Page 6 of The Other Princess

“You think?” I asked, again wondering what kind of shit was in the water to make the men around Ever so blind to how special she was. “Even I know that didn’t sound like something Ever would do. Hell, I don’t even think I’ve ever heard her make a disparaging remark about anyone. Even when she used to write me about all the girls you were running through, and walking in on you fucking them from time to time,” I started saying to my brother.

“What?” He looked taken aback as if I’d slapped him.

“You didn’t know she’d seen you, or that she was telling me about it?”

“Neither,” he answered as anger laced his voice. “Why the hell was she writing to you?”

“Because she could, numb-nuts. Because she apparently needed someone to vent to about your dumb, blind as hell, ass.” I shook my head in disbelief again. My brother really had been a clueless idiot. He’d had the perfect woman right under his nose, and couldn’t see past quick fixes for dick to snatch her up.

“So, you not only had the hottest girl in this town pining for you, but you believed one of your skanks when she said Ever talked evil shit about her and tried to break you up? Then, in all your infinite wisdom, you approached the sweetest and most loyal girl in the world in front of an audience she wouldn’t be able to outrun, and you said all that vile bullshit? Then you let it ride for two fucking months, watching people basically torture her? And you believed the bullshit too?” Again, I glanced at Toby who looked fit to be tied. “Newsflash, brothers, she’s not holding a grudge like you told me, she’s protecting herself.”

“From what?” Toby barked in wild-eyed disbelief

“From disloyal motherfuckers who once swore to protect her, yet had zero problem thinking the worst of her, throwing her under the bus, and running over her with it. Jesus, I can’t believe I even have to point that shit out. She doesn’t trust you anymore. Either of you. I really can’t blame her, because you guys are giving me your perspective on the events that happened, I imagine from her side of things it got a whole lot worse. Just from the little tangent her friend went off on at the mall, I’d say you only saw the tip of the iceberg you floated her way.”

~ Ever ~

Two days after seeing Declan again I found myself trudging through the process of getting ready for the stupid club barbecue. “I can’t believe you decided to attend a club function,” Momma-Luce breathed out as she took in what I was wearing today. My denim shorts were long enough that my ass didn’t hang out, but it was a close call since I had a lot of junk in my trunk. The tank top I was wearing had a shelf bra in it. Yeah, I laughed about that too, but when you’re pushing out of DD territory into a DDD cup there’s really nothing to be done about it. Outside of wearing a damn burka, I was bound to look scandalous in whatever I wore. The bathing suit I was wearing beneath it all wasn’t actually helping to keep everything from jiggling around when I moved either. Erin, who was trying really hard to fill out a B cup bra, would have looked downright chaste in this same outfit. It was 90 degrees outside though, and I wasn’t about to bake in clothes that covered more flesh for everyone else’s benefit.

“NO! Hell fucking No!” Was bellowed out from my bedroom door as my dad took one step toward the threshold from the hallway. “You need to change,” he demanded.

I rolled my eyes. “No. Hell fucking no,” I mimicked my dad’s words. “It’s too damn hot outside for anything more. Besides, I have a bathing suit on underneath this. It’s summer time. What more do you want from me?”

“I want you to look like a lady, not a…” he stopped himself short of insinuating I looked like a whore, thanks in part to my step-mothers evil eye she was flinging his way.

I pointed to Momma-Luce. Not to throw her under the bus, but I was going to address the fact that she was wearing something incredibly similar to my outfit. The only difference really was that my tank was plain black while she sported a support tank for the club that had “Property of Double-D” stamped on the back. Of course, Lucy was at best, a C-cup. Again, I was being singled out because my boobs didn’t know how to stop growing. “Momma-Luce is wearing practically the same outfit.”

My father quickly grabbed her by the shoulders and turned her around to point at the stamp on the back that bespoke of whose property she was. “She’s marked so everyone knows not to fuck with her. You are not. You may be my daughter, but you’re an adult now. I can frown upon assholes hitting on you, and beat the shit out of them if I see fit, but I can’t control what I can’t see, and I don’t want to spend the entire day babysitting your ass so some brother doesn’t come along and…”

I was fuming, and Momma-Luce knew it. “Stop.” The single word from her mouth had my dad biting his tongue. “She is an adult. She’s an adult who hasn’t been to a family or club function in almost two years. Look at her. Really look at what you’re doing to your daughter. Again. You basically just told her you choose having a good time with your brothers over having her present, and having to look out for her. Considering you fucked up with looking out for her enough to cause this rift in the first place, I think you need to swallow your words, and back the fuck off.”

That was my Momma-Luce in a nutshell. She was also the only person on God’s green earth that could get away with talking to my father that way. When her fierce, inner momma-bear reared her head – especially when it involved me – he listened though.

“Fucking Christ,” my father mumbled before turning on his heels and stomping off back down the stairs grumbling shit about losing his fucking mind and killing his brothers the whole way. Lucy laughed.

“You really are going to give him a coronary one of these days, you know?”

“I can’t help that I grew giant boobs. I’d rather halve them if we were being honest. There is absolutely nothing like having to be uncomfortable in your own skin because other people can’t behave themselves.”

“Aww, sweetheart,” she gushed as she pulled me into a hug. “Men suck!” She let go and then tossed my bag to me that I had filled with sunblock and other necessities earlier. “Come on, let’s get out of here before we give your dad too much time to process.”

On the way to the clubhouse it became obvious that my dad had definitely enjoyed too much time to process after all. Of course, it could just be that he was grumpy about having to drive the truck over instead of the bike since I was coming with them. “You haven’t been to a function in a long while, what’s so important about going to this one all of a sudden?”

“I saw Declan the other day at the mall. He asked if I would come and said something about this being a welcome home thing for him,” I shrugged as I told them why I was going.

“So you’ll go for Declan, who you never really hung out with as kids, but you won’t attend special events for the other boys. For Jay. Your brother? You didn’t even go to their patching in ceremonies.” Dad was starting to sound growly and indignant again so I just huffed out a frustrated puff of air before I answered him.

“You know why I don’t bother with Jay. Declan put me on the spot when he asked. He went to war and came back, I can’t very well say, ‘no I don’t think I will attend your welcome home party’, now can I?” Dad’s fist tightened noticeably on the steering wheel so I added in a caveat. “I’ll make sure he sees that I showed up and then I’ll call an Uber to come get me and take me to Erin’s so I don’t ruin anyone’s night with my unwanted presence.”

“Jesus,” I heard my mom hiss from the front seat.

“I never said you weren’t wanted there. I was just confused about why you wanted to go.” He smiled at me through the rearview mirror then. “Besides, I think it would be great to have you around. You can help keep Anna out of trouble.”

“I didn’t know she was going to be there,” I said as I looked around the truck as if my sister had turned invisible.

“She stayed with Jane and Sally this morning in order to get her hair done,” Momma-Luce said as she rolled her eyes. “That girl is going to be a handful real damn soon.” My dad grumbled some more at Lucy’s admission. My sister was 16 going on 30 and she was a knockout already. She looked more like my age already, which drove my dad bat-shit crazy, because unlike me she didn’t have any major life trauma to hinder her boy-craziness. Nope. My little sis already had a few of the guys from the club in her sights, and some of them would legitimately be in their 30s before she was even legal in the club’s eyes.

All thoughts of my sister went completely out the window when I noticed just how big this barbecue was going to be. “Are there other chapters here today?” I asked the question, but I was already well aware of what the answer would be.

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