Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 94897 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 474(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94897 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 474(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
They knew financial deets about each other. She sat down with his brothers and broke bread. He knew the musical preferences of her shop assistants, people who were also her friends.
But this, whatever it was, he was holding to himself.
Not giving it to his mom.
Not Dutch.
Not Hound.
Not Tack.
Not Archie.
And that was not just because he didn’t know what “it” was.
This was in his head as they walked with arms around each other to his bike. They took the way through the store, rather than going around it, exiting out the back door.
But when they got to his bike, and Jag curled Archie to his front, he didn’t get into his mom texting or why he might be avoiding that or any of the other shit that he was avoiding thinking about.
He informed her, “I played the wrong card at first with Mal, got in his face physically, and he reared like he thought I was gonna follow through with that.”
She was watching him closely as she said, “I see you think that’s important for me to know, but if anyone gets in your shit, you’re gonna retreat. Am I wrong?”
He shook his head. “Maybe not, but it didn’t feel that way. I didn’t lift a hand, not even to point in his face. It was threatening, but in no way a threat. Do you know what I mean?”
“I think so.”
“Do you think the Harris brothers would take bullying to the next level?”
The point he was making dawned on her.
He knew this when she whispered, “Oh shit.”
“Fuck,” he whispered back. Then asked, “How do the kids get to your store?”
“They walk from school. It’s a hike, but it’s good exercise.”
“Together?”
“I…” She shook her head. “No. They have cliques. They bond in store, mostly. But out of the store, from the way they filter in, my guess, not so much.”
“And Mal shows alone,” he deduced.
She nodded.
“I don’t know where to go from here, baby. If we can’t get him to talk, we can’t go to his parents about what’s going down. I can’t show at his school and escort him here, that’s creepy. I’d like to put the lean on the Harris brothers, but that’s creepy too. And since Mal isn’t saying anything, I don’t know if there’s anything to lean on.”
“We need Mal to open up,” she remarked.
“Yeah,” he agreed.
“Did you feel he might get there with you?”
No, he did not.
“I’ll swing ’round tomorrow,” he told her.
She smiled up at him as she arched into him and said, “I kinda dig you, Jagger Black.”
He grinned down at her and tightened his arms around her, replying, “Good, seein’ as after we scarf down the order from DoorDash you’re gonna text me about in an hour or so, I’m gonna spend the rest of the night inside you. It’d be awkward that happens and you weren’t into me.”
She started laughing.
He kissed her in the middle of it.
Then they let go, he waited until she went in the back door before he took off.
About an hour later, he got her DoorDash order, ordered it and what he wanted, so it arrived at his place twenty minutes after she did.
They scarfed it down, then spent the rest of the evening fucking, and after, they passed out.
And in all that, Jag did not reply to his mother’s texts.
He did not reach back out to Tack.
He didn’t connect with Hound or Dutch.
And yeah, that was about being with Archie.
It was also…
Not.
Chapter Twelve
Sleeping Dragon
Archie
They’d made a tent of some sheets and were tangled in each other and a mess of pillows on a rug on her floor.
It was Sunday afternoon. Jagger was snoozing. On his back. Naked.
Archie was at his side, not snoozing, but also naked.
They’d spent the night before in a B&B in Estes Park.
Now they were home.
And Archie was down with how into each other they were. How much time they were spending together.
They were meant to be, after all.
However…
Lying on her side, up on an elbow, tucked close to him, she studied Jagger’s handsome face through the fading sunlight coming through the light sheet.
He was beautiful.
But he looked conflicted, even in sleep.
She trailed her hand up his flat belly to his pec where she absently rubbed a thumb across his nipple.
He stirred, turning to her, wrapping both arms around her and pulling her tight, front to front.
“Baby,” he murmured into the top of her hair, “I’m all for another round. Just give me five more minutes.”
This had not been her intent.
But she didn’t need to explain that because she felt him settle into her and back into sleep.
Archie held him like a lover, and she held him like a friend.
She held him light, but she held him loving.
And as she did, she thought of their conversation that morning over breakfast at the Notchtop Café in Estes.