by Roxie Ray
“Nor me,” Sammy said.
Skye walked in with a bundle of blankets at her breast. I looked at Sammy instead, not wanting Skye to think I might try to get a glimpse of her goods as she fed her son.
She sat on the other side of the couch, beside me, so she wasn’t in my direct line of sight anyway. I’d said I wouldn’t be uncomfortable, and I was determined not to be. Nursing was the most natural thing in the world.
“So,” she said. “Who is it?”
Ugh. I’d hoped she’d forget her question.
“Do we know her?”
“Or him?” Anthony grinned at me.
I rolled my eyes. “Her.” I sighed and this time when I didn’t look at Skye, it was because I didn’t want to see her reaction. “It’s Briana.”
When nobody spoke, I glanced around and realized Skye had fixed me with a glare as she shook her head slowly. “No.”
Damn it. I knew she’d be pissed.
“Jace, you know I adore you. You must know that.”
“I do.” What was coming next? And why was I so afraid of this tiny human?
“I know your track record.” I opened my mouth to attempt to defend myself, but she kept talking. I snapped my jaw shut and tried to look contrite. “You’re a playboy, and that’s putting it nicely. You run through women as easy as taking your next breath.”
She wasn’t exactly right, but also not exactly wrong. I did have a long list of partners behind me.
“Bri is a mother and a great woman.” She shook her head. “It isn’t my place to tell you what to do, but Bri is my friend and I just want to protect her from being hurt.” I understood that. “If you have no intention of being the man she needs in her life, then you need to leave that woman alone.”
After a few seconds, when I was more confident that she was finished, I spoke. “I have no intention of bothering Bri.”
Anthony sucked in a deep breath. “That pull is mighty difficult to ignore.”
I shrugged his statement off, even though I knew he spoke the truth. “It will go away once my dragon realizes there won’t be anything coming from this, right? All I need is for Bri to completely reject me and the pull will disappear. That should be easy enough, just get her to reject me. I can do that.”
Skye glared at me. “That means you’ll have to do something to get her to spurn you. And that means hurting Bri.”
I didn’t know what to say to that.
“You’re an idiot,” Sammy chimed in.
I definitely didn’t know what to say to that.
Sammy froze and closed her eyes. I watched her, not sure what she was seeing, but sure she was checking her visions or magic or something.
“You’ve made your mind up,” she said. “I won’t interfere. For now, I’ll keep my thoughts to myself.”
Everything felt so muddled. I was so sure I needed to let Bri move past me, but my emotions warred with my sense and my dragon fought against it all. “I’m going to go see Mom,” I said. “This is all overwhelming.”
Maybe dinner at Mom’s would help settle me. I knew that staying away from Bri was the right thing to do, but it made me feel miserable.
After saying my goodbyes and kissing the babies, I headed across town to Mom’s. She had a place on the far side of the town, on the outskirts as most of the clan did. We tended to buy places where we could get in a little private shift time on our own land.
I walked in to find Mom cooking dinner and my Aunt Missy chopping vegetables.
“Jace,” Aunt Missy cried. “Oh, it’s so good to see you.”
I ignored the surge of guilt that it had been so long since I’d seen her that she had to get this excited. She put down the knife and held her arms open, then squealed as I pulled her up into a big bear hug.
“It’s good to see you, too, Auntie,” I said once I released her.
She looked me over with her hands still on my arms. “You need fattening up. You got here just in time.”
Mom tapped my shoulder, and I backed away from Aunt Missy to give my mom a hug. I saw her all the time and didn’t feel guilty at all.
“Go take a break,” Mom told her sister. “Let me talk to my son.”
How did she know?
Aunt Missy winked at me. “Sure thing. I’ll go find us a movie to watch after dinner.”
Mom and Missy spent a lot of time together now that Missy’s husband was gone. Uncle Carmine had a massive heart attack last year. He died before he hit the ground, so she said. I wasn’t sure how possible that was, especially from a dragon, but he’d been quite a bit older than Missy.
Missy walked out of the kitchen and Mom waved her wooden spoon at me. “Sit. Spill. What’s wrong?”
I chuckled as I sat down. “You know me too well.”
“You’re my baby. A mother always knows. What is it?”
“Hypothetically?”
“Yeah?” She turned back to the stove and stirred whatever it was that smelled so good.
“How would you feel if I was mated to a human as Anthony is?”
The room was silent, the only sound the liquid in the pot sloshing against the side.
“I was never the type to discriminate, you know that. I love humans. And now that we know that humans can have our babies, I think it’s fine. I would support you, if that was the case.”
Well, that was good to know, even though I had zero intention of following through with this mating bond. “Okay, then, still hypothetically, what if the woman had a kid already?”
This time, the room went totally silent. I looked toward the stove and Mom had stopped stirring. She had her head up in the air and her eyes closed.
“Son,” she whispered. “Tell me you have not imprinted on some poor woman with kids.”
I gaped at her. “I said hypothetically!”
She set the spoon on the rest and faced me with her hands on her hips. “Taking on some other man’s child is a whole ‘nother ball game. Especially if you have no intention of actually being a father figure to that child. I’ve been through it enough not to wish that on any woman.”
She’d raised me without my father in the picture, but she’d never brought home a man. As a young teen, I’d thought she wasn’t into dating or something. “Did you date?” I asked.
She rolled her eyes. “Of course I did, you little fool.” She insulted me in a fond voice. Besides, I knew she didn’t really think I was a fool.
But maybe I was. Shit, I never realized she’d ever gone on any dates. “When I stayed with Aunt Missy?”
Laughing, Mom sat down beside me at the table. “You really never knew?”
I shook my head, feeling more and more the fool.
“Well, good, that was my intention. I didn’t want to introduce you to any man until I knew for sure he’d be a good father figure. But that man never came. Don’t be that disappointment to some poor single mother the way they were to me.”
“Mom.” I took her hands in mine. “This is hypothetical.”
She snorted, not buying my lies for a second. I’d never been able to lie to her.
“If it is only hypothetical then you need to think long and hard about how your actions will affect everyone’s lives because if I find out that you’re out there doing what your father did to me?” She scoffed and pushed my hands away. “I won’t be held responsible when I kick your ass.”
Chuckling, I leaned over and pressed a kiss to her cheek. “It was all hypothetical.”
She eyed me before getting up and going back to the stove, letting it go. “Stay and eat,” she said. “But send your Aunt Missy back in here, because you’re useless in this kitchen.”
“You know I run a bar and part of that is food, right?”
She scoffed. “Throwing stuff in a deep fryer does not a chef make.”
Still snickering, I went into the living room, but my laughter sounded hollow even to me. “Mom’s asking for you.”
Missy handed me the remote. “Of course she is. She can’t even make soup without me.
”
“I heard that,” Mom yelled from the kitchen.
My talk with my mom solidified my decision to not interfere in Bri’s life. I wasn’t ready to be a father or father figure. It was best if I just left her alone and allowed our bond to die. The next time I saw Bri, I vowed to be a complete jerk. There wasn’t another option, not with my past, my father, and my track record.
3
Bri
“Bye!” I called to my last student. I wished it meant my day was over, but alas, it was not, not by a longshot. I liked to get ahead on my lesson plans so this wasn’t an issue, but with all the mess going on with Damon, I hadn’t been able to work on them.
I put my phone on a streaming radio station and hummed as I went through and made plans for the next week. I didn’t have the energy by far to do any more than that. By the time I finished, I was beyond ready for a drink.
Kaylee was a bad influence on me. I’d drank more since moving to Bluewater than I ever had in my life. But shit, I’d married Damon way too young and he never wanted to go out and do anything. Now that I was free, I felt like a young adult again, ready to take on the world and have a little fun.
I just wanted to do it responsibly, in a safe environment, with my good friends, no guys, and my daughter safely at home with her grandparents. As opposed to how I might’ve done it nine or ten years ago when I first turned the drinking age.
Skye wasn’t free to go out, not with those little bitty babies. It was too hard to get away from them when they were that young. Plus, she probably didn’t want to. I’d had no desire to leave Hayden until she was nearly a year old. Not that I could have even if I had wanted to. After I left Damon, I realized how much he had controlled my actions, including whether or not I went out.
I pulled my phone out as I packed up the rest of my things and shot a text off to Kaylee. She was always up for a party. I also texted my parents to make sure they didn’t have plans that meant they wouldn’t be home to stay with Hayden.
Kaylee responded first. Meet me at Jace’s Place in an hour. I’m down.
Jace’s and the small nightclub next door were about the only offerings Bluewater had unless we wanted to drive a good forty-five minutes away. Besides, I felt safe at Jace’s. He’d been the one who’d helped me with Damon the night that he found me here.
My parents replied with the affirmative. They’d picked Hayden up for me and were heading to get some dinner. I let them know not to buy any for me and headed to my apartment. I called Bianca on the way. “Girls’ night?” I asked in a way of greeting.
“Hell, yes.” She sounded emotional. “I broke up with Caleb.”
“Wait, what happened to Andre?” She’d had him at breakfast less than a week ago, Saturday morning. Not that I was surprised.
“He broke up with me on Sunday. I met Caleb on Monday and he tried to tell me he wanted his future wife to stay home with their kids. I can’t date a man who would require something like that.”
“Want me to pick you up?” I offered.
“Sure. I’ll get ready.”
Hayden and I were still staying with my parents, but it was nice to be able to get ready in peace. If I’d gone to their place and Hayden caught me, she would’ve wanted to do my hair and makeup. And that was a look not for public consumption.
When I got home, I just double-checked the lock on the door, then stayed aware of the noises in the place. If I had to, I could barricade myself in my bedroom and go down the fire escape.
It made me sad that I had to be this paranoid and careful. I should’ve been able to just go home and change. It didn’t have to be a whole production. Except that with Damon, it did have to be a whole production.
I was starting to think maybe my Dad’s request that I start carrying wasn’t the worst idea.
After grabbing Bianca, I headed back toward town. “Are you excited about seeing Jace again?” she asked.
I rolled my eyes, but that did remind me that I’d never properly thanked him for coming to my aid and interfering with Damon. At the same time, it was so embarrassing that he’d seen it at all. “Not really. I hate that he saw it happen. And I appreciate that he stuck his nose in when so many wouldn’t nowadays. I guess I’ll thank him and pray that he forgets all about it.”
“And that Damon drops off the face of the earth,” she muttered.
“Yeah, that too.”
Kaylee was out front waiting for us. She lived in a loft apartment over the delicatessen, a big open-air studio thing that had lots of natural light for her live streams. The owners of the deli had made her soundproof the place because they were getting complaints when she worked during their business hours. Skye had helped her nail up egg-crate foam and then they hung curtains all over the walls—It had helped add to the sexy effect anyway.
After hugs and girly cheek-kisses, we headed in to find the place packed. No surprise on a Friday night. Kaylee had called ahead and reserved a table. The owner, my hero, Jace, treated Kaylee pretty well, both because we were friends with Skye, his best friend’s new baby-mama, but also because Kaylee was such a good customer.
“No VIP?” I asked in a loud voice over the roar of the packed bar.
“No, it was booked. I was lucky to get a table at all. Had to prepay for our drinks, so tonight is on me!”
I’d learned not to argue. Kaylee made more money in a week than I made in two months. She loved lavishing it on her friends, and I’d learned to love to let her.
A server set drinks down in front of us within minutes of us claiming our table. “Perks of being an internet celebrity,” Kaylee said and held up her glass. We toasted our girls’ night and got busy.
“Teach me your ways,” Bianca said.
“Oh, no. That’s okay,” I replied and shot Kaylee a look. “Nothing wrong with what Kaylee does for a living, but you better think long and hard before you consider that career path. It’s not as easy as Kaylee makes it out to be.”
I arched an eyebrow at her. “Is it?”
She shook her head. “Definitely not. It takes a lot of work and patience, and an extremely thick skin. Not everyone is as accepting as your sister is.”
Bianca nodded and chewed her lip. “Still, the money is tempting.”
Kaylee laughed. “Honey, the money is divine!” She jumped to her feet and began to dance. I wasn’t nearly drunk enough to join her, but as the night progressed, eventually I did. The drinks were plentiful and free, and nobody bothered us.
Jace wasn’t behind the bar. I’d looked around the room several times trying to see if he was working, and I’d even taken a peek in the VIP section, which wasn’t visible from the floor. Jace’s Place was an odd mix of dive bar and an upscale bar. I guessed in a town this small, he’d had to adapt to be somewhere anyone would want to come to drink. He had cheap, nasty beer all the way up to some pretty high-dollar wines and liquors.
I tried to stay near the middle when I drank. I couldn’t stomach the cheap stuff but wasn’t buying anything snooty, not on a teacher’s salary.
Eventually, I gave up on looking for Jace and just enjoyed myself, dancing, playing darts, and eventually when the room cleared out, pool in the back room.
I’d only been sipping on my drink, having too much fun to drink that much. But eventually it got to me, and I excused myself to go to the bathroom. I’d paced myself so I had a nice buzz but wasn’t so drunk that I felt like going to the bathroom alone wasn’t a good idea.
So, when I walked in and heard the unmistakable sounds of someone getting it on in the last stall, the big one, I knew it wasn’t my brain being fanciful. But still, I had to pee. With a shrug and biting back a laugh, I tiptoed into the farthest spot away from the amorous couple and peed as fast as I could.
Hey, at least someone was getting some. The bathroom had cut off the sounds of the bar, and all I heard was the sound of my own pee and grunts from the horny couple. They whispered a little, but I missed what they said. I walked out of the stall thinking about how
damn long it had been since I’d gotten some.
Way too long. Maybe I should think about a booty call. I’d never even considered one before, but my vibrator was getting so much use I was afraid I was going to wear it out.
I walked out the door and got halfway back to the table when I realized my cell was still sitting on the counter by the sink in the bathroom. I’d set it down to wash my hands. Whirling around, I hurried back, afraid it would be gone if someone else had gone in there in the short time since I’d left.
As soon as I opened the door, Jace walked out of the stall, zipping his pants. He’d been about to say something to the woman who stood at the sink washing her hands. She finished quickly while I waited, frozen in the doorway, unsure what to do or say.
He turned and saw me and froze with his mouth half open. “Oh,” he said. “I, uh...” I met his eyes and mouthed soundlessly at him. What was I supposed to say?
“Excuse me,” she said as she wiped her wet hands on her pants and edged around me with her hand on Jace’s back, pushing him forward.
I jumped out of the way. “Sorry,” I exclaimed. “I just left my cell in here.” Lunging forward, I grabbed it and rushed to leave. It was mortifying, for some reason, knowing who was in the stall. I didn’t know the woman, but she looked about my age, and actually looked a little like my sister, which was strange. It embarrassed me more. It meant he was into girls that looked like me. He could’ve just asked me out. But then, I wouldn’t have done what that chick did in that stall, so… why did it bother me that the girl he’d been with looked like me?
I hurried back out into the bar totally confused and mostly sober. Why seeing Jace coming out of that stall bothered me, I had no clue. But my face was flushed and hands nearly shaky.
When I sat down, the back of my neck tingled. I turned toward the bar to see Jace there with his gaze on me. “I need more drinks,” I told Bianca and Kaylee as I tore my gaze away from the bar area.
As if like magic, another rum and Coke appeared in front of me. “Damn, I’m so glad you’re a celebrity tonight,” I told Kaylee, and raised my fresh glass for another toast with my girls. “To Kaylee.”