These days, I only felt that buzz when Alex walked into a room.
“We need to get going,” Alex said, snapping me back into the present.
Today was Sawyer and Jake’s wedding, but first, we needed to pick up Mindy.
I’ll never forget the rage that pulsed in my veins the night she sought me out at the club. She was fierce and confident as she threatened to ruin my life with lies. I didn’t learn until later that she’d rehearsed that act for a whole week in front of the mirror, and underneath the audacity cowered a lost and broken young girl, tossed to the side by a jackhole just like me. The old me.
Initially, nobody understood my need to help this girl. But I had to, and I had a feeling deep in my gut that my mom would want me to, as well. All my friends saw was a blackmailing whore trying to screw me over. Until they met her…
She did what she had to out of desperation, fear, and the instinct to protect her baby. The baby’s father abandoned her, her parents kicked her out onto the streets and she was a college dropout with no qualifications or experience. She’d heard about this club filled with men that had more money than sense who were always looking for an easy fuck. Again, men just like me. She spied an opportunity to make enough money to get out of the cesspit she lived in and took it. Was she wrong? Possibly. Misguided? Definitely. Evil? Absolutely not.
After meeting her again, her situation haunted me. I might not have been responsible for Mindy’s problems, but wondering how many girls I could’ve quite easily forced into her situation over the years plagued me. I couldn’t help them, given the fact I never really knew or cared who they were, but I could help her.
My only regret about the whole thing was keeping it from Alex. I could’ve ruined us because I didn’t have the courage to be honest. I didn’t trust him to understand. I underestimated him. My expectations of how he would react were, in fact, based on how I would’ve handled it. When Alex’s ex turned up at the club I wanted to floor the bastard for no other reason than I was a jealous asshole. But Alex was a better man than me. He proved it day after day simply by loving me.
When I first introduced Alex to Mindy the blood drained from her face. She sank down onto the box she used as a couch, put her head in her hands and broke into a thousand pieces. She thought I was taking a stand, cutting her off and going back on the deal she’d coerced me into. When Alex dropped to his knees and put his arms around her she didn’t understand. Guilt strangled her words as she tried to speak. She couldn’t grasp why we offered to continue helping her, constantly asking what we expected in return. When she asked if we wanted to use her in some kind of threesome, it tore a chunk from my heart. A piece of me she still owned to this day.
We pulled up at the building housing the apartment I bought for her. I wasn’t prepared to give her a free ride. Instead, I employed her at the club. She paid me rent, albeit at a seriously deflated rate, and she provided for herself and her unborn baby with her paycheck. Afraid of judgment, the fear in her eyes was palpable during her first shift, until she actually met my friends and learned for herself that they were the most genuine, kind-hearted people on the planet.
She dreaded Sawyer the most. Like the rest of the world, she only knew him by what she’d read in the newspapers – that he was an arrogant ass who never smiled. True, of course, but only if you knew him did you see that Sawyer Knight was so much more, as Mindy discovered the first time she met him. He greeted her with a hug, saying simply, “Welcome to the family.”
Mindy was waiting for us on the small wall outside her apartment building. She walked, or waddled, to the car, slipped into the back seat and huffed.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, eyeing her up in the rearview mirror. “Is the baby okay?”
“The baby’s fine. I just feel like a whale and I’m going to a party filled with hot famous people.”
“You look beautiful,” I said, admiring the pink dress that flowed over her swollen belly. “Besides, I’ll be the hottest person there and you’re comfortable with me.”
“Your modesty is so refreshing,” Alex said, shaking his head before shifting his ass to face Mindy. “You’re not alone either. Elle’s pregnant too so you can swap back pain and fat ankle stories with her.”