Page 48 of Acceptance
The call log shows Lex and Jamie as the only females he calls. And Undertaker doesn’t strike her as the type to mislabel a woman under a man’s name to throw off suspicion.
She opens the picture from the text he sent Brock, and the image of Nina burns into her mind. She’s the complete opposite of Jamie. Short, skinny, small chested, and twig legs. But worse, she has blonde hair and blue eyes.
His ex looks like Lex! I know I don’t have to worry about Lex, but what does this mean for me? Am I an experiment? A big girl trial run?
Clicking on his gallery, she sees the picture she forced him to take of the two of them, followed by a few shots of his motorcycle from different angles. That’s not too bad, but picture seven is Nina. And eight, nine, and ten. The eleventh picture takes her breath away.
Nina lies completely naked on the bed, her tattoo just above her left breast with a wicked smile on her face. Like she knew he’d lust after the image long after she’d left him.
He kept a naked picture of her on his phone, and I had to win a competition to make him come in my mouth to get him to take one of us together.
She can’t breathe, and she clicks out to see the full grid of pictures. There are at least a hundred pictures of Nina, some with Undertaker looking younger and smiling like he’s the happiest man in the world. Then she sees the video icon.
Jamie moves to the bathroom and shuts the door. Hitting play, she lowers the volume and gasps.
“You like that?”
“Fuck me, Frances. Oh, yes, fuck!”
“I love you, baby doll.”
Pausing it, she takes inventory of what she’s just learned in a couple of seconds. First, the angle of the video of them fucking is one that wouldn’t be flattering with Jamie. There’d be too much bouncing around to be considered sexy.
Second, he didn’t want a picture of Jamie on his phone that could possibly show her boobs, but it’s not an issue for Nina.
But the worst realization feels like a punch to the gut. He called Ninababy doll.
“I’m nothing like her,” she whispers and hits play again, regretting her decision as they both come.
It ends with Undertaker falling next to Nina, the phone held at an angle that proves he was the videographer, and he kisses her.
“I’ll love you forever, Nina.”
“One day, you’ll meet someone you love more than me.”
“Never. I’ll never love anyone else. Only you.”
Because she’s a glutton for punishment, she sends the video to herself and deletes it from their chat.
She’d normally say she can’t hold something he told his ex while they were together over a decade ago against him, but there’s something to be said for keeping a sex tape of the two of them. Not to mention how many photos he has of her in various stages of undress.
“He doesn’t love me,” Jamie mutters as she sobs into a towel. “Not like he loved her.”
Chapter Seventeen
Griffin’s Beach
Kent
Kent pulls up to the Short house to find it completely dark. He walks up the front porch and knocks, hoping Gracie didn’t forget they made plans to go out for her birthday.
Talking with Gracie was comfortable in a way he hasn’t had with many women. Most want to hop into bed with him and would prefer he didn’t talk. It felt like they were friends, and he’d like to see what that would be like.
No one answers the door, but just as he turns to walk back to the pickup he borrowed from his grandpa, the door swings open. “Kent!”
Whipping around, he stares into the round face of a terrified Gracie as she braces herself against the doorframe with one hand on her belly. “What’s wrong?”
“My water broke, and then I dropped my phone when I tried to call Mom. Broke that, too.”
