Page 32 of Wood Riddance
I shrugged. “He told me that, in order to be in a relationship with him, I’d have to agree to have sex with another man while he watched.”
Hazel’s eyes bugged out of her skull. “But why?”
“Apparently that’s what he needs to be happy…”
“It’s a kink,” Liv added. “Nothing wrong with it.”
“Not at all,” I said. “I consider myself pretty open-minded, but that one in particular isn’t for me.” And maybe it hurt my pride a little. Maybe it was silly or old-fashioned, but I wanted a possessive kind of love. A man who wanted me and would never even consider sharing. I’d yet to experience that type of devotion or protectiveness. I had always been disposable.
“It’s not for me either,” Parker said, then she snorted. “Could you imagine your brother letting anyone look at me, never mind do other stuff?”
Hazel threw her head back and laughed. “Girl, I feel that.”
With a shudder, I gagged. I loved these girls, but they never stopped bringing up shit like that, no matter how many times I reminded them that they were talking about my brothers.
Thankfully, Liv moved the conversation along. “There’s nothing wrong with being single. Do you really want to give up your independence so you can be shackled to some guy who can’t be bothered to lift the toilet seat?”
She had a point.
“And this house.” She sat up straighter and waved a hand wildly. “Look at this place. Look at what you’ve accomplished on your own.”
Clinking her wineglass with mine, she shot me a smug smile. I did love my house. It was my space, my sanctuary. If I wanted a pink couch, I got a pink couch. And if I wanted to blow a stupid amount of money on a wine fridge, then I could. Because I was free. And although it could get lonely at times, things could certainly be worse.
He-Man jumped into my lap and hit me with a set of stereotypical puppy dog eyes, so I fed him a piece of very expensive Gouda.
“How are things going with He Who Must Not Be Named?” Parker asked.
Her question made my stomach drop. Dammit. I didnotwant to talk about him with the rest of this group. With a scowl, I threw a cracker at her to make sure she understood my annoyance.
Liv looked up from her phone, her eyes wide and curious. “Catch me up.”
“It’s nothing,” I mumbled into my wineglass.
Every eye was still trained on me, and every one of them wore looks of anticipation. Even He-Man wasn’t buying it.
“Henri hired Finn Hebert, military hero, pilot, and lumber Viking,” Parker explained, garnering another glare from me. “For obvious reasons, this distresses Adele.”
“Ooh,” Liv crowed, scooting closer. “You had me at lumber Viking. Is he your ex?”
“No,” I snapped. “He’s a Hebert. His father—” I clamped my mouth shut, trying to rein in my fury.
Silence fell over the group as each of my friends looked from one another to me. The only sounds came from the crickets and the frogs while they waited for me to continue. And dammit if every one of them wasn’t wearing an expression full of pity. Finn was right. It was the worst. “Anyway. We’ve always disliked one another. Now it’s even more than that, obviously.” I waved my hands. “But according to my brothers, we need a pilot. And for some reason, they’ve tasked me with babysitting his giant, obnoxious ass.”
I gulped my wine, ready to move on from talk of Finn Hebert and his shit family. It was hard enough dealing with him in my space each day. I didn’t need the ghost of him hanging around after hours too. Yes, he kept a low profile and he wasn’t in the shop full time, but his presence lingered, nonetheless, and it was messing with my head.
“There’s more to the story,” Hazel added, raising one brow.
“What?” Liv asked.
“Last year, Remy and I were in danger.” She clutched the compass pendant around her neck, the one that had belonged to my great-grandmother. “Finn Hebert came to our rescue.”
Liv was fanning herself. “Holy shit.”
“Yeah. Even though his dad forbade it, when Adele asked, he jumped into his plane, no questions asked.”
The terror of that day bubbles up inside me, threatening to cut off my airway. I had been in my shop, like always. Paz had come over from the offices to tell me that Hazel had gone missing after the cabin she and Remy had found had been ransacked. Remy took off on one of the ATVs in search of her, and we lost track of him for almost a full day.
It was terrifying. There had clearly been drug traffickers in the area, and for hours, we worried Remy and Hazel had been kidnapped or worse. Eventually, we got the call that they were safe but stranded in a remote part of the forest that was unreachable by the roads.
