I dip my finger into the front of her shirt and pull out my keys, molten hot just like her body. “Come on, Mrs. Wolf. Let’s get out of here before we do something stupid, like set the world onfire.”
I take her by the hand as we make our way to the truck. We hop in, and I speed the hell out of Jepson and head for Hollow Brook. Raven asks me to drop her off at her car, and Ido.
“Don’t you worry your pretty little head about a thing.” I mock shoot her, and she gives me the finger. “I’m going to take care ofthis!”
“You’d better!” she screams as she gives my tire a good kick. Raven has always been a handful. Another chief reason why it would never work betweenus.
No sooner does she get into the driver’s side of her own vehicle than I speed out of the lot, straight for my house tucked in the hills on the residential side of town. It’s quiet here. Too quiet for a rowdy soul like me. I let myself in, and the place smells like stale coffee from the day before. I hit the shower and then the sheets. I dream of Raven, her mouth sinking hot over mine as last night comes back to me in shards so dangerously sharp you could cut your dick off on them. Raven threatening to jump my bones. Raven mimicking how she would jump my bones. The two of us out of our effing minds as we felt each otherup.
A groan comes fromme.
Levi is going to hang me by theballs.
This had better work out, andquick.
About six in the evening,I roll out of bed, let Mojo, the bartender, know I might be in later—might not. Send Raven about a dozenI’m sorry I’m an assholetexts, which she promptly ignores, and that’s when I spot a voice message from an unknown number. I listen and, oddly enough, it’s my grandfather, Grandpa Joe. It’s my dad’s father, once removed if that’s a thing. Grandpa Joe and Dad had a falling out when I was about eight, and we never heard from him again. That is, up until now. He wants to meet for coffee. Hallowed Grounds tonight. I call him back and we exchange awkward niceties, and he agrees to meet me there in a halfhour.
I shower once again, thoughts of Raven demanding I pump out a little relief, but I decline myself the pleasure.She’s as good as my sister, I try to tell myself. Besides that, I’m meeting my grandfather for what amounts to the first time in years in just a few minutes. Definitely not a cool idea. Not tonight atleast.
I head out and drive down through the main thoroughfare until I glide into the lot that houses everybody’s favorite coffeehouse. Hallowed Grounds is one of those Hollow Brook traditions that nobody seems to resist. They’re brimming with business tonight, the doorway festooned with pumpkins and a wreath filled with fall leaves. Halloween is just around the corner, and this just so happens to be one of my favorite times of theyear.
My phone buzzes in my pocket. It’s Colby. I frown at it as if it were my baby sisterherself.
At the Pelican with Teagan. Where the hell areyou?
I let out a solid breath. Colby and Teagan have been hanging out an awful lot lately. Teagan is Axel’s sister. We introduced them last year when we ventured into business together. They’re both about the same age, both at Hollow Brook Community College. Teagan seems like a good girl, and I’m glad about it. Colby needs someone with a sane mind to ground her to planet earth—someone to be the voice of reason. God knows it won’t beColby.
I text right back.Meeting up with a friend. Be there in a bit. Hang out forme.
A friend? I guess I couldn’t bring myself to tell her the truth. Colby has always felt as if I were the golden child of the family, and if she knew our grandfather wanted a meet and greet with yours truly while excluding her, it would turn her night into atailspin.
I head in and the scent of strong coffee bowls me over. Strings of fall leaves sit draped over every surface in bright hues of red and orange, and I glance around the place before spotting an older gentleman seated near the window waving meover.
“You’re late,” he says with a smile as he pulls me into a partial embrace. “And you’re wet. Your generation doesn’t bother drying off after the shower, now does it? Must be nice to be young. I ordered you up a cup of joe.” He gives a quick wink and looks decidedly like an aged version of my father, thick capful of gray hair, velvet blue eyes, and elongated dimples on either side of his leathered cheeks when he smiles. He’s wearing a long black wool coat with driving gloves and looks dapper with a white silk scarf wrapped around his neck. “Take a seat. I got your coffee black like a real man.” He shoots me with his finger, and I freeze a moment because it’s a gesture I do often. “I bet you’re wondering what I dragged you out in the middle of the nightfor.”
A short-lived laugh bounces through me until it occurs to me when you’re near ninety, six thirty in the evening most likely is the middle of thenight.
“I am curious,” I say. “You look great, by the way. I know Dad and Mom would love to seeyou.”
“Bah.” He waves them off as if they were a couple of gnats. Really, it’s my father who’s the nexus of the equation. I don’t know what their beef is, but I’m hoping to find out. “I’m not interested in them right now. I’m interested in you. Tell me about yourself. Where’ve you been. What have you seen, kid?” He flashes a mouthful of perfectly white teeth, and I admire him for the impeccable dental workalone.
So I oblige him. I tell him about high school football. Whitney Briggs, business school. My foray into the restaurant business. How we almost went under. How Low and Lex saved ournecks.
“And that’s where we are today.” I lift my coffee to him as if we were about to toast. “How about you? What have you been up to? It’s been almost a solid decade since I’ve seen yourface.”
“Never mind about me,” he gruffs before taking a sip of his coffee. “I know all there is to know.” He gives a sly wink. “It sounds like you’ve got a pretty good head on your shoulders. How about love? Anything in the romance department nipping on yourheels?”
All of those nameless, faceless girls who have traveled in and out of my bed filter through my mind like some bad movie montage. The twosomes, the threesomes, thefoursomes. Yes, I have had my fair share of wild nights. Then, in a blink, that visual of waking up this morning in a fog only to find the world’s most beautiful girl sprawled over my lap comes to mind. Raven. She stands out above the rest, and God knows we didn’t share anything more than a few sloppy kisses that my fuzzy brain has little to no recognitionof.
“You’re awful quiet. She must be prettyspecial.”
“No,” I’m quick to contest. “There’s no one special.” My gut cinches tight as if it were a lie. “Just a few girls here and there. You know how itgoes.”
“I used to know it well. I see we have that in common. Nobody ever said life was going to be easy.” He gives a quiet yawn and stretches his arms to the ceiling. “How about we do this again some time? I’m ready to hit the sack. Not even this muddy water can save me from thesheets.”
“Sounds good.” We stand and share a solid embrace. It feels good. It feels like family. “Don’t wait ten years before calling me again,okay?”
We share a quickchuckle.
