Destined to Be Three

Sweet Serenity

MIA ASHLINN

Copyright © 2012

Chapter 1

Jaycee Dalton fought the urge to cover her ears. The neighbor’s incessant arguing was yet another reason why their “girls’ night” sucked. Lately, all of their weekend get-togethers had been total duds. Three women congregating in her cramped apartment, doing nothing, and talking about nothing wasn’t exactly Jaycee’s idea of a good time. She wanted to do something exciting, have a little fun.
Yeah, right, that was going to happen.

It was getting late, anyway. Maybe they could come up with something better to do next weekend.
If they come.
Their weekly visits had turned into biweekly and sometimes monthly visits. Not that Jaycee faulted her friends. The drive from Serenity, Kansas, to her apartment in Paloma was long, but she wouldn’t risk going to them.

Wondering about the actual time, Jaycee looked past Katie-Anne Blakemore’s perch on the countertop to the outdated stove clock. Squinting to see the time, Jaycee couldn’t believe her eyes.
Nine thirty? Seriously?
She reread the clock before groaning silently. This crappy night was never going to end.

“Anyone up for a game of Truth or Dare?” Katie-Anne asked between sips of Chardonnay, not looking the least bit intoxicated.

“Bitch,” Jaycee muttered, taking a swig of her too-warm beer. She really loved the girl, but damn it, sometimes life was unfair. Here she was, sitting cross-legged on her ass in the middle of her kitchen table with no makeup, wrinkled clothes, and helter-skelter hair. Meanwhile, Katie-Anne looked like a queen atop her throne. She was an outlandishly colorful, glitzy queen, but a royal nonetheless.

A bleary-eyed Shannon Roberts raised her head from her prone position on the mismatched vinyl tiles, “Huh? Did I miss something?”

Katie-Anne rolled her blue-green eyes, “Shannon, honey, wake up. We’re going to play a game.”

“Gawd, you two play. I’m gonna sleep.” Shannon’s head fell back to the floor with a thud, her untamed red hair pooling around her and hiding her wire-rimmed glasses and pale face.

Setting her wineglass on the counter, Katie-Anne jumped down from her perch with the stealth of a cat and exclaimed, “Come on, girlies! It’ll be fun.”

Even through the alcohol-induced haze, Jaycee felt the urge to run. She still remembered the last time they’d played Truth or Dare ten years ago. They’d been teenagers at the time, and she’d gotten grounded for streaking through the middle of town in the morning sun.

The sheriff should’ve arrested her seventeen-year-old self, but he’d been too busy laughing and pointing. The only person who’d ended up arrested had been Gray Blakemore, her ex-fiancé and Katie-Anne’s older brother. He’d kneed the deputy in the nuts and then slugged the sheriff for ogling her.

Jaycee’s heart clenched. She missed him and his best friend Cade McCoy. Not a single day passed that she didn’t think about them, didn’t yearn for them. Even now, she loved them. Damn those men. They’d fucked up her life.

Shaking her head, Jaycee’s thoughts returned to the now-infamous game of Truth or Dare. Her dare had gone awry, but she’d gotten off easy. Shannon and Katie-Anne, however, hadn’t been so lucky.

A nineteen-year-old Shannon had been dared to doll up and seduce the first man she’d seen. So, Shannon put on a tight-fitting dress and applied gobs of makeup. She styled her hair elaborately and bathed in her mother’s perfume before going into Serenity’s only bar at the time to fulfill her dare. Shannon, unfortunately, spotted Jaycee’s three older brothers when she entered the bar. Fearing a backlash from Katie-Anne, Shannon walked right up to Jared, Drew, and Randy with a come-hither smile and set about seducing the men she’d been in love with for years.

Before that night, Shannon barely managed to string together an entire sentence in the triplets’ presence. That hadn’t been the case in the bar when she’d tried her hand at being a teenage Lolita. What a fucking catastrophe. Jaycee’s idiotic brothers gave Shannon a tongue-lashing in front of the entire bar that ended with Shannon running away in tears.

From that moment on, Shannon relegated herself to a lonely, miserable life where she refused to speak in front of Jaycee’s brothers—much to their chagrin. The damn morons were in love with her and had been for a long time, but they’d fucked up and were still paying for it.

After their two debacles, the girls begged sixteen-year-old Katie-Anne to not complete her dare. Did Katie-Anne listen?
Hell no.
She walked right up to the resident bad boys of Serenity, Kansas, and offered to pay them for their services, and she didn’t mean their mechanical skills. No one heard what Shane Jacobs and Landon Tolliver said to her when they escorted her out of the auto shop. One thing was known for sure. Their words changed Katie-Anne in a way she still refused to talk about.

Katie-Anne was as bad as Shannon when it came to her men. Shannon avoided Jared, Drew, and Randy like a cowboy avoiding the hind end of his prized horse, while Katie-Anne antagonized hers at every turn.

After that catastrophic day, the girls swore to never play Truth or Dare again. Until this evening, the game hadn’t even been mentioned.

Jaycee slid across the table and stood up, the world swimming around her. When she regained her bearings, Jaycee demanded, “Have you lost your mind, Katie-Anne?”

Katie-Anne ignored Jaycee pointedly.

Hoping for reinforcements, Jaycee staggered across the room toward Shannon’s sleeping form. She nudged Shannon’s leg lightly with her socked foot. When Jaycee received no response, she kicked her. “Get up, dumbass, before she convinces me to play and then we’re all sunk.”

Shannon jerked awake and lurched upright. “Huh? What?”

Katie-Anne approached Jaycee from behind and said, “Oh, goodie. Shannon is up. Now, we can play.”

Dazed, Shannon glanced from Katie-Anne to Jaycee then back again. “What game are we playing exactly? Do I even want to know?”

Forcibly pushing Jaycee aside, Katie-Anne offered Shannon a hand. “Jaycee just agreed that we should play Truth or Dare, like when we were kids.”

In the process of getting up, Shannon screeched, “Jaycee did
what
?” Her harsh cry startled Katie-Anne, who accidentally lost her grip on Shannon’s hand, causing Shannon to lose her balance and stumble backward. She landed on her ass in the floor. “Damn it, Katie-Anne.”

“Me?” Katie-Anne inquired in a tone with equal parts disbelief and haughtiness. “You’re the one who squealed like some crazy cat in heat.”

Shannon heaved herself upward without assistance. “What-the-fuck-ever. I’m not playing! Drunk or not.”

Jaycee followed Shannon toward the living area and plopped into her old, faithful recliner. “You can count me out, too.”

Katie-Anne huffed and threw herself onto the couch beside Shannon. “You two are such wimps. Nothing bad will happen if we keep it simple.”

Jaycee locked eyes with Shannon. “Simple?” She snorted loudly. “Yeah, right.”

“I’m serious,” Katie-Anne retorted, flipping her long midnight hair over her shoulder. “We’ll stick to nonsexual dares. We don’t even have to include men in these dares.”

This time, Shannon snorted. “What kind of fun is it if we can’t include sex or men? I’m not having sex with either of you.” She made a grand show of simulating thoughtful deliberation. “Kissing, I might consider.”

Katie-Anne waved her hand disdainfully as if she were swatting some annoying fly. Jaycee hated when Katie-Anne transformed into a petulant, condescending brat because she wasn’t getting her way.

“Shit. Bratty Katie has arrived,” Jaycee declared scornfully.

Katie-Anne turned her head, glaring at Jaycee with arctic eyes. “Well, excuse me, but I am tired of being trapped in a rut. I think…” Katie-Anne swallowed before continuing on. “No. I
hope
a little game of Truth or Dare might pull the three of us out of our rut. It’s been ten years.”

Jaycee was confused. What did Katie-Anne mean they were in a rut? Yeah, her life wasn’t what she’d hoped for, but she wasn’t unhappy. That was what mattered.
Right?

Apparently, Shannon agreed with Jaycee. “I’m not in a rut, thank you very much.” Shannon’s eyes widened, her face paling drastically. “Is something wrong, Katie-Anne?” she asked, her inner mama bear coming out of hibernation.

Katie-Anne shrugged. “I’m restless, Shan. It’s like the three of us aren’t really living. You’re hiding from the world, and Jaycee is running from my brother and Cade. Then, there’s me. I live like a gypsy, and I’m tired of it. I just want to fucking live.”

Shannon smiled brilliantly as though she’d found a way to derail this disaster-bound train. “Then fucking live, Katie-Anne. You don’t have to play a game with us to do it.”

Jaycee would rather chew nails than admit it, but Katie-Anne had valid points. Jaycee ran from the unorthodox town she’d grown up in to get away from Gray and Cade. Shannon hid from everything and everybody, especially herself and Jaycee’s brothers, and Katie-Anne was like the wind. She blew in and out at her whims. None of them were where they wanted to be. Maybe they did need a little push to start their lives.

Jaycee piped up, “I’m in,” before she changed her mind.

Her two closest friends swung their heads around to stare at her. Katie-Anne’s eyes lit up in excitement and she grinned from ear to ear, while Shannon’s eyes narrowed into tiny slits, her face a mask of horror.

Shannon cursed her way through the alphabet like they all did when they were pissed.

Thinking more and more that Katie-Anne had a good idea after all, Jaycee said, “Shan—”

Shannon threw her hand up and replied curtly, “No.”

Jaycee knew Shannon would give in and so did Katie-Anne, if her celebratory dance was any indication. Shannon’s compliance was inevitable because no one was an easier target than her.

“Come on, Shan,” Jaycee urged. “We’ll make up rules this time. It’ll work out, you’ll see.”

Shannon gave no response.

Shifting in the recliner, Jaycee said, “I know you’re worried, but we’re adults.” When Shannon’s lack of reaction continued, Jaycee turned to Katie-Anne.

Katie-Anne patted Shannon’s hand. “It really will be all right. What do we have to lose?”

Jaycee detected slight movement on Shannon’s lips. It looked as though she said
everything
.

Shannon turned her head toward the opened window and stared at something off in the distance, sighing in defeat, “Fine. Whatever.”

“Yay,” Katie-Anne cheered, clapping her hands exuberantly. When her excitement had waned, she asked, “What are the rules, my darlings?”

How was Jaycee supposed to answer that? Katie-Anne blindsided them with her stupid idea, and, now, she expected them to make up the rules. No, Jaycee did not think so. “The hell if I know. You came up with the game. You come up with the rules.”

Shannon nodded her head without looking at either of them.

Katie-Anne shrugged negligently and agreed, “Whatever you think is best.” She scrunched her face. “Okay, let’s see. We’ll keep it simple. First, we each have to go one at a time. That way we can be there for each other’s dare—”

“Wait,” Shannon cried anxiously, her head whipping back around. “Why do we need to be there for each other? You guys said this would be easy.”

“Stop being a pessimist, Shan. We said we were going to be cautious, and I am.” Katie-Anne’s tone was as cool as a cucumber.

Her rationale silenced Shannon’s concerns. “Good point. Okay, continue.”

“Hmmm.” Katie-Anne paused, tapping her chin with her index finger.