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O W E N
“I don’t think it’s gonna fit.”
“If you’d both just relax, I’m sure it’d slide right in,” Inez barked at Roddie, her voice exasperated.
“It’s too tight,” I said. “And it’s starting to hurt.”
“You guys are such babies,” Vee countered. “Inez and I have handled way bigger things without any complaints.”
I scoffed. “I’ve seen what you’ve handled today. Bigger is a gross overstatement.”
“Maybe not at one time,” Vee said, “but in terms of total volume, we definitely have you beat.”
“Let me try giving you one more shove from behind and see if it goes in.” Inez positioned herself behind me. “Don’t be so tense.”
My arms started to shake. “That’s easy for you to say.”
“Hey, guys?” Natalia’s voice yelled from the top of the stairs. “I couldn’t help overhearing you down there…”
“Because you were eavesdropping so you wouldn’t come down too early and have to help?” Vee interrupted, accusation clear in her tone.
Silence fell for a moment before Natalia recovered, completely ignoring Vee’s question. “And it sounds like… Well… Are you guys pegging Owen? Because as his ex-wife, I feel like I have a right to be part of that experience.”
“What? No!” Vee yelled, looking flustered. “Why would we be doing that?”
I could almost hear Natalia’s shrug. “I don’t know what you guys are into. Owen’s pretty open-minded.”
“And you thought I’d want to watch?” Inez asked as Natalia appeared in the doorway to the basement apartment I used to live in when Minnie was still alive.
“Voyeurism is a pretty popular kink. And I don’t know you that well, so…”
“What’s pegging?” Roddie asked.
“That’s it,” I said as I lowered Inez’s bed frame to the floor. “I cannot have this conversation while holding a bed.”
“So you can talk about it now that you’re not holding the bed?” Natalia looked at me like a Labradoodle puppy being taunted with a stuffed toy. “Because I gotta say, I’m insanely curious what your stance is.”
Instead of replying, I looked over at Vee. “Can you please deal with your cousin?”
“Honestly, at this point, I feel like we just gotta chalk her up as a loss,” Vee replied.
“Hey!”
I watched as the cousins began to squabble, oddly happy to see them joking around with each other, even though their topic of choice left a lot to be desired. I wasn’t sure their relationship would survive my ill-conceived marriage to Natalia, but the annulment their uncle Ricky had procured for us had allowed the last of the hostility to fade away.
And with that behind us, we were all ready to move forward. Which included allowing Inez to move into my old basement apartment so we could have extra income to help us pay utilities and for renovations on the house Minnie had left me.
Since Natalia had already been living with us rent-free for a few months, it felt weird to suddenly make her start paying. But she and Vee had a discussion, and Natalia was going to take over some of the utility bills to help out. Inez’s rent payment would help Vee and me cover the rest of the expenses.
Things were finally on track. We could continue working on the house while keeping the lights on, Inez no longer had stress about an unreliable landlord, and I got to live with the love of my life. The only thing that could make it more perfect was if we could be done moving Inez’s stuff into the apartment.
As I focused back on the conversation happening around me, I heard Natalia say, “I bet if you used water-based lube, it would be fine.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, what are we talking about here?” I asked, alarmed.
Vee looked exasperated, but also fond. “Natalia was explaining what pegging was to Roddie, who seems…interested.”
“From a purely academic perspective,” Roddie quickly tacked on.
Inez’s brow furrowed. “What’s academic about being penetrated by a dildo?”
Roddie shrugged. “I like to learn new things.”
“Okay, well, I hate to interrupt this fun tutoring session Natalia’s running, but can we get back to the task at hand?” I said. “I don’t think the frame is going to fit in this corner.” Which was weird because it was where I’d put my bed when I’d lived down here.
Maybe it was because I’d left the box spring on the floor. Inez was clearly at a different point in her life than I’d been in when I’d lived down here.
Inez looked around with her arms akimbo. “I’m not sure where else to put it. Anywhere else and it’ll jut out into the middle of the room.”
We all looked around as if we’d somehow see the same space differently. The apartment was a studio with a little alcove nestled behind a storage unit Minnie had installed some time ago to make up for the lack of a true closet. It was the most logical place to put the bed because the unit gave the illusion of a semiprivate bedroom.
“Does the storage thing move?” Roddie asked.
I shook my head. “It’s screwed into the drywall.” Looking at Inez, I asked, “Do you need the frame?”
Inez looked at me as if I’d suggested using our blood to draw a pentagram on the floor. “What would I sleep on?”
“The box spring and mattress,” I answered carefully, a little afraid of the intense way she carried herself.
Inez was effortlessly cool in a way most people couldn’t pull off. The few times we’d hung out, she’d struck me as someone who didn’t put much stock into physical appearance. But if that was really the case, genetics had been kind to her. Her light-brown skin was flawless, and her brown hair had beautiful honey-colored highlights. The result was an afro that looked like a glinting crown in the right light.
She seemed to ponder my suggestion for a moment before replying. “Do you have somewhere I can store the frame?”
“Sure. We can keep it in the unfinished section of the basement.”
The basement apartment Minnie had built took up the majority of the space below the house, but she’d left a portion unfinished that was accessible from the main floor via a second set of stairs. Inez had a door that gave her entry to this space, as well as a second door that led to the outside.
She thought for a second longer before smiling. “Then I guess that’s what we’ll have to do. I’m sorry you guys have to take the frame apart after just putting it together. I should’ve measured.”
I shrugged. “It’s no big deal.” And it wasn’t.
Inez could give a moving company a run for their money. She’d had everything that could be disassembled apart when we arrived, everything that could fit in a box was packed away and labeled, and she’d even organized it in her apartment in the order she thought it would best fit in my truck.
Putting the frame back together had taken minutes because she’d put the screws into a bag and taped them to the metal. I was just sorry she wouldn’t be able to use it.
Roddie scratched the back of his neck. “Maybe we can find a slimmer frame?”
Inez shrugged. “It’s not a priority right now. I’ll be fine.” She rubbed his back as she passed him, missing the way his cheeks flushed.
I eyed Roddie, wondering how deep his crush on Inez ran and if she noticed it. But I forced my curiosity down. Looking over at Vee, I couldn’t help my smile. The universe had a way of making things work out how they were meant to. Whatever would be between them would be.
V E R O N I C A
“I’m sore in places I didn’t know could be sore,” I groaned after face-planting on Owen’s bed.
He chuckled. “Like where?”
“My hair,” I muttered.
He climbed in beside me, and I opened my eyes to see his dazzling smile directed down at me.
“Your hair?”
“I pulled my hair back too tight. And now, it’s not only my scalp that hurts, but like the individual strands. I didn’t know that was possible.”
“I’m not sure it is,” he said, clearly amused. “Maybe you have magic hair.”
I reached out and flailed a hand in his direction, lightly hitting his chest. “Don’t pick on me.” I didn’t withdraw my hand, instead letting it linger on his chest for a minute before it began its own journey along the planes of his body.
He shifted closer, letting his body align with mine so he could trace my spine with his fingers.
I pushed my face into his neck, suddenly wanting to crawl inside him. I pecked light kisses along the column of his throat as my hands wandered lower, caressing him lightly through his jeans.
“I thought you were sore,” he whispered, sounding breathless.
“Aren’t you supposed to work out sore muscles? Keep them…limber?” I squealed as I was suddenly rolled onto my back, Owen hovering over me, his lips a hair’s width away. “Owen,” I breathed, my voice plaintive as he stared as if trying to memorize me.
My voice seemed to break through the haze, as his lips descended on mine in an erotic kiss that made my head spin and my body react. Only Owen had ever had this effect on me. He was probably the only one who ever would.
Our bodies came together as explosively as they always did. Since he and Nattie had finally gotten the annulment finalized, things between us had been even better than they had before. It was like almost losing each other made our bodies ravenous, desperate.
And as we sank into the afterglow some time later, I hoped we always remembered not to take our time together for granted. I wanted him desperate and ravenous for me…always.
V E R O N I C A
Owen sighed beside me for the millionth time as he continued to scroll through his phone. We were sitting in the two-seater swing chair he’d come home with after his boss at the hardware store had gotten a couple in. Owen said he’d immediately pictured us swinging in it. So he used his employee discount and brought one home. And here we were, swinging in it just as he’d imagined.
It was actually really relaxing when it wasn’t being shared by someone who appeared to be on the verge of a meltdown. When he sighed again, I dropped the textbook I’d been perusing in an attempt to get a head start on the upcoming semester and stared at him.
It took him a few seconds to get the feeling he was being watched. “What?” he asked when he finally looked over at me.
“Don’t what me. What you?”
His face scrunched up. “Are you sure you got into law school?”
I stuck my tongue out at him, and he laughed. But he sobered quickly, looking down at the phone in his hands.
“I’m graduating this year,” he finally said.
“Yeah,” I said, dragging the word out in my confusion at where he was going with the conversation.
He sighed again—I am gonna kill him—before looking back at me. He seemed almost sheepish, which worried me. Owen hadn’t been uncertain around me in a while.
“I can’t picture myself in an office,” he said.
I snorted. “I can’t see it either.”
“But I’m an accounting major. That’s pretty much the definition of an office job.”
I thought for a moment before asking, “Does it have to be?”
He stood abruptly, sending the swing careening back. I put my feet down to keep from smacking into him as it swung forward.
He paced in front of me, his hands pushing through his hair. “I chose accounting because my advisor said I had to pick something, and I’m pretty good at math. Accounting seemed…stable. And like a mature choice. Something a responsible person would pick. But it just seems so…”
“Boring?” I supplied when he didn’t continue.
He huffed out a breath. “Yes. Which makes me feel shitty because I’m sure that’s not the truth. There are probably people out there who love accounting and are great at it and—”
“Owen, you don’t have to defend all the accountants in the world to me. You feel how you feel.”
It was such an Owen thing to attempt to not offend anyone, even if no one was around to be offended. He had such an empathetic spirit, and I loved him for it. But I also hurt for him because of it too. He spent so much time focused on the feelings of others, he didn’t think about himself nearly enough.
“What is it you really want to do?” I asked him. “What makes you the happiest?”
He leered at me, making a laugh burst out of me. “As much as I wish being with me could be your full-time job, I think you may need a break from time to time.”
He sat beside me again and nuzzled into my neck. “I’d like the chance to prove you wrong.”
I giggled and pulled back, pressing a quick kiss to his lips. “Focus.”
“Oh, I’m definitely focused.”
I kissed him again, because how could I not? I let my forehead rest against his. “What do you want, Owen? Without the expectations of anyone else weighing on you, what do you want?”
He pulled back just enough so he could look behind him, at Minnie’s house. After a long moment, he turned back to me.
“I want to restore houses.”
I smiled. “Really?”
He nodded. “At first, fixing up Minnie’s house was daunting. But once I got started, I…enjoyed it. I enjoyed making it mine. Ours. And I want to do that for other people.”
“So do it,” I urged.
He sat back and rubbed his hands over his face. “So…what? I just quit school with a semester left and learn construction? I put
so much time into school. To not finish or use my degree feels—”
“I’m not telling you not to finish.”
“Then what are you telling me?” He looked so lost, my heart ached.
“Get your accounting degree. It’ll probably be really helpful if you start your own business.”
His eyes widened as he looked at me like I was crazy. “I can’t start my own business. Half the stuff I’m doing in there, I’m learning from YouTube.”
“I didn’t say you had to start a business today. But someday, it would probably be helpful.”
“I don’t know. It feels like I’d be starting all over. And I don’t even know what I’d need to do to get started in a career like that.”
“Hmm.” I tapped a finger to my chin. “If only you knew someone whose entire family was in construction.”
He gave me a dry look. “Being a smartass doesn’t suit you.”
I laughed, earning a small smile in return.
“I’m not sure your dad and brothers will be too excited to help me out after everything that happened.”
He was right. They probably wouldn’t be thrilled. While my dad and brothers let me live my own life and make my own choices, they were also fiercely protective. And they’d been really caught off guard by Owen marrying Nattie. They’d never thought he’d do something like that to me, and it made them hesitant to even contemplate trusting him again.
But at their core, they wanted what was best for me. And that was Owen. I had to have hope that they’d see that eventually.
“Maybe not,” I replied. “But they’ll help anyway.”
He gave me a small smile and gripped my hand as he gently rocked us.
Everything would be okay. I’d make sure of it.
O W E N
“Are you sure they don’t mind?” I asked for what was probably the three hundredth time since Vee had told me her brothers agreed to call and talk me through becoming a contractor.
Vee gave me a pissy look. “How many times are you going to ask me that?”
“I didn’t have a set number in mind, but—” My smartass reply was cut off by my phone ringing. It startled me so badly, I dropped it. Thankfully, the carpeted floor of the living room cushioned its fall.
When I picked it up and looked at the display, I turned what I was sure were wild eyes on Vee. “Oh my God, they’re calling.”
She looked at me as if I’d gone insane. “How shocking,” she replied dryly. “Are you going to answer it?” she asked when I continued to look down at my phone.
“I’m not sure.”
“Jesus Christ,” she muttered as she reached over and took the phone from me. “Hey,” she greeted her brothers when she connected the FaceTime call.
“Hey. Where’s Owen?” one of them asked.
“Standing next to me freaking out like Taylor Swift is calling instead of you two losers.”
“We weren’t losers when you asked us to do you a favor and talk to your boyfriend.”
“Yes, you were.”
“I guess we’ll just hang up, then. Maybe he can find some non-loser guys to help him.”
I used my eyes to plead with Vee to not piss off her brothers b
efore I had to talk to them.
“So sensitive.” Vee tsked.
“Is Owen there? Because I can think of a lotta things I’d rather be doing than talking to you.”
“I told you he was right here,” she replied, flashing the screen in my direction.
I waved like a simpleton. “Hey, guys,” I added.
“So Vee said you wanted to get into renovating houses?” Manny asked, skipping the pleasantries.
“Uh, yeah, yes. I think that would be…good. That I’d enjoy. And be good at. Hopefully.” I couldn’t have sounded any dumber if I’d tried. “I’ve done a lot to Minnie’s house, even since the time you guys were here. I hung new drywall, put up crown molding, repaired some wiring, swapped out a few pipes—”
“We don’t need your résumé,” Franco cut in. “Just listen, and we’ll tell you what things you need to do to get started.”
So I shut up and listened as they explained diploma programs, getting certifications from technical programs, and who I’d need to file paperwork with to be legit. There were a few options, especially since my state didn’t have an actual licensing procedure. The trick would be getting the experience I needed so customers knew they could trust me to do a good job.
And I wasn’t sure how to go about getting that while going to school full time. Would someone let me work weekends? Even if they did, what would happen to my job at the hardware store? I didn’t want to leave Mark in the lurch.
“Owen? Owen! Are you even listening?” Manny’s voice broke me out of my panicked spiral.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m listening. Sorry, it’s just…a little overwhelming. Figuring out how I’m going to make it all work.”
He sighed. “You want my advice?”
“Absolutely.” The emphatic way I responded seemed to relax him. His jaw lost some of its rigidity, and his eyes softened slightly. It was still obvious he was less than thrilled to be speaking to me—which I couldn’t blame him for—but maybe it was possible for me to worm my way back into their good graces. If Vee could forgive me, maybe her dad and brothers would too. ...
