Blue Colla Make Ya Holla (59 page)

“Exactly.”

“Can I please have my phone back?”

“Yes ma’am.” He placed it in her outstretched palm. He took his arm off the door jamb and stood straight. “Well, guess I better get back to work.”

“Thank you for bringing me my phone. I don’t know what I’d have done without it today with the wedding and all.”

Nate’s heart suddenly sank. Had he been messing around with a woman who was about to get married? The text he had seen took on more meaning.
That would be just my luck, finding a cute girl only to discover she was engaged.
“Are you the bride?” he asked.

“Oh God, no.” She laughed, but it sounded forced to Nate’s ears. His hopes rose a little. Maybe he did have a shot after all. “My best friend’s getting married tomorrow. I’m the maid of honor.”

He nodded. So he still had a shot at a date. “Well, enjoy, I guess. Like I said, I gotta get back.” He pointed a thumb over his shoulder.

“Sure. Thanks again. For everything.”

“See ya around,” he said over his shoulder as he headed for his truck.

*

Joanne watched as
Nate drove away, then she put the cranky Oliver Twist down and headed upstairs to her bedroom. She had to go over to Ashlyn’s apartment and pick up all the handmade decorations that they had made over the past few weeks. Ash was one of those creative types, so different from Joanne herself. Joanne had made more messes than pretty decorations, but she’d thrown her all into the projects anyway, knowing how much they meant to her best friend.

After she picked up the decorations, she had to take them over to the banquet hall and set everything up for the wedding reception. Only after all that was done could she come back home to get ready for the rehearsal dinner. She was exhausted just thinking about it all. Luckily, Ashlyn and Rebecca, the other bridesmaid, would be helping her.

As she readied her outfit for the evening, her phone rang. She glanced at the screen and did a double take. The caller ID came up as “Stripper/Cat Rescuer/Towing” instead of a name. She shook her head and accepted the call.

“Funny, real funny. Is that the best you can come up with?” she asked.

“Hey, it got you to answer the phone, didn’t it?”

“Is there a purpose for this call?”
Okay
, she admitted to herself,
it is sort of cute.
And it was definitely a unique way to get her attention. But she couldn’t let him think he could get away with messing with her phone like that.

“Actually, there is. I wanted to ask you out to dinner.”

“When?”

“How about tonight.”

“Can’t, sorry. I have the rehearsal dinner tonight.”

“Some other time then.”

Joanne considered for a split second. Should she accept? She was still getting over her fiancé’s—ex-fiancé’s, rather—betrayal. On the other hand, what better way to get over a guy than to go out with a handsome hunk of a man?
Who cares if he’s not my usual type? It’s not like I’m gonna marry him. I just needed someone to get me over Stan.
“Sure,” she agreed brightly. “Call me next week. I have a lot on my mind right now with my friend’s wedding and all.”

“Great. I’m looking forward to it.”

Joanne hung up the phone in a better mood than she’d been in for weeks. Dumping Stan had been awful, but not nearly as awful as finding out about the numerous affairs he’d been having over the years. Even so, it was hard working at the same hospital as him, seeing him take advantage of his status as a prominent doctor to flirt with her coworkers. Maybe this Nate would be just the guy to help her get over Stan and his philandering.

‡

J
oanne closed her
eyes and prayed for an end to the miserable evening. Ashlyn was her friend, but Joanne wished anyone besides herself and Stan had introduced the soon-to-be bride and groom. So, of course, Ash had wanted Joanne to be her maid of honor, while Aaron asked Stan to be his best man. No one could have predicted that Stan and Joanne, the once happy couple, would be over before their friends’ wedding even came.

Joanne pushed at the steamed broccoli on her plate. She loved broccoli but hadn’t had much of an appetite in the past month. Not since she’d found out about Stan’s numerous affairs. Even now, the thought of his lies made her stomach twist, and the few bites of food she had managed to swallow were a struggle to keep down.

Stan sat to her left at the large round table. The rest of the bridal party took up the other seats at their table, while the three other tables were filled with Ash and Aaron’s families.

As if being walked down a wedding aisle on Stan’s arm wasn’t bad enough, she been forced to listen to him drone on throughout the entire meal. She’d managed to ignore most of what he said, focusing instead on the other conversations at the table. She didn’t want to listen to Stan. How could she know if anything he said was true? It felt like everything he’d told her over the last three years was a lie. When she’d thought he’d been at the hospital working, he’d really been fucking other women. When he’d told her he was too tired to go out, it was because he’d spent the day fucking someone else. When he’d said he wasn’t in the mood for sex, it was because he’d wasted his libido already.

Her stomach churned again, and Joanne clutched at it, forcing herself to think of something else, anything else, to stop the flood of images coming to her mind—images of Stan’s naked body entwined with other women. Her coworkers, her colleagues, supposedly her friends.

She pushed the images of Stan away. What took their place was unexpected. Nate. His sandy hair moving in the wind. That infectious grin. The wide shoulders covered in layers of muscles. She wondered what he would look like naked. Before she could rein in her mind, her imagination galloped away, and she pictured Nate shirtless, his abs flexing as she ran her fingers down them. She pictured the curve of his ass, uncovered by jeans.

Hearing her name, she came back to the present suddenly. Her breathing was heavy, and she felt the stirrings of desire low in her belly.
Damn
. Of course, it had been over a month since she’d had sex.
Surely I have better control than that. I shouldn’t be lusting over some man I just met.

Joanne glanced around, wondering what she had missed. Stan had one eyebrow raised in irritation. It must have been him who had said something to her.

“What was that?” she asked.

Stan sighed and threw his cloth napkin onto the table. “See. This is why I felt the need to go to other women.” His voice was low, and none of the other people at the table heard his accusation.

“Excuse me?” Joanne had no idea what kind of point he was making, but she didn’t like the direction his conversation was going. He’d been trying to make excuses ever since he got caught in his affairs.

He grabbed her upper arm. Stan wasn’t necessarily strong, but his fingers dug into her flesh and pinched her skin, causing her pain. “You never listen to me. You can’t expect to fulfil a man’s needs if you never listen to him. I had to find other women to talk to.”

Joanne would have sworn her jaw hit the floor at his excuse.
He’s blaming me? He thought I didn’t listen to him?
She sent a prayer up asking for willpower, because there was nothing in the world she wanted more in this moment than to kill the bastard where he sat.

She pulled her strength into her with a breath. “I wouldn’t call what you were doing talking.”

Immediately, as if sensing her fury, Stan turned placating. “JoJo, let’s not fight. You made a mistake, but it’s all behind us now.”

That was it. Joanne couldn’t do this anymore.
He thinks we could just move on from this like nothing had happened? He isn’t even apologizing! He isn’t even promising it would never happen again.
If Joanne had any doubts about their future—or lack thereof—they were gone now. She was done.

She stood abruptly, pushing back her chair and yanking her arm from his tight fingers. “No,” she stated firmly. “I don’t want to hear anymore. You’re right I made a mistake, but my mistake was trusting you.”

Stanley stood when she did. “Joanne, you’re causing a scene. Can’t you let it go for one night?”

She grabbed her purse hanging from the back of the chair. “No, I can’t let it go.” With those words, she stormed out of the restaurant and to her grandmother’s blue Caddy.
I’ve got to find time to get my own transportation,
she thought. When her car had been wrecked a year prior, she hadn’t felt the need to buy a new one since she lived with Stan just two blocks from the hospital where they both worked. So now she was forced to borrow her grandmother’s car until she could make time to buy a new one.

Sticking the key in the ignition, she turned it, but nothing happened. She heard some clicking sounds. She tried again to the same results. A third try didn’t end any better. Suddenly, her door was jerked open, and Stan was standing there glaring.

“This is probably a sign you should stay here and talk things out instead of running away,” he said.

“I’m not running away.”

“JoJo, please. Come back inside. We’ll apologize to Aaron and Ashlyn, we’ll finish out the meal, then I’ll take you home.”

Joanne shouldered him out of the way as she got out of the car. She slammed the door shut and rummaged in her purse for her phone. “There’s no way I’m going to get stuck in a car with you.”

“JoJo—”

“And quit calling me that! You know I hate it.” She pulled up the contacts on her phone and hit connect. Was it fate that gave her the personal phone number of a tow truck driver just that morning?
What would I have done if I didn’t have it? Would I have given in to Stan’s demands? Thank God I don’t have to find out.

“Hello,” a low rumbling voice came through her phone.

“Hey, Nate. I’m sorry to bother you.”

“Who are you calling?” Stan interjected.

Joanne pulled the phone away from her mouth and covered it with a hand. “I’m calling for a tow truck.”

“In trouble again already?” Nate asked. She could hear the humor in his tone, and even in the face of everything, it made her smile too.

“Ah, yes, actually. My car won’t start. I might need a tow.”

“Is that all you need?”

Joanne paused at the suggestion in his voice, and a shiver raced down her spine. Her eyes automatically turned to Stan. It felt weird having thoughts about another man with a previous boyfriend right here in front of her. “Um, for now.”

“Joanne, there’s no need for this. Let me drive you home,” Stan insisted.

“Who’s there with you?” Nate’s voice was sharp.

“Stan, leave me alone. I’ve got this.”

“Where are you?” Nate asked immediately. She gave him the restaurant’s address. “I’ll be there in fifteen.”

“That long?” She hated to sound petulant, but she didn’t want to stay in Stan’s presence for one minute longer than she had to.

“Sweetheart, I have to go get the truck. Trust me, I’ll be there as fast as I can.”

She wasn’t sure why, but she did trust him. Just knowing he was on his way was enough to calm her.

Thirteen minutes later, based on the clock on her phone, a Bubba’s tow truck was pulling up beside her. Relief flooded her body, and she shook her head.
Why on God’s green earth am I so accepting of a man I’ve only met mere hours ago?
She couldn’t explain it, but there it was.

Nate jumped from the cab of the truck. He eyed Stan warily as he approached her. “Joanne.” He nodded at her then gestured to the Caddy. “What did you do to it? It worked fine this morning.”

She handed him the keys. “I don’t know what’s wrong. It won’t start.”

Nate took the keys from her and slid partway inside to try the ignition himself. Sure enough, it still didn’t start. He popped the hood and walked around to peer underneath.

Joanne was so intent on eyeing Nate’s finely shaped ass sticking out from under the hood that she failed to notice Stan moving toward her. He once again grabbed her by the upper arm and forced her around to face him.

“Who the hell is that?” he hissed. “Why do you have his number? And why were you with him this morning?”