Slate (Breaking the Declan Brothers #2)

SLATE

Breaking the Declan Brothers

Published by Kelly Gendron

Copyright ©
2015 Kelly Gendron

All rights reserved

Edited by: J Sims

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations used in reviews.

My eyelids slowly descend, body tingling all over; my muscles drop, and my skin starts to itch. Fucking finally, those damn hydros I popped are kickin’ in. I settle into the chair and rest my head against the wall. Just as I’m about to give into the high, I hear a sweet little voice.

“Hey. What happened?”

Lids heavy, as if someone’s holding them down, I struggle to open my eyes. I find a blue-eyed, blond-haired girl standing in front of me in a t-shirt with a glittery butterfly on it. She’s five, maybe six. I stare at her, unsure if she’s real or just a drug-induced figment of my imagination.

“What happened,” she asks again, pointing her tiny finger at me. “Right there?”

Not needing to look at what she’s referring to, I smile. “I was kissed by the devil.”

“Huh.” She rests her hands on her hips. “That devil, he must really like you. He sure did kiss you a lot.” Her face scrunches up as if she smelled something raunchy. “It’s ugly.”

Gotta love kids. They always speak the truth. “Yeah, it sure ain’t pretty,” I agree.

“Nah, I wouldn’t worry about it.” She waves a hand at me. “My momma says that no matter what, she’ll always love me.”

I gaze down at her through weighted lids. “Well, kid, I ain’t got no momma.”

“What about a wife?” She tilts her head. “Got one of those, they’re supposed to love you no matter what, too.”

“Nope, ain’t got one of those either.”

“Uh-oh, mister.” Her eyes go wide. “What are you gonna do,” she says as though I’m just too damn ugly for anyone to love. Hell, not only is she honest, but the little shit’s smart, too.

I grin down at her. “Well, I guess I’m just gonna have to keep hanging out with that devil, now ain’t I.”

“No way, mister. I wouldn’t, not if he’s gonna keep kissin’ ya like that.”

I laugh, hearing the girl’s mother calling after her. The girl offers me a short wave then she turns and runs over to the mother who’s gonna love her no matter what. I chuckle again, lower my heavy lids, and finally give in to the effects of the hydros.

“Damn, girl.” I whistle as Emmie comes down the stairs in a pair of red heels, tight black skinny jeans, and an even tighter off-the-shoulder black shirt. “You look like Olivia Newton-John in
Grease
. Well, without those big seventies curls.” I laugh. “Remember that song, what was it?” I turn to Lurlene for a little help.

“Never saw it.” She shrugs, not bothering to pull her eyes from the book she’s reading.

“What!” Emmie and I say in unison. Granted, the girl’s a couple years younger than we are, but really, who hasn’t seen
Grease
?

“You’re the one that I want...Oo-oo-oo, honey...” I snap my fingers. “That’s it!”

Lurlene scrunches a freckled nose at me as if there’s something wrong with me for knowing the song from one of the best movies ever. Then she flashes her emerald eyes at Emmie. “So, what’s in the bag?”

“Wait.” I hold up my hand, ready to move on from the ever so serious Lurlene to mess with my longtime friend, Emmie. “I know,” I say glancing at the pink gift bag. “It’s your heart, isn’t it? You’re finally handing it over to Jax Declan, aren’t you?” I flick my brows at her and, as predicted, Emmie flips me off.

I love the girl. I’ve known her since grade school. We’ve been through everything together—good times, bad times, and all-night crying times. She’s gorgeous, too. She’s one of those girls who—even in the morning without any makeup, hair all a mess—is still pretty. A lot of girls in high school couldn’t handle her
pretty
. I think they were jealous. Not me. When I look at Emmie, I see that girl who held my hair back while I puked my brains out at Brian Delaney’s barn party. I see the girl who fed me tissues and kept everyone away at my brother’s funeral. I see the girl who convinced me that I was good enough to get through college, and then gave me the push that I needed to leave Bayou Vista, Texas and pursue my dreams.

“No.” Emmie grabs her purse from the coffee table and slips it over her shoulder. “Thanks to you, Rayna, Jax Declan already has my damn heart.”

“Moi,” I say, placing a hand one my chest, dramatically batting my eyes.

“Yes, smartass, you,” she says, trying horribly to hold back a smile. “You’re the one who convinced us to come back here for the summer.”

“Yeah, she is.” Lurlene glances up from her book. “But you were supposed to break Jax Declan, not give him your heart,” she says with a grin.

I love Lurlene, too. She’s our reason. I haven’t known her as long as Emmie, but still, somehow, she fits perfectly in our friendship. I tend to stray over to the wild side, Emmie is the strong one, and Lurlene, she’s the logical one. She’s an English teacher. You’d think, me being a mediator, that I’d be the one to keep this trio in line. Honestly, it’s Lurlene. Sometimes, a mediator needs a little help too, and Lurlene is my go-to girl for that.

“Don’t start.” Emmie points at Lurlene. “I’ve seen you a few times with Zeke Declan. Have you broken him yet?” Her brow rises. “In case you forgot, you’re supposed to break that Declan brother.”

“I’m working on it.” Her eyes drift back down to the book. She’s been quiet about her progress when it comes to breaking Zeke Declan. That’s Lurlene, though. And you know those quiet ones; you gotta watch out for them.

“And, you, little Ms. Smartass…” Emmie turns to me, her long blond hair swinging along the way. “What about Slate?”

Oh boy, teasing her about Jax must’ve pissed her off. She hadn't brought up Slate since we saw him that night at his apartment when I talked Emmie into going to see Jax. It was a bad idea. We were drunk. Even from afar, seeing Slate broke my heart a little.

Me and my bad ideas are what brought us back to the Bayou for the summer, a place Emmie and I grew up. I thought it’d be fun to come back, see some old friends, and cause a bit of trouble. My sister keeps a place here, so it was nothing to jump on a plane. But during that night filled with too many glasses of wine, I also managed to drag the legendary Declan brothers into our summer fun with a challenge for each of us to break one of those reckless boys. I knew Emmie always had a thing for Jax Declan, so I threw that challenge at her, and it appears she’d succeeded. She might have fallen in love with her challenge, but Jax seems to have fallen hard, too. It’s in the man’s eyes whenever he looks at her.

Zeke is the youngest Declan brother. He’s a player, a good guy, but there’s no settling down for that boy. If you want to sleep with him, well, then he has rules—four of them, to be exact. Rule number one; don’t call him, he’ll call you, two; he doesn’t date, three; no sleepovers, and rule number four, absolutely no virgins. So, of course, I handed him over to the virgin, Lurlene. Don’t let the virgin part throw you off; she’s more experienced than she lets on. She’ll do it. I’m confident that she’ll break that Declan brother.

Now, Slate Declan, he’s all mine. He’s been mine since the second grade. And six years ago, he broke my heart, smashed it to smithereens. So, that Declan brother is all mine to break, and I plan to shatter his ass.

“Oh, believe me, when I see Slate Declan, it’ll be an instant break,” I say, and struggle to keep the doubt from quivering in every word.

“Yeah, that’s what you keep saying,” Emmie says with a knowing smirk. “Well, I’m heading to JZS. I’ll see you guys when you get there.” She starts for the door, stops, and glances over her shoulder. “Ya never know, maybe Slate will be there tonight.”

“Maybe.” I grin at her. She knows our history. She knows that it’s going to kill me to see Slate Declan, but it’s going to happen. It has to.

“You can do it girl.” She winks before heading out the door.

The door clicks shut. Lurlene sets her book down on the sofa and looks up at me. “You really cared about this guy, huh?”

I turn to her. “We dated for almost five years. He was my first everything—first love, first lay, first heartbreak.” I take a deep breath, hugging a throw pillow. “But that was years ago.” I sit up straight. “I’m over him.”

Lurlene’s eyes squint up at me. “You sure about that?”

“I have to be. After what he did to me, there’ll never be an ‘us’ again.”

“Gathie.” I knock on the door a little harder. “Gath, open up.”

“No!”

Fuck. I press my forehead against the door. I need to get high. It’s been hours. “Come on, Gathie girl.”

“Go away, Slate. I’m not lettin’ you in.”

“Okay. Just open the door so I can see ya, then. So I can talk to ya.”