Sweet Ride (31 page)

I finish getting ready
as Jack walks through the door carrying a pizza box.

“What’s that for?”

“For you and the
girls. I knew you were planning on ordering, so I thought I’d save
you the trouble,” he says.

Aww, so thoughtful!

“Oh … thanks. Izzy
called me earlier today,” I tell him.

“I know, she called
me right after. She sounded pretty happy and said you invited her and
my other two sisters to join you and Ella tonight.”

“Yeah, I did. I want
to have a good relationship with them. I really like your family.”

“They all really like
you, too. Thank you for doing that—for putting everything behind
you and Izzy for me,” he says with a smile.

“It’s not just for
you. I want it, too. I want to be able to go to family suppers and
not have to worry about things being uncomfortable between us. From
what I hear from you and your sisters, she can be a sweetheart, so I
decided to put it all in the past and move forward.”

“Fuck, I love you,”
he says, putting the pizza on the counter and walking over to me.

“I love you, too,
Jack,” I say as he engulfs me in his arms and captures my mouth in
a hungry, passionate kiss that ignites my body.

“I want you,” I
breathe out in between kisses.

“I want you, too. You
have no idea,” Jack says running his hands all over my body.

“Oh, I think I do,”
I reply huskily, cupping his junk.

The knock on the door
brings us out of our moment. I pull back and look at him.

“Sorry, baby. I’ll
get it. Must be Ella,” I tell him, walking to the door.

Before I open it I
check my clothing to make sure I’m still covered up.

Yup. All good.

I open the door, and
Ella’s standing there in black skinny jeans, an ivory colored
halter top, and black knee-high boots. Damn, she looks hot.

“Damn … You look
hot,” I repeat my thoughts.

“Same goes for you,”
she replies, walking in and putting her bag on the counter in the
kitchen.

I flip open the pizza
box, and we dig in while we shoot the shit. Not too long after,
there’s another knock at the door meaning one thing: Jack’s
sisters are here.

Fuck. I hope everything
goes smoothly tonight.

I walk over and open
the door. Izzy, Gia, and Sofie are standing there, all dressed to
the nines. I try to move out of the way to let them in, but before I
can get out of the way, Izzy’s wrapping her arms around me and
whispering in my ear.

“Thank you, Payton.
This means a lot to me.” Pulling back, I can see what almost looks
like tears shining in her green eyes, which causes some of my own
tears to form.

“You lucky bitch. You
get to live here,” Sofie yells, jarring Izzy and me out of our
little moment. I just laugh.

“Anyone want some
Slings?” I ask, walking to the kitchen to make us some pre-bar
drinks. Everyone wants one, and we sit around the kitchen listening
to some music and talking like we’ve all been best friends forever,
and I’m loving every minute of it.

“You girls ready to
go?” Jack asks, walking into the kitchen.

“Yeah, I think we’re
ready,” I say.

We all make our way out
to Ella’s truck and climb in. Jack takes us to Wilde Ride. Inside,
we all head right for the bar to get some more drinks, and you’ll
never guess who’s working tonight.

Cade ‘Crazy as Fuck’
Foster. I love Cade. He’s so fun to pick on, although I don’t
think it’ll be as easy now considering how filled out he is. Plus,
he’s super yummy to look at.

“Hey Cade, how are
you?” I ask.

“Payton, good to see
ya, I’m gettin’ by. How ‘bout you?” he asks back, looking at
me with sympathy on his face. Why is he looking at me like that? Then
I remember he was there the night of my party. Shit!

“I’m a lot better.
Thank you. Can …”

“Shots, shots,
shots,” the girls start chanting.

“Well you heard ‘em.
A round for my bitches,” I say, looking at him. He looks almost as
if he has something else he wants to say, and I wonder if it has
anything to do with Evan. They were definitely arguing when he
dropped her off that day. Cade lays out five shot glasses and fills
them with tequila.

“All right one, two,
three …” Izzy counts down, and we all clink our glasses and down
our shots.

We spend most of the
night drinking and dancing on the small dance floor. I take a quick
break and head over to Cade to get another drink. “Hey sexy,” I
say.

“Hey Payton, don’t
be sayin’ shit like that. Jack’ll shoot me,” he says.

“Nah, I’ll protect
you,” I reply, laughing.

“Riiiiight. What can
I get ya?”

“Water would be
great. I need to cut myself off.”

“Okay, one water
comin’ up. How’s Evan doin’?” he asks.

“She’s good. What
happened between you two? She wouldn’t tell me, and I know
something happened, and I want to know. Now.”

Cade hands over my
water then points down the bar and says, “Sorry babe, got some
customers.” He runs off like a little bitch.

That little fucker. No,
big fucker, I guess because he’s not so little anymore. I’ll get
it out of him eventually. I walk back over to the girls and a very
drunk Izzy throws her arms around me and kisses me on the cheek.

“I kin see wha my
brotha loves you! You fuckin’ rock,” Oh fuck! She’s hammered.
Jack’s going to kill me.

“I love you, too,”
I say, chuckling at her.

We all sit down at an
empty table, talking and checking out all the guys here. Apparently
Sofie’s single and wants to get laid tonight and has her eyes set
on Cade. I don’t know about that. I decide to keep my eye on him
and will weigh in if I have to. I think there’s a little more going
on between him and my sister.

Gia and Izzy move in
closer to me, and Izzy starts drunk talking again. “I hate da idea
of Jack gettin’ hurt, but I don tink you’d hurt im. Can you eva
truly forgive me? I love Jack, and he loves you and dat makes me love
you,” she drunkenly tries to say.

I watch, seeing the
regret showing all over her, and it makes it a lot easier to put it
all away.

“Forgive you for
what?” I ask, grinning.

“’Cause I was a
be-yotch,” she says like she can’t believe I don’t know what
she’s talking about.

“I know, a big
one—huge one—but I forgive you. What’s done is in the past.”

“Let’s drink to
that,” Ella yells, sloshing her shot everywhere. I think the table
gets more than she does.

Thirty minutes and
several shots later, I’m sitting around the table with a bunch of
shit-faced females when suddenly I hear Ella mumbling something about
breakfast in bed. I can’t help but laugh because I know exactly
what she’s talking about. I’ve heard Ella use that phrase several
times since she’s been with Ryder. I’m guessing Gia didn’t hear
what she said because she asks her to repeat herself.

“I give Ryder
breakfast in bed every morning,” she says, giggling. Gia moves in.

“What are you talking
about? Screw that, I’m not making my husband breakfast in bed every
morning. He’s a grown ass man. He can do it himself.” Ella and I
burst into a fit of laughter. She doesn’t get it.

Eventually our laughter
dies, and I give Gia a serious facial expression. I’m trying really
hard not to laugh this time. “No, honey, she doesn’t actually
make him breakfast. He gets something to eat in the morning—it just
isn’t food,” I tell her. Her mouth forms an ‘O’, and the
expression on her face is priceless. I laugh so hard I have to grab
hold of my belly because it hurts so badly.

“WHAT?” she
shrieks. “That sounds freaking awesome. I’m going to have to try
that tomorrow morning. I think Kurtis will love you guys for giving
me the idea,” she says with a serious expression and a look of awe,
almost like we just cured world hunger.

“I think Jack’s
going to get some, too.” The three sisters suddenly look mortified
when I say this, and I can’t help but chuckle at them. “You guys
better get used to it, if you’re going to be my friends. Your
brother’s seriously hot, and we can’t keep our hands off each
other.”

“Ugh! I’m going to
be scarred for life if I have to hear about my big bro’s sex life!”
Sofie shouts and, of course, my only response is to laugh at her.
Knowing she’s so uncomfortable about it, I can’t help but mess
with her.

Placing my palms
together, I slowly draw them apart, trying to demonstrate how big
something is, and I say, “Seriously, though, your brother has a
huge …”

“That’s it, I need
a drink!” she cuts me off. Sofie then slides her chair out from
the table, stands up, and struts toward the bar where Cade is.

“T.V.!” I scream at
her. “I was saying Jack has a huge T.V! It’s like sixty inches!”
The whole table explodes. Sofie gives me the finger behind her back.

When the laughter
begins to fade out, I can’t help but watch how Sofie’s
interacting with Cade. I notice she’s dishing it out big time. I’m
not talking about your usual everyday flirting. No way. This girl is
pulling out the big guns. She’s pretty much trying to fuck him on
the bar. I don’t know if I should call Jack or go over and
interrupt them myself. Fuck it, if she hates me after this, that’s
fine. At least I can tell Jack I watched out for her. I get up and
make my way over.

“Sofie, can you see
what the girls want to drink?” I ask. She looks at me funny, then
reluctantly agrees and walks back over to our table.

“In the back now,”
I order Cade.

“Sorry, Payton, but
if Jack comes here, he’ll fuckin’ kill me. I mean, you’re hot
as fuck and all, but I just can’t. Plus, I hooked up with Evan …
Shit! I wasn’t supposed to say that.”

“I fucking knew it.
She looked guilty as all hell when you dropped her off. Why were you
fighting?” I ask.

“I wanted her to
stay, but she said no.” My mouth drops open in utter shock at his
statement.

“You asked her to
stay? Why?” I ask, dumbfounded.

“I’m not really
sure, but there’s somethin’ about her. It’s better this way,
anyhow. She doesn’t need to get messed up with someone like me,”
he says, shrugging like it’s no big deal, but I can see the sadness
hiding there.

“Well, I don’t
agree. I think you two would be good together. She’d help you
through whatever troubles you. That’s what Jack’s doing for me,
and I’m actually doing the same for him. Where’s your phone?”

“Why?” he asks.

“I’m going to
program her number in your phone. I think you should call her. She’s
supposed to be coming out here soon, so maybe you guys could meet up
again—this time under better circumstances. Wait! You took
advantage of my sister when all that shit was going down? No, fuck
that, I’m not giving you her number.” I shove his phone back at
him, then turn and stomp off. I can’t believe that didn’t
register with me before. What an asshole.

“Wait, Payton, it
wasn’t like that. We only fooled around a little until I stopped
it. I told her we shouldn’t in the beginning, and then she just
kept comin’ at me. Fuck, there’s only so many times I can say no
to the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. You can’t be pissed
at me for that. I tried to do the right thing. I really fuckin’
tried.”

“Yeah, well that’s
her choice, but I don’t like it,” I tell him.

The rest of the night
flies by, and we have so much fun. The girls drink more, and I mean
lots more, so when I get tired of watching them drink so much and not
be able to dance with me properly, I call it a night. I call Jack to
come and get us.

“Hey, baby,” I purr
as he gets out of the truck.

“Look, ma awesome
brotha came to claim his beautiful prancess,” Izzy yells, making
the rest of the girls crack up laughing. They’re all sitting on the
curb because they’re not able to stand. I think Isabelle meant
princess, but I’m not really sure.

Jack grins at me.
“You’re damn right,” he directs at his sister. “You’re not
drunk?” he asks me.

“No, I had a few, but
that was enough. I don’t have a reason to block everything out
now.”

He looks at me with the
most amazing smile, and I know he understands what I mean.

“Okay, let’s get
everyone in and get them home. Then I’m going to get you home, and
I’m going to fuck you,” he says softly, for only me to hear.

“Wow,” is all I can
get out and then hurry over to get the girls loaded into the truck.

We make good time
getting everyone to their places and have a laugh at Izzy who keeps
drunkenly threatening Jack with cutting of his dick and making him
eat it if he ever hurts me. I hope that never happens because I love
Jack’s dick, and I would never want him to be without it. That
would suck.

We drop Gia off first.
As soon as Jack stops in the driveway, the door swings open, and
Kurtis is standing there waiting for his wife to come in. We all
scream out in unison, “Don’t forget to give him breakfast in
bed!” Gia’s face turns slightly red, but she still laughs and
buries her face in her husband’s chest. Curling her into his arms,
Kurtis laughs right along with her then places a kiss on her
forehead. How sweet.

“I don’t think he
realizes the fine cuisine he’s going to get tomorrow morning,”
Ella mutters from the back seat. A round of giggles surround the
interior of the truck.

“Do I even want to
know what that’s about?” Jack asks, looking at me quizzically.

“Oh, you’ll find
out tomorrow morning,” I tell him, rubbing my hand up his thigh.
His eyes suddenly go heated.

When we arrive at
Ella’s house, Ryder also opens the door when he hears us pulling
into the driveway. He’s wearing his usual shit-eating grin on his
face when he sees the state Ella’s in. She lets out a high-pitched
squeal as he throws her over his shoulder and kicks the door shut.
Yep, she’s definitely getting some tonight.