Vodka On The Rocks (The Uncertain Saints Book 3) (9 page)

I swallowed thickly, but never let her know my emotions. Never let her see how affected I was by her.

“It was a mess. He died at the hospital. His parents refused to let me see him afterwards, then held the funeral out of town. My parents found out about the baby. They weren’t happy with me.” She shook her head. “And I had to have a baby at seventeen that belonged to the man that was supposed to be my forever.”

An irrational surge of jealously poured through me, but I tamped it down.

She didn’t need that part of me right then.

“And I lost her when I was thirty-six weeks pregnant. Went to my ultrasound and she was gone. No heartbeat,” she whispered brokenly.

“God,” I said gruffly. “Tasha.”

She shrugged. “That was the scar that you saw. That was where they took my baby from me, because I couldn’t have her normally.”

I did the only thing I could do.

I held her as the sobs overtook her once again.

“She was my only thing left and she was gone, too.”

“I’m sorry, T. I’m so sorry.”

She didn’t say anything after that.

The only thing filling the empty night air around us was her ragged breathing that would, every once in a while, hitch up from a sob that caught in her throat.

And I never went back to sleep.

Wasn’t sure if I ever could sleep normally again.

Don’t keep calm. Grab my hair, spin me around, and fuck me like you hate me.

-Tasha’s secret thoughts

Casten

The next morning, I got out of Tasha’s temporary bed, and cursed myself.

I was ruined.

Totally and forever gone for the woman.

She looked good spread out on the crisp white sheets that usually graced
my
bed.

Her hair was in a messy halo around her head, and her face was set in peace instead of the agony from the night before.

I tiptoed out of the room, heading straight for mine.

“She okay?” Rhea asked.

I looked up to see both her and CeeCee at the dining room table.

I nodded.

“She’s fine.”

“Okay,” Rhea’s small voice followed me into my room as I closed the door.

I showered and partially shaved, leaving my goatee because it covered up a few more scars on my face.

I got dressed and ready for work before I went out to the kitchen, towards the smell of frying bacon.

What surprised me, though, was that it wasn’t my sisters who were frying the bacon.

It was Tasha.

“Mornin’,” I rumbled, making all three of them turn toward me.

My eyes were all for Tasha, though.

She smiled shyly at me.

“What kind of eggs do you like?” She waved the spatula in her hand.

“Runny,” Rhea answered.

“Eww,” Tasha lifted her lip. “That reminds me of snot.”

I laughed.

“Good tasting snot. You should try it,” I shot back, going to the coffee pot for my morning dose of caffeine. “I gotta go to the office before we leave. Do you want to come with me, or do you want to stay here?”

She pursed her lips.

“Leave for where?” she wondered.

“The wedding,” I replied.

Her mouth dropped into an O.

“Oh yeah,” she hesitated. “I forgot.”

I nodded. “Come or stay?”

“I’ll go,” she whispered, turning back to the bacon. “But I don’t have anything to wear this weekend.”

“I can go get you something!” Rhea exclaimed with excitement.

Tasha turned toward Rhea.

“I can do it,” she hedged. “It’s hard to find something that fits completely without trying it on.”

“We’ll run by the mall on the way home,” I offered.

I lived in Uncertain, but my main office was in Longview, about an hour away.

She turned her beautiful brown eyes up to me once again and smiled.

“I think you’ll regret that,” she teased.

I shrugged. “I have two sisters. How much worse could you be?”

Way…way worse.

Something I found out three hours later.

Mostly because she made me sit in the dressing room with her while she tried on things because I was ‘intimidating.’

Whatever.

“How about this one?” she turned.

She was wearing a different bra today, so each time she took off her top, I could make out the play of metal through the thin barrier.

Not to mention I could practically see her nipples.

The bra wasn’t thick enough to hide those beauties.

My dick was uncomfortably hard, and I could’ve sworn she was doing it on purpose.

My eyes strained to stay on just what she was wearing, and not stray to her breasts or too short skirt.

I’d managed to hold on to some semblance of control, too.

I was doing so well.

“It’s better than the last,” I told her honestly.

She looked at me over her shoulder, then sighed before ripping the dress off.

It fell to her feet in a flutter of gauzy material, and I blinked as I got a load of her ass.

The panties weren’t a thong. They were the type that barely covers the ass, but I couldn’t tell you what they were called.

But when she bent forward to reach for yet another dress, I was done.

Standing up, I bent over her and gathered the two dresses that I liked most.

I knew they’d fit.

Everything she’d tried on, had.

So I picked up her shorts and shirt from the floor, tossed them at her, and left before she could protest.

“I’m going to go pay for these,” I said. “I’ll meet you out front.”

Without another word, I left.

Once I’d paid for the purchases, I walked outside and took a seat next to the old man that was currently occupying the bench right beside the front doors.

“How’s it going?” I mumbled.

I hadn’t really expected him to answer.

It was more of a polite gesture on my part than wanting an actual conversation with him.

But he answered, surprising me.

“Be better if my wife didn’t think I was made of money,” he grumbled.

I snorted as I tried to conceal my laugh.

“My woman’s trying on the whole damn place. I’d be happy to buy her whatever she wanted, as long as I didn’t have to sit there and watch her do it,” I told him.

He turned a grizzled smile my way, and I was struck by how happy he looked.

“Oh, I love my Mary Bell,” he rolled his eyes. “I just like to give her a hard time.”

The electric doors behind me slid open, and I glanced over my shoulder at Tasha as she stomped her way out.

She didn’t stop at my side, either.

Instead she walked right up to my old truck, yanked open the door, then slumped into the seat.

She didn’t even manage to get the door closed before her energy gave out.

And I found that I liked her needing my help.

I wondered idly what it would take to get her to never leave my home but decided not to dwell on that right now.

“Well,” I said standing. “It was nice to meet you.”

The man offered me his hand. “A little piece of advice, son?”

I turned to him and smiled.

“Yeah?” I asked.

“She may be feisty, but those are the ones that are worth every bit of fight you have in you. Treat her well, and she’ll hand you the world.”

With that, he got up, and I watched as he escorted the woman that’d come out of the door while we’d been talking.

Like him, she was elderly, too

But the moment she saw the man at my side, she lit up like she had been presented with the best fuckin’ gift in the world.

I watched as he helped her across the parking lot, holding her bags and laughing at whatever she was saying.

And I realized something.

I wanted that.

I wanted that badly.

Looking at the woman sitting in my truck, leaning her head against the door watching me, I wondered if maybe I already had it within my reach.

Mondays suck so hard that they should become a part of the porn industry.

-Casten to Tasha

Tasha

“What do you think is appropriate to wear to a wedding you’re attending, with a man you’re dating, and I say dating as a relative term since Casten and I aren’t really dating,” I rushed out.

I didn’t want her to get the wrong idea.

There wasn’t anything going on between Casten and I.

In fact, he’d been somewhat distant since yesterday.

I’d watched him watch the older couple and something had crossed his face that I hadn’t been able to decipher.

Something possibly resembling longing, if I had to make a guess.

“I don’t know,” my sister sniffed. “I’ve never been to a wedding.”

“You’re married, dumbass,” I drawled, picking up the slimy ball that Koda had let drop into my lap and tossing it across the room.

Koda ran for it, bumping into a dozen things before she finally got it and carried it back.

The wooden stool that normally sat at Casten’s bar clattered to the floor, and I smiled.

She only liked me for my ball playing skills.

Sometimes, if I tried to pet her, she growled at me.

And I don’t know why I continued to throw the ball for her when she didn’t really care for me. It didn’t make any sense.

She loved Casten, though.

I’d heard from CeeCee that Casten had brought Koda home with him after his last tour in Iraq. She said that Koda had saved Casten’s life while on a mission. They were both injured in a roadside blast, and it was those injuries that left them both scarred.

Casten’s crew had saved Koda while Casten was hospitalized for his injuries he’d sustained in the same blast. Both Casten and his team had petitioned for her to be sent home to him.

It’d happened, but apparently it’d taken seven long months.

So she was allowed to be a little grumpy every once in a while.

“I know I’m married. But I don’t remember any of it. It’s all a blur. And I think everyone wore jeans and a t-shirt to mine. Mig told me that Casten said that this is some sort of formal affair,” Annie explained.

I sighed.

“Shit.”

I hated getting dressed up.

Hated it with a passion.

And the dresses that Casten had picked out weren’t going to be very flattering to my ass.

But, with no other choices, I opened the bag and pulled out both dresses.

One was a red number that reminded me of a fifties-style, pin-up girl type of dress.

It had a halter top that pushed my breasts up really high, making them seem a lot perkier than they really were.

The other dress was black and white polka dots. It was a little more modest, but the fit was tighter, and less skin would be showing. It molded to my body, showing off more in the long run.

“So, you think I should try them both on and send a picture to you?” I asked, placing the phone on speaker.

“Wear the red one,” came the gruff reply from behind me.

I turned to find Casten standing there.

I thought I’d been alone in his big old house but apparently, I was wrong.

“When did you get home?” I stammered.

His eyes took in my undressed self and lifted an eyebrow.

“About ten minutes ago,” he informed me. “I was watching you play with my dog.”

I blinked.

“Why?” I asked.

He shrugged.

“It’s nice to see Koda actively trying to interact with someone besides me,” he replied vaguely.

“Oh,” I murmured, turning around and giving him my back as I stripped off my t-shirt.

I was already in my strapless nude bra, something my mom had to get from my old room at her place.

The last time I’d worn it had been to my senior prom six years before.

I hoped the elastic made it through the night.

I picked up the red dress and slipped it on over my head, grimacing almost instantly when I tried to push it further down my hips, only to realize that that was as far as the fucker was going to go.

“I can’t wear this to a freakin’ wedding,” I muttered to myself, looking at the mirror like it was showing me a monster instead of my own reflection.

Casten cleared his throat.

“I don’t see why not. It looks fantastic,” Casten cleared his throat quietly.

I blinked.

“Was that a compliment, Casten Red?” I teased him.

He didn’t bother to reply.

“I gotta get dressed. Stay in that fuckin’ dress but do something with your hair,” he mumbled.

I looked at my hair in the mirror and winced.

Yeah, it did look bad.

I’d yet to do anything with it since I’d gotten out of the shower, and my hair had dried into some semi curled, semi straight, slightly frizzy hairdo that was in desperate need of styling and hair products.

I walked to the bathroom and put my hair into a high and tight ponytail, then started to stick bobby pins into my hair at varying intervals, pinning back more and more of my ponytail until it was all secured in a nice, tight up do at the top of my head.

That’s when I realized my sister was still on the phone and hurried back out to snatch it off the bed.

“You still there?” I queried.

“Yeah,” Annie answered. “Vitaly had a diaper explosion, so I put it on speaker phone and waited for you to remember you forgot about me.”

I laughed.

“How are my babies doing?” I asked her.

“They’re fine. Mig likes your ferret,” Annie laughed. “Although, Mom freaked out when the ferret got too close to Vitaly’s crib today. And, Jesus, she acted like your cat was attempting to kill our kid when he got up there to investigate Vitaly in his crib. She started spouting some nonsense about cats stealing baby’s breath or some bullshit.”

I blinked.

“I think I’ve heard that old wives’ tale before. But I don’t think there’s any truth to it,” I said, walking back into the bathroom and pulling out my new tube of mascara.

I wasn’t much of a make-up wearer and hadn’t used it since high school.

I withdrew the wand from the tube and started to apply it to my lashes, hoping that I wouldn’t wind up looking like a raccoon.

Then followed suit with the eyeshadow and blush.

“I’m not supposed to have two red dots on my cheeks when I apply blush, am I?” I asked my sister.