Page 5 of A Love So Hard

“We need to avoid Johnny like the plague,” I muttered to Angie as we entered the party.

“Are your moms still planning your wedding?” She asked while laughing at my expense.

I just sighed and rolled my eyes. If she only knew how bad it really was. I didn’t get the chance to clue her in either, because there he was. Johnny. Thankfully, he hadn’t seen me yet, but that was probably because he had his tongue so far down Rachel Thompson’s throat it would be a miracle if she had tonsils left when they were finished. I made a gagging noise that sent Angie into a giggle fit just as a pair of black motorcycle boots came into view beside me. I glanced up to see Double-D watching the show I’d just caught with a smirk on his face.

“You ladies wouldn’t be making fun of our poor prospect would you?”

“No one needs to make fun of that,” Angie corrected. “We might need to send help for Rachel though. She’s going to come away from that kiss with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.”

I couldn’t help the laughter that bubbled out of my chest then. I also turned away from the scene once Johnny had hiked Rachel’s skirt up in the back in order to grope her ass better. I wondered if she realized that the entire room was getting a good view of her strawberry covered cotton panties?

“That’s just…” Double-D started to say, but shook his head and took my hand in his own. “Come on, I’ll get you a drink and make sure no one tampers with it.”

“What do you mean?” I asked quite naïvely. Here I had thought we’d be safe at this party since Angie’s brother was throwing it.

Double-D gave me a dubious look before turning to face me and leaning in so that I caught exactly how serious he was. “Look around you,” he ordered. I did. “Do you think that girl, Rachel?” He questioned her name before continuing on. “Do you think Rachel is the type to show everyone in a room her panties?”

“Um,” I hesitated. “I wouldn’t have thought so,” I admitted.

“You’re probably not wrong, and she most likely won’t even remember until someone teases her for it.”

“You saying Johnny drugged her?” I asked, taking a step back. I didn’t want to be with Johnny, but I didn’t believe for a minute he had to go around drugging women to get action either.

“He wouldn’t be a prospect for my club if he had,” Double-D told me in all seriousness.

“But, if she’s drugged,” I started to say and he just shook his head.

“He won’t take it any further than that if she is. I’m just saying, at a party like this, you get a drink it better have a sealed cap on it when it gets put in your hands. Liquor you weren’t expecting, drugs, and any number of things are really easily slipped into a drink. Keep that in mind, yeah?”

I nodded my head at him, and Angie did as well. She was staring at him with a certain amount of hero worship in her eyes as she drew closer and ran a long painted pink nail down his chest. “Well, aren’t you just the southern gentleman hero?”

He removed her hand and put it back down by her side. “No, I’m not.” Double-D then took hold of my hand again and started moving us through the crowd toward the kitchen.

“That was rude,” Angie huffed. “I’m going to find something to do.” With that she stomped off in the opposite direction from me.

“You might want to pick better friends to go to parties with too, honey.”

I turned back away from where Angie was storming off and glared at Double-D. “She only ran off because you were rude.”

He laughed at me then. “That wasn’t rude. Rude would have been calling her out for putting her hands on me when she saw that you were obviously interested.” I was about to argue, but he kept going on. “She put her hands on me even though I was holding onto yours.” I glanced down seeing that our fingers were still entwined with one another. Angie also knew I’d been talking about Double-D and hoping he was here tonight. He wasn’t wrong, so I didn’t try to argue. That had been a horrible thing for her to do considering I thought we were supposed to be friends.

I took the can of Coke that Double-D offered me, noting that it hadn’t been opened and I smiled at him. “Thank you,” I managed to get out as I popped the top on the can.

“You’re welcome.” He just stood and watched me as I nervously took a sip of the soda. My nerves were on high alert forcing me to feel all the bubbles tickle my throat as I swallowed. “You ever going to tell me your name?”

I tipped my head to the side taking in his knowing smirk. “I think you already know it,” I told him while that smirk grew into a grin confirming that he did.

“Maybe, but isn’t it still polite to introduce yourself to the man who just saved you from witnessing anymore of that scene out there?”

I laughed. “You know I have two feet and was capable of walking away all by myself, right?”

He leaned in close again. “I know it, honey, but it’s hard to pull away from a train wreck when you see one happening right before your eyes.”

“I suppose that’s true enough.” I held out my hand to him for shaking. He took it in his, but didn’t shake it. Instead he just held it in his palm gently as we made eye contact and waited. My face heated up at the strange gesture before I realized what he was waiting on. “Lucy Carter,” I managed to get out despite my embarrassment.

“Lucy Carter,” he repeated before bringing my hand to his lips and kissing the knuckles of my fingers with his warm plump lips. Butterflies were running rampant inside my belly, and oh dear Lord, I thought I might just pass out on the spot. Maybe there was something to the old stories about southern women swooning over gentlemen. I completely understood in that moment. At least I did until it was interrupted.

“Lucy?” My butterflies went immediately dormant and I cringed inwardly as the voice grated across the bliss I’d experienced only moments before, wiping it all away with just the utterance of my name.

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