Page 17 of Jagger
The pan on the stove was heating up as I cracked and scrambled the eggs in a bowl. While it got hot, I grabbed some already chopped veggies, ham, and cheese before returning to the pan. Beginning to cook, I waited for Jagger to speak.
“I think you need to meet Nana, and I need to meet your father, since I’ve claimed you and all that,” he reasoned.
Looking over my shoulder, I remarked, “If you’ve claimed me, don’t I need a cut proclaiming that?”
He winked and took a swallow of his coffee while I finished cooking. It wasn’t an omelet, but it wasn’t scrambled eggs either. It was something I loved to eat and hoped he would too. Plating the eggs onto two plates, I carried them to the table and placed his in front of him before taking a seat.
“Thank you, baby.”
I blushed at the term of endearment and replied, “You’re welcome.”
He dug into his food, and when he took the first bite, he moaned around the eggs and closed his eyes. My smile got bigger when he looked at me and said, “That’s amazing.”
“It’s one of my favorite things. I used to make this for myself before school, and you can change it a hundred different ways to fit what you have in the fridge.”
“Well, it’s delicious.”
We were nearly finished with our food when his phone began chiming, pinging, and beeping. He gave me a curious look before retrieving it from the counter and retaking his seat as he unlocked it.
As his fingers moved over the screen, I could see his face falling and then his brow furled. Instantly, he jumped up from his seat and ran up the stairs, scaring me. I followed, yelling, “Lincoln, what’s wrong?”
When I got to the top of the stairs, he was rushing out of his room with his duffle over his shoulder and all his clothes shoved inside with the zipper open. His cut was on, but he was still shirtless.
“What’s going on?” I asked as he pushed past me and ran down the stairs, not even giving me a glance.
Just as he got to the front door, I grabbed his arm and spun him to face me. “What’s going on? What can I do?”
“My Nana was taken to the hospital last night. Her neighbor must’ve been trying to text me all night, but my phone was dead,” he replied and pulled his arm from me. “She fell and broke her ankle and was alone all night until her neighbor came by to get her for bridge.”
“Give me a minute and I’ll come with you,” I remarked as he opened the front door and walked onto the porch.
“Don’t bother. If I’d been at home like I promised her I would be, she wouldn’t have been alone.” He began to walk down the steps, and I looked down at him, knowing he was hurting.
“I’m sorry,” I explained as he tossed his duffle through the open window of his truck before he climbed inside.
“Me too,” he spat before cranking the truck and throwing dirt all over my car as he tore out of the yard and down the driveway.
One of the ranch hands walked up, and seeing me standing at the top of the stairs with tears rolling down my face, he cautiously asked, “Is everything okay, Ms. Jackie?”
I swiped the tears from my cheeks with my hands and exhaled before answering the young man’s question. “It’s fine. Thank you.”
He seemed unsure but tipped his hat before turning and walking back to his chores. Seeing the dust trail getting farther away, I decided I wasn’t going to stick around to answer questions about where Jagger was. Walking back inside, I went into the kitchen and cleaned up the mess from our breakfast and loaded the dishwasher before walking upstairs. An hour ago, I was happy and ready to face our new adventures, but now, I felt numb.
It sounded like Jagger was blaming me for her accident. Or saying that being with me last night was a mistake.
Neither was an acceptable way to treat someone who you professed to care about. Someone you ‘claimed’.
I wasn’t claimed. I was abandoned.
My bags were mostly packed from yesterday, so after stripping the sheets from my bed and shoving them down the laundry chute, I grabbed whatever stuff I’d brought for the last week and silently walked downstairs. Making sure to lock the front door behind me, I placed my bags into the back of my car and got behind the wheel, almost on autopilot.
Pulling away from the ranch, headed toward the reservation and my home, I vowed that I wouldn’t be back to Rapid City for a while. I wouldn’t be blamed for something that wasn’t my fault, and I wouldn’t be cast aside ever again.
My phone began to chime from my purse as I pulled into a gas station to fill up and grab something to drink, so I reached over and turned it off. Whoever it was, I didn’t want to talk to them. I just wanted to get out of here.
I should have let Cheyenne know where I was going, but I couldn’t tell her what happened without the dam finally breaking, causing the tears to fall.
For years, I’d let men be a fun distraction in my life but never allowed one to get close to my heart. After the asshole I dated through high school, I’d learned my lesson. And I stupidly thought Jagger laying claim to me, not only to the drunk cowboys he saved me from but all his club brothers, meant something.
