She was watching him closely as she said, “I see you think that’s important for me to know, but if anyone gets in your shit, you’re gonna retreat. Am I wrong?”
He shook his head. “Maybe not, but it didn’t feel that way. I didn’t lift a hand, not even to point in his face. It was threatening, but in no way a threat. Do you know what I mean?”
“I think so.”
“Do you think the Harris brothers would take bullying to the next level?”
The point he was making dawned on her.
He knew this when she whispered, “Oh shit.”
“Fuck,” he whispered back. Then asked, “How do the kids get to your store?”
“They walk from school. It’s a hike, but it’s good exercise.”
“Together?”
“I…” She shook her head. “No. They have cliques. They bond in store, mostly. But out of the store, from the way they filter in, my guess, not so much.”
“And Mal shows alone,” he deduced.
She nodded.
“I don’t know where to go from here, baby. If we can’t get him to talk, we can’t go to his parents about what’s going down. I can’t show at his school and escort him here, that’s creepy. I’d like to put the lean on the Harris brothers, but that’s creepy too. And since Mal isn’t saying anything, I don’t know if there’s anything to lean on.”
“We need Mal to open up,” she remarked.
“Yeah,” he agreed.
“Did you feel he might get there with you?”
No, he did not.
“I’ll swing ’round tomorrow,” he told her.
She smiled up at him as she arched into him and said, “I kinda dig you, Jagger Black.”
He grinned down at her and tightened his arms around her, replying, “Good, seein’ as after we scarf down the order from DoorDash you’re gonna text me about in an hour or so, I’m gonna spend the rest of the night inside you. It’d be awkward that happens and you weren’t into me.”
She started laughing.
He kissed her in the middle of it.
Then they let go, he waited until she went in the back door before he took off.
About an hour later, he got her DoorDash order, ordered it and what he wanted, so it arrived at his place twenty minutes after she did.
They scarfed it down, then spent the rest of the evening fucking, and after, they passed out.
And in all that, Jag did not reply to his mother’s texts.
He did not reach back out to Tack.
He didn’t connect with Hound or Dutch.
And yeah, that was about being with Archie.
It was also…
Not.
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.