The Heart Knows What the Heart Wants (3 page)

When Hank Galen stopped by the store to get the keys for Star's car, she asked him if she needed to ride along with him to retrieve her things.

"You staying at Neona's?" he asked. When she nodded her response, he told her not to worry; he'd drop everything off for her.

"Well if you're sure it's not out of your way?" she hesitated quietly.

He chuckled. "I'm sure."

Star helped Neona stock the coolers. It kept her hands and her mind occupied.

"You keep that up, and I'll want hire you. Good help is hard to find around this town," Neona told her when they'd finished. The bell over the front door rang, and the women turned toward the sound. Sheriff Caldwell stood just inside, holding his hat in his hands. Neona nodded at him and told Star, "Our ride's here. Now as soon as that nephew of mine decides to show up, we can get home and get you settled in."

Star breathed a sigh of relief. "That's probably the best news I've heard all day."

Neona pulled the extra money from the cash register and stuffed it into a blue bank bag. She glanced at her watch. "Where is that kid?" she grumbled.

"I saw him at the café with Tommy earlier. I'm sure they'll be along shortly," the sheriff said.

A few minutes later the front door opened, and all eyes zoned in on a lanky, blonde guy as he limped into the store. "I'm sorry I'm late, Aunt Neona." He kissed the agitated woman on the cheek. "Guess we lost track of time."

Neona dismissed him with the flutter of her fingers. "You can come in ten minutes early tomorrow to make up for it."

Star covertly scrutinized the young man. She had the advantage of being able to see him, but he hadn't yet noticed her. He was tall, Star guessed him to be about 6'2". His blonde hair was shoulder length, parted in the middle, and tucked behind his ears. She figured him to be around twenty-years-old.

He gifted Neona with a mischievous grin and scooped her into a bear hug. As he did, his eyes landed on Star for the first time. Deep dimples carved into his cheeks. "Who's that?" he asked, nodding in Star's direction.

"Boy, I swear. Where did you get your manners?" Neona swatted him on the arm. "Star, come and meet my nephew."

His gaze never wavered from Star's face, making her feel strangely self-conscious. As she edged in his direction, her heartbeat echoed in her ears. She wiped her sweaty palms down the front of her jeans before extending her hand toward him. She cleared her throat and said, "Hello."

"Star, meet trouble on two legs, otherwise known as my nephew, Shane Harper," Neona said.

Shane grasped Star's hand and shook it. "Star?" he asked, quirking an eyebrow at her. His fingers were long, and his hand was calloused. His eyes were intense.
Were they green? Or maybe blue?
The way they locked with hers made her feel exposed and vulnerable, as though he were able to peer into the deepest recesses of her soul. He whispered, "Beautiful."

Star's cheeks flamed, and she averted her eyes. "Thank you." She tried to pull her hand free from his grasp, but he held her firmly.

He narrowed his eyes and drew their intertwined fingers closer to his face to get a better look at her tattoo. A slow, sensuous smile played upon his lips. "
Neptune
?" he asked, cocking his head to the side.

She nodded, her eyes drifted up, and locked on his full,
kissable
lips. She shook her head to dislodge her errant thoughts of devouring his mouth with hers. This guy was clearly too young for her, and she needed to rein in her desire right away. She found it intriguing that he had correctly identified her tattoo -- instead of assuming it was just some random blue circle.

He dropped her hand and studied her face for a few seconds before he turned to take his place behind the counter. Someone cleared their throat behind her and Star realized she'd zoned everything out to stare at Mr. Tall, Blonde, and Gorgeous.

Sheriff Caldwell waited for her and Neona, and held the front door for them as they dashed through the rain out to his car. Star's eyes widened when they pulled into the driveway of a powder-blue Victorian house with a wraparound porch. She smiled when she saw her bags tucked out of the rain beside the front door. Across the street, her Honda sat in the alley beside Galen's Garage.

"Thank you for everything, Sheriff Caldwell," Star told him.

"You don't need to thank me." He smiled and bent to retrieve her things. "Feel free to call me Michael, by the way."

Neona pushed open the solid oak front door. As she did, a small, black streak darted between them and headed toward the front lawn. Star sucked in a startled breath. "What the hell was that?" she asked.

Neona laughed. "That's my vicious, man-eating watchdog, Chili Dog."

"Should I fear for my life?" Star teased.

"Only if you plan on trying to eat in front of him without sharing," Neona replied. "Come on, Chili Dog, let's go!" The Min Pin regarded the woman with mild interest. "Let's go, Chili, you want a cookie?"

He made a beeline for the open front door and danced around on his hind legs, impatient for her to make good on her promise.

"Michael, put Star's things upstairs in the room at the end of the hallway," she said to him. He nodded and climbed the massive open staircase toward the second floor and Star followed him up so she could get settled in.

***

After the dinner dishes had been cleared away, and Michael had gone home for the night, Star and Neona sat in front of the fireplace chatting about nothing in particular. Star was grateful for the distraction, and she sensed that Neona enjoyed having someone other than Chili Dog to talk to.

Star got up and poked at the fire for something to do. Although Neona hadn't pried, Star figured the conversation was bound to eventually lead down a path she wasn't ready to tread. Instead of talking about herself, she asked about Shane.

"Shane's your nephew?" she asked.

Neona pulled in a deep breath and exhaled noisily. "That he is," she said.

Star didn't ask any more questions about the young man, even though she was curious to learn more of his story. She replaced the screen in front of the crackling fire and sat on the sofa, curling her legs beneath her.

Neona sipped on her coffee, and Star watched the flames leap and dance hypnotically while they sat in companionable quiet. Finally, it was Neona who broke the silence. "Shane's father, Austin, is my only brother. A wayward soul who never quite fit in anywhere. Austin wasn't around much for Shane. He pretty much disappeared when Shane was just a baby. But that's a story for another day." Neona pushed to her feet. "Shane's had to deal with a lot of heavy issues his whole life, however, these past three years have been particularly rough for him. Some of it couldn't be helped, while some of it was the direct result of the poor decisions he made and the crowd he got mixed up with."

Star nodded. She understood "having to deal" very well.

Neona smiled a sad, weary smile. "I'm going to take Chili Dog out, and then I'm going to turn in for the night. Sleep tight. I'll see you in the morning. Breakfast is at nine."

"Goodnight and thank you, Neona. For everything," she said quietly. Star blinked a few times to keep the overwhelming tides of emotional exhaustion from dragging her under.

"I have a feeling it's me who will be thanking you before it's all said and done," she said and winked. She headed toward the front of the house with Chili Dog bouncing at her heels, while Star silently digested her information about Shane.

As Star crawled beneath the covers, her thoughts drifted to the blonde haired young man. He was a far cry from the typical guy she went for. She doubted there was a hair-trigger temper, or a love of beating women lurking beneath the wholesome, good boy exterior he projected.

She was too old to entertain such thoughts about a young man who had his whole life in front of him. The last thing he needed was someone like her screwing up his life.

Long after the unfamiliar woman with the curious tattoo left the store with his aunt, Shane's thoughts persistently wandered back to her. He couldn't quite shake how vulnerable her big brown eyes made her seem -- like a scared little rabbit, ready to bolt for cover at any moment. He had picked up on her anxiety from the slight tremble of her hand when he'd held it, and wondered what had happened in her past to make her so timid. Maybe, like him, she had lost her self-purpose and sense of direction.

The male part of him appreciated the way she wore her jeans, how they molded to every inch of her long slender legs. He hadn't been disappointed as his eyes skimmed up from her boot-clad feet to the top of her head. He liked how the errant wisps of her wavy, dark hair curled around her ears. He toyed with the image of running his hands through that wild mane in the throes of passion.

Shane sighed and shook his head.
Get a grip on yourself dude
.

The night was dragging by slowly. It was important for him to stay busy, or he'd drive himself crazy thinking about Star. He grabbed a bottle of glass cleaner from the shelf beneath the cash register and went over to rid the cooler doors of stray fingerprints. As soon he finished cleaning the glass, he stepped out into the cold night to get some fresh air.

He leaned against the brick building and stared up at the starry sky. The rain had stopped, and the stars twinkled brilliantly. Living away from the city lights made them appear closer somehow. He never grew tired of studying the nighttime sky. The stars and planets with all of their celestial mysteries, had fascinated him since he was a little boy peering wide-eyed through his first telescope.

Shane's attention was diverted from the starry canvas as headlights veered off the highway and into the parking lot. He groaned inwardly as the bright yellow Ford Mustang sped toward him. It was a dangerous game of chicken she liked to play, how close could she get to her target before he lost his nerve and dove out of the way versus hitting her brakes.

"So much power! I can be at a dead stop one minute, and with the press of the gas pedal, fly like a bat out of hell the next.
All within
seconds
. The adrenaline rush is a natural high!" she had told him.

If it were such a natural high, why did she constantly feel the need to seek out all the
unnatural
highs? As soon as she skidded to a stop in front of him and hopped from the driver's seat, one look into her glassy, pupil prominent eyes, confirmed tonight was no different from the countless other times she'd been stoned -- or whatever -- out of her mind.

Kelsey squealed and ran toward him. She wrapped her skinny arms around his neck and crashed her mouth against his. He peeled her hands off and gently nudged her away from him. He winced at the smell of whiskey on her breath.

Her bottom lip jutted out, and she whined, "I've missed you, Shane."

He wrinkled his nose in distaste. There was a time he would have led her into the back room and fucked her hard up against the wall. His traitorous dick twitched in his pants, making him shift uncomfortably.

He'd never be able to get back that part of his life, the huge block of time he'd lost. He wasn't sure how he'd gone from a promising young basketball star with his whole life ahead of him to detoxing in rehab a short time later. Those days of drinking, snorting, smoking, and sex for sport, were a part of the past he intended to leave buried where they belonged.

"Kelsey, you don't miss
me
, you miss the time we spent
together
in a drug-induced fog," Shane reminded her.

"Not true. I still spend my time in that so-called 'drug-induced fog,'" she made air quotes with her fingers and raised her eyebrows suggestively at him. "I miss the other stuff that went with it."

He shook his head and went inside. After rehab, his sponsor, Tommy, had cautioned him that there would be many temptations along his path to sobriety, and he'd have to face them one by one. Tommy had said, "The hardest thing won't be stopping the drugs or drinking booze, it'll be disassociating yourself from the way they made you feel and the people you hung out with.
Those
are the addictions that will either break you or make you stronger in the end. Oh and FYI, pussy is the most dangerous drug of them all, Shane. Because let's face it, even the worse piece of ass you ever had was still damn good."

"Earth to Shane?" Kelsey poked him in the chest with a blood red fingernail before brazenly reaching down to stroke his crotch through his jeans.

Disgusted, Shane pushed her away from him. "Knock it off, Kelsey, somebody might come in."

She tipped her head back and laughed. "That never fucking stopped you before." She reached for him again, but his hand darted out and grabbed her wrist, angrily flinging it away. Her eyes narrowed and flashed with rage. "Fine. Be that way. Where do you get off thinking you're too fucking good for me now that you're all clean and sober?" she spat. She spun on her heels and stormed out the door.

She had no business being behind the wheel of a car, but he made no move to stop her. He sucked in a deep breath and slid down against the counter until his butt connected with the scuffed tiles of the floor. He
grabbed clumps of his hair and stared up at the ceiling
. Kelsey was bad news, but that didn't stop him from craving the feel of her tight little body wrapped around him, or any of the other sensory pleasures from his past.

The rest of his shift slowed to a crawl, and he was never so happy in his life to see the minute hand finally hit midnight. He turned off the outside signs and then did his nightly ritual of making sure everything was clean and ready for Ami in the morning. He stowed the money from the cash register into the hidden safe, locked it, and dropped the key into his jean pocket.

As an afterthought, he pulled a bottle of Mountain Dew from the cooler and tucked two bucks into the empty cash register. Shane was no thief, and he'd never take advantage of his aunt, not after everything she'd done for him.

He locked the front doors and made his way around to the wooden stairs at the side of the building that led up to his apartment. Once inside, he pre-heated the oven for a frozen cheese pizza and twisted off the lid of his soda, taking a big gulp.

While waiting for the oven to heat up, he strode across the floor toward the back window. Shane had constructed a narrow deck outside that was large enough for him to sit comfortably with his telescope. It's where he found his inner peace, studying the ever-changing patterns in the nighttime sky.

When the weather was warm, he sat outside nearly every night memorizing the constellations, often losing track of time. It helped him to focus his thoughts on something he enjoyed doing that wasn't illegal, immoral, or just plain bad for him. Sometimes, he'd doze off, only to wake later to find that the night's sky had disappeared, making way for dawn's arrival. He'd crawl back through the window and collapse into a restful sleep.

Tonight, Shane opened the window and pushed his telescope out onto the wooden platform ahead of him. With a twist of his expertly trained fingers, he made a few adjustments and was immediately rewarded when he peered through the eyepiece by the view of Uranus.

After a few minutes of stargazing, he ducked back through the window and put the pizza in the oven. He set the timer on his watch and went back outside. He hoped to get a glimpse of the comet that scientific communities everywhere had been discussing for months. News, online forums, and blogs speculated whether or not the comet's close encounter with the sun this week would obliterate it.

He never saw the comet, but he did make a wish on a shooting star. He didn't believe in stuff like that, but figured it never hurt to have luck on his side, just in case.