Knowing when to say enough was enough, I slipped my jacket over my shoulders and started walking towards the front door, going unnoticed by everyone in the room.
I opened the door, swinging it wide, and was surprised to find a man standing there with what looked to be a young, gangly teenager glaring daggers at the man.
My guess it was because the older man had the boy by the collar of the shirt, and he was fisting it so hard that it was digging into his neck.
“Yes?” I asked, eyeing the man with a raised brow. “Is there a reason you have to hurt him?”
The man sneered at me. “Do you know who I am?”
I shook my head. “No. But that doesn’t mean you need to be hurting this boy. Let him go. It’s probably really hard to breathe.”
The man let the boy go. “My name is Ronnie Prescott.”
I raised my brows as if to say, ‘and,’ which caused his face to go a little darker shade of red.
“Uh, huh,” I waited for the explanation.
“Jonah was on my property looking for his brother. His brother, however, does not live on my property, and the next time I catch him trespassing I won’t be nice and bring him back.”
With that lovely statement, Ronnie Prescott left, taking his ugly loafers and three-piece suit with him.
I turned to the boy.
He looked a lot like Downy, except he had brown hair.
He had the freckles. The eyes. The same pretty blue ones that I’d seen on another woman for the last half hour, were Downy’s as well. Which only made the ache in my heart I was experiencing even worse.
“You okay?” I asked, stepping out into the night.
He nodded. “I’m okay. I was on my way to a friend’s house, and my car broke down about a mile that way.”
My eyebrows creased. “Aren’t you fifteen?”
At least that was what I’d thought Downy had said. Fifteen wasn’t old enough to drive a car.
He nodded. “Yes.”
“And you’re driving?” I asked.
He nodded, and I closed the door.
“Did you want to go in there? You’re more than welcome,” I said, stepping down from the steps and walking towards my car. “Or I can give you a ride to wherever you need to be. I don’t have anything better to do.”
His shoulders slumped in relief. “Would you? That’d be great.”
Huh. So he didn’t really want to see his brother. Interesting. ‘Cause neither did I.
I nodded and gestured to the POS, as I liked to call it. “Get in.”
Once we were down the road a little ways, I saw the broken down car.
It was a beater nearly the same as mine.
“What, did you go find a car on the side of the road and buy it for a steal?” I teased.
He nodded. “Yes. That is exactly what I did. How did you know?”
I shrugged. “I did the same thing.”
As I said it, I ran my hand down the cracked and broken dash lovingly.
He gave me his first genuine smile I’d seen on him in the ten minutes I’d known him.
That wasn’t like Downy.
Downy was always smiling.
Well, except for today. I didn’t think I’d actually seen him smile today, which was unusual for him.
He was normally so happy and upbeat, but today I’d guessed his missing smile had to do with the fact that I’d crashed his party.
Whatever the fuck the problem was, I was out. I couldn’t do it anymore.
I was fairly positive that my heart was broken, too.
“Where am I going?” I asked.
He pointed in the direction past Downy’s property. “My friend lives at the end of this road, about two miles down. I wasn’t really going to see Downy. I was just cutting through his property to get to Tim’s.”
I nodded and pulled onto the street, following his directions before I came to a stop just at the bottom of the drive.
“Do you want me to take you all the way up there?” I asked when I saw a boy on a four-wheeler waving at him.
“No, I’ll get out here. Thank you,” he said, tossing me a smile before he got out and started running towards the boy.
The boy grinned and gestured to the back of the 4-wheeler, which caused Jonah to quickly jump on and slap his friend on his back.
The boy took off, raising dust and rocks in his wake, causing me to smile for the first time in nearly four hours.
Ahhh, to be young again and not have a care in the world.
Now it was back to reality for me.
The reality where Downy no longer belonged to me.Chapter 15A girl always judges her men after her daddy. Lord help you if that man is a biker, ‘cause you’ll never fill his shoes.
-Life Lesson
Memphis
“Hey, darlin’, how are you doing?” My dad asked me as he answered my phone call to him.
“I love you,” I said sweetly.
He snorted. “What’s wrong?”
“I want to come to the rally,” I said quickly.
It was the next morning and I’d come to a decision. I wanted to go somewhere.
I’d waited up for hours for Downy to come over, but he’d gone to his own bed.
His own bed, I’d noticed, at exactly fifteen past midnight.
I’d been listening, waiting up for him.
Except he’d come home, and gone to his own room instead of mine. I’d listened while he’d puttered around in his room, placed his gun on the nightstand, and took a shower.
Then I’d listened to him fall asleep, and kept listening until his nightmare had started.
That’d been when I’d gone into the living room to sleep on the couch.
I couldn’t handle listening to him cry out in his sleep, and not go to him.
It’d be even better if he’d tell me what those nightmares were about, but all he ever said was that they were ‘nothing.’
I’d let him change the subject one too many times, and now he didn’t even bother to give me excuses anymore, he just ignored me when I asked.
Which pissed me off.
Immensely.
Just another piece of wood on the fire…
Now I just needed to get my head on straight, and what better way than to spend my long holiday at my daddy’s sponsored run? The run that was specifically planned for one of my best friend’s ever. Sean.