Sidewalk Flower (23 page)

She forced her hands over her forehead to
where they met up with her tangled bun and then let them drop with a swoop.

“Okay, so this isn’t that bad, actually,”
she said, speaking as much to her stacked up work as to Lucky.
 
No, her anxiety wasn’t because of the piles;
it was because of someone’s surprise declaration of love.
 
Crazy
fast days
, she thought, as a bit of nausea crept into her belly.
 
She offered Lucky a seat in her roller chair
while she leaned heavily against the desk.
 

“No please.
 
You sit.
 
I’ll stand.”
 
Lucky waited until
she sat.
 
“So you said you wanted to talk
first?”
 
He reminded her before she had
the chance to start.

“Second.
 
First, I wanted to apologize.
 
I’m
really sorry for the way I flipped out tonight.
 
I wasn’t prepared to hear…what you said, and then the thought of coming
back home…”

Lucky stopped her.
 
He rolled the chair toward him and then bent
over so that his hands rested on the arms, one to her right and one to her
left.
 
The way he hovered over her should
have made her sweat but there was not a bead of intimidation anywhere in
Lucky’s makeup.
 
If he’d had wanted to,
he could have leaned down and kissed her, but he didn’t.
 

“It’s okay.
 
Seeing this place, being in this room with
you, meeting Ben, it kind of makes it all a little more real.
 
It’s obvious you have a lot to do and a lot
of people depending on you.
 
And uh, just
for the record, I didn’t plan that, it just kind of came out.”

Great.
 
Why couldn’t he have just kept that to
himself?
 
A twinge of sadness crept up
her spine because no matter how softly he had secretly melted her at those
words, love didn’t stand a chance in her real life.
  

“Well, thanks for being honest with me,”
she said as she tapped her heels repeatedly against the hard plastic of her
chair’s roller wheels, chanting “love sucks” silently to the beat.

“Come here,” he said.
 
His voice changed.
 
Huskier, it stopped her cold.
 
No
darlin’
for her now.

All that deep and tender stuff darkening
his blue eyes would be the death of her.
 
Why couldn’t a wild streak just overcome him already?
 
Explode on her with passion, there on the
floor of her office if they had to.
 
That
she could handle.
 
But
this love business?
  

“Trista?
 
Please?”
 

Where was “no” when she needed it?
 

Since that one puny word had deserted
her, she had no choice but to cozy up to his chest for a hug. He was so solid
and warm, like
her own
personal country bear she hoped
would never turn on her.
 
She felt
clingy, but knew it was okay in this moment with him.
 
“Let’s try to make this work, darlin’.
 
You know how I feel about you.”

She shivered as a chill chased away the
lie she should have tossed his way.
 
She
was a lot of things to a lot of people, but a cold hearted liar wasn’t one of
them.
 
“Lucky, if I thought there was any
way possible to do that, I would.
 
I
don’t want to lose this.
 
It’s…the best
thing I’ve felt in a very long time.
 
You, not it.
 
You are
the best…”

She stopped when she realized she’d said
all she needed to and everything she shouldn’t have.
 
Lucky grabbed her waist tightly in one hand,
a moment before he lifted her chin to press his lips solidly to hers.
 
His jaw trembled, but only for a second as he
ironed it out.
 
The non-stop wave of
kisses that followed swallowed her lips, then the stress of coming home, and
finally, the doubt she had where he was concerned.
 
That one silly word hadn’t gone into
hiding.
 
There was just no saying no to
this man.
 
Her breath hitched inside his
kiss.

Trista’s office phone rang three times;
the red blinking light indicated it was coming from in-house.
 
Reluctantly, she picked it up.
 

“Hey.”
 
Her short answer could be blamed on a certain determined country boy.

“Trista, Jaxon’s waiting for you
guys.”
 
Ben’s punctuated and serious tone
warned her of the boss’s presence.

“1-C?” she inquired, getting the specifics
on Jaxon’s location.

“Yep, you got it.”

“Thanks, Ben.”
 
She appreciated the heads up and proceeded to
share the news with Lucky, who was currently wrapped around her waist and
nibbling at her neck.

“Lucky, hold on.
 
Lucky.”
 
She stood to smooth her dress and catch her breath.
 
It had been a nice fifteen minutes or so, too
long and not nearly long enough.
 
“Jaxon’s waiting for us, we’d better get,” she said.

“Okay.”
 
Lucky caved respectfully.
 
He
kissed her once more on the tip of her ear and then pulled his pretty hair that
she’d loosened back into the elastic band he had around his wrist.

She pushed the studio control room’s
button, letting Jaxon know she was outside and then waved through the
window.
 
He took off his large ear phones
and welcomed her in with a kiss on each cheek.
 
“Trissy, it’s so fucking good to have you back.”
 
His biceps slid up from her shoulders to her
cheeks in a hug and she could barely breathe.
 
This had better not be a show for Lucky.
 
She twisted to find a pocket of air but all she saw was a pair of veins
popping up from their winding around Jaxon’s forearms. They had nowhere to hide
beneath the muscle, just as there was no way to conceal the neck tattoo that
had nearly gotten her eighty-sixed from Gramma’s trailer park.
 
She finally broke free and looked back to
make sure Lucky hadn’t fled the room in intimidation.
 
But no, there he stood— tall, if not a
smidgen less happy and bright.
 

She was going to miss him.

“Cuzzy, glad you made it.”
 
Jaxon pulled Lucky into his chest for a man
hug and pounded his back.
 
Lucky leaned
down and whispered something into Jaxon’s ear, then parted with a softer single
pat to his shoulder.

No longer on pins and needles about this
first meeting but reserving her judgment, Trista watched as Jaxon walked back
over to his busily lit switchboard.
 
He
powered it down, saying it could wait, and then led Lucky and her out of the
room.
 

“So has Trissy given you the tour yet?”

“Uh, no, not yet.”
 
Lucky grinned.

Jaxon nodded and then shook his head,
leading their trio.
 
Trista knew what he
must be thinking and she wanted to kick him in the back of his knee for the
assumption.
 
She and Lucky had only
kissed, and nibbled.
 
Oh, who was she
trying to fool?
 
She could still feel his
strong hands working the cup of her bra with a much more passionate motion.

Back at the front of the studio, Ben sat
hunched in his chair, scrutinizing the monitor until Jaxon let a heavy palm
land squarely on his desk.
 
Ben’s hand
flew to his heart.

“Okay, so tomorrow, Benny.
 
You gonna be here?”
 

Their webmaster probably hadn’t left the
studio in so many days judging by the patches of unshaven whiskers sprinkled
across his face.
 
It could be assumed
he’d still be there, unless Trista banished Ben for a quick break to get a
fresh change of clothes and a night’s sleep in a real bed.
 
Either way, someone would be there.

“Yeah, whatcha need?”
 
Ben answered back, twizzling a pen through
his fingers as he spoke.

Jaxon seemed to ignore Ben’s less than
professional retort and carried on.
 
“Just
let Kevvy know that I left the last track for him to finish up on by the sound
board.
 
I tweaked it a bitty but the rest
is on him.”

Ben agreed to pass along the message then
stared again at the screen.
 
She joined
him.
 
“What in the heck is so interesting
on that thing?” she asked.

 
“221 active threads on the message board.
 
Just trying to avoid
another crash.”
 

“
It’s
gonna be a
long night,” she said as Lucky stood close by, looking interested.
 

“Nah, not too bad once I
send these guys to the black hole.”

“Holy cow, did I see that right?
 
550 inactive threads?”
 

Everyone wanted to know what the band was
up to in light of the pending tour.
 
Later, when she and Ben were deluded by severe sleep deprivation, they
would sit together and laugh their asses off at the insane things people would
post.
 
She patted Ben on the shoulder and
then returned to Lucky’s side.

“Trissy, you heading home?”

“Ha-ha, very funny, Jaxon.”

“Fair enough.
 
All righty then, I guess it’s just you and
me, Cuzzy.”
 
Jaxon handed Lucky his
keys.
  
“Throw your stuff in my
trunk.
 
I’ll meet you out there in a
sec.”
 

Jaxon’s intentions couldn’t have been
clearer.
 
But Lucky obliged.
 
He’d given her a delicious parting kiss
already.
 
Lucky took the keys and left
the studio from the front door with just a tip of his head and a small
wave.
 
She needed air.

Jaxon pulled her away from the doorway,
back a few feet down the hallway, and hugged her while he spoke.
 
“Hey, I’m really sorry for flaking out on
you.”
 

“Well, what’s done is done.
 
You’ve got to stop apologizing to me.
 
It’s getting old, older than you even.”

“Hey, that’s a knock if I ever heard
one.”
 
He lifted his eyebrows and rubbed
at his clean shaven face.
 

“Like I said, what’s done is done.
 
Let’s just move on.
 
Okay?”
 
There was no use hiding her disappointment so she didn’t bother.
 

Jaxon nodded.
 
“You deserve better.”

Feeling his guilt on top of her pain as
usual, Trista shuffled her feet.
 
Instead
of agreeing out loud, she leaned in and gave Jaxon one last hug.

“I’ll take good care of him for ya,” he
said.

“What?”

He lowered his chin and looked up at her
with eyes that reminded her of a sharper,
more jagged
Lucky, and turquoise.
 
“Come on, you know
better.
 
I can read you like a book,
Trissy.”

“Oh.
 
Well, he’s your family so…”

“Right, he is…So hey, we’re having a
birthday party for Maryellie on Saturday.
 
I’d like for you to come.”

Her shuffling came to an abrupt end and
she grabbed for the hall wall.
 
It had
been four years since she’d been invited to a family party at Jaxon’s.
 
She checked his eyes for bloodshot.

“Yeah, I was hoping you and Benny might
take a break and come over to the house for some princess cake.”

She crossed her arms rigidly, pushing up
what little she had of a chest.
 
“Are you
sure?
 
I mean, won’t…”

“Vangie be there?—Yes, but Maryellie has
you on the guest list.
 
She’s really
looking forward to seeing you, at least for a bit.”

So five-year old
Maryella had done the bidding for daddy.
 
Understandably.
 
Jaxon only bent to Vangie’s demands to
protect his little girl, and his rights to her.
 
It was the one noble thing she admired about her best friend.