SJ’s eyes weren’t the only ones quickly covered by an adult’s hand.
Then Scar was up, bolting out the front doors of the clubhouse. Tally took a moment to gather herself, and then she was off after him. It was a display that was both breathtaking and completely out of the norm for Scar. He was not one for being the center of attention. But Tally brought out a playful side of him that none of them had seen before. Like she eased his inner torment.
A feeling of jealousy hit Pumpkin harder than he would have expected. Maybe the others were used to Tally and Scar’s displays of affection, but he wasn’t. As Frankie neared with the additional napkins, Pumpkin glanced around as the party resumed as if there’d been no interruption. Many of the couples were grabbing their partner tighter, like they were subconsciously reacting to the display by reaffirming their own relationship was just as solid, just as hot.
He didn’t have that, would never have it. As envy gripped his gut, Pumpkin tried to be okay with that, tried to convince himself that SJ was all he needed in this world. And he was. Pumpkin would raise SJ to the best of his ability and love every fucking second of it.
There was just a part of him that was tainted by melancholy at the fact that he would be doing so alone.
Dosia didn’t remember muchfrom the night she got pregnant, but she recalled enough to piece it together and the group of friends she was with helped with the rest. It was her twenty-first birthday and they’d taken her out drinking. In a small town like Mount Grove, options for a traditional ‘bar hop’ were limited. There were really only two places really to go back then, and one was owned by a motorcycle club. Since Calliope wasn’t twenty-one at the time, she’d encouraged Dosia to go out with her friends who were. Dosia hadn’t liked leaving her aunt behind, but Calliope had insisted, saying that it would be a night she wouldn’t forget.
Calliopewasright, just not in the way Dosia had assumed. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the first time that’d happened, nor had it been the last.
When Dosia and her friends had gotten to the clubhouse, the party had been in full swing. The club had been celebrating something, though what, none of Dosia’s friends could remind her. When some of the club members had offered to take her friends for a joy ride, Dosia had stayed behind. Her tiara announcing her as the birthday girl had fallen off her head and broke. In her drunken state, this had upset her more than it would have if she had been sober.
And then he’d come up.
Dosia remembered thinking he was the most handsome man she’d ever seen. She was beyond enamored by him. From his dark eyes to his muscles and military haircut. They’d talked for hours. She knew they had, but she couldn’t recall what about. She just remembered thinking that it was too bad she was returning to college the next day and she couldn’t stick around to get to know him better. It was the first time she felt regret about attending an out-of-state college.
There wasn’t a bone in her body that believed something untoward had happened between them. While Dosia didn’t rememberhaving sex with him, she remembered the feel of ecstasy and the promise of tomorrow.
That is, until she’d woken up naked in an outdoor pavilion and realized she needed to find her friends and go home. Her grandparents would be worried sick, and it waswaypast when she was expected back. As hungover as she was, she’d still been able to gather her friends and get them a ride home.
Seven weeks later, Dosia took a pregnancy test. She couldn’t believe she’d been so stupid as to get drunk enough to have unprotected sex with a stranger. At least, though, she knew who the father was. She couldn’t remember his real name, but she caught sight of his cut as she’d dressed and the patch had named him ‘Vodka’.
Over a year away from graduating, Dosia had to make a decision. It wouldn’t be fair of her to dump a child on her grandparents, who were getting up there in age. Nor was she willing to put her baby up for adoption. This baby washers. In a last ditch effort to get support, Dosia came back to Mount Grove to find her child’s father. After all, it took two to tango.
The motorcycle club had been opening a new bar in town, and with the number of motorcycles outside the establishment, Dosia had figured that was a good place to check.
She hadn’t even made it inside the door. Through the large window, Dosia had spotted him. She didn’t remember a lot from that night, but she’d never forget his face. And there he was, sitting at the bar, clearly inebriated with two women on his lap. To make matters worse, he was making out with both too, jumping back and forth between their lips.
Dosia had turned away, and to this day, had only ever told Calliope that story. She dropped out of college and had her baby girl, choosing not to tell the father of her existence or to ask for his financial support. After seeing him in the bar like that, she realized that wasn’t the sort of person she wanted in her child’s life.
Every day since had been working to provide a life for her daughter, Juniper.
Dosia had been all set to nickname her ‘Juni’, but Calliope hadinsisted on ‘JJ’. Having had an old-fashioned and not common name all her life, Dosia was fine with JJ. She thought it had a nice ring to it.
Wrinkle on a Pagewas just as Dosia remembered it. Even the old cowbell above the door was the same as it had been when she was JJ’s age. As Calliope walked in with JJ, who was talking animatedly about her upcoming visit to her new school, Dosia closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The scents of almond and vanilla filled her with a nostalgic sense of home. There was a bit of musk that came with old books, but she knew that there wouldn’t be a speck of dust in sight. Calliope loved this store as much asherparents, grandparents, and so on had.
Dosia had always been a little jealous of that. Her determination to stay away from Mount Grove had locked her into a transient lifestyle. She went where a job was, one that could support her and her daughter.
But Calliope hadn’t needed to push hard when she’d told Dosia to come home to help her. Maybe some subconscious part of Dosia had been secretly hoping for such an excuse, so she didn’t feel like she was running home with her tail between her legs. Not that her grandparents hadn’t tried to get her to move back home when she was pregnant, but there was a difference between returning to help family and returning because she had no other choice. Dosia’s disdain for small-town life had always been at war with her desire to be around family.
Opening her eyes, she took in the shelves and shelves of books. From new to old, the amount of books in the small store was breathtaking.
Walking around the bin of bargain books, Dosia followed Calliope and JJ to the counter. JJ was now sitting on the high desk chair eating a plate of cookies Calliope no doubt had waiting for their arrival. Calliope’s pet bearded dragon, Oolong, was sitting on JJ’s shoulder.
“…then Mommy and I are going to go to my new school and then we’re going out for ice cream, because Mommy promised!”
Calliope was leaning against the checkout counter on the other side of JJ, listening intently. “That sounds awesome. Maybe if I can get someone to cover here, I can meet you guys for ice cream too.”
JJ’s eyes lit up. While Dosia had pale skin and blonde hair, JJ had dark curls and a naturally tanned complexion. Calliope’s hair was much like Dosia’s mom’s had been, a mix of red and brown without a curl in sight. As much as Dosia had hoped JJ would inherit her features, each year it became more apparent that JJ was very much her father’s daughter.
It was another reason being back in Mount Grove was daunting.
Maybe it was a mistake to come back. She hadn’t enrolled JJ in school yet. She’d only missed the first couple of weeks of kindergarten. Maybe they should go back and?—
“Don’t even think about it.”
