Chapter 21

Never ask a woman who is eating ice cream straight from the carton how she’s doing.

-Hennessy to Tate

Hennessy

I was avoiding the man like the plague.

First, it was because I’d thought that he’d gotten someone pregnant within days of sleeping with me. Then it was because I thought he had a dying child with his old girlfriend.

Now? Well, now I was avoiding him because I was embarrassed. Oh, and let’s not forget the guilty feeling that was practically eating a hole through my chest.

My father had slept with his girlfriend while they were still technically ‘together.’ He’d gotten her pregnant. Then, the icing on top, he’d refused to have anything to do with the child because he didn’t want anyone to know that he wasn’t still worshipping at his dead wife’s feet, despite the fact that we all—Tate, Ariya, Krisney and I—thought that he was a horny toad that did anything with legs.

I’d gone to bed last night thinking that I was doing okay.

Then, as I’d gotten comfortable thinking about Tate, my mind had wandered.

At first it’d been fairly innocent. I’d been happy to know that he was willing to take a chance on us. I’d been thinking about the future, and what that would mean for us.

The town, I was thinking, might have a lot to say about us.

My father being who my father was meant that I garnered a lot of attention, even when I didn’t want to. And Tate being who he was, well that meant that there’d be a whole lot of gossip coming at us twofold. Pairing us together, though? Well, that was just a disaster in the making, I was quickly realizing.

For example, the woman standing in front of me, staring at what I now knew was a hickey.

“That’s not something that I would think a woman of your position should be showing in public,” Maria Sandoval, one of my father’s sheep, murmured under her breath at me. “You’re at the grocery store where little kids can see you. I seriously don’t see how you thought that was okay.”

At first, I hadn’t been aware of what she was talking about.

It being Saturday, I’d brushed my teeth, put on my favorite pair of leggings, and a tank top. Once I’d had my hair up in a messy bun on top of my head, I’d headed out the door to have coffee and pancakes with Krisney. I’d promised her that we’d go today since I’d walked out on her yesterday, especially since I was still expected to go to my father’s service tomorrow or all hell would break loose.

I’d just wanted to stop at the store for some bread for later when Maria had started to question me.

She kept looking at my neck like it was disgusting her, so I’d moved to the mirror across the aisle that was made to look at yourself while you tried on the glasses in the display, and saw the damning evidence.

“Look,” I said. “It’s seven in the morning. There aren’t any kids here. The only person here is you, and that’s because you work here. I think it’s time to take a step back, let me get my bread, and butt out of my business.”

Maria snorted.

“I think that you have a certain obligation to the public seeing as who your father is. I certainly don’t see how it’s a good idea for you to be seen with that man,” she continued as if I hadn’t said a single word. “He’s a bad influence on you. You would’ve never missed Sunday school before him.”

I gritted my teeth.

“And you most certainly wouldn’t be looking at this kind of stuff.” She indicated the wall behind me.

I hadn’t actually meant to come to this section when I’d entered the store. At first, I’d just gone down an aisle, thinking to use it to cut to the bread that was at the back right corner of the store.

But something purple had caught my eye, and I’d stopped in front of the biggest selection of lube, condoms, and other intimate products that I’d ever seen in a store.

I must’ve cut down the same aisle at least a dozen times before, but not once had I given it more than just a cursory glance.

This time? Well, this time I had gotten my curiosity peaked, and I’d stopped in front of the display and picked up the purple bottle that had caught my eye.

It was KY Jelly, Hers and Mine. One bottle was bright purple and said it was warming. The other was said to be cooling.

I’d been reading the label when Maria had walked up.

She’d taken one look at the bottle in my hand, and the hickey as well as beard burn on my neck and chin, and started in.

Which led me to now.

I was getting more and more upset.

“Tate isn’t good for you, or for your father. He’s a bad kid, and always has been. His mother is a whore, and I’m sure that his sister is, too.” She paused for a breath. “That father of his was the only smart one in the bunch, leaving before he got sucked into their demented vortex.” She smiled like she was imparting some great news to me. “I saw him a few weeks ago. He has a new wife and kids. They’re much more well rounded than Tate Casey is.”

I stiffened with each added jibe.

By the time she’d stopped to see what I thought was my understanding, I’d been ready to throat punch her.

“You wouldn’t be a good match,” she continued when she saw what was likely the anger on my face.

The basket I’d grabbed on the way into the store, one of the small ones that you held in the crook of your arm, felt like a lead weight around my arm.

“And he got another girl pregnant years ago, and just decided to kill that girl so he didn’t have to deal with the kid.”

I reached forward and dropped the lube into my basket.

Each time she said something, I dropped another thing in it.

“The kid’s dying, and he just now saw her yesterday.”

I picked up the ribbed condoms and put them in the basket, too.

“I saw Ariya and her together a few hours ago. Doing everything by themselves,” she continued. “Tate’s a piece of trash.”

By the time she stopped talking because she heard the door at the front open, announcing another customer, I’d filled my basket almost completely full.

I had condoms—four different types. Ribbed, for her pleasure. Ultra thin. Lubed. And glow in the dark.

I also had at least eight different types of lube, massage gel, and what looked to be an anal douche…which I was fairly sure I’d never be using.

But the look on her face when I added each one to the basket was too perfect, and now she would have to check me out.

Grinning, I made a detour to the cold food section, got two bottles of whipped cream, and then got my bread.

Once I arrived at the checkout, Maria was there ringing up another one of my father’s congregation, Don Williams.

I took the basket and upended it on the conveyor belt, then stared at Don for a few long seconds before saying, “I’m in a serious relationship with Tate Casey, and we have lots of awesome sex. I don’t care that he has a daughter. No, I don’t care that his mother sleeps with married men. No, I don’t care that his father left him, because I will be there for him if he ever needs or wants that support. Also, I’m fairly sure that I won’t be needing these condoms because we like to get messy.”

Don’s eyes widened into what resembled saucers.

“Good to know that, darlin’.”

I bit my lip and looked at the other customer that I’d sensed coming up behind me during my tirade.

And winced.

Had I known that it was him behind me, I definitely wouldn’t have said anything. He didn’t need to know what the town thought of his family, as well as our relationship.

He had bread in his own hand.

How the hell had I not seen him when I’d gone to that aisle? We’d have to literally pass right by each other to get to that particular part of the store.

I blushed.

“I…”

He laughed and pulled me into his chest.

“Don’t worry about it baby,” he said. “But,” his eyes went down to my pile of goodies that Maria was still glaring at. “You can ditch the condoms. You’re right. We won’t be needing them.”

Then he reached forward and took all of the condoms out, setting them on top of the candy that was above the belt.

I had the sudden urge to throw myself at him.

Normally, I might not have done it.

But that was the old Hennessy, the one who cared what her dad thought.

The new Hennessy, the one that was a free spirit now thanks to the man standing next to her, she liked showing her man how much he meant to her.

Which was why I threaded my arms around his neck, pulled him down to my mouth, and fused my lips to his.

The kiss quickly ended up getting out of hand.

One second I was kissing him with just a little bit of tongue, and the next he practically had me leaning over the checkout counter.

“I have the right to refuse service!” Maria cried. “Get out of my store!”

“That’s like a hundred dollars worth of stuff,” came a soft reply. “I’ll get you over here.”

I looked over at Lark and grinned. “Thanks.”

I scooped everything up, holding some of it in my tank top, which caused my belly to become exposed and Maria’s eyes to get even bigger, and dropped it all on Lark’s counter.

She checked everything out, including Tate’s bread, and said the total. Wincing at spending a hundred and twenty bucks on lubrication, I pulled out my card to pay when a crisp one hundred dollar bill, and a slightly folded twenty came over my head.

Lark took the money, put it into the cash register, and handed me my bags.

Tate took those, too.

I waved at Don, flipped Maria off, and walked out with Tate two steps in front of me.

I watched as his back muscles bunched as he transferred the bags to one hand and held out his hand for me to take.

I did, and looked up at him.

“You’re sure you’re not mad?” I whispered uncertainly.

“No, not mad.”

He sounded mad.

I looked up at his jaw, studied his beard as well as the glasses that had magically appeared out of what had to be his pocket.

He was dressed for work in a black ‘Hail Auto Recovery’ t-shirt, stained dark washed blue jeans, and his normal dirty work boots that still had traces of mud on the tread.

His jaw was set, and he was staring straight ahead at his truck.

I was parked right next to it, at the very back of the lot.

The place that we were at meant that no one was around us, and the brick wall at the back of the lot trying to pretty the place up meant we had nobody that could see us when he rounded the corner of his truck.

The moment that we were out of the view of the grocery store, he dropped the bags on the ground, and suddenly I was shoved up against the back retaining wall with two hundred and fifty pounds of man blanketing me.

Then his mouth was on mine, and his hand was in my pants.

I was so surprised by it all that I didn’t fight him at all. They were down around my ankles before I could even so much as protest.