Jed
They weren’t at the laundromat for very long when he noticed she was rubbing her head and closing her eyes.She had a bad headache, or it was working its way into being a bad headache.He’d offered to run across the street and buy her some Tylenol or ibuprofen, but she’d declined.Stubborn woman.
As they waited for her laundry to wash and then dry, they spent their time watching other people doing their laundry.Occasionally, they tried their hand at conversation, but it was mostly superficial, generic stuff.That was until one woman in particular made a production of shaking out her barely there panties before folding them, making sure she had his attention when she did so.It wasn’t lost on him that this whole display was for his benefit.Had he been alone, he might have struck up a conversation with the woman, and who knows where things might have progressed from there.Sadie’s snort of derision told him she hadn’t missed the woman’s intention either.
“What?”He turned his attention to her.
“Nothing,” she shook her head.
“Obviously, there’s something, so spill it.”
“It’s just that woman over there waving her panties around for your benefit sees me sitting here next to you, but doesn’t care.How does she know that we aren’t together?Sure, neither one of us is wearing a ring, but how does she know we’re not in a relationship?It really pisses me off when women do that.It’s rude, and it’s pathetic.Can’t she go after a man who isn’t with a woman?I mean, where’s the sisterhood?”She leaned her head back against the wall and closed her eyes again.
“Are you jealous that she’s waving her panties at me?”A mischievous grin tilted his lips.He couldn't begin to fathom why she would be jealous.The other woman had nothing on her.Sadie's blonde hair fell in the sexiest waves he'd ever seen, and her emerald green eyes had a way of sucking him in.And don't get him started on how smoking hot her dancer's body was.
“No.”She opened her eyes, and he noticed they flared with annoyance.The need to punch him in the face was hard to miss.
“So if we were together, that woman’s obvious play for my attention wouldn’t bother you?”he pushed for no other reason than he wanted to get her riled up.
She shrugged a shoulder and tried to act like she wasn’t bothered by the woman’s advances.“No.If someone’s going to cheat, they're going to cheat.And if, hypothetically, we were together, would you hook up with that woman if I wasn’t around?”
Jed didn’t need to think about it.“If I found a woman that I cared enough to be in a lasting relationship with, I wouldn’t want any other woman.No other woman would be able to turn my head.”
“You’re saying you could be faithful to one woman?”Her skepticism kind of irked him.
“For the right woman?Absolutely.But she’d have to be faithful to me in return.”It puzzled him as to why he was even having this conversation.
She frowned as she turned to face him.“You really think there’s someone like that out there?She’d be your what?Old lady?”Was she scoffing?
“Exactly.”
“In my experience, just because someone becomes an old lady doesn’t mean her man is going to be faithful.”
“I know your experiences with the Phantoms were shit, but not all clubs work like theirs did.You’ve seen how Race is with Bellamy.Trick with Lindsey.Darren and Tuck with Kylie.”
She flinched at the mention of Darren and Kylie.That wasn’t his aim: to make her uncomfortable.“Look, the point is, if I ever found that one special woman, and yes, those words came out of my mouth, I’d claim her and hang on tight.”
She paused a beat, searching his eyes for something.“You’ve put a lot of thought into this?
“Sure.Someday, I wouldn’t mind an old lady.”In fact, the more brothers finding old ladies and starting families made him think about it more often.“But until then,” he dropped off, wiggling his brows up and down.He couldn’t let her believe he wasn’t an asshole, right?The expression on her face changed as if he’d proved a point.
It wasn’t long after that conversation that her laundry was finished drying, and they headed back to her apartment.He grabbed the bedding and carried it up behind her.Once inside, she reached for it, only for him to pull it away and take it to her bedroom.
“Just drop it on the floor.”She pointed at the floor with one hand and rubbed her head with the other.
“Do you need to take something for that?”he asked.
“I’ll take something in a minute.I want to finish making my bed first.”She pulled the fitted sheet from the pile and started at one corner.He went to the opposite side of the bed and secured that side.“Thanks, but you don’t have to do this.I’ve got it.Why don’t you go help yourself to something to eat or drink, and turn the TV on if you want?I’ll be done in a minute.”
“Are you sure you don’t want help?”
“I’m sure.Go ahead.”She offered him a weak smile.He didn’t think it was a fake one, just that she was in that much pain she couldn’t pull off a real one.
Damn, the woman was stubborn.He thought it might actually kill her to accept even the smallest amount of help.He nodded his head and did as she asked.He found a bag of chips in the cabinet and a soda in the refrigerator.He took both to the couch and grabbed for the remote.He saw that she had Netflix, so he searched forStranger Thingsand clicked it on.He was most of the way through the first episode when it dawned on him that she still hadn’t come out of her room.Was she avoiding him?He paused his show and got up to go check on her.
Jed found her asleep on the side of the bed, facing the door.She’d made the bed and was lying on top of it.She’d kicked her shoes off and had a pillow pulled tight to her chest.He should be surprised, but he wasn’t.
He took a moment and allowed himself to truly study her like he hadn’t been able to except for the night of the lap dance.He moved closer to the bed to gently brush away a strand of hair from her face.Her dark lashes fanned across her cheeks, making her look younger than he knew her to be.She had a dark mole on her upper right cheek just below her eye.For some reason, he found it sexy as hell.
