Wilde Times (7 page)

Seven

Harley

“What do you think of this one?” Gracie asks. She holds up what is probably the thirtieth wedding dress we’ve looked at today. They’re all starting to look the same. The obvious problem is that Gracie is pregnant and really starting to show, so it limits what she can wear, and even more limiting is what she’ll be able to fit into another few weeks from now.

It’s clear to me now why so many people elope. Weddings require too much shopping. And I love to shop. So that tells you something.

“I don’t want to have to wear a tent.” Gracie sounds like she might cry.

“Do you think there’s a maternity shop that specializes in wedding gowns?”

She narrows her eyes at me. “Most people get married first and then have a baby. Maybe Tucker and I should forget about trying to have a ceremony and reception.”

Now I feel bad that I’m getting frustrated with the process. I’m the maid of honor. I’m supposed to be supporting the bride no matter how irritated I may be getting. “I’m sure we can find a dress that will work.”

“Do you really think so?” When Gracie’s voice cracks I know I have to do something exceptional if I don’t want this shopping excursion to deteriorate into a cry-fest.

“I know so,” I assure her. “Let’s see if we can get a salesperson to help us. You can’t be the only woman who’s ever been in this particular situation. Half the movie stars in Hollywood seem to be getting pregnant before they get married.”

“Okay,” she agrees.

Fortunately when we’re finally able to find someone to help us she has a lot of ideas for dresses that might work for Gracie. Apparently there really are lines of maternity wedding dresses.

And Gracie tries on all twelve of the ones in the shop.

When we finally have the field narrowed down to three possible dresses she can’t seem to make the final decision.

I take a quick glance at the clock on my smartphone and notice we’ve been at this for nearly three hours. “I don’t want to rush you, Gracie, but we’re going to have to get to Haymakers soon.”

“I know.” She turns to face me. “Will you pick the dress for me?”

I shake my head. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”

“Why?” She looks like she’s on the verge of a nervous break-down.

“It’s your special day. You should pick the dress.”

She’s wringing her hands. She does that a lot when she’s anxious.

“Tell me what’s really going on.”

She glances at the salesperson, who is now helping another customer, then back over at me. Then she whispers so quietly I can barely hear her, “These dresses are really expensive.”

I smile. “Wedding dresses usually are. But it’s hopefully a once-in-a-lifetime expense.”

She nods, but still looks so unsure.

“You’ve been saving your tip money, haven’t you?” I ask.

She makes good money working at Haymakers and knowing Tucker as well as I do he probably doesn’t ask her to pay for anything. I would find it hard to believe that she doesn’t have enough money to easily afford any of these dresses.

“Tucker gave me money for a dress,” she whispers.

“How much?”

“A thousand dollars.”

I look at the price tags on the dresses. Not one of them is even close to that.

“You have plenty of money,” I tell her.

“I’m afraid to spend that much.”

“It’s okay,” I assure her. “Tucker wouldn’t have given it to you if he didn’t want you to spend it.”

“Are you sure?” She looks like she might burst into tears at any moment. I don’t know a lot of the details of what she went through with her crazy abusive ex, but he did try to kill both her and Tucker, so I know it wasn’t good. But it’s times like these that I’m really aware of how damaged she was by everything that happened to her.

“I’m sure. Pick the dress you like the best. It’ll be okay.”

She looks very carefully at each of the three dresses again before she finally makes a decision. “I want this one.”

She holds up the simple, but elegant gown.

“It’s beautiful,” I tell her. I do think the dress is lovely, but I want to get the hell out of the store even more.

“Thanks for being here with me,” she says as we take the dress to the salesperson.

“I think you made a good choice.”

She gives me a big grin in response.

“And we’ll have just enough time to get you back home so you can get changed and ready for work.”

***

Before Gracie has a chance to open the front door, it flies opens. I take a few steps back and to my surprise out walks Jake with Regina Masters.

What the hell is he doing with Regina Masters?

Not that it isn’t completely obvious what he was doing with her. He looks freshly showered and she looks freshly fucked. 

He knows how much I hate her. I’ve told him more than a few times. I even asked him never to hook up with her and he promised me he wouldn’t. I guess that promise, like everything else to do with me, didn’t mean very much to him.

When Regina sees me she gives me a catty little grin. It was no secret when we were in school that I had a thing for Jake Wilde.

“I had a great time, Jake.” Regina makes a point of smiling back at me before she plants a kiss on his lips. “And I’ll definitely take you up on your offer for a little extra-marital entertainment whenever I want.”

Seriously? Jake never does repeat performances. Not with anyone but me.

How could he say that? How could he say that to her of all people?

I feel like I’m going to throw up.

“You’re not here for Jake, are you?” Regina is now eyeing me. “I think he’s had his fill for a while.”

She obviously doesn’t know Jake as well as she thinks. He never has enough.

I stare at her naked finger. Her diamond engagement ring is nowhere to be seen. “What does your fiancé have to say about you spending the night with Jake?”

She gives me a sly smile. “He’s out of town at a convention. What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”

She turns her attention back to Jake. “You’ve got my number.” When she touches his arm I just want to punch her. But I think I want to hit Jake even more. I’m angry at both of them.

Before I can say anything more Regina heads toward her car.

I feel like I’ve been punched in the gut. He never takes anyone’s number. Ever. There’s no point because he knows he’s never going to use it.

As soon as Regina’s car is headed down the driveway, I turn to Jake.

I’m usually calm as a cucumber, but I’m so mad right now I’m actually shaking. “How could you?” is about all I can manage to get out. “With her?”

He just stares at me, expressionless. “You know the score.”

That’s his standard justification with every girl. She knows the score. As if he doesn’t have any feelings at all. He just wants to take what he can get and it’s supposed to be okay because the girl knows what she’s getting into. 

“Do you have any idea how much I love you Jake? Do you even have a clue? I have no idea why you keep pushing me away. But now you’ve finally done it. You’ve succeeded. Are you happy with yourself? Are you glad that I hate you?”

Now he’s the one who looks like he’s been punched in the gut. Good. He deserves it.

“You knew exactly what was going to happen when you screwed Regina Masters. That’s why you did it, isn’t it?”

“Don’t give yourself so much credit, Harley. I happened to stop at Sidewinders and she was working there. She made an offer and I took her up on it. It had nothing to do with you.”

Before I can stop myself I slap him across the face. I’ve never hit another human being in my entire life and I just hit the only man I’ve ever loved.

“You’re an asshole. Everyone knows that. But you’ve never lied to me before. You knew damn well that Regina worked at Sidewinders. I don’t think it’s some accident that’s where you ended up. You’ve never taken a girl’s number in your life. You’ve never promised anyone else a repeat performance. And you just happen to promise that to her.”

Jake starts to bite the sides of his mouth. It’s a nervous habit he’s had his entire life.

“You want me out of your life?” I spit. “Is that what this is about? Well you’ve finally succeeded.”

I take off the bracelet that he gave me for Christmas. The one that coincidently matched the one I bought him. The one I haven’t taken off since then.

I throw the only gift Jake ever gave me back in his face.

“You never loved me, did you? I guess I wanted you to love me so badly that I thought I could make it true.”

“Why would you say that?”

“It doesn’t matter now…”

He grabs my arm. I try to pull away, but he’s got a strong hold on me. “Wait…”

“I never got a song, Jake. Every Wilde brother gave the woman he loved a song.
Summer
for Riley,
Road Song
for Gracie, and
Prove
for Katie.”

“Since Hunter left for California Wilde Riders hasn’t been much of a band.”

I rip my arm from his grasp. “We’ve been together a lot longer than that, Jake. I just never meant anything to you. I’m glad I finally realized just how little I mean to you before it’s too late.”

“Too late for what?”

I don’t even bother to wait for an answer. I just start running. As fast as I can. Back toward my house. I didn’t even get the chance to tell him that it might not be my house much longer. Not that he’d care. I’m not sure why I still care as much as I do.

The only reason I stop running is because I realize I can’t breathe. I’ve been running so hard and so fast my lungs feel like they’re on fire. I see my favorite spot a few feet away. It’s an old dead tree that fell down years ago and has turned into a fossil. I love sitting on the thing and just thinking. It’s a great place to contemplate life.

All I can think about is how badly I’ve destroyed mine. I always thought if I loved Jake enough, he’d realize how much I loved him and how much I cared about him and he’d eventually love me back.

For supposedly being so smart I guess that was really dumb.

My cheeks are getting wet and it takes me a few moments to realize there are tears streaming down my face.

I’m crying.

Tough as nails Harley Davis is crying again. I’ve been doing that a lot lately. It’s becoming a habit and I don’t like it.

I bury my face in my hands and let go. I blubber like a baby—spit, snot and all.

Eight

Jake

I tried so hard for so long to break Harley’s heart. I just didn’t realize that I’d end up shattering mine in the process. I haven’t been able to eat or sleep for days. When I knew Harley was part of my life my days would always brighten whenever I saw her. It’s like she was able to fill in my normally dull world with all of her vivid colors. Now that she’s made a point of letting me know that we are not and never will be together again my world is all gray. Completely colorless.

And it’s not that Harley isn’t still filled with sunshine. She just refuses to share her bright light with me like she used to. I didn’t realize how much I’d miss it.

She always laughs and jokes with all of the patrons. It’s one of the many reasons she makes a fortune in tips. But now she makes a point of completely turning all of her charm off whenever she steps near me. She’s not just her cold and guarded self with me. She’s artic frigid. 

She’s even being super nice to Tucker, which is not some-thing he’s used to, but he seems to be enjoying it. And he seems to be enjoying rubbing it in my face even more.

“Harley looks great today,” he comments as we watch her carrying a large tray of beers over to a bowling team that stopped in after their tournament.

“Yup.” I try not to show any emotion, even though I’m dying inside. There’s nothing I want more than to have her naked in my arms, but I know that will never happen again.

“She looks happy. I wonder why?”

I turn to face him. “I know Gracie told you what happened. You know we’re not together anymore.”

“You deserve to have your ass dumped.”

I nod. “I know.”

“And she deserves a lot better than you.”

“I know that too,” I agree.

“At least we’re on the same page about that.”

Tucker doesn’t give me a chance to say anything more. He heads over to where Gracie is standing, takes the broom that she has in her hands and starts sweeping for her.

A few minutes later I notice a tall, muscular, blond guy walk into Haymakers. He’s definitely not from Old Town. Most of the guys around here wear cowboy boots and jeans. This guy is wearing a Hawaiian shirt over a rock concert t-shirt, tan cargo pants and red Converse sneakers. I feel like asking him if he made a wrong turn on his way to the beach, but I refrain.

He definitely looks out of place as he takes a seat at the bar. Before I have a chance to make my way over to him, Harley swoops in. She practically runs me over on her way to serve the guy.

“So,” she says to the beach boy. “What are you having?”

When he smiles at her I feel like I want to punch him. He’s got a smile so wide and teeth so white it’s almost overpowering. I’ve never wanted someone out of my bar as badly as I want this guy gone.

When the guy looks Harley up and down and then his eyes land on her breasts it takes every ounce of restraint I have not to beat him senseless. I want to tell him to take his eyes off my girl.

The only problem is that she’s not mine. And that’s my fault.

Then I want to punch myself in the face for being such a fool.

I guess I never realized how hard it would be to see Harley with anyone else. Or even to see another guy show interest in her.

Maybe deep down I really did know that Harley wasn’t with anyone other than me. Now that there’s a real possibility she could be with another guy, I don’t like it at all.

“Beer,” the beach boy says. “Do you have Stella?”

Harley gives him a nod which seems a little too seductive and I feel like she’s punched me right in the gut.

Most of the regulars order whatever is on tap, so we don’t have a very large bottled beer selection. We do have Stella, but mainly because Cooper and Riley like it.

When Harley turns away from the beach boy and heads over to the small beer fridge, I make a point of standing right next to her. I’m a little hurt when she completely ignores me, so I grab ahold of her arm.

“Take your hand off of me,” she spits, without even looking me in the eyes.

“What do you think you’re doing?” I spit back.

“My job. I’m serving beer to a customer.”

When she finally looks at me it’s more of a glare and it cuts right through me like a knife. I realize that until this moment she’s always looked at me with so much love in her eyes—and now I just see contempt—and underneath that pain. And it’s all of my doing.

“You serve tables. You don’t serve customers at the bar. Why are you suddenly so interested in serving this guy?”

I know exactly why she wants to serve him. I just don’t want her anywhere near him.

She jerks her hand from my grip. “Why do you care? You had no trouble serving Regina even after I asked you not to.”

My eyes narrow to angry slits. “Don’t ever forget I’m your boss.”

She actually laughs at me. “Whatever. Are you going to fire me for being too good of an employee? For serving too many people? You can’t fire me just because you’re jealous.”

She’s right, but I don’t have any other way to stop her.

I watch as she stomps over to the beach boy and places his beer on the counter next to him.

“Would you like a glass with that?” She gives him a seductive smile that makes my stomach knot. “I can pour it for you if you’d like.”

“Sure. Why not?”

She grabs a tall beer glass and pours the beer slowly and easily so it doesn’t foam. I remember when I taught her to do that. It was right before the first time we had sex. It wasn’t very long after she started working at Haymakers. I knew from the moment I hired her that I wanted her—in every way that a man can want a woman. She definitely wasn’t that little girl from next door anymore. She was a very sexy young woman.

How could I possibly know she was a virgin? And why didn’t she tell me until now?

I watch as she places her elbows on the bar in front of the beach boy and rests her head on her fists. The guy is just lapping up the attention.

I’ve put Haymakers ahead of everything else in my life and I respect my customers, but I want nothing more right now than for this beach boy to leave.

“Are you traveling through town?” Harley asks.

He shakes his head, then swallows his first sip of beer before he replies. “Just moved here. From the shore.”

“I would have never guessed.” Harley is one of the most brilliant people I’ve ever met in my life. She could give Cooper a run for his money and he’s an Ivy League graduate. But with this guy she’s putting on a real coy act.

“Max Elliot.” When the guy puts out a hand for her to shake I want to rip his arm right out of the socket.

I know I should probably make myself busy doing something else, but it’s kind of like when you drive by a car accident. You know you shouldn’t stop and look but you just can’t help yourself.

When she takes his hand she holds it way too long for my taste and then she bats her beautiful blue eyes at him before she says, “I’m Harley.”

I know if he’s anything like me he’ll do anything those gorgeous blue eyes ask him to.

He laughs. “Like the motorcycle?”

She nods. “My dad owns the local Harley dealership. For a few more weeks anyway.”

It takes a moment for those words to register. What does she mean for a few more weeks? Her parents have owned the Harley dealership for as long as I’ve been alive.

“Well you’re much prettier than a motorcycle.” When Max gives her another one of his gigantic smiles I want to punch it right off of his pretty beach boy face. I’ve had about all of this guy that I can take.

I step up to Harley and say, “I think some of your tables need attending to.”

The contempt in her eyes cuts me like a razor, but I try my best not to react.

“Yes, Boss,” she says with complete and utter disgust in her voice.

Then she turns back to Max and says, “Maybe we can continue our conversation after I get off work.”

Max nods and all I can think about is showing him to the door. My mind is filled with thoughts of the two of them together. His hand on Harley, his lips touching hers. I want to scream that she’s mine, but I know it’s not true.

Not anymore anyway. I made sure of that.

And it was probably the biggest mistake of my life.

Harley does what I asked and waits on all of her tables. We’re not that busy yet so it only takes a few minutes for her to make the rounds.

“Satisfied?” she asks as she marches by me.

“Very,” I snap back.

“Good.” She twists back to glare at me. “I wouldn’t want to make my boss mad.”

“Well you’re doing a really good job of that.”

“Why? I’m doing my job. Isn’t that what you want? Isn’t that what you pay me for?”

I’m so angry I could spit nails, but I know most of the anger is at myself.

As Max takes the last sip of his beer Harley swoops in again before I can grab the glass.

“Refill?” She gives Max a sexy smile.

I breathe a small sigh of relief when he shakes his head. “Just the tab.”

When Harley hands him the bill I notice their eyes meet for a little too long. My immediate instinct once again is to hit him. The guy is tall and well-built, but he’s definitely not as muscular as me or any of my brothers. I could probably take him in a fight. Not that he looks like much of a fighter anyway. He’s kind of got little a tree-hugger, hippie vibe. He probably does yoga or meditates. Maybe even both.

He hands Harley some kind of business card with the cash. “Keep the change.”

The beer was five bucks and he gave her a ten. Quite a large tip for one drink. I notice Harley’s eyes actually light up when she reads the business card. Her eyes haven’t lit up like that around me in a while. I don’t want to admit how much I miss it.

As soon as Max is out the door I snatch the business card from Harley’s hand.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she protests loudly.

She tries to grab the card back, but I’m a little too quick and definitely too tall for her to take it from me. I’ll give it back to her as soon as I have a chance to read what it says:

Old Town Ghost Tours. Max Elliot, Paranormal Investigator
.

I can’t help but laugh. And not a small one either. A big, belly laugh. This guy can’t be serious. Ghost tours? In Old Town? Does he actually believe that’s going to be a viable business?

When I hand the card back to Harley her eyes narrow and she looks like she wants to hurt me.

“What’s so funny?” she snaps. She’s been snapping at me a lot and it’s starting to really piss me off.

“Would you mind talking with me in a normal tone of voice?”

“Fine.” Now her tone is condescending and sugary sweet. “Is this better?”

I heave a sigh. “Not really. Can’t we just be normal with each other?”

She shakes her head. “You made that impossible. Now why were you laughing?”

“You’re not really going to take that guy seriously, are you? A ghost hunter? I’m just glad he didn’t ask for your number.”

“Oh, I’m going out with him. I’m willing to bet a week’s salary on that. Mark my words. He’ll be back. And when he comes back he’ll ask for my number.”

I roll my eyes. “How can you be so sure?”

“Not everyone is like you, Jake. Some guys are interested in a little more than just fifteen minutes in the back room. He’s a dinner and a movie kind of guy. The kind of guy who will give a girl a goodnight kiss and then call the next day for a second date. He’s definitely not  going to hump and dump.”

That hurts. I realize for the first time that I’ve never taken Harley on an actual date. We’ve never gone to a restaurant. Never gone to a movie. Of course we see each other at work on a daily basis. We’ve been in the back room hundreds of times and we’ve spent the night together in my bedroom a few times a week. But that’s been the extent of our relationship.

Maybe I really am the dick everyone thinks I am.

“He’s a guy. Maybe it’ll take him a little longer to close to deal, but his goal is still the same. He wants to get in your pants.”

“And what’s wrong with that?” When she bats her lashes at me I feel like she’s slicing right through my heart with a steel blade.

I realize I don’t want anyone in those sexy jeans of hers but me.

“Don’t go out with that guy,” I whisper in her ear. As I take in the scent of her strawberry shampoo I’m overcome with the desire to pull her into the back room with me. I want to be inside of her. I want to make her mine again.

She pushes me away. “I’ll go out with whoever I want. You don’t own me, Jake.”

And with that final slice through my chest she marches away.