by Abbi Glines
“I could go pack us dinner. Momma cooked plenty meatloaf. I haven’t eaten yet,” Dixie offered.
“That sounds better than a bar full of people.”
Smiling, she stood on her tip toes. “You go drop the truck off at your house for the boys and I’ll go pack us a picnic.”
“Deal,” I replied against her lips. It was getting harder and harder not to do more than just kiss, touching and kissing here and there. I wanted it all, but until she was ready, I was happy with what we did do.
I watched as she ran to the house. Her ass was too damn perfect in those shorts. I’d seen it up close and personal two weeks ago when she’d finally let me kiss my way between her legs. That had been an experience she was happy to repeat and we’d done it a lot since then. Laughing to myself, I climbed back in my truck and headed to the house.
Bray and Brent both worked at Norton Knolls’ stables. The Knolls raised and trained, then sold race horses, Bray and Brent cleaning the stalls and doing the daily chores. Both were great with horses. They took the job when they were fourteen and needed work in a place they could walk to. During football season, the Knolls had other hands, including Dallas who came in and helped. But seeing as Norton was a football fan, he tended to work alongside them. His wife and my momma were longtime friends, going back way before any of us came.
I parked the truck and left the keys in the ignition. No reason to take them out. No one was going to come down and steal it. We’d know before they left the city limits. Momma opened the front door and called, “You’re home early. Dinner’s on the stove. I got Women’s Auxiliary at the church house tonight. Momma’s busy, busy, busy.”
I walked closer to the house before answering, “Dix and me are taking a picnic down to the lake this evening.”
Momma winced and visibly shook. “I ain’t looking to be a grandmamma yet. You mind that.”
“Dix ain’t like that, Momma.”
She scoffed. “It ain’t Dixie Monroe that I’m worried about.”
I grinned. “She’s different. Trust me.”
“Yes, she is, so keep it in your pants down at that lake.”
Momma was never one to beat around the bush when discussing sex with us. She was honest and open about it. Becoming a widow by the time we were old enough to need “the talk” about sex probably had a lot to do with that. We didn’t have a dad, so Momma made sure we were all well informed.
“I’d tell you to take a condom, but I want to believe you respect that girl enough not to be having sex with her out by her daddy’s lake. You should fear Luke enough not to do that.”
“I love her. Told you that. And yes, even if she asked me to, I wouldn’t do it at the lake.”
“Luke would shoot you and I’d die trying to save your stupid ass.”
If God was ever going to leave a woman alone to raise five teenage boys, then he chose the right woman for the task. “No one will die, she’ll remain a virgin, and we will enjoy her momma’s meatloaf, just happy to be together.”
Momma nodded and replied, “That’s good. Now grab y’all some of that lemon pound cake I left on the counter. You need to contribute to the meal. Ain’t the woman’s job to always feed the man. Best you remember that.”
I did as I was told, then changed into some clothes that didn’t have that bleach water scent from the mopping I had to do at work, back in the meat department. Once I was ready, I paused by my dresser and opened the bottom drawer. I grabbed a condom because I’d lied. If Dixie asked me to make love to her tonight, I’d chance certain death at the end of a shotgun barrel, with her daddy yanking the trigger.
Dixie Monroe
I HADN’T ASKED to see the letters. I’d needed that moment to be about us. If that was the last time Asher Sutton would hold me, then I wanted nothing else. I wasn’t sure I ever wanted to read them. I didn’t know my mother. She hadn’t been around long enough for me to remember her. Reading her words didn’t mean a lot to me. There was someone else I wanted to talk to. Someone who could tell me the truth. And if he didn’t know the truth, then we could find it together.
The man who’d raised and loved me was my father. Even if he wasn’t my blood. He was my dad, nothing could change that. I just hoped he felt the same way, because I had to face this with him. I couldn’t face it with Asher or Steel.
Daddy was out at the stable with his newest purchase, a pretty quarter horse that Mom had seen and wanted when they’d gone to the sale, initially to buy some cattle. Mom had married Daddy when I was little. She was a wonderful woman who made him happy. She loved me and we loved her. My family was perfect to me.
Having that ruined in any way wasn’t easy. The one thing I always had to hold onto in my life and depend on felt like it was teetering on the brink of falling apart. Maybe another person wouldn’t be so determined to know the truth no holding onto the love and security I had would be simpler, but I needed to face the past. I had to ask daddy why he’d loved me anyway, raised me as his own, how he could even stand to look at me when I was a constant reminder of his wife’s betrayal.
As a kid, whenever I thought there was a monster under my bed, I would grab a baseball bat and immediately search for it, instead of hiding under the covers. I never backed down and hid. I faced my fears. This was no different. It was the biggest fear I’d ever faced but I was ready.
“Hey, buttercup,” Daddy called, stepping from the stables. He’d seen me headed his way.
“Hey,” I replied, my voice cracking, tears quickly filling my eyes. Apparently, this wasn’t like fighting the monsters under my bed. This was scarier. I loved this man, trusted him with my life. I knew he’d be there no matter what. But I knew my questions would hurt him.
His smile sagged. “Who the hell do I need to beat up? Why’re there tears in my girl’s eyes?” He took three long strides, grabbed both my arms, and looked down at me with sad eyes. “Is this another Sutton boy’s doing? Cause if it is, I’m gonna go burn that place down. I swear to God, I’m sick of those boys hurting you. What else have they done?”
The fact that he didn’t know the truth was even more apparent as he spoke. I had to tell him. I was going to destroy the love this man always had for me. Could I do that? I felt my knees go weak. I couldn’t lose my daddy.
“Alright, buttercup, you’re scaring me. Is your momma okay?” he asked, glancing back at the house.
I nodded. “It’s not about her,” I managed to say without sobbing.
“Talk, darling, I can’t fix this if I don’t know what I need to fix.”
My daddy always tried to fix my problems. But he hadn’t been able to mend my broken heart when Asher had turned away from me. And now, he would not be able to fix what I had to tell him, either. The problem was standing right before him. I was the unfixable mistake.
“I heard Asher Sutton was home. Is this about him?” Daddy asked, his voice laced with anger. “He’s a man now and I don’t have a problem beating the hell outta him.”
“Daddy,” I said, interrupting his angry tirade about Asher. “Did you know . . . did you . . . I . . .” How did I ask my father whether he knew his wife was unfaithful? I couldn’t do this. Could I do this? God, this was too much.
“Did I know what, baby? What’s bothering you?” he replied. His words were gentler as he pulled me closer to his chest like he was protecting me. And he didn’t even know from what.
“My . . . mother . . . did she . . .” I stopped, swallowed hard, because I felt sick. Hearing this was one thing, but repeating it was another thing altogether.
“You said this wasn’t about Mom,” he whispered with concern, gazing again at the house. He didn’t understand.
I shook my head. “No, the woman . . . my real mother,” I replied, his body immediately tensing. We never talked about her, ever, not once. I didn’t know why she had left. Had she left because of an affair? Did he not know that I was the product of that affair?
“Has someone contacted you?” he asked, his voice stra
ined and quavering.
I shook my head. I’d once planned on finding her. Now, I never wanted to see her. She’d ruined my life, leaving lies behind that destroyed everything. “Did you know she had an affair with Vance Sutton?” I asked before I could stop myself. Closing my eyes tightly, I immediately wanted to take those words back. I did not want him to know this. I loved him. He was my daddy. I couldn’t lose that. Ever.
“Honey, mentally, she wasn’t well. But yes, I knew. How did you find out about this?” His words surprised me. I hadn’t expected him to know that much, if anything. “Do the Sutton boys know?”
I nodded. “Yes, Asher found letters that Millie wrote to Vance. They said some things . . .” tears were now spilling free down my face. I couldn’t hold it in any longer. I’d faced this fear and now I had to wait, see what happened next.
Daddy stared down at me frowning with worry on his face and then slowly understanding lit his eyes. He closed them tightly, muttering a curse, before pulling me against him and squeezing. “Oh, no, baby, I know what Asher must have read. It’s not what you think, buttercup. You’re my princess. You hear me? You’re mine. I got proof of that. Those letters were from a mentally unstable woman. A woman who hurt others as if life was a game. Millie’s beauty was something she used as a weapon against people.”
I pulled away from him to search his face. “I’m not Vance Sutton’s daughter?” I repeated it, said it again, making sure I wasn’t hearing him wrong.
“No!” Daddy yelled angrily. “Hell no! You’re all mine! Although Millie tried to destroy me and Vance Sutton with her lie. I had a paternity test done when you were born because Vance demanded it. He wanted proof you weren’t his. But understand this, from the moment they handed you to me, minutes after you were born, you became mine, right then and there. You stole my heart, a heart I didn’t think could heal, but you healed it the moment I looked into your eyes and no piece of paper could have taken that away from me. I wouldn’t have cared what that paper said, you were my baby girl. I was willing to fight for you. I wanted you. Yes, Millie had broken me, but you, Dixie Monroe, you saved me from the darkness. You were my miracle. You lit my life.”
I let my Daddy hold me and cried.
My biggest fear was that, one day, Asher would grow to resent me. Years from now, when we were married with children, when I had to drive them to ballet, football practice or soccer, and sex was something we’d have to find time for, when the washing machine was broken, and the car needed new brakes, that Asher’s decision not to play football for Florida and have a chance to go pro one day would haunt him for the rest of his life. That being a husband and dad wouldn’t be enough for him. That he would wonder every day what his life could have been like and I would be the one he’d blame for taking his dream away from him. I’d only dreamed of one thing in my life and that was to have Asher Sutton’s love. I had that. My dream had come true. I was living it, but Asher was giving up his, for me, and that was scaring me. As much as I begged him not to withdraw from Florida, he swore he couldn’t be happ, without me close and in his life.
Momma said that it was his choice and I had to stop worrying about it. But I did. It kept me up at night. Asher was the reason the football team won state two years in a row. They even talked about him on the news—where he’d sign, whether he’d lead an undefeated college football team, just like he’d done in high school. He was important. And I would be the girl who kept him from achieving all this.
Selfishly, I wanted him close. I couldn’t imagine not seeing him daily. Distance wouldn’t make me love him less. I’d loved him since I was thirteen and that wasn’t going to change. We’d stopped going to Jack’s and now we did things without his brothers and friends. We went to the lake or sat out on the football field at night, instead, talking about high school. How it was almost over for him and how my time here seemed endless. Some nights he’d take me to dinner and a movie, normally on the days he got his paycheck. He gave half to his momma to pay the bills, all the boys did and the other half he spent on us. That made me feel guilty because I wanted to help out, but Asher never let me.
When his old blue truck pulled into the drive and his brothers weren’t in the back, I knew tonight we’d be discussing this again. We’d talked about it repeatedly, but now that his final decision needed be made next week, I had one last chance to convince him to go to Florida and play football.
The days were warmer now, but the nights were still cool, the heat of summer still two months off. My arms were bare, so I pulled the white sweater I was carrying over my shoulders and went out to his truck. He was grinning. “I got paid early. Want to see a movie?”
What I wanted was for him to save his money. “I’d rather do something where we can talk.”
He frowned. “That sounds like something serious.”
It was, so I replied, “I want to spend time with you. No movie. Just us. Alone.”
He gave me a crooked grin. “Okay. I can live with that. Then tell me what you’d like to do.”
“Can we ride out to Hillview Peak?” I asked.
Asher’s eyebrows shot up and I knew why. That was where people went to park. It was known for its dark, secluded location. On any given night, you could find sweaty couples having sex in cramped back seats. No one ever talked about it, but everyone knew what happened on Hillview Peak.
I watched as a million different thoughts flashed through his expressive eyes. “Dix, uh, baby, if you’re ready for that . . . I mean, if you want it . . . trust me, I want the very same thing. But I’m not having your first time be at Hillview Peak. Give me some notice and I can come up with a better place than my truck.”
His truck. He’d lost his virginity in his truck. There’d been a lot of girls in there. Now, there was just me. I knew that. I trusted him completely. I was ready and although I’d always imagined losing my virginity in Asher Sutton’s truck, I didn’t really want it to happen there. I wanted “us” to be different. I didn’t hold all the girls he’d been with, the ones that came before me, against him, because I wasn’t jealous. I just didn’t want our first time to be the same, or even similar, to anyone else he’d been with in the past.
I’d intended to talk him into going to Florida and now we were somehow talking about sex. This wasn’t exactly how I meant for it to happen. I wanted to convince him to live his dream. We could still be together, though it would be hard on both of us. Part of me, a part I wasn’t very proud of, thought that sex would bind him to me, keep him from going off and realizing that I wasn’t the one for him. Then there was that other small voice in my head that said I wanted him to be my first and there was no reason to keep waiting. But the biggest part of me wanted Asher inside of me, to have that kind of connection with him.
“I just wanted to talk at Hillview. It seemed secluded and the stars there are beautiful.”
“When have you seen the stars at Hillview Peak?” he asked with a scowl that made me laugh.
“I snuck up there with Scarlet when we were thirteen to see if we could spy anyone having sex . . . mostly it was curiosity.”
Asher seemed relieved. “What? Scarlet wasn’t having sex at thirteen?”
“Not yet,” I replied, laughing. There was no reason to defend my best friend. She’d been boy crazy since ten. And it was exactly one month after she turned fourteen that she happily lost her virginity.
“I don’t want anyone seeing us going there. They’ll talk,” Asher said.
“You’ve been there many times. It won’t be a big deal.”
He reached down and laced his fingers through mine. “You’re a big deal. My big deal. And I don’t want anyone thinking I’m screwing you in my damn pickup truck. Especially at Hillview Peak.”
Asher rarely cursed around me. The fact he did it now only made his words sweeter. He was protecting me. Asher cherished what he had. All the things my momma said I was supposed to expect from a guy and should never settle for any less. Asher would always be more. More than
any guy could ever be.
Asher Sutton
“YOU BETTER EAT them biscuits. I didn’t get up and fix them for you to just look at them,” Momma said, as she stared at my plate and the food I’d barely touched. My appetite was gone. Vanished.
“Yes, Momma,” I replied before I forced a bite into my mouth and chewed.
Steel had hurried up, finished his breakfast, then left. Didn’t even look me in the eye, not once. That was good. He needed to keep his distance until I was able to calm down.
“Can I have another?” Dallas asked like a damn five-year-old.
“Go get it yourself! She’s not your waitress!” I snapped at him angrily.
His eyes got big as he stood up with his plate and headed to the stove.
“Okay, what’s got you all tied up in knots? You weren’t here this morning and Bray was out looking for you while the rest of them tried to distract me. I raised every one of you. I know when you don’t come home at night and I know when Dallas is trying to charm me so that someone else can get away with something.”
Dallas smirked as he sat down with another plate of biscuits smothered in tomato gravy. “Figures,” he laughed.
I refused to tell Momma what was wrong. There was no reason for her to suffer that kind of pain right now. She had good memories of my dad and it needed to stay that way. Telling her wouldn’t make it any better. Hurting her for no reason was unnecessary.
“I’m adjusting to being home again. Steel broke it off with Dixie and I’m not gonna lie, I’m glad. Dixie needs to move on and not with one of my brothers.”
I hoped my voice didn’t betray me. Damn, it sounded like it did.
Momma cocked an eyebrow and sat down across from me with a cup of coffee in her hand. “I call BS,” she just said. She sipped her coffee and studied me. “BS, you hear me. I don’t buy it,” making her point now more aggressively.
