I blinked rapidly. “If you’re trying to make me feel better, you’re doing a bad job, Greer.”
“I’m just being honest with you. Bishop did sleep around, but not as much as people say. He’s a big flirt—which he’s always been—but with him being single, folks just assume he’s—”
Arabella shot Greer a dirty look and cut her off. “What I think Greer is trying to say, Abby, is don’t give up hope. Just because he’s found someone who’s made him look twice for the first time since you, it doesn’t mean he’s in love with her.”
I brought my hand to my mouth and gagged.
“You made her sick!” Candace yelled. Grabbing my hand, she dragged me over to a small trash can. I dropped to my knees and threw up.
Someone rubbed their hand over my back. When I had finally emptied my stomach, I dropped back onto my ass and looked up at Arabella. Her blue eyes were filled with so much love. I hated that I had walked away from her. Especially knowing how much she’d needed me.
“I’m so sorry I left, Bella. Do you forgive me?”
A tear slipped free as she sat down and reached for my hands. “Of course I do, Abby.”
“What if I’ve lost him? What if I’m too late?”
She looked over at Candace and Greer and then back to me. “Just know that the three of us are here for you.”
Greer sat down next to us and then looked up at Candace.
Candace snorted. “Okay, these are like $250 jeans. You really want me to sit on the ground in them?”
“Candace!” Greer growled.
She sat down, and Arabella squeezed my hands. “You’re not alone anymore, Abby.”
The tears came again as I practically threw myself at the three of them.
Candace turned my head toward Greer and whispered, “Cry on her ten-dollar sweatshirt, sweetie.”
Bishop
Kyle opened the door to his duplex and blinked a few times. “Bishop? What in the hell time is it?”
I pushed past him. “I don’t know, early.”
“The fuck are you doing here at the crack of dawn, dude?”
I made a beeline for his kitchen, opened the refrigerator, and grabbed a beer.
“Bishop, you want to tell me why you’re here drinking my beer first thing in the morning? I’m pretty damn sure you’ve got beer at your house.”
“Jax wanted to have sex.”
Kyle stared at me with a blank expression. Then he dropped his head forward and gave it a quick shake. “And?”
“Did you hear me? She wanted to have sex. Not only did she want to have sex, but she wanted to do it in one of the chairs in the game room. She fucking crawled on top of me. Took off her shirt and bra and was more than ready.”
His eyes went wide. “Well, damn. Did you?”
I stared at him with a look that said he was a dumbass. “No! Have you ever known me to sleep with another woman in that house?”
Kyle scrubbed his hand down his face and sighed. “Give me a minute; I’m still trying to wake up.”
“No, Kyle. I have never brought another woman there. Honestly, I didn’t think Jax was going to want to take that next step. She has a kid!”
Kyle poured himself a glass of milk and then leaned against the island. “And why would you think that’d make her not want to have sex?”
I shrugged. “She’s a mom.”
Laughing, Kyle said, “So, because she’s a mom, you didn’t think she’d want to fuck? Hello, how did she get the kid she already has?”
“That’s not what I meant. I figured she’d want to wait a bit longer. Get to know me a little better. I mean, she has Ashley to think about.”
Kyle stared at me for a long moment before he shrugged. “Well, maybe she has a healthy sexual appetite. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
“I know that. I think.” I rubbed at the back of my neck.
“What happened after she took her shirt and bra off?”
“I tried to get into it, but my fucking dick wouldn’t even come up. I felt nothing. No desire to be with her. Nothing.”
“Okay, so did you stop it?”
“Yes, and she wasn’t too pleased. I told her I couldn’t do it in my house. I told her I wanted to have sex with her, just not in the house. And she said she was going to have her mom take Ashley back to Boston for a few days and we could…”
“Fuck at her house.”
I shot him a dirty look. “Yes.”
“Okay, what happened after that? Did you at least make out with her?”
I shook my head. “I took her home.”
“Without even getting to second or third base?”
I nodded and took a long drink of my beer.
“Wow. I have to admit, Bishop, I’m kind of surprised. She was offering up sex and you turned it down…”
“It didn’t feel right. Not in the house.”
Kyle blew out a breath. “Dude, someday you’re going to have to move on. Are you going to sell the house?”
“No.”
“Then you need to work past this. Maybe you need to be with Jax on neutral ground. But I think you need to ask yourself a bigger question.”
I raised my brows. “What’s that?”
“Why did you really say no to Jax last night?”
“What?”
He rolled his eyes. “Bishop, why did you say no? Was it because the idea of fucking her on a chair that Abby picked out was too much? Or was it because you wanted Jax to be Abby in your lap wanting to have sex?”
I stared at Kyle, letting his words sink in.
He nodded and held up his milk. “That’s right, I can get deep with shit.”
It was my turn to roll my eyes. “I like Jax, and I adore Ashley. I want to be with her.”
Kyle stared at me for a minute. “Do you? Or do you simply like the idea of being with her? You just said you like Jax and adore her kid.”
I swallowed hard and looked down at my beer.
“Dude, you had a pretty powerful love with Abby. If I had to wager, I’d bet you a million dollars that Abby is just as fucking miserable as you. A love like what you two shared…I don’t know if it truly goes away, Bishop.”
“So what you’re saying is, I’m going to be alone the rest of my goddamn life because I can’t move on from the past?”
He shrugged. “I’m saying if you were truly over Abby, you’d have let Jax fuck you in that chair last night. You would more than like her, you’d want her. And you wouldn’t be using her kid as a buffer between the two of you.”
I opened my mouth to protest, but then quickly shut it.
Kyle nodded again. “I’m going to start charging for my fucking services when it comes to you, Hunter, and Adam.”
“Shit,” I whispered as I dropped my head and stared at Kyle’s tiled floor. “What do I do?”
“Depends. I mean, this is the first woman I’ve seen you interested in. If you truly want to see where things go, then you’re going to have to take the next step.”
I nodded.
Kyle finished his milk, rinsed out the glass, and set it in the sink before he headed back out of the kitchen, leaving me alone with my thoughts. But then he stopped and turned. “You might also want to ask yourself what attracts you to Jax so much.”