This Strange Addiction by Julie Steimle (e book free reading .txt) 📕

She nodded.

Handing it back, Bobo shook his head. “Wow.”

“It’s what I do,” Audry said. “I rescue animals.”

Bobo nodded. “A good thing.”

She smiled at him. Quiet and gentle. She liked him.

“Do you like the wolf?” Bobo asked, which was a funny question.

Examining his face, wondering what he meant by that, Audry gazed at his shirt and said, “Yes. Wolves in general are beautiful. They’re family creatures. And wolves mate for life.” But she could tell that was not his question. He meant this wolf. And she blushed for some reason. Ducking her head, she added, “But I am very fond of this wolf. He’s my wolf. If he were a man, he’d be very handsome.”

For a flicker of a moment, when she said this, she imagined Rick’s face staring out from Bobo’s shirt. It sent shivers through her. In many ways he was like that wolf, lonesome and hurt. But she had not thought much about him up until yesterday when she had seen him on the beach. Her mind had only been full of Hogan—as it should be. Hogan was her boyfriend after all. She loved him. Now was not the time to start thinking about that stoosh ginnygog, Rick Deacon. Though he was handsome and cared about some wildlife, he didn’t even consider vegetarianism. Her with him—it wouldn’t have worked.

Feeling all hot and bothered now, Audry stood up. Blushing apologetically, she gestured for them to head back to work.

Bobo walked with her.

Back down on the shore, they picked up more garbage and moved down the shoreline. They started to carry heaps to the truck, and other trucks drove up to take more loads. Honestly, Audry was glad Rick had not come that day. He would have been a distraction. Things got all muddled whenever he was around. Trouble followed him.

But as they worked, a question popped into Audry’s head, and with Bobo near she decided to ask it. “Um, Bobo, are you here on orders from Rick?”

The guy glanced at Audry then broke into an almost jovial, ‘you got me’ laugh. He nodded. “Yeah. I’m likin’ it now, but he really wanted me to be here.”

“But you are not watching the trucks.” Audry gestured up the hill.

Laughing more, Bobo shook his head. “Nah. I ain’t here for that. To tell ya the truth…” He glanced here and there as if looking for somebody, he said, “I’m here to make sure your Hogan is genuine.”

Audry paled. “What?”

Then her face felt hot. Rick had sent Bobo to check out Hogan? Of all the pompous rich boys! How dare he meddle in her life!

“Hey,” he said. “Don’ get mad. Rick watches out for his friends. And his buddy had researched your guy and found out somethin’ funky. He just wants you safe.”

But this was still an invasion of her privacy. And presumptuous. It wasn’t like she hadn’t Googled Hogan herself, or had her cousin Vincent to check him out. After her bad situation with Harlin Nichols—her last ex who had stalked her—everyone and their dog wanted to vet Hogan, and did. And he came clean.

“Look,” Bobo said. “Rick just thinks he’s a player—”

“Because of Harlin?” Audry snapped.

“I don’ now this Harlin,” Bobo said, backing a mite from her. “But Rick’s friend Semour is this computer genius and he—”

“I vetted him,” Audry bit out, angry at this intrusion. This doubt Rick had in her intelligence, it was insulting. “I checked him out myself.”

“Ok.” Bobo held up his hands in surrender. “But his pal Semour found this one website that—”

Audry groaned loudly. “You gotta be kidding me.”

“—your man was on where he lists all his conquests. It’s called the ‘goddess list’.”

Groaning louder, Audry said, “I know all about the goddesses.”

Bobo stared in silence, eyes widening. He drew in a breath.

“Hogan came clean to me about his past girlfriends long ago,” Audry said. She stared up at the sky in frustration. “He said he had a few vengeful exes—one in particular who has been stalking him. He warned me. So I know all about it. This one ex he called Isis, he said she would eventually come up and harass me. Isis is ruthless, he says. And I’ve already seen her.”

“And you’re ok with that?” came out of Bobo’s mouth in a gasp.

Groaning, Audry nodded. “Yeah. Everyone’s got a past. I mean, I’ve got a list of troublemaker boyfriends. We’re all mucking through this dating game for someone to fit us, and sometimes you get a toad and sometimes you even get a snake.”

Almost exasperated, Bobo said, “But he calls you Artemis.”

And Audry nodded. “Yeah. It’s kind of flattering. He uses the alias Orion. I’m not too fond of the hunting goddess idea, but both mythic people are close to nature, which is kind of cute. He and I are a lot alike, you know. So don’t worry about it.”

Bobo gazed at her in amazement. He slowly nodded to himself, though a question was still in his dark eyes. He looked to her and asked, “But he has that website.”

Audry groaned. “Though I did not know about that website until recently, I eventually found out. My roommate Silvia found out about it and she told me. I already spoke to him about it. But you need to understand that the internet is permanent. What Rick’s friend found was most likely an archived site, because Hogan deleted it, and is not in any regular internet browse search. I know, I checked after Silvia told me about it.”

Bobo frowned.

“Look, I believe that people can change. People go through phases. I did,” Audry said. “Hogan grew up. He’s not like that anymore.”

But Bobo was still frowning, thinking on that.

“And Rick has no right to criticize Hogan with his past,” Audry bit out. “Not with his freaky ex-girlfriend Daisy lurking about.”

Bobo pulled back.

“Oh, I know about Daisy,” Audry said, placing her hands on to her hips. “I met her.”

But this time Bobo nodded. “I know. Rick also told me to keep an eye out for her, in case she comes after you. So I am not just here to protect you from his assumptions about your boyfriend.”

Groaning, Audry shook her head, really doubting that Daisy would come after her after their encounter with Tom Brown at the convention. Tom had made it clear to Daisy and all her backward hick friends that if they got near her, he’d cause them trouble… and Tom was a CIA agent. Besides, Daisy was fixated on Rick, and she—

“Look,” Bobo said, “I’d rather be protectin’ Rick, to be honest. But Rick insists for yo’ sake, that I watch out for you. He jus’ lost a good friend in Germany, and he is in a panic mode over anybody connected to him who might be targeted next. This is only temp’ry. Once he calms down, we will leave you alone.”

Audry stared, shivers prickling the skin of her arms and back of her scalp. This was why Rick was freaking out. Of course. But she still felt a little insulted. Didn’t he know she could take care of her herself? But then he was like that, a bit of an idiot.

Bobo did not bug Audry after that. He worked with others, maintained his distance, and in the afternoon when he took a break, he remained near his car. Audry also noticed him talking to someone on his cell phone. It was probably Rick, informing on her—probably their conversation. At least then Rick would stop making assumptions about Hogan or her.

Admittedly, she had not known about the website until much later into her relationship with Hogan. As she had told Bobo, Silvia had found it and had brought it up as a subject one day during dinner. Hogan had not mentioned it when he had talked about his goddesses and it had upset Audry. At the time when he had first confessed about his history with women, back when they were still in Africa and they were talking about kids and family, he had explained his wild rebellious search for ‘the one’. He even told her how silly and blind he was with each woman, charmed and in love. He blamed some of it on hormones, but most of it on foolish thinking. He was an idealist, which was obvious. And when Silvia had brought Audry’s attention to that website in a desire to protect her, Audry had confronted Hogan about it. 

His contrition was real, taking the berating without any rationalization in his defense. And after she had gotten out her anger, Hogan had confessed to her about the whole of it, including how he had tried to delete the account and all the posts. Reality had finally sunk in when he had met her, he had said, and he really wanted to settle down. And he also confessed that he thought Audry was ‘the one’. It was why he had deleted the list. He had not used that site since he met Audry. Which Silvia, grudgingly, verified later to be true. In fact, Audry could feel he was telling the truth. And if Matthew Calamori was right, her intuition could be trusted.

“Audry!”

She looked up to the parking lot. Down the sandy hill, Hogan came at a trot, grinning. “I’m done for the day! I can join you.”

This was the best news ever. With swelling relief in her chest, Audry dumped her trash in the nearest bag and ran up to him, planting one big kiss on his lips.

As the sun set and the groups had begun to disperse, the last of the Deacons’ trucks hauling away the trash, Audry heaved her feet up the sandy hill, arm around Hogan’s waist, and his arm around her. A little ruckus was heard near the top and a number of Green Club members looked.

“…So I was thinking,” Hogan said, continuing the conversation they were having earlier. “After this, we can go to a small restaurant and have dinner. You can call your roommate Silva and let her know you’ll be out late.”

“Silvia is not home,” Audry said, as normally Silvia liked to cook for the both of them, making double portions of vegan recipes which Audry loved. “She’s staying the night at a friend’s. She left me a note this morning.”

Hogan sighed with relief. He then shook his head, with aggrieved admittance, “I don’t understand why that woman hates me. I swear, she took up vegan cooking just to keep us apart.”

Audry laughed, knowing that was partially true. Silvia detested Hogan—and for no good reason. Silvia had a bad reason though.

“Silvia knows Rick Deacon,” Audry finally confessed, as it all felt stupid. “They went to high school together. He’s good friends with her brother.” Audry did not tell him that Silvia openly ‘shipped her and Rick, and called them Deucanhause and Breacon… mostly sticking to Breacon until Audry insisted that she stop with the teasing. The main reason Silvia was one of the many people who worked hard to vet Hogan was because Silvia knew Audry was naturally attracted to troublemakers. After all, they shared an ex in Harlin Nichols. But besides finding that same website as Rick’s supposed hacker friend had found, Silvia had nothing bad on Hogan. It was just pure prejudice.

Hogan’s face drew back as he gasped. “He…?”

“No,” Audry laughed, shaking her head. “He didn’t not ask her to be mean to you. She just likes to imagine that he and I will be together, and you broke her fantasy. He’s also good friends with our friend Jessica.”

“The one who just got married,” Hogan added, thinking about Jessica Mason whom he had met. Jessica had eyed him up in that brief meeting and seemed to find him wanting also. However, she was pregnant and hormonal at the time. Jessica also had secretly ‘shipped’ Audry and Rick.

“To his best friend,” Audry added. “Months ago when I was in Africa. I totally missed the wedding.”

Hogan nodded, understanding. “Oh…. I see now.”

Shrugging Audry sighed. “They just feel sorry for Rick, I think. He’s