“I’m out and no worries. I’m pretty sure I’m going to have a cool scar from it. I did get a remote control car out of the deal. Not to mention, the phone number of the very sexy elf who delivered it.”
“I’m pretty sure you’ve got your fantasy creatures mixed up. Fairy and elf are two different species.” His smooth laugh rolled through the speaker as I stepped under the shade of a tree. Passing traffic made it a little hard to hear. “I’m just walking in from my lunch break, so I can’t talk long. I’m glad you’re up and about, Slade.”
“Me too. I’m off work for two weeks. I work on a fishing boat.”
I paused. “Shit. If there’s anything I can do, just let me know.”
“Actually, there is something. You can keep me from being bored out of my mind. Britton, the real reason I called was to let you know that I found out where Damon is. He’s working for a pool contractor in California.”
“What? How did you find that out?”
“Fairies aren’t the only ones with magical powers. Plus, I waited outside the county jail and asked the guy who stabbed me. I dropped the charges. My brother and I met him as he walked out.”
“And he told you?”
“Turns out that without a knife in his hand, he’s pretty fucking easy to intimidate.”
“California?” After my actions had nearly cost Slade his life, I’d been trying hard to convince myself that I needed to give up on finding Damon. But Perris’s death was still an open wound.
“What do you say, Tink? How about a road trip to sunny California? We could stop along the way in a couple of cheesy motels, and, well, you know what happens inside those cheap, sleazy rooms.”
“But your injury? Are you sure you’re up to it? All of it, I mean.” I’d thought so many times of that one night we’d spent together that thinking about it now was making my pussy warm.
“You underestimate me, my little sweetie. A little gash won’t slow me down, if you catch my not-so-subtle meaning. Besides, the stitches come out in three days. It occurs to me I know little about you, including where you work.”
“Why, I thought you already knew,” I said. “I’m working for Peter Pan.”
“Hmm. Should I be jealous?”
“Uh, have you seen the way the guy dresses? I don’t think you have too much to worry about. I work in an extremely unexciting insurance office. I’m off on the weekend, and I’ve got some vacation time saved up. I suppose I could stretch a weekend for a few extra days.”
“Great. Sounds like a plan.”
“Are you sure about this? I mean, I’ve already got you caught up in my dirty laundry.”
“If we don’t go, I’ll probably end up sitting on the couch playing a marathon session of video games while shoveling chips and blue sports drinks down my gullet. By week’s end, they’ll be carrying me out on a stretcher with the controller glued to my hand, my lips and teeth stained blue and in a salt coma from all the chips. You’ll be doing your civic duty by saving me from that.”
I chuckled, and it dawned on me that anytime I was talking to this man, I was smiling. “Well then, I don’t want to shirk my civic duty. When do we leave?”
“Friday. What time do you get off?”
“I’m off at five, but I don’t really have a permanent address—” Just admitting I had no home made me feel like such a loser. I wondered, briefly, if this was far crazier than anything else I’d done, which, considering the events of last week, was saying a lot. “I’ll come to you. Just text me your address. I’m assuming you want to take my car?”
“Unless we can both fit in that remote control car. Only I’d have to put the wheel back on because there was an incident with my neighbor’s lawnmower.”
“Why don’t we just stick with the people-sized car. I’ve got to get back to my desk.” I paused. “Hey, Slade, thanks.”
“See you Friday, Tink.”
I hung up and headed back to the office. I wasn’t completely sure anymore what my motives were for finding Damon. Answers, an explanation, a chance to tell him face-to-face what I really thought of him, or maybe I just needed something to ease my pain. No matter what the reason, the notion of hanging out with Slade for a few days, away from my own bleak existence, sounded way too good to pass up. It was all a little insane and impulsive, but then, I hadn’t been in my right mind since I’d lost Perris.
Chapter 11
Slade
I’d realized this was only the third time I’d seen Britton. I opened the door. She was standing on the front stoop wearing a pale blue sundress, sandals and that smile that I’d been thinking about nonstop since the first time I saw it.
“Holy shit, Tink, warn a guy before you show up at his front door looking like that.”
She looked down at her dress. “Like what?”
“Like this.” I waved my hand in front of her like she had a habit of doing to me. “Come inside and I’ll grab my duffle bag.”
“Do you live here alone?” she asked.
“No. My brother, Hunter, and his wife, Amy, live here too. I’m saving to get my own place. Sort of puts a crimp in the whole newlywed thing with me always hanging around.” I walked down the hallway and grabbed my duffle. Britton was standing in the center of the room when I returned. Her cropped, shiny dark hair was combed off her picture perfect face. Her big brown eyes surveyed the faded and slightly dusty furniture.
She walked over to the family pictures on the wall above the couch. We’d never moved them. They were as much a part of the wall as the cracks in the plaster. I looked at them about as often as the cracks too. My mom had felt unusually sentimental one day and she’d decided to frame the few pictures we had of our childhood. Dad yelled at her for putting nail holes in the wall, but she never took them down. It had been one of her rare moments of standing up to my dad. We’d never talked about the pictures, but I was sure that was why we never took them down.
Britton wiped away some of the dust with her finger and leaned closer, giving me an extremely nice view of her silky legs. “This must be you and your brothers.” She leaned even closer. “Oh my gosh, you were all so adorable.”
“Adorable. Now that is a word I never heard used to describe the Stone brothers. Especially not in this town.”
She turned back to me. “When was this one taken?”
I walked over and glanced at it as if I’d never seen it before. But I knew exactly when and why it had been taken. There were so few memorable occasions and pictures to remember that I’d never forgotten any of them. “My brother, Hunter, the giant with the goofy grin was ten in that picture. I was nine, and Colt, the pretty guy here with the dark hair and mischievous smile, was seven. Hunter won that bike in a raffle. He’d returned a bunch of empty bottles for cash and used the refund money to buy a raffle ticket at the local hardware store. He bought the winning ticket. It was pretty cool. Of course Colt and I could only look at it and touch it, occasionally, but we were all stoked about him winning it. Except my dad. Nothing ever made him smile.”
She stared at me with those chocolate brown eyes that could look right through me. “That must have been awful. Where are your parents now?”
“Mom died when we were still in school, and Dad died when Hunter was eighteen. Bad heart, bad liver, bad aura.”
“Bad aura?”
“Yeah, it’s a theory of mine. You know how they say people walk around with an aura that sort of reflects their character? I figured my dad’s aura was so black and bitter, it finally got tired of having to float around him and just sort of swallowed him up.”
Again, her dark eyes gazed up at me.
“Shit, Tink, I’d swear you are reading my mind when you look at me like that.”
She hopped on her tiptoes, pressed her palm against my face and kissed me lightly on the mouth. “I
don’t need to read it. You just told me a lot.”
I’d revealed more of myself to her in a few short minutes than I ever had to any other girl. I wasn’t sure why except I knew she’d listen. And she had . . . with that face that really did look as if it belonged in a magical story. “What about you, Tink? Are your parents nearby?”
“Iowa, which is close enough, thank you. But really, I do love them. They worry that I’m too wild and reckless and well—impulsive. They’re right for the most part. Anyhow, my sister’s death has really aged them. I go to see them on holidays, but being home”—she paused—“it’s hard.” She walked over and glanced at a few more pictures. “Let’s change subjects. I don’t want to start our road trip on a downer.” She looked around the room. “I take it you grew up in this house?”
“Yep. Excuse the general ugliness of the place. We aren’t really big on interior design . . . or cleaning for that matter. Although it is way better in here now that Amy lives with us.” I put my duffle on the floor and walked over to her. My gaze dropped down to her dress. “Just so you know, that dress is making my whole day.”
She held out her arms and spun around once. “You like? I’ve never been to the desert, but I hear that Palm Springs gets really hot. I thought this dress would work.”
“Uh, you do realize that there are hundreds of miles and at least two dark and dingy motels between here and Palm Springs?” I ran my finger under the thin strap of the dress. “And I’m pretty sure this dress will have to come off more than once during that time. In fact, I’ve got to get this over with right now so I don’t keep thinking about it while I’m driving.” I looked at her. “I do get to drive, right?”
She pointed a long finger at me. “Ah ha, now I see the whole reason behind this road trip. You just wanted to drive my car.”
“I admit, the car played a part.” I curled my arm around her waist and pulled her against me. “But this was my real motive, and it’s purely selfish.” I lowered my mouth over hers and lush, plump lips met mine. I kissed her long and hard enough that her body nearly melted into mine as she softened in my grasp. I lifted my mouth, and her long lashes fluttered open. “Damn, you taste as sweet as you look. I’m glad you walked back into my life, Britton. I haven’t stopped thinking about you since that first night.”
“That’s because you are walking around with a stab wound that I caused.”
“True. But that’s not it. There’s just something about you, and it’s not just this.” I went to wave my hand, and she grabbed my wrist.
“All right, let’s make a promise right now to stop the hand waving and referring to each other as this.”
The front door opened and Hunter and Amy walked inside. A huge smile broke out on Amy’s face the second she saw Britton.
She walked right up to her as if they’d known each other for years. “You must be Britton. I love that pixie haircut. It goes so perfectly with your beautiful face.” She lifted her arms. “I’m Amy. I guess I should introduce myself before I give you a big hug.” The hug followed. Britton smiled.
“You’ll have to excuse Street, I mean Amy, she gives the word outgoing a whole new meaning. By the way, this is Hunter. You probably already guessed it since the house sort of tilted on its foundation when he stepped inside.”
“Nice to meet you,” Hunter said. “Where are you two going?”
“California desert. Road trip, baby,” I said.
“Vegas?” Hunter asked with some interest.
“Palm Springs,” I answered.
He raised a brow. “You’re going all that way to watch old guys drive around in golf shorts?”
“Yep. Of course, if you two are going to miss me too much—”
“Fuck no,” Hunter said. “Why are we even holding you up?” He looked at Britton. “Thanks for peeling him off the couch.”
I picked up my bag. “I’ll see you when I get back on Tuesday. Come on, my tantalizing little travel buddy, somewhere out there is a sleazy motel room with our names on it.”
“Sleazy motel rooms and Palm Springs,” Amy repeated. “Actually, that sounds fun.” She kissed my cheek and hugged Britton again. “Drive safe.”
Chapter 12
Britton
A bump in the road jostled me awake. Cool ocean air was squeezing through the vents. I pushed the hem of my dress down over my thighs. The sky was dark and the curving coastal highway we traveled on even darker. I stretched my arms forward to relieve the kink in my shoulders and back. A long yawn erupted from my mouth. “I’m one heck of a traveling buddy, aren’t I? How long was I asleep?”
Slade looked at the clock. “About an hour, I think.”
I sat up straighter and reached for the bag of pretzels at my feet. “Sorry about that. I haven’t been sleeping too well.”
“You mentioned something about being between places.”
“Yeah, I’ve been staying at one of those pay by the week motels near work. I’m pretty sure the bed mattress is stuffed with old rags and rocks. But I guess you managed to stay awake without my riveting company.” I held the bag of pretzels up for him, and he reached in to grab a few.
“That’s mostly because your dress was distracting me. It kept inching up as you were sleeping, making it impossible for me to get drowsy.”
“Is that right?” I raised a brow at him. “And just how high did my hem go?”
“High enough to let me know that you’re wearing lavender panties.” He looked at me. “A nice color by the way.” He pushed a pretzel into his mouth.
I made a show of pushing my dress down farther. “A gentleman would have looked the other way.”
He nodded as he swallowed the pretzel. “Yep, I guess a gentleman would have.”
I laughed and reached forward to turn up the music. We were traveling along the Oregon coast. Most of the highway ran along the edge of cliffs, giving a wide and never ending view of the Pacific. At night the water was an invisible black with only the white frothy wave tips to assure you it was still out there. The massive, jutting rocks so common to the western coastline looked like the humps of a giant gray sea monster. During the day, the outline of the giant outcroppings would look almost furry from the shroud of sea life lounging on their surfaces. But at night, the rocks looked lonely and quiet.
I relaxed back. “When I was a kid, I only got to see the ocean twice, on family vacations. I always knew I wanted to live near the coast just so I could see it all the time. Love that salty tang that never leaves and the pungent smell of green, turbid water.”
“Can’t imagine not being near the ocean. I’ve lived just a few steps from the beach my whole life. I’ll have to take you out on our boat sometime.”
“I would love that.” I put the pretzels back down. “How did Hunter and Amy meet? They seem like they’re perfect for each other.”
“Those two have been destined to be together since we were kids. It was a like a weird, prearranged marriage that nobody actually arranged. We just knew that they’d be together. Amy, or Street, as we call her, grew up next door to us. She was always around. Like us, she had it pretty rough, so I guess you could say we all survived childhood together. She’s like a sister to Colt and me, but there was always this unspoken connection between Hunter and her. It just took my thickheaded brother awhile to see it.”
“Street?”
Slade laughed. It was the kind of smooth, deep laugh that you wanted to record on your phone so you could listen to it when you were feeling blue.
“When Amy was twelve or something like that, she’d decided to start a lemonade stand on the street corner. Didn’t go too well. Then she got the idea to sell kisses—just to the boys we went to school with, you know, neighbor kids. We were her best customers, my brothers and me. Somehow, we got into the habit of calling her Street Corner Girl like in the Led Zeppelin
song and it stuck.”
“How cool. Damn. I want a nickname like that.”
“Is Tink not cool enough?”
“I guess it’s all right, but it didn’t come from Led Zeppelin.” I pointed at him. “And you are the only person who gets to call me that.”
“See, that makes it even better.” He handed me his phone. “I put in the address of the motel. What off-ramp are we looking for?”
“We’ve got about ten miles to go.”
“Shit, ten more miles to think about those damn lavender panties.”
I turned in my seatbelt a little to face him. He always looked exceptionally big sitting in the driver’s seat of my little car. “So, you’re the middle brother?”
“Yep. I think that’s why I’m less warped than Colt and Hunter. Hunter is the quiet, stoic, show no emotions unless absolutely necessary type. Colt is the deep, heavy on feelings type. He has an amazing girlfriend named Jade.”
“And you?”
“I’m not heavy on emotion, and I tend not to take things too seriously.”
“So I noticed.”
“I think not letting things get serious was part of my survival technique. Growing up, if I’d let things get into my head, I’m not too sure I would have made it to adulthood.” He paused as if he was thinking about what he’d just said. As if it was the first time he’d actually said it out loud.
“See, you can take things seriously,” I said quietly.
“When I feel the need to. For awhile, Colt, Hunter and I worked together doing—well—let’s just say making money. But now we’re all doing our own thing. Colt and Hunter are busy fixing up an old house to sell. For me, I love working on the water. It’s the one trait I inherited from my old man.”
“I’m going to assume that since we’re on this road trip together there is no significant girl in your life.”
“I’m the last Stone unturned or I guess the last Stone wolf. Get it? Like lone wolf.”