I won’t be any man’s stand in.
“Look, it’s Audrey, right?” I try to be nice and keep my cool.
Her lashes flutter and she smiles faintly. Her beauty steals my breath away and I am hit with a sense of Déjà vu. I suck in a deep breath. She doesn’t need to be looking at me like I’m her lifeline. I’m nobody’s hero.
“I’m not Joe. I’m not that sweet man. I’m an asshole. I don’t give a shit about your feelings, or the fact that he was supposedly going to marry you. I don’t need you staring at me. I don’t need you hating me for having a face like his. I don’t need your self-pity bullshit. So stay out of my way and I’ll do my best to stay of yours.” I know it sounds harsh, but she needs to be clear that I won’t have her following me around like a lost puppy.
She gapes at me. Her mouth opens and shuts. Her somber eyes widen with shock, and her hand comes up to touch me, but my reflexes are too quick. I shoot her down, knocking her hand away.
I don’t know what she was planning on doing, but with the way she is looking at me it was nothing anything good could come from.
“I don’t need you touching me either,” I grit through my teeth at her, afraid her touch will feel all too good. Her breasts are peeking out of the top of her low-cut shirt and I can’t help wondering how they taste. My mind is racing, wondering why I feel I’ve met her away from my family. Sure, Joe talked about her, but he never showed me her picture. Said he didn’t want me showing my buddies and us having illicit thoughts like I am right now about his girl.
“Fuck you, buddy. You don’t know a motherfucking thing about me.”
Her dirty mouth makes my cock jump and I have to fight the urge to shut her up with a kiss.
I feel crazy.
I’m in trouble.
This is trouble.
I’m attracted to her, and I think she feels a connection to me too. A connection that has nothing to do with Joe JR. Confusion is written all over her pretty face as her thick lips turn into a snarl.
Maybe it’s lust.
Maybe we’re both just broken and lonely and need something to cling to.
I come back at her with a lame response. “Yeah, I don’t want to know you either.” Slamming the door behind me, making sure to drive my point home, I walk away before I give in and kiss her like a crazy person.
My head feels ten shades of fucked up. I want her gone.
I don’t know what I need but Audrey isn’t it.
Moments later, I’m helping Freddie bust a few tables when I see her step out of the storeroom, wiping at her eyes.
I don’t want to care that I made her cry but seeing her so vulnerable…I want to run to her, take her in my arms, and say I’m sorry. Give her some comfort. Tell her that I’m not always a crazy bastard.
I don’t even know why.
I don’t know her, and she don’t know me. I don’t want to know her either.
We manage not to cross paths the rest of the day. Audrey hangs in the back office while I stay up front. Maybe she will sell us her part of the business. There’s no reason for her to stick around. Joe’s gone, she isn’t family.
I get ready to head back over to Ma’s for my party, and thankfully Audrey isn’t on the guest list. I don’t know why I can’t get this chick off my mind. Maybe it’s just that she’s pretty, and I’ve not been around any attractive available women. Well, Audrey isn’t on the market, but she’s gorgeous. When I am getting ready to leave she takes to the stage to sing as the night crowd starts filing in.
Her eyes look everywhere but at me, and damn it if I don’t want her eyes to meet mine, even though I told her I didn’t want her to stare at me.
When she won’t look at me it about kills me and I don’t know why I am so perturbed.
I stick around a few minutes, curious to hear her sing.
I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I wasn’t prepared for a voice from the past to come out of her mouth.
She starts out soft and low singing the song Hello, by that Adele chick that has been played to death on the radio.
My mind travels back to before I enlisted.