Heartburn (Love By Design 3)

I wasn’t going to ever get those cookies was I?

She waved shyly from the backseat window of the kid’s shiny new oversized SUV. Privileged little shit. Smoke from the fire still plumed in the air, dissipating into nothing like the night before we spent together. She was strangely quiet this morning, after I got Jeff’s message, but I didn’t think much of it beyond the marathon sex we had and the high I was riding that had nothing to do with illegal substances walking out of the woods with a slight swagger up to her friends’ campsite. Blowing out a breath, I didn’t need this shit.

I didn’t want a brash complicated girl who couldn’t make up her mind and drop me like a hot potato for a younger dipshit jock who was just going to use her anyway. I mean, yeah, sure he was an athletic meat head on his way to play pro football by the likes of things, but could he survive in the woods with nothing more than a knife and the clothes on his back? I thought not.

Feeling miffed that she brushed me off; I gave the dirt near the fire a good kick, sending a rock into the center and ashes billowing upward. It wasn’t fair. It sucked, but she was right, what hold did I possibly have on her? She had a life completely separate from mine and was still in school. I was the older guy she could tell all her friends about who gave her a good fucking in a dirty little cabin in the woods. She got to play out her bad girl fantasies and I got to ride her bare filling her up with my spunk.

Our naughty secret would be whispered at parties over wine.

She’d probably graduate, move back to the hustle of the city, and marry some boring ass banker with a small dick. Part of me hoped she would. I’d haunt her dreams as she fondly recalled how we appreciated each other’s bodies while her banker rutted away making his nightly deposit. It served her right if she cared more about what her friends thought and I didn’t fit into her life beyond today. If she wanted to act like a sexually liberated independent woman, fine. I was all for that, I just didn’t appreciate being strung along. To her, I was just some itch to scratch and I didn’t like feeling used.

That was a first for me.

I wasn’t someone’s brush off. I had a standing agreement with a hippie chick in town if I wanted to fuck around. I didn’t need or want her stroking my ego, if I wanted something stroked I could go visit my friend at Dingleberries who was more than happy to oblige with no messy strings attached and silly expectations. Callista was good like that until she wanted to switch out my boxer briefs with organic cotton and detergent that smelled like sage. It had been a good four months despite Callista’s constant invitations to come over. Trouble was, I didn’t think that was going to work as well as it used to. Not since a brat wearing Goth plaid and purple hair twisted me up and made me rethink my stance on relationships in general.

It definitely turned the tables on me and how I’d treated women in the past. Don’t get me wrong, I’d always been respectful, but I never realized what it might be like to be someone else’s one night stand and quickly forgotten. Certainly puts a man in his place, at least for me.

I groaned out loud watching them drive away. I turned to my jeep and abused the tire with a swift kick that had my toe jamming a second time in the boot before hopping inside. Guess I’d have to satisfy myself with more episodes of GOT and cold beers from my buddy Andy’s pub.

11

Lia

“Dude that ranger was a dick.” Conner complained, a smirk on his face like he got away with something he shouldn’t have. I always knew he was the idiot of the group, but blaming Whit because he was breaking the park rules was stupid. I reached from the backseat to smack him in the back of the head. I missed as he ducked forward and my hand smarted hitting the seat instead.

“Oww, you fucker.” I muttered shaking out my hand. I waited for him to move back and took another try wincing as I made contact this time. Damn Neanderthal had a head harder than a bag of bricks.

Ryder regarded me. A question puckered his brow while his hand tangled with Dinah’s in some secret and illicit grip. “What’s up with that Lia?”

I couldn’t believe he was annoyed with me. Nobody asked them to stay and find me and he had the nerve to ask me what was wrong. The urge to smack him made my fingers burn and twitch. Dinah leaned over him and patted my leg placating me. I left camp because of his cavalier attitude. I left camp because she broke the code between roommates. I left camp because no one wants to feel like the third wheel. It was his fault as much as it was Dinah’s, and it was my fault I got lost and let my emotions rule my direction, but those two didn’t have to be jerks about it either.

“Whit hiked out into the woods during a storm and found me. I don’t think you should be calling him a dick.”

“Still a dick.” Mateo chuckled sounding like a choking hyena and swerving on the road.

“Definitely a dick, bro.” Connor fist pumped Mateo and I rolled my eyes. Had I really sunk so low in the friend food chain?

“Mateo, watch the road.” Ryder snapped shifting in his seat. I don’t know why he didn’t drive his own damn vehicle.

“Besides he didn’t ticket you for the illegal campfire, or the alcohol, or the pot.” I wasn’t entirely clear with myself who I was mad at, but it wasn’t Whit, and if anyone was going to call him a dick, shouldn’t it be me since I saw it up close and personal?

Okay.

Maybe I had hoped after our hot love shack sex fest he would have given me his number or something, but instead he texted his boss, brought me back to my friends and then walked away. Every guy walked away from me and that hurt. I took a mental inventory of what was wrong with me. Wasn’t I pretty enough? Smart enough? Just good enough to get to know beyond a one night stand? What karma fruit had I plucked from the tree of right to land in such a cesspool for relationships? I brushed a frustrated tear from my cheek and stared out the window wishing this ride back to town was quicker down the mountain.

“So was he like MacGyver when he found you?” Mateo turned back to look at me and all eyes zeroed in. Whit kept me from getting hypothermia and saved my life, but he didn’t need to trach me with a ballpoint pen and some duct tape.

“Drive!” Ryder shouted and Mateo slunk back around his seat to concentrate on the one job he had.

Dinah squirmed turning back to me, “Ooh did he have any duct tape or a big knife? Did he have to make a tourniquet?”

“What? No, Dinah. I wasn’t injured.” I wasn’t sure she even knew what a tourniquet actually was. We weren’t building a rocket or a radio. We survived a night in the woods. He was better than some fictional character on television with a PhD in duct tape and a hundred uses for a ballpoint pen.

“That’s too bad. I bet he could have made one of those stretchers out of sticks and dragged you out toward safety.” Mateo tapped his chin and I imagined the hamster inside his head falling off the wheel exhausted with his own stupidity. Luckily he kept quiet and drove as instructed chauffeuring us back to town.

“Bet that dude has a troop of his own.” Connor glanced up in the mirror giving me a smirk.

“You mean a boy scout?” Ryder looked bored and I had no clue why he was even friends with the two numb-nuts up front except that they all played on the same team.