and heaved myself off the stool at the door. It’d been a quiet fuckin’ night. One near fist fight over a girl, but they’d all been pussies, and I’d thrown them out without incident. That’d been it, so far.
I headed into the bar trailing Mitch, and I didn’t know what I would find. I can tell you, the absolute last thing I expected to find was the reluctant blonde, Aspen, drunk as fuck in a back-corner booth.
I mean, she was gone.
It was pretty impressive, actually.
I slid into the booth with her and cupped her cheek.
“Hey!” I called out. “Hey, Aspen!”
“You know her?” Mitch asked.
“No, I just remembered the name for some reason. Not one you see very often.”
“Well, she’s the last one in here. You remember if she came with a friend?”
“Yeah, a brunette, L-something,” I answered absently as Aspen groaned.
“Shit, I’ll have Becca check the ladies’ room but looks like Aspen here got ditched.”
“Don’t bother. The bitch she came with probably got drunk and fucked off with one of these wannabe cowboys. Do me a favor and call my pops, have him bring the truck.”
“You sure?” Mitch asked with an incredulous scoff.
“I’m sure,” I said.
I leaned Aspen up against me and sighed. Wouldn’t be the first time I’d brought a drunk back to mine and my pop’s place to sleep it off, but it definitely was the first time I’d be bringing a woman as pretty as she was home with me.
It took my pops a good half an hour to get there, and he wasn’t happy about it.
“What the fuck?” he demanded, and I scowled up at him.
“Shut up and get the fuckin’ doors for me, old man.”
“I am not—”
“You ain’t doing shit except driving. I’ll handle the rest.”
He growled a rumbling noise of displeasure and I ignored him. I got her up, unsteady on her feet, groaning. It so wasn’t happening. I got my arm beneath her knees and lifted her just as she passed out again. She had some weight to her, and while I wouldn’t be able to do this forever, it was a straight shot to the front door and out to my dad’s truck where he’d parked it. Thankfully, he’d had the presence of mind to keep the passenger side pointed this direction. I went out, Mitch holding the front door for me, and put her right into the truck.
My pop’s closed the door when he knew she was clear and he wouldn’t bang into her.
“Hope like hell you know what you’re doing,” he said, and I nodded.
“Just drive, I’m right behind you.”
I waved at Mitch, who waved back, and I went over to my bike, mounting up.
The ride home was brisk, and when my dad pulled up, he did it right in front of the door, passenger side pointed the right way. He got out of the truck calling something or other out, but I couldn’t hear it over the bike. I shut it off.
“What?”
“I said, you clean that shit up! I’m going to bed!”
“Fuck,” I muttered.
Sure enough, I opened up the passenger door of his truck and the woman was an absolute mess. The vomit sweet and off-smelling, and I wondered if there was more than just alcohol at play here.
“Come on, darlin’,” I muttered and helped her stagger out onto the gravel driveway. “I gotcha.”
I helped her into the house, carried her up the stairs and sat her on the john in the upstairs bathroom. She was out of it.
I stripped her, got her cleaned up, helped her puke into the tub and spent the better part of an hour helping her into my room and into my bed where she would be more comfortable. Her clothes I put in the laundry across the hall. I got out some aspirin and a clean glass of water and put them on the bedside table for her. Finally, I wrote a long-ass note trying to cover all the bases and left that too.
I still had some proverbial miles before I could sleep, myself. I dragged my ass back downstairs and dealt with my dad’s truck, which wasn’t that bad seeing as she’d mostly nailed herself.
Finally, after all of that, I dragged myself in and onto my couch.
Tomorrow morning was going to be interesting. That was for sure.
Chapter One
Aspen…
I woke up, my head just splitting, and I didn’t know where I was. I sat up in unfamiliar clothes in an unfamiliar bed and looked around.