Page 57 of Bound By Fate
“Your sister went through a lot.”
Ensley closed her eyes and then opened them. “Yeah she did.”
The room was quiet for a moment while we seemed to take this in, all of us in different ways.
Remy broke the silence wanting pancakes, and Micah got to work.
“I gotta head out. Meet ya at the clubhouse?” I asked Micah.
“Yeah,” he answered.
“Oh, Dry,” Ensley said as I moved to Remy to get my hug bye. “Just so you know, she’ll be at the clubhouse with me later. She’s showin’ Austyn her drawings.”
“Drawings?”
“For dresses, but you’re missing the point just like all men. She’ll be at the clubhouse!”
“Then I’ll see you all there,” I replied, sort of wondering what drawings she was talking about.
Remy jumped up and hugged me tightly. Then I was off. Had shit to do.
The club was still on the hunt for the ghost guns, and I had shit to clean.
18
KATIE
“Katie, what is your problem?”Ensley barked at me.
“Nothing,” I lied not feeling like talking about this, ever. I hated lying, but she just kept on pushing me and pushing me. The relentlessness was wearing me down. “I’m going to leave.”
We were at the clubhouse. I didn’t want to come, but Austyn wanted to see the drawings I had finished of the dress she wanted.
She said I havethe eye,whatever that means. But the dress was a go, and I was done here. It was time for me to go home.
I had worked on the drawings all afternoon, trying to get my mind off of Dryerson. Every stroke of my pencil didn’t take the thoughts of him away. He was there in my face, and it was all my fault.
Last night, I lost my mind. Seriously lost my mind.
Sleeping with Dryerson wasn’t the way to go in trying to push him away. It opened the link between us and pulled us closer together. All afternoon I tried to score up my defenses. It was a fling. He was just horny. Heck, I was too. It was the heat of the moment. The passion. All the excuses I could come up with, one after the other.
All it led me back to was loving every second of what we’d shared together. Every touch and caress… Him inside of me… All of it. The sad truth was, I loved him. With every beat of my heart. And I couldn’t have him. He deserved better than my messed-up head. It was like a ticking time bomb, ready to explode. Therefore, I needed to get out of here.
There were a ton of people in the clubhouse, and I could only smile and nod so many times before someone would want to talk. Every-freaking-time, eventually, what had happened came up in the conversation. I didn’t talk about that. Ever. Ensley said it was just because they cared, but I wanted it to all to go away and to put it in the past. Talking, thinking about it just brought a mixed batch of emotions that I was keeping a very thin hold on.
Ensley grabbed my arm to stop me from leaving and jerked me around. “No. You’re going to talk to me.” She’d been on me since I’d stepped into the clubhouse, wanting to know details of what had happened last night.
Telling me that Dryerson and I were perfect together. We belonged together. We were perfectly matched. We were in sync. We would be so happy. Blah, blah, blah…
On and on and on… I wasn’t even sure if she had taken a breath during that time at all. I was on my last string of hearing it. Each word she said made that string inside me fray. Piece by piece it kept thinning, and I really needed her to stop. One last try.
Blowing out a deep breath, I said, “Look, I’m fine. You’re fine. Everyone is fine. Now let me go.”
Her eyes narrowed into slits. She was on her last straw with me too. I could feel it. “You are not fine. If you were, you’d let Dry in. You keep pushing him away, pulling him in, and pushing him away again. How long do you think he’s gonna keep tryin’ before he says fuck it and leaves?”
That was a punch to the gut that sucked all the air from my body. Sweat started to come to my hands, and I seriously wanted to puke my guts out.
Dryerson moving on.
