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“Yeah, this week I think.”
She smiles, but it takes her a second, like she isn’t sure if she likes my answer. “I hope she knows how special Bear is,” she adds softly, reminding me that whoever I choose to date, is also going to be in Bear’s life. Not that it hadn’t occurred to me before but nothing about Tiffani says peanut butter and jelly, stone skipping and living room forts.
But I don’t tell Dolly that I’m only seeing Tiffani again because it is my belief she only wants sex and I’m looking for the same. Not because it makes me look bad or because it’s inappropriate, though both are true. I don’t tell her because, in a quiet voice, she adds, “Or I’ll have to kill her.”
Her face is impassive for a second before a smile breaks out, and we both laugh quietly. “Kidding,” she adds, with a sexy little smirk that sets off big feelings inside me. I’ve always loved a dark and twisted sense of humor.
“Thanks again, Dolly.” I step back as she moves inside the house, closing the door all but a crack.
“Good night, Hudson. Sweet dreams.” Her full lips come together in a smirk, and then the door is closed, followed by the reassuring sound of her twisting all the locks.
When I get back to my house and strip down to my boxers, I crawl into bed, exhausted from a long week of work but in truth, more fatigued from my brain than anything.
As I roll in the sheets, I swear to God, I think I smell Dolly.
Fuck. of course I don’t. I found her sleeping on Bear’s floor. She’s never been in here, much less in this bed. I’m now so hard up to get laid that I’m hallucinating perfume on my linens.
I roll onto my back, closing my eyes, reaching down to grab my cock. I’m already a hard, leaking mess as I begin to stroke, willing myself to think about Tiffani in this bed.
But as I paint myself in cum, my stifled groans lodged in my throat, guilt chokes me.
I wanted to think about Tiffani, but I only thought of Dolly.
eleven
STAY THE COURSE.
Dolly
“I’m making valuable progress,” I tell my sisters as we pile into Juni’s small SUV, the three of us on a journey into town. Ivy, who has been practicing her line art, is picking up her new tattoo gun and demo supplies.
Deuce found a shop a few days ago, and as soon as the ink on the lease was dry, a sign was up in the window. “TATTOO PARLOR COMING. ARTISTS APPLY INSIDE.”
Before she applies, she has a handful of techniques she wants to practice, including floating her needle, line work, and her arm position. I love her art, and always have, and can’t wait until she’s hired. She’ll be great at tattooing, and I’m so proud of her for chasing her dreams.
“Yeah?” Ivy asks, clipping the seat belt at her hip, pullingher black hair from where it’s trapped. “That’s great. So, babysitting the other night went well?”
Juni casts her eyes in the rearview, eyeing me. “But you were just babysitting so… you didn’t spend time with Hudson, did you?”
I shake my head. “No, but when he got home, he woke me up and walked me home and… I don't know.” I peer out the window at the world whipping by. “It felt different.”
Juni does a little squeal of happiness on my behalf. “Ooh,” she coos, “that sounds promising.”
I love that my sisters are aware of and support me in all my endeavors. And I to them. But when it comes to Hudson… I know I’m passionate. I know I can lose my temper and do things that can be misunderstood, from the outside looking in. I appreciate that they don’t see me for my flaws but for my strengths. And that they’re on board with my mission.
“Yeah,” I breathe, “except… I was babysitting because he went on a date.”
Ivy peers around the passenger seat at me, one eyebrow arched to heaven. “So that’s why those canvases were obliterated and burned behind the barn.”
I give her my beauty queen smile. “Yes, ma’am.”
The three of us giggle. “Anyway,” I say, “the date was set up, a friend of Everly’s from college.”
Juni pulls onto the main street, and Ivy points at the post office, where an open parking spot rests. “There. I’ll run in and grab it.”
Juni nods, turning into the spot. She unclips her seat belt, swiveling to face me. “Wanna get some pancakes? To go?” She tips her head toward the diner.
I shrug. “Okay.”
