Dakota
“This motherfucker better have all her shit packed up,” I said to myself as I pulled up in Jace’s yard.
There was a small part of me that was surprised that Cassie’s car wasn’t in the driveway.
After parking as close as I could get to the front porch without winding up on top of his rocking chairs, I climbed out of the truck. I had promised myself I was going to stay calm, but I could feel my anger mounting as I banged on his front door. “Open up, Reynolds!”
Dressed in only his boxers, he opened the door, never uttering a word before turning his back to walk away. He sat down in his chair, reclining it back before pointing a finger towards a bunch of containers next to the fireplace. “That’s all of it, except her work clothes. They’re laying across the dining room table because they’re all on hangers.”
I watched as he lifted a crystal tumbler of brown liquid to his lips. I wanted to knock his ass out the damn chair, but as I took in the dark circles under his eyes, his thick stubble and his disheveled hair, I knew he was suffering already. That satisfied me enough.
For now.
“’Preciate it.” I spoke curtly.
Saying nothing, he swilled from his tumbler. I grabbed three totes, making the decision to haul them out to the porch first and then, to my truck. About halfway through the moving process, he spoke up quietly. “Do you need help?”
“It’ll get me out of here quicker.”
Tossing back the rest of his drink, he pushed up off the chair. “Quicker means you can get back to fuckin’ my fiancé faster, right?”
I know damn well this motherfucker didn’t just say that to me.
I laughed sarcastically. “Hey kettle, this is the pot. You’re black.”
“I never denied that I fucked up, but two wrongs don’t make a right,” he defended himself. I grabbed the tote with Lena’s candle supplies. “See, the interesting part of that statement is that it’s often used out of context. This is one of those times.”
He sat the container he was holding on the front steps. “Actually, it’s not.”
I walked back inside to grab the last tote.
Don’t engage in this because you’re goin’ to wind up gettin’ your ass in trouble.
From the doorway, he stared at me, waiting for me to argue with him.
“Lena and I are both single and free to do whatever we want. You and Cassie, however, were not single. You were both engaged and planning weddings to other people.”
He stepped out onto the porch so I could get through. “Still don’t make it right.”
After stacking two containers on top of each other, I put them in the bed of my truck.
“You’re speaking on right and wrong…after gettin’ caught railing your fiancé’s best friend…in a church… on your wedding day. Not sure your moral compass points in the direction that earns you the position to speak on right and wrong.”
I continued loading up Lena’s stuff. Neither of us said a word as I arranged the containers in the bed of my truck, making sure that nothing could get messed up or broken.
I was getting ready to leave when I remembered I had forgotten to grab her work clothes.
He followed me into the house, looking as if he wanted to cry. “I made a mistake,” he confessed quietly.
I grabbed her hanging clothes from the dining room table. “The sad thing is, you say you made a mistake, but you don’t even mean doin’ what you did to start with. You mean you made a mistake by gettin’ caught.”
That remark struck a nerve, and he shoved me, angrily, damn near sending my unsuspecting ass through the front windows.
Fuck him up, .
Every part of me wanted to knock his head up against every wall in his house, but nothing about this fucking idiot was worth jeopardizing my career.
Steadying myself, I walked out the front door, holding the last bit of her that he had in my hands. I walked to the passenger side of my truck, Jace hot on my heels, determined to ignore his attempt to provoke me. I started laying her clothes out across my back seat, growing more and more irritated with how brave he decided he wanted to be today.
He was standing behind me near the bed of the truck, but still close enough that I could feel the heat coming off of his body.
“Back up off me, Reynolds,” I warned, closing the truck’s back door. He didn’t back up, but instead, he moved closer. “You gonna do something about it, Clayton? Or just run your mouth?”
Don’t take the bait, Dak. He’s trying to make himself feel better by getting you to stoop to his level.
I laughed hard, an honest to goodness laugh that my body must have been holding back.
This motherfucker.
His outrage grew when I turned to walk away.
I promised her I would behave.
He followed me from one side of the Chevy to the other, popping off at the mouth before shoving me chest first into the driver side.
“I wouldn’t get too comfortable with your new piece of ass ‘cause she will be back in my bed by the end of the week,” he taunted.
I can always get a new job.
Spinning around, I grabbed him by the throat. Glass went flying as I slammed him against the driver’s door. “Let’s get one goddamn thing straight, motherfucker. If I catch you anywhere near her, I will fuckin’ kill you. You can go ahead and call Hennessy and tell him I threatened you if you want to, but you can tell him I said that it’s not a threat. It’s a fuckin’ promise. I will fuckin’ kill you, Jace. Do you understand me?”
I tightened my grip around his throat, a silent dare to get him to try to say something crazy.
He wisely chose to stay silent.
Using the grasp I had on his neck, I threw him on the ground.
He knew enough to know he had better not try to get up.
“You’re pathetic, Jace. And just like every other cheating piece of shit, you realized what you had in front of you way too late.” Ignoring the glass, I climbed in my truck. “And by that point, she was waking up next to someone that already knew.”
I slammed the door, sending more glass flying, but I was too fucking pissed off to care.
The last thing I saw as I pulled out of his yard was the dumb fuck climbing up out of the snow.
Jolene
There’s something to be said for a good, hot shower.
I combed through my long, wet hair.
It feels so weird to be back at home.
I braided my hair Elsa style before realizing I had nothing to secure it. I was rummaging around my bathroom vanity when there was a knock at the door.
“Lee Lee?”
“Come on in, Mama.”
She opened the door with a worried look on her face. “Feelin’ any better, sugar?”
I do, actually.
“Yes, ma’am. The power was out at the cabin the whole time we were at the cabin, so I haven’t showered since before the… well, you know.”
She stroked my cheek. “I know, sweetie. Dak explained the power was out when he called Sunday. Your daddy was so relieved to find out he was with you up there. We both were,” she admitted.
I hung up my towel on the door hook. “I didn’t know he was comin’ up there,” I told her. “As bad as it sounds, when I ran out of the church, never even crossed my mind.”
You’re selfish as fuck, Lena.
“That’s understandable though, Lee. You were in shock.”
“I know,” I agreed. “I do feel bad for it, though, because he’s been such a good friend these last few days.”
“He’s always been good friend,” she reminded me.
He really has.
She fixed the strings on my hoodie. “Have you talked to either of them?” she asked gently.
“They came to the cabin.”
“What!?”
I nodded. “Can we go talk in my room? It’s hot in here.” Her eyes crinkled as if she had forgotten we were standing in my steamy bathroom.
“Oh, yes, of course!” She held open the bathroom door. “C’mon, you have to explain all that to me!”
Once we were in my room, we climbed on my bed the way we used to do when I was a teenager.
“Okay, spill it, sister!”
On today’s episode of Gossip Girl.
“Okay, so, on Sunday night, and I were in the hot tub.”
She raised an eyebrow.
“Nothin’ like that,” I lied quickly. “It was freezing, and the hot tub was warm. We had no power, remember?”
She looked confused. “How was the hot tub working, then?”
“It has a battery backup.”
“Ahh, okay. Go on,” she instructed. I laughed.
“So, we are in the hot tub, and I heard someone callin’ my name from inside the house.”
She covered her mouth. “No!”
“Yes, girl!”
Damn, I’ve missed gossiping with my Mama.
“What happened, then?”
“ and I went inside, and it was Jace and Cassie.”
“And!?” she prompted.
“And nothin’ really. Jace insisted on talkin’ to me, but Dak told him if he came near me, he would take him to a place that made hell seem like a happy place.”
Her eyes widened. “Ya know, I’m not even surprised. knocked the fire outta him at the church.”
I nodded. “He was tellin’ me about that.”
She rubbed her temples. “I was so focused on makin’ sure your daddy didn’t hit him that it never even occurred to me that Dak might deck him.”
I curled up with my pillow. “What happened after I left the church?” She kicked back next to me. “After you ran out, I went to get your daddy because I thought you might need a ride. I knew you had ridden to the church with me. By the time I explained to him what was happening, you were gone.”
I giggled. “I saw that Jace had driven my car instead of his truck. Once I realized the keys were still in, I hauled tail.”
“I know!” She laughed. “After Dak found out and knocked Jace on his behind, your daddy and I went into the sanctuary to explain that the wedding wouldn’t be happening that day and thanked everyone for comin’.”
“That day or any other day,” I muttered. She smiled sympathetically. “Your daddy and I didn’t know what you would decide to do in the future.”
“Y’all thought I might stay with him?”” I asked incredulously.
“We didn’t know, sugar. Your daddy was hellbent against it, but you make your own decisions.”
I stared at my childhood bedroom ceiling.
Clearly, I make poor decisions.
“I just feel so silly, Mama.”
She stroked my hair.
“I feel like I was too stupid to see the signs. Hell, I still can’t see the signs and I have been wrackin’ my brain for days now tryin’ to see them.”
“Oh, honey, you wouldn’t have been able to see the signs because you never expected to find them in two of the people you loved most in the world.”
The tears I had been fighting back for days finally gave up.
Allowing myself to finally feel the pain, I curled up in my Mama’s arms and cried for the little girl that knew she didn’t deserve this.