Chapter 22
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Jack
Lily leans back against the counter with her arms crossed. She doesn’t look up when I enter the kitchen. She stares at absolutely nothing on the floor. Mom and Nana shrug and shake their heads. They don’t know what’s going on, but I do.
“Angel?” I take a cautious step toward her.
“Don’t call me that,” she snaps and turns her back to me.
Oh, somebody has a little spunk today. Where’s that been hiding? Trust me. I don’t mind. I can handle attitudes like this.
“Jack, why don’t you take Lily home?” Mom suggests. Her tone is warning me to be gentle.
“I can find it myself.” She pushes off the counter and takes two steps toward the door to the Den.
“Yeah. Still not happening.” I slide an arm around her waist and turn her toward the back door of the kitchen. “See ya later, Mom, Nana.”
“Bye,” they say at the same time.
This door opens at the lower end of the front parking lot. I walk her across the lot to my truck and open the passenger door.
“The path behind the building goes straight to the guest house. I can find it.”
I point to the road at the edge of the lot. “So does the driveway.” I motion to the passenger seat. “I know you’re mad. We’ll sort it out when we get to the house.”
“Fine.” She steps on the running board and drops down onto the seat.
I get in and start the engine. My day’s gone from bad to worse and beyond. My oldest enemy has reverted to childish pranks. We pulled enough of that crap when we were kids. I have a club bunny we need to cut loose. Thanks to the bunny, I have to figure out how to talk to the woman beside me without upsetting her even more. I don’t know, though. I love this fiery attitude. Sweet and gentle won’t handle things today.
If Lily hadn’t come to us as an angel, I’d handle things like my parents do. Those two love each other like crazy and aren’t ashamed to show it, and they don’t care who’s watching. Watching your dad kiss your mom senseless is beyond uncomfortable. If you get on to him about it, he’ll just do it again for good measure.
My parents will also go toe-to-toe with each other quite often. I can’t be like that, though. The counselors have given us a long list of guidelines on how to handle abused women. With as crazy as things are right now, it’s getting hard to remember them all. Every rule means delicate. I’m trying. I really am.
When we pull up at the guest house, Lily hops out without waiting for me. I’ll honor her little demand for independence for a bit. She marches up the steps and waits by the door for me to unlock it. Naturally, I let her enter first. I leave her to herself and head to the kitchen. Coffee is a magical substance for the women in my family. Lily seems to enjoy a good cup. Maybe it’ll defuse things between us tonight. Then again, maybe not. She didn’t follow me to the kitchen.
With two cups of coffee in hand, I find her curled into one corner of the couch. I set a cup on the end table beside her and settle into the other corner. She asked me to sit with her on the couch a few weeks ago. I’m not giving that right up just because she’s mad.
“You wanna talk about it?” Asking is risky, but the silence has become deafening.
“Not really.”
“It won’t solve anything if we don’t.” I’m trying to show patience, but I don’t like putting things off.
“I know.” She stares into her mug.
“What happened?” I have a pretty good idea. I’d like to hear it from her, though.
She’s quiet for so long that I fear she’s shut down for the night.
“She’s your mistress,” she finally replies softly.
“Absolutely not. I don’t have a mistress,” I inform her.
“You slept with her.”
“Yeah, once. I think,” I admit.
She snaps her head in my direction. “You don’t know how many times you’ve slept with her?”
“It’s not like that. I don’t know if anything actually happened with her. If it did, it was only once.” I didn’t explain that well at all.
“How’s that possible?”
“The night before Rodeo and I left, there was a party. I woke up the next morning with Jenny next to me.” I’m not painting myself in a good light here.
“A man should never be that drunk.”
No, they shouldn’t. I don’t like the look on her face. I may have just knocked myself back ten feet with her.
“It’s the only time it’s ever happened.” I glance at her from the corner of my eye. She doesn’t believe me.
“I thought her name was Bunny.”
I press my lips together and struggle not to laugh.
“Bunnies is what we call club girls,” I explain.
Lily shudders. “Why do they have to be real?”
That’s a loaded question and one I’m not answering. No explanation I could come up with wouldn’t sound right to a good woman. I glance at her again. Lily Harmon is, without a doubt, a good woman. A good woman that bad things happened to.
I turn to the side and face her. “My question, angel, is why are you so upset over a club bunny and something that may or may not have happened over two years ago?”
Her eyes slowly roam over me, not settling on a particular feature. Once again, her coffee quickly becomes the most interesting thing in the room. Well, well, well. One corner of my mouth lifts. This attraction isn’t just one-sided. Good to know. I can work with this.
I set my mug on the end table, slide to the center cushion, and rest my arm on the back of the couch.
“What do you want, angel?”
She shakes her head. “I don’t know.”
“You do know. You’re just scared to ask for it.” My words hit a mark I wasn’t aiming for.
“I’m not scared.” She springs from the couch and begins to pace.
“It’s okay to feel, even if it is fear.” I push rather than defuse as we’ve been trained to do.
“I’m. Not. Scared.” She glares at me for a moment before tossing her hands above her head. “Maybe I am. And I hate it. What do I want? I want a normal life. I want the job I love doing. I’m no baker. I want to go home at the end of the day and not worry about what I’m walking into. Has he found me today? Will he come for me? Joel has taken so much, and it’s like he’s still taking.
“I want to go to sleep and not worry if I’ll wake up back in my apartment. I don’t want to be shoved out of bed because I overslept. I don’t understand my life. My only friend took me to a parking garage. She handed me over to a man I didn’t know and expected me to trust him on her word. I spent five days traveling with him and two more people I’d never met. I end up in Tennessee in the middle of a motorcycle club.” She stops pacing and faces me. “A motorcycle club, Jack.”
I nod because it’s all true. Well, I didn’t know she was afraid to go home every day or was shoved out of bed. The black eye. She didn’t fall out of bed. He pushed her. I knew there was more to it. Her ex better never show up in Tennessee. If our paths ever cross, he’ll regret every time he hurt her. I’ll make sure of it.
“I still don’t understand everything that’s happening. No one fully explains anything to me. I don’t have a phone. I can never contact my friends again. Well, Nina. She was the only friend I had left. I don’t understand how your club works. Things are just different and weird. I’ve been here for three weeks, and people think I’m your girl and some future Queen. That makes no sense.”
It makes perfect sense. If she gives me a chance, I’ll prove it and answer all her questions. She’s on a roll right now, so I let her continue.
She tosses her arms up again. “And club girls are real. Nasty, but real.” She shutters again. “Then there’s you.”
Me? Now we’re getting somewhere. Everything she just said is important. Hopefully, I’ll remember it all later. We’re going in this direction now.
I spring from the couch and plant myself in front of her. “What about me?”
Her eyes lift to mine, and her lips slightly part. Yes, ma’am. You sure went there.
“You’re … you,” she stutters.
It’s cute, but she’s not back-peddling here.
“I am, and you’re you.” I lean down with my lips close to her ear. “What do you want, angel?”
“I…” She takes a step backward and swallows hard. “All of it.”
That was a long list. Her little rant was a bit chaotic. It’s okay. Eventually, she’ll have it all and more. I’m not letting her deflect on me here. For each step I take, she takes one backward until her back hits the wall.
“What’s the one thing you want the most today?” I ask.
“Today?”
Maybe taking things in smaller steps will work better with her.
“Today. Tomorrow, we’ll work on something else.”
She thinks for a moment and lifts her chin. “Stop treating me like I’m glass.”
“What?”
“You and everybody else treat me like I’ll break. I’m hurt and scared, but I’m not fragile. I appreciate you all being kind, but you’re overly kind. It’s not normal. People don’t act this way all the time. I want to feel some sense of normal.”
“I treat you how we’re trained to treat an angel.”
She bravely meets my eyes again. “Maybe I don’t want to be an angel anymore.”
“What are you saying, Lily?”
“Stop babying me and handling me with soft gloves.”
My eyebrows lift. “ I handle you with soft gloves?” I do. I didn’t think she realized it, though.
“You’re the worst.”
She’s not wrong.
“Are you sure? Because if I take the soft gloves off, they won’t go back on.”
“I’m sure,” she replies softly.
I lean closer to her ear again. “You know I’m attracted to you, right?”
She nods. Well, now. This day isn’t ending so badly after all.
Against her request, I softly press my lips to her forehead and linger there for a long moment before stepping back. I wasn’t expecting this tonight. My phone vibrates in my pocket. Club business never stops.
“Tonight, you sleep on that. Imagine everything it could mean. And I mean everything , angel. Tomorrow, it all changes.” I hold up my hands and wiggle my fingers. “The soft gloves are already gone.”
Before I change my mind, I turn and leave. Plus, I’m being summoned by someone. I’ll give her tonight to process what she asked for. Tomorrow, she’ll see the real me. There’ll be no turning back and no way out for either of us. Tomorrow’s going to be an interesting day.