Young Buck: A Slow Burn Small Town Romance (Green Valley Heroes Book 5)

Chapter 18

“Buck. Get in the car.”

Dan stood three feet away, his arms crossed in front of him like a bouncer. His body blocked me from Louie, who stood behind him, writhing in his friends’ grasps and talking shit. Next to Dan was Grizz, who stood in a similar stance. Both men were wise to keep their distance. I wasn’t the kind of man to go looking for a fight. But when the fight got in me, Lord help anyone who crossed my path.

“He’s got it coming.” My jaw was clenched. Tightening every muscle in my body felt like the only way to contain my anger.

“Yeah, he’s got it coming,” said Grizz. “But the one to give it to him isn’t gonna be you. Off duty or not, you’re still his lieutenant.”

Grizz punctuated his statement by handing me back my keys, minus the key he’d just taken to my car. After two hours at Genie’s, none of us were in any condition to drive. But Grizz’s nephew worked at the place. We’d already worked out that said nephew would return my car to my house after my shift. We’d also worked out that I’d be paying the tab for Loretta and her friend.

“Go cool off,” Dan concurred. “Walking away doesn’t mean you’re letting it go. But right now, the two of you cannot be in the same place.”

Dan stepped toward the ride-share car that sat waiting at the curb, opened the door, and waited until I got in. Twenty minutes later, I was giving the punching bag in my garage the beating Louie sorely deserved. Hazing me was one thing, but now he’d gone too far.

Why don’t you pat me down, Black beauty?

I’d nearly pummeled him right then, as he’d undressed her with his beady little eyes. It had been lewd and clearly unwelcome. But the worst of it hadn’t even been the way his comments had forced me into seeing his filthy thoughts. The worst part had been the look on her face. She’d seemed horrified and embarrassed and ten other things she didn’t deserve while minding her own business at the bar. I felt the overpowering need to see her, to check on her personally and know she was okay.

Don’t go over there. You’re drunk.

I had the presence of mind to know this was absurd. I’d just left the bar. She wouldn’t even be home. And I didn’t even know what I would say. But an hour later—after I’d showered and fixed something to eat, and pretended I was remotely interested in a television documentary—I was still restless to seeher.

“Fuck it.” I pulled myself off the couch, walking to my front door and slipping on a pair of slides. I had on sweatpants and a T-shirt. The night air was humid and a little warm. Not wanting to lock myself out, I left my door open a crack.

I turned toward her house to find the porch light off and some inside lights on—lights that had been dark when I’d returned from the bar. Loretta was definitely home.

“Buck.”

Her soft, pretty voice sounded as surprised as her face looked. She hadn’t expected me to come tonight, and certainly not at this hour.

“Loretta.”

She looked better without her makeup on, all fresh-faced and glowing. She even smelled nice in a way I’d been too livid to notice before. She’d taken off the dress from earlier, which had been ten kinds of sexy. But she was a different kind of sexy in her robe.

“I’m sorry to show up like this. I wanted to apologize. And to make sure you’re really okay.”

I searched her expression for clues. The Loretta I was used to seeing was strong and in control. There was something vulnerable in the way she was now.

“I only had to deal with him for half a minute. I’m guessing you get that every day. Sounds like they’re really giving you the business about the Taser.”

She wasn’t wrong. But the reality of my own situation didn’t make anything that had happened to her right.

“There’s no excuse for what he said to you. I’m only sorry I didn’t get there sooner. I could have spared you a few more seconds of his shit.”

Loretta fidgeted with her fingers and looked like she didn’t know what to say. I wondered whether I’d made her uncomfortable. I wasn’t some testosterone-fueled guy who popped off every time I got mad. I could hold my own when I needed to, but I’d never been like I was tonight. Then again, no woman had ever made me feel like Loretta did.

“I hope you don’t think less of me based on what you had to see. I didn’t like him being crass. I didn’t like the way he was looking at you.”

I watched carefully for her reaction. It was the closest I’d come to telling her I liked her. Some part of me wanted her to know. The drunk part of me, apparently.

“Occupational hazard, I guess,” she said with a small smile. “You’re trained in rescuing people for a living. I’m trained in handling drunk guys at bars. You didn’t have to pay for our drinks.”

“Loretta.” I lowered my voice. “I’ll buy you drinks any time you want.”

You need to go home. You’re drunk.

“Anyway...” I raised my hand to run over the back of my neck, a nervous gesture I made when things were awkward. It was time to go back home and likely regret that I’d come.

“Buck!” She snatched my arm before I knew what was happening, then splayed out my callused hand until it sat on top of her small, soft palm.

“Your hand—” She stopped short, sounding and looking distressed at the sight of my bruised knuckles.

“Did you?—”

“No,” I cut her off before her mind went there. “I didn’t harm a hair on his ugly blond head. This was just the punching bag and me.”

“You need ice,” Loretta commanded. “Just let me get you some.”

A minute earlier, she’d accused me of having a hero complex. I wondered how she explained her own tender caring about my small hurt.

She began to tug gently, pulling me into her house. But I couldn’t be trusted in the situation she proposed. Me with no filter and a fierce desire to show her exactly what a real kiss was. Her doting on me, and looking juicy in that robe.

“It’s alright. I have ice at home. And I can’t intrude upon you any longer. I’ll let you get back to your night.”

I heldthe steering wheel with my left hand as I drove up Lookout Mountain. The skin was still raw on my punching hand. Taking a cold shower after seeing Loretta hadn’t been quite the same as putting on ice. She was attracted to me, and I was attracted to her. Somehow, acting like a Neanderthal hadn’t screwed that up. The only thing left to do with our attraction was to act. I’d made the right decision, not going into her house last night. Now I needed an occasion to kiss her for real, when neither of us was drunk.

I considered it further encouragement that she had brought me salve. She’d left it in a tiny metal tin by my door. It had come with a pretty note that simply said, For your hand. It was smooth and cloudy in color. It smelled zesty and herbaceous and I knew that she had made it herself.

I wouldn’t have minded staying in Green Valley, reading the day away in my backyard, and accidentally-on-purpose running into Loretta. It beat the spy mission I was about to go on. But I’d promised my momma that I’d be better about coming home. And Hinckley had served as proof of how much I didn’t know.

“I hoped I’d see you here.”

Walking into the game room of my parents’ estate, I found Trevor by the bar, a grand affair that stretched long across the back of the room. Light filtered in from windows on both sides of a central floor space that fanned out like a baseball diamond. The television was home base. The sofa encircled it, hitting the other three. Foosball and air hockey tables and seated Pac-Man were in the outfield.

“You hoped?”

He said it in his signature tone—too jovial to be biting, too sarcastic to be sincere. Never showing what he was thinking was the only trait Trevor possessed that predicted future success as a politician.

“You want a drink?”

He didn’t wait for my response, only kept pouring from a hard liquor bottle at one p.m. on a Thursday. Such was life when you didn’t have a real job. I wondered when it would dawn on him that winning a seat in the General Assembly would mean he actually had to work.

“Naw, man. I had too much last night.”

Trev finished whatever he was fixing and gave a little laugh, walking barefoot around the bar.

“I still don’t know why you got transferred out of the sticks just to end up in Green Valley. Ain’t too much more going on down there. You know Dad could’ve got you something anywhere you want.”

I started to remind him that I could make my own way, but stopped myself just in time. Saying it plainly would only raise his hackles. So I stayed quiet as he made his way to the couch, set down his drink, and picked up a game controller. His mind half-occupied with gaming made this an ideal moment to pump him for information. He’d only ever been able to give his full attention to one thing at a time.

“How’s the election going?”

“We’ve gotta unseat the incumbent.” Trevor unpaused his game and glued his eyes to the screen.

“What’s the guy’s record?”

“He’s well-liked. It’s not an ideal time for breaking in.”

“So I guess you’ve been on the trails, shaking hands and kissing babies?” I asked it with a smirk. Trevor did not have a way with children. His botched attempts at tickles and funny faces usually made infants cry.

He looked up from his game long enough to shake his head in mock reproach, and then his eyes were back on the screen. He took his time shooting at something before giving a response.

“I’m not too worried. Dad knows how to run an election. We’ve got this one in the bag.”

I sank into one of the sofa seats. “So what’s your platform?”

Trevor snorted. “To win.”

“Surely you’re committed to enriching the lives of the good people of your district,” I baited with more lightness than I felt.

“Sure I am. For a couple of years. Don’t know how much time I’ll really spend there once I start campaigning for a House seat.”

I frowned. Being a general assemblyperson was a serious thing. Trevor’s decisions would impact business owners, and homeowners, and renters from both groups. They would impact a lot of agencies, from housing and social services to police and fire. I always got the sense that our differences bothered me a lot more than they bothered him. We loved each other but there was a minefield of things dividing us.

“How’s Momma doing with all of it?”

When our father had reached his term limit as governor, ending his political career, he’d gone through a depression. But our mother had been relieved.

“Spending time in her music room. Playing her old guitar. She’s here for all the big things, but she’s been getting away some.”

My ears perked up. “Where’s she been going?”

He shrugged. “Away from Dad.”

No matter how they made it look for their adoring public, things between my parents were fraught. My dad’s return to politics via Trevor was creating exactly the sorts of conditions that would bring up old grievances.

“You heard them fighting about anything?”

Trevor shook his head. “Naw. I think she just needs a break.”

But I wasn’t so sure.

“Be easy on her, alright? She works harder than anyone in this family.”

Trevor put up his hands in a universal sign for peace. “Alright, I’ll make sure. I’ve been trying to get her focused on the wedding.”

There was another question I’d wanted to ask.

“You and Prissy have had quite the whirlwind romance. You didn’t happen to get her pregnant, then fool everyone at Fourth of July with fake champagne?”

Trev had enough of a sense of humor to appreciate the joke.

“Prissy is a good woman and the timing’s right, just like with Mom and Dad.”

Trevor was the second person to say that exact thing using that exact phrasing. It made me wonder what I’d missed all my life.

“The timing was right for Mom and Dad? What does that mean?”

“Well, Mom was pretty destitute when she met him. He kind of...rescued her.”

But, to me, it had never sounded so dire, or so transactional. “If they weren’t in love, what was in it for Dad?”

Trevor chuckled again. “Now, keep your pants on. I never said they weren’t in love. I just mean both of them had reasons. Mom needed security and someone with connections. Dad needed someone who was charming, someone who understood his ambition. The timing was right for both of them.”

I didn’t say what had been bothering me since my conversation with my mom. If it really had been all about mutual benefit, what had happened to her singing career?

“Speaking of timing, I’ve been wanting to ask you something,” Trevor continued.

He pressed pause on his controller, then took a hefty swallow of his drink.

“The wedding. We’re pulling together details. You’ll be a groomsman, right?”

Trev and I weren’t exactly friends, but he was my only brother. We had a complicated relationship—one I genuinely wished was better. Putting my angst over my mother aside for a minute, I threw Trevor a smile before I answered.

“Sure.”