“Well, if it’s any of your business, I’m on my way back from Richmond,” I reply snippily.
“What were you doing there?”
“How about a little quid pro quo here?” I ask.
“Meaning?”
“You tell me why you put up with Peyton and I’ll tell you what I was doing,” I answer, thinking that’s fair enough.
I hear him sigh into the phone. “Mill, I plan on telling you, just not now.”
Man, it must be something big for him to be holding back so much.
“Fair enough.”
“When will you be back?” he asks.
“In an hour. But I was just about to call Cass and see what she was doing. Maybe stop by her place on my way in.”
“Need to see you when you get into town.”
“Okay. I’ll text you when I get there,” I say and hang up. Yep, he and I are going to have to do some talking because I need answers.
Chapter 15
“Yo,” Cassie answers when I call.
“What’s up?”
“Oh, I may or may not be recovering from an amazing sexual encounter I had last night.”
I squeal. “What? You and Jeremy?”
“No, Henry Cavill showed up in that smokin’ hot Superman suit expressing his undying love for me and I couldn’t resist. He’s my Kryptonite.”
“Smartass,” I say laughing. “So what happened?”
“Well, when a man and a woman like each other…”
“Cass!”
Now she’s laughing. “I had him over for dinner and, well, one thing led to another and we ended up having amazing, fabulous, down and dirty sex. And let me tell you, there’s nothing wrong with that man. No weird fetishes or anything unless you call total alpha dominance weird. God, Mill, he made me come four times.”
“Yay! I’m so happy for you! Hey, I’m about forty minutes out. Wanna have a beer or ten when I get to town?”
“Where’ve you been?”
“Went to Richmond to check on some things.”
“Okay. Yeah, come on by or do you wanna go to Jen’s?” she asks.
“Not sure. I just need a drink. Wait. Do you think I could be like a closet alcoholic? I’ve drunk more since I’ve been back than I have in the last five years.”
Cass snorts. “Seriously? Mill, when’s the last time you took a vacation?”
“Uh…”
“Exactly. God, give yourself a break. You deserve to cut loose and have some fun.”
“Best friend ever,” I tell her.
“Ditto,” she returns.
“We’ll have lots of fun together in AA.”
“Hi, my name is Cassie and this bitch turned me into an alcoholic. It works.”
I laugh. “And vice versa. Okay, which do you prefer, your place or Jen’s?”
“Let’s do Jen’s. That way if you get drunk you don’t have to drive,” she explains.
“What about you?”
“Oh, I’ll just call on a certain fireman to see if he can assist me,” she says with a giggle.
I smile and shake my head. “Okay, I’ll see you in a bit.”
“Got it. Drive safe!” she says and we hang up.
~~~
I pull up to Hale’s and unload my car, taking everything inside then take a quick shower. I dress in one of my new sweaters, a steel blue cashmere one that hangs off one shoulder, loosely tucking the front into my skinny blue jeans then pull on my gray suede Louboutin ankle boots. I top it all with a black wool mini blazer and feeling playful put my hair into a high ponytail.
I leave to walk to Jen’s and text Kade to tell him where I’ll be but get no answer back. Whatever. He’s probably busy with Lola McBoobrubber. Inside Jen’s, I see that Cassie’s already there, motioning me over.
“Good lord,” I say when I make it to her table shrugging out of my jacket as I take in all the drinks she’s ordered. “Celebrating?”
“Four for you, four for me. Tonight we’re drinking to great sex,” she says with a grin.
“Damn. I feel I must partake of these or I’ll curse myself into never having good sex again.” I laugh.
She points to the drinks picking each one up and doing that hand model thing as she tells me what they are. “Here we have a Sex on the Beach.” She sets it down and picks up another. “Next is a Dirty Redheaded Slut.”
“In honor of you, right?”
“Hey!” She smacks me on the arm making me giggle. “But you’re right. That’s so me.” She also giggles then continues pointing to drinks. “This is a Leg Spreader,” she wiggles her eyebrows at me, “and last is a Blow Job.”
“Nice,” I say, duly impressed.
She picks up the Sex on the Beach as do I, we clink our glasses together and drink.
There’s a band that’s comprised of four older men and a woman all from town who I recognize but can’t place their names and they’re pretty good. Lots of couples are on the floor slow dancing to the jazz they’re playing.
“So tell me about last night,” I say.
“First of all, you must know, he’s huge!” she says and claps her hands excitedly, which makes me laugh.
“No shit?”
“No shit. Biggest I’ve had,” she answers with a nod.
“Good for you. I know they say size doesn’t matter, but in my limited experience, I’d have to disagree with that little adage.”
“Hear fuckin’ hear,” she says downing her drink. “That was good. Which one next?”
I finish mine and say, “Might as well go in order.” I hold up the Dirty Redheaded Slut shooter and make a toast. “Be good. And if you can’t be good, be good at it.” We grin at each other, knock our drinks together then toss them down.
“So, as much as I don’t wanna hear about my brother, tell me what’s going on with you two.” My face flushes and she points at me. “You did it! You were ready for ‘all of him.’” She snorts.
I roll my eyes. “Yeah. We did. Yesterday afternoon. And then he went on a date last night.”
She jerks her head back. “What?”
I huff out a breath. “I ate at Mags’ by myself last night. A woman in the booth behind me got a call from him and she asked him if they were going out. After hanging up with him, she talked to her friend about how it was their third date and how she hoped they’d sleep together.”
Cass narrows her eyes at me. “What’d this woman look like?”
I shrug. “Gorgeous. Blonde. Knockout body. Big tits.”
“Hm.” She purses her lips trying to figure out who it was. “I’ll find out what the asshole’s up to.” She nods and makes me love her even more for always having my back. “Okay. On that cheery bit of news, we need something hard. Leg Spreader it is!” We pick up the cocktails and hold them up. “May all our ups and downs be under the covers!”
We both giggle then take a drink.
“Holy shit. What’s in this? I taste tequila and vodka?” I say shaking my head and making a face, sticking out my tongue.
“Gin and rum too, I think,” she adds making the same face I do.
“I see why these are called Leg Spreaders because they make you want to spread your legs where you’re sitting and puke between them. Ick!” I say and I’m still making the face when Mike walks up to our table.
“Ladies. I see your drinks are tasting great,” he says with a chuckle. Cass holds hers out to him and when he takes a sip, I see he barely keeps from making a face too. “Damn. You two are serious tonight, huh? What’s going on?”
“We’re celebrating great sex,” Cassie explains taking her drink back from him. “Leg Spreader,” she explains, nodding at it before taking another drink and getting a sour look on her face again.
He looks at me, brow raised, and I shrug with a smirk.
“Nice,” he says in approval. “So, can I have this dance?”
I’m taking another sip when Cassie kicks me unde
r the table making me give her a look.
“He’s asking you,” she says, jerking her head toward Mike.
I look at him in surprise and see him waiting for my answer. “Oh. Oh! I thought you were talking to Cassie.”
He shakes his head slowly, grinning at me. “So?”
I look at her in question and she shrugs. “Go for it.” She suddenly grins and winks at me, which makes me narrow my eyes at her wondering what she’s up to.
“Sure,” I tell Mike. I cut my eyes again at her before hopping down off my barstool but she just smirks. Hm. Mike takes my hand as we walk toward the floor and I feel the alcohol kicking in and I can’t say that I hate it. I’d kind of like to dwell in I Don’t Give a Shit Land for a bit tonight instead of thinking myself to death.
The band’s playing “Moonlight in Vermont” and Mike spins me, still holding my left hand in his right one then wraps his other arm around my waist, pulling me in close. Uh, okay. We sway slowly to the music not speaking a word and it’s very intimate, making me a little uncomfortable, but he’s Kade’s friend, so I don’t think anything of it because of “Guy Code” and all that.
Then I remember Sydney and pull back and say, “Oh, yeah! I have a friend I work with in Richmond you might be interested in. That is, if you don’t have a girlfriend.”
He looks down at me with a half grin that’s pretty sexy. “You’re cute.” He then brings me back against him and says low in my ear, “You and Kade don’t work out, gimme a call.”
I move my head back in surprise looking up at him. And it’s at that time that I figure out why Cass was grinning and winking at me before I got out here because I see Kade now standing at the side of the floor, arms crossed, his eyes about to burn a hole through Mike. Oh, boy. The song ends just then so we walk over to him.
“Hey, man, just taking care of your girl,” Mike says, his eyes boring into Kade’s. Well, crap. What the heck’s going on now? They stare at each other for a beat and I’m about to ask them if I should get out the scales to see whose balls weigh the most when Mike finally breaks their stalemate, looks down at me and smiles. “Thank you for the dance, Amelia.”
He walks away and I’m left there with one pissed off man who’s now staring down at me, and I run out of patience. “What?” I ask, crossing my arms too, looking up at him.
The band starts playing “It Never Entered My Mind” by Miles Davis and a pang of sadness suddenly hits me. I know these songs because when I was little Papaw told me I needed to know them, and he’d play them and dance me around the garage telling me, “This is real music, Millie bug.”
Kade must see the sadness on my face because he takes me in his arms and leads me out on the floor then holding my right hand, tucks it against his chest as we move slowly to the music.
“Was worried about you today,” he says quietly as we sway.
“Just had to pick up some things.”
“Should’ve let me know you were going.”
I frown. “Why?”
He pulls back a little as we keep dancing and looks down at me. “Is it so hard for you to let someone care about you? Jesus.”
I keep my frown as I process what he’s said. It’s been so long since I’ve had to answer to anyone or that I’ve had anyone really care about me that I’m not sure if I remember how to go about letting them do so. I’m tipsy and don’t really want to think about this shit, so I try to move back into him, but he holds me away.
“You’ve changed, Mill. Used to trust people, but now you’re so guarded. Why?” I bite my bottom lip and shrug. God, I don’t want to talk even though I told him we could. I just want the alcohol to do its job and get me to the point where I don’t care a whole lot about anything which would be awesome. He finally pulls me back into him, kissing the top of my head. “Gonna fix that,” he states.
I want to tell him I’m guarded with him because he has, in his own words, “fucked a lot of women,” and I’m not sure if I can trust him anymore because of the woman at Mags’ last night, but I keep it to myself. I’m sure it’ll all come out soon enough anyway. Can’t wait.
When the song ends, he holds my hand as we walk back to the table where I squeal in delight to see that Brody has now shown up. Cass tells me she’s ordered more drinks for us and I let out a “Yippee!” then bump her fist with mine. Kade shakes his head as he picks up a beer bottle on the table and takes a drink.
“Wanna blow job?” I blurt out to him, holding the drink toward him.
He pulls the bottle from his mouth quickly as he chokes out a cough while Brody barks out a laugh.
Oh, well. I turn to Cass and say, “May we always come more than we go,” and hear Kade groan as I lick the whipped cream off the top of it before downing the shot.
Our server brings us more of the same drinks, setting them on the table in front of us, which makes Cass and me bump fists again and wiggle our fingers at each other as we pull our hands away making us giggle.
“Jesus,” Brody mumbles.
Then out of the blue Cass asks, “So, Kade, who’s the blonde you went out with last night?”
I huff out a laugh at her bluntness then look at Kade waiting for him to deny it.
“How’d you know?” He looks at her in surprise narrowing his eyes.
My stomach takes a dive at his nonchalance in answering her question.
“Shit,” I mumble through the hand I’ve covered my face with. “I think I’m gonna be sick,” I say and take off toward the bathroom.
Chapter 16
I bypass the bathroom and head to the back door, going outside as I gasp for air.
Kade actually admitted that he’d gone out with that woman. Just said it straight up. Didn’t even flinch. Didn’t blink an eye. Just, POW! like a slam of his fist into my gut.
I sit down on the steps and put my head between my knees thinking that those Leg Spreaders are certainly living up to their name and I think if my stomach has anything to do with this, they’re about to make a reappearance when someone speaks to me.
“You okay?”
I let out a yelp and stand quickly, putting my hand over my heart to keep it from jumping out of my chest then turn to see Mike in the shadows where he’s been smoking a cigarette. “Holy shit! You scared the hell outta me!”
He smirks as he flicks the butt away then walks over repeating, “Sorry ‘bout that. You okay?”
I roll my eyes at what a chicken I am. “Yeah. I’m good. Just, uh, needed some air.”
“Leg Spreaders got some kick, huh?”
I chuckle. “Yeah, I guess so.” I take a deep breath, recouping from the damned fright I just experienced then wipe any dirt off the back of my jeans. “Well, I’m gonna walk back to the station.”
“I’ll go with you,” he says.
“No, it’s okay. I’m fine,” I say, but he tilts his head to the side and gives me a look.
“Just to make sure no more brick throwers show up.”
“Oh. Okay. Yeah. Uh, thanks.”
We walk down the alley behind all the businesses, and I wrap my arms around myself, the fall wind chilling me to the bone. Mike notices and takes off his wool trench coat and puts it around my shoulders where it almost touches my ankles. What a nice guy. I thank him and we keep walking in silence.
“So, what’s your story, Amelia?” he finally asks after a moment.
I huff out a laugh. “Not sure that I have much of one.”
He pauses for a couple seconds. “What’s the story with you and Kade?”
Oh, boy. I bite my lips not really wanting to go into it.
“Sorry. Didn’t mean to pry,” he offers at my silence.
I look over at him. He really is a great looking guy and he’s been nothing but nice to, taking care of the broken window in the garage and now walking me back. “No, it’s okay.” It’s not like he couldn’t ask someone else, so I might as well share. “Kade and I dated in high school. He was two years olde
r, and when he graduated, he joined the Navy. I’m sure you know all that.” I look over to see him nod. “We stayed together until I graduated college and got a job for the city. Then he asked me to marry him, which I guess seemed like the logical next step.” I shrug when he looks at me.
“You marry him?” he asks.
We’re at the station now, so we stop at the front door and I turn to face him. “No. I didn’t. By that time, he’d been gone for nine years and I hadn’t gotten to see him very much.” I sigh and stare over at Kade’s store. “I guess I wanted more. A husband who was going to be there with me, share his life with me, you know? But I didn’t see that happening for us at the time, so I… I left.”
“I understand.”
I look at him, surprised. Most guys would side with Kade, I’d think, since he was doing his duty in serving his country when I walked out on him. “You don’t think I’m a raging bitch for leaving him at the altar? As in, literally leaving him there?”
He smiles. “No. I get it.”
I narrow my eyes at him wondering if he really understands or he’s just trying to get in my pants since he let me know earlier that he was interested.
He blows out a breath. “Kade and I got into it earlier.”
“What? I thought you were good friends.”
“We are.” He shrugs. “Knew you guys had a thing. Told him if he was trying to get you back, he was going about it the wrong way. Going out with Missy when her husband’s in Iraq. Just think he should be giving you his full attention. He told me to, let’s see, how can I put this nicely… go fuck myself.”
I snort then realize he’s just verified my suspicions. Kade really has been going out with a married woman.
God.
“Wait. He knows she’s married?” I look at him in shock because I’d never in a million years think Kade would do something like that. And now my drunk buzz is now gone because my adrenaline’s spiking at this breaking news.
“Yep. Husband’s a Marine on active duty. He and Kade are good friends too.”
“Told you to stay out of my fucking business,” Kade says, suddenly appearing out of nowhere. And, oh, shit. He’s giving Mike The Look times a friggin’ googol. I step back not wanting to get caught in their crossfire.
Bigger Than the Sky (Serenity Point) Page 14