Over the Hills and Far Away (NOLA's Own #1) (16 page)

1. I hold my dick ’cause I want to.

2. I don’t put my face in a cunt I won’t put my baby in.

3. It ain’t like it’s special, so get over yourself. I don’t make noise when I whack off either.

After she came a few times and made me come, too, Camryn sighed, rolled off me, and lay next to me, panting. Granted, she had done most of the work, telling me she liked being on top best, so that was what I’d given her.

“Fucking awesome,” she said, gasping for breath.

I didn’t really have much to offer in the verbal department. Like always, I’d closed my eyes and dreamed it was my Baby Girl riding me. The fact that it wasn’t was what always gave me staying power. As cute and fresh as Camryn was, she wasn’t Kenna. She was sweet and funny, and yeah, I liked her more than the other chicks I’d fucked, but it wasn’t like she was anything that could compete with what I needed to find.

Rolling the condom off, I tied the end and tossed it on the floor.

“You need me to go?” she asked me when her breathing had gone back to normal.

Smirking at her, I asked, “What would you do if I said yes?”

She smirked right back. “I’d go.”

Looking in her eyes, I felt as though I had met her before. I just didn’t know from where. It was possible we’d met along the way, crossing paths at some point with these tours over the years. She had known my name.

But who the fuck doesn’t?

“No commitment,” I said.

“None.”

“No whiny, bitchy possessive crap.”

“Nope.”

“Just friends and some fuckin’ good sex?”

She cocked an eyebrow at me. “Was that good for you?”

“It was,” I replied.
As good as it’ll ever be without my Baby Girl.

She nodded. “I can do that.”

“Then, you can stay.”

Kenna

To celebrate the end of our first week as a practicing clinic, Gavin, Frank, Alys, Lili, Lucy, and I all went out for dinner at Sushi Point.

Lucy Travers, our receptionist, was a sweet, delicate, soft-spoken twenty-eight-year-old. Blonde with warm light-brown eyes, she was adorable. Extremely respectful, she absolutely could not
call me anything other than Dr. MacGregor, not even when we were out to dinner with friends.

Frank was Gavin’s brother and looked like him. Short, stocky, and bald, at first glance, one might think they were twins, but Frank was three years older than Gavin. He owned a painting company. Watching the two of them was like a live viewing of
A Night at the Roxbury
.

“So, Lucy, tell us a little about yourself,” prompted Gavin after his third cup of sake.

“Oh, um…” Lucy turned an attractive pink.

“Do we scare you?” I asked, laughing.

Turning a darker shade, she replied, “Maybe a little bit.”

“Don’t be,” said Gavin, smiling warmly. “Seriously, we’re harmless.”

“Do you have your own place or…” I asked, genuinely curious.

“I still live with my parents. My sister, Rachel, and I both do. They prefer us at home. They think we’re safer somehow.”

Yeah, that figures.

“Bummer,” Frank grunted. “Me ’n’ Gavin still live together, but we threw our parents out a long-ass time ago.”

We all cracked up, except for Lucy.

“You threw your parents out of their house?” she squeaked, looking extremely shocked and bothered.

Dumbfounded, Frank replied, “Um, no. I was, uh, just joking, Lucy.”

“Oh. Okay.”

Lili turned to face me, her eyes wide with awe, and mouthed,
Wow.

Yeah, Lucy might have been a bit too sheltered for our unruly bunch. Either that, or we just made her so nervous that she couldn’t grasp sarcasm. She wasn’t a stupid person. I knew this because I’d hired her as my receptionist.

“What sort of music do you listen to?” I asked.

“I listen to a lot of different stuff. Mostly country though. My parents love Garth Brooks, Faith Hill, the Dixie Chicks—that sort of thing,” she replied, instantly losing my interest.

I fucking hated country music. If she started playing that garbage in my clinic, she and I would have some words.

“Faith Hill is kinda hot,” said Frank.

Thanks, buddy
.

Full to bursting, we ordered dessert anyway—little fried dumplings and doughnuts and balls of deep-fried green tea ice cream with red bean sauce.

“I think I’m going to vomit,” groaned Lili, rubbing her little pot belly.

After paying the tab with the company credit card—given to us by Rita, who had bestowed us her blessing to charge tonight’s dinner on it—we all waddled ourselves to the front exit.

Gavin gave me a one-armed squeeze. “This was fun, girl. We should do it again—so long as Rita’s paying, that is. Shame she couldn’t join us. Nutjob she is, she’d have made Lucy pass out with
her
stories.”

Rita was a self-proclaimed exhibitionist. Bisexual, she’d had numerous affairs going with both men and women. Rita called herself a slut and proud of it, too. She worked hard and played even harder. She would’ve had Lucy clutching the tiny gold cross that hung around her slender neck, praying for a young priest and an old priest in no time.

“Yeah, maybe we should warn the poor girl,” I suggested, watching her smooth down her fluffy white angora cardigan. “Rita’s a bit of a handful.”

“I wouldn’t mind getting my hands on Rita,” said Frank. “A bit bony, but she seems spirited.”

Gavin and I lost it.

Leave it to fucking Frank to find something worth getting his hands on.

Lucy dutifully headed for home while Gavin and Frank tried to convince Lili, Alys, and I to go out dancing at the clubs. We really weren’t the clubbing type.

“Aw, come on! We have every reason to dance our asses off!” wheedled Gavin.

“See you on Monday, Roxbury!” I called out before ducking into Alys’s brand-new silver SUV.

We waited until we watched Frank pulling his truck out of the lot before sparking up a fat bowl.

“Oh my God, I needed this,” said Lili. “My poor tummy. I might just have to take a shit.”

“You want to head home?” I asked. “I was hoping for a few more drinks.”

“Let’s go to Bougainvillea. It’s Friday, so good bands,” Alys mentioned.

“I can’t. I’ll poop. The heavy sounds will move my bowels,” Lili informed us from the backseat. “What about Alabama Jack’s? We can have a few beers and play pool, and I’ll be able to hold it in until we head home.”

Alabama Jack’s was a great place if we wanted to pick up some hairy bikers. The crowd was a bit older, but the music was classic rock, and we were totally cool with that. Plus, it was fun to flirt with the old guys. They knew nothing was going to happen. There was nothing wrong with getting the old ego boosted.

Located off the long stretch between NOLA and LaPlace, it was surrounded by swampy thick foliage. It looked a little seedy, but it was a pretty safe place. The parking lot was dirt and gravel, and there was a wraparound porch where people liked to sit, play checkers, and drink Budweiser.

When we got there, the same old crowd that was always there greeted us. Several of the old guys whistled and waved at us, and we waved and smiled back.

Good times.

It was dimly lit inside with a huge rectangular bar lined with barstools. The bartender station sat inside the boxed area. Old photos and memorabilia crowded the wooden walls, lending a homey sort of warmth. The smell was heavy with cigarette smoke and old beer, but it only took a few minutes not to notice it anymore.

Several empty stools at the far end of the bar beckoned, and we parked ourselves before ordering bottles of beer and shots of Jägermeister.

“I can’t believe it—Dr. MacGregor!” crowed Alys. “Is it me or have the years just blown by us?”

“I’m pretty shocked that we made it already,” I agreed.

Lili passed around the shots and beer chasers, and we threw them back with grimaces and grunts of disgust.

Hate the taste. Love the feeling.
That was the gist of Jäger.

Warm, fuzzy, and just so happy that the three of us were where we were in life, for the first time in a long time, I felt that I could just let go. In all honesty, I thought I’d had lost my true self these past few years—and on purpose, too. By focusing hardcore on what I’d needed to do, I hadn’t thought about anything else. I hadn’t had to
feel
. The part of me that had lain dormant for the last five plus years was starting to wake up. I was feeling…exhilarated.

I set my empty beer bottle down on the bar.

The bartender set down a fresh one. “From the guy over there.” He smiled and pointed across the bar.

My eyes followed the finger and landed on—

Oh my gods above
.

He had to be one of the hottest men in existence.

He waved his own bottle of beer at me, and I couldn’t help but smile in return. He stood up—
Oh! He’s taller than I am!—
and headed over.

Both Alys and Lili were ogling him, too. It was easy to see why. The guy had shaggy shoulder-length black hair, a really,
really
well-maintained physique, and a face that would make angels weep with high cheekbones, gorgeous lips, level brows with a natural clean arch to them.

“Hi,” he said, standing next to me. “Can I join you?”

“Yeah,” I breathed.

His smile was quite literally
breathtaking.
His teeth were all white and healthy-looking.

Since Lili was sitting between Alys and me, the stool to my left was vacant, and his sweet ass plopped down on it. Wearing a short-sleeved gray T-shirt, showing off heavily tattooed strong arms, and a pair of well-worn jeans that hugged him in all the right places, he was drop-dead fucking gorgeous.

“I’m Brian.”

And I’m fucking enchanted!

“Kenna,” I replied, smiling. I seriously couldn’t help it. Something this good-looking just naturally induced happiness. My brain was fritzing into a pile of mush due to the surge of hormones that had been kept in check for the last five and a half years.

“That’s a pretty name,” he said, his voice a sweet, warm caramel drip.

Lili pointedly cleared her throat, and I had the overwhelming urge to slap her.

“Thanks. This is Lili and Alys,” I said, not even looking back at them.

Brian craned his neck to see them with bright hazel eyes, and he smiled. “Hi. Am I interrupting you guys?”

Oh, yes. And in a most welcome way.

“Nope,” said Alys. “Lili and I were just heading over to the pool tables.”

“But—” Lili started to protest.

I heard Alys whack her on some various body part.

I grinned at Brian.

For the next two hours, I discovered that this demigod of a man, Brian Murray, was a paramedic. He was twenty-six years old, originally hailed from Boston, and was a diehard heavy metal fan. He lived alone with an English bulldog named Bubba, loved watching
Shark Week
, and had a mild obsession with dirt-biking. He enjoyed cooking, and his favorite food was guacamole.

Sitting here with this amazing, smart, hilarious, beautiful man, it really hit home that I hadn’t had sex since my senior year of high school—as in, Jaime, my one and only boyfriend, whom I’d shared a lonely sex relapse with on Valentine’s Day.

Six fucking years ago!

It was about time to rectify that unfortunate circumstance, and Brian was a prime specimen to do that rectifying with.

For the love of
all that is holy…

It wasn’t like Phil fucking Deveraux was anywhere in my fucking time zone.

Reaching out, Brian tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear. “So…you wanna get out of here?”

Two hours of getting to know this man was enough for me.

“Yeah, I think I do,” I replied, feeling way bolder than I normally did, thanks to the copious amounts of liquid courage coursing through my veins. “I’m going to let my girls know I’m heading out, okay?”

He smiled, and I thought my uterus danced a bit of a jig.

“I’ll take care of the tab,” he said.

Alys was kicking some serious ass at pool against a bearded heavy-set man with two nose rings.

“I’m, uh…” I said, looking at my two best friends, suddenly feeling nervous. “I’m going to go home with that dude tonight.”

Alys beamed from ear to ear. Lili threw me a dirty look.

“What?” I asked my pocket-sized spitfire, already knowing where this was headed.

“Don’t listen to her,” said Alys.

“Lili, have you seen that guy? I haven’t had sex since Jaime. From what I hear, if you don’t use it, you lose it.”

Alys chortled.

Lili sagged a little. “Yeah, all right. Just don’t, you know…”

“Not really, no.”

“Phil’s coming home for you,” she said, getting right to the point.

“In case you haven’t noticed, Lili, Phil hasn’t made a move in more than five years
.
If I keep this up, you’re going to have to start buying me cats. I’m not waiting anymore for something that’s never going to happen. Brian is gorgeous, and to be honest, it’s just sex. I need to get laid.”

“Everybody deserves to get laid,” said the bearded dude.

“Thanks, man.”
Beard Dude has my back.
“I’ll see you guys tomorrow, yeah?”