Swiveling to face her, I scanned her face. “How old are you?”
“Twenty-eight. I know it’s hard to tell, but I guess I just look younger than my years.”
Huh…
“Okay, so if you’re twenty-eight, why are you acting like a thirteen-year-old? You’ve tried to cause problems for so many people, and you’re still not learning that nice and decent people don’t do the shit you do.”
She looked truly confused by what I was saying. “The shit I do?”
“Yeah, like bullying, telling lies, trying to cause shit, trying to make people feel like shit. Just general nasty bullshit only a teenager would do. At some point, you need to grow up.” I was doing everything I could to keep the tone of my voice from slipping into one that was nasty, considering my words were harsh enough, but fuck me, it was difficult.
She blinked rapidly for a minute and then looked around the guys and then over to the girls, stopping on Sadie. That’s when her expression went from perplexed to full-on vindictive.
“So, you deny that you banged my brains out,” she snickered. “Oh, I think there are enough people here who saw us leave together that night, including some of your men behind you.”
I was about to call bullshit when a couple of the guys cleared their throats.
“And when did this night supposedly happen?”
“When Levi and his woman had their problems. After it, you came in here and got drunk. I figured why not, so you banged my brains out.”
It felt like I was suddenly suffocating. I had come in here after that shit, and it’d been close enough to losing Coop and going through all the stuff with his family that I’d spent a lot of time drunk when I didn’t need to use my brain for anything. I’d woken up in my motel room the next morning, with no memory of what’d happened the night before, but because I was alone, I figured I hadn’t brought anyone home with me. But I did remember having a drink with her and talking to her at one point…
Slowly, taking as long as I possibly could, I turned to look at Sadie. I didn’t want to, but fuck, I needed to make sure she was okay. If what she was saying was right, I hated myself at that moment. This woman made so many lives a living hell, including my woman’s, and she was saying I’d had sex with her?
Beau was looking between Sadie and me worriedly, while Ari was staring at the top of the bar. But Sadie, fuck me, she was wearing a milder version of the disappointment and anger that Coop’s family had given me.
From anyone else, at any other time, I could have taken it. But not at that moment.
Call me a pussy, call me anything you want, but I needed to get away from it.
So, not saying a word, I got up and hopped off my stool and strode over to the door, the only thought in my mind getting away from them all.
I did have the presence of mind to text Tate, though, to ask him to drop Sadie home safely while I packed my shit at her place, as well as sending a text to Jackson to ask him to check in on her.
Then, I grabbed my bag and walked out of there, not realizing I’d left my phone on her bed until I was three hours away from Gonzales County.
Fuck it, it didn’t even matter. I wasn’t going home to my parents, and I wasn’t going to see my family in Piersville. I was going where people didn’t know my past and my fuck ups.
Chapter Nine
Sadie
Seven weeks later…
Being at home didn’t feel as peaceful as it used to. I’d received the alarm system yesterday after a delay caused by shipping, and I’d installed it all, but I’d fallen asleep before I could set it last night, which defeated the purpose of having the thing. So, to make sure I didn’t forget again, I’d put a nightly reminder on my phone.
After the night that we never mentioned, Tate had immediately barred Shonelle from the bar, saying he’d wanted to do it for months but was afraid of blowback on some of her victims. Lily was also done with her causing drama and ruining people’s peaceful nights in there, so it was a done deal. I hadn’t witnessed it directly because after what she’d said, I’d immersed myself in cleaning and serving, but Beau and Ari had told me about it the next day.
I was doing okay and putting things in boxes in my head—something I’d been doing for years—so I was able to do that with what she’d said and let go of it. For the rest, I used the daisy petal method, mostly because it worked. I could be upset with he-who-shall-not-be-named, but I’d forever be grateful for him giving me that to help me through an episode.
What I couldn’t get over was Elijah getting up and leaving the way he had. Then coming home and finding his phone—which was now in a drawer—and hearing from Tate that even his brothers and parents didn’t know where he’d gone…
Well fuck you, you festering vagina abscess.
Speaking of vaginas, at this exact moment, I was standing in front of my microwave, watching the pot of wax I’d ordered online go round in circles as it melted.
I was a groomer—a little snip here, a snip there, and then some shavy-shavy around the old cooter—but for some reason, I wanted to try waxing after seeing the results of this one online. There were no strips involved, no craziness, just apply, wait, and rip. Seeing as how I got my eyebrows done before they were dyed so people who weren’t dead could see them, I figured I could get through this with no problems.
As soon as it beeped, I pulled the door open and inspected the inside. There was still some ‘solid’ stuff at the top, though, so I put it in for another thirty seconds and went through my plan in my head.
Mirror on the floor
Towel on the floor
Second towel to bite on just in case
Glass with ice water in it just in case
Bag to put used wax in
I had it all figured out, so when the microwave beeped this time, and the remaining solid pieces had melted, I wandered through to my room, making sure to close the door behind me. I didn’t want my pussy waxed to my pussy.
Sitting on the towel I’d laid out on the floor, I lifted my t-shirt and tried to angle myself so that I had a good view of my vagina. It was going to be awkward, but eh, I lived for awkward.
The problem was, to get a proper look, I’d have to brace both feet on the wall on either side of the mirror, which meant I needed to scoot forward. I underestimated the power of a varnished floor with a towel on it, though, because the shimmy down ended up with my nunney kissing my mirror.
“Oh, shitting hell, Sadie. Why do you have to be such a stupid twat?”
The answer to this question was—because I didn’t have the guts to bear my cooch to a strange woman armed with wax.
Shuffling my arse around, I finally got the position I needed. Using the pitiful muscles in my stomach, I lifted the jar of wax and decided that a spatula would take too long, and I’d have to go and microwave it again with half my lady garden done, so pouring it would make the job faster. I wanted the whole thing to be bald just to experience it, and if I liked it, I’d keep doing it, so I drizzled a little from the top and braced myself for the pain.
The ads had been true, it really didn’t hurt.
So, with nary a worry in the world, I upended the pot, widening my legs even more to make sure I didn’t miss any. Not that it would matter, I’d ordered two of them just in case, but it would mean going through the whole thing again, and I didn’t have the patience for it.