The question I wanted to ask was almost burning my tongue, so I leaned closer to him and whispered, “Do you think he’s safe?”
“Elijah is a self-soother. When he’s got heavy shit to deal with or just needs time alone, he retreats into his own world where he stews over it, swims, has a beer to relax, and just takes time to himself. He still has identification on him, so if anything had happened, we’d have been informed by the authorities.”
What he said made sense, but if I was in his shoes, wouldn’t I be tearing my hair out with worry? Then again, Cynthia was the same way, which was why I hadn’t seen her since I’d moved here, and I wasn’t losing sleep over her, was I? Sometimes people needed space to breathe, and it was up to us to give it to them.
Coming to a decision, I gave him a small smile and nodded. “Thanks, Jackson. And it’s nice to meet you.”
“Likewise, we’ve heard a lot about you from our grandparents and cousins.” Then, lowering his voice to a whisper and looking more serious than I’d seen him so far, he added, “Sorry ‘bout what happened to your leg, precious, and all of the shit you’ve got going on.”
I was the queen of being blasé, I’d had to do it a lot, so I just shrugged. “It’s cool. Shit happens, right?” Then something he’d said hit me. “We?”
“Yeah, we. My twin, Marcus, and my other brothers. You haven’t heard of us?” The tone he used wasn’t offended, more teasing because, of course, his family would tell people stories about them.
Then I remembered something I had in common with him. “Oh my God, you’re the one who was shot when Charlotte had problems, weren’t you?”
Nodding, he pulled the sleeve of his t-shirt up, showing me a thin pink line on his arm. “Just skimmed, not badass like yours was.”
Snorting, I held my fist out for him to tap. “Bullet buddies!”
Hey, when life gave you melons, you made melonade, and bullets counted as melonade.
Tapping my fist, he chuckled, “Dork.”
Satisfied that I’d made amends for my shitty behavior earlier, I patted him on his perfectly styled hair and went back to join Lily, who was writing out a list on a pad of paper.
“Anything I can help you with?” The bar was quiet just now, so it was the best time to get extra jobs done.
Dropping the pen, she blew out a breath. “Do you miss him?”
She didn’t need to explain who the him was. “Sometimes.”
“I’m just going to say this, and then we’ll put it to bed, but I loved the two of you for each other. I didn’t know him really well, but Elijah was always so serious and withdrawn, but you brought him out of his shell. He laughed like he meant it, his eyes were always on you, and you looked like you didn’t have a care in the world when y’all were together.” She stopped and shook her head. “I want to punch him in the nuts for just disappearing like he did.”
Her words made my heart rise, then dive down into my arse. I hadn’t realized I’d made a visible difference on Elijah until she’d said it. So why the shit had he just left?
I didn’t have anything to say about what she’d said, but apparently, the words had knocked my filter off because what I did end up saying was horrific. “I miss his big, pierced willy.”
Lily paused, then grabbed my hand and pulled me down to the end of the bar, shouting, “Give us five,” at her husband as we passed him.
Once she had me in the office, she put her hands on her hips and faced me. “Okay, where’s he pierced.”
“At the top and halfway down.”
“Good lord,” she breathed, her eyes going unfocused for a moment. “Lordy be. I wouldn’t have guessed it, but now that I know, it suits him.” She wasn’t wrong there. “Did it make a difference?”
Moving to sit on top of the desk, I made myself comfortable and started swinging my legs carefully. Any chafeage down there was like sandpaper being rubbed into it, so the key was to make small movements only.
“I don’t have a lot to compare it to. I’ve only been with one other guy, and I was pretty drunk when it happened. But he’s definitely bigger.” Then I muttered to myself, “I wonder what the average is?”
This was apparently fodder for her dirty mind. “How big was the previous guy?” she asked, moving in front of me and holding her fingers in the air like she was measuring. “This big?”
Reaching up, I moved them closer together, then a little more. Then, tilting my head to the side, I tried to recall the first penis I’d ever encountered and moved them together again when I did.