Colorado 02 Sweet Dreams (65 page)

I didn’t hear a word he said. I was back at his earlier statement, therefore repeated, “What?”

“Lauren?” I heard from behind me and I knew that voice. I knew it and I couldn’t believe it. It was so shocking to hear it, Tate’s throwaway comment, which was anything but throwaway to me, flew out of my head and my entire body froze as I stared into Tate’s eyes.

He looked into mine, his brows knitted and he didn’t let my neck go nor move away as his eyes went over my shoulder. I saw them move down then up then he grinned huge, like something was tremendously funny before he whispered, “Fuck me,” and let me go.

I turned woodenly and stared at my nemesis from Horizon Summit, the woman who pretended to be my best friend while she was fucking my husband, the dreaded Hayley.

“Hayley?” I whispered and stared at her.

She looked just as good as ever. What she didn’t look, in her designer jeans, complicated designer blouse, seven hundred dollar shoes and two hundred dollar haircut, was like she belonged in a biker bar.

I, on the other hand, was wearing a Harley t-shirt that Deke brought back for me from Sturgis. It fit snug, was pale blush and super cool with Harley Davidson written in burgundy and silver on the front with a pair of wide silver and burgundy wings on the back. I was also wearing jeans (that were designer) and silver strappy sandals that didn’t cost seven hundred dollars, not even close, but they were hot. My hair was down, I’d just had it touched up by Dominic (at the same time I gently forced Sunny out of her house and into the salon so Dom could work his magic on Sunny too, and he did, and even she liked the result) and I’d let it dry somewhat wild because Tate liked it that way.

Hayley looked like an upper, middleclass suburban housewife who had a personal trainer and a standing appointment for monthly visits to the salon.

I looked like a biker babe.

And she’d just seen me kissing the beautiful, badass Tatum Jackson. I knew it by the astonished, yet envious look on her face. A look that I suspected I sported the first time I saw him with Neeta.

This was why I smiled.

“Hayley, girl, what’re you doin’ here?” I asked, loud and friendly, didn’t wait for an answer and turned to Tate. “Honey, this is Hayley. You know, the woman who pretended to be my friend while she fucked my husband, Brad?”

Tate, standing again with arms wide, fists to the bar, tried not to smile, failed when his lips twitched up and then he muttered in his rough, sexy voice, “Yeah, babe, I know who Hayley is.”

I turned back to Hayley to see she was staring at Tate, her eyes wide, shocked and openly covetous, her lips were parted and her face pale.

“Come on, I owe you a drink,” I announced, moving to her and shuffling her toward the bar as I saw Jim-Billy, Nadine, Steg and Wings all watching, all smiling and I helped Hayley onto a stool then I turned to Tate, “Honey, can you get Hayley a martini?”

“No,” Tate replied.

“Oh,” I said then turned to Hayley, “We don’t do sissy-ass drinks here. Will you drink vodka straight?”

She blinked up at me then she blinked up at Tate, what she didn’t do was answer.

“Maybe we’ll start you with a diet pop,” I suggested.

“I… you…” she struggled then said, “why do you owe me a drink?”

I leaned back, crossed my arms on my chest and grinned. “To thank you because you freed me from Brad.”

“What?” she whispered.

“You freed me from Brad so I could get out of that hellhole of a life and that cesspit that was Horizon Summit and find Carnal and Tate.” I uncrossed an arm and motioned to Tate, leaning forward and informing her conspiratorially, “He’s my old man.”

“Your old man?” she asked.

“Biker slang for he’s my um… man,” I explained. “We’re together.”

Her eyes went back to Tate and she observed, “He isn’t much like Brad.”

“Thank fuck,” Tate muttered and I swallowed a giggle.

Then I asked, “Tate, honey, would you get Hayley here a diet and I’ll go serve those Buds.” I looked back at Hayley. “I have to serve a few beers. Be right back.”

Tate popped the caps of three Buds, I rushed them to the customers, they paid, tipped big and then I rushed back to see that Tate had served Hayley a diet and was leaning with his hips against the back of the bar, arms crossed on his chest, watching me. I also saw that Jim-Billy, Nadine, Steg and Wings had moved down to stools closer to Hayley and she was eyeing them and Tate uncertainly.

I slid on a stool beside her and asked, “So, what’re you doing here?”

She looked at me. “I… erm…”

“Yeah?” I prompted.

“I heard Brad’s here,” she answered quickly. “Hasn’t he been in?”

At her words, Tate pushed away from the back of the bar and got close, saying in an unhappy growl, “You are fuckin’ shittin’ me.”

Hayley swallowed as she stared up at Tate then she looked at Jim-Billy, Nadine, Steg and Wings then her head turned so swiftly to me I was certain she had to have wrenched her neck.

“They say he’s in town. He wants you back. So much, he won’t take
me
back,” she said quietly, like this was unfathomable, like someone was trying to convince her the sky was fuchsia.

“Take you back?” I asked.

“Nathan left me,” she whispered.

“Went back to his wife you mean,” I suggested and she swallowed again which I decided to take as an affirmative.

“Ace,” Tate called and I looked at him. “Tell this one,” he jerked his head to Hayley, “to call that fuckwad and tell him, he doesn’t want to know what assault actually is, I don’t see his ass in my bar.”

I nodded, looked at Hayley and advised soberly, “You should do that, call Brad.”

Hayley’s eyes were wide. “You mean he’d assault Brad?”

“Probably,” I replied. “Actually, I’m not sure but I wouldn’t test him.”

She stared up at Tate then nodded and opened her purse.

“You…” she muttered as she dug through her purse. “You…” She pulled out her phone and then looked at me, her phone in her hand, her eyes moved to my lap and back up. “You fell apart when Brad left.”

“Tate put me back together.” I leaned into an elbow on the bar and looked at Tate. “Didn’t you, baby?”

I could tell with just a glance Tate wasn’t having near as much fun as me.

I knew this for certain when he ordered, “Get her to call him.”

“All right, Captain, calm down,” I muttered and then to Hayley I said, “You better hurry up and call him.”

“Hayley?” I heard Brad call, my eyes went beyond her as she twisted on her stool to look and we saw Brad in another golf shirt, a pair of chinos and his eyes were glued to Hayley. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

“Out,” Tate growled and Brad’s eyes flicked to him but he still walked to Hayley and me.

“I asked, what the fuck are you doing here?” he asked Hayley.

She stared up at him, her fear gone, her face getting hard and she stated, “You said you wanted her back and I couldn’t believe it. I heard you were on your way up here and I had to come see for myself and I still don’t believe it.” She leaned forward and finished with, “You can’t honestly want her. She’s a waitress!”

Well, there you go. Nothing had changed with Hayley.

“And you can’t honestly believe you could fuck around on me and think I’d want
you
,” Brad shot back.

Hmm. It appeared something had changed with Brad.

I settled back to watch the show as Hayley crossed her arms on her chest and snapped, “You told me you loved me and always would.”

I leaned in and shared, “He said that to me too.”

Jim-Billy guffawed. Brad glared at Jim-Billy. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Tate move and I turned to him.

“Don’t, honey, please?” I asked. “This is fun.”

Tate stopped moving, stared at me a second, his eyes roaming my face, then he muttered, “You get five minutes of fun, Ace, then you get both their asses out of here.”

Hayley was focused, Tate and my exchange was lost on her, she got up from her stool and repeated to Brad, “You told me you loved me and always would.”

Brad ignored Hayley and looked at me, he did a top to toe and back again then his gaze moved to Tate.

“I’m here to tell you I’m suing you,” he announced.

Jim-Billy, Nadine, Steg, Wing and my eyes moved to Tate.

Tate stared at Brad then he said, “Come again?”

“I’m suing you,” Brad repeated.

“For what?” Tate asked.

“Alienation of affection,” Brad answered.

Without hesitation, Tate threw his head back and burst out laughing.

Then he looked at me and remarked, “You’re right, babe, this
is
fun.”

Ignoring Tate’s comment, Brad declared, “You stole my wife.”

Tate looked back at Brad. “Yeah, bud, I did.”

Brad pointed at Tate and his voice was raised when he proclaimed, “See? You admit it.” He threw his arm out. “I have witnesses.”

“Not that any judge’ll hear your case, seein’ as Lauren divorced your ass before I alienated her affection, but you manage it, I’ll pay the fine. In the meantime, I’ll keep alienating her affection. You should know, and feel free to share it with your lawyers,” Tate continued magnanimously, “schedule’s comin’ out mornin’ and night. Usually, in the mornin’, she sucks me off or I make her come in the shower. Night, man… shit, that’s even better. Definitely worth the fine.”

I rolled my eyes (mostly in an effort to ignore the fact that Jim-Billy, Nadine, Steg and Wings were all grinning at me, the men somewhat lasciviously, Nadine just happily) but Brad glowered at Tate then his eyes moved to me.

“Honest, Ree? Is that filth what you like?”

“Oh yeah,” I muttered the God’s honest truth and heard Nadine, Steg and Wings all chuckle but Jim-Billy guffawed.

Brad glared at me then looked at Tate. “I’m moving to have the divorce declared null and void.”

I felt my body tense, unsure if this was even possible and hoping to God it wasn’t but Tate didn’t seem concerned.

I knew this when he replied, “Good luck with that.”

“Ree didn’t want the divorce until she came up here and met you,” Brad went on.

“Maybe not but you should know before you drop a shitload of cake on this crap, she’s glad she’s got it now,” Tate returned.

“You’ve brainwashed her,” Brad shot back, Jim-Billy guffawed again, I stared at Brad in stupefied disbelief at the mind-boggling extent of his conceit and he continued. “I get her away from you, we’ll find our way back, she said so.”

“Yeah, that was before. Since…” Tate paused, leaned in, fists again wide to his sides and in the bar. “Since, she’s tasted the good life and she knows you’ll never give her that.”

Brad’s lip curled up, he looked around the bar, back at Tate and sneered, “
This
is the good life?”

“Part of it,” Tate replied instantly, taking his fists from the bar, leaning into his forearms and asking softly, in a tone meant both to challenge and provoke, “She ever ignite, lose so much control she’d attack you? Climb on top and fuck you so hard she can’t breathe?”

I watched Brad suffer that blow because I hadn’t, not even close. We’d had good sex but not
that
good and Brad was extremely proud of his sexual prowess. He was convinced he was the best. And he knew, with Tate’s words, he was wrong.

“Jesus, you’re disgusting,” Brad muttered, calling up revulsion to save face.

“She does that to me,” Tate continued.

“Fuck off,” Brad snapped.

“All the fuckin’ time,” Tate pushed.

“Fuck
off,
” Brad repeated.

“It’s fuckin’ magnificent,” Tate declared.

“Thanks, honey,” I whispered and grinned at him when his eyes came to me.

I was actually expressing gratitude, although embarrassed by his conversation, but I was also kind of joking to get in Brad’s face.

Tate wasn’t. His expression was serious when he said, “You are, Ace. Fuckin’ magnificent.”

He meant that and he meant it about more than me fucking him so hard I couldn’t breathe. And this meant so much to me, I stopped breathing as I looked into his dark, tawny-flecked eyes.

“I suggest you find an attorney,” Brad butted into our mostly nonverbal exchange.

Tate’s dark, tawny-flecked eyes cut back to him. “Got one, bud. You’re stupid enough to bring it, bring it.”

 Brad looked at me but insulted Tate, “Jesus, Ree, he can’t even speak proper English.”

That was when I stopped thinking this was fun. And I stopped thinking this was fun because no one insulted my man.

“I’m in love with him,” I announced and Brad’s lip curled again.

“He’s twisted your –” Brad started.

“No, he hasn’t,” I cut him off. “
You
did. You fucked Tina, you fucked Hayley, you’ve never been faithful to me and you made me feel unworthy. You did it on purpose. You’re even doing it right now with the way you’re looking down on me, on Tate and on this bar. You’re an asshole and I regret every minute I spent with you. Every… single… minute.”

“Ree, you –” Brad started and I advanced on him a step and leaned into his face.

“Don’t you tell me what I think,” I hissed. “You don’t know what I think.” I leaned back. “Do it, Brad,” I invited. “Make the divorce null and void. I
want
you to. I want you to because I want to divorce your ass again and take you to the cleaners. I’ll get a private detective and dig out all your dirt. Tina, Hayley and all the ones in between. I’ll take everything you have. Do it, I can’t
wait
. Tate and I need new countertops and carpet and I like the idea of walking on
you
and slicing vegetables on
you
. Go ahead, Brad,
do it.
”

“That would not be good,” Hayley whispered and my eyes swung to her.

And for the first time, I saw her, straight into her black soul.

And seeing that, I told her, “You’re a joke.”

“What?” she was still whispering.

“You’re a vulture but the thing is, you aren’t very good at it.”

Her back straightened, her eyes narrowed and she came right out and showed her true colors when she stated, “Good enough to get your man.”

“Right, good enough to get
that
,” I pointed at Brad. “But, see,
I’m
good enough to get
that.
” And I pointed at Tate. “And that, darlin’, is something you’ll
never
have because a good man will see straight through you and want nothing to do with that and that’s just plain, old
sad.
”