Read Dismantled (Girls on Top #2) Online

Authors: Yara Greathouse

Dismantled (Girls on Top #2) (18 page)

BOOK: Dismantled (Girls on Top #2)
5.88Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads
Ciara

Wyatt opens the door and Keagan jumps on him into a big embrace. They look so sweet and happy, I feel a small twinge of jealousy inside. I want to be happy too, but first I need to figure out a way to resolve my feelings for Traxx.

Wyatt sets Keagan down and she leaves for the balcony to see Notso, and Wyatt turns towards me with an assuring smile. “Welcome back, Ciara.” He extends his hand, and I politely put my hand on his. He takes it and brings it to his lips, placing a gentle kiss on top of it. It makes me smile.

He looks down and sees my cowboy boots. Smiling he asks, “You own cowboy boots?”

“Heck, yeah! Boy, I’m originally from Alabama, of course I’m going to have some. I put them on to show you support since you come from Texas and all.”

“Awesome!”

“I hear you guys are grillin’? I’m starved. Is the food ready?”

“Almost, come on, let’s go outside. It’s a beautiful night. Would you like a beer?

“Yes, please.”

As the night went on, I learned a lot about Traxx’s childhood. I kept staring at Wyatt and inside my head I imagined that he was Traxx and that everything was perfect between us. Don’t ask. I have no idea why I continue to trick myself into thinking that we can be something great together. He doesn’t want me.

At the end of the night, Keagan and Notso headed to the stair and then something unexpected happened.

“Ciara, before you leave, I wanted to ask you if you have some time, would you like to go out to dinner tomorrow? As friends, of course. It’s been a while since I had the company of a beautiful girl, so yes, I’m taking advantage. What do you say? It will really be great for my ego, and I will let you pick the place.”

I think about it for a minute. “As friends, without other expectations, correct?”

“Yes, ma’am, that would be great.”

“Okay, yes, why not? That sounds lovely. I really want to hear some more stories of your life in Texas.”

“Okay, awesome! Let me put my number on your phone…” I reach into my back pocket and pull out my phone, I unlock the screen and pass it to him. He enters his number first and sends a text after. “Now we can be in touch.”

I nod and start to walk to the front door. Ever the gentleman, Wyatt ensures that he gets to the door first and opens it for me. I smile politely and say goodbye. For now.

 

Traxx

I drive around the block five times before I pull into Colton’s driveway. I have no idea how I’m going to talk about this shit with Brianna there. I really don’t think Ciara has told anyone all the gritty details of what a coward I am, because Brianna would have been looking for my ass in order to skin me alive. I better get prepared for my ass whopping.

Obviously, I waited too long to apologize. Especially since I left town, I should have called her the second I realized I’d made a mistake, which was as soon as I landed in Texas. There were too many days in between for her to soothe her wounds and start to move on. Me? I’m still in turmoil. In retrospect, if I hadn’t panicked that morning and freaked the hell out, she wouldn’t be so mad at me. I should have sat down with her and told her all the crazy shit that was going through my mind. I’m such an idiot.

I’m sitting on his driveway and I decide to text him first. A few minutes later he opens the door and has two beers in his hands. He motions for me to come by and sit on the porch.

“Hey man, want a beer?” He greets by passing me the beer and we sit down on the porch chairs. Before he can start an inquisition, I ask him about Brianna. “Brianna is taking a shower, so you can go ahead and talk.”

“You and Notso can be such girls when it comes to gossip. I may need to do an equipment check on you, ‘cause I’m afraid you’ve lost your manhood.”

“Dude, are you going to talk or what?”

“Well, I don’t even know where to start.” I say truthfully. “It seems I’ve created a clusterfuck and I have no idea how to get out of it.” I take a deep breath and go on. “You know I have always had a thing for Ciara, right? Well, we have been doing a lot of talking and she’s been helping me get over the anxiety and PTSD from the incident. I mean, she’s absolutely awesome, she’s helped me sort out a lot of the guilt and negative thinking.”

“Yeah, I’m with you.” Traxx takes a drink and keeps looking at Colton really intensely.

“So, I was convinced that I was getting better, that I could move on with my life. So what happens when two people who are attracted to each other spend a lot of time together?”

Colton looks at me with a blank stare on his face. I stare back at him. Then the lightbulb goes off, he flies off of the chair and starts pacing from one end of the porch to the other. “No, Traxx, you didn’t! Fuck! Please tell me you did NOT bone Ciara”

“Dude, it wasn’t like that. Don’t be so fucking crude. That’s the problem, I have serious feelings for her.” That statement makes him pause.

“And? Why are you here talking this shit out with me, when you should be with her.” He’s whisper-yelling now. Shit.

“Because, after well…you know, I freaked out and she asked me not to leave, but I felt like I was suffocating, because I thought I was never going to be good enough for her, plus when I realized that I have deep feelings for her, I was scared shitless of what she could do to me! The pain she could put me through… So I left before she could hurt me. I left her there on her bed, crying… I fucked up so bad!”

“It seems to me she had already made a choice and she wanted you, asshole!”

“You did
what
?” Oh fuck, that was not Colton’s voice, that was Brianna’s and she’s coming straight for me, and luckily Colton blocks her.

“Brianna, calm down, I’m sure we can all talk about this calmly.”

“Colton, don’t make me hurt you!” She looks at me. “You fucker, I need to get my hands on you! I told you not to fuck with her! She’s the only family I have and you hurt her?” She’s is coming at me like a spooked horse without a jockey. I would be lying if I said I was not a bit concerned. I’ve seen her kickass! I’ve even seen her take on many guys at one time. The girl is an expert in Jiu Jitsu and Krav Maga, and I don’t want to be at the receiving end of what she can dish out.

“Brianna, I’m really sorry, I didn’t mean it… I’m so messed up inside and she was so perfect, when she’s near me I just feel… complete, fulfilled, loved.”

“Motherfucker!” She turns around and goes back inside.

Colton stares at her trying to figure out her next move. Suddenly, his eyes get really big and he yells at me, “The gun, bro! She’s gone to get her gun! Get the fuck out of here!” And sure enough, Brianna was coming with her gun drawn out.

I hear her yell, “You are a fucking coward! I should take your balls, because you sure don’t need them!”

Fuck! I jumped the porch’s railing and start running. I reach my truck while I’m trying to calm her down. “I’ll fix it, Brianna! I promise.” Colton is back in front of her trying to hold her gun down, and I got lucky because she will not hurt Colton. If she wanted to hurt him, he would have been flat on his back in the middle of the yard next to me. This girl don’t play.

Burning my tires on the driveway as I back out in a hurry, the entire time yelling promises to Brianna that I would have everything under control in a couple of days.

As if I know what the fuck I’m gonna do.

 

 

Ciara

It’s been a couple of days since I last saw Traxx. That night I also had a visit from a very upset Brianna. She was really pissed. She said that Traxx had gone to her place to talk to Colton, and she overheard most of the conversation. Then all the ‘how could you?’ and ‘why didn’t you’ comments started. I told her I was hoping to get it all worked out before she had a chance to find out and she made me promise not to hide things from her again. Then she plain and simply said I better find me another guy because she was going to neuter Traxx. I laughed. Gotta love her!

Tonight I’m going to hang out with his brother. I have to keep telling myself that it’s okay for girls to be friends with guys. I’m not over Traxx, as a matter of fact I don’t think I will ever be. He’s pierced my soul with all the pieces of his broken heart. I’m still not sure why I said yes to Wyatt. It’s probably because I’m tired of sitting around here, spending all my time off wallowing in my sadness. Or, it could be his easy going personality, although his looks and Texas accent helped a lot. Well, I have eyes, dammit, and I’m human. Looking is not a sin.

I look in the mirror. The image reflected back doesn’t look like someone who’s been crying for days on end. Thank goodness. My heart feels like it has been drained and has no purpose beating because there’s nothing there for it to keep pumping. It’s pointless. But I make myself get up and keep going. I have to live. There are no regrets. That one special night with Traxx is one that I will remember and cherish until my last days. The emotional ties that were released that night between the two of us were crafted with the most special ribbons: love and rapture. I don’t care how hard Traxx tries to fight it. It was all there in between the two of us, it was real and we both felt it. I have to have faith that in the end, he will make the right choices.

A knock on my door brings me back to the here and now. “Come in.”

“Hey, Ciara – Wow! You look great! What are you up to?” Keagan looks at me with a mischievous smile.

“I’m going to the movies with Wyatt. Want to come with?” I ask her.

“Oh, nooo, I already have plans.”

I look at her with a raised eyebrow, because it seems like she’s up to something, so I ask. “What are you up to?”

“Meee? Nothing. What makes you say that?”

“It seems strange that you’d be so happy for me to be going out with the wrong cousin.”

“It matters not which one you choose as long as you are happy.” There goes the smile again.

The doorbell rings.

Keagan turns and goes to open the door. As I give myself a final look in the mirror, for some crazy reason, I start to reconsider all of this. Suddenly I’m nervous and I wonder what would be Traxx’s reaction. Well, it doesn’t matter because he was very clear he didn’t want to have anything to do with me. So if he sees me going out, it shouldn’t bother him – right? We’ll see.

As I walk to the living room, my eyes feast on the handsome man in front of me. Wyatt is very sexy in his cowboy boots, jeans, rolled-up long sleeved shirt and eyes that seem to say “sin with me.” Kegan and Wyatt look to be having a somewhat serious conversation, but they stop as I approach them.

“Howdy, there, looker!” Wyatt grabs my hand and twirls me around.

“Ha! Don’t you try to use your Texas charm on me, Mr. Maxwell!

“Hmm… I’m pretty sure I’m the luckiest one out of all the Mr. Maxwell’s. You’ve got everything that you need?”

I grab my purse from the receiving table. “Now I do.” I smile at Wyatt.

“Oh, wait a second! I promised my momma that I was going to send her lots of pictures from my life here. So… Keagan, can you take our picture? I want my momma to see the pretty girls I’m making friends with.” Handing the camera to Keagan, we pose side by side, because all I’m thinking is that I wish I had a good picture with Traxx, we have tons of group pictures and silly pictures, but not a real good one of him and I, but then again, maybe it’s better that way.

Keagan snaps the picture, then her phone dings with a text message and all of a sudden she says, “Uh, you guys are going to be late. You need to go.” I didn’t know she knew what time the movie was, but maybe that’s what she was talking to Wyatt about when he got here. She’s literally ushering us out the door.

As we step into the hall and turn around to take the stairs, we hear steps coming up. My heart recognizes who it is before I can see his face. From the second his eyes sees us, his expression goes from sad, to serious, to worried, to angry. On the outside, I’m shocked. I wasn’t sure if he would care or not. On the inside, I’m shaking. All I want to do is to walk into his arms and stay safely there, forever. Life hands you a lot of things, but it doesn’t give you directions. You have to figure out what to do all on your own. And this scene? The one going down right now? I was not expecting it, at all.

“Hello,
brother.
” The anger’s just dripping off of Traxx. Surprisingly, Wyatt is very calm. How…?

“Hey, Traxx. How was work today?”

“Don’t you fucking stand there like nothing’s going on.” He’s keeping his voice low, as if he wants to keep himself in check and not lose control.”

“I don’t understand. Ciara and I are going to the movies and then hang out for a little bit. Am I missing something?” Wyatt’s tone it’s just so casual. Traxx’s eyes look to me and there’s so much pain in them, I start hurting, too.

I look at the brothers, now standing in front of each other. Something’s going on here. I feel like I’m missing something. They are having some kind of silent standoff.

“You can’t!” Is all that Traxx says.

Wyatt, squares his shoulders and with a daring smile on his face, he answers. “Oh, but I am.” Then he reaches for my hand and since I’m frozen in place, he grabs a strong hold and starts moving us towards the stairs. As we move away, all I can do is watch Traxx. Traxx turns to see us go. Nothing else is said between the two brothers.

As we reach the last step at the bottom, I can hear Traxx’s voice talking to Keagan.

“And you, why are you letting this happen?”

“What am I supposed to do about it? She deserves to be happy.
Somebody
broke her heart. You wouldn’t happen to know who did it, do you, Traxx?

At that moment, Wyatt gets my attention.

“Ciara, don’t worry. He’ll get over it. We know it’s not a date, so stop thinking about it. Let’s have fun.”

I think about it for a few moments. “Yes, you’re right, Wyatt. I’m tired of feeling sad. Having fun sounds really good.”

He opens the passenger door of his truck and supports my hand while I get in. As he’s closing the door, I could not help but think that I need to close the chapter of my life that belongs to Traxx, but his attitude just now, tells me there is more there than I thought and I need to know what that is. So I decide to leave that door open for a little while longer.

 

 

BOOK: Dismantled (Girls on Top #2)
5.88Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

Talking Heads by John Domini
Haunted Love by Cynthia Leitich Smith
Cottonwood by R. Lee Smith
At the Highlander's Mercy by Terri Brisbin