Tangle (Dogwood Lane 2)

“Learn what?” I bark. “That I have to make it clear I don’t want to marry every woman I date? I do that. I lay out what I want, how I see things—all that shit. I set expectations. I couldn’t be clearer if I had them sign a contract.”

I swing the truck to the left, heading for the forested hill.

“Our father is an attorney. You could get one drawn up,” Jake says with a chuckle. “Or just stop screwing with the crazy ones.”

“The problem with that is you can’t always tell the crazy ones. I didn’t know Liz was nuts until I told her she wasn’t getting the cock anymore.” I ponder this. “Maybe it’s my cock that makes them crazy.”

Jake snorts. “Yeah. I’m sure it’s that. Hang on for a sec.”

He puts me on hold. I take a left and slide farther out of town, my mind drifting to Liz.

Liz did something that’s never happened before: she scared me. In all my escapades, I’ve never met a woman who behaved like she did. Who nodded and smiled as I told her what was up—that we could see each other when I was in town. Fuck around. Have dinner. I thought she was cool with that.

Turns out she wasn’t.

The way she sobbed when I told her our relationship had run its course was something I won’t soon forget. The tears. The heaving. The proclamations that she may never be okay again. As if it’s my fault she read entirely too much into every word I said and every action I took . . . except for the words and actions I meant for her to take to heart.

I’m used to women becoming attached. It happens. But I’m not used to that, and if she thinks she’s going to guilt me into spending time with her, she’s wrong. I don’t need an extra arm or a woman stuck to my side. The thought of either makes me want to jump over a cliff. Variety is the spice of life, and I like my life spicy. Like Haley. She’d give my life a bit of spice for a while, I bet.

“I’m back,” Jake says. “Shit hit the fan on the bridge project today. I’d stay out of here if I were you. I’m gonna go nuts this afternoon.”

It’s my turn to laugh. “Will do.” I take in the greenery and solitude. “This is a good place to lie low. Slow down a bit.”

“You mean sleep with one at a time.”

“Believe it or not, I never get involved with more than one at a time. I do have morals, brother.”

“Good. I don’t,” he jokes. “But I do want to thank you.”

“Yeah? What for?”

“For dealing with the house so I don’t have to. Even if it was for selfish reasons.”

“Well, it was perfect timing. And even though it might’ve been a little selfish, I think I can save us some money. It’s quite possible sending the CFO of a construction company to a jobsite might not be the most asinine thing in the world.”

“You act like you don’t know anything about construction,” he scoffs. “You could’ve gotten your engineering degree instead of one in accounting and one in business administration. Then you could’ve taken over this side of things.”

I smack my lips together. “Anyone can manage a house. Only one of us, meaning me, can add. Someone had to do the hard stuff.”

“You’re an asshole.”

“True,” I say.

Jake laughs. “All right. Call me later and fill me in on the house, and make sure I don’t have a coronary after this management meeting today.”

I start to respond, but my attention is pulled to my mirrors. A little black car flies up behind me and rides so close to my bumper I can’t see it in my side mirrors. To repay the jerk behavior, I ease off the gas and slow my pace to a crawl.

The dust starts to settle as our speed decreases. The car behind me blares its horn.

“What’s going on over there?” Jake asks.

“Oh, some asshole just flew up . . . on . . . me . . .” I reach up and adjust my mirror. A slow smile splits my cheeks. “It’s her.”

“It’s who?”

“Her,” I say, shaking my head. “What the hell?”

“Liz? She followed you down there?”

“What?” I ask, the sound of Liz’s name shocking my system. “No. Not Liz. Haley.”

“I’m confused,” Jake admits. “Who’s Haley?”

My grin grows wider. “Oh, just a sweet-as-hell woman I met in the café this morning.”

“For fuck’s sake, Trev. You just got to town.”

“What can I say? Women love me.”

“You could say all the things you just said, like how you need to slow down,” he says, mocking me. “Or how you’re putting the brakes on your conquests.”

He continues to jabber on, but I tune out. Haley’s hair has been piled on top of her head. She’s biting a nail as she drifts back and noses into the other narrow lane to see if anything is coming. So I move my truck into the center of the road.