“Yeah, I figure I’d do it now because tomorrow I’ll be too hung over.” He says, as he sits down in a chair beside me and takes my hard pink lemonade from my hand so I can open the big rectangular box. I quickly tear into it. I love presents…especially Reagan presents!
I squeal with delight when I pulled out the new 2013 Gucci purple bamboo snake purse! “Ooooh my God, Reagan!” I jump out of my chair and dive onto him, wrapping my arms around his neck.
“I take it you like it? One of the new interns at the Style Network said it is the hottest bag this season. That you would die if I got it for you.”
“Well she’s right! I’ve been dying to get this purse! You are absolutely amazing Reagan. Let me go get your presents.”
I run up the beach to the house to retrieve Reagan’s gifts. Kayden’s just pulling in with our pizzas when I reach the bottom of the stairs. I’m so happy to see he’s back; I’m famished.
“Hey baby, Christmas come early?” He asks looking down at the Christmas present in my hands.
“Yeah, Reagan wants to exchange gifts today rather than tomorrow, before he gets too drunk and hung over.” Lifting open one of the pizza boxes I breathe in the delicious aroma of the pepperoni and mushrooms. “I’ll be right back up to grab a slice, I’m freakin’ starving!” Giving Kayden a quick kiss I sprint back down to the beach.
Sitting back down in the chair beside Reagan, I hand him his present. “Here you go! Merry Christmas, I hope you like your presents.” Reagan wastes no time removing the gift wrap.
The first box is a pair of silver monogrammed cuff links. He can never have too many, seeing he wears a suit almost every day. The second is a round trip plane ticket to Hawaii.
“What the hell? You got me tickets to Hawaii? Now I feel like I should have bought you a few more purses!” Reagan sets the tickets back in the box, turning to look at me with shock and gratitude on his face.
“Well the tickets are from Kayden and me. We want you to come down to Hawaii to celebrate my birthday. Rebecca, Brooklyn and my parents will be coming too. Kayden suggested we all fly into Hawaii and stay at his house there. Brooklyn will fly down with Kayden and me in his jet and you and Rebecca will be flying down first class from LAX. It’s going to be Legen-wait-for-it-dary!” I can’t contain my laughter as Reagan pulls me into a hug.
“We are going to make your twenty-fifth birthday the best birthday you’ve ever had. Please tell me we can get strippers…hot Hawaiian strippers!”
Slapping Reagan across the arm, I tell him a definite NO on the strippers, as we head up to join everyone before they eat all the pizza.
~~~
It was ten o’ clock when we all headed out to the Honky-Tonk that Xander’s band is playing at. Brooklyn and Reagan took her Jeep, Kayden and I went in my car, and Jacob and Zak took their rental car. It is a cool night in Galveston so I went with a long-sleeved shirt, skinny jeans, and cowgirl boots. Kayden surprised me with a women’s straw style cowgirl hat, he said he spotted it in a shop window today, and knew I would love it. Now I officially look like a Texan.
Parking all our vehicles, we headed down to the bar. The place is packed, a huge sign standing outside on the sidewalk announcing that Slither Tongue is performing tonight.
The atmosphere inside the bar is electrifying. People are everywhere, mingling, and dancing. The music from the juke box is blaring throughout the bar. Scanning the bar I locate the mechanical bull in the far corner of the bar, squeezing Kayden’s hand with excitement.
Xander and his band mates are up on stage preparing for their performance. There’s a cluster of women crowded around the stage talking to all the guys while they set up.
Brooklyn immediately marches over, letting her presence be known, as all the women around the stage glare at her with annoyance. With a big smile on her lips, she climbs onto the stage and jumps into Xander’s arms.
One thing about Brooklyn, she loves attention.
Kayden and I walk over to the bar with Reagan, Zak, and Jacob; we order beer and Jack and Coke. Finding a table close to the stage, we all take a seat. I happily sit on Kayden’s lap, loving the feeling of his arms wrapped around me.
Xander’s band is really popular around here, and within twenty minutes of us arriving about twenty more people have arrived. The bar is now packed. They’re hoping when they go on tour they’ll finally get signed by a record label. I have no doubt they’ll be headlining tours in no time.
I guess they’re a mix of Brantley Gilbert and Framing Hanley. It’s like rock with a country twist. Bouncing off of the stage and over to our table, Brooklyn plops down onto Reagan’s lap. She has the biggest smile stretched across her face. It’s nice to see Brooklyn so happy.
“Oh my God, did you see the look on those girls faces when Xander kissed me?” She’s beyond giddy right now, I love seeing her like this.
“They were shooting daggers at you!” Reagan says tickling Brooklyn’s sides. Wiggling around on his lap she turns around and playfully slaps him on the arm.
“Reagan! Tickle me again and I swear to God…I will break your fucking fingers!” She manages in between squeals of laughter as Reagan continues to tickle her.
They are like a bunch of two year olds. I can’t help but laugh at their playfulness; I miss having all of us together.
Nuzzling his face into my neck, Kayden places tender kisses along the delicate skin. Closing my eyes from pleasure, I tilt my head to allow his mouth better access. I release a small moan, loving the feel of Kayden’s lips on me. Sliding both hands along my arms he slides his fingers in between mine, wrapping our arms together against my stomach.
“I love seeing that smile on your lips Savannah.” Kayden says into my ear, loud enough for me to hear over the music, but low enough so no one around us hears.
Turning on his lap, staring into his gorgeous green eyes I lean in crashing our lips together for a yearning kiss. I miss being intimate with him, these past few days of not being able to have that physical connection with Kayden has been hard.
We’ve been creative in pleasuring each other in other ways, but it’s not quite the same as having him inside me where he completes me. I cannot wait until I can make love to him again.
Tomorrow cannot come fast enough.
I pull away from his delicious smiling mouth, “It’s nice having Brooklyn and Reagan here. I love my new life here, but I miss having my friends with me all the time.”
Running his fingers down my cheek affectionately and rubbing the pad of his thumb over my bottom lip instantly makes me shiver with excitement. It astonishes me how he affects me so much with the slightest touch.
“I know baby, I see how hard it is for you bein’ so far away from them.” Sadness shadows Kayden’s angelic face, causing the pit of my stomach to ache.
I don’t want him to think I am regretting my choice to move here. That is far from how I feel. Moving to Texas was the best decision I’ve ever made.
“You can take that sad look off your face baby, because I’m not the least bit sad about moving here. Being with you every day is worth it, I would move to Antarctica if it meant I got to be with you.” Kayden finally smiles pulling me closer to him. “I get to see Reagan and Rebecca when I fly to L.A. for work. We go out to lunch, and catch up. So don’t think, for a second, that I would rather be back there.”
“You would seriously live in the fuckin’ arctic? You do know its freezing cold there…” I cut Kayden off with another kiss.
“Shut up and kiss me!” I say laughing into his mouth. “I would risk hypothermia if it meant waking up beside you Kayden, you’ve become my everything.”
“Okay, okay! Well, what do you say we go get you up on that bull? We can go pry the guys away from the pool table and let them partake in the enjoyment of watching you try to stay on that mechanical beast.” Lifting me off of his lap, Kayden sets me onto the floor.
Before I can say yes or no, he’s dragging me across the bar towards the bull. Brooklyn is up in front of the sta
ge, too busy making googily eyes at Xander to notice we’ve left the table. They’re now into their third song, and they really are quite good.
Dread and doubt fills me as I walk over to the bull. I glance over my shoulder, and see all the guys huddled around watching me intensely; joking with each other and making bets on how long I will last on this thing.
A girl is being tossed from the bull as we stop outside the ring. I hear the guy tell her she lasted ten seconds. I pray to God I can stay on longer than that. I’ve been wanting to ride one of these forever, and want to last at least twenty seconds.
When it’s my turn, I try putting on a brave face as I climb up onto the bull. A few other people have made their way over to watch. I let out a nervous laugh when I hear Reagan shouting at me, “Just squeeze your thighs around the bull and imagine you’re riding Knox!”
“You did not just say that Reagan!” I shout back over the noise, my face is now redder than the neon sign in the bar window. Kayden, Zak, and Jacob are all laughing their asses off at Reagan’s outburst.
Shaking my head, I grip the saddle of the bull. The man operating the machine tells me to nod when I’m ready. I’m as ready as I’ll ever be, so I give a slight nod and hold on for dear life.
The machine starts bucking every direction shaking side to side, up and down. I’m squeezing my thighs against the sides of it with all the strength I have. Gripping so hard my knuckles are turning white; I can’t control my shouts of excitement. The adrenaline shooting through my body is crazy. I’ve only been on a few seconds but it feels like an eternity.
“Ride it baby!” I hear Kayden shout from behind me, the bull is spinning so my back is to everyone. My whole body is jerking, my head practically snapping off of my shoulders.
I toss my arm in the air and let out a loud “Yee-haw!” as I feel my body being flung over the side of the bull. I fall onto the mat, in a fit of giggles. I’m laughing so hard, I have tears running out of the corner of my eyes.
“Oh my God, that was fucking awesome!” I hear Zak shouting along with everyone else. They’re all clapping and whistling.
The guy running the machine hops over to me, extending a hand and pulling me to my feet. My legs are shaking from the adrenaline coursing through my body.
“Congrats ma’am, you stayed on for thirty seconds!”
Bouncing across the mat I make my way back over to everyone. As soon as my feet hit the floor I run and jump into Kayden’s arms; excitement erupting out of me, “Oh my Gawd! I cannot believe I just did that! Thirty seconds! I rode that bull for thirty freakin’ seconds…how awesome is that!”
Gripping my ass Kayden holds onto me, and I wrap my legs around his hips, locking my feet together. “I can’t believe you did it either, I lost by a lot…I bet twelve seconds.” Loudly chuckling he said, “I just lost a hundred dollars to Jacob.”
I look over at Jacob waving a hundred dollar bill around in the air, “Yup, I bet twenty eight seconds, so I was the closest!”
“This calls for some celebratory shots! Savannah finally got to ride a mechanical bull.” Reagan yells over to Lance, the bartender and owner, asking him to pour us all a shot of his best whiskey.
Chapter Seventeen
It was hard saying goodbye to Reagan at the airport Wednesday afternoon. I wish we would have had more than just one day together, but he has to fly out to his parents for the holidays. Brooklyn stayed until Friday, and then flew back to Los Angeles to stay with her parents for Christmas. She’ll be coming back to Houston after New Year’s.
Kayden and I are planning on going to the New Year’s Eve party Braxton and Mya are throwing at their house in Houston. I can’t wait to ring in the New Year with him.
Jax flew back to Australia for the holidays, so Kayden hired a temporary driver and body guard to fill in for him until after the New Year. The new driver will start on December 26th when we fly back into Houston.
Tomorrow is Christmas Eve so Kayden and I are flying on his private jet to my parent’s house in Memphis. My parents are arriving there tomorrow, so Kayden and I will have the house to ourselves tonight. They have a concert tonight in Baltimore, after which they will be riding on their tour bus all night to be in Memphis by tomorrow evening.
My parent’s house is a good sized ranch on thirty acres of farm land. Both of my grandparents have houses on the property, just down the road; the houses are on a long dead end dirt road, making it extremely private. I loved it in the summer when I was younger, I could just run up or down the road and go visit them anytime I wanted.
There’s a huge pond behind our house, we just have to walk down a small trail through the woods to get to it. My friends and I use to sneak back there and have little parties by the water; we hung a big rope from one of the trees and used it to swing into the water. I had a lot of memorable moments happen there.
Almost all of my relatives still live in Memphis or just outside of here. I can’t wait to introduce Kayden to everyone at our Christmas dinner. My parents always have a huge get together on Christmas Day with my Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins. My grandmothers and my mom make a feast big enough to feed an army.
It’s almost five o’clock by the time we pull into my parent’s driveway with our rental car. I am bursting with excitement to show Kayden around. I lived here every summer when I was younger. I would stay with my nanny and my parents would come and visit in between shows, usually once a week at least. I loved it when I got older because I was allowed to bring Brooklyn with me for the summer.
As soon as I step out of the car, I am taken aback by the aroma of the fresh crisp air. When you look out, there is nothing but miles of green fields on one side of our house, and then on the other side, thick woodland. This was my parent’s first house; they built it right after getting married and moved in when my mother was three months pregnant with me.
It’s an adorable pale blue ranch style one-story house with a white painted porch. It goes along the entire length of the front of the house. White shutters and flower boxes adorn the front of each window. A solid red door with a big Christmas Wreath hangs in the center. There are floor to ceiling skinny rectangle shaped windows on each side of the door. The entire front of the deck is rows after rows of rosebushes. Sitting on the porch are white rocking chairs.
I use to love sitting out here at night playing my guitar, and watching the stars.
Helping Kayden retrieve our bags from the trunk, we head into the house. It’s totally empty, not a soul to be found. We have a housekeeper who lives in the small cottage house out back. She cares for the house, and her husband cares for the farm.
There’s a bottle of wine on the kitchen counter along with a note. Picking it up, I flash Kayden a smile and point towards the hallway, letting him know our room is all the way on the end. While he brings our bags down to the room, I read the note and set the wine in the wine fridge under the island.
To Savannah & Kayden,
I hope you two enjoy your first night here,
If you need anything don’t hesitate to call
Or knock on my door.
The number is on the Fridge.
Mrs. Rennings
“Who’s the note from?” Kayden asks walking up behind me and resting his chin on my shoulder.
Setting the card back on the counter, I spin around to face Kayden, taking in the house while doing so. It’s crazy how nothing has changed, even though it’s been a year since I’ve been here. “It’s from the lady who takes care of the house. She left the bottle of wine for us as a welcome gift. She said her number’s on the fridge if we need anything.”
Taking my hand, we walk through the house. Kayden takes everything in; stopping to look at every picture on the walls, end tables, and the fireplace mantel. It feels surreal having him here. The house, even though only one level, is quite big, it has four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, dining room, living room, an office and a large screened in porch overlooking the horse stables.
“You wer
e so cute when you were little.”
“So, what are you saying? I’m ugly now?” I say poking Kayden in the side.
“No, you smartass…you know you’re the most gorgeous woman on the planet baby.” He says before brushing a few strands of my hair away from my face.
Picking up another photo, it’s a picture of Logan and me standing on the porch outside two Fourth of July’s ago. I quickly snap it out of his hands. “Sorry, I thought my mother would have had all of these removed before we came.” I walk around the house collecting all the photos of Logan and me, taking them into the kitchen and dumping them into the trash.
“Savannah, don’t worry. Seeing those pictures does not bother me. I know he’s part of your past, I accept that because I know I’m your future.” I breathe a sigh of relief. I was nervous as to how Kayden was feeling having seen the photos of Logan and me together.
Walking over to him I lay my head against his chest, and wrap my arms around him.
“I will never get tired of hearing you talk like that. I cannot wait to spend these next three days, creating new memories here with you.”
~~~
We spent the next hour riding around the fields. It’s so peaceful here; we have no reporters following us around. No crazy ex’s or annoying socialites harassing us.
The sun is slowly moving across the sky, it will be setting soon. We ride the horses back up to the stables putting them back in their stalls. “That was so much fun.” I say, taking Kayden’s hand as we walk out of the stables.
“It was…it almost feels like a home away from home. I can see why your parents kept this place. It’s so peaceful. I imagine they love coming here when they’re not touring to get away from their crazy L.A. lifestyle.”
“Yeah my parents are country through and through. They love L.A., but Tennessee will always be our true home. I can’t wait for you to meet my grandparents tomorrow. Both my mom and dad’s parents live down the street. If we had kept driving, instead of turning into our driveway we would have gone straight to their houses.”
Savannah Series Boxed Set: Four Full Novels and One Novella Page 35
