PowerShift: Skid Row Kings Series, #2 (22 page)

“Mitch, you can’t give me a computer.”

“I’m not. I’m just loaning you this one until you can afford to buy a new one.”

“That would be never.” This was crazy. Beyond crazy. “I’ve been writing on paper, Mitch. That’s been working just fine.”

“So, you’ve been writing. How’s it going?”

“It’s fine.” I crossed my arms over my chest. Mitch hit a couple keys on the computer then turned it around to me. “You’re good to go. Like I said, it’s nothing fancy, but it’ll help you with your writing.”

“I’m not going to use it, Mitch.”

Mitch shrugged his shoulders and headed to the door. “Do what you want, Scar. It’s yours if you want it.” He pulled his keys out of his pocket and twirled them around his finger. “I’ll be here same time tomorrow.” He slipped out the door just like he had the past four days and I was left alone again.

I was alone just like I had wanted, but now I wasn’t sure I liked it as much. What the hell was wrong with me?

---

Thursday

Chocolate. My favorite.

At this point I knew Mitch had to be talking to Levi, trying to figure out everything I loved.

My son was a traitor.

---

Friday

“It’s a puppy?” Mitch was holding one of the largest stuffed dogs I had ever seen, and all I could do was laugh.

“Um, yeah.”

“That’s interesting.” I grabbed it out of his hands and held it to my chest. “Levi has wanted a dog for the past year. I guess you can’t rely on all the intel from a four-year-old.”

“Yeah.” Mitch ran his hand over his head and shrugged his shoulders. “I figured you didn’t really want a dog, but Levi has been bugging me for a couple of days. How bad can a three-foot dog be for him?”

“I’m not sure, I’ll let you know.” I juggled the dog in my arms and took a step back. “Are you racing tonight?”

“Naw. The rain isn’t letting up so it was canceled for this week.”

“Oh, that sucks. Is this going to mess up the rankings or whatever?”

“No. It’ll just be one less race. It might get made up at the end or not. But, I gotta get going. You have off tomorrow, right?”

“Yeah.”

“OK, I’ll see you Sunday at ten, then?” I nodded my head, and he disappeared down the stairs.

I shut the door, looking down at the huge ass dog in my arms and I laughed. My son maybe a traitor, but he definitely had his own priorities.

---

Saturday

I wrote. I wrote a lot.

It ended up raining all day and Levi had come down with a cold. He was a whiney, runny nosed mess when he was awake, but when he slept, there was peace and quiet.

After I had gotten some cold medicine in him and laid down in his bed with him, he had drifted off to sleep, and I was able to sit in front of the computer. After I had transcribed everything I had hand written, I was able to keep going.

That was the first time in a long time that I had been able to do something for myself, and I had Mitch to thank for that. He wasn’t even around, but he was still helping to make my life better.

Damn him for making me think of him all the time. His plan was working. Sort of.

______________

Chapter 32

Mitch

I hadn’t seen her yesterday, and it was hard as hell not to go over to her apartment and bang on her door until she let me in. This morning she had answered the door half asleep rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

Levi had launched himself into my arms, shouting that he missed me yesterday. Scarlett had waved us out the door, and we were off to set the next step of my plan into motion. Levi had told me that Scar was writing a lot, and I knew just what the next thing was that I needed to do.

“You think you can talk your mama into going out for pizza tonight?” Levi and I were sitting in the kitchen devouring a plate of pizza rolls.

“You can just take me out to pizza, we don’t need to take Mama.”

“I think taking your mama out would be a good idea. Maybe give her a break from cooking dinner all of the time?”

Levi shrugged his shoulders and popped a pizza roll into his mouth. “I guess.” I ruffled his hair and grabbed the last pizza roll and popped it into my mouth. I may be twenty-seven years old, but I still loved pizza rolls.

“So, you think you can talk her into going out with us tonight?”

“You’re a boy, Mitch. Just pick her up and put her in the truck.”

“Now that is the one thing I don’t think your mama will like. We might have to go with a different plan.”

Levi shrugged his shoulders and hopped down. “OK, but if that doesn’t work, I’ll help you pick her up.”

All I could do was laugh. I guess it was a good idea to have a backup plan.

______________

Scarlett

“Mama! Can we go out to dinner with Mitch?” Levi came blazing into the apartment and ran straight into me. “He said we can go for pizza.”

“Um.” I looked at the clock in the kitchen, realizing it was past six, and I had again forgotten to make anything for dinner. Mitch still insisted on keeping Levi for a couple of extra hours every night, and I had been using those hours to write. Which then led me to lose track of time and normally I ended up making sandwiches for dinner. “I thought I could make grilled cheese for dinner.”

“No, we had that Friday. I want pizza, please.” He looked up at me, a huge grin on his face.

“Do you think maybe we could order in pizza here?” I didn’t really have the money to order in, but if it got me out of having to be in the same vehicle as Mitch, I would do it. My resistance to him was waning and any time I spent with him made me want to be with him.

“No.” He shook his head and waved his finger at me. “We need to go otherwise we have to do Plan B, and Mitch said you won’t like Plan B.”

“Who’s idea was this?” I propped my hands on my hips and put on my best stern-mom face. I could only imagine what plan B would be.

“Mine. And Mitch. Well, mostly Mitch.” Levi clasped his hands in front of him. “Pleeeaaase, Mama. I
need
to have pizza.”

“You’re conspiring against me, Levi.”

“I have no idea what that means, Mama.”

I crouched down eye to eye with Levi. “It means you and Mitch are making plans for Mama without mama knowing.”

“Yup. That’s what we’re doing. Mitch said we need to get you to fall in love with him.”

My heart stopped at his words. I had thought all along that Mitch was trying to get me to start dating him again, but fall in love with him? And Levi knew that was what he was trying to do.

“You think Mama needs to fall in love with Mitch?” I whispered.

“I think it would be cool. Mitch has an awesome car and his truck is huge.”

“So, Mama should love Mitch because his truck is big?” I laughed.

“Yeah.”

“You know if Mama loves Mitch, then he’d be around all the time and maybe one day he might move in with us.”

“Yeah, he can be my new dad.”

I closed my eyes and tilted my head back.

Levi wanted a dad. All this time I had been thinking about Mitch coming into our lives and then leaving, but I never thought about what would happen if Mitch stayed
in
our lives. A dad for Levi, and someone to share our life with.

“Scarlett?” I looked up and saw Mitch standing in the open doorway.

“You want me to love you?” I whispered.

He shrugged his shoulders and leaned against the doorway. “Maybe someday. I figured I would try getting you to at least want to be around me again.”

“You wanna go to your room quick and let Mama talk to Mitch for a second?” I asked Levi.

“We still get to go for pizza, right?”

“Yes, I promise.”

“Yes.” He pumped his fist in the air and ran down the hallway.

Mitch walked in and shut the door behind him. I fell down to my knees and looked up at Mitch. “You couldn’t just let me be, could you?”

“I did.”

“No, you didn’t. You brought me flowers, chocolates, a computer, and a damn puppy. All I did was think about you this past week when I was trying to get over you. No matter how hard I tried not to think about you, you were there.”

“I don’t want you to get over me, Scar. I want you to think about me as much as I think about you. Four weeks ago you walked into the shop and my life and since then, you’re all I’ve been able to think about. I didn’t see you coming, but now that you’re here, I’ll be damned if I let you go.”

“It’s too soon, Mitch. I’m crazy for even thinking about you and I being together.”

Mitch knelt down in front of me and grabbed my hands. “Who says it’s too soon?

“I do. Hell, the whole world probably does, too. If we were in one of those romance novels, we’d have everyone throwing their Kindles and cussing us out for insta-love.”

“Scar, I have no idea what the hell that means.”

“It means we’re absolutely crazy.”

He reached up and cupped my cheek. “As long as I’m crazy with you I’m good with that.”

“Do you have any idea what you’re signing up for here, Mitch? Levi thinks you’re going to be his dad. You don’t get just me in this, you get Levi, too.”

“I was kind of hoping that would happen. You raised one hell of a kid, Scar, and if one day he decides to call me dad, I’d die a happy man knowing I not only had you but him also.”

I closed my eyes and leaned into Mitch’s hand. “Damn if you don’t know just the right things to say.”

“I’m flying by the seat of my pants here, Scar. I have to admit, I thought it was going to take a hell of a lot longer to get you to be with me.”

“Oh man,” I laughed. “And I have to admit it took all of my willpower not to cave sooner.”

“Well, thank God for that,” he mumbled. He leaned in his lips a breath away from my mouth. “I need to kiss you, Scar. I’ve missed you.”

“Who’s stopping you?”

“Fucking no one,” he growled. His lips devoured mine, and his hands delved into my hair. “You’re mine,” he mumbled in between kisses. His tongue invaded my mouth, licking and tasting. I wound my arms around his neck and held on.

“Mama, can I come out now?” Levi shouted from his room.

“Shit,” Mitch mumbled. He stopped kissing me and rested his forehead against mine. “The only drawback, I can’t kiss you whenever I want.”

“You can, you just can’t take my clothes off whenever you want. Kissing is fine.” I pressed a kiss to his lips and ran my hands over his head. “I now see why you wanted to buy Levi, his own bed. Sleepovers.”

“Lots and lots of sleepovers.” Mitch buried his face in my neck, and he ran his hands over my body, tickling me. I fell onto my back, trying to bat Mitch’s hands away.

“Let’s get him, Mama!” Levi yelled, running down the hallway. He jumped on Mitch’s back, wrapping his arms around his neck and started tickling Mitch.

“This isn’t fair,” Mitch called as he reached behind him to grab Levi which gave me the opportunity to crawl out from under Mitch and make a run for Levi’s room. Mitch grabbed my foot as soon as I stood up, pulling me back to him while he tickled Levi with his other hand.

“Now you know how I felt this past week with you and Levi scheming against me.” I squealed as Mitch managed to wrestle me underneath him, pinning me to the ground.

“Alright,” Mitch called, “Truce and we can head out for pizza.”

“Never surrender,” Levi called, riding Mitch like he was a horse.

“Are you sure this is what you want?” I laughed looking up at Mitch.

He caged me in with his arms and leaned down. “I couldn’t ask for anything better.”

“Are you gonna kiss her, Mitch?” Levi leaned down, his head peaking over Mitch’s shoulder. “I think you should kiss her and then we can get pizza.”

“I think that’s the best idea I’ve heard all day, Levi.” Mitch kissed me, short and sweet, but there was so much promise in that small kiss that I couldn’t wait until after pizza and Levi was in bed.

Mitch and I were going to have our first sleepover, but I didn’t think there was going to be much sleeping.

______________

Chapter 33

Mitch

“Are you gonna marry my mama?”

I was tucking Levi into bed while Scarlett was grabbing his Optimus Prime from the living room.

After our tickle fight in the living room, we all headed out for pizza and then spent an hour and forty bucks in the game room trying to win a purple stuffed elephant for Scarlett. We were, unfortunately, unsuccessful.

“Maybe someday, bud, if she would say yes.”

“Can I help you like I did before when you ask her?” He yawned big and snuggled into his pillow. He turned on his side and tucked his hands under his head.

“When the time comes, you’ll be the first one I ask to help me, promise.”

“Awesome.”

“Here’s Optimus,” Scarlett said, walking into his room and tucked it under Levi’s arm.

“Thank you, Mama,” he mumbled. His eyes were halfway closed, and he yawned again.

“Get some sleep, big man.” Scarlett brushed his hair back and pressed a kiss to his forehead. “Sleep tight, don’t let the bedbugs bite.”

“Night, Mama. Night, Mitch.” Levi pulled the blanket up to his chin and closed his eyes. Scarlett grabbed my arm and pulled me out of Levi’s bedroom and quietly closed the door.

“That was pretty easy,” I whispered. I wrapped my arms around Scarlett and pulled her close. “Is it mama and Mitch time now?”

“Hmm, I think it just might be.”

“I’ll lock up the apartment and turn all the lights off. You need to get ready for me.” I pressed a kiss to the side of her neck and swatted her ass as she headed down the hall.

I flipped off all the lights, double checked to make sure the front door was locked and peaked into Levi’s room to make sure he was still out and then I finally opened the door to Scarlett’s bedroom.

Scarlett was curled up under the covers, her head resting on her lumpy, old pillow and her eyes were shining up at me. “I was afraid I was dreaming, and you weren’t going to walk through that door.”

“I’m here, Sparky, and I don’t plan on going anywhere.” I shut the door behind me, and quickly took off my jeans and shirt and slipped under the covers next to her. “We need to get you a couple of new pillows. This one is shit.” I grabbed the pillow out from under her head and crammed it under my head.