Falling hard, p.7
Falling Hard, page 7
Not this time.
Summoning what little backbone she had left, she said, “No, Zeke, I can’t.”
“I don’t ask for much. But fine.” He stomped into the bedroom, came out a few minutes later and slammed a check on the counter. “Be in a better mood when I get home.”
When he’d gotten home, she hadn’t been there. She’d moved to Gia’s. As much as she’d once loved Zeke, she needed to stop the cycle her parents had started of facilitating the needy men in their lives.
The traffic on the road brought Annie back to the present. Her butt hurt from sitting so long in the driver’s seat. She adored her old truck, a 1952 turquoise Ford pickup, but the cushion had worn down and the springs poked her bottom. At this rate, she’d run into Zeke at the apartment. He worked a few days a week at a guitar store and got home around this part of the evening. Even on nights he had gigs with his band, they didn’t start until later. As much as she’d like to avoid him, she wanted those pills.
She exited on Richards Boulevard and drove the three miles to the apartment. Sure enough, Zeke’s van was parked in the designated spot. Because the apartment was a one-bedroom they’d only been allowed one parking space and Zeke had made sure to take it every time. She sighed. At least there weren’t any parking issues at Rosser Ranch. Downtown Nugget either. The little town suited her better than Davis, which over the years had grown too big for her comfort level. Nugget had a market, gas station, feed store, and two restaurants. What more did a person need?
Annie parked in a loading spot reserved for tenants moving in or out. A sense of dread filled her at having to go inside. She and Zeke hadn’t parted on the best of terms and she hadn’t seen him in weeks. But they were both adults and there was no need to be uncivil.
The apartment building resembled an old-style Motel 6 with a row of units on the ground level and an outdoor staircase that ascended to a second row of studios and one-bedrooms. Halfway up the stairs, Gia heard the bass from Zeke’s stereo, the vibration of it shooting through her shoes. The music blared so loudly it was a wonder no one had called the cops.
She used her old key to get inside and immediately turned the stereo down. Zeke came out of the bedroom in his underwear and glowered at her.
“What the hell did you do that for?”
“It was too loud. The neighbors, Zeke.” She crossed the living room.
“You moved out, remember? The neighbors are my problem now, not yours.”
He blocked the entrance to the bedroom and the bathroom where she kept her pills and a few articles of clothing she’d left in the closet, including a favorite pair of wedge sandals.
“What are you doing here?” he asked.
“I forgot something and need to get it.” She tried to get through, but he continued to obstruct her way. “Let me by.”
“You’ll have to come back when it’s not inconvenient for me.”
“For Christ’s sake, Zeke. It’ll take all of five seconds. Just let me get it and I’ll leave.”
He continued to stand there, covering the entrance. Zeke certainly wasn’t bouncer material, and compared to Logan he was downright puny, but he was bigger than she. And at this moment, menacing.
“What is your problem?” she asked, having never seen him like this.
“You can’t drop in whenever you want and you shouldn’t still have a key.”
“I’ll give it to you as soon as you let me get what I need.”
“No can do.”
His hair was disheveled and she wondered if he’d been sleeping. It wouldn’t surprise her. After all, sitting behind the counter of a dead guitar shop, sucking up the free air-conditioning, was taxing work.
“Why are you acting like this?”
“You’re the one who left me, Annie. How am I supposed to pay your half of the rent?”
Getting a real job would be a start. “I paid you for this month, Zeke. Technically, it’s still half my apartment. I don’t know what it is you want from me.”
“I want you to leave.”
“And I will as soon as I get what I came for.”
“What’s that, Annie? Did you come back for my soul?”
If she had to guess, he’d spent all day incorporating that line into a song. A bad song. “Nope, just my birth-control pills. So if you’d just move aside, I’ll get them and be on my way.”
He raised his brows. “You sleeping with someone already? That’s just great, Annie.”
“Zeke, are you planning to let me pass or not?”
“Go right ahead.” He swished his arm across the threshold and flashed a self-satisfied smile.
She slid past him and because it was dark, flicked on the light. In the middle of his bed—their old bed—was a young, naked woman. The barely-legal girl didn’t bother covering herself, just thrust her large breasts and smirked. Annie recognized her from a few of the band’s shows. Zeke hadn’t wasted any time finding Annie’s replacement and was obviously getting great pleasure from rubbing her nose in it.
“Pardon me.” Annie used her most genteel voice. “I’m sorry to interrupt.”
“No problem,” the girl said, and bounced those ginormous melons of hers.
Annie went inside the bathroom and swiped the pills from the medicine cabinet while a million emotions swirled. Not jealousy exactly and not even anger, just deep disappointment. At Zeke. But mostly at herself for letting the relationship go on as long as it had. She’d allowed him to live off her income while he pursued his dream of becoming a rock star, knowing full well it would never happen.
For a year, she’d attended his gigs, schlepping guitars and PA systems across the West, sleeping on friends’ floors, watching groupies slip him their phone numbers on gum wrappers, and selling CDs and band T-shirts out of the back of a van.
And what had she gotten for her trouble?
Nothing, except a close-up look of herself and the realization that she wasn’t much different than her parents. Like them, she was a facilitator. But not anymore. She was tired of letting Zeke and her brother’s needs take center stage while losing her self-identity in the process.
She stashed the pills in her purse, grabbed a tote bag from the closet, and stuffed it full of her things. Then she walked through the bedroom, past Zeke, who lingered by the door, laid the apartment key on the kitchen table, and said good-bye.
After making the long drive home, all she wanted to do was float in the pool for about an hour, throw a frozen dinner in the microwave, and call it a day. She shimmied into her suit, tossed on an embroidered Mexican peasant dress as a cover-up, and headed to the backyard to find Logan swimming laps.
The sun had set and she watched him glide like a fish, the glow of the pool lights illuminating his glistening muscles as they flexed. Each stroke looked effortless. She could watch all night. His arms cut through the water as graceful as a dance, his scissor kicks so smooth that she didn’t even hear a splash. It was beautiful—he was beautiful.
She turned to go, to leave him to his private workout, when he said, “Where’ve you been? I missed you.”
Annie laughed at the absurdity of that statement. Until a few days ago they’d never met.
“I had a consultation in Yolo County and while I was there swung by my old apartment.” She left out the part about getting her birth-control pills.
“Both bunkhouses are brush-free.” He laid his arms flat on the decking and bobbed at the edge of the deep end. “I’ll start on the cottages tomorrow.”
“Wow, that was fast. Thanks. Now we’re ahead of schedule.” She figured he wanted to get the job done and head back to San Diego. “How was your meeting with Cecilia?”
He waggled his hand from side to side, then in one easy motion pulled himself out of the pool. “I got a fantastic dinner out of it. But it turns out Old Man Rosser was a real jack-off.”
She grabbed his towel off the lounge, threw it to him—otherwise she was going to ogle every inch of him—and took a seat. “Is that what she said?” The truth was she hadn’t heard too many good things about Ray. And the fact that he’d gone to prison for murder . . .
“Pretty much. It wasn’t like I was expecting to hear that he was Man of the Year, but I’ve gotta wonder how much of his doucherie is in me?”
“None,” she blurted.
He flashed a weak smile and sat next to her on the lounge. “I’ve done a lot of shit, Annie.”
“While you were in the service, during wartime, right?”
“Yeah,” he said so quietly she could barely hear him.
“That doesn’t count. You were doing your job: protecting the world from terrorists.” She didn’t believe in violence and thought the world would be a better place if everyone put down their arms and learned to live in harmony. Unfortunately, there were bad people on this earth that needed to be dealt with.
He didn’t say anything, just sat there listening to the symphony of crickets.
She finally broke the silence. “I thought you didn’t have a bathing suit.”
“There’s a sporting-goods store in the center of town. I got one there. Between that and the Farm Supply place this little town has everything.” He glanced at her dress and the straps of her bikini top. “Go on in, don’t let me stop you.”
“It’s a little nippy now.”
His mouth quirked and he raised his brows. “You just don’t want me to see you in a swimsuit and I’m dying to.”
“I guess you’ll have to die then.”
He chuckled. “I don’t know what you’re so insecure about. You’re hot, Annie.”
She laughed it off and changed the subject. “You were out late last night.”
“Waiting for me, were you?” One corner of his mouth ticked up. “I guess you didn’t hear about the dustup at the Ponderosa.”
“I’ve been gone all day. What happened?”
“These biker dudes were forcing their attention on these two women in the restaurant. Rhys was there, but off duty. He handled it anyway and I figured he could use a little backup until his real backup got there. Even the cook got in on it, came out of the kitchen with a honking butcher knife. It was game on.”
“That’s awful. Are the women okay?”
“Fine. The whole thing lasted about five minutes. The chief was pretty clutch, though, held his own against four burly motherfuh—” He stopped himself, which amused Annie, who’d been known from time to time to use a few profanities herself. “How was the consultation?”
“Good.”
“How ’bout at your old apartment?” He locked gazes with her.
“My ex was there and wasn’t happy to see me. Other than that, it was noneventful.”
Logan continued to watch her. “He didn’t try anything, did he?”
“Noooo. Nothing like that.”
He seemed doubtful but backed off. “I bought stuff to grill burgers. Enough for the cowboys too.”
She smiled at the way he referred to them as the cowboys. “I’ll text Oscar.” Annie reached in her pool bag for her phone and tapped out a short message. “It’s nice of you to include them.”
“They invited me to their barbecue. I’m just reciprocating.”
He slipped a T-shirt over his head. “I’ll be right back.”
She watched him disappear inside one of the dressing rooms and came out a few minutes later in a pair of shorts. He’d slung his swim trunks over the top of the door.
“I stuck everything, including beer, in the fridge.” He pointed at the outdoor kitchen. “I hope that’s okay.”
“Sure,” she said, knowing Gia wouldn’t mind. Other than a big fund-raiser the Iris Foundation had thrown for the residential program, Gia hardly entertained. Annie supposed that would change now that she and Flynn were getting married.
She didn’t begrudge her friends their happiness; in fact, she’d been rooting for them to get together. But Annie wished she could find her happily-ever-after too. First, she’d have to change her taste in men to ones who were more emotionally available and had a little more drive than working part-time in a guitar shop.
Her phone dinged with an incoming text. “Shoot,” she said, reading the message. “They went out for a night on the town. They said we should meet them at the Ponderosa.”
“The Ponderosa isn’t a night on the town.” Logan muffled a laugh. “Tell them to come to San Diego. I’ll show them a night on the town.”
“If you don’t want to go, I’m good with staying here and eating burgers.”
“You mind?” he asked.
If he kept looking at her the way he was, she’d skip dinner altogether and go straight to his cabin. Even dressed, she’d have to be dead not to notice how ripped he was. His T-shirt clung to his damp torso, outlining the definition of his muscles. His light brown hair shimmered in the sunshine. And his blue eyes never left her.
“I could use a night in after spending six hours on the road. And Friday, I’m headed back to Davis.” She sighed.
“Another consultation?”
“No, my friend’s band is playing Friday night and I promised to go. Wanna come?” Hell, by Friday he’d probably be heading south. For all she knew that friend he was waiting for had given him an assignment. Then, he’d be off to God-knows-where doing God-knows-what—all of it dangerous.
“Sure,” he said, surprising her. “What kind of band is it?”
“Alternative country. We can drive home the same night.” On her own she probably would’ve found a couch to camp on.
“Okay. Sounds fun.” He let his eyes slowly rove over her, then turned his attention to the gas grill. With a twist of a knob, he set the flame to medium high, and took the beef patties and buns out of the fridge. “Have a beer.”
She let him pop the top off the bottle for her before taking it from him. “Let me help you with something.”
“Nah, I’ve got it. It won’t be fancy, just burgers and chips. But it’ll be good.”
One thing Logan didn’t lack was confidence. He wasn’t a show-off or a braggart, but definitely self-assured. In that way, he reminded her of Flynn. She supposed she had a thing for men with swagger. In Zeke’s case it had been the wrong kind of swagger. Swagger with nothing to back it up.
“Tomorrow, I’m talking to the woman who owns the Bun Boy,” he said, putting the burgers on the heated grill. “She knew Ray pretty well and seems to have a good history of the Rossers. I’ll probably talk to that cattle guy too. What do you think of him?”
“Clay McCreedy? He’s a nice man. His wife is a semi-famous cookbook author. Since his ranch neighbors this one, I think he’ll be good to talk to. What about that Virgil guy Clay suggested?”
“Yeah, maybe. I don’t know if I’ll have time to get to him. It depends whether Gabe calls.”
“Right,” she said, and felt a twinge of disappointment, even though she knew his leaving was inevitable. “The security job.”
“Yep. I’ve only been gone from the teams a short time and already miss it.”
“You never think about settling down, staying in one place? Having a home and relationship?”
“Nah, there’s good money in security work, better than the navy. And I like the action. I like seeing different places. If it works out, I’m thinking of partnering with Gabe, buying a share of the business. There are a lot of guys like me coming out of the teams, tired of the navy’s red tape, but still want to be spec warriors. We could harness that into something good.”
He was speaking another language that she knew nothing about. They had so little in common, starting with what he did for a living. It was one thing to fight for your country, another to be a soldier of fortune. She didn’t know how she felt about that, which was another reason not to fall in bed with him.
Logan flipped the burgers and she got the condiments out of the fridge and paper plates from one of the drawers. He gazed out over the landscape, taking in the pool, the view, and the miles of rolling pasture. There was no longing in his appraisal from what Annie could tell, only appreciation.
“This is quite a spread,” he said, affirming her observation. “Rosser may have been a nutsack, but he was apparently good at making money.”
No question, Rosser Ranch was breathtaking. Her parents’ farm was big and mostly prosperous—when Chad wasn’t sticking his hand in the till—but it was nothing like this. Rosser had indeed been affluent and had clearly liked living large.
He served up the burgers, opened the chips, and they ate under the starry sky. When it was time to turn in, he walked her to the apartment over the garage.
“I want to kiss you but I think it’ll make things weird,” he said.
“It would,” she agreed.
But she spent the rest of the night thinking about what it would’ve been like to feel Logan Jenkins’s lips on hers, to feel his tongue inside her mouth. And when she finally slipped off to sleep, she dreamed of it.
Chapter 6
The next morning, Logan got up at zero-dark-hundred again, took one look in the mirror and—as they used to say in the teams—saw a bag of smashed asshole staring back at him.
“Son, you need a haircut,” he said aloud.
Maybe after he finished clearing brush he’d go to town and get a trim at the barbershop on the square. Before heading to work he read an e-mail on his phone from his mom—she and Nick were in Jackson Hole, Wyoming—and sent a quick reply, keeping information about his time in Nugget vague.
All these years she’d tried to shield him from finding out about the man who’d given him life and here he was digging up bones he should’ve left buried. Ray Rosser had been a prick. And what was that saying about the sins of the father shall be visited upon the sons?
He sent off a WTF-where-are-you text to Gabe, gulped down the rest of his coffee, and made his way to the cottages, taking a slight detour—okay, it was more than slight—to the tree farm. As he suspected, Annie was there. The woman had him tossing and turning in his sleep. She’d become a challenge and Logan never met a challenge he couldn’t conquer. Last night, when he’d told her kissing would complicate things, he’d expected her to argue. But she’d just walked away.
