“Now that we have drinks, snacks, and sugar, you’re gonna need to spill, girl,” Posey calls out.
She’s standing at my bar, bent over and picking at the charcuterie in the middle of the countertop. She isn’t focused on her snacking, though. No, her attention is on me and only me.
I take a deep breath and hold it for a moment before I let it out slowly. “I don’t know where to begin.”
“Start with the fact that you’re playing house, and you’re in love,” Posey says.
“Posey,” Dakota warns.
“And add in the fact that your cousin is going to beat the shit out of him once he figures it out.”
I wince at her words. She’s not wrong. She knows Justin better than anyone in this room aside from me, and even then, she knows him differently than I do, considering she’s his wife and the mother of his child.
“I hope he doesn’t. It isn’t that big of a deal…”
My words trail off mainly because I don’t know what else to say. Maybe it is a big deal. Maybe it’s not. Maybe he doesn’t give a shit about me, and I’m just overthinking it all. I’m pretty surethat’s what it is. It’s not like he’s made any declarations of love, or even anything other than sexual desire.
“That’s kind of what they do,” Lainey states, but she doesn’t expand.
We all stare at her, waiting for her to continue. When she doesn’t, it’s Posey who asks the hard-hitting question. “What do they do? What the hell are you telling us?”
Lainey shrugs a shoulder, her tongue peeking out and sliding across her bottom lip before she speaks. When she does, I wonder if I’m living in the same world as she is, because I’ve never heard of such a thing in my life. I mean, sure, I figured Justin and Goose might tussle, but nothing like this.
“Ivy can kill Goose,” she whispers. She’s wearing what I would describe as an expression of horror before she continues. “It’s an unwritten rule. A woman is declared off-limits, and that’s what you are, off-limits, and you’ve been declared that since you were fourteen years old, Cidney.”
“How do you know?” I ask.
She shrugs her shoulder, but I know how she knows. Her brother is one of the big dogs in the club. She may not want to know, and she may not want to tell us how she knows, but she knows because she’s seen it play out live and in person.
“You’re off-limits, Cidney. Goose is playing a dangerous game by being with you without having Ivy’s permission. He knows it too.”
I hold another breath for a moment as I think about her words. “He knows it?”
“He knows an ass beating is coming. If Ivy is cool with you two together, then he’ll live, and all will be forgiven and forgotten.”
“And if he’s not?” I ask.
Lainey doesn’t answer, which is all the answer I need. I have to end this with Goose. It doesn’t matter that I’m madly in lovewith him. I can’t let anything bad happen to this man. This perfectly wild man.
This game that we’re playing is going to get him killed, and I couldn’t live with myself if that happened.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CIDNEY
Thankfully,the conversation about me and Goose fades away, and it shifts to weddings and babies. I’m happy to be the observer in this conversation. Happy to let my mind wander to other things… like Goose. And when it does, a wave of sadness washes over me because it’s over.
We’re over.
We can’t last.
I won’t let Justin beat him up. I won’t allow any of that to happen. It’s time for me to pack my things and venture out somewhere else. When I thought that maybe my job was in jeopardy, I thought Raleigh would be my landing place, but I can’t go there now.
There is no way Raleigh is big enough for Jeffrey and me. I mean, it’s big, but it’s notthatbig. So I’ve got to think of another place to move. Maybe Charlotte, or maybe even Richmond, Virginia. But that all feels so very far away.
Glancing over at Posey, my cousin by marriage, I wonder what our relationship would look like if I weren’t here. Then mygaze flicks between every woman in this room whom I’ve grown to not only admire, but love. I do love them all.
Leaving Thunder Rock would be another blow to my already fragile heart and soul. I honestly don’t think my heart can take many more aches and pains. This poor girl has been through hell and back already in my twenty-one years of life.
