“Don’t hide him on my account. I wiped that butt once upon a time.” Pauline sits in the chair in the corner.
Logan looks at her. “Can you please leave? This is a husband-and-wife moment.”
Pauline’s face lights up. “Oh, so you’re husband and wife. I mean, I took it as a good sign that she’d hover over your butt.”
My face slowly heats.
“I finally wore her down.” Logan tries again to look at me, but he can’t until I finish with this.
“I knew he would. He’s a charmer.” Pauline beams. “In a good way, Nikki. I’d never steer you wrong.”
“Well, thank you. It’s a little surreal and weird, but we’re going with it.”
“Obviously. You should’ve had Craig take the splinters out. You’re ruining all the sexuality with marriage.”
I shake my head. “It’s okay. I don’t mind.”
“Want to tell me how it happened?” She props one foot up on the edge of the chair.
Logan groans. “Please leave, Mom.”
“After you tell me how it happened.”
I pinch Logan to say I’ll be mad if he tells her, and he sighs into the pillow.
“She won’t stop until we tell her,” he mumbles.
“I have a feeling this is a good story,” she says, rubbing her hands together.
I smile at her. “Logan took me camping. In the middle of the night, he had to go to the bathroom, fell on a log, and voila—splinters.”
She points at me and laughs, standing from her chair. “Oh, you’re a tricky one. I don’t believe you for a second. There’s an interesting story behind this one, I know it.” She pats me on the shoulder. “I’ll be downstairs talking to Iris about herbs that will help with inflammation from training.”
After Pauline leaves, Logan says, “She’s gonna figure out what really happened.”
I remove the blanket and take out the final two splinters. “I need to get some cream.”
I head into the master bath with the hopes of finding some ointment. Lucky me, whoever manages the Linville house has a first aid kit stocked in the bathroom. When I return, Logan’s on his back.
“Roll over, hubby, I’ve got something that’s going to soothe that ass of yours.”
He smiles at me. “That sounds dangerous.”
“Don’t worry, no hemorrhoid cream.” I circle my finger for him to roll over.
“I’m serious, I’ve never had hemorrhoids,” he says, his face red as he rolls over.
“Don’t worry, that’s where I draw the line. I’m not sticking any cream in places I have to spread your ass cheeks to get to.”
“Nor would I ever ask you to.”
I put the ointment on my hands and rub it over his butt cheeks, which I have to say are pure muscle. “You might be a bit sore.”
He rolls over and pulls up his pants, signaling for me to climb on top of him.
“That’s what got us in trouble in the first place,” I say before kissing his lips.
He wraps his hand around the back of my neck and keeps me pressed to his lips, sliding his tongue into my mouth. We kiss as though Pauline isn’t waiting on us downstairs, and the tingling between my legs commences as it always does now when he’s near. Then the smell of burned hair wafts to my nostrils and I remember I need to get to Posey’s to get this fixed.
I draw back. “I have to go get my hair done. I’m crossing my fingers no one is there when I arrive.”
He kisses me one last time. “So duo night tonight… what time do we leave?”
I love that he remembers and seems to be looking forward to it. “Sixish. You can invite your mom if you’d like.”
“No way, it’s our coming out.” A mischievous smile crosses his lips, and my stomach reacts as always.
Damn, now I’ve gone and done it. I’ve really fallen for this guy.
I enter Fringe, my sister Posey’s, hair salon, surprised to see every other Greene female in attendance. All of them are in the waiting area, pretending to read magazines.
“Cute, guys.” I roll my eyes.
Mandi tips down the corner of her magazine. “Emergency haircut?”
I say nothing and walk to the back where Posey’s coming out from the back room.
“Hey, Nik, have a seat.” She points at a shampoo station. “So, what’s the emergency?”
I glance at my family at the front and back at her, then I take off the hat I’ve shoved all my hair into and turn around to show her.
She gasps. “What the hell happened?”
“Lower your voice,” I whisper. “I just want a change,” I say loud enough for my sisters and Chevelle to hear.
“Change, my ass.” Chevelle has no qualms and comes to the back. “We already heard. Miss Hartford was my survivalist leader.” I stare blankly at her, so she continues. “She called me this morning to ask if Logan is really an MMA fighter and if my sister Nikki is married to him.”
I groan. Seriously, I hate how small this town is sometimes. Before I moved here at fourteen, I had no idea there was such a thing as a survivalist.
“I love Miss Hartford. Though it’s a little scary that she’s still doing it, no?” Posey asks, getting the sink ready. “She had us watching what she thought was a deer and it was a moose. She kept blowing a duck call and the thing almost stampeded us.” Posey shakes her head as though the memory is vivid.
“Yeah, I thought she’d have packed it in by now, but I have a feeling there’s no one to take it over,” Chevelle says. “So you burned your hair from having sex too close to the fire.” She shrugs. “What’s the big deal? You’re not the first.”
Warm water coasts over my head and I close my eyes from the sensation. “Well, I don’t much care for being caught. Those girls are young and impressionable.”
Chevelle scoffs. “Please, the leader of them, Darcie, is Fran’s granddaughter. Once she’s old enough, she’ll probably take over the group.”
“She’s a know-it-all just like Fran,” I say.
Fran and her walking gang have eyes everywhere and they like to put their nose in other people’s business, but I’ve never had a problem with them. She and Chevelle once had it out over a water excursion she was setting up for tourists though. Fran said there were too many kayaks and someone was going to be killed by a fishing boat. Chevelle’s never forgiven her.
“All I have to say is your mother-in-law is awesome. She’s been helping me in the restaurant in the mornings,” Mandi says. “Everyone loves her. She’s started reading tarot cards there before dinner.”
I look at Posey and she nods and says, “Did mine last night. Says my Prince Charming will come to town like a thunderstorm so strong it’ll make quakes.”
I nod. Are my sisters really believing all this?
“She told me that mine’s from Sunrise Bay. How boring is that?” Chevelle leans back in the other shampoo chair. “All the guys in this town suck.”
“Cam,” Posey says with a fake cough. “Wouldn’t that be hilarious?”
We all laugh because those two fight like siblings. Maybe because Cam practically grew up in the Greene house. Every time he and Chevelle are together, they find something to argue about.