A Is for Alpha Male (23 page)

What the fuck?!

My mom, the woman who brought me into the world, had just played one of the most twisted jokes I had ever witnessed, in my twenty-seven year long life, on me.

She straightened her legs from her semi-squat, pushed up with her arms, and swung her legs back up to the main level with almost comedic ease.

Backing away with my hand to my chest, I had to give myself a minute to slow my breathing and bring my heart back to a normal, healthy cadence.

“No offense,” I stated, because if you were going to insult your mom, you had to at least add on some sort of conciliatory caveat, and then continued, “But when did you turn into such a bitch?” The cackle of her laughter echoed in the open space. “You about gave me a heart attack! Can you live with something like that on your conscience?”

Judging by the look on her face, she wasn’t sorry at all. If anything, she looked smug.

“Just think of it as me taking a little bit of well-earned revenge,” she countered.

“Revenge?! Revenge for what? I’m a fucking angel!” I protested loudly.

People started to stare.

Okay, people
continued
to stare. Their eyes had been locked on us since my swan dive.

Starting out with what would be her obvious beef, she stated, “We’ll pretend that you didn’t do something two fricking nights ago that you deserve revenge for. Instead, we’ll focus on the past.”

“Remember when you were sixteen and stayed out all night with Rich Brunson?” she asked rhetorically, raising her bent arms out to the side.

Uh oh. I didn’t like where this was going.

“Well, I was convinced you were going to come home pregnant. Now
that
is real fear,” she stated emphatically, her dainty pointer finger wielding a dangerous amount of power right in my face.

“No way, Rich Brunson didn’t even get any under the shirt action,” I told her, shoving her finger to the side in order to get it out of my vicinity.

“Huh.” She took a step back, crossing her arms over her chest, and her eyebrows rose with her surprise.

Shit, she really thought I let Rich Brunson go all the way?

“I may have been wild, but I wasn’t stupid. I didn’t lose my virginity until I was twenty-one, thank you very much.”

“Seriously?” she asked dramatically, moving well passed surprised and making her new home at
shocked
.

How had we not talked about when I lost my virginity before? I would have thought we would have. We talked about everything.

“Jesus, how big of a slut do you think I am?” I yelled, and then took a moment to survey the scene around us.

Yep, people were staring in a major way now. Gawking, really. Smart phones were out and up. I was pretty sure this was going to end up on YouTube.

Oh well, we were too far into it now. Besides, Allie girl was still oblivious to the audience and telling her about it would be a good way to get her back later.

“At least as big as I am! I lost my virginity at eighteen,” she informed me.

“With Dad?” I asked, unable to completely keep the longing out of my voice.

“Yeah,” she answered, a small sad smile gracing her face as she tilted her head slightly to the side.

“Aw, that’s kinda sweet,” I stated, my voice completely devoid of its previously prickly edge.

I reached out and caressed her arm with my thumb when I saw her emotions and memories start to take over.

“It was,” she confirmed, nodding, her eyes sporting a new, wet sheen.

“Come on,” I said, changing the subject. “Let’s go hang off of the edge and take a picture to prank text Danny with.”

I knew her upset wasn’t all bad, the memory of my dad a truly bittersweet topic, but I didn’t ever like to see her tears. So if there was something to make them stop, I would always do it.

After texting Danny the picture of Allison and I hanging precariously over the edge, I got a return phone call right away.

Danny and I still hadn’t talked, though we had texted and had several brief phone conversations since yesterday. I knew we would get into it eventually as neither of us were the kind of people to hide from reality forever, and for the time being, I was happy to just be talking to him.

Now, in the immediate, I was taking great pleasure in trying to prank him, knowing he was prone to overprotective reactions where I was concerned.

I figured he would be worried, or slightly outraged, or maybe a little of both.

Instead, he practically made my eardrums bleed with the volume of his vibrant, downright rowdy laughter.

What was it with people reacting with the antithesis of what I expected today?

“What the hell?!” I shouted at Danny.

“Babe, I knew it wasn’t real,” he explained.

“That picture looked authentic! It looked like we were fighting for our damn lives!” I protested.

“Hales, no way would you have been taking pictures and sending them to me had your life actually been in mortal danger,” he explained wisely.

Damn. That was a huge oversight on my part. Obviously, stark terror could only be inflicted with this prank in person.

I was about to concede to his point when he added, “Plus, I saw the video of you and Allison on YouTube. Classic.”

Hanging my head in shame, I closed my eyes and let it sink in that our tirade had landed itself on the internet just as I’d expected it would. It just happened really effing fast.

“By the way,” he said, still talking.

“What?” I queried a little snappishly, preparing myself for more things I didn’t want to hear. Perhaps a score for my swan dive. Or maybe a commentary on the loss of my virginity. The possibilities were endless.

“You look really beautiful.”

Oh. Well.

Man.

I never expected the compliments from him, but he always gave them, frequently and freely.

Murmuring quietly, I said the only thing I could. “Thanks, Danny.”

We always talked about me, I realized with startling clarity, so I decided to steer the conversation to him for a change. “What are you up to, Dan-o?” I asked, adding, “Besides pining away for my company of course,” before he could answer.

His chuckle was low, rough, and delicious as he answered, “Just getting ready to go to work.”

“What time is it there?” I asked, always confused by time zones.

“I’m two hours ahead of you, baby doll.”

“Huh. I would have thought only one,” I mused aloud.

“It would be, but the Grand Canyon doesn’t recognize Daylight-Saving time,” he explained like some kind of time zone genius.

“Crap. Whatever. You’re confusing me, so I’ll just take your word that you’re two hours ahead.”

“Good idea,” he replied, his voice betraying his smile.

“How did you occupy your morning?” I inquired further.

“Besides watching you on YouTube?” he teased before finishing, “Reading, of course.”

“Of course,” I muttered under my breath, trying not to be annoyed that he hadn’t spent the time talking to me about things we so obviously needed to talk about.

I had to cut him some slack though. He knew I was in the car with Allison and wouldn’t want to talk about such an important subject with her less than two feet away.

“I definitely see why you like these books so much,” he said casually.

But the feeling I got was anything but casual. It felt really good to be accepted and understood.

“The sex is good, and the dialogue is damn funny,” he explained, and I couldn’t help but agree with him.

“Agreed.” There were more reasons why I liked them, but he was a man. A very rugged, manly man. Just having him say he liked them at all was a victory.

“I also went out on the four-wheeler for a little while, just to clear my head,” he told me, and I could hear a little bit of tension in his voice.

It really was hard on the phone. Not being able to read someone’s expression or survey the way they held their body. Instead, you had to rely on their honesty and the timber of their voice to read their mood.

“Did you tell my baby four-wheeler that its mommy will be back for it and not to worry?” I asked insanely.

“Um, no,” he answered, but said it really nicely.

“Will you go tell it I said hello before you go to work?” I asked, seeing how far I could push him before he told me I was crazy and hung up on me.

“I tell you what,” he said, still sounding amused and happy. “How about I don’t, but tell you I did?”

Fake grumbling with a smile on my face, I said, “Well it would have worked, but you ruined the illusion by telling me.”

His chuckle was infectious, and before long, I was laughing along with him as he told me, “Gotta go, baby. Gotta go tell your baby you said hello, and then run to work.” Then he joked, “The boss really rides my ass if I’m late.”

“Bye Danny,” I told him, my grin cemented to my face so permanently that it didn’t even budge when I looked up and saw Allison watching me with a keen eye.

“Bye, my beautiful Haley,” Danny said like he said it every day. It could have sounded cheesy, but it definitely did
not
. His voice was casual, and his attitude was genuine. I could see his scruffy, dimpled smile as if it was right in front of me.

I pulled the phone away from my ear, hung up, dropped it into my pink tote that was slung over my shoulder, and looked back into Allison’s knowing, turquoise eyes.

She said only one word, but it spoke effing volumes. “Trouble.”

Damn, was she right.

I was in it, it was brewing, and it was bound to take down a bunch of people when it unraveled. Still, I couldn’t seem to go in any direction other than right toward it.

AFTER WE HAD our fill of the Grand Canyon, we got back in the car headed for Vegas.

Discussions were had, and ultimately, we came to the decision to do the unthinkable and continue on with the six hours to Vegas the same day.

It would be grueling, and horrible, and we would likely be resentful of our decision in the end, but at least we could trade off drivers. And when it got really bad, when exhaustion reached its peak and delirium was just around the corner, we could blame each other.

Unsurprisingly, we weren’t very many miles down the road when I received a text from Hunter. The only shocking aspect of the message was that it hadn’t come sooner.

Fucking great. Just the kind of notoriety I’d always dreamed of.

As much as I hated that I was solidly immersed in my fifteen minutes of fame against my will, I knew I could still get some pleasure out of it.

Knowing I would be safe from bodily harm as Allison was the one currently operating heavy machinery, I went for it and let her in on the secret.

“Hey Mamalicious, you know that confrontation we just had after you scared the shit out of me for no reason?” I asked with saccharine sweetness, pretending to look at the state of my fingernails rather than her.

“Yeah,” she murmured cautiously, rightly recognizing the danger my question presented.

“Well, so do twenty thousand plus other people,” I deadpanned, flipping my hair over my shoulder dramatically. “It’s on YouTube. It went viral.”