Blitzed (Rules of Possession Book 3), page 16
When she started going on about how Joshua was so proud of him, Jesse cleared his throat, cutting her off. He turned to me, the tips of his ears nice and red. “Sorry to keep you waiting.”
“It’s all good,” I said with a sweet smile.
“You’d probably be cooler waiting in the car.”
“Is it hot?” I glanced up at the sky, where the sun was assaulting us like we’d stolen its wallet. “I hadn’t noticed.”
He huffed and gave me his back.
Before we’d left, she roped him into two new projects. The first involved serving meals at one of their sister locations. The other centered around their bake sale. She needed him to bake something and run the sale for a few hours.
I bit my lip to hide a smile. Those green eyes warned me over Madge’s head that I’d better not say a word…even if the word was pushover. I hadn’t seen any evidence of Madge’s hoodoo—just vintage Jesse and his inability to say no to helping people. If he saw a way to step in, he did. And even though I was going to give him shit for it, that made him a pretty amazing guy.
“You just have to bring your double chocolate chip brownies,” Madge gushed. “They sold out last time in less than ten minutes.”
I gave him an accusing stare. This was the first I was hearing of such. The guy who was schlepping your ass around town should be first in line for a freshly baked pan of double chocolatey nirvana.
“Brownies coming right up,” Jesse said, his cheeks adorably pink from the compliment. “Just let me know when you need them.”
“Wonderful. And the meal service? Can you do that, too?” She patted his hand. “It’s going to be in West Palm, so feel free to tell me you’re too busy, dear.”
I’m sure he would if he knew how. Before he even agreed, I wondered how I was going to work my schedule to be there...because he was going to agree.
“It won’t be a problem,” he said predictably.
“What day is it?” I asked. “I might have practice.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Jesse said, waving a breezy hand. “I’ll have my car back long before then.”
“You can’t drive that death trap to West Palm.”
“Can and have, actually.”
“Well, I hope you gave thanks to whatever deity helped you make it back alive.”
“You mean Red’s AutoBody Shop?” His tone was mild, but I could hear the annoyance simmering beneath his carefully placid exterior. “If something happens to my vehicle, I’m perfectly capable of taking care of it.”
“Did I say you weren’t?”
Madge’s gaze ping-ponged back and forth between the two of us, looking a little speculative. I didn’t have to wonder why. We sounded like an old married couple arguing about who ate the last bran muffin. Dammit, Edith, you know the doctor said it was important for me to be regular.
“It’s on a Monday,” Madge ventured. “We start around noon.”
“Isn’t that interesting?” Jesse’s face took on a smug cast. He knew I couldn’t make it. Practice wasn’t even over until three, and then I had shit to do afterward. “Don’t you find that interesting, Andrew?”
“Yes, it’s a real scream,” I said dryly.
I hated the thought of Jesse long distances in that rust bucket of his. I wish he’d just let me give him one of mine, but he treasured Nina for some reason.
I rubbed the back of my neck. I needed to chill. Jesse had been navigating this world ten years before I was even a thought in the universe. He didn’t need my help. Or advice. But I was allowed to care about a friend, wasn’t I? I liked to think we’d at least become friends.
“Maybe you should just borrow my truck,” I finally said.
“Then what will you drive?”
“Any one of my other three cars,” I said exasperatedly. “I’d say don’t be stubborn, but I know you were born that way.”
His eyes narrowed. Judging from the flush on his pretty face, I was pretty sure his next words weren’t going to be, Thank you, Andrew, for being so kind and generous. You also look fucking hot today. Blue really is your color.
Madge could see the writing on the wall, too. She hurriedly clapped her hands. “That sounds perfect. I’m so glad this all worked out. I love when couples work out their differences.”
“We are not a couple,” we said together and then sent each other identical looks of discomfort.
Madge smiled slyly. “Whatever you say.”
17
ANDREW
Between Jesse and Shortcake, I thought Jesse might be the most pleased with the hutch. After wrestling it in the door, we set it up in the living room. Then we sat on the floor and finished kitting it out with supplies.
I won’t lie, Jesse did most of the work. My part of the process involved a lot of lounging on the carpet. I stretched out on my side, propped up on one elbow, watching as he went all Martha Stewart on the hutch. The water bottle went up, along with a new salt lick. Then he spread out the hay with the kind of concentration that should be resolved for neurosurgery.
Shortcake watched the entire process disinterestedly. She didn’t even perk up when Jesse picked her up and deposited her gently inside her new rabbit kingdom. We sat, watching her hop about for a bit as she inspected her new digs, waiting for the verdict. We didn’t have to wait long.
She thumped her foot hard enough to make me jump and the hutch rattle, then sat there giving us side-eye. I moved and her eye seemed to follow even though she hadn’t moved an inch, like some creepy Victorian painting.
I glanced at Jesse uneasily. “Is that rabbit for thank you for the hutch or you should’ve sprung for the second floor, you cheap bastard?”
Jesse snorted. “My Shortcake would never be so ill-mannered.”
I didn’t know about all that. After all, her next move was to turn away and give us a primo view of her furry butt. “If you say so.”
Jesse folded his legs, resting his elbows on his knees. A little smile played on his mouth as he watched her enjoy the fruits of his labor. He seemed different at home. More relaxed. It was more than just his outfit—soft gray jeans and a short-sleeved plaid shirt open over a white tank top. Or the bare feet. He always kicked his shoes off when he got home, no matter how brief. It was almost like the moment he walked through that door, he put down his mantle of responsibility.
Maybe it was because he’d made his home so cozy. I’d hired a decorator because I had no time and questionable taste, and even though she’d done a great job, it didn’t feel like this. Lived in. Loved.
My gaze drifted to the photos on the wall and landed on a familiar face. Joshua. Of course. He had his arms around a tall, willowy woman with short red hair. A small boy was in front of them holding up bunny ears.
It was only one of ten pictures, but it was still weird. I didn’t have Coach’s picture up on my wall. I shifted uncomfortably, trying to convince myself I wasn’t so petty as to be jealous of a relationship so pure.
“I didn’t know Joshua was married,” I said.
“He was, yes.” Jesse eyed me speculatively. “And?”
“And I’m just asking.”
I wasn’t sure if he was even capable of answering personal questions without looking like he’d rather chew nails. Oh well. I made a U-turn and drove the petty bus by again.
“So what’s the deal with you and Joshua Knox?”
“I told you. He’s my mentor.” He shrugged. “You have a mentor, don’t you?”
“Of course,” I said promptly. “I’ve had coaches along the way that have inspired me. In high school, it was Coach Taggart. He was the first person who believed I could go pro.”
“What about your parents?”
“Don’t get me wrong, they believed in me. But they also wanted me to look at other options because they knew the odds.” I smiled a little. “My father was good for telling me that only a lucky chicken had better put all his eggs in one basket.”
“Lucky chicken.” Jesse tilted his head, mulling over the words. “I think that would be an amazing nickname for you. Even better than Allstate or AJ. Quick, I need the number of one of your teammates.”
I’d be damned if I had Lucky Chicken graffitied on the back of my Tahoe. “Do it and die,” I said pleasantly.
Shortcake’s water dispenser clickety-clacked as she attacked it with fervor. After a few moments, Jesse reached out and adjusted the tilt of the bottle so she’d have better access. “Joshua helped kids like me. Street kids.”
“You were homeless?” I blurted. The thought of Jesse out there on the streets as a kid—maybe scared, probably hungry—was enough to make me sick to my stomach.
“For a little while.”
From the evasive way he avoided my gaze, I wondered exactly how long a little while encapsulated. I knew better than to pick at that particular thread. I mentally instructed myself not to interrupt, either. It had already taken an act of Congress to get him to open up this much.
“And then came Joshua?” I asked.
“Sort of. He didn’t exactly find me, though. Due to his community outreach efforts, he’d become good friends with a couple of officers on the beat. I had a…let’s just say run-in with one of them. He decided to give me a second chance instead of hauling my butt to jail.”
“Jail?” I all but shouted. At his amused look, I flushed. “Sorry. It’s just hard to picture you of all people doing anything to warrant jail.”
The amusement fled from his face just as quickly as it had appeared. “Yeah, well. Maybe you don’t know me as well as you think you do.”
“Maybe not,” I said evenly. “But I want to.”
From the look on his face, that wasn’t exactly the kind of news he wanted to hear. Well too fucking bad. “And why is that?”
“I don’t know,” I said testily. Sometimes pushing for answers sucked. To get hard truths you had to reveal hard truths. “Maybe because I’ve never met anyone like you before.”
I expected—and maybe even welcomed—his annoyance. His frustration. I didn’t expect the little smile that curved his mouth. “Smart, successful, and oh-so-handsome?”
“Annoying,” I corrected. “I just know that I like and admire you. I’d like to know a little about what makes you tick. And maybe you could stop acting like that’s a fucking crime.”
I expected him to clam up after all that, but as usual, Jesse delighted in keeping me on my toes. He laid flat on his back on the carpet and linked his fingers over his stomach. “Okay,” he said blowing out a breath. “What do you want to know?”
Everything. “Tell me more about Joshua,” I finally said.
“Well, he didn’t start in community outreach. He was an ophthalmologist with a successful practice. He had a wife and a stepson, Dale, and everything was picture perfect until his wife was murdered by some junkie in a gas station robbery. If she stopped for gas two minutes earlier, she would’ve missed him entirely.” He stared at the ceiling as he spoke. “Life is kind of funny that way.”
“Yeah, it’s a real riot.”
He snorted. “You know what I mean. Anyway, Dale was twelve at the time, and he was pretty sure that Joshua was going to send him back to Arkansas to live with his bio dad.”
“Was his bio dad a bad guy?”
“No, but he had a new family, a wife and three girls, and the new family negated the old.” Jesse shrugged. “He made that clear when he stopped in after the funeral. He paid his condolences, called Dale buddy a handful of times like he couldn’t quite remember his name, and told him to take care.”
“So Joshua kept him.”
“Exactly. And they threw away the step part of the equation. Joshua was just…his dad.”
Jesse chewed his lip as he struggled to find the right words. I couldn’t resist reaching out to touch his mouth with a gentle finger. Staring, he let his abused lip slide out from under the prison of his teeth. It took everything in me not to close the distance between us.
I forced myself to pull back. If I kissed him the vault would be closed. There was no telling when he’d open up to me again.
“So what happened?” I asked.
“In his junior year of high school, Dale came out to Joshua and it didn’t go so well. He kicked him out.”
I could tell it physically pained Jesse to say those words about his mentor. I ground my teeth to keep from saying anything I couldn’t take back. But fuck. I knew how it felt to gather up your courage and take a chance on the people that swore that they loved you.
This is who I am. You said you loved me no matter what. Now prove it.
I could remember telling my parents that I was bisexual in my first year of college. My childhood home and my college town seemed like they were worlds apart—distance-wise. Newsflash? It’s a small world after all. A neighbor, Mrs. Price, had seen me out on a date with a guy, and couldn’t tell my parents fast enough when her broomstick landed back in Florida.
My mother had left me a carefully worded message asking me to call them, and my hands turned to ice because I just knew. I sat there on the edge of my bed, shaking, as Everett asked me what was wrong, reflecting on how fucking strange our world was. How could the love of your parents ever be a question? How could it even be a possibility that they could take a look at all the parts that made you…well, you, and toss them in the trash?
My folks had risen to the occasion, and I was so very thankful. It had been hard enough to accept myself—I didn’t need any other negative voices in the mix.
“What did Dale do?” I asked.
“He couch surfed for a while. By the time Joshua changed his warped thinking, a year had passed. Dale had dropped out of school and was out on the streets. He’d started doing unsavory things to make money. To survive, really.”
“I don’t like where this is going,” I said quietly.
Jesse sighed. “It was another two years of desperate searching before Joshua finally found him. He apologized and asked Dale to come home, but sometimes it truly is too little, too late.”
Shortcake started demolishing a carrot and fuck, that shit was crunchy. No, beyond crunchy with a “u”—we were approaching peak levels of cronchy. I wanted to shush her so I could fucking hear. “What happened then?”
“Allyson happened. Dale got a fellow addict pregnant and they decided to make a go of things. She was born addicted to cocaine and her mother overdosed before she was even six months old. That was Dale’s wake-up call. He took Joshua up on an offer of rehab and got clean and sober. He lives in Delaware now with Allyson and his partner, George, who’s a dentist. Allyson has some challenges, but by all reports, she’s a happy little girl.”
I didn’t buy his all’s well that ends well summary, but I knew I’d already pushed him way out of his comfort zone. “I’m kind of surprised Joshua hasn’t moved up there. If not for Dale, then to be with his grandkid.”
“Dale doesn’t want him to. They’re trying to build a bridge over the past, but they have a lot of work to do. They have Zoom meetings with their therapist once a month, and they talk a few times a week. Just to keep the lines of communication open.” Jessie shrugged. “It’s not nearly where Joshua wishes their relationship could be, but he’s being patient.”
“Guess I know why he started Rainbow Harbor now.”
“Yeah. It was a labor of love. Maybe it didn’t start from the best place, but it evolved into so much more than a physical manifestation of his regret.” He was quiet for a moment as he watched Shortcake licking her orange-tinted paws. “I’m not blind to his faults. He’s not a perfect man and hasn’t always done the right thing. But when I say I will always be grateful to Joshua Knox, I mean it.”
“Yeah, I think I’m a little grateful to him, too.”
“Yeah? And why is that?”
“Because without him, I wouldn’t have met you.”
The truth sat between us like a fragile, delicate thing. We didn’t look at it or touch it, afraid it would shatter into a million intangible pieces.
Jesse’s expression was unreadable as he looked at me, those green eyes intense as he searched my face. “And that’s a good thing?”
It’s the best fucking thing.
“I’m starting to think so, yeah.” I smiled at him crookedly. “I like you... a lot more than I probably should. Especially considering your uncanny ability to make me want to pull out my hair.”
“Not to be unoriginal, but I like you, too.”
“I know,” I said modestly.
His laugh was mostly just an exhalation of air. When he hit my shoulder, I grabbed his hand and entwined my fingers with his. I cupped his jaw with my hand, brushing my thumb across his cheek as he inhaled swiftly.
Every time. It was like a gut punch. Just the simplest touch and the world fell away. And I knew he felt it, too, no matter what he said. After a few seconds, it seemed like the honesty was a bit too much because he pushed at my shoulder until I was flat on my back. And then he climbed on top, which was pretty much the best thing that had happened to me all day.
Then he leaned forward and took my lips in a blistering kiss that nearly curled my toes. I was so startled that I was still for a few moments, letting him control the kiss. That was long enough for him to tangle his fingers in my hair and angle my face the way he liked it. He pulled back, just far enough to gauge my expression, and raised an eyebrow.
Well, fuck yes, I was surprised. Up until this point it had been me pushing Jesse…fuck if I knew what to do when he pushed back. “Again,” I said impatiently.
The corner of his mouth kicked up before he closed the distance between us again. He got me going from zero to sixty in less than three seconds. “Supercar kissing,” I said dreamily when he finally pulled back.
“Dare I ask?” When I explained, his quizzical look turned amused. “I would’ve never guessed you were so fucking cheesy.”
“You like cheese,” I protested.
