As she feared, neither man looked satisfied, but she needed to handle Bodie first. She hurriedly kissed them both and said, “I’ll call you in the morning.”
Josh and Lucas looked as if they wanted to argue, but Hank came around the truck bed and said, “I’m needed at the hospital, Violet. I hate to interrupt.”
“No problem, Hank. You go. We’ll be on our best behavior,” Lucas said with a nod before glancing over at Bodie, who was waiting by his truck.
Hank nodded and took off. Violet turned to them. “I need a little time alone, once I’m done talking to him.”
And a margarita. A margarita would help me sort out what I’m going to take away from this weekend.
“I promise I’ll call you,” she whispered, and then kissed them both before she backed away. She needed time to process the strange twists and turns her life had taken recently—by herself. They watched her as they climbed into the truck, and she still felt their eyes on her as she turned to deal with Bodie.
Taking a deep breath, she steeled herself to withstand his sweet country-boy charm. He still had his hands shoved into his jeans pockets, and he gave her that sheepish grin as she approached. He’d won her over once upon a time with his winsome smile, but she wasn’t falling prey to it again.
“Hello, Violet. You’re looking fit for a costume party tonight. I guess I caught you at a bad time. Sheriff Stinson told me about what happened today with your windows. I’m sorry about that.”
She shook her head. “My employees had everything back to normal in record time, from the look of things inside. Bodie, when we talked on the phone, I thought I made it clear—”
He reached out to stroke one of her curls, and his expression fell, his heart showing in his eyes and the set of his mouth. “I had to see you in person, baby. I needed to talk to you about this. I need… Is there any way we could go to your place?”
Deadly mistake, girl. “Rudy’s is still open. Why don’t we go there?”
His sad eyes showed a glint of humor as he glanced up at her face. “I wouldn’t mind showing up with an adorable anime character, but I think you might draw more attention than you want.”
She groaned, recalling the makeup again and sighed heavily. The body paint was starting to crack and peel a little, and she was itching inside her jeans. “Okay, but Bodie this is not turning into a booty call.”
He held up his hand. “I’ll be on my best behavior.”
And likely your most charming behavior, as in trying to charm me out of my panties. It won’t work, you smooth-talking devil.
He followed her to her house and met her at her trunk as she popped it open and reached inside.
“Here, let me get that for you.” He pulled her suitcase from the trunk and followed her up the steps. “So you were away for the weekend? You gonna share about what you were up to?”
“No,” she said, determined to say no more about it. There was no reason for her to justify going away for the weekend.
He took off his cowboy hat and gazed out across the residential street and then looked down at his boots, and she couldn’t believe she actually felt bad for him, worrying or wondering what she had been off doing for a whole weekend. “Was it those guys? You were with them?”
Ignoring his question, she slid her key in the lock and flipped the switch inside the door, illuminating her modest home. “Would you like something to drink?”
“A Ziegenbock?”
“Sorry, I don’t have any.” She’d tossed the last two from her refrigerator in the trash the evening after she’d talked to him on the phone. It’d been smart to throw them out because she knew he’d ask, hoping she’d kept them…just in case. “I have Bud Light and iced tea.”
“I’ll take a Bud, if it’s no trouble,” he replied, his tone modulated and hellaciously sexy. That voice could charm the panties off of most red-blooded women. She, however, was not falling for it. “I felt terrible after our phone call the other day, baby. I wanted to work things out with you.”
She handed him his beer and waited until he sat on the couch and patted the spot beside him. She took a seat in the upholstered chair nearby. Resting her chin in her hand, she sighed. “Work what out, Bodie? You were pretty clear about what you wanted, and I was clear about what I wanted.”
He put his elbows on his knees and leaned toward her so that, if he got the green light, he could stretch the last little distance to kiss her. She eased back and sipped her iced tea, glad she hadn’t gone ahead and made herself a margarita. The tequila would have to wait until after he’d gone. She needed all her faculties around her.
Bodie was good at showing what he was feeling, and as he cast his gaze around the living room, she knew he was reliving moments they’d spent together in every room of her house. Good times that had led to a broken heart.
“You need Victor in your life, don’t you?” she asked softly, her heart going out to him, not wishing for him to hurt.
He nodded. “But I want you in my life, too.”
Shaking her head, she said, “I gave everything I had to our threesome. I loved you first, but I did love you both by the time he pulled the rug out from under me. I felt so dumb, thinking I could gain his love given time. I naively believed we lived the ultimate fantasy on a daily basis.” Now I know better.
Bodie said, “But see, that’s what I came to talk about. Victor knows I’m unhappy. He said he can see this is breaking my heart. He…He said he’d be willing to give it another try if you want to come back to Dallas.”
She tilted her head, finally seeing him without the rose-colored glasses. “After all the trouble Victor had putting up with my supposed clutter? I sometimes hear his voice in my head, speaking so cruelly about my body and my habits, and no amount of time spent here with you has ever erased the memory of him saying he wanted things the way they were before.” She wiped at the tears coursing down her cheeks and avoided his hand when he tried to reach out to her. “You were hoping I’d move back in with the two of you?”
His gaze darted away, and he said, “Well…not quite. There’s another condominium vacant next to ours and he thought perhaps you’d like to come back as a neighbor, and—now these are his words, but he suggested an ‘open, come-and-go relationship.’”
She gulped over the knot in her throat, hating Victor a little right then. “He wants for me to ‘come’ and then ‘go’ away, you mean? Or more precisely, he wants you to come and me to go away afterward. Just slink off in the night to my space next door?”
He sighed, and she steeled herself when he sat back and she could see his eyes were bloodshot. Emotion choked him up, but he cleared his throat and said, “I love you, Violet. I need you with me, as much as I need him.”
Left cold, Violet shook her head. He deluded himself now as much as she had for all those months. “Almost as much. Bodie, I loved you, once, but I don’t want an open relationship. I deserve better than that.”
Frowning, he said, “It’s those guys, isn’t it? What’s going on with them? Another ménage? But you won’t try with us?”
“What I have with them is completely different. Until I met them, I didn’t understand the difference.”
“Are you in love with them?”
Her answer was slow in coming, not because she wasn’t sure, but because Josh and Lucas deserved to be the first ones to hear those words from her lips, not her ex. “What I have with them is new, and this weekend was a complete revelation.”
Pain etched his features. “You were with them? Both?”
“Bodie, I’m not going to go into detail about my personal life. You asked about them. I’m just being honest.”
“I’d take good care of you, baby. You could open another Emporium in the city. Everyone would love it. I could make you forget about them.” He reached out, and she didn’t have the heart to resist when he took her hands.
It was time to rip off the Band-Aid. “Bodie, I could never forget them, any more than I can forget you. But when I’
m with them, I am their only focus. That’s the difference between my past and my present. I love being the center of their world. Will it last forever? I don’t know. But I love Divine, and I don’t want to leave, ever. I’m happy with my small-town emporium, and I have no desire to go back to the big city. And you know things could never be the same between Victor and me. I deserve so much more than the crumbs he’s willing to throw me.”
“You won’t give me a second chance, then?”
She slipped her hands from his grasp, and instead of pulling back, she held his hands in hers. He looked down at them and then up at her, pleading in his eyes, but he kept quiet. Tears threatened, but she needed to get the words out, get it said so he’d understand and move on.
“Bodie, in the last year and a half, every time you called me and I let you come, that was me giving you a second chance. It was never casual for me. Each time, I wanted to beg you to stay with me, but I wouldn’t put you in a difficult position. I know now I’ll never settle for half of a man’s heart ever again. Yes, I loved you, but there comes a point where it’s everlastingly too late. Good luck with Victor—and with any other hearts that trust you. You were very easy to love,” she added with a wobbly smile. The sense of finality was there, and she saw it in his eyes when he nodded.
“I’m sorry I upset you, coming here and making you cry. I’ve made you ruin your makeup,” he said with a wistful smile.
After grabbing a tissue and blotting at the mess, irritated that she kept forgetting she still had on the makeup, she said, “This has been quite a weekend.”
“You look adorable, and I wouldn’t change a thing about you. Will you keep my number in your phone, in case you ever need any help or a friend with a listening ear?”
That wasn’t a good idea, but she wouldn’t hurt him by refusing him outright. “Okay, but no—”
“Booty calls,” he interjected with a chuckle. “I promise, no more. But I’m gonna miss you, Violet, for long years to come.”
“Sweet talker,” she murmured shakily, glad they had an understanding. “Give me a hug. You have a long drive ahead of you.”
His hug good-bye was sweet, and he didn’t try anything, for which she was grateful.
At the front door, he put his cowboy hat back on and grasped her gently by the shoulders. “I’m sorry I hurt you, and I’m sorry for the harm Victor caused you. I know it’s hard to believe because of everything you heard him say, but I believe he was sorry, too. And you’re right. You do deserve better.” He chastely pecked her cheek.
Bodie was good in that he knew when the moment to leave came and didn’t linger. He waved one final time as he started his truck and drove off, leaving her standing on her stoop, deciding what to do next.
Chapter Seventeen
“So there was no tequila at home, huh?” Ethan asked as he leaned against the bar while one of his bartenders mixed her margarita.
“Yup. I mean nope,” Violet replied as she took the last sip from her empty margarita glass and chased a bit of the salt on the rim with the tip of her tongue. Ethan’s kickass Divine Margaritas were the best.
Ethan leaned into her field of vision and murmured, “That will be your second one. You sure you want it full strength?”
Violet rested her chin in the palm of her hand, missed the edge of the bar, and nearly face-planted onto it. “Oops,” she said with a giggle.
Ethan smiled good-naturedly at her as he held out his hand and said, “Hand ’em over, sweetie.”
“Can I still have my margarita?” she bargained as she rifled through her purse with clumsy fingers, finally finding her car keys and handing them to him.
“On one condition. When you’re ready to leave, I’ll call you a cab. If you tried to drive home and something happened to you, I would be devastated, and Gracie would never get over it.”
“Aw, that’s so sweet, Ethan! But don’t worry, I don’t mind if you call me a cab. Shoot, but how will I get my car in the morning? I have to work.”
“I’ll see what I can do, sweetie. But I feel sorry for you if you have to work in the morning.”
“I’ll be okay. I just really wanted a margarita.” And once the house had been quiet, she’d realized she didn’t want to be alone with her thoughts. And she’d told her men they’d hear from her in the morning, and she didn’t want to look like a ditz who didn’t know her own mind by calling them tonight, either. So she’d showered to remove the body paint and had gotten ready to go to the Pony, thinking maybe some of her girlfriends might be there, but no luck. So she’d decided to sit at the bar alone. Ethan had struck up a conversation with her about the Emporium, so it was all good.
“Were you celebrating?”
She blinked at Ethan, with her chin resting firmly in both palms, concentrating this time to keep her elbows from slipping off the bar. What a klutz. That’s why he thinks you’re drunk. She tapped her fingertips against her cheeks in a contemplative gesture, noticing something was numb. She wasn’t sure if it was her fingers or her cheeks, and she giggled. “What?”
Ethan patted the bar in front of her and said, “You enjoy your drink.” He pulled his phone from his pocket and said, “I have to make a call.”
“Okeedokee Pokie.”
He grinned at her and walked to an unoccupied corner of the bar with the phone to his ear.
Everyone nearby was involved in conversations with their friends, and all the bartenders were busy, so she took out her phone to check for any messages. Her call history popped up, and she recognized Josh’s phone number at the top. Probably from when he’d called while she’d been driving home.
Poor guys, they’d been awfully defensive about Bodie showing up. She hoped they understood they didn’t have to worry about him. She stroked Josh’s profile picture on the contact screen. He and Lucas had made her fantasies come true in the best possible sense, and changed her mind about ménages in the process. There was no let-down feeling over her experiences. The only disappointment she’d had was that it had ended early.
“Violet?”
“Hmm?” she said, turning to the older man sitting next to her, wondering how he knew her name.
He smiled at her and gave a small shake of his head. “I didn’t say anything.”
“Baby girl?”
He chuckled and pointed at her phone on the bar. “I think someone is talking to you on your speakerphone, ma’am.”
“Huh? Oh!” She nearly dropped the phone as she fumbled with it and tried to get it to her ear. It took a couple of tries before she got the speakerphone turned off and said, “Hello?”
“Baby girl, are you okay? I hear a lot of noise in the background. You all right?”
She slumped in her chair and heaved a sigh. Just the sound of your voice makes me warm and wobbly inside.
“It does?” Josh asked with a chuckle, and she realized she’d verbalized that thought.
“Yeah,” she said and sighed again, missing him and his luscious brother very much.
Josh chuckled again. “Hey, brother, Violet thinks you’re luscious. What else are you up to, baby girl? Where are you?”
“I needed a drink so I went to the Pony because the house was too quiet and there was no tequila.”
“No tequila, huh?” His tone was amused and affectionate, and then he quietly asked, “Bodie there with you?”
“Nope,” she said, the “p” sound making a loud pop as she emphasized it. “I leveled with him and sent him back home. I made him sad, but he needed to know the truth.” Gosh, that margarita tasted good, like heaven in a glass. Ethan was the god of margaritas.
“The truth?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah, it’s really over because I’m in love.”
It got quiet on the other end of the line. “In love, huh?”
She loved listening to his voice, the way it worked its magic on her like his fingers worked magic on her skin. She told him all about it, no longer worried about holding back. Her margarita was half-empty by the time she finally
paused to let him get in more than a “yeah” or an “is that so?” He seemed receptive to what she was saying, so much that he was relaying all of it to Lucas as she spoke, which she thought was super sweet because Lord knew she loved that sexy man just the same.
“Hey, beautiful,” a deep voice said as a man slipped into the vacant seat next to hers. “This seat taken?”
Keeping the phone to her ear, she smiled at him as she took another sip of the fresh margarita and said, “You can have it.”
“Is someone meeting you here tonight?” he asked as he waved at the bartender.
“Nuh-uh.” She shook her head and was dazzled by the way the lights in the nightclub went all swirly. “Whoa.”
Josh asked, “Baby girl, is someone bothering you? Are you there alone?”
“Yup,” she said in answer to his last question. “Me and Ethan have been talkin’, and I’ve been enjoying a margarita.”
“I see. You still taking off tomorrow?”
“No, I think I’m going to go in and get caught up. And I need to check on my pussy, too.”
That raised the eyebrows of the stranger sitting next to her, and she burst into laughter, and he quickly hid his smirk. He placed his drink order and indicated to the bartender that he wanted to buy her another margarita, and Ethan held up his hand while he was still involved in his phone conversation and shook his head. She’d had enough for one night. Knowing he looked after her like that gave her another case of the warm fuzzies.
When he was finally able to quit laughing, Josh said, “Baby girl? You still there? You got quiet.”
“Uh-huh.”
“We need to talk face to face, don’t we?”
“Uh-huh!” Violet replied, nodding. “’Cuz I love you, and I really shoulda told you face to face, huh?”
“That’s okay. I love hearing it no matter what, and we’ll get to say it face to face soon enough. I think I’ve been fantasizing about what it would be like to have you in my arms and tell you I love you, too, for a long time now. Lucas says he has, too.”
“You guys,” she said with a happy sigh. “You’re like a fantasy come to life. You know that?” She let out long, humming sigh. “Too bad we didn’t get to finish our fantasy weekend. I had at least one more in me, I think.”
Lumberjack Weekend [Divine Creek Ranch 21] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 18
