Lucy's Revenge [Divine Creek Ranch 15] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)

by Heather Rainier

  He reached out to stroke her arm, where he’d struck her unintentionally. “I’m sorry, Lucy. I’m just…” Used up. No good.

  Her cheeks were a beautiful rosy color in the lamplight as she pulled away from him. He didn’t deserve her friendship, much less her forgiveness. “You’re sick. And drunk. Save the apology for when you’re sober, Beck.”

  “I’m sick, but I’m thinking straight enough.”

  “Save it. I’m tired and Patrick has the truck running and warmed up for you.” She walked out of the room, her silky robe fluttering behind her like a walking watercolor painting.

  Boy, you’ve gone and fucked it up now. She’d never refused to listen when he’d apologized before. She always listened. “You’re right,” he whispered to himself in the empty room.

  A painful void opened in Beck’s chest as he wearily dressed and pulled his cold, sodden boots on. He looked around the warm space that she slept in and it occurred to him how wrong it all seemed. Wrong that he was in her private sanctuary, and sick and in a beat-down ugly kind of mood…and wrong that he was leaving like this.

  Guilt is what they call it, dumbass. Just what I need, heaped on top of all the other bullshit that my life has become.

  He braced himself on the wall in the hallway as the dizziness assailed him again and frowned when he found her waiting for him at the door, with a sack in her hand. Her emotions were closed off to him and she only glanced into his eyes for a moment, but it was long enough to see the hurt that was there.

  “I’m really sorry, Lucy. I know you don’t want to hear it but I am.”

  She shrugged one shoulder and held out the Batson’s Grocery Store bag to him without looking at him. “I had some extra chicken noodle soup and crackers. There’s also a bottle of Sprite in there. You need to make sure you get lots of fluids and rest. Do you need me to come take care of Cooter for you?”

  Still trying to take care of me, despite the fact that I’ve been a shit to her. I don’t deserve her as a friend much less as anything else.

  “You don’t have to do that, Lucy. Cooter is pretty low maintenance. And thank you…for this,” he added, taking the bag from her.

  “Fine.” She nodded and swung the door closed as he stepped over the threshold. The deadbolt shot home, and the chain slid into place a second later, and those sounds echoed in his ears as he stumbled to the truck and rode in silence with Patrick for several minutes. She’d wanted him to stay until he’d fucked it all up.

  He’d lost Chloe—for good this time. There was no going back to what had been. No second chance. And now here he was alienating people left and right. Worst of all, it was his two best friends he was hurting.

  He didn’t really spend much time around others. He hung out with the larger group of their friends only because Lucy and Patrick pushed him to. Being around happy people hurt somehow. There were days when he thought he might never know how it felt to be happy again.

  The aches and pains in his body combined with the hurt he felt to the bottom of his soul, and he wanted nothing more than to curl up and die.

  “Do you want to come home with me or go home?” Patrick asked in a terse voice.

  “Home. I need to check on Cooter anyway.”

  His old bulldog had plenty of shelter, and his own doggy door onto the covered back porch of his older farmhouse, so he didn’t worry much. He could come and go as he needed to but the storm might have gotten him stirred up some. He also needed to check on his girls—his honeybees—but that would have to wait until the weather settled down. Maybe if he felt better around lunchtime the next day he’d go out and see them.

  “You sure? You look like hell, man.”

  Beck gave a small shake of his head. “No. Wouldn’t be right to expose the little man to this bug.”

  “We’ve both had our shots and I think he had a small case of it a few weeks ago, anyway.”

  “Good, then I won’t have to worry. I just need to be alone right now. Need to sleep this whatever-the-hell-I-have off. Need to…think.”

  “You already spend enough time alone, but I understand. Are you going to tell me or not? Was it Chloe?”

  “Yes.” He raked his fingers through his still-damp hair, wanting to tear it out by the roots.

  “Did she have news for you?”

  Chloe’s voice echoed in his head. “You are a good man, Beck. I know there is someone special out there, just waiting for you. I know you’re going to find her.”

  “Well?”

  “She got engaged tonight. She wanted me to know in case word got back to one of your friends.”

  Patrick let out a long sigh. “They’re your friends, too. I’m sorry, man.”

  Beck didn’t say anything else on the trip home even when Patrick tried to draw him out. His voice seemed to come from a long distance and Beck couldn’t understand him and didn’t try hard to do so. Eventually, Patrick nudged him and he realized they’d made it to his place a couple of miles outside of Divine.

  “Thanks, Patrick.”

  Patrick peered at him out of the driver’s window as he stumbled through a puddle to the walkway leading to the house. Chloe had planted vivid red hummingbird salvia the year before in a large flowerbed nearby, telling him that his honeybees would love it, and they had. The winter and lack of care had reduced all those plants to wasted brown clumps dotting the mulched bed.

  “I’ll bring your truck and check on you tomorrow after work,” Patrick called as Beck trudged up the path, ignoring the rain that still fell. He waved a hand but didn’t look back or reply. He didn’t need to go anywhere so he could’ve cared less about the truck. He pulled the key ring from his pocket and the diamond in Chloe’s engagement ring glinted in the porch light as he fiddled around for the key to the front door. Now that he was finally alone, the hole in his heart tore a little more.

  Their ring was the one she wanted. Not his.

  He dropped the keys and the care package from Lucy on the table by the door—one that Chloe had found at a flea market and refinished for this house when they’d moved in a couple of years before.

  In the bathroom, he popped a couple of Tylenol and followed them with a glass of water, undressed, and left his clothes lying right where they landed. He slung on his old fleece robe and went into the kitchen to let Cooter in and then got down a glass and his bottle of Jack Daniel’s.

  A few seconds after he flopped into his chair in the living room, his old brindle bulldog, Cooter, ambled into the living room and flopped down on his feet. His canine friend looked up at him with sad eyes, snuffled a little, and then went to sleep. Even Cooter still missed Chloe.

  Beck sipped the whiskey and reached over for the framed picture that sat by the answering machine. He ignored the blinking light indicating one new message and looked at the photograph in the frame. It was a shot of him and Chloe, taken at the Texas Gulf Coast on their first vacation together. Her hair was blown about by the wind and her cheeks were tanned from being in the sun. She looked happy, and Beck remembered how contented he’d been until she’d left. He’d been trapped in the vicious cycle of memories for nearly a year, knowing she was gone but still waking up loving her each morning. He wanted it to stop.

  He took another sip of the whiskey, hoping it would dull the pain in his body and in his soul as he gazed at the picture. The hole in his heart ripped open wide as the image blurred.

  “Good-bye, baby.”

  * * * *

  Lucy sighed heavily and was relieved her workday was over as she walked out to her car, casting a glance at the overcast skies. She enjoyed working for Madeleine Sinclair but sometimes her coworkers left a lot to be desired. It was a fact of life that any time a group of women worked together, there was going to be strife.

  There were the pot-stirrers, who liked to get the other women riled up just so they could enjoy the drama.

  There were the ones who brought all their problems with men to work with them, boring all their coworkers with details nobody wa
nted to hear.

  There were even one or two queen bees who expected everyone to serve them.

  Earlier that day, two of her coworkers, a stylist and a wax tech, had discovered that the same man was dating both of them without their knowledge. Instead of planning to lynch the cheating bastard, they’d gone after each other until Madeleine had put a stop to it. Yep, get that many women in a confined space and it eventually spelled trouble.

  She scrunched up her sore, tired shoulders as she got in the car and checked her cell phone for voice mail messages.

  “Sis, give me a call when you get a chance. I have good news.” Seth was not one to get overly excited. He was usually Mr. Super Cool, but he sounded a tad on the excited side.

  It didn’t take but a couple of rings for him to answer, and she said, “What’s up? I need some good news.”

  “You sound tired. Rough day?” She smiled at the concern in his voice and she wished it was that easy to explain. She gently opened and closed both of her hands, trying to work some of the soreness out of them.

  “I’m just tired. It was a full day…after a late night.” She’d been having trouble sleeping.

  “Heard from Beck yet?” She could hear the concern in his voice but his tone had gone a little steely. Protective big brother.

  “It’s been a couple of weeks. Patrick’s been checking on him and said the flu really knocked him off his feet.” She’d called his cell phone and left a few voice mails over the last couple of weeks and had finally given up just a few days before. He’d get in touch if he wanted to.

  Seth was quiet for a few seconds and then said, “I’m here if you need me, okay?”

  Seth understood so much but he was never one to interfere unless she told him otherwise. Sometimes she wished that she’d clued him in on what had happened with Chuck, her former fiancé. By the time she’d finally broken it off with the ass-wipe it had felt “too late” to tell her big brother all the details. And she was an adult and wanted to stand on her own two feet anyway.

  “Thanks. So what’s your good news?”

  “Marvin from next door is moving down Main Street to another location. His shop space will be available to look at soon.”

  Her jaw dropped. “No! Really?” She’d coveted the small shop space next door to Divine Ink, Seth’s tattoo studio, tucked into one of the old storefronts in the historic shopping district of downtown Divine.

  “Yes. He said he’s moving north to that little shop between Batson’s Grocery and Divine Auto Repair in just a few days.”

  She’d stopped by Marvin’s, just out of curiosity while exploring the neighborhood the year before, and had fallen in love with the architecture and atmosphere of the place. Even filled with computers and parts, the little shop had stolen her imagination, with the exposed brick walls that partitioned the storefronts from each other, and the transoms set high above the doorframes. With some tender loving care, she could turn that space into a massage therapy clinic. She’d even toyed around with a business plan, so she knew already what was necessary to make a go of it. She could hire another licensed massage therapist to work with her or go it alone. After a day like today she thought she might enjoy going it alone for a while.

  “It wouldn’t take much to get it set up the way you’d like it either.”

  “Who do I get in touch with?”

  After he’d given her all the details, Seth said, “Are you okay…as far as this deal with Beck goes? Need to talk?”

  With a sigh, Lucy replied, “No. There’s really nothing to say. He was really sick and I’m just letting him be for now. Give him time to heal.” Eventually, he’d recover from the flu, but she wondered how long the pain she’d seen in his eyes would take to heal, if ever. “I have the worst luck with men.”

  It was a few seconds before Seth replied. “Seemed to me like things were looking up…for all three of you.” That was his way. Letting her know of his concern but not pushing her to talk if she didn’t feel like it.

  “Looks can be deceiving. Thank you for the heads-up about Marvin’s place.”

  “You’re welcome. Call me if you need me.”

  Sitting at her kitchen table alone, eating supper later that evening, she wondered if Beck had been eating and if he was getting his fluids. It wasn’t that far to his house. She could check on him and be back home in no time. Just to make sure he was okay. Her heart ached, recalling the pain in his eyes, and the memory pulled at her to do something about it. Even the thought of the way he’d probably growl at her for coming all the way out there at night didn’t deter her.

  She was pulling on her sneakers when her cell phone rang.

  “Hey, Luce. It’s me.” Patrick’s voice soothed the anxiety that she hadn’t even realized had been building inside of her all evening.

  She let out a relieved breath as calm descended. “Hi. How are you?”

  Their schedules hadn’t allowed for another evening together and even though she’d had lunch with him a couple of times in the last two weeks, she missed him. Wanted to pick up where they’d left off Valentine’s night. She could only imagine the physical pain he must’ve been in when he’d left that evening, after their lovemaking had been interrupted. Part of her wondered if there was a reason they’d been interrupted.

  “I’m all right.” She could hear a strident little voice in the background and smiled when Patrick said, “Little man wants to talk to you. Do you mind?”

  Lucy chuckled. “You’re kidding, right?” All she heard was Patrick’s soft chuckle before the phone switched hands.

  “Lucy! I got to go in a cave today! Got to see bats!”

  “You did?” She recalled that Patrick had mentioned his son’s pre-school class was taking a field trip that day. She was sympathetic for his teacher, taking a group of rambunctious preschoolers on a field trip that involved a cave. The thought of bats and other creepy things made her shudder. Patrick Junior chattered on for a minute telling her the details then suddenly said, “I gotta go. Bye!”

  His father chuckled again as he came back on the line. “He’s convinced there are caves underneath our backyard. He’s investigating while I cook supper.”

  Lucy glanced at the clock. “You’re eating late. If I’d known, I would’ve had you over.”

  “It’s okay. I just came from Beck’s place.”

  She sat down on the couch. “How is he? I was thinking about going out there.”

  “Don’t. He just got into bed. He probably wouldn’t even hear you at the door. I found him asleep in his recliner with Cooter lying in his lap.”

  Lucy smiled at the image. Animals were naturally attracted to Beck. Waldo seemed to think he was made of catnip the way he loved on Beck any time he was near.

  “Is he eating?”

  “I heated up some of the soup you sent home with him and made him take some fluids. He bitched the whole time but he told me to tell you again that he’s sorry.”

  “Did he ever tell you what happened Valentine’s night to put him in such a tailspin? It’s that woman he mentioned. Chloe, right?” Her protective side reared its head and she couldn’t help her churlish tone.

  Patrick hesitated on the line. “I think it’d be best if he told you himself after he’s better. I’m checking on him again tomorrow.”

  Lucy admired Patrick for going the distance for his friend and for protecting his privacy, and wondered if Beck understood how much he cared about him…about them.

  “I miss you, Lucy.”

  “I miss you, too. I wish I could do something about it now.”

  Patrick’s soft groan said it all. “You don’t know how tempting that offer is. I have to get Patrick fed and ready for bed.”

  Lucy liked that his son was his highest priority. “It’s okay. I have an early morning meeting with the owner of one of the buildings downtown.”

  “What kind of meeting?”

  “Let me tell you…”

  After they ended the call, Lucy ran a warm bath and liste
ned to soft music while she read a book in the steamy tub. Images of Beck as they’d disrobed him in her bathroom two weeks before kept flitting through her mind. It wasn’t just worry about him that kept distracting her from her romance novel. Even in his less-than-ideal state, she’d felt attracted to him. And the thought that he was unwell made her want to take care of him. Why she had to be attracted to someone who could be so irascible was beyond her.

  She nudged the faucet with her toe to let a little more hot water into the cooling tub and tried to focus on her novel. She finally gave up and got out. At least her sore muscles felt better, even if her mind was still busy worrying about him.

  The thought that Patrick was at home with his son while she was at home alone made her miss him, too. She didn’t want to cause problems for him with his family or with nosy neighbors by spending the night. That wasn’t her style anyway.

  Oh fess up, honey. You know you’d be over in a heartbeat if he called you.

  She wanted very much to pick up right where they’d left off before, this time without the interruption. She was torn though. Part of her wanted both of them and being with Patrick alone seemed disloyal. But in Beck’s current state of mind and health, there was no telling if they’d ever work out what they were—friends or something more.

  Face it. You’re horny.

  Eschewing a nightgown or pajamas, she climbed into the bed nude. Snuggling down into the sheets and comforter, she rolled into the spot where he’d lain and imagined him still there, only she was between him and Patrick.

  Memories of the sensation of Patrick rising over her, his cock nudging at her cunt which had still been quivering from orgasm, sent heat straight to her pussy. She’d wanted him so bad and the moment had felt so right. Her cunt clenched with need and she moaned when she slid her fingers between her legs and found herself drenched and slippery with need.

  Thoughts of the two of them taking control, having their way with her, made her even hotter. She rubbed circles around her clit as her imagination took hold. Beck would crowd her and push her limits. Patrick would touch her all over and consume her with the same relish as when he’d eaten her pussy. The memory made her cunt tighten and throb as she continued stroking herself and she felt the sizzling rise toward orgasm.