Chapter Ten #2
Tex had been uncharacteristically quiet through all this,
likely thinking the men had it in hand since they weren’t letting up on me.
He remained that way after my announcement seeing as he went
visibly still.
The room went still.
Time stood still.
“And prepare,” I continued. “Because it’s gonna be a huge-ass wedding and I’m wearing a sexy dress.
Like Roxie’s, except sexier. Lots of flowers. A colossal cake. Server passed
hors d’oeuvres. Open bar. The whole shebang.” I whirled on Mo. “You down with
that?”
“Whatever you want, baby,” he murmured, looking amused
again.
“Good,” I snapped.
“You’re already getting married?” Eddie asked, his voice low
and unhappy. “You said you just started things up a couple hours ago.”
I whirled on him. “When did you move Jet in with you?”
He shut his mouth.
Mm-hmm.
Not a one of them could use the “you’re rushing into this”
defense. They’d each claimed their women at the speed of light.
Thank God I didn’t have to put up with that.
“And no, not yet,” I carried on. “We haven’t even had our
first date. But signals are showing he’s the one. We’d see if all systems are a
go if I’d stop having religious freaks after me or my living room filled with
meddling men. Though,” I turned back to Mo, “we do kinda
have that crackpot to thank for bringing us together.”
Mo’s eyes narrowed and a noise that sounded like a growl
came up his throat.
Okay, so, not yet in the threat-over,
post-sex-haze-of-goodness benevolent mood.
Important to know.
Eddie sighed, and I looked back at the Hot Bunch.
Lee was grinning.
Hank was looking at his feet…and smiling.
Vance and Hector were looking at each other, still not
happy.
Luke was watching Mo.
Ren smiled at me.
I turned to Tex.
“Well?”
Tex stared at me.
Then he came at me.
First, his hand went to the top of my head.
Once there, he used it to shove my face in his chest.
That was when his arms went around me.
I closed my eyes and put my arms around him.
Yeah, I didn’t need to be my dad’s best girl.
I just needed Tex around.
“It’d be my honor, Lottie,” he low-boomed into the top of my
hair.
Yeah.
All I needed was Tex.
And Mo.
And the Hot Bunch.
Life taketh away.
But if you’re open to it, it also giveth.
And I had a lot.
“Now put some clothes on, girl,” Tex ordered, let me go,
spun me around, and gave me a gentle push toward Mo.
A knock came at the door.
“Christ,” Mo muttered, the soft look he was giving me after
watching the Tex hug turning to an impatient one. “I’ll get that. You get
dressed,” he said to me.
“All right. I’m going,” I replied.
He went to the door.
I went to the stairs.
I was up three of them when I heard. “Good, Mo. Glad you’re
here. We need to ask you a few questions too.”
This meant I pivoted and went right back down to watch Mo
ushering in Mitch Lawson and Brock Lucas.
Fabulous.
I knew Mitch and Brock because they were cops, they got
around. And I worked at a strip joint, and there were always lots of people
around and by the law of averages, some of those people did things cops were
interested in.
We weren’t best buds, but they were good guys that on
occasion had to talk to me because of, say, one of the girls dating someone who
was a fuckface or Smithie calling in the police when he suspected someone was
dealing from a car parked in the club parking lot.
Though I liked them, they were two more men I had to get out
of my house before I could suck Mo’s massive cock and then ride it, this prior
to getting to know him better in other ways.
“Hey, Lottie,” Mitch greeted.
“Mitch.”
“Lottie,” Brock said.
“Hey, Brock.”
“Lottie.”
That last was a growl.
I looked to my mound of hunkalicious
boyfriend and got his message.
Definitely time to get dressed.
“I’m gonna get dressed. Don’t
start without me,” I said to Mitch and Brock, and before they could reply, I
twirled and ran up the stairs to get dressed.
Mo joined me in order to put on a shirt.
This was a heavy burden to bear, after waiting so long
wondering what was under that shirt, finally having it, liking it a whole lot,
and then again having it hidden away from me.
But hopefully this would all be over soon, I could call in
sick, we could both get naked again and recommence the celebratory festivities.
I put on cloud-gray joggers with a matching slouchy top that
fell off my shoulder, only to have Mo inquire, “You just can’t do it, can you?”
with his eyes assessing my outfit.
For goodness sake.
“This outfit isn’t sexy,” I informed him.
“Babe, there was time for me to get on my knees right now,
I’d do it to thank God you don’t got a dick. But I do. So that’s my call. And
it is.”
I couldn’t argue that.
So I used, “All those men are very taken, Mo.”
His gaze cut from my outfit to my face. “Yeah, so am I. By
you. And now I gotta be interviewed by the cops
fighting getting hard.”
Oh.
Well then.
I struggled against smiling while I asked, “What do you want
me to wear?”
“Until this house is empty but you and me, a shroud.”
Okay.
I couldn’t not smile.
“I don’t have one of those,” I shared through it.
“Let’s just get this done,” he said through a sigh.
I was down with that.
We walked out of the room together, me under an additional
burden, this being the burden of Mo’s heavy arm flung over my shoulders.
This burden I didn’t mind bearing.
“You okay?” I asked.
“You’re safe, we’ve fucked twice, I’m good…for now.”
“No, I mean with Tex and the Hot Bunch being here.”
He stopped us halfway down the stairs, stairs that weren’t
exactly narrow, but they were with me jammed up next to my mound of hunkalicious boyfriend.
“The Hot Bunch?” he asked.
“The Nightingale Men, plus Eddie and Ren. Haven’t you read
the books?”
“Those Rock Chick books?” he asked.
“Yeah,” I answered.
“No, I haven’t read those books,” he muttered.
That was probably good.
However…
“Don’t you read?” I asked.
“I can read,” he answered.
“No, I mean, enjoy reading, for fun.”
“I’m too busy. If there’s time I can, I listen to them.”
I smiled up at him. “Cool.”
He stared down at me. “Are you in them?”
Hmm…
I decided to start by playing dumb. “In what?”
His arm squeezed my shoulder.
He meant was I in the Rock Chick books.
And he knew I was playing dumb.
To avoid my collarbone snapping, I said, “Kind of.”
“How kind of?”
“The kind of kind of that’s more like a yes.”
He stared down at me.
Then he blew out another sigh and resumed our descent of the
stairs.
We joined the men who had decided to hang around (this being
all of them) and I saw Eddie had made himself at home and was handing out
coffees.
I made a mental note to buy more pods as Mitch and Brock
suggested I sit at the dining room table while we chatted.
I took the head and there was a slight kerfuffle when Mo
firmly positioned himself standing at my right side, which meant Eddie had
abandoned his coffee post and was trying to position himself at my left, where
Tex was also positioning himself.
“Who’s givin’ her away,
motherfucker?” Tex asked to end the hubbub. He didn’t allow Eddie to answer.
“Me. So stand down.”
“She’s gonna make you wear a tux,”
Eddie warned, giving in badly.
“So what?” Tex asked.
Everyone in the room looked at Tex in shock.
He wore flannel shirts and jeans.
The end.
Unless he was under duress, this being when he got married,
when a Rock Chick got married, and when he went on a cruise with my mother. On
that he wore swim trunks for the sole purpose of wearing them, and since he was
only slightly smaller than Mo, though older and a lot hairier, he cleared the
deck by the pool on the ship because people were terrified of him.
“I didn’t give Roxie away ’cause
Herb horned in on that action,” Tex went on, referring to his niece and Hank’s
wife.
“Herb’s her father,” Hank pointed out.
“Yeah, well, she’s got two arms, am I wrong?” Tex
noted.
He was not.
“And if I get Lottie to the altar and change my mind,” Tex
continued, “when I’m asked who gives her away, I can punch this guy in the face
and take off with her.”
On that he jerked his head Mo’s way.
But on that, I was having second thoughts about asking Tex
to give me away because Tex was unpredictable, and this sounded shocking, but
with him, nothing was out of the realm of possibility.
“I’d really rather you not do that, Tex,” I told him.
“Then you better be really fuckin’ good to her,” he told Mo.
“We haven’t even been out on a date!” I snapped.
Tex finally looked down at me. “Don’t try that shit with me,
girl. I’ve been in on it since the beginning. I’m not sure Lee and Indy have
even been on a date yet, and they’ve been married for years and got two kids.”
“You really kinda haven’t, have
you?” Hank asked Lee.
“Can we talk about the lunatic with a basement covered in
plastic sheets?” Mitch asked.
And my body went ice-cold.
“A word. Now,” Mo grunted, and didn’t wait for
Mitch to agree to said word.
He turned on his bare foot and stalked to the back door.
Mitch looked to me, the men, and followed.
Brock went after him.
“You didn’t know?” Eddie murmured to me.
I stared at the dining room table.
“Lottie, querida, you didn’t know?” Eddie repeated.
I tipped my eyes up to him. “Plastic sheets?”
Eddie’s face got hard and he looked to Lee.
Tex’s big mitt fell on my shoulder and squeezed.
“He was…he was getting ready to follow through, wasn’t he?”
I asked.
Eddie looked back to me.
“Yeah, Lottie,” he said gently.
“Oh my God,” I breathed.
Tex pulled out the chair beside me and settled his bulk into
it.
His hand covered mine on the table.
“Safe now, girl. All good,” he low boomed.
I stared at his hand covering mine.
“Lottie, look at me,” Tex urged.
But something was wrong with me.
“Lottie, my girl, look at me,” Tex repeated.
“I love you, Tex, you know that, don’t you?” I said to our
hands.
“I do, darlin’, and I love you too,” Tex replied.
The astonishing and magnificent event of Tex actually saying
the words and not getting tongue tied and feeling awkward at open emotion
didn’t even register with me.
“I love you, Eddie, you know that,” I told Tex and my hands.
“I love you for my sister and my nephews and I love you for me too.”
“Love you too, sweetheart,” I heard Eddie murmur as I felt
my hair gently pulled off my shoulder and a hand land reassuringly on my neck.
I wasn’t reassured.
“I love all you guys,” I said.
No one replied but I felt the goodness all around me.
It just didn’t work.
“I need Mo,” I whispered in a voice even I barely heard.
“Sorry, darlin’?” Tex asked.
Abruptly, I turned my gaze to his, totally lost the hold I’d
been keeping now for a week, and shrieked, “I need Mo!”
The back door opened even before Vance and Ren took off
toward it.
I heard heavy, fast steps then I was in strong arms and
after that I was sitting in a wide lap, burrowing into a big body, trembling
from head to toe.
“Victim’s Assistance?” I heard Hank ask quietly.
“Give her a minute,” Mo replied in the same tone, holding me
close but pulling me closer. Then in my ear, “What do you feel?”
Terrified.
Plastic sheets.
His arms tightened further. “What do you feel, sweetheart?”
“Y-you.”
“Me,” he agreed. “Where am I?”
“R-right here.”
“Right here. With you. Are you safe?”
I forced myself to nod, but the movement felt foreign, like
I’d never done it before.
And I couldn’t stop shaking.
Man, it was so cold.
“Get her sister here,” Mo ordered.
“On it,” Eddie said.
“And her mom,” Mo went on.
“Got that,” Tex replied.
“I’m okay. I’ll b-be okay. Don’t worry them,” I said to Mo’s
chest.
“Lottie?”
“Y-yeah?”
“Shut up.”
“’Kay.”
Still trembling (okay, more like shaking), I pushed closer
to Mo.
And he held on.