by Anne Jolin
“Hi, ladies. What do you two look so excited about?” he says, walking over to sit down beside me, pulling me into his lap.
“We’re trying to guess where our dad’s taking our mom for Easter this year,” Beth rattles off and continues to explain the entire Rhodes tradition to him, including Friday night dinner.
“I want to do that,” he says, mirroring Beth’s excitement.
My jaw almost hits the ground. “You want to what?” I ask to clarify.
“I want to have Friday night Easter dinner with your family and then take you away for the rest of the weekend.”
Well, hell fire save matches, fuck a duck and see what hatches! I heard Steven Tyler say that once on American Idol, and that seemed to sum up my shock perfectly. He wants to have dinner with my family?
I try to figure out the best way to say what I want to say. I don’t want to be insensitive, but at the same time, it’s only been a month since the last disaster that was him meeting my parents. Or should I say his attempt at meeting my parents seeing as he never actually arrived there.
I give him a wide-eyed look. “Are you sure you’re…ready for that?” I ask quietly.
“I want to meet them, Hannah. I want to meet the people who raised the woman I love.”
I can hear Beth sigh on the other side of the couch as he leans down to kiss my cheek. Sometimes I wonder if my sister thinks she can clone him. I start to chew on my lower lip. I’m nervous as shit. I’ve been trying to work up the nerve to ask him about dinner since my mom asked me, but now that the moment was actually here and he wanted to come, I wasn’t am not sure I can handle it.
“Slow down the wheels there, sweetheart. It will be okay. I’m ready for this. I promise I will be there.”
“Oh, Han. Don’t sweat it. We can all go together,” says Beth. I don’t even have to look at her to know that she’s sporting her ‘Team Greyson’ outfit right now.
“All right. I’ll call mom,” I sigh in defeat.
Beth gets up off the couch, tossing a wink at me before saying, “Besides, if anyone should be nervous, it oughta be Hunnam over there. He’s the one who’s going to get the third degree.” And with that, she bounces down the hall and into the bathroom.
I want to throw a pillow at her face. He’s already weird about this shit and she knows it. I spin my head back towards Greyson in a panic, ready to assess the damage of my sister’s careless words, and I’m shocked to find him grinning back at me.
“Is your dad going to grill me, sweetheart?” He smirks, cocking his head to the side and tucking a loose strand of hair behind my ear.
I decide that I might as well go with honesty. If he’s going to freak out, I’d rather him do it now while we’re alone. “Probably. I don’t think he bought my excuse when you didn’t show up last time.”
A flash of regret passes over his face, and he grabs me by the sides of my face so I’m looking at him. “He’s right to be worried about you with me,” he says, and I hope this isn’t him trying to pull that ‘you’re too good for me’ shit again because that pisses me right the fuck off. “But I’m not scared of him, Hannah. I look forward to shaking your father’s hand and telling him how much I love his daughter.”
Okay. Swoon. I’m sold. Where do I sign up?
I lean forward and take his mouth in a kiss, but before he can deepen it, I climb off his lap and begin walking towards my bedroom. I turn around so I’m walking backwards slowly and crook my finger at him to come closer. As he does, I taunt him.
“You should be scared, Hunnam.” I toss out my nickname for him and he grins. It’s supposed to be embarrassing, but the bastard loves it. “My Daddy has guns, Greyson.”
He’s almost reached me now, and my back is pressed against my bedroom door. He flexes his impressive muscles and I laugh.
“Not those kind of guns, handsome.” I wink, grabbing him by the front of the shirt, crashing my lips onto his.
It’s Friday afternoon, and we have to be at my parents’ house in an hour. I thought I’d calmed my nerves about the whole thing after talking to Greyson the night he decided to come. But I was wrong. My nerves are shot through the roof.
In the entire, oh, I’d say five minutes that I’ve been waiting since Greyson called to say he was on his way over, I’ve almost run a line into the carpet from pacing. I am dressed festively cute. I have my long, auburn hair pulled into a loose side braid and I’m wearing the diamond studs my parents gave me for my graduation. I don’t wear a lot of jewelry, mostly just rings and the occasional long chain, but these are special to me. I paired them with a loose, flowing, white cable-knit sweater, black leggings, and black boots.
It is April, and although the weather has gotten warmer, it still isn’t exactly nice out. ‘April showers bring May flowers’ is especially true in Rock Falls. It rains a lot in the spring and fall. I have everything packed and ready to go for our trip tomorrow. I have no idea where he is taking me for the next two days, but he seems to be pretty good at this whole ‘surprising me’ thing, and if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right?
When I hear the rumble of his truck pulling up outside, I nearly tear the door off the hinges when I fling it open. “Beth!” I holler. “He’s here! Let’s go!” I grab my coat and purse off the couch and run outside. I almost feel like, if I don’t get to the car fast enough, he’ll decide to bolt. I know I am acting ridiculous, but damn if I can stop myself from doing it anyway.
He meets me in the middle of the driveway and pulls me into his chest, kissing me hello. “I told you I’d be here, sweetheart. Don’t look so nervous. I’m not going anywhere.”
I stand up on my tiptoes and pull his mouth back to mine, kissing him harder and running my fingers through his hair. He’s let it grow out in the last month and I love it. He constantly has that just-fucked look, and it’s long enough to grab on to when his head is between my thighs.
Beth clears her throat behind us and we break apart, grinning at each other like a bunch of lovesick fools. Sometimes I don’t blame Lennon for not wanting to hang out with the two of us alone. She hates gushy lovey stuff and we are one hundred percent the gushy lovey stuff—and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Greyson helps me into the passenger’s seat before he does the same for Beth, helping her into the back. Then we are on our way.
As we pull up to my parents’ two-story brick home in BayShores, a subdivision just outside of town, I can hear the Jaws soundtrack start playing in my head—dun dun… dun dun… I inwardly groan and take Greyson’s hand in mine as we weave our way up the path leading to my childhood home. We don’t bother to knock—we never do—and walk inside.
The house smells fantastic and my stomach rumbles involuntarily. My dad is a great cook, and I am eager to see what he’s made us. My mom must have heard the door because she comes walking down the stairs from their bedroom.
“Happy Easter!” She smiles, and I can’t help but smile back right away. I love my mom.
Her hair is somewhat a mix of Beth and mine. It’s a strawberry blond and cut short. Mom doesn’t bother to spend time fussing over herself, but she still always manages to look perfectly put together. She’s wearing a blue button-down that sets off her dark-brown eyes, a pair of jeans, and the slippers we got her for Christmas.
She reaches the bottom of the stairs and takes turns wrapping both Beth and me in massive hugs. That’s what I love about my family. It doesn’t matter that we saw each other a few days ago. We always welcome each other this way.
“Mom, this is Greyson. Greyson, this is my mom, Anna.” He reaches out to shake her hand and I have to hold back a laugh. My mom is a hugger. All us Rhodeses are, but my mother especially.
“Nice to meet you, Mrs. Rhodes,” he says, and she laughs, bypassing his arm and enveloping him in a hug that’s large despite the fact that he’s almost a foot taller than she is.
She pulls out of their hug and gently slaps him on the chest. “Mrs. Rhodes is my mother-in-law, Greyson. Now please call me An
na.”
He smiles back at her, and we all make our way into the living room. The living room and the kitchen are all one large room. It was perfect for us as a family because Dad was always cooking, and this way, we could all be together when he was.
“Hi, Daddy!” Beth and I say at the same time. How very Brady Bunch of us. I laugh to myself, giving my old man a kiss on the cheek.
“Hi there, my sweet girls,” he coos, dropping kisses on our heads. My dad is by no means a small man. He’s well over six feet tall, with jet-black hair and forest-green eyes, just like all three of his children. “And this must be the Greyson we’ve heard so much about,” he says, his voicing dropping into a sterner tone.
It doesn’t bother my parents in the slightest that Greyson is nearly covered in tattoos. Almost all of my guy friends growing up had them, and they love them. The sternness in my dad’s voice doesn’t come from judgment. It only comes from a place of looking out for me.
I proceed to give the same introduction I gave at the door. “Daddy, this is Greyson. Greyson, this is my dad, Oliver.”
“Pleasure to meet you, sir,” Greyson answers.
“How do you know it’s nice to meet me, Greyson? I could be an absolute asshole,” my dad deadpans.
I feel a little bad for my Hunnam. In my nervous state, I forgot to mention that my dad is an avid fan of teasing people. He also tells the lamest jokes in the world, but we love them anyway. I can tell that Greyson is trying not to look intimidated my by father, and I’ll admit that he’s doing a pretty good job. He opens his mouth to begin to say something and my dad starts to laugh.
“I’m only kidding, son. Call me Oliver. It’s a pleasure to meet you too.” He pulls a bewildered Greyson into a hug and does that manly slap thing on his back. I told you. Rhodeses are huggers. Till the day we die.
We all settle around the kitchen in various places, falling into easy conversation as we watch my dad finish cooking. He’s making code green and code yellow—our favorites! My stomach growls again. Once all of us kids moved out, my dad started bribing us to come home for dinner by cooking our favorite foods. Code yellow is homemade mac and cheese (with the breaded crust) and code green is his famous Caesar salad. Needless to say, we very rarely miss family dinner. He’s finished it off with steak on the barbeque, and within minutes, we’re eating at the table.
“Have you talked to Kai lately?” my mom asks from across the table.
“I haven’t,” Beth responds before shoving a forkful of mac and cheese in her mouth. My sister may be a girly girl, but even she doesn’t mess around when it comes to good food.
“I talked to him a few days ago,” I say. I know that my parents miss him. He’s been gone away to school for almost two years now, and although he visits as often as he can, it’s still weird for them to have a child so far away.
“We spoke to him last night too. He says he’s sorry he couldn’t come home for Easter. They have practice tomorrow night, and it wouldn’t be worth the flight,” my mom answers back, looking a little sad.
“One more year, lamb chops,” my dad says, squeezing her shoulder. She smiles at the use of her nickname. “One more year and then he’ll be back.”
“Not if he gets picked up by the NHL,” Beth says through a mouthful of food, and I kick her under the table. She yelps. “What the hell was that for?”
“It was for two things. One, don’t talk with your mouth full of food, Beth. That’s gross. Two, we don’t know if he’s going to get picked up and we’ll deal with it if or when the time comes.” I’m glaring at her, attempting to communicate that Mom and Dad are already nervous about the possibility and her bringing it up so crudely isn’t helping.
“Whatever,” she says, and I roll my eyes. Sometimes my sister has zero filter. A slow Cheshire grin starts to spread across her face and I instantly know that I just screwed myself by calling her out in front of everyone. She turns her attention to dad. “So...when are you going to start grilling lover boy over here?” This time, Greyson is the one who kicks her underneath the table.
My parents laugh and my dad starts right in on Greyson, asking him a million questions under the sun. “What do you do for work, son?”
He proceeds to tell them all about his career as a paramedic and how much he loves his work. As he goes on to tell us a few stories, I can see my dad’s face soften and sternness in his eyes dissipates. My dad loves a hardworking man.
We move to the living room for desert, and as I sit down on the couch, Greyson pulls me into his side, draping a heavily tattooed arm around my shoulders. We continue to laugh and tell stories late into the evening, and by the time we go to leave, my eyes are heavy with sleep.
I kiss my parents goodbye, and as I watch them do the same to Greyson, my heart swells. They love him, just like I knew they would. I don’t even have to ask. It is written all over their faces. I see my dad lean in to whisper something in Greyson’s ear before giving him another slap on the back and pulling away.
“Have fun this weekend, you two!” Beth says, smiling.
My dad wraps his arms around my mom’s shoulders from behind, kissing her cheek. “Your mom’s going to love the place I’ve chosen this year,” he says proudly.
“I love it ever year, Olly, because every year, it’s with you,” she coos back, and I smile. My parents are still madly in love with each other.
“Love you guys!” I say as we walk out the door.
They wait in the doorway until we’ve pulled out of the driveway, and I can see them waving until we turn the corner.
“What did our dad say to you at the door, Greyson?” Beth pipes from the backseat. Huh. She caught that too.
He keeps his eyes on the road as he answers. “He said, ‘Welcome to the family!’And that if I break your heart, he’d happily break my face.”
Beth and I fall into a fit of laughs because we both know that, although Daddy loves Greyson, he meant every word.
I AM WIDE awake, dressed, and ready to go by eight o’clock. I might have said that he was good at planning surprises, but that didn’t mean I’m not chomping at the bit to find out where we are going.
“Did you pack everything I told you to bring?” he asks, walking out of the bathroom with a towel around his waist.
This would be one of those moments when his hotness stuns me into stupidity. I don’t answer. I just let my eyes roam over his sculpted chest and all the way down to his sexy V. Goddamn that V. I lick my lips and drag my gaze slowly back up, taking in all his beautiful tattoos and wet hair.
“Do you like what you see sweetheart?” He chuckles.
“Why yes, Mr. Hunnam. I believe I do,” I say, reaching out to run my nails down his abs, and he shudders.
“Don’t tease me, Hannah,” he growls. “Don’t start something you don’t intend to finish.”
I stand up, flicking his nipple with my tongue. “If you’re lucky, I’ll finish you later, but right now, I want to know where we’re going, so put some clothes on that body before I change my mind.” With that, I leave the room to say goodbye to the girls.
We’ve been driving for almost two hours and I’m starting to get antsy. He won’t tell me where we are going and I’m still turned on from when I saw him this morning. “Are we almost there?” I whine, looking over at his handsome profile.
“Not yet, sweetheart. One more hour.” He smiles over at me, and I get an idea.
“Will the road be this straight for a while?” I ask innocently.
“Yeah, it will be straight for a while.” He furrows his brow, looking worried. “Why? Are you feeling carsick? I can pull over?”
I shake my head and unbuckle my seatbelt. I lift the moveable console up and slide into the middle seat beside him. “What are you doing, sweetheart?” he questions looking adorably confused.
“I changed my mind,” I whisper, biting his earlobe between my teeth. “I want to finish you off now.” I reach down and grab him through his jeans.
“Jesus C
hrist!” he groans, gripping onto the steering wheel.
I move so I’m kneeling on the seat and start to unbuckle his belt. I can already see that he’s hard as a fucking rock, so I’m careful opening his zipper. I let out a small giggle when I see his long johns under the jeans. All damn year. He wasn’t joking, and I think it’s adorable. I tug down on the elastic of his long johns and his cock springs free. I squeeze my legs together at the sight of him.
His cock is perfect. Thick and pink. Soft skin over steel. Pre-come is dripping from the head, and I lick it off with my tongue. I fucking love the way he tastes. I grip him in my hand, running my tongue along the thick vein up his shaft. Every muscle in his body is wound tight from having to concentrate on the road and it has to be making his pleasure more intense. I suck him into my mouth, taking him as far as I can go before I start to gag. He’s so big, so it’s not very far. I start to suck him and pump my hand to the same rhythm, stopping every once in a while to twirl my tongue around the tip.
He takes one hand off the steering wheel and wraps it in my hair. “You have such a hot mouth, Hannah,” he groans, pushing my head down to take more of him in my mouth. I can tell he likes it when I take him so deep I gag. I cup his balls with one hand and take him as much as I can so I’m deep throating. “Fuck, Hannah. I’m going to come. You need to pull away now.”
I keep my lips wrapped around his dick as he empties his release into my mouth. I lick it all up, leaving no come anywhere, before tucking him back into his jeans.
I’m so turned on from tasting him that I want him to pull over and fuck me on the side of the road, but I wanted this to be about him for once. Just his needs. “Mmm. I think I can manage the rest of the trip now. I just needed something to take my mind off the drive.” I smile at him, sliding back across to the passenger’s seat.
“That was fucking unreal, sweetheart. I think I came so hard I almost blacked out.”
I make a mental note that my man likes road head and toss him a wink before turning up the radio.
Less than thirty minutes later, we are pulling up a gravel road and I can see a tiny little cabin coming into view. It’s not very big at all, and it has a massive porch that wraps around the front, looking out onto the small lake it sits on.
