“Lacey, I meant what I said. Talk to me or you’ll force me to make public declarations that should probably remain between us, at least the first time we say them.” That stopped her, Oli and the rest of the coffee patrons in their stride and I figured I may as well carry on. “What? I want you in my life, Lacey, in our lives—Carly and me.” She faltered a little and tried to hide the embarrassment that was creeping over her skin.
In a panicky move, she headed for the door only to shoulder barge into Lottie as she waded through the door.
“Hey! Lacey, what’s wrong?” she shouted, but when she spotted Oli and I in the back corner, her mood darkened and she headed our way. “What did you two do?”
“This asshole is now openly chasing her,” Oli grumbled.
“This idiot thinks he can stop it. Oh, and she threatened to move out.”
She turned her peepers on Oli and I swear she was trying to conjure up laser beams to hurt him.
“God, grow up. You pair are like kids. Tommy, I can’t say I approve of all her choices, but they are that. Her. Choices. You hurt her again and that shit he’s been threatening will seem like small fry. Oli, let it go or we’re gonna lose her and if that happens, you’ll be on the biggest dry spell you never knew was possible.”
With her hands on her hips, I didn’t need to look at Oli to know he’d taken that threat seriously and like any red-blooded male, the threat of removing his sexy time was not something to dismiss.
“But…”
“No buts, I mean it. Now, you buy me lunch,” she pointed at him, “And you, disappear. You’re intruding on my guy’s flirt time. I need all his attention not half of it, because he’s sending murderous glares in your direction.”
I left without saying anything further. In a quirk of chance I’d made my position clear to them all, including Lacey, and although I didn’t have chance to see her reaction, I got my point across.
The game was thoroughly in play and I loved the prospect that I might just pull it off!
Lacey Talbot
I refused to think about any of the stuff that transpired at MudJoe’s, and that was the end to the matter.
If I thought about how he’d duped me into meeting him, I could become angry. If I thought about the way he’d said he was going to prove his feelings for me, I could feel hopeful. If I thought about the way Oli couldn’t seem to stay out of things, I could become angry again, and then the way Tommy had said what he said, out loud in front of everyone… I could just melt.
What in the hell was wrong with me? I should have been raging about the pair of them trying to control me and tell me how I should feel, but all I really wanted was Tommy.
I drove straight over to Jake’s place and decided he could be the voice of reason to talk me out if it.
“I’m busy,” he grumbled, hanging behind the door, which I knew meant he had company.
“This is important,” I whined and batted my best friend eyes, knowing he wouldn’t resist.
“Five minutes,” he replied and then opened the door. It wasn’t lost on me that people only seemed to need me or want to talk to me for five minutes today.
Jake scuttled off and shut the door to the bedroom, where I assumed some half naked woman was waiting for him to return, before grabbing a blanket off the chair, covering his boxers and sitting beside me. “Well?” he prompted in a rush.
“Tommy just told the world he wants me.”
I loved the unique ability I had to shock the crap out of Jake, and if the subject matter hadn’t been leaving me in such turmoil, I’d have been high fiving myself for stumping him.
“How do you feel about that? After everything.”
“I don’t know.”
“You do. Let’s not lie to each other. We’ve had enough of that. I think you’re really here for some sort of approval.”
“I… I… oh, I don’t know.” My head was off kilter and I just needed to talk to someone.
“If I told you there was a possibility you’d never see him again, how would that make you feel?”
In that instant I watched my life flash forward. It was a dull existence that was only made worse because of the time we’d spent together. Being exposed to his intensity and capacity to love on the basest sexual level was enough to tell me that he was my soul mate. If what he’d made me feel so far was even half of what we could really have then I knew the answer. Deep down in my soul, I knew that never seeing him again would destroy me.
I went to open my mouth.
“You don’t need to say it. I can see it written all over your face. If you want him, be with him. Don’t miss an opportunity because of what’s already happened. You’ll only regret it and wonder what if. If you go for it and it doesn’t work out, you’ll know you gave it your best shot.”
“Really?” His words were striking a chord of hope within me and I liked how it felt.
“Really,” he said, putting one arm around me, the other tightly securing his blanket. “Those of us who love you will accept him eventually, and if he fucks you over, I will kill him with my bare hands again.” I looked over at his face, searching for any sign that he wasn’t being sincere and found his impatient glare peering back at me. “Can you leave now? I have a thing going on.”
“Yes. Thank you,” I whispered and kissed him on the cheek before leaving.
I went home that night and avoided Oli and Lottie. I had a lot of thinking to do, and I needed to make sure that any decision I made was made by me and me alone. I couldn’t have the influence of others and their views clouding where I was going. That wouldn’t help me. As I was sitting on my bed, leafing through the pages of a magazine I was paying no attention to, my cell phone beeped.
Tommy:
I toyed with replying, but every time I typed something it felt wrong or inadequate, and before I could complete a full text, my cell beeped again.
Tommy:
His words made me smile and that should have been all the answer I needed. A few simple words from him still had the power to make my heart flutter.
Tommy:
I missed being in them, too.
Tommy:
Knowing I’d already made my decision, I held off texting him back. The things I wanted to say should be said face to face and I was genuinely excited about doing that. Maybe all hope wasn’t lost. Maybe we could both salvage something from the wreckage of what we’d been through.
* * *
When I went downstairs for breakfast the next morning, the scene was similar. Lottie and Oli were present, and Carter and Sam weren’t. Jake wasn’t on the invite list this time. Clearly Oli had dealt with that aspect of my life and as with most men, once an apology was made they were expected to deal with it. I only hoped that would be the same for Tommy. If I was really going to do this thing with him, I needed the two most important guys in my life to at least attempt to get along.
“You look lighter this morning, like you’ve had a weight lifted,” Lottie commented.
“Yeah, I feel brighter today. There is no point focusing on the past. You can’t change what’s behind you. You can only learn from it and move on.”
“Or you can learn from it in the hopes of not repeating the mistake,” Oli said pointedly.
“I don’t want to fight with you guys again. I love you and I need you in my corner.”
“We’ll always be in your corner. I’ve been putting off thinking that someone else may want that job and I never imagined it would come after so much turmoil and with one of my good friends, who also happens to be my age.”
Oli wasn’t shouting or demanding. He was just putting his point across and I sensed he was building up to his final closing argument.
“I can’t tell you who to date, love or hate, and I’m sorry if things came across like that. Lottie and I spent years trying to beat the game our parents expected us to play and I hate to think that I’m being j
ust as demanding. Please know that all I’ve done comes out of fear and love. I never meant to be unreasonable, but I’m having a hard time letting you go and handing your care over to someone else.”
“You make it sound like you expect a dowry and a goat for settlement.”
“No man could have enough goats to make letting you become a woman with a ready-made family any easier. With a bit of luck, you’ll get to see my point of view when Carly gets a bit older.”
“Actually, I think she’ll see mine, which will be wondering how in the hell she’s going to calm her man down enough to let someone she cares about date.” Lottie laughed.
“Last comment on the matter before I head to the office. Stay safe, Lacey and guard your heart. Let him have it piece by piece because no man deserves to be handed it all on a plate at once. Let him earn you and then he’ll see you for the prize you are and never take you for granted.”
With that, he kissed me on the head, grabbed another croissant from the table and then looked at Lottie.
“Walk me to my car, woman,” he demanded and the sparkle in her eyes twinkled bright.
I was excited to see Tommy, to tell him that he didn’t need to make some grand gesture to win me over. He just needed to be honest so we could start afresh. Before I went down that route, I really wanted to speak to Carly. Her happiness and her part in my life was as important to me as Tommy. If it in any way unsettled her, I had to know. We had to have it all out in the open. When a child is involved in a relationship, they should feel part of that equation, not dispensable so the adults can do what they want. I’d lived through that and I had a feeling Carly had, too. Whatever happened between Tommy and I, well…there wasn’t a Tommy and I, there was a Tommy, Carly and me.
Tommy, Carly and me. I bloody adored the thought of that.
Me:
If she was okay with everything, I could take her home and tell Tommy this afternoon.
My phone beeped, signaling his response.
Tommy:
Me:
Tommy:
Tommy Sevens
Imagine a cat on a hot tin roof, bouncing up and down, and you’ll know how I was feeling. I moved from room to room, picking stuff up and trying to make the house look just…so. I wasn’t even sure why I was doing it. It wasn’t like Lacey hadn’t seen the house before. She’d been in most of the rooms often enough and I’d never once felt like she was judging me, but I just felt nervous. I got good vibes from the text messages, but I was trying to be cautious and not out and out hopeful. I had to retain some sense in the tank, just in case I’d misread everything.
I looked at the clock on the wall then wandered to the kitchen, refolding dishtowels and moving the fruit bowl. I checked the clock again five minutes later, knowing they’d be a mile or so down the road now, and I smiled when I knew Carly would have convinced Lacey to put the roof down so they could ride in style.
Twenty minutes later, they still weren’t here.
Forty minutes later and I was growing impatient.
When an hour finally passed, I rang Carly’s cell and got her answering service. I tried to ring Lacey and she answered quickly, shouting, “Tommy!” before the call cut out. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up and stayed that way after we got disconnected. I tried again and got her answering service. The most frustrating thing was that I couldn’t understand why neither of them had any service. The town was at the foot of a mountain and the cell providers had what seemed like annual planning permission to put up new masts and antennas. In my experience, there was nowhere between here and Hawkstown High that was out of service range.
So where the fuck were they?
“Sonny,” I said when he answered the first of many calls I was going to make until I hunted them down. “You hand Carly over to Lacey okay?”
“Yeah, well, kind of.”
“Kind of?”
“Lacey came into school to see old man Weathers about one of the kids so I told her what class to find Carly in. I haven’t seen them since so I assumed they’d met up okay.”
“You’re supposed to hand her over. They’re not home yet and I can’t get them on the phone.”
“Sorry, man, should have thought.”
I hung up the phone, feeling pissed that he hadn’t followed through on our agreement. I mean, half delivering a package wasn’t actually delivering something, was it?
I grabbed my keys and headed to my car, dialing each number in turn, deciding to drive the school route to see if they’d broken down on the way. Each time I dialed and got an answering service, I hung up and tried the next. By the time I reached the now empty schoolyard, I was confused and pissed off. Lacey had said she’d be home with her so I was going to be angry if they’d gone on some crazy impromptu shopping trip first. I just wanted to see both my girls and get things started.
My phone pinged in my ear while I was listening to Lacey’s voice service again so I hung up. I could see a missed call from her.
“Shit.”
With nothing else to do, I drove back home, hoping to pin one of them down or at least wait for them to walk through the door. As I was putting the key in the lock, my cell started to ring with a call from an unknown number.
“Yeah,” I answered.
“Tommy,” the voice whispered.
It was a voice I did not wish to hear.
Maisie.
“What the fuck do you want?”
“I need that money. They’ve got her.”
I stilled at the words, wanting to reach down the phone and grab her scrawny neck.
“Who has who?” I asked, desperately dreading the answer.
“Carly. I told you they were serious and you wouldn’t listen. I think I can get her out of here, but I’ll need to pay them. Get me the money and I’ll meet you later.”
“You have got to be fucking kidding me, Maisie. I do not have that kind of money. And if you can get her out of there then why aren’t you?”
“Because they’ll still want the money they’re owed. I know I can sweet talk them into letting me make an exchange, but if I don’t go back with the money, both of us are looking at a hardworking life and I know you get what I mean. Stay by your phone.”
Maisie hung up immediately and my legs started to wobble with a combination of fear and anger. I was scared to death for my daughter, but Maisie, that fucking whore, was going to pay for this for as long as she breathed and stole oxygen from the planet.
The one big question I couldn’t answer was where the fuck was Lacey in all of this if Maisie had Carly?
I hit her number one last time and was presented with her voice service. There was something wrong with this picture. I could feel it.
“Fuck it,” I mumbled to myself and went for the number of the only guy who could help me—Jonas.
“What?” he barked when he answered.
“Just had a call from Maisie telling me those fucking bikers have Carly and they want their money.”
“Seriously?”
“Do I sound like I’m fucking joking? Lacey was supposed to collect her from school. I can’t contact her and I’m worried she’s somewhere in the middle of it all.”
“Two minutes,” he said and hung up abruptly.
I didn’t have two fucking seconds let alone two minutes. I paced the living room and it felt too small. I changed and paced from the living room to the kitchen and it still didn’t help. When I eventually covered three laps of the ground floor of my house, I decided that firstly, my house wasn’t big enough and that secondly, I was on the verge of losing my shit altogether.
My cell started to ring in my hand. “Well?” I shouted.
“My contact says Maisie hasn’t been at the clubhouse in a while, like weeks, and there are no new girls on the floor. He also says he’s in touching distance of all the
members, seeing as they just got back from a delivery run and last night was ‘let their hair down night’, as he calls it. There’s been no talk of any plans to recoup the unpaid debt from Maisie. At this point in time, it’s being left open as a long marker. We’ll be at yours in twenty,” he finished and hung up again.
I went back to pacing, and by the time they arrived, I’d managed to convince myself to either completely redecorate with Lacey so I could get her to move in, or sell the place. One thing I knew for sure, this level of uncertainty about the location of both my girls meant that we’d be going from starting out slowly to full on house mode quickly when I tracked them down. I wanted them where I could get my hands on them whenever I needed to.
The doorbell didn’t ring. The door just swung open and hit the wall where an angry looking Oli, followed by Lottie, came rushing in. She was trying to get him to calm down, but the only thing on his mind was murder.
“Where the fuck is she?”
“I told you to be cool,” Lottie shouted at him.
“Fuck cool! What’s going on? I’ve just had some call from Jonas telling me shit has kicked off and to get my ass here.”
“Then you know as much as I do,” I said.
As I was about to start explaining, Jonas breezed into the room.
“Something doesn’t feel right. If they want the money, why are they leaving it up to someone who lost it for them in the first place to make the deal?”
“I don’t give a fuck. They’ve got my kid, Lacey’s missing and I want them both back.”
“What did Lacey say when she rang?” Jonas asked.
“Not much. She shouted ‘Tommy’ and then we got cut off. It sounded like the roof of her car was down, so apart from that one word it was just a whole load of wind noise.”
“Brilliant.” Oli smiled, pulling out his cell phone. After tapping on a few buttons, he spun the phone round and announced, “Lacey’s car is here. I had the garage install a tracker when I bought it. If it ever goes missing or she’s where she shouldn’t be, I can track her down,” he finished, glaring at me.
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