Chapter 20
CHAPTER
TWENTY
Jory
“Hey, man,” I say, pulling Drake into a hug. “It’s good to see you.”
“Yeah, you, too. How have you been?”
“Not too damn bad.”
We sit across from each other at a table in the corner of Piper’s Pizza. By all accounts, it’s the best food in Sugar Creek. It’s also the only establishment besides Patsy’s, and that’s a bar. So I’m not quite sure how well that bodes for Piper’s.
“What’s going on with you?” I ask, accepting a menu from our server. We order drinks, and I wait for her to walk away before continuing. “How’s life been treating you?”
“I can’t complain. Gianna and I just closed on our house, so that’s exciting.”
I’ve known Drake for several years, and he’s always been a pretty chill guy. But there’s something different about him today. The worry lines on his face are gone, and the way he carries himself isn’t like the man who was always stressed as fuck about work, ratings, and listener counts.
He’s … happy.
“Here are your drinks,” Lisa says, placing them on the table. “Do you guys know what you want or do you need some time?”
“I’ll have a small, loaded pizza,” Drake says, not bothering to look at the menu.
Lisa laughs. “I could’ve guessed that.” She scribbles on her notepad. “What about you?”
I haven’t had time to look, but pizza is pizza. “Small pepperoni will work.”
“You’re Markie St. James’s new man, aren’t you?” Lisa asks, grinning.
Wow. I laugh. “How did you know that?”
“Let’s just say that there aren’t many men who look like you coming through town.” She winks, walking backward toward the counter. “I’ll get these in. Let me know if you need anything else in the meantime.”
I shake my head, turning back to Drake. “Is there some kind of town-wide text thread or something? Because these people know everything as soon as it happens.”
Drake chuckles. “You haven’t seen the half of it. I grew up in what I thought was a small town, but this is its own world.”
“Do you like it here?”
He folds his hands on the table and grins. “Yeah. Gianna’s happy here. This is where she wants to be, with her friends and her pig.”
“She has a pig?”
“Yeah, but she doesn’t know it yet.” He shrugs as if even he can’t believe the words coming from his mouth. “Mira got a pig.”
“Pigasso? Or something like that?”
“Yup. And Gianna has wanted one ever since. So I arranged for one to be delivered to the new house in a few weeks. A couple of Hartley’s guys are going to build a pen because, while I’m lots of things, a farmer I am not.
” He laughs. “But this whole thing is a surprise, so don’t mention it to Markie because these women tell each other everything—and I mean everything.
” He narrows his eyes. “Speaking of Markie, what’s going on there? ”
I stretch my legs out to the side, trying to figure out where to start. There’s a clear answer to his question: we’re fake dating. But those words won’t quite reach my tongue.
Nothing about that woman feels fake. And when I try to place a label on how I feel about her, like she’s a woman in my bed that I don’t care about because the sex is hot, I want to crawl out of my skin. It’s like my brain knows what we are, but my body refuses to accept the definition.
I’m not quite sure what to do about that.
“It’s a long story,” I say, hoping that will suffice.
“Well, let’s start in a more interesting spot—to me, anyway. What happened with Jasper at Patsy’s? You earned yourself a fan club that night.”
“Really?” I ask, surprised. Jasper didn’t come across as a man with many friends, but to say I have a fan club for putting him in his place is surprising.
Drake chuckles. “Yeah.”
“What’s his deal, anyway?”
“He grew up with Gray and Brooks and Hart,” Drake says.
“And when the guys found out that he cheated on Markie, they blacklisted him. Hart more than the others. Brooks and Gray would’ve just ignored him, probably.
But Hartley got pissed and wrote him off.
Won’t let him come to the ranch, told him in no uncertain terms to get fucked. And that was that.”
“Why? Don’t get me wrong, because I appreciate their loyalty to her, but what pissed Hartley off so much?”
Drake takes a drink, mulling over my question. He sets his glass down and leans forward against the table.
“Hartley’s point was that Jasper and Markie dated for a while, and Markie is such a good person. All the girls love her. She and Gianna share a lot of the same … energy.”
I chuckle at the description. I know just what he means.
“So, yeah. Hartley said that if Jasper could fuck her over like he did, he could turn his back on any of them. And he just refused to associate with him anymore.”
I like this Hartley guy.
“Since you seem to know all, what did Jasper do? I know he cheated on her, but how did that shake out?”
Drake sighs. “Trust me when I say that I know so much more about this than I want to.”
“I figured as much,” I say, grinning.
“Markie’s friend, Nettie, was at a nail salon or something.
Believe it or not, but I try not to know this shit.
Anyway, she was getting her nails done or whatever, and this girl came in and sat next to her.
Jasper has a hat with a toolbox on the front—ironic, I know.
But someone made it for him. It’s bright green, and you can’t miss it.
And this girl who sits down by Nettie was wearing that hat. ”
Oh shit.
Despite Jasper’s fuckup being beneficial to me, because now Markie is mine, the story feels like I’m watching it in real time. And picturing this scene … I know where this is headed. And if Jasper were here, I’d rip his fucking head off for fun.
Drake nods, validating what I’m thinking. “Nettie asks her about the hat. She said it belonged to the guy she’d been seeing, and he'd left it there the night before. You get the picture. It all went downhill from there.”
I imagine it did. What a fucking prick.
It’s no wonder Markie’s wary of men. And it’s no surprise she’s distrustful after hearing that bullshit.
“Men have consistently disappointed me over the past … decade, if we’re being honest. Come to think of it, besides my dad and grandpa, I’m not sure a man has ever not disappointed me.”
My pulse quickens as I consider what else she’s gone through.
When I hold her, I love how she melts into me. It’s like she’s relieved, like she’s been carrying around heavy armor and can finally set it down. And I’ve also noticed that she seems to value the post-sex moments, when we’re just lying in bed or the bath, as much as the sex itself.
My girl likes to come, but she also likes to cuddle. She likes to be comforted even though I don’t think she’d ever ask for it.
Now that I think about things, knowing her history with Jasper, a lot more about Markie makes sense.
The way her body molds to mine, the way her breathing evens out against my chest? She feels safe in my arms.
She can finally breathe.
“Fuck that guy,” I say, pulling myself back to the conversation with Drake. “Hey, how’s your dad?” I need to move this conversation along. “Is he doing any better?”
“Yeah and no. It’s dementia, so there’s really no getting better.”
I frown, wondering if I shouldn’t have brought it up. But we used to talk about his dad a lot, so I feel like it’d be rude not to ask.
“I’m sorry,” I say.
He sighs, frowning, too. “You know, that’s really just me being pissed about the whole situation and not necessarily true.
He is on a few new medicines, and they’re helping some of his symptoms. His sundowning episodes have decreased, which is a huge help.
Nighttime was when things were starting to get ugly, and Mom was really struggling, not sleeping—all that jazz. ”
I recall Drake telling me about some of Ed’s episodes and how quickly he was deteriorating.
We had a long talk about it one night over Pad Thai.
It’s the only time I’ve ever seen him cry.
Hearing him talk about his idol not remembering who he was or any of the memories they shared together was fucking heartbreaking.
“My sister Elodie moved in with our parents,” he says. “I volunteered to move them in with Gianna and me, but Mom thought it was best to keep Dad in the house he knew. And that makes sense. Plus, it helped my sister out. Everybody won.”
“I’m glad to hear that.”
Lisa brings us plates and our pizzas, checks our drinks, then scoots off to answer the drive-thru window.
We sit quietly for a few minutes as we eat, and my mind drifts to Ed.
If there was ever a father I’d want to emulate, it’s Ed Bennett.
The way Drake talks about him makes him out to be Superman.
He was always there, supportive, and a source of advice for his son.
Drake laughed once and said it was great growing up with a dad who knew everything, and he wasn’t sure how people made it with a father who didn’t.
My own father wasn’t a walking source of knowledge, but he did teach me a lot in the eighteen years that we had together.
I can only imagine what I could’ve learned from him if I’d had him as an adult.
One thing I always knew, without a doubt, was that he loved me unconditionally. It sounds like Markie knew that kind of love, too. Yet …
“Come to think of it, besides my dad and grandpa, I’m not sure a man has ever not disappointed me.”
Her words haunt me today, tugging at my heart and my head. I hate that she feels that way. I hate that it’s such a part of her existence that she can speak it freely, like it’s an accepted part of her life.
There’s nothing I can do to erase the shitty behavior of other men, but I can validate her feelings.
She’s right to expect more from men, especially ones she allows into her life, and she should expect to be adored and treated like the Pickleball Princess she is.
Even if I’m only her fake boyfriend and our fake relationship has a timer ticking away with an end in sight, I’ll be damned if I don’t demonstrate to this amazing woman how a real man would treat her.