Page 5 of Desire

“How do you know so much about him?” I question.

“Maybe because while you, your sisters and your brother were focused on the music, I spent a lot of time with him behind the scenes making sure shit ran smoothly,” she retorts.

I grin at her because the four of us never ever worried about what was happening around us. We played our music and sang our songs, partied like we were invincible, and left the business aspect to Jacey and Sebastian. That other asshole too, although we don’t talk about him any longer since he fucked us over so thoroughly.

“Hey, Jus,” Rayne says as he walks into their bedroom, Hadley clutching him like a spider monkey.

“Hey yourself,” I reply. When he gives me a knowing look then winks, I feel my face flush. “What?” I ask.

“Oh, nothing. Just wanted to say, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do on your date with Sebastian,” he teases.

“Well, that’s a wide-open book there,” I joke right back.

Jacey’s giggles turn into full-out laughter and I glance in her direction to see her doubled over, one hand clutching her stomach while the other slaps the counter. “Stop, Jus! You’re making me cry,” she finally stammers out. When she turns fully to me, I can’t control my own laughter because her eyeliner has run making her look like a very scary old-school rock band or something!

“Yeah, you can’t go out with me like that,” Rayne states, his face serious.

“Mommy! What happened to your pretty face?” Hadley questions. “Daddy, make Mommy stop crying.”

“She’s not sad, princess,” I say. “Sometimes, when you laugh really, really hard, you cry.”

“That’s just stupid,” she fusses, stomping her foot. “You cry when you’re sad, not happy or laughing. You laugh when you’re happy.”

“Hadley, that’s how emotions work, sweetie,” Rayne tells her.

“Well, I’m not going to have these emotions,” she advises, causing all three of us to start laughing again.

“How many years before she’s a teenager again?” I murmur. Because I remember the sheer hell us girls went through, all four of us since Jacey was part of our lives even then, and how one minute we could be laughing while the next would have us in tears. Oh yeah, Rayne’ll get his again. I snicker thinking of all the shit he’s gonna go through as Hadley gets older, then decides to date. As overprotective as he is with me, Billie and Sibley, she’ll be lucky if she dates before she’s thirty!

* * *

We finally gotJacey and Rayne out of the house so now, I’m sitting here at the tiny table in Hadley’s room having a tea party. In attendance are Annabelle, Hadley and me, along with a scruffy duck named Mr. McWaddles. “Auntie Justine, can you please pour me some tea?” Hadley asks.

I take the small pot that has iced tea and carefully pour her a cup. “There you go, milady. Do you need anything else?”

I watch her poke her lip out as she places her finger to her temple. Sometimes her actions are so adult-like that I have a hard time remembering she’s still a toddler. “Could I have a cookie?” she finally inquires.

“Absolutely. So, tell me what you and Annabelle have been up to since I was last here.” The next thirty minutes are spent with her telling me all about the shenanigans that she and her doll have gotten into and end with her covering a yawn. “Hmm, looks like we need to get this cleaned up so you can take a bubble bath fit for a princess,” I say. Her smile lights up the room as she helps me carry the trash into the kitchen.

“I’ll go get my jammies!” she yells as she runs down the hall to her room. Shaking my head, I follow her into the bathroom and grin when I see Annabelle propped up on the closed toilet seat. “She can’t take baths with me anymore, Mommy won’t let her,” Hadley states.

She watches as I get the water started then add the bubble bath. Once it’s full enough, she undresses, and I help her climb into the tub. Because this isn’t my first rodeo, within minutes I have her hair washed and wrapped in a small towel so that she can play. It’s not like she’s particularly dirty to begin with so I don’t have to scrub her down. When I notice the water starting to cool, I hand her a washcloth and say, “Go ahead and wash yourself.”

“Can you do my back when I’m done?” she asks, getting her soap and lathering it up before she starts swiping down her arms and legs.

“Yes. Make sure you get your bathing suit parts too,” I remind her. She grins at me then does that quickly before handing me the washcloth. I lather the cloth up once again then listen to her giggle as I write on her back in the soap left behind.

“This is my favorite part,” she whispers when I take the hand-held showerhead and after checking the water, make her stand so I can rinse off all the soap. “I feel like I’m in a rainstorm, Auntie Justine.”

“You have a wonderful imagination, Hadley.”

Once I have her dried off and in bed, it only takes two stories before she’s sound asleep, leaving me to my thoughts of Sebastian. I wander back into the bathroom and clean up our mess, then head into the kitchen to grab a wine cooler. Now curled up on the couch, I find a new Hallmark movie and settle in to enjoy myself. When my phone pings with an incoming text, I’m so engrossed in the story that I jump and nearly scream.

Sebastian: I just wanted to tell you that I’m looking forward to tomorrow night.

Me : I am too.

Sebastian : How has your night with the princess been?

---