Fighting Temptation (16 page)

“Hey, guys. Thanks again for letting us have Marshall’s pool party here. I can’t believe they can’t get the part we need for ours until next week.”

“No problem. We’re having a blast. Plus, we never get to have a pool party for Maddie’s birthday. And that water was feeling really good on my big fat pregnant belly.”

We hear a scream and spin around. Gabby and Daria walk over to Marshall and Maddie, who are fighting over a pool toy.

“Well, you wi ll not be ugly to Maddie.” “I tell you what,” I intervene. “I’ll put this toy away since you two can’t play nice. Maddie, next time you and I go to the store, remind me, and I’ll pick up another one so Marshall has one to play with, too.”

“Nice of you to show up. I thought you were going to help me grill, since Linc had to see a client this morning.”

“We would’ve been here sooner man, but Emma had an accident twice before we left the house. I hate potty training.”

I slap his shoulder. “Yeah, but you thought it was funny as hell when Maddie was the one hiding to pee and poop in corners.”

Gabby smiles. “Man, Marsh was so easy. I mean, Linc was uncomfortable for a little bit, but he finally got used to an audience. Finally, he just did what daddy did, all the way down to looking at a book when taking a dump.”

Daria touches my arm. “I’m going in to get the other stuff we need. Linc should be here any time with the cake.”

A few minutes later, Daria sticks her head out the back door. “Hey, Cade? Can you come in here for a minute, please?”

“Hi, Cade, I hope you don’t get upset with us for coming here. I’m Scarlet. This is my brother, Gable. I don’t know how else to say this, but you’re our brother.”

“Whoa. I mean, I guess I knew that I had some siblings since my mom and dad split, but I guess I just tried not to think about things that related to my dad.”

Scarlet fidgets with her hands. “I just turned eighteen and meeting you was what I wanted to do for my eighteenth birthday.”

Daria stands up. “We’re having a birthday party outside. Why don’t you come out back and meet the rest of our family?”

Everyone comes up to shake their hands. “This is my oldest friend, Gabby. We grew up next door to each other.”

“So the bigamist really did have more kids, huh?” She sticks her hand out to them. “I’m sorry, but I can’t stand your father. I’ve never been able to.” Gabby smiles.

I nod. They seem like cool people. Gabby and Anna are the closest things I’ve ever had to siblings, but now I have them. Wow. I hand Gable a beer and tip mine to him.

S.M. Donaldson is a wife and mother based on the Gulf Coast of the Florida Panhandle. She’s funny, sarcastic and
has been known to have a potty mouth. She’s worked in many different fields in her life but, she has always
dreamed of writing short stories and books. She recently penned her first series of novels
Sam’s Choice
and
Sam’s Fight for Freedom.
She has just finished working on
The Temptation Series
.

To learn more about S.M. Donaldson visit her at: www.smdonaldson.com
www.facebook.com/S.M.Donaldson.Author www.goodreads.com/AuthorSMDonaldson Twitter: @ SMDonaldson1

How could I be so dumb? I bust my ass to graduate a year early so I can start SCAD in the fall and now I’m sitting here in a holding cell. He wasn’t worth this.

“Scarlet Johnson. Come on . You’re bein’ released.” I nod, “Yes sir.”

Walking out into the front lobby of the police station I see my brother Gable. “Hey kid. What in the hell happened?”

“Well when we got back from meeting Cade last week I felt like something between Dustin and I was off.” Cade is our brother that we’ve just met for the first time.

“Well this morning I decided to surprise him. I stopped by our favorite coffee shop to grab us some coffee and bagels. When I pulled up to his house I noticed an Audi sitting in the drive way, but I thought it was one of his frat brothers or something. I walked in his apartment and I heard them. Walking back to his bedroom I shoved the door open and I saw them.”

Shaking my head. “Well there was him, his friend Brandon and my friend Katie. They were in the middle of some weird shit. I screamed they looked at me. That dick Brandon asked me to join in. Katie started blubbering and telling me she was sorry. Dustin’s naked ass jumped up and tried to talk to me I shoved him away. I took off running out the door, he grabbed me from behind. Then he had the audacity to ask me not to tell anyone.”

“Well when he asked me that I saw red. I grabbed some sort of handle. I think it was from an ax. I swung it at him until he backed up. I was just so angry. So embarrassed. It was like a switch flipped and I lost it. The first lick to his car was pure accident, but that one felt so good I couldn’t stop.”

“Yeah well the neighbors called the cops about all of the screamin’ and car bashin’. When they got there who were they going to believe? Me part of the working class society around here or three blue bloods? Three blue bloods who don’t want their parents or any of the town to find out they were having some kind of weird sex fantasy shit going on. Oh and that two of the town’s most beautiful blue blooded men have gay tendencies.”

“Yes but Katie was on bottom, Brandon was on top and Dustin was
in the middle
.” I get grossed out just thinking about it.

“Look if he’d just came out and told me he’s gay or bi whatever. We could’ve went our separate ways, but he embarrassed me. Then to see my best friend involved. Then not one of them said a word when the police put me in the car.”
“So what are you looking at?”

Looking out the window of the museum my mother works at she demands my attention. “Look young lady, you should be glad they just gave you probation and community service. You did enough damage to that car to constitute a felony.”

“Young lady I raised you to b e compassionate to people. You couldn’t tell he was confused when you were together.”

“Well I just assumed since you two had been seeing each other for so long. I guess I just thought you guys had been having sex. You know how I feel about sex and all.”

“Yes mother I know you are completely casual about sex most of the time. But no, we never had sex as a matter of fact I’ve never had sex.”

“Hey I’ve always told you sex is an expression with our bodies. I’m okay with you discovering that. Well as a mother I would prefer it be someone who you’ve been with awhile. But the free spirit my parents raised, says go for it.”

“Son you are nineteen years old. It’s time you get some direction in your life.” My dad spins around. “And by direction I mean a plan other than living off your inheritance, booze and whores.”

I run my hands through my hair in frustration. “So you’re sayin’ you won’t talk to Judge Griffin about throwing out my community service. I mean shit I could pay all the fines for probation and shit. Hell I’ll even pay that old asshole restitution for the damages.”

“No son. You need to pay with your sweat and hard work. It’s time that you learned money will not get you out of everything in life. You can’t go around bein’ hotheaded wreckin’ cars and tearin’ other peoples shit up. Also money isn’t going to be all you need in your life. Having friends, family, and people you can trust that’s what matters.”

My dad makes his way across the room putting his finger on my chest. “Son let me explain something to you. I loved your momma with every breath I had in me. I was an incomplete person when she came along. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t wish that she was still here and not a day that goes by that I can’t wait to see her again. But sometimes I can’t help but wonder if she’d be disappointed in me for how I’ve let you turn out.” He turns walking out of the room.

Sometimes it’s hard for me to remember my momma. I was only nine when she died. So there’s been a lot of shit since then. Plus those last couple of years she wasn’t herself. She was sick from the chemo and radiation. She wasn’t the momma who would take me pond swimming. He long sandy blond hair had fallen out, she looked frail, but she always tried to put on a smile for me. She always made me chocolate chip cookies even when the smell of something cooking made her vomit. I haven’t ate a chocolate chip cookie since then. The taste, the smell make me nauseous.

I park at the address given to me for my community service. I’m going to help build a habitat for humanity house. I figure doing this would be better than scrubbing toilets or picking up trash on the side of the road. Plus I get more out of it. I can actually see what I accomplish and I’ll be able to finish up my time sooner than picking up trash every Saturday.

I walk up to the big guy with a clip board in his hand. “Hey I’m Ryder Abbott. I’m doing some community service here.”

He huffs, “Good I’m Gus. I was hoping I’d get some good strong guys. They sent me that girl over there and I can tell she’s going to be a hard worker. But the southern man in me says I can’t have her hauling lumber over her shoulder. My granddaddy would roll over in his grave and come back to haunt my old ass.”

“Um kinda the same . Except well I smashed up my car doing about 110. Taking out some guy’s barn and a cow.”

“Wow it’s a wonder that man didn’t kill you over that cow. The price these days.” He walked off shaking his head.

I step up to the table where blondie is handing out everything. “Hey I’m Ryder. Gus sent me over here to get some information and stuff from you.” She has her blonde hair up in messy bun. She wearing ripped up jeans, a white tank top that accents the gorgeous set of tits she’s got and a pair of cheap mirrored sunshades. Damn she’s fucking hot.

“Yeah. I’m Scarlet nice to meet you.” She sticks her hand out to shake mine. I take her tiny hand shaking it. She smiles. “So here is your hard hat, your tool belt, a set of daily instructions and the OSHA guidelines.”

“So what did a pretty little th ing like you do to get community service?” Giving her my signature
get a girl into bed smile.

Pushing her shades up on top of her head and putting her hands on her hips. “Well I took an ax handle to my ex’s car. You?”

Flags fly up in my head. She’s a crazy ex. We all have one. The one you half expect to come home one day with a rabbit boiling on your stove
fatal attraction
kinda crazy. “So then what exactly did his car do to you?”

“Look I’m not going into this. I’m here to do my time. I don’t need to deal with another blue blooded, conceited, spoiled rotten, selfish bastard. So just stay out of my way.”

I spin around walking away from her.
Damn. She’s a crazy bitch. But the crazy ones are always the hottest in bed. Self- challenge accepted.