Chapter 3 #3
Maybe that’s because you haven’t gotten laid in almost half a decade, Cillian’s voice filled his head.
It was a little over four years, but Cillian liked to round up to make it sound more dramatic. Kristen didn’t feel well during her pregnancy, so they hadn’t had sex, and then once Tabby was born, he’d been too invested in being a dad to date.
Deacon guided Jen to his SUV and hit the fob. Her brows lifted as he opened the door.
“Fancy,” she commented as she slid into the passenger seat of the Mercedes-Maybach SUV, but it wasn’t a good fancy, it was an oh-great-you’re-one-of-them fancy.
He grinned, shut the door, and when he got into the driver’s side and pulled away, he felt her turn towards him. “So you’re really not a bartender.”
“Because my car is fancy? It’s a rental.”
“James recognized you.” She said as if it were more evidence he had money. “I saw the look in his eye, you are one of his big fish, he only has a few.”
“Do you have a problem with fancy?”
They both knew they were using the word “fancy” for money.
Her phone buzzed as he pulled out of the parking lot, leaving her husband wearing a shocked and confused expression. Deacon was fairly certain it was her ex texting her.
She shrugged as she checked her phone, then set it on her lap. “It’s fine.”
“It’s fine?” Wow. He’d really never met anyone like her. “Care to elaborate?”
“Fancy people think they can do anything. Get away with anything. There are no rules for them, or consequences, which doesn’t typically breed good people.”
As much as he’d love to say that wasn’t so, he couldn’t argue with her.
There was a very unfair advantage for people who had money.
That attracted most people he knew to want it.
It seemed to have the opposite effect on Jen.
It repelled her. He wasn’t sure that would bode well for him, but it made him respect the hell out of her.
Her phone started ringing, and she silenced it.
“My mom wasn’t a whore.”
“So, where would you like—" Deacon spoke at the same time Jen did. He thought he heard what she said, but he turned his head.
She was looking down at her hands holding her phone.
“I know it doesn’t matter if she was. But she wasn’t…
a sex worker, I mean. He calls her that because she had a lot of men around.
But she wasn’t. They were men who had money, a lot of money, and thought they could buy things that weren’t for sale. ”
Deacon’s hands gripped the steering wheel at the implication that the thing was her.
He was trying to stay calm, he knew his anger wasn’t what she needed.
If she wanted to talk about it, she just needed him to be there for her.
It wasn’t about him or his feelings of wanting to protect her, of wishing he could be there to kill each and every one of them.
“Did they… did you…”
“No!” she quickly clarified as she took a shaky breath.
“My mom was an addict her whole life and put me in some very bad situations. But thankfully I was smart, had really good intuition, got good locks on my door, and a boyfriend at fourteen who was six foot two, a hundred and ninety pounds, and who basically moved in.”
“And he was a good guy?”
“The best. Ash, he’s my baby daddy,” she chuckled. “My first husband. Anyway…” She took a deep breath and exhaled loudly. “I don’t know why I told you that, I just didn’t want you to think…she was a lot of things, but not that. James just always called her that.”
“James is an asshole.”
“Yep, he sure is.”
They drove for a few minutes in silence before he asked, “Where do you want me to take you?”
She looked out the passenger window, and then he felt her turn her head towards him. “Well, I’m not going home.”
He glanced back at the road, then back to her. “My daughter is spending the night—"
“Was that the girl in the picture with your parents?”
He nodded.
“How old is she?”
“Three.”
“And her mom?”
He turned his attention back out the windshield. “She passed away.”
“I’m so sorry.”
All too familiar guilt crept up his neck.
It was the same every time the subject of Kristen came up.
She was his wife, she was the mother of his child, and of course he missed her.
Of course, he wished that Tabby had her mom, that Kristen could have been a mom she was born to be, but she wasn’t the love of his life.
They weren’t in love when they got married, and then she was gone. Overnight he was cast in the role of grieving husband and given sympathy he hadn’t earned. Years later he still didn’t know how to reconcile that.
“Tab’s with Cillian’s mom and dad,” he continued. “I have a suite where I’m staying, there are three bedrooms you’re welcome to—”
“Okay.”
His head spun back towards her. He was 99% sure she’d said okay, but he also could have been imagining it. It had been a long day, a long week and he hadn’t slept. What he saw in her eyes told him not only had she said it, she meant it.
Just that morning he wasn’t sure how he’d make it through the day, now he wanted the day to last just a little bit, no, a lot, longer.