11
Beckett
“Hold up,” I call out, tripping over my own feet as I pull on my bright orange briefs. “I’m coming!” Whoever is at my fucking door better be on fire ‘cos their persistent, obnoxiously loud knocking ruined my damn shower. “Shit,” I hiss as I finally get to the door, pull it open and stub my toe on the edge. “Dammit.”
“Nice to see you, too, Beckett.”
Oh, fuck me.
My entire body goes rigid at the sound of her voice.
Paige .
I haven’t seen or spoken to this bitch since that night. Not since I walked back into Inked on Agnes on the worst night of my life, after fighting off three grown men and walking away with only a black eye, a ripped shirt, and a set of busted knuckles, to find it trashed. If I hadn’t seen the security footage of her using the baseball bat that we had behind the front counter to smash every frame on the wall, as well at the glass pane of our coffee table, I wouldn’t have even believed she was capable of the damage she caused.
Karma sure as hell came quickly for me that night.
After telling Ryan and our security team not to call the cops, I unblocked her number, called her, and demanded payment for the damages. She fucking laughed at me and then hung up.
And now, here she stands.
Joy.
“What in the fuck are you doing here?” I groan, strategically placing my hands in front of my dick, very conscious of the fact that I’ve only got on a pair of briefs, and droplets of water are still beading down my torso. “Paige!” I snap as her eyes roam up and down my body. “How did you even get my address?”
I sure as fuck didn’t give it to her.
Quickly, she looks from my chest to my face. “Thought I’d come and say goodbye before I head off to Sydney,” she says, with an overly exaggerated smile while blatantly ignoring my question. “We’re opening a new dealership, and daddy-”
“You’ve come to say goodbye?” I gawk at her. “You’ve come to say goodbye?” I repeat, my voice getting louder with each word. “Are you deranged? Like an actual lunatic? You trashed my fucking shop, Paige! You ruined my relationship! If I never see you again, it’ll be too fucking soon!”
She waves off my anger as if it’s nothing and tries to push past me into the house, but I don’t budge. She sighs loudly, as if she has a reason to be exacerbated with me, and then takes a step back. “You’re so dramatic. I didn’t ruin your relationship. It’s not like I forced you to touch-”
“We both know I didn’t lay a fucking finger on you.”
“No.” She grins. “But you sure enjoyed the show, didn’t you?” I stare down at her, repulsed, as she raises her hand and places it on my chest. “You know, we could always finish what we started that night, for old times’ sake.”
I would rather cut off my cock.
I wrap my hand firmly around her wrist and lean down with the intention to tell her to get gone, when the sound of a car door slamming pulls my attention from her to the road.
“What the fuck is this ?”
My entire body tenses at the sound of her voice.
Penny . Penny’s here…
I release Paige’s wrist immediately and step around her to get a better view of the furious woman storming across my lawn.
“Penny,” I whisper, blinking a few times to ensure I’m actually seeing her and not hallucinating. I’ve had that many dreams about her showing up here, telling me that she loves me, that we can work this shit out, that part of me is sure this is just another one. “Love? What are you doing here?”
“Well excuse the fuck out of me for returning one of your six thousand phone calls in person,” she says as she comes to a halt right in the middle of my front yard, as if I’m accusing her of something instead of genuinely asking why she’s here.
“No! Shit. I didn’t-” I groan. “This isn’t what it looks like.” Even to me, that sounded lame as hell.
Her eyes don’t move from Paige, who is now wearing a shit-eating grin. And I’m standing here in nothing but a pair of briefs.
Fuck.
“Is that right?” she asks, her tone dripping with sarcasm.
“Paige, leave,” I snap, not even bother to look at her.
“Whatever, I’m bored,” Paige says, stepping down off my porch and onto the grass. I hold my breath as she approaches Penny, stops within arm’s reach of her, and looks her up and down, before saying, “Enjoy my sloppy seconds, babes .”
Oh, for the love of God.
Before I can react, Penny jumps forward and grabs a fist full of Paige’s blonde hair.
I freeze, unsure how to proceed, as Paige squeals and thrashes around, and Penny holds her head in place, her nose only inches from her own.
“I promise, I am not the one. You even so much as look my way again, and I will permanently remove that smirk from your over filled face and rip these cheap blonde hair extensions out of your goddamn head. You touch him again, and I will fucking strangle the life out of you with them.”
Paige stills in Penny’s hold and decides to start sobbing instead of fighting. Eventually, Penny releases her. She stumbles back a few steps, rubbing at the sore spot on her scalp. “You’re a fucking psycho!” she squeals, black mascara now smudged under her eyes. “That’s assault!”
“I’ll show you assault!” This time, I manage to grab Penny before she can get to Paige. I wrap my arms around her tightly, holding her to my chest as Paige sprints to her car and climbs into the driver’s side. “Fuck you both!” she screams from the open passenger door window, as she chucks the pink convertible into reverse and starts rolling backwards.
Penny doesn’t relax in my arms until the car and its driver have left my driveway and disappeared from sight.
“Pen-”
“Don’t!” she snaps. “Let me go!”
Reluctantly, I release her and take two steps back, giving her some space as she smoothes down her dark brown hair.
“Jesus,” she whispers to herself. “What am I even doing here?”
“I swear I didn’t invite her here, Penny-”
“Obviously,” she snaps, glaring at me like I’m an idiot, but I ignore it, focusing on the relief I feel knowing she believes me. “That’s not the issue.”
“Oh-kay,” I reply hesitantly, inching forward, testing my limits. “So, what is the issue?”
“THIS!” she yells, flailing her arms around, gesturing to me, to her, to the house. “All of this! It’s all- ugh! I’m fucking out of here. I’m not doing this again.”
Penny is fast when she wants to be, so when she turns and takes off at an almost sprint to her car, it takes me a second to catch up to her. She slides into the car and slams the door behind her. As I reach for the handle, she locks it. I bang on the window, I beg her to stay, and in response she flips me the bird through the glass.
“Fuck!” I yell, running my hands over my head and linking my fingers behind my neck as she takes off, her tires squealing in response to the immediate speed.
I move to the curb and watch, hopelessly, as she approaches the left-hand turn that’ll take her out of my line of sight, when suddenly, her car comes to a halt, and her reversing lights flick on.
She’s coming back…
My heart beats out of my damn chest as the lunatic of a woman reverses the entire way back down the road. I reach for the passenger door handle the moment she pulls to a stop in front of me, but it’s locked. I try again, staring at her through the window, but she doesn’t turn her head to look at me until she’s taken five deep breaths, her shoulders rising and falling with each one. Then, slowly, with the press of a button, she lowers the window just enough to speak to me through the crack.
“Open the door, Penny,” I beg, tugging at the handle again.
“No,” she says with a bitter smile. “You’re going to stand right there and listen to what I came to tell you, and then I’m leaving.”
“Penny-”
“Shut the fuck up!”
Her anger radiates through the window, and I feel it like a direct hit to the chest. “I’m pregnant. And the only, and I mean the only reason that I’m telling you, is because it’s the right thing to do.”
Pregnant .
I fall forward, grabbing onto the roof of her car for stability.
“I will contact you when I’ve had some time to decide what I want to do. Until then, don’t tell anyone. Don’t message me. Don’t call me. Nothing. Leave. Me. Alone. Beckett. And I swear to God if I ever see you with that blonde bitch again, I will run you down and then reverse back over her. Do we understand each other?”
“I-”
“Good,” she snaps, before stomping on the accelerator and speeding off down the street.
Holy. Fucking. Shit.