Bound to Burn

16. Three Men and A Baby

16

THREE MEN AND A BABY

CASH

Jessie’s Girl by Rick Springfield

“I don’t see why I had to come all the way down here,” Jack sighs, leaning on the counter as if being here has f****d up his day or something.

“I have better things to do,” Wade chimes in, holding baby Dylan in a carrier strapped to his chest. Luckily, Dylan is sleeping.

“Just because you have a baby doesn’t mean your time is more precious than anyone else’s.” Jack gives him the side-eye.

“Yes, it does.” Wade slides his hand over the top of Dylan’s dark hair while Jack rolls his eyes.

I shove the paper across the counter at him. “I’m guessing you both got the same one,” I say, disgusted, interrupting the argument I can see coming. My eyes bore into the paper as if I could make it spontaneously set on fire. A f*****g lawsuit from Bobby Hanson for a scuffle. It’s ridiculous. We were defending Jack’s daughter, Hayley, from this creep.

“This asshole sues us over a black eye,” I scoff.

“He’s lucky it was only a black eye,” Jack glares. “If security hadn’t come…” he doesn’t finish the sentence. Instead, he grabs the paper, balling it up in his fist.

“You can’t do that!” Wade tries to grab the paper from him and smooth it out.

“The f**k I can’t.” Jack grabs it back from him and crunches it in his hand, tossing it across the counter.

“That is a legal document,” Wade says, concerned.

“Does it look like I care?”

Wade rolls his eyes, clearly annoyed with Jack. “I hate to know what you did with your letter.”

Jack gets a cold smirk on his face. “There were bodily fluids involved.” He narrows his eyes with satisfaction.

Wade opens his mouth in disgust. I can only imagine what he thinks Jack did.

“I pissed on it, Wade,” Jack clarifies, annoyed. “Holy f**k, and you’re a dad?”

Wade throws his hands up in the air. “What was I supposed to think?”

Jack shakes his head and laughs darkly.

“What is Erin doing about this?” I interrupt and grab the crumpled-up paper, throwing it in the trash, which I’m sure causes Wade’s blood pressure to rise.

“Don’t get on Erin’s case. She’s too close to the story, you know that,” Jack says, irritated.

“I don’t trust anyone else to get it done,” I tell him. Erin is supposed to be working on a story to expose Bobby because she’d gotten information that what he did to Hayley was not the first time. I’ve heard stories about Bobby over the years regarding his less than ethical business practices, but the s****l harassment was something he kept locked down with non-disclosure agreements.

“Neither do I, but I trust that Erin is putting it in the right hands.” He shifts his weight to peer into the glass case. “What the f**k are those?” He points into the case.

“Pop sockets.”

Jack looks up with his brows knitted together in confusion. “Speak English.”

“Never mind,” I say, annoyed.

“Where’s your new employee?” Jack asks, raising his eyebrows.

I shift uncomfortably, not knowing if Sasha said something to Erin and it got back to Jack. Sasha doesn’t seem like the type to kiss and tell, but the fact of the matter is that I don’t know her that well. Just well enough to kiss her like the f*****g world was ending.

Fuck.

I rub the back of my neck thinking about how her body felt in my hands, hot and eager, and the way she tasted like f*****g peppermints. I shake my head.

“Off today.”

“Mmhmm,” Jack grumbles. “Erin says you eye-f****d her at the festival.”

“Language!” Wade spits as he covers Dylan’s ears.

“Seriously, Wade?” Jack pierces him with a look.

“I didn’t eye-f**k anyone,” I say, exasperated.

“Who are we talking about?” Wade asks.

“Sasha.” Both Jack and I say her name at the same time and look at each other, annoyed.

“If I were you, I would worry less about the Bobby lawsuit and more about the jailbait,” Jack snickers.

“She’s twenty-three!” I say loudly. “Look, I don’t need s**t from you.” I pace, looking for something to busy myself with. “Erin’s younger than you,” I point out.

“Erin’s a grown-a*s woman. Sasha’s…” he looks to be thinking for the right word, and I’m afraid of what will come out of his mouth. “A puppy.”

“Not your best analogy.” Wade nudges him, and he shrugs.

“My point is you could be her dad.” Jack says, and I glare at him, willing lightning to strike him right there on the spot.

Wade kicks him. “What?” Jack grumbles.

“Erin says she doesn’t know who her dad is.” Jack looks at me, pointedly.

“You are not f*****g funny!” I yell at him.

Wade starts to say something, but I interrupt him. “He’s a f*****g baby, Wade. He doesn’t know what words mean yet.” I head off Wade’s chastising before he can even get started.

Wade closes his mouth.

“But let’s all remember your track record, Jack. I wouldn’t be surprised…”

“Just don’t, Cash,” he holds a hand up to stop me. “I get it.” Jack waves me away, discomfort all over his face. Serves him right.

“This chick has you all wound up,” Jack says.

I run my hand through my hair. “You have no idea,” I admit.

“I don’t like it.”

“She’s in my head, and she wears these pink glittered Converse,” I say, exasperated. “Have you ever seen a grown woman wear pink glittered Converse?” I don’t wait for his answer, but point to the collectibles shelf. “She had Gene Simmons next to David Lee Roth. Who does that?”

Jack shakes his head. “Amateur.”

“She sits on the counter like this is a bar,” I swipe my hand in front of me, “and wears these really short skirts.” I run my hand through my hair, trying to get the image out of my head.

My rant is cut off by the bell above the door, and we all look up to see Sasha standing in the doorway. She looks pissed.

Fuck.

I thought I would be able to avoid her for another couple of days since she’s not on the schedule to work until Monday, just so things could cool down.

“Now I know why you summoned us both down here.” Jack c***s his head towards Sasha with a smirk that I want to smack off his face.

Sasha walks through the record bins towards us and stops just before the counter, looking between all of us.

“What, no curtsey?” Jack asks, and Wade tries to stifle a laugh. We have all heard the story of when she first met Jack and proceeded to curtsey as a way of saying goodbye.

“What is this?” She ignores Jack’s comment and motions toward all of us. “A remake of Three Men and a Baby?”

I look between the three of us. Jesus, she’s right.

“Burn,” Wade whispers to Jack while laughing.

“Let’s not forget who’s holding the baby, asshole.” Jack motions to Dylan and Wade’s smile fades.

Jack levels her with a stare and then crosses his arms over his chest, which is not a good sign. He can be a real d**k sometimes.

“You’re not on the schedule today,” I say to Sasha, interrupting their staring contest.

She turns to me. “I know. I just came in to thank you for fixing my Jeep,” she says with a saccharine smile. Her eyes narrow and I know she wants to say something, but she won’t in front of Jack and Wade.

Or would she?

I shouldn’t have started something I couldn’t finish. Kissing her was such a bad idea, even if it felt so good. Last night I got a glimpse into her world, a world very different from my own, which made me realize that starting something could very well end badly.

“How much do I owe you?” she asks.

I look at her, confused. “The connection on the starter was bad. I just had to clean it. You don’t owe me anything.”

“You fixed her Jeep?” Jack asks.

I roll my eyes and ignore him.

“Well, you didn’t have to deliver it to my house this morning,” she pauses, “before the sun even came up,” she makes sure to add.

“You delivered the Jeep to her house?” Jack asks, incredulously.

Wade smacks him. “What?” Jack sneers back.

“We should probably get going,” Wade says. “Dylan’s going to wake up soon and I need to feed him.”

“Oh, are you still breastfeeding?” Jack teases.

“Don’t be a d**k,” Wade chastises him.

Jack places his hands over Dylan’s ears. “Language,” he warns with exaggeration.

“Let’s go.” Wade snaps as he pulls on Jack’s shirt.

Jack looks at me as if asking permission to leave. I give him a nod and he lets Wade pull him closer to the door.

“Nice to see you again.” Wade gestures to Sasha, and she gives him a genuine smile and a wave.

“Yes, nice to see you again,” Jack says sarcastically, and gives her a little curtsey, letting the door slowly close behind him.

Sasha narrows her eyes at him and then turns to me.

“Look,” I cut her off before she can say anything, “I’m sorry.”

“Sorry for kissing me last night or sorry for dropping my Jeep off when you knew I wouldn’t see you?”

Yeah, she’s pissed.

“Both?” I say weakly, not sure what the right answer is.

“Cash,” she warns.

“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do here,” I admit, rubbing the back of my neck.

“I can’t tell you what you’re supposed to do, but I can tell you what you’re not supposed to do,” she says. “You’re not supposed to run away after you kiss me, and you’re not supposed to drop my Jeep off at the wee hours of the morning to avoid me.” She crosses her arms over her chest and sticks out one of her pink glittered Converse.

“I admit I didn’t handle it the right way.” I run my hand through my hair, shifting my weight uncomfortably.

“Look, if you’re not into me, that’s fine, just say so, but I highly doubt that’s the case judging by that kiss.” She raises an eyebrow and heat creeps up my neck.

“It’s not that simple.” I throw my hands in the air, frustrated with her but mostly frustrated with myself. She’s a curveball being thrown at me, and I don’t know how to catch it.

“Sure it is.” Her brown eyes widen. “You just have to tell me how you feel.”

I wish I had the capacity to tell her how I feel, but even I don’t know that. I’ve spent too much time avoiding conversations like this, guarding my feelings, that I don’t know how to handle them. Other women have never challenged me the way she does with just a look.

“Okay, I’ll go first,” she breaks the silence. “The first time I met you at the festival,” she pauses, “I took your picture because if I could give you one thing, it would be the ability to see yourself through my eyes, and you would know how impossible it is for me to walk away.”

Gripping the edge of the counter, I feel her words all the way down in my gut, but I tamper the emotions threatening to rise to the surface. I don’t want to walk away, but I don’t want to walk right into the fire either. I can make a million excuses, but the truth is I just don’t want to get my heart broken again.

“Tell me you didn’t feel something, that you don’t feel something now.” She begs me to confess what she already suspects is true, that I have feelings for her.

What I want to say is that I felt that kiss all way down into my bones, that I’ve been drawn to her like a magnet since the first time I met her, and the more I get to know her, the more she affects me. But I know where this will lead. I’ve guarded my heart for so long that I don’t know how to let down the walls.

“You’re too young.” My gaze meets hers as I lean on the counter, dropping my head. “And you work for me.”

“Those are facts not feelings,” she says, her disappointment palpable as she stands before me, vulnerable with the freedom to express how she feels.

I can’t put my heart on the line for someone who has their whole life ahead of them. She hasn’t even started living yet. She’s here for the summer, and in the fall she will be gone, but I will still be here.

“Why would you want to spend your time with some old guy who is strapped to this record store?” I lift my head, asking her honestly. “I come with a lot of baggage.”

She could have any guy she wants, someone her own age that has the same ambitions. I’ve been in this record store for so long it’s a part of me. As much as I complain, the fact is, without it, I don’t know who I am, and that’s okay.

Sasha shakes her head. “You are unbelievable.” Her sudden anger confuses me and I lean back. “Do you think I’m some lovesick teenager over one kiss?” she asks me but doesn’t wait for an answer. “I’m not testing out how your last name looks on my signature in my diary, Cash Morgan.” She mimics a very theatrical signature in the air.

I take a step back.

“It was a kiss,” she states, stepping forward. “Not a marriage proposal.”

“I didn’t say it was.” My palm hits the counter as I back up. “You don’t understand.”

“Because I’m too young,” she says for me, her brown eyes flaring. “I’m twenty-three years old. I grew up in Pacific Palisades but I had to work for everything I have - including that Jeep.” She points outside to the Jeep I fixed and washed before delivering it to her like she was some incapable child. “My grandparents are wonderful people, but even I don’t get a free ride.” She continues to move closer to me, and like a magnet, I want to reach for her and take her in my arms, but I grip the counter for support.

“I don’t have a job so that I have ‘fun money’.” She uses air quotes. “I have a job because I need the paycheck for everything else besides my college tuition. I don’t know if you noticed but I haven’t graduated yet. While most of my classmates only had to worry about attending classes, I had to worry about having money for food and tampons. Part of my predicament is my fault because I chose to leave my dorm and move in with a shitty musician who used my hard-earned rent money for band equipment, and then did me a solid by f*****g my best friend.” She throws her hands up in the air.

Her chest heaves and she takes another step closer. I close my eyes, and I can’t help but focus on the fact that some asshole would cheat on her and steal her money.

I clench my fists, nose flaring. “i***t,” I say angrily about the guy that broke her heart. I open my eyes and look at her while I say, “If I had you in my bed, I wouldn’t go looking elsewhere.”

Her eyes widen and I realize what a stupid thing that was to say, but I couldn’t help it. It’s true. Anyone who would cheat on her is a f*****g moron. Not because she has legs that just won’t quit or those pouty lips, but because she is so beautiful on the inside. She is a capable, strong woman whom I made feel incapable by fixing her Jeep for her without asking.

“That’s probably the most honest thing you’ve said to me so far.” She moves closer, the counter no longer a barrier between us, and the excuses in my head get quieter.

My stomach tightens as I watch her lips part. Knowing that someone else had those lips on their skin, those long f*****g legs wrapped around their waist, and had the privilege to make her sigh, causes a jealous heat to bloom up my neck.

The closer she gets to me, the more I want to take those things from her.

But they are dangerous thoughts.

Sasha is a bad decision wrapped up in a pink, glittered bow.

All I have to do is move my fingers mere centimeters and I could pull her into me; have those legs wrapped around my waist. It would be so easy to ruin her with my baggage when she deserves so much more. Being selfish has never ended well for me.

I watch the pulse tick in her neck and the rise and fall of her chest. It’s almost painful having her this close and not touching her. I can’t let myself get wrapped up in her, even if it’s just for the summer. I’ve already had a taste, and that was enough to tell me that once I’ve had all of her, I won’t want to give her up.

The bell rings over the door and in walks Gabriel. I’ve never been so happy to see that little s**t, and I move away from Sasha, breaking the tension. I can see by the look on her face that she’s disappointed and hurt which I hate being the cause of.

“Looks like I’m interrupting something.” Gabriel states as he strides over to the counter, looking between Sasha and me.

Sasha squares her shoulders, “Not at all,” she says to my surprise. “Actually, I was in the neighborhood and was about to look for you.”

“Is that so?” Gabriel leans against the counter, chewing on a toothpick.

He slides his eyes to me for a second.

“You said your dad has a landscaping business,” she says, and I narrow my eyes at the two of them.

“What do you need?” Gabriel tips his chin.

“We need to clear all the dead brush from the house in preparation for the wildfire that started up north. My grandpa isn’t young anymore, and whether he likes it or not, he needs help,” she says.

Gabriel pulls the toothpick from between his teeth.

“We would pay you, of course,” she adds.

“I’d need to see how big of a job it is so I know what equipment and how many guys to bring.”

“Are you free now?”

“Let’s do it.” Gabriel pushes off the counter but still looks in my direction. Maybe he’s thinking I’ll throw a fit like I did last time, but I keep my mouth shut. I’m not her dad, I’m just her boss.

They leave the store and I slam my fist on the counter, but not because she left with Gabriel… because once again, I almost got myself in a situation with her that would only lead to trouble. If I was Jack, I would have f****d her by now and dealt with the consequences later, but I’m not Jack.