Home Is Wherever You Are

by Rose von Barnsley

  I just nodded.

  He let out a sigh. “This witch, Jennifer, used to call her a plain little mouse and tell her not to look at the guys in our group. I never dated the witch and glared at her for saying that crap, but that never stopped her. Addy went to high school with me, but we didn’t hang out in the same groups. She was quiet and mostly a loner. She didn’t really hang out with anyone.”

  I frowned. She sounded a lot like me. “But she’s so beautiful,” I said confused, and Kyle squeezed my shoulder.

  “I’m glad you see that, Bro. I’m sure the Sheriff will be cool when he finally meets you.”

  I looked at him confused. “Sheriff?”

  He laughed. “Her dad is the Sheriff in our hometown. Didn’t she tell you?”

  I shook my head no, paling a little bit.

  He just laughed harder. “Don’t worry, Matt, I’ll put in a good word for ya.”

  When I got home, my mom was just kicking on the A/C to make sure it was working properly, and she smiled as the cool air blew down on us. “Ain’t he the best?” she said with a dreamy look on her face. My parents had been madly in love with each other for forever. Even through my dad’s accident, which would have really strained most couples, they just banded together and became closer.

  My dad came wheeling in, and my mom dropped into his lap, kissing him soundly. “You’re a genius.”

  He chuckled and kissed her again. “And you’re beautiful.”

  He told me to call him if we had any problems with the unit, but I didn’t think we would need to. Addy came in and smiled at them cuddling and looked over at me. “So, how did it go with the test?”

  “Great, I’m sure I aced it, and my dad fixed your A/C.”

  My mom got up and walked over to Addy, hugging her. “I’m sorry we can’t stay longer, dear, but I know you understand. We’ve got to get back so I can work. I’m so happy we were able to meet you, Addy. I can’t wait for you to be our daughter-in-law.”

  She paled a little, but my mother ignored it and kissed my cheek. “I want grandbabies, boy, so don’t mess this up,” she warned. I was right. I knew my parents would take Addy’s side if I screwed up. I didn’t blame them, though. I would, too.

  The rest of the evening was uneventful. Addy had gotten used to my dad grabbing her feet and rubbing them. I grabbed the other one and began rubbing as well, trying hard not to let it show how her moaning was affecting me. My dad just smirked at me, so I guess nothing was getting past him.

  I was a bit surprised at bedtime, when Addy took my hand and led me back to her bedroom again. She smiled up at me and kissed me softly. I knew I couldn’t push it and pulled back a bit, so she wouldn’t notice my body reacting to her. Of course, it was all for nothing, because she pulled me down into her bed and snuggled into me, completely ignoring my stiff member between us. Her breathing evened out after a while, and with the help of hearing my parents having sex across the hall, I went soft. I would have to remember that for future reference if that room ever really did turn into the nursery. I wouldn’t want to traumatize my kids or anything.

  My parents left the next morning. They made me promise to keep in touch and told Addy to call if I gave her any trouble or was not rubbing her feet. My dad truly believed his job was to pamper my mother, and so that meant it was my job to pamper Addy. I had to say, I would love to be able to do that.

  Kyle picked me up later that morning and took me out on site. “We got your test results, man, and Christianson was impressed. You weren’t kidding when you said you aced it, because you really did. He has us working in a new subdivision. It’s all easy work, just pulling wires through open walls. It should be cake.”

  He was right. The work was simple, and we moved quickly. Several of the houses had the same floor plan, making it easy to get into a rhythm. Kyle gave me a heavy pat on the back by the end of the day. “We got three times the work done today,” he said and called Mr. Christianson. “Hey, boss, you wouldn’t believe the work we’ve gotten done.” He listened for a moment. “Nope, even sooner, we’re already halfway through the houses, maybe with us moving so fast, word will get out, and we’ll get more jobs.”

  Kyle nodded his head, as he listened to Mr. Christianson speak, and then he let out a laugh. “You just let them know they won’t be behind schedule because of us,” he smiled at me. “Yup, I know the place. Alright, we’ll go hit it, and then I’m taking my boy out for a drink to celebrate.”

  Once he was off the phone, he put the last of his tools on the truck and looked over at me smiling. “We have a show job to do. This guy’s a builder, and they’re looking for a new electrician. If we can get his company to pick us up, we’ll have work for a long time, and the pay’s great. He doesn’t do just houses, so this account is really important.”

  I nodded nervously, hoping I didn’t mess anything up. We arrived at a huge house, and my eyes popped wide in shock.

  A man stepped out on the porch and greeted us. “You were able to make it today. When I called Leon, I was under the impression you wouldn’t be here until later this week.”

  “Are your walls ready?” Kyle asked.

  “Yes, they are.”

  “Well, then there’s no reason to wait now, is there,” Kyle grinned and shook the man’s hand. Once we were inside, you could see the interior of the house was not complete. Kyle pulled me aside, and we looked over the blueprints. I ran to the truck and fetched the wire and tools to get right to work, as Kyle started drilling the prep holes for us. It took us a few hours to get the whole house wired, but we got it done.

  Kyle took the blueprints and walked through with me, as we made sure the work was to specs. The man had left, but Kyle called him and asked him to come do a walkthrough before we left.

  The man came back, wearing a huge smile. “Surely you can’t be done. The last guys we got an estimate from said it’d take three days to get this house done.”

  “What do they employ, sloths?” Kyle asked. “It’s a big job, but if you get off your butt and do it, as you can see, it really doesn’t take that long.” He passed his blueprints to the man, and they walked through the house, as I packed up the tools and loaded the truck.

  “You’ve done beautiful work. I’ll be sure to let Leon know I was very impressed. I have a feeling we’ll be doing business again very soon,” the man said, giving Kyle a creepy smile and shook his hand.

  Kyle joined me in the truck and patted my shoulder. “Boy, you did amazing for the first day at work.”

  I was glad he thought so, but I was exhausted.

  “I’m going to take you out for a drink,” Kyle clapped his hands.

  “Um, at the risk of sounding like a baby, I really would rather go home and get some rest.”

  He let out a hardy laugh. “I don’t blame you, boy. We worked a good sixteen-hour day with that extra job Christianson threw at us, but it’ll pay off in the end. Don’t worry, next week our days won’t be as long as this one. You did great.”

  He dropped me off, and I stumbled inside, completely exhausted. Addy looked at me and frowned. “Did Kyle overwork you?”

  “No, we just had an extra special job that was called in, but it went well. We got a lot done. I think the owner was impressed with me.”

  “Good. That’s good. Now eat up and go take a hot shower. I already changed the sheets on your bed, so you can just collapse when you’re done.”

  I thanked her, but I was frowning internally. I kind of liked sleeping with Addy, but now I really didn’t have a reason to. Maybe I could get my parents to come back for another visit, preferably soon.

  Chapter 11 – Who’s the Boss?

  I woke up to find Addy curled into my side. I smiled down at her and kissed her forehead, waking her up. She looked up at me and blushed.

  “Good morning,” I said and squeezed her a little tighter, letting her know I really didn’t mind her sneaking into bed with me.

  “Sorry…” she started, but I cut her off. There was no wa
y I was going to let her apologize for climbing into my bed.

  “Don’t be, I’m glad you’re here. I missed you when I went to bed last night.”

  She smiled up at me and pecked my lips gently. “I missed you, too,” she confessed, making me feel really awesome. I knew this was going to be a good day.

  “I’m picking up an extra shift today, and I’ll be working late all next week again.”

  I hated that she worked seven days a week. I frowned. “I don’t want you working so hard. I’m going to help you pay your bills now that I have a job, Addy. I won’t be freeloading.”

  “You’re not freeloading, Matthew.” She was about to go on, but I stopped her by kissing her.

  “Nope, I’m not. I’m working my butt off, trying to get my girl’s house comfortable, and I’ll be paying at least half the bills, so she can stop worrying about them.”

  She pouted like she was going to argue, but I decided to be bold and started kissing on her neck to see if that would distract her from the conversation. She let out a soft moan, making me smile, knowing it had worked. She flopped back, pulling on me, so I would hover over her. I wasn’t really sure what to do next, but I figured a little more neck nibbling would keep her happy. They had called making out necking, so I figured I was probably doing it right.

  I knew my body wanted to do a lot more, and apparently, hers did, too. She yanked her shirt off, leaving her in her in a soft cotton sports bra. Then she wrapped her legs around my hips, pulling me down to her. My hands were very tempted to touch her chest. She must have seen me looking down at her boobs, because she smiled and grabbed my hand and moved it over her cotton-covered breast.

  I kissed her again, silently thanking her for letting me touch her. It was so soft and squishy. I brushed my thumb over it and felt her nipple. She seemed to squirm and moan, when I touched that part of it. I was obviously doing something right. Well, I was until she turned and saw the time on the little clock in my room. She popped up, putting her boobs right in my eyes. I’d swear if she were any more endowed, I might have smothered to death, but what a way to go.

  “I have to get ready for work,” she said, squirming out from under me. I ended up kissing her shoulder and arm as she pulled away, causing her to laugh and hurting my ego, until she turned back and kissed me on the lips. “We can pick this up when I get home tonight,” she said smiling, making it all better. Yeah, I would be necking some more tonight. Was it still considered necking if I was touching her boobs?

  While Addy was at work, I decided to start working on the bathroom. She had bought some water-resistant sheetrock and some new fiberglass paneling to put up around the shower. I wanted to get the work done quickly, because it was the only bathroom. I was sure by the end of the day I would want a shower.

  When I started the demolition, I realized the boards behind the wall were moldy. I was going to have to treat them. She had a spray bottle with just a little window cleaner left in it, so I figured I would give the windows a washing and then fill it up with some watered-down bleach and scrub the boards. Hopefully, that would be enough to kill it off.

  I set to washing the windows and made it to the back two windows, when I could have sworn I saw someone moving around inside the house. I poked my head up to get a better look and sure enough, I saw a dark-haired man looking around Addy’s house.

  “Hey!” I said storming into the house. “Who the hell do you think you are?” I said pointing my mostly-empty window cleaner bottle at him.

  He looked at me and raised his eyebrow. “I could ask you the same thing. I’m an officer of the law.”

  I looked at him confused. “Are you under cover or something? Why are you here? Is it to follow up on the case about the A/C unit?”

  “No, I read the reports on that.”

  “Well, if you need to talk to Addy, she’s working. Otherwise, I’m kind of in the middle of something. You can talk while I work,” I offered and headed back out, finishing the last window and the last of the window cleaner. I rinsed out the bottle in the sink, and I saw the man just watching me. It was starting to make me nervous. “You got a badge or something? I mean no offense, but…”

  He pulled out his wallet and flipped it out for me. It looked authentic. I noticed it said he was from Woodville. “You’re an officer from Woodville? Did Addy’s dad send you to come and check on her?” I asked.

  “You could say that.”

  I nodded. This guy was too quiet for my liking, but I wasn’t going to let him slow me down. I filled the bottle and started spraying down the mold, and then I got a putty knife and a scrub brush and started mucking the crap out of the wall.

  “What are you doing here? It looks messy.”

  “It is. She needed to replace the shower wall, but I noticed mold growing back here. I want to get it cleaned out, before I close it up and fix it.” I looked over at the far side of the bathroom wall. “I’m probably going to have to do the other side of the bathroom as well,” I said, shaking my head.

  “How much is that going to cost her?” he asked.

  “Hopefully, once I get paid, nothing. I told her we’re splitting the bills, whether she likes it or not, and that includes house maintenance.”

  “You should have a bandanna or a mask over your face for that,” he said and handed me a bandanna from his pocket.

  “Thanks, man,” I said, tying it up. “So, I’ll bet her dad freaked out, when he learned some jerk was shooting at his daughter. I wish she would’ve woken me up to deal with him. She scared the crap out of me, running off like that and then seeing that guy point that gun at her. Thank heavens she shot him with the pepper spray first, blinding him,” I huffed, as I continued to scrub.

  “Well, pepper spray is a safe non-lethal way to attack a person, and they’re less likely to shoot someone.”

  “Tell that to the jerk who shot at my girl. No, if it were up to me, she wouldn’t have been out there. Of course, if you know Addy, you know she’s headstrong. Beautiful, smart and so sweet, but definitely headstrong,” I shook my head.

  “She can be a handful,” the guy nodded.

  “Yes and she needs her own personal caution sign with the way trouble follows her around. I don’t like her living in this neighborhood. I think if she kicked me out, I’d probably end up sleeping in her bushes, just to be sure no one messed with her. I’m hoping if we fix this house up, she can sell it, make a good profit and move somewhere safer.”

  “Woodville is very quiet.”

  “Yeah, I’m sure her dad would love to have her. I’ll bet no one messes with the Sheriff’s daughter. How is it on the work front? Do they have jobs there? I just got hired as a certified electrician’s apprentice.”

  “Don’t know if they have anything like that. You seem pretty handy, though, and there are a lot of older residents who could use a good handyman.”

  “That’d be kind of nice. I do enjoy working with my hands. I’d have to save up to pay for my insurance and licensing. Maybe I can look into it. Do they have a college nearby? I’m hoping to get Addy back into school. I don’t want her breaking her back for the rest of her life as a waitress. My mother’s been one all her life, and I’ve seen how tired and worn out she is. I’m sure Addy would qualify for all sorts of grants, especially with her dad being in law enforcement. I was telling her about it before, and she seemed sort of interested.”

  “There’s a college in Livingston, and they have a branch in Woodville. They have online classes as well she could take at the library in town.”

  “That’s a good idea. Maybe I’ll bring it up to her. Hopefully, she doesn’t bite my head off about it. She seems to have a good relationship with her dad. I never asked why she moved away.”

  “She was looking for work and found a waitressing job with more customers and bigger tips up here. She also saw this house online and was set on buying it. Said it was a good investment. I was worried it’d be a money pit, but it seems she’ll do alright with you helping her.”
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br />   “Yeah, so are you close to her and her family?”

  “You could say that.”

  “I didn’t catch your name,” I said, realizing that was a mistake. I had let my guard down after he had showed me his badge.

  I heard the front door. Addy was running in, making me worry. “Matthew?” she called, panicked.

  “I’m here, Addy.” I put down my mold scraping tools and pulled the bandanna off my face. “Are you okay?” I asked, rushing out to her.

  She looked over my shoulder at the man who was smiling at her. She let out a sigh and shook her head. “Daddy, thank you for not killing Matthew.”

  “Daddy?” I asked.

  “Nice to meet you, Son, you can call me Daniel.”

  “Was he nice?” Addy asked.

  “Um, yeah, actually, I think I may have talked his ear off,” I said, suddenly worried I had offended him. I quickly tried to recall the conversation.

  “So, I noticed you have separate bedrooms,” he said smiling. “Have you been treating my daughter right?”

  “Yes, Sir,” I said, feeling guilty for groping her this morning.

  “Daddy,” Addy chastened.

  “I just came to see who this guy was you had over at your house at three o’clock in the morning. I read the report. Did you think that would slip by me?”

  “No.” Addy sounded like she was going to argue more with him, but he cut her off.

  “Luckily for you, he made a good impression. You two just keep those separate bedrooms, and you’ll stay on my good side,” he said to me.

  “Daddy, I’m a grown woman.” She sounded very much like a defiant teenager.

  “I know, kitten, but you’ll always be my baby,” he said smiling at her, then he looked sternly at me, “But you two aren’t married yet, and until then, separate rooms.”

  “Yes, Sir,” I said automatically.

  “No! If I want to sleep with Matthew, I will!” Addy said, and I looked at her panicked. Was she trying to get me killed?

  “I’m just trying to look out for your best interest. Matthew here thinks you should move back to Woodville, too. The Smith place down the block is up for sale. It’s a really nice home, and I’m sure it’ll still be available by the time you finish up here and sell this place.”