Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Okay, let’s get started. Naomi called a Code Rachel, so let’s see how we can help her. Naomi, the floor is yours,” Remi announced.
Naomi stood up because there were so many women sitting in folding chairs in what had started as a huge circle but had migrated to a kidney-shaped grouping as more women came in.
“Whew, this is so hard, but I need your help. Stone is it for me, and I want more than kisses,” Naomi blurted out.
“Whoa, you mean Stone hasn’t done the deed with you yet?” Beth gasped.
Naomi shook her head.
“At first, I figured it was the tattoo on the back of my thighs because of him not wanting to aggravate it, but now I am so close to exploding, it’s affecting my every thought,” Naomi confessed, her cheeks burning.
“Oh, I bet you need new batteries for your vibrator with all the action it’s getting. I can get you some from the garage,” Jesse offered with a proud grin.
Naomi kept quiet while everyone offered suggestions on relieving the tension without Stone. Then one of the women brought up what kind of vibrator she thought was best, and Naomi couldn’t take it. She needed help with her problem with Stone. She didn’t want a vibrator; she wanted him.
“I don’t have a vibrator. I never have. I want Stone,” Naomi declared, her voice rising as she talked.
Silence greeted her.
“Girl, you are wound tighter than a spring, and if you want Stone, then let’s help you get him. Did you have an idea when, or are we starting from scratch?” Regina asked.
“I want him for my fortieth birthday, July 1st,” Naomi revealed.
“Hey, it’s my fortieth too. Do I get a biker to have sex with as my present too?” Chloe teased.
Laughter echoed around the room. Frankly, Naomi was positive that with the tension coming off of Chloe and Dex when they were working the kids’ petting zoo, he’d be happy to supply a little special attention for her.
“Maybe a birthday party for all of you at the clubhouse, and you could take him to—well, Remi liked the wall of the barn outside the clubhouse. Finn’s room is what used to be Baron’s old room, so it has some luck because that’s where Regina and he first did the horizontal mamba,” Beth suggested.
“How do you know all this?” Meg wondered.
“I listen,” Beth shrugged.
“Scoop and Sarah are partial to doing it in the garage on a bike,” Winnie shared.
“Well, Winnie and Bear met at a camper when they were hiding their relationship. It’s the one that is now parked near Sarah’s house,” Jesse pointed out.
“Okay. I think we know that there are a lot of places for her and Stone to get it on, including his house, but what do you need us to do so it can happen?” Willa injected, trying to get everyone back on task.
“Ahh, I have such fond memories of the office in here too,” Beth recalled wistfully.
“Yes, I remember we needed to disinfect it last July,” Willa said drily.
Laughter echoed around the room.
“Let’s do a joint birthday party on July 1st. We’ll plan on the girls staying with Locks, Benji, and me. Then you can… Well, I don’t know at this point whether you need to jump him or if he’ll take the lead. Are you going to tell him you’re ready?” Hope asked.
“Men are stupid sometimes and stuck in their heads. How about—Stone, I need your big throbbing member inside my slick love channel or I’m going to explode from unreleased sexual tension?” Tori suggested.
AJ tried to hold back her sass but failed the second she opened her mouth. “Don’t ever quit your day job, because a writer you are not.”
“Tell him what you feel,” Emerson offered gentle guidance.
“Like what?” Naomi frowned, not understanding exactly what she meant.
“How do you feel when you’re with my brother?” Emerson pressed softly.
“Safe. Able to be myself. Seen and happy,” Naomi whispered. The hangar got quiet as everyone strained to hear her voice.
“Stone may have closed off a lot of himself to survive in prison, but he wants what we all want—to be loved, to be needed, and to be seen. I’ve never seen him act the way he does with you.
The look on his face sometimes when he’s staring at you is incredible.
It’s as if he’s been given the biggest gift that he wants with all his heart but that he’s scared to believe can be his.
If you want forever with him, spell it out and ask him to make you his,” Harry assured her.
“Now, you… you could be a writer when you’re not tattooing,” AJ declared with all sincerity and no sass.
“Agreed,” Lilah said.
“The question is, if we provide the fortieth birthday party for the triplets and arrange for your daughters to be covered after the party—can you tell Stone how you feel and what you want?” Rachel challenged gently.
She’d been quiet while everyone else was talking, but Naomi knew from being around her at Broken Hearts Brewing that she was someone who listened well.
“I can. I will because for me to have what I want, I have to be willing to put myself out there,” Naomi promised firmly.
“Woohoo! We’ve got a plan. Now who wants some drinks and snacks while we catch up?” Willa asked.
Naomi adored these women, though some of them she’d only met a couple of times.
It was a large compound, and there was always something going on, but today, they’d all dropped everything to help her out.
She had found her home. Now, she needed to cement her happiness because Stone was the man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with.
As everyone stood up to get drinks and food, her sisters came over to her. Tori wrapped her arm around her and the other girls all did too.
“You can do this, Naomi. You’re strong and amazing. We’re on board with Stone, and once again, I want to apologize…”
“Stop, Tori. You’ve all apologized, and I’ve forgiven you. Now, once I get this settled with Stone, which one of you is next for your happily ever after?” Naomi teased.
“Well, I’m tired of looking for Mr. Right. I’ve decided it’s time to have some fun with some different Mr. Right Nows. I’ve made a list, and I’m going to be a serial dater for a while and see what’s out there,” Tori announced.
“Since we’re sharing, I’m going to concentrate on what the girls called my secret business.
I love classic cars and motorcycles. I make customizations that people can purchase online.
Now, here, I don’t have to hide who I am.
Jesse has offered me space in her garage, but I have money.
I’m thinking of buying one of the empty buildings downtown,” Chloe shared.
“And is there anything between you and Mr. No Kids?” Lilah prodded.
“He’s hot in an alphahole kind of way, but I want kids someday,” Chloe admitted.
Naomi understood that. Chloe had always been the one having dolls and feeding her babies and changing them.
“Since I’m not doing advertising for our waste of space of a father, I don’t know what I’ll do.
I have money, so I might help in some of the businesses until I figure out what I’m going to do with my life.
I’m forty-two and starting over, but it feels good,” AJ mused, a rare look of peace settling over her face.
Naomi stared at the women she’d grown up with and thought about how much their lives had changed since they’d taken those ancestry tests back in January.
“I don’t think I’ve thanked you, Tori, for suggesting we take those tests. We never would have found our family at Bluff Creek if we hadn’t. What made you decide to suggest it?” Naomi asked. She’d always wondered why Tori had come up with the idea. It had been so out of character for her.
“It was one of those days where I was thinking, Is this all there is to life? Working at a company I hated for a father I despised. I was daydreaming and hoping that maybe someone was out there who would take me away from the drudge that life had become,” Tori quietly confessed, while not looking directly at any one of them.
Naomi hadn’t realized Tori had been so dissatisfied because she’d never shown it.
“I, for one, am thrilled you did,” Naomi said, kissing Tori’s cheek.
Tori blushed, “Thanks.”