A Long Goodbye (3 page)

“Her future,” he said, but left it at that.

I nodded, getting ready to ask one more question. I swear I’d seen this dirtball around. “Sir…”

“Daddy, are you out there?” A voice boomed from outside the barn. Daddy Warbucks shoved me inside the stall, right before grabbing hold of the brush I placed down on the shelf.

“There you are. What are you doing out here? You never come out here.”

“I just needed a minute.”

She made a sniffing noise. “Are you smoking that nasty old pipe, Daddy? I told you.”

“Settle down, Sugarplum. I had a moment of weakness. Forgive me.”

“Of course. I can finish brushing her down if you’d like?”

“Nonsense. Let’s go inside. This heat’s too oppressive this morning. I’ll have Teddy finish.”

That voice. I couldn’t tell if I liked the sound of the way she almost purred with every word, or if that slow southern drawl was gonna to be the death of me. It was raspy with just the right touch of southern sweetness to it. I wiped away a few loose pieces of straw from my jeans once the coast was clear. I studied one of the pictures of Ashton still in my hand. Before shoving it back into the folder, I couldn’t help but grin, noticing just how nicely that little girl had grown up.

Damn!

I was back home for some time when my front door swung open. “Tell me it isn’t true?” Josh, the baby of the family, bellowed out before he pulled the beer from my hand and took a long ass swig.

“Tell you what isn’t true?” I grabbed it back, but it was polished off. I reached in the icebox to grab two more. Handing him one, he just grinned. “Jay told me, bro. Ashton fucking pole-up-her-ass Winslow and Lulu, I think I put-something-up-her-ass-once Trainor.” He grinned, scratching the few hairs he was able to grow on his chin.

I smacked him upside his head. “Shut the fuck up. It’s a job.”

“You want company? Because Lulu and I go way back, and I wouldn’t mind another ride on that fabulous piece of…”

I smacked the backside of his head again. “Is that all you think about? And before you answer that, my answer to you is no. This is a one-man gig. I can’t risk getting caught, so your dick can get its ride from someone else.”

He acted hurt, holding onto his chest. “Brother, do you even know me? I don’t need little ol’ LuLubelle to give me a ride. Plenty, and I mean plenty, of ladies are willing and able. I just thought you’d like the company. Because it’s gonna be the most boring, lame, and ridiculously straight laced job ever.”

“I’ll take my chances.” I flicked on the TV, and then flopped on the couch. He still stood there, drinking his beer. “Did you need something else?”

“Umm…I kinda need a place to crash tonight. Mama’s pissed and kicked me out.”

One shake of my head, and he held his hands up. “In my defense, I didn’t know it would piss her off to take her car for a joyride.”

“Why is she pissed about that?”

He wiggled his eyebrows. “Cause she caught me and Jenny Campbell in the backseat, and let’s just say we were doing things no mother should see her son doing.”

“Jesus, you seriously need to get your ass in gear and get a place of your own, or maybe check into a sex rehab clinic.”

“Fuck that! Not when I have big brothers to take care of me.”

These times were the ones that I prayed that I was back with my boys. Instead, I made promises I didn’t want to keep and lost the one job that I was really fucking good at. At one time, I thought I had everything going for me, and I knew deep down that I had a lot to be thankful for, but I missed it. I missed my job. Most of all, I missed my best friend.

“Does Mama know you’re out here?”

“Of course she does. Nothing gets by her. You know that I caught her looking out the kitchen window, pretending she was washing the dishes in the sink.”

“Man, I can’t wait until some girl knocks you on your ass so hard you won’t be able to get back up.”

Josh plopped down on the recliner, gliding it back until he was lying down. “That ain’t ever gonna happen. I got way too much to go around to hand it all over to just one little lady.”

Not wanting to deal with him any longer, I started to make my way to my room and grabbed an old football sitting on the floor. “It’ll happen. And when it does, I’m just glad I’ll be here to witness it.”

Quickly, I turned, lobbing the ball toward him, hoping to make the connection, but it sailed by him just as he laughed at me. “You better work on that arm,” Josh yelled out.

CHAPTER 3

ASHTON

“What do you mean you’re not coming, Ashton?” Lu yelled into the phone as I stuffed my legs underneath me, snuggling up to my favorite pillow on my bed.

“I know I promised Lu, but I can’t. Besides, we’re leaving in two days, so we can do it all in Nashville.”

“This is ridiculous. You are a grown damn woman, and you’re still letting him treat you like you’re ten.”

I took a deep breath before I blurted out the truth. “I have to go dinner with Trevor.”

“Are you kidding me?” she screamed into the phone. “I can’t believe he thinks you and that piece of slime-he’s not worthy of you by the way-should even be together. How does he not see that?”

I considered her question quietly in my head. What
does
my daddy see in him? Why Trevor? Why does he think he’s the perfect guy for me to settle down with? Is it his money, or I guess I should say, his family’s money? It most certainly couldn’t be for his strong values and a moral code since he doesn’t have any. Although, he had the whole town fooled. I’d heard his daddy and mama have the entire congregation at church believing he was the greatest catch in Charleston County. But it was all lies or at least that was the word around town and in my small circle of friends.

“Ash, are you there?”

“Yeah, I am.”

“Well?”

“It’s just dinner. If going out with Trevor gets me to Nashville then so be it. It’ll be easy peasy. You’ll see.”

“Oh, please. Your daddy wants you to marry that SOB and you know it.”

“It doesn’t matter. I’m not. I’ll tell Daddy as soon as we get back. I just want to enjoy my time with you and without a dang chaperone for once.”

Lu cleared her throat. “Which I’m sure is killing him. You’re positive he isn’t sending someone with us, right?”

“He promised, Lulu, and he never breaks a promise to me. It’s just you and me, girly.”

“Yeah, well, don’t let that shit for brains feel you up under the dinner table or anything.”

I laughed at her reminder. He tried once before and at the most inopportune time too. A southern gentleman, he was not. “I’ll slug him good this time. You’ll be proud. Hell, even my mama would be.”

“Call me when you get home, okay?”

“Love you, Lu.”

“You too. Be good.”

~~~

After slipping out of the shower and getting myself ready, even though I didn’t want to go, I was prepared for my date. Carefully, I placed my mother’s diamond studs in my earlobes, and sat back on my vanity bench. Trevor liked my hair down, so I purposely had it up in a tight ballerina bun to irritate him. For a second, I felt bad for being so outright mean, but then again, I promised myself that as of Saturday, I was reinventing myself. Or at the very least, coming out of my shell for two weeks. Why not practice on Trevor? Although he’d have to do without a proper goodbye at the end of the evening, because I planned on giving one to every cowboy I met.

“Why, Ashton. You take my breath away,” Trevor said as I walked down the staircase to meet him.

Could he be any more dull and unconvincing with his flattery?

He was so obvious it was almost ridiculous that Daddy didn’t see through this fake façade of his. Trevor had a reputation worse than Lulu and that was saying something. I loved Lulu more than I’ve ever loved anyone, so I’d always overlooked her insatiable need for a man in her bed. She never apologized, hasn’t since she gave up her virginity to Wild Willy Fowler in the eighth grade. She knew what she wanted, and she went out and got it with no excuses. I worried about her. One day, I’m afraid she’ll come home broken and used, and realize that those boys only gave her one thing and one thing only. And it was not what she really needed, or what she was looking for. She needed love and trust, not a revolving bedroom door. She practically begged for it, only the boys thought it was all about the sex. It never was.

LuLu’s mama was a train wreck—still was. She’d been bringing her clients from the strip club home since Lu was old enough to understand to hide when the bedroom door was locked. Her mama saw fit, seeing she needed to make a little extra money to put food on the table, or to buy Lu whatever it was she was begging for that week. Lu quickly learned and stopped begging, but for some reason her mama never got the memo. And her loser daddy skipped out way back when she was five years old.

He still sends a birthday card every year with a five-dollar bill tucked inside. Even after all those years of him sending it, it never came from the same place. I didn’t know why, nor did she, but every year, she practically ran to the mailbox to find the same damn depressing thing every year. And every year, I knew I’d have to pull her out of her slump just as I did the year before. I knew deep down from the sadness on her face that she’d been hoping he’d tell her where he was, but he never did.

I thought about hiring somebody to find him for her, but then thought that maybe it was best to let sleeping dogs lie and all that. I mean, what if he was one of those guys who were blissfully happy with his wife, 2.5 kids, a white picket fence, and a dog name Rover somewhere. That would be the life she’d always wanted, and it would kill Lu. And, I did my damnedest to make sure she never felt like that.

I squared my shoulders. “Thank you, Trevor. Shall we get this over with?”

Daddy shot me a disenchanted expression that ripped at my core. Forcing a smile, I turned to Trevor. “Sorry, I had a bad day.” Trevor held out his arm for me to take, so I did, but not without inwardly cringing. Quickly, I sidestepped him for a brief second. “Sorry, Daddy it won’t happen again.”

I planted a sweet kiss on his cheek. “You have a nice dinner, Sugarplum.”

“I’ll have her back by eleven, Mr. Winslow.”

Daddy waved him off as if it was no big deal. “No need, Son. Take your time.”

After dinner and his forever-roaming hands under the table, he insisted on taking me dancing. I loved to dance, but not with men like him. For heaven sakes, he didn’t even know how to line dance properly. Once inside, the music filled the room as we made our way toward the bar. Trevor knew everyone so he kept stopping and pulling me to his side several times to make sure he’d claimed me as his own tonight. I’d let him have tonight since I was leaving, and once I did, Trevor Owens wouldn’t ever cross my mind again.

The bar was crowded, but I couldn’t help notice a few loud boys to the rear shooting darts and throwing back shots of whiskey, singing along to an old Hank Williams song on the jukebox. They were sinfully adorable from what I could tell. The trio mesmerized me; it was like watching Honey Boo Boo or Montel Williams on the television, I couldn’t look away.

I knew the one noticed me staring, but I didn’t care. Trevor ordered me a martini even though I’d told him countless times I didn’t like them. Hell, I could shoot whiskey with the best of ‘em or even put back a few beers, but being a lady, I took my drink without complaining. As I continued to study the one that noticed me, he stepped forward talking to the other boy shooting darts. Quickly he peered over his shoulder, but turned before I was able to get a real good look. My eyes stayed trained on them as each one slipped out the side door a second later. It didn’t escape my attention that not one of those boys looked back at me, and all of them left their unfinished beers sitting on the ledge. Those times were when I wished that LuLu were here. She would have walked straight up to those boys and pulled them on the floor for a dance, one by one, before they even knew what hit them.

I couldn’t wait for Nashville.

Trevor propped himself up by his elbow leaning in closer. So close I could smell his expensive aftershave, and it made my stomach queasy. “So, Nashville and LuLu on Saturday, I hear.”

“You heard right. It’s gonna be a great two weeks.”

“I still don’t see why you need to hang out with that girl. She’s going to get you in trouble one of these days, and even your precious daddy won’t be able to get you out of it.”

I stared him straight in his eyes, when all I really wanted was to chuck my expensive martini in his face. “I can handle myself, and so can Lu, and as far as my precious daddy goes, he loves me. I’m all he has and he listens to me, Trevor. I know you have him fooled for now, but don’t go off with your pistol half-cocked just yet.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Ashton. We were made for each other. When you get back, I’ll be sitting down, drinking sweet tea with your daddy, and letting him know my intentions.”

I laughed out loud over the music. “We’ll just see about that, now won’t we?”

Trevor smiled, but I could tell it was fake since it didn’t reach his eyes that were now roaming the dance floor, watching a few girls shake what their mama gave them. I couldn’t blame him; their mama gave them a lot to shake.

Placing my drink on the bar, I flipped my cell out. Quickly, I typed out a message to Lu that I may need an extraction from the bar since someone other than me is occupying both of Trevor’s brains. Thankfully.

“You want to dance?” Trevor slipped his hand around my waist.

“No, thanks, I just texted Lu to come get me. Feel free to stay.” Slowly, I slipped from his grip and took a step back.

He broke that small gap by stepping to me. “Now why the hell would you do that, girl? I’ll take you home if that’s what you want.”

“It’s just I have so much packing to do and all. Do you mind?”

He stared me down for a few seconds longer than I liked, clicking his tongue with his teeth. “Sure thing, sweetness.”

Quickly, as we made our way to his shiny new BMW, I texted Lu to forget about picking me up. As we slipped inside, his engine came to life, and so did his Brad Paisley CD. His hand slinked over the console pulling my hand from my lap into his. “Did you enjoy dinner?”