Unexpected Chance Read online

  We dated for a week and then I moved in with him. That whole week we dated, he plastered me with flowers and compliments, both which I’d never received before. But about a week after I moved in with him is when he started being possessive and abusive.

  I had been secretly stashing away tip money from the bar to get my own place. I dressed provocatively and said everything a man liked to hear, just to get better tips. Things had started to get really out of hand with Reno, and that’s when Chloe walked into the bar. I honestly think Chloe was a gift sent from my mother. Chloe herself was in a really bad place in her life; well, as bad as a doctor’s life can be. That poor girl, I can relate to how she must have felt when she was kidnapped, but in truth I really don’t. I was allowed to leave and come and go as I pleased as long as Reno knew exactly where I was, and I was at his beck and call.

  Reno was drunk, and I’m sure high on something, when one night he went too far. Once he started hitting me, it was like he wasn’t in control of himself anymore and he just couldn’t stop.

  After Reno passed out, I didn’t know who to call. Max was still dealing with Chloe when I thought about Levi. Max has two other employees that work for him, and when Max wasn’t following Chloe, one of his two men were. Thank God Levi gave me his phone number in case something happened while I was working in the bar with Chloe.

  Levi didn’t hesitate to come get me when I called him. He took me back to Max’s PI firm, and then, even though I asked him not to, he called Max. I hated having Max and Chloe see me like that. Chloe slept on a little bed with me in the safe room the remainder of the night. Max offered me a job as his receptionist, I still had my scholarship. Chloe suggested to Ava that I move into the condo when Chloe moved out, because she and Max had gotten married. Max ran Reno out of town, and I finally had my life back. For the first time since I was ten, I felt free.

  But Reno came back. I didn’t want to burden Max or Chloe again, or any of the Wellington’s. They’re all so happy and finally have their own lives all figured out, so I quit working for Max. I didn’t want to put any of them in jeopardy. I started picking up more shifts at the bar when I wasn’t in school to cover my rent to Ava. I withdrew myself as much as I could from the Wellington family, which hurt like a son of a bitch. I love that family more than my own life.

  Reno started following me again, and when I went in to get my check, he stood by my side with a knife and said I needed to come with him. But I was supposed to be in Ava’s wedding, and that’s exactly what I told him. Then the tip of his knife went into my side and I knew he wasn’t messing around. I took my paycheck from Gary, and we left. Reno took me to the bank and made me cash my check. He took my money, purchased some drugs, and then he took me to some house that I’ve never been to before. After a few hours, he decided he needed a beer and he made me drive him back to Deuces. That’s when another possessive frenzy started. I had been passing Gary concerning looks all night, but the bar was slammed and he didn’t notice. Reno was about to pass out in his beer when I took the chance and tried to leave the bar. I quietly slid off my stool and headed toward the entrance. That’s when he grabbed me by my hair and pulled me downward and hit me in the eye with his palm. We got looks from people in the bar, but he told them that I was just drunk and he was taking me home. About a foot from the door, his grip tightened and he threw me into the heavy wooden door. That’s when I got the cut under my eye. He walked up behind me and shoved me against the door. I’d never seen him so out of control before. I was honestly scared for my life. He pulled me off the door, then opened it, and threw me out like I was trash.

  And that leads me to sitting in my own car in the passenger seat with a busted cheek and a black eye. Aiden’s hand comes into my vision, and I place my hand in his as he helps me out of the car. He doesn’t let go of my hand the entire way into the emergency room. We stand in line at the registration window, and it’s then that I really need to tell him the truth.

  “Um, Aiden, I don’t actually have medical insurance,” I whisper.

  He looks down at me, and if I could I’d disappear into the floor. Where’s Alice in Wonderland when you need her?

  “Aiden. Hey there my friend, what are you doing here? You and Kyle get out of hand or something?” A very handsome man wearing a doctor’s coat says, coming up to Aiden, shaking his hand.

  “Spencer, hey man. No. Kyle and I are good. Amelia would kick my ass if I laid a hand on him. My friend here, Savvy, is in need of some medical assistance. We’re not going to be able to fill out any paperwork, but I can pay out of pocket,” he tells him.

  “No . . .” I start to say, but Aiden takes my hand and threads his fingers in mine.

  “Next,” a large, burly woman yells from behind the glass. That’s us.

  Aiden’s friend looks at the woman and says, “That’s alright. I’ve got this one, Susan.”

  We walk to a set of large doors, Spencer swipes his badge over a security box and they open. We walk to an open bed, and then he closes the curtain around us.

  “Hi, I’m Spencer Matthews. I’m sorry I have to ask you this question, but did someone do this to you?” he asks, looking towards Aiden. Oh my God, he thinks Aiden hurt me.

  “No, I, uh, I walked into a door,” I say.

  Right, that has to be the dumbest clichéd excuse of all time. It’s partly true. I didn’t walk into a door. I was thrown. But six of one, half a dozen of the other, same thing, right? Dr. Matthews looks over at Aiden with a scowl.

  “It was an altercation at the bar she works at. This is Chloe and Ava’s friend, Savvy. Are you seriously going to look at me like I could ever do this to a woman,” Aiden says, aggravated.

  “I’m sorry, Aiden, I had to ask. I do know that you’d never do this, but I needed to hear it from her,” he says, looking at me.

  “God, no, it wasn’t Aiden. It was just a patron at the bar. I’m not sure who it was, they threw him out of the bar before I could get a good look at him,” I partially lie again.

  “Alright, we’ll just get you all cleaned up with a few stitches. The black eye doesn’t look like anything serious. You’ll have a nice shiner for about a week, though,” he says, getting out some supplies. “Was there anything else besides this cut and the eye?” he asks.

  Actually, there is, but I’m not going to tell him about that.

  “No, just those, that’s it,” I lie again. When did I become such a good liar? I’m the queen at lying to myself, but I don’t lie to others.

  Dr. Matthews gets to work. He has such gentle hands, it didn’t hurt at all. In less than thirty minutes, and five stitches later, I’m back in the passenger seat of Ruby. Aiden is again driving, I’m assuming he’s being true to his word to Max, and he’s driving back to his house.

  Chapter 2

  Aiden

  I pull into the driveway at my house, push the button to open the garage door, and pull in next to my car. I almost feel like I need to apologize to my own vehicle for pulling this disgrace of a clunker up next to her. I get out, walk around to the passenger side, and help Savvy out of her seat. She stands up, then whistles between her teeth looking at my car

  “What kind of car is this?” she asks, wide-eyed.

  “This is a Tesla Roadster. She’ll go zero to sixty in three point seven seconds,” I say with a proud smile.

  “What’d you name her?” she asks.

  “What did I what?” I ask, confused.

  “What did you name her, the car, what did you name her?” she asks again.

  “She doesn’t have a name. It’s just a Tesla,” I reply, hitting the garage door button on the wall so it’ll close.

  “Just a car! Are you crazy? What’s the paint color called?” she asks.

  “Lightning green,” I answer, not sure where she’s going with this.

  “Let me think for a minute,” she says, following behind me. I open the door that leads into the hallway into my house. “Well, I can only think of The Green Lantern, and that’s a
man. Your car’s a girl, so that just won’t work. Oh, I’ve got it! How about calling her Jade? That’s a pretty name, isn’t it?” she asks.

  I flip on the kitchen lights and set my keys on the counter. “My car doesn’t have a name, and it’s staying that way,” I answer her.

  “Well, maybe to you it doesn’t have a name, but to me and Ruby it does. I think Jade and Ruby will get along nicely in there, don’t you think?” she asks.

  I bite my tongue and look in the refrigerator. I’d really like a beer, but it’s two o’clock in the morning. I close the refrigerator and stand in front of the island where Savvy has perched herself on one of the stools. She looks around the kitchen and whistles between her teeth, again.

  “Hey, you wouldn’t happen to have any gum would you?” she asks. Now that’s one thing I remember about her. She’s always smacking gum between her teeth. That’s enough to drive a man to drink.

  “No, I don’t chew gum. I’ll just go get you a t-shirt that you can change into for the night. Give me your clothes when you’re done, I’ll throw them in the washing machine. You’ve got some blood on your shirt.”

  I walk into my bedroom, open a drawer, and pull out an old t-shirt for her. She’s pretty short; it should be just fine for her. I walk back out into the family room and find Savvy looking at pictures on the wall.

  “You have such an amazing family,” she says, touching the last group family picture we took just before my dad died.

  She wipes a tear from her cheek, turns around, and takes the t-shirt. I point to the bathroom and she slowly walks down the hall, stopping to look at each picture on the wall. When she gets to the bathroom, she doesn’t close the door all the way, and I can see her stripping out of her clothes. I know I shouldn’t be looking, but it’s damn hard to take my eyes off of her. She’s a stunning woman. She’s wearing a bright orange bra and matching panties. That’s not something I expected her to be wearing. Somehow I expected them to be red like her car.

  She takes all of her clothes off even her panties then puts on my shirt. Oh, fuck me. She comes out of the bathroom, walks straight to me and puts her clothes in my hands. She takes a seat on the couch, picks up the remote like she’s done it a hundred times before, turns on the television and starts flipping through channels.

  I go into the laundry room and take out a bottle of stain remover. I stand there with her shirt in one hand and the stain remover in the other hand, unable to think what I’m supposed to be doing. I shake my head, then dab some remover on the shoulder where the blood is. Just as I’m about to throw it into the washing machine, I spot a hole in the side of the shirt. I take a closer look and see blood there too. What the fuck? How did the blood from her cheek get all the way down the side of her shirt? Then it hits me. She has another injury, and she didn’t tell anyone. I throw it all in the washing machine and turn it on. I go into my bedroom again and grab a pair of boxers. They’ll be big on her, but they’ll have to do.

  I walk over to the couch and hold them out for her. She’s engrossed in the television show she’s found, and doesn’t see me.

  “Savvy,” I call.

  “Hmmm,” she answers, cocking her head my way, but she doesn’t take her eyes off the television.

  “Put these on,” I say, holding my boxers out toward her.

  She looks at me, and then she looks at the underwear in my hands. “Why? I don’t sleep in underwear,” she replies, looking back at the television.

  Fuck me is right.

  “Alright, I’ll tell you like it is. You can either take these, go in the bathroom and put them on, then show me your side, or, you can lift your shirt as you are and show me your side. And let me remind you that I know you aren’t wearing any underwear. Either way, you’re showing me your side,” I say, holding out the underwear again.

  She inhales a breath probably ready to lie to me, then thinks better of it. She exhales and takes the boxers. She rolls her eyes, then slips them on under the shirt without even getting off the couch.

  “Happy now?” she asks, going back to watch television.

  “Side,” I say.

  “It’s nothing, really. You know what, I’m actually really tired. Am I sleeping on the couch?” she asks.

  “No, I have a guest bedroom, you’re sleeping in there,” I say, pointing down the hall.

  “Oh, good. I’ll see you in the morning. Do you have eggs and bacon in the refrigerator? I’ll cook you Sunday breakfast. Ok, See you tomorrow morning,” she says in one big breath. Then she quickly walks down the hall.

  I follow behind her as she walks to a closed door. She points to it, silently asking if this is the guest room. I shake my head no, and open the door next to it.

  “Thank you, I’ll see you in the morning,” she says. She rolls up on her toes and kisses me on the cheek. She quickly turns around and closes the door.

  I shake my head wondering just how she managed to get away with not showing me what I wanted. I should knock on the door and make her show me, it could be serious. No, I should just barge in there and make her show me. Forget it. I take one step backward, ready to turn around and head back into the family room, but the door opens suddenly and she takes a step out into the hallway.

  “Aiden,” she calls. “Oh, shit, you scared me! I thought you’d be down the hall by now,” she says, abruptly stopping. She takes a step back, then rests her head on the side of the door and continues, “Thank you for today.” Without another word, she smiles then closes the door again.

  I park myself on my couch and get sucked into whatever show she was watching, while I wait for the washer to finish. I’ll at least put the clothes in the dryer and start it, and then I’m going to bed.

  At three thirty in the morning, I climb into bed and laugh to myself about my whole day. My sister got married in the courthouse she got shot in and technically died in. I almost got into a fight outside a bar. I took a woman to the hospital. I was then indirectly accused of hitting her by a friend, and now she’s in my guest bedroom sleeping in my t-shirt and boxers. There are orange panties and an orange bra among other women’s clothing in my dryer, and she’s making me eggs and bacon in the morning. She named my car Jade, and her car, Ruby, is sitting in my garage keeping Jade company. Can someone please tell me how this all happened to me today?

  The warm morning sun on my face coming in through my curtains wakes me. I look at the clock on my nightstand. It reads six thirty, and I think to myself about what I’m going to do today, when a pair of arms resting over my chest distracts me from what mundane thing I could have possibly thought of to do. I turn my head and look at Savvy sleeping soundly. Her beautiful blonde hair is resting over her face, and it doesn’t help the morning wood I’m already sporting. Her body is pressed to my side, and her right leg is thrown over my left. The t-shirt I gave her to wear last night is hiked up to her ribs. That’s when I see the dried blood on her side. It’s what she didn’t want to show me last night. I don’t know how she got it, but my blood boils. Reno is a fucking asshole. Savvy is such a sweet and beautiful woman. How could anyone treat another human being like that? How could anyone treat Savvy like that?

  My eyes travel back up to her face, her stunning green eyes are staring back into mine. “Good morning,” I say.

  “Good morning. I couldn’t sleep last night, and I got scared. I hope you don’t mind that I crawled in bed with you,” she says, rubbing her hand up and down my arm.

  My eyes follow her hand up and down my arm. On an upward stroke her hand continues upward to my face. She rubs the stubble on my cheek, then her thumb comes to my lips. She gently caresses my lips back and forth . . . then she slides her body up and her warm mouth comes to mine.

  “Aiden?” she questions bringing me out of my fantasy.

  The second her fingers touched my lips I lost my mind and wanted nothing more than for her to kiss me, and for me to kiss her back, but that’s not what happened. My eyes come to hers and I look at her lust filled, questioning fa
ce. The cut below her eye looks like it will heal nicely, but her black eye looks like it hurts. She was just hurt by another man and now she’s in my bed and I’m imagining kissing her. She doesn’t need that right now.

  “I’ll just go turn the dryer back on so your clothes aren’t wrinkled,” I say, getting out of bed, ruining the moment.

  She has a hurt look on her face and I’m sure she’ll want to get the heck out of here now. Dumb, dumb, dumb, incredibly dumb, she said she was going to make me breakfast. When’s the last time you had a woman in your kitchen wearing your t-shirt cooking you breakfast, Einstein? Too fucking long ago, that’s how long.

  “I’ll start breakfast while you do that,” she says, surprising me.

  She scoots out of bed, the t-shirt falls down covering her to her thighs. She lifts up the right corner of the shirt and pulls a wedgie out of the crack of her ass, which exposes the bottom of her right butt cheek. I lick my lips as she turns around and offers a sly smile.

  I go turn on the dryer and then check my phone. There’s already a text from Max asking me to keep Savvy today and to bring her to Sunday dinner tonight. He and Chloe will take Savvy home with them tonight and Max will bring her to work with him Monday morning. The smell of bacon distracts me. I head into the kitchen and find Savvy standing at my stove manning bacon. My breath catches in my throat. She’s stunningly beautiful, her sexy bare legs and the glow from the sun shining through the t-shirt expose her sexy curves underneath. She looks like an angel in my kitchen, an angel wielding kitchen tongs, cooking bacon.

  “Hey sugar, could you get some paper towels and line a plate for me? The bacon is almost ready,” she says.

  She must be feeling a little better, her colorful wording is coming out. I smile and do as she asks. I start some coffee and sit at the table, then watch her move around my kitchen. She plates two dishes and sets one in front of me and another across the table. She goes to the coffee pot and pours two cups, then sets those down.