When You Came Home With Me: A Secret Baby Second Chance Romance (Blue Shore Book 3) Read online

  That was how I felt about the two guys we were sitting with, too. I had already run the calculations in my head a couple of times since we’d arrived here and met them. How badly did I need the income from this job? The answer had been enough to keep me here so far, perched on the edge of my hard wooden chair, hoping against hope that we would get to the end of the night and leave with a signed contract before Aaron ruined another job chance for us.

  She decided. I was watching her so closely that I could detect the exact moment that she got herself under control. Her thoughts were written all over her face, and I was pretty sure that the one that won out over the others was all about paying the bills. With an act of will, she rearranged her face into a cheerful smile and teasingly batted her eyelashes at the two men.

  “Guys, you’re too much,” she chortled sweetly. “You know what? I think you two guys would be too much for me to take on. I’m just one lady, after all, and you’re two big strong men.” She stood tall and thrust her nipples out with a wriggle of determination to see this through. In a brisker voice, she continued. “So what else would you like to drink? Any snacks to go with that?”

  As if she had magical powers, she had sidestepped the moment. I was impressed. Not only with her self-discipline in wading forward through their crap, but with the effectiveness with which she got the two assholes to move on from their focus on harassing her. I wouldn’t have thought she could change the mood at our table so quickly, but she pulled it off.

  Without another catcall or inappropriate suggestion, our two potential clients went ahead and ordered chips, tots, and wings with every sauce available. They washed it all down with several more pitchers of beer over the course of the next two hours, spending most of that time trading insults with each other about football. As usual, the only team you could count on everybody agreeing on was the Cowboys. Anybody else had to be talked up or down endlessly. Whatever. I wasn’t all that interested in either the sports or the male bonding if it had to be with these assholes.

  By the time we’d closed the place down in the early morning hours, I was bored out of my mind. Aaron looked like he was about to fall asleep with his head on the table. The two older guys were jovial and joshing with each other, but dismissive of me every time I tried to get them to talk about business. I was starting to realize that we’d been had. This wasn’t so much a meeting about a contract as it was an opportunity for me to buy these two jerks some free food while I wasted an evening listening to their dumbass jibes at each other.

  Sure enough, when we all rose from the table, neither one of them made a move toward their wallet. I hadn’t expected them to, but it would have been a nice gesture if they had even tried. Rich people like that were the worst. They had a shit ton of money that we didn’t have. They owned apartment complexes, for crying out loud. I owned a circular saw. But they were happy to stick me with a restaurant bill so they could feel powerful. I’d tell Aaron later that it didn’t matter. It would be a tax deduction. Right now, though, I was a little concerned about the fact that if we didn’t have any income this year, there wouldn’t be any need for complicated tax preparation.

  We were among the last people in the place, and most of the other customers were stumbling drunk. A lot of the men appeared to be making arrangements to meet up with the waitresses as they said goodbye. Maybe this was that kind of bar, after all. The four of us stepped out the door, herded by the big bald guy that managed the place. He looked like a wall of tough meat; he might have been the biggest man I’d ever seen. What stood out even more than that were his sharp, glinting eyes. There was nothing happening at this bar that he didn’t know about.

  Once we were outdoors in the fresh spring air, I tried again to salvage the evening and come to some kind of agreement that was going to land us the construction job. “So, gentlemen, it was good to spend some time getting to know you better this evening. I know Aaron and I both enjoyed talking with you. Do we all feel ready to sign that contract now?”

  Cowboy Hat looked at me with a sneer, not even bothering to conceal the contempt he felt for us. “Son, get serious. We agreed to meet with you two boys tonight so we could hear your pitch. Sure, we don’t mind doing you that kind of favor. But there’s nothing that you can offer us that we can’t get a better deal on somewhere else. You know, an established company that we’ve worked with before. One that doesn’t have to cut all their costs down to bare bones just because they don’t have two nickels to rub together.”

  The weathered man who had been so crude with the waitress reached down to his belt and hitched his jeans up, bringing the waistband closer to his gut, but not covering it. His lined face crinkled with a mean smirk. “Boys, you don’t stand a chance. You say you’re from around here, but you act more like some kind of stuck up city kid. You’re not like us and you shouldn’t try to pretend that you are. That goes for you, at least.” He lifted his chin at me. “You,” and he turned to Aaron, “need to lay off the weed and learn when to keep your mouth shut. Got no head for business on you.”

  “Ha, that’s some free advice,” grunted the man in the hat. Having said all they were going to, they sauntered off to a shiny black pickup truck. Their western lope had turned into a stumble after all the beer they’d put away, but I knew that guys like them would get behind the wheel nonetheless.

  I sighed heavily and stomped my feet on the dark concrete, trying to get the blood moving in them again after the hours of sitting and shooting the breeze with those morons. “I wouldn’t call it free advice, exactly,” I mumbled under my breath. “That cost a damn pretty penny. Aaron, I think we may have hit a new low. We’ve actually got rich good old boys like those sponging off us for free food.”

  He had watched the conversation, but didn’t appear to have anything to add. Where I was incensed by what I perceived to be injustice, he merely looked dull. His gaze was fixed, and I realized that he was even slower than usual tonight. The client had gotten one thing right, and that was that Aaron’s weed consumption was out of control. “Yeah, ok,” he finally said. “I guess maybe we should admit this isn’t going so great.”

  “It could be going a whole lot better, yes.”

  “Tim, doesn’t it seem cold to you out here? I think we should get in the truck and turn the heat on.”

  I was feeling too steamed up with irritation to get in if it meant having to listen to his redneck music. “Aaron, it’s not cold. It’s a perfectly nice spring night. You know, spring, when all the construction companies land the best jobs. This is the time of year that we need to be working, and we’re not. We’re falling behind. We’re failing.”

  He waved his hand at me dismissively. “Quit with the negative talk, man. It’s all gonna work out.” Then he got into the driver’s side of the truck and slammed his door. Even though I was still outside, I could hear the music as he fiddled with the radio stations.

  I stood there, looking down at the blacktop of the parking lot, noticing that my left work boot was developing a hole in the side. This wide open parking lot, filled with bright lights and flashing neon, was kind of like my life story. From a distance, it looked like a pretty good place, but there were dark corners everywhere that I sure as hell wouldn’t want to poke my head into.

  Then, over the noise that Aaron was coaxing from the truck’s old radio, I thought I could hear a woman calling for help. I craned my neck to look around the cab of our truck, and I saw that the waitress who had served our table was pulling her arm angrily away from a man. Her long hair shone under one of the lights as the man yanked her along, moving them both toward a shadowed corner under the cheap fake clapboards that ran along the back of the restaurant.

  I watched, not knowing what to do. Another movement caught my eye. It was Cowboy Hat, getting out of that shiny black truck. They were still here. It had looked like they were pulling out of the parking lot earlier, but they’d only turned the truck around to get it closer to the woman’s little white Honda. These assholes had been plannin
g this. They’d been waiting until she finished her shift so they could ambush her in the parking lot. And I’d sat with them all night, so on some level, I was responsible too.

  All I knew what that I wasn’t going to let it happen. No matter that they were bigger, stronger, older, and richer than me. I had to have some sense of decency, somewhere in me.

  I banged on the truck door to get Aaron’s attention, then I ran toward the shadows.

  Chapter 3: Cici

  Another night in the books, another pile of cash to go into the bank account. That was how I had to think of it. It had been a challenging night, with a busy crowd that had seemed rowdier than usual. If I’d been a little more on my game, I could have handled some of the tables better.

  That four top, for example. Those guys didn’t look at all like they belonged together. It reminded me of a puzzle that you might find in a kids’ magazine. Maybe you were supposed to choose which one stood out, or figure out how these four things linked together. Anyway, the way I called it was two comfortable older dicks, very ordinary in a Texas way, one sleepyhead, and only one guy who looked like an actual person anybody would ever want to talk to.

  If I had to admit it, he was somebody I’d like to stare at for a good long while too, possibly while wearing fewer clothes than I had on now. That fourth guy was hot enough to get my attention, which didn’t happen often around here. He didn’t blend in with the tired, long-haul trucker crowd, or the rowdy, rumpled men who wore t-shirts with offensive messages on them. No, he was in a class by himself. I’d noticed it right away. His biceps strained the fabric of his shirt as he poured beer into his glass, telling me that he was somebody who took good care of his body. His hands were tanned and strong, so I knew he worked with them on a regular basis. What struck me about him, though, was the warmth in his eyes. He was paying attention to everything he saw, and he looked like he cared what happened to people.

  I’d seen how he watched me when the crude talk came up. I hate those moments. There’s always somebody who thinks that they should proposition me right there at the table. I’d been dealing with that since my first day at the bar. No biggie. But for some reason, it got to me that night. There I was, standing there alone as humiliation washed over me, and for the tiniest millisecond, I thought he understood. I thought I saw the same thing happening to that guy drinking at my table with those two bozos. Right when I was wondering whether I should just walk out the door and close this chapter in my life, that’s when I saw it. He was thinking the exact same thing.

  I hadn’t always been this girl, and that was the truth. I had once been a proud firecracker with big dreams, not a meek waitress who took care to massage the egos of men who were harassing her. Only after my life came crashing down and I had to flee the wreckage of my family did I become somebody so desperate that I’d smother all my pride to try to get by. That little sob story didn’t make me any different from most of the people I knew, though. I worked at a bar. Everybody had a sad story, whether they’d admit it or not. The trick was to find the way out of tight spots without reminding yourself that you were already at rock bottom.

  “Cici, are you heading out?” Kelly waved her hand in front of my eyes as I sat at a table, staring at the pile of tickets I’d already finished sorting.

  “Yep, I’m all done for tonight. Did you check my sidework?”

  “Girl, you know nobody ever needs to check your work. You’re a machine. You get it all done, with no mistakes, and at twice the speed of anybody else.” Kelly tapped the table in front of me as she sped by to fill another tray with the sets of shakers that she was cleaning. In a moment, she was back. She was in whirlwind mode, trying to finish for the night. “You sure you don’t want to stay and close up for me?” She was laughing as she spoke. She knew perfectly well that I was dying to go home and put my feet up on the couch.

  “Yeah, that’s a no from me, Kelly. Sorry. See you in a bit, though?”

  She mock saluted me, then stifled a giggle as she saw Billy frowning at her. “Sorry,” she mouthed silently at our grim-faced, ex-Marine boss.

  I stood up and stretched my arms to the ceiling. It had been a long night, and I couldn’t wait to take a shower and go to bed. I might actually be asleep by the time Kelly got back to our apartment.

  In the parking lot, I pointed my beeper at my little white Honda Civic and flashed the lights. You couldn’t be too careful in these dark corners. I always parked as close to the center of the lot as I could, but this evening, I’d been forced to scavenge a spot where I could, and I didn’t feel comfortable with how shadowed my car was right now. Should I go back and ask Billy to walk me? No, I shook off the idea. No need to bother him for such a little thing.

  It was only when I got to the car and put my hand on the cool metal of the door handle that I realized I was being watched. The beefy hand that came up from behind me and grabbed my elbow surprised me more than it scared me. Was this how it really happened? There was a tiny hiding spot in my mind where I concealed myself, as if I was going to observe this moment from a safe distance.

  I knew there would be a wave of sour beer smell, and it came wafting over my shoulder as I looked down at the hand. The smell accompanied the rumpled, unkempt belly of the man I’d waited on earlier, as he pressed himself against me. I could feel the jiggliness of his out of shape midriff, as well as something harder a little lower than that. He ground himself against me.

  “Come on, chicky. You know you didn’t actually say ‘no’ earlier. Right? You want to see what it’s like to get fucked by two real men at the same time?” His words traveled only centimeters from his smelly mouth into my ear. The heat that came with his breath was just plain nasty.

  “No. Leave me alone. I said no.” My words came out stronger than I thought they would. I might as well have written them in French cursive on my windshield, though, for all the effect they had on my assailant. When I looked up, I saw the other man stepping out of a big, black pickup truck. Damn it, it really was both of them. I had underestimated the whole situation.

  What I’d thought was just passing jerk behavior at the table had been nothing short of premeditated predation. They’d sized me up, toyed with me, and then waited for me to come out. I should have told Billy, I should have.

  My breath was starting to come in ragged gasps as the reality of the situation set in. Nobody could see me out here. The hand on my elbow took action, pulling me along toward the darkest corner, near the wall. Summoning all the air I could from my increasingly petrified lungs, I called out for help. Again.

  Nobody came.

  The only two people whose existence mattered to me now were the two men who were cornering me. One was using his body to keep me trapped in this space, while the other began to fumble with his jeans. He smiled wickedly at me as he took off his cowboy hat and set it carefully on the blacktop. With his pants partially undone, he leaned toward me, so close that I could see the hair inside his ears.

  I heard a noise, one that I didn’t expect to hear. Which one of these things was not like the other? It was a kind voice, a helping sound, a rescuer.

  “Hey!” Both men turned back to see who was interfering in their game. My hope that I was going to be safe after all faded. It was the guy from the same table that I’d served for far too long that night. The nicer guy, or at least that was what I’d thought. Look again, I told myself. He was probably here to join in with them.

  But he proved me wrong. “Hey, you guys leave her alone!” He reached us and shouted in anger at the two men, squaring his shoulders as if he had any chance of coming out ahead in a fistfight.

  The man in the hat drawled at him, not even bothering to fix his pants. “Kid, just let it go. You’re not some kind of knight, out here saving women. You know she wants it.”

  Something changed in my rescuer’s face. Without meaning to, I found myself re-evaluating him. He hadn’t looked like he could fight these guys. But now, watching him, he appeared to grow taller. The resolute lo
ok on his face warred with something else. Was it a desire for revenge? Did he know these guys better than I’d guessed?

  He didn’t bother with any more talk. Instead, he pulled back his right fist and hit the man in the hat with a shockingly successful punch to the jaw. The man stepped back on his right foot, reeling sideways and leaning over to cradle his face. The other man’s lined face showed genuine surprise.

  “Wouldn’t have thought you had it in you,” he growled under his breath. Just as he was about to swing at my knight in shining armor, a moose-like bellow got everybody’s attention.

  “Get the hell off my property!” It was Billy. He was marching toward us with a speed that made me think he had mythical powers. In his right hand, he held the kind of talisman that these men could understand. He was holding a gun. I knew Billy, and I knew he wasn’t about to point that thing anywhere near me. But the gleam of its dark lines was enough to get the attention of the men he meant it for.

  They scrambled away from me, slipping on the concrete surface as they made for their black truck. With his shirttails flapping, the man who had started to undo his pants might have looked funny to somebody else watching. Not to me, though. They pulled away as fast as if the cops were after them. I watched the red taillights of their truck disappear down the frontage road until I couldn’t see even the slightest glimmer of them.

  “Billy, how did you know I needed you?” I sagged against the wall. I was on the verge of tears, but I still felt like I had to keep up a front of calm. He was my boss, after all.

  “Cici, hon, you don’t have to have it together right now,” he answered. He knew exactly what I was thinking. “Its ok if you cry. I came because that pothead told me there was trouble out here.” He jerked his head toward the fourth man who’d been at the table tonight, lingering behind him. “I should have seen it; I blame myself. I knew these fuckers were bad news. They’ll never get in my door again, that’s for damn sure.”