And in Time...

by Jettie Woodruff

  “Mr. and Mrs. McKinley,” Cory said with his own adrenaline going crazy and coming to her rescue. “Please don’t be mad at Alexis for this. It was all my fault. She tried to tell me that you wouldn’t approve, more than once. I’m the one that defied your wishes, not Alexis. I never meant to cause either of you any disrespect and I can assure you, it will never happen again.”

  Lola nodded with a faint smile, forgiving him with her eyes. Walt gave Alexis a stern look and forgave Cory with a nod as well. The expression on his face told Alexis that Cory had just won his blessing. Walt was proud that Cory came to her defense.

  “We better get out to the barn. I’m sure breakfast is ready, and a lot of people need to get ready for church,” Lola said with a hand wave toward the door, coaxing her family out to the barn.

  “Shows over, go eat,” Alexis called over her shoulder to Paige and Sam.

  “You, Mr. Baker, are my hero,” Alexis praised with her own proud smile and a kiss.

  “I am so sorry, Lex.”

  “Don’t worry about it. I think you just won over both my parents’ hearts. That was very big of you.”

  “That is not how I wanted to do it. You look rough, you okay?”

  “I feel rough, do you want breakfast?”

  “I could eat, I guess, do you?”

  “No, but I’ll go out and have coffee with you.”

  “Okay, and then we better get home and get ready for church,” Cory suggested while taking Riki from her arms.

  “I don’t want to go to church. I just want to go home and nurse my hangover,” she whined in pain, heading to the barn with her hand in his.

  “Oh no, not a chance. If you think for one second that I am not going to have your butt in church after that, you are crazy. You’re going.”

  “Me wike a church,” Riki exclaimed in excitement.

  “See, Riki wants to go.”

  “Traitor,” Alexis accused with a pinch to her belly.

  Alexis was sure the church service lasted longer than normal. She had no idea what Pastor Chuck even talked about. She was lost the entire sermon and pissed off at Bernie for skipping. Her head hurt and she just wanted to lie down. Stupid, stupid Travis.

  That’s exactly what she did. Alexis went straight upstairs, exchanged her Sunday dress for an old tee shirt, and crawled into bed, swearing off alcohol.

  Cory dropped Riki, who’d been changed in the cutest romper, to the bed.

  “Do you want to take a nap with me?” Alexis asked while raising the covers for her.

  “No, me not tired. Me wike cartoons.”

  “You’re a conniver, just like your daddy. You do know that, don’t you?”

  “Daddy is right here,” Cory reminded her. He sat on the edge of the bed and flipped the television on for Riki.

  “You deserve it.”

  “You said you forgave me for that. You even called me your hero, remember?”

  “I did forgive you for that. I’m not ready to forgive you for making me sit through church.”

  Cory smiled and kissed her forehead and then Riki’s. “Take a nap, I’ve got some paperwork to do.”

  “Me no take a nap.”

  “We’re just going to watch cartoons, right Riki?”

  Riki agreed while getting comfortable below the covers. Alexis watched her eyes fall heavier and heavier while she thought about one thing. Cory told her he loved her. She might not have remembered exactly what happened after that, but she no doubt remembered that part. He was drunk. Maybe he didn’t remember. That was the last thing on her mind, and the last thing she remembered until Cory woke them both at three in the afternoon.

  “Get up, you lazy bums. I have dinner ready.”

  “Me have a pee,” Riki said with wide eyes, jumping up like she’d been awake for hours.

  “Hmm, what time is it?” Alexis grumbled.

  “Almost three. Come on, I made dinner.”

  Cory made a delicious casserole with potatoes, bacon, sour cream, and cheese. Alexis did feel better after a dinner and a nice long soak in vanilla and sandalwood bubbles. The rest of their day was spent, being lazy, lounging around the house in comfortable clothes, and flirting. Lots of touching and trifling, but not one word about the dangerous three words. He never mentioned it the next day, either, or the next.

  By the end of the following week, Riki had a dresser full of clothes, and Cory had the left side of Alexis’s closet. Not to mention, all of his bathroom things. He’d pretty much moved in without saying the words, and Alexis loved it. The sight of his cologne on her counter and his toothbrush beside hers brought a smile to her face every time she walked into her bathroom.

  After a busy week at the studio and the school pictures, Alexis was ready for a weekend. This was the first time since she’d opened her studio that she didn’t feel guilty about taking a Saturday off. It had actually become a habit since Cory started coming around. She did her due diligence by giving Paige the wanted hours. Maybe it was the number thirty that wasn’t lingering behind her. It was staring her straight in the eyes, just two years away. Regardless of what it was, Alexis loved leaving work early, loved picking Riki up after not seeing her all day, loved making supper and eating with Cory and Riki at her table, she loved it all. The walking along the river with them, feeding the bluegill with them, watching Nickelodeon, bathing Riki and reading to her, kissing and flirting with her man, all of it. She loved every single second of the two of them in her life.

  Travis, Bernie, and Taylor joined them Saturday night for pizza in Canterville. This was another love at the top of her list. Bernie always invited her to go out with them, but Alexis always declined. Although they never made her feel that way, she didn’t want to be the third wheel. Having Bernie to goof off with, Travis and Cory hanging out, and Taylor getting mad at Riki for everything she did was great. Taylor was in the seven-year-old I hate girls stage. Riki barely being three, intensified his new belief and it worked against her. Poor girl didn’t have a chance in hell.

  Alexis and Bernie waited at the table while Cory and Travis played games with the kids. Bernie was just complaining about Travis never being home when Alexis watched the waitress walk toward their table.

  “Guys, come on. Here comes our pizza. What do you want him to do, Bernie? He’s a trucker.”

  “I know. I just need him to stay home and get on my nerves for an entire week to remind me why I love his job. He’s only home for two days.”

  “Yeah, that would suck.”

  “Me sit wif Taywor,” Riki insisted.

  “No, I’m sitting with Travis,” Taylor asserted. No way. He wasn’t sitting by annoying Riki with cooties. He jumped to the chair at the end of the table beside Travis.

  Alexis took Riki by the hand and led her to the booster seat. “Taylor doesn’t want you to sit beside him.”

  “Uh-huh. Him wike me.”

  “No I don’t!” Taylor insisted.

  “You say that now, wait ten or twelve years. You’ll be all over that.”

  “Hey now,” Cory chimed in.

  “I’m just speaking the truth, dude. Look at those long eyelashes and those dark eyes. You’re in trouble man. I’m glad I got a boy.”

  “I’m with Travis. She’s going to be super-model material,” Bernie agreed. Cory grumbled and sat across from Travis.

  “Hello, Dr. Baker,” some young blonde with boobs the size of Florida spoke right in his face.

  “Hi, Amanda. How are you,” Cory greeted with bright white teeth, smiling up at the bimbo with her cleavage thrust in his face.

  “I’m great. Just heading out to the Piermont. It’s a club over on Willard. You should come.”

  “Seriously? Am I invisible?” Alexis questioned quietly to Bernie. Bernie busted a gut.

  “You wouldn’t like it, Cory. It’s not really a club at all. Now if you’re looking for a tramp and a good bag of a weed, then yes. You’ll love it,” Bernie explained.

  Cory held the smirk and dismissed the gi
rl. “It was nice seeing you, Amanda.”

  “Yeah, you too. I’m sure I’ll see you at the clinic.”

  “Jesus, Bernie. Why don’t you just call her a slut?” Cory asked.

  “I did,” Bernie assured him while biting into a slice of pizza. Bernie said what she meant to say and meant what she said. That was just Bernie, and she didn’t care whether you liked it or not. Sad part is, she was usually right. She said what everyone else was afraid to say.

  “Who was that?” Alexis asked, not even trying to conceal her jealousy. She looked through the crowd of people, right to the blonde.

  “Just a nurse from the clinic.”

  “Well, I don’t think I like her.”

  “Are you jealous?”

  “I’m not jealous. I don’t like tramps inviting guys over to pick-up bars, not guys that sleep in my bed, anyway.”

  “You’re jealous. Just admit it.”

  “I am not. I’m not that girl.”

  “Bernie?”

  “You’re jealous, Lex.”

  “I am not.”

  Of course, Travis had to help, too. “You are.”

  “Shut up. Eat your pizza,” Alexis ordered. They could all go to hell, she wasn’t jealous.

  The ride home was quiet, a heaviness lingered in the air, but it was unclear. Alexis wasn’t sure what the mood was around them. Even Riki stared out at the headlights and the dark night, quietly kicking her foot. The upbeat song on the radio sounded slower and even melodramatic for Katy Perry’s eye of the tiger. Cory reached for Alexis, kissed her knuckles, and smiled over at her, but didn’t speak. The silence between them became deafening, even with the music playing from the speakers. It stayed that way the entire ride home. Cory held her hand, Riki fell asleep, and the tension built.

  The atypical stiffness between them followed close behind. Alexis unlocked the door and Cory carried the sleeping Riki to her bed. She walked to the kitchen, took her vitamin and her birth control, and then gave Mr. Dog a treat.

  “You like those, don’t you, boy? Riki picked those out for you,” Alexis said as she rubbed below his sagging neck. Her eyes shifted up and she noticed the somber look on Cory’s face. The tension between them was so uncharacteristic for them both. Alexis leaned back. The counter caught her weight and she stared back.

  “Cory,” she quietly rasped, not recognizing her own tone.

  “What, baby?” he replied. That was first time he’d called her baby besides the few times he’d said it in bed. This was different. This was heavy. This was felt.

  “I do love you.”

  “You remember that?” Cory asked while taking one step and then stopping.

  “Yes, I’ve thought about it ever since you said it.”

  “You have?” Another step.

  Alexis came to an upright position and took her own step toward him. “Yes, but I really don’t remember having sex with you. It’s strange. Why do I remember that, but not the sex?”

  “We didn’t have sex that night.” Another step.

  “We didn’t? You let me take an ass chewing for nothing?” Alexis took a step backward.

  “We tried.” Another step.

  “Too much alcohol? Your soldier too drunk?” Alexis tilted her head and smiled when she took the next step to him.

  “No, he’s always ready for you. It was the second time you ran to the bathroom to puke when we stopped trying.”

  “Oh.”

  “I want to hear you say it, Lex.”

  Alexis snorted, and resisted the urge to step backward.

  “Lex?”

  “I will, Cory. I did. You can’t push me. Everything has happened so fast with us already. I do love you. I think about you every waking moment, and I’m so glad I held out for you, but you have to understand something. It’s taken me years to get over Mitch, to allow someone the opportunity to hurt me like that again.”

  “I’m not going to hurt you.”

  “Let me finish. I believe that. I believe that with all of my heart. Or I want to, anyway. This is a lot for me, Cory. No matter how in love with you I am, how much I think about you when I’m not with you, or how much I love being with you, it’s still a lot. I can’t help but worry about something going wrong.”

  “Like what, Lex?” Cory asked while closing the distance between them with another step.

  Alexis stayed put and kept her eyes piercing his. “Like you’re going to cheat, or you’re going to go back to Chicago, maybe you can’t handle the small-town life, or you want someone more equal to you, like a cute little nurse from the clinic. I don’t know, a lot of things could happen.”

  “They won’t. I love you, Alexis. Nothing is going to come between us.”

  “You can’t promise that.”

  Cory took the last step and raised her chin with a finger. “I can and I do. I have never been this happy in my life. I love you.” Cory let her off the hook and spun her back to his front. His hand went up her shirt and his fingers caressed the thin, silky material, covering her breasts.

  “Why do you always do this?” Alexis questioned when she felt the button being popped on her jeans followed by the sound of her zipper.

  “Do what?”

  “Aaah,” she gasped when his fingers dipped between the elastic of her panties, sliding her slipperiness to the pulsating nub. “Turn me away from you, why do you do that?”

  “I love this angle, I love holding your body against mine, I love how much vigor my fingers can bring right here,” he whispered, “and I love the way your body trembles against me when I make you come,” Cory said while speaking hot words to the sensitive spot just below her ear, thrusting his hips into her ass. Alexis moaned again without a reply. She was beyond that point. Her eyes closed and she relaxed into his body, surrendering everything to him.

  “Cory, we’re in the kitchen.”

  “I didn’t hear you complain the last time you felt like this in the kitchen.”

  “That’s because you’re like a witch doctor or something. I would do anything you told me to do once this phase takes over. I have no control.”

  “Anything?”

  Alexis didn’t even hesitate, she didn’t have to. “Yes.”

  “Okay, then listen up. This is what’s going to happen. I’m going to keep doing this right here,” he explained while his fingers massaged the thump ferociously between her legs, and his fingers pinched and twisted the hard bead behind her bra. “And as soon as I make you come, you’re going to drop to your knees and take me in your mouth, got it?” Cory asked.

  Despite the fact the fingers on both hands persuaded her answer, Alexis moaned a yes.

  Her ass wiggled and her hands tugged the band of her jeans. Cory helped slide her jeans over her hips, and she walked out of them. The kitchen thought breezed through her mind briefly and was then gone. She didn’t care if they were in a room full of people. The control was lost and she was at the mercy of Cory’s hands. Her breathing became erratic and her body started to tremble. Her left leg parted to the side and her stomach quivered below his hand. Cory pressed his fingers firmly against her pelvis and brought her to bliss. Alexis screamed out in pleasure, riding ripple after ripple of well-developed desire. Cory placed his hand lightly over her mound, covering her completely, and pressed. Alexis wasn’t sure if it was the pressure of his hand or what the hell it was. His warm, flat hand was like a calming, comforting end to an amazing orgasm, the calm after a storm.

  Her lips were suddenly on his when Cory spun her into an emotional kiss. Alexis’s hands worked the snap on his jeans and her hands released him. They moaned, simultaneously when she stroked him in her hand and moved down his body. Cory held his hands over her head and rested them on the counter, giving Alexis a whole new meaning of pushups. She could have gone on and on, sure she’d never been so turned on in her life, but Cory could not. Cory was the weak one that needed her to stop.

  Pulling her to her feet, Cory lifted her around his waist, and held her ass. He gently
placed her on the edge of the counter and easily slid in, never breaking his lips from hers.

  “Cory,” Alexis panted through a clenched jaw, pulling her lips from his fervent kiss.

  “Don’t you dare tell me you love me when you’re in the middle of an orgasm.”

  “Aaah, yes, right there, baby,” Alexis called while dropping her head and directing Cory where to circle his thumb. “Hmm, yes, I love you.” Now, at the hands of her mercy, Cory shuddered, feeling her trembling around him, and let go, too. Erotic pants and moans surrounded the collide of both pleasures.

  “I told you not to do that,” Cory reminded her with a kiss.

  “Well, I’m done now, and I still love you. Does that count?”

  “Yes, since you put it that way, I suppose so. And I love you, too, Alexis McKinley. You have no idea how much I love you. I can’t ever see myself without you.”

  “Good, because I feel like that, too.”

  “Lex?”

  “What?”

  Cory wrapped his arm tightly around her back and lifted her to the floor. “You were so jealous of that blonde.”

  “You’re an ass.”

  “But you were.”

  “I’m not admitting that.”

  “That’s okay, there’s no need.”

  ***

  Sunday morning was absolutely beautiful. The sun shone and for the beginning of October, the air felt extremely warm. Alexis and Cory drank coffee on the front porch, enjoying their morning and soaking up the sun.

  “We have a get weady, it’s church day,” Riki exclaimed excitedly from the door.

  Alexis and Cory looked at each other with snarls.

  “I don’t want to go to church,” Alexis whispered.

  “Me either. You tell her,” Cory coaxed.

  “No, she’s your kid.”

  “But she wikes you more.”

  “You suck. I’m only doing it because I wike her more than you. Hey, Riki, let’s paint the porch red today,” Alexis offered. She wouldn’t give up the chance to paint the porch for church.

  “When we come back at church,” Riki agreed. Of course, she wanted to help paint, but not before church. UGH.