Chapter Thirty-Three
Stone ~ One Month Later
Somewhere in New Mexico
The first thing I noticed about her was her scent.
The bar predominantly stunk of cigarettes and cheap whisky, so when the fresh scent of flowers and laundry hit me, I inhaled good and deep because it smelled clean, and God help me, I needed some clean in my soul.
Slowly, my head swiveled right, and the second thing I noticed was bright blue eyes dancing with mischief, and I knew, there and then, she was trouble with a capital damned T.
She popped a hip and jerked her thumb toward a table of giggling girls. “My friends and I made a bet. They say you’re from New Mexico, but I feel like you’re an out-of-towner, and my feelings are never wrong. I’ve told them you’re from somewhere further north, and ten bucks is riding on it. So, tell me, handsome, where are you from?”
That was when I noticed her voice, which was soft and husky. It put me in mind of Stevie Nicks, and the times she sang with a smooth, growly catch in her voice as she told us of past heartbreak.
Despite myself, I smiled.
My stare slid from her eyes to her friends, then back again. I dipped my chin. “You just won yourself ten bucks, sweetheart.”
She did a cute little shoulder shimmy before whirling back to her friends and singing, “I win, bitches.”
Groans and giggles went up, and for the first time in what seemed like forever, I threw my head back and laughed.
Her face lit up like the stars, her eyes dancing in the glow of the bar lights. “You have a splendiferous laugh.”
I choked back a chuckle. “Splendiferous?”
“Yeah,” she tossed her long, black hair, “splendiferous. Every day, I like to use an unusual word. Language is so beautiful, and some of the most splendiferous words aren’t used enough, don’t you think?”
Something inside me sparked, not back to life, but it sparked, nonetheless. “How old are you?” I asked.
She looked around and said loudly, “Twenty-one,” before leaning forward and whispering, “Twenty,” and shooting me an exaggerated wink.
“You’re a fuckin’ trip,” I announced.
She looked up, grinning. “Good. At least I’m interesting.”
“That you are, sweetheart,” I muttered, holding my hand out. “I’m John Stone.”
She grasped it, and I noticed how soft her hands were. My skin didn’t set fire, like it did when I touched Elise, but it was nice all the same.
“Nice to meet you, John Stone. I’m Adele. Adele Whitlock.”
I nodded to the stool next to me. “Wanna drink, Adele?”
Her gaze slashed to her friend’s table, and she shook her head. “Sorry. My friend Laurie’s getting married on Saturday. We’re doing a bar crawl in celebration of her last days of freedom. It was splendiferous of you to ask, but we’re heading out soon.”
Another chuckle bubbled up my throat, and I turned back to the beer on the bar in front of me. “No problem, Adele. Another time.”
Warmth hit my back as she brushed her fingertips across my shoulders. “Yeah, John Stone. Another time.”
The fading sound of heels against tile signaled her exit, and I hung my head, a smile still playing around my lips.
It was weird, but Adele was the first person I’d had a decent conversation with for weeks. In the last month, I’d only spoken to gas station attendants, waitresses, shopkeepers, and motel receptionists. I’d gotten on my old bike and left Hambleton in my rearview. I needed to heal, and I couldn’t do that in the same town as her and him. I rode over the border to Colorado and explored some towns and cities I always wanted to visit. Then, a few days ago, I rode over the border to New Mexico.
I knew I’d have to head back soon. Abe was doing a stand-up job with the club cleanup and organizing the work on the new warehouse, but somehow, I couldn’t seem to summon up the energy. Time had scabbed over the deepest wound, though I knew I wasn’t back to being me. Though I wondered if maybe I wasn’t meant to be me, without her. Perhaps after all the military bullshit and heartache, I was meant to be a different me.
With a sigh, I dug into my pocket for some notes when the scent enveloped me again: flowers and clean laundry.
“I’ve decided it’s a woman’s prerogative to change her mind,” a Stevie Nicks tone declared. “Is the invitation still good?”
A grin stole across my face. “Yeah, sweetheart. It’s all good.”
And for the first time in months, it was.
We talked about everything, and when the bar closed, we went to an all-night diner and talked some more.
Adele told me about her dad, who took off, leaving her, two brothers, and a mom who’d passed the year before. She smiled a lot, even when something wasn’t funny. It seemed that she just took joy in everything, and it was appealing to me. She had spirit and talked about kooky stuff like past lives, reincarnation, and karma.
I’d never met anyone like her before. Adele was a breath of fresh air and a salve to my cracked heart. Somewhere along the way, I found myself telling her about Elise and everything that happened, and can you believe it? She cried for me. This pretty, sweet, nutty, cute girl, who’d known me mere hours, joined me in my heartbreak, and suddenly, I didn’t feel quite so alone.
Things came out of my mouth that I hadn’t even told Abe and my dad. Details of my torture and how I was beaten, burned, and almost drowned as they tried to break me for information I didn’t have. Then I told her about the club, what happened before I left, and how I’d put Seth in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
“You were broken, John,” she whispered. “And that life can be savage. This Seth knew the first time what he did was wrong, so to do even worse to Elise when she was pregnant and scared, well, he must’ve known you’d lose your shit.”
“He’ll never walk again,” I croaked. “By my hand.”
“So, learn from it,” she implored. “Treat this as a lesson. Get help for all that anger.” She smiled. “My oldest brother has just got back from deployment in Kuwait. You could speak to him. Thankfully, he was safe and didn’t go through half of what you did, but he may understand more than you think.”
Covering her hand with mine, I rasped, “Thank you.”
“Anytime,” she replied softly.
I studied her bright eyes and fantastic hair. My gaze dropped to her tits and waist, which was slightly thicker than I was used to, but no less appealing. She was pretty, not beautiful like Leesy, but she had something about her like Elise, something pure.
Her presence gave me a kind of comfort that I hadn’t experienced since my mom last held me, and I knew I wanted more of it, if only for one night. It was wrong to wanna be with her in that way when I still loved Elise, but I needed to find comfort in something. I needed to hold a pretty, cute girl close and make her feel good while she did the same to me, or else, what did I go away and fight for?
And Elise didn’t want me.
I cleared my throat. “Can’t offer you much, Adele. I’ve got a heart in tatters and a dead soul. Got a fucked-up biker club and anger issues that make me see red. I’m not in a place where I can stick around and court you, so I can’t even offer you tomorrow, but I can offer you tonight, if you’ll have me.”
Her eyebrows drew together, and her stare searched mine for something. She must’ve found what she was looking for, because, after a few seconds, her pretty smile lit up her face, and she gave me one decisive nod.
“Let’s go.”
The Next Morning
I awoke to the blinding light of the New Mexico sunshine pouring through the hotel window. Laying there, I waited for the ache to hit my heart, and it did, but I realized it wasn’t as sharp as usual.
Turning onto my back, I flung my arms across my eyes and groaned, thinking back to how much I drank the night before.
Then I remembered.
Gut aching, I slowly turned my head to the pillow next to me to see nothing but a note lying there. I must’ve stared at it for a full five minutes, going over everything from the night before, or what I could recall, anyway.
Memories hit me, and it was when it began to hurt.
Fuck!
Jackknifing to a sitting position, I held my head in my hands and let out a groan. My chest filled with anguish, and my heart drummed against my ribs.
I’d fucked someone else, three damned times.
My head screamed at me to grow the fuck up. It wasn’t like Elise hadn’t done worse, except it didn’t matter. Two wrongs didn’t make a right, and not only that, I’d taken a sweet girl and used her as a rebound fuck in place of the woman I really wanted.
What I did wasn’t right. Adele deserved better than a man whose heart belonged to another. Jesus, she knew I’d been honest and told her everything, so what made her say yes?
That was when something hit me, and my cheeks flared with heat and embarrassment.
It was a pity fuck.
Jesus.
My eyes slid to the note, silently calling to me from the damned pillow. With another groan, I reached out and tagged it, then, rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I squinted in the morning sunshine and began to read.
Dear John,
Thank you for a beautiful night. I woke early and left because I knew you’d have recriminations this morning, and I didn’t want to be there to watch you beating yourself up.
John, what you’ve gone through is terrible. I won’t sugarcoat it, but running away won’t make things easier. You tried it, but you still hurt, and you still think, and you still remember.
You have to live, and maybe it won’t be the way you envisioned a year ago, but even with a broken heart, life can be beautiful, if you let it.
Your Elise is still there, still alive, and while that remains, there’s hope. Nobody knows the future or what awaits them. That’s why life’s such an adventure. We were there for each other; we didn’t hurt anybody, and we just took comfort wherever we could.
Yesterday was the anniversary of my mom’s death, and I want you to know you made a sad day one that now I’ll remember fondly.
I like to think our moms were somewhere bringing us together and looking out for us. Connie knew what you needed, and my mom, Suzie, did, too.
It’s not a stretch of the imagination. Think about it: I talk to beautiful strangers in bars. Where do you think I get my quirky personality? She probably saw us both in the same bar and badgered your mom to help her because she loved me, and I know she would’ve wanted a man like you to comfort me the way you did, exactly the way I needed it.
It doesn’t need to be anything more or less than what it was, a beautiful moment in time.
Thank you, John.
I had a splendiferous time with you.
Your friend, always.
Adele Whitlock.
My thudding heart began to calm.
Jesus, what a woman.
Suddenly, I wished she hadn’t gone. I wished she’d stayed and spoken the words in her letter with her Stevie Nicks voice and made me laugh. I wished I could’ve taken her for breakfast and walked around town, seeing the stores and the park.
But she was gone.
Reaching across the bed, I grabbed the phone and dialed zero for an outside line. Then, I dialed again and waited for the line to click as it connected.
I heard it start to ring, once, twice, before it was snatched up. “Hello?”
“Abe,” I rasped.
“John!” he exclaimed. “You okay? You sound like a man whose girl left him for the mayor’s son and gave birth to his devil sprog.”
“Abe!” I hear Iris chastise me in the background. “That’s terrible.”
He chuckled quietly. “Sorry. Too soon?”
“I slept with somebody last night,” I blurted out, heart beginning to hammer again.
“Aahh,” he said knowingly. “I’m assuming not much sleeping was involved.”
My gut sank. “Why do I feel like I cheated?”
He paused for a moment, then declared, “First time’s always the roughest. But know this, son. Last night, you didn’t cheat. Whatever the circumstances were behind Elise and Robert, she made a choice, and she’s sticking to it. Last night, you began to move on. Nobody can blame you for that.”
My eyes dropped to the note. “She was a nice girl, cute and pretty, and she made me laugh. Left me a fuckin’ note, thankin’ me. How nutty is that?”
“She sounds like a trip,” Abe murmured.
My mind went back to the night before when I told her the same thing, and I smiled. “Abe?”
“Yeah, Stone?”
“I’m leaving today. Gonna take a slow ride back up through Colorado. I’ll aim to be home next week.”
“Good,” Abe said softly. “Me and Rissy miss the bones of ya.”
“Miss you too,” I said huskily, before hanging up.
My fingers tremored slightly as I read Adele’s note one last time before folding it and putting it in my jeans pocket with a fond smile. She was right in what she said. It didn’t have to be more or less than a beautiful moment in time.
Except what I didn’t know then was that beautiful moments in time were all very well, but sometimes they carried equally beautiful consequences.