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“You’ll remember me, and by the way, I’m a woman, not a girl. And why couldn’t Hudson come ask?” Ivy prods, and I don’t care what the answer is because I heard the question. After what happened today, Hudson wants me to come over.
I step out from behind my hiding spot, and blink into the open doorframe at the man on the porch. He’s tall and thin, not really muscular, just lean, and he’s got on a Jack Daniel’s t-shirt, shredded and worn, with an open blue-and-black flannel over the top. His faded black jeans are rolled atthe ankles, and his feet are in Vans sneakers. Not what I thought the infamous Trace Calhoun would look like. I’ve seen his work in the books that Deuce brought for Ivy to peek through. He’s clearly talented, but he’s also an egotistical-ass clown, too.
I hate that Ivy is going to work with this asshole, but at the very least, hopefully she learns something about the trade from him. Deuce says he’s the best.
“He’s helping Deuce load his truck, firecracker. Can you just pass the message along?” he peers around her, only just now spotting me, a grin curling his lips as he takes in my blood- and mud-stained romper, my bandaged foot and filthy hair. “Holy shit, little mama, you fucking tumbled, huh?”
I pinch my gaze on him, ignoring the way he freely comments about my appearance. “Tell Hudson I’ll come over.”
Trace steps off the porch, eyeing us with a smirk that really irritates me. Before Ivy can swing the door shut, Trace digs his phone out, snapping a photo of the two of us before we realize. He smirks. “I love chicks who fight.”
That warrants a door slam.
But enough about Trace. I turn to Ivy. “Chicks who fight?” I look down at myself, the memory of Bear’s muffled scream causing me to jolt on my feet. “I didn’t get like this because of a fight. I got like this trying to get to Bear,” I breathe, wondering if the whole town is going to hear about me attacking Tiffani.
I don’t want them to know, not because I am ashamed of what I did. To be clear, Tiffani deserved her karma, and because the universe is already working on my order forHudson and Bear Gray, I know she’s busy. I took care of Tiffani for her.
Universe, you owe me.
I don’t want people in town talking because I don’t want Bear to know. His back was to us when it happened, thank God for Everly, but still, I don’t want him to know the ugly, monstrous side that would do anything on his behalf.
Ivy pulls me into a hug, resting her chin on top of my head. “Don’t worry—if Bear finds out what happened, you can explain that you made a mistake,” she says, rolling her eyes, because knocking Tiffani’s nose into her eyes was not a mistake, and if the situation presented itself in the same way, I’d do the same thing. But still,violence is badis the line to tow with Bear, no doubt. I love how she knows me so well. I can’t wait for Hudson to know me the way my sisters do.
I step back, processing Trace’s message, heart racing, eyes wide. “Wait—what if he only invited me over to apologize to Tiffani?”
Ivy rolls her eyes. “That would be insanity, Dol. Seriously. You saved Bear. You saved his kid. I doubt he’s thinking about Tiffani at all.”
“He asked her to watch Bear, though.”
Ivy smiles, her lips twitching with something good, I can tell.
“What?” I prod.
“She left about ten minutes after you fell asleep.” She peers out the window. “Truck’s all loaded—looks like Deuce and Everly are heading out, too.”
Holy crap.
He’s inviting me over and it’s going to bejust the three of us.
And after today, I’m sure Bear will be wiping out early.
I lick my lips, mind moving as I turn down the hall, headed back to my bedroom.
“Don’t get your hopes up, Dol,” Ivy calls down the hall after me. I know she’s trying to help me keep my expectations reasonable, for my own good. I don’t need to worry about getting my hopes up only to have them fall, though. This time is different. It’s not like how it was when I foolishly showed up at Hud’s to ask him on a date one week after Tessa left. Juni and Ivy told me it was a terrible plan, considering Hudson had a two-month-old, but I did it anyway.
I never even got to ask him out. I went over there with a congratulations card I painted for him, a bottle of champagne (that I had to ask Juni to buy for me), and at sixteen years old, I truly thought that would be that.
Instead, my knocking woke him up, and when he answered the door, a sleeping baby Bear was pressed to his chest beneath one of his large palms. He blinked at me and said, “Are you sellin’ something for school?”
I knew right then that I had to stick to my original plan. That I had to wait until I was old enough for a respectable man like Hudson to even see me. Still, my hopes were so deflated, I drank the entire bottle of champagne and spent the rest of the night puke-crying while telling Ivy just how shiny his hair is.
We will not be repeating that tonight.
This time is different, for real.
I just know it.
The shower I take is the same shower every woman takes before going to hang out with a man whose face she wants to smother with her bare pussy and whose cock she wants to devour with all of her clean, hairless holes.
