Rachel Gibson - Rescue Me

Conner reached for the strap beneath his chin. “Maybe I can drive.”

“When your feet touch the ground, we’ll talk about it.” He rose off the seat of the bike and swung his leg over. “Don’t tell your mom.”

“Or Dad.”

“What? Your dad doesn’t like bikes?” Figured.

Conner shrugged and handed Vince the helmet. “I don’t know. He doesn’t got one.”

That’s because the guy was a pussy. “Go tell your mom I’m leaving.”

“I don’t want you to go.”

Vince set the helmet on the seat. “I don’t want to go.” He knelt on one knee. “I’ll miss you.” The seams of his jacket popped as he hugged Conner. God, he smelled the same. Like the laundry detergent his mom used and like little kid.

“When are you coming home?”

Good question. He wasn’t quite sure. “When I sell the Gas and Go and make a ton of money.” Only this didn’t feel much like home these days. He didn’t know what felt like home anymore.

“Can I have tons of money?”

“Sure.” Who was he going to give it to?

“And the Harley?”

He rose and hefted Conner over one shoulder. “Unless I find another little boy to give it to one day.” His nephew screeched as Vince swatted him twice on the behind. Then he set him back on his feet. “Now run and get your mom.”

“Okay.” Conner turned on the heels of his Spider-Man sneakers and headed toward the front door. “Mom!” he hollered as he ran up the steps.

Vince opened the back of the moving van and pulled out a ramp. He wheeled the Harley inside between an outer wall and a leather sofa and tied it down. He’d been in Washington for three days. Drinking beer with old friends, hanging out with his sister and Conner, and packing up the truck with essentials like his bed, leather couch, and sixty-four-inch HDTV.

“Conner says you want a little boy? I know that I am not one to talk, but you really should have a wife before you have the kid.”

Vince looked behind him at the open door of the big truck. The misty morning sun caught in his sister’s red hair. “Wife?”

“You need someone in your life.”

“You’re forgetting Luraleen,” he joked.

She made a face. “Someone without a smoker’s hack and pickled liver. I just hate to think of you lonely and living with Luraleen.”

“I moved out of her house.” He thought of Sadie. He hadn’t been lonely since the day his truck broke down on the side of the highway. “I was never lonely.”

“Never?” Lord, he’d forgotten that he had to watch what he said around her. She knew him so well and pounced on every word. “Did you meet someone?”

“Of course.” He rose and moved to the open door. “I always meet someone.”

Autumn crossed her arms over her chest, unamused, and stared him down-even when he towered over her-the way she’d always stared him down. Even as kids. “Have you been seeing someone for more than just a night or two?”

He jumped down, grabbed the overhead door, and pulled it closed. He locked the door and shrugged. Autumn knew him better than anyone on the planet, but there were things even she didn’t know. Things no one knew.

Except Sadie. She knew. She’d seen him at his absolute lowest. Helpless and locked in his nightmares. God, he hated that she’d seen him that way.

“Vinny!” She grabbed his arm.

She’d taken his silence as some sort of admission. “It’s over,” he said, hoping she’d drop it even as he knew she wouldn’t.

“How long did you date her?”

He didn’t bother to explain that he and Sadie never really dated . “I met her the night I arrived in Lovett.” He looked down into her green eyes. “It ended a few nights ago.” When she’d seen him naked and pathetic. She said she loved him. He didn’t know how that was even possible.

She gasped. “Two months. That’s long for you. Really long. Like fourteen months in dog years.”

Vince couldn’t even get mad because she was serious and it was more or less true. It hadn’t seemed like two months though. It seemed like he’d known her forever, yet not nearly long enough. He turned and sat on the edge of the truck.

“Why did you break up with her?” Autumn sat next to him, and he should have known she wouldn’t let it go.

She knew him too well. Knew that he was the one who usually broke things off. “She said she loved me.” That wasn’t the real reason, but his sister didn’t know about the nightmares and he wasn’t about to tell her now.

A grin pressed across her lips. “What did you say?”

“Thank you.”

Autumn gasped.

“What?” Thank you wasn’t bad. It wasn’t good, but it was better than not saying anything.

“Then what?”

“Then I took her home.”

“You said thank you and took her home? Do you hate her or something?”

Hate Sadie? He didn’t hate Sadie. He wasn’t real sure what he felt, other than some strange sort of confusion. Both gut-level panic and bone-deep relief churned and burned in his head and chest at the same time. How could he feel both panic and relief that it had ended? It didn’t make sense. “I don’t hate her.”

“Did she yell it out during”-Autumn looked around for prying ears-“sex? ’Cause it probably doesn’t count if someone yells it during sex.”

He almost laughed. “She didn’t say it during sex.”

“Is she really ugly?”

“No.” He thought of her blond hair and big smile. Her clear blue eyes and pink mouth. “She’s beautiful.”

“Stupid?”

He shook his head. “Smart and funny, and you’ll be happy to know, I didn’t pick her up in a bar. She wasn’t a one-night stand.” Although she’d started out that way.

“That’s progress, I guess, but it’s sad.” Genuine sorrow turned down the corner of Autumn’s mouth. “When you lock everything down tight so that the pain can’t get out, you also keep good stuff from getting in.”

He looked down into her eyes, a few shades darker than his, and a bemused smile lifted his lips. “What? Are you the new white Oprah?”

“Don’t make fun, Vin. You’re so good at taking care of everyone else. So good at fighting for everyone else, but not yourself.”

“I can take care of myself.”

“I’m not talking about bar fights. They don’t count.”

He chuckled and stood. “Depends on if you’re on the losing end.”

She stood, and he wrapped his arms around her. “Now when is this wedding you’re hell bent on having?”

“You know it’s in July so Sam’s face isn’t all messed up for the wedding pictures. All you have to do is show up and walk me down the aisle. I’ve taken care of everything.” She hugged him. “Will you still be in Texas?”

“Yeah. I think for at least the next year.” He dropped his hands and thought of Sadie. He wondered if she was going to be sticking around Lovett or if she’d already left town.

A red truck rolled up the street and pulled into the driveway. Autumn looked up at Vince and warned, “Be nice, and I mean it.”

Vince smiled as Sam Leclaire, hotshot hockey player, Conner’s father, Autumn’s fiancé, his future brother-in-law, and all-around son of a bitch, got out of the Chevy and moved toward him. Sam was a few inches taller than Vince and as tough as a bare-knuckled street fighter. Vince would have dearly loved to beat his ass, but he knew Sam would never go down easy. At the moment, the guy had a purple bruised cheek. It was April. Still early in the playoffs. Another game or two, the guy would have an eye to match.

“You look better than the last time I saw you.” Sam offered his hand, and Vince reluctantly shook it.

The last time Vince had seen Sam, they’d both been beat up. Sam from his job and Vince from a bar fight. “You look worse.”