by Cee Bowerman
“Should I start the grill?” I asked her with a smile.
“Oh, I was going to cook them,” Reba smiled. “If you don’t mind.”
“Not at all,” I put my hands up and smiled. “I’ll be your sous chef.”
“Okay, go sit down,” Reba pointed to one of the bar stools across from the sink area. “Let me see what I have to work with.”
I watched her look around the kitchen, occasionally pulling things out of the cabinets when she found something she wanted to use. She went through the grocery bags I’d brought in from my truck and smiled when she saw I had potatoes, onion, lemon, and a few other things.
“You’re beautiful,” I blurted out into the silence of the kitchen.
“Thank you,” Reba directed her smile at me and I melted just a little bit. “You’re pretty damn handsome yourself.”
“Tell me about your kids,” I suggested, hoping to get her talking a little more so I could get to know her better.
“Well, Cyrus is an uptight bookworm who knows more than anyone else and Vada is a high maintenance 7-year-old-going-on-20 demon from hell.” Reba pursed her lips and looked up at me. “That’s really the best description for both of them.”
She and I laughed together for a minute before she continued.
“Cyrus is in first grade but he reads at a fifth grade level. He likes silence, books, fishing, and dirt track races. Vada has got a mouth on her that’s going to either get her put in prison or political office. Some days, the scales are pretty even about which criminal future she might be leaning toward, but other days it tips pretty hard.” Reba shook her head while I laughed. “Cyrus takes guitar lessons and Vada takes judo. Both of them would rather be outside than in, although Cyrus likes to find a shady spot so he can read and Vada looks for things she can set on fire.”
“They’re cute kids,” I told her. Both of them had been very polite the other day at my brother’s house while we were eating dinner. Vada had regaled the family with the efforts she had put in at fixing Greer’s car while Cyrus sat with a book hidden in his lap and ignored us while he read a little more. Reba hadn’t had to get on to either of them, verbally at least. But I’d seen her give silent cues to them with hand signals or pointed looks. “You can tell that the two of them are happy.”
“They are mostly,” Reba shrugged. “It’s getting harder to explain their dad’s absence. They ask more specific questions now and I can’t just blow them off.”
“Vada told me he didn’t have his priorities in order. Then she asked me if I had any priorities. When I said yes, she asked me if they were in order. I’m pretty sure they are.” I laughed as Reba just shook her head. “What are your ex’s priorities?”
“Scoring drugs. Finding money to score drugs. Stealing anything that’s not nailed down so he can pawn it for money to score drugs. Transporting drugs so he can have a cut of them. Getting arrested for transporting drugs. You get the picture.”
“Damn. Sad to hear.”
“Yeah, I haven’t told either of them about that sort of stuff, but if you’re going to be around us you should know. He has no ties to the kids. I left everything we acquired in our marriage and didn’t ask him for a dime if he would grant me full custody.. On a whim, I suggested he terminate his parental rights because I could see the path ahead of him clear as day. He did it with no argument. He let them go way too easily and they’re better off without him around.”
“He signed them away? Just like that?”
“Just like that,” Reba scoffed. “When his mom found out what he had done, there was a mushroom cloud over our hometown for days. She threatens to sue me for custody occasionally and generally does whatever she can to make my life difficult, but then months go by without a peep.”
“When was the last time you saw her?”
“Oh, I haven’t talked to the woman in years,” Reba laughed. “I let my Aunt Sandy have that little nugget of joy. She loves going toe to toe with the ‘rich bitch’ as she calls her. When Ellen shows up at the house, I keep the kids away from the door and call Aunt Sandy. The other night, I was about to turn down our street and realized she was parked in front of my house so I just drove on. That was the night Finn called for me to help Lena and we had pizza with all of you.”
“She was at your house then?”
“Yeah, but Aunt Sandy ran her off.” Reba shook her head. “Enough about that. Tell me, why are you single?”
“Well, I don’t know,” I stammered. “I guess because I want to be?”
“Is that a question or a statement?”
“A statement?” I had no idea how to answer her question and it showed.
Reba laughed at my discomfort for a second and then walked around the bar to give me a kiss.
“You’re funny when you’re flustered.”
“Shit, I don’t know why I’m still single. I’ve dated some, there just wasn’t any spark there.”
“Spark?”
“Yeah,” I nodded my head and dropped a little kiss on the end of her nose. “Like a jolt of electricity every time we touch. A spark.”
“Oh,” Reba breathed. “That.”
“You feel it too?”
“Yeah,” Reba whispered right before I put my lips on hers.
Food forgotten, I had her ass up on the countertop in a heartbeat. He spread her knees out so I could lean in between them as I kissed her deeply.
“We’ve got to be careful,” Reba muttered as I kissed down her neck. “I’m not on birth control.”
“I fucked up earlier,” I admitted. “But there was a box of condoms in the dresser and being the boy scout that I am, I put three of them in my pocket before I came downstairs.”
“Three?” Reba asked as I slapped them down on the counter beside her hip.
“Shoot for the stars,” I mumbled as I worked her shorts off as she leaned back and forth for me. “There are still nine more in the box upstairs if this isn’t enough.”
“When will your brothers be here?”
“We have time,” I groaned as her soft hands rolled the condom down my erection. “Fuck. If you keep touching me like that, we’ll have time to do this twice before they get here.”
“Inside me. Now.” Reba gasped as I followed her directions and entered her in one smooth thrust. “Oh, damn.”
The counter was the perfect height so I scooted her closer to the edge and thrust up inside her again. She held me close by wrapping her legs around my waist and held my mouth to hers with a grip on my hair. We were a tangle of lips and limbs and the sounds our bodies made as they came together was almost as loud as our moans as we both got closer to climax.
“Harder, Mace,” Reba grunted when I slammed into her and I watched her head fall back in ecstasy. “Oh yeah. Just like that.”
I kept the same rhythm and movement just for her and in just another minute, she was coming apart in my arms, her screams echoing around the cabin. I felt her muscles contract and lost myself, grunting as I filled the condom. I thrust inside her one last time and felt the condom break.
My eyes got wide and so did Reba’s and I jerked my hips back even though it was too late.
“Well, shit,” I whispered as I reached over and grabbed a paper towel. I put it between Reba’s legs and held it there until she grabbed it and jumped down off the counter. I watched her hurry into the bathroom before I had the presence of mind to look down at my now wilting cock with the empty condom hanging on by a thread. “Shit. Shit. Shit.”
I grabbed another paper towel and took care of what I could before I followed Reba to the bathroom. I found her standing in front of the vanity, her hands on either side of the sink as she stared at her reflection in the mirror.
“You alright?”
“Yeah,” Reba laughed softly. “I’m okay.”
“I’m sorry.” I shook my head and started to explain myself, “They’re not out of date. I checked.”
“It’s not your fault, Mace.” Reba smiled at me. “Mechani
cal failure. Nothing is 100% all the time.”
“Well, we’ve skirted the line twice already today and then when we tried to do the right thing look what happened.”
Reba watched me in the mirror and I shrugged, still not quite sure what to say.
“If I turn up pregnant what will you do?”
“Love our baby until the day I die?” I shrugged. Reba had moved on to an entirely different topic. I still wasn’t sure what to say, so I answered the only way I knew how. “I’ll make you love me, marry you and your kids, let you crush my hand during labor, and then change all the dirty diapers so you don’t have to.”
“Well, I did some calculations and I don’t think we’re deep in the danger zone right now, but we need to be careful going forward.”
“Will do. Any chance you can see a doctor soon?”
“I’ll call Monday as soon as they open.”
“No sense crying over spilled milk,” I chuckled. “Or spilled…”
“Don’t you dare finish that sentence, boy scout.”
◆◆◆
“Let me make sure I’ve got all the details straight.” Royal looked from me to Reba and then back again. “She caught the fish, cleaned it expertly, and then cooked it like a gourmet chef?”
“Yeah.” I took another bite of the fish that Reba had prepared. She had lightly breaded the filets and pan fried them, then made a lemon, garlic and herb butter sauce that she drizzled over each piece as she put it on the plate. She’d roasted some potatoes and onions and made a simple salad with the greens I’d brought. “This is better than anything I’ve ever eaten in a nice restaurant with a professional chef in the kitchen.”
I was looking at my plate and felt movement around me and was shocked when I glanced up and saw Ronan on one knee beside Reba’s chair as he reached for her hand.
I heard a growl and it took a second to realize it was coming from me.
My brothers heard it and they all thought it was hilarious.
“Reba, I know we’ve just met, but I feel such lemony garlicy passion for you that I can’t hold it in any longer. My heart flutters at the thought of what else you can make in the kitchen and my pocketbook is open for you anytime you feel the urge to go to the grocery store for supplies. Please be mine and cook for me every night for the rest of our lives.” Ronan lifted her hand and kissed Reba’s knuckles softly, his eyes closed. Reba had her hand over her mouth as she tried to chew her food and I could tell it was killing her to hold in her laughter. Ronan started kissing his way up her arm and I reached over and slapped him in the back of the head. “Hey! Back off!”
“Me Mace, you cavewoman who cooks with fire. Ugh. Ugh.” Royal grunted across the table from me. “But seriously, Reba - how are you with desserts and sweets?”
“All my sweet stuff goes to Mace, boys.” Reba laughed as she shook her head. “But I can make one hell of a cobbler. If you all behave I might just make one for dinner tomorrow night.”
My brothers and I laughed and I only half-jokingly glared at Ronan as he got back in his seat.
Reba got up and when she walked behind my chair, she put her arms around my neck and whispered in my ear, “You want more of my sweet stuff, big guy?”
I smiled dreamily and that got my brothers to laughing again. The assholes.
9.
“Wow, so he and Angus are really twins.”
Ronan
REBA
“This has been the best weekend.” I tiptoed up and gave Mace another kiss before we had to go our separate ways. “Thank you.”
“I loved every minute of it, babe.” Mace smiled down at me and shook his head. “Even the hangover, the sunburn, and the fact that you caught twice as many fish as I did.”
“Thank you for letting me hang out with you and your brothers.”
Royal, Ronan, and Tavin had come to the lake to have dinner with us on Friday night and had spent Saturday at the cabin with us. This morning after we’d made love one more time, Mace and I had a late breakfast, cleaned up the cabin, and then came back to town to get ready to start our week tomorrow.
Now I had to go run to the grocery store while planning this week’s menu on the fly and get started on last week’s laundry while I picked up the house and waited for my aunt and uncle to bring my kids home from their weekend at the lake.
What had started out as an afternoon date with Mace had turned into a wild and fun weekend with him and his brothers, peppered with alone time with Mace, and some naked fun. Now Mace and I were standing in the parking lot of my work as he dropped me off at my car almost 48 hours after he picked me up.
“When will your kids get home?”
“They usually bring them home right around dinner time. We’ll have dinner together while they tell me fishing stories and then do the usual bath and bedtime routine.”
“So our bathtub phone call tonight?”
“Yes, please,” I smiled up at him. I didn’t want our weekend to end. I missed my kids, but was glad that we’d had a weekend apart. Now it was back to the grind of single parenthood and the worry about Travis and his mother wreaking havoc on our lives.
“When can I see you again?”
“Lunch this week?” I asked him. “I have to look at the calendar and see what the kids have going on. I’ll let you know if I have a free evening for dinner or something.”
“Okay. I’ll start planning our next date.”
“It will pale in comparison to this one.” I kissed him long and slow one more time before I pulled away. “Thank you, Mace.”
I got into my car and started it up. I drove off with a little wave as Mace stood there in the parking lot watching me drive off.
At a stop sign, I shot off a quick text to my cousin to let him know I was headed home. Within seconds, he called me.
“Hi, Sonny.” I smiled as I laid the phone on the console so I could talk to him on speaker while I drove to the store.
“Hey, Squirt. Got some news.”
“Oh, no.”
“Yeah Jace stayed over at your house just to see if anybody showed up. Travis knocked on the door in the middle of the night. When Jace answered, he took off at a dead run. Travis’s mom has driven by the house six times this morning that Jace has seen, could be more. She’s waiting on you.”
“Shit.” I slapped the steering wheel. “The kids come home this evening.”
“Yep. I talked to Sandy about an hour ago and they plan on being here about 6:00.”
“Okay.” I glanced at the clock and saw that it was just past noon. “I’m going to the grocery store and then I’ll head home.”
“Which store?”
“I can go in by myself, Sonny. There will be people everywhere.”
“Did I ask you that question?”
“The one on Carolina and 15th, close to my house.”
“Drive around for 10 minutes and I’ll meet you there.” Sonny hung the phone up and I took a deep breath as I started to slow down for a red light. For all I knew, we were making a bigger deal out of this than it should be, but it did scare me a little that Travis had shown up at my house in the middle of the night.
Travis had been in Dallas when he was arrested last, so why in the world was he all of a sudden showing up in Rojo? All the parts of Travis that I had loved were either gone or buried under years of addiction and I didn’t have any illusions about him being dangerous. What I didn’t understand was why Ellen wanted to talk to me so urgently.
I circled the block three times and on my last round, I saw Sonny in the turn lane headed into the grocery store parking lot. I put on my blinker and let him ride in ahead of me. Once we were parked, I gathered up my purse and got out to meet my cousin.
“Well, you look like you spent a wild weekend at the lake.” Sonny laughed as he pulled me in for a hug. “You’ve got about 300 more freckles, a bit of a burn, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this rumpled before.”
I was wearing a pair of shorts that Mace had given me at th
e cabin. I presumed they had belonged to one of his sisters. The oversized t-shirt I had on said ‘Conner Brothers Construction’ in big letters across the back and the CBC logo was over my left breast. My hair was up in a messy bun on the top of my head and I needed aloe vera for my sunburn, a manicure for my hands, and at least a gallon of moisturizer for every inch of my skin. Even though I was stressed from what Sonny had already told me, I was more relaxed than I’d been in years.
“I caught a lot of fish, though.” I smiled up at him as he let me go.
“You look happy.”
“I am.” I took his arm as we walked into the store. Sonny and I had always been close. After an incident at his mother’s house when he was young, he and his little sisters had moved in with our Uncle Tink and Aunt Sandy. Over the years, when my mother had been carted off to jail or just decided she didn’t want to be a parent for a while, I’d lived in the house with our aunt and uncle along with Sonny and his sisters. Sandy and Tink had kids of their own, but they were a few years older than us, so Sonny and I gravitated toward each other and had remained close even when he had spent years in prison and I had moved away. “I like this guy.”
“Which Conner is it?”
“Mace. Do you know him?”
“Yeah.” Sonny nodded. “I’ve met him a few times. Wouldn’t call us friends, but he seems like a good man.”
“I think so too.”
“Is this going to be a thing?” Sonny grabbed a grocery cart and pushed it beside me as we walked into the store.
“Yeah,” I smiled. “I think so. I mean, we had our first date on Friday, so I’m not sure where this is headed. I’d like to think it’s going somewhere.”
“Your first date lasted two days and two nights. I think that train has already left the station, Squirt.”
“Yeah, I think you’re right. How’s Brenda?”
Sonny’s whole face changed and I smiled as I listened to him talk about his wife and daughter. I was happy that the two of them had found their way and excited to see Sonny as a father. I knew he’d be great at it, even if he wasn’t confident.
