by Gen Griffin
“Oh yeah,” Joe hooted from beside them. “Now we get the personal show. Can I be next?”
“Go to hell,” April Lynne told him. “Or better yet, go get me a beer.”
“What kind you want?” Joe asked her. “I need another beer and I got to take a piss.”
“Bud Light,” she told him. “Get a fresh one for everyone. Put it on my tab.”
“Will do,” Joe said as he stood up. He had to yank up his jeans to keep them from falling down and showing his stained, grimy tightie whities to the world.
Ian decided he was going to buy Joe a belt for Christmas.
“I like him,” April Lynne announced to no one in particular. “He always does what I ask.”
Ian laughed. Lowery snorted. “He always does what you ask cause what you ask is always what he wanted to do to begin with,” Lowery said.
“Great minds think alike,” April Lynne informed him with a wide smile. “You boys been having fun?”
“Hell yes,” Lowery said.
“I'm fucked up,” Ian told her. The strippers on the stage had fully captured his attention and what few brain cells he hadn't drank or baked into oblivion.
“I know you are, sweetheart.” April Lynne planted a sloppy kiss on his lips. She was wearing purple lipstick. Ian wasn't crazy about the color, but he didn't tell her that. April Lynne always got pissy if someone criticized her appearance.
“How did you find us?” Ian asked her, vaguely recalling that his phone was still turned off.
“Common sense,” she replied. “I'm not stupid. There are only a handful of places y'all would be this close to midnight on a Friday night. Especially when I know y'all have a pocketful of green.”
Ian laughed. “You're my smart girl.”
“I am. I'm also your only girl,” April Lynne informed him. “I went to Bellefontaine's because I wanted to see Katie's face when she realized you weren't coming. She told me to tell you that she's divorcing you.”
Ian frowned up at April Lynne. She was still grinding her hips into him and it felt damn good.
“Katie won't leave me,” he said.
“It doesn't matter. You're leaving her, remember?” April Lynne stopped grinding and gave him an unfriendly look.
“I know. I know. I just have to go get my shit.”
“You might want to do it tonight,” April Lynne said.
“Do what tonight?” Joe had returned with beers for everyone. He passed them out.
“Go get his stuff from Katie's house,” April Lynne said. “I talked to her earlier. She told me to tell Ian that if he didn't get his things before the weekend was over, she's going to burn them all in her yard come Sunday night.”
“Bitch,” Joe said. “I always knew that girl was a bitch.”
“She's always been a bitch,” April Lynne confirmed.
“You might want to go get your shit tonight,” Lowery suggested. “Last time my ex said she was gonna burn my shit, she meant it. She done lit everything on fire. I didn't have no clothes. No shoes. No guns. She even threw my ammo into the fire. 'Course, that was real stupid of her. It all went off once it got hot and she wound up shooting herself in the leg.”
Joe laughed. “That was fucking hilarious.”
“Katie ain't that stupid,” Ian said. “And I ain't that worried about her burning up my stuff.”
“You need to be worried about her burning up your stuff,” Joe said. “What's going to happen if she goes into the shed and sees all the shit we've been storing in there?”
Ian blanched, suddenly nervous. “She won't go in the shed.”
“How can you be sure?” Joe countered.
“She don't like it in there.”
“That ain't good enough. If she finds any of those big zero turn lawnmowers we stole, we're fucked.”
“Maybe we had better go get your shit,” Lowery told Ian.
“Fine,” Ian nodded. “We can watch another couple of girls go on stage and then we'll go back to Possum Creek and get our shit before my bitch of a wife realizes we're the thieves everyone in town has been trying to catch.”
Chapter 17
“I really don't think we have anything to talk about,” Katie informed Addison as he led her out the front doors of the club and onto the nearly deserted sidewalk.
“You never want to talk to me anymore,” Addison countered. “You've been pissed off at me since Gracie and Cal's wedding. I don't even know what I did and you won't talk to me so that I can fix it, or apologize, or something.” He sounded exasperated as they began walking towards the parking lot.
“Maybe you're just a jerk,” Katie said.
“Maybe I am.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a cigarette, lighting it with a flick of his lighter. “What's going on with you and Ian?”
“I'm kicking him out and filing for a divorce.”
“Good. What's the deal with you and Sully?”
Katie bit her lip and frowned at him. Addison already thought she was pathetic. “Nothing. Stop trying to make me feel bad. I haven't done anything wrong. All I was doing was dancing. Last I checked, dancing was legal.”
“I am not trying to make you feel bad.” He took a deep drag off of his freshly lit cigarette. “What the fuck has gotten into you tonight?”
“Why do you care?” Katie countered.
“Because I care about you.” He blinked at her as if he thought his answer should be obvious.
“No, you really don't.” The words were out of Katie's mouth before she could think better of them. Addison stared at her in surprise. He looked like she had slapped him.
“You don't care about me,” Katie repeated herself, desperately hoping he would correct her as all of her innermost fears and nightmares came spilling out of her lips before she could think better of it. “You think I'm pathetic. Poor, pathetic, ugly little Katie. That's all I am to you. Your buddy's pathetic, boring, ugly wife. Not even cute enough to sleep with. Not even cute enough for a loser like Ian to bother coming home to at night. I'm pitiful. The kind of girl who gets stood up by her husband for her own birthday dinner and winds up nearly getting arrested because she doesn't have the money to pay for the appetizer she ordered while waiting for him to show up.” Katie sucked in a deep, gasping breath. “Pathetic. It hurt so bad when Makinsley told me that you thought I was pathetic, but maybe I see your point. Maybe I am pathetic. Why else would I stay with Ian even though everyone knows he's screwing April Lynne behind my back? Why stay with him? Is it because I'm so boring and plain that I'm never going to get another guy? Is it because I'm scared of winding up the crazy old lady who lives alone with 47 cats?”
“Katie-,” Addy practically choked on her name.
“Be quiet. You wanted me to talk and I'm talking. You should be happy.”
“Katie-.”
“I'm pathetic, Addison. You're right. I'm pathetic. No one is ever going to want me. Not Ian. Not you. Not anyone. No matter how hard I try to make people happy, the truth is that no one loves me and I just look desperate.” She was surprised to realize that she was close to crying. She forced the tears back. “I guess I don't even have the right to be hurt. Ian stopped saying 'I love you' a long time ago. Probably around the same time as I realized I was pregnant with Hannah Mae. As for you, well, it's not like you ever said I meant anything to you. I don't even have a right to be mad, do I?”
“Katie-.”
She cut him off again. “I've been trying so hard to hold everything together, Addy. I've tried so damn hard, but it is not working. Everything is ruined. My entire life is just a ruined mess of lies and crap I've screwed up. Ian despises me. He's only stayed this long because David threatened to kill him if he left me and Ian's afraid of David. You only pretend to like me because you're trying to be nice to your little sister's friend and... ”
Katie didn't know what humiliating confession would have come spilling out of her mouth next, but she didn't have the opportunity to say it. Suddenly her back was pressed up against th
e side wall of the bar and Addison's mouth was on hers. He kissed her hard, pressing his lips against hers and pushing his tongue between her lips, caressing her mouth with his. The force of the kiss took her breath away, filling her mouth with the taste of the cigarette he'd tossed to the side just before he'd kissed her.
Katie stared at him with wide eyes as he drew back. His turquoise eyes seemed huge in the dim light of the streetlight. He was scowling at her as he towered over her, one arm on either side of her so that she was effectively pinned against the brick wall.
“How can you possibly think I don't care about you?” Addison demanded. “You thought everything was ruined before, Katie? Guess what? It's really good and fucked up now.”
Katie just stared at him because she didn't understand what was happening.
“Aren't you going to slap me?” He asked. “I've wanted to kiss you since the first day I met you, but I've always figured you would slap me if I tried. Do you want to slap me, Katie?”
She shook her head no. Addison smiled at her. It wasn't a particularly nice smile.
“You said Makinsley told you that I called you pathetic?”
She nodded.
“Why would you believe a word out of Makinsley's mouth?” The intensity in his gaze was almost frightening. “How could you believe her bullshit lies? Didn't it ever occur to you that maybe she just wanted to hurt you?”
“Why would Makinsley want to hurt me?” Katie barely got the words out of her mouth. She was still too stuck on the kiss. Addison had kissed her. Addison Malone had actually kissed her.
“Because she knows how I feel about you,” he said flatly. “Makinsley knows that I'm in love with you. Actually, I think every single person we know is aware of how I feel about you. Except for you, that is. You don't want to hear it. You always ignore me or misdirect the entire conversation somewhere ridiculous like you did at Gracie's bachelorette party when I tried to tell you how I felt about you and you assumed I was in love with Trish. I'm not in love with Trish and I have never been in love with Trish. It's you I love. It's always been you.”
Katie choked on her own spit. She couldn't freaking breathe. “What?”
“I'm in love with you.” He said each word painstakingly slow. “Do you need me to repeat it a few more times because I will if I have to. I love you, Katie.”
“You're not in love with me.” Katie didn't believe him.
Addison's eyes flashed angrily and he scowled at her. “You don't believe me?”
Katie shook her head no. The idea of Addison being in love with her was just...no. There was no way in hell that the most beautiful man she knew, the boy every girl wanted, was in love with her boring, flat-chested self.
He narrowed his eyes as he spoke. “I've wanted you since the first night I took you home from David's shop, but from day one you were with Ian. I kept thinking you would get tired of his shit and break up with him. I didn't see why a girl as smart and motivated as you are would continue to put up with his lazy, lying, manipulative bullshit. I kept telling myself that you would get sick of taking his crap. I figured that I could make my own move after you finally dumped him. No mess that way. No ruined friendships. No accusations about how I'm such a player that I stole my friend's wife.” He reached out and took her hand in hers, gripping her fingers a little too tightly. She didn't pull away.
“Addy-.”
“No. You had your turn and when I tried to talk, you cut me off. Now you get to sit and listen. I want you. I want you so damn bad and it's only gotten worse and worse as the years go on. I couldn't believe it when you married Ian. I tried to tell myself that he had finally gotten his act together and you would be happy. I drank myself into a fucking stupor on your wedding night, but I forced myself to smile all the way through the goddamned ceremony because I told myself that you would be happy. You haven't been happy. It's been killing me.”
He squeezed her fingers even more snugly in his and then abruptly let go. “I knew you were mad at me after the wedding. I thought it was because you had finally realized how I felt about you and you didn't feel the same way.”
Addison stood up and stepped away from her. He reached for his pack of cigarettes and pulled another one out. Katie couldn't quite think straight as the smoke began filling the air surrounding him. She didn't know what to say. She didn't even know if she believed him. Addison went through women faster than he went through underwear. He'd slept with damn near every single woman in Callahan County. He'd never settled down with anyone. He hadn't kept a steady girlfriend in the 10 years Katie had known him.
“Say something, Katie.” His bright eyes were fixed on her expectantly.
Katie swallowed. Her throat was completely dry. She opened her mouth, but no words came out. Addison raised one eyebrow at her as he sucked on his cancer stick. The silence between them had made the air so thick that it was difficult to breathe.
Katie didn't know what to say to him. Could she really say that she loved him, too? It was the truth, but then what would happen? He wasn't her husband. He wasn't even good husband material. But what if this was her only chance? What if, against all odds, he really did love her and there was a chance for the two of them to live happily ever after? Her mind was spinning in a thousand different directions.
“I'm going to leave now,” Addison said to her as he puffed the cigarette down to a nub. “You only thought things were ruined before. If you're going to accuse me of ruining everything then I want it to be ruined by the truth.” Addison shrugged his broad shoulders at her and then dug around in his pocket until he found his keys. He pulled them out and dangled them in the air. “You're welcome to ride back to Possum Creek with me, but I doubt you want to. You'd probably rather go back inside and hang all over Sully. He's a better man than I am.”
Katie stared at him numbly, too stunned by his confession to react. Nothing felt real as she watched him turn and walk away from her.
He was nearly to the stop sign at the corner of the bar's parking lot before she ran after him.
Chapter 18
“Is that everything?” Joe asked as he and Ian finished fastening down the tarp that covered the third of three massive stolen lawnmowers that were currently sitting on the trailer that was hooked to Ian's truck.
“I reckon.” Ian was dripping sweat despite the chilly night air. He'd spent the last hour piling his clothes, play station, movies and games into the back seat and trunk of April Lynne's car. He hadn't had as much stuff as he'd thought he did. If it hadn't been for the stolen lawnmowers and televisions they had been storing in the shed, he wouldn't have even needed Joe's trailer.
“Is this really all you want?” April Lynne surveyed the contents of her car and then looked up at Ian.
“It's all I have,” he told her. “Unless you want to take the couch and shit?”
“Um, no. That shit looks like it came from Goodwill.”
“It did,” Ian told her. “Katie paid $50 for the couch.”
“And you think I would want it?” April Lynne rolled her eyes at him and tossed her frizzy black hair. “The couch I want is at Gunner's Furniture in Beauton and it's going to set you back two grand.”
Ian blanched. “Two grand for a couch?”
April Lynne put her arms around his neck and smiled like a shark. “I helped you steal how much money tonight?”
“Thirty grand,” Lowery chimed in.
“Thirty grand,” April Lynne repeated as she licked her lips. “I wouldn't think you'd be dumb enough to bitch about the price of a couch.”
Joe hooted with laughter. “She's got you, dude.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Ian leaned against the side of his truck and stared at the house he'd shared with Katie for just shy of two years. He'd never dreamed he'd move out in the middle of the night. “I sure wish we'd already rented that house you wanted,” he told April Lynne.
“Me too.” She pulled away from him and put her hands on her hips. “I'd let you move in with me, but Mom would have a
fit.”
“It's cool. My folks are out of town. I can stay at their place until Wednesday. We should be able to rent something by Wednesday, right?”
She nodded. “I've already been talking to the people who own that house on Blackberry Avenue. They're pretty desperate to get it rented out because they've got two mortgages on the place.”
“That's the one with the in-ground pool, ain't it?” He draped his arm over her shoulder.
“And the hot tub,” she added with a giggle.
“I can't wait.” Ian nibbled her neck.
“I'm going to barf,” Joe announced to no one in particular.
“I'm going to deck you,” April Lynne informed him as she nibbled on Ian's ear. “Keep your smart ass mouth shut.”
Lowery and Ian both laughed. Joe scowled but he kept his mouth shut. The four of them sat in silence for a minute.
“Seems unfair that she just gets to kick you out like this,” Lowery said. “She keeps the house and the furniture and you get nothing.”
“I get my stuff,” Ian said. “I didn't want none of the rest of it.”
“I think you should take everything and leave the bitch with nothing. It ain't like she's here to stop you,” Joe said.
“Nice thought, but it would take us all night to load up the rest of this crap. I don't want to spend the rest of the night moving shitty furniture.”
“Not to mention that we ain't got nowhere to put none of it. It's one thing to take all of her shit if you have somewhere to stash it. Or if it's worth selling and you can sell it. It's a damn waste of time to take all her shit and then just have to haul it to the dump.” Joe brushed his palms off on the fabric of his worn, holey pants.
“We could burn it like she threatened to burn Ian's stuff,” April Lynne suggested.
“What?” Ian pursed his lips thoughtfully. “Drag everything out into the yard and burn it?”
“We could,” Joe said. “Or we could just burn the whole fucking house down.”