Unbreak My Heart (5 page)

“Great.” I dropped my duffel on the floor. “Tell me you picked up beer.”

“In the fridge.”

“Thank you, Jesus.” I popped the top and snagged the chair across from him. The miniature dining table was covered in a frilly pink lace tablecloth. “How was the drive?”

“Long. I hate driving by myself.”

“You hate doing
anything
by yourself.”

“The result of having two older brothers and two younger sisters. I was always surrounded.” Raj swigged his beer. “Only things surrounding a white boy like you growing up in Wyoming were fences and tumbleweeds, amirite?”

“Pretty much.” I picked up a picture frame and peered at the two cute college-aged girls, one with dreadlocks and one with cornrows. “Which one of these bikini-wearing hotties is your sister?”

“They’re both my sisters, asshole. Quick genetics update; when a black woman marries a Mexican man—none of their offspring look like them or each other.”

Raj joked about his mixed heritage all the time. His genetics seemed evenly split. He had the height and hair from his African-American side, but he had lighter skin and hazel eyes from his Mexican side. We’d gone through basic training together. We’d attended every medical seminar, every college course, every advanced training class together. We even shared an apartment in Fort Hood. Some of our supervisors swore we shared a brain. So the army fuck-up affected us both.

“What’s up, West?”

I set the picture down. “Nothing. Why?”

“I know you, man. You’re brooding. What gives?”

“Woman troubles.”

He laughed. “Right.”

When I didn’t share in his amusement, he stared at me. Hard.

“You’re serious.”

“Yep.”

“Woman troubles,” he repeated. “First time you’ve ever said that in all the years I’ve known you.”

“There’s a reason for that. And she lives in Phoenix.”

His eyes went comically wide. Then he said, “Start talking.”

Raj knew more about me than anyone in my life. But he didn’t know about Sierra. “It’s a long story.”

“I’ve got time and so do you.”

“It’s complicated.”

“You’re stalling. Now you know I ain’t gonna leave you alone until you tell me whatever it is that you
should’ve
told me a long damn time ago.”

I scrubbed my hands over my face. “You know about my fucked-up childhood. So by my senior year of high school I was biding my time until graduation and I could start a real life.” I swallowed a mouthful of beer. “Then she showed up.”

“Who?”

“Sierra. The instant I saw her all those freakin’ clichés bombarded me—a bolt of lightning, the earth moved, time stood still, my soul recognized hers, my heart stopped, I wanted to fuck her hot little body twice a day for the next hundred years…” I closed my eyes. “I’ve never told anyone any of that.”

“Not even her?”

“
Especially
not her.”

Raj sighed. “That’s fucked, man, but keep goin’.”

“We became friends. At first because I needed to prove my initial reaction to her was a fluke. I mean, she was beautiful, so in my experience that meant she was either a spoiled brat or a snotty bitch. But she wasn’t. I found out it was worse. Way, way worse.”

“What was she?”

“Perfect.”

Raj said nothing.

I finished my beer and grabbed another. “I needed to stay away from her but I couldn’t. So we were friends. Fuck, man. She was my
only
goddamned friend. And the entire time we were friends I knew how she felt about me.”

“Please tell me you didn’t take advantage of that.”

I scowled at him. “I’m not that guy, asshole. I never touched her because it would’ve been all fucking over for me if I did. So I left Wyoming just as planned. I just didn’t tell
her
that was my plan.”

“Did you have any contact with her at all?”

“Not until two weeks ago.” I told him everything that had happened when I’d seen her in Sundance and how things ended up with her today.

We’d each drained another beer by the time I’d finished.

Finally Raj said, “Sounds to me like you’ve made up your mind. She’s here; this is where you need to be.”

I shrugged.

“Don’t give me that fake ‘whatever’ attitude, man. You believe it’s a sign.”

“Or a second chance.”

“But that’s up to her, isn’t it? And from what you’ve told me, maybe she’s not interested in giving you a shot. Then you’re stuck here.”

I glanced up at him sharply. “
I’m
stuck here. I thought you ruled out Cheyenne?”

“I’m tired after driving fifteen hours and my brain is sluggish.” Raj sighed and rubbed the top of his shaved head. “But I recall that
you
weren’t giving Cheyenne serious consideration.” Then Raj’s gaze pierced me. “Something else you wanna tell me?”

“I indicated Phoenix as my preference today after I left her office.”

Raj’s eyebrows went up.

“There’s one other thing.”

“Of course there is.”

“Tomorrow I’m going back to Sierra’s office and asking her to show me possible rentals.” I flashed my teeth at him. “But it’s not for me. It’s for a
friend
.”

“Ah, fuck, man. Seriously?”

“I need a place to live anyway.” My gaze rolled over pink, pink, and pinker. I wasn’t sure how long I could stand being here.

“Fine, do your thing with her. I don’t wanna do anything except sit by the pool and work on my tan.”

I choked on my beer.

Raj laughed. “Too easy.”

“Asshole.”

“Missed you, bro.”

“Same.”

B
y six p.m.
I had rocked my to-do list; all twenty-seven items checked off. Which was a big
screw you
to Boone—his unexpected appearance hadn’t affected my productivity at all.

Traffic wasn’t horrendous. The snowbirds hadn’t arrived en masse yet.

When I pulled up to my house, I grinned at my roommate Lu’s dirt-caked pickup, which was parked sideways in the drive. My neighbors in this upscale and trendy housing development wrinkled their noses at her big rig as if she used it to cart pigs around—although it did smell like shit whenever she used it to haul manure. I skirted the garage and entered the backyard through the gated side of the house.

Sure enough, Lu lounged by the pool. Topless.

“Eww, put those things away! I do
not
want a face full of tits when I ask you for a hug.”

Lu immediately slipped on a T-shirt and stood. At six feet two she was such a bruiser that she literally crushed me to her chest.

“What happened today that requires a momma bear hug?”

I sighed. She gave such great hugs. The type of affection I assumed other kids received from their mothers. My mom was a model-thin sack of toned flesh—not a squishy welcoming thing about her bony body.

I sighed again.

“Sierra?” Lu prompted.

“Let me change clothes and mix up a pitcher of margaritas first, okay?”

“Gotta be a doozy of a day if it calls for a pitcher.” She released me and smacked my ass. “Yell before you come back out, because the girls will be soaking up the sun.”

“Thanks for the tips—ha-ha.”

I opened the sliding glass door and cut through the kitchen, bypassing the great room and the foyer to climb a flight of stairs. No college student needed a six-bedroom, five-bathroom house, but the fire-sale price made it a killer investment. Since I’d bought the house with cash, I didn’t have a mortgage. Lu paid me a couple of hundred bucks a month that I put toward property taxes. She handled the yard work—it was a happy fact that Lu worked part-time as a landscaper. So far I’d avoided thinking about Lu graduating in May. While I wanted my BFF to seize the great opportunities she’d dreamt about since freshman year, I also hoped she’d stick around. Then we could do this adulting thing together, although I had a two-year head start in the working world.

In my bedroom, I kicked off my heels and ditched my clothes for my bikini. After twisting my hair into a messy bun, I returned downstairs to whip up a batch of margaritas. I opened the sliding glass door and yelled, “Incoming!” before I grabbed the tray.

Lu had her top on and she’d cleared a space on the table between the loungers. I handed her a glass, poured one for myself and lowered into the chaise. One long sip of cold, boozy, limey goodness and I felt the tension melting away.

“Killer margs, S.”

“Thanks.”

“So…your day. Were you dealing with Bridezilla again?”

I groaned. My mother’s impending marriage reception resembled a circus. I had not-so-jokingly told Lu that my mom actually considered hiring Cirque de Soleil performers for the entertainment. Mom hadn’t laughed when I pointed out that no one wanted to dance to the sounds of flying trapezes and limbs being contorted. I hadn’t heard from her since. No surprise there. Our rocky relationship had crumbled completely after she’d returned from France and I did not miss her—or her petty, nasty bullshit. “No. Since the wedding is in a few weeks she must be on the downhill stretch and anything she changes now will cost Barnacle Bill big bucks.”

Lu snorted. “You will slip up and call him Barnacle Bill to his face one of these days.”

“No doubt.” My mother’s husband-to-be had earned his millions from the fishing boat companies he owned up and down the Gulf of Mexico. He’d retired to Arizona, away from the water. Then he started golfing as if it was his religion. He and Mom had a meet-cute when she accidentally ran over his foot on the golf course. Bill was immediately smitten by my mother’s youth and beauty—and the fact she didn’t care if he golfed seven days out of seven. She in turn was completely smitten with his money. A true match made in heaven.

“It’s not Mommy Dearest, then… Is Dharma being a dickhead again?”

“Dharma”—the codename I’d assigned to Greg, the asshole business operations manager for Daniels Property Management—“is greasing up his pole, probably with his hair, at one of those Club Med type resorts for old single dudes. I have an entire week off from him.”

Lu held her glass over to mine for a silent toast.

“My day took a bizarre turn right before lunch when Boone West waltzed into my office.”

Her white-blonde pigtails bobbed when she swung her head toward me. “You’re shitting me.”

“I am not shitting you at all.”

“What the ever-lovin’ fuck? He sauntered in just out of the blue?”

I squirmed. Drained my drink and reached for more. I hadn’t told Lu I’d run into Boone in Wyoming as I’d chalked it up as a fluke.

“I recognize that fidgety-ass avoidance behavior of yours, ho-bag. Spill.”

“I ended up at the doctor’s office in Sundance. Sergeant West was there for medical training. Total fucking shock to see him, so at first I pretended not to know him…” I told her everything.

By the time I finished she was laughing so hard she couldn’t hold onto her margarita glass. “Omigod, S, that is classic. You passed out and he had to carry you? And then he gave you a shot in the ass?”

“Living life as a class act, that’s me,” I retorted.

“Does Boone look good?” Lu asked.

“He looks better than ever,” I said automatically. The only comparison I had between Old Boone and Second Edition Boone was in my head. It’d bugged me not to have any pictures of the two of us. He’d always refused. I had one grainy shot I’d secretly snapped of him as he’d run laps around the track at the high school. But I’d lost that one in a data crash.

“What did he want?”

“No idea.”

“Liar.”

“Fine. He wants to…talk.”

Lu refilled her glass. “About what?”

I blinked. “I don’t know.”

“Then maybe you ought to…
talk
to him and find out.”

“Or maybe I ought to skip a conversation with him and just stab myself in the heart to save him the trouble of doing it to me again.”

I felt Lu staring at me. “It still hurts that much? What happened between you two
seven years ago
?”

Yes. No. Shit. Maybe
. I sighed. “When you say it like that, it sounds ridiculous.”

“Then I’ll toss it out there that by not talking to him, you’re not allowing either of you a chance for closure. All you’re doing is holding a grudge, and that’s not like you.”

“I don’t think he wants closure, Lu.”

“Well,
duh
. The man followed you from Wyoming to Arizona.” She started singing Michael Jackson’s “Wanna Be Startin’ Something.”

“Knock it off or I’ll punch you in the throat.”

She laughed. “Just calm your tits, girlfriend.” She slurped her drink. “Besides, why would that be a bad idea?”

I tipped my head back. The sky had taken on the white film that stretched across the horizon prior to sunset. Sometimes I missed seeing the stars. Stargazing had been one of Boone’s favorite things. And while he marveled at the stars, I marveled at him. My epic crush had been so embarrassingly obvious to him that I still blushed when I thought about it.

“Why are you dodging the question?” Lu prompted.

“I’m not. I’m just creating an ordered list of why that’s a bad idea. First of all, he’s only here for two weeks. Which means he’s looking for a fling. I can’t do that. Not with him.”