34. Thirty
Thirty
Beau
“ O h shit,” I panted, my hips bucking. “I’m gonna come. God. Mmmmm, fuck .” My back lifted, my body going tight with pleasure as I erupted with a choked groan.
My eyes focused on the ceiling as I feathered a hand through my damp hair, breathing hard.“Good morning, sweet girl.”
A nest of red hair peeked up from the sheet, a wicked grin on that adorable face. “You claim I’m noisy. Swear you squeal like a pig when I’m down here.”
“Don’t stick your finger in my ass if you can’t handle the theatrics that follow.”
Fallon burst into laughter, immediately blushing.
“Sorry,” she whispered. “Sorry, sorry. Shhhh.” Wiggling up to tuck under my arm, she rested her cheek against my chest. “Don’t want to get you grounded.”
I twisted a strand of her locks around my finger, humming. “Well, it’s not my fault my parents left for the weekend. What did they expect? Girls, girls, girls.”
She tickled my ribs until I was squirming and squealing like that pig she claimed me to be.
“Okay,” I conceded, waving her off. “Just this girl, girl, girl. You’ve no idea how many fantasies I had of you in this bed.”
I nodded toward Tiffany Tits on the wall. “Would have broken some hearts, but worth it to have you smashed into this twin bed with me. Maybe my mom would come in with a basket of laundry and catch us in the act. She’d threaten to call your parents and tell them what a disreputable tease you are.”
“No tease,” she murmured, tracing her finger along my stomach. “I for sure put out.”
“Fuck yeah, you do,” I whispered, my eyes shining. I laughed when she slugged me in the gut.
While my dad usually sent Adam to pick up parts that required travel, he opted to take my mom with him and get some privacy. Claimed they needed some alone time. Disgusting.
I worried I might overstay my welcome. With the strike over, coming up with excuses for why I lingered around Windmere was difficult, and frankly, I sucked at it .
“Chris sprained his ankle,” I’d told my mom two days ago. Yesterday, I added that he had choked on a chicken nugget and scratched up his throat. “It might take a couple of weeks to recover.”
“I thought he was vegan,” she said with a frown.
“Vegan chicken nuggets,” I clarified, sounding suspicious as hell, but my mom loved me enough to give me the benefit of the doubt that I was stupid or wrong, rather than lying.
But I didn’t know how to handle an increasingly complicated situation, and punting my problems down the field seemed reasonable.
Fallon sighed, slipping out of bed and stretching. I admired her as she stood topless in her little pink panties with bows adorning each hip.
“What time is Jake getting back today?” I rolled over, checked my phone, and chuckled at the text.
BBFF: Filthy, mean, prick.Next time, make it a video.
I texted him back as Fallon dressed.
Me: At least say please.
I thought the photos I sent of my face buried in Fallon’s pussy this morning were rather artistic, myself.
“He’ll probably be back by dinner,” she answered, grabbing her overnight bag and digging out her toothbrush. “Depends on when his sister’s recital ends.”
I scratched my stomach, rolling out of bed as Fallon disappeared, heading for the bathroom.
“You’ve fulfilled a fantasy, Fal.” A silly, joking invitation turned into a fan-fucking-tastic weekend. “I’ll make coffee.” I slipped on a pair of shorts.
She hollered something from the bathroom. The door opened a crack, and she held out my toothbrush. I accepted it and took the stairs two at a time to get breakfast going for her.
My parents would be back this afternoon, and I was due to meet my dad at the shop to collect my car. But having a quiet house for a few more hours would be nice.
“Hey, dickhead.”
“Holy shit!” I shrieked. My toothbrush bounced against the kitchen floor, dropping from my mouth.
“Settle down,” Kate said, waving to quiet me. “You’d have heard us if you and whichever girl you brought back to sully our childhood home weren’t doing whatever the hell was going on up there.” She pretended to vomit. “I’m telling Mom.”
Jason was already out of his seat, hugging me and mumbling in my ear, “I’ll distract. Save yourself, bestie. Throw whoever it is out the window. Gently, I mean.”
“I can hear you,” my sister announced, standing to pour a cup of coffee. Just when I thought she’d toss it in my face, she handed me the mug and playfully punched my arm. “Bro-Bear Beau-Bear.”
“You’re early,” I said, rubbing the back of my neck. “Thought you weren’t coming until the seventeenth.”
“Correct.” Kate took a seat at the table and smiled. “Today is the seventeenth, dipshit.”
Had Fallon not been upstairs and glowing with a post-climax blush, I’d be thrilled to see my sister and Jason.
Fuck it. I was still thrilled.
I held up my hands, assuming a defensive, protective position. My sister was gonna lose her shit about this. “Okay, so you should know—”
“Hot pickles!” Fallon squealed from the stairs, clapping.
I still didn’t understand what that was about. Kate matched Fallon’s squeal and rushed in for a hug, too slow to realize that Fallon’s appearance meant she’d been the girl upstairs.
But my wise and sage bestie always knew what was up.
“Hey, quick question,” he murmured between us. “ Are you kidding me? Tell me that’s not why you’re still here.”
“Good to see you, too.” I smiled and patted his back, but Jason never let me get away with shit. He stared expectantly, and I sighed. “It’s not totally why I’m still here. Just fifty percent of why.”
Kate and Fallon rocked back and forth, talking over each other and exchanging compliments about the other’s hair, clothes, or general appearance.
“How come we don’t do that?” I asked my best friend. “Seems pretty nice. Would probably make us both feel good.”
Jason’s eyes met mine, sinking in sympathy. “Beau, say you didn’t. Both of them? You swore it’d be just the once. ”
“I’m rather charming,” I explained. “A curse and a blessing.”
Kate shoved past me, tugging Fallon to sit at the table. Jason took the seat next to her.
“What happened with you and Jake?” Kate fake whispered. Loud ass gossip, my sister. “Why are you settling for the generic alternative?”
“Goddamn, Katie-pie, rude. I’m telling Mom you stole my lube to do nasty shit with Jason under her roof—”
My best friend shot out of his chair. It was unclear if he was preemptively running from Kate’s wrath at his big mouth or attempting to get to me for retribution. I kept the table between us, moving in sync to stay clear of him.
“Jason Clovely!” Kate hissed. “You told my brother? ”
He stopped dead in his tracks and pointed at me. “He’s hooking up with both of them. Beau is hooking up with Fallon and Jake.”
“Jason!” Fallon and I shouted in unison.
Swear my sister was going to pass out. Jason merely shrugged. “Tit for tat. You spill my tea, I’ll—”
“Scald me with it?” I guffawed. “Third-degree burn me, why don’t you? Telling my sister my secrets!”
Precisely why I outsourced best friend duties to Jake.
Jason maintained an accusatory finger. “Bro, you revealed I shared private information, and I happen to like my balls very much! She’ll come for them, Beau. You know she will.”
Kate rolled her eyes. “Why are men so unnecessarily dramatic?”
Typically, I would agree, but Kate probably would castrate Jason someday.
Fallon nodded, eyeing me. “Super embarrassing for them. Anyway, lovely to see you. Yes, your brother and I are sleeping together. Jake joins us. Tell me about life in New York!”
My sister jumped right into it, updating Fallon on work and Jason’s impending move after their brief visit to Windmere.
And maybe it really was that easy.
It was not that easy.Dumb fuck to think it would be.
“What are your intentions with him?” A startlingly blue pair of eyes regarded me this afternoon with a rather nosy greeting. The first question Adam threw at me when I strolled into my dad’s shop to grab the keys to my car—not even a proper salutation.
I glanced behind me to spy Fallon pulling out of the lot. She dumped me with Jake’s best friend without guidance on answering questions about our dalliance.
Meant I’d wing it, and shame on Fallon and Jake for allowing it.
Leaning against the counter, I grinned. “What are we talking about here? Are you suggesting I buy the cow when he— ”
“Let me just grab your keys.” Adam gave a terse smile, ducking under the counter.
I hummed, popping over to take a peek at him. His black baseball cap covered most of his face, but a hint of blush dusted the top of his cheeks.
“Then again, Jake’s more of a bull than a cow, wouldn’t you agree? Though, he is hung like a—”
“Getting keys,” he barked, a clipped response from below to shut me up.
Nailed it.
“Sorry for the wait,” my dad murmured, walking into the reception. “Took us longer to drive back from Olympia than I thought.” He gestured to the keys dangling from my fingers after Adam’s careful handoff. “On the bright side, you’re free, baby bird. Nearly a fully functioning adult.”
I groaned, dropping my head back. “Dad.”
He ignored my whining. I hated being this uncool around Adam. My bestie’s bestie should be my bestie, in theory. Transitive property or something like that. It had to be a rule.
My dad disappeared into the garage, leaving Adam and me awkwardly staring at one another. Quiet in the shop, no customers could rescue me now.
I cleared my throat. “So.”
Adam removed his baseball hat, scratching his fingers through his dark hair. From a distance, he and Jake looked a bit like brothers.
He scrubbed his hands over his face. “I don’t want to hear about my best friend’s barnyard spirit animal, but it needs to be said. Jake isn’t a casual man.”
Don’t I goddamn know it . His intensity proved unrivaled.
Adam lowered his voice, glancing toward the plexiglass separating the reception and garage as my dad moved about.
“I know you like your fun, but Jake…” He winced. “He lives here, Beau. He has nothing to return to when this is everything for him. The town is already up in arms about seeing the three of you together all over the place. It started as soon as you all fucked in the woods, like an entire party of people would be blind to your state of disarray. Not to mention Chloe stumbling upon your orgy when she went looking for you.”
“We didn’t fuck fuck,” I mumbled. As if that changed anything.“People are talking, huh?”
He snorted. “Oh, for sure. Chatty hens around here.”
I shifted uncomfortably. My dad mentioned the same the other night at The Pub.
“I’d never tell you how to live your life, Beau, but plenty of people will. Consider who’s willing to stand with you when you make your choices and who you’re willing to stand with when those choices come to light.”
“I don’t give a shit what people in this town think,” I murmured, taking a swig of my beer and glancing around. I gave plenty of shits about it, but I hated to admit that.
“Nor should you, but are you willing to stand by the people who might care? The ones left to pick up the pieces if you cut and run?”
Even my dad was concerned about my ability to take this seriously.
Adam was right. I could leave anytime and be done with it—an escape plan, no different from when I was eighteen.
Then again, that implied I had a plan, but my plans shifted grievously three months ago when I got a text that disrupted every aspect of my life—then shifted catastrophically when I stumbled into the stupidest, riskiest, and most marvelous relationship. Relationships? Shit. What were we? It didn’t matter. I would take whatever they were willing to give, the pathetic asshole I was.
I only hoped it was enough for them.