Torn (43 page)

“Take off the dress, I want to
see it properly,” he grinned, spinning on his heels and discarding his leather
jacket as he slid his door shut. I shimmied out of it and noticed he’d
obviously discarded my shredded panties, since I was now naked, except for my
hold-ups and shoes. “Loving the view, baby.”

“Hmmm, me too,” I confirmed, as
he ripped his shirt over his head and dropped it on the floor. I lay flat on my
back and lifted my arms up above my head as he straddled me and gazed at it,
then ran his finger over it. I’d only had it done five days ago and had avoided
letting him see me topless until it was healed.

“Ace 44,” he murmured as he gazed
at his nickname and baseball jersey number.

“Close to my heart, and my number
one,” I confirmed, reaching up to touch his.

“I love it, thank you.” He leaned
down to kiss it before sitting up again. “I want another one, somewhere near my
heart, to remember Ma.”

“Have you thought about what?” I
asked, looking at the beautiful piece on his ribcage under my name. He had a
black and gray helicopter with “No longer in the skies, but always in my
heart,” written in fancy script, with the date his dad had died on one of the
blades.

“Nope,” he shrugged with a half-smile.
“But it won’t be a damn bottle of vodka, that’s for sure!”

Sky

Saturday

I pulled on Nate’s shirt from last night,
fished some clean panties out of the drawer I had at his place now, and padded
out to the kitchen, quietly closing the bedroom door behind me. I’d woken
early, and unusually for him, he was still fast asleep. I think the months of
running on minimal sleep while looking after his mom had finally caught up with
him. When he did sleep, it was like a proverbial baby. Josh’s door was open and
I shook my head. He couldn’t live without his caffeine fix in the morning, and
no matter what brands he’d tried, he said none compared to Joelle’s. Since it
was only across the street, that was where he headed every morning now, right
after his shower.

I knotted up my hair, then whisked
up some batter and heated up the waffle iron, putting some bacon on the grill
and wishing I had the day free to spend with Nate. For once he had no practice,
and JT wasn’t backed up, so he’d got the day off. I wasn’t due at work until noon,
so I had some time and was going to make the most of it. I shrieked as I was
tackled from behind, and Nate lifted me off the floor and spun me around,
laughing.

“Do you have any idea how sexy
you look barefoot in the kitchen wearing just my shirt?” he asked, nipping my
ear.

“I have panties on too,” I
laughed, swatting his hands with the spatula I was still holding. “Put me down,
breakfast will burn.”

“Let it burn. I’m more interested
in why you have panties on, that’s just wasting valuable time,” he observed,
not releasing me as he let go with one hand to turn off the grill and the
waffle iron.

“You caveman,” I giggled, kicking
my legs as I struggled to get out of his grasp as he marched me back over to
his bedroom. I screamed as he threw me up into the air and I bounced on his bed,
laughing my head off. I hadn’t seen playful Nate for some time. I’d missed him.

“Shirt off,” he ordered as he
went to close the door.

“I feel like I’m in the twilight
zone, didn’t we do this last night?” I asked as I hastily complied, watching
him step out of his boxers and head toward me, his cock bouncing with each
step.

“There’s no limit to how many
times we’re going to do this.”

“I have to be at work at noon,” I
reminded him with a squeak, as he pushed me back down on the bed.

“Mmmm-hmmm,” he murmured against
my lips as he swept his tongue along the seam. “I meant for the rest of our
lives. I’m going to marry you one day, Sky Torres.”

He pulled his head back and held
my astonished gaze, then did that smile, the one that would have pulled my legs
out from under me if I hadn’t already been lying down.

“I’d like that, one day,” I
replied quietly, my heart cantering as the fireflies in my tummy went crazy
with joy.

“What else would you like? Ten
years’ time, where do you see us?” he asked, his face turning serious. I
reached up and traced his lips.

“I’m not going to scare you if I
tell you?”

“You’ll scare me if you don’t see
us together in ten years.”

“I do,” I smiled. “I see us
married and I see … I see a little boy with beautiful green eyes like his
father, being shown by him how to play baseball, while I’m pregnant with our
daughter, cooking Christmas dinner for us all. I see us holding hands, laughing
and loving each other until we’re gray and old.” I blushed as he gazed down at
me, wondering if I’d imparted too much. This was Nate Hudson, who’d never even
had a girlfriend until me. His face softened and he gently brushed my hair off
my face, then held my chin and kissed me again. A slow, loving, and tender kiss
that made my heart skip a few beats.

“I want that too. All of that,
Sky. And I’m going to make it happen one day.”

“One day,” I repeated, smiling up
at him, never feeling more happy.

“You didn’t say where you saw me,
what I’d be doing. Or you.”

“Because I don’t care, Nate. You
could be the best pitcher in the world, playing in the major leagues and
earning millions, or you could be a car mechanic from Boulder City covered in
grease. I don’t love what you do, I love who you are, in here.” I placed my
hand over his heart, over my name.

“How do you do that?” he
whispered in awe. “You always know the right things to say.”

“It’s my superpower, like kissing
is yours. So kiss me, make time vanish.”

“Once I rip those panties off, I
can show you my other superpower, making my cock vanish,” he winked, and I
burst out laughing.

“Nate Hudson!” I scolded as I
stood at my open drawer, unable to find what I was looking for.

“What?” he exclaimed from where
he was sitting on the end of the bed, doing up the laces on his boots.

“I have no panties left here, you
ripped off the last pair.”

“So?” he shrugged as he stood up,
looking far too proud of himself for my liking. “Go without.”

“To Joelle’s?” I gasped. “First,
so not hygienic in a diner, and second, have you seen my little uniform?” I
asked, as I bent over in front of him in the short white button up with my red
and white striped apron already tied around my waist.

“Jesus Christ, don’t do that in
front of me,” he growled as he spanked my bare ass cheek, “or I’ll be fucking
you again and we’ll never get out of here.”

“You made love to me, Ace, very
sweet and very beautiful love,” I grinned as I stood up and faced him.

“You’ll ruin my damn reputation
if you go around telling people that,” he complained, opening his drawer and
pulling out a pair of his white boxers for me.

“What
the hell
is that?” I
pointed, as I saw a flash of black and silver nestled in with his boxers.

“My gun,” he shrugged, shutting
the drawer as he passed over the boxers.

“You have a gun? How did I not
know this?”

“It never came up. Dad was a
helicopter pilot for the police before he retired and took up tourist flights.
He said he’d seen too much violence to not make sure we were protected at home.
When I turned sixteen, he took me to the shooting range to teach me. When he
died, I kept his gun. Is that a problem for you?” He gave me a puzzled look,
and I shook my head.

“No, I get where you’re coming
from. It just would have been nice to know there was one in the loft, that’s
all. What if I was here alone and needed to defend myself?”

“Baby, they need to get through
two locked doors to get in here, but if it will make you feel safer, I’ll take
you to the range over the summer and teach you, ok?”

“Ok,” I confirmed, slipping on
his boxers and pulling them up high. He chuckled and shook his head.

“Not exactly the sexy panties I
like to see on you, but better than you flashing the customers. Right, someone
put a dent in my hood last night and I don’t have the tool I need to pop it
out. I’m gonna head over to Auto Fix in Henderson to pick one up, then I can
come back and put on my coveralls and grease and spend time fixing her while I waggle
my sexy ass at you as you serve customers. You’ll be so hot for me by the time
you finish. If you promise to tell me, in full dirty and explicit talk just how
hot and wet I got you, I’ll keep on the uniform and fuck you in the garage with
all those grease and gasoline fumes to turn you on even more.”

“You’re evil,” I moaned, throwing
my arms around his neck.

“But you still love me,” he
smiled, teasing my lips open with his.

“Still. Always,” I confirmed,
letting his tongue dance with mine for a while.

“Hmmm, damn, I really need to go
or I’ll be ripping my boxers off you. See you later, Torres,” he grunted,
slapping my ass again, then heading to the door.

“See you later, Ace,” I called. I
clutched my heart as I watched him stride across to the main door, then
disappear.  “I want that, too. All of that,” he’d said. I had to go and sit on
the bed as I tried to catch my breath, beyond overjoyed. To think five months
ago I’d never even been kissed. He’d turned my world upside down. And even
better, it seemed like I’d done the same to his.

I went to make myself a coffee. I
still had over an hour and a half before my shift started, and stupidly I
hadn’t brought any of my textbooks with me to fit in some studying. I heard my
phone buzz and pulled it out of my purse, then groaned when I saw it was a
message from Billy.

I behaved really badly last
night. I’d like to apologize in person, but I’m not feeling so great. Do you
have time to swing by?

I drummed my fingers on the
countertop as I pondered his question. I knew Nate wouldn’t be happy, but Billy
needed to apologize and be told a few home truths as well. I couldn’t exactly
do that freely with Nate or Josh in the same room. Since I wasn’t using my bike
at home anymore, Nate had brought it down here, and it was secured to the water
pipe in the lower lobby by the fire escape. I could bike to Billy’s in under
ten minutes, clear the air, bike back, and still have time to spare before my
shift. I tapped out a curt response, with no pleasantries.

I’ll be there in fifteen
minutes.

I wheeled my bike through the
garage, waving to JT who grinned and waved back, and stepped out through the
large bay doors onto the sidewalk. It was a nice day, far cooler for a ride
than the first one I’d made when I’d met Nate. I felt my phone buzz but ignored
it, figuring it was probably just Billy saying “Great” or something.

I skidded up onto his driveway
and attached my bike to the gutter pipe on his garage, then pulled my phone
out, smiling to see it had actually been Josh texting.

Hey, where are you off to? I
thought you were working today.

Where are you?

Sitting in Joelle’s front
window, drinking coffee and reading. I saw you head off on your bike.

Yeah, don’t tell Nate, please,
but Billy texted me wanting to apologize. I’ve just arrived at his place actually.
I’ll be back in less than an hour, if you can wait for me? We can catch up
before I start work.

I’d barely taken two steps to the
front door when my phone buzzed again, Josh’s picture appearing as he called me.

“Hey,” I answered.

“Sky, leave it,” Josh demanded, sounding
uncharacteristically forceful. “He was a mess last night, I stayed for a few
hours making sure he didn’t choke on his vomit. He wasn’t in a great mood.”

“He wants to apologize, I can
hardly refuse. I’m sure he wouldn’t have sent the text if he didn’t mean it.”

“Then let him come to the diner.
He can apologize while I’m sitting with you.”

“Josh, I’m already here,” I
protested.

“Sky, you know how Nate feels.
He’ll be furious if he finds out you’ve gone there alone.”

“Well, he doesn’t have to know,
does he?” I snapped, sick and tired of all this cloak and dagger crap. “Seven
months we’ve all been friends, Josh,
seven months.
And still none of you
trust me to tell me what’s actually wrong with him. Maybe when you can all be
honest with me, I’ll be honest in return. I’ll see you later.”

I ended the call and switched off
my phone. The longer we argued, the longer before I’d get back there to tell
him in person we’d cleared the air. I trotted up the red brick steps to their two-story
detached and knocked on the shiny black front door, which Billy threw open, then
quickly lifted his hand to shield his eyes from the sun.

“Hey, thanks for coming. I know I
probably don’t deserve it.”

“No, you don’t, but I’m sick of
this atmosphere with us all, so we’re going to hash it out and move past it, ok?”

He nodded and swept his arm,
gesturing for me to step inside. Seeing the interior décor only made me more
angry. His cousins had been struggling a few streets over, and their aunt was
living in a very nice house, offering no kind of support? The entire ground
floor was open plan with high-shine, polished dark wood floors throughout.
There was a glass dining table with eight fancy black acrylic chairs and a dark
wood armoire on my left. To the right was a large white leather sofa in an
L-shape around a glass coffee table, with an open fire and a huge wall-mounted
flat screen TV. Black painted stairs rose beyond the dining room, and the
kitchen was a high-shine black with chrome accents. All of the walls had been
painted in a taupe shade, with white gloss woodwork. It was modern and chic.