He did, too. “Just like you’re trying to quit smoking, I’m trying to leave women alone, at least for the holidays. My body could use a rest. Of course, after the holidays, it’ll be full speed ahead again.”
“Keep it up, and you’ll be run out of Phoenix too. And don’t forget the time we had to switch you with another driver, since women were gunning for you in Florida, Michigan, and Texas.”
Now why did Harold have to mention Texas? That immediately brought back memories of Tina and her twin sister Nina. Drew had been in his early twenties at the time when he and Tina had met at a pool hall in Dallas. After a few hours of flirtation and a buildup of sexual chemistry, he suggested a night with Tina and was surprised when she later showed up at his hotel room with Nina in tow. They explained they liked doing things together. He’d engaged in a threesome before and had no problem doing so again. The only problem was that he hadn’t known Nina was engaged to marry some wealthy prick. And, unknown to them, that prick was occupying the hotel room next to theirs.
After hours of lovemaking, he and the twins were ready to settle down for much-deserved sleep, when Nina’s ears perked up to the activities in the hotel room next door after the man let out a hell of an orgasmic holler. She jumped out of bed, claiming nobody sounded like that when they came except the dude she was engaged to marry. Before he or Tina could stop her, or remind her of her present situation, she stormed naked out of their hotel room and beat on the other man’s hotel room door.
What happened next could have been considered comical now, but it hadn’t been at the time. In all the madness, the other man, totally forgetting about his own cheating ass, began screaming at Nina about cheating as well. Nina pushed past the guy when she saw that the other woman in the room was one of her soon-to-be bridesmaids.
By the time Drew had quickly put on his clothes, the fight between the two naked women had escalated and somehow moved from the hotel room to the middle of the hall, causing other hotel occupants to come out of their rooms to witness the calamity. The prick in question had been trying to break up the fight, but was suddenly attacked from behind by Tina, who jumped on his back and began hitting him on the head for sleeping with her twin sister’s bridesmaid. Drew had used that time to hurry down to the lobby and check out of his hotel room. He had informed the man behind the desk that two women would need to re-enter his room and to make sure that they were granted access. Then he had hauled ass.
A week later, he received an angry call from Tina and Nina. The wedding had been called off, and the prick would now be marrying the bridesmaid. The twins were angry because they felt Drew should have defended their honor by fighting the prick. Seriously?
When he told them it hadn’t been his fight, Tina and Nina had issued a warning that if he ever returned to Dallas and they found out, he would be sorry.
“It’s not my fault that I’m in hot demand, Harold,” he said.
“For crying out loud, Drew. You turned thirty a few months ago. I was married at thirty. So was Lester.”
“And I’m happy for you both. But marriage isn’t for everyone. Heck, it would be just my luck to get tied to a woman like Ma.” He believed Walleen Steele thought her main purpose in marrying Galen Steele was to nag him to death.
“I tried to warn Galen about Walleen, but he wouldn’t listen,” Harold said. “I hate to say it, but your mother was the most ill-tempered woman I’d ever met.”
“You don’t have to convince me. I lived with her for seventeen years of my life. Why do you think I left Phoenix the same day I graduated from high school? I tried to persuade Dadto come to Charlotte with me, but he refused to leave. Said Ma had anger issues that she would eventually work out. I don’t think she ever did, but he loved her until the end.”
When Harold suddenly began a series of prolonged coughing, Drew became concerned. “You okay?”
“I’m fine,” Harold answered when he got his coughing under control.
“Sounds like a smoker’s cough, Harold. Why do I get the feeling you’re smoking again?”
“Don’t start on me, Drew.”
“I thought you promised Claire that you were going to quit.”
“I tried.”
“Try harder.”
“I’ll give up the cigarettes when you give up the women.”
Drew figured it was time to change the subject, since he wouldn’t be giving up women anytime soon. However, as he had told Harold, he’d have a break from them over the holidays. He sniffed the air again, and this time he was certain he could make out the scent of a woman -a damn pleasant scent of some expensive perfume. Definitely nothing cheap.
“I think there might be a woman on board,” he told Harold.
“I hope you don’t have one of those lot-lizards as a stowaway, Drew.”
He hoped not, too. Lot-lizards were what truckers called the women who hung around truck stops ready to do sexual favors. He’d never engaged in such activities and didn’t plan to start now. He was more selective when it came to bedmates than that.
“You heard what happened to Ghost. He didn’t know he had a lot-lizard as a stowaway until he checked into the weight station. The woman got him in a lot of trouble.”
“I’m sure I’m simply imagining things,” he said, although he was more than certain that he wasn’t. But he didn’t want his cousin to worry about him. “You recall when you tried to quitsmoking that time and swore you could smell a cigarette when you actually couldn’t?”
Harold chuckled. “Yep, I remember. Fighting off an addiction of any kind is hard, man.”
“I believe it.” Drew knew his family thought women were an addiction for him, but they weren’t. He enjoyed being with them and making love to them, but in no way was he addicted to them. He could go cold turkey if the need arose. However, he hoped like hell that day would never come.
“I’m about to hit the interstate, Harold. Honk if you pass me on I-10. Safe travels to North Carolina, and give the family my love. Tell them Happy Holidays for me.”
