11.

E LIZABETH

“Are you sure I look okay?” I asked Dub as I brushed my hands over my thighs for at least the third time since he’d pulled into the parking lot of the resort. “What are your friends like? I mean, their wives . . . or girlfriends . . . or whatever. Will I fit in?”

“Hammer’s old lady is a tiny psycho with an accent. Bug’s old lady, Maylee, has had an illustrious life and is hard as nails with a soft heart. Santa’s old lady, Frankie, is some kind of surgeon. They couldn’t be more different if they tried, and yet they’re friends anyway. You look stunning when you’re glistening with sweat and dog drool, covered in three different colors of fur with mud on your boots and your hair falling out of your ponytail . . .”

“Do I always look like that?” I asked, horrified.

“You always look fantastic to me, Karen, and anyone who says different can suck my left nut.”

I burst out laughing, and Dub smiled at me. He put his hand on my cheek and turned me to face him fully before he asked, “If I kiss you, is that shit on your face gonna get all over me?”

“My lipstick is a stain that won’t come off until . . .”

Dub interrupted me with a kiss, and I heard Mary and Laura gasp, which definitely put a damper on what I was feeling. Apparently, it did the same thing to Dub because he growled low in his throat and slowly pulled his lips from mine. He stared at me and said, “First, it was the goddamn horse, and now it’s the peanut gallery.”

I whispered in his ear to ask, “Aren’t you a little old to get cockblocked by your sisters?”

Dub looked into the back seat with a ferocious scowl. “Not a word, ladies. Do you hear me?”

“A word about what?” Mary asked.

“Do you mean we can’t talk about the fact that you just put your tongue in Elizabeth’s mouth because I have questions and . . .” Laura’s voice trailed off, and she audibly gulped beneath Dub’s unblinking stare.

“If you have questions about anything, I’ll be happy to answer them when we’re not locked in a vehicle with a wild animal,” I assured her.

“Tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow sounds perfect.”

Dub let go of my face and faced forward, resting his hands on the steering wheel and shut his eyes before he suddenly started quoting scripture. I was taken aback as were the girls, and I turned and looked at them with my eyebrows raised in question.

Mary mouthed, “What is he doing?” and I could only shrug.

After a minute or two, Dub sighed deeply before he turned his body to face the door. At first, I wasn’t sure what he was doing but then realized he was adjusting himself and didn’t want the girls to see.

I then knew why he’d just been quoting the Bible and burst out laughing only to have Dub turn and shoot daggers toward me.

“Whatever works, Kevin. You do you, buddy.”

“Let’s go inside,” Dub mumbled as he opened his door. “Damn women everywhere I turn, can’t get a moment’s peace, laughing right in my face. I swear by all that’s holy, I’ll . . .”

His mutterings were cut off when he slammed the door, and I giggled along with the girls. We were still laughing when we got out, and his glare was even more fierce when we joined him on the sidewalk, still snickering.

“You think this is funny?” Dub asked menacingly.

“Absolutely,” I said as I took his hand in mine and started leading the girls toward the entrance of the hotel. “Funniest thing I’ve seen since you were unconscious on the floor at my feet.”

“You’re never going to let me live that down, are you?” Dub asked as he reached past Mary and pulled the door open. Once we had all filed in ahead of him, he joined us inside, and we walked toward the restaurant together. Apparently, Dub could tell I was nervous because he reached for my hand again and said, “You’re a strong and smart woman who is more beautiful than anyone I’ve ever seen, Karen. My friends are going to love you, so put your shoulders back and face the day like the warrior you are.”

I smiled at him before I lifted his hand to my mouth and kissed the back of it. “Thank you, Dub. I think that was the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.”

“I guess I should try harder then,” Dub said as he raised his other hand and greeted one of the men I’d met earlier who was waving at us from a table near the window. The girls followed behind us, obviously impressed with the elegant dining room if their excited whispering was any indication.

I was pleasantly taken aback when all three men stood and didn’t sit back down until Dub had pulled out my chair and gotten me settled. He did the same for the girls, and they preened at the attention. Finally, Dub said, “Elizabeth, this is Maylee, Pita, and Frankie. Ladies, this is Elizabeth Royce, and these are my youngest sisters, Laura and Mary.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” the smallest of the women said with a faint accent. “Frankie and I will just sit and nod politely because Maylee already has plans to grill you about how she can train her daughter’s new puppy not to gnaw on everything that’s not able to escape quickly enough.”

I laughed softly because that was one of the biggest complaints that new pet parents usually had, but I knew a few tricks that might help her out and felt better talking about something in my wheelhouse.

Before I knew it, dinner was in front of me, and I realized that I’d somehow made three new friends. They were exactly like Dub had said - very different from each other and worldly in ways that I would probably never be but pleasant and friendly all the same. For some reason, I felt a connection with them that I couldn’t put my finger on, but I could tell they felt it, too, with how easily they brought me into their conversations.

By the time dinner was over, we had plans for them to come to my house for lunch the next day before they left to drive home. We’d even made tentative plans to get together later in the year, either here in Colorado or possibly when I went to Texas to see my friends in Rojo.

At one point, when the conversation moved on to something that was going on in their home of Tenillo, I looked over at Dub and found him watching me.

“What’s up?” I asked softly before I smiled.

He took my hand beneath the table and squeezed it before he said, “Just watching you work your magic on my friends.”

“I think they’re our friends now. They invited me to Tenillo so I can meet the rest of the women they hang out with.”

“The coven?” Dub asked as his face went from the dreamy expression I’d been admiring to one of abject horror. “They invited you to join the coven?”

“It’s not really a coven, Dub. There’s no witchcraft involved,” I assured him with a grin.

“When they get together, witchcraft is the least of my worries,” Dub said as he looked down at his plate. I worried about his abrupt change of attitude when he sadly whispered, “What have I done?”

Hammer, the outspoken man who seemed a little off if you thought about how often he answered questions using song lyrics and randomly burst into the chorus of whatever tune happened to fit the situation, laughed maniacally before he crowed, “You’re fucked, man. She’s in with the girls, and you know what that means.”

I looked over at Maylee and smiled at the attentive look she was giving Laura and Mary as they told her a story. When she cut her eyes to me, I saw a rage in her stare for a split second before she was able to mask it. I was shocked at the fire I saw there and then listened closer to what Laura was saying.

“Our mother said that we’ll be wives to the same man so we won’t have to split up when we go back. We can play together whenever we want, and then when we have kids, they can be brothers and sisters too.”

I felt that familiar burning in my chest at Laura’s innocent declaration and tried to tamp it down by taking a few deep breaths to center myself so I could assure her that she wasn’t going to marry anyone for a good long while, and neither was her sister.

However, Pita had obviously been listening, too, and she chimed in first. “I don’t think either of you are ready for marriage and children. You have the world to explore first.”

“She’s right,” Frankie said with a predatory smile. For some reason, she asked Laura, “What’s your mother’s name, sweetheart? And who did you say that you’re going to marry? Where are you going to live?”

I heard Dub chuckle and looked over at him before I hissed, “What’s so fucking funny, Kevin?”

“They’re so fucked,” Dub said with another giggle. “So fucked.”

“Who is?”

“My mother and pretty much anyone in her circle,” Dub said through his laughter. “Oh, shit.”

“Are you losing it?” I whispered frantically. “I get that you want to make sure the girls don’t go away, but the way you’re laughing tells me there’s something’s going on that I don’t understand.”

Dub picked his phone up from the table and started typing. It was only a few seconds before he held the phone up between us so I could see the picture on the screen. I noticed that he had a popular gossip website pulled up and was shocked to see a picture of Frankie in a wedding gown flanked by a group of men I didn’t recognize. Frankie was smiling as were they, but I could see danger in their eyes just like I saw in hers right now.

Dub scrolled a little further down to the article and instructed, “Just read it, Karen. You’ll see why this is funny.”

“Francesca Romano, daughter of former crime boss and sister to Rico Romano, the current leader of the Romano family in New York City, was married in an extravagant ceremony attended by multiple factions of the international criminal underworld. The Four Families, a group of mafia leaders who have united together to form a conglomerate of sorts, were in attendance along with a varied list of other criminal-types including her new husband and his friends who all happen to be felons and ex-convicts from various locations around the United States.”

“I hear it was a beautiful wedding,” Dub whispered conspiratorially.

“She’s really in the mafia?” I whispered back.

“Her family is the mafia, sweetheart, and she’s taken an interest in my mother’s plans for the little girls who she instantly felt a connection with. Now she’s asking for details and locations. You’ve probably seen enough movies and television shows to understand the significance of that.”

“Holy shit,” I whispered.

“You want to know why I looked terrified when you mentioned being friends with the coven?”

“Because of that?”

Dub chuckled again. “No, honey, because Frankie’s not even the scariest of that crew.”

“Holy shit.”

“You keep saying that, and I completely understand why.”

◆◆◆

“And Miss Pita said we can come to Texas anytime we want. She’s got a friend who owns a rooster that’s almost as big as me and another friend who . . .” Laura’s excitement was put on hold when she yawned loudly and then rubbed her eyes. “Miss Frankie is a doctor, and she said that if I pay close attention to everything my teachers say and work really hard, I can be a doctor too!”

I ran my hands over Laura’s hair and cupped her cheek. “Let’s talk about this in the morning, sweetheart. Right now, we all need to go to sleep because we have a big day tomorrow. All of them are coming over for lunch, and while they’re here, I’ll let you show them some of the skills you’ve helped teach the dogs.”

Maylee was excited to see Hercules and the dogs while Pita and Frankie just seemed happy to get to hang out again.

“I want to work with Barney,” Laura said, referring to the pit bull she seemed to favor. Laura yawned again and then said, “He’s my favorite schmoopie but I . . .”

I watched as her face relaxed into sleep and then smiled when she let out a sigh and turned over, clutching the doll Dub had bought her in one of the boutiques we’d visited at the hotel. I looked over at Mary who was concentrating on her book, using the clip-on light Dub had gotten for her at a different boutique, and saw her eyes flutter closed right before the book tilted toward her face. I reached out and grabbed it before it hit her and then gently tugged it out of her hands before I turned out the light and set the book on the dresser.

Once I pulled the covers up and tucked them in, I stood and watched them sleep, confused about the longing I felt deep inside. It seemed that the more time I spent with them, the stronger my yearning grew for more of that same connection. I’d even gone so far as to wonder if I might be ready to have a child of my own.

I turned to leave and found Dub leaning against the doorframe, silhouetted by the faint light coming from the living room.

When I got close enough to touch him, he reached out and took my hand. When he pulled me closer, I let out a yelp but melted into his embrace when his lips touched mine. We stood there in the doorway and kissed for what seemed like hours, but these kisses were different. These were soft and sweet. For some reason, I felt like they held more promises than the passionate kisses we’d shared before - they seemed more intense but in a different way.

Dub held me close, and his lips never left mine as he walked us out into the hall. Finally, he pulled away but just long enough to reach in and carefully pull the door closed so we didn’t disturb the girls.

“What are you doing to me?” Dub muttered before he squatted down and wrapped his arms around my hips. I clutched at his shoulders as he lifted me and started to protest at his carrying my weight when he kissed me again. As if they had a mind of their own, my legs wrapped around his waist, and when he started walking toward my bedroom, he pulled his mouth away from mine and shocked me with his next question. “Do you know what I was imagining while I watched you with the girls?”

“What?”

“What are you doing to me?” he asked quietly.

I was too focused on the silky hair at the nape of his neck to pay much attention to his question, but then I realized that he hadn’t finished what he was saying. “What were you thinking, Dub?”

When my lips started nibbling on the spot beneath his ear, he shivered and came to a halt at the door to my room.

“This is probably gonna scare the shit out of you, but I was imagining that the girls were our children and you were sitting there comforting them while your hand rested on your very pregnant belly because it was almost time to bring another one into the world.”

“Oh.”

“Exactly.”

“Like you were imagining that your sisters were our children or there were other children in the bed?”

“Both.”

“Oh.” I still had my face against his neck with my mind running at warp speed . . . not in terror, but in consideration. Because I was so good at it, I decided to push those thoughts away for now so that I could overthink about them when I was alone later and said, “Right now, that doesn’t really matter because I have an IUD, and I’d really appreciate it if you’d shut up and test out its efficiency.”

Dub’s laughter shook both of us, but then he leaned forward and laid me down on the bed. I kept my legs wrapped around his waist as he held himself up and looked down at my face.

“I like you, Elizabeth, even when I think you’re more like a Karen. When I’m away from you, you’re all I can think about. It’s not just the physical attraction; I want to talk more and get to know what makes you tick.”

I lifted my hips and squirmed against his erection, glad that I’d already changed clothes for the evening after going out with the girls to check on the dogs. My leggings rubbing against his zipper gave me just enough friction to tease me, and I was frustrated when I said, “Talk later. Fuck now.”

Dub laughed again but took my instruction to heart. He reared up, and the hold I had on his waist yanked me toward the edge of the bed, so I let my legs fall down to his sides as I watched him jerk his belt open and then go for the button of his jeans. I put my hands at my waist to wiggle out of my leggings, ready to get this moving along because I was dying to have him inside me, but he put his hand on my abdomen to stop me.

“Slow down, sweetheart. We’ve got all night.”

“You make me crazy,” I complained, but I did stop trying to get my pants off. Instead, I waited until he started working on his jeans again to sit up and rip my shirt off and throw it aside. By the time his shirt was on the floor, I had my bra off and was waiting impatiently for him to do something other than just stare at me. “What are you doing?”

“I’m enjoying the view,” he said as he let his gaze travel from my face down to my breasts. Without thinking, I reached up and cupped my breasts, running my thumbs over my nipples, back and forth gently as I imagined what it would feel like to have his tongue on them. When he groaned, I squeezed my breasts and then lifted my head and touched my tongue to first the left and then the right one before I let my head fall back and raised my eyebrows in invitation. “Oh, fuck me.”

“If you’d get naked, that’s exactly what I would do.”

Dub was laughing so hard that he stumbled when he tried to kick his boots off, and that made me laugh right along with him. I made a point to never think of the past when I was in the bedroom - that just brought up horrible memories I’d rather forget, but I laughed even harder when I realized that I’d never had this much fun naked and spread out on the bed like a feast.

“You make me crazy,” Dub said, finally naked and ready to get down to business. “Absolutely fucking crazy wanting you but laughing so hard that I’m not sure what to do next.”

I let go of my breasts and clapped my hands twice before I said, “Get to work, Kevin. Stop fucking around, and demonstrate all the naughty things you’ve been thinking about doing to me.”

“What makes you think I’ve been daydreaming about you, Karen?”

“Because that’s all I seem to do where you’re concerned, big guy,” I admitted. Then, to his shock, I said, “And when you’re finished with your demonstration, it’s my turn to act out all of my naughty thoughts.”

As Dub reached for the waistband of my leggings. he mumbled, “You’re killing me.”

“Yeah, but what a fun way to die.”