48. Jameson
Chapter forty-eight
Jameson
Bryn is snuggled into my side, her head resting on my chest. A drop of drool is dangling from the corner of her lip, and while I know she would be disgusted by this fact, I actually find it particularly adorable. I love her all soft with sleep. Unable to help myself, I lean down and gently kiss her forehead.
Her eyes crack open and a soft smile pulls at her lips before she snuggles in deeper and falls back asleep. Unfortunately, a buzz from her phone brings her back to consciousness. She sits up, wiping the spit from her mouth with the back of her hand.
“Good morning, sunshine,” I tease.
“Coffee?” she asks groggily.
“I figured we would go into town and get some.”
“Wait!” She jumps from the bed and starts throwing clothes at me. “You are late! You’ve got to get to the course.”
I catch the bra she just threw at my face, lifting my eyebrows in question. “It’s Tuesday.”
“Oh, shit. The last five days have been so insane. I don’t know what town I’m in, let alone what day it is.”
“Your phone has been buzzing. If I had to guess, your sisters have lots of questions.” She catches her bra as I throw it back to her and rolls her eyes good-naturedly. I continue, “Plus, your stomach has been growling for the last thirty minutes. It’s probably about time we get you fed.”
“I am starving, and I will not be a good person in about ten minutes if I don’t get some caffeine in my system.” She scrolls through her phone. “Kelsey just texted me. She and Izzy are demanding we join them in town for breakfast. Want to join?”
“Definitely,” I say, pressing a kiss to her forehead as I make my way into the bathroom. “I just need to make you come two, maybe three, times in the shower, and then we will be right there.”
Thirty minutes later, I climb into the passenger side of Bryn’s Tesla, my cock twitching at the sight of her ass in a pair of yoga pants. Down, boy, I think, reminding my dick that it already got to find release in that gorgeous pussy once that morning as payback for the feast I consumed when she first joined me in the shower. Unfortunately, the image of her bent over, the water pounding her from above as I pounded her from behind, has the opposite effect.
“We are going to be eating in town…with my sisters,” Bryn says, pulling me from my fantasy.
“Yeah?” I say, confused.
“It’s probably inappropriate for you to have a raging boner.” She glances away from the road to stare at the bulge in my pants, and I don’t fail to notice the way she bites her lower lip as she tears her gaze away.
“Well, you should’ve thought of that before you wore those pants,” I say.
“Ah, yes. It’s clearly on me for wearing tight clothing. I forgot that we were living in the 1900s and men cannot be held responsible for their actions when they see the shape of a woman’s legs.”
“Keep me out of this,” I joke. “This is between you and my dick. He’s the one who clearly doesn’t realize he’s being inappropriate.”
Bryn nods thoughtfully. “Noted. I will make sure to have words with him later. Really punish him for his actions.”
“Fuck, Bryn,” I say as I adjust myself. “I thought we were trying to avoid me having a raging boner when we see your sisters.”
She giggles, and it’s one of the most magical sounds in the world. I don’t think I’ve stopped smiling since Bryn walked into the restaurant, and I swear I feel the muscles in my cheeks burn from overexertion. I can’t prove it, but it feels likely I even smiled the whole time we slept, my arms holding her tight.
***
I grab Bryn’s hand as soon as she’s out of the car, and we walk into the coffee shop to find all three of our sisters sitting at a table in the back. I do a double take when I see Lila sitting there, but Izzy jumps in before I can ask anything.
“Look who finally deigned to grace us with their presence. Did you two kiss and make up?”
“Based on the looks on their faces and the amount of time it took them to get here,” Lila responds, “I’m guessing they did more than kiss.”
“Lila!” I groan, and the admonishment is echoed by Bryn and at least one of her sisters.
“No one wants to think about that. We are literally all related here,” Izzy says.
I kiss Bryn’s head. “Well, we aren’t all related yet.”
Bryn whips her head to me, and I smile innocently. I know it’s too soon, but there is no doubt in my mind that someday we actually will all be related.
Izzy rolls her eyes. “You know what I meant.”
Lila looks at Kelsey and asks, “Do you think us being related will impact if I can work with you?”
“You’re going to work with Kelsey?” I ask.
“Yup. Agreed to it yesterday while you two were off making up. It’s why I’m here. Did you not find it odd that I’m in Wild Bluffs? I don’t live here…yet.”
“I did find it a little strange, yeah. But you all didn’t give me the opportunity to ask.” I pull her into a hug. “That’s awesome. I can’t wait for you to be out in Wild Bluffs.” And it’s true. I can’t wait. Having Lila and Bryn in the same town will make it a home for me. Maybe I should even consider buying a house here rather than just renting the place at WBCC.
“It will be great to get to see you more,” Lila says.
We chat as we eat, the sisters all sipping on varying types of lattes. Bryn updates us on everything that has happened since we were all together in Arizona. It feels like a lifetime ago, and in some ways, maybe it was. That us, the ones who were faced with insecurities pushing us apart—it’s not who we are anymore.
After Bryn tells the whole story, the sisters stare at her in amazement.
“That is…wild,” Kelsey says, shaking her head.
Lila looks at me. “So what are you going to do about Alexis and Kyle? Because I’ve got a plan for Alexis. I’ve been thinking about it for years. I think the first step is to trash her in the media, make her essentially toxic. That will cause her to lose all the public figures she’s fucking.” She continues, clearly mistakenly taking everyone’s stunned silence as a good thing, “Then I need to figure out some way to fuck with her appearance. Maybe pay her hairstylist to, like, buzz her head or convince her to eat an extra thousand calories a day. Then, once we destroy those two things, all that’s left is—”
Bryn bursts out laughing at that point, and Lila stops talking long enough to notice that the other two women have looks ranging from shock to horror on their faces.
“Well,” I offer. “I think it could work.”
Bryn laughs. “First of all, this isn’t Mean Girls. You’re not going to trick Alexis into eating an extra thousand calories a day, you fucking psycho. Second, I think we should consider just letting her wallow in her self-hatred.”
“Ugh.” Lila sighs. “That sounds so boring.”
“She’s clearly a miserable human being who hates herself so much that she not only can’t stand other people being happy, but she actively self-sabotages her own happiness. You’re never going to ‘punish’ that out of her. She’s already punishing herself every day. Why else would anyone ever cheat on Jameson?” Bryn asks. “Plus, I think she might’ve actually believed what she said in the article, and if that’s the case, I just feel...bad for her.”
Bryn’s sisters both nod their consent as well.
“I don’t know,” I say. “I do think Lila is onto something here. I think we need to do something to Kyle and Alexis. No one should be able to pull that shit on us and get away with it. I’m not sure I’m in for Lila’s plan, but we’ve got to do something.”
“You do not,” says Kelsey. “You and Bryn staying together is a bigger ‘fuck you’ to Alexis than anything else you could ever do. And Kyle and, frankly, all of Hungry Guy are going to realize they lost as soon as the news breaks about Bryn getting hired by Conrad.” She thinks for a moment. “I do have some thoughts—hypothetical, of course—about how you could fuck with their social media accounts should you ever decide the high road is not the way you want to go.”
“Kelsey!” Bryn exclaims, but Izzy just leans across the table to give Kelsey a high five, which she returns begrudgingly.
I think about what Bryn said, about Alexis being the one with issues, not us. Of how much I love Bryn and the joy that I have found because Alexis cheated on me. I think about how much stronger Bryn and I are going to be now that we know we can make it through this, because it certainly won’t be the last gossip that is published about me. And I realize that I don’t need revenge. I don’t need to make Alexis or Kyle pay in order to move on. Because in the arms of the woman I love, I have found my redemption, my salvation, my home.
“Fine.” I grab Bryn’s hand, rubbing my thumb across hers as I absorb her calm.
“But, shit,” I say, looking at Kelsey. “I have a bad feeling about you and Lila working together.” And, terrifyingly, all four of them laugh.