Chapter 6
Edie
What the hell was she doing?
She had no right to punish Jesse. She didn’t even know if she’d done anything to deserve it. Mistakes happened, even big ones that caused literal fires. But everything in Edie had seemed to settle into place at those two simple words.
Spank me.
In the living room, Edie stopped in front of the couch and turned back to face Jesse. And just like that, she was twenty-five again, with her naughty babygirl blushing and fidgeting as she waited for her spanking.
And it felt so completely… wrong.
“I can’t do this.”
Jesse’s head jerked up, but it wasn’t relief on her face like Edie had half expected. If anything, she looked distressed, as though Edie was taking something she desperately wanted away from her. “Why not?”
Because it’s too close to everything I want. Because I still remember the feel of your ass beneath my hand. Because I’m still so fucking in love with you it hurts to breathe.
“Because it’s not right,” she said, deliberately ignoring the other thoughts tumbling around inside her noisy brain. “You’re getting married.”
“Daddy won’t mind.” The corner of Jesse’s mouth tugged up in a reluctant smile. “If anything, he’ll be happy I have someone to keep me in line while I’m here.”
Leave it to Jesse to have an answer to everything. “I’d like to hear that from him, if it’s all the same to you.”
A bright red blush stained Jesse’s cheeks and she shifted from one foot to another in what Edie had always thought of as her ‘naughty girl dance’. “It’s not.”
“Not what?”
“Not all the same to me. I would prefer not to tell him I set someone’s kitchen on fire, thanks.”
There was something more there. Edie narrowed her eyes. “And that’s the only reason you don’t want to call him?”
“Yup. Totally.”
They may not have spoken a single word to each other in the time Jesse had been gone, but Edie could still tell when she was hiding something. But she was also caught between wanting to demand more information and being absolutely convinced it wasn’t her place to do so. “Well, that’s too bad. I’m not spanking you without your Daddy’s say-so.”
“Why not?” Jesse whined, looking very much like a Little girl about to throw a tantrum.
Stepping forward, Edie reached up to cup her face. Jesse’s skin was as soft as she remembered beneath her palm, and she instantly wished she’d kept her hands to herself. That simple touch was like opening the floodgates on the swell of emotions she’d been doing her damndest to keep at bay all fucking day.
“Because if you were still mine, I’d damn well break the fingers of anyone who dared lay a hand on you. And I can’t imagine any man who’s smart enough to put a ring on your finger wouldn’t feel the same way.”
Edie tried to pull her hand away, but it was like she’d slathered glue on her hand before pressing it to Jesse’s cheek. Even more so when Jesse lifted her hand to cover Edie’s. “Please, Edie,” she whispered, her voice thick with the tears shimmering in her hazel eyes. “I need this. I need to fix this.”
Something told her Jesse wasn’t just talking about the kitchen. Which made it all the harder to step back when there was some dark part of her that would love nothing more than to get some kind of revenge for her broken heart.
But that was even more wrong than spanking her for the fire. So even though it was the hardest fucking thing she’d done in a very long time, Edie forced herself to step back and pull her hand away from Jesse’s face. “I don’t need you to fix it. I just need you to let it go and give me some peace.”
Ignoring the shattered look in Jesse’s eyes, Edie stepped around her and headed for the front door.
“Where are you going?” Jesse called after her.
“Anywhere but here.”
Edie
“The Honk” turned out to be the answer to Jesse’s question. Edie needed food, and while she didn’t really feel like talking to anybody, she also wasn’t really in the mood to sit alone in her car with a bag of greasy fast food, either.
So the local bar-slash-restaurant, with its sneaky goose decor and noisy locals, seemed like the perfect place to wallow in her… whatever it was she was wallowing in.
“How’s your Sassburger, hon?” Kessily, who’d been working at The Honk for as long as Edie could remember and whose stream of pranks drove Shane, owner and bartender of The Honk, crazy on at least a weekly basis, paused beside the table to refill Edie’s water glass.
“Delicious, as always,” Edie said, forcing a smile for Kessily’s sake. The curvy redhead never had a bad day, or if she did, she managed to hide it from her customers.
“Perfect.” Kessily’s usual happy grin stayed in place, but her gaze shifted to the empty bench across from Edie. “Where’s the rest of the crowd?”
“Just me tonight.”
Propping the water pitcher on her free palm, Kessily hesitated as if she were weighing her next words. “Someone said they thought they saw Jesse Walker today. Near your shop.”
Fuck. She should have known Jesse’s presence wouldn’t go unnoticed. “Yeah. She’s in town for a visit or something, I guess.”
“Ah.” That single syllable held a wealth of meaning, but Kessily didn’t press further. Despite graduating together, they’d never been particularly close and Edie was grateful that Kessily seemed content to leave it at that.
Or so she thought.
She was down to the last few bites of her burger when someone slid into the booth across from her. Make that two someones, she realized as she looked up to find Taylor and Ginny watching her with matching expressions of concern.
“Scooch!”
Three someones, with Carly standing beside the table, waving her hands at Edie, indicating she should scoot down the bench to make room.
Which she did, but not without a glare for all three of them. “Can I help you girls?”
“Sure.” Ginny smiled, but there was a hard edge to it. “You can tell us why you’d rather sit alone in a bar feeling sorry for yourself instead of, you know, talking to your friends about whatever’s bothering you.”
“Why does something need to be bothering me? Maybe I just wanted a burger.”
Taylor snorted dismissively, and Edie frowned when she noticed the red rims around her eyes. “Please. I filled Ginny in as soon as she called me. She knows Jesse’s in town, and that she’s staying with you. Unless you finally got your head out of your ass and sent her packing.”
“Nah, if she’d done that, she’d be sulking at home instead of The Honk.” Tilting her head to the side, Ginny studied Edie through narrowed eyes. “So, gonna tell us what happened?”
“Excuse me, ladies.” Flashing a smile, Kessily set a giant brownie, topped with vanilla ice cream, hot fudge, and nuts in the middle of the table. “Enjoy!”
“Hold up,” Edie said, raising a hand to stop her from leaving.
Not looking the least bit ashamed, Kessily raised an eyebrow and planted a fist on one hip, cocking the other to the side. “Problem, Edie?”
“I didn’t order this.”
The grin Kessily flashed now wasn’t her usual ‘customer service’ smile. It was full of sass and mischief. “It’s on the house. Figured a conversation like this called for chocolate. And wine,” she added as another waitress placed an open bottle of sweet white wine in front of Ginny, along with four glasses. “Y’all just let me know if you need anything else.”
“Oh, um.” Carly sent her an apologetic smile. “Could I get a water, please? No wine for me.”
If Kessily thought the request was strange or noticed the way Carly’s hand rested on her still-flat tummy, she didn’t show it. “Sure thing, honey.”
“So.” Picking up the bottle as Kessily sauntered off, Ginny poured three generous glasses of wine and settled back against the wooden booth with her glass cradled in her hand. “Jesse’s in town?”
“I don’t want to talk about this.” Edie shot them all a look that should have clearly said that was the end of the conversation as she picked up a spoon and dug into the brownie sundae. Just because she was pissed at Kessily for tattling on her didn’t mean a perfectly good dessert had to go to waste.
But her warning went unheeded. “Too bad,” Taylor said with a shrug, grabbing her own spoon and leaning forward. The motion had her shifting on the hard bench and she winced as she scooped up a spoonful of brownie and ice cream.
“What kind of trouble did you get yourself into now, Taylor Grace?” Edie asked, sending her a pointed look.
Pink colored Taylor’s cheeks as she jerked a shoulder. “Ian took exception to how I handled some things this afternoon.”
“What things?”
Clearing her throat as more color filled her cheeks, Taylor lowered her gaze to the plate in the middle of the table. “Um, specifically the thing I said when he offered Jesse a ride home.”
Edie wasn’t about to let her off the hook that easily. “Which was?”
“Something along the lines of ‘Absolutely the fuck not’.”
Beside her, Ginny let out a low whistle. “How are you even sitting at all right now?”
“Very gingerly,” Taylor grumbled. “And I’m still mad about it.”
“Taylor…” Torn between gratitude and guilt, Edie sighed. “Don’t go getting yourself in trouble on my account.”
“Too late.” Taylor’s chin took on a stubborn tilt Edie recognized all too well. “And I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”
Edie swallowed hard to force the lump in her throat back down. “Well, with any luck it won’t be an issue again. If Jesse has any sense, she’ll be gone by the time I get back to the house.”
Three meaningful looks passed around the table and Edie rolled her eyes. “I’m serious. I made it clear I didn’t want her there.”
“Did you actually use the words ‘You have thirty minutes to pack your shit and get out’?” Reaching across the table, Carly scooped up a chunk of brownie and popped it in her mouth, her eyes fluttering closed with a groan. “Oh my god. This is amazing. I’m going to tell Matt I need one of these a week until the baby comes.”
“Might as well get away with it while you can,” Taylor agreed with a giggle.
“Exactly. But we’re getting off track.” Carly jabbed her spoon in Edie’s direction. “What did you say to her when you left?”
Resigning herself to their probing, Edie picked up her wine and gulped down a mouthful. Combined with the brownie, it was almost too sweet, but it was also just what she needed right then. “Before or after she set my kitchen on fire?”
Outrage exploded around her, and she let it play out for a minute, casually sipping her wine before waving a hand to calm them down. “Relax, my little guard dogs. It was an accident. But…” She trailed off, uncertain if she wanted to tell them the whole truth.
“But, what?” Ginny prodded.
A warm hand settled over hers, and she looked up to find Carly watching her with an uncharacteristically solemn expression. Of all her girls, Carly was the first to crack a smile or make a joke. She was like a ray of sunshine, even after living through the worst kind of grief imaginable.
It was that grief that had brought them together. The shared heartache of putting the man you loved in the ground well before his time. And because of that bond, and the bond she shared with all her girls, even the one not at the table tonight, she knew she had to be as honest with them as she would expect them to be with her.
“She asked me spank her.” Ignoring the soft gasps around her, Edie forged ahead. If she didn’t get it all out now, she never would. “And, God help me, for a minute I was tempted. So fucking tempted. She was standing there, looking exactly how I remembered, her cheeks all pink as she waited for me to punish her and I just… couldn’t.”
“Because you’re a good person,” Carly said softly, giving Edie’s hand a gentle squeeze.
“No.” Tears clogging her throat, Edie shook her head. “Because I wanted it so fucking bad. I realized how easy it would be to just let go of all the hurt and the anger and fall head first in love with her again. And since the whole reason she came to town was to tell me she’s getting married, I’d be the worst kind of fool if I did that.”
“Oh, Edie.” Now it was Taylor reaching for her hand, comforting her, as Carly leaned her head on Edie’s shoulder.
Giving in to the need for comfort, for companionship, Edie let her head fall to the side, her cheek pressing against Carly’s soft hair. “I wish she’d never come back to Lost River.”
“Want us to go evict her from your house?” Ginny’s skin seemed to practically glow with righteous fury. “I’ll get Rex to help. He’d be happy to throw her out on her ass.”
“No.” But it warmed all the cold places inside her, knowing they would do it if she asked. “If she’s still there in the morning, I’ll… I don’t know exactly, but I’ll figure it out.”
“Well, consider it a standing offer. From all of us,” Ginny said, Taylor and Carly both murmuring in agreement.
“I appreciate you girls. More than I can say.”
“Good. Maybe you can appreciate me enough to let me have that last bite of brownie?”
Laughing, Edie nudged the plate over to Carly. “It’s all yours, Carly-girl.”
And as the conversation shifted to Carly’s upcoming honeymoon, the baby, and a dozen other far more enjoyable topics, Edie began to believe she might just be strong enough to get rid of Jesse Walker without making a complete fool of herself in the process.