The Forever Girl Read online

  Meeting her had brought me back from a dark fucking place, kept me out of jail. After I’d beat the shit out of the asshole that had screwed my wife and threatened to burn the place down where they worked together, my boys had taken me into the hills for a few days to calm down.

  A few bottles of Jack and a joint or two later and I’d come down off the mountain with a clear head and a ‘don’t give a fuck’ attitude. The semi nice guy who’d left here was back in the woods somewhere looking for his balls and in his place was the new Jackson Sparks. I went straight to the court and got shit started.

  Mom knew somebody whose daughter was a lawyer and she did the rest. I fucked the lawyer too, not gonna lie, but that was more a revenge thing. We weren’t in love or anything and she’d moved on same as I. I see her in town every now and then and before Casey I’d shot one off in her a time or two after the divorce.

  I hadn’t met Casey the same time I met her old man. She was away finishing school or some shit. But by chance she happened to stop into his office one day when we were there for one of his many meetings and I’ll never forget it, the way I felt when she walked into that room.

  The atmosphere had changed. There was a charge in the air, like static. I looked around to see if the others had felt it too, but they had gone back to looking over paperwork after the introductions were made. I seemed to be the only one who’d felt that zing.

  Then she’d looked at me as if she felt it too. She was doing the biting into her bottom lip shit that for some unknown reason made my cock hard, still does.

  I told myself I wasn’t interested. It only took one look at her to see what she was. The pampered daughter of a very rich man. Who had the fucking time? But she’d let me know by the end of that meeting that she was more than a little interested and I decided, what the fuck.

  She’d gone on and on about my ink, asking me a whole lot of questions that a blind man could see right through. I was a little surprised that she did that shit in front of her dad. I didn’t realize until later that it was because she has no guile she’s just that open. He wasn’t too happy with the shit, but what the fuck did I care? The papers were already signed and there wasn’t fuck he could do to me.

  At first I thought I’d fuck the little college girl and she’d just be another one in the long line of pussy I’d been hitting since the divorce, but she stuck. She wasn’t one of those that you could easily forget.

  She’d got it into her head that she wanted me and not even her daddy could sway her. I guess he’d taken her seriously when she picked up stakes and moved to be closer to me.

  He’d tried to buy me off in the beginning until I told him I’d break his fucking arm if he didn’t get the one with the check out of my face. Even if I wasn’t in love with his daughter, the fact that he would try to buy me off was sick. He’d started coming around when her hardheaded ass bought the condo and left his house. Now he and I were buds.

  He’d come around so much that he was finding us shit all over the country. I guess he wanted me to keep his daughter in the lifestyle he’d got her accustomed to. Now my guys and I had more work than we knew what to do with.

  Part of the appeal was the custom work we did in all our buildings. The moldings and kitchen cabinets were all one of a kind designs that the guys and I worked on in our shop.

  And to top shit off, Casey was putting her design degree to good use and had started outfitting the houses before we put them on the market. Now we had a waiting list a mile long. Even people who had their own established homes were hiring us to fix their shit.

  Thank fuck Casey liked all that business shit, because the little fixer upper deal the guys and I had started had turned into a full fledge business to the tune of a few million a year. It was more than enough for the four of us who hadn’t been expecting to clear more than a few hundred thousand at least. Just enough to keep food on the table and a roof over our heads.

  At this rate we could delegate and hire others to do the actual work, but we liked what we were doing too much to give it up. Besides, not one of us were into sitting behind a desk all day crunching numbers and reading spread sheets and shit.

  Chapter 4

  ***

  “Look who’s here. You plan on working today or you just gonna fuck around?” I gave Craig the finger and made my way inside. “Christine was here looking for you, she wasn’t too happy that you weren’t here.” Steve had followed me in.

  “What did she want? Is it my kids?”

  “She didn’t say but I don’t think so.” I put a call in to the school to check on my kids and once I was assured that they were okay I put my ex out of my mind, there wasn’t shit she could want with me that I had any interest in.

  I got to work on the cabinets and forgot about everything else, except Casey. How long before she got tired of the way things were? How many nights can I expect her to sleep alone while I went home to the house where my kids slept? Their lives have been kept almost as it was before the divorce and I was trying to keep it that way. I remember how I felt when my dad left and mom and I were on our own.

  I don’t want to put my kids through that shit but it was getting hard to see that look on her face each time I walked out the door. “I don’t know how you do it bro, I would’ve lost my shit a long time ago.” I knew what he was saying, and if not for the kids I probably would’ve shot my ex a long time ago too, but then again she wasn’t worth it.

  “I just pretend she doesn’t exist. What the fuck is she looking for me for anyway?” I heard an engine outside as I said the words.

  “I guess you can ask her yourself I think she just pulled up outside.”

  I didn’t stop what I was doing when I heard her voice heading my way. The guys still said hi and shit but they never had much to say to her. We’re a tight group and they know better than anyone what her fuck up had put me through. “Stay cool brother.” I nodded to acknowledge his words but said nothing.

  She came into the room and stood behind me as Steve was leaving. “What’s going on?” I didn’t turn and didn’t answer. “Jackson I’m talking to you, I’m still your…” She cut herself off before I had to. She hasn’t been my anything for a long fucking time and we both knew it.

  If not for the judge taking pity on her and letting her stay in the house this long I wouldn’t even have to see her. I’d already worked it out to where my mom would take the kids to her house wherever she ended up, when it was her weekend with them. She wasn’t allowed anywhere near my home after her time was up and I had no interest in seeing her ass for the next thirteen years until my little girl turned eighteen.

  “Where were you?” Is she out of her fucking mind? I still ignored her ass. “If you bring another woman anywhere near my kids…” She took a quick step back when I turned my look of fury on her.

  “I’m not doing this here, in fact we’re not doing this at all. You have no say in what the fuck I do. If I, want to have ten women in my bed that’s my choice. Don’t forget who the fuck you’re talking to.”

  “We’ll just see about that when I tell the judge…” I had to laugh at that. Was this the levelheaded woman I’d married? Or had she hit her head while I was away? Her ass hasn’t made sense since the night I confronted her with her adultery bullshit.

  “What? What are you going to tell the judge? That you lost custody and I’m a free man, free to do who or what I want?” I think she really had lost her mind in the last few months. Ever since she found herself crawling into my bed in the middle of the night and I kicked her ass out, literally. I’d warned her then that if she ever tried that shit again I’d throw her out on her ass judge or no judge.

  It’s like she had a sixth sense or some fuck because the night she’d done that shit had been the first time I’d taken Casey to bed. The guys and I had gone to see her dad about something or other. It was only a few weeks after we’d met for the first time.

  I knew by then that she was interested but I was still feeling a little raw over th
e break up of my marriage and the only time I even looked at anything female was when I wanted a quick fuck.

  She was the daughter of the man who was going to bring me, and my guys a whole lot of fucking money and I didn’t want to muddy the waters. But she was a persistent little thing and before I knew it, we were at a bar celebrating another new contract deal her dad had set up. The guys went back to the hotel early and she and I ended up back in my hotel room.

  The sex was good, okay better than good. Her pussy was tight as fuck and she was just what I liked in a woman. She was all sass and vinegar outside of bed, but in it, she let her man take the lead. She didn’t have that much experience, just some college kid she’d experimented with before daddy sent him packing. By the time I was finished with her she was hooked. We’d fucked all night and into the next day ‘til it was time for me to leave for home.

  I’d told her I would call. It was just something to say, I don’t know if I really intended to follow through, but damn if I didn’t get to missing her two days later and ended up making that call after all.

  We’ve been together ever since and I was pretty sure that as soon as I got this one out of my house I was going to ask her to marry me. Maybe Christine could sense that too, I couldn’t come up with any other reason for her acting this way now. I’ve been careful to keep my relationship hidden, not because of her, but because of my kids. Maybe I’ve been wrong.

  “The kids are expecting us to be a family. They keep asking me all these questions and I’m running out of excuses. Don’t you think it’s time we put this nonsense behind us for our kids sake?”

  I stopped what I was doing, put down the saw before I chopped her damn head off with it and looked at her. “You really want to do this here? Fine. I don’t want you. I can’t even stand to look at you. As for my kids, they’ll be fine. Unlike you I don’t lie to them so they know we’re never getting back together again. You have two weeks before you have to get the fuck out of my house and after that I don’t ever want to see your ass again.”

  “We have children together of course you’ll have to see me…”

  “No I don’t, don’t you get it? I don’t even have to pay you alimony, there’s no child support because I won custody. We have no more dealings with each other. By the way when you leave make sure you take everything with you because I’m burning anything you leave behind.”

  I went back to what I was doing, ignoring the fake ass tears in her eyes. There’s nothing she could ever say or do to make me forgive her and I don’t know what she thinks she’s going to gain from this little visit. How many ways can I tell her it’s over? Sometimes I think she does this shit just to get a rise out of me, just to get me to react.

  She wasn’t interested in our kids’ well being when she was hopping into bed with that asshole, now she wants to pretend she’s mother of the year.

  “Look, I made a mistake, I said I was sorry. Neither one of us have moved on doesn’t that tell you something? Maybe that we still love each other?” She made a move towards me and I sidestepped her nasty ass. I was afraid that if she actually did touch me I might knock her ass across the room. She just don’t get it.

  “Oh fuck!” That’s all I could say when I heard Casey’s voice outside. What was she doing here? This house wasn’t going to be ready for her touch for another few weeks at least. I don’t need this shit today but life didn’t seem to give a fuck what I wanted.

  I heard the tools outside slow down just before she cleared the door. She took in the scene with a glance and I saw the second she recognized my ex. I guess I couldn’t complain. It had taken six months for the proverbial run-in and that wasn’t easy in a town this size but we’d pulled it off.

  “Hello.” She greeted Christine with a smile that spelt trouble before making her way to me. She didn’t think twice about throwing her arms around my neck and laying one on me. I didn’t push her away, why should I? Instead I returned the kiss with my hands on her ass, which is where they always end up when we’re together like this.

  “What are you doing here sweetheart?” I said the words for her ears only, trying to curtail whatever this could possibly turn into before it did.

  “You forgot your wallet on the dresser, honey.” That ‘honey’, was very pointed and I was sure all for my ex’s benefit. The harsh intake of breath coming from behind us told me that Christine had more than got the message.

  “Thanks for the wallet baby.” I was about to rush her off but too late. She turned to look at Christine with her arms still around my neck. “You must be Christine, nice to finally meet you. Oh Jackson is something wrong with one of the kids?” She turned wide innocent eyes my way but she wasn’t fooling me a bit. I didn’t miss her implication that that should be the only reason for my ex being here.

  “No the kids are fine…” I started to explain before I was rudely interrupted, by a very annoyed, and pissed off woman. I sighed and prepared to play referee.

  “What do you know about my kids? Have you been near my kids?” Why the fuck is this my life? “Christine go away there’s nothing for you here.” Casey beamed at that and I pinched her side to keep her quiet.

  “I want to know if she’s ever been anywhere near my kids.” She took a step forward and I pushed Casey behind me and stepped into her space. “Leave now you don’t want to do this.” I was feeling mean enough to do something I’d been fighting not to for the better part of two years.

  We’d never had it out. I guess that was part of her problem. There were no screaming matches, no accusations. I’d heard from her mom who thought she was a dumb bitch for screwing around on me that she took that to mean I didn’t care about her. She was right. The second she threw those words about her affair in my face she was dead to me.

  I’d walked out the door and headed for the nearest bar. That’s where I’d ran into the asshole. That fucker had made some smartass remark about servicemen not being able to take care of their women and that’s when I’d laid his ass out. I wasn’t thinking or I would’ve found another bar, that one happened to be the one my bitch of an ex worked in and the asshole was her manager.

  “I will not leave. I will not let this…whatever, this bottled blonde bimbo wreck my family.” She was crying real tears now but that shit didn’t move me one bit. Casey looked ready to split nails with her teeth when I looked over my shoulder at her and I had to hold her back.

  “Jackson darling, were you really married to that?” Well shit! “Poor baby, lucky for you I came along and saved you from yourself. You can leave now Christine is it? We have something to discuss.” I never knew my ex to be a fighter. She’s one of those quiet types that don’t look like she could hurt a fly. Fucking demon! But she was doing her best to get around me to my girl.

  “You touch her swear to fuck I’ll drop you.” She went on about me protecting some other woman over the mother of my kids and a whole lot of other bullshit that made no sense. “Steve, get in here.” All three of the guys came running like they’d been listening in or some shit.

  “Get her out of here.” Steve reached for her arm but she shrugged him off. “So you’re going to throw me out? Just wait until the kids hear about this. Oh and about that two weeks thing, the holidays are around the corner, I bet the judge will let me stay on until after the New Year.” Pure spite was coming off her now.

  “That’s okay Jackson, you have full custody right, we can take the kids to my place in Aspen. It would be perfect.” I thought Christine would lose her shit for real then.

  “Stay out of this Casey.”

  “Excuse me?” Well shit. What the ever-loving fuck?

  “Yes stay out of this this is between me and my husband. Did he tell you he still sleeps in our bed?” I felt the cold air coming from behind me and wanted to strangle the fuck out of my ex. “Alone, I sleep in MY bed, alone.”

  “I’m sure I don’t care since you’ve told me to stay out of it. I’ll be going now, excuse me.” Well fuck! I know that tone. That’s her
butt hurt voice and not one of my favorite’s. This shit is gonna cost me. I let her go don’t ask me why. But I thought it best to deal with Christine’s shit once and for all.

  “Leave us alone guys.” I waited until they cleared the room after giving me warning looks, before turning back to her. She had a pleased fucking look on her face that if I didn’t hate her before would’ve made me hate her now.

  “I’ll say this only once. You have no say in my life. I don’t want you you are dead to me. In fact worse than that, it’s like you never existed.”

  “How can you say that? I gave you two kids.”

  “Yeah you did, but then you fucked up and there’s no going back. That woman that just walked out of here, she’s my future. She and my kids are all I care about. And that shit you just said about extending your stay, not gonna happen. I will burn the shit to the ground before I let that shit happen. Now get the fuck outta my face and stay gone.”

  She looked like I’d slapped her and I wondered when the fuck her screw up had become my fault. “You’ll be sorry you treated me like this.” She stormed off leaving me with a gut full of anger and beyond pissed that I’d hurt my girl.

  I didn’t trust her ass one bit so I decided to go pick my kids up from school. Of course today was half a day, that’s one of the reasons I was in such a hurry to leave Casey’s after our afternoon quickie. I liked being there to meet my kids when they got off the bus in the evening. Something their mom never did until this whole mess started. Now she looks for any excuse to invade my fucking space.

  She’d changed her work schedule so she could be home when they got home, or so she said. Rumor was the owner had done it after the scandal broke about her and the manager getting it on at night in the break room or some shit. Fuck if I care.