AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“What?” Abby asked, confused. “Jail? Well, okay, yeah, but I was thinking more about all the women, not the vandalism. I don’t see what that has to do with anything.”
Tildy blinked at Abby, trying to understand. “The what? Women?” As in plural? Tildy thought. As in a lot of women? “Vandalism? What?”
“Hawk got busted years ago spray painting road signs. I’m pretty sure it’s out of his system. But the women, well they’re….not out of his system. He always has a different one. He’s not the settling down type.”
Tildy didn’t know what to think. Hawk wasn’t dangerous; he was just a manwhore. He’d already moved on from plain little Tildy, who apparently was only worth a kiss in a parking lot, and just barely at that.
“I mean, I know you said you were going to marry him,” Abby continued. “But you didn’t really mean that, I’m sure. And Hawk doesn’t even date girls. It’s just-”
“Oh, God!” Tildy groaned, feeling her cheeks burn. She had meant it at the time. She’d been praying for a sign, a way out of her life that seemed like it was closing in on her. She’d thought Hawk had been that sign. She had absolutely believed it, but had been wrong, like always. Tildy was humiliated and indignant, and she suddenly felt like lashing out. Thankfully, a convenient target presented itself.
The back door opened and Sarah came in. She didn’t even get the door closed all the way before Tildy jumped up off the couch. “I’m not crazy!” she yelled, not completely oblivious to the fact that she was acting a little unhinged. She ignored that.
Sarah looked stunned, and Abby stood up.
“I- I didn’t mean it!” Tildy lied. “I just said something stupid! What, you’ve never said anything stupid before? I do it all the time. And you thought it was funny to laugh at the idiot girl. And you lied to me!” Tildy accused, even though it wasn’t exactly true. Sarah had not outright lied. “You told me Hawk had been to jail! You made it sound like he was dangerous! But you just didn’t want me around your friend.”
“Sarah!” Abby chastised.
Sarah’s face fell. “I did. I did kind of make it sound like Hawk was this big, scary guy and so he and Tildy weren’t right for each other. I didn’t want you to get hurt.
Tildy glared daggers at her.
Sarah sighed. “Okay and I thought maybe you were a little crazy. I didn’t want trouble for Hawk.”
“I wasn’t going to make trouble.”
“Well, I didn’t know.”
“Well, I wasn’t.”
“Okay.”
“Fine.”
“I think,” Abby declared,” that we could all use a drink. Tildy, you want a drink?”
Tildy tore her gaze away from Sarah. “Oh. I don’t really…I mean…”
“Bah,” Abby replied. “You need one. I need one. Slick here needs one. Drinks all around.”
A martini and a half later, Tildy was far less angry. In fact, she was fighting off a smile.
“I was so mad!” Sarah cried. “I’d worked my ass off making it, and Chris had hidden a fire extinguisher under the stairs in case I set the deck on fire.”
“Did you?” Tildy asked.
“No!”
“I would have.”
“Me, too,” Abby concurred. “She and Tex both have tried to teach me to cook. It’s a Work in Progress.”
“I never learned,” Tildy admitted. “We have a cook.” Then she felt embarrassed, but Abby laughed.
“I had room service my whole life,” Abby told her.
“You lived in a hotel?”
Abby nodded. “In Vegas. I was born and raised there.”
“That’s why you’re called Vegas.”
“Yep.”
Tildy looked at Sarah. “So, why are you called Slick?”
Slick scowled. Abby laughed. “Because Chris thought I was a con artist when we first met,” Sarah muttered.
“Really?” Tildy asked, eyes wide.
Slick took another sip of her martini and rolled her eyes. “He doesn’t think that now.”
“Well, I hope not!” said Tildy. “He married you.”
“Actually,” Sarah replied. “I married him.”
Tildy frowned. “What do you mean?”
“I left. Then I came back, and I said, ‘We’re getting married. Next weekend.’ ”
Tildy considered this as she drank. “Maybe that would work on Hawk.”
The other two women paused.
“I’m kidding!” Tildy cried. “Kind of.”
“What made you say that?” Sarah pressed.
Tildy wasn’t sure if it was strictly the alcohol or also the fact that never in her life had she done anything like have ‘girl talk’ over martinis in a friend’s living room. In the back of her mind, she did acknowledge that they weren’t really friends, but she preferred not to dwell on it.
She took out the medal that was hanging inside her blouse. “The woman who raised me gave me this. She always told me that if I got lost, it would help me find my way home. I’ve worn it almost every day for 14 years, and it never, ever broke until Hawk touched me for the first time.”
Both women looked at each other and then back at Tildy.
