Chapter Eight
Three hours later I swung the door to Marge’s Diner open and strolled in like I owned the place. I had seen my dad, I had gone home to shower and change, and I’d had 2.5 cups of coffee. I was fierce and unstoppable, ready to find the person who had put my dad into a coma. If the sheriff couldn’t find himself a drunk driver, I sure as hell could.
No one was going to get away with this.
I was a force to be reckoned with.
Or, at least, I was until I saw Asher leaning against the back counter, talking to some brunette with a huge rack and a too short skirt. I rolled my eyes and walked to the other side of the counter. Someone sure didn’t waste any time.
I sat down and pulled my coat closer to my body, hoping it would shield my body from him somehow. Marge’s was one of the only places in this town you could get breakfast at any time of the day and I was definitely craving breakfast, and it didn't hurt that they had killer pancakes.
Of course, it was always packed. I should have suspected that Asher might be here but, silly me, I thought he might have been at his job. I snuck a glance at him now. The girl he was talking to threw her head back, letting her hair fall further down her back as she laughed at something he said.
Oh, please, like Asher was that funny.
He had on a pair of dark blue jeans and a tight dark green long sleeved shirt, a pair of dark boots on his feet. I let my eyes travel further up his body until they landed on his crotch. The thought of his huge cock I knew was inside made me feel light headed and I forced myself to look away.
“What can I get you, honey?” The woman in front of me looked down at me with a pad in her hand and raised eyebrows. “Cause I’m pretty sure Asher isn’t on the menu.”
I felt my face flush. She had no idea.
She chuckled to herself. “I wish he was, it would do a hell of a lot for business, not to mention my tips.” She grabbed a menu out of her pocket and slapped it down in front of me. “I’ll give you a minute and send some coffee over in the meantime.” She winked at me and waddled away, shaking her head.
Clearly, she was used to girls falling all over Asher.
Well, not this girl.
I dug around in my bag and pulled out a pad and pen. I needed to write down everything I knew about the night my father had been hit. Maybe something would jump out at me and tell me where I was supposed to go next.
Half a cup of coffee and five minutes later my list was looking small. As much as I hated to admit it, we didn’t know much. Two nights ago my dad had been on his way home from a night shift at the produce cropping place in town when a drunk driver had blown through a red light and hit him head on at 88 miles per hour.
By the time the cops got there my dad’s truck was completely smashed in and the car that had hit him was nowhere to be found. This wasn’t the city, there were no traffic cams to look at and any witnesses had shown up to the scene after the cops had received the first 911 call.
I looked at the paper again, turning the facts over again and again in my mind. There had to be something, something I was missing here. I slapped my hand down on the counter and shoved the words in front of me across the counter, growing more annoyed by the second.
“Hey,” a voice said from next to me. “What did that paper ever do to you?”
I swirled around on my stool and locked eyes with a pair of blue eyes.
I was startled for a second by how blue they were, the kind of blue that managed to cut right through you without permission. He had dark blonde hair that fell perfectly on his forehead and a complexion girls would die for. Not to mention a body that looked like he’d spent hours in the gym perfecting.
I sighed. “Sorry, it’s been a long few days.”
“You,” he told me, moving a seat over so that he was right next to me, “look like you could use some oatmeal.” He took off his black leather jacket and let it fall toward the side of the seat he had moved from.
“Oatmeal?” I raised my eyebrows.
He nodded. “Oatmeal makes everything better.”
“Um, yeah, maybe if you’re like a hundred years old.”
He held his hand over his heart in mock hurt. “Oh, you kill me.” He leaned over the counter and called down to the opposite side of the diner. “Carol, make it two bowls of oatmeal today, one for my friend here.” Carol nodded and the stranger turned back to look at me. “You can thank me later.”
“That’s debatable,” I informed him. “But normally I don’t go around taking breakfast foods from random strangers in the middle of the afternoon, so maybe you wouldn’t mind telling me your name?”
He grinned. “Josh but I’m not a stranger.”
“I think I would remember meeting you,” I said.
“I know, I know, cause I’m so good-looking, right?” He leaned back in his chair and stuck his chest out, making a big show of how full of himself he looked. On anyone else, it would have been annoying but for some reason it made me let out a few high-pitched laughs.
“No? Well, this is the second time you’ve hurt my feeling in ten minutes, thanks for that.” But there was a glisten in his eye that told me he didn’t mean it. “You’re Bella, right? I was sorry to hear about your dad, he did a job with me a few years back, nice guy.”
My temporary smile faded. “Thank you for that.”
“Does the sheriff have any leads yet?”
I sighed and looked down at the paper I had been so angry at minutes before. “Nope, nothing, which is why you saw me having such a fit when you first got here… I just keep going over what I know but nothing makes any sense.”
He glanced at the pad. “Mind if I take a look?”
I shrugged. “I’m not sure it will do much good but go ahead.”
Josh gathered up the paper in his hands, studying the little facts that were on it intently. When Carol set the oatmeal down in front of us, mine in a bowl and his in a to-go bag, he reached into his pocket and pulled some money out to pay for it without losing contact with the paper.
“The car,” he said suddenly, looking up.
“What about it? It was completely totaled.”
He shook his head. “Not your dad’s car, Bella, the car that hit him. A car doesn’t hit someone at that speed and walk away with no damage. Someone had to have helped them get it out of there. I would start with all the garages in the area, see if anyone brought in a car that night or morning with severe front end damage. A lot of times if someone pays extra mechanics will keep their mouth shut unless people start putting them on the spot if you know what I mean.”
For the first time since I got home a sliver of hope popped back into my body. The car, of course. I had been focusing on my dad and his truck so much that I had almost overlooked the one clue that could lead me to finding some answers. “Find the car and find the driver,” I whispered.
“Exactly,” Josh grinned.
“Little close, aren’t you?” A voice growled from behind us.
Asher looked like he was about to take Josh and throw him against the wall before he beat his body into a pulp. And judging from what I had seen last night, it wasn’t an action that was out of the question.
Josh smirked. “Oh, Asher, it’s great to see you, too. Beautiful day out there, isn’t it?” He grabbed his oatmeal off the counter and nodded at me before turning around to leave. “Good luck, Bella.”
Asher watched him until the door swung shut behind him and then snapped his head back around to look at me accusingly. “What were you doing talking to that guy?”
He looked like he was two seconds away from chasing after Josh and breaking his body apart across the counter. His chest was beating so fast that I could read the rise and fall of his heart perfectly.
I’d never seen a jealous side of Asher before, and as petty as it may have been, a part of me liked it. I felt like someone was stabbing me in the chest every time I saw another girl even look at him. Maybe he was starting to see how I felt a little bit.
“He was helping me.” I turned my back on him and pulled the pad I had been using to write notes on closer to me. “He’s really nice, actually, going out of his way to give advice to strangers.”
Asher scoffed. “Josh Parker doesn’t help people unless there’s something in it for him, Bella, trust me on that.” He sat down next to me, his anger still evident. “I want you to stay away from him.”
I laughed too loudly and picked up my spoon, digging it into the oatmeal. “Oh, I forgot you have a say in who I do or don’t talk to now.” I shoved a spoonful of oatmeal in my mouth and practically gagged.
Ugh, it tasted horrible.
“You hate oatmeal.” Asher grabbed the spoon out of my hand and pushed the bowl across the counter. “And not a say in who you do or don’t talk to, Bella, just him. You need to stay away from him. Could you please just trust me for once in your life?”
“I do like it,” I said sternly, reaching over him to take the bowl and then shoving a big spoonful into my mouth for emphasis. “And trust you? Yeah, cause that worked out so well for me the last time.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” He moved closer to me, brushing his arm against mine and sending shivers up and down my legs. “Bella, I’m not messing around here, Josh isn’t the kind of guy you want to be around.”
“No.” I moved away from him. “You’re the kind of guy I don’t want to be around.” I jumped up from the stool and threw a wad of money down on the counter to cover my coffee before taking off out the door.
I’d just made it back to the truck when Asher grabbed me by the arm, swinging me around to face him. My back slammed into the driver side door and Asher pressed his body so close to mine that it made it impossible for me to move. “What the hell is your problem, Bella Reynolds?”
His face was so close to mine that if I stood on my tippy toes my lips would be on top of his. I could feel the beating of his heart in his chest. Close enough to see the start of stubble that was coming in across his perfectly tanned chin. Heat rose up in my body and it took all my self-control to not reach out and run my hands across his chest.
My legs felt like jelly, ready to crumble under him.
He reached out and ran a finger across my bottom lip, rubbing it back and forth slowly as I completely lost my ability to breath. “Stay away from him, Bella, do you understand me?”
I titled my head into his touch, allowing the humidity between my legs to grow. I wanted him to lay me down in the back of his dad’s truck and have his way with me right then and right there. I wanted him to treat me like his private piece of property that he could do anything he wanted with.
But the blonde girl from this morning popped into my head and snapped me out of my trance. I moved my head away from him and slipped out from under him. “Why don’t you worry less about who I’m talking to, Asher, and more about who your girlfriends talking to?”
Asher frowned. “Girlfriend?”
“Yeah, you know, your girlfriend.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “About 5 feet tall, blonde hair, looks at me like she wants to kill me?” I shrugged. “Or at least that was the way she looked when she threatened me this morning.”
Realization came over Asher’s face. “Ashley. She’s not my girlfriend.”
“Does she know that?” I gathered my hair off the back of my neck.
“Of course she knows it, did she hurt you?” He moved closer again.
“Of course she didn’t hurt me,” I told him, playing off his words. “Give me a little credit, I’m not a complete pussy.” I hooked a hair tie off my wrist and linked my hair up into a loose bun.
“You sure about that? You seem like you’re all pussy to me,” Asher said suggestively. I looked away so he wouldn’t see my blush and after a second he continued, “Ashley isn’t my girlfriend, okay? This is more important than some silly jealous girl thing, Bella, you don’t know what this guy is capable of.”
“It seems like the only person who’s jealous here is you.” I moved toward the front of the truck again, determined to drive off and leave him in the dust so he could see how it felt for a change.
Asher pulled me closer to him, forcing me to look him in the eyes. “I’m not jealous of Joshua Parker, trust me.” He stepped back, looking my body up and down like he was undressing me with his eyes. “Not even close.”
My panties were completely soaked by then.
How the hell was I supposed to get anything done in this town if every time I saw Asher Dawson my private parts turned to mush? “Whatever you say.” I tossed the keys to the truck to him and took off across the parking lot. “Thank your parents for me but I’m fine, really, it’s not really any of ya all’s business.”
“Do you always hook up with people and tell them to mind their own business?” Asher called loudly after me, dangling the keys back and forth in his hands. A few people who were getting into their car a few spots over stopped to look at us.
“Shh!” I hissed, making my way back over to him. “Would you keep it down?”
“Why?” Asher shrugged. “I have nothing to hide. Do you?”
“It’s not the whole damn town's business what happens in your sheets!”
He grinned. “So you can’t stop thinking about it, huh?”
Was he kidding? Of course, I couldn’t stop thinking about it! He had touched me in a way no man ever had and had a cock that was the size of a small village. Did he think I was going to just wake up and forget about all the things he had made me feel last night?
I wasn’t him.
Not like I was going to let him know that though.
“No, I haven’t, I’ve been a little busy.” The people next to us sat in their car, not making any effort to move along. The guy in the driver's seat rolled his window down, not even bothering to hide his noisiness. “Could this town be any more in my business?”
“Who gives a fuck if they hear or not?” Asher looked like he wanted to scream the fact that I’d sucked the hell out of his dick last night from the mountaintops. Why didn’t he just print up some flyers and hand them out all over town? It would be a heck of a lot easier on him.
“Me!” I protested. “I give a fuck!” I moved closer to him, lowering my voice and pulling him closer to the truck. “Look, Asher, let’s not do this, okay?” I pushed the emotion out of my voice, desperate to not give myself away.
“Do what?” he played dumb.
“This.” I waved my hands back and forth between the two of us. “Last night was… it was clearly a mistake and judging by the number of girls you have chasing you around this town and the fact that we can’t be in the same place for more than two seconds without it turning into a fight, I think you know that.”
Asher didn’t say anything for a second, a blank expression on his face. “A mistake… right. That makes sense.” He stuck his dad’s keys in the front pocket of his jeans and backed away from me toward the other side of the parking lot. “You’re right, Bella, I’m not a good guy. You should really stay away from me.”
“Asher…” I trailed off.
“No, it’s cool.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Seriously. I mean, it was just one night, right? Take care of yourself, kid.” And then he was gone. Walking away from me with the same confident and easy walk I had known most of my life.
I knew I had been the one to set the words in motion, but hearing them out of his mouth stung more than I wanted to admit. And had he just called me kid? I sighed and waited until he was safely back inside of the diner before I risked getting out of there.
This was for the best.
Nothing good was going to come from stirring back up old habits with Asher Dawson. I had enough on my plate as it was. The last thing I needed was to get wrapped up in a bunch of drama with some guy who wasn’t even a thing. From now on, I would avoid Asher Dawson at all costs.
And the sad thing was; I had almost convinced myself it was true.