Page 13 of The Handy Men
"I don't feel very courageous most days," she admitted.
"Well, you are." Dean leaned down and dropped a kiss on her forehead.
Paige almost cooed in delight. It didn’t help that Jack's magic fingers were making her drowsy and tingly all at the same time. She stifled a yawn with the back of her hand. "I should get going before the last ferry leaves." Or before my clothes accidentally fall off and I beg you to take me against the wall.
"You've got some time," Dean said.
"Besides, you could always stay here," Jack added.
She smiled. What a recipe for disaster that would be. "No, I've got to get back. But this has been fun. I always like beating the snot out of you two in whatever game we play."
"Yeah, if you're so confident, we should play strip poker," Jack blurted out.
Paige caught Dean shaking his head at him and giggled. That was so like them. Jack letting his mouth say shit before his brain caught up with him, and Dean scolding him for it. They were her two best friends in all the world. If she lost them, it would be more devastating than her divorce had been. She needed to pull on her big girl panties and stop with the pathetic little fantasies. It was an impossible situation. She couldn't sleep with a married man. She wouldn't be a home wrecker like Barbie.
"Besides if you miss the ferry, we can always take you in the boat."
She looked at Jack. "What?" Paige couldn't have just heard what she thought she did. It was her hormones messing up her hearing.
"Take you home in the boat," Dean said, with another glare at Jack.
"Oh."
Her phone rang again. This time the ringing was Twisted Sister's “We're Not Going to Take It.”
"Who's that?" Dean asked.
"My parents. I'm ignoring them, too. Are you sure you don't want to rethink the courageous part?"
Jack's lips twisted into a smile. "No. I know how toxic parents can be."
"I'm sorry," she said.
He shrugged. "It is what it is. I've always been a disappointment to them. Tattoos, piercings, not going to college. Marrying a man was just the last straw for them. They disowned me. They didn’t want a faggot for a son."
Anger swirled through her. No one should treat their son like that. "Fuck them."
"It's okay."
"No, it damn well isn't," she said, scowling. She'd like to give them a piece of her mind and maybe a knuckle sandwich. How dare they hurt her Jack? And he was her Jack, even if he didn’t realize it.
"Easy tiger." But Jack smiled, so she backed off. "I've got Dean's parents. They handled it a lot better."
"Well, not a lot better," Dean snorted. "We still make them uncomfortable, and I'm pretty sure they pretend we're just roommates, but at least we're on the Christmas card list."
Paige rubbed Dean’s thigh in sympathy. "If it's any consolation, I'm a big disappointment, too. I didn't used to be. I married well. But then, I didn't overlook Fred's little indiscretions and was vulgar enough to divorce him."
"Your parents wanted you to stay with him after you caught him banging his secretary?"
It was also hard to hold on to righteous anger when Jack's touch was so soothing. "It's what my mother did."
"Ouch." Dean winced and stroked her cheek in sympathy.
Which would have been really sweet, but that meant that his upper arm brushed over her breast and Paige was so desperate for him that she enjoyed it like it was a deliberate caress.
"And technically, Barbie wasn't Fred's secretary. She works in IT. I guess she liked his hard drive," Paige quipped to stop the raging feels flowing through her.
They smirked appreciatively.
