A Wild Ride (Jessica Brodie Diaries #3) (4 page)

“I didn’t do it for you,” Adam stated, obviously still sore. “I did it for Jess. And after seeing him, I did it for a couple waved stud fees.”

William nodded in joy. “I can’t be
lieve
you got him!”

We walked back to the house, William having a split lip but a hop in his step. He was like a little kid excited about his new toy.

Once in the house I ran out to get the gifts for Lump and Adam. Lump also had gifts to give and handed those out. Adam went into the back room and got gifts as well.

“Am I the only one that showed up empty handed?” William asked, befuddled.

“Yup.,” Lump said as she handed him a package.

Lump was delighted with what I got her and was thinking of places to hang the bag. I opened hers and it was this perfume I wanted when I was back in L.A. I had forgotten all about it. I opened it immediately and sprayed everyone, much to the chagrin of the boys.

“Jessica.” Adam's voice was filled with awe. He was handling one of the boots like it was made of porcelain. “These are handmade... These are made by... How did you get my measurements?”

“Your girlfriend. She wasn’t happy to do it, but I explained that it had to be done, and unless she wanted me to drug you and take them myself, I would be much obliged if she would help me out.”

He laughed loudly. “
That’s
why she suddenly don’t like you. Did you try to strong arm her?”

“Yeah, sorry. I needed those measurements.”

“Jesus, Willie, she’s as bad as you when she wants something.” Adam laughed harder as he was slipping his foot into the boots.

“Ohhhhh Jessie girl! These are niiiiiice.” He took two steps and whipped me up into a hug, then planted a wet kiss on my cheek. Still hugging me, he turned to William in a defiant look. “I have half a mind to take her to the bedroom.”

“Ew, Adam. And you are squeezing too tight.”

“Oh sorry.” Adam gently put me down, mussing my hair.

I huffed. He grinned back and play kicked at William, who was shaking his head and admiring whatever Adam had given him.

Then I heard a loud gasp. I turned to Lump.

In her shaking hands was the necklace she admired from the jewelry store. She shook her head and looked up at Adam with tears in her eyes. “Adam, I can’t. It’s too much.”

He crossed the room slowly and took the necklace from her hands. He kneeled behind her and secured it.

“It was made for you, Betz. It wouldn’t look as good on anyone else.”

“It’s too much, Adam. I’ve been so horrible to yo--”

“Hush, now,” Adam said softly.

She gingerly laid a hand to her neck, lightly touching her rare treasure.

“Please accept it, Betz. I want you to have it. As a gift, as something that was made for you, and as an apology for causing you harm.”

Her tears overflowed. She stood up, lips quivering. She bent to him, hauling him up by his hand. When they were both standing, facing each other, she looped her arms around his neck and gave him a tight, lingering hug.

William watched the scene with fascination and a knowing smile. I pushed him to get him to look away. He mouthed to me-
He’ll be single in a week!

I opened my last package. It was a picture of a BMW torn in half.

“That knucklehead,” Adam said into my confused staring, pointing at William, “was supposed to give you the other half at the same time.”

“I didn’t know we were doing all this right now!” William said in defense.

“Wait. You guys got me a car?”

“Yeah. He wouldn’t let me get you the whole thing. He didn’t want my gift to be better than his.” Adam grinned.

“Oh-my-god-shut-up! Seriously? You got me the car? Yay!” I hugged William first, then hugged Adam. Then I hugged Lump just because. Best present
ever!
And so needed! Now I could afford that danged bull without feeling so pinched!

“Way over the top, you guys!” I said without any idea of refusing it. I was pampered—I would live with it.

“Alright, we better head. Jessica takes forever to get ready,” William said with a smirk.

“You just wanna tell yer dad about your new toy.” Adam laughed.

It must’ve been true, because the second William got outside he excused himself to quickly go get a snap shot of his bull with his phone.

Lump was saying good-bye to Adam on the porch while I waited in the car.

“I don’t know how to thank you, Adam,” she said softly, looking at him through her lashes.

“Stop hating me.” He gently grabbed her hand.

“I don’t hate you.”

“Then stop fearing me. I won’t never hurt you, Betz. Not ever.”

“But...how can I know that?”

“Because I am giving you my word. How could you know with anyone? We only got our words and our promises. And our trust. You can trust me, Betsy. You could always trust me. I didn’t understand you, but I always respected you.”

“But your past--”

“Is the same as yours. If anyone knows how important it is to be good to one another, it’s us.”

They held eyes for a long moment, he holding her hand softly. With a small shake of her head, she turned away, eyes downcast. She made her way to her seat in the car lost in thought.

Adam watched her without expression, then turned and walked into the house without another word.

“Okay, let’s do this!” William exclaimed, eyes bright, lip bleeding. He’d completely missed the scene on the porch.

After we’d dropped a quiet Lump at Gladis’s, William asked that I drive
my
car,
yay!,
over to his house so we could use the extra trunk space, and let Lump drive it home from the Christmas thing.

William walked me over to my car touching me inappropriately for public eyes. I was laughing, trying to shake him off, when I opened the car door and saw the pink slip. William leaned in close and whispered, "Merry Christmas, my love."

I tried to stop squealing enough to kiss him. I might be closer in age to adulthood than adolescent teen, but I still had my hang-ups.

As I opened the door to climb in, William said, "Wait, Jess. Um..." He looked at me with embarrassment.

“A lady never says ‘um.’”

William smiled, still looking uncomfortable. "So...being the ass that I am, I was thinking I would be a lonely loser about now."

"Yeah, we still need to talk about that." I gave him a firm look, allowing no arguments.

 "Welllll, ah... you know how I like to spoil you, because, you know, I like to see you excited and you are so easily excited--"

"—and because you can, uh huh?"

"Right. Okay, well, I couldn't be outdone by Adam so I wanted to get you a little something else."

"You got me
plenty
! A new freaking
car,
William!”

"Still. So I wanted to get you a little something else. And I was... worried that it was the last time I could make you happy..."

"Okay, you are starting to sound ridiculous."

"I'll explain someday--"

"Today."

"—but...well, I
might
have gone a little overboard."

William’s normal gifts were overboard. I was nervous to see what
he
thought was too much. And a little excited.

At his urging, I climbed into the driver’s seat. Immediately I saw sparkle taped to the ignition. It was two beautiful diamond earrings. I put them on immediately, only to spy a large box through the rear view mirror.

It was a laptop! The latest and greatest! Even the box was light. High-tech!

I turned to grab it but immediately got distracted by two handbags, both high-fashion. Each was filled with more presents.

“William, what…’

Gifts were everywhere. Jewelry boxes, lingerie, shoes—he even got me the romantic comedy I made him watch one rainy day. Among the treasure trove was a CD, homemade.

Everything had a connection to me, my attitude, something we shared together, or something I had said. He had obviously latched onto all the memories he loved and bought gifts for them.

I looked at him wide eyed for a second, not knowing what to say. He was looking back, love oozing around his obvious embarrassment. Way overboard. Unrealistically
way
overboard. Extremely touching, but too much. I wasn’t comfortable accepting this much money for any reason.

“William--”

“Don’t say anything,” he interrupted quickly, knowing what I was about to say. “I had hoped that you would go through each of the gifts and realize what you were losing. That you would remember all the things we had. I tend to get carried away when things don’t go my way...”

“You are insane, do you know that?”

“Yes,” he mumbled with a red face.

“This is all going back, too, you know that, right?”

“Half of it isn’t returnable. The other half...well, I won’t tell you what stores they’re from. I want you to remember the things I love about you; about us. I just wish I wasn’t such an idiot about the whole thing.”

“In all fairness...you had really valid points. I would’ve been thinking the same thing. Difference is, I might’ve given you a flaming bag of dog poop instead of a collection of exquisite gifts, but you are a better person than I am. I accept that. But… not only lack of trust in me, but also in Adam? What gives?”

William sighed. His clear blue eyes turned cloudy as they looked inward. “Let’s talk about this later. We have to get ready.”

“I won’t forget.”

“Oh. I know. Trust me. You’ll latch on this like a dog on a bone.” He walked back to his car, shaking his head.

“As long as you remember that!” I yelled after him.

By the time I reached his house, I’d listened to some of the mix and scanned over the rest. I was deeply affected by his choices. It was all songs from our most tender or memorable moments. Some were from before we were together, and I still remembered those dances or touches like they were yesterday. How different those small things looked from this side. How blind I had been for his deep regard for me. And how deep that regard!

After we were showered and changed, and as we were in the car to pick up Lump, I went for it.

“So...Adam?”

“Another time.”

“William, I have to know. This almost broke us. Kinda.”

His face fell. “You remember Dezeray?”

“Trying to forget her, actually.”

“Be nice.”

I answered in silence. It was as nice as I would get.

“Dezeray and I were together for about a year before she developed an...attachment to Adam. She started trying to sit next to him, talk to him, get to know him. I thought nothing of it since he was a friend of mine. By our second year she was showing up to a few places he would be, without me. By our third year…”

William’s jaw clenched. He waited until he turned a corner before he kept going. “By our third year she went to his house a couple times. Alone. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you why.”

“Did you flip?” I asked in hushed horror.

“I didn’t know. He didn’t tell me right then. He’d rebuffed her and she’d been embarrassed—begged him not to tell me.” William shrugged. “Finally, though, she said his name...while we were...”

“
No!”

“I went immediately to Adam, thinking he’d had my girlfriend. I slapped him one good one before I even said I was pissed.”

“You slapped him?”

“Punched him.”

I nodded, waiting for more.

“Anyway, he didn’t fight back. He laid on the ground and asked what was going on. He knew, of course. I told him what happened, and he slowly got up, hands up to ward me off. He told me he hadn’t touched her, but that she had showed up at his house a few times.

“I confronted her, of course. I was deeply in love with her. It was my first love, after all. I wanted to make it work. We talked it out. She’d said she wanted me. But she never stopped looking at him, probably dreaming about him. It killed me that I wasn’t good enough for her, but Adam was.”

William’s dejected sigh filled the car. It still hurt. My heart ached for him.

“Finally I stopped caring,” he went on. “I even would’ve given my blessing for them. I knew it was time to let her go, then. That I wasn’t in love with her anymore. The deep feeling was there, but it was just a dull ache, bordering on pain.”

William shrugged again. “I thought it was happening all over again with you. You, who I feel for ten times more deeply... I couldn’t live with that again, so I would have let you go. It would have killed me, but I would have let you go.”

“I know how you feel. Lump is my Adam. Most of the guys I dated were my Dezeray. She is a classic L.A. beauty. Actually, Adam is also a classic L.A. beauty. Airbrushed beauty. Although, he’s a bit more masculine when you get to know him. Her, too. Funny. Anyway, all the guys wanted her instead of me. They were happy with me until they met my friend Lump, who didn’t give two shits about any guy. They had to have her. They stayed with me to get close to her.”

He nodded and put his hand on mine. “So..” he said hesitantly, “do you think him attractive?”

I really didn’t want to go down this road, but he would always wonder. Every time I hugged Adam or looked at him, William would wonder. As awkward as this would be, it would put to rest a lot of problems down the road.

“Truth?”

He nodded, readying himself. “Of course I think Adam is attractive. He is a damn good-looking guy. You know that. He has a great body, he has height, he dresses nice—sometimes—and he’s a gentleman.”

William nodded his head, dispirited.

“You and him are similar up to those points. And while I think him attractive, he is more metro-sexual looking. A softer handsome. You are rugged,
manly
attractive. So damn hot you hurt the eyes.” I fanned myself, wanting to get him naked. “Anyway,” I went on, needing to make my point. “You and him are physically similar, and both gentleman, but if you look closer, that’s where the likenesses end. Where he might be a generic suit, you’re tailored Armani. You walk around with grace and confidence, knowing who you are and what you want. Adam kind of picks things up as he goes. He’s more chaotic, the tornado jumping from here to there. You are the hurricane, going full force until you get what you want, then dissolving away.”