Fries Before Guys

by Vale, Lani Lynn

  So, in a span of a week, I’d gone to prom, been shot, acquired the custody of my two-month-old baby sister, and was now graduating.

  I patted the sleeping baby’s back and walked with my head held high across the length of the football field to the front of the rows of chairs.

  I’d found out last night that I made Valedictorian.

  By two-tenths of a point.

  The one that I beat out? Rachel’s ex-boyfriend.

  He was pretty cool about it, though.

  “Wow,” he said as I took my seat next to him. “You brought a baby. To graduation.”

  I snorted and moved Sunny until she was laying more comfortably in my arms.

  “Derek was supposed to watch her,” I said. “But he had a SWAT call right when I was leaving.”

  “Hmm,” he said. “That just seems perfect, eh?”

  I laughed softly just as the principal started the ceremony.

  “Did you write your speech?”

  I looked over at my new friend and smiled. “No. I’m just going to wing it.”

  ***

  Derek

  I practically ran into the stadium with nearly all of the SWAT team on my heels.

  I wasn’t sure why they were following me, but I wasn’t going to complain.

  Avery needed all the support that she could get.

  I arrived just in time to see her walking up to the podium, Sunny in her arms.

  She smiled at everyone, grinning wide.

  Her eyes swept over the area, her eyes focusing on the auditorium that was behind us, where just a few short years ago, not only her mother’s funeral took place but her father’s as well.

  Her eyes focused back on the students that were in front of her on the football field.

  The place where she would graduate.

  Something I’d clearly almost missed.

  “Hello,” she said, smiling to everyone. “I want to thank you for this honor.”

  Everybody clapped.

  Once it died down, Avery began talking again.

  “I know that some of you know,” the baby gurgled, causing everyone to laugh. “Okay, we’ll start here first, since Sunny wants to make herself known. Sunny is my baby sister. Sunny’s mother died a few days ago, and now I’m her sole guardian.”

  There were soft murmurs. “And my boyfriend, who was supposed to watch her, had to run a SWAT call, so here I am, bringing a baby to graduation.”

  There were small chuckles, none of them coming from her classmates.

  “Anyway, back to my speech.” She smiled. “I’m sure most of y’all know my story. My mother died when I was sixteen. Two years later, my father died,” she said softly. “Which explains why I’m graduating a year later than I originally intended.”

  She swept her eyes through the students, smiling at a few, waving at others.

  “I wouldn’t say that this has been easy,” she said. “Not even for y’all who didn’t have to overcome what I have.” She looked down at Sunny, who gurgled and called out a hello. “Five years ago for me, four for y’all, we entered this crazy life that we call high school. And though it hasn’t been easy, I’ll remember them for the rest of my life.” She looked out at the crowd. “I’ll remember the day that Annaliese got asked to the prom by Shawn. I’ll remember the day that Trevor’s father returned home from Afghanistan and surprised him in the middle of his senior pep rally. I’ll remember the time that the senior prank had the entire high school eating lunch outside due to the smell of the stink bomb that was set off in the cafeteria.” She paused. “But most of all, I’ll remember this day. The day that I officially became an adult. The day that I said goodbye to high school, and hello to real life.”

  There was a short amount of applause, then Avery smiled.

  “I can’t wait to see y’all on the other side,” she said.

  Then just like that, she was walking away from the podium, collecting her diploma from the principal, and moving down the stairs.

  We all yelled.

  Every last student turned around to see who was causing that much noise.

  I ignored them all, though, keeping my eyes on the beautiful woman now looking solely at me.

  She didn’t go back to her seat. Instead, she walked directly toward me.

  “Hey,” she said, smiling.

  “Did it absolutely kill you to say nice stuff?” I teased.

  She rolled her eyes, then smiled at the rest of the men who were leaning against the fence next to me.

  “Thanks for coming, y’all!” She smiled.

  I took the baby from her arms just as she received hugs from every single guy on the SWAT team.

  “Shhh,” one of the parents complained.

  I rolled my eyes and jerked my head to the side. “You ready to go home, sweets?”

  Her smile was wide.

  “Oh yes. Time to blow this popsicle stand for good.”

  And we did just that.

  Epilogue

  I like your face. You should let me ride it.

  -Avery to Derek

  Derek

  One year later

  “I’m exhausted,” Avery mumbled to the table.

  My mother was holding Katy’s youngest daughter, who they actually had decided to call Riggs, against her chest.

  My father was holding Sunny, who was sound asleep, against his chest.

  “Welcome to motherhood.” Katy snickered.

  “I’m not sure I’m cut out for this,” Avery murmured. “I didn’t realize that I’d be this tired. All the freakin’ time.” She pushed around the food on her plate. “And when I’m not trying to take naps, I can’t eat. I can’t do anything, actually. Even the smell of the laundry detergent is making me want to vomit these days. I didn’t realize that sleep deprivation was this… in depth.”

  I agreed.

  “I thought by a year old that she was supposed to sleep better, not worse,” I found myself saying.

  Katy walked over, a twin on one hip, and placed a basket of chicken fingers onto the table. Then she deposited the toddler into the highchair and pulled the basket closer to him.

  “You don’t even know the meaning of sleep deprivation,” Rowen said, plopping down into her seat and handing the baby over to her husband, who followed her into the booth.

  “I know that I got up last night at two, three, four, five, and six only to be called out at seven for a SWAT call,” I said.

  Rowen scoffed. “I didn’t even go to sleep. I didn’t realize that colic was so awful.”

  Rowen had her son, Maximillian, named after her father-in-law, a couple of months ago. Honestly, he was a good kid, even if he did have colic and make Rowen work hard.

  “Maybe you’re pregnant,” Mom suddenly said, her eyes trained on Avery.

  Avery opened her mouth and then closed it.

  I felt something inside of me start to warm at the thought of getting her pregnant.

  However, we’d been unofficially ‘trying’ for a while. I say trying. Really, it was just us having unprotected sex, not caring if it happened or not.

  I looked over at the ring I’d put on her finger two months ago.

  When I’d asked her to marry me, she’d said yes, on one condition.

  I don’t want to have a big wedding. I want to get married at the courthouse, where I’m not reminded that I don’t have any family.

  Something which I’d immediately agreed to.

  Though, my mom had thrown a big shindig and taken Sunny for the night.

  Sunny who was officially Sonja Reese Roberts.

  My daughter in the eyes of the law, as well as Avery’s.

  “I could be, I guess,” Avery said shyly.

  I snickered as I took a large swig of my drink.

  Avery leaned her head against my bicep just as the rest of our orders started to filter out.

  “Why are we eating at this joint again?” Dax asked curio
usly, eyes taking in all the kids. “Not that I’m complaining or anything, but there are a shit ton of kids here right now.”

  “We’re supporting Avery,” my mother said. “Just like we support you.”

  Dax grinned.

  Today was Avery’s special congratulatory dinner that was in celebration of her selling a piece of photography to the biggest art dealer in Texas.

  She made a whopping thirty-five grand off of it, and he’d commissioned more prints just like it.

  Avery had gone to court and gotten her money back for her mother’s and father’s medical bills. She’d also become the guardian of Sunny’s estate, which had a cool million in it thanks to her father’s life insurance.

  Sunny, one day, would have the world at her fingertips thanks to that money.

  “I’m excited,” Avery said. “I’m taking photos of a couple of baseball players and their wives tomorrow. The Longview Lumberjacks of all people. Can you believe that?”

  I curled my arm around Avery, whose business had absolutely boomed in the last year.

  Honestly, she now had everything that she could ever ask for thanks to the calendar photoshoot she’d done of us.

  I was so proud that sometimes it hurt.

  “Speaking of which,” Rowen pulled out her phone and showed a picture of her living room. “I got a twenty-inch-by-twenty-inch canvas made of Uncle Derek and Maximillian. It’s hanging in my living room, right next to the one you took of him and Dax in the delivery room.”

  Avery leaned forward, her face happy, as she studied the canvas hanging on Rowen’s wall.

  I, of course, had recreated the photo with not just Rowen’s baby, but the twins as well. Even though they were older. It’d become a tradition. One that I’d also done with Sunny.

  Our phones went off, indicating a SWAT call.

  Dad laughed as he picked up another piece of his chicken.

  “Y’all have fun with that,” he said as he watched Dax and I stand.

  I rolled my eyes and dropped a kiss onto Avery’s head. “I’ll see you at home, baby. Love you.”

  Avery turned her face up to get a kiss. “I love you, too. Be safe.”

  Then Dax and I were out the door.

  “There were too many kids in there anyway,” Dax lied.

  I snorted. “Whatever.”

  ***

  I woke my wife up, hours later, with a long, lazy kiss to her mouth.

  Not long after, I was moving her to where I wanted her, and sliding my cock between her legs.

  Seconds after that, I was entering her willing body, and looking into her sleepy eyes as I made love to her.

  “I saw the pregnancy test,” I said.

  Her eyes went soft. “I’m scared.”

  I moved until I was pressed fully to her, mouth on hers.

  “Don’t worry,” I said softly. “We’ll rock at this second child thing.”

  She laughed, causing the muscles around her pussy to massage my hard cock.

  I groaned and started to move, pushing forward slowly, lazily into her.

  Before long, though, the wetness and the heat started to get to me, and I had no other choice but to lean back and start playing with her clit so that she could go before me.

  “Hurry,” I urged.

  She didn’t take long coming, and I followed her just as fast.

  When we were both cleaned up, and she was lying against my chest long minutes later, she looked up at me and ran her fingers over my jaw.

  “How was the call?” she asked.

  She didn’t really want to know details. Mostly, she just wanted to know if everything went okay.

  And, in the end, it had.

  “It was okay,” I answered. “No one got hurt. Not even the guy being a dumbass.”

  She snorted, then tucked her head into my neck and pressed a kiss to the side of my throat.

  “Go to bed, Roberts,” she ordered. “Six in the morning comes mighty early to the sleep-deprived.”

  I grinned and ran my hands along her back, making slow circles across her skin until she was sound asleep.

  Only then did I follow behind.

  What’s Next?

  Crazy Heifer

  2-25-2020

  Chapter 1

  Why does chocolate have to make you fat? Why can’t celery make you fat?

  -Desi’s secret thoughts

  Desidara

  Divorces sucked.

  What sucked even more was seeing your ex-husband out with the woman that he cheated on you with, but there it was. Or, more accurately, there he was.

  Though he hadn’t seen me, thank God.

  I looked down at my lap, hoping beyond hope that by not maintaining eye-contact, it would mean he wouldn’t stop… but I should’ve known better.

  Mal Gerard and Marjorie Christmas were assholes.

  If they could find a way to make my life harder than it needed to be, they’d do it.

  Even worse, they’d embarrass the crap out of me if they could.

  Meaning, when they walked up, they tortured me relentlessly.

  “Well, hello there, Desi-Dough,” I heard my recently divorced from me ex-husband practically jeer.

  Desi-Dough.

  God, if there was a way to delete a word from the human language, it would be the word ‘dough.’

  About a year and a half into our marriage, when I started putting on weight, Mal had started using creative and inventive words to remind me that I was no longer a size six.

  Even worse, he shared those words with his now-girlfriend, who also became delighted each time she got to use the word and I’d flinch.

  I slowly looked up, knowing what I’d find when I did.

  Mal’s cruel gaze centered solely on me.

  “Hi, Mal,” I said softly. “What can I help you with?”

  His lips tipped up in a sneer. “You can help me by telling my father that you no longer need money.”

  My brows rose.

  “I can’t,” I said. “If I don’t have money from you, I can’t make the house payment, and you know that.”

  A house payment that he’d forced me to acquire.

  A house payment that, if I could, I’d give up in a heartbeat.

  The only problem was that nobody in their right goddamn mind wanted to buy two thousand acres and a ten-thousand-square-foot house.

  Hell, I wasn’t even sure why the hell I’d agreed to buy it, yet there I sat, in debt up to my eyeballs, with a snowball’s chance in hell to unload a house that I didn’t want nor need.

  “Yeah,” he sneered. “You just keep telling yourself that. And I’ll just keep writing you checks every single month for your ridiculous reasons.” He paused. “I hope you like next month’s check.”

  I frowned, unsure what to say to that.

  “You want to know why?” Marjorie practically cackled.

  No, I didn’t.

  I had a feeling that they were going to share the information with me, whether I agreed or not.

  So, I continued to sit there, waiting patiently for them to ruin my day even more.

  “Oh, she doesn’t look happy, Mal.” Marjorie giggled.

  I wanted to punch her in the throat—with the hand that still bore the tan from my wedding ring. Too bad I still didn’t have said wedding ring, otherwise I would’ve made sure to rub it in her face.

  At this point, I was well and truly over Mal.

  The only problem was that Mal thought I was still hung up over him.

  Honestly, I wasn’t.

  I was pissed.

  Pissed that I’d wasted a year of my life dating him, and two years of my life married to him.

  Even more, I wished that I hadn’t thought he’d make a good father when I’d first seen him with his nephew.

  If I were being honest, it was Mal’s nephew who had first caught my eye.

  He’d been two and wearing boots, a cowboy hat,
and spurs. He’d been riding a horse and he’d fallen. Me, being a nurturing person by nature, had gone to help the little cowboy up.

  And that little cowboy had stolen my heart, right along with his uncle about ten seconds later.

  Unfortunately for me, I hadn’t realized that his uncle was the player that he was.

  I also hadn’t realized what kind of spoiled little brat he was, either.

  I baked cakes.

  I was sheltered.

  And even more, was socially awkward and shy.

  When I was growing up, I’d always been overweight. All through my childhood and teenage years, I’d looked like a fat blob. However, when I’d turned eighteen, I’d tried hard to get the body that I’d always wanted. And in doing so, I’d created an unfair image of myself.

  I’d starved myself, worked out hard, and been an utterly unhappy person.

  Then I’d met Mal, and I’d had to continue to force myself to eat well, or not eat at all, to please my husband.

  Then I’d gotten an injury, and I’d been forced to take it easy, and I’d gained weight.

  Not able to work out, I’d ballooned, and my husband had lost interest in me since I was no longer his perfect little wife anymore.

  It’d taken me six weeks to get healthy enough to work out again, and two weeks after that to realize that my husband was cheating on me.

  Within a week, I’d filed for divorce, and if it wasn’t for Mal’s father, Malloy, I would’ve drowned.

  Sadly, for Mal, when the divorce happened, Malloy took my side. Meaning I’d taken Mal’s entire family away from him in one fell swoop.

  Not that I’d been trying to do that or anything.

  I would’ve gladly given that to Mal if he would’ve just worked with me on the house payment, but he’d turned into a raving lunatic, and a man I no longer recognized.

  “You look like you’re enjoying yourself,” Mal sneered. “I can’t wait for you to see the checks. Oh, and before I forget. My dad said something funny today.” He continued as if he couldn’t tell he was making me uncomfortable. “He said that you were running that Spartan Texas Race. What is this fool plan you have?”

  He was right.

  But what he didn’t know was that I’d made a vow last night.

  Today would be my last day of eating like crap. It would be the last day that I put anything in my body that wasn’t healthy for me for at least the next few months while I trained my ass off for the Spartan Texas Race that I’d signed up for as a spur of the moment decision last night.