Shine (Kentucky Outlaw Book 1) (9 page)

When they both had their fill of alcohol and catching up, Ethan drove Jess home.
 
Jess lived in a plain apartment building not far from the bar, sandwiched between a pawnshop and a dingy looking convenience store.
 
Somewhere along the way they both realized what was going to happen, so they didn’t have to talk about it.
 
She told him to be quiet as they entered the small, dark, apartment.
 

She didn’t say a word until they were in her bedroom with the door shut.
 
She turned to Ethan and said, “It’s been a while, so don’t be gentle.”

She surprised Ethan by pushing him down on the bed and going straight for his belt.
 
She had it undone and his pants down in seconds.
 
She took him in her mouth and he laid his head back on the pillow and let her work him.
 
He tossed his shirt off then he grabbed her and brought her up to his mouth.
 
As they kissed he wriggled a hand inside her pants.
 
Ethan pushed one of his fingers inside her, moving his hand back and forth.
 
In the back of his head he found it all amusing, since this was exactly how they had got started with each other in the beginning, teasing each other, testing their limits but waiting to go all the way.
 

When he worked her up enough she begged him to take her pants off.
 
Naked from the waist down, she wrapped her arms around him and whispered in his ear, “Hold me down.”

Ethan pushed her onto the bed and lifted up her shirt to expose her large breasts, then held her shoulders down, keeping her pinned to the bed.
 
Jess put her mouth on his ear and said, “Take me.”

He spread her legs and entered her, thrusting hard against her.
 
They groped blindly, desperately against each other, as if they were the last passengers on a sinking ship.
 
She wrapped her legs around him and Ethan lifted up, taking her a few inches above the bed with him, then slamming her back into the bed as she tightened against him.
 

Ethan felt the coming rush of his orgasm and knew there was no way he was going to be able to keep it down.
 
He thrust into her faster and she moaned his name loudly.
 
He came hard, clutching her tight, his voice barely more than a low growl.
 
She moaned loudly as her own climax took hold of her.

They stayed joined, breathing hard until Jess rolled away and rested her head on the pillow.
 
“Holy shit.
 
You have no idea how much I needed that.
 
Like I said, it’s been a while.
 
Same for you?”

He thought about lying to protect her feelings, then thought there was no reason to do that.
 
“No.
 
I was with someone not too long ago.”

She reached into the bedside drawer, fished a joint out, and lit it up.
 
“Breaking hearts all over the country, huh?”

She offered him a hit, but he declined.
 
“Nothing like that.
 
Just two people trying to fill a void.”

They lay in the dark, both of them avoiding the strange awkwardness that comes when sex has finished but neither one has much to say to the other.
 

There was a knock at the door and a small voice said, “Mommy.
 
Mommy are you there?”

Jess shot upright and leapt from the bed.
 
She grabbed a robe and pulled it tight around her.
 
She opened the door enough so she could get out, making sure Ethan couldn’t be seen.
 
Through the door Ethan heard Jess say, “Hi honey.
 
Did you have a bad dream?
 
Come on, let’s get you back into bed.”

Ethan knew what was coming next and considered getting his clothes on, but waited until she came back and told him to leave.
 
It was ten minutes before Jess reentered the room.
 
She quietly came back into the room and sat on the edge of the bed, keeping her robe on.

“Hey,” she said.

“Hey,” Ethan said back.
 
“So you’re a mom.”

“Yeah, I am.
 
Don’t worry though.
 
His father left about a year ago.
 
No one’s going to show up and start anything.”

“I wasn’t worried.
 
I know you’re not that kind of person.
 
I wish you had told me though.”

“Would you’ve still come back with me if I did?”

“Yeah,” said Ethan, not knowing if he was telling the truth or not.
 
“You want me to leave?”

“It’s for the best,” she said.
 
“It would be too confusing if you were here in the morning.”

Ethan nodded and got up, finding his clothes in the dark.
 
Jess kept her robe on and when he was dressed she walked him to the front door.
 
She gave him a little kiss goodnight, but it was far from romantic.
 
It was her way of telling him there was no reason to call or pretend they had any kind of future together.
 
Back at the car, the engine growled to life.
 
Ethan backed out of the parking spot and turned to wave, but Jess had already shut the door.

Driving back to Zeke’s house, Ethan’s mood turned dark.
 
The time he’d spent with Carol Lynn had made him feel good, if also a little lonely, but the sex with Jess had just made him despondent and resentful.
 
It was just a matter of the players involved.
 
He cared for Carol Lynn, they were friends and wanted each other to do well in life even if they didn’t have a future together.
 
Jess, on the other hand, was basically just a stranger he’d picked up in a bar.
 
He’d known her in high school, but they had no sense about each other now.
 
He hadn’t even known she had a kid, and if she cared for him at all it would’ve come up long before they jumped into bed together.

Driving down the dark Kentucky roads, Ethan felt lost and alone.
 
For the first time in a very long while he desperately wanted a home, some place he could return to, a refuge from the cold world, but he had no idea where that might be.
 
It wasn’t Zeke’s house, it wasn’t with Carol Lynn, and it sure as hell wasn’t with Jess Bowman.
 
He pulled into the driveway and stared at his father’s house, big, dark, and silent in the night.
 
Hell, maybe there wasn’t a home anywhere.

Julie was almost out the door the next morning when her sister called out her name.

“Julie Mae, come on back.”

Julie had sat outside that bar for two hours the previous night.
 
Kenny Salo had come back out, stumbling even more than earlier, with his arm around a large woman Julie didn’t know, but guessed was a prostitute.
 
She had decided following Kenny more and watching whatever he was about to pay that woman to do wouldn’t help her solve Nicky’s murder, so she drove on home.
 
It was late when she got back, and she was thankful everyone had been asleep.

Now, Madison, Julie’s sister, was sitting on the couch in the front room with a book in her hand.
 
Julie wondered if she had actually been reading or if she had just been sitting in the front room so she could catch Julie before she left.

“Let’s make this quick.
 
I got some place to be,” said Julie.
 

Madison fixed a smile on her face and said, “It’s Saturday.
 
You don’t work on Saturday, so come sit for a spell.”

Julie reluctantly sat next to her sister, noticing that she was wearing her riding clothes.
 

“I was thinking we could do some riding today.
 
It’s been a long time since you’ve been out and I think it would do you some good.
 
You can clear your head, and we can talk a bit.”

“No,” said Julie curtly, but caught herself quickly.
 
“Thank you.
 
Really Madison, I appreciate the offer, but I’m not interested in riding anymore.”

“Then you name the activity.
 
Seriously, anything you want to do and we’ll do it.
 
I just want to spend some time with my little sister.”

Julie almost said something about the little sister comment.
 
While technically true, Madison was only a year older than Julie.
 
She wanted to come up with some excuse but gave in.
 
“Sure.
 
Let’s do something.”

Madison’s face lit up, “Great.
 
What do you want to do?”

Julie smiled at her sister and said, “I have the perfect idea.”

***

“This isn’t what I had in mind,” said Madison.

“You wanted to do something with horses, so here we are.”

The bell clanged loudly and the gates opened.
 
Ten horses shot out and quickly made their way around the dirt track.
 
Julie yelled loudly for Roadshot to hurry up.
 
This was the second race of the day at Fernland Racetrack.
 
They had missed the first race because Madison had taken forty-five minutes to get out of her equestrian gear and into a tight pair of designer jeans.

Roadshot got in good place behind the lead horse and after they came around the last bend the jockey stood up and used the riding crop against the animal with fervor.
 
The horse came into the lead a whole two seconds in the lead.
 
Julie yelled out in excitement.

“Oh my God, you actually won,” said Madison.
 

Julie looked at her ticket and said, “That’ll pay for a new set of tires.”

Madison rolled her eyes.
 
“Yes, make sure you get the nicest tires for that dirty junker you insist on driving.
 
Sister, please let Daddy get you a new car.
 
The Mercedes SUVs are very nice.”

Madison hated Julie’s car, even hated parking her car next to Julie’s in the driveway.
 
She hated it so much that she had insisted on driving to the racetrack rather than sit in Julie’s car.

“I bought that car with my own money.
 
I work a job and I pay my own way.”

With thirty minutes to kill before the next race, they walked through the concourse to the teller’s window to collect Julie’s money and make the next bet.
 
Julie hadn’t had breakfast yet, so she stopped at the concession stand and bought a soft pretzel.
 
She paused, then went ahead and bought a sixteen ounce Budweiser to wash it down.

“Great meal,” said Madison, sarcastically.

Julie took a bite and then a long drink from the can.
 
“It’ll do in a pinch.”

Madison shook her head, but smile as well.
 
“You’re going to give Daddy a heart attack, you know that?”

“Daddy needs to calm the hell down and let me live my damn life.”

The smile dropped from Madison’s face.
 
“Julie Mae, you shut your mouth.
 
Daddy has given you everything in the world, or tried to anyway.
 
You don’t have to work a day in your life.
 
All you’d have to do is ask for it and he’d give it to you, but you have to be so damned stubborn.
 
You have to make everything difficult.”

“I’ll live my own life the way I see fit.
 
I’d move out of that house if I didn’t think Daddy would lock the damn gates.
 
I will not be a kept woman, Madison.
 
Not by Daddy or anyone else.”

“Not like me, you mean.”

“Jesus H. Christ, I’m not talking about you.
 
You’re not really a kept woman if your fiancé won’t marry you.”
 

Tears formed in Madison’s eyes.
 
Julie had crossed a line.
 
Madison had been engaged to Brennan Pike for three years, but there was always some excuse why the wedding had to be delayed.
 
Julie knew it wasn’t Madison’s fault, but it didn’t matter she couldn’t take back what she said, but she still tried to apologize.

“Save it,” said Madison in a hard voice.
 
“I just wanted to spend some time with you.
 
I’ve barely seen you since Nick died, but the truth is we never spent any time together before that happened.
 
We were so close when were we kids.
 
We were sisters, but now we’re just two people that share a roof.”

Madison walked away from Julie and headed into the grandstand.
 
Julie went below the concourse to claim her winnings.
 
She sat at a small table to finish her pretzel and beer.
 
She felt lousy.
 
Madison wasn’t wrong, not a word of it.
 
Julie had been purposefully pulling back from her family for a long time.
 
She had always considered it an act of self-preservation.
 
In her family, especially with her Daddy, there were expectations of her, like getting married, having children, and settling the hell down.
 
She wasn’t going to do that.
 
At least, she wasn’t going to do that just because they wanted her to.
 
So she drew back from all of them, but she never thought about the effect it might have on everyone else.