Chapter 6. 2
So, no. There was no way on God’s green earth that Pirate would ever believe Sophia had slept with Jumper.
Who then? Who else was in Jasmine’s life enough that it would matter or upset her that Sophia had slept with him? Jasmine was an only child, so it wasn’t like Sophia had slept with her brother.
The only other person Pirate could think of made little sense. While Carlos and Sophia were friends, they bickered and bantered at each other like siblings. Sophia’s antics sometimes got her in trouble with the law, which got on Carlos’s nerves. To Pirate’s knowledge, he’d never arrested her, but there’d been plenty of threats.
Still, Carlos was the only candidate that fit. Pirate knew Carlos, was friends with him. Additionally, Carlos, Jasmine, and Sophia grew up together. There was even a rumor going around that Carlos used to have a childhood crush on Jasmine, though the two of them had never dated. Around the same time that Jumper and Jasmine had gotten together, Carlos had met and fallen in love with Zoe. Jasmine, Sophia, and Zoe hung out together, with and without Carlos or Jumper present. Sophia was Zoe’s friend, as far as Pirate knew.
As if she could see the wheels turning in his head, Sophia explained in a low voice, “It was college. It meant nothing. We were at a party alone. Jasmine stayed back at our dorm to study. Both of us were drunk, even though we were both underage. It was just the one time and we swore we’d never bring it up again or tell Jasmine.”
It took Pirate a moment to find his voice. “Why would it matter about keeping it from Jasmine?”
“At the time, Carlos had a crush on her.” Pirate ground his teeth as Sophia used Carlos’s name for the first time, confirming once and for all whom she’d been speaking about. “He doesn’t anymore,” she added quickly. “Obviously. He got over her before we moved back to Mount Grove after graduating.”
“But you still see him. You’re still friends with him.”
Sophia nodded. “Of course. Things were a little awkward for a while, but we both moved past it.”
“Was it like a Midsummer Night’s Dream thing, where you liked him but he liked Jasmine and Jasmine liked someone else?”
Sophia shook her head. “Definitely not. I’m honestly not even sure how or why it happened. We were?—”
“No,” Pirate held up a hand. “I don’t want to know. At all.”
She nodded her head slowly.
Pirate crawled off of her. He wasn’t sure why the fact that she’d slept with Carlos years ago and one time had his stomach in such knots. He wasn’t angry, like she’d mentioned, but he was… He wasn’t sure what he was. It was like there were a million ants crawling on his skin.
He hadn’t realized he’d started pacing until Sophia asked, “Are you angry with me?”
He paused. Turned. She wasn’t sitting there meekly or cowering, awaiting his answer. She was sitting up with her arms on her knees watching him.
“No,” he answered honestly and without hesitation. “I’m not angry with you or Carlos. There’d be no reason to. We’re not dating. Even if we really were married, it was years ago. It wasn’t…” He shook his head. “I’m not angry, Sophia. I’d have no right to be.”
She let out a long sigh, like she was grateful. “Please don’t tell anyone.”
“It’s not my business to tell.” Fuck, why did his skin feel so itchy?
“Like I said, I’ve only ever kept the one secret from Jazz. I don’t like that I now have two secrets from her. But she would understand me claiming I’m dating you to get my mom off my back. That won’t do anything to distract her or take away from her big day. So that’s what I’ll tell her.” She shrugged, looking so forlorn. Pirate didn’t like it—it wasn’t Sophia . “It’s close enough to the truth anyway.”
Pirate approached the bed. He brushed her hair back out of her eyes. “So I’m your accidental husband pretending to be your fake boyfriend?”
He’d been hoping to bring a smile to her face with the question. Anything to get that morose look out of her eyes. Instead, her eyes widened and her cheeks pinkened.
Faster than Pirate had time to process, Sophia rose up on her knees and started kissing him again. She dropped her hands to his button and fly. Undeniable passion rose up and the need to satisfy her too overwhelming to ignore, Pirate made no move to stop her this time.
Sophia used her key to let herself into Pirate’s apartment the next morning. It was still dark out. Enola, her seven month old Pitbull puppy, bounded inside before her. Enola’s two brothers, Winnie the Pooch and Billy the Kidd, were asleep in a large dog bed in the living room. Originally, Jasmine had Pooch sleeping in her room with them, but then Jumper had a nightmare. Aerial did as she was trained to do, but Pooch freaked out. To avoid something like that happening again, Pooch now slept in the living room and then Kidd started to join him.
Both dogs were used to Sophia’s early morning entrances as well as their sister rushing over to crawl on top of them. Sophia had thought about buying the dogs a bigger bed but doubted the dogs would spread out more even if they had more room.
She headed into the kitchen to start the coffee pot. Pirate would be the first one up, needing to get to the high school early. Other mornings, she’d snuck into his room to wake him up with a blowjob before his alarm went off. As tempting as it was this morning, she needed to speak with Jazz before she and Jumper headed off to the clinic.
Leaving the lights on in the kitchen, she walked towards the hall that led to the two bedrooms and the bathroom. Jumper’s and Pirate’s doors were directly across from each other with the bathroom at the end of the small hallway. Though the apartment was small in comparison to the guesthouse where she lived, Sophia preferred it. What a lot of people didn’t get was it wasn’t the size of a place that made it a home, but the people. Her guesthouse felt sterile in comparison.
Apparently the ‘size doesn’t matter’ saying applied to more than just dicks, Sophia thought mentally. Chuckling at herself, she opened the door on the left and entered Jasmine and Jumper’s bedroom.
Aerial barely cracked an eye as Sophia came in. She left the door open so the light from the hallway, which was always on, filled part of the room.
Though the couple was clearly naked under the covers, Sophia walked over to Jazz’s side of the bed, slipped off her shoes, and crawled in.
Jumper was laying on his belly towards the left side of the bed with Jasmine spooning him from behind. As Sophia got into the bed, Jazz turned on her pillow to face her. “Morning,” she whispered.
“Morning,” Sophia parroted back, just as low.
“What happened to you yesterday? I didn’t see you after we got back from the club run.”
Sophia made a face. “Things got a little…hectic, both at my mom’s and afterward.” More like heated , but Sophia curbed her tongue on that one.
Jumper let out a sleepy groan.
Jasmine reached behind her to touch his hair. To Sophia, she asked, “What do you mean? Did your mom have a date for you for the wedding?”
“Yeah,” Sophia snorted. “And you’ll never guess who.”
“Oh, no. That bad?” Jasmine cringed. “Who?”
“Fletcher.”
Jazz’s blue eyes went wide. “No!”
Sophia nodded. “Yeah. Apparently, he’s back from ‘the war’,” she used her pointer and middle fingers to make air-quotes, “and thought your wedding would be a good opportunity for us to catch up.”
“No,” Jazz gasped out again.
At the same time, Jumper groaned louder and picked up his head. His loose hair fell messily around his face and over his eyes. He scowled at Sophia over Jasmine’s body. “Why the fuck are you in my bed?”
“Because my bestie’s in your bed,” Sophia answered as if it was the simplest explanation in the world. The brilliant part about it was that it was a one hundred and ten percent honest answer, which was rare for her.
That did not seem to appease Jumper though. He growled low in his throat before throwing the covers off of himself. He was careful not to remove them from over Jasmine. Sophia was sure he did that to keep her from getting cold over modesty. Sophia and Jasmine had been besties since elementary school. They’d seen each other naked countless times.
Sophia tried to get a look, but Jasmine covered her eyes with a laugh. “Stop! His butt is for my eyes only!”
Sophia pouted. “No fair.”
It was another couple of seconds before Jasmine lowered her hand. Jumper was wearing a pair of black boxer shorts. He was still grumbling as he left the room. Something about unknowingly signing up for having two wives.
Jasmine smiled widely as she watched her fiancé’s ass as he walked into the hallway. When she turned back to Sophia, she tucked her arm under her head. “Tell me what happened.”
“So apparently Fletcher’s got a meeting today with Steel to inquire about prospecting with the club.”
Jazz’s jaw dropped as nearly her eyes bugged out of her head. “No!”
“Will you stop that?” Sophia mock scowled. “But trust me, I can’t see Steel letting him in, even if he was honorably discharged.”
“Why?”
“You remember Fletcher. Everything’s about show for him. He never even went overseas or fought on any battlefields. Now he’s got some fancy bike and getup like he’s some professional motorcycle stunt rider. Steel’s going to shake the man’s uncalloused hand and laugh in his face.”
Jasmine scrunched up her nose. “I kinda forgot that bit about him. Mainly I just remember him being a jerk to you our junior year and then you sending him to the ER to get his toe reattached.”
“And Carlos breaking his nose,” Sophia added as a reminder.
Surprise crossed Jazz’s face as her eyes widened. “Yes! Priceless!” Then her expression fell. “Wait, so your mom invited him to the wedding? I mean, I have the place setting available but I obviously hadn’t invited him. You’re welcome to have a plus-one, you know that, but do you really want it to be Fletcher ?”
Sophia snorted. “God no. I already told Mom that. She was not happy with me. You remember how she always doted on Fletcher? Well, it’s all the worse now that he’s a War Hero.”
She scoffed at having to apply the title to Fletcher on her mom’s behalf. The man didn’t know what it took to be a hero. To know what it was to sacrifice something. Neither did she, but she wasn’t going around claiming to be a heroine. No doubt, Fletcher was going around boasting about his time in the service to anyone nearby, whether they wanted to hear about it or not.
Fletcher did not know the meaning of sacrifice. Not like Pirate and Jumper did.
“He said he’d be by my place at seven last night, so I made sure I was not there.”
While that was true, it was also not. Pirate and she had ended up staying in his apartment at the clubhouse until after midnight. They’d had sex numerous times and they’d also ended up ordering a pizza, just hanging out talking. It reminded her of their time in Hawaii and San Francisco. So much of their time now was quick fucks and orgasms. Sophia was certainly not complaining about that, but it had also been nice to just be with Pirate. She still couldn’t believe she’d confessed to him about Carlos. She’d never told a soul about that before last night.
Jumper walked back into the room then. He was carrying two steaming mugs of coffee. Jasmine and Sophia sat up in the bed, placing their backs against the headboard. Jasmine had the sheet tucked under her armpits to cover her breasts. Jumper handed over a cup to each of them, but only accepted a kiss from Jazz as payment.
“Thanks, babe,” Jasmine smiled up at him.
“Thanks, babe,” Sophia smiled over at him.
Jumper glared at Sophia but his eyes softened on Jasmine. “I’m going to go get in the shower. I’d ask you to join me but I know where your priorities lie this morning.”
Sophia laid a possessive hand on Jasmine’s knee. “You had all night to have fun sexy time with her. It’s my turn.”
Jumper’s scowl returned at Sophia’s words, which could be taken as an innuendo if he didn’t know her so well.
Jasmine beamed up at him. “I’ll shower in a bit. Thank you for the coffee.”
Sophia just saluted him with her mug.
After Jumper grabbed clothes from their closet, he headed back out of the room. Aerial followed him.
Jasmine turned back to Sophia. “So how did you get out of bringing him to the wedding? I love your mom and all, but there’s no way she would take a simple ‘no’ for an answer.”
Sophia made a face. This was the part she was dreading telling Jazz about. “So, um, I might have maybe told her that I was possibly already seeing someone.”
Jasmine’s eyes narrowed on her. “Sophia…” Her tone held a warning.
Sophia put her head back on the headboard and let out a loud frustrated groan. “Fine! I told her that Pirate and I are dating.”
Of all the responses Sophia had envisioned for this conversation, Jasmine asking her back, “Are you?” was not one of them.
Sophia blinked at her. “What?”
Jasmine took a sip of her coffee as she turned on the bed. She drew her knees up towards the headboard, leaning her shoulder rather than her back against it. “Are you dating Pirate?”
“No!” Sophia exclaimed, loudly. Both surprised and aghast by Jasmine’s question, she at least didn’t feel guilty about her answer. It was the truth after all.
Jasmine’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Are you sure? The two of you have this…vibe going. I thought it was just my imagination at first but it’s gotten more intense these past couple of months.”
The coffee in her mouth tasted sour rather than sweet. Jumper had added so much cream and sugar to hers that there were more calories in it than a candy shop. Joke was on him, though, because she liked her coffee sweet.
But now she was wishing she hadn’t taken such a big sip. It hurt to swallow. “No. No, we’re not. What vibe? There’s no vibe.”
Jasmine watched her carefully. “You know, you have a tell when you’re lying, right? It’s not obvious because not everyone knows to look for it.” She switched her coffee mug to her left hand and then held out her right to Sophia. “Hi, I’m Not Everyone. Good to meet you.”
Sophia grumbled. She sat up a little, crossing her legs in front of her. She leaned forward to rest her elbows on her knees while holding her coffee mug between both of her hands. She stared down at the nearly white liquid. She wasn’t surprised she wasn’t able to lie to Jazz. In a way, she was thrilled about it. She didn’t want to lie to her bestie.
“We’re sleeping together,” she finally admitted.
“You still have But Face,” Jasmine informed her.
Sophia looked to her right and glared at her best friend. “There is no ‘but’,” she told her sternly. “That’s it. We’re sleeping together. We have been for months. I didn’t want to tell you because I didn’t want to distract you from your wedding or risk taking away from your big day.”
“Hawaii?” Jazz inquired.
“San Fran,” Sophia corrected in a low voice. Careful of the mug in her hand, she shifted around so she was facing Jazz. Her bestie’s face was usually so easy to read, but now she had a passive expression, or lack thereof, that Sophia did not like. “I swear, nothing is going on between Pirate and me. It’s just sex.”
Jasmine was silent for a long time. So long in fact that Sophia could hear the rattle of dog food going into their bowls in the kitchen. Pirate must be awake and feeding the four dogs. The water was no longer going, which meant Jumper was out of the shower. He’d help Pirate walk the dogs before Pirate got into the shower. Then everyone would head off to work.
When she finally spoke, her voice was soft. “Sophia, best friend of my life, Thelma to my Louise, Betty to my Wilma, I love you. Which is why I can say with such confidence that you’re full of horseshit.”
Sophia’s jaw dropped.
But Jasmine held up a hand, silencing Sophia. “No, now is the time for you to shut up and listen to me.” She dropped her hand. “I love your confidence. It’s what drew me to you in the first place. I’ve never been confident. I’m very aware that I’m not the supermodel type or the kind of woman guys stop and stare at. I’m the nerdy girl. When my nose isn’t in a book, my hand is shoved up a dog’s ass.
“Meeting Jumper has been amazing. I am so in love with that man and I can’t wait to marry him.” Jazz smiled dreamily. “But I also don’t want you to be feeling left behind. It’s been you and me against the world for a long time. I’ve been so wrapped up in planning my wedding and my honeymoon, plus the clinic and getting everything prepped for my absence. You’re my rock, Soph. I wouldn’t have even had the nerve to ask Jumper out if it wasn’t for you.
“So I say this with all the love in my heart and all the courage that you have given me over the years: you’re full of shit.” Sophia was still trying to wrap her mind around the first time Jazz had said that statement. Her mind did not clear when it was repeated. “You say that you’re sleeping with Pirate but it means nothing, right?”
Sophia nodded.
“Because you don’t have feelings for him?”
Sophia nodded again.
“And the reason you didn’t tell me you were sleeping with him was because you wanted to make sure nothing ruined my big day?”
Sophia nodded. That was the truth after all.
Jasmine raised an eyebrow. “So you think my life revolves so solely around your vagina that my wedding day would be ruined by your sleeping with my fiancé’s best man and brother?”
“What? No!” Sophia gasped out. “Boo, that wasn’t it at all!”
“Then it must be because you didn’t want some clichéd wedding drama to unfold when it was discovered the maid of honor was sleeping with the best man?”
Sophia’s mouth bobbed up and down like a fish, but no words came out. Who was this woman and where had her demure best friend gone?
“Or maybe it’s because I’m such a bridezilla that everything has to be about me and my day and everyone else’s lives have to come to a stop just because I’m getting married?”
An open-mouthed snort came from her, which sounded extra nasally to Sophia. “You’re the furthest thing to a bridezilla that there ever could be.”
“Then why would you think that you sleeping with Pirate would upstage me?”
Sophia bit her lip. Because it wasn’t just the fact that she was sleeping with him. She’d gotten married to him. Accidentally. While drunk. On a pirate boat cruise around the San Francisco Bay. And now she was just waiting for their mandatory waiting period to end so she could divorce him.
“Do you like him?”
Shock made her head snap up. “What? No!” she insisted. Then backtracked, “I mean, I like him as a… man .” She struggled to say ‘friend’. They weren’t even that. “He’s fantastic in bed. Although,” she added offhandedly, “he’s got this thing about taking me from behind. I rarely actually seen him fully undressed now that I think about it.” She pursed her lips in thought. “But that man’s ass is a work of art in a pair of jeans. He could make a killing off of Levi commercials if they hired him to model. And…” She hesitated. “In a weird way, he calms me. Like I don’t have to worry about being around him. Does he think I’m too rich, does he think I’m too skinny, does he think I’m too pretty…?”
“Wow, must be awful to be you,” Jasmine deadpanned.
Sophia kicked her, nearly spilling her coffee in the process. After licking the side of her hand that had gotten some coffee on it, she continued. “You know that’s not what I mean. I don’t have to worry about the usual stuff that I do with guys around Pirate. I know he doesn’t think of me like that and I can just,” she shrugged, “relax, I guess.”
“Hold this.” Jasmine held out her mug to Sophia.
Sophia took it and watched as Jasmine moved around to grab her phone from her nightstand with one hand while clutching the sheet to her chest with the other. Sophia had forgotten Jazz was still naked under the bedding.
Sitting back up straight, Jazz started tapping on her phone. At first, Sophia thought she was texting somebody but then thought maybe she was researching something.
“What are you doing?” she finally asked.
“Booking you an eye doctor appointment,” Jazz answered without looking up from her phone. “Clearly, you need your eyes checked.”
With two half-filled mugs of coffee in her hands, Sophia’s options of retaliation were limited. She scooted herself closer to Jazz to nudge her with her knee. “Hey! Stop that. My eyes are just fine!”
Jasmine looked up at Sophia with so much skepticism, Sophia would have laughed if the topic was anything else. “Soph, babe, if you think for one second that Pirate doesn’t have feelings for you, then you are utterly blind and you do,” she wiggled her phone screen in front of Sophia’s face, “need an eye doctor appointment.”
Sophia sat back a little. “What do you mean?”
“Sophia!” Jazz laughed. “That man can’t take his eyes off of you and he gets this stupid look on his face when you’re being very Sophia . I’ve suspected for a while that he has feelings for you.”
Sophia swallowed hard. Jasmine was wrong. She had to be. Pirate couldn’t have feelings for her. He’d said it himself that he didn’t. It was sex. Just sex. And a divorce.
“And frankly, I think you have feelings for him right back.”
Shaking her head, Sophia handed Jasmine her coffee mug. Jazz dropped her phone into the sheets between her crossed legs and accepted the mug. “I don’t,” Sophia insisted softly. “I like him but not like that.”
Jasmine kept an eye on her as she took a sip of coffee. “Are you sure? Or have you been telling yourself that for so long that you’ve actually convinced yourself of it?”
Sophia opened her mouth to refute her bestie’s claim but ended up closing her mouth without speaking.
Jasmine just nodded like Sophia had proven her point for her. “Let me ask you this. What was Pirate’s reaction when you told your mom the two of you were dating? Did he seem appalled or angry?”
“Shocked,” Sophia informed her, recalling how Pirate had just stood there.
“And what was his reaction to Fletcher being there?”
Sophia didn’t have to remember. “Possessive. But it was, like, a quiet possessiveness. He let Fletcher ramble on and make a fool of himself while he kept his hand on me or would rev his engine so I couldn’t hear Fletcher talk.”
Jasmine’s look said Sophia had just confirmed everything she’d been saying to her. “And, with that, I rest my case.”
Sophia shook her head. “No, you don’t understand. We can’t have feelings for each other. We agreed not to.”
Jasmine snorted. She drank the last of her coffee and then twisted around to place her mug on the nightstand. “Hate to tell you this, babe, but you two have been lying to not only each other but also to yourselves. Frankly, I’m not surprised in the least. The two of you are kinda perfect for each other—as long as you can get your heads out of your asses to actually make this work.”
Jasmine moved to stand up, pulling the sheet with her and nearly knocking Sophia over as it moved from under her ass. “Now, if you don’t mind. I have to get showered and dressed so I can get to work.”
In a bit of a stupor, Sophia managed to get herself up and off of the bed.
“Hey, Soph?” Sophia paused by the doorway, turning to see Jasmine standing at her dresser. She had the sheet wrapped around herself like a toga and holding a bra and a pair of panties. Jazz smiled cheerfully at her. “If you do end up marrying him one day, we really will be sisters.”