Until Trevor (12 page)

“Yeah,
she goes to school over here.” He says pulling out a clean shirt from his bag.

“She seems shy
,” I say, pulling out onto the road.

“Liz is shy.”

“No, Liz is observant.”

"
Whatever. So how are things with you and Liz?" I glance at my baby brother, debating what I should say. "You’re still into her, right? If not, Johnny was asking about her." I look over, ready to let him know that I will fuck Johnny up if he even
thinks
about talking to Liz, when I see the smirk on his face. "Well, judging by the shade of red you just turned, I'm gonna say you’re still with her."

"Yeah
, and I'm staying with her; so tell anyone who asks to back the fuck off."

"
Calm down! Damn! I thought that with her basically living with you, and you two buying a damn dog together, that it would calm your possessive ass down. Guess I was wrong." I look over to see him shaking his head. "Don't get me wrong, I love November and Liz, but I'm never going to let a female turn me into some kind of crazy, possessive, pussy-whipped guy." I almost laugh and warn him of what's going to happen when he meets the one, but fuck it; he can figure that shit out on his own, and I’ll be laughing about it from the sidelines.

"Any word from
Liz’s brother?” he asks, changing the subject

"Na
h, nothing. I called Kenton and asked him to look into it,” I reply.

"
Do you know why Nico's spending so much time with him?"

"He likes the bigger city."
I shrug.

"I thought that to
o, but he mentioned the other day that he might go work for Kenton."

"Seriously?" Thinking of the work that my cousin does
makes me nervous for my brother. My cousin’s life is like something out of a movie. He’s constantly on the road, looking for the people who everyone else runs away from. "When was he going to tell us?" I ask.

All of us boys own
even shares in our construction business. Asher started the business up when he got out of the Marines, and each of us bought in after college. Since then, the business has grown, and now we have contracts all over Tennessee.

“He told me that Kenton had asked him to help out on a job the other day. He said he had never thought about doing that kind of thing
, but when he was done, he couldn’t stop thinking about it. I guess Kenton told him that he had a knack for it and would be willing to train him if he was interested in doing it for the long term,” he says.

“So he’s really considering it?”

“From what he said, yeah. I think he’s just worried about what we’ll all say.”

“I don’t like it
; I know that what Kenton does is dangerous. But if he’s happy, then how can I say no?”

“That’s what I said.”
Cash’s phone starts ringing. “Speak of the devil,” he mutters. “Yo,” he answers. “Are you serious?” Cash pauses, and I can tell he’s concentrating on whatever is being said; then he starts laughing so hard that tears start streaming down his cheeks.

“What?” I ask
.

“Shit man
, hold on. Let me tell him.” He shakes his head, trying to control himself. “Last night, Nico went to the restaurant over on 5
th
street. Well, when he pulled into the parking lot, it was after eleven, and Liz was standing next to her car covered in dirt, looking like she got caught with her hand in the cookie jar. Nico asked her what was going on, and she said she was just getting ready to go home.” My heart drops, thinking that something happened to her.

“I talked to her before I went to bed
. She was home and didn’t tell me that anything happened to her.”

“No
, man, she’s fine. She left the parking lot while Nico was there watching. Well, he went inside to order out, and Jen was there with her friends.” Shit. This is what I didn’t need fucking Jen.

“What did Jen do to her?”
I demand.

Cash starts laughing again
, and I'm about ready to stop the truck and kick his ass.

“Jen didn’t do anything if what Nico thinks happened
, happened. Your girl jacked Jen’s tire from her car, and left that shit sitting on three wheels.”

“What?” I whisper
. I cannot picture my sweet Liz doing anything like that…ever.

“When Nico got his order
, he went back out to his truck just as Jen and her posse were getting ready to leave. Jen started yelling from across the parking lot, so he went over to see what was going on. That’s when he saw Jen’s driver’s side back tire missing, not even a jack or a brick holding that shit up. Then, Nico remembered the look on Liz’s face and how dirty she looked when he pulled into the parking lot, and everything came together.”

“You are joking
, right?”

“Looks like sweet Liz has a little evil in her after all.” Cash chuckles
, making me laugh.

“Something must have happened
. I can’t see Liz doing that for no reason.” I’m trying not to let my imagination run away from me. I would never hit a chick, but if Jen or any of her posse fucked with my girl, they would answer to me.

“Don’t know
, but wish I could be a fly on the wall when you ask her about it,” Cash says, putting the phone back to his ear. A thought occurred to me, and I couldn’t help but to ask.

“Did he tell Jen that he thought it
was Liz?” I ask, holding the steering wheel tighter when Cash didn’t say anything. I glance over at him.

“Do you think that any of us would tell any of those bitches shit? Fuck no
! We wouldn’t; you should know that.”

“Look,” I sigh
, running my hands down my face, trying to find the right words. “If Jen has even a hint that it was Liz, she will go after her. I can’t risk something happening to her; she has enough shit going on without adding to it.”

“You love her.”

“What?” I look over at him, and my eyes narrow.

“You fucking love her. Holy shit
!”

I want to say
, “fuck no; hell no”, and that it’s impossible to love someone after only a few weeks together; then I remind myself that we spent nine months together before July was born. We might not have been together every day, but most of my free time was filled with her. I didn’t know it at the time, but I had been slowly falling in love with her. I'm snapped out of my thoughts by the speakerphone, with Nico singing,
“
Da da da da, another one bites the dust. And another one falls, and another one falls,another one bites the dus
t
.”

“Very funny
,” I sigh, rubbing the back of my head.

“Just saying
. I don’t want that shit to happen to me,” Nico says, his voice coming through the cell phone in Cash’s hand.

“You asses will be singing a diffe
rent tune when it does.”

“Fuck that
. I'm going to get as much pussy as I can before I have to settle with one.”

“I didn’t even call to talk about this shit,
” Nico cuts Cash off. “I wanted to make sure that you were all going to be at the site tomorrow,” Nico says, sounding nervous.

I look over at Cash
, and can see the same pain I'm feeling written on his face. “Sure, we’ll be there.”

“Good
, see you guys then,” he says, before the line goes dead.

“So
, I guess he’s going to talk to us about working for Kenton.”

“Guess so,” I agree
. I don’t want to think about this shit right now. My brothers and I have always been inseparable, and I don’t want to think about Nico not being a part of our company any more.

“So
…you gonna call Liz and ask her about the tire?”

“Do I look stupid to you?”

“Yes,” he chuckles, and I look over at him.

“
I’ll talk to her about it when I get home.”

“
You’re sounding very domesticated these days.”

“Fuck you,” I say while smiling
.

Cash shakes his head
, laughing. “I'm going to stay away from chicks from now on. There must be something in the water.”

“So you
aint gonna call Lilly?”

“Fuck yeah
, I'm calling her! Did you see her tits?” I look over at him; he’s holding out his hands in front of him like he’s got huge melons balancing in them.

“You
’re full of shit,” I laugh. Out of all of us, Cash is the one who wears his heart on his sleeve.

“
Never mind don’t look at her tits.” He says. I look over to see a look of confusion on his face before he ask “So are you and Liz living together?”

“Yes
, but don’t tell her I told you that.”

“So
you’re living together but she doesn’t know it?”

“Pretty much.” I shrug.

He laughs. “Let me know how that works out for you.”

*~*~*

     
It’s after seven when I finally pull up to the house. Liz’s car is in the driveway, so I decide to check her trunk. As soon as the trunk light comes on,
I can see that she had pulled up the carpet to get to her spare, but there is no spare, and no extra tire that could have been Jen’s. I look around, wondering where she would have put an extra tire.

“What are you doing?” I hear Liz ask from the front porch
. I look up to see her arms crossed over her chest; Lolly is sitting calmly at her side.

“Hey
, baby. Nico said you had a flat,” I lie, and watch her face pale.

“Uh
, yeah. I met November for dinner, and when I got out to my car, I had a flat.” Her voice wavers a bit at the end, and I have to stop the smile from coming across my face.

“Where is your spare?” I ask
, slamming the trunk. I walk around to my truck and pull my bag from the back. Lolly finally decides to come off the porch, but Liz Is stuck in place.

“The spare?” She looks around like it’s going to appear out of thin air. Cute. I shake my head
, then bend down to pet Lolly.

“
It’s sad that you come to me before my girl does,” I tell Lolly. Standing, I walk slowly towards Liz. “Yeah, baby. The spare tire for your car.”

“Oh
, that! Um…I had to leave it at the tire place.” I can tell she’s lying when she doesn’t make eye contact.

“Well
, I need to get a new tire for my truck tomorrow, so I’ll just pick yours up when I go.”

“That’s really not necessary
,” she mumbles, barely loud enough for me to hear.

“It’s no problem.” I lean forward and grab her wrist
, pulling her to me. “You haven’t kissed me,” I say, putting my face in her neck and breathing her in. I missed her smell; and as I lift my head, our eyes meet.

“You know
, don’t you?” she whispers, tears filling her beautiful eyes.

“
Let’s say Nico put two and two together.” I watch her lip start to tremble. “Hey, what’s that about?” Using my thumb, I swipe the tears from her cheeks.

“It’s not my fault
!” she cries, her face landing in my chest. I drop my bag, pick her up, and take her inside. I walk to the couch and sit with her in my lap.

“Talk to me
.” I say quietly, rubbing her back. Her breaths are heavy before answering. Then she tells me the whole story about Jen and her friends laughing, saying her name, and leaving the restaurant, and then how she found her tire slashed.

“You know that my car is always unlocked?” I nod
; I do know that she never locks her car. I hate that shit. “Well, when I popped my trunk to get the spare tire, there wasn’t one in there. Then I looked at my phone to call someone, and I had no service. So I looked around and noticed Jen’s car, and for the first time I realized that we had the exact same car.” She sits up and looks at me. “I was so mad. She has always been evil, but ever since we got together, it has gotten a million times worse. So I took my jack out of the trunk, went to her car, got her tire off, realized that I would need the jack to change my tire, so I kicked the jack out from under her car, ran back to my car, changed the tire as fast as I could—which by the way is pretty damn fast.” I smile because she says all of this in one breath; she’s so fucking adorable. Her eyes drop to my mouth, and her finger comes up to trace my lips. “I love your smile,” she whispers, and I kiss her finger, making her smile. “Well, once I got the tire changed, and the slashed one put in my trunk, Nico pulled up and asked if I was okay. I started feeling guilty about what I had done, so this morning when I got up, I went and had my tire fixed and put back on my car. Then I took Jen’s tire back to her house, made sure no one was around, and left it next to her garage.