Welcome to Blissville

by Walker, Aimee Nicole

  “No more games,” I replied. I raised up on my toes and pressed my lips to Gabe’s for a quick kiss. “Now feed me and fuck me so we can get on with our day. We need to go to the clinic for our tests before we stop at the grocery store to prepare for Gabe’s Big Barbecue Night.”

  Gabe tilted his head to the side and looked at me suspiciously. “You doubt my abilities.”

  “I do not,” I said honestly. “I know it’s going to be great. It’s our first big barbecue with all of our friends invited, so it’s an event worthy of a name.”

  “I’m going to show you just how good I am,” he promised in a rumbling, sexy voice. “Which do you want first—food or a fuck?”

  I knew I was in for a treat, regardless which of the F’s came first, which would set the tone for a day that held so much promise. I smiled up into the eyes of the man I loved more than my next breath and said, “Surprise me.”

  Oh, I surprised him all right. He was expecting me to throw him over my shoulder and carry him off to have my way with him, and under normal circumstances that would’ve been the case, but that day was different. I couldn’t stop thinking about being bare inside him once we had the sex without condoms talk. It wasn’t like we practiced abstinence while we were on vacation—quite the opposite actually—but I was hours away from having not even a thin layer of latex separate us. So, I chose to feed him before we headed out to run our errands to prepare for the barbecue.

  It should’ve been a crime that it took longer to drive to the closest clinic that offered HIV testing than it did for the rapid test results to come back. There was no excuse for making it harder for people to be responsible and get tested. As irritated as it made me, I focused on the delights that lay in wait for me that evening. I had another surprise for Josh up my sleeve, but I wouldn’t be sharing it with him until after the last guest left.

  Luckily for us, we got to the grocery store before church let out and back home in plenty of time to let my granny’s Coca-Cola barbecue sauce simmer on the stove for a bit before I refrigerated it to thicken. I heard Josh mumbling about something thickening as he put the potato salad together, but I ignored his complaints. Some things were worth waiting for, as he should damn well know since he tortured me for the longest time.

  I wasn’t the only one with surprises that morning. I expected to find Josh at the dining room table hard at work planning our wedding when I woke up, but instead he was out running. I had also expected a little less calmness out of him about Emory’s gloomy, albeit vague, premonition. Once I caught onto the inner workings of Josh Roman’s mind, he wasn’t so hard to figure out, but every once in a while, he puzzled me. I could reason that Josh had become close friends with a group of people to help him plan our wedding, which I suspected was the reason he wasn’t making seating charts the second we got home from the store. It was his laid-back attitude about Emory’s visit that had me stumped. I tried my hardest to sort it out on my own, but after a few hours I gave up.

  “Why are you so calm about Emory’s vision?” I asked him while he spread a checkered tablecloth over one of the fold-up tables he’d set up beneath the shade trees in his yard.

  “You want to do this now, babe? Our guests will be arriving any second,” Josh replied. “Including Emory.”

  “How long of a discussion were you planning?” I asked in confusion. I heard car doors closing and realized that his supersonic hearing had picked up on their arrival.

  Josh straightened up from smoothing out nonexistent wrinkles in the tablecloth and faced me. “Baby, I’m just glad that I’m getting a break from the crazy this time. I’m thinking I’ve had enough for a while between Oscar trying to kill me and then Billy stalking me.” My mouth dropped open in shock. “Sure, Wanda knocked you upside your head that one time but you’ve lived a relatively charmed life recently. I mean, we want to be equals in all things, right?”

  Before I could answer, Willa, Meredith, and Harley rounded the corner of the house and entered the side yard where Josh had the shindig set up. Meredith and Willa both held covered dishes in their hands while Harley held a twelve pack of beer that I thought might come in handy.

  “I can tell by the look on your face that my boy hasn’t lost his touch,” Willa said, crooking her finger for me to bend down so she could kiss my cheek. “Just march and clap alongside him, baby.” While it was true that Josh marched to his own beat, we were usually in rhythm.

  “I just need a minute of Sunshine’s time,” I told them. I nodded my head for him to follow me. I turned to face him once we were out of sight of prying eyes. “Okay, I know damn well you didn’t mean that flippant response. So, how is it that you’ve come to terms with what Emory said?”

  “Before you have, you mean?” Josh asked.

  The truth was, Emory’s warning bothered me more than it should’ve based on what little he said. The problem was, I had plenty of people in my past who might want to cause me harm. “Maybe,” I confessed.

  “I decided to be practical, even in the light of the most impractical scenario,” Josh said. “Emory couldn’t say for sure that your life is in danger, and he sure as hell couldn’t give us a hint as to the identity of the man you’ll be having words with on the front porch of our future home. Hell, for all we know it could be the cable guy who was late to hook up your service at the new house, which caused you to miss out on the next best sporting event in the whole damn world. There’s one nearly every single week,” he added sarcastically before he smiled broadly.

  “No more fear,” Josh reminded me. “It robs us of the moment we’re experiencing. I had enough moments without you, Gabe. I cannot allow myself to imagine my world without you again. I won’t do it.” His voice cracked with emotion, and I regretted pushing him.

  “You’re right, Sunshine,” I said, folding him in my arms. “I won’t mention it again.”

  “You two didn’t get enough of that last week?” Chaz asked, walking up the driveway. “Some of us are lovelorn, so could you knock it down a notch, or ten?”

  Josh pulled out of my arms and faced his friend. “Lovelorn?” he asked. “When did you start using words like that in place of horny?”

  “That too,” Chaz admitted sheepishly.

  Josh opened his mouth to reply then closed it just as quickly. I knew he was about to suggest how Chaz could take care of his problem but then changed his mind. He learned his lesson when his matchmaking attempt at Easter created tension between the two of them. Or maybe not, I thought to myself as I saw Kyle park behind Chaz’s car.

  “I, um…” Josh said sheepishly as Chaz looked to see what—or rather who—had caught my attention.

  “… Just can’t help yourself,” Chaz finished for him, but I noticed that his tone was lacking anger. “Don’t worry about it, Jazz. It’s cool.” I noticed he didn’t stick around for Kyle to catch up to him before he joined the party.

  “Are you sure this is okay?” Kyle asked. He ran his hand over the back of his neck like he did when he was nervous. I might’ve been guilty of not picking up on every little nuance of Kyle’s personality when we were together, but that was a familiar gesture.

  “It’s fine,” Josh assured him. “Besides, he’d be angry at me and not you.”

  “Okay,” Kyle said uncertainly. “If it’s a problem…”

  “It’s not,” I assured him. “What’d you bring?” I nodded at the covered bowl in his hands.

  “Melon balls, you know I don’t cook worth a damn,” Kyle said with a self-deprecating scoff.

  “Spiked?” Josh asked hopefully.

  “Maybe next time.” Kyle winked and headed around the corner to join the rest of our guests.

  “So, are we good here?” Josh asked.

  “We’re amazing,” I replied.

  A smile spread slowly across his face. “We kinda are,” he agreed before we returned to our party.

  I began grilling chicken and ribs while Josh arranged the dishes everyone brought into categories: appetizers, side d
ish, and dessert. Adrian and an obviously pregnant Sally Ann showed up next, and Emory wasn’t far behind them. Josh and the gals fussed over Sally Ann, making sure she wasn’t given a “rickety-ass” folding chair since she was carrying precious cargo. Josh made Adrian go to the front of the house and get the chaise lounge chair with the thick, soft cushions for Sally Ann to sit on. She told them not to fuss, but she sighed happily once she realized how comfortable it was.

  Next thing I knew, Josh had Adrian follow him into the single car garage that was packed too full with stored items to park Princess in, which said a lot because she was a small car. They came back out with rectangular wooden boards with legs that unfolded from the top that propped them up at an angle. Josh set one up and stepped off so many feet before he set up the other one to face the first board.

  “Needs to be twenty-seven feet,” Adrian said. “You have a tape measure or something?”

  “Cornhole,” Harley said, rubbing his hands together gleefully. What the hell was cornhole? I’d heard of a glory hole but we weren’t having that kind of party.

  “I have one in my truck,” Kyle offered.

  “What the hell for?” Josh asked. “Who keeps a measuring tape in their vehicle besides a carpenter?”

  “I don’t know why it’s there. I found it in the glovebox when I cleaned my truck last week. You want it or not?” Kyle fired back good-naturedly.

  Josh scoffed and replied, “I have my own tools.” He went to the garage and returned with a tape measure then measured the distance between the two boards. “Twenty-six and three-quarter inches,” he said proudly. “Not bad.” He let the tape measure snap back inside then blew on it like a cowboy blew on the end of his pistol in a bad western movie. I had something Josh could blow on later.

  “I call Jazz for a partner,” Meredith said quickly.

  “You had him last time,” Chaz said with a pout. “You brought your plus two with you to the barbecue, pick one of them.”

  “They wanted to play on the same team,” Meredith told Chaz. “You gotta be quicker around here if you want Jazz on your team.”

  “I’ll be on your team, Chaz,” Kyle offered. “I’m pretty good.”

  “Really?” Chaz asked.

  “Are you asking me to confirm that I want to be on your team or are you questioning how good I am?” Kyle asked. Is it me or had Kyle’s voice dropped to a sexier timbre at the last part? The owlish way Chaz blinked convinced me I wasn’t the only one who heard it.

  “Let’s do it,” Chaz said boldly, then blushed furiously when he realized how his response could be taken a few different ways.

  Kyle’s smile spread slowly across his face showing the dimples that gave him his nickname. “Alrighty then,” he said gleefully.

  “What the hell is going on here?” I finally asked.

  “Cornhole,” Josh said as if that explained everything. “Oh, I forgot the bags.”

  “What’s cornhole?” I asked him, but he was already heading back to the garage.

  “It’s sort of like horseshoes, but you throw a square bag of corn at the hole in the board instead of a metal horseshoe around a stake in the ground. You get one point if your bag lands on the board and three if you toss it in the hole,” Chaz said, then went on to explain how the scoring worked.

  “So, I take it that Josh is good at this game since you two were fighting over him,” I said, gesturing between Chaz and Meredith with my tongs.

  “Of course, I am,” Josh said when he returned to the group. It would’ve come across as bragging with anyone else, but not him. He was stating a fact. He was one of those annoying people that did things effortlessly and made everyone else look bad.

  “I guess that means it’s you and me, Emory,” I told him. Hell if I was going to sit out.

  “I would’ve brought my boards if I’d known you were playing,” Kyle said. “We could’ve had a tournament.”

  “Where the hell did you store cornhole boards?” I asked him. I’d lived with the man for two years—one in Florida and one in Ohio—and I’d never seen a set.

  “I didn’t take them to Florida when I went to veterinary school and didn’t pick them up from my mom and dad’s house until after you moved out. I got away from playing and forgot how fun it could be.”

  “How much longer on the meat, babe?” Josh asked. “I need some serious protein for tonight’s festivities.”

  “Now we’re talking,” I said, perking up, even though I suspected we were talking about two different types of festivities. “Fifteen minutes.”

  “Perfect,” he said then went back to making sure everything was set out for our first barbecue.

  I had been confident earlier when I whipped up the barbecue sauce, but that faded when people eagerly waited to taste it. I hadn’t grilled for so many people before, and sweat began to pop out on my forehead. Josh came over a few minutes later and wiped my brow with a paper towel.

  “I sampled your sauce earlier, and I have to tell you that it’s amazing. I might’ve been doubtful about the ingredients, but together they are perfect. Like us.”

  “I’m so glad you like my sauce,” I told him honestly.

  “I love your sauce, Gabe.” I could tell we were moving into naughty territory and there was no time for that or I’d burn our dinner.

  My nerves about my grilling skills faded once the compliments started coming in. People volunteered me to grill every Sunday going forward, and Willa and Sally Ann asked for Granny’s recipe. Any side dish a person could want was available to our guests. My plate was loaded down with grilled meats, macaroni and cheese, coleslaw, baked beans, corn on the cob, and Josh’s potato salad. I was weighted down by so many carbs that it was a miracle I could move let alone play cornhole.

  Emory had never heard of the game either, so we were given pointers and allowed to have several tosses before the games started. We decided that the winner of each game would continue until they got beat or bored. I knew we’d need to beat Meredith and Josh for them to walk away from the boards. Their first challenge was Willa and Harley, who put up a good battle but were no match for their opponent. Josh and Meredith dispatched Emory and me quickly, which set up the showdown against Kyle and Chaz.

  I would never admit this to Josh, but I wanted Kyle and Chaz to win. It was cute to watch them interact, especially when they were the first team to take the lead against Mere and Josh. I stuffed my face with strawberry shortcake, so I had an excuse as to why I wasn’t whooping and hollering for my man to crush his enemy. The lead changed several times, and each time Chaz and Kyle got it back, the friendlier they got with one another. Their high-fives gave way to an excited hug at the end of the game.

  Josh wouldn’t admit it, but I knew that he purposely overshot the board on his final throw that gave his opponents the win. He confirmed my theory when he smiled at the victory celebration the two men shared. We swapped partners and played a few more games before it got too dark to see the boards.

  Willa and Sally Ann packed up leftovers for everyone to take home while the rest of us put up the tables and chairs. I could hear thunder rumbling in the distance indicating that a pop-up storm was heading our way. That prompted everyone to say goodbye and thank us for a wonderful evening, which was okay with me because I was ready for everyone to leave. I loved nothing more than listening to the sound of rain on the metal roof when I made love to Josh and later held him in my arms. It was the only thing I would miss once we moved.

  The sky opened up just as we waved off our last guest. That was when I tossed Josh over my shoulder and carried him off like he had expected me to that morning.

  Now we were talking. Yeah, baby, tossed over Gabe’s back and carried off caveman style. Maybe it wasn’t very enlightened to want Gabe to manhandle me, but damn I loved it. There was something so sexy about reducing your man to his baser needs where he could only rut and grunt because he wanted to be inside you so fucking bad.

  I expected Gabe to toss me down on the bed and start
tearing off our clothes, but he slowly lowered me to my feet so that I could feel how excited he was when my body slid down the length of his. I looked into his gorgeous brown eyes and realized it was going to be a slow burn kind of night with our emotions on display and not hidden behind rutting and grunting.

  Gabe cupped my face in his large hands and stared into my eyes. Thunder from the approaching storm rumbled louder and longer as it neared us. I thought it fit the mood perfectly since the emotions I saw in Gabe’s eyes were as stormy as the weather. I knew him well enough that I could easily name them: desire, devotion, and love—so much love. “It’s just the two of us now from here on out, and it’s a damn good thing because there will never be a man who loves you the way that I do.”

  Truer words had never been spoken, and they deserved a response that was equally honest and free of snark. I slid one hand around Gabe’s neck and covered his heart with the other one. “I didn’t know I was capable of loving someone the way that I love you; I didn’t know my heart could feel so full. I surely never dreamed that a man like you would love me the way you do.”

  We started undressing slowly and treated every inch of revealed skin like a cherished gift we’d been waiting for our entire lives; flesh that was too precious not to kiss or taste. There was a slight tremble to Gabe’s hand when he bumped his fingers teasingly along my spine and to his lips when he pressed them to the skin over my heart.

  “Gabe,” I whispered when he slid a finger along the crack of my ass to tease my pucker. There’d be no jokes about pleasure portals or anything else that night because it would cheapen what was going to happen between us.

  “My Sunshine,” he whispered back just as reverently.

  “Always.”

  There was no time for talking after that because our mouths were too busy kissing and catching the sexy sighs that escaped our souls. Gabe lowered me to the bed then followed me down. I spread my legs and opened my arms to him. He fit naturally between them because it was where he was meant to be. As excited as I was to feel him inside me, I didn’t want to miss a second of the buildup to the moment when he slid bare inside me for the first time.