Page 39 of Goode to Be Bad
“The big blond guy with the wanna-be Duck Commander beard? Or the little girl he’s tossing in the air?”
“Uhh, both?”
“The blond with the beard is Ram, Lucas’s son.”
I racked my brain for what Mom had shared in her emails. “Uhh, Ramsey is the outdoors one, right? Him and Lucas own a hiking guide company.”
Cassie grinned. “Correct! We all call him Ram, though, not Ramsey. And the little girl is Nina, Brock and Claire’s daughter.” She pointed at the adults in question: a tall man built somewhere between the monster physique of Bax and the lean whipcord of the twins, with his brown hair swept back and to the side, clean shaven, and so devastatingly handsome he would put every GQ model ever photographed to shame; the woman was tiny, barely over five feet, with blond hair cut straight across at her chin.
I was trying to figure out how to politely ask the obvious question, but Cass answered it for me.
“Claire can’t have kids—not sure why. They adopted Nina a year, year and a half ago. Took them, like, over a year to get through the adoption process, I guess.”
We watched Ram throw the little girl ever higher, much to her delight. Cassie turned back to me. Then eyed Myles. “My sister clearly has no manners or she’d have already introduced us. But, I mean, you’re you and so obviously I know who you are, but still.”
Myles held out his hand. “Myles.”
“Cassie. The other bitchy sister.”
I cackled. “Theonlybitchy sister.I’ma perfect angel.”
She flipped me off, and then went way too serious way too fast. “Mom gave me the Spark Notes version of what happened, but said I should talk to you myself.”
I huffed. “The Spark Notes version is I had an affair with a married professor, got caught by his wife, who was the dean’s daughter, got kicked out, lost my scholarship, and had an abortion.” I turned to see several faces regarding me with interest, and realized I’d said all that rather…loudly. “Well…shit. Now everyone knows.”
The tiny blonde came over. “I got knocked up at nineteen, had a miscarriage and had to have a D-and-C afterwards. The D-and-C resulted in what’s called Asherman’s syndrome, meaning I’m infertile and will never have a biological baby of my own.” She watched Ram still playing with Nina. “We adopted her seventeen months ago and I’ve never been happier.”
I blinked. “Wow. Um…wow.”
A tall woman with auburn hair that was closer to red than brown was next to her. “I was stood up at the altar and ended up here in Ketchikan by mistake, met my husband Bast, fell in love, and never went back.”
A woman with long thick black hair in a complicated braid entered the circle. “I’m from an obscenely wealthy upper crust East Coast family whom I’ve disowned and will never see again, because I love Baxter—who was an underground prize fighter when I met him, and I’ve actually been to one of his fights, before he quit doing it. Got all bloody, too.”
“Zane knocked me up the same week we met, which was a week of epic fucking, I must say, and I’m still not sure if I know what I’m doing most days because I never thought I’d be able to fall in love, much less be a mother and a wife.” This from a tall curvy blonde whose tits and ass were nearly as bangin’ as mine and the tall strawberry blonde’s—who was also now joining the circle.
Said strawberry blonde leaned against the other blonde––this was getting confusing—who’d just shared her story. “I was a dedicated hookup artist with a cold dead heart, a wandering vagina, and zero future. Then I met a man named Ramsey, messed around with him a few times, and it turns out the dick was so good I couldn’t walk away, so I stayed with his dick…and the rest of him.”
I snorted, because that sounded like something I’d say.
Next was Aerie, the other blond twin, with Tate beside her once again. “We hooked up with the twins sort of out of curiosity regarding what it would be like with them. Tate got pregnant, and our mom disowned us, loudly and publicly, in Badd’s Bar and Grill. We gave up modeling careers to be here with them.”
“Actually, I think we disowned her just as much,” Tate said.
Joss chimed in, next. “I’m an orphan. I was homeless for a very long time. Almost got raped. And I was a virgin when I met Lucian.”
Harlow, appearing from somewhere. “I never told Xavier who I was when we met. He didn’t know, and I liked it. I liked feeling like a normal girl. So I never told him, even though I knew he was different and that whatever we were doing wasn’t going to be just random sex, because it was clear he was a virgin. I kept my fame a secret from him until things blew up, and it’s only because he has such a kind and forgiving and understanding heart that we’re together. After that deception, he had every right to forget me, but he didn’t, and here I am.”
A short, curvy girl, who looked like she was related to the giant Ink—jet-black hair and skin color and facial structure that made her Native American––held up her hand. “I was a secret tattoo artist, because my mom refused to allow me to do anything except go to college and get a real degree and a real job, so I could be the first and only one in the whole family to do so, even though I didn’t want to. I did go to college, and I did get a degree, and I did get real job at a law firm, but I hated it and it wasn’t until I met Remington that I found the courage to do what I was truly passionate about.”
Another blonde—this one not quite blond and not quite brunette. Tall with a damned near perfect body. “I lived a life of being the good girl, doing the right thing for the right reasons all the time. I couldn’t stand Roman the first time I met him…or the second, or the third. Or…quite a long time after that. Couldn’t stand him, and at some point would have said I hated him…but was absolutely bonkers for him at the same time. As Izzy would have said, I wanted the dick in the worst way.”
“Kitty!” the statuesque, potty-mouthed strawberry blonde said. “I’m shocked at you.”
Kitty just laughed. “The rest of you are rubbing off on me.”
I looked around. Looks like all the women had told me their stories, or the Spark Notes version anyway.
Cassie nudged me. “I got in a car wreck which ended my professional dance careerandmy relationship with my fiancé, who turned out to be gay. Moved here with Mom like a dog with its tail between its legs, and Ink saved me from walking straight into the Passage because I was anger-walking.”