by C. A. Harms
Trinity laughed when I hugged her close and suddenly the weight of the night faded away.
I loved having her here, mixed into my world. My best friend and Nan. Dani was a thorn in my side, but I didn’t let her affect the night.
I’d given up trying to please that girl long ago. She was Beau’s problem now. And from the looks of it, he didn’t give two shits about her plea for attention.
Chapter Seventeen
Trinity
“What do you mean his ex-girlfriend is staying with him?” Bailey asked as she stepped up to my side. I’d not even noticed anyone else was around when I disclosed that bit of information to Olivia.
We were at the park for the annual Fourth of July festivities, at which Olivia and I were named the responsible parties to tend to the grill this year.
I wasn’t sure that was the best idea. I was almost positive hot dogs and hamburgers weren’t supposed to be crunchy. But what did I know, right?
“Please tell me I heard you wrong,” Bailey added, crossing her arms over her chest. “Because I could swear I just heard you say Chase invited an ex to stay at his gran’s house with him.”
“I wouldn’t say he invited her; she just kind of showed up on Tuesday with his best friend from home.” I shrugged, trying to play it off like it was nothing.
Did I mention I have a huge inability to pull off any type of lie? I completely sucked at the faking emotions thing.
“And his ass could have sent them to the nearest motel.” Bailey arched her brow, daring me to disagree.
I didn’t.
“But she’s with Beau, his best friend. They’re together, as in a couple, I guess.” The words left a bitter taste in my mouth because there was something about the way that girl watched Chase that made my stomach knot up.
“Well, I don’t give a shit if she claimed to be a nun. She is his ex.” Bailey’s face contorted into a scowl. “He should have tossed them a sleeping bag and told them to sleep in the damn barn.”
“Who should have slept in the barn?” I spun around to the sound of Jackson’s voice and my heart immediately began to race.
I hadn’t wanted to bring any of this up to the guys. It wouldn’t end well. At least not for Chase, anyway.
But before I could give Bailey a pleading look she went off in true Bailey fashion.
“If you would have ever thought of allowing an ex-girlfriend to stay at your place, I would have hung you from the peak of your roof by your god-damn balls.” I heard Olivia snicker and Jackson looked around confused.
“What the hell is she talking about?” he asked me as he pointed toward his wife who was practically shooting flames out of her nose.
“I’m talking about the fact that Chase has allowed his ex to stay at his place while she is in town,” Bailey clarified. “I am talking about the fact that Trinity is attempting to convince me that she is okay with it, because, and I quote, ‘she’s with Beau.’ Whoever the hell Beau is. It don’t make it right.”
Jackson looked back at me and he, too, was scowling.
“As I said they should have slept in the barn, under the spruce tree in the yard, or hell, on the bed of Chase’s truck. But the girl surely should not be sleeping under the same roof as Chase.”
“It’s nothing to worry about,” I assured them.
“Oh really?” She crossed her arms once again, cocked her hip out to the side as she looked over my shoulder. “I’d have to disagree sweetheart, because I have seen her kind before.”
Everyone turned to look in the direction Bailey was looking and I could have sworn the sound of my hard swallow echoed through the park.
Daisy Dukes didn’t even begin to describe the shorts Danielle wore as she walked toward our group, sandwiched between Beau and my Chase.
The smirk she wore as her gaze locked with mine told me she had an idea what might be rolling around in my head.
“That girl right there is trouble with a capital W. And I hate whores.” Jackson chuckled at his wife’s words.
I was so focused on Danielle that I had not even paid much attention to Chase until he stepped up in front of me, blocking her from my sight.
“Hey, pretty girl,” he whispered, giving me a hesitant smile. “Everything okay?”
“Yes,” I assured him. But before I could say more Bailey cut in.
“Hell no, everything is not okay.” Suddenly I felt like the size of the park had just shrunk. “In fact, nothing about this,” she motioned in the direction of Danielle, “is okay.”
Danielle huffed and Beau laughed. Not a nervous, what the hell laugh; I’m talking a deep chest vibrating chuckle that also felt as it echoed in the still air.
My guess was he knew exactly what Bailey was referring to.
The relationship between him and Danielle was a weird one. It appeared as if it was one more of convenience than actual feelings.
Poor Chase looked as confused as I was embarrassed. But it wasn’t Bailey who hauled Chase off for a little pow wow. Nope.
That would be Jackson, with Ryan and Noah tailing close behind.
Something told me the town fireworks wouldn’t be the only loud booms we heard in the park today.
Bailey looked pleased with herself as I gave her a displeased look.
“Really?” I tossed in her direction as I forked the hot dog that was beyond done from the grill and not so delicately shook it free as it flopped onto the platter and rolled to the edge.
The cooler full of beer that Alena was seated upon looked awfully appealing at the moment. In fact snatching it up and finding the nearest dark corner sounded mighty damn fine.
“Let me guess,” Beau said with amusement, regaining my attention. “Those three are the infamous Sawyer brothers I’ve heard so much about over the last few days?”
“Yep,” I offered as I avoided looking up in Miss Sour-Face’s general direction.
“Oh this I gotta see,” Beau said happily as he rubbed his hands together. “I can’t miss Chase squirming like a little girl.”
He rushed off toward the direction the guys led Chase. And that left Danielle surrounded by me, Olivia, and a very annoyed Bailey. I adored the girl but at this moment I wanted to kick her in the shins and tell her to stop giving Daisy Duke the death stare.
I looked up and found Danielle with her arms crossed over her chest, staring back at the three of us as if she thought we should be laying out the red carpet for her arrival or something.
On second thought, Bailey could have at it. Everyone loves a good cat fight once in a while, and Bailey had sharp claws.
Chapter Eighteen
Chase
“Thank God the three of them weren’t armed,” Beau said with a chuckle. “The big beefy one looked like he wanted to tie you to the back of the nearest pickup truck and drag you through town squealing.”
“And you’re just loving it, aren’t ya?” I said, not even slightly amused.
“Hell yes,” he said with a chuckle.
I spun around to face him and he instantly stopped smiling.
“What the hell’s going on, Beau?” I asked. “Because you show up here with Dani, acting like the two of you are together, but the whole fucking time you haven’t shown one ounce of jealousy when she brings up our past or makes some shitty comment. You know how she is and nothing about this little game feels real.”
He looked over my shoulder for a moment before that smile on his face instantly changed. “She wanted to come alone,” he said as his eyes shifted back to mine. “This whole thing between she and I isn’t anything more than one drunken hookup. But she made it out to be so much more and insisted on coming up here to share the news with you. I came along to ease the shit-storm I knew she had planned.”
“What shit-storm?” I asked.
“I may have shared the news of your dating some girl you really cared for during a game of pool with the guys. Dani was there.” He shrugged. “It was also that same night we hooked up and within two days of that night
she was ready to take off and share the news with you.”
What the hell?
“It never should have happened, but the last thing I wanted was for her to show up here and start shit for you, so I came along to run interference,” he added with a shrug.
“You came along to continue to sleep with Dani and play this all out.” The guy was a douchebag when it came to women.
“Nah,” he said with a shake of his head. “Haven’t slept together since that night.”
“Not that I truly give a shit, but do you honestly expect me to believe that?” After all, he was Beau, the guy who slept with the mother of one of our high school friends.
“Do you care about this girl of yours?” he asked. Without a moment of hesitation, I replied “Yes.”
“Then don’t let Dani and her need to be the center of attention screw it up.”
“I have no intentions of allowing Dani to screw anything up between Trinity and me.” And that was the truth. I’d not thought once of Danielle until the day I showed up to find her running down the steps of Nan’s front porch.
“Then set her straight and send her packing, man. I’ll handle the rest,” Beau assured me.
The guy may have had a funny way of handling things, but in a way I was glad he chose to come along with Dani. I knew his intentions were good. Dani, on the other hand, had a goal. A goal I wouldn’t allow her to reach.
***
“Why are you hiding all the way over here?” She jumped in surprise at the sound of my voice, yet she never turned to face me.
I looked out in the direction she was staring and also became entranced by the sprawling hills and trees.
I felt like an ass. It took Bailey and her sassy ways to point out that I was being an idiot. It shouldn’t have taken an outsider looking in to make me realize that Dani staying at my place could only end badly for Trinity and me.
I should have known better.
“She was right, ya know.” It was then that she turned to look at me.
I stood with my hands in my front pockets to keep from reaching out and touching her. I still couldn’t weigh her mood. For all I knew she was as pissed off as Crazy Bailey.
“I shouldn’t have offered to let them stay at Nan’s,” I confessed and suddenly I felt like even more of an ass saying it out loud. How had I not seen the wrong in an ex sleeping under the same roof as me?
“I should have known the entire thing between Dani and Beau was just her way of attempting to get under my skin.” I hung my head remembering Beau’s confession only moments ago. I released a nervous chuckle, before continuing. “She thought it would be a way to show me that I was somehow missing out on her. Hell, I don’t really know what her actual plan was, but I know now it wasn’t to get my blessing for a life of happiness with my best friend.”
I took a step toward her and pulled my hands from my pockets to bring them to rest on her hips, hoping like hell her reaction wouldn’t be to knee me in the nuts or shove me away.
When she allowed me to pull her body closer to mine I think I let out a sigh in relief.
“Dani and I were never gonna be long term. Even if I’d stayed in Texas, she and I wouldn’t have lasted. She’s a bigger pain in the ass than anyone I have ever met.” I slouched just enough to line my face up directly with hers, forcing her to see my eyes when I continued. “I waited over a year to go after the girl who almost instantly gained my attention from the moment I arrived in town. And now that I got her, I don’t plan on letting her go.”
She smiled shyly and hell if it didn’t make my chest tighten.
“I don’t want today or any other day to be about her,” I whispered. “I want it all to be about you and the way you make me feel. Because I’m being honest when I say that no other woman has ever given me that feeling before.”
She closed her eyes briefly before looking back at me with a glossiness that wasn’t there before. My words had affected her, and that gave me hope that she and I were gonna be just fine.
“This is all still so new between us, but it feels so right.” I moved in, bringing our lips closer together. “Every moment with you since that first night has been exciting and fun. I don’t want it to end; I just want more.”
I gently pressed my lips to hers, trying with everything I had in me to convey what I was feeling through that kiss. It was so slow and natural. A kiss that expressed every word I’d just spoken and so much more I still wanted to say.
And it was the kiss that confirmed what I’d already known.
I was willingly falling for the beautiful wounded girl before me. I wanted nothing more than to show her that everything in her past could be forgotten if she gave me the chance to give her a new beginning.
“Can I stay with you tonight?” I whispered as I pulled back from our kiss and rested my forehead to hers.
“What about Nan?” she asked.
I loved how she always worried about my grandmother and how she, too, referred to her as Nan.
“Well right now she’s with Tammy.” I smiled when she gave me a quizzical look. “Yeah, it would appear that the Sawyer family has adopted my grandmother, but I’m still on trial.”
I chuckled when she closed her eyes for a brief moment and gave a light sigh of annoyance.
Those boys were something else when it involved someone they loved.
“But after the fireworks, Beau’s gonna drive Nan back to the house and keep an eye on her for the night.” I lifted my hand up toward her face and pushed back the stray piece of hair that had fallen from her braid. “I just want to spend the rest of today and tonight with the only girl who makes my heart race.”
And that was exactly what Trinity did.
She calmed me and excited me all at once.
I was a tattooed, buzzed haircut, cop who gave off a badass cocky feel, but inside, this woman made me feel like a lost boy seeking the security only she could give.
It was still so unbelievable how one smile or a simple touch from her could make me feel whole.
“Yes,” she whispered. “You should definitely spend the night with me.”
She tossed me a mischievous smile and I couldn’t help but feel relief that my fiery girl had returned.
I’d been so worried about possibly messing things up between us that seeing her spunky attitude return was exactly what I needed to ease those nerves.
With a nod of my head I gave her another quick kiss before leading her back to the family watching us from afar. I knew without a doubt they’d all been sitting back observing us from afar.
They were like that. Prying and nosy, caring and observant. And deep down, I was thankful Trinity had that type of family backing her up. But they’d better get used to the idea I was gonna be around.
Because no amount of pushing or prodding on their part would ever send me running with my tail tucked. I was in this for the long haul.
They were her people, I knew that.
But I had every intention of becoming one of those people she relied on. I wanted her to love me and trust that I also wanted her happiness. I wanted it all for her, and I would be the one to give it to her.
I’d be sure of that, because nothing had ever been more important to me than her smile.
Chapter Nineteen
Trinity
I relaxed my body back into his as he sat behind me, straddling my hips with his outstretched legs.
His chin rested against the side of my face, as the two-day-old whiskers along his jaw tickled my cheek each time he spoke.
Only a few feet away I’d noticed more than once that we were being watched by prying eyes, only I chose to ignore the hateful glare of his ex. It was easy to see that she and Beau weren’t truly in love or even an actual couple for that matter.
They didn’t share sweet kisses or gentle touches. Hell, they barely even spoke and somehow I found myself feeling sorry for her. Sorry that she was so wrapped up in her own misery that she might never truly feel the unconditional love of
a man who could be out there, somewhere, willing to offer her the world.
I was so lost in thought that when the first firework ignited and scattered throughout the darkened night, I jumped in Chase’s arms.
“Don’t be scared beautiful, I gotchu,” he whispered against my ear, and chills covered my arms and legs as his warm breath tickled my neck.
I arched my neck, looking up at him as a smirk covered his mouth. Without a second thought I lifted my hand up and cupped the back of his neck, pulling his lips toward mine.
I didn’t care that every one of the Sawyer men was most likely shooting daggers in Chase’s direction. All I cared about was that Chase Douglas did, indeed, have me.
***
I heard his feet against the tiled floor of the bathroom just before he stepped into the shower behind me. Within seconds his body was pressed against mine, and I could gauge his current mood by the part of his anatomy pushing firmly against my ass.
I thought after last night he would be worn out and in desperate need of some recovery time, but apparently Chase bounced back quickly.
He didn’t speak a word, only began kissing along the side of my neck as his hands roamed over my wet body.
I could have remained in that very spot, doing that very same thing for hours; he just made me feel so beautiful. It was as if he was using his hands to memorize every dip and curve of my body.
I absolutely loved the way he felt pressed against me, with nothing between us.
When he used his knee to nudge my own apart and pressed his thigh between my legs, I arched my ass, welcoming whatever it was he had planned for me. I craved everything he could offer.
As he stretched his palm out over my lower stomach and began to descend to the apex of my thighs, my body shook with desire. “That’s it,” he whispered. “Give me what I need, baby.”
It was the early hours of the morning with the sun barely up, but if I had a choice of how I’d want to begin every day of my life, this right here would be at the top of my list.
