My bedroom and Tallulah’s bedroom had actually been one large one, but I’d had them split the large space with a wall, and now each of us had a smaller bedroom that would serve our purposes very nicely for now.
My dad loved it the moment he saw it, and mentioned to my mother that he wouldn’t mind going tiny, too. Apparently, living in a big, empty five bedroom, five thousand square foot house wasn’t something he wanted to do anymore. That, or clean it.
My brother, sister, and I had the best years of our lives in that house, and I loved it more than anything.
The fact that they were even considering getting rid of it made me break out in hives.
That house was my dream house.
Two stories, it was pier and beam with a wide ten-foot porch that spanned the entire front of the house.
The back porch was even more impressive, and I hoped that by the time they were ready to sell it, that I had the money to buy it from them.
Turning the light on in my room, I admired the dark gray walls, running my hands down the short wall that led to my dresser.
After slipping on a pair of jeans—because this girl didn’t wear shorts out of the house anymore—I grabbed a clean t-shirt that I hadn’t leaked breast milk on and pulled it over my head.
This one was new.
I hadn’t worn it yet, because wearing the bigger clothes admitted defeat.
I sighed and looked down at my body.
I was curvy, sure, but I wasn’t healthy like I’d been in high school.
Gone was the toned belly with the hint of abs. In its place was a rounded belly with stretch marks.
My breasts jiggled more, and I wasn’t sure if it was a bad idea to go out in this shirt or not.
It was definitely revealing, especially now that the girls were more expressive.
“Don’t forget your vibrator!”
I shook my head, looking at the drawer of my night table.
I did have one. Didn’t every woman in the United States with a healthy sex drive that was unattached have one?
What one did not do, though, was take it out of the privacy of your room. Or at least I shouldn’t.
Sighing deeply, I walked forward and grabbed the vibrator, being sure to take off the duel head and rabbit eared silicone attachment that came with it.
If they wanted me to bring it, I’d bring the vibrating part only.
And it turns out, that was all I really needed, anyway.
***
“I can’t believe y’all are making me do this,” I grumbled to my friends.
Elba threw her arm around my shoulder.
“You know you’re having fun,” she teased.
I was.
There was some sort of thing going on at the fairgrounds. I wasn’t quite sure what exactly it was.
The day part had been some sort of adult entertainment expo, and the night part was fun activities for adults that involved a lot of heavy drinking.
Since I was the only one under twenty-one, I was the lone girl in our gaggle who didn’t have a drink in her hand and hadn’t had one all night long.
“I am,” I admitted. “And I’ve also gone over these notecards ten million times.”
She snorted. “You know this. You need to take a deep breath.”
I did know it…now.
Who knew whether it would be there tomorrow or not.
Hadley came up and stopped in front of me, a scowl on her face.
“You haven’t entered yet,” she declared loudly, causing some people surrounding us to eye her warily.
Hadley was one of those people who you either loved or hated.
She was loud, opinionated and didn’t take shit from anyone…me included.
“If I enter, can we leave?” I asked hopefully.
She narrowed her eyes.
“Yes.”
My brows rose.
“You’re serious?” I asked, hopefulness tinting my voice.
She nodded. “Yes…if you enter.”
I looked at the group that was gathering around the large corrugated tin table, and straightened my spine in resignation.
“Fine,” I said, taking my vibrator out of my pocket. “Let’s do this.”
Elba and Hadley whooped in excitement, drawing more stares.
This time, though, one particular set of staring eyes belonging to a certain biker with gorgeous blue eyes and black hair, caught my attention.
I could only see one eye and his black hair due to the crowd of people, but that was enough to make my heart start hammering.
He looked familiar, but since it was getting darker, and there were so many people here, I couldn’t quite make him out enough to be sure.
Shivering, I turned away from the stares and moved to the crowd.
“You entering?” a big man—and by big, I mean huge—asked.
I nodded at him.
“Step up to the white line. The next round will start in about a minute and a half.” He showed me. “Winner gets this.”
I eyed the huge hulking thing.
“Uhhh,” I said. “Okay?”
I wasn’t sure what one would do with a double-sided, donkey-dick sized dildo, but I was fairly certain that I didn’t want it.
The minute and a half whizzed by, and I looked over to my right to see the other girls standing just behind the cordoned off area.
I grimaced and Hadley waved.
She pointed frantically, and I jumped when the loud buzzing started to fill the night air around me.
It sounded weird with the vibrators up against the metal, making it sound much louder than it should.
Turning the vibrator in my hand on high, I placed it on the starting line and looked nervously around.
This was incredibly embarrassing, but it was also quite funny.
The girls next to me looked to be a little older than me, though the drinks in their hands and their green wristbands indicating they were over twenty-one were enough to tell me that.
“Ready…set…GO!”
I let go of my burden, watching in silence as it made its way down the table, vibrating its little heart out.
Some other girl’s monster dildo took first, pulling away like it was meant to do this for a living, and I started to snicker.
“Interesting.”
My body froze at hearing that voice, and I turned to find Dr. Tommy, dressed in black jeans, a black t-shirt, black motorcycle boots and a leather vest denoting him as a patched in member of The Dixie Wardens MC at my back. With four other men who were all wearing the same vest.
“This is what y’all do instead of studying for your exam tomorrow?” Dr. Tommy continued, looking from me to the girls at my side.
I bit my lip, face flushing a bright red, and turned to snatch my vibrator off the tin that we were using to have the race on.
I shoved it into my pants pocket—vibrator still on—and stared at him like he wouldn’t notice.
He did notice.
He also noticed that the vibrator was still on.
“You’ll run your batteries down,” he pointed out.
Hadley snatched my vibrator out of my pocket, and immediately shoved it back into position with no one the wiser.
I turned back to look at Dr. Tommy and crossed my arms over my chest.
“We’ve already studied, thank you very much,” I informed him. “This was just a stress reducer.”
“That’s not exactly how they’re designed to reduce stress,” one man said from Dr. Tommy’s side. “I could probably show you how they’re supposed to be used.”
My mouth dropped open in embarrassment as I floundered for something to say.
“Oh,” Hadley snickered as she sidled up to my side. “We know how to use them. This is just a bonus activity.”
The crowd started to cheer loudly, and I turned to find the vibrators at the end of the line now…with mine in first!
The
large man who’d shown me the prize earlier came up to me and thrust the double-ended dildo into my hand.
“Congratulations!” he crowed.
I wordlessly took the large dildo and then looked at the men in front of me.
Every single one of them was wearing a large smile.
All of them except for Dr. Tommy, that is.
“Are you ready yet?” I whispered frantically to Hadley, shaking my new dildo in her face.
It hit her on the nose, and she grabbed it and pushed it away before answering.
“Yes.” She smiled a secret smile for reasons only she knew. “I’m ready when you are.”
I walked down to the end and pocketed my vibrator, and then tried to hand off the double-headed dildo to Elba, who flatly refused.
“No,” she hissed. “Do you see all those hot guys down there?”
I rolled my eyes.
“You’re getting married soon. You’re not allowed to care whether hot guys notice you’re holding a dildo or not,” I informed her.
She snorted.
“Yeah,” she agreed. “That’s right.”
I sighed and looked for the nearest trashcan, spotting one just on the other side of Dr. Tommy.
Fuck.
I scanned the area again, spotting one on the opposite side of the lot from where we were parked, and cursed.
How could they only have two freakin’ trashcans out here?
Knowing I had to get close to him to trash it, I started forward.
He watched me come, his eyes taking in my every move.
Surely there was something more interesting at the expo than me, right?
Wrong.
He watched me like a hawk.
Even his friends watched me.
“You want this?” I asked him as I passed, skirting around the large men who didn’t bother to try to get out of my way.
No, they forced me to walk all the way around them, then circle back around to get at their backs.
Dr. Tommy’s eyes sparkled as he turned. “Wouldn’t have much use for it, so no,” was his answer.
Just as I was about to drop it into the trash, that velvety voice broke in again. “You could keep it, you know. You never know when you might have use for it.”
That didn’t sound very professional or teacher-like to say.
My eyes caught his, and something quick flashed in his eyes before it was gone as if it’d never been.
“See you tomorrow, ladies,” Dr. Tommy said as he started backing away.
I looked to the side to see Hadley and Elba were waiting there, watching the exchange with extreme interest.
“Bye, Dr. Bones!” Hadley called, waving excitedly.
Dr. Tommy’s shoulders stiffened, and he looked over at the man at his side just as he opened his mouth.
“Why are they calling you Dr. Bones?” the man to Dr. Tommy’s right asked, eyes sparkling with mirth.
“Shut up, Truth,” he growled.
“I could always ask…”
Dr. Tommy left without another word, and the men followed him. All of them chuckling.
We watched them go, our eyes avid, until we could no longer see them as they weaved their way through the crowd.
“You did that on purpose,” I hissed at her.
She shrugged. “I don’t know what came over me.”
My eyes rolled backwards as I looked up at the quickly darkening sky.
“This is going to come back and bite us in the ass,” I told her. “Just you wait and see.”
She smiled.
“You gonna trash that or keep it?” she asked.
I looked at the thing I was still holding, then roughly shoved it into my purse without another word.
Why, I had no idea.
Chapter 5
Please be patient, I’m fucking things up as fast as I can.
-Tally to Tommy
Tally
I stared at my paper worriedly.
I couldn’t remember anything.
Not a damn thing.
Everything that was on that page was foreign to me.
Not just one thing, but everything.
“You have an hour to finish before I collect the tests. Finished or not. Understand?” Dr. Tommy walked to the board and wrote 10:33 on the white dry erase board. “If you have any questions during the test, raise your hand and I’ll come to you. Number two pencils only, because I’d hate for the testing machine to not read your answers and mark them wrong.”
I swallowed thickly, checking to make sure my pencil was number two, even though that’s all I ever bought.
I fiddled with my watch, setting my time to the time on the board, and then I started to panic.
I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t. I would fail, and then I would have to work at the gas station for the rest of my life, possibly never seeing Tallulah again because I’d be busy working to make enough money to support us. She’d be fifteen when I finally caught up…
A Jolly Rancher was set down on the desk in front of me, and I lifted my eyes from my test to look at who put it there, only to stop when I saw a crotch.
A very nice crotch at that.
I could see mostly everything, and everything was quite perfect.
Though, I had a feeling that had a lot to do with the man that crotch belonged to.
Even soft the man was well proportioned. I wondered what it would look like if…
Dr. Tommy’s muscled, tattooed arm came into view to block his crotch, and I blushed ruby red.
I made my way from his crotch to his face, stalling slightly on his belly and well defined arms before I reached my destination.
My face was still flaming, which seemed to be a constant state with him.
I licked my lips.
His brows rose, but he didn’t say a word.
He glanced down at my paper, which was still blank, then back to me as if to say ‘what the fuck is going on with you?’
I shrugged, causing his lips to tip up in a smile.
He opened the Jolly Rancher and handed it to me, and I took it.
Should I put it in my mouth?
I was on a diet. I’d not had anything sweet in well over two weeks.
I should. I definitely should.
Popping it into my mouth, I lifted my own brows, causing his eyes to smile.
Without another word, he turned and walked back toward his desk where he took a seat, propped his feet up onto the corner and closed his eyes.
I watched him for a few long seconds before I went back to my test…this time not nearly as freaked out as I’d been a few minutes ago.
***
“You passed.”
My body jolted.
I was sleeping on the couch in a back room of the school that acted as a students’ lounge. It was placed there by some awesome members of the administration who understood the needs of nursing students.
I always took a quick nap on Tuesdays and Thursdays before I had to go to work at the gas station. I had exactly an hour and fifteen minutes between eleven and twelve fifteen to get some rest before I had to be to work by twelve thirty.
Today, since I’d finished my test before class normally ended, I had a few minutes longer.
“I did?” I asked, rubbing my eyes in confusion.
I felt the couch depress at my side, and I turned to look at Dr. Tommy.
He was holding my test.
Well, he was holding all of the tests, but mine just happened to be the top one.
“Have you told any of your other teachers that you have test anxiety?” he asked.
I looked at him.
“What would they do about it?” I asked him sardonically. “Nothing.”
He snorted.
“Actually, they’re required by law to give you another testing environment and more time if it’s found to actually be a real problem for you. They’re also allowed to alter the way t
he test is administered, giving it to you orally or in essay format if the standardized test causes you anxiety,” he enlightened me.
I blinked, then blinked some more.
“You’re shitting me,” I finally settled on, then immediately cursed myself for cussing in front of my teacher.
The only thing my words got me was laughter, thankfully.
“No, I’m not shitting you,” he promised. “Come to my office with me, and then go to lunch with me. I want to go over a few things with you.”
I wanted to do nothing less, but I got up anyway.
“I have to be at work by twelve thirty,” I told him. “That’s two hours.”
He nodded.
Grabbing my bag, I shouldered it only for him to take it from me and carry it by the handle.
“I noticed that you weren’t overly freaked out until I passed the Scantrons out.”
I nodded my head, following at his side as he led me down the hall to the teachers’ wing where you rarely, if ever, saw students.
“I think I would’ve been okay if I didn’t have to fill those bubbles in, but every single time I do the bubbles, my eyes cross.”
He grinned.
“I had to take all my tests throughout school on the computer because the act of looking and writing down ‘A, B, C, or D’ made the letters all float around in my head. I failed three tests like that my first year in college before one of my teachers realized what was going on.”
I didn’t say anything.
The man at my side, the strong, tall, dark, handsome, tattooed badass (yes, I could go on for days listing his virtues!) didn’t look like he had any weaknesses. No way. So it surprised and elated me to learn that he wasn’t quite the model of perfection that I had originally thought he was.
And over the next two hours before work, I realized that he really wasn’t perfect. He smoked the occasional cigarette (when he had a really bad day at the hospital he said), he cursed, he was loud when he drank, and he had a dog that should really be put on a diet but he didn’t have the heart to force him to slow down on his food.
All of that caused me to fall even more for him, which inevitably would end up with me being hurt and sad because Dr. Tommy hadn’t made one single move to exhibit that he felt the same.
Fear the Beard (The Dixie Warden Rejects MC Book 2) Page 3