Elizabeth Finn - Unforgiven

“Hey!” he hollered back to her, wasting no time calling her over rather than dealing with a question he wasn’t ready to answer. “What’s up, Jess? How’s the head?”

“Good, now that I’ve gotten half a bottle of Motrin in me.” Jess was smiling again, and she finally looked glad to be alive rather than wishing she were dead. Jess crawled onto the lounger on Bailey’s other side but propped her feet up on the raised head of the bed. She instantly turned to Bailey’s feet. “You need a pedicure; your feet look disgusting.” That was Jess. Outspoken even to her best friend. Of course nothing Jess said could ever offend Bailey.

“Yeah? Well, you need a face-a-cure.” Bailey smirked at Jess as she reached over and pinched her leg.

“What the hell are you two doin’ down here? Thought you were making out for a minute.” Darren was suddenly holding his breath again, but given the sudden tension in Bailey’s shoulders, she was too. “Sooo. . .” She got tired of waiting for a response that wasn’t going to be coming. “What are we doing tonight?”

“Seriously, Jess. ’Cause you didn’t have enough fun last night? Maybe you two should take it easy tonight.”

“I was thinking we could go out.” Jess was begging with her eyes, but they weren’t aimed at Darren. She didn’t give a shit if her older brother wanted to go out or not. Instead her eyes were pleading with Bailey. Bailey had that unsure, questioning look on her face, and he was siding with her at the moment.

“Come on. I didn’t even get to enjoy last night because you guys cheated at quarters and never let me win. It’s not my fault I got drunk and passed out.”

“I’m too old for this shit,” he muttered.

“And I was asking Bailey to go, not you. You can have a whole evening of nothing but you and your brain-dead girlfriend. Bailey and I are going out without you.”

“There isn’t a chance in hell you two are going out alone. No.” Bailey was sitting silently watching them.

“Then I guess you’ll just have to act younger than your age, go with us, and have a good time. Feel free to leave the brain-dead girlfriend here.” Jess stood and smirked at him, pulled the sarong from her waist, and started for the water. Bailey remained by his side for a moment, awkwardly fidgeting, before she finally stood and peeled her white shorts down her legs as he watched.

“You could come with us tonight. Might be fun.” He had no doubt it would be fun with Bailey there. He enjoyed spending time with her just a bit too much. Always had, even when they were kids. They’d always talked easily, laughed a lot, and been close. He used to think of her as an extra sister who he actually got along with, and then she became the cute teen he avoided because she was too young to have a crush on. Now she was just the pretty young woman who was still just a bit too young but who he very much had a crush on. He didn’t even bother trying to keep his interactions with her to a minimum because he just plain didn’t want to. And on spring break when Jess had begged him to go in with her and Bailey on a vacation house they couldn’t afford on their own, what was a big brother to do? He also didn’t much like the idea of Jess and Bailey being in Galveston alone. They might technically be adults, but it did not mean they acted like it. He wasn’t at all sure he did either, for that matter. He was certain of it, in fact, after the night before.

He watched her black bikini-clad ass walk down to the water’s edge. She stood with her legs shoulder-width apart, and he studied the perfect proportion of her legs. She had fit legs from years of running. They ran together at least a few times a week on campus, so he was very familiar with her build. Her bottom was as tight as her legs, and his groin was tightening with every passing second. He didn’t just like spending time with her too much; he just plain wanted her too much to. It was entirely physical; it was also entirely more than just that.

She glanced back once, catching him staring at her. From that distance she couldn’t possibly know he was staring at her ass, though he wasn’t sure it really mattered; he was just plain staring at something he had no business staring at. He climbed up from his spot, thanking God she was too far away to see his raging hard-on, and he headed back up to the house as she joined Jess in the water.

Trinity nearly caught him with his dick in his hand when he gave into the temptation of letting his mind wander away to Bailey for a while. And it wasn’t just Bailey. It was naked Bailey, aroused Bailey, willing and wanting Bailey. She’d watched him fuck his girlfriend for a reason last night, and while alcohol might have played a part on both of their accounts, there was more to it than that. She wanted to see him, she wanted to watch, and it was her want that was driving his arousal as he stood in the bathroom staring into the mirror as the shower heated up.

Trinity wrapping her hand around the length of his shaft from behind him was an unwelcome interruption. “Looks like someone’s been thinking about me.” Her hand was gliding up and down along his hard length, but he was struggling to deal with the feel of her hand on his skin.

“Sorry, Trinity. I can’t do this right now.” He peeled her hand away from him and brushed past her as he stepped into the shower.

He and Trinity weren’t going anywhere. He and pretty much every girl he tried to get involved with never seemed to go anywhere. He ended up bored more often than not, and he just wasn’t sure there was any point. He was going to spend the vast majority of his time, waking and otherwise, in the hospital starting the following year, and residency after that wouldn’t be much better. He wasn’t even sure why he asked women out anymore. It would likely be more respectful to just have random one-night stands. At least then he could avoid dumping them later on when he realized, yet again, he was just bored and unsatisfied. He was starting to think maybe he was an asshole.

He’d want to kill a man who did the same to Jess, though it was almost easier to think of her pulling that move on a guy rather than the other way around. He would most definitely kill a man for doing it to Bailey. Bailey wasn’t Jess. She was . . . well, he didn’t know what she was. But she wasn’t brazen and loud like Jess. She also wasn’t weak. They were as opposite as could be, but they were attached at the hip. Jess was jealously protective of Bailey, an inclination Darren understood well, and Bailey brought a sense of softness to Jess that she didn’t naturally have on her own.

All it took was a glare from Bailey to silence Jess when she was being loud and outlandish. Next came the, “Okay, okay, sorry” as Jess rolled her eyes, but it was the restraint that Bailey inspired in her best friend that was most amazing. She gave Jess maturity and thoughtfulness, and in return, Jess gave her undying devotion and support.

By the time Darren stepped back out from the shower, he’d still not stopped thinking about Bailey, analyzing her, obsessing about her. He’d simply spent entirely too much time with her this week. He ended up flopping down on his bed and falling asleep. He wasn’t that tired, a bit hung over perhaps, but the nap was more to stop his brain from thinking about a woman a bit too young for him, a bit too close to him, and just plain too fucking much for him. The fact was, he cared just a bit too much for her to subject her to his brand of relationship. He couldn’t hurt her.

He avoided her for the rest of the day by staying in his room, working on his laptop, and getting ahead on some reading for his ethics class. But come late evening, it was time. He dressed in jeans and a simple gray T-shirt, and he headed to the kitchen. Trinity came in a few minutes later, smelling of perfume, plastered perfectly with makeup, and her hair looking like something on a Barbie doll. She looked at him wearily. She obviously wasn’t thrilled about being rejected earlier in the day, but that was all lost on him when Jess and Bailey walked in together.

Jess was wearing a short, too short, jean skirt, skimpy summer tank top, and wedge sandals, and Bailey was wearing a white, strapless sundress. The skirt was flirty and the bodice fitted, leaving him studying the fabric to see if he could see her nipples beneath. Nothing but her small tits and the tight fit of the bodice were holding it up, and he was in hell knowing how much attention this was going to garner. The skirt hit a few inches above her knees, not nearly so short as Jess’ skirt, but plenty to leave little to the imagination, and while her sandals didn’t have quite the high wedge Jess’ sandals did, they were plenty tall to draw his eyes to her legs. These two were definitely going to be getting in some trouble tonight.

Bailey smiled at him, but it was a shy smile. “Well, this promises to be a great night,” he muttered as he snatched the keys up from the counter.

Now

“Michelle, I’m just not up for it. I lost my job nearly two weeks ago. I’m broke, I’m going to be homeless soon if I don’t find a way to make money, and my parole officer, bless his heart for being the most patient and kind man in the world, is not happy with me for not disclosing my record to the clinic. It’s just lousy timing.” She’d been trying to get off the phone with Michelle for nearly five damn minutes, but her dear friend, who didn’t hate her guts like everyone else in town, just wasn’t taking no for an answer.

“That’s precisely why you need to come. It’s St. Paddy’s day, Bailey, and you need a night out. It’s my treat. And I’m pretty sure that means you can’t say no. Come on, please? Parade first and then drinks.”

“Drinks.” She was muttering. “Michelle, I just don’t know.” Bailey was starting to get exasperated. She didn’t want to go out and try to have a good time. It never worked. The good times were over, and regardless of how much she might try to recapture them, they were gone for good.

“You can sulk all night, and I won’t even complain. Just go. It’ll do ya some good. Promise.”

“Why do you still insist on being my friend?”

There was silence from the other end of the line. It was a stupid question to ask, but it popped out anyway. When the silence became overly long and awkward, Bailey cleared her throat and opened her mouth to say something. She wasn’t sure what to say, but she opened her mouth anyway, hoping the words would find her. There was nothing easy about the question she asked.

“I’d like to think you’d do the same for me.” The silence set in again, and Bailey’s mouth remained open, fighting to find the right words. “Listen, go with me. Have a good time. Be normal again. Just . . . just fake it till you make it and all that bullshit. Pretend to be happy until it feels right again. Smile, painful as it is, until the smile doesn’t hurt anymore. That’s all I’m asking.”

“That’s all?” Apparently her speechlessness couldn’t compete with her sarcasm.

“That’s all. Just try.”

“Fine. Fuck, I can’t believe I’m letting you talk me into this. Where, when, and how should I dress?”

The squeal from the other end left Bailey pulling the phone back from her ear. Michelle was nothing if not loud. They hung up moments later, and Bailey wandered around her house trying to figure out exactly how to go about pretending to be normal for a night.

Her small cottage in the woods was rented, and it was ridiculously tiny. Didn’t much matter because Bailey had little to nothing to her name, including appropriate clothes for a St. Patrick’s Day parade. She couldn’t even find anything green in her drawers to wear, and after forty-five minutes of literally trying on one outfit, wandering from her bedroom to the mirror on the bathroom door, stripping back out of the outfit and tossing it on the bed in a huff, and then trying on the next item she found in her closet, she collapsed on her bed and gave up.

She settled on a faded pair of jeans and a gray Notre Dame T-shirt she’d had since she was fifteen. It was tight as hell thanks to the fact she was no longer anywhere near fifteen, but she was guessing that actually made it more appropriate for a night out. What the hell did she know about the socially acceptable way for a twenty-seven-year-old to have fun?

Fun. Could she really do this? She wasn’t holding her breath, and as she stared at herself in the mirror after blow-drying her hair and applying a marginal amount of makeup, the pain hit. Amazing how used to pushing it away she’d gotten, but even more amazing was the way it snuck up and slapped her on the face at the most inopportune times. Her eyes teared for a moment, and she cursed her reflection as she shook her head, refusing to give into it.