She shook her head vigorously.
“Yep. I had to go to the bathroom, and I was mid-change. Time of the month was calling, so I was only in my bra and underwear. I ran to the bathroom, and when I got back, my clothes were gone. So, I stood there, fat rolls and all, while everyone laughed at me.”
“You didn’t have fat rolls,” she argued.
I let out another laugh. “You don’t remember me much from when we were younger, do you?”
“Not really. I’m two years younger than you.”
“Well, I was the fat kid. Always have been.”
“You are not fat!”
“I’m heavier,” I corrected. “And I’m fine with how I am now, but back then, it was hard to be the fat kid in school. And it didn’t get any better when I hit puberty, or when I went to the homecoming dance and my mom made me wear a dress that had sleeves.”
“It couldn’t have been that bad.”
I laughed just thinking about it. “God, it was hideous. She made it for me because it was a hard year for them. Imagine this…bright colors, every shape you can think of, all scattered on a black dress. I was like a walking neon sign,” I laughed. “It was so horrible. And my poor mom thought it was the most beautiful dress she’d ever seen.”
“Did you tell her how horrible it was?”
“God no. She wanted to make sure I could go to homecoming. She was trying to do something nice for me, and there was no way I was telling her it was ugly.”
Her eyes popped wide as she sat upright. “Is that why you have the shop? Because your mother dressed you in ugly clothes?”
“Shh!” I glanced around, hoping no one had overheard. “My mother didn’t know then, and she’s not going to know now just how horrible her fashion sense is. Someone else can tell her, but it’s not going to be me.”
“You have to have pictures of this.”
“Unfortunately, I have many of them,” I sighed. “And my mom has one over the mantle in her house. She’s so proud of that damn dress.”
Josie stared at me a moment, then burst out laughing, tossing her head back.
“That’s right. Laugh it up, but one day, you’ll be in the same position as me, picking out clothes for your kid. And she’ll hate them. Just you wait and see.”
JR appeared out of nowhere, his eyes laser-focused on Josie. “You’re pregnant?”
“I—what?” she asked, her chest still shaking with laughter.
“She said something about picking out clothes for your kid.”
Josie slid her hand over JR’s, patting it delicately. “Someday, she said. Meaning, in the future. Not right now.”
I blushed as his gaze trailed from her head, down to the top of her stomach. That was really all he could see from how she was sitting, but it was enough to give me a pretty damn good clue about where this was all headed.
Snatching my drink, I hopped off the stool. “I think I’ll go check up on Sawyer. It looks like he could use a friend.”
If I stayed around them too much longer, I’d have an orgasm just by the heated looks they passed between each other. And while it had been a good year since Mother Nature had passed me an orgasm, it had been years since I’d had a life-altering one.
And I wasn’t settling for anything less.
2
RYDER
“Here you go,”Jeff said, handing over the keys to my long-term rental. “This is one of our newest houses.”
I stared at the small cabin, relieved I had a place to stay other than my parents’ ranch. They weren’t like the Parkers. They didn’t have multiple housing units on the land.
