by Rebel Wild
“I just hope Dad sees it.”
“Oh, don’t worry about your father. I’ve been wearing him down. I made him binge-watch every episode of Bay-Hot.”
Oh, God.
Banks sits nursing his coffee for what seems like a lifetime.
“C’mon, Dad cut the guy some slack,” Monty tells him.
Banks looks at him before putting down his cup to regard me.
“Well, I’ll tell you like this. I had some ideas about you and they weren’t good. A man your age wanting a girl not even out of school. I thought you were some kind of pedophile. I sure as hell wasn’t going to let you have my daughter, no matter how much my wife tried to convince me to give you a chance.”
“I can’t say I blame you under those circumstances. From the outside, I’m sure it looks suspicious, but her age has never been an attraction, or an unattraction, for that matter. It’s never been an issue either way.” I stick a finger in the collar of the shirt I’m wearing. Is it hot in here to anyone else?
“Have you gotten her pregnant?”
“Aw, Dad—”
“Quiet, Jr.”
“I can assure you, that’s not… no, she’s not pregnant. I love her and I want her to be my wife. Nothing more, nothing less.”
“That’s good to know. I had my mind against this whole thing up until I walked in here and I saw that smile Reagan kept laying on you. She’s not a girl known for smiling and being all giddy, but you have her walking on air.”
Sadly, I know he’s right about that. I plan on making her smile giddily as often as I can.
“Life has been hard on her, Reed. She hides it well and she handles it well, but that doesn’t make it any less unfair. We almost lost her to meningitis, but she pulled through. My heart broke when she woke up in that hospital bed terrified because she couldn’t hear. Dealing with being deaf, she almost lost herself to depression. But she’s strong like her mother. She pulled herself together, took her life by the horns, and made the best of it.”
“She’s stronger than I’ll ever be,” I say more to myself than to him.
“And she’s smart, level-headed, so I trust her judgment. The background check I ran on you came back clean, so that helped. I still don’t get the urgency of you two getting married, but you don’t strike me as a fly-by-the-seat decision-making kind of man either. I know my daughter was never one to rush into anything without thinking things through. So, albeit reluctantly... I give you my blessing.”
Thank you, God.
“I won’t let you down, Banks.”
“You damn well better not, if you know what’s good for you.”
“Yes, sir,” I tell him. I get up to shake his hand just in time to see Janine and Reagan coming out to join us.
The tough as nails man he just was disappears as he grins at her and she rushes in his arms. I can see the tears in his eyes as he holds her tight.
“Alright,” he says, when they pull apart. “Now that that’s done, I need to get back to the hotel. My coffee just kicked in.”
Janine shakes her head embarrassed by her husband while Reagan and Monty laugh.
I offered to put them up for the few days they’ll be here but Banks wouldn’t hear of it.
We walk them to their car. It’s a nice day out and I’ve made plans later for us to enjoy it.
“Baby girl, you finally got that sticker for your car,” Banks says, looking at Reagan’s car parked next to mine in the driveway.
“It’s been overhauled,” Janine translates what Reagan’s saying for my benefit. “Reed thought it was unsafe.”
“I’m liking you already,” Banks says. “I’ve been trying to get her to modify that damn thing since she got it last year. Now, listen, son,” he says, walking me away from our women. “How do you feel about fishing?”
“I love it,” I tell him the truth. The fact that he just called me son doesn’t escape me. “My family and I try to go at least once a year.”
“Now, that’s what I like to hear,” he says. “We should all make plans to go out together.”
I see Reagan look at her mother in question as we’re out of her lip-reading viewpoint. Janine smiles, amused at us.
“They’ve bonded over cars and fishing,” I hear her tell Reagan with perplexity.
Reagan laughs as they both shake their heads at us.
“Now, see that wasn’t so bad, was it?” Reagan says to me as we go back inside.
I won’t give her the satisfaction of responding to her teasing me. But I think I need a shower. My armpits are drenched with sweat. I get her attention long enough to ask who she’s texting.
“Myra,” she says as her thumbs fly over the keys. “I told her I would let her know the minute my parents left so we could start planning the wedding.”
I lift her chin to make her look at me.
“You told Myra?” I ask her and her breathtakingly gorgeous eyes widen at being caught.
“Uh... I... um, I may have mentioned it.” And here I was worried about Alex. “I swore her to secrecy,” she adds. I shake my head at that. Knowing my sister, I’m sure all of Dana Point knows by now. Reagan’s phone buzzes and she reads it. “I need a pen and paper,” she tells me at whatever it is Myra texted her back.
“In my office.” I don’t even bother to pretend I’m annoyed with her right now.
She heads off in that direction, waving to Ginger as she passes by.
“Mr. Dixon, I just finished tidying up the kitchen,” Ginger informs me.
“Thank you. Enjoy the rest of your day.”
“You too, sir.”
It’s taking Reagan a little longer than it should to find the pen and paper, so I go in to check on her. I find her looking over some paperwork she’s holding in her hands. I go over to her and she looks up at me with a frown.
“Baby?”
“Reed, what’s this?” I look down at the paperwork and immediately recognize it as the information I had one of the best otologist in the world send to me about hearing restoration. “I thought you were fine with me not being able to hear, but this whole time you’ve been meeting with specialists behind my back. Why would you do that?”
“Reagan,” I breathe.
She is a mixture of hurt and pissed and I know I need to handle this very delicately.
Shit.
Chapter Twenty
“Baby, sit down. Let me explain.”
She sits down in the chair while I go around to retrieve another file from my desk to give to her. She looks through the information of her medical file. I bit the bullet and had Buzz get the information for me. I needed to give the doctor as much background on her as I could for him to make an informed suggestion on how to proceed with her hearing restoration.
“I knew about the other file for work, but I had no idea about this one,” she says looking through it. “You knew? You knew all about what happened to me before I told you that night?”
“I swear I didn’t.” That night was part of a special gift that she gave me and I hate her thinking it wasn’t. “It was only until recently when I was talking about hearing restoration over with Sampson—”
“Sampson? He knows about this too?”
“I only asked him about his sister. I just wondered if it was possible to restore hearing. It wasn’t in her case, but it’s different for you.”
“Why didn’t you just ask me?”
“I didn’t want to bring it up if it wasn’t an avenue that would lead to anywhere positive. I was going to tell you. I just wanted to have all my ducks in a row first.”
“You’re not negotiating a sale for one of your yachts when it comes to me, Reed. I don’t like being researched.”
“I get that, baby. I would have told you. I was going to tell you.”
“Have you scheduled a meeting with this sp
ecialist? Because if you have then you need to cancel it. I’m not pursuing this.” She closes the file and tosses it on my desk.
“Reagan—”
“You had no right. You had no right to invade my privacy and making meetings with a specialist without consulting me. Especially when it’s none of your business.”
“None of my business? You’re going to be my wife.”
“Not if this is a sneak preview of life as Mrs. Reed Dixon, I won’t.”
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
“It means I wouldn’t like secrets being kept by my husband.”
“And I wouldn’t like being threatened by my wife.”
“Oh, it’s not a threat,” she says, getting up. She folds her arms across her chest. She’s furious but the gloss of her eyes as she stares at me is giving away how hurt she is. “I have every intention of making good on it.” She walks out and I watch her go.
I’m beyond pissed at her for not even trying to understand where I’m coming from but more so at myself for this fucked up situation I’ve put us in. I lace my fingers behind my head to stop it from exploding. This was not how this shit was supposed to go. How the hell did trying to help turn into her not wanting to marry me? If she thinks I’m going to let her make good on her intention to leave she’d better think again.
Once the pounding in my head goes away, I go after her. I find her in our bedroom looking out of the window. She turns around when she sees my reflection.
“Baby, will you listen to me for a moment, please?” I ask her, gently. She refuses to look at my lips to read them. “Hey,” I whisper, tilting her chin so she looks at me. “Baby, don’t.” I wipe the tears that fall from her eyes.
“You don’t think I want to hear again? I think about it. I think about it more now than I ever have. I want it more now since I met you.”
I’m devastated by this confession. I would never want her to think I’d want to change her or that being with me means she’s missing something in some way.
“Reagan, I love you. Even though my actions may seem to show differently, I had the best of intentions. I never want to make you feel like this is a problem for me. It’s not.”
“I know it’s not; that’s not what I meant. I just wonder what you sound like—what my name sounds like coming from your lips. I want your voice to wash over me when you tell me you love me. Before you, it was manageable. I missed hearing but there wasn’t much I hadn’t heard. Now, I just want to hear you.”
“I know what that’s like. I used to dream of your voice, remember? Mine isn’t as sweet as yours. You’d probably hate it.”
“I seriously doubt that.”
She takes in a ragged breath at my laugh.
“So, you’ve tried?”
“I’ve never tried.”
“Why? Was it the cost?” She shakes her head. “Then what?”
“It’s not as easy a decision as you might think. Sitting there having them examine you, only to find out that there’s nothing they can do. I just couldn’t handle it.”
“I get that, baby, but it’s different now. There may not have been much they could do back then, but technology has changed. Let the specialist see you.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because I’m scared, okay? There, I said it. I have had years to deal with this. But when I first woke up and couldn’t hear…” She shakes her head, shutting her eyes, trying to swallow the lump in her throat. I cup her face and kiss her forehead hoping to chase away whatever she’s remembering before letting her go. “My life depended on sound,” she says, swallowing again. “Then it was all gone. I hated the quiet. It was a deafening silence. God, you have no idea how accurate that phrase is. I would spend hours straining to hear something, anything, but I never could. I would pull at my ears hoping that they would unclog and something would get through, but the quiet was absolute. It still is, but I’ve made my peace with it. I don’t want to go stirring things up again, getting my hopes up for nothing.”
“Okay,” I kiss her tears away before caressing her cheeks with my thumbs. “Okay, baby I understand that. I do. But from what the doctor knows about what happened to you, he can help you get at least some of your hearing back. He’s as sure as he can be without seeing you. I know you don’t want to be disappointed. It’s one of the reasons I waited to tell you. I wanted to be sure that if you wanted to restore your hearing, there were options for you.”
“I wish you would have just left it alone.”
“I’m sorry, baby. I thought I was doing a good thing. I just want to make you happy.”
“Oh, my God, you’re guilt-tripping me.”
“What? No, I’m sorry—”
“If you say that one more time, I’m never letting you have sex with me again.”
I smirk at her pulling the ultimate woman card.
“I’m…” I stop when she gives me a look. I just shut my mouth.
“Can we just drop this for now?” she asks. “We need to get ready to meet up with my family.”
“Reagan. I love you, baby. Whatever you decide to do, it won’t change us. Tell me you know that and I’ll let it go.”
“I know and I know you meant well.”
She goes into the bathroom and I breathe easier, but the relief doesn’t last long. I’m fighting with myself not to walk in there and demand she see the specialist. I want to throw her over my shoulder and carry her to him to show her there’s nothing to be afraid of, but I know that’s the quickest way to fuck this all up. Alex made that mistake once with Myra. She was afraid of the water so he tossed her into the swimming pool. It took years for her to step foot in the pool after that.
Reagan’s aware she has a chance to hear again now. It’s in her head as much as she doesn’t want it to be and knowing my girl, I’m sure she’s thinking about it. Whatever choice she makes, I’ll respect it, even if it kills me.
“Damn, baby. Did you have to wear that?” I groan to Reagan as I watch her walk toward me.
She’s in an off the shoulders blue lose fitting mini dress with her hair back in a neat ponytail. I bend my head to run my nose over her shoulder, smelling her perfume before I kiss it.
“What’s wrong with it?”
“Nothing unless you count how I’m going to manage to not get a hard-on when I look at you.”
“Well, think of my dad cutting it off. That should do the trick.”
“That did it,” I say, feeling my dick retreat into the dark recesses of my crotch.
We spend the day sightseeing around Dana Point with her family, taking them on one of the tours around the harbor we offer. I take them out on our flagship yacht. It’s the very first one I designed and the bonus point was that her parents liked it. I loved watching Reagan with them. They have such a loving relationship. I can see how much they enjoy one another and I’m happy to be included. I treat them to lunch before they make the drive back to Cottage Grove.
Thinking of her dad only went so far. I still found myself readjusting my pants every time I looked at her, especially when I caught her checking me out with that bottom lip in her mouth. She was eyeing me like I was a hot meal she was ready to devour.
We behave ourselves just long enough to wave goodbye outside of their hotel room. When those brake lights are out of sight, I haul her ass in the car and ram my tongue down her throat. I only stop long enough to drive us home. Bags, shoes, and clothes leave a trail from the front door to our bedroom.
“Fuck, Reagan,” I moan as I slide in and out of her.
She’s on all fours with her ass in the air. It’s bright pink from me spanking her. I grab it while I pound her from behind. Her body quivers with orgasm as she calls my name. My knees nearly give way under me as my orgasm wipes me out and I collapse on the bed next to her.
I smile as I watch
her, already knocked out and softly snoring on her side as I spoon up behind her. Her hair is fanning the pillow, exposing her neck to me and I gently run my fingertips up and down the length of it.
She is so fucking perfect, every inch of her.
The conversation we had earlier replays in my mind and I am pissed at myself all over again for upsetting her the way I did. I kiss her neck, leaving her sleeping while I go to my office. I don’t know how long I’m at my desk before she comes in to join me.
“I hate sleeping alone,” she grumbles, still half-asleep in nothing but the blue shirt I had on earlier. I watch as she walks over to me. I take her waist while she straddles me. “Why aren’t you in bed holding me?”
“Too much on my mind, baby,” I tell her. “Reagan—”
“I want to see the specialist, Reed,” she says and I yank my head back to look at her.
“Baby, you don’t have to do that. I was wrong to even bring it up. I fucked up.”
“No, you didn’t,” she says, kissing me. “I love that you care so much about me. I don’t know what I would do if I ever lost that. If I ever lost you.”
“Never worry about that. I’m never going anywhere. Don’t even think about that.”
“Me either,” she says. “I’m sorry I said what I said. I’ll never threaten to leave you again.”
I smile before I kiss her.
“That bugged the shit out of me,” I tell her.
“I know. That’s why I said it.” Damn, she fights dirty. “I won’t do it again.”
“Thank you.”
“You’ll set up the appointment and come with me?”
“Nothing could keep me away.”
Two Weeks Later
It’s nowhere near summer yet, but judging by how I’m sweating, this damn sun doesn’t know it. We’re on the patio stretched out on the lounge chair killing time until Reagan’s appointment. She’s in light blue jean shorts and a halter top that looks absolutely stunning on her. The blonde streaks in her hair are catching the sun overhead and all I want to do is stare at her forever.
