2. Chapter 2
Chapter 2
Harrison “Joker” Bennett
What. The. Fuck. This is the dress she was going to get married in? I can’t help but glance over at my passenger as we drive out of the town limits and towards the mountains. I cringe, looking at her.
“You don’t have to be so disgusted by my presence,” Ginny says to the window, not turning in my direction.
“Why do you think I’m disgusted by your presence?”
“I can see your reflection in the mirror, Joker. I see you shrink back from me every time you look at me.”
“And you think—”
“That you’d rather be anywhere else but here with me? Yes.”
“Ginny—”
“You don’t have to come up with excuses. I know I’m no one’s dream girl, okay? It’s fine.”
“What are you—”
“You don’t have to keep trying to make me feel better. I said I was—”
I take my hand off the wheel and cover her mouth, returning the favor and cutting her off mid-sentence.
“Would you shut up?” I growl. “And let me finish a fucking thought before thinking you can read my god-damned mind?”
Her head whips around, her eyes wide as saucers. Almost like she’s afraid. Of me.
“Ginny,” I say, making my voice as gentle as I can. “I’m not shrinking back from you.”
“But I saw you,” she accuses me.
I smile. I can’t help it. “I promise, it’s not you. It’s that,” I chuckle, “monstrosity you have on.”
She buries her face in her hands, her shoulders shaking. Have I made her cry? I pull the truck over to the side of the road and put it in park.
“Ginny,” I say her name, but her shoulders continue and now she’s shaking her head at me. “Sweetheart. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you cry.”
From behind her hands, she mumbles something I can’t understand.
“What? Can you repeat that?”
She parts her hands enough to free her mouth, but her cheeks and eyes are still covered from my sight. “You’re the first one today. Not a single person other than you had the balls to tell me how horrible this fucking dress was.”
And with that, she lowers her hands, laughing. She wasn’t crying, she was laughing.
“You hate it, too?”
“Yes!” she exclaims, her hand flopping to her lap. “It’s so horrible. And I look so fat in it!”
“Stop,” I command. “What did I tell you? You do not look fat in that dress, but you look fucking uncomfortable and almost like you’re in pain, and honestly, the feathers are making me want to sneeze.”
The indelicate snort coming from Ginny makes my own shoulders shake with laughter.
“I am uncomfortable,” she finally admits, pulling the high neck ruffle away from her throat.
“Wait.” I reach over and stop her from letting go of the ruffle. “Are those…blisters?”
“I’m fine. I’ll take it off when we get wherever it is you’re taking me.” She waves away my concern.
“Fuck that. Do you care about this dress at all?”
“No,” she snorts again.
Without giving it much thought, I reach over and grip the ruffle around her neck, shredding the thick lace fabric in two as I wrench it away from her skin.
“Joker! What the hell?”
I nod at my handiwork. “Much better. Your throat can move now.”
“I can’t believe you just did that,” she mutters under her breath.
“I can’t believe you didn’t do that before I had the chance.”
“I didn’t want to ruin it, even if I do hate it.”
“I’m afraid I’m going to say something and really piss you off. Did you pick that dress?”
“Fuck no! Keith picked it out. Said it would cover up my business and hide my fat.”
I growl at that, but now that she’s talking, I want her to continue.
“I didn’t care. I just wanted to get it over with. So if this dress made him happy, so be it.”
“You just wanted to ‘get it over with’ ?”
“Pretty much. I never wanted the big wedding. I didn’t need a show or to be the center of everyone’s attention.”
This I knew about her. She hates being center-stage. Unless she’s playing her cello.
“Then why?”
“Because he wanted the show. He wanted to be seen. He wanted to be the star of the day.”
“And he thought putting you in feathers and ruffles and…fuck,” I reach out to a see-through swatch of fabric on her arm, “is that mesh?”
“Don’t forget the crinolines underneath the chiffon, crepe, and tulle fabrics.”
“Even those words make me want to recoil.” I cringe.
“And feathers.” She gives me a crazy-eyed look, plucking one of the offending things off her skirt.
“I don’t understand this at all.” I wave my hand over her dress.
“Imagine having to wear it. It’s miserable. How much longer until we get where we’re going?”
I clear my throat and nod, starting the truck back up and pulling onto the highway. “Just about twenty more minutes.”
“And still no hints?”
“Nope.”
“Damn.”
When we drive around a bend, brake lights stop us from any forward movement. Odd.
“Wonder what’s going on up there?” Ginny says, resting her head on her hand.
“Probably a wreck. That’s about the only thing that happens around here.”
We sit in silence while inching forward in the traffic. As we get closer to the vehicles involved in what looks like a hell of an accident, Ginny inhales a sharp breath.
“What?” I ask her, looking over to see her face pale and her eyes widen as she stares at the carnage on the side of the road.
“That looks just like Keith’s car.” She raises her hand and points.
I follow her stare and bite back a growl. It does look like his car, but I can’t be sure. I pull out my phone and pull up Davis’s number. He’s a close friend and Ginny’s brother. Before I can question it, I hit the call button.
“You have my sister?” he asks as soon as he answers.
“Hi!” Ginny calls from her side of the cab.
“Guess so,” he laughs. “Where are you taking her?”
“Somewhere safe. Somewhere close enough we’ll be there when Trish goes into labor.”
“Thank goodness. She was so happy Gin left but miserable at the thought she’d miss the birth. Keep her safe for me. She’s my sister.”
“No shit, dumbass. I know she’s your sister.” I bite back the other remark I want to make about defining safe. Because the things I wish I could do to her? He’d probably kill me for just thinking them.
“Now that we have that out of the way, what’s up?” Davis is a good guy. He knows things most of us don’t, and as much as I’ve seen in my life, he’s seen his own shit.
“Not that I care, but is the shithead there? Did he show up at the church?”
“Umm, can you take me off speaker?”
I look at Ginny, who rolls her eyes and flips off her brother, even if he can’t see, making me smile.
“Just tell us if he’s there, dork,” she yells across the cab. “Or if he might be laying on the side of the road in a crunched up car.”
“Crunched up car?”
“Looks like a wreck on the side of state road fourteen. Three cars, one looks like his,” I explain.
“Fuck.” He pulls the phone away from his ear and speaks to someone in the room with him. I hear voices but can’t make anything out. “He’s not here, and no one on his side has been able to reach him.”
“Oh, no,” Ginny gasps, covering her mouth with her hand. “We need to go back.”
“No!” Davis and I say at the same time.
“Yes! What if he’s hurt?”
“There were already emergency crews at the scene, Ginny. They won’t let us do anything, so we need to keep going.”
The glare she gives me should shrivel my balls, but this is Ginny Mills, so the opposite happens and my dick tries to stand up and wave.
“That was the man I promised to spend my life with, Harrison . Don’t you understand that?”
“What I understand, Virginia , is that I’ve watched that man treat you like shit for two years and you finally get the fucking courage to walk away from him and you want to run right back? Is that what you really fucking want? Because I’ll pull over right now and you can walk your ass back there and into his fucking arms.”
“Joker!” Davis barks through the phone. “Stop.”
I focus my eyes back on the road ahead and take a deep breath. I know I’m being that guy. That fucker who bulldozes his way into whatever he wants. I also know I have to stop or I’ll never have the chance to show Ginny I’m the one she should be with.
“I’m sorry,” I finally say, not looking at her. “That was rude and uncalled for, and if you really want to go back and make sure he’s okay, that’s what we’ll do. You just say the word.”
“I…no. Just get us where we’re going, please.” I hear her sniffle. I know I just royally fucked up, and I swear I’ll apologize for it again later, but at those words, I hit the gas.
“I’ll let you know what I find out,” Davis interrupts my thoughts. “Be in touch.”
I hit the end call button and toss the phone on the console between us. The rest of the ride is silent. I want to say something. I need to say something. But I can’t bring myself to do it. This. This shit right here? It’s why I’ve never allowed myself to get close to a woman. One-night stands, two if it was really great sex, but no attachment, no commitments. No worries about getting hurt or hurting someone else. But this woman? She’s been killing me slowly for two fucking years. Since the very first time I met her, I knew she was supposed to be mine.
I need for her to get on my level. And that’s not going to happen if I can’t keep my mouth shut. Funny thing is, everyone calls me Joker as a horrible twist of irony. I’m not the funny, good time guy. I’m the get shit done and put you in your place guy. The one who did what I had to do for as long as I could before I saw too much and damn near broke. Virginia Mills could be the death of me, but what a way to go.