“I could never hate you or Daisy or your mom,” she tells her while she cries. “Ever, ever.” She rubs her face softly.
“So you won’t tell Blake not to like us?” she asks her with her eyes so beautiful and clear.
“Silly girls, Blake doesn’t like you,” she says, and Lizzie gasps in shock. “He loves you.”
“Really?” she asks, looking at me with hope in her eyes, and then leans in to whisper, “We’re going to move close to him.”
“Are you?” She smiles at her. “He’s super lucky then.”
“I think we should get inside before Jensen sends out a search party,” Hailey says, getting to her feet. Lizzie runs ahead of us. “Whatever shit things Eric did, he did two things right.” She turns and looks at me as I look back at her.
“I mean. I did help, but yeah. Let’s give him that one,” I tell her. “You think he’s looking down on us?”
“I fucking hope he is so I can tell him that he didn’t break us; he unexpectedly made our broken love stories perfect!”
We walk in hand in hand, opening the door and looking around at everyone. Crystal looks at us, making sure Hailey is okay. She gets the nod from Hailey and only then smiles. “There you are,” Blake says, coming to us. “Are you okay?” he asks, looking back and forth between us.
“Yeah,” Hailey says, “just bonding.” She smiles and then walks to Jensen, hugging him and kissing his neck while she talks to him.
“Can we come over this weekend?” I ask him, looking up at him as he looks down at me.
“The girls have already packed their bags, and they’re already in the car.” He smiles. “Go get your bag ready.”
“Okay,” I tell him. On the way to my room, I see Henry sitting in the living room talking to Joanne. I walk to them.
“Hey,” I say to them, and they both smile at me. “I can’t …” I say with tears and a smile. “I can’t thank you enough.” I shake my head. “What you guys did for me and for the girls, I can never repay you,” I tell them.
Joanne gets up first and comes to me, grabbing my face in her hands. “Honey, you already paid us back tenfold,” she says with her own tears. “You gave us back our boy,” she tells me. “You made his eyes shine again. You made him smile again.”
Henry now stands. “So consider us even.” He kisses my cheek. “Sweetheart,” he says, “he waited a long time for this. No matter how much I hate Eric, in the end, he gave us both gifts. We get you three, and you made my boy come back to me. Frankly, I think we owe you.” He smiles, and I hug him, trying not to sob against his chest but failing miserably. “Enough tears,” he says. “Go get your bags packed.”
“Okay.” I shake my head at them, walking up the stairs to my room and packing my bag for the weekend.
I’m tossing clothes into a bag when the phone rings. I pick it up. “Hello,” I say into the phone.
“Sam, it’s Elliot,” he says softly.
I stop packing and sit on my bed. “What’s wrong?” I ask.
“Nothing, I was calling to check on you and the girls.” I try not to pfft out.
“We’re fine,” I tell him. “We’ve been hanging on for a while now. But you wouldn’t know that,” I tell him.
“I know, I know,” he starts. “Instead of doing what was right, I followed what my father said, and it was wrong,” he breathes out. “I want to make up for it.”
“Okay,” I tell him.
“Can I maybe come over for dinner or take them to the park tomorrow?”
“We’re leaving,” I tell him, “for the weekend. But after that, I’m moving.”
“What?” he says shocked.
“I can’t stay here; for the past two months, I’ve been a recluse in the house. I can’t stay here.”
“What about the girls?” he asks me.
“They want to go also,” I tell him, “especially after this whole mess. They are happy to go.”
“You don’t have to do that. We won’t bother you or the girls.”
“It’s too late for that,” I tell him. “The damage is done.”
“Can I come over when you get back and see the girls?”
I close my eyes, then tip my head back. “Yes.” I give in. “I’ll call you when we get back.”
“Okay,” he says softly and disconnects. I toss the phone on the bed and get up to get my clothes. I don’t even bother changing what I’m wearing. I walk down the steps and see that everyone is gone.
“Where is everyone?” I ask them, and Blake comes to me.
“Crystal, Hailey, and the guys went back home.” He smiles at me. “My parents went home but made me promise we’d go over for breakfast tomorrow morning.”
“That sounds like a plan.” I smile at him.
I walk out of the house, locking the door, and not once do I look back. “I’m ready,” I tell him when I close the door.
He grabs my hand in his, driving us out of town toward his house. He doesn’t even make it a secret that we are sharing a room. He asks the girls to pick which room they want, and the girls squeal when they go in the room. So I follow them. In each room, he has added a television and a desk. Along with pink lamps, some rugs, and coloring books for Daisy, but a journal for Lizzie. “Who did all this?” I look at him.
“I just wanted them to feel at home and have their own space,” he says, and if I didn’t love him before, I love him now.
I don’t say anything to him. I just go to him and wrap my arms around his waist, looking at the girls while they find all the new things to keep them busy.
Dinner is quiet and just the four of us. The stress of the past week has finally caught up to us, and we all fall asleep early.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Blake
“I bought a new tent.” It is the first thing my mother says when we walk into the house the next day for breakfast. “And we bought a blow-up bed, so we can sleep in there,” she tells the girls, dragging them outside to look in the tent.
We walk hand in hand, following the girls outside where they ooh and ahh over the twelve-person tent with three bedrooms. The tent is shaped like a letter T. Two bedrooms on each side with a zip up door and another bedroom in the middle. Each room can be closed. I peek in and see that she bought them all memory foam blow up mattresses on stilts, and it looks like a hotel room instead of a tent. Each girl has their own bed with pink covers.
“This tent is crazy,” Samantha says, stepping inside as the girls choose their bed.
“Mommy, can we sleep here today?” Lizzie asks, and Daisy agrees with her.
She looks over at me, and I just shrug my shoulders. I honestly don’t give a shit where they sleep as long as they are with me, near me. “I’m dying to try out this bed,” my mother says. “The guy at the store said it was the crème de la crème.”
My father comes outside smiling. “Isn’t this the coolest tent you’ve ever seen?” he asks me, ducking to go inside and lie on the bed in the ‘master’ bedroom. “Joanne, this bed is amazing,” he says.
My mother drags the girls away from the tent to go inside and eat, where they hurry up so they can go back outside to sit in the tent. “I don’t think they are going to leave that tent today,” Samantha says, watching them walk outside, or rather run.
“Good, then my plan worked,” my mother says smiling. “Why don’t you two go and have alone time?”
Samantha looks at me. “That sounds amazing,” she says, “but I couldn’t burden you with them.”
“Burden us?” my father says. “Did you see that tent? It’s a condo.” He puts his elbows on the table. “Plus, she bought a television to put in there, and she has Netflix fired up.” He points at my mother.
“I haven’t had a Netflix and chill,” she says, putting up her hands, “well, since ever.”
“Mom, you know that’s code for sex, right?” I tell her, and she looks at me shocked while Samantha looks down and laughs.
“It is not.” She looks horrified. “Who ma
de that up?” she asks.
“Probably the guy who wanted to watch television and have sex,” my father points out to her.
“Are you guys sure?” Samantha asks. “What if they get scared or on your nerves?”
“If they want to come home at any time, I will bring them to you in a heartbeat, and if you can’t sleep without them, you are more than welcome to come here and sleep in the spare bedroom.”
“Okay,” she whispers. “If it’s okay with them, I’m okay leaving them.”
My mother cheers like she just won the Super Bowl, getting up and going outside to yell for the girls. “She said yes. She said yes.” She runs into the tent and then runs back inside. “Henry, quick, get the television, the kids want to watch Tangled. It’s about Rapunzel,” she says with her hands together in glee. “I’ll grab the popcorn.” She turns and gets the popcorn ready while Samantha and I go outside to see the kids.
“Are you guys sure you want to stay here?” she asks them, and they both yell yes from their “rooms.”
We kiss the girls goodbye and walk out of the backyard holding hands. “So …” I turn her to face me. “What do you want to do?”
She walks to me slowly, putting her hands around my neck and going on her tippy toes. “I want to go home with you, lock the door,” she leans in and whispers, “and make out with you.”
I moan in agreement, leaning down and kissing her lips. “That sounds like a perfect day.” We get in the car and head home.
I walk in the house first, tossing the keys on the entrance table. “There is something I need to do,” I tell her and then walk to the bedroom and come back with Frankie’s picture of us. Standing in the middle of the living room, Samantha looks at me and then at the picture in my hand. Her face falls a little, but she tries to recover. “I’ve always slept with this picture next to my bed,” I tell her, looking down at the picture in my hands. “It got to the point I couldn’t sleep without looking at it, and then slowly, it became better.”
“Blake.” She looks down and up again. “You don’t have to choose.” She wrings her hands. “I know that you will always love her.”
“I will,” I tell her, “forever.” I look down at Frankie’s smile. “But I found out that my heart is big enough to love more than Frankie,” I tell her, and she gasps. “My broken heart got slowly filled; it filled with a new love.” She looks at me, smiling, but the tears are flowing. “It filled with a love that seeped itself deeper than my soul; it’s in my bones.” I walk to the living room and place the picture on the table beside the couch. “It’s time for me to live again,” I tell her. “I need to live in the present and not the past.” I look at her. “You make me want not only the present but the tomorrows.”
I walk to her now, holding her face in my hands while she looks up at me with a smile and her face stained with tears. “I want to carry you to my bed and make love to you,” I tell her, kissing the one tear that is running down her face. “I want to cherish every single minute we have.” I kiss her other side. “I want to go to bed with you in my arms and wake up with you in the morning.” I kiss the side of her lips. “I want to fight with you.” I kiss the other side. “I want to make up with you.” I kiss the other side of her lips. “I want to make breakfast with you.” I kiss her lips softly. “Kiss the girls goodbye with you and then at night hold your hand while we watch television.” I kiss her again, her hands gripping my shirt on my sides. “I love you, Samantha.” I kiss her, this time my tongue licking her lips, and then her tongue is touching mine. Her hands move from my sides to my hands on her face, then they go to my neck as she pushes herself into me.
“I swore I would never love again,” she says when our lips separate. “I know it’s cliché to never say never, but I was so sure I would never want another man again. Not after everything I went through.” She shrugs her shoulders. “But then something shifted in me, like the whole universe was pushing me in this one direction, and that direction was you.” She looks down. “I reread all our text messages we’ve ever sent. At night if you didn’t call me, or in the morning after I put the kids on the bus. You were my lifeline, and you didn’t even know,” she whispers, “and then you took the broken in me and mended me.” She kisses me now. “My lifeline became my salvation.” She kisses me. “And my salvation became love.” She leans her forehead against my chest and then looks up again. “You, Blake Williams, are what fairy tales are made of.”
I lean down to kiss her, the softness still there, but the need more. I pick her up, and this time, she wraps her legs around my waist. Her hands wrap around my neck as I carry her to my bed. I place her down in front of the bed. My hand goes to her neck, her hand goes to the hem of my t-shirt. Lifting it up, she slowly inches it up, her hands on me, her soft touch giving me goose bumps. I watch her hand pull up my shirt until she pulls it over my head. Her fingers tracing down my chest.
My hands go to her button-down shirt now. One button at a time, her eyes are focused on my fingers till I get to the last one. I push the shirt off her shoulders and take a breath because she’s so perfect. I lean down, softly kissing all along her shoulder as her fingers rake through my hair.
I kiss her neck, my tongue now coming out to taste her. She moans and gives me more access to her, soft kisses savoring her till I nip her ear, my hands grasping her hips. Her hand leaves, going to my shoulder, down my arm, till she hits my waist. She moves her hand along my waist to the front, unsnapping the button. My hand holds her neck as I look down at her fingers working my zipper down. My chest rising and falling, my heart beats faster than before. Her hand slides inside the front of my jeans, cupping me. I hiss out at her touch while my hips thrust forward on their own.
My lips find hers as our tongues meet. When our mouths meet, our hands and fingers take in each other. One hand cups her breast while the other unsnaps the button to her jeans, and her tongue gets more aggressive once I pull the zipper down. I don’t leave her mouth while my hand turns and slides down her stomach, slowly sliding into her panties. My finger slips down, hitting her wetness, and my finger finds her clit. Her hips buck as she gasps and leaves my lips. “Oh my God,” she says as my finger enters her. My hand is constricted by her pants, but I get in there enough to move in and out, slowly. Her hips moving into my hand each time. She doesn’t just take me; she helps me.
“I need …” she whispers.
“What?” I ask her, kissing her neck, sucking it in. “What do you need?”
“I need you naked,” she says while her hand slips into my boxers, her skin on mine as she wraps her hand around my cock. “I need to feel you on me,” she says while she slowly thrusts her hips at my hand, mimicking the moves on me with her hand. “I…” She stops talking, and I feel she’s close because I can barely move my finger now. I close my eyes, trying not to come too soon, but it may be a losing battle. “I just want you,” she says, her voice tapering off when she comes on my finger, her hands stop moving as she rides out her orgasm on my finger.
I take my hand out of her pants, watching her, and I put my finger in my mouth, her breath hitching. “Later,” I tell her, “I’m going to spend my time savoring you.” I make the promise, pulling her pants down her legs. She steps out of one leg and then the other. I kiss her hip, looking up at her, seeing her eyes on me. I pull her panties down, and if I thought she was perfect before, I was wrong because she isn’t perfect, she is magnificent. Her hands repeat the same things with me, pulling my pants down and then my boxers. My cock springs out, and I feel her leaning down to take my cock in her mouth, but I stop her. “If you put that sweet mouth on me, this is going to be over before we even know it.”
She smiles at me, wrapping her hand around my shaft. “Well, then later while you savor me, I’ll get my own taste.” My hands go to the back of her bra where I unclip it, and the straps fall down the sides of her arms and she lets it fall to the floor. My hands move on their own, cupping her breasts in my hands. Her nipples stiffen in my palm.
>
Her eyes close as I reach down and take one nipple in my mouth, sucking it deep while I roll the other. “Can we do all this,” she pants out, “later?”
I let her nipple go, stepping back to look at her. “Are we getting angsty?”
She walks around me now, going to the bed and climbing on top of it on her knees. “Are you going to join me?” she asks over her shoulder as I take in her perfect ass. I don’t think we are going to get any sleep.
I walk to my side table, taking out the condoms I bought last weekend. Her eyes widen at the sight of them. “I haven’t been with anyone except Eric,” she tells me, “and I got tested after he died.” She looks down and then up again. “I don’t want anything between us …” She then looks back down. “But I get it.”
I toss the condoms on the table and get on the bed on my knees, my hands cupping her face. “I would never take you without one unless you asked me to.”
“Then I’m asking you to,” she says. I lean down and kiss her, and we slide down. Facing each other, we kiss for what seems like hours but is just minutes. I roll her on her back, her legs opening for me.
“Put me in you,” I tell her when my forehead touches hers. She moves between us and grabs me, rubbing me through her slit, wetting me as she positions my cock at her entrance, and I slide in one fucking centimeter at a time, the wetness sucking me in. Our moans come out at the same time as she arches her back. I plant myself all the way inside. Her legs wrap around my hips as her hand rubs my back up and down. Our foreheads are pressed against each other as I make love to her. Slowly, her hips tilt back each time, taking me deeper and deeper, and then I can’t stop. I thrust harder and faster. Her eyes close as I feel her pussy getting tighter and tighter, our panting breaths coming faster and faster. Until I feel her come, her pussy so tight I don’t think I could come out, and I don’t. I plant myself inside her and come with a roar.
Broken Love Story Page 18
