Chapter Twelve
Chapter
Twelve
Sleeping Dragon
Archie
They’d made a tent of some sheets and were tangled in
each other and a mess of pillows on a rug on her floor.
It was Sunday afternoon. Jagger was snoozing. On his back.
Naked.
Archie was at his side, not snoozing, but also naked.
They’d spent the night before in a B&B in Estes Park.
Now they were home.
And Archie was down with how into each other they were. How
much time they were spending together.
They were meant to be, after all.
However…
Lying on her side, up on an elbow, tucked close to him, she
studied Jagger’s handsome face through the fading sunlight coming through the
light sheet.
He was beautiful.
But he looked conflicted, even in sleep.
She trailed her hand up his flat belly to his pec where she
absently rubbed a thumb across his nipple.
He stirred, turning to her, wrapping both arms around her
and pulling her tight, front to front.
“Baby,” he murmured into the top of her hair, “I’m all for
another round. Just give me five more minutes.”
This had not been her intent.
But she didn’t need to explain that because she felt him
settle into her and back into sleep.
Archie held him like a lover, and she held him like a
friend.
She held him light, but she held him loving.
And as she did, she thought of their conversation that
morning over breakfast at the Notchtop Café in Estes.
Primarily the part where she’d alluded to Elijah being an
issue when it came to co-owning the building.
And specifically the part where Jagger visibly struggled
with pushing her to talk about it.
She let him off the hook, giving it to him without him
having to ask.
“He’s a pain because he demands half the rents on the
apartments and for me to pay him rent on the space for the shop. I get this,
he’s half-owner. Money is made off that space. He’s entitled to his share.
Absolutely. Where the issues are is around utilities and maintenance. He did
not pony up on the improvements and I keep a handyman on retainer because
issues crop up and I’m no plumber or electrician, but they need to get fixed
and fast. The shop has a security system that I pay for, I pay all the utilities
on that space, and I pay the maintenance contract on the security for the
apartment entrance. He wants half without any deductions, says I made the
decisions to have that other stuff, so they’re on me.”
Jag said nothing and it was not lost on Archie that his
silence was heavy.
Then again, this subject was heavy.
And it was one she’d broached because she wanted to discuss
it with him, not talk at him with him just listening.
She’d done enough of that in her own head.
Though mostly, she could tell he was pissed on her behalf.
He just wasn’t saying anything.
“I feel it isn’t on me,” she pointed out in order to spur on
a conversation. “The security on the store, as the owner of the business, I
get. At a stretch. But as the owner of the building, you want security for that
space, and I feel it’s something you’d offer a tenant, even if that tenant is
me. You definitely want to provide it for your apartment residents. And we did
have the discussion, we just didn’t agree. Mostly because Elijah thinks we
should jack up rent to pay for the handyman and the security and point-blank
feels he shares no responsibility for the shop space at all.”
When she stopped speaking, Jag still said nothing.
So she informed him, “You’re allowed to have an opinion,
Jagger.”
“You know I’m gonna side with you,” he told her.
“You don’t have to,” she replied. “I’m open to alternate
viewpoints. We can have a discussion about this.”
“Babe, I have no experience with rental properties, either
commercial or residential. Though, I don’t think it’s out of bounds to increase
rents in order to offer better services to your renters. That said, my guess
is, you both own this building outright. If you don’t have a mortgage on it,
that just means extra money for him, so it seems greedy to demand more when
he’s not shelling out anything to have that asset in the first place. Were
inheritance taxes a big hit?”
“Grandmoms and Pops had no other grandchildren, we got
everything, and they’d planned well for retirement, so yes. The government took
its share and that share was hefty. But we still had more than we had before
they passed, so you’re right. It’s just greedy.”
She left that a beat.
Then declared, “Greedy and lazy.”
She had him in the zone, she knew it when, this time, he
didn’t hesitate to demand, “Give me more on that.”
Relieved he was finally engaging, Archie didn’t hesitate to
offer it.
“It wasn’t my job to take care of them when Mom died,
Jagger. And I’m not going to make the blanket statement that men are incapable
of coping when shit gets real. I suspect there are men who are. It’s just that
those two weren’t those men. They both fell apart when we lost Mom and I held
us together. I was fourteen and I stepped into her shoes. Cooking. Cleaning.
Making grocery lists and asking Dad to take me to the store. I’m writing shit
on the family calendar and riding Elijah’s ass about being prepared to go to
practice after school and studying for a test. We’re family. You do what you gotta do. Honestly, as much as it sucked, it was what it
was, and I was taking care of people I love.”
When she stopped talking and it was clear she had more to
say, Jagger prompted, “But…”
“But, now, when it’s me who deals with the rental payments,
collecting them then giving him his cut. When I get their calls if something’s
wrong in a unit and I coordinate the handyman. When I sweep and mop the
hallways and stairs twice a month to keep the space nice. And he demands half
of what we make with incidentals taken out of my half, I get crotchety about
days of yore when he leaned on me to keep his shit tight, to keep his family
together, to keep his home.”
Jag’s voice was quiet when he asked, “Are we talking about
Elijah now, honey, or your dad?”
She shook her head.
“Dad copped to it. It took him a while, and that while
happened when my stepmom entered the picture, with my stepsisters, and he clued
in and was confronted with how much I did. The first time I came home from
school, he sat me down and we chatted. He got emotional, it overwhelmed him how
much he laid on me and he didn’t even realize it. He then went on a stint of
trying to make up for it, which did not go down great with Elijah.”
“Well, shit,” Jagger muttered.
“Yeah, you’re seeing how this feeds into itself. The thing
is, you gotta be pretty fucking selfish not to see why
it does.”
“Yeah,” Jag agreed.
“And, you know, I’m in retail. There are going to be fat
times, there are going to be lean times. The shop isn’t that old. I’m just
getting my mojo with that and learning which is which. Christmas is big, obvs.
Summer, sales pick up. And I’m learning how to stretch the good times to cover
the bad. But anyone can use more bank. I sacrificed for him then and I’m
sacrificing for him now because Elijah’s so…” Archie shook her head, shrugged
and said, “Elijah. It’s easier just to suck it up and to put up with
his shit.”
Jag had fallen silent again.
“You don’t agree?” she pushed.
“I will repeat, I’m gonna side with you.”
That was unhelpful to say the least.
Thus, Archie nabbed her coffee mug, sat back from her Irish
Benedict and looked to the floor.
“Babe,” Jag called.
She looked back to him.
“What I’m gonna say is gonna suck,” he told her.
“What are you gonna say?” she asked.
“You haven’t had it easy with all of this, but you sucking
it up is gonna keep fucking you. No one likes to get fucked. Not that way. You
are the single chillest chick I know. But right now,
your voice is wrong when you talk about your brother. You’re hurt and you’re
angry and you’re enabling that. If you want it not to get out of control, you
can’t do what’s easy. You gotta face it.”
You gotta face it.
Archie said nothing but she was finding that Jagger Black
was not one of those oblivious dudes who was incapable of inner reflection (he
just didn’t seem real hip on sharing those reflections).
And she knew that comment triggered that he needed to be
doing some reflection.
But when she saw the pain shadow his eyes, something that
was too damned familiar (and it was that and they hadn’t even been together two
weeks), she did what she’d been conditioned to do with the men in her life.
She set about making things easy on him.
This time, by sidestepping that completely.
“So, you think I should…” She let that trail for him to pick
it up.
“First, did you use some of your inheritance on
improvements?”
She nodded.
“And your brother did not kick in on any of that?”
She shook her head.
The air got heavier, which meant Jagger was getting more
pissed.
But he got a handle on it and continued.
“Okay, what I think is that you should deduct half of what
it’s inarguable he should pay for. If you want, I could go over all of it with
you to offer feedback, but definitely anything to do with the rental units and
maintenance of them. Cleaners don’t come cheap. Not sure how long it takes you
to clean the common areas, but that’s part of maintenance and I’d deduct an
hourly rate for that too.”
He took a breath, and when she nodded that she got what he
was saying, he went on.
“Personally, I’d make a list of what it cost to do the
improvements, provide him with that list, and make a schedule of deductions for
it until he’s paid his half, but he still gets a monthly payment so he isn’t
totally out that income.”
Archie sucked in a quick breath at the thought of that.
“It’s only fair, baby,” he said softly. “If he agreed or
not, he’s reaping the bennies of your investment. He wants to be a slum lord,
owning a property he doesn’t care for, he can buy you out.”
Jagger was right.
He really was.
Damn.
“And if he has an issue with it,” Jag carried on, “he either