Page 9 of Ricochet

CHAPTER FOUR

Over the years, this bed and all its fluffy pillows and feather-down comforter had become Adelia’s haven. It wasn’t her bed but Victoria’s, and Adelia liked it that way. She could keep her life, the gritty, dark sides of it with the nightmares of where she came from and her hobby-turned-job-turned-obsession of secretly helping women in the worst of circumstances, compartmentalizedalongside standard, everyday furniture and bland decorations. Her apartment had personality, but underneath the leftover dishes awaiting the dishwasher and piles of unfolded clothes was nothing more than her dark past.

This was why Victoria’s picture-perfect, light and fluffy, straight-out-of-a-magazine house had always seemed like the ideal place for girl time.

Seven, Adelia’s best friend,and Victoria spent an inordinate amount of time in her bed, and this was a slice of heaven in Sweet Hills, Iowa.Adelia even thought that the name Sweet Hills was only worth a damn after she snuggled into bed with her girlfriends.

“Do you want anything else?” Seven asked Victoria. “I have enough time to make last-minute requests.”

The Perky Cup, Seven’s coffee shop and bakery had morphed intoa wedding-production factory. While it still served the community with the usual coffee and heavenly baked goods, nearly all of Seven’s attention had gone into menu planning for everything in her dream wedding.

“I don’t think there’s anything left to make that you haven’t made,” Victoria offered gently.

“I don’t think there are enough people in Sweet Hills to eat everything you’ve made,” Adeliaoffered, not so gently, but in playful fun.

Seven giggled and pulled handfuls of her brightly dyed pink hair to cascade over her face. “I can’t help it. I want everything to be perfect.”

“It will be,” Adelia promised. “You have the two best wedding planners ever.”

Victoria and Adelia held their hands in the air, wiggling their fingers like they were in grade-school cheerleading practice, andSeven laughed.

A cell phone buzzed then played a wedding march, and the three of them sat up as Victoria reached across Seven for her phone on the nightstand.

“Speaking of which, let’s see if Ryder’s with the groom-to-be,” Victoria announced, giggling and giddy.

“Oh, my goodness,” Seven groaned.

“Hush.” Victoria touched the speakerphone button. “Hey, baby, you’re on speaker.”

“Ladies,” Rydersaid. “We’re headed back with a day to spare even.”

“Is Jax with you?” Seven asked.

“They’re finishing something up. Bet you’ll hear from him soon.”

They bantered back and forth, joking with him until Ryder jumped off the phone, promising to be on the next flight to Iowa.

Adelia wondered how much would change when Seven and Jax were finally married. Not much changed when Victoria and Rydergot married, but they’d made a shift with him living in Iowa whenever he wasn’t at work. Jax, too.

If anything, Ryder and Jax had each gained two close girlfriends in addition to their wives. Adelia had asked both, directly, did either mind that she and Seven lounged on Ryder’s bed or spent tons of time at Jax’s house, and they said it never occurred to them. They wanted their wives to be happy,to be with friends, and never to be lonely, no matter if they were home or away.

It was that conversation that made Adelia think about the word lonely. How could either couple ever be lonely, even if their spouse traveled? They were never alone.How could Adelia be lonely if she was at the Mayhem compound or with Tex, the man who’d saved her and raised her in her teens, who she still called Popssometimes?When he deserved it.Even Lenora, his old lady who had always been there, who acted like an unemotional hard ass...

Adelia was never alone. But that didn’t mean she didn’t get lonely. Right now, she wasn’t lonely because she was with her good friends. But take them away, and there was something missing, something she couldn’t pinpoint or name until maybe now. She could feel lonelyin a room of people. That was an odd realization and probably one due to how she was raised before Mayhem and then after. It wasn’t that she was sad or depressed. But maybe she craved an unknown, something to fill a void she didn’t realize existed until she was giggling on Victoria’s bed.

“What?” Victoria elbowed Adelia in the side. “You don’t think that’s funny?”

“Sorry, I was counting up howmany mini cakes a person could possibly eat to make sure you had it covered.” She winked. “But I don’t know. Maybe an emergency trip is needed to bake again.”

Seven ran her tongue stud along her top lip. “I won’t even dignify your sarcasm with what we were talking about!”

“Oh, come on. Tell me what you are saying.”

“All right. All I said was that they needed to make sure that toys were legalwherever their super-secret honeymoon is because it would be a shame if these two got freaky-deaky and arrested on some random island.”

“I’ve admitted to nothing,” Seven said. “And even if I did, there are some things that you should not judge.”

Seven’s cheeks flushed a pink as bright as her hair, and Adelia knew better than to think she was blushing from the topic of conversation. It was theattention on it. This was where Adelia had failed her friends. Here she was, chatting about sex and toys like she knew what the hell she was talking about. And to a certain extent, she did. Her very trusty BOB was a significant part of her sanity. But what they didn’t know, and they would never guess, was that Adelia was still a virgin.

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