“Hmph.” Cassie crossed her arms across her chest and pouted. My eyes followed her arms but stopped abruptly on her chest. Just one look and my manhood started to wake up. I forced myself to look away and think about anything other than the woman I loved sitting across from me, her breasts heaving up and down with each disgruntled breath.
“I’m sorry. I just couldn’t have her tell you what was going on until it was all over. I had asked you to understand so much already. I refused to ask you to understand that too.”
“But I would have. I would have understood.” She uncrossed her arms before continuing. “Or I would have at least tried to.”
She’s right. She’s so fucking right. But it’s too late. I can’t change the past. What’s done is done.
“I know that, but it didn’t seem fair.” I reached across the table and stroked her cheek with my thumb. “I was trying to be honorable. And I felt that coming to your door while I was still carrying Chrystle-sized baggage was not the honorable thing to do.”
“You and all your right-thing-to-do ideas. You sorta suck at doing the right thing.”
“I hear that a lot.”
“Jeez Jack, this house is really nice,” Melissa said, running her hand across the granite countertop in the kitchen of my rented house.
I nodded. “The rent is really cheap here,” I paused before adding, “And I thought I was staying awhile.”
“Well thank God you’re not! Can we go out tonight? Please? Somewhere fun?” she begged, her bottom lip jutting out.
I smirked at her suggestion before glancing at Dean. “Sure.” I shrugged, taking a swig from my lukewarm bottle of beer. There were only two bars in this small Alabama town, and after that hellish night when I met Chrystle, I’d sworn I’d never step foot in that particular bar again. So that only left the other one, and I had no idea what it was like.
“Yes!” Melissa practically shouted before disappearing upstairs to the guest bathroom. “I get to shower first!”
I eyed my brother. “What’s the latest with you two?”
“She likes to kiss me.” Dean smiled like a lovesick idiot. “A lot.”
“Are you in junior high? What the fuck does that even mean?”
Dean’s face dropped, and I genuinely ached for him. My brother was pretty much the polar opposite of me. He got attached to girls willingly. Whereas I cut every cord possible that tied me down to anyone—until Cassie that is—he fastened triple knots to the people he cared about. When Dean fell for a girl, he fell hard. I half wondered if he did it just to spite me. Just to prove how unlike me he really was.
“It just means that anytime that girl will let me kiss her, I’m going to take it. I like her, alright. I just don’t think she really likes me.”
I punched him in the arm. “Kiss her better then, jackass.”
“I kiss her just fine, fuck you very much.”
“Obviously not,” I teased. Sensing his defenses on the rise, I backed off. I loved to torment my little brother, but I didn’t enjoy actually hurting him.
“You want me to talk to her for you?” I offered, wondering what Melissa’s deal was.
Dean’s back straightened as his shoulders tensed. “Definitely not. The last thing I want is for you to talk to her.”
“Just tryin’ to help, little brother.” I took another sip before pouring the rest of the bottle down the sink. Warm beer tasted like piss. The shower turned off and Dean glanced up the stairs. “Go up there, already. What you should have done was hopped in the shower with her,” I suggested with a laugh.
“You’re such a dick,” he shot back as he headed toward the bathroom.
“But I’m right,” I shouted as he flipped me off over his shoulder.
We sat around the small circular oak table, drinking and laughing. Melissa pounded her tiny fist against the tabletop before shouting over the music, “Jack, I forgot to tell you that I sent Cassie the jar of quarters the other day!”
My mind drifted back to the night she left, standing alone in her old room while I stared at the jar she’d left behind. “Why?”
“She asked for it. And she made me promise to wrap it in like a thousand layers of bubble wrap so it wouldn’t break.”
I raised my eyebrows and offered a cocky grin, happy to hear this revelation when my eye caught sight of the last possible person in the world I’d ever want to see, with her maid of honor trailing behind her. My jaw tensed as I cracked my neck.
“Oh, look who it is, Vanessa. My husband.” Chrystle’s grating voice rang in my ears, and I suddenly wished I were deaf. “And if it isn’t his delicious brother too. Vanessa, you remember Dean, don’t you? From the weddin’?” She looked toward Vanessa, who shifted uncomfortably but didn’t respond. “Hi, Dean. How you doing, sweetie?” Chrystle cooed in her syrupy accent as she continued to invade our space.
I glanced at Melissa, who was making fists with her hands, her eyes narrowed into tiny slits, and her mouth snarling. “Jesus, Jack, I guess it’s true what they say about beer goggles,” Melissa sniped, giving Chrystle the once-over with pure disgust in her eyes.
Chrystle’s jaw dropped slightly and her eyes got huge. “What did you say?”
“I said you’re as ugly on the outside as you are on the inside,” Melissa spat out. For a tiny thing, she sure was ballsy. I fucking loved it. Melissa said everything to Chrystle that I couldn’t say without it potentially being used against me in court.
“And just who the hell are you?” Chrystle braced herself and tried to sound tough but failed, and I noticed Vanessa fighting to hide a grin.
“None of your fucking business,” Melissa shot back before taking a drink from her glass.
“But it is my business. See, you’re sitting with my husband and my brother-in-law.” Chrystle ran her fingertips down Dean’s arm, and he tensed before swatting her hand away.
“Oh, great.” Melissa rolled her eyes. “You touched her, Dean. She’s probably pregnant now.”
With that comment, I couldn’t hold back any longer. Thunderous laughter ripped from my lungs and spilled out into the air.
“Now, why don’t you take your ugly skank ass away from our table so we can enjoy the rest of our night?” Melissa turned to eye me. “Seriously, Jack. How drunk were you to fuck that?” Her tone filled with contempt.
Struggling for a comeback, Chrystle scurried away from our table, almost tripping on an out-of-place chair as Vanessa quickly trailed behind her.
“Holy shit, Funsize. That was awesome.” I reached out to high five her from across the table.
“The easiest way to get under any girl’s skin is to call her ugly. Especially when she’s not,” she said matter-of-factly.
“Good to know.” Dean nodded.
“Don’t get any ideas, buster. You pull that shit with me, and I’ll never speak to you again,” Melissa said, with a sassy neck gyration that made me want to laugh.
“Yes, ma’am,” he responded, placing the bottle to his lips and chugging.
Pussy.
“Holy shit, that story is amazing!” Cassie’s eyes squinted as she howled with laughter.
“It was pretty hilarious.” I laughed along with her, thankful for the upswing in her mood.
“How did Melissa keep that from me? That’s the best story ever!”
“She’s probably dying to tell you,” I admitted, feeling guilty that I’d asked her best friend to keep so much from her.
“Did the evil troll sign the papers after that?”
The smile fell from my face as I remembered what came next. “No.”
The three of us walked toward the exit of the bar as Chrystle jumped in front of me, grabbing me by the arm. I freed myself from her wretched touch before shouting, “Don’t fucking touch me, you crazy bitch.”
“I just want to talk to you, Jack.” She batted her eyelashes and tilted her head in some bullshit attempt to appear sweet.
“How about we talk after you sign the papers?”
Instantly, her mouth pursed together in frustration. “I’m not signing those. You can’t prove anything and you know it.”
“You keep telling yourself that,” I lied, hoping she’d buy it.
“You’re lying.”
Fuck.
“Just remember how many friends you have before I subpoena them all and make them testify against you. If you get them to lie on the stand, I’ll make sure they go to jail.”
“You wouldn’t dare!” she spat.
“The fuck I wouldn’t.” I leaned in close to her face, my words laced with anger and hate.
“It won’t work anyway. I’ve covered all my bases, so to speak.” She grinned wickedly, and I wondered what the hell I did in a past life to deserve this.
“Just sign the fucking papers, Chrystle.”
“No.”
“Why the hell not?”
“Because I refuse to make it easy for you to get rid of me.” She smirked, and I wanted to smack the ever-loving shit out of her.
“Is this a fucking game to you?” I asked through clenched teeth, my temper rising to a boil.
“I want to stay married, so I won’t sign anything if I can avoid it.”
Her smugness radiated from her with such force that I had to fight the urge to scream and shout like a lunatic in the middle of the bar.
Keep your cool, Carter. Do not let this crazy bitch push you over the edge.
“Avoid it? You think you can avoid this?”
“Actually, yes I do.” Her voice, thick with deceit and confidence, made me want to gag.
“You’re just a bad person.” I threw my hands up into the air in my frustration.
“So are you!” she fired back.
“No. I’m an asshole. There’s a difference.”
This girl pushed every goddamned button I had. And not in a good way. I half wished Melissa would walk past me and deck her. Lord knows I couldn’t. If it were socially acceptable to punch a girl, this might have been the time I’d actually consider doing it. If she were a guy, I’d knock her teeth down her fucking throat.
“I will do whatever I have to do to be rid of you. You hear me? Whatever I have to do.”
“Are you threatening me?” she asked, her voice overtly raised.
“If I were threatening you, you’d know it. Sign the damn papers.” I turned away from her, punching the bar door open with my fist.
“I didn’t think it was possible to hate her more.” Cassie exhaled as she shook her head in disbelief. “Who does stuff like that?”
“Crazy bitches. I swear I’m never talking to another girl who isn’t you again.”
That actually isn’t a half-bad idea. If I never talk to another female fan, I’ll never get in trouble with Cass and she’ll trust me again.
“Gran might get sad.” Cassie’s sweet voice interrupted my new plan.
“Right. You and Gran,” I amended before continuing. “So, Chrystle filed a restraining order against all three of us the next day.”