Sometimes It Lasts

by Abbi Glines

  “Gonna come, baby. I want you with me,” he said in a strangled breath.

  I nodded and he plunged into me one more time. “Now,” he roared in a loud cry of release. I met his with my own as I clawed at his back and screamed his name.

  Cage let go of my hips and wrapped his arms around me then picked me up. He kicked off his pants and walked back to the bedroom. I had the window unit going and the cool air hit our sweat-dampened skin as we stepped inside.

  Cage hadn’t pulled out of me yet and as he slowly left my body while he set me down on the bed I moaned from the tenderness and loss.

  “I swear I was gonna make love to you slow and easy. That was my plan but damn baby you weren’t wearing panties,” Cage said as he smiled down at me.

  Laughing I reached up and ran a hand over his bare chest. “I wanted it wild. We have plenty time for slow and sweet.”

  He looked around and noted the sheets and blanket on the bed and his grin widened. “Looks like my girl got the place ready for us.”

  “Yep. Now lets take a shower and get the saw dust off my ass then we can try it again in bed.”

  Cage reached down and took my hand pulling me up against him. “Only if I get to wash that sweet little pussy. I’ve missed her.”

  I leaned into him. “She could tell. You made her feel very missed.”

  “Mmm, let’s get her clean,” he said as he kissed the soft skin behind my ear. “Then I’ll kiss her until you scream out so many times you think you can’t take anymore.”

  CAGE

  I was trying real hard not to constantly touch Eva. It wasn’t easy. Letting her put clothes on this morning had been hard enough. Now I had to sit and watch her cook breakfast without touching her because her daddy would be walking in the kitchen at any minute. Plus when we touched we tended to forget everything else. I grinned thinking about me kissing her before we left the barn and how quickly we’d ended up making love against the damn door. Jeremy had walked in as I was buttoning my jeans back up. Yeah. . . I better not touch her in here.

  “Daddy won’t eat much if he eats at all,” Eva whispered as she set a plate of biscuits on the table. “But Jeremy will come in and eat with us.” She walked back over to the stove and poured the gravy she’d made into a bowl and brought it over to set beside the biscuits. “I tried making light breakfasts like oatmeal and Daddy won’t even touch that. I have gotten him to eat a plain biscuit some days with his coffee. So, I make those every morning now. I made the bacon for you. I know he won’t touch that.”

  I could see the anxious worried frown on her face and I hated it. I wanted to do something to make it go away. This was what she was dealing with everyday while I was away. Making sure her dad ate. Making sure he drank enough. Making sure he was alive. My chest hurt. How was my being away from her during this time good for us? I should be here.

  “You want some milk with that?” she asked opening the fridge. I stood up. I was going to touch her. I couldn’t not touch her.

  “Sit down. I’ll fix the drinks. You go eat,” I told her taking her by the waist and turning her toward the table.

  She shook her head. “No, I have to keep busy in the mornings. It helps keep me from thinking too much.”

  “Do you eat?” I asked reaching for the glasses before she could.

  “Yes”

  “No. Not enough,” Jeremy replied as the screen door slammed behind him. “Look at her. She’s lost weight. Feed the woman. Please.”

  “Jeremy, hush. I do to eat,” Eva said glaring at Jeremy.

  “She drinks orange juice and coffee in the mornings,” Jeremy said as he took his glass and filled it up with the milk sitting on the counter then went to sit down at the table.

  I knew what the hell she drank with her breakfast. We’d been living together for eight months up until two weeks ago. He didn’t need to tell me what she drank. “I know,” I snapped taking a glass and pouring her some orange juice. “Go sit.”

  “Stop fussing over her. She’ll kick both your asses if you keep that up,” Wilson said in a loud booming voice as he entered the kitchen. I was glad to hear him sound like he always did. He didn’t sound sick. I turned to look at Eva’s father. He was thinner and the dark circles under his eyes were worse.

  “Thank you, Daddy. You want a biscuit?” she asked, hurrying over to get a biscuit and put it on a napkin.

  Wilson didn’t look like he wanted a biscuit but he took it from her and smiled. “Thanks, I’ll take it and my coffee outside. Not sure I can stomach these two acting like mother hens.”

  I was positive he wasn’t going to eat that biscuit. He was going outside to hide that fact from Eva. She only nodded and handed him a thermos of coffee that I’d watched her prepare for him.

  “Don’t take too long boy, we got a calf gonna come today.” Wilson barked at Jeremy who just nodded his head.

  When the screen door closed behind him, Eva walked over and sank down into a chair. “At least he took a biscuit. That’s good,” she said forcing a smile.

  I fixed her a plate and buttered her biscuit before I put gravy over it just the way she liked it then set it in front of her. She frowned up at me. “Eat it or I’ll set you in my lap and feed your cute little mouth myself.”

  Jeremy chuckled and Eva tried to frown but a small smile curved on her lips instead.

  “Fine. I’ll eat it but only because I missed you.”

  “Good,” I replied sitting back down in my chair and taking a bite of my bacon. I didn’t take my eyes off her. I watched as she cut up her biscuit and gravy with a fork before taking a bite. She glanced up at me as she began to chew.

  I leaned back and relaxed. I could watch her all day long.

  “Listen, if you two are gonna eye-fuck each other during breakfast, I’m not gonna be able to sit here and eat,” Jeremy said.

  “Good. Go on,” I said without looking away from Eva. Her cheeks turned a bright pink and she ducked her head.

  “Jeremy, ignore him and eat your breakfast,” Eva said in a soft voice lifting her eyes to look at me again. I winked at her and she bit down on her bottom lip. I’d have to suck on that bottom lip as soon as Jeremy got his ass out of here and make it feel better.

  “I’m done anyway. I need to get out there and help Wilson. He’ll be trying to do all the prep by himself. Stubborn man,” Jeremy said as he stood up and headed for the door.

  “Please call me if you need me down there,” Eva told him as he left the kitchen.

  Once the door closed behind him I pushed my chair back and patted my knee. “Come here,” I told her. She looked down at my lap and up a the door. Then she stood up and walked over to sit in my lap.

  “What are you doing?” she asked in an excited voice.

  “I’m feeding you. I can’t watch you eat so far away. I need to be able to touch you. Been too long,” I explained.

  She beamed down at me and my world was right.

  * * *

  I didn’t want to waste time with people when I could have Eva all to myself. But Amanda had called Eva and invited us to go to the beach with the gang and Eva had said yes. Damn friends.

  The summer crowd was covering the beach in Sea Breeze. Amanda already had chairs and umbrellas rented for everyone and placed in a semi circle facing the water. Eva had worn a red bikini that I didn’t like the idea of her wearing but I was trying to remind myself that she needed this distraction. She needed to have fun. Her life right now was stressful enough. If she wanted to wear a tiny little bikini on the beach I would let her. I’d just be her fucking shadow and scowl at anyone who looked her way.

  “Hey, y’all!” Amanda beamed when she turned to see us approaching. Low jumped up out of her chair and ran over to hug Eva then me.

  “Didn’t know I could miss you so bad,” Low whispered in my ear and I smiled.

  “Sit down and get a beer then tell me all about the baseball set up at Hill State. I bet it’s bitchin’.” Preston said leaning back and pulling Amanda
to sit between his legs. Preston had turned down a baseball scholarship to Florida. He’d decided to take one closer to home at South Alabama. I wish I’d had the same choice. I’d have chosen home too.

  “It’s nice. Team seems cool. Haven’t spent much time with them other than working out. The summer season is busier than I was expecting it to be. I wish I could stay home more.”

  Preston’s eyes shifted to Eva then back to me. He got it. He was probably the only person here who didn’t understand why I left Eva. Would he have left Amanda?

  “I need to come up and check things out. Make sure they’re ready for the badass that is Cage York,” Preston said then took a drink of his beer before nibbling on Amanda’s neck and making her giggle.

  “You need sunblock,” Marcus informed Low as he walked up to the group with a bottle of sunscreen in his hand. I grinned because once it was me that had to remind Low to wear her damn sunscreen before she burned.

  “Then put it on me,” she chirped back.

  I missed this. Holding Eva in my arms and listening to my friends. As if she could read my mind Eva tilted her head back and smiled up at me. “I love you,” she whispered then kissed my chin.

  “I love you more,” I replied tipping my head down so I could kiss her lips.

  “I realize you two have been away from each other but if you could refrain from making out in public we’d appreciate it.” Dewayne’s amused drawl made me smile against Eva’s lips. She pulled back and looked over at Dewayne.

  “And to think I missed you, Dewayne,” Eva said.

  Dewayne winked and threw his towel down in an empty chair. “No need to miss me, pretty girl. You can come see me any time you want to.”

  If I didn’t know he was joking I’d be pissed. Instead I focused on tasting Eva’s neck that she had so helpfully arched in my direction.

  “Where’s Rock and the fam?” Marcus asked Preston.

  “They’re coming but loading up that crew takes awhile. I normally expect them to all be an hour late. Trisha spends as much time fixing Daisy’s hair as she does fixing her own. I swear that kid has more damn bows.”

  The pleased sound to his voice as he talked about his little sister’s abundance of bows and Trisha spending time on her hair didn’t go unnoticed by anyone. Rock and Trisha had adopted Preston’s little sister and brothers. They went from Trisha not being able to get pregnant to an instant family. Preston still played a big part in their life but he wasn’t having to be the big brother slash dad slash mom any more. He’d done that long enough.

  “I can’t wait to see Daisy. I haven’t seen her in months. I bet she’s grown a foot,” Eva said as she moved her neck away from my mouth. I just grinned and followed it.

  “She has and she’s not lisping anymore either. Trisha’s had her in speech therapy. She’s doing great,” Amanda replied.

  Eva finally turned around and looked at me. “Would you stop it,” she whispered.

  “Probably not. You smell too good,” I replied back in a louder whisper.

  “Visit with your friends. They’ve missed you.”

  “I’ve miss you more,” I said, and took a small nibble of her earlobe.

  “What if we go swim a little. Then will you pay attention to everyone else?” she asked.

  “I doubt it but let’s go try it and see.”

  Chapter Eleven

  EVA

  The weekend went by too fast. Watching Cage drive away again had hurt just as bad as it had the first time. He had to get back to do kid’s baseball camps that the school held each summer. Those that were on a full ride scholarship were expected to work the camps. He had tried to convince me to let him come home Saturday night. He had promised he’d finish college online like Marcus was doing and he’d get a job. We would be together and honestly it sounded wonderful.

  But I couldn’t let him do that.

  When this was over and my daddy was gone, Cage would have lost his dream. For me. I could never allow that. He would resent me one day. Maybe not soon but one day he’d wonder “what if” and it would be all my fault. So. I’d used the excuse that I wanted this future for us again and pushed him back to Tennessee. Knowing it would be three weeks before he came back this time had just about done me in.

  Jeremy had held me for at least an hour and let me cry on his shoulder. I’d held it together long enough for his car to turn the corner out of sight before I’d crumpled. Jeremy had been right there picking me up and carrying me to the porch.

  By Wednesday I was getting better. I was sleeping in my room again. The first two nights I’d slept in the barn so I could smell Cage. But I started worrying about Daddy needing me at night and me not being there so I made myself sleep in the house on Tuesday night. If I was going to make it three weeks without Cage I had to get a grip on myself. Sleeping in the sheets we’d made love on over and over again wasn’t helping me deal. It was making me worse.

  Tonight I had agreed to have dinner at the Beasley’s. Jeremy had asked me for his momma again last night and I finally agreed to it. I couldn’t hold a grudge against Elaine forever. She had been a momma when I needed one growing up. I knew her love for Josh tainted me being in another relationship. Seeing me with anyone other than Josh had to be painful for her. We’d been inseparable from the time we were little kids. As I stood in front of the large photo that still hung over their fireplace of Josh and Jeremy when they were fourteen, I realized that a part of me was always going to ache for him too. I missed him. Even though I loved Cage deeper than I’d ever loved Josh I still loved him. He was my childhood love. My best friend. My other half for so long. Sometimes I wondered what he’d say about Daddy. What his wise words would be. If only you could talk to someone on the other side when you needed to.

  “For the longest I wanted her to take that down,” Jeremy said as he entered the room. “But I changed my mind. I miss him. It’s good to walk in here and see his face. Remember.”

  I agreed with him. It was nice. “Those were good times. He was special,” I said staring up into their identical faces. I knew the difference though. It was in their eyes. Josh always had that restless twinkle. He wanted more adventure. He couldn’t get enough. Jeremy was happy just being here on the farm. He didn’t require anything else.

  “He sure loved you. I’m glad he had you in his life, Eva. You made his life special. He didn’t get to grow up and have a family of his own but he did know what it was like to be in love.”

  I smiled. “I’m glad I had him. He will always have a place in my heart.”

  “Yeah, I know. That makes it easier sometimes when it hurts. I know he’s still alive in our hearts.”

  I reached over and took Jeremy’s hand. We stood there in silence both remembering happy times.

  “I’ll have that with Daddy too. The memories. The good times,” I said as a lump formed in my throat at the thought of Daddy being gone like Josh one day.

  “He’ll be alive in all our hearts too. Just like Josh. They won’t every really be gone. Not for us.”

  Jeremy slipped his arm around my shoulder and I leaned into him as a single tear slid down my face. He was right. Daddy would never be gone. I’d hold him close, forever.

  “Why don’t we go down to the lake and swim. We haven’t done that in years. Then you can show me all those constellations you used to try to convince Josh and I were up there.”

  I nodded. “Yeah, let’s go do that. I don’t want to go home just yet.”

  * * *

  The moon gave us some light but we left the truck headlights on and shown them down over the water for extra light. Jeremy turned on the radio and left the doors open so we would have some music too. This was how we had spent many a summer night in high school. It was nice to remember.

  I tried not to think about Cage and all we’d done down at this lake. It would only make me miss him more. Tonight I wanted to be free of the ever-constant ache in my chest.

  “You ever wonder what’s in this lake besides catf
ish?” Jeremy called out when I surfaced from swimming underwater. He was grinning at me like he expected me to go screaming from the water. Crazy boy. I wasn’t scared of the lake. I’d been swimming in it all my life. I knew there were critters in it but I also knew they were more scared of me than I was of them.

  “I’m not one of your silly little dates, Jeremy. That won’t work with me,” I called out.

  “What about if I tell you I killed a bed of moccasins yesterday morning down by the bend?”

  Rolling my eyes I swam over to the edge and sat down in the shallow water. “You’ve been killing snakes down here since you learned to shoot a gun.”

  Jeremy laughed. “You’re no fun at all, Eva Brooks.”

  Smiling I stretched my legs out in front of me. The water wasn’t too warm yet. It would get warmer with the heat of the summer. I always like it at night when it was cooler.

  “You act like you grew up with boys.”

  “Strange I know,” I quipped. I had grown up with boys and he knew it.

  Jeremy came over and sat down beside me. “What time do I need to have you back for your Cage phone call?” he asked.

  “He calls at eleven unless he text me that it will be later.”

  “It’s after ten now. You ready to head back?”

  I wanted to be there when he called but we had time. “Not yet. It’s peaceful out here.”

  “Yeah, it is. Something healing about this place.”

  We didn’t talk anymore. We didn’t have to. We both understood that words really weren’t needed.

  CAGE

  I hadn’t seen Eva in two weeks. One more week left to go and I wasn’t sure I could make it. Ace had left me alone when it came to the partying thing. We had also started talking again. We were cool now. I was going to see if I couldn’t make this living arrangement work until Eva was ready to move up here. It helped me save money.

  Tonight the team that had been working the camp was heading to go play some pool and drink a few beers. Everyone was ready to unwind. The kids were exhausting. After two weeks of it we all needed a break.