Undo Me (The Good Ol' Boys #3) (3 page)

I was an asshole, I owned it, and made no excuses for it.

There was no reason to try to deny it. I accepted that title a long time ago. I spoke my mind, I didn’t sugar-coat shit. Whether it hurt someone’s feelings or not, that was their goddamn problem, not mine. Life was too damn short to pretend to be something I wasn’t.

Now, did I use girls?

Fuck no.

They knew what they were getting themselves into. My reputation followed me everywhere. I got more pussy thrown at me because of it. See, girls loved the bad boys. The ones they thought they could change, the challenge, the rule breaker, the game changer. The ones that fairytales were made of, the happily-ever-after’s where Prince Charming swept you off your feet and you rode off into the sunset looking deeply into each other’s eyes or some shit like that.

Bullshit.

Every last bit of it.

I was sixteen years old. My parents just got me a brand new Jeep Wrangler. I came from a home with a loving mom and dad who went above and beyond for me. I had a group of boys that were like brothers to me. I didn't need a girl to love me. I didn’t need a girl expecting things from me. I just needed my cock played with because the best part of being me was that I was hung like a goddamn horse.

Now if you were in my shoes, would you settle for one girl?

Yeah, that's what I thought.

I did what any normal teenage guy would do. The only difference was that I wasn’t subtle about it at all. Why hide it? That’s what got you in trouble.

End of story.

But having a stranger, a hot-as-fuck stranger, call me out on it was completely new territory for me. Yet there I was, lost in thought about her. Except, I wasn’t thinking about her ridiculously, curvy figure that would usually have my cock standing at attention. It was the way she came at me with no fear that had my interest piqued. She had the damn balls to call me out on my shit. What people I’ve known all my life said behind my back, she had the backbone to say it right to my face.

Honesty.

A guy like me could appreciate that, yet I was labeled an asshole for it.

Not that I didn’t enjoy watching her pouty pink lips pucker every time she tried to hide the fact that I had an effect on her. I would even go as far to say she had an effect on me as well. Too many adolescent years spent stroking my dick to images of women that were shaped just like her in Playboy magazines. Her blonde hair lay perfectly against her huge tits. She tried to hide them with a modest-cut shirt that did nothing but the opposite. She stood her ground and glared right fucking at me, making me take in her bright green eyes that had a hint of brown in them. Not once did she cower or lower her intense stare from mine.

She smelled good enough to fucking devour. Honey and vanilla mixed together. My favorite.

The girl was a paradox of contradictions. Her demeanor screamed she hated me, but her body, her body liked me just fine. Which only made me want to get to know her that much more. I loved a challenge as much as the next guy.

“She got to you, didn’t she?” Jacob asked, pulling me away from my thoughts. “Well, I’ll be damned. I never thought I’d see the day. Someone got through to your icy prick—”

“Jacob, stop watching all those Disney movies with Lily or I'm going to have to start buying you tampons. I'd really hate to have to punch a girl in the face,” I mocked.

I may have hit a sore spot there, bringing up Lily. She was Lucas’s baby sister and seven years younger than us. I swear the girl was a spitfire. She was a kid, a youngin’, only nine years old, who was desperately in love with Jacob. Had been her entire life. Jacob though, was oblivious to it. It was his subconscious way of protecting himself from the little girl in pigtails in front of him. The same little girl, that would one day turn into a woman right before our very own eyes and eventually carry Jacob’s balls in a jar.

In the years to come, it would be like Lucas and Alex all over again, history repeating itself, and karma knocking Jacob right in the fucking mouth.

“Her name’s Aubrey,” he announced out of nowhere.

“What?” I glanced at him, pulling into Alex’s parents’ restaurant to meet up with the rest of the boys and Half-Pint.

“You heard me.” He grinned like a goddamn fool. “Aubrey Owens to be exact, according to Kayla.” He showed me his text message. “Oh, she’s a freshman, fresh meat just the way you like them, asshole. She moved here from California with her mom or some shit. Do you want me to get her address too? Maybe you guys could braid each other’s hair.”

I chuckled. Everyone fucked with me because of my hair that sat just above my shoulders, especially my mom. I’d had long hair ever since I could remember. It was blonde, but turned white over the summer from surfing and constantly being in the sun and salt water. 

“I get plenty of pussy on my own, Jacob, which is more than I could say for you.”

“What can I say? I have high standards. I don't go around and fuck everything with a hole. By the way, tell your mom I said hello.”

“Not before you tell your sister Amanda she's the best I've ever had, you sick son of a bitch.”

“Touché, motherfucker. Touché.”

Lucas and Austin were already surfing by the time we walked into the restaurant. Alex sat at a table with her notebooks spread out, writing in her binder. On a Friday afternoon, it was normal to see Half-Pint doing her homework like the good girl she was. She was very bright.

All of us boys were like brothers from different mothers. Alex being no different, but there was no telling her she wasn’t one of us boys. She was like our little sister. We all looked out for each other, even when we didn’t need to. Old habits die hard, that was true when it came to meddling in things that were none of our business to begin with.

Jacob and I were definitely the closest, since we were the oldest and our smart-ass personalities were somewhat the same. Both of us acted like we owned the damn beach and our little town. And in our minds, we did.

Lucas was a few months younger than us, but you’d never know it by looking at him. If you told that boy no he would do it just to spite you. Stubborn, hardheaded, and a temper that would make anyone think twice about ever crossing him. That didn’t stop us from fucking with him though since we were all a bit like that, growing up together made it easy to fall into similar patterns, our personalities rubbed off on each other whether we liked it or not.

Alex was adamant she would be one of the boys from the second she popped out of her mama’s belly. She came out screaming and kicking, a force to be reckoned with. Hell would freeze over before she would act like the girl she was. It was only a year or two ago that she actually started wearing dresses and make-up. Before that she dressed exactly like us, begging her mama to buy her cargo shorts and loose-fitting shirts to blend in with us boys. And like Lucas, we picked on her every chance we got. She hated being called a girl, or being treated like one. Though she was tough. Tough as nails, we made her that way, and you better believe that we were overprotective as hell of her.

Despite her tomboy tendencies, I meant it when I said Alex was a lady through and through. She never cussed, she didn’t hang out at parties with us, and was polite to everyone, even if we didn’t like them or talked shit about them. She never cared to get involved in gossip or school drama like most girls did, keeping to herself or hanging out with us. Except she wasn’t very bright when it came to her choice in guys.

We all realized it before it even happened.

Case and point… Lucas and Alex aka Bo and Half-Pint.

Those two had always shared this special bond between them that didn’t include the rest of us. They were separate, but still a vital part of us. We ignored it for years, blew it off, thinking it was the best thing to do at the time. We all hoped it would magically go away on its own or some shit like that. Until one day we couldn’t overlook it anymore. When shit went down it was like a goddamn avalanche occurred, and it impacted all of our lives in ways we never thought possible.

Austin was the youngest among us boys, a year younger than Lucas to be exact. He was trouble with a capital T, in every sense of the word. He was the good ol’ boys wild card. The older he got the worse he became, and there was nothing any of us could ever do

about it. It wasn’t from lack of trying on our parts either. He was out of fucking control.

Jacob headed toward the beach, saying he was meeting up with someone, probably some new pussy he was trying to get a piece of. I walked over to Half-Pint.

“Hey,” she greeted, looking up at me. I pulled a chair over and swung it around to sit on it backwards.

“Whatcha workin’ on?”

“Algebra,” she sighed.

“Ah shit. Your worst subject.”

She peered at me, wide-eyed and confused. “I think I’m going cross-eyed trying to figure out these formulas.”

I nodded at her. “Scoot over, sweet girl.”

She smiled, pushing back her chair to give me some room to sit beside her. I grabbed her algebra book, skimming over the chapters she was working on. Numbers and statistics were always my best subjects in school. It was easy for me to remember formulas and rules. Numbers stayed consistent. I grabbed her binder to help explain an easy way for her to remember the patterns.

“See, here’s your problem, Half-Pint. Your Order of Operations is off. You need to do the parentheses before your exponents or else it’s going to mess you all up.”

“Ugh, I always forget that. It’s so hard to keep them in order and remember which goes first.”

I grabbed her pencil from her. “Remember it like this: Parentheses, exponents, multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction. Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally. You remember that phrase, you’ll always remember the rule, guaranteed.”

She nodded, looking at what I just wrote. Whispering, “Please excuse my dear Aunt Sally.” She glanced over at me. “Good to know. Got it!”

“Knew you would, you’re smart, darlin’.”

“Okay, what about these?”

I sat there for the next hour, explaining numbers, shootin’ the shit, and simply laughing. I helped her with everything she needed. It didn’t take long for Alex to catch on to what I was explaining. I told you she was bright. That girl could take on anything, and she did, in more ways than one. When I got up to head out to where the boys were, I never expected to look up and lock eyes with my destiny and quite possibly the girl who would undo me.

Aubrey.

My mom wasn’t aware of the fact that I walked home from school everyday. She didn’t need to worry about me anymore than I knew she already did. I was supposed to get on the school bus, but the noise and rowdy kids were too much for me to handle.

I hated it.

Walking was my peace, a chance for me to clear my mind from the chaos all around while listening to my favorite playlists. I loved to get lost in the songs, letting them take me somewhere else, anywhere but here. Back in California we had a steady routine that no longer existed. My mom dropped me off at school and my dad would pick me up everyday. Sometimes afterwards we would go for ice cream or a cup of coffee, as I got older. I miss that time with him. I miss our conversations, and most of all I miss laughing at his lame jokes. He was a great father. It was obvious to me even from a young age.

My mom up and moved us clear across the country when she decided we needed new scenery and a fresh start. I couldn’t blame her, not after what my dad did. That’s how I ended up in Oak Island, North Carolina.

Our new home.

My mom never talked bad about my dad even though she had every right to. She never uttered a single negative thing about him in my presence, not even once. I respected her so much for it, not all parents took the high road like my mom did.

I saw the pained look in my mother’s eyes…

It was always there.

Haunting me.

But at the end of the day, he was still my father and I loved him.

She bought us a cute house in a nice neighborhood that reminded me of Pleasantville. Oak Island was a small beach town with a country feel. I quickly learned that everyone knew everyone in this town. I secretly kind of loved that, an extended family of some sort. Polar opposite from the hustle and bustle of LA, where everyone kept to themselves, absorbed only in their money and looks.

My mom was an ER General Surgeon and Chief of Medicine back in California. She ran the entire ER unit. When she decided to move us, a friend of a friend had some connections, and she was lucky enough to get a contracted job running the ER at Dosher Memorial Hospital in South Port, which was only a town over. She worked all sorts of crazy hours here like she did back in California. I barely ever saw her. I was alone in a new town, so far from my home.

The more things changed.

The more they stayed the same.

My dad worked from home designing computer software for a telecommunications company. He had only been working for TLCOM the last few years after he went back to college and got his degree. He said he wanted to better himself, but I often wondered if it was because my mom was the breadwinner of the family. I wondered if he felt emasculated.

For most of my life, my dad was a stay-at-home parent. He raised me along with my mom’s sister, Celeste, while my mom worked her life away to provide for us.

It was never a problem.

Until it was.

We got to spend a lot of time together, but unfortunately he also had more time to dwell on the fact that it was usually only him and I at home. There were plenty of times he had to take on both the “mom” and the “dad” roles since my mom was working all those insane hours.

There were instances when my dad was simply not enough. My first period, my first crush, my first kiss, getting ready for my first date, things that only another woman would understand. That’s when my aunt stepped in, picking up the slack for her absent sister. My Aunt Celeste was like a mom to me and still is. I could see the hurt on my mom’s face when I told her about something that she should have been apart of, that she should have witnessed. It was a memory that only a mother and daughter should experience, bonding the connection of parent and child for years to come.

She always listened, though.

I guess that was her role.

I could hear the strain in her voice when my aunt or my dad told her about all the other milestones that she should have been apart of but wasn’t.

Nothing ever changed.  

My mom lived and breathed her job; she always said she loved helping people, that it gave her a purpose in life. I couldn’t fault her. She spent years in school, and half of her life was consumed with her head in the books. It was just who she was. My aunt would often tell me stories about how my mom missed out on her childhood, teenage years, college, and all the normal stuff that people should experience because medicine was in her blood, she got her first medical kit for her sixth birthday and it was like a light bulb went off in her head. I once read that doctors were born, they weren’t made.

I never wanted for anything. I opened my mouth, and I had it the next day. Growing up I always had the best toys, best clothes, best everything. That wasn’t my

father’s doing. He often fought with her about how she was spoiling me too much. That I needed to earn things, not just have them handed to me every time I wanted something. I never understood how she found time to buy me everything I asked for, but barely found time to eat dinner with us, or even watch a movie.

Little did she know I would have taken an hour with her over any fancy toy.

I thought with the move that maybe things would somehow change, that maybe she would make time for us now. I had no one here. But I couldn’t have been more wrong.

She started working the day after we arrived in Oak Island, which left me to do most of the unpacking. Even though it was tedious going through all the boxes, I was grateful for the distraction. My mom’s inconsistent hours were starting to get to me, I was lonely, and this time around I didn’t have my dad or my aunt to fill that void. I never said anything to her because I knew she had enough on her plate, and I didn’t want to add to it. As much as she tried to play it off, I knew our current situation hit her harder than she liked to let on. That burden just added to the reasons she drowned herself in her work, more so than before.  

Which was another reason I was grateful for my friendship with Dee, I spent a lot of time at her house with her family. They took me in like I belonged. I think her parents took pity on me since they knew I was by myself most of the time. Maybe they just assumed my mom was a struggling single parent who needed to work all the time to stay afloat since I never went into details about her position at the hospital.

I was alone with nothing but my thoughts, desperately trying to ignore my feelings about Dylan. I couldn’t believe he had the nerve to just turn his back on me as if our conversation was over because he said so.

Arrogant asshole.

The whole encounter was kind of a blur. I was so worked up I hadn’t even realized someone was in his Jeep watching us argue until Dylan backed out of the parking space and I heard his friend’s voice full of laughter. I instantly felt a sense of pride coming over me that someone had witnessed him getting knocked down a few pegs by a girl. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone told me that I was the first girl to ever do so. That alone gave me a feeling of satisfaction.

It was a long time coming for a guy like him. Walking around school like he owned the damn place, with a certain swagger and his stupid, long blonde hair that fell perfectly on the sides of his chiseled face, as if he was some sort of Greek God or something. He was tall for sixteen, way taller than my five-foot-four frame. I assumed he was probably a little over six foot. His intense hazel eyes had a hint of green running through them that I imagined would really pop when he wore green.  Not that I was imagining him in any way other than annoyance.

He was built like a man. He could definitely pass for someone much older than he actually was. Needing to stop all the thoughts I was having about him, I shook them away before they consumed me again and took over. That’s when I realized I was lost. I looked around for a sign, but instead saw a restaurant on the beach. I decided to stop in and ask for directions and maybe grab something to drink or a bite to eat while I was there.

As soon as I walked in, there was a warm, welcoming feeling in the air. The restaurant was beautiful and homey with an open view of the beach. All you had to do was walk across the open floor plan

and your toes would be in the sand. There were tables everywhere. The smell of delicious food assaulted my senses, making my stomach growl. I knew right then and there it would become one of my new favorite places to eat. The hostess said I could seat myself, so I decided to walk towards the back to sit by the deck where I could enjoy the warm, salty air of the ocean when I came to an abrupt stop.

Dylan.

I rolled my eyes when I noticed that he was with a girl. Shocker. I had just called him out on all his bullshit, and there he was already sitting with another girl. I shook my head in disgust, but it was suddenly replaced with curiosity. This girl was tiny and not his usual type from what I had heard. She didn’t look familiar in the slightest. Our school was small enough to know most of the students, even if only by appearance. She looked too sweet and innocent for the likes of him. I had the urge to go over there and warn the poor girl to stay away from him, that he was nothing but trouble. He would dispose of her like she was yesterday’s trash once he got what he wanted.

I didn’t.

I couldn’t.

I just stood there unknowingly, staring at them without even realizing I was doing so. He was helping her with her homework. Now that didn’t strike me as the Dylan I encountered and heard of. He was attentive with her, patient. They appeared as if they had known each other their entire lives. I knew it couldn’t be his sister, they looked nothing alike, but he was treating her like she was. And what really shocked the shit out of me was that he looked at her with love and adoration. Even respect. Which was completely different from the guy who stood in front of me, less than an hour before, the same guy I confronted in the school parking lot who didn’t seem bothered by what I was accusing him of in the slightest. I don’t know how long I stood there watching the two of them. Taking in every laugh and smile. They seemed so carefree, their banter effortless.

He unexpectedly looked up, as if he felt my presence from across the room. Our eyes once again tethered, and for a moment, I saw a certain vulnerability pass through him that I could feel deep within my core. However, just as quickly as it appeared, it was gone. Whatever it was had me questioning my beliefs about him. His gaze immediately made me peer down, shutting off the connection that we briefly shared for just a few seconds in time. I walked to a table on the other end of the restaurant, needing to get as far away from him as possible.

I ordered a drink and food, and then started playing with my phone, when I felt someone crouch down beside me. There he was, balancing on the balls of his feet, just a few inches from my face, in all his glory. For the first time it made me nervous.

“You stalkin’ me now?” he asked with a grin.

I resisted the urge to smile. “I’m not the one sitting at your feet, am I?”

He grinned, wider, putting his dimples prominently on display. His jaw was clenched and there was a gleam in his eyes like he was amused with my banter.

“Well, sweetheart, you are the queen and I am the asshole, as you pointed out earlier, so it seems as though I am right where I belong.”

“Who’s the girl?” I blurted out of nowhere. The words were out of my mouth before my brain even registered what I asked.

He smiled, his straight white teeth shining with the glare of the sun. “Jealous?”

“You wish, buddy. I’m not one of your minions.”

“That you aren’t,” he replied with a hard edge.

“What do you want anyways? Need me to call you out on more of your bullshit?” I snidely questioned, ignoring his last remark.

“Can’t a guy just say hello to a friend?”

“We’re friends now? When did that happen? I don’t even like you.”

He narrowed his eyes at me as if he was calling my bluff.

“That really hurts, darlin’,” he replied with a smirk, holding his hand over his heart in a dramatic gesture.

“You’re full of it.”

“And you’re beautiful,” he asserted, not missing a beat.

I couldn’t help but smile. “So this is how it works, huh? I don’t know if I should be offended or flattered that you’re already hitting on me. An hour hasn’t even gone by since I chewed you up and spit you out, and you’re back on the horse again?” I mocked, throwing the same statement that I overheard his friend say while he was pulling out of the parking space.