“I didn’t know.” He held his hand up as if to touch me, and I stepped back.
“And you know why you didn’t know?” I pushed. He closed his eyes. “Because you weren’t there. You broke me, Dad. You literally stole everything I had to give and then left me to pick my pieces up. You left me broken and I stayed broken. Until the day Bowe came and helped me pick up all the pieces. He put me back together, even better than what I used to be, and he made sure that I knew that I was loved. He made sure that I knew it didn’t matter if you weren’t there. He would love me enough for you and him.”
A tear slipped down my father’s face.
“I’m so sorry,” he looked away.
“I hope you have a nice life, Dad, but you’re not a part of mine anymore. I don’t have a dad. I have a mom who loves me enough for the both of you. I have a brother who took over your spot. And I almost have a husband who’ll be there for me when you never would be.”
My father took the higher road and left, but I didn’t feel good about that.
I probably never would.
Some part of me would always love my dad. Yearn for his love and attention.
But the other part of me, the logical part, would remember what he did to me. What he didn’t do for me. What it felt like when he wasn’t there when I needed him most.
I wasn’t the better person here.
I was thinking about myself, pure and simple.
I clenched my hands, looked up to find my mom, and realized she was crying.
My belly rolled as anger assaulted me.
“Did Bowe tell you he’s not my biological son?” Marcus asked, interrupting my thoughts.
My mouth dropped open.
How could he keep something like that from me?
Marcus grinned. “Before you start having a coronary about it, let me tell you, likely, why he never told you.”
I snapped my mouth closed.
His grin widened, and he repositioned Elise on his shoulder.
“When I was twenty-nine, I met Gianna.” He grinned. “I’m sure you can tell by my coloring that I look different than them.”
I had noticed that, but I’d just thought that Gianna’s genes had been dominant. It’d never occurred to me that Marcus wasn’t really Bowe’s father.
“Bowe was three at the time. He knew, just as he knows now, that I’m not his birth father. But the difference is, I’ve never treated him as anything less than my own. From the moment I met Gianna, she was mine. Bowe was mine.”
I swallowed.
That sounded like him and Elise.
My eyes went down to her sleeping face.
She looked like me.
But she also looked like him. Could easily pass as Bowe’s flesh and blood child.
Would we one day tell her that she wasn’t Bowe’s biological child? Yes. But would she harp on it? No. She’d be okay with it.
Why? Because Bowe was a better father than her real father ever could be.
“It’s a shock, I’ll agree. But I’m not upset,” I said. “I just wonder why he never said anything. Our situations aren’t likely similar, but he’s raising Elise just like you did for him.”
“Because in his eyes, dear, he is her father. Marcus is his father. There’s no other variations. He just is,” Gianna smiled as she came closer. “And you managed to snag Elise a good one. My Marcus taught him everything he knows.”
I smiled for the first time since my father chose to leave.
“Thank you,” I said, hugging her tightly.
Gianna returned the hug.
“You’re welcome,” she whispered. “Now, let’s get you married before my son decides to come searching for you and sees your dress before the ceremony.”
I looked down at my dress, spread my hands down the front, and closed my eyes.
Once I had myself composed, I lifted my head, and then started walking to my future.
We were married twenty minutes later.
I got a new husband who I knew would never leave me and would always be there whether I wanted him to or not.
And Elise got a father. One who would ensure that she would never cry alone. One who would be there for her graduation and the birth of her first child. He’d also be there to walk her down the aisle and to dance with her at the father daughter dance.
My Bowe, he wasn’t the perfect man, but he was perfect for me. Perfect for us.
Epilogue
I’m not a helicopter mom, a crunchy mom, or a soccer mom. I’m just a regular mom trying not to raise assholes.
-Angie’s secret thoughts
Angie
“No, Sir,” I argued through gritted teeth. “I’ll hold for a more informed party.”
The annoyed man’s voice was impatient as he said, “One moment.”
I set the phone down on the counter and leaned over it, my body plastered to the large kitchen island.
We were in our new house.
I loved this house.
I loved it so much that sometimes I hugged it. Like now.
Although, hugging it now might have something to do with the fact that Elise hadn’t slept through the night for three damn days due to an ear infection.
Her seventh ear infection in three months.
I sighed and dropped my head down to the counter.
I didn’t bother to move, either, when I heard the laundry room door open and close, signaling Bowe’s arrival home from work.
“What did the doctor recommend?” Bowe asked, coming straight to me and running his hands down the length of back to rub my lower back.
I’d had a long damn day.
I’d been doing the float nurse thing for about six months now, and every day was a new adventure to me.
Yesterday, I’d gotten to help deliver babies all day, and today I’d managed to get nearly puked on five times by three different people in the ER department thanks to a crazy strain of the stomach bug that seemed to be floating around our small town.
I turned to look at him over my shoulder.
“Apparently, our insurance requires a referral for a specialist,” I grumbled.
“We were referred,” Bowe pointed out.
“I know. Which is why I’m waiting for the freakin’ stupid man’s boss to come on the line so I can talk to him,” I grumbled, turning back to my phone.
The screen blinked when I tapped it, and I glared at the numbers. “It’s been forty-nine minutes now.”
“Where’s Elise?” he asked, pushing up against my ass as he pulled me against him.
I smiled and swayed my hips from side to side.
“She’s asleep in our bed,” I sighed. “That’s the only place I could get her to nap.”
“So we’ll have to be more adventurous.” He started sliding my shirt up high over my back, exposing my body to the cold surface of the countertops.
I shivered as the next things to go were my shorts and panties.
“I’m on the phone here.” I lifted my foot out of my shorts, and allowed him to take them off, one foot at a time, and throw them onto the counter in front of me.
“I know.” I could hear the smile in his voice. “But he’s been there all this time. He’ll still be there when we’re done.”
“Bowe…”
He silenced me by dropping down to his knees and taking a swipe of my pussy with his tongue.
I spasmed and pushed back against his face.
The elevator music from my phone wasn’t even enough to take my attention away then. For the next ten minutes, I was lavished with attention as he punished me with his tongue.
And not once did the man I was waiting for come back on the line.
After my legs were noodly from multiple orgasms, I pushed away from the counter, and nearly laughed when Bowe’s hands tightened on my thighs, not wanting to give up his toy of the hour.
“Please,” I begged. “I want to suck on you for once.”
That caused him to back away, and hastily start ripping
his pants open.
I nearly laughed, but instead dropped to my knees and stared while he pulled his cock from his work pants, and dropped it.
I watched, saliva filling my mouth, as his penis bounced, and then started to move closer to my mouth each passing second.
The minute he pushed himself inside of me, he latched onto my hair and started to guide my mouth like he wanted.
I let him.
I also preferred it this way.
It took away the question of ‘does he like this’ and let me give him the control.
I looked up at him, as he looked down at me, watching as his length disappeared inside of my wet mouth.
“Fuck, so hot.”
I lifted my hand and cupped his balls, swallowing and causing him to groan.
“Enough,” he pulled away, and I stood up when his hand tightened on my hair, urging me back to my feet.
“Turn back around,” he ordered.
I did, leaning back over the counter in my earlier position.
The phone was still playing the elevator music, and I was tempted to hang up.
But I knew if I did, I’d have to go through the whole lengthy process again, so I let it be.
Instead, I focused on him.
On his cock that was easing inside my tight entrance.
“So fucking good,” he groaned. “It’s been too long.”
He’d been away for forty-eight hours.
Although it didn’t happen often, it did happen enough that I was used to him pulling double shifts.
I also knew what it meant by him saying ‘it’s been too long.’
It really meant that he was about to come fast, so I better get mine or I’d lose my chance.
Normally, he took care of me, always, before he took care of himself, but every once in a while he pulled the selfish card.
Letting my hand go between my legs, I moved the other up to brace on the counter top while he really started to thrust.
My breasts were flopping against the counter unhindered, and I was fairly sure I was ready to come with or without my finger.
But the moment it touched the heat of me, I was a goner.
I moaned as I started to come.
“Yes, Mrs. Tannenbaum?” the phone suddenly chirped.
I squeezed and continued to come.
“Yes?” I squeaked.
“This is Marty Super,” the jovial man said. “I’m the supervisor.”
My orgasm abated, but Bowe didn’t stop.
He continued to pound inside of me while I tried to have a freakin’ conversation.
“Hi. I’m trying to contact someone about a prior authorization my daughter needs for her surgery,” I replied breathlessly.
“I’m sorry, Ma’am. Could you speak up?” he asked. “There’s something in the background that’s making it hard to hear.”
Embarrassment would’ve normally filled me at this point…but Bowe’s cock left no room for that. Especially when he started to tug on one sensitive nipple as he continued to fuck me.
“Bowe!” I cried. “I can’t.”
He laughed evilly.
“Oh, you can,” he promised. Then he proved it to me. Over and over again.
***
Two hours later, my eyes kept returning to the counter where I’d been so naughty earlier.
Then a slurp of food had me turning to witness my daughter sucking up noodles from her fettuccinie like a pig. Then she promptly spit them out the moment she’d sucked all the sauce off of them.
“Hey,” I scolded her. “We don’t spit, we swallow.”
Bowe snorted, and I turned to him with a glare.
“Shut it!” I snapped.
So I couldn’t handle his come anymore. I was pregnant, so shoot me.
He’s just lucky I could stomach sucking his cock at this point. Two months ago, the mere thought of his cock anywhere near my mouth would’ve sent me into puking fits.
“Mom,” Elise called.
I gritted my teeth and turned an accusing glare toward Bowe.
“See!” I cried. “I told you that you should stop!”
Bowe looked at me like I’d gone crazy.
“I’m not going to call my mom ‘mommy’ or ‘momma’ just because you want her to continue calling you that,” Bowe said with patience. “Did you go to the doctor today?”
I nodded my head. “I’m measuring two weeks ahead of what they originally thought. They moved my due date up by two weeks.”
His eyebrows rose.
“I wasn’t aware that they did that.” He took a large slurping bite of fettuccine, and I let my head fall back.
“How do you expect me to teach our kids…”
The door banged open and my sister appeared, followed by her new boyfriend, Kaden.
Kaden walked in timidly, following behind Ariel like a little puppy dog.
He was cute, but he reminded me of a band geek, even though I was assured he played baseball and ran track.
Whatever he did, he was very quiet, and it was hard for me to see my sister with that type of person. She was very loud and outgoing; although, she was also athletic, so that might be where they met.
“What are you doing here?” I asked them. “Are y’all hungry?”
The door opened and closed again, and my brother came in, as well as…Fatbaby?
Fatbaby was an anomaly to me. Although I’d met him, hung out with him, and genuinely liked the man, I couldn’t quite figure him out.
He was quiet and withdrawn, and to be honest…scary.
And it wasn’t the burns on his face, nor the burns that took up quite a bit of his left side.
It was just him as a person.
“What’s going on?” I asked, standing and taking my half-eaten plate to the sink.
This pregnancy was really kicking my ass. I started to eat something, and immediately lost my appetite for it about halfway through.
Normally, Bowe ate what was left, but my fettuccinie wasn’t good enough for seconds, though he’d never tell me that.
But my resident Italian Stallion could kick my ass in the Italian cooking department. Today I’d been pressed for time, and I’d done the first thing I could think of, which had been fettuccinie alfredo.
He cleaned his plate, though, and that was good enough for me.
“Your sister decided to do a little investigating today,” Alec informed me.
My brows rose.
“What kind of investigating?” I asked.
“The kind of investigating where they drive over to a minimum-security prison where inmates who are handicapped are kept,” Fatbaby drawled, leaning against the kitchen wall.
My mouth dropped open, and I turned to my sister, aghast that she’d ever consider going to see Troy.
“What?” I exclaimed. “Why?”
My sister’s nose crinkled.
“Couldn’t get a hold of y’all,” Fatbaby said. “Hence the reason I called your brother.”
I crossed my arms over my chest.
“Ariel, what the hell?” Bowe asked, standing up.
Ariel’s lip curled in disgust. “I’m writing a paper for my English Lit class,” she sighed. “I wasn’t actually going to see him. I was going to watch him. To see what he did there.”
My brows rose.
“And what did you see?” I asked, somewhat interested in the answer.
I didn’t actually know what or where Troy was, exactly. All I knew was that he was in a minimum-security prison for inmates who were either too sick or unable to care for themselves so a maximum security facility wasn’t necessary.
“I saw him sitting in a wheelchair, arms crossed, staring out at the road.” A smile broke out over Ariel’s face. “It was the most pitiful thing I’ve ever seen, and I enjoyed every damn minute of it.”
Fatbaby snorted.
“And what were you doing there?” Bowe asked, grabbing Elise out of her high chair and letting her loose.
Without cleaning off the
fettuccinie.
She immediately walked over to Fatbaby and stared up at him.
Fatbaby looked down at Elise, staring at her cute little cheeks and her ringlets, and he freakin’ melted.
The big, scary, scarred man, bent down and held out his hands.
And she walked into them.
He picked her up, and hefted her onto his hip, then turned and addressed Bowe.
“That’s where I work now. I’m a paramedic at the correctional facility.”
Bowe’s brows went up. That was news to the both of us. The last time we’d seen him, he’d been picking up odd shifts at the hospital and for another ambulance service in town.
“That’s a long drive,” Bowe pointed out.
Fatbaby nodded. “I’m going to be moving there soon. I like the job, and the area around it is fucking awesome.”
I didn’t doubt it. And it was closer to a beach.
I’d love to live on a beach.
“How about you and me go talk, Ariel. Bring your boy toy with you.” I made a come-hither motion with my hand. “I need to give Elise a bath, and you have some ‘splainin to do.”
Ariel grinned while her boyfriend came, no complaints on either end.
They were likely ready to get away from the scary man that was still holding my kid like she wasn’t covered in fettuccinie.
Holding out my hands for Elise, he handed her over without complaint.
“It’s nice to see you again, Fatbaby. You should come over more often,” I smiled.
He winked, surprising the ever-loving shit out of me, and dismissed me without another word.
The moment we were out of earshot, I grinned.
“Tell me everything.”
***
Bowe
I closed the door to our room, praying that Elise would stay asleep long enough for me to at least catch a couple hours of sleep, and headed for the bed.
“You’re up late,” she murmured.
“I was catching up.” I shucked my pants and left them at the end of the bed before crawling onto the mattress and between her splayed thighs.
She always slept like this, spread out like a starfish.
It was nearly impossible to sleep without her on top of me in some way.
Put Out (Kilgore Fire Book 5) Page 21
