Page 12 of Tangled Desires

“Alright, well, I’ll head back in. Joss took down all of my information, unless you need anything else?” While I’d love nothing more than to stay in his presence, Eleanor and Troy being here makes it hard to talk, not like the big guy would anyways.

“Nah, we should be good. I’ll call you if not. Good seeing you.” I’m rewarded with a slow tug at his lips as he gives me a lazy smirk. Yeah, I’m going to need my neck examined with the whiplash Jagger is giving me.

“Oh no, please stay,” Eleanor says.

“Don’t leave on our account. We were heading out anyways. Ellie wants to walk around the downtown area. They’re closing the streets for their monthly deal. Shops stay open, vendors are out, and there’s live music.” Troy wraps his arm around his wife’s shoulder.

“You two could join us,” Eleanor chimes in.

“Mom, you’re as bad as Lennie’s mom, Catherine. I can’t either way. I need to get this finished and do some work. Maybe another time.” Jagger has no problem denying his mom. Meanwhile, I’m trying to come up with a plausible explanation to not third wheel.

“Sorry, I can’t either. I’ve got a few errands to run, plus Naomi is shipping a few things, and I need to go through them.” A lightbulb moment appeared momentarily; thedownfall of this fib is that it’s not entirely accurate, because the boxes aren’t coming in until sometime later in the week.

“Next time, then,” Eleanor agrees.

“Come on, we’ll miss out on parking, and you’ll have to walk further.” Troy looks down at her shoes.

“Okay, fine. We’ll see you two later.” They head back toward their house, and we watch as they go.

“I guess I’ll be going now. Thanks again.” I give Jagger a finger wave and head toward my Tahoe.

“Lyric.” Jagger stops me in my tracks.

“Yeah?”

“Never mind. I’ll have this sent right over. Good seeing you.” He doesn’t wait for my response. Instead, he shakes his head and walks toward my house. Goodness, this is turning into one wild ride of a day.

9

JAGGER

“To what do I owe this pleasure?” Jude answers on the first ring. I’ve wrapped up my time at Lyric’s, doing everything I could to maintain a semblance of control. A damn hard thing to do when trying to conceal the way my cock kept perking up, no matter how many times I tried to keep the dumb piece of flesh from doing so. Every time she walked in front of me, the soft and subtle sway of her hips each time she took a step made the dress of her skirt cling to her ass. It made it damn impossible not to take things a step further. I’d shake off the thought, remembering how much unfinished business we had to discuss, none of which I wanted to bring up at that moment.

“Fuck, I have no goddamn clue,” I reply, standing at the railing of my back deck. I finished the estimate for Lyric an hour ago, made a sandwich, grabbed a beer, and walked out back to enjoy the fresh air.

“You’ve got it bad, my man. She as pretty as her picture?” Jude is doing nothing to help my case.

“Prettier. You find anything else out that I need to know? Husband or man in the picture?” We didn’t get into the nitty gritty of her background. Kind of hard to ask questions when she fell to pieces in my arms.

“Nobody in the picture except a woman named Naomi. One of her mom’s friends who kept in touch when she passed away. Naomi is from Paris and hopped on a plane the day everything went down. I checked her flight plans. She’s been back and forth to see your girl every summer like clockwork, staying the longest during Lyric’s mom’s final days and for weeks after. I took a look at her recent trip. It seems Naomi will be staying even longer with the way her paperwork reads. Other than that, Lyric’s been alone, friend and man wise.” Motherfucking fuck, she’s been doing it on her own for all these years. Who the hell knows what happened during her teen years? Jude said the battle with her mom really started once Lyric went to college, but what if there’s more? What if this shit started when we lost touch? And what if I’ve been an asshole for no damn reason?

“Shit, man. Thanks for looking into this.” I rethink every last moment I spent with her today.

“Not a problem, you know that. Did you get the estimate done?”

“As if you’re not monitoring everything that comes through the network even on a Saturday.” Jude keeps tabs on everyone. It’s his schtick, and while sometimes, it can be intrusive, there are times like now when it comes in handy.

“Yep, saw it. Also, that’s quite a steal. You sure you want todo that?” I may as well get it all out. He’ll more than likely take it back to the group; it’s one less thing I’ll have to bring up the next time we meet up.

“Yeah, she deserves a break. Lyric also doesn’t want anything drastic. It needs new drywall, paint, and flooring. The roof is still in good shape. The electrical and plumbing, I’ll take a look at once she gets it hooked up. She doesn’t even want to take the tile down in the bathroom. I figure we’ll work on the master bedroom and bath, close off the hallway as much as we can to keep the dust down,” I relay to him what I told Lyric. The thought of her spending money on staying in the bed and breakfast didn’t sit right with me. Especially since she’ll be paying utilities at the house and a whack when it comes to the estimate I emailed her a few minutes ago.

“Doesn’t hurt that you want her,” Jude states a fact that I can’t deny.

I’m about to make a crude joke about how I want her beneath me, on top of me, against me, and any other way I can have her when I realize this is Lyric I’m thinking about. She’s the one who got away, the one I’ve been trying to do anything to get over, to ease the ache in my chest and the burn in my gut. No amount of people in the past accomplished that; neither did the adrenaline rush I’ve become accustomed to. I should have gotten off my ass, talked to my friends who are more like brothers, and while they all knew Lyric meant something to me, I also made them swear to not do anything involving finding her. Apparently, I can hold a grudge for a long-as-fuck time.

“No, it doesn’t. Hey, gotta let you go,” I tell Jude when Ilook down to see a black cat slithering in between my legs. The cute thing doesn’t have a collar on, and the ear isn’t clipped noting it’s a feral animal, which means he or she is probably lost, or the poor thing has been dumped. I’m thinking it’s more along the lines of being left out on the dirt road before it leads to my property.

“Alright. Later, Jagger,” Jude responds.

---