Chapter Twenty-Six
Jace
Jace looked like he was about to come over and talk to me before that woman called out to him. She was awfully possessive of his time and I wondered if she annoyed him as much as she did me. I wondered how many times she’d seen him naked.
And, what was up with Carla being all giggly with her? Was it ridiculous that I felt betrayed by both of them? I sighed. Of course, it was. I was ridiculous…the entire situation was ridiculous.
I watched Jace help them pull the boat in. His t-shirt looked a little small. As he moved, it pulled up and from where I sat I could see a couple inches of his bare skin. It doesn’t matter. I’ve already seen plenty of his naked inches. I was still looking, anyway.
I watched his “friend” touch his arm with a smile and then head over to the table where the food was. Jace went back towards the bathrooms. I wondered if he was going to change his shirt. Carla came in my direction. Nice to know she still remembers me. I’m ridiculous, I know.
“Hey,” she said with a smile. “You feel better now that you’re all dried out?”
“Yeah,” I said. I tried not to act like a big baby. I tried not to be mad at her. My emotions were a wreck.
“The clothes fit you good. Better than the priest,” she giggled.
“Yeah, I guess.”
“Wow, what do you have shoved up your butt all of a sudden?”
I gave her a glare. “Nothing is up my butt, but thanks for asking.”
“Are you mad at me?”
I sighed, “No, I’m sorry; it’s this stupid jealousy again. You seemed so chummy with his girlfriend.”
“Oh, come on!”
“I know, I’m sorry. I’m an idiot.”
Carla smiled. She really was a good friend. That quickly, I was forgiven. “It’s fun arguing with you. I forgot how much I liked it. What’s really wrong, baby girl?”
I took a deep breath. “I’m sorry, you’re right. I do have something ‘up my butt.’ I just walked in on Jace in the bathroom when he was changing. He was completely nude.”
“Shut up!”
“No…I can’t. I just saw my priest naked…again.”
Carla grinned. “How was it?”
“Terrible.”
“What?” she looked confused.
“Not him. He’s like a sculpture or something; he’s so perfect that he makes everything in my body go crazy — everything. But, it was terrible because he had an erection and I stood there for God only knows how long, staring at it.”
Carla busted up laughing. “That’s hilarious.”
“No it’s not! Stop laughing. It’s horrible, Carla. This whole situation is horrible.” I was on the verge of tears. She finally stopped laughing and said,
“I’m sorry, Daph. You’re right, it’s not funny. It’s not funny because you’re so upset about it. Honey, God is going to forgive you for this…for all of it. You’ve been the best Catholic I know for as long as I’ve known you. My mother pushed me to be friends with you specifically for that reason.”
“Really? We’re friends because your mother wanted us to be?”
“Well, at first, but you know I grew to love you. My point is that you’re the kind of girl that mothers love and mothers don’t love just anyone.” I let my mind flit to my own mother and then I tamped it down again and said,
“Just because I was good in the past, doesn’t give me a free pass to keep sinning now.”
“Keep sinning? What other sins have you committed?”
“I dream about him every night and wake up all sweaty and…”
“Horny?”
“Shut up. But yeah, I guess.”
“Horny is not a sin. It’s an actual undeniable human emotion. He was obviously feeling it, too; he was sporting that big old erection because you turned him on.”
“That doesn’t help me knowing that. It makes me more so. I’ve never really felt it before that night. And now, I’m a raging pervert. Then, there’s the jealousy; I’m committing that sin all over the place. This chick that’s hanging all over him, I’m so jealous of her that I can’t see straight.”
“She’s his ex-” Carla started.
“I’m jealous that you know that,” I told her, honestly. I was. I hated that she knew so much about the woman. I’m pathetic. Carla cracked up again. When she stopped laughing she said,
“I thought you meant you were jealous of her and Jace.”
“I am, but like I said, I’m jealous that you bonded with her so fast. I feel paranoid like she’s trying to take you both from me.”
Still laughing, Carla said, “Oh, baby girl. She can’t take me from you. I was stuck in a boat with her, so naturally, we talked. Her name is Lily. They dated in high school. She broke up with him and just recently ran back into him.”
“Did it seem like they were sleeping together?”
Shaking her head at me, Carla said, “You know, it’s hard to tell just by looking at a person.”
“You know what I mean. Did she say anything that made you think they were doing the…”
“The horizontal mambo? The nasty?”
“Okay, never mind!”
She giggled. “I’m sorry. But no, honey, she didn’t say anything to indicate that; although I’m not sure what that would be other than, “Guess what? I’m doing a priest.”
“You can be so crude sometimes.”
“I’m just trying to lighten the mood. Come on, I’m only here for the weekend. Stop stressing and let’s have fun, okay?”
I suddenly felt bad. She was right. She was here to visit me and all I was doing was commiserating over my own issues. “I’m sorry. Yes, I’m going to drop it and we’re going to have fun.”
My eyes cut over to where Jace and Lily were serving lunch side by side. He’d changed into a black t-shirt that fit him better, but was tight across his big chest and arms. Nothing about him looked like a priest right then—not that it did most of the time. What is a priest doing taking that good of care of his body? Isn’t that a sin, too? Maybe not. Maybe God just wanted them to be healthy, I didn't know.
“Stop staring at him,” Carla scolded me. “At least be more subtle. All of these other churchy people are going to notice.” She lowered her voice and said, “And then, they’ll make up a story that the two of you are fucking…only it will be true.” She had a harsh way of putting it, but once again, she was right.