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“No worries.” Mack called back to him before snatching the brown paper sack from my hands. “You are a lifesaver, Kimmy.”
“Two questions though,” the man said as Mack peeked into the bag. “Is she legal, and is she single?”
“What the fuck, Jasper?” My brother yelled.
“Can’t blame a brother for trying,” the man mumbled before getting back to work.
“So… About my being a lifesaver… Tripp asked why I didn’t bring him any.” I couldn’t help the flushed that turned my cheeks hot as I mentioned my crush. My brother new, had known all along how I felt about his friend, and he didn’t judge me for it. If anything, he humored me, and told me if there was a way to get ‘the bitch’ out of the picture and make Tripp see she was wrong for him, that eventually, he’d notice me. My brother seemed to see my future in Tripp’s eyes, too.
Mack grinned widely before tormenting me. The asshole might have been supportive about my crush, but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t capable of giving me shit about it, too. “Aw, did my friend finally notice my little sister?”
From everything Mack had told me about him, Tripp wasn’t like the other guys. He was in a serious, committed relationship, and while Mack had no qualms about breaking Tripp and his girl up, he wanted to do it in the hopes that Tripp would then fall in love with me and be just as committed. I guess that was what it was all about.
I didn’t think it worked that way. If Tripp was committed to his girl, the way my brother wished someone would be for me one day, then we were probably both barking up the wrong tree while thinking my crush might ever go somewhere. I respected the fact that Tripp was loyal, but still didn’t think his girlfriend was right for him. I would still think that even if he never noticed me. He deserved someone who would fit in the lifestyle and prop him up in his endeavors instead of hounding him to leave the life he loved. If she hadn’t done it yet, she would. I knew the type.
That’s why my mother had been so unhappy with my dad. She was originally with him to rebel against her hoity toity parents. When she accidentally got pregnant with my brother, everything changed. Her parents disowned her and cut her off from whatever trust fund she had. Then my dad reluctantly married her. They hadn’t been that serious, but he wasn’t about to leave a kid of his swinging in the wind.
My dad had his flaws, but he loved us fiercely. Mom resented us as the reason she ‘lost it all’. Her pregnancy with me had also been an accident. Apparently, our horndog father couldn’t keep his hands off her after she gave birth to Mack. We were only ten months apart, Irish Twins, as everyone called us.
I scanned the parking lot until my eyes landed back on Tripp over by the gate. I sincerely hoped that he figured out his girl was the wrong choice before he was stuck raising kids with a woman who hated his life and made sure her children knew that every chance she got.
“One day, he’ll do more than just notice me,” I mumbled. That was a prayer I said for both of our sakes.
~*~
June 12th
I pulled up to the gate and my heart immediately started to pitter-patter in my chest. He was there again. Tripp Martin, the beautiful boy of my dreams. I supposed he should be called a man because he was, but I knew he still had some growing into himself to do. Still, he was everything I wanted at first glance. Growing with him wouldn’t be a hardship.
There was always the chance that getting to really know him would ruin the fantasy, but I doubted it. He had to be a good person for my brother to grow so close to him.
“Hey, Kim. I thought Mack was headed out tonight?”
“I came to pick him up. We’re going out near Devil’s Spring on Tommy Baynard’s land for a party. My brother doesn’t want to risk his bike on that barely-there road he’s got.”
“So, he’s making you risk your ride instead?” He joked.
“Big brother prerogative, I guess.” I shrugged my shoulders and grinned along with Tripp while wishing I could lean out the window of my car and trace my finger over his bottom lip. That probably wouldn’t be enough. My lips would get jealous and need to test it out for themselves.
“They’re letting me out of here this weekend too.” I had to shake off my lusty daydreams as Tripp spoke. That was weird, normally if one of them had a night off the other one had to work. More often than not, both of them were working the same nights as well.
“Do you think y’all can hang back for another twenty minutes for my relief to show? I was headed to Tommy’s tonight, too. I hadn’t thought about what it would be like to take my Harley all the way out there, until you mentioned it, and now I really don’t want to.”
“Sure, we’ll wait for you!” I agreed, though probably a little excitedly. If I were a puppy, I’d be one of those hyper things that jumps and jumps and jumps until it has your attention and then it crashes at your feet because it used up all its energy too soon.
Tripp grinned and then had to point toward the parking lot to remind me that I was blocking the damn entrance and needed to get moving. Why was I always such a spaz around him?
I had only just thrown my car into park, after moving to an appropriate space alongside the fence, when Mack jumped into the passenger seat. “Ready to roll out, no need to throw it in park!”
“Well, be patient because we have to wait a few minutes.”
“What the hell do we need to wait a few minutes for? Is the car giving you trouble?”
“Nope,” I said while shaking my head and grinning like a lunatic. “Tripp asked if we could give him a ride to Tommy’s place. Apparently, he wasn’t thinking about the rough road into the property and when I pointed out why I was picking you up…”
“I get it, Kim. You talked your way into making sure you’re driving him there.” Mack chuckled and shook his head at me as if he couldn’t believe how crafty I was.
“I didn’t know he was going. Figured if you had the night off, then he would have to work.”
