Forgotten Sweethearts: A Romance Novel

by Bender, Melissa

  “Look what you’ve done, Lila!” Noah yelled shoving his sister.

  Lila, frowning back, tried kicking him in the leg. “You did it, Noah!”

  “Enough!” I snapped. It was too early for this. Pointing towards the pantry door, “Noah get there and face the door!” I then looked at Lila and pointed to the wall behind the dining table. “And, you, get over there!”

  “But,” she wailed, stomping her foot.

  “No, don’t even think of moving or speaking. You both know hitting isn’t tolerated in this house, and you’ve made such a mess! Sit and shut it.” Like I said, I was tired and now moody with pregnancy hormones.

  Brody walked into the kitchen just as I scooped up the last of the cereal with my palms. The floor was clean. They could eat it still. Maybe it would teach them a lesson for fighting. Noah glanced over his shoulder and quickly looked away when Brody looked at him. Lila was still being silent and not uttering a peep.

  Dusting my hands, I stood back up with the container. “Morning, you hungry?”

  “Coffee first, baby. Kids giving you a hard time?” he asked, looking back at them.

  “Yeah, they’re in a fun mood,” I muttered and made them bowls of cereal. “You, two, come and have your breakfast now. What would you like on your sandwiches?” I asked, grabbing the loaf of bread.

  Noah, propping himself up on the bar stool, grabbed the spoon and shoved it into his cereal. “Dad, let us order lunch every day. I don’t want boring sandwiches.”

  Brody mouthed sorry and set his coffee down. “Look, Noah, your mum is making your lunch for school. Either tell her what you’d like to eat or go without.”

  “Don’t care,” he mumbled. I hated that he was acting like this.

  Lila was still in a foul mood also. “We have a school fair. I have to take the food to Mrs. Pratt for Friday.”

  I did a double glance at the calendar and held my tongue. “That’s tomorrow, sweetheart. You should have mentioned this last night while we were shopping.” Now, I was going to have to race into town, cook like crazy and drop it off when I picked them up today. Ugh, this wasn’t a good start today.

  Her remark was well heard. “You weren’t here.”

  “She was last night, and you never mentioned it to me. So, I don’t think you’ll have anything to take now,” Brody said, obviously growing tired of their sarcasm towards us.

  Smiling at her, I wasn’t going to let them know how tired I was starting to get. “It’s okay. I’ll talk to your teacher and see what I have to make.” I then whispered to Brody, rubbing my temple, “Hopefully, things are better by next week.”

  He just sighed, leaning against the counter with his dark grey sweats hung low on his hip. “It needs to go back now. You don’t deserve to be spoken or treated this way by them.” Picking up his coffee, he shook his head and walked out the back door onto the porch.

  Getting the kids ready for school was something I strangely missed. It was weird how something so boring and repetitive could be missed. Brushing Lila’s hair, she sat still and quietly. Noah was reading his home reader to me when I finished doing her side braid.

  “Mama, can I have my hair straight?” she asked.

  “Maybe when you’re older, I like your hair this way.” I smiled. She was too pretty to have a flat iron through those gorgeous curls of hers. “Go give Daddy a kiss goodbye.”

  Grabbing the car keys, they ran back in and took their school bags. “We kissed him, but he was on the phone,” Lila informed me and looked at the floor.

  I guess it was a start. “Okay, let’s go.” They took off, and I peeked my head through the sliding door. “Taking them to school.”

  He looked up and covered the mouthpiece. “Okay, love you. Drive careful.”

  Dropping the children off, I went to the store and grabbed a few extra things to bake a cake and a couple slices for the fair tomorrow. Heading back home, I felt queasy and nauseated. By the time I walked into the house, that sick feeling was gone. Between cooking and tidying up, I knew my last hurdle was going to be washing the clothes. Walking into the laundry, I almost closed the door again.

  “Why don’t we have a maid?” I groaned, staring at the floor covered in dirty clothing and the basket with clothes spilling out. “Oh, that’s right. We do. I was the maid.”

  Bending forwards as I sorted out the whites from colours and the towels from delicates, I felt a set of hands on my hips and a bump into my behind. “So delicious,” a husky voice murmured.

  “You want some of this?” I asked, wiggling against him as I held onto the basket of clothing in front of me.

  “You know I do, baby.” Skimming his hand down, he roamed it over my lower back and gave another cheeky thrust.

  Jumping up, I spun around and wrapped my arms up around his neck. Pulling him in towards me, “The kids kissed you goodbye, right?” I asked, having a feeling that maybe they lied to me about it.

  Ignoring my question, his hand slowly lowered and spun me back around, pushing the top half of my body forward again, reaching down under and rubbing me between my leggings. “I want you like this, seeing you fell asleep before I could put the moves on you last night.”

  Groaning, I nodded, unable to hold in my moan as he began to peel my bottoms off. I spread my legs apart. “Well then, who am I to deny my husband what he wants?”

  Reaching behind my body, I began to rub him over his sweats and stroke his willing hardness. When he pulled away, I assumed it was only to pull himself free, not expecting his wet, soft tongue licking me up and down.

  “I love your taste,” he groaned making me wetter. His tongue pushed inside my core, thumb rubbing my hardened bud as he brought me to a quick climax. Still shaking when he stood, his bottoms hit the floor, and he slammed in hard.

  That first thrust was always the best, pounding relentlessly inside me until I couldn’t keep the moans down. The vibrations added to our pleasure. I ran my fingers through his hair as I pushed into him, locking my feet around his back.

  “You’re so hot!” I cried out. He was gorgeous.

  Smirking as he pulled me closer, his thrusts grew rapid and needy. “You’re so fucking beautiful!” With another slam, he groaned. “I could come so easily right now.”

  With his words, they could make me come so easily. “I love watching you get off.” It was true. He looked so sexy as he came. The eyes growing serious and rolling with parted lips as he inhaled and exhaled in deep, shallow breaths, his body stilled and pushed further in. My hands held his ass as I dug my fingers into his taut flesh. Leaning back, my breast exposed and bounced through the white tank top that was half falling off. I was going to come.

  With a groan, he felt me tightening around him like a fist, and he joined me in amazing bliss. Our eyes locked and bodies clinging for dear life to one another as we came together.

  “Can we cross laundry sex off our list?” I asked, wondering if we could shuffle the days around.

  A laugh escaped his throat. “Not a chance in hell, baby, it doesn’t count yet. We’ll be back in this room soon.”

  “I love you,” I smiled as he pulled out, bending and grabbing a towel to clean the semen that was running out of me. “You didn’t answer before. Did the kids kiss you goodbye?”

  Not saying anything until he cleaned me up and tossed the towel in the dirty pile, “Lila did. Noah just waved and walked away.” He must have noticed the hurt in my eyes. “It’s okay. I don’t want to force him,” he said and pulled me against his chest.

  “I’m sorry. I thought that they both did. They wouldn’t let me kiss them goodbye. They didn’t even want me walking them to class like normal,” I said sadly. “I hope things get better soon. I don’t like this silent treatment they’re giving us.”

  “They will. It’ll take some time, and I’m sure they wanted to.”

  “I don’t know. It’s just hurtful to see them so angry. They’re mad because of us.”

  “I know,” he said quietly. He smile
d as if he had a grand idea. “Let’s do it. Let’s go to the snow today after school.” I checked the forecast earlier, and it’s expected to snow over the weekend.

  My brows dipped in confusion, mostly surprised. “It’s a three-hour drive. Won’t it be too late once we get down there?” I asked. It was snowing at Cradle, but it was also far from home.

  “No, let’s go stay there for a while; the four of us, taking our own mini holiday.” Chuckling as his hand rested on my stomach, “I mean five of us.”

  He couldn’t be serious? Oh, but he was. The way he was grinning, he was planning it all out in his mind. I began to feel excited myself. “We can do that. Of course, we can. I’ll pack our clothes, and we can leave after getting the kids from school.” My smile turned to a serious stare. “Can you do this, you know, getting away from work?”

  “My family needs this. We need this.” Bending down, he kissed me just as the machine came to a stop. “I’ll hire someone to clean while we’re gone. Don’t worry about anything. Let’s go pack.”

  I came back into the house once I put the kid’s bags into the boot of the SUV and took the cooking out. At least, I was able to have that done and over with. Walking into the living room, I sat on the couch with a yawn when Brody walked in holding my phone.

  “Your phone was ringing.” There was a hesitant pause. “I answered it.”

  “Who was it?” I asked, patting the spot on the couch beside me for him. It didn’t bother me the slightest that he picked it up. I had nothing to hide.

  Taking a seat beside me, his arm lifted up, resting it on the couch, and he turned to face me. “Realtor; she said she found you a two bedroom. That’s the only one available in your price range. She asked me if you were able to up your limit.”

  Blushing, this was so embarrassing. I was unable to afford a decent home on my own. “What did you tell her?”

  “I gave her a new limit and then hung up on her,” he grinned with a laugh. “She won’t be calling back again.”

  I could only imagine what he had told her. “Thank you.”

  “You wouldn’t have been without a home. If things went through, I would have bought you one myself if you refused to take this one.” Placing a kiss to my temple, he held me tighter. “Let’s not worry about that, all right?”

  This was the side of Brody that I fell in love with, so caring and compassionate towards others, well, most the time. There was the odd exemption that I didn’t mind if he was rude to. Say, if he wanted to tell Kate to screw off, then I would more than happily allow that.

  “Are we bribing them with this trip?” I asked as we drove to the school. I had called and made up a slight fib that we needed to leave for a family emergency, and the kids would be missing two days of school.

  “Nope, we are showing them that we are a family,” he replied without hesitation as he pulled into the school parking lot. “Yes, a little but this is how things will be from now on, a family and doing things rather than nothing.”

  “I can’t wait to tell them.” Leaning over, I kissed him on the mouth. “You want to come get them with me or wait here?”

  “I’ll wait here. I’m sure it would be better.”

  Nodding, I went in and picked Lila up first. He teacher, unfortunately, pulled me aside to talk about something she had mentioned today, and I was completely mortified with what was assumed of me. Brody was going to flip out once he found out. Noah was quiet, but he did hold my hand as we walked back to the car.

  Walking back to the car, I couldn’t even look at Lila as I sat and done my belt up.

  Brody noticed, of course, and looked in the back seat for the kids. “Is everything, all right?” he asked low and carefully.

  Shaking my head, I tried blinking the annoying tears away. “Your daughter is quite the story teller, telling her teacher that dad drinks a lot and gets very angry and that her mother left because she was sick of having to look after them.” Scoffing, I looked towards him. “Luckily, the teacher didn’t believe a word of it since she knows us.”

  His eyes widened. “Christ,” he muttered and started the car back up. “You, two, are going to end up grounded soon. Noah, I hear you lied to your mother this morning, and Lila, what you told your teacher was wrong. You don’t lie.” Swallowing, I knew he was trying to compose himself. “Looks like you both won’t be having any fun this weekend if you’re going to play up.”

  “Where are we going?” Noah asked.

  “Be quiet, Noah,” Lila mouthed. “Mama, where are we going?”

  “I think you both need to start being a little more polite.” Turning in my seat, I looked at them both. “You’re children, not adults. Cut the back chatting. If either of you lies again, be rude or argue, then there will be no Santa Claus, Easter bunny or birthdays!” Empty threats but they always worked. Raising my voice to let them know that they weren’t controlling us with their acting out, I let them know we were still in charge and in control. “We’re going to the snow, and we’re going to have fun!”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  “I hate you!”

  If your child has ever said that to you, then you know the kind of heartbreak I am feeling right now. Lila, in a bad mood, decided to lash out and say the one thing I’d never want to hear again all because I told her to zip her lips and have a nap.

  The car brakes came on, and Brody was pulling onto the side of the road. His face was red with anger as he glared at his daughter. “Apologize to your mother now!” he yelled at her, not too loudly but enough to let her know she’d gone too far.

  “No,” she challenged back.

  “It's fine. Let’s just keep going,” I said quietly. I didn’t want to argue with them anymore.

  Shaking his head, he looked back at Lila. “You’re grounded until you apologize to your mother, who does everything for you!” He then turned in his seat and started the car back up and pulling onto the road.

  Trying to distract him, I reached over and squeezed his hand. “This place has an open fireplace,” I whispered, thinking of how romantic that could be.

  He grinned. “As long as we are all together, then I don’t care what it has.”

  The drive seemed to pass by quickly. The snow was thick and covered the road as we got to the retreat. The kids were also tired and cranky as they refused to nap on the drive. That was the first thing they were going to do.

  “You, two, want to sleep before we have dinner?” I asked Noah as I helped him through the snow.

  He nodded sleepily. “Yes, please.”

  I helped him into the bunk bed and kissed his forehead. “Love you, baby,” I whispered and left the room, walking out to the living room and staring through the large open glass windows the snow falling from the sky. “This is gorgeous here. We should move.” I’d love to live in the cold, snowy weather, but I did love the summer weather by the beach back home.

  “If you’re serious, we’ll move,” Brody said, coming up behind me.

  Shaking my head with a laugh, “No, I love our home. But maybe, we could come back and stay again. It’s just so peaceful to be here, and it’s really our first family holiday with the five of us,” I reminded, turning to face him and pushing my flat tummy against his as he came up to me.

  “We’ll come back.” He brought his arms around my back and pulled me against his chest. “I don’t know what to do with the kids. Lila was so rude on the drive here. I wanted to turn around and take her home.”

  Scrunching my face up, I tilted back and looked at him. “I know. She is getting a mouth on her. It’s pushing my patience.”

  “I refuse to have our children walk all over us. Yes, we threw their lives around, but we’ve raised them to respect others and what they’re doing isn’t right.”

  Letting out a yawn, I began to walk backwards and peel up my shirt. Glancing over my shoulder towards the room we were sleeping in, I grinned back at Brody. “This bed looks so big and comfortable. Enjoy the couch stud.”

  Tossing my shi
rt at him, he caught it as he begun stalking towards me. “Oh, really? Is that how it’s going to be?” He then came to me and tackled me down onto the bed with a laugh.

  The kids were sleeping. We had our door closed, and neither of us was really in the mood to go to sleep. A little fun under the covers never hurt anybody, and we were back in that lustful honeymoon phase.

  Unfortunately, it was also easy to forget that we were in a much smaller cabin and not a huge house like our home. As I raised my hips up one final time, I bit into his shoulder as I began to come, but also at that exact same time, there were footsteps nearing the bedroom door with chitter chatter.

  “Kids… Quick…” I breathed out. My orgasm had vanished. I wanted to scream.

  Seeming to get my point, Brody was already coming. His body stilled as he came and left. Literally, he blew and pulled out quickly to jump up and grab his boxers and jeans. “That was close,” he panted, pulling his shirt on over his head.

  I just stared on edge and frustrated. “Umm?”

  He smirked, half-heartedly laughing. “I’ll get them, and I’ll fix you up later.”

  I giggled as I lay there utterly exhausted and wondered how I would find the energy to dress and go out there. The motivation kicked up a notch or ten once I heard Lila speaking up.

  “What was that noise coming from your room?”

  Brody looked stuck for words as I walked out and smiled. “TV was on. We fell asleep to it,” I said, hoping she believed that. She did. “Hungry or thirsty? I’m very thirsty.”

  Brody just smirked. “Yeah, I’m both.”

  Noah sat on the couch and looked at me as I sat opposite him. “I’m hungry, mum.”

  “You’re always hungry. You know, when daddy was in school, one night, he ate three pizzas to himself. He was so sick the next day.” I laughed. “Grandma got so mad when he threw up all over her couch.”

  Noah began laughing as I reminisced about those days. “I must eat like him then.”

  “Yeah, but the pizza was pretty good, and your mother barely ate anything.” Brody winked. “Lila, are you hungry?” he asked, trying to pull her into our conversation, but she just sat there silently.