Page 44 of Jagger
Abby gave a delicate shudder and looked at me. “God, I hate it when they do that creepy twin thing.”
We spent the evening eating, drinking, and talking. Ethan was spending the night with Abby’s parents, so they were enjoying their night out. I showed them the video I’d made of Ethan dancing in class the week before and shared funny stories from the classroom. Abby filled me in on Cole and Rome – or Caleb as she called him – and what they’d been like in high school. Both men protested when her stories painted them in a less than flattering light, but she threatened to show me photographic evidence of some of their youthful stupidity, so they quickly shut up.
I noticed that Abby was getting increasingly concerned with each drink that Rome had. He wasn’t drunk, I didn’t think, but he was hitting the liquor pretty hard. At one point, he and Jagger went up to the bar to get us refills, Sprite for Abby, and a Diet Pepsi for me, since I’d stopped drinking after my first rum and coke. I was relieved to see that they had both switched to sodas for themselves as well when they returned, and Abby leaned over and kissed his cheek when he sat down. He gave her a sheepish smile and reached for her hand, holding it, and lacing his fingers through hers for the rest of the night.
At some point, the club bunnies arrived. It was obvious who they were – they stood out among the other women there, many of whom were already wearing pretty revealing clothing. Cole had told me the other women were mostly hang-arounds, regular ‘citizens’ who simply liked to party with bikers sometimes. The bunnies, however, wore such skimpy clothing that I was quite sure they could be arrested for indecent exposure if they walked around in public like that. I tensed when I saw them, as I realized that I would be coming face-to-face with women who’d had sex with Cole, and I suddenly wondered how many of the hang-arounds fell into that category as well. I watched him closely to see if he looked interested in all the flesh on display. He didn’t seem to even notice and remained openly attentive and affectionate with me. Rome was the same with Abby. I wasn’t sure he’d taken his eyes off his wife for more than a few seconds all evening. It was sweet to watch them together, and I could see why Ethan was such a happy, well-adjusted little boy. It was obvious there was a lot of love in his home, even with the potential issue of Rome’s binge drinking.
“I need to use the restroom again,” Abby complained with a huff, scooting her chair back to get to her feet. Rome jumped up to help her, and she smiled at him gratefully.
“I’ll go with you,” I said, and Abby led the way to the women’s restrooms down a back hallway off the kitchen. Luckily, there wasn’t a line, so we both got in and out quickly. We were laughing about the moans and high-pitched squeals coming from the men’s room as we walked back into the main clubroom, and I stopped suddenly as I caught sight of one of the bunnies hanging on Cole as he sat talking to Rome, pressing her obviously fake boobs against his shoulder. Abby stopped and turned when she realized I was no longer next to her, and her eyes narrowed as she followed my gaze. I was just about to get good and pissed off when Jagger seemed to suddenly notice she was there. He turned to glare at her and shrugged off her touch. Whatever he said to her obviously didn’t set well judging by the way she pouted when he turned back to talk to Rome. I started to approach the table again, but something held me back and I decided to see how this played out. The bunny took the opportunity to run her fingers through the hair at his nape. Cole whipped his head around and grabbed her hand, practically flinging it away from him, his expression harsh as he spoke to her and pointed toward the door, before turning back to continue speaking to Rome.
She flipped him off as she whirled around on her stiletto heels and stalked toward the door, stopping only when Ace grabbed her by the arm and pulled her over toward the stripper stage in the corner. I watched as he sank down onto one end of the couch and pulled her down so that she straddled his lap. Within seconds, he had her crop top pulled down and was playing with her boobs. The bunny, whoever she was, was giving her best porn star impression as she moaned and writhed and generally made a spectacle of herself, flipping her almost-platinum blonde hair back and forth like she was starring in a rock music video. I felt my stomach turn, and looked away, to find Abby staring at me with sympathy written all over her face. She pulled me back down the hallway toward the ladies’ room and urged me inside.
“I’m sorry, Molly, but please don’t be upset. I don’t think Jag even realized she was there at first, and when he did, he got rid of her,” she pleaded.
I shook my head and smiled at her. “I’m not upset about that. I don’t think he did either. I’m not sure how he missed it, since he had about ten pounds of silicone resting on him, but he seemed oblivious.”
Abby’s eyes widened and then she giggled, looking relieved that I wasn’t angry. I was a little concerned about having to deal with that kind of thing all the time though, and I knew it would wear on me after a while.
“How do you do it, Abby?” I asked hesitantly. “I hope this isn’t too personal, but how do you deal with half-naked women throwing themselves at Rome all the time?”
She chuckled and shook her head. “They don’t even bother trying. Caleb has made it clear since he and I first got together that he’s committed to me and told all the club bunnies that he wasn’t interested and to leave him the hell alone. Early on, one bunny kept trying to flirt with him, and was just hateful to me every chance she got. He ended up getting her kicked out of the club for it, because the bunnies have to be respectful to the Old Ladies.”
I smiled, loving that Rome had drawn that line in the sand for the bunnies. “I’m glad he did that.” My smile faded as I wondered how many other times Cole was the one on a couch with a club bunny’s tits in his mouth. I sighed as that thought settled in my gut.
“It’s just hard knowing that Cole’s probably slept with most of the women in that room. You know, he got so jealous over the fact that my best friend is a man, even though we’ve never been more than friends, and now I’m literally surrounded by his ex-lovers, and I’m supposed to be OK with it.”
Abby winced and looked away, and I saw a hint of sadness in her expression. “Yeah, I get it,” she said, then cleared her throat. “That part of it isn’t easy, but it does get better. In time, some of those bunnies will leave, the hang-arounds get tired of hanging around, and eventually, there are a whole new crop of women around, so you don’t have to be faced with as many of the ex-hookups anymore.”
It sounded as if she were speaking from experience. At my puzzled look, she shook her head and raised her eyes toward the ceiling. She blinked rapidly, and I felt terrible when I realized she was blinking away tears.
“Abby, I didn’t mean to upset you. I’m so sorry,” I apologized, reaching for a paper towel for her to wipe her eyes.
She accepted it gratefully and dabbed it under her eyes to catch the tears that had welled up.
“It’s not your fault. My stupid hormones make me cry at the drop of a hat these days. It’s just that,” she stopped and took a deep breath before continuing. “I had a crush on Caleb from the time I met him at fourteen, and by the time I was sixteen, I knew I loved him. He was eighteen, almost nineteen by then, so even though I got the feeling he was interested in, he treated me like a pesky little sister most of the time. I tried to date other guys, but it was like I had the plague or something. No guys from our school would touch me. I found out later that Caleb was warning them off. He was waiting for me to turn eighteen, because my dad’s a cop and would have arrested him if he’d come near me when I was underage.”
“I can imagine how tough that was.”
“Yeah, well, it was tougher on me than it was on Caleb. He didn’t want other guys around me, but he still hooked up with the club bunnies sometimes. He tried to be discreet, I guess, but I still heard things, you know? We had mutual friends who would mention seeing him at parties, not realizing I had feelings for him. It was bad enough when I thought the feeling between us was one-sided, but a few months before my eighteenth birthday, he found out I was going out with a guy from the other side of town, someone who hadn’t been warned to stay away from me. Caleb was waiting for me when I got home that night. He told me he loved me, that he had loved me for years, and that I was going to be his Old Lady as soon as I was legal. Threatened to kill the other guy if I went out with him again. I was so happy that he loved me back, and then I remembered those other women. He said he had loved me for years, yet he’d still had sex with those women instead of waiting for me. I guess it’s just different for men, I don’t know. It took me a long time to forgive that, deep down. So, yeah, I get it.”
I hugged her, trying to fight back tears of my own. I could hear the pain in her voice, and it made me want to smack Rome upside the head for the way he’d treated her back then.
“It’s worth it though, Molly. The Morgan men are special, well, maybe not Ace. But the others are, and if they’re in a relationship, they are loyal to the core. Pop taught them well.” She smiled at me, then stepped over to the mirror to check her makeup. I did the same, and once we were satisfied that there was no trace of tears, Abby opened the door, and we headed back out to the clubroom. Rome and Cole were still sitting at the table, laughing about something.
I sat back down and kissed Cole’s cheek, getting a whiff of strong perfume. Lord, that bunny must bathe in the stuff. I leaned closer so that I could whisper in his ear.
“You reek of perfume, Cole. Eau de Skank if I had to guess.” I flicked his earlobe with my finger, then sat back in my chair, taking a sadistic kind of petty pleasure in the panic-stricken look on his face.
He turned to me and grabbed my hand, leaning over to cup my face. “Nothing happened, Angel. I swear it. One of the – “
I interrupted him by placing my finger over his lips. “I know. I saw her. You need to be more aware of your surroundings. I mean, how on earth did you miss those double D’s pressing against you?” I arched a brow at him and gave him my best teacher look.
He dropped his head and groaned. When he lifted his head, he had a pained look on his face. “I’m sorry, Angel. It won’t happen again.”
I leaned over to kiss his cheek again, wrinkling my nose at the lingering stench. “Thank you.”
I looked across the table to find Rome whispering in Abby’s ear, making her laugh and swat at his shoulder. He grinned and cupped his hand over her pregnant belly, gently rubbing it as he nuzzled her cheek and rested his head against hers. He closed his eyes as if he were taking comfort just being close to her and the moment felt so intimate that I had to look away.
