Page 18 of Stone Deep
“California?” After my actions had nearly cost Slade his life, I’d been trying hard to convince myself that I needed to give up on finding Damon. But Perris’s death was still an open wound.
“What do you say, Tink? How about a road trip to sunny California? We could stop along the way in a couple of cheesy motels, and, well, you know what happens inside those cheap, sleazy rooms.”
“But your injury? Are you sure you’re up to it?Allof it, I mean.” I’d thought so many times of that one night we’d spent together that thinking about it now was making my pussy warm.
“You underestimate me, my little sweetie. A little gash won’t slow me down, if you catch my not-so-subtle meaning. Besides, the stitches come out in three days. It occurs to me I know little about you, including where you work.”
“Why, I thought you already knew,” I said. “I’m working for Peter Pan.”
“Hmm. Should I be jealous?”
“Uh, have you seen the way the guy dresses? I don’t think you have too much to worry about. I work in an extremely unexciting insurance office. I’m off on the weekend, and I’ve got some vacation time saved up. I suppose I could stretch a weekend for a few extra days.”
“Great. Sounds like a plan.”
“Are you sure about this? I mean, I’ve already got you caught up in my dirty laundry.”
“If we don’t go, I’ll probably end up sitting on the couch playing a marathon session of video games while shoveling chips and blue sports drinks down my gullet. By week’s end, they’ll be carrying me out on a stretcher with the controller glued to my hand, my lips and teeth stained blue and in a salt coma from all the chips. You’ll be doing your civic duty by saving me from that.”
I chuckled, and it dawned on me that anytime I was talking to this man, I was smiling. “Well then, I don’t want to shirk my civic duty. When do we leave?”
“Friday. What time do you get off?”
“I’m off at five, but I don’t really have a permanent address—” Just admitting I had no home made me feel like such a loser. I wondered, briefly, if this was far crazier than anything else I’d done, which, considering the events of last week, was saying a lot. “I’ll come to you. Just text me your address. I’m assuming you want to take my car?”
“Unless we can both fit in that remote control car. Only I’d have to put the wheel back on because there was anincident with my neighbor’s lawnmower.”
“Why don’t we just stick with the people-sized car. I’ve got to get back to my desk.” I paused. “Hey, Slade, thanks.”
“See you Friday, Tink.”
I hung up and headed back to the office. I wasn’t completely sure anymore what my motives were for finding Damon. Answers, an explanation, a chance to tell him face-to-face what I really thought of him, or maybe I just needed something to ease my pain. No matter what the reason, the notion of hanging out with Slade for a few days, away from my own bleak existence, sounded way too good to pass up. It was all a little insane and impulsive, but then, I hadn’t been in my right mind since I’d lost Perris.
ELEVEN
SLADE
Irealized this was only the third time I’d seen Britton. I opened the door. She was standing on the front stoop wearing a blue sundress, sandals and that smile that I’d been thinking about nonstop since the first time I saw it.
“Holy shit, Tink, warn a guy before you show up at his front door looking like that.”
She looked down at her dress. “Like what?”
“Likethis.” I waved my hand in front of her like she had a habit of doing to me. “Come inside and I’ll grab my duffle bag.”
“Do you live here alone?” she asked.
“No. My brother, Hunter, and his wife, Amy, live here too. I’m saving to get my own place. Sort of puts a crimp in the whole newlywed thing with me always hanging around.” I walked down the hallway and grabbed my duffle. Britton was standing in the center of the room when I returned. Her cropped, shiny dark hair was combed off her picture perfect face. Her big brown eyes surveyed the faded and slightly dusty furniture.
She walked over to the family pictures on the wall above the couch. We’d never moved them. They were as much a part of the wall as the cracks in the plaster. I looked at them about as often as the cracks too. My mom had felt unusually sentimental one day and she’d decided to frame the few pictures we had of our childhood. Dad yelled at her for putting nail holes in the wall, but she never took them down. It had been one of her rare moments of standing up to my dad. We never talked about the pictures, but I was sure that was why we never took them down.
Britton wiped away some of the dust with her finger and leaned closer, giving me an extremely nice view of her silky legs. “This must be you and your brothers.” She leaned even closer. “Oh my gosh, you were all so adorable.”
“Adorable. Now that is a word I’ve never heard used to describe the Stone brothers. Especially not in this town.”
She turned back to me. “When was this one taken?”
I walked over and glanced at it as if I’d never seen it before. But I knew exactly when and why it had been taken. There were so few memorable occasions and pictures to remember that I’d never forgotten any of them. “My brother, Hunter, the giant with the goofy grin was ten in that picture. I was nine, and Colt, the pretty guy here with the dark hair and mischievous smile, was seven. Hunter won that bike in a raffle. He returned a bunch of empty bottles for cash and used the refund money to buy a raffle ticket at the local hardware store. He bought the winning ticket. It was pretty cool. Of course Colt and I could only look at it and touch it, occasionally, but we were all stoked about him winning it. Except my dad. Nothing ever made him smile.”
