Page 52 of Claim Me

“You could make Indigo feel guilty or bad in some way. He’s struggling with making the dreams in his head work in real life.”

Sync notices the girls growing restless as they wait for us to finish talking. He steps closer and lowers his voice.

“Be square with me here. Are you just humoring Indigo?”

“Of course not.”

“Can you really imagine living with him? Or having him help with the girls?”

“He helps with the girls all the time at the farm.”

“Yeah, but it’s different now.”

Though I consider mentioning the baby, I thankfully choose to silence that urge. “Indigo and I are in love.”

“Because you’re both lonely,” he says, instantly making me happy over how I hadn’t mentioned the baby.

“No, because he’s fun and loyal.”

“Uh-huh,” Sync mutters. “Do you think if Indigo wasn’t a big old virgin when it came to the club girls, he’d be in such a hurry to nest with you?”

“I’m starting to think youarein love with him.”

“No, I just see him in a way you can’t.”

“I’ve seen him in plenty of waysyoucan’t.”

Sync inches closer and lowers his voice until I can barely hear him. “He is tightly wound about sex and women. His mom was ahooker. You know that, right? It’s why he acts like fucking is an evil thing.”

Glancing at the twins, I find them sitting in the grass and talking about what they ate for lunch.

I return my gaze to Sync and wonder why he’s trashing his friend.

“Did he tell you that?”

“No, but I was up in the hills years ago, and Sick Ricky was talking about how men with hooker mommies ended up weird. They were rattling off a bunch of names and Indigo was one of them.”

“First of all, you bikers are just terrible friends. Secondly, I’m going to insist Caveman smack around Sick Ricky.”

“Fuck that. I’m a good friend. Sure, Golden rides Indigo a lot about his mom, but the rest of us are nice. I’m only telling you about his mom because, well, we’re us.”

“And you want me to dump Indigo?”

“Maybe. I don’t know. He seems incapable of being what you want.”

“Are you saying he can’t be loyal?” I ask, fucking with Sync.

Accustomed to my accusations, Sync doesn’t even react. He just looks at our daughters like he fears them leaving his sight.

“Do you not like Indigo?”

“Of course, I do. He’s one of my closest friends. Obviously, he and I aren’t as close as Bear and Tack and all the other people you told while keeping me in the dark.”

“It’s just them and my family. It’s not like we had a party and didn’t invite you.”

Sync smirks at how I soften my tone. He cups my face and stares at me like I’m dying and he’s telling me goodbye.

“You’re not a smart person,” he says, and I roll my eyes at how he can’t help himself. “You have a big heart, and you grew up with great parents. You think you can force your life to fit theirs. But you have shitty taste in men. Not just me and Indigo, but you also picked real turds when you were trying to date normal guys. I mean, for fuck’s sake, that IRS accountant? What the hell were you two going to talk about?”

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