A Long Goodbye (6 page)

I wanted to know why so I decided to just go ahead and ask. “What’s with the glasses? Are you trying to hide your scar?” He didn’t say anything but I could sense his eyes staring at me through those dark lenses. The bell dinged and the doors spread open.

He strutted past me, smiling. “Yeah, Darlin’ I’m hiding my scar.”

Not really paying attention to where we were going, he stopped when we get a few doors down the corridor. “Which one?”

“506,” I told him. “Where’d ya get that scar from anyway?”

I pulled the keycard from my back pocket of my shorts and opened the door, not even giving it a second thought that a semi-strange man was coming inside our room. He walked over to one of the beds and softly placed Lu down. Then he turned and lifted his glasses until they rested on top of his soft brown curls and I could really see his eyes. The glasses were too dark, and I’d had a hard time seeing through the lenses and making the color out earlier, but dang if they weren’t they nicest shade of blue I’d ever seen, and those lashes. My lord, I couldn’t buy mascara to get mine to look that good.

“Afghanistan.” Just like that, he said it, and just like that, he was walking out the door before I could even say anything in response. I felt so stupid after he stepped out. How I couldn’t even muster up a thank you, or more importantly, find out when I’d be able to see him again. Part of me hoped never, but part of me knew the way that boy held my hand in his as we danced that, that was definitely not our last twirl on the floor.

With Lu passed out, I tucked her under the blankets after taking off her boots. That night, I drifted off to sleep with the television on, and the naughtiest thoughts of Woody running through my straight-laced southern belle head.

CHAPTER 8

DANE

I hated revealing myself to Ashton so early in the game, but those boys didn’t seem to want to leave, and until they did, I wasn’t going to leave them alone in a parking garage with no help. Once they left, I planned on waiting for the girls to head inside before I did. It wasn’t until I saw her looking up to the ceiling like she was saying a little prayer that I knew something was wrong. I thought maybe Lu would have stepped out with her when Ashton made her move, but she never did, so, I assumed that was the problem. Damn if I wasn’t right. Not to mention the fact that I was pretty positive one of those dumbasses did something to get Lu that way.

I didn’t know Lu from a hole in the wall, but she’d always had a reputation, and after talking to my brothers to get some background information on both of them, her being laid up so easily surprised me. Apparently, Lu was one of those girls who talked a lot of smack, but also had no problem defending it as well. Ashton was another story. Everyone in town, including my family, spoke highly of her for being a classy girl with a straight head on her shoulders. If she did get into trouble, Lu was not far behind and was usually the cause.

When Ashton asked about my scar so early on, it threw me off; I kinda froze up. It wasn’t that I didn’t expect her question eventually, but not yet. It was something I hated talking about since it always brought up memories of AJ. Since, over the course of the next two weeks, every word was going to be a lie, I figured telling her truth about my scar was the one thing I could come clean about.

Groggily, I woke to my phone alerting me it was time to get up and get going. I pushed the button to stop the music from blasting anymore. Shoving a hand through my untamed hair, I sat up and stared all around me. Ashton’s father set me up in a real nice room, one that I wasn’t too comfortable with, but I took. Hell, if it were up to me, I’d rather lay out in my beat up Ford waiting for those girls to move on to their next adventure.

Fumbling with my cell, it beeped making me aware of Ashton’s phone moving from her last known place, her hotel room.

Rechecking the clock, I took note that it was only seven in the morning, and something told me she was a room service kind of chick, so her being up and moving caught me off guard. Quickly, I grabbed my jeans from the floor, tugged them on, and quickly tossed a T-shirt over my head.

She was still in the hotel, so I didn’t hurry as fast as I probably should. I stopped to brush my teeth, ran my fingers through my hair one more time, quickly noting that I needed a haircut, then headed on out to find where the elusive Ashton Winslow had gone.

The tracking device application on her phone showed that she was on the first floor. I shook my head once I spotted her in the hoity-toity, lobby coffee shop where a cup of Joe costs way more than it was worth. But, hell if I didn’t find myself heading in there, looking for any excuse just to hear her voice this morning.

Just as I stepped inside, her eyes lifted, and I knew it was too late to change my mind. She’d spotted me. My face broke out into a big grin, knowing I must’ve looked like a fool standing there. She had this sweet little sundress on that stopped just shy of her knees with a deep vee in the front showing her extremely tempting cleavage. Her long curls cascaded over her shoulders as she twisted around upon hearing her name being called out that her coffee was ready. I took a deep breath remembering how soft her hair had felt the night before. She looked back to me with a sweet little smile that immediately set my heart in a tailspin.

“Fancy meeting you here so early this morning,” I said not knowing what other kind of excuse to shell out to her.

She eyed me suspiciously but then laughed softly. “Hey, Woody, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were stalking me.”

I stepped closer to get ready to place my order, and then faced her. “What if I was?” Every fiber of my being screamed that I was completely screwing up my mission again, and I needed to step back and be more discreet, but I didn’t care. Not with the way that she was looking at me.

Her face and stance changed from friendly to suspicious. “That depends on why.” She glowered at me with her one hand on her hip, trying to muster up a look meaner than a cougar, but wasn’t very successful. I almost laughed watching her try. As I let her stew on my answer, she took a longer than necessary swig of her coffee before I gave in.

“Relax, Grace. It’s merely a coincidence. I’m an early riser. But, since we keep meeting up like this,” I gestured for her to take a seat in one of their plush leather chairs. “Why not enjoy a conversation over a cup of coffee?”

She was contemplating my suggestion by biting down on the corner of her bottom lip, something I had noticed she did the night before when she was thinking. “Yeah, okay. I’d like that.”

I nodded. “Good. Be over in a minute.”

What the hell was I doing? I’d been on the job less than 48 hours, and I’d blown my cover more times than I cared to think of. But something about her did me in, and I was positive I stopped caring when her hand slipped in mine for that dance last night.

After ordering, I watched her from the counter, taking in how nervous she seemed as I waited for my own cup. Once the girl handed it off to me, I strutted over taking my sunglasses out of my pocket and placed them on. Sitting across from her, I could tell she was shaken up by my presence some, so I sat back a little. She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear, fidgeting with her cup. “I meant to say thank you for your help last night with LuLu, but you left so quick.”

“It’s not a problem, Grace. I’m glad I was there to help. How’s she feeling this morning?”

Her green eyes stared into mine, and I swore right there and then I was a goner. I had never seen eyes so green in my life. “She’s still sleeping. Lu would die if she knew you carried her all the way up there and she had no clue a handsome man was doing it.”

Never once had I ever considered myself as handsome, but I took her comment to heart and pretended not to hear it. “I’m sure she’ll be fine.” Ashton sat back a little more, and when she did, her dress rode up a little, baring more of those fine, tanned legs. Legs I was beginning to imagine wrapped around my waist for the rest of my life. “So you two ladies are on a vacation?” She simply nodded. “How long?”

“Two weeks. We’re just passing through Nashville for the first few days, and then we’re moving on.”

What the fuck? Winslow never mentioned that.

“What about you? How long are you in Nashville for?” She asked, before taking another slow sip, appraising me as she did.

“Just a couple days. Don’t have anywhere else to be. Just figured I’d wing it for a while.”

“Wow! That’s nice. Don’t you work, or are you off duty from the service or something?”

“Yeah, Darlin’ I work.” I eyed her up and down for a quick beat. “Just takin’ some time to myself.”

“Well, what do you do?”

“I work with my brother from time to time. I got out of the army about six months ago.”

“Where ya from?”

“Small town in West Virginia called Sutton” I lied using where AJ was from. It was the first place I could think of. “How about you?”

“Just outside Charleston. I’ve lived there all my life. Daddy never really lets me travel without him, so I’m taking advantage of my two weeks with Lu.”

I smiled. “So, you’re a daddy’s girl?”

“I think he wants me to be forever, and deep down I know I always will be, but it’s starting to be about that time to move on and become someone else’s girl. If you know what I mean.”

“How old are you, Grace?”

“Twenty-two. What about you, Woody?”

“Twenty-eight,” I answered honestly then took a swig of my black coffee.

“Where’d ya go to school?” She asked.

“What’s with all the questions about me when you are far more interesting?” Casually I took another sip and scooted back into the soft leather. “You said you girls were moving on, where to next?”

“Um, I guess I’m not totally sure. Probably Miami, but with Lu you never know.” I almost spit my coffee out.

“That’s a hell of a drive from here.”

“I know. I wanted to head there in the first place, but we’re here and in a few days, we’ll pull an all-day drive or something. I haven’t really thought about it much yet. It’s only about nine hours. So, it’s not too bad.”

I needed to say something to get my ass to make that trip with them; otherwise, I’d be tailing behind and couldn’t think of any possible explanation how I could show up if she needed me. “I’ve been to Miami a few times. It’s going to be hot as hell this time of year. You sure about this? Why not stay here? There’s enough to keep you girls busy for two weeks. There’s a great festival mid-week. A lot of bands playing.”

Ashton leaned forward, and when she did, I had to catch my breath. “I’ll let you in on a little secret, Woody.”

I gulped and tried my best not to stare at her ever-present chest like it was a neon sign blinking at me. “What’s that, sweetheart?”

“I have this bucket list I want to start doing. Hell, I’m twenty-two, and I’ve barely tied one on more than twice. I have a few things I want to do, and Miami is one of them.” She shrugged like it was no sweat off her back. “What about you? If you knew you were dying tomorrow, would you feel like you were ready?”

Her question threw me off guard, not because of the meaning, but because it’s such a dark question to come off those pretty little lips.

“Are you dying?” I didn’t know what the hell I was going to say if she said yes, but I had to know.

“No, it was a hypothetical question.”

Quietly, I thanked God. ”Grace, I’ve been around the block more than my fair share. There was a time I was ready to go if the Lord saw fit, but he must not have been ready for a hell raiser like me, since I’m still here sitting with a beautiful girl like yourself.”

I shouldn’t have said it, but it came out before I could stop the words from slipping. She smiled, and when she did, it made me feel like I could do anything at that point. And all I could think about was what could I do to win this girl over? “What else is on the bucket list of yours?”

“Swim at night in the ocean. Learn to surf. Drink too much one night and meet a man who knows how to be a man…things like that to name a few.” All right, I’m pretty sure that her admission was a gift from God, or maybe AJ.  She was looking for a real man, not that asshole from the photo her daddy had given me. I had already called my brother to get the background information on Trevor Owens, and damn if her father wasn’t setting her up with a jackass whose list of discrepancies was as wide as a country mile.

One such discrepancy even ended in us finding out about a fifteen month old child who he barely paid support for. Court records showed he’d been forgetting for the last six months. His son, Toby, lived in Baltimore with a girl he met on a vacation when he was up there on a golfing trip with his buddies a few years back. No one in Charleston County even knew this information other than my brother and me. A secret I was quite sure that Ashton’s father didn’t even know. It was all a part of their agreement when the baby was born. No one would ever know. Well, Trevor Owens had no idea what I was capable of uncovering.

I was itching to touch her, so I leaned in and grazed her knee with my finger. “Darling, if you’re looking for a man and a little fun, you just need to say the word.”

Her eyes were focused on my finger, but then she lifted her head slightly, grinning. “Do you know where I can find a man like that? Because I looked all night at the bar, and I thought I had found one, but he up and went.”

“You’re going to need to be more specific. Are you talking about me, or that asshole who spiked your friends drink?”

Ashton stood suddenly, smoothing her dress down. “We’re going honky tonking tonight. You want to come?”

“Hell, yeah, I want to come. How about I pick you girls up around seven?”

“That’s a little early don’t you think?”

I got up, standing toe to toe. “With what I have planned tonight, Darlin’, you’re gonna want to eat beforehand.” I lifted her chin up with my finger. “And wear something pretty for me.” I didn’t know what the hell I was doing, only what I was feeling. The phrase playing with fire came to mind, but I pushed it away even though I wanted that bonus. Something inside of me not only wanted to watch Ashton Winslow knock off everything on that bucket list of hers, but I wanted her and I wanted her badly. And for the first time since before I left on tour, I was going to get what I wanted. I was determined to figure out how to make her mine for the next two weeks, without her finding out the truth about her precious daddy, or me. Before I pushed open the glass door to the lobby, I turned. “Grace,” I called out. She peeked up from the magazine now in her lap. “If you’re thinking of standing me up, I’ll find you.”