Page 57 of Free to Breathe
I shrug. I might be dead soon. She can have ’em. “Okay.”
She takes a deep breath. “Keene, you’re a damn killjoy! What are you doing here?”
His angry face softens when he realizes the two of us are sitting up on the bar. “Making sure my favorite sisters-in-law are safe.”
Well, damn. That’s sweet. Holly and I exchange glances. She shrugs. “Okay, but we were having fun.”
“And Phil said it was for charity,” I call back.
Keene’s face darkens again before he spins around to confront Phil.
“Do you think he’s mad at Phil? Hey, what charity was that for anyway?” I ask Holly, my words slurring together.
“Not so sure. S’long as it’s one that helps out people like you. We had to help you tonight.”
I shake my head. “Not worth helping, Hols. Didn’t ya know? Just a low-class, fat slut. All the people think so.” My nose itches, and my eyes start to burn.
“No! No drunk crying,” Holly protests.
I sniff it back. “Fuck ’em all, Hols. We’ve got each other. I know—let’s just get married. I know you love me. You won’t call me fat or dumb, or complain if I work too late.”
“Sounds perfect except for the sex.”
“Vibrators!” I slap the bar beside me. “We’ll be a new definition of sister wives!”
Holly cracks up.
“It’s the perfect solution. See? Problem solved.”
“In no way are your problems solved, Corinna,” the rough voice next to me mutters. Hooking an arm around my waist, he separates me from my sister. No, wait—my sister wife—before hoisting me over his shoulder.
“Hols! Help me!” I screech.
“I hate to break it to you, Cori, but I don’t think I can. Colby’s got you pretty firmly in hand.” Holly falls sideways on the bar before the dark-haired biker who had been standing there observing our antics rights her. Smiling up at him, she beams. “Thanks!”
“Some sister wife you are!” I yell back. Beating against Colby’s muscular back, I screech, “Put me down!”
“Not until I have you out of here,” Colby snarls.
Amid the confusion of Keene yelling at Phil, Ali yelling at Keene, and Phil yelling in general, no one else notices Colby making his way out the door with me. Frustrated, I resume taking my frustration out on Colby, hurling every insult I can at him as he makes his way across the parking lot. Finally, as he opens the door, I yell, “You are not the boss of me!”
Flipping me upright into the seat, he leans forward until his face is inches from mine. “The old boss was doing a shitty job. I just fired her. Now, let’s see if you can avoid puking until we get you home.” Stalking around to his side of the Jeep, he swings in before we peel out of the lot.
This is so not even close to the way I wanted this night to end.
28
Colby
In the ten minutes it takes to get back to her house, Corinna questions my parentage back to the Stone Age, right up until one of her favorite boy-band songs comes on the radio. Then she starts belting it out like a champ.
I don’t know whether to be pissed or laugh harder than I ever have in my life.
What on earth possessed the Freemans to go off half-cocked tonight, I have no idea, but seeing Corinna lying across the bar with her shirt pulled up, letting a random stranger suck tequila from her stomach didn’t just set fire to my temper, it blew the whole thing up like an FGM-148 Javelin missile. I’m barely holding on to the small semblance of control I have when Corinna reaches over and jacks the volume up on my stereo. “Ohh, oh-oh!”
I use the controls on the steering wheel to turn down the volume. She reaches over, but before she can touch the knob, I grab her wrist.
“Jesus, what the fuck is wrong with the men I come into contact with these days? Why the hell do they have to try to control me? Just let me fucking be!” Her drawl is intermixed with her drunken slur, so understanding the words out of her mouth is a challenge.
