Page 57 of Wild Side
My brows snap together in confusion. “What do you mean, it’s never been your world? You’re the daughter of a club president.”
She places her hand on the center of my chest, pushing away from my face, her eyes on mine. She doesn’t smile as her eyes search mine. Keeping her close to me, I wait for her to speak, and when she does, I feel a little like an asshole for accusing her of not being part of this world.
“I wasn’t allowed at the clubhouse. I knew the men as my uncles, but I didn’t go down to that place very often. Usually, only when Sable took me down there because she wanted to screw Brake or, apparently, my father. It was all off-limits to me.
“My focus was to do well in school and get the hell out of my father’s house. He wanted me out, too, so it worked for him. But what he didn’t want was me down at the clubhouse. When I was younger, I thought it was because he didn’t want me to,in general, see the things that happened there. But now that everything has ended up the way it has, I think it was so he could do what he wanted, how he wanted, without me being any the wiser.”
“Okay, honey,” I murmur.
Her brows knit together this time. “Okay?”
“I won’t push the clubhouse thing, but I want to make it clear that you’re welcome here any time you want. You’re an old lady. This is as much your place as it is mine.”
She presses her lips together and rolls them a few times before she clears her throat. When she speaks, I’m surprised at her words. I don’t know, I guess I expected her to say something else.
“I’m welcome here?” she asks. “Anytime?”
“Any fucking time.”
ZADIE
Sinking my teeth into my bottom lip, I watch him as he moves around the room. His eyes find mine as he stands at the doorway, and my heart melts. My whole fucking heart melts at the sight of him.
His lips twitch into a smirk. “You want some lunch?”
“Yeah,” I sigh.
“Stay where you are. Don’t fucking move,” he demands.
“I’m naked,” I whisper.
He winks at me. “Stay naked, honey.”
I watch as he tugs the door open, then slips out of the room and closes the door behind him. I let out a heavy exhale. Sitting up slightly, I lean against the headboard as I tug the sheet over my chest.
I’ve never been someone who was particularly comfortable with my curvy body, but for whatever reason, being here with Chase makes me feel like I’m the most beautiful woman in the world.
Reaching for my phone on the nightstand, I unlock the screen for the first time since my dad came here. There aren’t any new text message notifications, but that doesn’t mean nothing has been posted on social media.
I haven’t been on my accounts for a day, but I decide to look. I’m not sure what I’m going to find. I’m not sure I want to know what I’m going to find, either. The moment I pull up my social media account, I start to scroll.
The second post I see is one of Sable. It’s a selfie, a sexy one. She’s got duck lips going on and everything. She’s got the camera tilted down so the world can see her cleavage. I get nosy and go onto her personal profile page.
She’s got several pictures and tagged a few people I don’t even know. As I scroll down her page, I can’t help but wonder if we were ever really friends. Not that I expect her page to be an ode to me or anything, but the pictures she has on here are not just selfies but images of her and other girls. She claims them as her besties and her girls. But none of them are me, not even three months ago.
Then there are pictures of some of the guys from the club with her. A feeling consumes me. I’m not sure what it is, can’t quite put my finger on it. But I know it’s not jealousy. I have never felt so absolutely happy and fulfilled in my entire life.
As I chew on the corner of my bottom lip, I continue to scroll, my heart racing with each swipe of my thumb. I wasn’t her friend. I never was. She’s got pictures from high school, where we went together. We were together every single day, and yet I’m in zero of them.
Scrolling back up, I shake my head, trying to shake the thought of her out of my head. I need to forget she existed. I need to forget she ever existed, but at the same time, I am engrossed in what she’s been doing in her life that she never, not once, talked to me about.
Then I see something that makes me pause. It’s a new post, made just two minutes ago.
Missing someone today… wishing he could be here. Always in my heart, forever inside me.
I’ve never been angry at Sable for anything she’s ever done, for everything she’s said. But right now, if she were standing in front of me, I might punch her in the face. Always in my heart, forever inside me. What a nasty fucking bitch.
I think about commenting on her bullshit, but decide against it. Knowing that her existence is going to eat away at me, I do something that I never thought I would ever do when it came to her.
