Ginny knew she sounded ridiculous. “Kind of. Someone not only meant for you, but they’re the reason you were created.”
“If there is, I’m in trouble,” Trudy joked.
Ginny turned her head on the pillow. “I do, and I think he’s dead.”
Trudy’s smile disappeared at Ginny’s seriousness. “Evangeline, you’re just over-romanticizing love.”
“He’s dead, Trudy. I feel it. I don’t feel anything toward men that I should feel. I’ve always felt different. When other girls talk about guys, even when you do, I don’t feel anything. I just feel sad.”
“Maybe there’s another reason that you don’t feel that way. Could it be possible that your soul mate isn’t a man?”
“I thought of that, but no. I just know it felt as if he was out there waiting for me to find him. Then … nothing. I think he was in a car crash or something, but that wasn’t meant to happen to him. I think some people have lost their soul mates, and that’s why they can’t be happy with who they’re with.” Ginny gave a soft, self-depreciating laugh. “You don’t have to tell me. You think I’m crazy, don’t you?”
“I don’t think you’re crazy. If you believe in soul mates, then I do.”
“I’m probably wrong—”
“I don’t think you’re wrong. Stud is my soul mate. There isn’t another man on earth who would put up with me,” Sex Piston said from her other side.
“I know who mine is, but the fucker doesn’t realize it yet,” Killyama said from the other bed.
“You all are full of shit. There’s no such thing. Listen up, cupcake, there are only two things you need to know—there’s good sex, and there’s bad sex. If you have good sex, then you’re golden. Don’t worry about that other shit.” Crazy Bitch tilted her bottle to her lips after she finished giving her opinion.
“How about the third alternative?”
Ginny could tell that Trudy was trying not to crack up.
“What’s that?” Crazy Bitch took the bait.
“Really bad sex, which is what you usually have,” Killyama said roasting Crazy Bitch’s sex life.
Crazy Bitch didn’t argue on that point. “Three things, then.”
“Cade is mine,” Fat Louise mumbled.
“There’s no such thing. Now roll over; you’re hogging my part of the bed. And Killyama having a soul mate is the biggest crock of all. I’ll kiss her ass if she has one.”
“Pucker up, bitch, because I do—”
The connecting door flung open, and Hammer’s body was silhouetted in the darkness. “Shut the fuck up before Jonas and I blow our fucking brains out!” he snarled.
“You should ask him. He’s a man; get his opinion,” Trudy egged her on.
Ginny decided to take her sister’s advice. “Hammer, is there—”
The slamming door was the only answer she received.
“He’s an asshole when he’s tired.” She found that out when she was three years old.
Trudy covered her mouth to keep from laughing.
Killyama snorted. “He an asshole when he’s wide awake.”
“Maybe you should go ask Jonas,” Trudy egged her on again between giggles.
“Trudy …” Ginny rose straight up in bed. “Do you hear that?”
Her sister’s protective instincts had her hastily rising next to her. “No, I—”
Ginny whacked her with a pillow before she could dodge it, but before she pulled it back, Trudy jerked it out of her hand and whacked her back.
“What the fuck …?” Sex Piston snarled. “Give me that fucking thing.”
“Get her, Sex Piston!” Crazy Bitch yelled. “Show her who’s boss—”
The sound of the connecting door being flung open had all the women dropping like stones to the mattresses, unmoving. When Hammer turned the lights on, everyone pretended to be asleep.
“I hear one more squeak from this room, I’m going to make Ginny go sleep in the other room,” he growled. “Not one … more … sound!” Turning the light off, Hammer slammed the door behind him.
“He has issues,” Killyama excused, loyally trying to defend him.
“Yeah …” Ginny smothered her laughter with the pillow, afraid he would come back. “He doesn’t have a soul mate.”
* * *
“They’re gone. Wait an hour, then you can leave.”
“Okay. Wait. I need a favor,” Ginny said before he could leave.
Hammer pushed off the connecting doorway, coming farther into the hotel room. “What is it?”
“I want you and Jonas to find me something that I can use against the Wests. They shouldn’t be foster parents.”
Hammer stiffened. “I wouldn’t have put you in a home where you could have been hurt. Neither would Will.”
“I told you that I don’t want to talk about what happened after I had to leave the Coleman’s.” Despite saying she didn’t want to talk about it, she couldn’t resist adding a hurtful reproach. “You or Will could have fixed it for me to stay if you wanted to.”
His lips tightened in a grim line. “It wasn’t up to us.”
“Who was it up to, then?” she snapped. The hurt at leaving the Colemans was just as strong today as it had been when it happened.