Return of the Jerk (Sweet Life in Seattle, Book 2) (15 page)

As soon as they turn onto the street where Road and Tori grew up, Blair hears music. Loud music. It isn’t until they’re closer she recognizes AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell.”

For someone who was never into heavy metal, she knows every single song. Of course, Tori loves heavy metal, but that’s not why Blair knows them all.

There are cars parked all along the street and the driveway is lined with motorcycles. It looks like the party’s been going for hours already. Of course, at the Church house, the party never really stops.

Road pulls the Honda beside the open garage onto a grassy area. Blair sees people standing out front on the porch with bottles in their hands, talking.

The house is a worn-down rambler, the last one on a dead-end street, surrounded by woods on two sides. Tori once told her how one of her mom’s boyfriends had set up a still out there, making illegal moonshine. Compared to her own family, the Church’s house seemed wildly exotic, and Blair sometimes felt like a foreign exchange student visiting Tori.

Blair always tells herself she would have been best friends with Tori no matter what, even if Road hadn’t been her brother, even if he hadn’t rocked her world that first day, because Tori was an amazing friend. But deep down, she can never be one hundred percent sure. Road’s allure was too powerful. She knows it’s one of the reasons she kept going back, lying to her parents, playing down the amount of partying that went on at that house, because if they’d known the truth, they never would have let her spend time there at all.

“Ready?”

Blair turns to find Road watching her. “I don’t see Tori’s van here. I hope she’s coming.”

He reaches for his door handle. “Wouldn’t worry about that. She’ll be here.” He swings the door open.

They both get out and walk toward the house together. It’s early evening, and the sun is starting to sink in the sky. Heads are turning their way.

Blair hears a loud shout then another as someone yells Road’s name. Suddenly, Kiki is running toward them.

Kiki throws herself onto Road as she squeals with delight. “You’re here!”

Blair smiles, watching the two of them. Kiki used to be pretty wild, but has toned it down quite a bit the past few years. Getting engaged seems to have helped calm her.

“Hey, freak!” Road laughs, hugging her back.

“Everybody’s been waiting for you!” Kiki tells him after she untangles herself.

“That right?” he asks with a grin.

“Yes!” She grabs his arm and pulls him toward the house. Kiki turns and waves enthusiastically at Blair. “Hey, Blair! I’m glad you came!”

More people are coming toward them and before she knows it, they’re surrounded by a crowd as they head toward the front door. People are shouting “Dude!” and “Roadster!” Some muscular guy with long, dark hair is hugging Road, and she sees it’s his cousin, Brody, who helped her with Isadora.

“‘Bout time you came back home, jackass!”

Road laughs. “Guess I missed being around a bunch of assholes!”

Everyone’s laughing and talking at once, and then Lori is there. People step aside to let her through.

Lori grins at Road. Her blonde hair is pulled up at the sides, teased into a frizzy halo around her aging beauty-queen face. “Waited long enough to come see me, didn’t you now?”

“Saving the best for last, is all.”

She laughs. “Come here, you!” The two of them hug each other as people around them whoop and holler.

Blair forces a smile, but already feels uncomfortable and wishes Road hadn’t talked her into coming. She isn’t good at parties, and these are the worst kind. Without Tori at her side, she’s just some weird, preppy chick who looks and feels like a square peg.

Mother and son pull apart. Standing next to each other, it’s easy to see their resemblance. Lori’s eyes are blue, though, not green. No one in Road’s family seemed to share his remarkable eye color, and she’d once asked Tori if her dad had green eyes, but Tori said she didn’t know.

“Blair!” Lori turns to her, smiling. “It’s so good to see you, honey. How have you been?” They hug each other and when they pull apart, Blair smells the alcohol on Lori’s breath. Lori’s eyes are bloodshot and, if Blair had to guess, she’d say Lori’s probably been drinking since this morning.

Garth, another worthless loser in a long line of the loser men Lori dated, is trying to talk to Road. Blair could never understand why Lori dated nothing but losers. Pictures of her pageant days proved she’d been a fresh-faced beauty, and even now she was still attractive. Although, all the partying had taken its toll, and there were deep lines etched around her eyes and mouth.

“I’m well, thank you,” Blair says politely. Despite everything, Blair likes Lori. Lori has always been kind to her and had shared in her sadness about what happened years ago.

“Tori should be back soon,” Lori tells her. “She had to leave and check in on one of her animals.”

Blair nods in relief then holds up the grocery bag. “I brought some food and wine. Should I put it in the kitchen?”

“That’d be wonderful, hon.”

Blair heads through the crowd of people. The house was built in the seventies and very little has been updated since then, so the kitchen still has avocado counters and chipped, white cabinets. Blair spent so much time here as a teenager it’s almost endearingly familiar. There’s already plenty of food laid out. She has to say one thing for Lori’s friends. They can cook. The food is always rich, with plenty of heavy pasta salads and fried or barbecued chicken, but it’s always delicious.

Blair dumps the chips in a big wooden bowl she finds in one of the cabinets and the salsa into a small soup bowl. She tries to arrange everything neatly on the table, cleaning up some of the mess people made, resisting the impulse to line things up perfectly.

She sticks the bottle of wine into a fridge that’s already stuffed with more food and bottles. Then she goes through it and throws out stuff that’s clearly gone bad.

Shifting things around, Blair notices a glass bowl of vodka gummy bears. She figures Tori brought them, since Tori likes whimsical stuff like this. She made vodka gummy worms for one of their girls’ nights a few months back. Blair picks out a gummy from the bowl and puts it into her mouth, rewarded with a burst of sweet alcohol.

“What’s that?”

Blair turns and is surprised to see Road standing behind her. She figured he’d still be out in the living room, hugging people and being affectionately called jackass by all his cousins.

“Vodka gummy bears. Tori’s doing, I’m sure.”

“Let me try one.”

Blair reaches into the bowl and picks out a green gummy bear to hand to Road. He ignores her hand, though.

“Pop it in my mouth.”

Blair hesitates. He leans in closer, opening his mouth for her, and she brings the gummy close to his lips and pushes it inside, her fingers brushing against him.

Road watches her with a mischievous grin, but when he starts to chew the gummy bear, his grin changes.

“Yuck!” He looks as offended as a kid who’s been fed a piece of broccoli by mistake. “Gross!”

Blair laughs, watching with amusement as he goes to the sink and spits out the vodka gummy bear. He keeps spitting a few times, trying to get the taste out of his mouth.

“Damn, that’s foul.”

She laughs some more. “I like them. I think they’re good.”

“You can’t be serious. Tastes like a piece of rubber soaked in alcohol.” He comes back to the fridge and searches inside, reaching for a bottle of pale ale. “Want a beer?”

“Sure, why not.”

He pulls two bottles out, twisting the cap off one before handing it over to her.

“There you are! I’ve been looking for you everywhere, handsome.” A woman about the same age as Blair is suddenly sliding up next to Road, hugging him. Her perfume’s so strong, it’s like standing in a cloud of gardenia scented bug spray.

“Hey there, Marla,” Road says, hugging her in return, and when Marla finally pulls away, Blair recognizes her. Marla was one of Road’s old Skank Factor X girlfriends. They’d dated for a little while after high school.

“What are you doing over here?” Marla asks, still staying close to Road. She puts a hand up and runs it possessively through his blond hair. “Lori told me you went out to your car to get something.”

“Yeah, had a few gifts for people.”

Marla smiles, and Blair notices with annoyance that she’s still gorgeous.

“I hope you got
me
something,” Marla says with a wicked grin. “Because I might have something for
you
,
too.”

Road takes a swig from his beer. “I’m just over here seeing what my wife is up to in the kitchen.”

“Your
wife
?” Marla’s scowls.

“Yeah, you remember Blair, don’t you?”

Marla turns toward her. Blair can see Marla’s light brown hair is tipped blonde on the ends. She’s wearing a lot of dark eye shadow with a line of shiny blue on the inside corners. It should look weird, but instead it looks great. Her white Harley Davidson tank top is tight and low-cut, with plenty of smooth, tan cleavage on display. She’s studying Blair with confusion, but then her confusion clears. “Oh, that,” is all she says before turning back to Road. Not even a hello to Blair.

Typical Skank Factor X behavior.

Marla stares down at Blair’s navy Keds with a superior smirk on her face. “You guys are still married?” she asks Road. “I thought that wasn’t for real.”

“Oh, it’s for real, all right,” he says.

Blair glares at him, but can see him pretending not to notice.

“Huh.” Marla takes this in. And then she smiles, puts her hand up to Road’s cheek and leans in, starts whispering something in his ear.

Blair watches the two of them, watches Road’s face as he chuckles over whatever Marla is telling him, and wishes she could strangle them both.

This was once her life. She remembers it so clearly now, remembers the constant acidic taste in her mouth as she watched Road with all these horrible women.

Not anymore, though. That’s over.

She turns to leave the kitchen, to escape, when suddenly she sees Tori headed her way.

Thank God.

“Blair!” Tori waves. She’s carrying a plastic container of food and comes over to put it on the counter.

By now, Marla has stopped whispering in Road’s ear and gives Tori a fake smile.

“Is that your black Escalade parked outside?” Tori asks her. “Because I think the headlights are on.”

“They are?” Marla’s face changes. “I’d better go check.” She turns to Road and tries to pull him along with her, but Lori has come into the kitchen telling Road he needs to go see the ‘Welcome Home’ cake they got him.

Once Marla’s gone, Tori lowers her voice, “God, she’s such a bitch. I hate her.”

“Were her car lights really on?”

“I don’t know.”

Blair laughs, and then wonders what happened to make Tori hate Marla so much. Tori can usually find the good in everyone.

“She’s been trying to take over Kiki’s entire wedding, constantly offering all this unsolicited advice. It’s driving everybody crazy.”

“Why would Marla be involved in the wedding?”

“She’s Austin’s older sister, and Kiki made her a bridesmaid.”

“I didn’t know that.” Austin is Kiki’s fiancé.

“Plus, I think she wants to get her hooks into Road.”

“What makes you say that?” Though, judging by the little show she just watched, Blair isn’t exactly surprised.

“Because she’s called me twice since she heard he was back in town, asking all sorts of questions about him. She’s going through an ugly divorce and is obviously looking for her next victim.”

“You don’t think Road would be interested in her again, do you?”

“I hope not.” But then Tori shakes her head. “No, he’s isn’t that dumb. Oh, that reminds me, I want to show you something.”

Blair follows Tori into the living room. There are people everywhere and the party appears to be in full swing. Without trying, she spots Road standing over by the large front window, her radar for him as highly tuned as ever. He’s surrounded by a group of guys, most of them muscular and covered with tattoos. They’re drinking beer and laughing with each other. She recognizes a few of them as his cousins. Brody sees her and waves. Blair waves back. A couple of women are there—including Marla, who’s eyeing Road like a spider lining up its next meal.

“Here it is,” Tori says. After searching through a pile of magazines on the coffee table, she finally finds what she’s looking for. Tori holds up a copy of
The Literary Voice
. “You have to read this.”

“Why?” Blair takes the magazine from her. She puts the beer to her lips for another sip.

“There’s an excerpt from Road’s book in it.”

“What?” Blair almost chokes on her beer. She stares at the magazine Tori just handed her.

Tori nods. “It’s really good. I want you to read it.”

Blair’s mind turns to chaos. She’s still staring at the magazine cover. “How did he manage this?”

“I don’t know. I think it was his media rep’s idea to submit it.”

“What
?
” Blair holds the magazine as if it contains a venomous snake. “Road has a media rep?”

Tori laughs at Blair’s reaction. “She approached him after his book started selling so well.”

Blair’s eyes flash over to Road, who’s nodding, engrossed in some conversation.

A beeping noise starts coming from Tori’s purse and she reaches inside to grab her phone, turning the beeping off. “I have to go check on a cat I’m watching tonight.”

“Do you want me to come with you?” Tori works at a vet’s office part-time.

“No, that’s okay. She had surgery on her paw, and I’m just keeping an eye on her dressing. I’ll be right back. Read that article. Seriously.”

Blair looks down at the magazine in her hand.

“Oh, and I made vodka gummy bears! They’re in the fridge.”

After Tori leaves, Blair takes the magazine and her beer over to a corner chair. Judas Priest’s album
British Steel
is blasting on the stereo, and if it’s weird that she’s sitting in the corner reading a magazine at a crowded biker party, nobody seems to notice or care.