Worth the Wait (Picking up the Pieces #4)

by Jessica Prince

  Shit! Me and my fucking mouth! Where the hell was my damn nail gun when I needed it? I needed to go back to bed and start the morning over. Gone was the smooth, flirty Brett who could get whatever woman he wanted. In his place was a mega douche who was still sporting half chub even though the awkward vibes in the room were off the Richter scale.

  It was the FML moment to beat all FML moments.

  If a look could melt skin from bone, I had no doubt that the devil eyes Kenzie was shooting at me right then would have turned my flesh into a puddle of goo. As it was, that glare had my balls retreating up into my stomach for their own safety. The good news was that if the discomfort from seconds before wasn’t enough to cure the inconvenient case of twitchy dick I’d been suffering from, the look she was currently sporting sure as hell did the trick.

  My hard-on deflated like a Thanksgiving Day Parade float that had taken a buck shot.

  “Are you really arrogant enough to think that I’d have to be gay in order not to be interested in you?”

  I opened my mouth to respond, but quickly clamped my jaw shut when I realized there was no response to that. I had nothing.

  She stood from her chair and sidestepped her table. “I’m glad to know you have such a high opinion of yourself, but the truth is I’m just not interested. Even if I had been before, you just guaranteed that any previous attraction I might have felt is dead, buried, and encased in cement and rebar. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have work to do.”

  With my tail firmly tucked between my legs, I walked over to where my men and Trevor were suddenly very hard at work. And if I had to guess, the assholes were trying their best not to laugh at the epic fail that just took place.

  “Here ya go, buddy,” Trevor said, handing me an empty jar.

  “What’s this for?”

  “Figured you could give it to her to keep your nuts in, ‘cause I’m pretty sure she just ripped ‘em off and shoved them in her pocket. That was just pathetic, brother.”

  “Fuck off and die,” I grumbled as I got to work, effectively ignoring the combination of pitying glances and laughs coming from my men, all the while thinking what in the ever loving hell just happened.

  Past

  “I saw the way you were looking at that man,” Lance declared, coming to stand behind me at the stove as I prepared dinner.

  “What?” I asked, looking over my shoulder in confusion. “What man?”

  I recognized that face, everything from the ticking in his jaw to the ruddiness of his cheeks. Lance’s expression screamed fury and I immediately went on high alert as fear coursed through my veins.

  I should have known.

  I never should have allowed myself to fall into the comfortable pattern of the events, but I’d wanted so badly to believe he was changing, that he’d really and truly meant it the last time when he said he’d never do it again.

  It had been such a wonderful day. When the alarm went off that morning, I’d shot up to turn it off and go about my morning the way I always did. I was to get up, make Lance breakfast, and then prepare the kids for the day while he ate. Once Cameron and Callie were dressed, I had to make his coffee in a travel mug to his exact specifications—always a splash of milk and one tablespoon of sugar. Any more or less would lead to consequences for not putting forth the effort to take care of my man as he took care of me and the kids by working long, hard hours every day so we could live in a nice house and have food on the table—his words. After coffee, I would take the kids and stand in a line by the front door to offer up our goodbyes to him as he headed off for work.

  Every morning was the same thing. But that morning when I rolled over to silence the alarm, Lance reached out, wrapping one of his thick, well-defined arms around my waist and pulling me back into his body, startling a yelp from me at the unexpected movement.

  “Leave it,” he whispered as he nuzzled his nose into the crook of my neck. I tried to tell myself that this was wanted attention from him, but the fact was, even though his actions seemed sweet, I still couldn’t will my body to loosen up enough to curve into him. I was just waiting for something to set him off, for something to spark that all too familiar anger in him.

  “I don’t want you to run late, sweetheart,” I whispered back, hoping the stiffness of my body against his wasn’t something that would cause him to snap. “I need to make breakfast so you have something to eat.”

  I gasped as Lance quickly shifted, turning me to my back so he was hovering over me. The sudden movement and the soft look in his blue eyes as he gazed down at me were completely out of the norm. I couldn’t recall him looking at me that way since before the twins were born, and right at that moment, I realized how much I’d come to miss it.

  “You take such good care of me, baby,” he muttered as he brushed a piece of hair off my cheek. “How’d I get lucky?”

  Tears welled up in my eyes at his tenderness, and when he leaned in to kiss me, I wanted nothing more than to believe that this was what my life was going to be like from here on out.

  “I’m taking the day off,” he said with absolute certainty.

  “Are you sure?” I couldn’t help but ask. Lance had only just made partner at his law firm. It was uncommon for a junior partner to take time off. They usually spent most of their time at the office logging as many billable hours as possible in the hopes of eventually making it to equity partner one day. I knew for a fact that that was Lance’s goal, so him declaring he was taking an entire day off in the middle of the week left me stunned.

  “I’m positive. I’ve been so busy concentrating on work that I’ve neglected my family. I promised you I’d be better and I meant it.” He was so sincere that I couldn’t help but lift my head and press my lips against his. This was what our relationship was like in the beginning. That right there was why I was so excited when he asked me to marry him; I didn’t even hesitate in giving him a resounding yes, even though, several years and two kids later that marriage still hadn’t happened.

  “How about you get the kids up and dressed and I’ll make breakfast?” he asked. I gave a quick nod, unable to speak past my beaming smile. “And after that, I’m taking my family for a day at the zoo. You think the twins’ll like that?”

  “I think they’ll love it,” I said softly as I pressed my palm to his cheek. “And I love you.”

  “I love you, too, baby. This is just the beginning. I promise. You’ll see, from here on out, it’s gonna be nothing but the best for my girl.”

  The day had been a dream. The twins laughed and squealed with excitement. Lance and I snuck kisses whenever and wherever we felt like it. We held hands as we trailed after our rambunctious toddlers from one side of the zoo to the other. It was absolutely perfect and by the time we headed back to the car, everyone was thoroughly exhausted. When we got to our car, we noticed one of the tires was flat and as Lance fumbled around trying to get the tire replaced, my anxiety spiked. I couldn’t help but wonder if the difficulty he was having with changing the tire was going to set him off. When a man and his family stopped to offer up help, Lance politely declined and went back to work. I offered a quick thank you to the couple and once Lance got the spare on the car, we were on our way home. Thankfully, he still seemed to be in a good mood.

  I was such an idiot.

  “Lance, honey,” I tried desperately. “I didn’t look at any man, I swear. I don’t even know who you’re talking about.”

  “Don’t’ lie to me, you stupid bitch! I saw it with my own eyes!” he shouted. “Are you calling me a liar? I take time away from my job, for you, and you have the audacity to eye fuck that man in the parking lot while I’m changing the tire? You’re a goddamned slut!”

  “Please,” I plead on a whisper. “The kids will hear you. Please don’t yell.” That was definitely the wrong thing to say, but damn it, I refused to subject my kids to his violent outbursts. So far I’d been able to shield them from it, but he seemed to be getting worse and worse every day.

  Unh
appy with my response, his face grew even redder as he lifted his hand and slapped me across the face, sending me sprawling to the kitchen floor. Tears burned my eyes and blurred my vision as they streamed down my face.

  He crouched down and hissed, “Don’t you ever tell me what to do. You’re nothing but a worthless piece of shit. If it weren’t for me, you and those little brats would have nothing. You better learn your fucking place.” With that, he stood and aimed a well place kick to my gut, shoving all the air from my lungs.

  I lay on the floor, gasping for much needed air as he told me, “You belong to me, do you understand? You will always be mine. If I ever catch you looking at another man, I swear to God, this is nothing compared to what I’ll do to you.” He calmly strolled from the kitchen but before he cleared the doorway, he turned and glared at me over his shoulder. “And finish fucking dinner. I’m starving so it better be good.”

  As I tried to push myself onto my hands and knees, my trembling limbs uncooperative in my efforts, I berated myself for being so weak.

  I knew it wouldn’t last. I just knew it. But I was so stupid, so beaten down and desperate for things to change, that I believed him when he promised to never lay his hands on me again. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew that our day as a family had only been a fluke.

  This was my fault. I’d been so desperate to escape my abusive parents that I ran willingly into the arms of a man so much worse than they ever were. Yet I was the one who had let him beat me into submission to the point where I had nothing and no one to help me escape.

  I was weak.

  I had no one to blame but myself.

  Present

  Ever since that little scene with Brett in the salon, memories of my life with Lance had shoved their way to the forefront of my mind.

  I’d only been seventeen when I met him. A man eight years my senior and a successful associate at a fancy law firm seemed like a knight in shining armor to a naïve, inexperienced teenager who’d always dreamed of escaping her horrible home life. The fact that he was the only man I’d ever been with was something that pissed me off every time I thought about it. It had only ever been him. From seventeen to twenty-eight, I’d only ever been with one man in my life, and I hated that.

  But when Brett actually asked me out, it catapulted me back in time to every single accusation Lance had ever made, to every beating I took when he accused me of looking or flirting with another man. If I was being honest with myself, there was a part of me that was thrilled when Brett asked to take me on a date—well more like told me, but that was semantics, really. My reaction to him had been overly dramatic to say the least, but the head space that situation put me in had been anything but delightful. Over the past few days, I’d tried to talk myself up to apologizing to him, but every time my eyes traveled his way, a knot of anxiety twisted my stomach and I chickened out. It hadn’t been Brett’s fault, and I felt horrible for my callous reaction, but he couldn’t possibly know that.

  “You sure you’re okay?” Lizzy asked me for maybe the thousandth time that day.

  “I’m fine,” I insisted.

  “I’m sensing an underlying annoyance coming from this general area,” she said with a wave her hands in my direction.

  “Well, good, because I’m laying it on pretty damn thick,” I deadpanned.

  “All right, all right. I’ll stop asking. Just let me say this one last thing,” she rushed, not giving me a chance to interrupt. “You look like you haven’t been getting much sleep—”

  “So, in other words, I look like shit.”

  She didn’t deny it, simply shrugged noncommittally. “You said it, not me.”

  “You suck as a person,” I grumbled as I went about setting up my station for my next appointment.

  “I’m just sayin’. How about this? Why don’t I come crash at your place tonight? I’ll watch the destructive duo while you go out to movie or quiet dinner or something. I don’t care what you do, just take some damn time for yourself.”

  I looked at her, more than a little leery. “I don’t know. I’d hate to come home and find Cameron tied up in a closet because you and Callie ganged up on him for being the weaker sex.”

  “Nah,” she waved a hand casually, “that little dude can hold his own. You can trust me! I’ll only let them eat a pound of chocolate and watch one scary movie. I was thinking Friday the 13th or Nightmare on Elm Street. That’ll be up to them.”

  “You know you’re the world’s worst babysitter, right?”

  She smirked and gave me a wink. “Nick Jr. for an hour, max. They’ll eat all their veggies. Then it’s two readings of Goodnight Moon and lights out. I know the drill, babe. Go out tonight and do something for yourself. Pleeeeeeease?” she begged, hopping up and down just like Callie does when she wants something.

  It took me a few seconds, but I finally relented. “Fine. But I’m only going out for a few hours.”

  “Yay! Stay out as long as you want. I’ll tell Trevor we’re having a little slumber party.”

  “Great, just what I need. Your husband skulking around my apartment trying to peep through the windows in the hopes of seeing a naked pillow fight.”

  She chuckled deviously and said, “I might tell him we’ll be modeling new lingerie and practicing kissing just to see if I can make his head explode.”

  We laughed and finalized plans for her to show up at my place around seven. By the time I finished my workday and headed home, I was actually looking forward to the night ahead.

  The movie was only an hour and a half long. Lizzy had informed me that under no circumstances whatsoever was I allowed back into my house any less than five hours from the time I left. The evil bitch even had my own kids on her side. I still had three and a half hours to kill before my babysitter from hell would let me through the door of my own damn apartment.

  As I drove through downtown—well, as downtown as the small town of Cloverleaf could get—I spotted the neon light that lit up the parking lot of Colt 45’s.

  Since there was no going home, my best bet was to stop in for a drink and a bite to eat. Movie theater popcorn wasn’t as filling as a person would think, and at that very moment, I was craving a double bacon cheeseburger like nobody’s business.

  Ooh, and bottle of Saint Arnold’s to wash it down with.

  That was just one of the many things I’d discovered about myself since I left Lance. I’d spent years sipping martinis, gin and tonics, and expensive red wines at my exes insistence. Turned out, I was a beer girl through and through. I’d gladly take a cold IPA over any of that fancy stuff every day of the week.

  Another thing I discovered about myself in the eight months I’d been in Cloverleaf—especially since Brett walked into my life—was that I missed sex. Like really, really missed the hell out of sex. Yes, Lance was the only man I had ever been with, and long before that relationship ended, I’d come to despise his touch, but it hadn’t always been bad, and my body never forgot what it felt like to be pleasured to the point of exhaustion.

  While the idea of another relationship made me cringe, that didn’t mean I didn’t have fantasies about a certain brown-haired, brown-eyed man shoving me up against the wall and turning my body inside out. Honestly, a woman could only go through so many batteries before she started to feel desperate. Since meeting Brett, my rabbit had gotten so much use I was pretty sure I’d chipped a tooth. But those self-induced orgasms were lacking…hollow. I missed the touch of a man’s skin against mine as I went over that fine edge. I missed the feel of lips against my bare flesh, the mingled sounds of passion as we both chased after our release. I wanted someone to nip and bite and lick. I wanted to feel a man’s fingers squeeze my hips to the point of almost bruising.

  God, Lord. I needed to get laid something fierce.

  Maneuvering my car into a parking spot, I turned the key and stepped out into the cool night. Fall was an unusual season to experience in Texas, but with the later months, came the lack of humidity and slight
ly chillier nights. I walked quickly through the front door, the smell of good southern cooking and the hoppy aroma of the beer on tap immediately hitting my senses, making my mouth water.

  I started for the bar, planning to have a seat and enjoy my dinner when the sound of my name being called drew my attention back toward the pool tables.

  “Kenzie!” I turned to see Emmy and Savannah waving at me from their table. Smiling back, I made my way over to them, thankful I managed to run into someone I knew. I had already been looking forward to that burger and beer, but knowing I’d get to eat in company made it just a little bit sweeter.

  “Hey, girl, what are you doing here by yourself?” Emmy asked from her perch, leaning way back against her chair, legs kicked out in front of her with her hands on her round stomach.

  “My house was taken hostage by a crazy redhead. I’m under strict instruction not to return before midnight.”

  “Can I take your order?” the waitress asked as she stopped at our table.

  “Yeah, can I get a bacon cheese burger, extra bacon? And whatever IPA you have on tap.”

  “A woman after my own heart,” a deep voice rumbled from behind me.

  Wide eyed, I turned around to see the man who plagued my every naughty, debauched fantasy. Brett stood there, in all his sexy, rugged glory, looking down at me as he leaned on a pool cue, grinning like the cat that ate the canary.

  “Hey there, beauty.”

  The black thermal he wore stretched taut across his broad shoulders and defined chest in such a mouthwatering display of muscular deliciousness that I was rendered momentarily speechless.

  “Who won?” Savannah asked as her husband, Jeremy, and Emmy’s fiancé, Luke, joined us at the table, each taking a seat next to their significant others.

  “You ask that like you don’t already know the answer,” Brett scoffed as he took the only empty chair left at the table, right next to me. “I whooped their asses. I’m officially a hundred bucks richer.”

  “Damn it!” Savannah declared, punching Jeremy in the arm. “I said no bets over twenty-five! You know you suck at pool. That’s our future kids college fund you’re pissing away.”