by Alexa McLean
This can’t be happening. This can’t be happening.
I’ll wake up soon, I kept telling myself but no matter how hard I tried, my feet kept dragging me towards the inevitable.
We reached his hospital room.
I felt lightheaded and weak.
The nurse pulled back the privacy curtain and I swear, I nearly threw up every morsel in my stomach.
Gayle was a wreck. Half of his body was black and blue and the other half was covered in casts.
“How did he survive...?” I cried.
“It’s a miracle,” the nurse agreed. “But if I had to guess, he was fighting for something.”
Chapter 17 (Gayle)
I FELT LIKE I WAS TRUDGING through the mud. I wanted to move but it was nearly impossible with all this weight on my body. It clung to me like a second skin and no matter what I did, it remained fastened against me.
Fighting through the darkness, I did whatever I could to get rid of it but to no avail. Failure seemed to be unavoidable but one person kept me going.
Lily.
I had to get back to her — I had to tell her the truth that was written on my heart. I couldn’t possibly let it end like this and let her live her life never knowing what could have been.
So, I fought every demon I faced like my life depended on it because, well, it did.
And eventually, I managed to open up my eyes. As consciousness returned, I was slammed with a blast of pain that echoed through every inch of my body. It was like nothing I ever felt before. I wanted to cry out but my lips were so dry that they felt like they had been fused together.
I blinked against the sheet of piercing white light raining down on me. After a few agonizing minutes, I managed to focus on the ceiling tiles and the window on the far wall. It was open and a slight trickle of breeze rolled it, moving the curtains ever so slightly. I wanted, oh so desperately, to feel that breeze on my face for I was burning up.
The blankets bundled up onto of my body certainly did not help.
As I moved my arm to set them aside, I became aware of someone holding my hand.
Lily.
She was asleep in the most uncomfortable position. Her hair, usually sleek and shiny looked like it hadn’t seen the inside of a shower in a couple of days. How long had I been out for and had she not left my side that entire time?
I squeezed her hand and that seemed to be enough to get her to come to. She rubbed her eyes with her free hand and looked around like she had no idea where she was or how she had come to be there.
“Lily...” It was the first word I spoke but my voice was not my own. It was cracked and broken and incredibly irritating to listen to.
“Gayle!” She exclaimed like it was the happiest moment in her entire life. She lunged forward like she was about to wrap me in a hug but at the very last moment, she pulled back. “I probably shouldn’t be doing that with all your broken ribs. Your nurse would have my head.”
“Hug me anyway,” I said. “Please.”
She hesitated but after a moment of consideration, she did as I had asked. Her embrace was a ginger one but it was enough for me to believe that she was real. “I’m sorry.”
“Sorry?” Lily repeated. “What are you sorry for? I should be the one to apologize. I’m the reason why you’re here — why you almost didn’t make it.” There were tears in her eyes. With her hands balled into fists, I knew that she was trying to hold back but still those tears stained her cheeks.
It was painful for me to do so but I wiped them away with my thumb. Most of my hand was numb so I couldn’t quite tell if I was being gentle or rough with her.
Thankfully, she smiled.
“Here,” she said as she took a nearby sponge and moistened my lips with water. “The nurse said you can’t have water so you’ll have to settle with this for the time being.”
“It’s better than nothing.”
Lily looked down at her hands, her expression a troubled one.
“There’s something that I want to tell you,” I said.
She looked up and our eyes locked.
“I love you, Lily.”
She parted her lips like she wanted to say something in return but I held out my hand to stop her from doing so.
“And I’ve loved you for a long time now. I was just much too afraid to tell you the truth of my feelings because I thought that it would ruin our friendship — something I’ve cherished from the very first day I met you. So, when you proposed the fake engagement, I thought it would be a step in the right direction and that from there, I could tell you how I really felt but then I kept getting these vibes that you didn’t want the engagement to be any more than fake —”
There was more I wanted to say but she silenced me with a kiss. It wasn’t one filled with passion and lust as all the others before it but one filled with adoration and love. Finally, the puzzle pieces were coming together and that hole in my heart was being plugged up with the light of her soul.
This woman was the woman of my dreams.
She pulled away so that we could both breathe but her hands remained on my cheeks. “I love you too, Gayle.”
My pulse quickened. “Make my heart beat any faster and the nurses are going to think I’m having a heart attack or something.”
She pressed her forehead against mine. “So, we’ve both loved each other this entire time and neither one of us suspected it?”
“It seems that way.” To my surprise, she started to laugh.
“We’re a couple of idiots.”
“Tell me about it.” Her laugh grew louder.
It made me happy to see that smile on her face. “So, I just have one question left to ask you.”
“And what might that be?” She cocked her head to the side.
“Will you marry me?”
Chapter 18 (Lily)
A FEW YEARS LATER, I was making breakfast when I heard the crack of a baseball bat. Looking out the window, I saw Gayle inside his batting cage, machine whirling. He missed nearly every ball that came flying his way and I could see the frustration written all over his face. Knowing he needed some time on his own, I focused on finishing up breakfast. While I waited for a coffee pot to brew, I checked my email.
There was a lot of clutter in my inbox but three specific emails caught my attention. The first was from our lawyer stating that Mindy planned to make an appeal for a shorter sentence. He also advised that the defense might attempt an insanity plea. It never ends... I whispered to myself as that somebody-is-watching-you feeling settled just underneath my skin. After some investigation, it was discovered that Mindy also had an obsession with the baseball player which just fueled the fire of her hatred of me when she discovered I was engaged to the man of her sick and twisted dreams. You only hear about lunatics on the TV and you think you’ll never see them in real life; but trust me, they’re out there and they are probably closer than you think.
Next was a little surprise for Gayle. He didn’t want to admit it, of course, but his baseball career was over. Mindy had taken that away from him the second she tampered with his back tire. Anger boiled in my veins just thinking about it but I couldn’t dwell on that negative energy because we needed to move onto bigger and better things. So, I dug around the industry until I discovered that his team was in need of a new commentator and Gayle had unknowingly taken the job all thanks to me. It was a gamble, sure, but I was pretty confident that he would enjoy his new position. No one liked baseball more than Gayle Nash and while he couldn’t get back on the field, at least he wouldn’t have to walk away either.
Lastly, and best of all, was an email from my wedding coordinator saying that she had booked our venue and that we were all set to move forward with the wedding of our dreams. I nearly squealed, that’s how happy I was. To marry Gayle — it was a dream come true.
Ding!
With the coffee ready, I gathered up everything onto a platter and brought it outside. The day was much too beautiful to be spent indoors.
> Gayle was still swinging away and probably putting himself through a boatload of suffering. Knowing he wouldn’t stop unless I told him to, I walked up to the batting cage. “Hey, maybe you should give it a rest.”
Swoosh!
A swing and a miss.
He threw down the bat, his face darkened by frustration.
“Hey, don’t beat yourself up. There’s nothing you can do that will change what happened.”
“It isn’t fair —”
I kissed him before he could fall into one of his rants. I made sure to make the kiss extra sweet so it would distract him from whatever it was he was thinking. I even tangled my fingers into his hair and tugged on it slightly because I knew just how fond he was of hair pulling. I think that’s why he started to let his hair grow out a little longer.
“What has gotten into you?” He asked as we broke off the kiss, both of us completely breathless.
“I just wanted to see you smile,” I said. “Plus, I’m in a good mood.”
“Oh?”
“One, I got you a job. Consider it repayment for getting me mine.”
“What?”
“Well, I didn’t think you wanted to mope around the house for the rest of your life so I got you a baseball related job you can do even with your injuries.”
He cocked an eyebrow. “Which is...?”
“You’ll be one of the commentators for your team.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“Not at all.”
“How did you manage that?”
“I have my ways.”
He picked me up and set me down on our hammock. “Our breakfast is going to get cold, you know.”
“Breakfast can wait. I’d rather have dessert.”
I pressed my hand to his chest. “Before you do, there’s one more thing.”
“Oh?”
“We got the venue that we wanted for the wedding.”
A grin flashed across his face. “Then that’s even more reason for celebration.”
Before I could react, he pushed me back. My pajama bottoms came flying off my body followed quickly thereafter by my panties.
He dove between my legs and started to lick my folds, getting me all sorts of excited. It didn’t take long before I was soaking wet with juices.
It didn’t matter that we were outside because after the whole Mindy incident, we had turned Gayle’s home into a fortress. No one was going to disturb us and that gave us all the freedom in the world.
His tongue teased my entrance but he didn’t penetrate it quite yet. He was going to make me beg for it.
“Please...” I raked my fingers through his hair before pulling his head closer to my mound. “You know I hate it when you tease me like this.”
“Don’t lie. You love it,” he countered. He blew soft tufts of air against my mound.
“Gayle...”
He just chuckled. To my dismay, he pulled back and ran his fingertips along my upper thighs. Hoping to entice him, I spread my legs apart, exposing more of what I had to offer him. He licked his lips but still, he did not give me what I wanted.
This was torture.
He pulled down my loose fitting tank top and went for my breasts instead. In the matter of a few minutes, my nipples were as hard as diamonds. Goosebumps covered their every inch and it wasn’t the morning time breeze that was the culprit. Gayle knew exactly what he was doing to me.
The tank top was torn away, leaving me a hundred percent naked. His lips started at my neck and traveled all the way down to my navel.
“This is cruel...” I whispered, my voice ragged with desire.
He continued to decorate my stomach with kisses, each time getting closer and closer to what I really wanted.
Then, it happened.
He was sucking on my mound while his tongue penetrated deep inside of me. That tongue did not stop. It twisted this way and that — the grainy surface brushing against my velvet insides.
Gayle was an expert which was both a blessing and a curse because it meant he could make me orgasm in as little as five minutes or he could stretch it out for an eternity. Today seemed like one of the eternity days so I braced myself for the sweet, sweet torture to come.
As I got close to the edge of climax, he pulled away and instead focused on my clit. Pleasure rolled through my spine and spread to every fiber of my bringing until I was panting for breath but he wasn’t stimulating me fast enough for anything to happen. It was just a constant influx of euphoria but never that explosion.
“Please...” I begged as my eyes rolled into the back of my head. “Give it to me.”
His tongue returned to my hole with a vengeance. It lapped up every last drop like Gayle was a starving man who hadn’t eaten in weeks.
Determined to get even deeper, he lifted my hips off the hammock and dug his fingers into my ass. He was so aggressive with his tongue that it made my head spin.
I screamed because it just felt that good and I couldn’t contain myself any longer. I clutched the hammock and lifted my crotch upwards to meet his mouth as if his lips weren’t already glued to mine.
When he pulled back, his face was covered in my juices. He grinned like a madman. “Mmm,” was all that he said before he crawled onto the hammock.
“You’re going to make us fall,” I said.
“I’ve already fallen for you,” he returned as he nibbled on my earlobe.
I snuck my hands underneath his shirt and ran my fingertips along the length of his skin until the fabric was all bunched up by his shoulders.
He leaned back slightly so that I could pull it up and over his arms but just as I had predicted, the hammock swayed violently and we both landed with a thud on the ground. Luckily, the grass was pretty soft.
Seeing as I had landed on top, I didn’t waste a single second in pulling off his sweat pants. Underneath, there was a significant tent pitched against the fabric of his briefs. “It looks like someone is happy to see me.”
“Always, he answered.”
I freed his member and took it into my hand, fingers curling around its girth. Wanting to hear him groan, I gave it a squeeze.
“Turn around, baby.”
“What, you haven’t had enough to satisfy your sweet tooth yet?”
“I can never have enough,” he said.
I wasn’t about to say no to a 69 so I got into position. Gayle started to tease my sensitive folds with the tip of his tongue before I could even think of taking him into my mouth.
Trying to steady myself against the pleasure, I took a deep breath and lowered my head so I could seal my lips around his tip. Doing so, my tongue swirled all around. Two could play the teasing game and I was going to make him realize it.
My hair fell forward and tickled his balls. Normally, I would pull it back into a ponytail but today, I would make him suffer just as he had done to me.
Slowly, I inched my way down his length all while my tongue danced along his underside. I knew I was driving him crazy by the way that his toes curled.
Once I was deep enough, I began to bob my head but not at all as quickly as he would have hoped for. Oh no, I was taking my time.
I grabbed one of his balls and rolled it between my fingertips.
He bucked his hips and forced his every inch into the back of my throat, causing me to gag. In order to breath, I pulled out and that’s when he turned the tables.
Before I even knew what was going on, he had my hands pinned above my head. My heart skipped a beat as I saw that animalistic lust in his eyes but it was more than that too. Gayle wanted to pleasure me. He wanted to hear me scream. But most of all, he wanted to make love to me.
His member slipped inside of my wet and eager hole. Even after years of being together, it always amazed me how big he was and how I was able to accommodate his girth despite being so tiny.
“Mmm,” we said in unison as he started to find the perfect rhythm that satisfied us both.
I clawed at his back, marking it with
angry red lines that would remain there for a few days. Gayle didn’t seem to mind. In fact, if I had to guess, I’d say he was pretty fond of having my nails running all down his back.
He picked up the pace and I was driven right to the cusp of orgasm but that’s when he stopped.
I was turned around and placed on my hands and knees — my favorite position.
He smacked my ass with a light love tap before penetrating me from behind. I don’t know what it is about doggy style but it always manages to hit the sweet spot. He didn’t go fast but he definitely went hard. Add that to the fact that he was pulling my hair and I was in Heaven.
I arched my back making it a little easier for him to push himself deeper and deeper inside of me. “I’m going to cum!” I cried out as his balls began to slap against my mound.
“Cum for me, baby,” he whispered into my ear and it was all that I needed to hear to push me over the edge.
My whole body shook like a leaf on a windy autumn eve. My juices soaked his every inch while my insides tightened around his shaft, trying to milk him for every last drop. And that’s exactly what ended up happening. He exploded inside of me and coated me with his stickiness.
Panting, he pulled out and rolled into the space beside my body. Our hands came together, fingers weaving into one another. We looked up at the azure sky and smiled. “I love you,” he said.
“I love you too, Gayle, more than you could ever imagine.”
“Oh, I think I have a pretty good idea.” He pulled me close and rested my head on his chest where I could listen to his beating heart.
At that moment, I knew that nothing could ever get better than sharing the rest of my life with this man.
Epilogue (Gayle)
IT WAS THE DAY I HAD been waiting for.
The tie I wore around my neck felt incredibly tight. I tried to loosen it but it would not budge. Sweat gathered at the back of my neck and at the edge of my hairline. I had never been this nervous in my entire life.
I tried to remain focused on my breathing because it was the only way I was going to get through this without passing out.
Calm down, Gayle, I told myself. She loves you so there is nothing for you to worry about.
