“Oh look at that smile,” Dad says in a singsong voice. “Your mom said you got a girl you’re hiding from everybody.”
Holding the phone close to me, so that no one can see who I’m texting with, I chuckle. “I told her to leave it alone last night.”
S: What are you doing? Today is my turn to file. I’m back here in the filing room all by myself and bored as fuck.
R: Funny you should text me right now. I’m having lunch with Menace, my dad, and your dad.
S: Oh really?
Before I can text her anything else, my phone starts ringing. A picture of her smiling face displayed. Quickly I answer.
“Hey.”
Her voice is flirty as she giggles. “You’re with my dad?”
“I am.” I try not to let my eyes drift over to him, I feel like that would give me away.
“So.” That word is sassy as fuck and I’m scared to death. “If I told you that my nipples are so sore and sensitive where you had them in your mouth this weekend – what would you do? Like every time I move, they peak a little and rub against the lace of my bra. They’re still kind of hot and irritated from your tongue and teeth. I kinda love it, handsome.”
Son of a bitch. “Really?” I ask her. “Seriously, babe? You’re gonna do that to me right now?”
I can feel my dick respond to every word she’s saying, and I want badly to reach down, pull on my pants to give it some room. But I know, because there’s no more talking at the table, everyone is looking at me.
“Really. You uncomfortable?”
“Slightly.” My voice is strained, and I hear Menace stifle a laugh. Fuckin’ traitor.
“Since I’m back here by myself, I’ve spent all day thinking about what we did all weekend. Are we meeting tonight? Kels has plans. She’s watching Molly and Levi for Caleb and Ruby. So I can come over, if it’s cool with you. I can’t come until later though.”
I close my eyes, trying not to think about her. I’m imagining my fifth-grade teacher with no clothes on, but fuck it’s not working. A plate appears in front of me, the food I ordered on it.
“That’s fine, come whenever you want.”
“Oh trust me, handsome. With you? I come every time you want.”
Shit. “I have to eat lunch,” I blurt out.
She giggles, deep in her throat. “I’ll see you tonight, Ransom. It’ll be later, I’m meeting my mom and dad.”
“See ya then.”
“Bye.” She blows kisses into the phone.
When I lift my head up, everyone is staring at me. “What?”
“You got it bad, bub. Don’t know if you realize it or not, but you called her babe.” My dad knocks elbows with me again.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You so know what I’m talking about, you just don’t want to actually talk about it.”
I take a long drink of the cold water. “Correct.”
Across the table, Renegade’s phone rings. “Hey, Belle,” he answers, a huge smile on his face.
Now she’s going to call her dad, knowing she got me all hot and bothered? Damn…
“Yeah, your mom is gonna cook dinner. Ruby and Caleb are coming over. I think she’s already got the paperwork drawn up,” he’s saying as he takes a bite of his chicken.
“You better eat.” Menace gives me a look. “Don’t want it to get cold.”
I force myself to take a bite of my tongue-torching hot wings, listening to the conversation across the table.
“Yeah, bring whatever you want,” Renegade is saying. “If you don’t want to bring anything, that’s fine too. Whatever you have time for. See you tonight. Love you, Belle.”
When Renegade finishes his conversation, we talk more about the vote happening in the next few weeks. I wait until everyone is interested in something else, I palm my phone, flip it over and send a quick text.
R: Payback is a bitch, Stelle. I’m still sitting here with a hard-on.
She sends back a winking emoticon.
“Hey, I gotta take a piss. Can y’all watch Rambo? Stay,” I tell him as I hotfoot it back to the private bathrooms the employees and family members use at The Café.
Quickly, I lock the door, unbutton and unzip with one hand as I record with the other. I give myself a few strokes, a moan ripping through my throat. “Wonder if you’ll still be winking tonight when I come down your throat?”
I send the video and give myself a few minutes to calm down. As I’m about to leave, another message comes through. It’s a video too.
“Pretty sure I can wink and do this at the same time.” She’s got a popsicle, running it along her lips, circling the tip with her tongue before she slides it into her mouth. And as she closes her teeth around it, she winks. “I’m ready, handsome. Just make sure you are.”
Tilting my head back against the wall, I sigh heavily, before smirking and shaking my head. This woman…
R: I was born ready, babe. See you tonight.
Chapter 14
Stella
“I’m here!” I yell as I throw my stuff down on my parents’ couch. Even in my mid-twenties, that hasn’t changed. It’s what I did when I came home from school every day – kindergarten through twelfth grade – and what I do now every time I walk in.
“I love to hear those words out of your mouth every time you walk in,” Mom says as she comes out of the kitchen, holding her arms open for me. “Since both you and Nick moved out, it’s lonely around here.”
“No Mom, that’s why Dad’s here,” I remind her.
“He’s been working crazy hours lately with the implementation of what they hope will be the Laurel Springs Emergency Response Team. I’ve been hanging out with the girls, but I do miss you.” She holds me tightly.
I’m reminded that my mom is older, that even though she’s in great shape, doesn’t look like she’s in her sixties, and still keeps a routine like someone thirty years younger than her, she’s aging. I need to make time to spend with her. “I miss you too, things have just been totally up in the air.”
“I can imagine.” She lets me go and motions for me to follow her into the kitchen. “Come on, you’re early, let’s talk like we used to.”
Knowing exactly what she means, I take my seat at the breakfast bar, and watch her complete the meal she’s started.
“I remember when you first started sitting there.” Her voice is wistful, and I have to admit it takes me back too.
“The first memory I have is watching you make Christmas Candy on this bar,” I tell her. “I remember helping you stir the bowl while we made reindeer food. How old was I?”
“I’d say three, maybe four. Those chairs were way too big for you, but you wanted to sit up like a big girl. Your dad rigged something behind you to keep you sitting straight and then sat right next to you the entire time, ready to catch you if you fell.”
“That’s Dad, always there to pick up the pieces.”
“Yeah.” She turns to me with a huge smile on her face. “Even when you don’t realize you need him.”
“Is that what he did for you?”
Mom and I have had this conversation before, but I was much younger and probably wasn’t ready to hear about how my parents fell in love. Over the past few days, seeing Ransom take a vested interest in my going back to school? That’s taught me what it means when someone cares about you, and what’s best for you. Learning about the man he is, I’m almost pissed at myself I didn’t make a move that day I saw him getting out of the pool or the day I saw him in The Café. It makes me wonder. What did my parents see in each other? What made them fall in love?
“Yeah.” Mom grins, her blue eyes, so much like mine, twinkling. “I was married before. I don’t know if we ever told you that, or if anyone ever let it slip.”
“No.” I’m in complete and utter shock as I gasp out the word. “I never knew that.”
She brings the bowl of salad she’s making over so that she can stand to face me as she talks.
There’s a catch in her voice as she starts her story. “I was, I was married for a few years actually. He and I, we never should have gotten married, didn’t see eye-to-eye on much. He laid his hands on me a few times, and once Trevor got wind of it, your uncle took care of him. He got me out, helped me file for divorce, and I was living my life. The only thing that bothered me was that I couldn’t have a child. My first husband, he always said it was my fault we couldn’t get pregnant. Every month when I would get my period, we would be at each other’s throats. That’s when it would get physical, because I wasn’t woman enough for him.”
There are tears in Mom’s eyes as she tells me about this time in her life, one escapes sliding slowly down her face. I hate this man who did this to her, and I hope I never meet him. “You’re the womanliest woman I’ve ever met,” I assure her, holding out a tissue.
She takes it with a smile. “I know that now, but back then, in the moment it was such a blow to my self-esteem. I just couldn’t get out from under it. After the divorce, I was lonely. All our friends had been his friends. He’d done the isolation thing well, and at the end of the day I was left with a house and my business. That was basically it.”
“Mom.” I reach out grabbing her hand. I can’t imagine anyone doing this to her. Not my strong, independent, loving, always polite mother. If I knew who this asshole was, I’d kick him in the balls myself.
“One night, I had enough. I went to a bar and drank a lot of wine.” She laughs now, reminding me of what she probably looked like back then. “Your daddy found me there, and I said a lot of things to him.”
“Like what?” I’m curious now that she’s brought it up.
“If I remember correctly it was along the lines of ‘I need my ass smacked’ and things like that.” She blushes as a smile spreads across her face. “Things I am embarrassed to admit now.”
“I can’t even imagine you saying those things.” I go over to the fridge and pour us each a glass of wine.
As I come back over, I give her one, then retake my spot at the counter with mine.
“Oh I did.” She nods. “I said them all, and he gave me a night like I’d never had before. When he woke up the next morning, he thought we were gonna be together, but at the time, I very much wasn’t ready for that. I assumed it was, for lack of a better explanation, a pity fuck, to be completely honest. I only admit this to you to let you know what kind of a mindset I was in at the time.” She laughs now. “I mean I was ten years older than him. What could he want with me? He raised his hand to touch my cheek and I flinched. I’ve to this day, never seen anger spark so fast in your dad, as when he realized why I flinched.”
“I imagine that pissed him straight off.”
“It did,” she takes a sip of the wine, before she goes on with her story. “It’s funny, how almost twenty-nine years later, I can still remember all of this as if it were yesterday. We didn’t talk after that, not for a few weeks. He obeyed my wishes and stayed away. But then, I found out I was pregnant with you.”
“Oh my God, I’m the product of a one-night stand?” I almost lose the drink of wine I’ve just taken as I clamp my hand over my mouth. The words come out as a gurgle, but Mom gets what I’m asking because she laughs.
Ever graceful, she gives me a happy smile. “We like to think of you as the catalyst that showed us exactly what we’d been missing.” She laughs along with me. “Although it didn’t take us long to get married and realize we belong together. It’s kind of why we never really tell people how long we’ve been married. We never wanted people to think we got married because I got pregnant. We got married because we wanted to, but you know how people act about things like that, even today.”
“No I totally get it; you don’t have to explain yourself to me.”
“But off the topic, do you have someone picking up the pieces for you?” she asks softly, her eyes narrowed as she gets a good look at me.
“I wouldn’t say picking up the pieces, because I’ve never had to deal with the things you dealt with, but he is showing me there’s more to life. That maybe my dreams aren’t as stupid and beyond my reach as I once thought.”
She stops slicing the carrots, giving me a look. “Is that why you didn’t bat an eyelash when I mentioned bringing Ruby into the business? I know it’s never been your thing, and I never have wanted to pressure you into doing something you don’t want to do. Have you found something that you’re dreaming of doing?”
“I have.” I take a healthy drink of my wine. “I’ve applied for nursing school, and I know that won’t be cheap. I’d like to use my proceeds to do what has become a dream of mine. That and the money you and Dad put back for me. It’ll be hard to work full-time while I do this, so I’ll need all I can get.”
“Belle, that’s amazing!” Mom comes around the corner of the breakfast bar, opening her arms to me. “I never knew you wanted to do that.”
“I didn’t either until I started medical assisting. I want to do more, I really love it. It fills a piece of me that I didn’t know was missing. He made me see that.” My gaze becomes unfocused as I think about the differences Ransom has already made in my life. In five or six months if we’re still together, what will my life be like? How will he have influenced my way of thinking? Into making me a better version of myself. He’s the positive influence I’ve needed all along. Of that I’m totally sure.
“So when do I get to meet him?” she asks softly.
“It’s really new.” I shake my head. “It’s somebody I’ve known for a long time, and I just started looking at them differently,” I admit. “I don’t even know where this is going.”
“Yeah, well.” She finishes off her glass of wine. “Those were the same thoughts I had about your dad after one night with him, and look where we ended up. Married, raised two kids, and now empty-nesters who’ve spent almost half our lives together. Sometimes things just don’t go as planned. They go better. The universe knows what you need more than you do.”
“I guess you’re right, but I’d still like to keep him to myself - it may not work out.”
“You do what you need to do, Belle. Just know that when the time is right, we’ll meet him and welcome him into the family with open arms.”
There’s a part of me that wonders if that’s true. Just because of the connection Ransom has with Dad, but I know one thing, if Mom thinks Dad is unreasonable, she’ll let him know first thing. “That means a lot,” I hug her tightly.
The doorbell rings right as she releases me. “That should be the Harrisons. You want to set the table while I go greet them? Your dad should be here soon.”
“Yeah, I’ll set the table.”
I watch her walk into the living room with tears in my eyes. I’m not sure why I’m having such a moment, maybe it’s because for one of the first times in my life I feel like I’ve made an adult decision. One that I can stand up for and stand by. One I can be proud of. As I’m taking the food to the table and I hear Mom greeting Caleb and Ruby in the living room, the back door opens, and in comes my dad.
“Hey.” I wave at him.
“Gosh it smells damn good in here, where’s Mom?”
“She’s in there with Caleb and Ruby, I’m just gettin’ the table set.” I indicate all the food that needs to be moved.
He stands next to the catch-all in the kitchen removing his gear, placing it where he’s put it for the last twenty-eight years of my life. I watch him, like I’ve watched Ransom, and I feel a pride in my dad I’ve never felt before. As I put the last dish on the table, and he finally removes the last of his tactical gear and shoes, I rush over, hugging him tightly.
“Don’t know what brought that on, but I’ll take your hugs any day, Belle.”
“I’m proud of you, Dad, and I just wanted to tell you I love you.”
He drops a kiss on my forehead. “Proud of you too, kiddo. I love you more than you know. Tell your mom and our guests to give me about fifteen? I’m gonna take a quick shower
.”
He lets go of me and hurries through the kitchen, down the hallway, back to where their room is. I give myself a few minutes, square my shoulders, and walk out to meet everyone else.
What happens here, it will change the course of my life as I saw it. It’s taking a new direction, thanks to Ransom and his belief that I can do absolutely anything I set my mind to.
Chapter 15
Stella
I’m nervous as Dad clears the table of the dinner dishes. My hands actually shake as I smooth the skirt of the dress I wear over my thighs. “Do we want some dessert?” I ask with what I know is more exuberance than is needed.
“I got a chocolate cake at The Café today,” Mom says from where she sits.
“Great, I’ll make some coffee to go with it.”
The thing is, I need something to do with my hands, need something to keep me from blubbering like an idiot. If someone were to ask me why I’m so nervous, I can’t really say. It just feels as if a big part of my life hangs in the balance of this outcome.
“You don’t have to be nervous,” Dad tells me as he loads the dishwasher and I start the coffee pot.
“I shouldn’t even be.” I shake my head as I open the cake container, cutting us all pieces.
“It means a lot to you.” He finishes the dishwasher, before coming over to stand next to me. He leans with his back against the counter, crossing his arms over his chest. “The things that mean the most are always nerve-wracking.” He gives me a grin. “In fact, I can remember standing in this kitchen, and your mom telling me that she was going to give me a shot with her. I don’t think I’ve ever been so nervous in my life since then.”
“Anybody ever tell you, you’re a sappy old man?” I laugh as I tuck my hair behind my ears.
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