Page 59

“I’m not going for you again!”

“I’m not asking you to!” She dropped her head forward on the steering wheel and instead of honking, the car started. We both lunged to turn off the radio before we were deafened. After the small panic, Harley word vomited it all up. “I didn’t want to go to the auction as a virgin, Rea. I’ve heard of some of the kinky shit that happens and I didn’t want to lose my virginity to some rich guy in his eighties.”

I gaped at her. “You’re a virgin?”

“Not anymore.”

I screamed. “Harley!”

“I know! I have this guy friend who deals drugs and—”

“You screwed him?”

“No! I lost my mind, Rea. I bought ecstasy from him. I thought it would help make me relax enough to just do it, you know?”

“You took ecstasy and lost your virginity?!”

“No! Well, sort of. Oh, my god, Reagan. Just let me get it all out.” She watched me pretend to zip my lips before continuing. “I bought one pill and then I went to this house party in a rich neighborhood. I even safety pinned a condom to my shirt so I didn’t forget to use one. Not through the condom, of course. Just the wrapper. And I’m on birth control. I’m not a complete idiot. I went to the party and I was about to take the pill when the cops showed up!”

I gasped. “No!”

“Yeah! I can’t go to prison for drug possession, Reagan. So, I freaked out and ran. I dove over a fence and then I thought I needed to take the pill so that if I got caught, the cops wouldn’t find the drugs. So, I took it. And then I jumped another fence and ended up at this fancy party. It was crazy, Rea. It was a sexparty. I slipped upstairs to hide and wait it out and I ran into these guys…”

I couldn’t stay silent. “What the fuck?! And then what?!”

“I don’t know, Rea. The drugs hit and these guys were so hot. They were in masks, though, I think. I don’t…I don’t remember much of it. Just that it was way better than how I thought losing my virginity would go.”

My mouth was hanging open and I was pretty sure I’d never be able to shut it again. Of all the things I could’ve ever imagined Harley saying, that would’ve been the last of them. I stared at her and blinked. She’d taken drugs, accidentally attended a sex party, and lost her virginity to “These guys?”

She chewed at her cuticle and nodded.

“Three. I think you spoke too highly of your night of sex and I just…went with it.”

“I… Wow.”

“I woke up the next morning and fled the scene of the crime while they were still sleeping. Now I have the auction coming up and I’m no less scared.” Turning to face me completely, Harley grabbed my hands and frowned. “I have to do it. I need the money. I can’t put it off any longer. Talk me through everything again? From the moment you arrived, to the moment you left. I need to know every little thing there is to know.”

I nodded.

“I can do that. I also have a little money saved up that you can have, Harley.”

“No. Never.” She blew out a deep breath and squared her shoulders. “I’ll take money from men like the ones at that club but I would never take money from you. You actually deserve the money you’ve earned.”

“Come on. Drive us to the ranch and I’ll make you a drink so you can relax while I tell you everything.”

CHAPTER 39

Reagan

I saw Harley off the next day and then went in search of Lucky and the guys. West had strapped Lucky onto his chest earlier that morning and all four of the males I lived with had trotted happily away with a full diaper bag. I hadn’t known that sight could be a turn-on until I’d watched Mills pull it over his shoulder. My mind was full of the things Harley had told me about losing her virginity and of all the worries she had about the auction. It occurred to me that I’d been lucky I hadn’t had much time to panic. I’d gone into the auction pretty much blind and I hadn’t been given time to compose a full panic. Just a minor one.

I was also thinking about how Harley had admitted her opinion on the guys had changed. She no longer wanted to strangle Mills. She’d sat with them the night before and watched them with Lucky and, same as me, had forgotten all her previous misgivings. I had butterflies in my stomach and clouds in my head as I walked across the ranch.

I was starting to believe that maybe Icouldhave my happy ending, and in a way I’d never dared to expect. Tate and West had called what we had a relationship. I still wasn’t sure about Mills but he hadn’t been avoiding me since our night in the field. He’d been…attentive. Harley had even commented on how much he watched me. There was hope that maybe I’d have the family I’d always wanted and maybe I’d be able to give Lucky a happy home with his dads.

Jolene walked out of the barn and spotted me. Her face twisted into something worried as she came towards me.

“Just the person I was hoping to see. There’s a cow in the north pasture I’m going out to check on. Want to come with me?”