Lucky Strike (14 page)

“Lucky, it’s time to wake up.”

I hear Ryder’s voice, but I choose to ignore it, covering my head with my pillow.

“Stick it wherever you want Ryder, just don’t wake me up,” I mumble through my pillow.

“As tempting as that offer is, no baby it’s time for you to get up and get ready for work.” Ryder pulls the pillow off of my head. The light from my bedside lamp blinding me. I wish he was waking me up for sex instead of for work. I love that Lucy is letting me work at her coffee shop, but this waking up at five in the morning bullshit is
not
working for me.

I’ve been working at Lucy’s for a month now. Much to my surprise, it’s been fun working with her. It feels like we’re getting back to our old selves again. I bust her balls and she tells me to go to hell. The good ole days. Plus, I get as much free coffee as I want, and with a boyfriend who can’t keep his hands off of me long enough to let me sleep for more than an hour, it’s saving my life.

Ryder sets a mug of coffee on the nightstand then kisses my cheek. “I’m gonna head to the firing range before work. I’ll see you tonight, baby.”

“Goodbye babe, I love you.”

“I love you too, my Lucky Clover.”

As soon as I hear the bedroom door close I roll over to try and sleep for a few minutes longer. Only I’m met by the rough tongue of Spike, licking at my face.

“If I let you hump my leg will you let me go back to sleep?”

Spike growls then barks at me to get my ass out of bed. Damn, I really thought that would have worked. It would have worked on Ryder.

“Fine, I’ll get up.” I reluctantly pull back the covers and climb out of bed. Spike follows me to the bathroom. He takes a seat next to me by the sink, licking my leg while I brush my teeth. I look down at him giving him my best bitch scowl. “Hey, you had your chance buddy and you blew it. My legs are off limits.” He hangs his head in shame then trots out of the bathroom.

I make it to the coffee shop fifteen minutes early. A first for me. I’m usually, at least, twenty minutes late. Strange the lights are still off and the door is locked. Lucy is a creature of habit. The lights are always on and the coffee brewing by five-thirty every morning. Even when she’s sick, she makes her assistant manager, Carly come in early to make sure her morning regulars get their coffee fix. So the fact that the place is completely dark has me worried.

I pull my set of keys from my bag and unlock the door. Stepping inside I call out for Lucy, but I’m met with silence. Just as I flip the light switch on, I hear a loud crash come from the kitchen. I run over to the coffee bar and grab the baseball bat from behind the counter. Quietly tiptoeing over to the kitchen door, I take a deep breath then burst through the door screaming at the top of my lungs, the bat over my head ready to attack. Lucy screams and jumps off the counter and scurries behind the man that was plowing into her. I look the man up and down. His dick still hard and hanging out of his pants.

Way to go Lucy
.

My eyes go back up to his face. He looks oddly familiar to me. Did I bang him? Was he one of my regulars from the club? Then it all comes flooding back where I’ve seen him before.

Holy shit it’s Hunter!

The bat drops from my hand, eyes widening in shock as my head tries to wrap around what my eyes just saw. Lucy is banging Brooke’s older brother. Hunter tucks himself back in his pants. Lucy picks up her panties off the floor, her face is beet red with embarrassment.

“I see Lucky is back in town.” Hunter smiles, not even a shred of embarrassment anywhere on his face.

“I see big tits and big dicks run in the McCoy family.” I flash him a wink.

“I see you haven’t lost your sense of humor.” He returns my wink, then turns his attention to Lucy, who’s struggling to put her panties back on. “We’ll continue this tonight. Goodbye, Buttercup.”

I turn away while Hunter kisses Lucy goodbye. Yes, please leave Hunter, I need to interrogate Lucy about what the hell is going on around here. Lucy watches as Hunter walks out the back door then her head snaps back to me, her eyes narrowing and nostrils flared.

Oh shit, she’s in attack mode.

“What are you doing here so early, Lucky?” she snarls while tying her apron around her waist.

“Ryder went to the gun range this morning. More importantly, why are you getting pissy at me? I’m not the one screwing our best friend’s brother behind her back,” I snap back.

“What Hunter and I are doing is none of your business, Lucky.” She grabs a tray of scones from the cooling rack and brushes past me. I follow closely behind her out the kitchen door. She tries her best to ignore me while stocking the pastry case, but this is a subject we are
not
dropping.

“You made it my business when you decided to fuck him in the kitchen of
your
coffee shop. If you didn’t want anyone seeing, then you should’ve fucked in the bathroom like normal people. And don’t even try and put the blame on me.”

She sets the empty tray down on the bar top and keeps her back to me. “I’m sorry for snapping at you, Lucky. It’s not your fault. I haven’t seen Hunter in a month. He was waiting for me at the back door and I just got carried away.”

“How long has this been going on?” I grab the bags of coffee beans from under the counter and start filling the coffee pots.

She finally turns to look at me, a glimmer of regret flashes in her eyes. She grabs a bag and starts helping me. “It started six months ago when Hunter came for Ella’s first birthday. We both had a lot to drink and one thing leads to another, and we had a quickie in Brian and Brooke’s laundry room. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. I just feel this magnetic pull to him. I’ve tried to ignore it for as long as I could, but that night I just couldn’t take it anymore and caved in a moment of weakness. Now I can’t stop and I don’t want to stop. It’s just sex, we’re not hurting anyone.”

“You can tell yourself that as much as you want, but you are hurting someone. You’re hurting Brooke by keeping this secret from her. She told you to stay away from Hunter, that he was just after sex.” Of all the people that would pull something like this, I never would have expected Lucy to fall down the rabbit hole. This is the type of shit I used to pull. She’s always been my moral compass, she never keeps secrets and she doesn’t lie either.

“But that’s all I want from him. He’s free to do whatever he wants and bang whoever he wants when he’s not in Seattle. I don’t care as long as he gives me what I want when he’s here.”

“I never thought I’d be the one to ever school you on morality, but you’re playing with fire, Lucy. You can convince yourself that all you want that Hunter is just some good dick, but I know you and eventually your heart is going to get involved and it’s going to get hurt. And you are going to hurt Brooke in the process.”

“I’m not going to let that happen.”

Before we can finish our talk, the first of the morning rush starts to flow in through the door.

Lucy has me completely puzzled. This is not her, she doesn’t sneak around, she’s an open book and that’s what I love the most about her. She’s feeling guilty for sleeping with Hunter. That has to be why she’s keeping it a secret. I will get to the bottom of this whether she likes it or not.

I’m putting the last of the cupcakes in the pastry case when I hear the chime of the bells over the door. I look up and spot Brooke struggling to get Ella’s stroller over the threshold. Her baby bump on full display in her black yoga pants and a purple tank. She looks like she swallowed a basketball.

“Hey little momma, let me help you with that.” I walk over to the door and grab the front of Ella’s stroller and lift the front wheel up while Brooke pushes it through the door.

“How’s baby Matthew doing today?” I ask, running my hand over her bump. I love that they’re naming their son after Brian’s dad. In the little time I got to know Matthew before he passed, I could tell he was a good man. He was always so kind to me. He was more of a dad to me in the year and a half I was around him than my father was for my entire childhood.

“He’s been very active today. He kept kicking me all through mommy and me yoga this morning. It feels like he’s playing a game of soccer in there.” She lets out a tired laugh.

I lean over her belly to have a little chat with my soon to be nephew. “Hey buddy, give your momma a break. There’ll be plenty of time for running and playing when you come out.” Just like that the kicking stops. “Good boy.” I softly giggle and give her belly one last rub before standing upright again.

“Matthew sure likes his Auntie Lucky.” Brooke smiles, picking Ella up out of her stroller.

“What can I say, I have a way with men.” I return her smile then step back around the coffee counter to make Brooke her usual vanilla latte and a pretty pink cupcake for Ella. “So when is the little man due to arrive?” I hand Brooke her latte and slide the plate with the cupcake to Ella, and watch as she squishes the pink frosting between her fingers before bringing her hand up to her mouth to lick off the fluffy pink frosting.

“Two more months and it cannot get here fast enough. I’m so ready to have my little prince in my arms.” She smiles from behind her coffee cup.

“I really thought you were going to say it was because you are done with being pregnant.”

“Oh, heavens no. I love being pregnant. Even when I was bent over the toilet with morning sickness, I loved it. There’s this little life growing inside of me, that’s a perfect mix of Brian and me. It’s just the most amazing feeling ever.” She is absolutely beaming with joy. I hope I feel the same way when Ryder and I have babies. It’s a scary thought,
me as a mother.
I didn’t exactly have the best mother growing up. Nanny Doreen was the closest thing to a mother I had. But I know kids are something Ryder wants and I want to give them to him. I just worry what kind of a mother I will be.