’ you talkin’ like you have a hayseed in yer mouth any day now.”
“What’s a hayseed?”
Fucking precious.
“I’ll have to show you all about that someday soon, but right now, I’ve got an important question for you. Want to have dinner with me and a friend around six o’clock tomorrow?”
I found myself holding my breath as I waited for her response. The seconds ticked by. Damn. She was going to say no. Why in the hell did it feel like a sucker punch?
“Nash… I…”
Pushing to my feet, I walked to the floor-to-ceiling windows looking out at the park. “Hey, it’s no big deal. We’ll make plans another day.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know you were going to be back this weekend.”
True. I hadn’t known that either. “Seriously, it’s okay.”
“Will you be in town all week?”
She actually sounded hopeful. “Some. I need to do some site tours, but I don’t have the dates confirmed for that. But don’t make plans for next weekend. I want you all to myself.”
There was a long pause. “Nash, my sister is coming home on Saturday.”
Fuck.
And this was why dating the same person was so complicated.
“I want to spend Saturday with her, but Sunday, maybe we can be together then? She has a friend who likes to visit Sunday afternoons.”
The spoiled kid inside me who was used to getting what he wanted mentally stomped his foot, and I was tempted to tell her to just forget it. But, dammit, I liked this girl. And as the old saying went, everything worth having was worth working for… or something like that.
“Sunday sounds great, Journey. I’ll work on my travel schedule and shoot you off a message. Maybe we can hang out a little this week too.”
“I’d like that.”
“You would?” Dammit, I sounded like an anxious boy.
“Yeah, I would.” Her voice softened, and I heard a rattle. I tried to place the sound. Chaining her bike? Maybe. Just knowing that she had no better transportation made me feel guilty. If this thing stuck between us, I needed to see about taking care of her better.
“Where are you now?”
“Home. Well, running up the steps of my building. Oh…” Her breathing changed. “Excuse me, Charlie.”
I gritted my teeth. While we were in St. Thomas, Journey had told me about her asshole ex-super and his pervy son.
“Excuse me,” she said again, louder this time. “I need to get through.” My hand tightened on my phone until she murmured, “Thank you,” and I could hear her footsteps on the stairs.
“Everything okay?”
“Yeah. Same stuff.”
“I don’t know why your asshole landlord doesn’t just kick his ass out. I need to look up the building owner, call him, and give him a piece of my mind.”
There was a smacking sound, then a rattling sound. Then she was back. “Sorry, I tripped and dropped my phone.”
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah. But seriously, don’t bother the owner. He’s a, um, nice man. He told me if Charlie bothered me that he’d pay some fine to get him and his dad out earlier, but I don’t think it needs to come to that.”
There was a rattle of keys. A door opening. Closing. The turning of locks and slide of bolt.
I closed my eyes, picturing her dropping her purse and keys on the table by her door, maybe pulling the elastic from the ponytail she was wearing earlier. Getting undressed. Stepping in the shower. Washing those sweet little breasts, that ass, soaping between her legs.
My eyes snapped open.
For him.
She would be doing all of this for him. For some reason, it made me want to throw my phone through this window.
Which was a problem.
It smelled of jealousy. And I might be a lot of things, but jealous wasn’t one of them.
I stared at my reflection appearing like a ghost in the window.
A metaphor.
As Journey prepared to meet this other man, I was like a ghost hovering in the periphery of her life.
“Nash?”
I turned away from the window. “Yeah, darlin’.”
“I’m sorry, but I’ve got to get ready.”
I closed my eyes, then opened them again. This could be fun.
“No, darlin’. I want to talk to you while you’re getting ready for your date.” I was tempted to have her FaceTime me, but I doubted she would go for it. That could be a game for another day. “Put me on speaker, and I’ll keep you company.”
She laughed. “Are you serious?”
“Completely.”
The sound quality changed. “Are you naked yet?”
This laugh was deeper, sexier, and I closed my eyes, imagining every inch of her skin. “Maybe.”
I groaned. “Tell me.”
“Well, my shoes are off, and I’m sliding my socks off now.”
“Sexy.”
“I think I need my calluses shaved off again soon.”
“Not sexy. Move right along.”
That effervescent laughed echoed through the room. “Well, now I’m removing my shirt, and… ooohhhh yes, my bra. Give me a minute. Even us flat chested girls need a moment to give praise when these things come off.”
Moving through the apartment, I sat back down on the sofa, leaning my head back against the cushion, smiling all the way. Journey wouldn’t make it five seconds as a sex talk worker, but she was funny.
“There goes the button, and yes, the zipper. Want me to take my pants and panties off separately or together?”
“I want you to take them off together, then I want you to take a picture for me, darlin’.”
“Um, no.”
“Please.”
She was silent for so long, I thought she might have hung up on me. Then, there was a click. Holy shit? Was she really doing it?
A moment later, my phone vibrated in my hand.
I about dropped it before I was able to get to the message. Hot damn. There was an image.
I clicked.
Damn.
“Very funny, funny girl,” I said, looking at a picture of her piled up pants and panties.
She laughed so hard, she actually snorted a little. “Well, you weren’t specific.”
“True. Lesson learned.”
In the background, water turned on. Her shower. She was about to be naked and wet. My cock began to stiffen, and I shifted my shorts to give Godzilla a little more room.
I didn’t tell Journey, but my only somewhat of a girlfriend in college gave him that nickname. I liked it, and it stuck. Of course, when we broke up six days later, the damn girl had started a Facebook page called Nash Douchezilla Levington. I actually kind of liked that too.
The water pattern changed, and the hiss of a shower curtain closing signaled that she was under the stream. We’d showered together in St. Thomas, so I knew how she looked with water streaming down her very well.
“Talk to me, Journey.”
“Um… I’m washing my hair.”
She was losing interest. If I was honest, so was I.
I was more of a visual creature. And I needed to go upstairs and take a shower myself. Maybe rub this erection she gave me off and take a much needed nap.
“Journey, I’m going to let you go now, darlin’. Let you get ready in peace.”
The shower curtain hissed open and her voice was clearer. “I’m s—”
“Don’t apologize again, darlin’. We went into this thing with both eyes wide open. We know what it is and what it isn’t. You have fun, and I’ll be seeing you soon.”
“Yes. Soon. Bye, Nash.”
“Bye, darlin’.”
Then I did exactly what I intended. I went upstairs, took a shower, and rubbed one off.
But when I laid down on the bed, I didn’t sleep.
At all.