"Holy shit!" Cash says.
“What?” I look over at him, expecting some kind of disaster to be happening in my truck. He's looking out the windshield. I follow his gaze and see a girl with shoulder–length, bright red hair, creamy skin, and a short summer dress holding the door open for a woman with a stroller.
"You know her?" I ask, looking back at him, noticing he looks a little star struck.
He looks over at me with his big cheesy smile. "Nah, but I will."
I chuckle and finish parking the truck. When we get out, the girl looks back; her face turns bright red when she realizes Cash is looking at her. Cash looks at me confused; I smirk and shrug my shoulders. She’s definitely cute, but completely opposite of the forward women who normally don't even give my brother a chance to hit on them.
I poke him in the ribs with my elbow, bending close so only he can hear me, “Do you even know how to hit on a woman?”
His eyes narrow right before he smirks, stepping in front of me in line to stand next to her at the counter. “This should be good,” I mumble to myself, listening to Cash tell the cashier that he and the girl are together so he can pay for her coffee.
"We're not together," the girl tells the cashier, who is staring at Cash.
"We are; I'm paying," Cash says, sliding the money to the cashier. When I look at the girl, I can tell she’s getting annoyed when she blows the hair out of her face. They both take their coffees; she turns on Cash.
"Here." She shoves money at him, hitting him in the chest with it, catching him off guard, making him stumble back into me; his coffee goes all over the front of his shirt.
"Crap, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean for that to happen!” She starts pulling napkins out of the dispenser and pats Cash down. "Why couldn't you just let me pay for my own coffee?" she grumbles, not even looking up. Cash starts to laugh, and her head flies up, busting him in the chin. I can actually hear his teeth slam shut and the crack of his chin to her head. "This is so humiliating," she whispers; looking up, her hands go to her head, and tears form in her eyes.
“Let me see your head, honey," he says quietly, pulling her forward, taking the coffee out of her hand, and handing it to me. I watch him drag her to the side and talk quietly to her; when I hear her light giggle, I know they’re both going to be okay. I feel my phone vibrate, and when I pull it out, I see that it’s Jen calling. I don’t know how many times I’ll have to tell this chick that I’m not interested before she’ll clue in.
“What, Jen?”
“I want to see you.”
“I told you before; we’re done.”
“I…I miss you.” This chick is completely whacked; my face tilts towards the ceiling, and I pray for patience.
“I'm only going to say this one more time: we were never anything, so stop fucking calling me.” I hang up and see a text message from Liz.
Liz: Missed you last night.
My heart flips over; I feel like a chick standing here smiling at my phone.
Me: Miss you too baby.
I look around and see Cash watching me.
“What’s that smile for?” he asks, taking the girl’s coffee from my hand and handing it back to her. I look at him, and his smile matches mine. I look at the girl and see her blush when he hands her the coffee.
“Nothing. Liz messaged me,” I tell him, walking up to the cashier to order my coffee.
“This is Lilly. Lilly, this is one of my brothers, Trevor,” Cash introduces.
“Nice to meet you.”
“Hi,” she says shyly. “Um, I need to go; it was nice meeting you both. Again, I'm really sorry about the coffee…and the head-butt.”
I chuckle, and Cash laughs. “Its fine, honey. I’ll walk you out,” he tells her. I get my order, and order another coffee for Cash, before I head out of the coffee shop. When I step out, Cash and Lilly are talking quietly off to the side of the door. I go start the truck and wait for him. Once he’s back in the truck, I look over to see him watching as Lilly walks down the sidewalk. He pulls out his phone and types something. She stops, pulls out her phone, looks at it, turns and looks over her shoulder, and gives him a smile that could make the sun jealous, before she turns back around and starts walking again.
“So, you got her number?”
“Yeah, she goes to school over here.” He says pulling out a clean shirt from his bag.
“She seems shy,” I say, pulling out onto the road.
“Liz is shy.”
“No, Liz is observant.”
"Whatever. So how are things with you and Liz?" I glance at my baby brother, debating what I should say. "You’re still into her, right? If not, Johnny was asking about her." I look over, ready to let him know that I will fuck Johnny up if he even thinks about talking to Liz, when I see the smirk on his face. "Well, judging by the shade of red you just turned, I'm gonna say you’re still with her."
"Yeah, and I'm staying with her; so tell anyone who asks to back the fuck off."
"Calm down! Damn! I thought that with her basically living with you, and you two buying a damn dog together, that it would calm your possessive ass down. Guess I was wrong." I look over to see him shaking his head. "Don't get me wrong, I love November and Liz, but I'm never going to let a female turn me into some kind of crazy, possessive, pussy-whipped guy." I almost laugh and warn him of what's going to happen when he meets the one, but fuck it; he can figure that shit out on his own, and I’ll be laughing about it from the sidelines.
"Any word from Liz’s brother?” he asks, changing the subject
"Nah, nothing. I called Kenton and asked him to look into it,” I reply.
"Do you know why Nico's spending so much time with him?"
"He likes the bigger city." I shrug.
"I thought that too, but he mentioned the other day that he might go work for Kenton."
"Seriously?" Thinking of the work that my cousin does makes me nervous for my brother. My cousin’s life is like something out of a movie. He’s constantly on the road, looking for the people who everyone else runs away from. "When was he going to tell us?" I ask.
All of us boys own even shares in our construction business. Asher started the business up when he got out of the Marines, and each of us bought in after college. Since then, the business has grown, and now we have contracts all over Tennessee.
“He told me that Kenton had asked him to help out on a job the other day. He said he had never thought about doing that kind of thing, but when he was done, he couldn’t stop thinking about it. I guess Kenton told him that he had a knack for it and would be willing to train him if he was interested in doing it for the long term,” he says.
“So he’s really considering it?”
“From what he said, yeah. I think he’s just worried about what we’ll all say.”
“I don’t like it; I know that what Kenton does is dangerous. But if he’s happy, then how can I say no?”
“That’s what I said.” Cash’s phone starts ringing. “Speak of the devil,” he mutters. “Yo,” he answers. “Are you serious?” Cash pauses, and I can tell he’s concentrating on whatever is being said; then he starts laughing so hard that tears start streaming down his cheeks.
“What?” I ask.
“Shit man, hold on. Let me tell him.” He shakes his head, trying to control himself. “Last night, Nico went to the restaurant over on 5th street. Well, when he pulled into the parking lot, it was after eleven, and Liz was standing next to her car covered in dirt, looking like she got caught with her hand in the cookie jar. Nico asked her what was going on, and she said she was just getting ready to go home.” My heart drops, thinking that something happened to her.
“I talked to her before I went to bed. She was home and didn’t tell me that anything happened to her.”
“No, man, she’s fine. She left the parking lot while Nico was there watching. Well, he went inside to order out, and Jen was there with her friends.” Shit. This is what I didn’t need fucking Jen.
“What did Jen do to her?” I demand.
Cash starts laughing again, and I'm about ready to stop the truck and kick his ass.
“Jen didn’t do anything if what Nico thinks happened, happened. Your girl jacked Jen’s tire from her car, and left that shit sitting on three wheels.”
“What?” I whisper. I cannot picture my sweet Liz doing anything like that…ever.
“When Nico got his order, he went back out to his truck just as Jen and her posse were getting ready to leave. Jen started yelling from across the parking lot, so he went over to see what was going on. That’s when he saw Jen’s driver’s side back tire missing, not even a jack or a brick holding that shit up. Then, Nico remembered the look on Liz’s face and how dirty she looked when he pulled into the parking lot, and everything came together.”
“You are joking, right?”
“Looks like sweet Liz has a little evil in her after all.” Cash chuckles, making me laugh.
“Something must have happened. I can’t see Liz doing that for no reason.” I’m trying not to let my imagination run away from me. I would never hit a chick, but if Jen or any of her posse fucked with my girl, they would answer to me.
“Don’t know, but wish I could be a fly on the wall when you ask her about it,” Cash says, putting the phone back to his ear. A thought occurred to me, and I couldn’t help but to ask.
“Did he tell Jen that he thought it was Liz?” I ask, holding the steering wheel tighter when Cash didn’t say anything. I glance over at him.
“Do you think that any of us would tell any of those bitches shit? Fuck no! We wouldn’t; you should know that.”
“Look,” I sigh, running my hands down my face, trying to find the right words. “If Jen has even a hint that it was Liz, she will go after her. I can’t risk something happening to her; she has enough shit going on without adding to it.”
“You love her.”
“What?” I look over at him, and my eyes narrow.
“You fucking love her. Holy shit!”
I want to say, “fuck no; hell no”, and that it’s impossible to love someone after only a few weeks together; then I remind myself that we spent nine months together before July was born. We might not have been together every day, but most of my free time was filled with her. I didn’t know it at the time, but I had been slowly falling in love with her. I'm snapped out of my thoughts by the speakerphone, with Nico singing, “Da da da da, another one bites the dust. And another one falls, and another one falls,another one bites the dust.”
“Very funny,” I sigh, rubbing the back of my head.
“Just saying. I don’t want that shit to happen to me,” Nico says, his voice coming through the cell phone in Cash’s hand.
“You asses will be singing a different tune when it does.”
“Fuck that. I'm going to get as much pussy as I can before I have to settle with one.”