“Is she getting ready for bed?” Sage asked Laya.
“Yes, me, too. Are you going to bed at home now, too, Sage?” Laya asked.
“Nope, I’m going out dancing.”
Sage smiled as Laya’s eyes lit up. She stood and Sage took her hands as she twirled around in a circle with her.
“Okay, my little dancer, it’s time for bed,” Bryant said as he swooped her up into his arms and kissed her chubby cheeks.
“You guys, too,” Lena called across the room.
“We got them. Come on, boys, more puzzles tomorrow,” Blake said as he tapped Frankie on the butt and chased him upstairs. Quinn picked up William tossed him onto his shoulder and carried the laughing four-year-old up the stairs to bed.
Lena picked up some toys off the floor, and then gathered another doll of Laya’s.
“You know, Sage, I’m here for you if you need to talk. You know, woman to woman, about anything?”
Sage pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and then looked toward the stairs where the others had gone.
“There isn’t anything to talk about.”
“Okay. If there is, I’m here. I know it’s kind of crazy when you think about what a ménage relationship entails. You’ve been around here for years. You see the love and commitment the guys and I have, never mind the others.”
“I know. I’m fine with it. I see the good that comes of it.”
“Is there something else holding you back from getting to know Dale, Virgo, Matt, and Quaid?”
She sat down on the couch.
“They’re going to be here any minute. Maybe we can talk tomorrow?” Sage said.
“Sure. Just remember, I get it. I understand the fear, the uncertainty, and need to hold back, and not give in. Trust doesn’t come easy for women like us, who’ve been through the things we survived. But that’s just it. We survived. We got a second chance at life. It would be silly to waste it hiding, when you can enjoy even the simplest things with those around you, with those you can trust, and who would do anything to protect.”
“I don’t even know Dale, Virgo, Matt, and Quaid. I can’t trust them.”
“Why not?”
“Because, they’ll ask more questions. They already looked into my past, and know I was homeless, that I was being hunted by Triumph, and God knows what else they knew or have assumed. It’s not fair. I don’t know a damn thing about them, yet they’ve already practically investigated me.”
Lena looked shocked.
“I’m sure that’s not what happened.”
Sage shot her a look.
“Sage?” Bryant came downstairs and he looked concerned.
They heard the horn honking outside. Her ride was there.
“Forget it. I don’t want to hear it.”
“Wait. They didn’t investigate you. Wyatt and Kenny told them about how Lena and us met and got involved. They shared the story with them.”
“It doesn’t matter. I’m not ready for that. I’m not ready to get my heart broken.”
Sage walked out and headed down the steps. She took a deep breath and forced the tears away, and put on her happy, “everything is perfect” face as her friends greeted her.
“All set?” Davie asked as the girls complimented her outfit and Bill told her she could sit on Corey’s lap in the front seat.
“In your dreams.” They laughed as she climbed into the backseat of the Mustang. The girls, along with Davie and Lenny, climbed into Davie’s truck. As they sped out and down the long dirt driveway, Sage couldn’t help but feel nervous and a bit of guilt.
Why do I feel guilty? They’re not my boyfriends. That kiss with Dale meant nothing. She was quiet a moment as the words sunk in and made her feel hollow inside. Then she thought of the others.
Help me to get them out of my head. Let me enjoy tonight, and tomorrow I’ll deal with all these crazy emotions.
* * * *
The music was blasting and Sage just came off the dance floor in desperate need of a drink. She glanced around, looking for Amanda as Sissy and Mary joined Sage by the bar.
“Have you seen Amanda?” Sage asked.
“I think she’s still talking with that guy she met an hour ago,” Mary said.
Sage tried to find her. “I don’t see them in the corner anymore. She would have told us if she were leaving.”
“Good evening, ladies. Can we buy you ladies some drinks?” Sage looked up to see four cowboys who had been watching them dancing. Mary had her eyes on one, while Sissy had her eyes on another.
“Sure thing. My name’s Sissy.” Sissy began the introductions, and despite how good looking and sexy the cowboys were, Sage wasn’t interested. It was crazy, but she thought about Dale, and the way his lips felt against her lips, and how his hands explored her body in her kitchen. She wondered what Matt and Quaid would do if they saw her here right now, dancing, having a good time while these men flirted with her. Then of course she thought about Virgo. Sweet, big Virgo and his arms of steel. This was a complete first for her, and she was trying to process her thoughts when she felt the hand against her elbow. Two of the cowboys took position on either side of her.
“Darling, you’re too damn pretty to be pouting like that,” one whispered to her. She moved back, only to bump into the hard body of the other cowboy behind her.
“Will you excuse me a moment?” She looked at Mary and Sissy, and then whispered to Mary.
“You have fun with these guys, I’m going to see if I can find Amanda and the guys.” They smiled and waved, and she saw the disappointed expressions on the cowboys’ faces.
She was trying to make her way through the crowd when she heard some yelling and then looked to see Bill and Corey about to get into a fight with three other cowboys. There was a blonde standing on the side looking concerned.
Sage pushed through the crowd.
Stupid Bill and Corey probably flirted with those cowboys’ girl. It was funny, but she thought about Matt, and what he did at that bar with the girl, wound up in the mud pit and then took the girl on a date.
Before Corey and Bill could throw any fists, the bouncers came over and broke up the fight.
Sage smiled and looked toward the bathroom hallway, when she saw Amanda making out with some guy dressed in black. Sage couldn’t see his face. He kept his Stetson low, and with the dim light she could hardly make out that it was Amanda, but her red high-heeled cowgirl boots with the sequins sparling down the sides stood out like a neon light.
Sage walked to the ladies’ room. There was a little sitting area, where some women talked and fixed their makeup. One woman was crying with her friends trying to console her.
Sage took care of her business, then rechecked her lip gloss and stared into the mirror. She realized very quickly that she was getting tired of dance halls, bars, and all the chaos associated with a night out on the town with her friends. It bored her, when really all she liked to do was read, work, plant things in her garden, exercise, and work out in the dojo.
Sage took a deep breath knowing that she was stuck here for a while. Her friends were having a good time so she needed to suck it up and have fun, too.
As she exited the door and walked down the hallway, she noticed that Amanda was starting to walk out of the dance hall with the guy she was kissing and another guy. They were by the table and chairs, and Amanda looked drunk.
Sage made her way over, as Davie joined her.
“What’s going on?”
“I think Amanda is going to leave with those guys she just met. I’m going to stop her. You know how she gets when she’s drinking.”
Davie exhaled in annoyance.
As Sage approached, she grabbed Amanda’s hand.
“Hey, honey, where are you running off to?”
Amanda turned around smiling and looking very happy. She ran her hand down one of the guy’s chests and then to the other one’s. “Meet Tye and Hue. They’re in the oil business.”
Both men smiled as they s
andwiched Amanda between them.
“Sure they are, and I have a cousin who works with Santa and his elves at the North Pole. Come on, Amanda, I think you need to slow down a little.” She reached for Amanda, and the one guy pulled her back.
“Oh!” Amanda yelled out.
“Let her go,” Davie chimed in.
“Yeah, let her go now,” Sage ordered. Another cowboy, a friend of these two guys, walked over. He placed his hand on Sage’s waist.
“What’s going on here, sugar? There are enough of us to go around,” he told her and Sage snorted at the jerk.
“Go take a walk.”
He pulled her closer to him and she nearly lost her balance as her hip hit the wooden table hard. She knew that would leave a bruise, but she would worry about that later.
“Let go of her,” Davie yelled as he tried to pry the guy’s hands off of Sage.
The guy pushed Sage into Amanda and the two cowboys and then took a swing at Davie. Davie ducked and countered, hitting the guy in the nose. “What the hell is going on here?” Corey asked as he and Bill showed up. Sage knew this was getting out of hand when suddenly the cowboy that had been holding Amanda reached under Sage’s arm and cupped her breast. Sage yelled and then twisted from his hold and slugged him. From there on out it was complete chaos.
The three guys who had started a fight with Corey and Bill earlier were now there, some woman, who apparently used to sleep with the two cowboys Amanda was fooling around with, showed up and grabbed Amanda by the hair. Knowing that Amanda was too drunk to handle a fight, Sage pulled the blonde woman from Amanda just as more yelling started and then the word “Fight” echoed through the air. Bottles were flying, people were screaming and cheering, tables were breaking, and the band kept playing as the security attempted to intervene. Sage grabbed Amanda as the blonde swung her open hand against Amanda’s cheek.
Sage was so shocked, she stood there momentarily and watched as Amanda screamed and then slapped the woman back and then decked her. Sage heard Lenny yell, “Watch out,” and as Sage turned covering her face and head, a beer bottle hit her forearm and broke against it. Chards of glass cut her skin and she yelled as she pulled it to her chest. Strong arms wrapped around her and she thought it was one of the cowboys who tried taking Amanda but instead it was Bill.
“Let’s get the hell out of here!” he yelled.
“Get Amanda, Mary, and Sissy.”
“Corey, Lenny, and Davie have them. Come on.”
As they exited out of the dance hall along with a bunch of other people, they made their way down the street to where they parked.
“Holy shit, that was nuts,” Corey stated.
“That was great. I think I broke my freaking hand, but that was great,” Amanda said as she looked at her knuckles that were red and swollen.
Bill wrapped his arm around Amanda’s shoulders. “You need to be more careful with the cowboys you decide to hook up with. Those guys had bad intentions.” He gently ran his thumb against her cheek.
“I need a drink,” Davie said and they all started laughing.
“I think I need some ice,” Sage said, as they rounded the corner outside one of the other hopping bars on the strip. Corey stopped to look at her arm.
“Shit, Sage. This is bad.”
“What is?” Davie asked as he walked closer.
“Aw hell, was that from a beer bottle?” Davie asked.
“Yes.”
“Crap, you might need stitches,” Mary told her.
“Oh no, does that mean the night is over?” Amanda asked as she laid her head on Bill’s arm. Sage could tell that Bill was happy with Amanda leaning on him. Bill and Corey adored Amanda but they had been friends forever.
“No, of course not. Let’s go into the bar, have some more drinks, and I’ll wash this up and deal with it later,” Sage said. Amanda cheered and they all headed into the next bar.
Sage swallowed hard. She didn’t want to be here. She just wanted to go home, or maybe she did need to get stitches.
She felt the arm go around her again. It was Corey.
“I can walk you down the street to that urgent care facility while these guys continue to party?”
She smiled at him.
“You think it can’t wait?”
“Honey, you’re a trooper, but that looks really bad. Let’s go.” Corey told the gang where they were headed, and they walked to the urgent care facility a block down the street in Turbank.
* * * *
“She’s what?” Kenny asked as the call came over the radio from dispatch.
“Is she okay? What happened?” he asked as Rosie, the dispatcher, said Corey Jacobs was with Sage and that she needed stitches.
“I’m on my way.”
Fifteen minutes later Kenny pulled up to the urgent care. The call came over the radio about a bar fight at the dance hall in Turbank. As he passed by, he saw the local police department patrol cars, and some people were under arrest and paramedics on the scene were treating others. Kenny was furious.
As he headed into urgent care, he saw the nurse at the front desk and then was directed to the room Sage was being treated in.
He opened the door just as Doctor Montgomery, a good friend of Kenny’s father, was pulling out shards of glass from Sage’s forearm.
“Kenny?” Corey said, and Sage turned her head to look at him, her eyes widened and then she pulled her bottom lip between her teeth. The doctor stopped a moment.
“Hey, Kenny, how are you? Annie said you were working tonight, and that she saw you outside of Francine’s.” Annie was Ray Montgomery’s sister.
“Yep, sure did. She said she was bringing you by some dinner,” Kenny stated, making small talk as Dr. Montgomery went back to pulling glass from Sage’s arm.
“Yeah, that was hours ago. You know they give the graveyard shift to the young doctors,” he said and winked.
“I hear you. So how is the patient?”
“Sage? She’s the best patient I ever had that took a beer bottle to the forearm like this. I’ve had grown men lay on this table and moan and groan. She’s a tough one.” He winked at her.
“It’s not her fault, Kenny. There was a bar fight at the dance hall and we were trying to get out when beer bottles were flying everywhere. It could have hit her in the face, or even the head if she hadn’t ducked.”
“Just what I want to hear, Corey. Where is the rest of the crew?” Kenny asked.
“Down the road at the bar, we’re supposed to meet up with them afterward,” Sage stated.
Kenny bit the inside of his cheek and tried to maintain his calm. He didn’t want to let on how worried he was about Sage. She wouldn’t take it well. “I don’t think that’s going to happen.” He held Sage’s gaze.
Kenny looked at the doctor. “Does she need stitches, Ray?”
“Unfortunately she does. But at least there are no broken bones. Only some bruising already. Take a look,” Ray said, and Kenny stepped around to see the multiple shards of glass, the deep cut to the center of her forearm on the bone right above the elbow.
“We’ll clean this up, make sure I get all the glass out, and then we’ll work on the stitches. This is going to take a while.”
“Corey, if you want to head back out, you don’t have to stay,” Sage told him.
Corey placed his hand on Sage’s shoulder. “I’ll stay with you. It’s all right.”
“I’ll take her home when the doctor is done. You can go,” Kenny said just as the door opened again.
Kenny turned around to see Matt and Quaid. He wasn’t sure how to handle it, but then again, he was there once himself. When Lena was hurt and tried to take care of herself instead of ask him or his brothers for help when they cared about her. Quaid, Matt, Virgo, and Dale cared for Sage. They made their desires known to him, so he had to respect them for showing up like this.
“Are you okay?” Matt asked, sounding angry and abrupt.
“What are they doing here? You called them,
Kenny?” Sage asked.
Kenny went to reply but Quaid cut him off.
“No, he didn’t call us. We heard the call over the police scanner about the bar fight at the dance hall. I called dispatch and Rosie told me about Kenny coming out here and that you were hurt, and needed stitches.”
“So you drove out here at midnight?” Sage asked, sounding shocked.
Kenny looked at his watch. “More like three o’clock in the morning, honey.”
“Oh God. I wish I drank more.” She closed her eyes and leaned back.
* * * *
Quaid had finally started to calm down once Corey left to meet the other friends at the bar down the block. Quaid watched Sage as the doctor cleaned up the cuts and then stitched up the gash in her arm. Twenty-two stitches and her arm was all wrapped up. The doctor gave her some painkillers and told her she was lucky she wasn’t drunk or hadn’t drank more than two beers or he wouldn’t let her take the pain meds.
As she sat up and prepared to get down off the table, Quaid reached for her. “Take your time.”
“Make sure you get Doc to look at that sometime over the weekend. I’m sure you’re in good hands and will have plenty of people looking out for you, Sage,” Doctor Montgomery told her and then shook Kenny’s hand then Matt’s and Quaid’s.
“Thank you,” Sage whispered as Quaid placed his arm around her waist.
“We’ll give her a ride home if you need to head back to work, Kenny,” Matt stated, and even to Quaid it sounded more like an order than an offer.
Kenny looked at Sage. “You’ll be safe with Matt and Quaid. I should get back on duty or Marco is going to be pissed that I left him in charge of the two rookies.”
He leaned down and kissed Sage on the cheek. “We’ll talk about this over the weekend.”
* * * *
Sage was exhausted, and yet filled with nervous energy. She couldn’t believe that Quaid and Matt showed up in the middle of the night because they heard she was hurt. She didn’t know how to handle that at first. She was kind of pissed off, but then she was touched.
As Quaid opened to door to the truck, Matt stopped her. The moment his hands went to her waist as he turned her around and pressed her gently against the truck, she locked gazes with his eyes. He looked fierce, wild, angry, and every inch of her reacted the same way. With desire, need, and a sensation she never experienced before.
Sage's Story [The Town of Pearl 5] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 7