Rock Chick Revenge (Rock Chick #5)(130)

“Ava –

“I’m talking now,” I interrupted him using a line he’d used on me. I ignored the side of his mouth going up in one of his sexy half-grins and kept on going. “So I don’t care who you were for eight years, it doesn’t change who you are to me. So don’t give me any ultimatums and don’t threaten me. I am who I am, a big dork who makes mistakes and deals the best way I can. I’m going to keep making mistakes and being a big dork because that’s who I am. You can’t deal with it, then you best walk out that door because that’s the way it is.”

I stopped talking and realized, first, that I was breathing heavily and second, that I had been shouting the whole time and it was likely everyone could hear.

Shit.

Oh well, f**k it. Now was not the time to be embarrassed for being me.

Hell, there was never a time to be embarrassed for being me.

“You through?” Luke asked, cutting through my world-rocking epiphany of coming to terms with being a dork.

I thought about it.

“Yeah,” I replied.

“Your mother and sisters come to town often?”

I blinked in confusion, not only at his change in subject but at his calm, rational tone. Gonzo Luke was a memory.

“Not really,” I told him.

“But they come to town?”

“Sometimes.”

“Do I have to be nice to them?”

I took in a soft breath.

It had happened. I’d lost control, opened up and let Luke see my soft spot. I’d told him everything, held nothing back.

And he was smiling at me.

I felt something shift then settle, the soft spot was still there, still vulnerable, but now that I showed it to him, I closed the door on it, locked it and handed Luke the key.

I felt goose bumps rise on my skin but I ignored them and answered his question in a quiet voice. “Probably.”

“That’s gonna be hard, babe.”

“You’re a tough guy, macho man, you can hack it.”

His arms came around me and he slid me forward on the counter so my special girl parts were pressed against his hard boy parts. My arms lifted and closed around his neck.

“Fair warning, they say shit to you I don’t like, especially those f**kin’ sisters of yours, I may not be responsible for what comes out of my mouth,” Luke told me.

“I’m sensing that Marilyn and Sofia have earned a new title, that’s twice you’ve called them ‘those f**kin’ sisters of yours’.”

He ignored my comment and the fact that I impersonated his deep voice and kept to his theme. “I’m not shittin’ you, Ava. I’m not gonna stand around and listen to those bitches cuttin’ you down.”

Apparently, Luke took me giving him my key pretty f**king seriously.

Daisy was right. The best way to guard your heart was to trust a good man to take care of it for you. Lucky for me, considering there weren’t many around, I found myself a good man.

Caught up in this new knowledge, I whispered, “Okay.” Then leaned forward and, even with a cut lip, I kissed him hard.

His mouth opened over mine, his tongue slid inside and even with a cut lip he kissed me back, making the hard kiss so hot, I melted into him.

Oo, Good Ava breathed. I feel so much better now.

Weirdly enough, Bad Ava added, I do too.

You do? Good Ava asked.

Yeah, Bad Ava answered. Go figure.

Well, finally, Good Ava commented.

Still lots of fun to have even if we are Luke’s woman, Bad Ava noted.

I’m not thinking that’s a good thing, Good Ava leaned in and said in my ear.

Bad Ava giggled and she sounded happy.

* * * * *

After our mini-post-drama make out session, Luke took me out of the kitchenette and in the hallway the black guy I’d never met was talking to another guy I’d never seen before and Shirleen.

“Shee-it,” the black guy said when he saw us. “You white girls got attitude. Far as I can see, these boys need to get their heads examined. I’d put up with that shit for about a f**kin’ second.”

Any normal person would politely pretend that they hadn’t heard a thing. I was learning quickly that I was not surrounded by normal people anymore.

Since normal for me was a Dad who would up and leave, a fading beauty queen of a mother who was so engrossed in her own life she forgot her daughters had one too and might need her help, and my two “f*ckin’ sisters” who were mean as snakes, I figured not normal was not so bad.

Shirleen had different thoughts and turned on the black dude. “Like black women don’t have more attitude then ten of these white women,” she declared as if that was a good thing.

“Black women don’t give you shit by yellin’ at your ass for, f**kin’, ever. They get fed up, they quit bitchin’ and burn down your house or stick you with a knife. Makes it easier. Either way you know it’s time to get your shit together and you just gotta call your insurance man.”

“And you are?” I asked before Shirleen could retort like she looked like she was preparing to do, big time.

“I’m Smithie,” he answered. “You dance?”

I blinked at him, stunned by his bizarre question. “Do I dance?”

“Smithie.” For some reason Luke’s voice was a low, warning rumble and Smithie’s eyes turned to him.