JC

"Eric. Need your help, man. Call me back as soon as you get this. Don't wait, don't put me off until tomorrow. Call me. Thanks."

As soon as I'd stepped outside of Nez Motors, I pulled out my phone to call Eric, who was Managing Partner at Leo. I knew I'd get his voicemail, because he'd be somewhere in his backyard in a hammock, trying to dry out and sober up from a week at a five-star mountain ski resort. But he'd eventually pick up my message and get rolling.

If I was going to make a move, I was going to have to make it now. Quickly. Before I was even really ready, before Tori got herself into a situation that would only make things worse.

I was torn though because... it wasn't my problem to solve. It wasn't my business and I had no right to stick my nose into this situation and throw some money at it, on behalf of someone else.

So, I had decided, I needed to do the bare minimum, just enough to get Tori out of trouble.

Just enough to get her away from Mitch. Just enough to stop her from calling Pat and putting a bug in his ear to sell the family land, which would mean losing her home and all of the history there.

Just enough to let her shoulders drop in relief and that hopeful gaze return to her eyes and for her to start to feel like she actually had a future.

Just enough.

I headed back to the house, keeping one ear open for the squeak of the kitchen door, but after a few hours, it didn't come. And then I heard something and got up from the couch in time to see Tori's truck back out of the driveway.

"Where's she going?" I wondered aloud, my fingers holding the blinds open and watching her drive away, like it was my business to know.

"Oh, Mom called," Nasaan said. "She's going in to town for a little bit. She'll be home later."

"Oh. Is uh... she okay?" I resumed my spot on the couch and picked up my dinner plate. Despite being critical of something called Taco Pie, it was actually delicious. I dug in again and shoved a huge forkful into my mouth.

"She seems mad lately," Nasaan said. "Kind of snippy and quiet."

"She's been a bitch," said Kaya, from her spot on the floor.

"Kaya..."

"You asked. And she's my sister. I can say she's being a bitch."

"I know she's stressed about the while building situation. Nasaan and I saw that Chee guy over the weekend. And he showed up at Tori's shop yesterday."

Kaya sat up. "He did? He hasn't been to the shop in a while. What did he want?"

"To harass her about moving out. Dangled a carrot about helping her find a spot to move to. I think she should seriously reconsider that."

"I do, too. Mitch is kind of... scary. He has that quiet, brooding kind of mood that just lets you know he's a psycho. I've never liked him. Not even when he and Tori were engaged."

I almost choked on a mouthful of tamale. I was going to have to pull out all of my acting skills so I could pretend I didn't know this information.

"Tori...uhm... was engaged to him?" I asked, hoping that I sounded convincing.

"Yup. Long time ago. Dad was still here, but his girlfriend was pestering him to move to Tennessee. He thought if Tori and Mitch got married, that we'd be all set. We'd probably move to the Chee farm, then they could do whatever with this house and this land, because why would we choose to stay here when we could live in big houses within the gates of the Chee Family Compound?"

As someone who lived in what could be called a West Hollywood mansion, I just nodded. Because honestly, I liked the Nez place a lot.

"But then I was like... well, I don't want to live on the Chee farm. That place is a half hour from Presby. Why pull Nasaan out of school to live in that rambling place with no other kids? I mean, seriously, where are all of the Chee kids?"

Kaya looked at me, asking the question like I knew the answer. I blinked, shaking my head.

"Anyway. The thought was that I'd stay here with Nasaan, maybe move to the farm in a couple of years when he was older and had friends from school. Well, Mitch didn't like that idea because he was already planning to tear everything down and build some big box crap, something to appeal to the skiers at the mountain, since we're so close. We went back and forth and around and around. Tori felt torn and...she just didn't like the direction of everything. So she broke it off."

"Shit. What did everyone say?"

"Dad was pissed, because he would never kick us out of here, but he would encourage us to leave, making it possible for him to sell the land. That money was supposed to be a backup plan for him to live off of, just in case Tennessee didn't work out. Mitch was pissed, because he'd already put money down with some demolition company. So if there is ever any doubt what Mitch would do if he got his hands on Nez land?"

Kaya frowned, then sighed. She picked up her fork and poked at what was left of her Taco Pie. "We already know. He's ready to kick us all out tomorrow and flatten this house. Like that," she said, her fingers making a loud snap in the air.

"Shit. But that doesn't happen unless Pat sells, right? He can't... take it from her, right?

She nodded. "Right. But with the way things look, we might not have a choice."

I pushed myself up from the couch, empty plate in hand. I caught Kaya's eye and nodded at her to follow me to the kitchen, where I rinsed my plate and set it in the dishwasher.

"So... I need to talk to you about something," I muttered, over the open dishwasher drawer. "I think I want to help. Well, I don't think... I know I want to help. I've already made a call..."

"What do you mean help?"

"I mean I want to do something, at least offer a solution. If I don't, everything's going to fall apart and-"

"Then everything falls apart. JC, this isn't your problem to solve, and Tori is going to shit. a. brick at the very suggestion that-"

"Do you want to lose your house?" I asked, in a sharp whisper. "Do you want to live in a shit squat apartment in downtown Cloudcroft? Or have to live in another town, because that's the only place Tori can get a job?  I just left the shop; she's thinking about calling Pat. It's either that, or she takes that offer from Mitch, which is just as dangerous. She doesn't have the money she needs to get herself out of this-"

"So you're just gonna open up your wallet and grace us with a few dollar bills? Do you get a tax write off or something? Or are we just your feel good charitable donation of the year?"

"Kaya..." I huffed, pulling the door to the dishwasher closed. "I hear you, I feel you, and trust me when I say I don't want to get too deep into this. I just want to relieve some of the pressure. Can I at least tell you my idea? It doesn't involve rolling through town throwing out money like a douchebag. If I don't do this, and you guys lose everything, I will never forgive myself. I could have helped and didn't because I was scared of a woman being mad at me. I want to do something before this huge, serious ball of shit starts rolling, drowns everyone, and only makes things worse."

Kaya was frowning, arms folded across her chest. But she wasn't arguing. So I started talking, detailing the plan that I had worked out with Eloise.

And she didn't object to it.

"So... how does this work?" She asked, releasing her arms from their tight fold. Even her expression seemed to soften.  "You buy the building and then what? Things just keep going as they have been? She's still just barely making it, JC."

"Well, that's where my other plan comes in, to bring a little bit of business to her and to Cloudcroft. She has ideas, good ideas about expanding Nez. I want to put those ideas to work and make it so she doesn't have to depend on traffic coming through this town- or some moron crashing his bike for business. I want to bring the business to her.

"And I want to invest some money into a town that's given me a lot, without trying to take over, like Chee. Maybe there's some room or an opportunity to throw up a grant or something for someone to open a business, something that serves this community. Something like that."

"What are you guys in here whispering about?" Nasaan loped into the kitchen, carrying his empty plate. I moved aside so he could rinse it, then watched him open the dishwasher, insert his plate into it and then close it.

"We're just talking, buddy. Grownup stuff."

His dark brown eyes rolled fiercely. "My favorite part of being young is when old as fuck has-beens decide I'm too young to know what's going on. You guys are talking about mom, right?"

I bit my inner cheek hard, trying not to laugh at his tantrum. I didn't want to egg him on, but he was completely right. "Yeah. We are talking about your mom. Throwing around some ideas to see if we can think of anything that will help. That's all."

"Yeah. Grownup stuff. Boring." His slight shoulders rose in a shrug, then sagged. "I have a gamer hang, so... later."

I watched him walk away, his slides flapping on the heels of his feet all the way up the stairs.

"Gamer hang?" I glanced at Kaya.

"He and his friends set up specific times to get online and game together. That's what they call it."

"Oh. ‘Cause I was about to see if that gamer hang thing works with girls."

That earned me a punch in the arm. "Owwwww," I howled, feigning injury. "You're always hurting me!  And you wonder why I call you Nurse Ratchet."

"Shut up, you're not hurt. Come over here."

She pulled out a chair at the table and settled into it. Before I sat down, I grabbed two beers from the fridge, popped the tops and joined her, sliding one to the seat next to me.

"So when do you do this? Soon, right? You realize that you have to do this behind her back? If you give her a choice, she will not swallow her pride and take the deal."

"Yeah," I mumbled, downing a swallow of beer. I was a little bit addicted to this IPA Tori liked. "I don't know her well, but I know that about her. She's into doing things herself and solving her own problems."

"And then when you tell her? I mean..." She sighed, taking a swig of beer. When she set the bottle down, she looked over at me. And not just looked but... kind of stared.

"What? I got something in my nose?"

"You are gonna have to suck up to her. Like... seriously suck up. Whatever you do that she likes, do a lot of it. I mean... you need to start working on her now. Make her fall in love with you or something."

"Make her- I can't make her fall in love with me, Kaya."

"You gotta do something, JC."

"I'm gonna," I said. "I'm gonna buy this building. And then... wait for her to calm down, I guess. Then we can talk about renovation. And I'm also gonna talk to a couple of friends about ordering a custom bike. That way, she can't pout too long."

...

That night, after Tori's blow up and then her escape upstairs, I stayed in the kitchen, thinking she would come back down and we could talk and sort things out. And she could apologize for being so... well, stressed out and snappy and probably not in a very good mood. I had to try to remember that she had no clue that she had someone in her life that really wanted to help her. She acted like she acted because she was sad. And desperate.

When Tori didn't come back down, and the hour grew later, I covered her dinner plate and put it in the refrigerator along with the containers from dinner. All the while remembering the words she'd said to me. This family was hers. I couldn't just jump in and be a part of the Nez family.

And I wasn't trying to. They- Kaya and Nasaan, even Tori and Eloise, had made it so easy to fall right in. But she was right. I wasn't here to take a spot in the family. In the next couple of days I needed to pack my duffle back and hightail it to the nearest metropolitan city with an airport, leaving them all behind and returning to life as I knew it in LA.

I walked into the living room, straightening up since we'd basically spent the evening in there eating dinner and hanging out. Then I pulled out my blankets and my pillow, stripped down to a t-shirt and briefs and stretched out on the couch.

I'd fallen asleep with the lights and the TV on. The clatter of the plastic remote against the thick wood of the coffee table startled me awake. I sat straight up, blinking into the semi-brightness of the room.

"Just me," Tori whispered. She was bent over the table, her thin, lithe figure in a tank top and leggings. "Sorry. I was trying so hard to be quiet that I dropped the remote. I'm just going to turn out the light-"

"Tori... honey, wait." I stretched out a hand to her, just barely reaching her arm as she tried to move away from me.  "Wait a second. Please?"

"It's late, JC. Go back to sleep."

"I don't want to. I want to talk to you. I want to listen to you. Can you just sit with me?"

I flung the covers back, instantly regretting it because the fire had died and it was cold in the room. Well, cold to me. "And can you hurry up, before I freeze to death?"

"One second," she whispered, then tip toed toward the stairs, listening for sounds of life. Then she flipped the light switch, dousing the room in darkness. I tracked her shadow from the light of the moon reflecting off of the beautiful but slowly accumulating snow outside.

I felt her hand on my shoulder, pushing me gently. "Lay down and cover up. I'll get in."  I laid down, turning to my side to make room for her and pulled the covers up over my shoulder.

She slipped under the covers with me, laying on her back. I fluffed the blankets so they covered her, but I could feel the heat wafting from her body. The fruity scent of her shampoo and the Cherrywood scent of her body lotion rose to my nose. For the rest of my life, those smells would probably remind me of Tori.

"Uhm," she started. "I wanted to-"

"No, wait. I wanted to say something first." I adjusted so I was more comfortable, with my elbow propped on the armrest of the couch. "I-"

"No, JC, please-"

"Okay, we'll both apologize on three. Ready? One..."

I heard a faint giggle and felt her palm come to rest on my chest. "We are acting stupid. But seriously- you didn't deserve that, tonight. I shouldn't have lashed out at you. I'm angry and frustrated and I feel trapped. That had nothing to do with you."

"No, you were right. I'm the kind of guy that's pretty much at home wherever I am. I didn't even think about... you know, everything going on between us and getting too comfortable and then just leaving town. In case you can't tell, I'm not in a hurry to get out of here."

"I picked up on that. I thought I'd only have a house guest for a couple of days and we're going on over a week, now."

"If I'd been at the Shithole Hotel with terrible cooking, I'd have been out of here much sooner."

Tori scoffed, but I heard a smile in it. "Are you blaming my hostess skills?"

"Hell yeah," I answered. Then, before I could talk myself out of it, I landed a palm on her belly and pushed the tank top up so I could feel the silky softness of her skin and the layer of muscle underneath. She was strong. And sexy.

She laid a hand on top of mine and I thought she was going to stop me. Instead, she moved my hand up under the tank top and settled it on a bare breast, nipples already hard and standing on end, reaching out for a human touch. I obliged, rolling one and then the other between my fingertips, enjoying the sounds of Tori's whispered moans in my ear.

"I'll miss you, when you leave."

She chuckled. "Well, I guess you'll miss having easy access. But I meant that... you're the first man in a long time that I've let... you know, get close to me. I would regret that, but I've enjoyed the time we've spent together. The stuff we've done together. I feel like..."

She sighed, turning her head away from me. I stopped playing with her body long enough to cup her chin and turn her face back toward mine. I lowered my head and dropped a kiss on her lips. She flung an arm around my neck and opened her mouth, like she'd been waiting for that to happen.

We kissed like it was our last kiss,  each suppressing our moans and groans while our bodies subconsciously moved closer together. Before I realized it, I was on top of Tori, her arms were looped around my shoulders and her legs had my thighs in a vice grip.

We fell into a rhythm, thrusting into each other. Her core was warm against the erection that strained against the briefs I was wearing. She rolled her body up and into me, riding my length like a bucking bronco.

"Hang on. Hold on. Gonna start a fire down there."

I sat up, yanking my briefs off as I bent over the other end of the couch where I kept my duffel bag. And the condoms I'd bought.  I ripped open a new box, trying to muffle the sound of cellophane. I pulled one out, ripped the wrapper open and tossed it onto the table before hurriedly rolling it on and getting back under the covers.

While I'd been wrapping up, Tori had rolled her leggings down and kicked them off. She still wore her tank top but it was pushed up above her breasts. I pulled my t-shirt off so we could be skin to skin and lowered my body to hers.

"I thought we weren't going to do sex on the couch anymore," she teased, trying to keep her voice at a whisper.  

"You're the one that came down here, smellin' good and being all... soft."

"There you go again, blaming me for enjoying yourself."

"Seriously, we can go upstairs if you want."

In answer, I felt her arm dive beneath the covers and her hand between us. In no time, that hand was wrapped around me and she was guiding me to her. I pushed into her with ease; no wonder, she was warm, wet and ready for me. I took my time with her, sliding a hand between us to play with her clit and taking one of her nipples into my mouth when I'd decided to take a break.

Kaya had given me great advice. Whatever she likes you to do, do a lot of it. No problem, because I like doing those things.   But Tori started to get impatient, bucking her hips against mine and moving herself up and down my dick without me doing a thing to help.

"Get it, mama. You know what you're doing."

"I... want to come," she panted, heaving hot breath into my ear. "JC, help me! Please..."

"You don't have to beg, Tori. I'm gonna make it happen."

I fell into rhythm with her, stroke for hip thrust, moving faster and deeper until we were skin to skin, riding each other to a crashing- and almost quiet- climax. Both of us glowed with sweat. We had clung to each other so tightly that when we pulled apart, our clammy skin made a suction sound.

I couldn't help it... that was hilarious.

"So, that's never happened before?" Tori asked.

"No. At least I don't remember it happening before."

"Hmmm. Interesting how this chick from Cloudcroft is giving you all these first time experiences. Don't sleep on women like us."

"I wouldn't dream of it, honey. Be right back."

I hopped up, grabbing my briefs on the way to the downstairs bathroom, where I flushed the condom and stepped back into the cotton underwear. In the dim overhead light, I checked out the scarred-over road rash from my accident, nodding in approval at the healing progress. Not perfect, but I had a cool story to tell.

To who, though? The women I knew wouldn't be interested in my bike accident road rash. They'd laugh because I crashed my bike and I'd be forced to laugh along, make light of it. The only women who would get it, who would think it was remotely cool lived in this house.

As much as Tori joked about it, and as much as I played along and  acknowledged it, rumors about my conquests were exaggerated. When I got back to LA, I knew I'd be in a mood to work, not play. And I wouldn't want to play with anyone but Tori.

I braced my palms against the sink and hung my head.

Fuck.

That wasn't supposed to happen. Getting attached, catching feelings. It was just supposed to be some fun. Knocking off some dust. Now it was...Tori and no one else.

Maybe... maybe it would wear off, once I was at home. So, in the meantime, I wanted to get as much Tori as I could get. I snapped off the bathroom light and went back to the dark living room. Tori had pulled her leggings back on and her tank top down and was sitting up on the couch.

I plopped down next to her and tipped my head to kiss her. It was sweet and dry, a regular old kiss but I felt myself stir with arousal again.

"You're not going back upstairs yet, are you?"

"I don't want to," she said, leaning her cheek against my shoulder. She was still so warm. I didn't know how she was doing that.  "But now I'm exhausted and I'm worried about not getting back upstairs before Nasaan gets up."

"I'll set an alarm. Just lay down here with me for a little bit."

Tori chuckled. "I'm not going to fight you very hard on this. Make sure the alarm is set, though."

I grabbed the phone and set the alarm for 6AM. "Plenty of time to get upstairs, right?"

"Yeah." Tori yawned and reached for the blankets that I was sitting on. "Move your ass, Pretty Boy. I'm tired."

We stretched out on the couch, Tori's back to my chest, her hair tickling my chin and shoulders but I didn't mind at all. I draped an arm over her waist and listened to her breathing, her breaths eventually becoming long and deep as she fell asleep.

I was right behind her.

The sound of heavy steps upstairs woke me up. Tori was buried under the covers, her ass pressed into my groin. Through the blinds I saw that it was pre-dawn, the sun just hinting at rising over the horizon.

Nasaan thumped down the stairs in his snow boots, the swish of his jacket making loud noises in the quiet of the house.

"Mom, I can't find my-"  Nasaan froze, his mouth open, standing in the middle of the living room and taking in the scene: his mother, cozy and warm on the couch with the stranger  that was supposed to be just blowing through town, condom wrapper still sitting on the table. It didn't look good.

I nudged Tori, rubbing her arm until she stirred, stretching and yawning.

"Mmm...did the alarm go off? What time is it?"

I said nothing. I just looked up at Nasaan, still standing in the middle of the room, his phone in one hand. Tori's eyes followed mine. And then she gasped and sat up, flinging the covers back.

"Nasaan! I- what are you doing up?"

He went over to the window, pulling the shades to reveal a healthy accumulation of snow outside. "I'm going to work up at the resort. I'll go to school from there. And I'll probably hang out with Logan after school. So..." He shrugged, turning toward the kitchen. Tori jumped up, following him.

"Nasaan, wait. Please, wait. Let me explain-"

"There's nothing to explain, Mom. Nothing for you to explain anyway," he added, sending a glare in my direction. He bent to drop a kiss on Tori's cheek, then stomped out the back door, slamming it in the process.

"Well... shit," Tori mumbled, moving to the window so she could watch him walk away. "Like I need my kid mad at me right now."

"Shit is right. But he's not mad at you."