Page 11 of Sweet Chaos
“I like making money. That’s all I ever wanted to do. Make a shitload of money.” That was mostly true, but my reasons went deeper than that. Money didn’t motivate me. What motivated me was the way people treated you differently when you had money. It was poor kid mentality, I was smart enough to recognize that, but nobody had expected a punk like me to make good and that made the victory taste so much sweeter.
“For what? What do you want to do with all this money? You can’t take it with you. The fancy toys and the greenbacks won’t buy you a better seat up there.” He pointed at the ceiling as if heaven was right upstairs. As if there was a heaven and he believed in it. “So what drives you to keep making more money? Ain’t you got enough?”
“It will never be enough.”
“Let me tell you a story,” Cal said. I sat back and listened like I had all the time in the world and was in no rush to close the deal. “After I got out of the Marines, I went to Texas with one of my Marine buddies. Got a job as a ranch hand. I met this girl. A real beauty.
Her daddy owned the cattle ranch. They were loaded. And I thought what’s a girl like that doing with a guy like me? Her daddy wasn’t happy about us, but she knew what she wanted, and she thought that was me. Her old man never did warm to me. Thought I was an upstart. A gold digger who was after the family money. He made her choose. Her family or me. She chose me and got cut off from the family and all that money. For a while, she was happy enough. But pretty soon she got tired of not being able to buy pretty dresses and shit. I wasn’t around much because I was too busy busting my ass trying to get rich. But that day hadn’t come yet, and she was getting tired of struggling to make ends meet. Just be patient, I told her. Trust me. This is all gonna work out. Well, what d’ya know, she ran out of patience and ran back to her daddy.”
Cal’s story sounded so similar to my story with Sienna. While he talked, I watched Scarlett in my periphery. She was laughing with Shaggy Doo, and I wondered what the hell could be so entertaining.
“So, she left you because you were poor,” I summarized.
“No. She left me because she didn’t believe in me. There’s a difference. One you can overlook. Forgive. Move past. The other one you never get over.”
Preaching to the choir. I’d lived it. Not once in my eight-year on-again, off-again relationship with Sienna had she ever believed in me or fought for me or stood up for me. “How’d you make your money?”
“Invested in oil. Texas gold. It wasn’t long after she left that the money started rolling in.”
“Did she want you back?” None of these questions were getting me any closer to my goal of buying that hotel but I was interested in hearing the answer.
“Maybe. Maybe not. Didn’t matter. She’d already married someone else with a shitload of money and everyone lived happily ever after.”
“How about you? Did you live happily ever after?” I didn’t really believe in shit like that. Happily ever afters only happened in Disney movies.
“Time will tell. My story ain’t over yet.” He stroked his mustache, his eyes on me, and I could tell he was about to throw me a bone. “How about we go over and check out that hotel you’re looking to buy?”
“You planning to sell it to me?”
“Haven’t made up my mind yet.”
I had a feeling he was going to sell it to me. But I kept my excitement contained, something I’d mastered at a young age.
I slid out of the booth and left a ten-dollar tip for a cup of coffee I’d left untouched. Scarlett was studiously avoiding me, attacking the food in front of her like it was her last meal. I swear I heard her moan. That’s how she ate though. That’s how she did everything. Her plate was piled high with a stack of pancakes, chocolate chip by the looks of it, and a side of bacon.
I stopped next to her booth, and she raised her eyes to mine. She still had a spray of freckles on her nose. So fucking adorable. And So. Fucking. Off. Limits.
The chocolate in the corner of her mouth beckoned me to lean in closer. Scarlett Woods… she was the sweetest temptation. I slowly dragged my thumb across her plump bottom lip and wiped off the chocolate. Her breath hitched, and her eyes followed my thumb to my mouth. Eyes locked on hers, I wrapped my lips around my thumb and sucked the chocolate off it. “So fucking sweet.”
Her eyes flared. “What are you doing?” she hissed.
Moving my mouth close to the shell of her ear, I whispered, “You deserve better.”
Without waiting for a response, I strode away. Even by my low standards, it was wrong to mess with my ex-girlfriend’s little sister.
But when had I ever done the right thing?
5
Scarlett
“You can’t be fucking serious.” Ollie stared at me like he couldn’t believe what he’d just witnessed. That made two of us. Why had Dylan done that? My tongue traced my lower lip where Dylan’s thumb had just been.
“Nothing is going on.” I picked up a strip of crispy bacon and took a bite.
Ollie laughed harshly. “Oh right. You’ve only been in love with him for ten years.”
“I’m not in love with him.” I tossed the bacon onto my plate and took a sip of orange juice. I hadn’t even mentioned Dylan to Ollie since junior high. “I’ve barely spoken to him in five years.”
