Home Torn

  “I guess.” Jonah shrugged. “I talk to Trent sometimes about issues, but they’re usually about work. Hawk’s not exactly the ‘emotional-sharing’ type. He just likes to bed women.” He laughed. “He thinks that’s his entire reason for being on this earth.”

  “He sounds stellar.”

  “Hawk has some good qualities. If I ever need anything, he’ll drop everything to help.”

  “Even a threesome?”

  Jonah barked a laugh before he sobered. “Aiden called me tonight. She wanted me to remind you that they have their Friday Night Poker Showdown this Friday. You and I both have to be there and I’m supposed to drive you. I think Aiden wants you to get drunk.”

  “That might be a possibility.”

  “Oh and to warn you, Jake was invited so that means that Julia will be there. I guess it’ll be pretty big because some of Julia’s new friends were invited too. Aiden doesn’t even know who all is coming, but she’s planning for thirty.”

  “How many play poker?”

  “Eight tables are set up and everyone watches until the winning table face off against each other. It takes all night so plan to sleep it off the next day, that is—if you’re a serious player. Most the people just go to drink, laugh, and lose some money.” Jonah laughed to himself. “It’s pretty fun. Aiden and Kate wore these ridiculous hats last year. They pretended they were the next generation of Red Hats and they only wore red and purple all night. Even their poker tables had to have a red or purple tablecloth.”

  Dani could imagine it.

  Jonah tugged at the end of the blanket. “Are you naked under there?”

  Dani laughed. “Maybe.”

  Jonah laughed and stood up. He walked to her and stood above as he slid his hands underneath the blanket and grinned in delight as he felt silk skin underneath his fingertips. He moved her legs to wrap around him as he stood between them and slid his hands underneath her thighs and moved her up to press against him.

  As he bent and kissed the corner of her mouth, wrapped an arm around her back, and slid a hand to her breast, Dani asked with her eyes closed, “How do we fit?”

  Jonah pressed another kiss, hard, to her mouth before he murmured as he pulled away and met her eyes, “We just do.”

  Dani laughed and wrapped her arms around his naked shoulders. She slid her hands down his back, delighted in the shiver he couldn’t contain, and grasped his butt. With a smile to her eyes, she asked, “Is that it? We just do this without rules?”

  “No.” Jonah bent and met her lips. He murmured against them, “When something happens and we need to clarify rules, we do it then. Until then, I’m all for just having fun.” He hoisted her up in his arms, her legs wrapped around his waist. “How about you?”

  “I’m thinking I like how we fit.” Dani chuckled as she laid her head to his shoulder.

  Jonah walked them back inside and to the bedroom. He laid her down, pulled the blanket sheet free, and leaned just above her with one knee braced on the bed. His other leg still stood on the ground and his arm came beside her shoulder to prop himself so his eyes looked down to hers.

  “I like how we fit too.” He traced the side of her lips with his thumb. He slid his hand to cup the side of her cheek and his lips found hers, softly.

  Dani slid her hand down his chest and delighted in the hard contours of his muscles. She smoothed around his waist and felt his back muscles ripple from the action to keep himself propped above her. They shivered again from her touch and she wrapped one leg around his thigh to bring him down to her.

  Jonah fell lightly on her and caressed her leg as his hand enjoyed her body.

  Dani fell back onto her pillow as Jonah kissed his way over her entire body. She was writhing, gasping, and begging until he slid inside and silenced her anguished cries.

  When she woke the next morning, it was to his searching lips and fingers again. It wasn’t until later, much later, when she glimpsed the clock and realized it was six in the morning.

  After she dozed and woke a second time, Jonah was gone and the clock read nine o’clock so she went in search for Mae. The bar was empty, but the restaurant was bustling like usual. She found her hidden behind a stack of boxes. “Hey ho.”

  Mae popped out. “You just call your aunt a whore?”

  “Nope. You’re kinda like snow white. You have six dwarves that sit in your bar and you take care of the seventh back at the cabin.”

  Mae chuckled and shook her head. “Where’d this good mood come from?”

  Dani peeked inside one of the boxes, saw towels, and wrinkled her nose. “I have surrendered to the realization that my life is a mess.”

  Mae barked out a laugh. “That just means you have a life.” She slapped a hand to her hip and sashayed a two-step. “Folk like me are supposed to have messes for lives, but I don’t. I got no life except my favorite niece, this bar, and that restaurant. Sometimes I think this business got a better life of its own than mine.”

  Dani chuckled.

  Mae studied her niece again and noted, “You look a lot better than when I left you.”

  “Can I help with something?” Dani reached for one of the boxes, hoping against hope to change the subject.

  “No.” And Mae slapped away Dani’s hand. “I’m not letting you turn yourself into an unpaid volunteer that works here full-time. If you work, you get paid. My rules.”

  “Fine. Then pay me or consider this free rent.”

  Mae cursed. “That cabin is yours. It’s been yours for a long while, you just never around to be told that. You’re not working for rent. I pay and I pay well for my staff.”

  “Fine. Put me to work. I’ve got nothing to do right now.”

  Mae stopped depositing their towels underneath the counter and threw a resting arm over one box. She leaned her jean-clad hip against the counter and cocked her face to the side. She lifted a lip as she nodded, knowingly.

  “You know…,” Mae started. “I came by your place last night. Real late last night.”

  Dani let out a breath. She knew that her aunt knew. And she knew that her aunt knew that she knew that her aunt knew.

  She pursed her lips and denied, “Yeah? I was up. You could’ve come in for a nightcap.”

  Mae snorted, but her eyes twinkled. “Spunk all around this morning. That’s you, Dani. Me thinks that you got laid to full satisfaction last night.”

  “So?”

  Dani held her breath as she waited for her aunt’s opinion and possible judgement.

  “Nothing. Sex is healthy. I know that more than others.” Mae held her hands up and backed away, laughingly. “Seriously, though—Bannon’s got a reputation and as your favorite aunt, I gotta look out for you.”

  “Aunt Mae,” Dani spoke up, serious. “I’ve got enough on my plate. Jonah’s a listening ear. That’s really it. Emotions—I don’t have time for that.”

  “Yeah. You got more than enough on your plate. You got enough for four plates and sometimes a normal girl would go looking for a savior to kiss away all those plates. I’m sure he’s got the kisses, but I don’t think he’s got the staying power that some girls actually are wanting.”

  Dani opened her mouth.

  And her aunt cut her off, “But if anyone—you’re the runner. So…I said my piece and I’m done. I’ve done the aunt’s obligation about guys like Jonah and the conversation is off the table. Except if you ever want to enlighten an old dear aunt how the sex is. I can have that conversation at any table.”

  Dani chuckled and shook her head.

  Her aunt had changed in some ways over the years and not at all in other ways. For all her talk about ‘whoring’ around, Dani would’ve been surprised if her aunt had shared a bed with a man in five years. And she would’ve really been surprised if her aunt had shared her bed with anyone who hadn’t tipped her heart into the love region. For all the ‘whoring,’ Mae had probably never been free with her body.

  No matter what anyone said.

  “Anyway,”
Mae distracted Dani from her thoughts. “You should be warned that your sister is in a booth around the corner. She’s there with her hoity-toity friends and some new ones who look like they speak the same language.”

  Dani grabbed one of the boxes and moved farther down on the counter. As she opened it, she saw new glasses and started placing them onto the counter.

  “You know,” Dani remarked, “I never thought Julia would be the hoity-toity type. I could see her being stuck-up, but we were never rich.”

  “She’s rich now after that settlement,” Mae commented as her head disappeared underneath the counter.

  When she came back up, pained from the dust that she’d just discovered, Dani asked, “What settlement?”

  “Oh,” Mae grunted as she climbed back to her feet. “Erica won a big settlement with the hospital a long time ago. You haven’t heard a thing about that?”

  “No. What settlement?”

  “The hospital screwed up some of her lab results. They told her that she was pregnant and Erica stopped the chemotherapy for seven months. When she realized that she hadn’t any of the symptoms that go along with being preggers, she went back and they found out that there’d never been a child. I guess she was so skinny, she never thought twice when the tummy never got round.”

  “What?” Dani was shocked.

  “Yeah. It was Julia who pushed for the lawyers to be involved. I think she still thinks that if Erica had chemo during that time, she’d still be alive. Anyway, they sued and got a crap load of moolah. I guess Erica gave it all to Julia and now, your sister’s pretty damn rich.”

  Of all the shocking revelations…this one nearly took the cake.

  Dani laughed in disbelief and leaned against the counter. “I can’t believe this.”

  “What can’t you believe?” Mae asked, distracted as she opened another box and shoved it where the tablecloths were kept.

  “Well, that Erica had to go through that and…”

  They’d come from an unmarried mother’s home who barely supported all four of them. Then they’d become the ‘poor, poor O’Haras who’d lost their mother’ and grateful for food and shelter at their aunt’s and now…Dani noted, softly, “We all have money.”

  Mae stopped, arched an eyebrow, and murmured, “Yeah. Guess we do.”

  “So Julia’s in that ‘rich’ crowd?”

  “Yep. She’s the queen.” Mae huffed again as she crawled back underneath the counter.

  Hearing her aunt’s curse at more dust, Dani grinned and knelt beside her. She stuck her head beside her aunt’s and commented, “Wow. This is awful.”

  Mae barked a laugh and kept laughing.

  Dani laughed with her, both were lying on their stomachs as laughter shook their shoulders helplessly.

  It felt good. And freeing. And Dani had needed the amusement.

  A little later as both retained their control, Mae crawled out first and then Dani.

  They both stood and started again as Dani gasped at the dust that clung to her aunt’s hair, eyebrows, and forehead.

  Mae wiped at it and pointed out Dani’s own dust that had grazed her cheek.

  Someone coughed across the counter and Dani felt the laughter subside as she took in Jake’s near-scowl as he watched them.

  “Hi,” she hiccupped.

  Mae lost it again and had to leave before she fell to the ground to clutch her stomach in humor.

  Dani giggled, but bit down on them.

  “Hi,” Jake clipped out. He glanced between her to Mae and back again. “Care to share the joke?”

  “What do you want, Jake?”

  “Have you talked to Jonah? Did you ask him about what I told you?” Jake asked and glanced over his shoulder.

  Dani rolled her eyes and sighed. “Jake, just….go away. I’m not going to get hurt so you don’t need to worry about that, if you ever really worried in the first place.”

  “I have a right to be worried—”

  “No, you don’t,” Dani said sharply.

  “You’re the sister of my fiancée—”

  “I am your ex-girlfriend. Who I share a bed with is none of your business.”

  Jake reared back as if struck, but he took a deep breath. Dani saw the hurt that simmered in his eyes. She couldn’t squelch the automatic intake of breath as she saw his suffering—no matter the circumstances and truthfulness to her words.

  Jake said, “I am worried because I’ve seen people get hurt by Jonah. And with this new battle brewing, it’s going to get ugly. Bannon got raked over the coals before and he may have survived it, but I don’t know if he’ll survive it this time. You’ll get raked over the coals right next to him when people find out…”

  “I don’t care.” And she didn’t. Dani spoke true, “I’ve gone through worse than being condemned because of who’s comforting me at night. I can handle that compared to what I’ve gone through.”

  Jake quieted.

  “Stop it,” she rasped out, angered. “Just stop it.”

  “Stop what?”

  “Stop this!”

  “I’m not doing anything.” Then he glanced to his left and tensed.

  Dani followed and swallowed tightly. Boone stood there with a dark glower. If Dani were one to squeak, she would’ve squeaked then and there, but she didn’t. She froze in place and clamped her mouth tight.

  Jake stood and extended a hand towards Boone. He swept it back to Dani and introduced, “Dani, this is Dan Quandry. He’s uh…”

  Boone nodded stiffly, but didn’t extend his hand.

  Dani crossed her arms over her chest and watched in suspended horror.

  Jake finished the introduction, “This is Lari’s boyfriend. Lari is…”

  Boone took over. “Lari’s a friend of mine that I’m traveling with.”

  “Yeah. Lari and Julia met each other at Gracey’s Café yesterday.”

  “Boyfriend.”

  “Yeah.”

  Jake just smiled.

  Dani caught her breath and waited for a cue.

  Boone’s smile was tight. “It’s nice to meet you.”

  “Yeah, uh…,” Jake jumped in. Eager. “This is Julia’s sister. They’re not real tight, but, they’re sisters. Family and all. They care about each.”

  “He gets the picture,” Dani hissed through her clenched teeth.

  Jake shut up.

  To Boone, she murmured, “Nice to meet you too.”

  Boone glanced from Dani to Jake and back again. His face was stone, but she saw the questions there.

  “Oh hey!” Jake exploded. “Bubba invited us to their poker game on Friday. He said that Aiden invited you too. Everyone’s coming. It’ll be great. You can get to know the Quandrys some more.”

  Jake really did want to insure her safety. He thought if the Quandrys got to know her, become friends with her, she wouldn’t get crucified as she would’ve normally as Jonah Bannon’s bedmate.

  Little did Jake know…

  “That sounds…great,” Dani mumbled, downcast. She chanced a glance underneath her eyelids and saw Boone watching, with those same questions pooling. She swallowed over a rock in her throat.

  Jake was oblivious.

  “So,” Boone remarked, still glancing between Jake and Dani, “how do you two know each other?”

  “Oh.” Jake brightened, caught himself, and shrugged. “Dani and I used to go together.”

  “Really?” Boone said dryly.