Page 103 of Always Salty

“Long story short, Copper had a girl in high school that he loved. His best friend, though neither one of them made a move. Then he killed Dad, and Copper refused to talk to her or allow her visitation. She told him she’d wait for him until he was out. And honestly, I thought she had. Not that I’d really blame her if she didn’t, you know? But then today, we went to the hospital to go surprise Chevy for some brunch, and we both go jump on him in the breakroom where he’s sleeping, and there’s a woman sleeping in his bed.” I paused for dramatic effect. “Reign.”

“Fuck.” Dima looked startled. “And what happened after that?”

“Reign looked devastated. Chevy looked gutted. Copper left looking awfully blank.” I sighed and held my clothes in my hands, wondering what to do with them.

Dima took them, then immediately tossed them into the kitchen trash.

I giggled and walked through his house in my bra, heading for the shower.

He followed me, but didn’t get inside.

He waited outside the glass doors as I cleaned off, taking much longer than I’d intended thanks to the way his shower was so magical.

“So that’ll be fun,” Dima finally returned. “There was this one girl in high school that I really liked. Thought she was fuckin’ gorgeous and felt like maybe I could get her to go out with me, even though she was two years ahead of me in school. One day I head to her place to ask her out, and I see Shasha leaving her house, tucking his shirt in.”

“Aren’t you and Shasha like five years apart? Wasn’t she underage?” I asked, turning to face him.

“Yes.” He nodded. “But at the time, she was eighteen, and I was only sixteen.” He shook his head. “At the time, I’d been so fuckin’ mad. But then I’d realized that two years when you’re eighteen and twenty isn’t that big of a deal. But two years when you’re sixteen and eighteen is.” He laughed then. “Funny enough, it wasn’t even what it looked like. Shasha went there because the girl’s dad owed him money. Beat the shit out of the dad and had to make himself presentable afterward. Hence the tucking in the shirt. So for two years I was mad at him because he’d stolen the girl I liked, when in reality he’d just been beating up her dad.”

His eyes went warm as he watched me giggle.

“Teenage heartache at its finest,” she sobered then. “That’s not what this is, I don’t think.”

“I’m just going to say now, you should probably keep yourself out of it.” He pulled a cat off his leg that was trying to climb it again and dropped it to the floor. “It’ll get ugly, and you need to let that play out between the players, not the sideline.”

I grumbled under my breath, then turned off the shower and got out.

He held out a towel for me, and I willingly went into his arms as he wrapped it around my body.

It was huge and hung down to almost my ankles.

“This thing is really large,” I pointed out the obvious.

“It’s a bath sheet that Nastya insisted that I have. All of this décor is hers and Milena’s designs. If you want to change anything, you’re more than welcome,” he offered.

I shrugged. “Let’s see what I can make happen with my things when they get delivered.”

“Deal,” he drawled. “Now, let’s talk about kittens, and boundaries.”

I snickered. “I’m not sure that cats know what boundaries are.”

“Well, I’m not sleeping with them, so you’re going to have to figure them out.”

The next morning I woke before him.

It was the first time in all of our time together that I’d been the first one awake.

Last night after I’d gone to bed, he’d stayed up to work with Shasha.

I wasn’t sure what time he’d come to bed, but what I did know was that I was nice and snuggly now.

Except, I had to pee like a motherfucker, and the nice and snuggly would have to go.

I carefully peeled myself out of Dima’s arms, my eyes going to the dog tags that he kept on twenty-four seven.

They were nestled between his bicep, which was half curled underneath his pillow and his neck.

The chain was curled around his neck and ran along his muscular shoulder and collarbone.

---