really need to go.”
She pushed past him and grabbed her shirt from the counter.
“You need a bandage on the tattoo.”
“I don’t, it’s fine, really.”
“Addison!” His sharp tone made her freeze as she reached for her purse. “Just wait for a minute.”
She stayed where she was, her hands clamped together across her flat abdomen as she stared blindly at the door. He quickly grabbed a bandage, a damp cloth and the paper with cleaning instructions. He wiped her tattoo and placed the bandage over it, taping it in place.
“Take this off in the morning.” He shoved the piece of paper at her. “Here are the cleaning instructions. Follow them carefully.”
“Okay,” she said as she pulled her t-shirt on.
He walked around her and unlocked the front door. She refused to look him in the eye, but he could see that her cheeks were bright red and there were tears in her eyes as she hurried out the door.
“Goodbye, Preacher,” she said. Without waiting for a response, she nearly ran down the street and disappeared into the darkness.
“Goodbye, Sunshine.”
Chapter Eight
“You did what?” Kira sank into a kitchen chair and stared at her.
“I also got a tattoo,” Addison said.
“Addie, who cares about the damn tattoo!” Kira shouted. “You slept with Preacher last night. Preacher!”
“You guys were the ones who told me I needed to have rebound sex,” Addison said.
“Yeah but not with Preacher!” Kira stared at Grace. “Gracie, why don’t you look surprised?”
Grace shrugged. “There’s always been tons of sexual tension between them and I caught Addie and Preacher making out at the Beaver on Friday night.”
“Grace!” Addison said as Kira’s mouth dropped open. “You promised you wouldn’t say anything!”
“Does it matter at this point? You just told us you boned him. Who cares if he was kissing you and feeling you up outside the pub?”
“He was feeling you up outside the pub? I, like, go to Willington on one Friday night and miss Addison losing her mind,” Kira said.
“He saved me from a bunch of drunk guys in the parking lot, okay? I was grateful to him.”
“So, you let him kiss you and grope you as a thank you?” Kira said.
“Yes,” Addie said.
There was a long moment of silence and then Kira said, “Okay.”
Grace burst out laughing. “Okay?”
“What?” Kira said.
“That’s a really quick change in thinking,” Grace said.
It was Kira’s turn to shrug. “I just replayed my freak out back in my head and I sound like a ninety-year-old grandma. Addie is a grown woman and besides, it’s about time she got laid by someone other than boring old Harrison.”
“He was only boring because I was boring,” Addison said. “Crystal doesn’t find him boring.”
“Fuck Crystal,” Grace said. “And you’re not boring in bed.”
“You don’t know that,” Addie said.
“What happened when you were finished banging each other?” Kira asked.
“I left right away.”
“What? Why?”
“Because it suddenly felt really awkward and weird and I had just let him bend me over a tattoo bed and screw me,” Addison said. “Nice girls don’t do that.”
“Who says?” Grace said. “Nice girls do all sorts of bad things in bed.”
“Not to mention, he apologized after. As soon as he pulled out, he was all, ‘Sunshine, I’m sorry’.”
“Sunshine?” Kira said.
“He calls me sunshine,” Addie said.
“That’s adorable,” Kira said. “Who would have thought big, bad Preacher would be into nicknames.”
“Did you hear me?” Addie said. “He apologized. I mean, how bad does a girl have to be at sex for a guy to apologize to her?”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Grace said. “Men don’t apologize because a girl is bad in bed, Addie.”
“Whatever,” Addie said. “The point is, it was just a one-time thing and I only did it because you guys told me I needed to have rebound sex.”
“Bullshit,” Grace said with a cheerful grin. “Don’t blame your desire to see Preacher’s dick on us, girlie. How was it, by the way? It was big, right? Really big?”
Addison blushed furiously as Kira leaned in. “From the look on her face – yep, it was big.”
“I don’t know for sure,” Addie said. “I was bent over the tattoo bed, remember? I didn’t exactly see it.”
“Yeah, but you felt it,” Grace said with a cheeky wiggle of her eyebrows. “Did it feel big?”
Addison’s cheeks burned. “Yes. It hurt.”
“Uh oh,” Grace said. “That’s not good. He hurt you?”
“He didn’t mean to,” Addie said. “When he realized he hurt me, he tried to, um, pull out right away but I told him not to.”
Grace was frowning at Kira and Addison said, “What? It always