Pops lets out a guffaw, slapping his thigh.
I pull the shorts on and take off again in search of Lou.
Where the hell did she go?
* * *
Lou is nowhere to be found. She’s not answering her fucking phone and she won’t return my texts. I swear, I could throttle Arianne.
Fucking stalker. Sneaking into people’s houses. Showing up in their showers.
And my god damned head is pounding like a mother fucker. This is almost as bad as some of the concussions I got back in my stuntman days.
I pop another pain pill the ER doc prescribed and knock on Delores’s door. It takes a minute, but Delores opens it.
She scowls. “You can just carry your ass home. You made my girl cry. Again.”
“Again?”
“Well, it’s been a while. I haven’t seen her this upset since you left the first time.”
My ribs clamp down on my lungs. “This was a misunderstanding, Delores. Is she home?”
“She went for a walk. And she left her phone here. So, please, for the love of sweet Jesus, stop calling and texting or whatever you’re doing that keeps making it go off. If I have to hear that thing announce asshole calling one more time, I’m going to have to flush it.”
Asshole? Really?
“If she comes home, please tell her she has to call me.”
Delores narrows her eyes. “I don’t know. I’m not sure that super dick you have is worth all this heartache you’re putting her through.”
“I promise I’m going to fix this.”
“Yeah, yeah. We’ll see about that.” She slams the door.
Fuck. I have to find Lou.
TWENTY
How the hell did I make it through boot camp and Marine Combat Training without crying, but Buck shows up and I’m a whimpering idiot?
I wipe my nose and dab my eyes. I sit under the old trailer—the end that hasn’t collapsed. It probably isn’t the safest place, but it’s where I used to hide when Mom went ballistic. And it was the only place I could think of after I went into the house and Aunt Delores started asking twenty questions.
I love her, but I needed a minute to myself. I have to end this thing with Buck, repairs to do, or not. I can’t go on like this. It’s unhealthy. And I haven’t spent the last few years rooting out the drama from my life, focusing on bigger things than my pitiful childhood, to just sink back into that pit.
If he’s still fucking around with Arianne, I don’t need that shit. He says she’s not important to him, but you don’t shower with someone you aren’t at least attracted to. Hollywood has gone to his fucking head if he thinks that’s all right.
The weeds outside rustle. I hold my breath. Tuffy pokes his head through the gap in the rusty underpinning.
“Hey, you.”
He wiggles into the space with me, licking my chin.
I sniffle and scratch him between his ears. “What’re you doing here, Buddy? Shouldn’t you be napping in your cushy bed?”
A shadow falls over the opening. “Tuff? You in there?”
“Fuck.”
Buck peeks through the weeds. “Lou?”
I push on Tuffy’s rump to get him out of the space. Pulling up my shirt tail, I wipe my eyes. Hopefully it isn’t too obvious I’ve been crying.
“Lou? Is that you?”
“Yeah. Gimme a second.”
I crawl out on my hands and knees, and before my backend is even all the way out of the crawlspace, Buck grabs me beneath my arms and pulls me to him.
“Unless you want a knot on your forehead to match the one on the back of your head, you’d best let go.” I push against him.
“C’mon, Lou. You wouldn’t assault an injured man, would you?”
I scramble to my feet. “You bet your ass I would.”
“About Arianne—”
“I don’t want to hear about her.”
“You don’t understand.”
“I understand plenty, Buck. No matter what you’ve said, you want your cock wet by two women. But that’s not me. I won’t be one of them. I get it though. You’re paying me for sex. I can’t exactly expect you to be faithful. It’s fine. But we’re done. I’m done.”
He grabs the sides of his head and grits his teeth. “Ugh. Just listen for a second, would you?”
I wrap my arms around myself. “Fine. You have sixty seconds.”
He reaches for me, but I step back.
“She was in the bathroom with me because she snuck in. I wasn’t showering with her. That’s how I slipped and fell. I jumped out of the tub onto the tile and lost my footing.”
I wait for a sign that he’s lying. But he doesn’t look away; he holds my gaze and he seems completely at ease, though not too much so.