INEVITABLE: An Alpha Bad Boy Contemporary Romance Book (4 page)

“Thank you, Charlie.” I handed him his jacket and watched him pull it on as he went out the door. There was a little fire burning in the pit of my belly that my head tried hard to stomp out. The last thing I needed right now is to jump into another “doomed to fail” relationship. I finished my coffee and as I stood up to go I looked down at the napkin. I picked it up and stuffed it in my purse. It wouldn’t hurt to have his number…just in case.

By the time I got home the house was quiet. I assumed Mama was in bed and Daddy was in his office. I tiptoed up the stairs and into my room. I was showered and in my flannel p.j.’s when I heard the knock on my bedroom door.

I found my mother there with a little tray with a teapot, two cups and two of Desiree’s famous Beignet’s. She smiled. “Can I come in? I come bearing gifts.”

I stepped back. “Of course you can come in…and you didn’t have to bring gifts.”

“Oh…you don’t want the beignet?”

“If you try and leave with it I’ll tackle you.” She laughed and sat the tray down on the little table next to the fireplace in my room. Then she opened her arms and I fell into them. Her arms were warm and welcoming…and forgiving. She held me for a really long time until I pulled back and looked at her face. I didn’t see any of the judgement there that I saw each time I looked into my father’s eyes. “Thank you, Mama.”

She took my hand and led me to sit down. After pouring us each a cup of tea she said, “Your Daddy loves you.”

I nodded. “I know. I just wish he wasn’t so..
.
ashame
d
of me.”

“Oh baby. He’s not ashamed of you. He’s just old school and he doesn’t understand the passion that you feel for what you do. He runs our home like he runs his companies. Like an old overseer. The only difference between him and his great-great grandfather is that he pays his employees well and treats them a lot better. But as good as he is at running this place; he’s just never been passionate about taking on his father’s work. To him it’s a job…the job he was meant to do. I don’t know that he’s ever even let himself explore what he would really like to do. Your bravery at going after what you wanted at such a young age is foreign to him and it frightens him. But please don’t look at it like he’s ashamed of you.”

“It’s hard not to when he practically calls me a whore.”

“Oh baby…I’m sorry for that too. I know he didn’t mean it. Like I said, he just has trouble expressing what he really means.”

“Don’t you ever get tired of making excuses for him, Mama?”

“I might, if I felt like it was making excuses. I know him better than anyone else Jackie and I know that he loves you something fierce. I pray all the time that one day before it’s too late he’ll figure out how to express that to you. But until he does, I suppose I’ll have to keep being his spokesperson.”

I giggled. It was pointless to argue with her. She’ll always find a way to defend him. She is such a born diplomat that she can defend us both at the same time. “Okay then, hand me that beignet.”

****

Daddy and I managed dinner together with the family two nights in a row without any fuss at all. I was kind of proud of us. Maybe if I stayed home long enough we could actually have a real relationship again. My phone was still blowing up…but I’d decided to ignore it all, for now. I didn’t care who wanted what from me…this was my time and I wasn’t going to let them impose on me and bring all of that anxiety back into my life. There were things about L.A. that I missed…but right now at home playing a game of tag with my little sister and he best friend in the front yard of my family home, I couldn’t really remember what they were.

“Jackie! Your phone’s ringin’ again!” Paige brought it to me every time. Each time I silenced it she would raise her little eyebrow at me, but she never pried. I took it from her this time and looked at the face. It was Becky, an old friend of mine from school.

“Hi Becky! Wow, I haven’t heard from you in a really long time.”

“Hey girl! That’s probably for two reasons: one, I’ve been busy taking care of my man and chasing a toddler around and two, you forgot to call and tell me you were in town. I ran into your Mama and Amelia at the grocery store and she told me you were here.”

“Oh Becky, I’m sorry! I was going to call you, I promise. I’ve just been adjusting to life back here. You know how that goes.” Becky spent a lot of time at our house when we were growing up and she and I have kept in touch since I moved by phone. She got married a year after we graduated from high school and I was her maid of honor. Her baby was almost two now. “How is the rug rat?”

“He’s perfect and ornery all at the same time,” she said. I could hear the love in her voice when she talked about little Greg.

“How about the big man?”

“The same,” she laughed. She and Greg have been together since high school. I’ve always been envious of their relationship.

“You should come out and see me or we should do lunch.”

“Actually, I was calling because mommy needs a night off. Greg says he’ll take baby duty tonight if I can talk you into going to Zippo’s with me.”

Zippo’s is a country music bar and dance club in our little town. It’s where everyone goes for a night out unless they’re up for the hour drive to NOLA. “That actually might be just what the doctor ordered,” I told her. We made plans for her to pick me up at eight and I hung up looking forward both to seeing her and the night out.

After dinner I got dressed in my jeans and my new cowboy boots. I wore a cream colored cowgirl cut blouse and left my long brown hair down, just curling the ends a little bit. When I walked out of my room Paige was coming down the hall.

“Wow Jackie! You look so pretty. I wish I was as pretty as you.”

I stopped and looked at her. Paige has auburn hair with streaks of gold in it from the sun. Her skin is like porcelain, the only mark on it is the cute spattering of freckles across the bridge of her nose. Her eyes are a dark, jade green and take up most of her pretty face. I knew grown women who would kill to be as pretty as her. “What are you talking about? You’re gorgeous.”

“I’m a ginger,” she said, sadly. “I want to be a famous actress like you. Hollywood hates gingers.”

I tried to hold back my smile. “Who told you that?”

She shrugged. “I read it in People or something like that.”

“Well they’re wrong. What about Julianne Moore? Christina Hendricks? Or Emma Stone...I could go on all day… Hey,” I tipped her little face up to look at mine. “Don’t ever le
t
anyon
e
tell you that you can’t do anything you want to do or that you’re not good enough for some reason. You can do whatever you want to do. You are so beautiful that sometime
sI
env
y
yo
u
.”

“You do?”

I smiled. “I do. I would give anything to trade these brown eyes for those green ones of yours.”

Paige grinned. “The magazines say you’re famous for you
r
sultry brown eye
s
.”

Laughing I said, “Trust me, Paige. Don’t believe everything you read. Where do you read all of these magazines anyways?”

“Online.”

I wondered how many of the sordid details of my break-up with Matt my little sister had been subjected too. Instead of asking her I shook it off. “You know that a lot of what they write is exaggerated or just plain made up?”

“They can do that?”

“Yes honey…they say that someone told them something and they’ll print it. A lot of times it causes stress for the person they print  about and it wasn’t even true!”

She grabbed me around the middle and hugged me tight. When she stepped back and looked up at me she said “Good, because most of the time the stories about you make you sound sad. I don’t want you to be sad.”

I couldn’t say anything to that. I just hugged her again. She was right, but unfortunately that was usually true. I was sad a lot, thanks to my own poor choices. “I’m not sad now. I’m so happy to be home and see you and Mama….”

“And Daddy too?”

“Of course,” I said, giving her a kiss on the cheek. “All of you. I’m going out with Becky for a while. I’ll see you in the morning okay?”

“Okay. Jackie…I love you.”

My heart felt like it would explode sometimes when this kid was around. I wish I could take her back to L.A. with me. “I love you too, kiddo.”

By the time Becky picked me up and we got to the club, it was already after nine. She had trouble leaving the baby. She’s all talk about her “Mommy’s night off.” All she talked about all the way to the club was little Greg and how wonderful and smart he is. I’m so glad that she’s so happy. She deserves it.

She parked and we could hear country music playing loudly as we walked up to the door. It was ladies night, so we got in no problem. The place was packed and as soon as we got past the doors a trio of young girls came up to me, their voices piercing my ears.

“You’re Jacqueline Manning!”

I laughed. “Thanks for the reminder, I’d forgotten.”

“We love you on Straight Forward. Oh my gah, you’re not really leaving the show are you?!”

“What makes you think that?” I hadn’t read any of the articles or spoken to anyone since I’d been home but I wasn’t surprised they were already reporting the end of the show.

“They’re saying that Matt says you cheated on him first! You cheated girl?!”

I opened my mouth to defend myself…I guess. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to say. All I knew was that I didn’t want to talk about it.

“Hey girls, those reporters are full of crap and so is Matt Bentley,” Becky said defiantly. “My friend is out here tonight to have a good time and forget about things like that though, so what do you say to just let her be Jackie tonight?”

“Sure…but just know we’re on your side.” The girls giggled warmly at me.

I forced a smile. They were sweet and my problems weren’t their fault. “Thank you,” I told them. “That means a lot.” I looked at Becky as they walked away and said, “I need a beer and a shot. Pronto.”

Becky laughed. “I’m on it!” While she went to get our drinks, I looked around the big open dance floor in front of me. Everyone seemed to be part of a couple and everyone seemed to be having a great time. For some reason that just pissed me off all of a sudden. When Becky came back with a beer and shot of tequila for me, I downed the shot and drank half the beer in one swallow.

“Hey girl, slow down. I don’t want to have to hold back your hair in an hour.”

“Let’s go play pool,” I told her, determined to have fun dammit.

On our way over to the pool tables Becky stopped to talk to someone she knew. As I stood at the bar and waited for her, I downed two more shots. When I glanced back to see where Becky was my gaze caught on sharp hazel eyes from across the bar. He was sitting at the end with another guy. I haven’t seen his brother in a really long time but I’m guessing it was him. They look a lot alike.

Charlie was wearing a dark flannel rolled at the sleeves, jeans and boots. He looked like a cowgirl’s wet dream. Just the sight of him caused my heart to speed up. He smiled knowingly and raised his beer bottle to me.

The bartender plopped another shot down and I picked it up and looked right at him while I downed it. I thought about going over to talk to him…but I didn’t trust myself, or maybe it was him. Matt had come off as sweet and caring too,  just the way Charlie seemed to be the other night. They’re all the same and I don’t need any more of that crap. I’ll just play with them like they do me…but not a guy like Charlie. He wasn’t the kind of guy I could play games with and not fall for. I looked at him again. He eyed me now, a delightfully evil smile playing at the corner of his lips… Aw man... He was looking a lot like my next bad decision and I just couldn’t go there.

“Officer Bennett is looking like he’s thinking about cuffing you,” Becky said with a grin as she walked back up.

I jumped and felt my face go hot as my center heated up. “Shut up. Come on, let’s go play pool now.” I dragged her over to where the pool tables were. They were all three taken, but the one at the end was surrounded by a bunch of college-age looking guys. “Hey, can my friend and I play with you?”

One of the guys…a young biker type, looked up from what he was doing. He let his eyes go from my head to my toes, making me feel like I was stripped bare in the process. “Sure baby…you can play with me anytime you want.” I felt Becky’s arm tighten on mine.

“Maybe this isn’t such a good idea,” she said quietly.

The guy picked up a tray of Jell-O shots and held it out to me. I looked back over at Charlie. His gaze hadn’t wavered but his eyes were sharper as he watched the guys around me. I picked up two of the Jell-O shots and handed one to Becky. After I did mine, she was still holding hers. “Come on Beck, what are you doing?”

“Jackie.... I have to drive us home…” I didn’t let her finish what she was going to say. I took the shot out of her hand and did that one too. I can’t fucking do this. I need to have some fun once in a while right? I grabbed the pool stick the big guy was holding onto and put on my cutest voice.

“Is it my turn?”