Fireball (Cheap Thrills #1)(49)

When it finally left me, I went all in. “I’m sorry, baby. I didn’t tell you for a number of reasons. Dad married her mom out of the blue, and they made my life an uncomfortable hell from the start. I moved here to get away from Rita and Luli, but she followed me and kept going with her bullshit. Most of the time I forgot she existed, and then she’d do some shit to remind me all over again…there were a lot of days where I wondered if I was gonna be stuck in that repetitive evil cycle for the rest of my life.”

“Why did he marry her?”

Groaning, I tried to shift so that my ass didn’t feel so wet, but it was impossible – more than likely because my ass was fucking soaked through. “He only told me the full story today. I knew after they were both caught trying to break into my house three years ago that he was still with her because of a case. There had been an investigation into a group of women who targeted men online going on for a while. The women would convince the men to file for divorce, begin a relationship with them, and then leave taking the divorce settlements with them. Six years ago, a man who’d been a victim of theirs committed suicide, and his ex-wife hired a PI to track down the women responsible for the group after she found out about it. That led back to Vegas where Luli was working from. Dad went with some friends and pretended to be a high roller with cash to burn, she took the bait, and there you have it. Unfortunately for her, Hurst got some information on her and the man running the operation from Greece, and she was arrested yesterday.”

I only just managed to hear her response through the door. “Holy shit.”

Jarrod’s on the other hand was clear as day. “Jesus Christ, what a fucked up bitch. Rita tried to get on my dick, ya know. Freaked me the hell out and now I know why.” This was followed by him singing Redneck Crazy by Tyler Farr, a song I recognized because the title never failed to make me laugh, not even when we were discussing the big mess that had been my life.

“I also didn’t tell you because…” shit, this part was the hardest. I’d never laid my feelings out to anyone before so getting the words out was hard. Then again, I’d explained about the tattoo on my side to her and talked about Mom, so I was capable of doing it. And there was no incentive like trying to get back the woman that you were in love with. “I didn’t tell you because she’d done so much to Jose, Olivia, and you, and I didn’t want you to judge me. Sometimes, even if you’re innocent, you’re presumed guilty by association. Hell, I’ve done that enough times in my job to know that we do it without realizing. From anyone else it would be ok, but from you?” I trailed off, remembering the look on her and Jose’s faces when they’d found out.

I started to fidget when she didn’t say anything back. As the silence stretched on it got even worse, until I felt more wetness under me. Shoving my hand back under my ass, I growled, “Will you stop doing that?”

A thud beside me had me turning my head to see that Jarrod had tipped his half full bottle of water out of the still open window on his door. Because I crawled over to get it, I missed what she said and only came back halfway through it.

“…I mean, I think I would have, but no one can say what they definitely would have done until they’re actually there doing it. Right?”

“Right,” I murmured, not knowing what I was agreeing to as I unscrewed the cap on the bottle, but it had sounded positive so that counted.

“So I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have done that. I just needed time to get my head around it all, and then I needed to sort this really, really stupid rollercoaster of emotions out. It was driving me insane. One second I was ready to say sorry, then I’d be an asshole – it was exhausting and I’ve never been in that position before.”

Getting down onto my stomach on the floor, I turned my head sideways and tried to look under the tiny gap between the floor and the bottom of the door to see where she was sitting. Ah ha, gotcha.

Reaching my arm out, I tipped the bottle of water so that it went under the door to where she was. Not wanting to give what I was doing away, I figured I should say something to her. When I couldn’t come up with something profound, I went with the first word that hit me. “Right.”

“You’d done so much for me, and shown me repeatedly that you were a good guy, and I guess I just didn’t expect it. Not that you’d expect something like that, but still.” I watched as she shifted slightly, the water still pouring out of the bottle and under the door. When it started coming back toward where my head was, I panicked slightly and began blowing silently at it to move it back in the direction I wanted it to go. Thankfully, it worked and with the help of my finger sweeping it too, I was saved from my prank backfiring on me. “I really like you, Dave.”

Maybe a better man would feel guilty over the fact that he was drenching the ass of the woman who was telling him she liked him at that moment, but the cold soggy feeling on my own wasn’t motivating me to do that. We’d also had a relationship like this from the first time we’d met, so why would I change it now? I loved her brand of fireball, and she ‘really liked’ my brand of crazy – it’s what we did.

Still. “I really like you too, Tabby.”

I could hear Jarrod singing Nothing Compares 2 U in his cell, but I didn’t pay it much attention as I waited for what she was going to say next.

“Do you think you could forgive me?” she asked so quietly that I had to strain to hear her.