Free June (Calendar Girl #6) by Audrey Carlan Page B

him up but I was already upside down in my own predicament.
    “Kathy honey, you’ll never guess what old man Benoit and his saucy little wife did!” he said.
    She petted him on the shoulder. “I’m sure you’ll tell me all about it, but first we need to get you to bed.”
    “You know I’d never share you, right?” he said seriously to her, and James started walking again. I smacked him hard on the ass again, and this time, he retaliated by doing the same to me.
    “Will you stay still? You’re heavy enough as it is.”
    I leaned up trying to get a glimpse of his face. “Are you calling me fat?”
    “Hardly. But drunk off your ass you’re not light as a feather!” he quipped.
    Like a child, a cross between a groan and a whine left my lips. “But they were getting to the best part. He was telling her he loves her.”
    James shook his head and held me tight. Time seemed to fly as he took me to my room more quickly than I would have thought possible. Evaluating the passage of time wasn’t my strong suit in my inebriated state. “Everyone knows he loves Ms. Kathleen. He’s loved her for ages.”
    “But the shrine,” I countered, my liquor-loosened lips flapping in the wind. 
    “He didn’t know what to do with Ketty’s things. He thought maybe Aaron might take on a wife, kids, and want some of that stuff. Besides, he didn’t want to hurt his son. He’s more sentimental than he lets on.” James huffed, seeming almost put out. Regardless, the information definitely changed things. James flopped me onto the bed. He walked over to the dresser and pulled out a tank and pajama pants and tossed them on the bed. “There’s your nightclothes. Please tell me you don’t need help.”
    I gave a sexy smile. “You’re not offering?” I quirked my lips again, the whiskey making me stupid.
    “Hell no. My wife would take strips off my ass and feed them to our dogs. After her brothers broke every bone in my body,” he laughed.
    “Aww, you have a wife?” I asked and snuggled into my pillow.
    “Yes, I have a wife, a very mean one who rocks my world. I’d never be unfaithful.” James unbuckled and pulled off my heels. “Cool tattoo by the way. Good thing the shoes didn’t rub it. Looks almost healed.”
    “That’s good.” I said about his wife, not the tattoo. Then just like any drunk chick who’s lost her mind, I shared personal information that I wouldn’t normally share in different circumstances. “You know, I have a Wes.” I thought back to our sexting earlier in the week and my body got hot once more.
    “You have a Wes,” he reiterated, his tone rife with amusement. “I’m guessing that’s a man.” He said with a laugh, handing me the bed clothes he’d laid out. More like smacking me in the face with them.
    “He’s not really mine, but he’s more mine than anyone else’s.”
    “I see. Sounds complicated.” Boy, he didn’t even know the half of it.
    Finally, he helped me lean up. “I think I’m gonna be sick.”
    He grumbled and helped me to the toilet where I spent the rest of the night vomiting violently. At some point, James left and Kathleen was there. Like aloe to a burn, she laid a cool washcloth over the back of my neck and soothed me with calm words and light caresses against my hair and spine. My knees ached from pressing into the tile for what felt like hours. I had no sense of time or space. All I knew was that I felt like death.
    When the morning rolled around, I had a hangover the size of Texas. My robe hung off my shoulder precariously and I couldn’t be bothered to care. There seemed to be a construction worker jackhammering into my skull with every step I took. I reached the dining table and found that Warren didn’t look much better. For the first time, he wore a pair of men’s satin pajamas and not a suit. If I had been of sound mind, I would have cracked a joke, but all humor and wit had left me with the last bout of dry heaves. 
    “You look like shit,” I