She scoffs at my question. “The batteries need to be recharged morning, noon, and night. What can I say?” I don’t think I realized anyone could do that so many times in one day.
“Doesn’t that hurt, like aren’t you sore?” I whisper.
“You get used to it, and when you find the one you can’t keep your hands off of, morning, noon, and night just don’t seem like enough some days. You need to find a Tango. Then you’ll see.”
I shake my head, completely disagreeing with her statement. “I highly doubt I would ever become that crazy.”
“If you’re basing all this on that dipshit who totally screwed you over and tried to um…kill you and my family, then you have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Clutching the iron tightly against my chest, I look Cali straight in the eyes. “Please don’t mention Landon’s name or anything about him to me…ever again.”
“I knew he was a scumbag from the first moment I met him,” she tells me. That can’t be true, though. Cali is not one to keep thoughts to herself. Surely, if she felt that way, she would have made her distaste known.
“Y’all never said a word to me,” I remind her, loosening my grip on the iron.
“Because you had that whole googly eye thing going on and I wasn’t a hundred percent sure he was a douche, so I let it ride out, for a little too long I guess. I’m sorry, Sash.”
“I loved him, Cali-girl,” I whisper, trying not to allow another tear for him to fall from my eyes.
“I know,” she says, pulling me in for a hug. “You’re going to be fine without him. You’re better off now, trust me. Plus, you have a place to stay, and you’re surrounded by people who love you. Even Jags.” We both laugh at the last part. Even Jags.
“Jags does not love me,” I tell her. “He doesn’t even know me.”
“I know,” Cali says with a quirk in her brow. “But before he left a few days ago, he was looking at you like you were a pretty flower he’d like to pollinate.” The few nights Jags stayed here, I kept a distance from him and his flirty little looks. He’s a ladies’ man, that’s all he is, surely nothing to take personal.
“Cali!” I scold, with not much to follow it with since she’s right.
Oops. My voice must have gotten a little too loud because Cali’s bedroom door opens wildly, with Tango appearing half dressed, half awake, and a little confused. “Everything okay out here, ladies?”
Oh my goodness, is that a…his…thingy…oh my gosh. “Cali,” I point to Tango’s shorts and cover my eyes, walking backward toward my bedroom.
“It’s called an erection, Sasha. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. It’s something to be very proud of, if you’re me,” Cali shouts after me. “Right, babe?” Just before I slam the door, I watch her jump into Tango’s arms, kissing him wildly as if she hasn’t seen him in months. How? Why? Who acts like that after being married for years?
Feeling mortified, hot, flushed, everything that could make me climb under this bed and not come back out today, I pause when I hear Cali’s voice again. “I’m kidding! Kind of. Sash! I’m sor-r-r-rry!!!!” She must be shouting into the crack of my door because I can hear her loud and clear but there’s no way I’m going back out there.
“We gotta toughen that girl up,” I hear Tango say as their bedroom door closes.
When silence fills the air again, my breaths elongate, and I try to relax after that stunning moment of humiliation. How are they not embarrassed to be acting like that? It’s like they don’t care that I can see and hear everything they do. Well, not everything, thank goodness.
I sit down on the edge of the bed and sink my chin to my chest. I need to get my life back together, and sitting here is not going to help that.
Damn you, Landon. You made me love you. You fooled me. Why’d you have to trick me into believing you were a good person? I’m not sure I can even wrap my head around everything that happened between Landon and I. Still. All I know is, he’s dangerous, and I shouldn’t be anywhere near him. Cali always warned me if I was associated with her and her family, men would eventually try to lure me in to get closer to her and the secrets her former-CIA dad has