Dalton pulled her feet out from under his hips, gently massaging them to ease the tension he could see in her coiled body.
“All of us had seen Sex Piston in school. I think Killyama and Crazy Bitch had a couple of classes with her, but we didn’t become friends until she was attacked on the school bus by a jealous bitch and her fucking minions.”
“What happened?”
“Killyama, Fat Louise, and I taught them never to mess with us again, and they didn’t. Killyama and Crazy Bitch deserve their nicknames for a reason.”
Her soft laughter rippled over him like satin ribbon.
“I believe that. I watched Crazy Bitch during the fight. I think myself lucky we were on the same side. She likes to fight dirty. I can appreciate that. I like to fight dirty myself.”
“I saw.”
“I assume that wasn’t the first time the club has seen her fight?”
“We may have gotten in a few fights in the club.”
Dalton thought it might be more than a few, but he didn’t ask. He was beginning to doubt the healthy nature of his heart where T.A. was considered, and if he knew some of the situations she had been placed in with her friends, he was afraid he’d have a heart attack. He felt his body aging by the year, every day he spent in her company.
“What I’m curious to know is, if Ginger knew Crazy Bitch fought so dirty, why didn’t she pick you?”
“Are you saying I can’t fight dirty?”
This answer, he knew.
“I could see you fighting like a hellcat if any of your friends were in danger, but a one-on-one fight? I don’t think so. Why didn’t she pick you?”
T.A.’s face filled with disappointment. “I wish I knew. No one ever picks me when they have to choose. It’s so aggravating. I really wanted to take Ginger down. I could have taken that slut. She must have thought because you were mine, it would make me fight harder.”
He wanted to roll his eyes at her reason, but he didn’t want to hurt her feelings. When he had met her, she’d been a ball buster for sure, but there was an innate sweetness in T.A. that was easily missed because of her personality, and the friends she surrounded herself with who demanded to be center stage. T.A. was a paradox that the more he tried to solve, the deeper the puzzle became.
“How did your sister die?”
T.A. rested her chin on her knees, her hair falling to obscure her expression as she watched him massage her feet.
“My mother is a teacher and can speak several different languages. My father is a water engineer. They donated their time and energy to several different charities. Evangeline and I always traveled with them. When I was thirteen, I wanted to have a normal Christmas that we’d only been able to watch on old tapes or what spotty internet that was available to us. I begged my parents to let Evangeline and me spend Christmas with my grandmother.
“They didn’t want to let us go; when they weren’t able to go with us. My mother tried to get a replacement, but no one else wanted to replace her before Christmas. I didn’t stop begging until they finally gave in and they let us go. My sister and I flew in, and we were able to spend the best Christmas together…”
T.A. raised her chin to stare at him. Dalton’s hands stopped moving on her feet at the loving remembrances of that long-ago Christmas showing on her face.
“It was like in the movies, Dalton. We had hot cocoa, decorated the tree; we even went Christmas caroling. We never had Christmas presents before. I watched Evangeline open every one of hers. It was so amazing to watch her. She was so happy. I’ll never forget how she looked that day. It’s a memory I’ll treasure until the day I die.”
Her husky voice had him leaning forward, bracing his thighs on each side of her knees as they sat on the couch.
His hand slide under her hair to go to the nape of her neck, his fingers kneading the bunched-up muscles.
“The next day, I lost my sister. The small plane we had to take to reach the island crashed on the flight back. The pilot and my sister didn’t survive.”
“Jesus.”
“They asked my grandmother if I could live with her, and she agreed.”
“Please, at least fucking tell me your grandmother was good to you.”
“She was.” Her hands went to his arms. His heart beat painfully in his chest over the fact she was trying to comfort him while she had been the one who had gone through the tragedy. “She was old and ill, and I’m glad I got to know her better before she passed away.”
That her parents had let T.A. believe she was responsible for her sister’s death was unconscionable to him. The plane crash itself would have been traumatic enough; that she had lost her sister and had the blame placed on her would have been devastating for a grown person, much less a young girl who would have needed the love and support that only a parent could give. With just the grandmother and her left, she had lost the family unit that had been taken away from her at no fault of her own. She hadn’t found that supportive, unwavering love until she formed a sisterhood with Sex Piston, Killyama, Fat Louise, and Crazy Bitch. That was why T.A. clung to their friendship so tightly.