Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 126840 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 634(@200wpm)___ 507(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126840 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 634(@200wpm)___ 507(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
I thought about this. About how much I liked Janna, Peanut, Choppy and Ducks, but how completely different the last three were than Janna. Further, how I was different than all of them. But how lovely they were with Janna, accepting she preferred to be quiet and in the background while they were loud and rowdy, and how cool they were with me.
So what Archie said made me feel happy.
Because I knew I’d have in Resurrection what Archie had in Chaos.
She reached out, touched my knee and kept going.
“And we wouldn’t have that sisterhood if they didn’t have their brotherhood,” she carried on.
Yes.
That.
Absolutely.
“They are not in Jag’s and my business,” she continued. “They’re not a part of our day-to-day lives. At least, not mine. Jag works in the garage. Jag goes to meetings. Jag works with the club. What I’m saying is, there’s no insidious ‘you have to be this way, act this way, dress this way.’ However, if we ever needed anything, if something happened, all of them would be at our backs.”
“Yes,” I said softly, feeling this down deep.
Like Janna texting me. And Eight returning my things. And Beck coming to visit me.
Something happened, and they were at Core’s and my backs.
“We heard you were with Core, and we thought he’d tell you. Maybe not on your first date, but Jagger knows him. He respects him. They work together on occasion. I’ve met him. I liked him. If either of us thought you weren’t safe with him. If we—”
I cut her off. “I know. I figured that out after the fact.”
“I felt bad,” she admitted. “Because I was so wrapped up in Jag, in the store, setting up our new house, I didn’t find time to reach out to you. Kinda to welcome you to the new sisterhood we shared. And then your cousin did what she did, and you didn’t have me to go to in order to ask questions I could have answered for you. I’d had months to become that person for you, and I blew it.”
I forgot she and Jag bought that new house.
But as for Archie feeling bad…
“I didn’t reach out to you either.”
“We fall into that, you and me. It’s a bad habit. And I have to say, I don’t like it.”
That made me smile straight out. “I don’t either.”
She smiled back, but got serious when she stated, “I love Haley. I love her with my dad. I love the life they share together. And I love you and Li too.”
She didn’t really make a secret of that, but, God, it was nice to hear said out loud.
“I know, I feel the same about you.”
“Maybe I think I feel strange, like some of Elijah’s damage brushed off on me. I think I feel it.” She hesitated. “Especially with you.”
Well…
Shit.
“Okay, I’m holding a grudge,” I admitted.
“I get that.”
“I shouldn’t do it.”
“I still get it.”
“But you aren’t Elijah.”
She held my gaze. “No, I’m not.”
No. She wasn’t.
I had work to do on my own self.
Time to do that too.
“So we both should have reached out,” I began. “We didn’t. You tried to rectify that when something unexpected happened. I wasn’t in a place to receive it. Now, all that’s done, and we’re here. You’re busy with your life and your man. I’m busy with my life and the new one I’m building with my man. But let’s make a pact in the midst of the sacred act of a woman helping a woman box her most precious belongings, we’ll find time. Even if it’s just touching base by texting. Though, it’d be cool you guys show at dinner tomorrow night to start it off. Deal?”
“Is this where we hook pinkies or make up a secret handshake?” she asked.
I began laughing, but said, “How about we do this instead?”
I stood and opened my arms.
She stood and did the same.
We hugged.
“It’s cool to have a big sister,” I said in her ear.
“It’s cool to get to be one,” she said in mine.
We stopped hugging and got back to work.
Archie didn’t give up until the whole bedroom was packed, and we’d stacked the boxes, and three suitcases, in my living room.
I then cracked open a bottle of wine.
Because, again, with something tough but right that had to happen…
Done.
That evening, Nanook and I wandered into the living room after I put away the last of my stuff.
Core, who was stretched on the couch reading the book on the history of Harley Davidson I bought him (I hadn’t allowed him to pay me back for that), took one look at me, closed the book, set it aside and pushed up to his feet.
“Last boxes ready to break down?” he asked.
He couldn’t help me unpack (correction: I didn’t let him because it was easier to do it myself rather than undo what he might do), so his self-appointed task was box breakdown and removal to one of the empty bedrooms.