Callum wrinkled his nose. “Never really did like sweet tea. However, I have tried. Multiple times. It’s just not for me.”
“Blasphemy,” I muttered.
“Some things don’t change, do they?” I heard a feminine voice say from behind me.
Marjorie. The home-wrecking whore who broke up my best friend’s marriage and the same woman who used to have Ace Valentine.
The woman was such an asshole.
Ace stiffened once again and looked over his shoulder at Marjorie.
“Margie,” he said, nodding politely.
Then he turned around and offered the woman behind the counter his credit card.
I studied Marjorie’s face as she was dismissed by the badass Ace Valentine and had to hide my grin in Ace’s shoulder.
Ace pinched me on my ass, and I gasped.
“What the hell?” I whispered, looking up at him.
“Your tea is ready.” He gestured toward the counter.
I turned in his arms, grabbed it, and headed back to the table, using everything I had not to look over my shoulder at him as I moved.
Desi’s eyes were wide and lit with happiness as I walked back to the table.
“What the hell?” she breathed.
I shook my head, unsure what to say.
“Marjorie is shooting daggers at you right now,” she said. “That’s a first, because normally those looks are for me.”
I grinned. “I’m happy to be of service.”
“What service?” Callum asked, handing Desi her water while placing his Dr. Pepper down in front of him.
“Desi and that asshole used to be married until he decided that he didn’t like curves,” I explained.
Callum’s eyebrows shot up.
“That’s just dumb,” he said. “Real women have curves.” He looked over at where Ace was still waiting for his drink. “I always hated Marjorie. She’s got a smoking bod, but when she opens her mouth, it’s like a dragon spewing fire. Pretty to look at, not so great to bang.”
“You would know if she was good at banging?” I teased.
Callum shook his head. “No. Just basing it off of when Ace was dating her. I know that they only did it a handful of times, and from what he told me when we were younger, she wasn’t anything to write home about.”
“What’s nothing to write home about?” Ace asked as he took a seat next to me.
I felt the warmth of his body as he shoved his way in and shivered slightly against him.
“Marjorie’s lack of sexual prowess,” I bluntly replied.
Ace blinked down at me, then shook his head.
“I don’t even know what to say to that,” he replied.
“Nothing to say,” Callum replied. “Though whether it was due to her being inexperienced, or her just sucking, we’ll never know. Ace won’t step near that shit again with a ten-foot pole, especially how she ended it with him.”
“What do you mean?” I asked in surprise. “I thought it ended because y’all… left.”
I didn’t really want to touch on the subject of why they left, so I thought it prudent not to go that far into detail.
I didn’t want to hit on any tough topics if I could help it.
Ace didn’t reply, but obviously his brother didn’t have a problem answering for him.
“Ace had to go because we were all picked up by a nice couple in Houston after our parents died,” Callum said with very little inflection in his voice. Like a man would read a boring report. “He and Marjorie talked a bunch on the phone after we left. It was decided that he would stay with her until he finished school. But when he got here, she told him that her father didn’t think it was a good idea for them to be seeing each other anymore and that he couldn’t stay there like they’d originally intended. Made him drive five hours back home since there was nowhere for him to stay here.”
I shook my head.
“Did you find out any more than that?” I questioned. “Not that that really surprises me. The Christmas family is a piece of work. Every last one of them are all high and mighty assholes who wouldn’t piss on you if you were on fire.”
Ace snorted. “That family hasn’t changed, either. The day I got back to town, one of the first people I saw was her dad. He made it a point to mention that Marjorie was dating a ‘very respectable man’ and they were ‘engaged to be engaged.’”
I rolled my eyes. “I heard that, too. How about Mal? I assume y’all didn’t keep in touch.”
“Nope.” Ace shook his head.
“Mal also didn’t try very hard,” Desi pointed out. “He talked about the ‘old times’ in school, how he missed the old days where y’all would get together, but never really made any attempt to reach out. Even though I’d found the address where you were living at about a year into our marriage.”
“I called him once and once only. All he could talk about was… then,” Ace muttered. “I couldn’t handle talking about it, so I never called back.”