Fall From Grace(62)

Conner agreed that he and Shane should stay with us.  He also thought that Ethan should too, since he had some sort of martial arts training.  However, Shane was completely against it.  He wasn’t drunk anymore, yet he was still against Ethan being with me?

“Well, I hate to say it, but Tucker had a really great idea last night,” Conner said, wiping Lea’s tears away with his hands.  Oh, he’s a keeper!

“That drunken fool had a lot of ideas last night, most had to do with Grace and him on the pool table, so which idea are you taking about, Con?”

Shane glanced at me and made a tight smile.

“We should definitely go up to his winter place for a few days to get away from here,” Conner explained.

Lea shook her head and cried harder.  “I can’t take off of work next week.  My boss is going on vacation and needs me to hold down the fort while she’s away.”

Shane was staring at me.  “Tucker invited you to his winter house?”

I scrunched my face into a frown, “Yeah, Tucker thinks I will fall in love with him because of his house, his money, his jaguar, and his expensive bottles of champagne.”

“And what do you think?” Shane asked me.

“I don’t think about Tucker at all.”

I loved the way he smiled back at me.

The guys sat for the next hour trying to formulate a plan to keep us safe.  Lea cried and whined, and then cried again.  She was terrified.  I eyed Conner.  He caught the hint and ran over to Lea, who was by then in hysterics, soothing her with kisses and soft whispers.

I grabbed Shane’s hand and pulled him into the kitchen.  “Leave them alone for a minute.  She needs to calm down and he really seems to do it better than me lately.”

“Are you okay with everything?  I didn’t know the right stuff to say to you before. I just tried to take your mind off it, but are you scared?”

“No.  I’m not scared of Carl Sumpton hurting me.  I’m scared of him hurting Lea, Conner, or even you.”

His mouth curved into a concerned smile.  He lifted my hands and held them wrists up, between us.  I raised my eyebrow at him.  “You’re not scared of much, are you?”  He rubbed the scars on my wrist again.  “One day, I hope we become close enough friends that you’ll tell me about these.”

“That would be real close, Shane.  I think you’re missing that get close to a women chromosome in your DNA,” I laughed.  “I have to take a shower and get ready for the show tonight.  Why don’t you call ahead and let those bouncer friends of yours know about Carl and let’s take the picture of him too?” I said, walking away.

I jumped into the bathroom ready to transform myself into Rock Goddess of Mad World.  I was insanely excited and all the thoughts of Carl Sumpton and his secret whereabouts washed away from me the more I thought about going on stage.  I showered with the most scalding hot water I could stand, relaxing every muscle in my body.  I wrapped myself in a towel and bolted through the hallway to my room, hoping I wouldn’t be seen.  I dried my hair and added a streak of temporary purple hair dye to it for a little funky feel.  I polished my nails a deep purple to match the streak in my hair.  While I was sliding a denim mini-skirt over my hips Lea knocked on the door and came in with a black bag.

A little time alone with The One and she’d forgotten all about the scary monster, she looked content and relaxed.  Oh, I envied her.

“Wow.  Your hair looks hot!  And, I’m glad you’re not fully dressed, because I brought you a little surprise today on my lunch hour,” she beamed.