God, she’d thought people in this town had been cruel when she was a kid, but
they had nothing on this Missy woman and all the horrible people who were taking so much joy out of tearing his life apart for the entire world to see. It was just so sick and mean and-
“He was telling you the truth, Kasey,” Sara said, closing the computer while she sat there, sick to her stomach as she thought about all those things that she really wished that she could un-see and really wishing that she could find this Missy bitch so that she could slap the shit out of her.
“Mom! Mom!” Mikey yelled, running towards them with a huge smile on her face. “Reese is going to the hardware store and he said that I could come if it was okay with you!”
She looked past Mikey’s smiling face to find Reese standing in the driveway, watching her and looking absolutely miserable. Her heart broke for him and all she wanted to do was to walk over to him and wrap her arms around him, but she knew that he would hate any pity right now.
“Yeah, we can go,” she said, shifting her attention back to Mikey as she pushed her laptop towards Sara, who knew where it went, and walked towards Reese with Mikey in tow.
“Mom said we can go!” Mikey happily announced as she ran past her to go climb in Reese’s truck.
Keeping his gaze locked with hers, he nodded slowly and stepped aside so that she could follow after Mikey. Once she got to the truck, she paused by the open truck door for a second out of habit and when Reese didn’t pick her up and put her in the truck, she realized that she might have a bit of groveling to do to make this right.
*-*-*-*
“Guess what Reese is building for me, Mr. Grey!” Mikey said, smiling hugely as she jumped onto the counter and sat down so that she could enthrall the older man with the news of the new pitching target that he was building for her while Reese headed towards the back of the mom and pop hardware store, walking past a few bored looking teenagers and their mother.
“Reese, wait,” Kasey said, catching up with him as he navigated his way through the store.
“I’m not really in the mood to be called an asshole again, Kasey,” he said, knowing that he should be fucking thrilled that she was talking to him again, but he wasn’t because that could only mean one thing.
She’d Googled him after all.
“I’m sorry about that, Reese,” she said, following him down the paint supply aisle.
“It’s fine,” he said, hoping that she’d just let it go, because this was one conversation that he didn’t want to have with her.
“I thought…I thought that you were just trying to-”
“I know what you thought and it’s fine, Kasey. Just let it go,” he said, cutting her off as he took a turn down another aisle, forgetting why he came here in the first place.
“But-”
“Let it go,” he said, deciding that he’d come back later when he was alone and took another turn to head back towards the front of the store.
“Wait,” she said, grabbing his arm to stop him and because he was a fucking moron, he let her.
“Look, I don’t want to talk about-Mmm,” he started to say only to end up moaning when she grabbed hold of his shirt, yanked him down, and kissed him.
When she slid her hands up his chest and wrapped her arms around him, he had to remind himself that they were in a hardware store with Mikey close by. But even knowing that didn’t stop him from wrapping an arm around her and reaching down and grabbing hold of that heart shaped ass that he’d been dreaming about for the past two months.
Her answering moan had him devouring her mouth as he backed her towards a shelf, pressing her against it and-
“Mom?”
-quickly putting some space between them.
“Mom?” Mikey called again, sounding closer.
“I’ll be there in a minute,” she managed to say while he stood there, struggling not to pull her back in his arms and finish what they’d started, but now was not the time.
“Tonight,” he bit out.
“Tonight?” she repeated with a cute little frown that had him ignoring that voice inside his head that told him that touching her again would be a bad idea and had him pulling her back into his arms anyway. “What happens tonight?”
“Tonight,” he said, brushing his lips against hers, “I’m going to make you mine.”
Chapter 34
“No, no, I can’t do it!” she said, closing her eyes as a wave of nausea slammed into her, threatening to make her race towards the bathroom. Well, it would have if she didn’t currently have a crazed woman pinning her down on the bed.
“It’s going to be fine, Kasey,” Sara promised when they both knew no such thing!
“No, it’s not!”
“Oh, my god! Would you stop already? It’s just a date!” Sara snapped in exasperation as she sat up, grabbed the blouse that she’d picked out for her and tossed it at Kasey. “Get dressed.”
“No!”
“I will beat you!” Sara snapped, pressing her fingers to her temple as she closed her eyes and slowly exhaled, clearly praying for patience while Kasey took this opportunity to turn around and quickly crawled towards the closed bedroom door that separated her from her precious freedom.
“Seriously?” Sara demanded, as she grabbed hold of her ankle and-
“You didn’t even shave?” the woman that was supposed to have her back demanded, as she released Kasey’s ankle in disgust.
“I didn’t get a chance!” Kasey snapped defensively as she reached down and shoved her pajama pants back down.
“You had plenty of chances!”
“Really? Because, I believe some crazed bitch dragged me off to get my hair and nails done before I had a chance to do anything!”
“Maybe it had something to do with that uni-brow that you’ve been sporting for the past couple of weeks?” the horrible woman that she’d once called friend shot back.
“You...bitch!” she gasped, trying not to laugh.
“Look, clearly you’re in over your head on this one,” Sara said calmly with a sniff as she inspected her manicure.
“And you know this because of your vast dating experience? Is that why?” Kasey asked, blinking up at the woman that had actually helped her keep her sanity over the last few hours.
“I’ve dated!”
“Really? Who? Because I know that you’re not counting your husband since you’ve been together since the eighth grade and his idea of a date is grabbing fast food from the drive-thru and catching a movie on Netflix,” she said, deciding that it was time to climb off the bed before Sara could get another chance to tackle her.
“Hey, that counts!” Sara said in a huff as she snatched the blouses that she’d picked out off the floor where they’d fallen so that she could lay them back on the bed for her final inspection.
“For this?” Kasey asked, waving her hands desperately.
“Yes!” Sara hissed as she opened the bedroom door and-
“So,” Mikey said around a bite of her apple, “is this a date?”
“Yes,” Sara answered before Kasey got a chance to deny it, “and she needs to get ready.”
Instead of freaking out, which she fully expected any loyal child to do, Mikey simply nodded and said, “I like him.”
“Good. One less thing to worry about,” Sara said with a firm nod as she grabbed Kasey by the arm and dragged her towards the bathroom.
“Oh, come on!” she said, not bothering to fight her since a relaxing bath might actually help settle her nerves.
“As soon as I get your mom settled in a bath, you and I are going to pack a bag so that you can come stay with me for a few days,” Sara said with a warm smile that didn’t exactly match the promise of violence in her eyes if Kasey tried to make a run for it.
“Why can’t I stay here?” Mikey asked, already looking bored.
“Because your mom will probably be out late tonight,” Sara said, clearing her throat as panic once again blossomed in her chest.