Beauty from Pain (42 page)
Authors: Georgia Cates
Tags: #romance, #adult contemporary, #m leighton, #samantha young, #georgia cates, #down to you, #on dublin street, #beauty from pain, #beauty series, #up to me
with my folks. In fact, our relationship hovered somewhere around
the mutually tolerable area which is why my mom sent Shaw to drag
me home each weekend. We were both from a small town called
Brookside, in an affluent part of Colorado. I moved to Denver
as soon as I had my diploma in hand. And Shaw was a few years
behind because she was younger than me and also because she had
wanted nothing more than to get into D-U. Not only did the
girl look like a fairytale princess but she was also on track to be
a freaking doctor. My mom knew there was no way I would make
the two hour drive there and back to see them on the weekends, but
if Shaw drove and came and got me, not only would I feel guilty for
making her take time out of her schedule to get me, but that I had
no excuse to not go. Shaw paid for the gas, waited for me to
stumble out of bed and dragged my sorry ass home every single
Sunday and not once in going on two years had she complained about
it
“
No, I was busy all week.”
I
was
busy, but I
also just didn’t like talking to my mom, so I had ignored her all
three times she had called me this week.
twisted even tighter on the steering wheel. “She was calling
to tell you that Rome got hurt and the Army is sending him home for
six weeks of R&R. Your dad went down to the base in the
Springs yesterday to pick him up.”
I bolted up in the seat
so fast that I smacked my head on the roof of the car. I
swore and rubbed the spot that made my head throb even more.
“What? What do you mean he got hurt?” Rome was my
older brother. He had three years on me and had been oversees
for a good portion of the last six. We were still tight and,
even if he didn’t like all the distance I’d put between me and my
parents over the years, if he was injured I was sure I would have
heard it from him.
“I’m not sure; Margot said
something happened to the convoy he was in when they were out on
patrol. He was in a pretty bad accident I guess. She
said his arm was broken and he had a few cracked ribs. She was
pretty upset so I had a hard time understanding her when she
called.”
“Rome would have called
me.”
“Rome was doped up and
spent the last two days being debriefed. He asked your mom to call
because you Archer boys are nothing if not persistent. Margot
told him that you wouldn’t answer, but he kept telling her to
try.”
he was home and I didn’t know about it. I closed my eyes
again and let my head drop back against the headrest. “Well
hell, that’s good news I guess.”
“Are you going to go by
and see your mom?” I asked her. I didn’t have to look
at her to know that she had stiffened even more. I could
practically feel the tension rolling off of her in icy
waves.
“No.” She didn’t say
more and I didn’t expect her to. The Archers may not be the
closest, warmest bunch, but we didn’t have anything on the
Landon’s. Shaw’s family crapped gold and breathed money. They
also cheated and lied, were divorced and remarried. From what I had
seen over the years, they had little need or interest in their
biological daughter that was conceived from a union figured out on
a tax form rather than a bedroom. I knew Shaw loved my house,
loved my parents because it was the only semblance of normalcy she
had ever experienced. I didn’t begrudge her that, in fact I
appreciated the fact she took most of the heat off of me. If
Shaw was doing well in school, dating an affluent undergrad, living
the life my parents had always wanted for their sons, but had been
denied, they stayed off my case. Since Rome was usually a continent
away, I was the only one they could get to so I took no shame in
using Shaw as a buffer.
“Man, I haven’t talked to
Rome in three months. It’ll be awesome to see him. I
wonder if I can convince him to come spend some time in D-town with
me and Nash. He’s probably more than ready for a little bit
of fun.”
moved to turn the radio back up a little bit. “You’re
twenty-two Rule, when are you going to stop acting like an
indulgent teenager? Did you even ask this one her name? In
case you were wondering, you smell like a mix between a distillery
and a strip club.”
I snorted and let my eyes
drift back shut. “You’re nineteen, Shaw. When are you going
to stop living your life by everyone else’s standards? My
eighty-two year old grandma has more of a social calendar than you
and I think she’s less uptight.” I wasn’t going to tell her
what she smelled like because it was sweet and lovely and I had no
desire to be nice at the moment.
I could feel her glaring
at me and I hid a grin. “I like Ethel.” Her tone was
surly.
“Everybody likes
Ethel. She’s feisty and won’t take crap from anyone.
You could learn a thing or two from her.”
“Oh, maybe I should just
dye my hair pink, tattoo every visible surface of my body, shove a
bunch of metal in my face and sleep with everything that
moves. Isn’t that your philosophy on how to live a rich and
fulfilling life?”
eyes back open and the marching band in my head decide to go for
round two.
“At least I’m doing what I
want. I know who and what I am, Shaw, and I don’t make any
apologies for it. I hear plenty of Margot Archer coming out
of your pretty mouth right now.”
into a frown. “Whatever, let’s just go back to ignoring each
other. I just thought you should know about Rome. The Archer
boys have never been big on surprises.”
She was right. In
my experience surprises were never a good thing. They usually
resulted in someone getting pissed and me ending up in some kind of
fight. I loved my brother, but I had to admit I was kind of
irritated he hadn’t, one, bothered to let me know he was hurt, and,
two, was still trying to force me to play nice with my folks.
I figured her plan to ignore each other the rest of the way was a
winner, so I slumped down as far as the sporty little car would
allow and started to doze off. I was only out for twenty
minutes or so when her phone started singing The Civil Wars and
jarred me awake. I blinked my gritty eyes and rubbed a hand
over the scruff on my face. If the hair didn’t piss mom off,
the fact I was too busy to shave for her precious brunch might just
send her into hysterics.
“No, I told you I was
going to Brookside and won’t be back until late.” I looked
across the car at her and she must have felt my gaze because she
looked at me quickly; I saw a little bit of pink work its way onto
her high cheeks bones. “No, Gabe, I told you I won’t have
time and that I have a lab due.” I couldn’t make out the
words but whoever was on the other end of the phone sounded angry
at her brush off. I saw her fingers tighten on the
phone. “It’s none of your business. I have to go now, so I’ll
talk to you later.” She swiped a finger across the screen and
tossed the fancy device into the cup holder by my knee.
“Trouble in paradise?” I
didn’t really care about Shaw and her richer than God, future ruler
of the known universe boyfriend, but it was polite to ask when she
was obviously upset. I hadn’t ever met Gabe, but from what I
heard from mom, when I bothered to listen, he was custom made to go
with Shaw’s future doctor persona. His family was as loaded
as hers–his dad was a judge, or lawyer, or some other political
nonsense I had no use for. I was sure, beyond the shadow of a doubt
that the dude had to wear pleated slacks and pink Polo Shirts with
white loafers. For a long moment I didn’t think she was going
to respond, but she cleared her throat and started tapping out a
beat on the steering wheel with her manicured fingers.
“Not really, we broke up
but I don’t think Gabe really gets it.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, a couple weeks ago
actually. I had been thinking about doing it for a
while. I’m just too busy with school and work to have a
boyfriend.”
“If he was the right guy
you wouldn’t have felt that way. You would have made the time
because you wanted to be with him.”
both blond brows raised up to her hair line. “Are you, Mr.
Manwhore of the Century, seriously trying to give me relationship
advice?”
I rolled my eyes which
made my head scream in protest. “Just because there hasn’t
been one girl I wanted to hang out with exclusively doesn’t mean I
don’t know the difference between quality and
quantity.”
“Could have fooled me.
Gabe just wanted more than I was willing to give him. It’s going to
be a pain because my Mom and Dad both loved him.”
“True that, from what I’ve
heard he was pretty much custom made to make your folks
happy. What do you mean he wanted to more than you were
willing to give? Did he try and put a rock on your finger
after only six months?”
curled her lip up in a sneer. “Not even close, he just wanted
things to be more serious than I wanted them to be.”
I laughed a little and
rubbed between my eyebrows. My headache had turned into a
dull throb but was starting to be manageable. I needed to ask
her to swing by a Starbucks or something if I was going to get
through this afternoon.
“Is that your prissy way
of telling me that he was trying to get in your pants and you
weren’t having it?”
me and pulled off the freeway at the exit that took us towards
Brookside.
“I need you to stop by
Starbucks before going to my parents’ house, and don’t think I
didn’t notice you aren’t answering my question?”
“If we stop we’re going to
be late and not every boy thinks with what’s in their
pants.”
“The sky isn’t going to
fall on us if we show up five minutes behind Margot’s
schedule. You have got to be kidding me, you strung that
loser along for six months without giving it up, what a
joke.”
laugh at her. I laughed so hard that I had to hold my head in
both hands as my whisky logged brain started screaming at me
again. I gasped a little and looked at her with watery
eyes. “If you really believe that you aren’t nearly as smart
as I always thought you were. Every single dude under the age
of ninety is trying to get in your pants, Shaw, especially if he’s
thinking that he’s your boy. I’m a guy, I know this
shit.”
She bit her lip again
conceding I probably had a valid point and pulled the car into the
coffee shop. I practically bolted out of the car, eager to
stretch my legs and get a little distance from her typical haughty
attitude. There was a line when I got inside and I took a
quick look around to see if I recognized anyone. Brookside is a
pretty small town and usually when I stopped by on the weekends I
inevitably ran into someone I used to go to school with. I
hadn’t bothered to ask Shaw if she wanted me to grab her anything
because she was being all uppity about having to stop in the first
place. It was almost my turn to order when my phone started
blasting a Social Distortion song in my pocket. I dug it out
after ordering a big ass black coffee and took a spot by the
counter next to a cute brunette that was trying her hardest to not
get caught checking me out.
“What up?”
the shop blaring behind Nash when he asked, “How did this morning
go?”
Nash knew my faults and
bad habits better than anyone and the reason we had maintained our
friendship as long as we had was because he never judged
me.
“Sucked. I’m
hung-over, grumpy and about to sit through yet another forced
family function. Plus, Shaw is rare form today.”
“How was the chick from
last night?”
“No clue. I don’t
even remember leaving the bar with her. Apparently I did a huge
piece on her side so she was a little pissed that I didn’t remember
who she was, so ouch.”
end of the line. “She told you that like six times last
night; she even tried to pull her top off to show you. And I
drove your dumb ass home last night, drunko. I tried to get
you to leave at like midnight but you weren’t having any of it, as
usual.”
I snorted and reached for
the coffee when the guy behind the counter called my name. I
noticed the brunette’s eyes follow the hand that wrapped around the
cardboard cup. It was the one that had a flared head of a
king cobra on it. The rest of the snake wound its way up my
forearm and around my elbow, the extended forked tongue made the
“L” on my ring finger in the tattoo of my name that was inked
across the four knuckles. Her mouth made a little O of
surprise so I flashed her a wink and walked back to the
BMW.
“Sorry dude. How did
your appointment go?”
opened the tattoo shop years ago on Capitol Hill when it mainly
catered to gangbangers and bikers. Now with the influx of young
urbanites and hipsters’ populating the area, ‘The Marked’ was one
of the busiest tattoo parlors in town. Nash and I met in art
class in the fifth grade and have been inseparable since. In fact,
ever since we were twelve our plan was to move to the city and work
for Phil. We both had mad skills and the personality to make the
shop bump with business so Phil had no qualms apprenticing us and
putting us to work before we were both in our twenties. It
was killer to have a friend in the same field; I had a plethora of
ink on my skin that ranged from great to not so great that
chronicled Nash getting better and better at his craft, and he
could state the exact same thing about me.