Chapter 2 #4
“Are you jealous that she’s waving her panties at me?
” A mischievous grin tilted his lips. He couldn't begin to fathom why she would be jealous.
The other woman had nothing on her. Sadie's blonde hair fell in the sexiest waves he'd ever seen, and her emerald green eyes had a way of sucking him in.
And don't get him started on how smoking hot her dancer's body was.
“No.” She opened her eyes, and he noticed they flared with annoyance. The need to punch him in the face was hard to miss.
“So if we were together, that woman’s obvious play for my attention wouldn’t bother you?” he pushed for no other reason than he wanted to get her riled up.
She shrugged a shoulder and tried to act like she wasn’t bothered by the woman’s advances. “No. If someone’s going to cheat, they're going to cheat. And if, hypothetically, we were together, would you hook up with that woman if I wasn’t around?”
Jed didn’t need to think about it. “If I found a woman that I cared enough to be in a lasting relationship with, I wouldn’t want any other woman. No other woman would be able to turn my head.”
“You’re saying you could be faithful to one woman?” Her skepticism kind of irked him.
“For the right woman? Absolutely. But she’d have to be faithful to me in return.” It puzzled him as to why he was even having this conversation.
She frowned as she turned to face him. “You really think there’s someone like that out there? She’d be your what? Old lady?” Was she scoffing?
“Exactly.”
“In my experience, just because someone becomes an old lady doesn’t mean her man is going to be faithful.”
“I know your experiences with the Phantoms were shit, but not all clubs work like theirs did. You’ve seen how Race is with Bellamy. Trick with Lindsey. Darren and Tuck with Kylie.”
She flinched at the mention of Darren and Kylie. That wasn’t his aim: to make her uncomfortable. “Look, the point is, if I ever found that one special woman, and yes, those words came out of my mouth, I’d claim her and hang on tight.”
She paused a beat, searching his eyes for something. “You’ve put a lot of thought into this?
“Sure. Someday, I wouldn’t mind an old lady.
” In fact, the more brothers finding old ladies and starting families made him think about it more often.
“But until then,” he dropped off, wiggling his brows up and down.
He couldn’t let her believe he wasn’t an asshole, right?
The expression on her face changed as if he’d proved a point.
It wasn’t long after that conversation that her laundry was finished drying, and they headed back to her apartment. He grabbed the bedding and carried it up behind her. Once inside, she reached for it, only for him to pull it away and take it to her bedroom.
“Just drop it on the floor.” She pointed at the floor with one hand and rubbed her head with the other.
“Do you need to take something for that?” he asked.
“I’ll take something in a minute. I want to finish making my bed first.” She pulled the fitted sheet from the pile and started at one corner.
He went to the opposite side of the bed and secured that side.
“Thanks, but you don’t have to do this. I’ve got it.
Why don’t you go help yourself to something to eat or drink, and turn the TV on if you want? I’ll be done in a minute.”
“Are you sure you don’t want help?”
“I’m sure. Go ahead.” She offered him a weak smile. He didn’t think it was a fake one, just that she was in that much pain she couldn’t pull off a real one.
Damn, the woman was stubborn. He thought it might actually kill her to accept even the smallest amount of help.
He nodded his head and did as she asked.
He found a bag of chips in the cabinet and a soda in the refrigerator.
He took both to the couch and grabbed for the remote.
He saw that she had Netflix, so he searched for Stranger Things and clicked it on.
He was most of the way through the first episode when it dawned on him that she still hadn’t come out of her room.
Was she avoiding him? He paused his show and got up to go check on her.
Jed found her asleep on the side of the bed, facing the door. She’d made the bed and was lying on top of it. She’d kicked her shoes off and had a pillow pulled tight to her chest. He should be surprised, but he wasn’t.
He took a moment and allowed himself to truly study her like he hadn’t been able to except for the night of the lap dance.
He moved closer to the bed to gently brush away a strand of hair from her face.
Her dark lashes fanned across her cheeks, making her look younger than he knew her to be.
She had a dark mole on her upper right cheek just below her eye.
For some reason, he found it sexy as hell.
Before he could talk himself out of it, he pulled his phone from his pocket and took a picture of her.
He wasn’t sure why he did it, but he just knew he had to.
He pocketed his phone and returned to the living room, where he took the throw from the back of the couch and went back to put it over Sadie.
He held his breath until he had her covered, only releasing it when she remained asleep.
Mission successful, he returned to the living room.
He dropped to the couch and checked his phone to see if he had any messages.
Nope. Nothing. He hit play on the remote to restart his show, letting it play in the background.
He’d seen all the episodes and was only rewatching them because they kept saying the next season was coming out soon. He wouldn’t hold his breath.
While that was playing, he shot off a text to Trick to see what time school got out in case Sadie was still sleeping at that time.
He figured he would let her sleep, and he would pick up Oliver.
He would need to have someone to sit with her while he was gone.
If she woke up alone, it might freak her out.
Trick responded, and Jed checked the time. He had a couple of hours before it let out, so he was good. He tuned back into his show, and with nothing else to do, he waited.
The next time he checked his phone, it was a little after two o’clock, and Oliver would be getting out soon.
From his position on the couch, he saw the keys to Sadie’s car still on the kitchen table where he had left them earlier.
He estimated he could wait another thirty minutes and have plenty of time to make it there.
Unless he took his bike home and traded it for his Camaro before he picked him up.
Yeah, that’s what he would do. The kid would love a ride in his old car.
To do that, he should leave soon. He pulled out his phone and texted Chris to see if he was available.
He was, and he’d be up in a few minutes.
Thank God. If he had to wait for someone else to get here, he wouldn’t have time to pick up his car.
While he waited for Chris to come up, he shot off another text to Trick, asking Lindsey to let the front office know Jed was picking Oliver up. He said he’d take care of it. Oddly, he didn’t question him as to why he was picking up Sadie’s nephew.
There was a knock at the door telling him Chris had arrived. “Thanks for coming.”
“No problem. I don’t have another client until 4:30.”
“Okay. So, she’s asleep in her room with a migraine. If you want to watch TV, feel free, she doesn’t mind. If she wakes up, let her know I went to pick up Oliver.”
“Okay. I can do that. See you in a few.”
Jed made good time getting to his house, where he traded his bike for his Camaro.
He booked it across town and was stunned to see the number of parents lined up to pick up their children.
He remembered Lindsey saying some of these fuckers started lining up at two o’clock, wanting to be first in line.
He shook his head. It would seem some people never grew up.
The line moved up steadily until he was in position to pick up Oliver.
The boy’s eyes were bugging out of his head as Lindsey pointed at his car and led him closer.
Her stepson Keegan followed behind them, a huge smile on his face.
Jed had given him a ride in it once, and the kid fell in love.
He was already hitting Trick up, saying he wanted some kind of muscle car when he turned sixteen.
Couldn’t blame the kid. The rumbling sound of a 427 big block engine was life-changing.
He rolled down the window when they were a few feet away. “You have bus duty today?”
“No.” Lindsey smiled as she bent at the waist to talk to him. “I just wanted to make sure Oliver didn’t have any trouble leaving with you.”
Trick was a lucky man. His woman had a smile that could put anyone at ease, and despite having just given birth to her first child with Trick, had a rocking body.
She’d had one to begin with, but pregnancy had given her hips and tits a little more curve.
And although he’d had those curves in his hands twice when Trick asked him to join them, she never did act like she was the least bit uncomfortable to be around him one-on-one.
“Thanks. Appreciate it.”
“Hey, Jed. When are you going to give me another ride in your car?” Keegan asked.
“Next time I have it at the clubhouse, and you’re there, I’ll give you a ride.
” Keegan was a good kid. Trick had done an amazing job raising him and his sister, Reagan, despite all the crap he put up with from their mother.
Last he heard, Michelle had turned her life around and was still working as a receptionist at a doctor's office and doing well now that she’d cut her sister out of her life. That was a long time coming.
Lindsey opened the car door for Oliver. He stopped and looked from the back seat to the front.