“No, I’m not going to elaborate.”And the woman could keep being disappointed.Sadie wasn’t comfortable discussing her sex life with anyone.It was private and personal.
“I thought I heard Mav and Dagger talking about someone breaking into your apartment last night.Are you and your nephew all right?”Jane thankfully changed the subject.
“Yes, although think I was more afraid of what the intruder might do to Oliver than what he might do to me.But Oliver was scared half to death.”
“The alarm didn’t scare them off?”Calliope’s husband, Jackson, had installed her security system.Harper lay with her head on her shoulder, sleeping with her mouth slightly open, her legs scrunched up like a frog.Her adorable little butt fit in Calliope’s hand.She remembered Oliver at that age, and it made her sad how fast he was growing up.
“No.It was weird.The alarm went off when Tinker broke in, but somehow, he knew how to destroy the security system panel to shut it off.”
“Tinker was the one breaking in?”Jane’s eyes widened.
“Yes.I recognized his voice when he was trying to draw me out by calling my name, and then Jackson confirmed it when he checked the recorded footage on the system.”
“What happened after he got inside?”Bellamy asked.
“I could hear his heavy steps coming closer, and I remembered I had an app for my car on my phone.I activated the alarm and prayed it would scare him off.The next thing I know, someone is working the doorknob on the closet.I thought it was Tinker, and I freaked out.So when the door started to slowly open, I leaned out far enough to use my stun gun on him.Unfortunately, it was Jed, and I tased him in the nuts.”
“What?!”They all three screeched, causing baby Harper to jump in her sleep.The prospect behind the bar looked their way with a slight dip of his brows.
“Yeah.I felt really bad about it, but it was also hilarious how he dropped to the floor, cupping his junk in his hands.He rolled around, whining about how he thought his dick was going to fall off and how he thought it was broken.Of course, Oliver heard this and wanted to know if his dick would really fall off.Between the two of them, I thought my head was going to explode.”
“He actually said the word ’dick’?”Jane chuckled.
“Yes.Apparently, he learned it from Nickle, the brother who was keeping Oliver away from me on Crockett’s orders.Oliver said he would tell his wife to suck his dick.”
“Seriously?In front of the kid?”Bellamy shook her head in disgust.
Her stomach started acting weird again, and she wished she hadn’t eaten that slice of bacon this morning.“Okay.You all know how I met Jed.How did you meet Race?”she asked Bellamy.
The three of them shared another look.One that hinted at a shared history.“I moved in next door to him, so not only was he my neighbor, but he was my landlord, too.And if I have any problems with my rental, I'm supposed to contact my landlord.You know what that means?”
“You had to contact Race?”she guessed.
“That's right.When my water heater went out, and my refrigerator started working about half the time, I told him about it.Over and over and over again.It got to the point that I was downright nagging him to fix them.By the time he finally came over to check them out, I was taking cold showers and debating on showing up at his house every morning to use his.Once he installed the water heater, he jokingly mentioned he’d had it in his garage for weeks.I was so mad that when he told me to go pick out a refrigerator and send him the bill, I picked out the most expensive one they had.”She smiled wistfully.“The look on his face when I handed him the bill was priceless.”
“Oh yeah?What did he say about the bill?”Sadie asked.
“It’s not what he said.It’s what he did.”She leaned back in her chair and rubbed her belly.“I came home from work one day and went to the fridge for something to eat.It took a second for it to register, but then it dawned on me that it wasn’t the refrigerator I bought.It was a new one, but different, and wasn’t nearly as nice as the one I’d picked out.I was so pissed off, I stormed over to Race’s house and beat on his door until he opened it.I barged in and jumped his ass when I found my refrigerator in his kitchen.And the worst thing was, he had my Rocky Road ice cream in it.Not only did he steal my fridge, but he stole my favorite ice cream!”
Sadie could picture it all in her mind and thought it was funny.She bet Bellamy gave him hell for stealing the refrigerator out from under her.“What about you, Calliope?How did you meet Jackson?”
Calliope exchanged a look with Jane, her smile not as big as Bellamy’s had been when she started her story.“The day I met Jackson was the day my mom and I moved in across the street from his parents.I was still in high school and thought he was the hottest thing I’d ever seen.I found out later that he’d been attracted to me, too, but he was eight years older than me and because of that, even when I turned eighteen, he still had a problem with our age difference.
“Finally, when I was twenty, we hooked up, and it ended badly.”She glanced at Jane.
“He’s my son, but even I know he can be a dumb ass at times.”Jane squeezed her hand.“He gets it from his father.”
Calliope laughed.“So true.Anyway,” she brushed a strand of hair behind her ear.“I showed up at his house late one night, and it was obvious he’d been drinking, but that didn’t stop me from going for what I wanted.I was already half in love with him by then, and I’d dreamt of what it would be like to share Jackson’s bed.”Sadie assumed she was trying to choose her words in front of Jane.“For me, it was everything I’d been dreaming about.For him, it was the worst night ever.Not that the sex was bad, but because he was freaking out that we’d done it.He was shouting, ‘This should never have happened,’ and ‘This was a mistake.’”She impersonated an angry man’s voice."He was still hung up on the fact that he was eight years older than me.He thought I was too young, although I know he had sex with girls my age at the time.”She brought Harper down from her shoulder and held her in her arms.
“Needless to say, he broke my heart.While he was taking a shower, I took off.My house was only a couple of blocks away, and I snuck through backyards and hid behind cars to avoid seeing him as he searched for me.I was so angry and so hurt that I moved to Boulder so I wouldn’t have to be around him anymore.I wasn’t there long when I met a man and ended up moving in with him.I didn’t realize until it was almost too late that he was a monster.
“I woke up in the hospital, beaten within an inch of my life, with Jackson sitting next to the bed.I was so embarrassed for him to see what I’d allowed to happen to me.”
“You didn’t allow him to hurt you,” Bellamy argued.
“Didn’t I?I should’ve left way before I did.”
“What happened between you and Jackson after you woke up?”Sadie asked, getting sucked into her story.
