Page 93 of Tulips and Lost Time

“She was spitting venom,” Kane snickers. “I’d hardly call those love sonnets.”

“Arguing with her was better than not speaking to her for three years at a time. And I’d done that twice already. I wasn’t risking a third.”

“So you got her on your bike. Shared pancakes, and… what?”

“And then Brittany threw the hammer down at family dinner a little while later. Destroying what little progress I’d made and landing me in a whole lot of shit.”

“Oh!” Jess’ feet thunder across the living room. “Oh! Oh! I know this story. I was there for it!”

“Britt?” Kane’s eyes widen. “She told Kari what you guys did?”

“She told the whole fucking family.” I think back to that night, smiling now that years separate it and us. But Jesus, at the time… it was rough. “She… well… all the girls, really, were deep in their sneaking around with guys phase.”

“We called those our hoe days.” Giggling, Jess plops down onto Kane’s knee and faces me. Luckily for her since murderous black eyes shoot up to the side of her face. “Laine was sneaking around with Graham.”

“That fucking asshole,” I snarl.

“I was sneaking around?—”

“With who?” Kane squeezes and pins her to his knee. Which could seem abusive, I suppose, in most other relationships. But not for Jess. She holds no fear as far as her thug goes. “Who were you sneaking around with, Jessica Ann?”

“Not you,” she sniggers. “Had I known you were already hanging around town, I might’ve come looking sooner. But since I didn’t…”

“Britt had started dating Jack,” I push on. “The fighter who would eventually become her husband. But back then, he was just a one-night stand. One she revisited a few times.”

“He was big and strong and sexy,” Jess adds. “And since his family owned the club we always danced at, he had keys to the office for a little one-on-one fun with Britt.”

“Which was all good and fine,” I sigh. “But Alex was always gonna be Alex. So by the time Britt brought Jack home to meet the family, X was losing his mind.”

“Because he was a fighter that she was having casual sex with?”

“Because Jack’s girlfriend before Britt, Steph,” I clarify, “had died in a car accident the year before. Jack was driving.”

“But it wasn’t his fault,” Jess interjects. Her eyes dance, from humor to hurt in a single second. “Like with you,” she sighs, studying me, “drunk drivers get behind the wheel sometimes. It’s what they do. And unfortunately for Jack and Steph, she didn’t survive it.”

“So X was losing his mind because his baby sister was dating a fighter,” I fill in for Kane, “but that fighter was also the dude whose girlfriend died.”

“And X just so happened to catch Britt and Jack banging in public that one time.” Jess giggles again, her chest and shoulders bouncing with it. “So he was pissed. She brought Jack to dinner to meet the whole family, and X did what X does. He was throwing a tantrum and tossing insults at Jack. And Britt did what Britt does?—”

“Tossing them straight back,” I finish. “Alex was being an asshole, and Britt wasn’t tolerating it. Alex mentioned something about how Britt was a good girl, and good girls don’t have casual sex.”

Joining the dots, Kane grits his teeth. “Oh shit.”

“Yeah,” I scoff. “Oh shit. In all her maturity and wisdom, Britt pointed straight at me, at the fucking dinner table, and said yes, girls like her do have casual sex. Because she had, in fact, fucked me.”

Kane lets out a piggish snort that almost makes me smile. “Damn, Britt.”

“Alex carries a gun,” I snicker. “And an extremely short temper. So I hauled ass out of that house so fucking fast, I’m pretty sure I was gone before my chair hit the floor.”

“Coward,” Kane cackles. “The chief is a pussycat. You didn’t wanna stick around to see what would happen?”

“Oh, I knew what would happen. So I removed myself before Alex ended up in prison. But of course,” I sigh, sobering, “Kari was at that dinner table, too.”

“But she knew about you and Britt. She doesn’t get to be angry twice. And Britt didn’t know about you and Kari, so her announcement was… well, not cool. But not malicious.”

“I was never mad at Britt for that.” I drop my hand away from Billy’s nose and trace her puffy lips instead. “It happened. It was in the past. And it’s not like I could ask her to censor herself. That was her life and her actions to speak about whenever she wanted. Kari’s horror wasn’t in the details this time.”

“It was in the delivery,” Jess adds, understanding a new, fresh perspective on that day. “Britt made a scene, and even if the rest of us had no clue about you and Kari, we now knew about you and Britt. That would make it hard for Kari to eventually reveal that you and her were together when the time came.”

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