Strangers with Benefits (Siren Publishing Classic)

by Jennifer Willows

  “Okay, Mom. You were right.”

  “Thank you. How hard was that?” she asked as if Den didn’t look confused within his own four walls.

  “She hung up my clothes in the closet,” he muttered.

  Sidonie knew Den loved his unorthodox manner of using his hampers as dressers.

  “That’s going to help out a lot.”

  “Down to the underwear though?” Sidonie couldn’t help it, she laughed out loud and his mom joined right on in.

  “I know it’s a little much, but I couldn’t resist. He needs some organization in his life,” his mom chirped.

  Sidonie chuckled. “So what are you going to do today?”

  “Oh, nothing much, just redo the pantry and change his bathroom stuff. He’s had that curtain for two years now.”

  Den sighed, a long suffering sound that made Sidonie grin and rub his arm. “We are headed to the beach this afternoon if you want to go.”

  “I sure would!” Mrs. McTavish beamed. “Earl and I never get the chance even though we live so close.”

  “I know that feeling.” Most would assume that living by the beach meant sunny days on the sand.

  After a while, the sand and surf held little lure as it was nearby. It was odd, but living in a tourist trap only made her want to see something new. She wouldn’t mind looking at snowcapped mountains. That would be a worthwhile vacation.

  It was something different and something novel, and the beach just wasn’t that. But the kids loved it and as free amusement, the oceanfront couldn’t be beat. They could park right on the street and walk out to the sand. She could carry food, or eat at one of the numerous places right on the strip.

  All for the cost of a gallon of gas. She took advantage of it, but it wasn’t her favorite thing to do.

  “How about threeish?” she asked.

  “Can we get a real time?” Den puckered his lips.

  “Fine. How about three o’ eight, time Nazi?”

  He shook his head and she knew he felt like the odd selection made no sense. It did to her. That meant she could leave her place at two forty-five exactly and be there. Not to mention, she needed to fill up.

  By the time Katie came flouncing back from the bathroom, she knew that she had a few things to do. Their beach towels were ratty, so she needed to buy new ones. Not to mention that she needed to get to her swim suit.

  It had been awhile since she had the chance to wear it and she was kind of excited at the prospect of tempting Den in a place where they couldn’t indulge their hunger. It would make for the ultimate tease.

  When the kids bounded out of the door, ready to pack up for a day of fun in the sun, Den grabbed Sidonie’s arm.

  “Unlock the door so they can get in,” he whispered.

  She did and she looked out to see them hop inside. She pressed the fob to turn the car on as the weather had grown too warm to leave them sitting on the leather for long.

  When the car turned on, Den pulled her back into the foyer, out of sight of every one.

  “Kiss me, woman.”

  She turned her mouth up to his and a clash of tongues later, she panted for breath and her panties were a soaked mess.

  “Fuck me, I needed that. So hard to have you so close and I can’t touch you. You’ve spoiled me, woman.”

  Did he really think that he was the only one that felt that way?

  Chapter Sixteen:

  The One

  Den watched as Sidonie drove off and he was forced to stand on his porch for a moment, in the hopes that his hard on would subside. Didn’t want the folks to see that, regardless of whether they knew he and Sidonie were sexually active or not, he’d rather not give visible proof.

  As he walked back inside, he noticed his mom was nowhere to be found, but his father sat on the sofa.

  “Wanna go fishing?” That was the only water sport Pa was fond of and Den enjoyed the occasional bout with trout as well.

  “Sure.” His dad would have everything they needed, including the fishing licenses.

  Den had a rod, but he needed to add line to it and really didn’t feel like bothering. No matter what rod he used, it was going to feel odd as he was not left handed.

  His arm ached and he popped one of the pills the doctor had prescribed before it got to hurting too badly and he had to take two. Then he’d fall out like an old man or something.

  He grabbed a cooler from his closet and filled it with ice from the drawer along with some bottled water and a container of OJ, and then found a pair of board shorts that weren’t too old along with a shirt that he could shrug off or wear open.

  He hadn’t planned on a nap, but fell asleep on the sofa, despite the fact he wasn’t much of a nap taking sort. The only time he took naps was when Sidonie had worn him out with her antics.

  Their antics.

  But he did and woke a couple of hours later with a blanket thrown over him he hadn’t put on him. More than likely, his mom had done it.

  He wandered into a bathroom he didn’t totally recognize, due to the new shower curtain, rugs, and other things and climbed into the shower. It wasn’t bad, but nothing he would have chosen for himself.

  In all honesty, he was a basic kind of guy and the Nautica curtains and accessories he’d bought when the house closed were about the extent of his decorative abilities. He had to be careful of the bandages as they weren’t meant to be soaked, but he could sponge himself off for the most part.

  Once he clean, he fumbled with the clothes, but eventually he was dressed.

  His mom was in the kitchen, as promised, digging into the pantry. She had pulled out every can, box, and bottle then rearranged it all.

  He was grateful Sidonie had gone grocery shopping with him. If she hadn’t, his parents would have arrived to an empty larder and would have seen the need to fill it.

  “You don’t have enough food,” his mother said and shrugged. “We’ll go to the store tomorrow and make sure you have something to eat.”

  “Ma, there’s plenty of food in there.”

  “Not enough and you don’t have anything canned.”

  His mother loved to can anything she could and he knew that by the time she left, anything that could be jarred and preserved would be.

  “Okay, Ma.” He knew she would go to the farm to get some of the early produce and fruits that she would take hours to seal into the Mason Jars.

  She always made the best stew and he wouldn’t mind having a bit of it for his lunches. She might even make cornbread and freeze it.

  Yummy.

  Even though he’d just had a huge platter of flapjacks and two servings of turkey bacon, he wouldn’t mind a snack, so he grabbed a box of crackers and ate them.

  “I see you packed the cooler. Do you want me to make some sandwiches?”

  “Nah, we can have hotdogs at the little stand and some Britt’s doughnuts to go with it.”

  “Okay. Where’s your sunblock?”

  “Ran out.”

  “That’s okay. We have some in the RV.”

  He bet they did. The RV had everything and was truly a house on wheels. It would be stuffed to the gills with food and water, not to mention there was a spare set of clothing always packed away in the drawers so they could be ready to go at a moment’s notice.

  Every so often, his mother would get a wild hair and drag his father to parts unknown. They had driven across most of the country at one point or another.

  The only place they hadn’t been was the Pacific Northwest, but he wouldn’t be surprised if that was next.

  At three o’clock, he had dragged his lounger and the cooler out to the truck. His mom was changing into her suit and his dad had shucked on a pair of shorts and shirt with his flip flops.

  They walked out of the door at three o’ five to see Sidonie and the kids parked on the street.

  The window rolled down and Den jogged over to the car. “Hey! I was just about to call you guys and let you know we’re here.”

  “Well,
we see you.” He looked into the back and saw Mark and Katie goofing off with tablets. “Hey, you guys.”

  “Hey!” Katie laughed and kept on crushing candies with her finger.

  “You want to follow me?”

  “We can, but I’d like to ride shotgun if that’s okay.”

  “Sure is.”

  He waved at his parents, who understood completely as they got into the truck and backed into the street.

  “Hop on in.”

  They rode for thirty minutes all the way down College until it turned into Carolina Beach Roach and the ride brought them right into Kure Beach. There would be people, but the tourist season wasn’t in full swing yet, so it wouldn’t be congested yet.

  It was the perfect time to make this trip.

  Once Sidonie found two white blocked off spaces on the street, she pulled in to the first one and his parents parked right behind her.

  Den grabbed the few things he was able to from the back of his truck and his father took out the case with the lures and a beer. They weren’t supposed to drink at the beach, but his father would only cast the lure if he had a beer to sip on while he did it.

  Sometimes, he had to just look the other way.

  He saw Mark take a cooler and a set of chairs, as Katie picked up shovels and pails along with a boogie board.

  Sidonie had her arms full with tote bag over one shoulder and a stack of towels. She exchanged her driving loafers for a pair of bright pink jelly flip flops that had a tortoise on the strap.

  “Okay, we ready?”

  “Yeah!” The kids whooped and ran for the other side of the street.

  Everyone else walked at a slightly more sedate pace.

  When they were at the water front, Sidonie took a spot under the pier where the shade was best. They dug a hole and set the coolers inside as his mother unfolded deck chairs.

  “I’m headed for the pier, you can come up whenever.” His dad grunted and took the small chest with his fishing gear up the boardwalk.

  “All right.” Den nodded and finished setting up his space.

  When he was done, it would be the perfect place to get out of the sun for a spell. He walked up the pier and took out a cold soda. His dad had strung the lures already, so Den dropped his line into the water.

  “Dad, how did you know Mom was the one?”

  His dad looked over and shrugged. “A man just knows. I knew that we would have a hard enough time being that she was Thai and all, but it didn’t matter. I knew that she was supposed to be my wife to be the moment I saw her.”

  “How did Mom take that?”

  “Heck, she made me chase her for three months before she would even let me take her to dinner.”

  Den knew parts of the story quite well. But he didn’t know the whole story, of course.

  “So how did you convince Mom to give you a chance?”

  “Well, you know her parents had very old world customs.”

  “Yeah.” His grandparents emigrated from Thailand and they didn’t have a problem with mixing of races. But they had issues with the fact that his father was a Vietnam veteran.

  Not to mention that his grandfather was Vietnamese, so the war was a pretty sore subject between them. Eventually, his dad was able to convince his grandparents he didn’t want to go to war, but he had been drafted almost right out of high school.

  When they took an objective look at it, they finally gave their consent.

  But his mother had to be convinced for herself.

  “I told her that I would leave her alone if she just accepted one date with me.”

  “Okay.”

  “But when we went on our date, I didn’t have much to offer. I couldn’t take loud noises or even too many people in one place. We went to a drive in and had hamburgers.”

  “Really?” He didn’t know that was their first date, but in all honesty, this was the first time they had ever had this conversation.

  “Yep. But when we were parked a group of guys decided they didn’t like the idea of sharing their space with a chink. When we left, a car load of them followed us out of the drive in.”

  He remembered his mother mentioning something of that nature, but she would never tell him what happened next.

  “So what did you do?”

  “They tried to ambush us on the back roads. So I showed them a few things I learned in ‘Nam.”

  “Like what?”

  “I pulled over to see if they would pass us by. But they didn’t, so when they got out of the car calling the two of us all sorts of names and swinging baseball bats, I whooped their asses to kingdom come.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah. I took a lickin’, but I kept on tickin’.” His dad chuckled.

  “I bet.” His father was a large man to begin with, but ‘Nam had hardened him to a degree that a soft group of kids would never hope to compete with.

  “Yep. Those were the days.”

  “So mom decided to go out with you after that?”

  “Yep. We were going steady as of that night. She gave me my first kiss that evening. Before then, all I had experience with were loose women that camped out with the servicemen. But your mother taught me that love added something to the experience that no whore could ever replicate. There’s something about being with a woman that you have feelings for, it can’t be faked.”

  Den knew exactly what his father meant.

  “Women want to be protected, son. They need a man that will let them be a woman, the same way a man needs to have a woman that lets ’em feel like a man.”

  Wasn’t that the truth?

  “By taking on those boys that night, your mother saw that even though I wasn’t what she had imagined for herself that I would protect her with the last breath I had. That can count for a lot, especially now a days. That woman you have there is a good one. She would do anything for you. Just make sure her efforts aren’t wasted. Appreciate her and her children, she has done well with ’em. They’re respectful, but she nurtures ’em and lets them be themselves. You can’t ask for more than that.”

  “Yeah. I know, Dad.”

  “You think she’s the one?”

  “I know she is.”

  “Then make her realize that even though she could do without you that she wouldn’t want to.”

  “How do I do that?”

  “Show her what it’s like to have a man that will do anything for her. Small things add up. Take out her trash and hold open doors for her. Fix her broken toilet and help her move furniture. Let her know that you can provide for her if she needed you to. I know she makes a lot of money, she’s too smart not to, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t give her things she would never think to give herself.”

  “What do you give the woman that has everything?”

  His dad laughed. “Everything? Nah, she doesn’t have everything. She doesn’t have a man.”

  Den bristled at the idea of her having anyone but him. “She does. Me.”

  His dad grinned and pulled on the line as a series of nibbles hit the lure below. “Well, that’s a good enough start.” His dad nodded and took a sip of the cozy covered beer.

  “How did you propose to Mom?”

  “Well, that was interesting. I asked her father first, but told him not to tell her before I could. When we went out that night, we had dinner in Raleigh and on the ride back I asked her to pull the map out of the glove box and stopped like I needed to check the directions back, even though I knew ’em like the back of my hand. When she looked at the map and pushed her hair behind her ear, I took her left hand and slid the ring onto it. Didn’t even ask her.”

  “What did she do?”

  “She giggled and her eyes lit up. Then she looked at me and told me that she didn’t want a long engagement.” His father grinned and chugged back his beer.

  “We got married three months later, because I wanted to have a home for her. It was just dumb luck that the farm was falling apart and the Getty boy didn’t want to rep
air it. He just wanted to stay up north and finish his education, so he sold it to me for the value of the land. I built the house with my own two hands and a few buddies that had come out of the service helped me.

  “When we finished, the house was tiny. You wouldn’t recall that, but your mom has pictures of the original house. It was only a fifth of the size it is now, but had one bedroom, one washroom, and a large kitchen.”

  “That was it?”

  “Yep. I added two rooms when she got pregnant with you, but we had long stopped thinking we could have children. And then we were blessed with you almost seven years later.”

  He knew his parents wanted more children, but they never got any more. Just him. His father propped a hat on top of his head and Den realized the sun was stronger than he thought it’d be for the time of year.

  “I ain’t getting any younger and I would like a grandchild or two before I go.”

  “Yes, sir.” He had no idea if Sidonie even wanted another child, but it was worth a conversation in the future.

  Women still had babies in their thirties, so maybe she would be willing to start over with him. He just had to convince her she wanted to be with him first. He knew she cared about him, loved him even. Her actions had proven that to him.

  After an hour of dangling his unbitten lure into the surf, he stood up and nodded at his dad.

  “Go get ’er, son.”

  “I’m working on it.”

  “Good.”

  He wandered back to the oceanfront and looked out into the grey frothing water. Katie played with the sand as she scooped up buckets and piled them one on top of the other. Her attempts at making something were sorely lacking and he leaned over.

  “You know you need some water right?” he asked as his shadow fell across the sand and Katie looked up at him.

  She sighed. “I thought that wet sand would work.”

  “Yeah, but you want the water to smooth it out.”

  Den got on his knees and showed her the best way to build a sandcastle. He wasn’t too much help as his right arm was out of commission, but he was able to add a little something here and there. After an hour of smoothing, stacking, spreading, and spraying sand, they had finished a modestly sized structure that wouldn’t house a damn thing, but looked nice enough.