pressed her hands against the table before fluttering her eyelashes at Kira and Addie. “Oh, Preacher,” she said, her voice a remarkably accurate impression of Addie’s, “I’ve never had something so big in me before. You’re such a stud!”
Kira laughed so hard that tears came to her eyes. Addie tried to glare at Grace but giggled instead. “Oh God, it’s funny because it’s true. That’s exactly how I sounded!”
Grace sat down next to her and howled with laughter as Kira wiped at the tears on her cheeks. When their laughter finally eased, Addie said, “I’m so embarrassed.”
“Don’t be,” Kira said. “I’m sure guys love hearing a woman tell them that they’re big.”
“True,” Grace said. “But maybe you should try to avoid sounding like a cheesy porn script the next time, honey.”
Addison groaned and buried her face in her hands. “There won’t be a next time. I keep telling you that.”
“Well, the good news is – you got your first try at rebound sex over and done with and you can concentrate on finding other pretty boys to have meaningless sex with and gain some confidence,” Kira said. “This is your time to shine, Addie.”
Addison laughed. “Yeah, I don’t think casual sex is for me. As good as it felt with Preacher, the awkwardness and the way he kept apologizing after was terrible.”
She turned her head from side to side, easing the tense muscles. “You were right, Gracie. Sleeping with Preacher was a bad idea and now I have no idea how I’ll even look him in the eye at the next barbeque.”
“It’ll be okay,” Grace said. “I mean, yeah, it’ll be awkward at first but sleeping with women once is kind of what Preacher does, right? He’ll probably be much cooler about it than you think.”
“Maybe you’re right,” Addison said. “Besides, we barely spoke at the barbeques or when we were all hanging out together before we slept together. So that’s not going to change. I was just a warm place to put his penis.”
Grace snorted laughter. “Sweetie, call it a dick at least, would you?”
“I… I can’t be crude.”
“You should try it, it’s lots of fun,” Grace said. “Remember when I texted you last night?”
“Yeah. I’d just gotten home from the tattoo shop.”
“Gideon asked me to text you.”
“What? Why?” Addison said.
“That’s the weird thing. He wouldn’t say. He just asked me to text you and make sure you were at home and safe.”
“Oh my God,” Kira said. “Preacher asked Gideon to ask you to text Addison.”
“I think so,” Grace said. “He knew you were walking home in the dark and he was worried. Which means you were more than just a warm place for him to put his,” she smiled teasingly at Addison, “penis.”
Addison didn’t reply, but she couldn’t ignore the small spark of warmth in her belly. It was stupid, but the idea that Preacher might have been worried about her walking home in the dark made some of her regret and embarrassment about what happened last night ease.
“All right, now that the sex talk is over, show us this tattoo, you wild woman,” Grace said.
Smiling, Addison turned and lifted the back of her shirt so that Grace and Kira could see her tattoo.
“Oh my gosh, it’s gorgeous,” Kira said. “I love it.”
“It looks great,” Grace said. “It’s so… you.”
“Thank you. I love it too. Preacher drew it last night after I couldn’t find a flower that I liked from the choices he showed me. He’s a crazy good artist.”
“Holy shit,” Grace said. “You have a Preacher original? Girl, you’re gonna be eating Kraft Dinner for months. You must have maxed out your credit card to pay for it.”
Addison fixed her shirt. “What do you mean? It only cost a hundred dollars.”
Kira turned to Grace. “Did she just say a hundred bucks?”
“What?” Addison said.
“Addie, the minimum charge for a tattoo from Preacher is one-seventy-five. That’s the minimum charge.” Kira pointed to the butterfly tattoo just above her ankle. “Remember when Preacher did this last year? This tattoo, which is smaller than your orchid, cost me two hundred bucks and Preacher gave me a discount.”
“What?” Addison touched the tattoo on her back. “No, that can’t be right.”
“Oh, it’s right,” Kira said. “And I just picked this out of the book, he didn’t draw it or anything. Also, I’m pretty sure his price has gone up since then.”
“Gideon told me an original drawing by Preacher is ridiculously expensive because Preacher’s one of the top tattoo artists in the state. Apparently,