I didn’t even get a knock in before the door was wrenched open and Audrey was staring at me with an accusing glare on her face. “What are you doing here?”
I held my grin in check. If she saw it, she’d narrow those fucking eyes and then my dick would start to fill with blood.
There was just something about the woman’s anger that really got my crank turning.
“I’m here to ask if you wanted to go to a concealed carry class,” I said by way of explanation.
Her mouth pursed. “Why would I want to do that?”
I didn’t answer with the obvious, ‘you are a scared rabbit who won’t even leave your brother’s house’, but chose to say, “You need to learn to protect yourself,” instead. “And I’m holding the class.”
She grunted. “How much does it cost?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I think it’s free.”
It wasn’t free. I’d already paid for her, in a way. Technically, as an instructor, I wasn’t allowed to hold ‘free’ classes.
But she didn’t need to know that I shelled out a hundred bucks to hold her spot. That was my next argument I would try if she said no. But she surprised me by nodding. “Okay.”
Too easy.
Way too easy.
But I’d take it.
“Do you have a gun?” I asked.
She tilted her head like I’d just asked her a question in a foreign language.
Sure, I knew other languages, but I didn’t ask her anything too crazy.
“You’re serious?” she asked me.
I nodded once.
She shrugged.
I faltered. “Have you ever shot a gun?”
She shrugged again.
I started to get a bad feeling about this.
“Come on,” I gestured. “Make sure you bring your ID.”
She did, picking up a purse that looked like it was five sizes too big for her body.
“You got a jacket?”
She stopped, turned around, and grabbed a large, puffy, pink monstrosity.
I held my tongue.
“Where is this at?” she asked.
I gestured to my truck. “My place.”
Her brows rose. “You bring people to your house to teach them to shoot stuff?”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
She pursed her lips.
“Who are you?”
I grinned.
“Let’s go,” I said, conveniently not answering her.
Chapter 2
Never give up on your dreams, you stupid crybaby pussy.
- Words of wisdom from your best friend
Tobias
I was in a truck. With the one woman who I just couldn’t tell whether she hated me or liked me.
I was taking her to my house.
I was practically forcing her to go to a concealed handgun class because I thought she needed it.
I was stupid.
Sighing as I took the last turn into my driveway, I paused long enough to allow the gate to open, and then motored through it.
I chanced a look in Audrey’s direction, grinning inwardly when her eyes were glued to the huge Longhorns that we were passing.
“You have huge cows with massive horns in your driveway,” she pointed out.
I snorted.
“I do. They do what they want,” I said. “Good thing about living out in the country is that I can maneuver around them.”
I did just that, veering off the gravel driveway to the grass to go around one.
“This is a nice place you have here,” she said. “And a big house.”
It was.
I’d come into some money when I was twenty-one, and I’d spent every single penny buying the ninety-two acres that my house now sat on. Over the last ten years, I’d made it mine, and everything I’d ever wanted was now on it.
A two-story farmhouse with four bedrooms, three baths, and a game room. A large equipment shed for my tractors and equipment. A stable for my horses.
“Thank you,” I said. “I like it.”
She gave me a look that I couldn’t decipher.
“I’ve never owned a house,” she murmured. “I was to the point when I was thinking about getting one when Tunnel moved me here.”
I nodded.
What went unsaid was the fact that her parents were practically forcing her to move with them, and Tunnel, or Ghost as I called him, had stepped in, using his muscle, to ensure that she didn’t have to.
She’d then moved in with her brother, and she hadn’t moved out in the nine months that she’d been in Mooresville.
“Didn’t you live by yourself when you were in Louisiana?” I asked.
She shook her head. “No. I had two roommates. Both nurses. We all worked opposite shifts, so we hardly ever saw each other, but it was nice knowing someone was there.”
I thought about Amy, my sister, and felt my stomach start to form into a tight knot.
“My sister was a nurse,” I said. “Pediatric unit.”
Her eyes went to me.
“Was?”
It was asked so softly that I had to strain to hear her.
But I did.
I nodded. “She died a while back.”
She killed herself, I thought to myself, but I’m not telling you that part. If you knew, then you’d pity me, and I’d be reminded of what a fucking failure I was at life.
“Did she work here?” she asked.
I nodded. “Yeah. Tommy Tom actually got her the job.”
Tommy Tom was a fellow member of The Dixie Wardens MC, and a doctor at the hospital.
“I’ll bet she loved it there. I used to want to go into that area, too.”
“But not anymore?” I asked, pulling the truck in beside another vehicle that I assumed belonged to one of my buddies who was helping me put on the class.
I usually had a lot of help on the range on test days. Watching inexperienced people with loaded guns was enough to get my heart palpitating. Having extra eyes on the gun-toting men and women was key to not getting shot.
“No, not anymore,” Audrey confirmed. “I’m not even sure I want to be a nurse at this point. I’m only doing it now because it’s what brings in the money.”
I looked at her.
“Why?”
She looked away and changed the subject.
“I don’t want kids,” she blurted.
My brows rose.
“I don’t either,” I said. “Nothing against them, but I don’t want any of my own. They’re too hard—too demanding. I…” I shook my head. “Just no.”
I put the truck into park and got out, nodding my head at my brother who I could see talking to another guy, whom I assumed was a class attendee.
“You ready?”
She nodded. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”
Thirty minutes later, I was talking about where guns were and were not allowed to be taken, when Audrey raised her hand.
“What if, say, you know that at one mall entrance, there’s not a no guns allowed sign,” she said. “But you know that there are signs on other entrances to the mall, there just isn’t one at the entrance that you use. Are you still allowed to take it into the mall?”
My lips twitched.
“Yeah, I guess, technically, you’d be allowed to,” I conceded. “But you’re going to have a hard time proving to me that you’ve never, not once, gone into another entrance.”
She pursed her lips.
“Which entrance are you saying is the one that doesn’t have the no guns allowed sign?”
“There’s not one at the Dick’s entrance or the Sears entrance,” she answered quickly. “Though there are ones at the Dillard’s entrance and the entrance at the main part of the mall.”
I shrugged. “I don’t go to the mall so I can’t verify this right off the top of my head. Is there a sign on the wall at the entrance to the mall?”