A Toast to Starry Nights Read Online Free Page A

and I'm so sorry. No more
kava-kava before ten a.m., I promise. Do you want me to call the police?”
    “No, if it gets bad, I'll call them. I
don't want my private life printed in the paper. But I gotta go, Willow. I'll
call you afterward.”
    I hung up and blurted to Jet, “Mike is
on his way here. Dmitri is on his tail. Please don't go. Not until Dmitri is
here. Please.” There was no coherency, just fear and the desire for something
safe and familiar to keep me sane.
    She wrapped an arm around me and said,
“I won't. Fucker better not even get out of his car or he'll find a stiletto
heel buried in his eye socket, tickling his frontal cortex.”
    I dreaded this moment since the day I
walked out on Mike and the history of him I never wanted to remember. I
despised myself for going to pieces whenever he entered my vicinity. But after
what he did... dammit, I can't start remembering. Dmitri will be here soon, I
reminded myself. He'll banish Mike in a way I can't.
    Speak of the devil, but who turned onto
my cul de sac and made a beeline to my home? The one person I could happily
live my life without ever seeing again. His beat up Impala slowed to a halt at
the curb next to my mailbox. I saw him put it in park and take the keys out of
the ignition. He palmed the keys and went to unbuckle his seat belt. My heart
thumped and pounded something fierce against my ribcage. Fear rolled over me. I
wanted Dmitri next to me, lending me his silent strength as I addressed the
walking terror. Jet's arm was still around me. It tightened as she saw my
reaction. She hated Mike with a passion not unlike a category five hurricane.
He would do well to fear her; given a chance, she'd jump on his back like an
Amazon warrior queen and hammer the dangerously pointy heel of her sandal into
his cranium.
    Mike turned and smiled at me. I did not
smile back. I was in the midst of a panic attack. He'd seen me cry too many
times. Never again. It had been five and a half years since I saw him last, and
for what I thought was the last time I'd be cursed with his company. I would
not give that man satisfaction or the notion that I enjoyed his presence. He'd
once taken all of me I had to give; I will give him no more. That included my
voice. Once upon a time I found his brown eyes inviting and his smile charming.
Now, he reminded me of the snakes he collected as pets. A member of the
constrictor family that could easily squeeze the life out of one, if caught in
his coils.
    Mike's words broke the silence like a
plate thrown on cement. “Kaylis, darlin'! You're looking just as beautiful as I
remember.” The door to his car began to creep open, and Jet shoved me behind
her in a protective manner.
    “Get the hell out of here, Mike. You're
like a whiff of dog shit... I don't know where you came from, but you sure as
hell aren't welcome.”
    “Jetty-jet. Still anorexic, I see. I'm
here to speak with Kay bay-bay, not you.”
    “She doesn't want to talk to you. Ever.
Buy a clue and get the hell out of here. I will personally call the cops if you
step out of your car.” Her voice lowered, reminding me of a lioness's growl of
warning before ripping the throat out of an interloper. A glance down to her
hands showed fingers curved and poised for eye gouging. Her threat to call the
authorities was her shot across Mike's bow. She'd call the cops, but only after
she laid him out.
    “I want to hear her tell me to go away
and I will leave. Boy Scout's promise.” Mike's hand was still easing the door
open, and I feared nothing more than him getting out and approaching me.
    “She doesn't need to do shit for you
anymore. Go. Now.” She was a tigress protecting her paralyzed cub.
    Then, as beautiful as the sound of the
Ride of the Valkyries played by a symphony orchestra, I heard the engine of
Dmitri's blue Silverado rumbling towards us. It came fast around the turn onto
the cul de sac and lurched to a screeching halt scant inches behind the green
and primer colored