OVERTIME (31 page)

“I’m positive they left promptly at nine just like it was scheduled. I was thinking,” he grinned, “because you know, I’ve had plenty of time to think while I’ve waited on you to sleep off your orgasm, that maybe we could head down to Duck Key and swim with the dolphins. How does that sound? Fun? Kind of fun? Boring as hell?

Jagger’s eyes lit up. “Hell, yeah! Swimming with dolphins sounds awesome! Will we be back around the same time? I’m not sure when Colton is going to be home but I’d like to be here when he shows back up. He’s meeting with some bankers in town so he probably won’t be too late.”

“Dear Lord; you are already such a pussy. Who would have ever thought it?” Riley answered with fake exasperation. “I’ll have you back in plenty of time. I promise.” He grinned.
“Even if I know how much it would piss Colton off to keep you out late, him not knowing where in the hell you are, I won’t do it.”

“How much will this cost?” Jagger asked, suddenly worried. He was sure he had plenty of money in his account since he never withdrew a dime once it went into the bank, but he didn’t usually waste money on things to make him happy. It felt weird. Scary. Good. Scary good.

“Not a dime, number twenty-four. I’ve got friends in dolphin places. They’ll sneak us in for free.” He wrapped an arm around Jagger’s neck and started tugging him toward the boat’s exit.

Jagger snaked away. “Hey, no-touching rule!” He squeaked and was thankful Riley’s hands quickly made a disappearing act.

“Colton’s had his chance. Now let
me
show you a good Key’s time!”

****

Almost an hour later, they were in Marathon and Riley assured him they were only about fifteen minutes away from the dolphins. He couldn’t believe how excited he was. Dolphins. Swimming with the dolphins. Jagger Jameson was going to swim with dolphins…with a friend…and then he was going home to someone who loved him.

It was unbelievable how quickly his life had turned around. A month ago, he was lost—he might not have realized it, but he had been lost. His life had been nothing more than a lonely existence. No friends. No fun. No love. A plan—but nothing the fuck else.

Now, he was beginning to think he might have it all.

“What the fuck?” Riley suddenly whispered under his breath.

“What? What’s up?” Jagger whipped his head around to see Riley’s face twisted with a confused frown.

“Nothing,” Riley muttered the lie quickly, but not before Jagger saw what had caused his friend to turn the ugly shade of green coloring his face at the moment.

Stopped at a red light three cars in front of them was Colton’s small car. The blinker was on, signaling they were turning into the airport. Jagger could see Rory’s arm hanging outside the window, tapping to some sort of music that didn’t have one fucking thing to do with banker
business in Key West. Bile rose straight up into Jagger’s mouth. He should have known. He should have fucking known.

“I’m sure it’s nothing, Jagger. They had a business meeting, right? They’re probably picking up some suits at the airport. No worries.”

No worries, his ass
. Riley sure the hell looked worried. Every nerve and hope for the future in Jagger
felt
worried. Yeah, worry was on the horizon, barreling down at him at a knock-your-ass-over speed.

“Can you get over?” Jagger asked quietly, resolve that he was being fucked over already settling over him. He didn’t want to believe it. Parts of him wanted to give Colton the benefit of the doubt but those parts were so tiny and insignificant that he knew there would be no way for them to win this battle. His history wouldn’t allow that. His mind would naturally settle on the most horrific scenario and stay entrenched there, ruining any hope he might have had at happiness or normalcy.

“Why? Get over where?” The light turned green. “I told you I’m sure it is no big deal, Jag. Let’s just go swim with the dolphins and you can ask Colton about it this evening when you guys are back in bed together, doing that
smoochy
shit you were doing this morning. You know? The stuff that caused you to be late for something for the first time in your life?”

Riley was desperate. Pathetic, worried desperation oozed from his every pore. His eyes pleaded with Jagger to let it go. At the same time, however, fury brewed and swirled in his eyes. He was clearly just as suspicious as Jagger was.

He couldn’t let it go, couldn’t trust anyone. He had to see it with his own eyes. He didn’t want Colton to be able to lie his way out of it.

“Pull into the fucking airport and don’t you fucking dare let them see us,” he hissed between gritted teeth. As Colton and Rory made their right turn into the airport, he could see Colton toss his head back and laugh. He’d said the meeting was in Key West. They weren’t in Key West. He strongly suspected they weren’t meeting bankers here, either. Why lie?

I’ll come back for you, Jagger. Be a good little boy for me
. His mother’s voice taunted him. They all lied. They all left.

The person behind them honked and they bumped heads as they both ducked down to hide, afraid the honking might cause Colton or Rory to look back. “That fucking hurt!” Riley
growled. “I’m going to drive down the road and come back. I think we’re making a mistake. I want to go on the record telling you that, Jag.”

“Noted. Now, hurry the fuck up.” Jagger swiveled his head as they passed the airport. “If they get in there, we may never find them.”

Riley rolled his eyes. “It’s a tiny airport. We’ll find them.”

They found them.

Chapter 17

“A family? He has a fucking family?” Jagger whispered. Inside the car was deathly quiet. Jagger dying from the pain of having his heart ripped out and Riley seething with fury. There were voices around them, people chatting and laughing like Jagger’s world was literally crumbling and dissolving, but even they sounded far away, like they were in a deep hole somewhere. He could barely make out any words, just a weird, far-away sound, mocking his attempt at being happy. “He has a family, Riley. He has a fucking son!”

“Maybe it’s his sister and her kid,” Riley countered desperately.

“No sister,” Jagger answered softly. “He’s an only child.”

They’d parked a safe twenty yards away from where Rory and Colton stood in the airport parking lot and waited for whoever they were going to meet. Jagger could see them clearly, see Colton laughing as he glanced around, watching and waiting. For twenty minutes, they’d just sat there in silence, watching Colton and Rory, praying Jagger was wrong. Knowing he wasn’t. He supposed the biggest shock in this entire shit-show was that he was actually fucking surprised. So he’d sat…waited…prayed. Then he’d been disappointed beyond anything he could have possibly comprehended. A young woman, maybe a few years older than Colton had started in their direction. There had been a huge smile on her face and a young boy holding her hand. Jagger’s breath had caught in his throat when the woman had wrapped first Colton and then Rory in a tight, familiar hug. When the little boy with dark black hair that looked the exact same shade as Colton’s had puttered up to Colton and hugged his leg, Jagger’s heart had simply shattered into a million pieces.

“Fuck, Jag…I didn’t…I didn’t have a clue. I’ve never heard of Colton hooking up with a chick, much less having a kid. Never. Holy shit. What do you want to do?”

He wanted to cut himself. He wanted to run. He wanted to hide. He wanted to die.

There had to be something wrong with him—nobody stayed. Nobody loved. He tried to mold himself into a normal college student, someone that didn’t stand out and didn’t draw attention. He’d tried to laugh at the appropriate times. He’d tried to study hard and turn himself
into something other than a Jameson. He’d tried to fuck enough girls to appear normal, even when only thoughts of Colton’s words had kept him hard. He’d let Colton
touch
him.

He tried to scurry around and gather up the shards of ice that Colton had started melting and pack them back around his heart. In his mind, he couldn’t gather them up fast enough. The ice wall was collapsing and the pain was palpable. He’d survived his mother abandoning him. He’d survived abuse at the hands of his father straight up until the day he’d left for college. He’d hidden behind fake Jagger for four years. Ice had protected him, kept him from feeling anything, and now it was gone, melting away faster than he could scoop the cold water up.

Like the little boy that had finally accepted his mother wasn’t coming back, he gathered what was left of his pride and forced a blank look on his face. Riley belonged in this world. He wasn’t blind—he’d seen what was going on between Riley and Rory. He didn’t want Riley to see how badly he was hurt. He didn’t want to do anything to come between Rory and the life he could build here.

“It’s no biggie. Let’s just wait for them to leave and then I’ll catch a flight back home.” He looked over at Riley and offered a weak smile. His fucking vision was blurred. “Maybe you can ship my computer and stuff to me?”

Riley opened his mouth. Shut his mouth. Took a huge breath. Released a string of curse words. Opened his mouth. Shut his mouth.

“I’ll kick his ass, Jag. I promise I will kick his ass.” He finally spat out.

“No need for that shit, Riley. It is what it is. I was stupid for thinking it might be more. Hell, it’s not like we could fall in love in three days, right?” He tried to laugh but he was pretty sure it came out as a sob. The tears, thankfully, didn’t fall though. He hadn’t cried actual tears in years, but since coming to Key West, Colton’s world, he’d done nothing but tear up, over and over, again and again. Fucking weak, sniveling, useless brat, that’s all he was and all he would ever be. He’d heard it often enough and should have believed it. The very fact that tears could pool in his eyes right now was a huge testament to just how weak Colton had made him. Fuck that. It wouldn’t happen. He could fix this.

In front of them, a black limousine pulled up next to Colton and Rory. Rory shook Colton’s hand, hugged the frail woman, and tugged at the little boy’s curls before he turned away and started heading back toward Colton’s compact car. Colton and his family climbed into the limousine and it slowly pulled away from the airport. Jagger couldn’t help but think that had he
still been rich-guy profiling Colton, this scene would have fit it perfectly. He started laughing. It wasn’t a chuckle. It wasn’t a normal laugh. Nope - it was more like Disney villain laugh that clearly demonstrated he was about two seconds away from losing his shit in front of Riley. He reached for the door handle. When he lost it,
really
lost it, he wanted to be alone. Alone was his thing. It was what he did—what he would always do.

“Oh hell no,” Riley snapped as he reached across the car and yanked the door shut before Jagger had managed to open more than a couple of inches. “Colton started this shit, but we are going to fucking finish it.” He was practically snarling. “Put your fucking seat belt on, Jag.”

Before Jagger could argue, Riley slammed the car into gear and tires started squealing. He zoomed through the parking lot at a dangerous rate of speed, honking at folks that dared to accidentally get in his way. So caught up in his fury, he barely registered that Rory had stepped in front of their vehicle in time to stop before he flattened his current love-interest. When he finally did stop, Rory’s hands slammed down on the hood of the car. His face blazed with fury. Didn’t matter; Riley’s fury was just as dangerous.

“What the holy fuck are you two doing here?” Rory roared. He took three steps and yanked Riley’s door open, reached in and pulled out the keys. “What the fuck?” He ranted again, like fuck was the only word powerful enough to display his outrage. Jagger couldn’t have agreed more. He wanted to scream and rant, too. He wanted to punch Rory in his fucking face for feeding him all the bullshit in his kitchen, knowing not one word was even borderline truth. He wanted to cut a deep fucking line on the inside of his thigh until a crimson path decorated him prettier than the fucking Christmas tree he never got to put up when he was a kid. He wanted to demand to know how both of them could find such joy in using somebody, toying with their emotions, and then tossing them aside.

However, he just sat there. Silent—wanting a life he could never have.

“Exactly, Rory. What. The. Fuck?” Riley demanded. His teeth were clenched so tightly his jaw might crumble at any moment. His hand fisted the steering wheel so tight that Jagger wouldn’t have been the least bit surprised if it snapped in two. Riley’s friendship, steady and true, was the only bright spot in his life…and he knew he’d have to let that go, too. There was no way he could be friends with Riley and Riley be friends with his Key West group.

“Why aren’t you two on the Dry Tortuga cruise right about now? I’m pretty sure that’s exactly where Colton scheduled his Wildcat to be and yet you have him right fucking here,
spying on something and clearly drawing the wrong fucking conclusion.” He leaned in so close that Riley’s head slammed against the head rest to avoid their noses slamming into each other. “I’ll deal with you later,” he whispered into Riley’s ear.

Jagger would have found Riley’s blush adorably cute if he hadn’t been so fucked-up on the inside. He glanced away from them, hating they had each other and hating that he hated they had each other. They were starting to draw a crowd of
lookie-loos around them—people looking but trying to look like they weren’t looking.