Forbidden Harmony (Harmony Falls, Book Three), page 15
“No. Honestly, I’m kind of over making the bracelets now and I’m back to knitting. But I have a pile of friendship bracelets to hand out.”
She sat back in her seat, staring out the window as her brother drove toward Kira’s place.
“You doing okay, butthead?” Daniel said. “I know I haven’t been around much, but I’ve been busy at work and…”
She reached over and patted his arm. “And since Kira stopped inviting you to the barbeques, we don’t hang out as much. I’m sorry. I should be making more of an effort to do stuff with you too.”
“It’s cool,” Daniel said. “It’s my fault I got kicked out of the Scooby gang.”
“You weren’t kicked out,” she said. “Kira just needed some time to…”
“To get over thinking I’m the biggest asshole in the world for taking advantage of her crush on me for years?”
“Yeah,” Addison said.
She studied her brother. His blond hair was too long and there were dark circles under his eyes, and he hadn’t shaved. “Are you okay? You look kind of rough.”
He laughed. “I’m fine. Just got off a three-day shift and baseball kicked my ass last night.”
“Are you feeling nervous?”
He shrugged. “Maybe a little.”
“Don’t be. Kira invited you because she’s a good person and she wants to try being friends. But you know she’s with Connor and she loves him so…”
“I know,” he said. “I’m happy for her. She deserves someone great who treats her well. Didn’t think it would be a dentist, but, hey, whoever floats her boat.”
“Will you behave yourself?” she said. “Don’t say anything to Connor to piss him off. He’s open to you coming to the barbeque but you really need to behave yourself, okay?”
“I always do.” It was said with his usual teasing grin, but underneath that grin, she could see something lurking. Something dark and dank and worrisome.
“Daniel, honey, is there something going on?” she said.
“No, I’m fine. And don’t worry, I’ll behave at the barbeque. Besides, you’re worrying for nothing. I already had a beer with Connor and apologized.”
“Seriously? When?”
“Last week after ball one night. Look, I’m never gonna be friends with the guy or anything, but we’re not mortal enemies. It’ll be fine.”
“Okay,” she said.
He glanced over at her. “Why are you so dressed up? You out trolling for a man now that you and Harrison are kaput?”
She wrinkled her nose at him. “No, and I’m not dressed up.”
“You look like you’ve made more of an effort than usual. Your face isn’t quite as hideous as normal.”
“Shut up, gator breath.”
“Hey, I can’t help it if I got all the looks in the family,” Daniel said.
Addison rolled her eyes and stared out the window as Daniel hit a button on the steering wheel and rock music blasted out of the speakers.
She had made more of an effort than usual for the barbeque and she knew exactly why she had.
Preacher.
Which was stupid because after yesterday afternoon, it was more than apparent that he was not going to be offering any more sex lessons. God, why had she let him do so much stuff to her? She was supposed to be learning how to be sexy and how to make sure the guy was having a great time.
Instead, she’d sat on Preacher’s face, had a stupidly intense orgasm, and then had another damn orgasm not fifteen minutes later while she rode him like a horse. She honestly couldn’t remember if Preacher had even climaxed.
Maybe he hadn’t. Maybe that’s why he’d seemed so meh about her performance afterward. She sighed and tugged at the friendship bracelets around her wrist as Daniel pulled onto Kira’s street. If Preacher gave her another chance, she would make darn sure she made it all about him and didn’t get distracted by his mouth and hands and his ability to make her come until her brain nearly exploded.
Preacher hated that fucking gamer dude. Hated him. How the fuck Connor, who seemed like a decent guy, could be best friends with the prick, he’d never know.
His hand clenched around the beer bottle and for the first time in his life, he wished he did play baseball. Then maybe he could launch the bottle across the yard and knock some sense into the fucking douchebag of a gamer.
“You’re gonna shatter that beer bottle.” Gideon settled into the lawn chair beside his and stretched his long legs out. Tank had followed him over and he crowded up against Preacher, sniffing at his face and pressing his big head against Preacher’s chest until Preacher gave in and scratched the top of Tank’s head. “What’s got you so pissed?”
“I’m not pissed. Congratulations on the engagement.” He held up the beer bottle and they clinked them together.
“Thanks.” Gideon stared across the yard at Grace who was talking to Kira and some other chick Preacher didn’t know. The rock on her hand gleamed in the sun and Gideon laughed when Kira grabbed Grace’s hand and admired the ring again.
“Who’s the chick with Grace and Kira?” Preacher said.
“Rayna. She runs the animal rescue and works for Sneaky Leaks Plumbing. She and Grace became friends while we were volunteering for the cancer fundraiser that Wanda organized.”
Wanda was a dispatcher at the sheriff’s department and while Preacher barely knew her, he knew that she meant a great deal to Gideon. “How’s she doing?”
“Okay. She’s back to work now. It’s been rough on her since Murray died, but the fundraiser auction and dinner went really well, and they raised a lot of money. That seemed to help. They had a PowerPoint tribute thing for Murray at the dinner. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house after. Has the person who won the bid on your tattoo at the auction contacted you yet?”
“Nah.” Preacher’s gaze drifted back to Lucas. He and Addison were by the folding table that the food was set out on. He was standing way too close to Addison and hot jealousy flowed like lava into Preacher’s gut when Lucas tugged on a lock of Addison’s hair.
“Asshole,” he muttered.
Gideon laughed. “He’s actually a nice guy. I had a beer with him and Connor last week.”
“You didn’t think he was so great when he was hitting on your woman,” Preacher said.
“And now you have a problem with him because he’s hitting on your woman,” Gideon said.
“She’s not my woman.”
“No, she isn’t. So, why are you sitting here looking like you’re about to crack Lucas in half?”
“Fuck off, Gideon.”
Gideon took a drink of beer. “Don’t worry about it. Addison isn’t going to go out with him. One, he’s not her type, and two, Grace told me she isn’t looking to jump into another relationship right away. What did she say when you showed up at the piercing place in Willington?”
“Who says I showed up at the piercing place?”
Gideon snorted. “I’ve known you seven years, asshole. You’re like an open book to me. What did she say?”
“She was surprised and then pissed with me,” Preacher said.
“You must have really done something stupid then. Addison is the sweetest woman in Harmony Falls.”
“I refused to let her get pierced and literally carried her out of the shop over my shoulder.”
Gideon choked on his swallow of beer, spitting it out in a fine spray. Tank lifted his head from Preacher’s chest and sniffed the air before squeezing in between their lawn chairs and licking at the spilled beer on Gideon’s t-shirt.
Gideon wiped at his mouth. “Are you serious?”
He shrugged. “If she wants another piercing, I’ll do it. The fucker in Willington has a rating below three on goddamn Yelp.”
“Another piercing?” Gideon raised one eyebrow at him.
“Addison didn’t tell Grace she got pierced?”
“If she did, Grace didn’t mention it to me. What did she get pierced?”
“That falls under the piercer/client confidentiality agreement,” Preacher said.
Gideon laughed. “Asshole. Fine, keep your little secrets. Just remember that Addison and you won’t work.”
“I know,” Preacher said. “I love you but I’m getting real tired of you being on my ass about this.”
“Pookie bear, I haven’t even climbed onto your ass yet. Trust me, you’ll know when I do.”
Despite his sudden bad mood, Preacher couldn’t help but grin. “You’re such a shithead.”
“Yeah, but I’m your shithead.” Gideon took a drink of beer before pushing Tank and his tongue away from the front of his shirt. “Go on, Tank. Lie down.”
As Tank settled in the grass at their feet, Gideon said, “Daniel is drunk.”
Preacher glanced across the yard. Daniel and another firefighter named Jesse, were sitting in lawn chairs near the firepit. Daniel was gesturing wildly to Jesse with one hand while he held a beer in the other.
“How many has he had?” Preacher said.
“At least six.” Gideon glanced at his own beer. “Enough that he’s not driving home. On Tuesday night, Ian got called out to The Hitching Post to break up a fight between a couple of drunks. Daniel was one of them. Ian said the same thing happened the week before.”
“Shit.” Preacher glanced at Addison. “His sister know he’s drinking that much?”
“I don’t think so. But if he keeps this up, we’ll have to -”
Preacher stopped listening. The asshole gamer was holding Addison’s hand and studying the friendship bracelets on her wrist. He stood and stalked toward them. Without speaking, he grabbed a paper plate and dumped some raw veggies onto it before standing next to Addison.
He stared at Lucas’s hand holding Addison’s hand before giving Lucas his best what the fuck do you think you’re doing look.
Addison pulled her hand away from Lucas and smiled at Preacher. “Hi there.”
“Hey, Preacher.” Lucas held out his hand and Preacher shook it. “How’s it going?”
“Fine. You just here for the weekend?”
“Actually, I’m living here now. Moved in last weekend into a fantastic condo that Kira helped me find,” Lucas said.
“She’s so good at her job,” Addison said.
“That she is. There isn’t a whole lot for rentals right now, but she found me the perfect place.” Lucas grinned at Addison. “There’s only one condo full of rowdy college students in the entire building. They had one hell of a party Friday night.”
Addison laughed. “Did you join them?”
His grin widened. “Nah. My days of hard partying are over. I’m looking to settle down in my small-town life.”
“Well, you’ve picked the perfect small town,” Addison said. “We’re so much better than Willington.”
Lucas clapped his hand over his heart. “All this trash talk about my home town is crushing to my soul.”
“I can’t help it if Harmony Falls is superior to Willington in every way,” Addison said with a grin, “but I do feel a little bad about the soul crushing.”
“Tell you what, give me one of those friendship bracelets that you’ve made for every single one of your friends but poor old me, and we’ll call it even.” Lucas reached toward Addison’s hand again.
Without stopping to think about it, Preacher clamped his hand around Lucas’s wrist. He glared at the gamer as Lucas raised his eyebrows at him and Addison said, “Preacher, what are you doing?”
“Since when did you and Addison become friends?” Preacher said to Lucas.
Lucas glanced at Preacher’s hand still wrapped around his wrist. “You wanna let go of my hand, big guy? I think it’s a little soon in our relationship for hand holding. Don’t you?”
Addison tugged on his wrist. “Preacher, let him go.”
“Don’t touch her,” he said before releasing his grip.
“You’re being rude,” Addison said to him.
“It’s all good,” Lucas said.
Addison rolled her eyes before digging into the small handbag looped around her forearm. She was wearing a bright green dress with a distractingly low neckline. The pearls were around her neck like usual and when Lucas glanced at them, Preacher scowled at him and could barely control the urge to bare his teeth. He knew exactly what the prick was thinking about – fuck, it was the same thing he thought every time he looked at those goddamn pearls – and if Lucas didn’t stop picturing a naked, pearl-wearing Addison in his bed, Preacher would rearrange his fucking teeth.
“Here, Lucas.” Addison pulled out two friendship bracelets from her purse and quickly tied them around his wrist.
Lucas grinned at her. “You’re too sweet, Addison. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” Addison said. “Oh, and here, I’ll give you my number now and you can text me about Tuesday afternoon.”
“What’s happening Tuesday afternoon?” Preacher said.
“You sure you don’t mind?” Lucas said.
“I really don’t,” Addison said.
“What’s happening Tuesday?” Preacher said again.
“Well, I really appreciate your help,” Lucas said.
“Addison,” Preacher cupped her arm just above her elbow – fuck, her skin was soft – and squeezed gently, “what are you doing with him on Tuesday?”
“I’m taking him to the yarn shop to help him pick out yarn for his mom’s birthday,” she said. “Why?”
“Addie! Hey, Addie!” Kira was waving at her from across the yard. “Come over here for a second.”
“One minute,” she called. “Lucas, do you want my number?”
“Yep.” Lucas added her number to his phone and with a final look at Preacher, Addison walked away.
Ignoring his urge to stare at her ass, Preacher instead glared at Lucas. He had Addison’s phone number – Preacher didn’t even have her fucking number. His gaze dropped to the two braided bracelets around Lucas’s wrist. She’d given him two. She’d given him two of her bracelets and Preacher only had one.
For fuck’s sake. Are you twelve? You’re seriously jealous over a goddamn friendship bracelet?
“Addison is great, don’t you think?” Lucas said with an infuriating grin. “It’s a shame about her and her fiancé.”
“Stay away from her,” Preacher said. “She’s not looking for a relationship with a man-child who plays video games all fucking day.”
“Develops them, actually,” Lucas said, that annoying grin still planted on his face, “but it’s still a remarkably fair description of me so I’ll give you that.”
“She’s not interested in you,” Preacher said.
“She’s more into tortured tattoo artists? Is that what you’re saying?” Lucas said.
Preacher could feel his face reddening. His urge to punch Lucas was growing by the minute and what the hell was wrong with him? He never got jealous.
“Look, man,” Lucas clapped him on the arm, “in the interest of not having you punch my face into mincemeat, I’m gonna stop being a dickhead and tell you the truth. I’m not interested in Addison. I like to flirt, and Addison is a pretty girl, but I like the curvy girls. Okay? It’s not going to go beyond flirting with her. So, you can stop picturing how it’ll look when you shove my head up my own ass and relax about the whole situation.”
He fucking hated it, but just hearing Lucas say he wasn’t interested in Addison made the steam cooker in his brain cool off a couple of degrees.
“Friends again?” Lucas held out his hand, the two bracelets around his wrist taunting Preacher.
“If I find out you touched her on Tuesday, even one goddamn time, you’ll regret moving to Harmony Falls.” Preacher said. “You understand?”
Lucas’s laid-back grin didn’t waver. In an exaggerated French accent, he said, “Aye, aye, mon capitaine.”
Preacher rolled his eyes and stalked away.
Chapter 16
“Thanks for inviting Daniel,” Addison said. “I really appreciate it and I know he does too. He’s been lonely without us, even if he won’t admit it.”
Kira smiled at her. “It’s going well, I think. I talked with Connor about it beforehand and he was good with it. He’s not jealous which I’m grateful for, because he really has nothing to be jealous about, you know?”
“I do. Daniel said he and Connor had a beer and he apologized.”
“He did. I still don’t know what exactly Daniel said to make Connor punch him – Connor won’t say – but I know that Connor appreciated the apology.”
“Speaking of, how’s his hand doing?”
“Well, considering how hard your brother’s face apparently is, Connor’s hand is doing better. Obviously still not fully healed and the cast isn’t even close to coming off yet, but the fingers are no longer swollen, there’s no numbness in them, and he can wiggle them. Which the specialist said is fantastic news. He thinks with even just a few weeks of physical therapy, Connor will have enough range of motion to start working on patients again. Although he did apparently manage a dental check up one-handed on a very patient client the other day,” Kira said.
“That’s good,” Addison said.
“It is.” She swept the lemon rinds into the compost bin tucked under the kitchen sink. “Daniel’s had too much to drink.”
“I know,” Addison said. “He’s already given me his keys. I’ll drive him home.”
“Okay, good. I could see Gideon giving him the old cop eye.”
“Daniel wouldn’t drive drunk,” Addison said. “He’s not perfect, but he would never do something that stupid.”
“I know,” Kira said quickly. “I just want to make sure he stays safe. Now, let’s talk about Lucas.”
“What about him?”
“I saw the way you two were flirting up a storm by the food table.” Kira stirred the fresh pitcher of lemonade she’d just made.
“We weren’t flirting,” Addison said.
“Oh yeah? Because you gave him a couple friendship bracelets,” Kira said.
“Oh my God, I’ve given all my friends the bracelets.”
“Girl, seriously, just consider him,” Kira said.
