Random (Going the Distance) (27 page)

Smoothly, however, he sets the bag down on the table and starts taking things out of it. “What can I do for you, Kate?” he says in a perfectly calm voice. “You remember Jess. I’m sorry I didn’t introduce you properly before. Jess Donovan, my sister Kate.”

“We met.” Her gaze dismisses me. “Can we talk? In private?”

Tyler meets my eyes, as if to make sure we’re okay. I nod. “Can I get the keys to your car?”

He pulls them out of his pocket and tosses them to me. “I’ll be right back.”

Carrying my toast, I pad out to the car in bare feet and unlock the trunk, grab my clothes and pad back in.

Brother and sister are talking in the studio, and I try to shut out even a stray word, but between the front door and the bathroom door, I catch a snippet.

“…slumming it with young girls and grow up?”

“You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Oh, you’d be okay with taking her to a family dinner, then?”

“You don’t know her,” he says, which sounds like he’s standing up for me—sort of.

But I don’t want to hear any more. I close the bathroom door and start the shower to shut them out completely. That thick dread is back in my gut, stealing away all the pleasure of the morning.

I’m getting sick of that bait and switch, let me tell you.

* * *

It’s only as I’m getting dressed that I realize I forgot to pack one important thing. A fresh pair of underwear. Under other circumstances I’d just wear the ones from yesterday but…they’re on my bed at home. My work skirt is black denim and plenty long enough. There’s no help for it. I’ll have to work commando. Maybe, I think, smiling to myself in the mirror and remembering the outrageous sex we had last night, it could add some interest to the day. I’ll wait to tell Tyler until later.

It gives me a cheerful secret that balances out the tension Kate brought with her.

When I come out, dressed and braided and made up, Kate is gone. Tyler smiles and comes over to kiss me. “How’s my girl this morning? You ready for breakfast?”

“I’m good.” He smells great, like soap and shaving cream. “You must have been up for a long time.”

“I really didn’t sleep.” He gives me a funny tilt of the head. “It was great.”

I pull back and look at him. His eyes are slightly red, but otherwise, he looks as amazing as ever. “Good work session, then?”

“Maybe. I might have figured out some things.” He brushes the hair back from my face. “We’d better eat before we’re late for work.”

He’s set the table with pastries and cantaloupe and coffee. It’s a peaceful scene, so much better than when Kate was here. “What did your sister want?” I ask lightly.

“There are some family issues brewing, and she wants my support against our mother and older sister.”

“I got the impression before that you were enemies.”

He shrugs a little. “Enemies unless we’re allies.” He sips his coffee, his eyes cold. “Necessity makes bedfellows of us all.”

I let it go.

Chapter TWENTY-TWO

L
ena is working, of course, and I remember that Kate recognized that shirt as one Lena had given him, but I’ll think about all that later. Right now I have to focus on work, on tips and good service, and getting my rent together.

They’re letting me have a full section today, and I’m excited as the shift starts. Mollie is on with me, along with another girl named Susan, and we make a pretty good team. Lena is behaving for the moment, and when I head back to the soup bar just as we start to get busy, I catch Tyler’s eye. He grins back at me and comes over to pretend to give me instruction about the service.

He glances over his shoulder. “I can’t stop thinking about last night. That was the hottest sex I ever had.”

My one worry is that we didn’t use a condom. Rookie mistake. But I give him the smallest of smiles. “Maybe tonight will be even hotter.” I look over my shoulder to make sure we’re out of earshot. “Guess what?”

“What?” He leans into me, only our arms touching.

“In the rush last night, I didn’t pack any panties.”

He looks at me, and those bars of red heat show on his cheekbones. “What do you mean?”

I raise an eyebrow and ladle soup into a bowl, settle it on my tray. “What do you think I mean?”

A harsh sound slips between his lips. “What if you bend over too far?”

“I won’t.” Thinking we’re still playing, I tease him. “But what if I did, by accident?”

“Don’t even say that!” His eyes blaze. “I can’t believe you did this. Why didn’t you tell me so we could go by your house?”

Stung, I pick up my tray. “Because I thought you might enjoy it.” I push by him. “Excuse me.”

As I carry the tray out into the restaurant my heart is pounding and it takes everything I have not to cry with humiliation. I serve the soup and I feel air on the backs of my thighs, so I stiffen, trying to be sure nothing shows. Tyler has followed me out, and I feel his glare from across the room, judgmental and furious.

“Can I get you anything else right now?” I ask my customers.

“This looks great, sweetheart.”

Carrying my tray at my side, I check a couple of other tables on my way back toward the kitchen to pick up another order. Tyler catches my arm just above the elbow as I pass, his grip fierce. “I need to talk to you. Let me take you home and we—”

I yank my arm out of his grip, and my mind is a whirl of images. Jake calling me a cunt when I was there supporting the band even though I was so exhausted I wanted to fall over. Somebody—somebody I trust and who supposedly was either my friend or my boyfriend—landing a punch that blacked my eye and flung me into the hands of a couple of nasty guys who thought they could do anything they wanted to my body. I think of Rick breaking into my house.

And more, I think of Tyler creating trust and beauty between us, and now he’s snatching it away. My lungs feel shredded with a mix of hatred and love, loss and betrayal, and…courage.

Very clearly, I say, “Fuck you, Tyler Smith. I am not some windup doll you can program to do your bidding.” I glare at him intensely. “Do you hear me?”

He lets me go. I glance at the bar, where Lena is watching us without any expression at all.

I ignore them both and get busy with what matters. My job. Me, myself and I.

* * *

But of course there has to be more, because that’s the way life has been lately. One thing after another after another.

My shift is nearly over, and I’m filling salt and pepper shakers, and wiping down mustard containers and the honey bears on every table when Kate strolls in. She has her sunglasses on top of her sleekly cut shiny hair and she sits down at the bar. “Hi, Lena,” she says. “How are you doing?”

“Fine.” Lena seems wary, and I watch the pair of them without bothering to hide my interest. She continues to put glasses away, but I see her send me a glance. Her body is straighter, more rigid.

I move to the next table, a few steps closer.

“You’re recovering?”

“Don’t, Kate.” Lena puts another pair of glasses in place and turns away.

“Will you send Tyler out to talk to me?”

“Sure.” Lena raises her chin at me, and the gesture’s not unfriendly. “Jess, will you go get Tyler and tell him his sister is here?”

I arrange the condiments exactly right and take my time. “Sure.”

Tyler is sweeping the floor. He looks up when he sees me, and I can tell he’s going to apologize, but I hold up a hand to stall it. “Your sister is here.”

“Fuck. What does she want now?”

“Who can tell with you guys?”

“Jess—”

I turn on my heel. “I don’t want to hear it.”

As I return to the dining room, the door opens and in walks Rick. Because the day isn’t bad enough already. He doesn’t look like the pitiful guy Lucy has been describing in her Facebook messages. His hair is freshly washed and he’s wearing a pair of mirror sunglasses. His green t-shirt is one of my favorites, fitting his long body well, and it’s tucked into his jeans. He sees me and smiles, lifting one hand.

For a long minute I’m not sure how to handle it. If I ask him to leave he’ll probably make more of a scene than if I let him say what he wants to say.

I hope so, anyway. Grabbing a menu from the counter, I approach him. “Hi, Rick. Did you want a table?”

“In your section, please.” He doesn’t smell like a vat of Jack Daniel’s, either. That’s a good thing. Maybe he’ll be sane.

I show him to a table by the window, as far away as possible from the bar and the triad of Kate, Tyler and Lena. Tyler is staring at us so hard that we should technically be bursting into flames.

I ask quietly, “Rick, what are you doing here?”

“I just came for a sandwich.” He gives me his best smile, and it’s pretty good, I have to admit. White teeth, nice mouth. But there’s nothing about him that calls to me anymore.

A scene is not going to be good for me. “Fine. What can I bring you to drink?”

“You have craft beers, right? What’s a good one?”

“A wheat beer?”

He winks. “Sounds good.”

A beer means I have to go to the bar. Tyler says, “Do you want me to get rid of him?”

“No, he’s fine.” From Lena, I order the wheat beer Rick will like. “Extra orange slices, if you don’t mind.”

Kate is leaning on the bar, swinging a foot, watching me closely, looking between me and Tyler. She’s almost smiling.

I’m really sick of these people.

Lena gives me the extra orange and leans in so the others won’t hear. “Do you know that guy?”

And I realize that she thinks he’s hot. “His name is Rick. He plays in a band called White Stags.”

“Classy.”

I half grin. “Definitely.”

Tyler has perched gingerly on the bar stool next to his sister and is giving the appearance of listening with one ear, but he’s watching Rick as if he thinks Rick will suddenly throw me on the floor and rape me. It’s making me nervous, and I spill a little beer on my way over to the table. “One minute,” I say after I deliver the beer, then grab a bar towel from the table I was just polishing, drop it on the spill, then squat to pick it up.

I know that Tyler is watching every single move, and my body reacts against my will. I know he’s thinking about last night, about sitting in that calm beautiful restaurant. He’s thinking about the way our bodies responded to each other. I’d bet a million dollars that he’s hard as a rock.

It’s weirdly satisfying to stand at Rick’s table, feeling Tyler’s eyes on my body, and say, “What would you like?”

Rick points to the menu, but he says, “I just wanted to tell you that I’m sorry for being such a jerk. And that we have a gig at Thompson’s in two weeks.”

“Thanks.” I hold the notebook in my hand. “The soup is really good today. Cream of potato or minestrone?”

“It’s too hot for soup. You’re too hot for a guy to think about soup, anyway.” He touches the side of my leg, slides his hand higher up the back.

In that instant I know I’m going to lose this job, too.

Because Tyler explodes like a Tasmanian devil in a cartoon, crossing the space between the bar and the table so fast that I hardly have time to pull away with a slap to Rick’s hand. “No touch—”

Tyler hauls Rick to his feet. “Out.”

“Fuck you, man.” Rick flings Tyler’s hands away and sits back down.

I put my hand on Tyler’s arm. “Stop. I’ve got this.”

His eyes are blue fire. “Did you
know
he was coming today?”

“No, don’t be stupid.”

Now Lena has materialized. “Hey, Ty,” she says in a voice that makes plain they were really, really close and maybe not that long ago. Jealousy rises like a snake in my throat. “Why don’t we step away and let—”

He yanks away, reaches down and takes Rick by the arm again. “You need to go. Right now. I was there when Electra said she’d call the cops.”

“Tyler, I’m fine.
Let me handle this!
”

He doesn’t even seem to hear me as he hauls Rick violently out of the chair, which goes clattering on its side. And of course Rick came in for a fight, and now he’s got it, and they explode.

I fly backward, horrified for a second, shocked at the violence in Tyler. His fists are like anvils, slamming so hard into Rick’s face that I’m afraid he’s going to kill him. “Tyler!” I scream, and drag on his arms, trying to stop him. It doesn’t work, and I leap on him bodily from the back, my legs around his waist, my arms locked around his neck. “Stop it! Stop it.” I dig my hand in his hair and yank hard.

A memory blips through my brain and flies away…My dad, my mom? Something.

Rick falls, his face bloodied beyond belief.

Tyler stops. “Fuck,” he says.

Lena says, “Dude.”

I slide off Tyler, pulling my skirt down. Customers have plastered themselves against the wall and I’m shaking in every muscle in my body as I pull my phone out to dial 911. “We need an ambulance at the Musical Spoon,” I say calmly. Rick sits up, waving his hand. “Don’t be stupid,” I say, and give the address.

Tyler hasn’t moved. I look up at him, and there is the worst expression on his face—regret, sorrow, agony. Lena puts her hand on his shoulder, then walks away.

Tyler sinks into a chair, drops his head into his hands.

An hour later he’s in jail for breaking parole.

* * *

It’s nearly nine o’clock that night when a knock comes at my door. I’ve been dozing on the couch for hours, exhausted from crying and so depressed I feel like a house has fallen on me.

Whoever it is will have to wait. I pull a pillow over my head.

The knock comes again. “Child, it’s Electra. I have some news about your friend.”

I fling the pillow away and rush to the door, only realizing as I yank it open that I don’t know which friend she means. Tyler? Rick?

She takes in my appearance without a word. “What’s up with you?”

I step back from the door and let her in, sinking down on the couch. “Long story. Long day.”

Sitting beside me, she takes my hands, and I realize it’s not going to be about Tyler
or
Rick. “I’ve been checking in on your friend Virginia since the first night, and I wanted to come tell you that she’s gone. Passed away early this morning.”