Charming: The Coast Book 9

by Hart, Eve R.

  Claire giggled and her sad eyes looked over at me turning a little happier and warmer with every second that ticked on.

  I knew she had a darkness that loomed over her. I didn’t know her story or anything about her past. However, I was clever enough to catch on that it hadn’t been easy. I hated that I’d made her think of those times but I was glad to see the fresh happiness chasing the bad away.

  I couldn’t help it, I threw my arms around her and whispered into her ear.

  “I love you, nothing will ever change that.”

  I heard her sniffle and I squeezed her just a little tighter as she hugged me back.

  “So, another friggin’ baby, huh?” I said with a laugh. “I can’t wait. All the baby kisses are mine! I’ve called it. No one can take it away from me now.”

  They all laughed and yes, shook their heads at me. All of them. Like they weren’t used to my craziness by now. Which had me rolling my eyes at them.

  “So what do we have here,” I said as I dug around the random food on the table trying to find something that sounded good.

  We spend the next hour talking about babies and names. And then, oddly enough, the subject turned to sex. I didn’t say much because I didn’t have much to say about it.

  Not getting any here, remember?!

  But I did listen. And sometimes listening was the best. I took all the tips and pointers in, you know, hoping that I’d be able to use them one day.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Abigail

  It was Friday and though Bridget had said we’d do something, I hadn’t heard another word about it. I hadn’t seen anyone today and so I figured that the whole thing was off. I tried not to let the disappointment creep in but it did a little. It was okay. I got it, they all had lives and I was just kind of here. It wasn’t their job to make sure I had fun or got out.

  For about ten seconds, I thought about going out by myself. I could have done it, I really could have. Only I didn’t want to. How much of a loser would I have been going out all by myself? The thing was, I wanted to spend time with them. I really, really had been looking forward to the girl time that had been talked about.

  When I noticed that it was four in the afternoon, I dragged my sorry butt off of my bed. It was time to go figure out what I could make for dinner. I hoped my mood didn’t affect my food. The last thing we needed around here was a bunch of grumpy or sad bikers walking around. Not that I really thought I could sprinkle some of my patheticness in with the basil and oregano, but hey, you never knew.

  I walked down to the kitchen making sure to put an extra bounce in my step thinking it would help shake out the mood I was in. I was half tempted to make silly faces at myself in the mirror back in my room before I headed out. It would have worked, I knew it would have, but I just wasn’t feeling it. I guess that was the whole point though, right?

  “I was just coming to snag you,” Laurel said as I walked into the kitchen.

  “Yeah?” I said sounding way too friggin’ excited about it.

  “Yeah. Did you think we forgot? No way, girl.”

  “Cool,” I said trying to play off my giddiness. “What are you doing?” I noticed she was pulling things out of the cabinets.

  “I forgot to get popcorn at the grocery store. My brain is a little scattered and I also might have gotten distracted in the olive section.” She smiled widely.

  “So, what’s the plan?” I asked.

  “Well, first we are going to raid your closet.” She seemed really excited about that. I was not as thrilled. I didn’t know what she might be looking for, but I was pretty sure I didn’t have it. “Then we’re going to meet everyone over at Lavinia’s. The plan is to relax, watch a movie, and stuff ourselves silly. Then we are going to go out.”

  “Dancing?” I asked with a hopeful smile.

  “Of course. That is what you wanted to do, right?”

  “Yes!”

  She laughed at me as we made our way out of the kitchen.

  Oddly, she walked to the front part of the clubhouse instead of going out the back to get to my room.

  “You boys are on your own for dinner tonight,” she said to the room. There weren’t many of the club members hanging out at this time of the day. “You two,” she pointed to the confused and almost scared looking prospects in the corner, “are on dinner duty tonight. Make something good and clean up after yourselves.”

  Then she turned on her heels and I followed behind her with an excited bounce in my step.

  In my room, she went through every single thing that I owned. Thank God she didn’t toss it all over her shoulder as she tried to find some magical thing that would make her happy. I was sure she wouldn’t find it here. Maybe we should have thought of that before now.

  I liked my clothes comfy. I had a straight body and often times, tight-fitting clothes didn’t even look good on me. I’d sort of given up a while ago and preferred to wear loose jeans and tee shirts. Not loose as in I looked like I was wearing three sizes too big. But I would tell you that I was super excited that the boyfriend style was easy enough to find. I had a few button-up flannel shirts for times when I wanted something a little different, but again, those weren’t exactly formfitting or sexy.

  “Well,” she said with a huff once she finally got the hint that I didn’t have anything that would satisfy her. “Maybe Lavinia will have something you can borrow.”

  I’d met Lavinia a few times, and not saying anything about the way she dressed, but I seriously doubted she’d have something that would make Laurel happy.

  “Grab something just in case,” she told me with a shrug.

  So I grabbed something, you know, just in case. Then I gathered up the small amount of makeup I had. It wasn’t much and some of it I couldn’t even begin to speculate the last time I’d opened it.

  Once we walked into Lavinia’s apartment, I began to feel like this night was going to be a good one.

  Claire was lounging on the couch looking like she was about a half second from falling asleep.

  “Did she tell you that she’s knocked up?” Lavinia said as she hugged me. “It’s been real fun working with her. She’s too lazy to replenish the salt on her tables. Like I have time for that.” She laughed and I knew she was only joking.

  “Hey, now!” Claire said as she sat up. It looked like she was having to drag herself to do it. “Just wait until you get a man and get a bun in the oven. Payback is a bitch.”

  I laughed at the two of them because it was clear they were only messing around.

  Soon her small living room was filled with too many people for the space. Ingram was a mix of happy and anxious. I knew she loved her kids and she always wanted to spend as much time with them as she could. But she also needed time away. Laurel was the same way but she played it off better than Ingram.

  It took us a good fifteen minutes to agree on a movie. It was clear how different we all were. Some wanted a romantic comedy, while others made a gagging sound at the thought. Bridget was happy to watch some kind of action with a good amount of gore. I reminded her that I couldn’t handle blood, so that was out.

  Oddly enough, we all agreed on watching an animated fairytale. It didn’t matter which one they chose, I knew it would make me think of Charming.

  Lame, I know. I couldn’t help it.

  “It’s time,” Laurel declared getting to her feet. “Time to get dolled up and go out.”

  It was insane after that. I kind of just stood there and let things happen to me. I flinched when Laurel and Cami both came at me with makeup brushes that had two totally different colors on each of them. They argued over what would look better to make my eyes pop. I was scared I’d end up with two different faces on one. But in the end, they’d somehow mixed everything so that I didn’t look like a crazy mess.

  I looked in the full-length mirror on the back of the bathroom door. They had put me in a pair of leather-looking leggings. I turned around to check out my backside and it actually looked like I had
a butt. The shirt hung off one shoulder. The black fabric had tiny sparkles all over like like they were weaved into the fabric. Since it wasn’t too noticeable, I didn’t mind it that much. My hair had been done in those sexy beach waves, I guessed it was called. I had a natural wave in my hair so it didn’t look all that different, just more shiny and my flyaways had been smoothed away.

  “Come on,” Cami called and I jumped.

  “Ready,” I said as I flew out of the bathroom.

  We all piled into one of the club’s SUVs that Laurel had borrowed.

  Then we were off.

  The first club we went to was small. I could tell the place was just starting to get going. People weren’t on the dance floor yet but it was so tiny I couldn’t really imagine that many people would fit on there at once.

  The girls found a table in the back and ordered drinks. Of course, Claire and Laurel ordered their’s virgin-style. Bridget ordered a beer. Lavinia got something that came out looking more like a fruit salad. I mean, how many chunks of fruit could they put in one glass? It did look good though.

  I looked around taking everything in as they chatted around me.

  After they finished their drinks, Laurel stood, declaring that this place wasn’t fun enough.

  We ended up at a bigger club, this one was two stories. The dance floor was on the top floor. They all got drinks again and I asked for a bottle of water. Another table close to the back and it was starting to feel like all we were going to do was sit and talk. Okay, it wasn’t that bad. I loved these girls. I was feeling a little out of place, I guess. I needed to loosen up. Hey, it was my first time at any sort of club like this. I didn’t really know what to do or what to expect.

  “Don’t look, but that guy is looking over here,” Laurel said with a wink in my direction.

  “Uhhh…” The sound seemed to go on for way too long as it fell out of my mouth. “At me?”

  “Yes!” She and Claire answered at the same time.

  “It’s kind of dark in here, are you sure? Or maybe he has a lazy eye and he’s really looking at something else but that one eye is, like, sort of in this direction.”

  The table went silent and everyone stared at me. Then they all erupted into a fit of laughter.

  “Go talk to him,” Bridget said, causing me to roll my eyes. “You should.”

  “I’m not good with that kind of thing. What would I even say? Come here often? Yeah, that’s not lame.” I rolled my eyes.

  “Up,” Bridget said as she jumped to her feet.

  Great, now we looked like crazy people.

  She didn’t give me a chance to get up. She grabbed my arm and then we were marching— yes, marching— over to the bar where Mr. Maybe-Has-A-Lazy-Eye was standing.

  Okay, so it was kind of dark in here, but he wasn’t bad looking. Not that I judged people on their looks.

  “Hey,” Bridget said to him and he gave a little sexy, half-smile. It reminded me of something but I didn’t have time to figure it out. “This is Abigail.” She turned to me. “Nope, he doesn’t have a lazy eye.” With a half-shrug, she left me.

  “Lazy eye?” he asked and thank God, he sounded amused and not mad.

  I giggled because I was nervous and so out of my element.

  “Sorry,” I said with a shake of my head. “They said you were looking at me and I said you probably had a lazy eye because how could you be really looking at me and… well, that’s so awful. I’m really sorry. I’m just going to go.”

  “Scott,” he blurted out before I turned to leave. “My name is Scott. It’s nice to meet you, Abigail. And I was definitely looking at you.”

  “Hi,” I said and of course, I was friggin’ blushing.

  “Can I buy you a drink?” he asked as he turned to face the bar and flagged the bartender down.

  “Uh…” I should have said no. Or asked for a soda. That would have been the right thing to do. “Sure.”

  “What will it be?”

  “Something fruity?” I didn’t sound confident at all. I had no clue about drinks. Beer was okay but it felt not-so-sexy to order a beer. Other than that I knew there were drinks called Manhattan and Long Island Ice Tea, but I didn’t know what was in them. Besides, they both sounded kind of stuffy to me.

  Instead of asking for me to be more specific, the bartender nodded, winked, and turned away to make me something. He didn’t even ask for my ID. I wasn’t going to question it.

  “Do you live here or are you just visiting?” he asked.

  “Oh, um, I live here. You?”

  “I live here, too.”

  “Cool,” I said with a nod and took a sip of my drink. More like a big gulp of it, but hey, who was paying attention? I wasn’t sure what to talk about. “You work?” Not smooth at all.

  “I do. My brother and I own a little record store. Not a huge demand for it but the people that come in are usually pretty awesome.”

  “That’s neat.”

  “What do you do?” he asked and actually sounded like he was interested in my answer. Too bad I didn’t have anything exciting to tell him.

  “I don’t have a job. But I cook for… a large group of people every day.” I left out a huge part of that, I know.

  “You like to cook?”

  “I do. It’s fun and gives me something to do. It’s also good to for taking your mind off of things.”

  I looked down at my drink and realized that it was nearly gone. When did that happen? Did someone drink my drink?!

  My eyes skittered around to find the horrible person. I caught sight of the girls. They were watching but I wasn’t surprised. I got a bunch of smiles and even a thumbs up sent my way. I stifled a giggle and turned back to… Scott. Yeah, that was his name.

  He started talking about his store and how he’d gotten into it. I tried to pay attention but I was feeling that drink. Hm, I must have drunk it all at some point. Well, good thing then, at least there wasn’t some insane drink thief out there.

  Out of nowhere, there was a new drink in front of me. I needed to ask what it was because it was delicious. I guess that was pretty obvious by the way I was sucking it down.

  That was it though. I wasn’t going to have anymore no matter how good they tasted. I wasn’t dumb. Not exactly. I started to doubt that as my body flooded with warmth. Yep, I was feeling it. I didn’t want to feel like this all the time, but it was nice right now.

  “Would you like to dance?” he asked.

  “Yes!” I said with way too much enthusiasm. He laughed and I figured that was a good thing.

  I set my empty glass down on the bar top then took his outstretched hand.

  I shot the girls a look as we headed in their direction to get to the dance floor. They all looked happy for me but I also noticed how they were getting up as I neared the edge of the designated area for dancing.

  Once we were on the dance floor, I looked behind me to see the mob of women gather a few feet away. That made me feel better. And very loved. Of course, they wouldn’t let anything happen to me.

  The music was loud. The bodies were crammed together. Scott didn’t hesitate to pull my body close to his and take the lead. I didn’t try to fight it. I didn’t know what I was doing so I thought it was best to just move with him. Yep, against his chest and his… Oh! I swallowed hard when I realized that the thing poking me in my stomach was his very happy penis.

  And by very happy, I meant he was hard. Excited. You get it, right?

  Wait, was that because of me?

  A blush hit my cheeks and I was so very thankful that the place was dark.

  “If I kiss you, are they going to claw my eyes out?” he asked referring to the girls with good humor in his tone.

  “No,” I said and something caught my attention to the left. The crowd seemed to be parting as a tall figure pushed its way through, headed in my direction. I blinked, not really sure that I was seeing what I was seeing. “But he might.” I giggled as I pointed.

  I’d been so focused o
n Blade that I didn’t even see that Charming and two prospects were closer to me. They were closing in like they were on some kind of mission. Charming looked hot. Not like sexy, more like mad. Blade almost looked as if he was chasing after Charming rather than coming for me.

  “What the fuck?” Scott said and I had kind of forgotten about him for a minute. He was no longer holding me close or moving at all. “I don’t want any part of this.” He held up his hands like he was surrendering but his eyes weren’t on me. A second later, he’d backed up so much that he was swallowed up by the dancing crowd.

  “Abigail,” Charming said not looking so easygoing right now. “What the hell is this?”

  “Dancing,” I said with a silent duh in my tone.

  “Are you drunk?” he asked sounding really shocked. His body turned away from me. “You let her drink?”

  “Charming, stop,” Laurel said with a disappointed shake of her head. “We were watching her. We had it handled. There is no need for this.”

  Blade’s hand clamped down on Charming’s shoulder and he tried to shake the big paw off.

  “Let’s go,” Charming said and suddenly I was tossed over his shoulder. I couldn’t stop the giggle fit that fell out of my mouth. “Fuck.”

  “Why are you so mad?” I asked. All the blood was running to my head and I was feeling a little dizzy from it.

  “Charming,” Blade called out and he did not sound happy.

  Charm didn’t stop until we were out on the sidewalk.

  “She’s drunk,” he said to Blade. I only knew it was him because I saw his boots not even two inches away from Charming’s.

  “She was fine. The girls had her.”

  “No!” Charming said and I could feel his body vibrating. It made me think of one of those massage chairs in the mall. I kind of wanted to sit on him like I sat in those chairs. I started giggling at the thought.

  “I felt his penis!” I called out but I wasn’t sure why.

  They both stopped talking and I was sure I heard Blade chuckling.