I’m in the freezer section of a Kroger searching for the right kind of frozen yogurt to satisfy my craving when someone bumps into my cart.
Jerking my head up, I feel my confusion shift quickly into shock before rolling into a sense of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
When I got out of bed this morning, I thought my biggest hurdle would be to deal with Rebel, and after the way the evening went yesterday, I expected him to raise hell. Instead, he left me alone. I’d dodged a bullet—or so I thought—and to celebrate, I planned on eating my weight in creamy frozen treats. The last person I considered running into was Ransom.
“Hey, Joe,” he says with a pleasant smile. “I didn’t know you shopped here.”
“I think half the city shops here,” I say with a chuckle.
His dark eyes scan me from head to toe in appreciation. “You look good.”
“Oh...thanks.” I brush my hands down my old and faded top—a cut up sweatshirt from my college days that’s less than flattering. Then I touch my hair, feeling the myriad bumps and tangles that make up the sloppy bun. “You look good, too.” He looks more than good actually.
Dressed in a pair of blue jeans and a cream colored cashmere sweater with the sleeves pushed up to the elbows and his hair combed and styled, he’s a sexy-as-sin bachelor and next to him, I’m the girl voted most likely to own a hundred feral cats.
It’s so not fair. He probably rolled out of bed looking that good.
“I see you’ve covered all the essential food groups,” Ransom teases as he peers at what I have in my cart.
Taking stock of the cookie packages, donuts, frozen pizza bites, pop, and the frozen yogurt I’m about to add, I laugh at the absurdity of it. “I’m celebrating,” I explain.
His brows rise. “Oh? What are you celebrating?”
Damn. I realize I’ve stuck my foot in my mouth and scramble for an excuse. “Oh, I just got a new job.” Double damn. I already know that this is going to lead to more questions that I don’t want to answer.
“Oh yeah, where at?” The sad thing about this conversation is that he appears genuinely interested.
I feel the distance that’s been placed between us like a giant wedge. Thinking back on the way I dealt with him at the park and the look on his face when I told him that I had chosen his brother over him, I feel like the biggest fool to walk the planet.
Well, I can’t rewrite history. The only thing I can do now is suck it up and make the best of what’s left.
“Um...” Scratching the back of my neck, I peer up at him from beneath my lashes, feeling more than a little awkward. “Donnelly and Townsend.”
I swear I can see the shockwave ripple through him. Ransom stands there for a moment, absorbing the news. “That’s, uh, that’s good,” he says slowly. “So, I take it you and Rebel are still going strong.”
I have to give him credit. He’s trying. I don’t know that I could keep such a straight face if the roles were reversed. “Um, not exactly. We kind of...broke up. It just wasn’t going to work out,” I add, feeling like I need to explain myself for some reason.
Ransom’s eyes light up. Oh, he tries to hide his enthusiasm, but I can tell that he’s happy about the news. “I’m sorry to hear that,” he says, strident in his attempt to be empathetic. “Was that before or after you started working for him?”
“After,” I answer him. “But I’m working for Jack Donnelly, not your brother.”
Shaking his head, Ransom laughs softly to himself. “From what I’ve heard, that arrangement isn’t going to last much longer.”
“So I heard. Jack is retiring. I supposed that leaves me in a bit of a sticky situation, but I’m sure it will work out okay.” Of course, that’s a lie. I don’t know how any of this will work out, but I’m trying to stay positive. I certainly don’t want to leave the wrong impression with Ransom, either. Rebel made it sound as if the two of them were on the outs, but I don’t trust anything that comes out of his mouth anymore. I need to be mindful of what I say to Ransom in case it gets carried back to Rebel.
Ransom nods a few times, seeming to have run out of things to say. I’m relieved because so have I. I don’t want to know anything about his life, and I don’t want to reveal anything else about mine if I can help it.
“Well, I hope it all works out for you,” Ransom says finally. Tapping his finger on my cart, he grins. “You might want to pick up a bottle of the pink stuff on your way out.”
“Yeah, it’s a disaster waiting to happen, isn’t it?” I catch his gaze once more, and for a moment we just stand there staring at one another.
“Maybe I’ll see you around again sometime.”
“Yeah, maybe.”
***
“I can’t believe you actually decided to go through with it! Have you slept with him yet?”
I’m talking to Annie over the phone for the first time since leaving Virginia. I’ve caught her up on all the latest gossip including, but not limited to, the Rebel situation. Normally, I would have kept it close to the vest a little longer in hopes of sorting it out myself, but I don’t really know where to begin. So, I’m looking to her for advice, and maybe a little inspiration, too.
“No, I haven’t. Not that I haven’t had the chance,” I admit, my cheeks flushing when I think back to the conference room table and Rebel’s hard body pressed against mine. I could have had him then and there, but I just couldn’t bring myself to pull the trigger.
“What the heck are you waiting for? You know men’s brains are directly attached to their dick. No offense, Brody!”
That’s another thing. Brody still hasn’t come home. At this point, he’s basically living with Annie and her parents. I can’t believe they’re going for that arrangement, especially since she’s pregnant with another man’s child, but I’m more than happy that it seems to be working out. Annie deserves a little happiness, especially since her ex, Jason, appears to have moved on, and Brody should be with someone who can provide the kind of love and caring he deserves.
It looks as though they’re well on their way to achieving it, and I couldn’t be more thrilled for my friends. I can’t think of two people better suited for each other than those two.
I sigh, considering Annie’s question. What am I waiting for, a written invitation? I don’t think Rebel whipping out his cock and fingering me could get any clearer. “I don’t know, Annie,” I say, feeling as tired as I sound. “I guess I just don’t want to get hurt anymore, and I know if I follow through with it, I’ll just be opening myself up for more of it.”
“You don’t know that for sure,” she insists. “I know you’ll probably hate me for saying this, but I think there’s a real possibility that you love this man, and I think that’s the real reason you’re holding back. If you give your body to him, then you’ll definitely be making yourself vulnerable, but that might not be a bad thing. It might actually be worth the risk.”
“How can you be so sure?” It certainly sounds like a bad thing, but I can’t deny that her words speak to a part of me that wants to hear exactly that. It wants to take the risk.
“I can’t be sure, but I know that nothing risked is nothing gained.”
“Yeah, maybe you’re right.” I don’t think she’s right at all, but am I going to tell her that? No. “But what if I sleep with him and he uses it against me? What if the whole plan, which isn’t even a real plan in the first place, falls apart? I won’t have won a damn thing.”
“Well, at least then you’ll know for sure that it’s over. You can walk away knowing you at least tried to fight back. But for what it’s worth, I don’t think you’re going to lose. Once you open yourself up to it and you put everything into motion, it will all start falling into place. That redheaded whore will have to watch him lapping at your feet, and if you’re lucky, he’ll be so wrapped up in you that, if you decided to walk away, you’ll tear his blackened heart out of his chest.”
“You’re demented. Do you know that? Do your parents know how sick you are?” I laugh.
“They know what kind of person they raised,” she sniffs indignantly. “So, are you going to rip that bastard’s heart out or what?”
“I don’t know,” I sigh. “It seems so...cruel.”
“And what he did to you isn’t cruel? Must I mention Exhibit A? Or B? Or C, D, E, and F?”
She’s referring to the photos I described in detail to her while visiting her, and no, I don’t need a visual reminder. I have permanent memories stored in my head so that every time I close my eyes at night all I can see is the two of them so happy and naked and rubbing on each other. I can pretty much put the pieces together from there.
“Admittedly, he’s teetering on the edge of no return here, but I think you’ll regret it if you don’t give it one last college try. No matter what you decide to do, though, it doesn’t change the fact that that man needs to be put in his place,” Annie says forcefully. “He needs to know that it’s not okay to toy with people’s hearts and lives. I hate that woman as much as you do on principal alone, but he’s doing the same thing to her, you know. He’s a serial heartbreaker.”
I agree with her to a point. Rebel needs to be stopped. He can’t expect to go around leaving a trail of tears in his wake his whole life. But I don’t think that Florence is an innocent bystander in all of this. I think she is well aware of what Rebel is up to. She has to know that he and I have been together. She just watched us walk out of the company building together. She tagged along on a couple’s lap dance, for crying out loud. I’ll never forget the look of betrayal she wore that night when he coldly dismissed her in favor of having me grind my naked body all over him until he came in his pants.
Oh, no. Certainly, she wouldn’t have any reason to grind an axe. I’m mentally rolling my eyes now just thinking about it.
“And what about his brother, the professor? ”
“Ransom? What about him?” I frown as I pick at the chipped pink nail polish on my toenails. I hate chipped polish. It drives me crazy, and I always end up picking at it until I find time to sit down and repaint them.
“You said that you ran into him at the grocery store. What did he say? Does he still seem interested?”
I think about it, remembering the way he looked at me. The way he spoke to me. Just standing with him in that aisle made me feel a little giddy, like I did when I first saw him in that classroom, but this time the feeling was diluted, and I’ve reached the conclusion that I’ll always want Rebel more.
“Sure, he was interested. But he knows there’s nothing between us anymore. I’m not into dating people’s relatives.”
“Maybe you aren’t, but they don’t have to know that,” Annie says. I can hear the suggestive smile in her voice, the one that tells me that she’s up to no good. That she’s developing some master plan that I probably won’t like but will most likely go along with. Because I’m the kind of person who succumbs to peer pressure, obviously.
“I’m not following.”
“I think you could play this brother thing to your advantage,” Annie explains. “Think about it. Rebel and Ransom both want you. But only one can have you? I call bullshit. You’re a free woman. You can do whatever the hell you want and they don’t have shit to say about it. So why not have both of them? Play the sexy vixen to Rebel and seduce Ransom on the side. Then, when the timing is right, show Rebel that he isn’t the only one who can rip someone apart.”
“But then I’d be hurting Ransom,” I reason, surprising myself. “I’m not trying to hurt one person just to get back at another. Besides, they already have enough problems to deal with between them without me adding to it. No, I think it would be best if I kept this simple.”
“Fine, then fuck Rebel and get it over with. For heaven’s sake, one of us needs to get laid!”
I begin laughing. Annie is normally the straitlaced one. I’ve never known her to be so loose-tongued. Maybe it’s the pregnancy hormones. “Take advantage of all that man meat you have there with you,” I tell her. “I’m sure he’d be down for a little freak action if you asked.”
“Oh screw you, lady!” Annie’s laughing along with me now. My heart warms. I can’t even express how good it feels to have my friend back and be able to do this again. It’s just like old times, only with a few hundred miles between us. “How about this. We’ll make a deal. If you get down and dirty with your guy, then I’ll...”
She mumbles some words that sound like I’ll give it a shot with Brody, but I can’t be sure. “Come again? I didn’t catch that.”
“Well, I’m not repeating it. You’ll just have to use your imagination to fill in the blanks.”
“Ha! Who’s the tease now?”
“Always you, babe. All right. I hate to cut this short, but I’ve gotta pee and the bathroom just freed up.”
“Go, go,” I chuckle.
“You’ll call me if you run into any snags?”
“You know I will.”
“Okay,” she says slowly as if she’s doubting my words. “I guess I’m letting you go then.”
“Okay, hun. Talk to you later.”
After I hang up with Annie, I’m left sitting in my room thinking about our conversation. I don’t feel like anything has been decided or resolved. If anything, I feel more confused than ever. But I know that I can’t continue sitting here idle. I have to make a decision one way or another how I’m going to handle this situation. I’m just afraid it isn’t going to work out as I planned.