Underestimated Too

by Jettie Woodruff

  “Ma’am,” I heard, shaking my internal rant.

  “Oh, sorry,” I apologized, handing him my card.

  I should have just let it go. I couldn’t. I felt like there was something in that deposit box that would give me something about Drew. It didn’t make sense. Drew had a hidden vault system at the house with more technology than a bank. It had to be his finger print and a thin beam of light shined in his eye before it would even let him put in a combination.

  Why would Michael or Drew get a deposit box at the bank? I knew how sophisticated the vault was. Drew explained it to me one afternoon, telling me how if anyone got into it without his physical traits, they would be sprayed with a massive amount of teargas. I couldn’t understand the purpose of the lock box, I thought as I headed home.

  “Hey, where’s my little man?” I asked, seeing Marta setting the table.

  “Drew heard him whine a little,” she explained, rolling her eyes. I smiled and went to find him in Drew’s office, I was sure.

  Opening the door, I laughed when I saw Nicky. He was no doubt Drew’s son. Drew had him in the middle of his desk, covered in paperwork, wearing nothing but a diaper. He was having a ball, crumpling up papers.

  “I hope none of that is important,” I said, taking Nicholas as he lunged for me.

  “No, I was shredding them. He was learning how to increase his margins.”

  “You were not, were you? You were thinking about what a pretty waterfall you could paint on the paper, weren’t you, buddy?” I asked, kissing his little cheeks as his fingers went straight for my earrings and Drew’s hand stung my ass.

  “He was not thinking about painting waterfalls. He’s going to be a business man. No son of mine is going to paint waterfalls,” Drew assured me, being extremely serious.

  “How about our little girl? Can she paint?”

  “Are you trying to tell me something?”

  “Heavens no, Nicky just turned one. I just meant if we ever have a little girl.”

  “Do you want to have a little girl?”

  “Maybe when Nicholas is like three or so. I’m not ready to be fat and pregnant again.”

  “You were never fat. You were a beautiful momma to be.”

  “Let’s just practice for a couple years.”

  “Mmm? I don’t know. I’m thinking I would like Nicholas to have a sibling to grow up with. If we had another boy they could be like two years apart.”

  “Forget it, Drew. We’re not having another baby right now.”

  “Why? You love Alicia’s baby.”

  “Why do you always call her Alicia’s baby? She’s Celeste’s baby too, and she does have a name.”

  “You’re just trying to change the subject.”

  “Drew, stop. We’re not having a baby right now.” Damn it. He wasn’t doing this right now. I didn’t want another baby yet. Nicholas was still a baby. I would put my foot down if he insisted on this.

  “We’ll discuss it later.”

  “No, Drew, there is nothing to discuss. We’ll talk about it in another year or so.”

  “We’ll talk about it when I say we’ll talk about it. Get out of here, Celeste just pulled up,” Drew ordered, kissing and dismissing me to leave him alone. I wouldn’t do it. There were just some things he couldn’t control.

  ***

  “Morgan, would you like to start where Drew left off last week?” Deidra asked after getting me coffee and Drew a drink.

  “I’d rather Drew do it. He tells it much better than I do.”

  “But your feelings are going to be different if you tell it from your side.”

  “I know. If there’s something I think needs a different explanation, I’ll interject.”

  “You were describing the months after Morgan’s return,” Deidra nodded to Drew to begin.

  “Morgan continued to fight her demons while I continued to do the same,” Drew began. “I wondered if it was the reason we clicked. Maybe it was the dark places we both came from. Maybe it didn’t matter that she didn’t remember. She knew. She knew something and the more she questioned it the more I begged her not to remember. I had confessed without confessing.

  We were so in love and the more time we put behind us the more we fell, the harder we fell. She felt the same way. I knew she did.” Drew was looking to me as he spoke.

  I didn’t need to interrupt. Drew was absolutely right.

  “She couldn’t keep her hands off me anymore than I could her. Everything was perfect. For the first time since I’d met her, I didn’t care that she conversed with Callaway. I liked it actually, I loved to listen to her talk about art, books, and composers that I’d never heard of. I often wondered how she knew all that she knew. I guess the books that she read. Lord knows it wasn’t from the kinky stuff I kept loaded on her e-reader for her.”

  I smiled, remembering the first time I had to read those damn things, especially when he’d make me read them out loud. I hated when he’d call me and tell me to read to him, knowing he was watching and listening to me. I hadn’t realized I snorted at my last internal thought.

  “Something funny?” Drew asked, turning to me.

  “No, I just thought about something that I used to think when you made me read the books you downloaded for me.”

  “What?” Drew urged.

  “I used to picture you in another state, watching and listening to me read while you jerked off,” I teased. Hey, he didn’t mind putting it all out there, why should I?

  “That’s exactly what I was doing,” he admitted with a sneaky grin.

  I shook my head with a smile, knowing he was telling the truth and feeling a quick twinge, thinking about Drew’s hand stroking his massive rod.

  “There’s nothing you can say that could embarrass me,” Drew tormented.

  “Really? Not even when I say how much I love watching that? Especially when I walk into the bathroom and catch you doing it in the shower, all alone,” I said in some sort of messed up seductive tone. Where the hell did that come from? Drew of course didn’t falter.

  “You’re not catching me doing anything. I know how much that drives you crazy. I do it when I want crazy shower sex. You always walk in the bathroom when I’m in the shower. All I have to do is have my dick in my hand and know you’ll be wrapping your legs around me before I get out.”

  “Damn, you’re good,” I admitted, not even feeling the crimson flood my face. We’d talked about so much kinky sex with Deidra, it really didn’t bother me.

  “The best,” Drew snidely remarked.

  Deidra laughed at us. “Okay, Drew. You were saying how much in love you were with Morgan,” she beckoned for us to stop being rivalries.

  “Oh yeah, my life was more than I’d ever thought it could be. Morgan was the reason for that. She truly was my whole world, and I would have poisoned her food everyday if there’d been a magic potion that would have kept her from remembering. Her remembering ate at me like nothing else. It consumed my days and nights. I’d lie awake watching her sleep, feeling remorse for all that I’d done to her, all that I’d taken away, and all that I’d kept her from experiencing for years.”

  Chapter 30

  “There was so much that she missed because of me. I never took her to a movie, a Broadway show, on a vacation, a honeymoon. She never had a girlfriend to shop and talk girl stuff with, do their nails, and complain about her man. I’d deprived her of everything she should have been experiencing.

  I stroked her hair while I watched her sleep. Her sleep was usually troublesome and she’d wake up and take something to get back to sleep. This was the part that haunted me most. Just like it always started, she tossed her head from side to side, moaned in her sleep and breathed quick, short breaths. Sometimes I could kiss her forehead, shush her, and soothe her nightmares away. Sometimes I couldn’t.

  ‘I’ve got you, baby. You’re okay,’ I soothed, holding her tight. This was one of those times I couldn’t stop it. She clung to me, calming her breathing, trying
to talk herself down.

  ‘Drew,’ she mumbled panicked and scared.

  ‘I’m here. You’re okay.’ I would comfort her over and over,” Drew spoke, looking at Deidra, “Morgan wasn’t okay. I made Morgan not okay. I had to come clean with her. I had to tell her everything regardless of the outcome. I had to tell her.”

  “You were going to tell me, Drew?” I asked, not knowing this. Why hadn’t he ever told me this?

  “Yes, I was going to tell you right before you remembered,” he said, turning to me and then back to Deidra. “I thought about it the whole time I was away from her on my next trip.” Drew continued, getting back to his story with Deidra as if I wasn’t in the room.

  Why did he do that? Grrrrr.

  “I was going to tell her when I got home that day. I’d send Marta away for the weekend and get it out. I had to, it was eating me up. If she chose to leave me, I’d live with it. If she chose to disclose everything to Callaway, I’d live with it. I didn’t care anymore. I had to make it right with her one way or another.

  I smiled when I watched her through the cameras lie to Marta and tell her I’d called and told her to take off for the weekend. She hummed some song that I didn’t know but knew it was familiar to her when she stopped and thought about it for a second before continuing. I was sure she was trying to figure out how she knew the country song while she prepared her surprise meal for my arrival.

  I didn’t get to talk to her that night. Derik had gotten there before me, dropping off some documents that I asked him to run over to the mansion for me. I could have killed him right there. Morgan was on the floor, and he was on top of her. Rage engulfed me; I threw him off her and hooked him in the jaw. He went off, blurting shit about me putting her in her place and how I should be treating her.

  ‘Get out!’ I screamed over and over. He needed to leave before I ripped his head off. I couldn’t believe he touched her breast. Who the hell did he think he was?

  ‘Are you okay?’ I asked, pulling Morgan to her feet.

  ‘Yeah, I’m going to get some ice,’ she sadly said, walking away from me.

  ‘Morgan.’ I tried to reach her. I could tell she wasn’t so happy to see me anymore. She pulled away and left me standing. I had no idea how to handle her upset. I never cared before. I did what I knew how to do. I went to my office and worked.

  I chose to go on the next trip. Things felt strained between us and I didn’t like it, nor did I know how to fix it. Maybe if I left for a couple days, she’d miss me. I’d come home, and we’d be back to normal, whatever that was.

  ‘Why are you leaving, Drew? Why didn’t you send Derik?’ she asked.

  ‘It’s something I need to take care of myself,’ I lied, moving onto my side of the bed.

  ‘I feel like it’s more than that. Are we okay?’

  ‘Let’s talk, Morgan.’

  ‘I sat up, forcing her out of my arm, wanting her to sit as well.’

  ‘Talk about what?’

  ‘Things, Morgan. There are things that we need to discuss, things I need to get out.’

  ‘No you don’t, Drew.’

  ‘I do. Can you just listen?’

  ‘Drew, please don’t do this. We’re fine. Don’t, okay?’

  ‘Morgan, what are you afraid of? What do you think I am going to tell you?’

  ‘I’m not sure, but you don’t have to say anything. Please, Drew. Just go on your trip and if you still feel the need to talk to me, you can do it when you get back, okay?’

  ‘Okay, okay,’ I said, calming her. She was really upset. Why? Was she afraid of the unknown? Or did she know?

  Thank god, the couple days away from each other seemed to help. I was able to clear my mind and was determined to tell Morgan everything. I had to. She had to know. She needed to know what a piece of shit mother and father she had. She needed to know they sold her to a man that didn’t want her, a man who used and abused her. My mind was made up. I was telling her everything.

  It didn’t happen, again. I couldn’t do it. Morgan was so happy to see me. She was so giddy and playful, I decided to wait. Ruining her good mood wasn’t going to happen, not that night anyway. We watched a ballgame together, ate ribs at the little sports bar she’d come to love, okay, I loved it too. They made the best ribs in Vegas. The country music could have been changed but Morgan liked it, so I dealt.

  ‘Oh, I love this, Drew. Buy it for me,’ Morgan teased as we walked around a pawnshop she’d found and had been browsing.

  ‘That thing came out of cereal box. What is it anyway? It looks like a pebble.’

  ‘It’s green sea glass, although I’m sure you’re right. It doesn’t look like an aged piece of sea glass.’

  We stared at each other while Morgan remembered something. I hated this shit. I had to tell her.

  ‘How about a gun?’ she retorted, trying to recover the awkward moment.

  I laughed. ‘What are you going to do with a gun?’

  ‘Shoot Derik between the eyes.’

  I laughed again. ‘Let’s get out of here,’ I coaxed.

  We walked through the streets hand in hand, flirting and being in love. We even seductively shared an ice cream cone. I hadn’t had an ice cream cone in years and watching Morgan lick it from cone to the tip caused my cock to twitch.

  ‘You act like you’ve done that before,’ I teased.

  ‘No, just trying to teach you how to do it.’

  I gave her an unbelievable look. ‘I never hear you complain when I do it.’

  She laughed and licked it again, leaving a cold clump of strawberry on the end of her tongue then she transferred it to my mouth. We stood in the middle of a busy sidewalk making out like a couple teenagers, and I didn’t care. What the hell was wrong with me? I didn’t do this shit. I had dignity and formality to live up to. I didn’t make out in the middle of the street.

  ‘Answer your phone,’ Morgan whispered, pulling away from my lips. I didn’t want to answer my phone. I wanted to take her home. The passion that sizzled between us was ridiculous. You’d think we were the only two people on the streets. You remember that night, Morgan?” Drew asked turning to me. I smiled with a slight nod and he continued, “I answered, ‘Hey, Randal.’

  ‘Where are you?’ he angrily asked.

  ‘Um, just taking a walk with Morgan, why?’

  ‘You’re supposed to be here. Remember? The Martins anniversary party? Ringing any bells?’

  ‘No, that’s tomorrow night.’

  ‘No, I assure you. It’s tonight. I’m giving you one hour to get my granddaughter over here. Do you understand me?’

  ‘Yes, we’ll be there.’

  ‘What was that all about?’ Morgan asked.

  ‘Evidently, we’re supposed to be at a dinner party with Callaway. He told me tomorrow night. I know he did. Come on.’

  ‘Drew, we’re in jeans.’

  ‘I know. We have to run home and change and get over there.’

  ‘Can’t you just tell him we’re not coming?’

  ‘No, Callaway doesn’t really work that way.’

  ‘And neither does his son.’

  I stopped and turned to look at her. I’d only told her that one time. And it wasn’t post-accident. ‘He’s not my father,’ I coldly replied.

  ‘Oh, why did I think that?’

  I didn’t respond, I held her hand and quickly dragged her back to the ball field to retrieve the car.

  We quickly showered together, dressing in record time. Morgan piled her long hair on top of her head, added makeup, and looked stunningly beautiful for a thirty minute turnaround time. I used to think Skyler wore red well. Morgan put her to shame.

  Callaway was pissed, I could tell. He didn’t tolerate anyone being late, but it was his fault. I even double checked. The email said Saturday, not Friday at all. I, of course, didn’t argue that fact with him. He lightened up after talking to Morgan for a bit, something she was forbidden to do before.

  I smiled over at her when
she gave me a look and ordered a bowl of strawberry ice cream. We missed the entire dinner, but neither of us really cared. We were living on love. At least I was. I didn’t need food. I only needed her.

  ‘Drew,’ Derik spoke, nudging my arm and breaking my trance with Morgan.

  ‘What?’ I asked. I was still pissed at him for his little episode with Morgan. He nodded and I sat up.

  ‘Shit.’ I wasn’t expecting to see her there. I hadn’t seen Skyler in months. She looked right at me, smiling like I was taking her home.

  ‘You don’t like the wine?’ Callaway asked Morgan. I can get you something else if you’d like.

  ‘No, it’s okay. I think I like beer a little more than wine.’

  I tightened my lips to keep from speaking. He was going to give me hell for that. I was sure. Ladies didn’t drink beer, they sipped wine. I shook my head at my unbelievable wife. Callaway had our entire table drinking beer from tall glasses. She had more control over that man than I ever did.

  ‘Go dance, I love this song, and I love to see you two dance together,’ Callaway persuaded. I didn’t really want to dance with Morgan. Skyler was there with her parents, staring me down.

  I placed her soft hand in mine and smiled down at her, leading her to the back corner away from the gazes of Skyler. Morgan wasn’t in my arms five seconds before we were both lost in a whirlwind of emotions. I didn’t care about Skyler, Callaway, or anyone else. Morgan was all I cared about, all I wanted for the rest of my life. It’s ridiculous, I know, but I swear we were making love right there on the shiny floor.

  ‘Drew,’ Morgan whispered. I looked down at her, and I swear she was fighting the same thing I was. The expression on her face was the same as it was when I was making love to her. Her lips were parted slightly, her eyes were closed, and she tilted her head just like she did when I was inside her.

  ‘What?’ I softly responded to the corner of her lips.

  ‘Take me somewhere.’

  ‘Somewhere like where? Morgan,’ I asked, having a good feeling of what she was asking.

  ‘It won’t take long. It’ll be quick, I promise. All you have to do is lift my dress.’