Sweet Summer Sunset

by Delores Fossen

  “Uh, is this about Miss Rayelle being Piper’s real mom and all?” Jax asked in a whisper.

  Eden blinked. “How did you know about that?”

  A red blush flooded his cheeks. “I snooped and looked in the little silver box Miss Rayelle always carries. It was in her purse, and I checked it out when she wasn’t around. I thought maybe she had a severed finger or some cremated ashes. Or maybe some cigarettes,” he added with a shrug. “I wouldn’t have smoked one or anything, but I just wondered if she had like a nicotine habit or something.”

  “A severed finger, ashes?” But Eden waved that off. She didn’t want to know how he’d reached those possible conclusions.

  “I’ll get that snack now,” Jax said, and he headed in the direction of her kitchen.

  Eden was about to go to Rayelle, but the sound of a text ding stopped her. Until that sound, she hadn’t realized just how desperate she was to hear from Nico. But it wasn’t Nico. It was Roy.

  Just got six calls. All from out-of-towners who are fans of your blog. They want to do business with me and made appointments. Go ahead and take your time off, but when you get back, we’ll be mighty busy.

  Well, good. That was something at least. She hadn’t wanted Naughty Cowgirl to hurt Roy, and it apparently hadn’t. Thankfully, it had caused business to pick up at the feed store, too, though it might take a year or so for her mother to accept that particular side benefit.

  Eden poured Rayelle a shot of whiskey, carefully avoiding the fumes herself since she’d had enough of booze fumes today. She brought the glass to Rayelle and then sat beside her. Miss Kitty put up a token hiss, as if protesting the interruption to his nap before he went back to sleep.

  “I’ve lost her,” Rayelle said, taking a dainty sip of the drink before tossing the rest back in one gulp. “I’ve lost Piper forever.”

  Eden opened her mouth to assure her that might not be true, but it turned out that she didn’t have to say anything. That’s because the front door opened, and Nico and Piper came in. Eden could have sworn her heart did a little jump in her chest, and she forgot how to breathe. She hadn’t always had this reaction to him, but she was certainly having it now.

  Nico went to her, brushing a kiss on her cheek and giving Eden’s arm a hang-in-there squeeze. She returned the gesture and braced herself for whatever was about to happen.

  “I don’t have lice or strep,” Jax said.

  Okay, so she hadn’t been expecting that. Or the smile of relief that practically washed over Piper. Piper went to him, and despite the fact that Jax was holding an open bag of Cheetos in one hand and a Coke in the other, Piper hugged him. And Jax hugged her back.

  “It’s okay, baby,” he said to her, kissing her cheek.

  Piper probably wouldn’t care that he’d left an orange smear with his mouth. She just looked, well, relieved that he was there. Their holding and touching wasn’t anywhere near the scalding level of the kiss that Eden had witnessed between Callen and Shelby, but there was no mistaking the intimacy. These two cared deeply for each other. Whether it would last was anyone’s guess, but it was there for now, and Eden suspected Piper would need that to get her through the next couple of minutes. Along with the next few months.

  Rayelle got to her feet, but she didn’t say anything. She just stood there and let Piper and Jax hug it out and whisper sweet nothings to each other. Since Eden was well aware that the sweet nothings might rile Nico as only a big brother could be riled, Eden took hold of his hand. A ploy to keep him in place, yes, but Piper wasn’t the only one who needed someone to get her through this.

  While staying in Jax’s arms, Piper finally eased around to face Rayelle. “Don’t expect me to just start thinking of you as my mother,” Piper said.

  Not a lovey-dovey way to begin a conversation, but it was far better than some of the alternatives. No profanity had been involved, and Piper wasn’t doling out any stink eye. More of a warning eye.

  “No,” Rayelle agreed. “Right now, I’d be happy with just a start.” She paused as if giving Piper a chance to object to that, but the girl didn’t.

  “There’ll be a lot of or’s in what I’m about to say,” Rayelle continued a moment later. “But we need to make some decisions. You need to make decisions,” Rayelle amended. “First thing first. We can stay in the cabin indefinitely or move somewhere else in Coldwater or go back to San Antonio when the summer’s over.”

  “The cabin,” Piper said without hesitation.

  Rayelle nodded but took her time again before she continued. “Since Jax is clearly important to you and if his parents agree, he can see you whenever possible, or I can arrange for him to get a place to live here.”

  This time Piper wasn’t so quick with her answer. She seemed to give it some thought. “Jax visiting whenever possible for now. I want him to finish school.”

  Another nod from Rayelle. “I want you to finish, too, and I’m afraid there won’t be an or with that. You need to finish for yourself. For your baby.”

  “She’s right about that,” Nico insisted.

  Piper gave him what appeared to be an obligatory little sister eye roll. “All right, agreed.”

  Along with Rayelle’s next nod, she let out a breath so long that it seemed as if the woman had been holding it for hours. “I’ll pay for all your expenses, including college, or you can figure out a way to do that yourself. There are no strings attached to what I’m offering.”

  Piper stayed quiet a moment. “I’ll have to think about that one.”

  Rayelle gave a fourth nod. “And finally I’m so sorry that I gave you up for adoption. I don’t have an excuse, not a good one anyway. What I did was on me, and you can choose to forgive me for that—one day—or you can tell me to get out of your life and that you never want to see me again.”

  There it was. All spelled out for Piper. A bottom line filled with options and or’s.

  “Even if you don’t forgive me,” Rayelle said, adding even more to that bottom line, “I’ll always love you and my grandchild that you’re carrying.”

  Silence all the way around. Eden certainly wasn’t going to say anything. This was a family deal. If she’d had a bet on who would cave and talk first, Eden would have lost that bet because the winner was Jax.

  “Uh, she sounds sincere and sorry and all,” he told Piper. “And this baby will be her grandkid since you’re her kid. Maybe you could at least give her a chance or something. You know, like maybe just live with her awhile and see how it works out.”

  Strange that the most inarticulate one in the room could manage to boil everything down to a solution. A very simple solution that didn’t involve a gnashing of teeth or detailed plans.

  Not for now anyway.

  Piper certainly didn’t balk at what Jax had said, and after what must have felt like an eternity to Rayelle, the girl nodded. “Okay. We can have a trial run of sorts here at the cabin in Coldwater.”

  Tears instantly sprang to Rayelle’s eyes, but Eden had no doubt that these were of the happy variety. She stood still until Piper started toward her, and Rayelle met her halfway. When Piper hugged her, Rayelle hugged right back.

  Tears sprang to Eden’s eyes, too. And Piper’s. And while Nico didn’t cry, there was a sigh of relief as if a heavy weight had been lifted off his chest.

  Rayelle pulled back from Piper for only a second to look at the girl. At her daughter. There was lots and lots of love on the woman’s face before she went back for seconds on the hug.

  Jax beamed and looked longingly at Rayelle and Piper as if he wanted to be included in that love. Rayelle hooked her arm around the boy’s neck and pulled him into the embrace. That went on for several long moments and involved a few more tears before Piper finally moved back.

  “I’ve got a bad case of morning sickness.” Piper ran her hand over her stomach. “Can we go back to the cabin now so I c
an lie down?”

  “Of course,” Rayelle said, running her hand down Piper’s hair. “I might have a fix for that. Crackers worked when I was carrying you.” Rayelle turned as if heading for the door, but then she stopped. “My car’s parked up the street.”

  “So’s my truck,” Jax said.

  Eden had a fix for that. A small contribution but still one that would help. She took her keys from the entry table and handed them to Jax. “Drive them to the cabin. Stay as long as needed.” Though she wasn’t sure how Jax would interpret that, Eden had no doubts that Piper or Rayelle would send him on his way when the time was right.

  Nico went to Piper and hugged and kissed her. “Call me after your stomach’s settled.”

  Piper nodded. “Thanks...for everything.” She looked at Eden and repeated the thanks, and then Nico and she heard other rounds of gratitude. First from Rayelle and then from Jax before the three of them filed out of the house, leaving Nico and Eden standing there in the quiet.

  It didn’t stay quiet for long.

  “Now,” Nico said, turning to her, “you and I have to talk.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  NICO DIDN’T MISS the “deer caught in the headlights” look in Eden’s eyes, and he knew exactly why it was there. Even with the ordeal they’d just gone through with Piper and Rayelle, that wasn’t what had put Eden in the frozen mode. Nope.

  It was the: That’s because I’m in love with Nico.

  Nico certainly hadn’t forgotten about it, and he was dead certain she hadn’t, either. Now he had to figure out the best way to handle this. He started by going to the door, locking it, peering out the sidelight windows to make sure Jax, Piper and Rayelle had managed to get out of there despite the crowd. They had. The only people left were Liddy Jean and her protesting crew, and Nico figured they’d be leaving soon, too, when they realized they no longer had an audience.

  He turned back to Eden to further assess the situation. She had her bottom lip clamped between her teeth. It seemed as if she expected him to curse her out or leave. So Nico came up with the best way to approach this. Unlike with Piper, silence and a hug weren’t going to do the trick.

  “What’s your latest blog request?” he asked.

  Obviously, Eden hadn’t expected that because she drew her brows together. “Uh,” she finally said, “Horny in Houston wants advice about how to make a home sex tape for her sweet-cheeks cowboy.”

  All right. He’d hoped for something simpler like kitchen sex or role-playing, but he could work with this. It would not only get that nerve-frazzled look off Eden’s face, it might also help him think clearer, too. Usually sex or near sex hadn’t been a mental palate cleanser, but it had been with Eden.

  “Okay, your phone camera or mine?” he asked, and when her blank stare continued, he went with, “Mine then.” He took out his phone to get it ready.

  Eden’s blank stare finally turned into a sigh that had a touch of a huff to it. “Nico, I know you want to talk about what I said.”

  “Yes, I do,” he readily admitted, “but after the ordeal we’ve just been through, anything we say will be filtered through a crapload of raw emotions. Let’s soothe those emotions a little and then the talk will be more straightforward.”

  She opened her mouth, but she shut it just as quickly. That perhaps had something to do with him clicking the video function on his phone and holding it out for a selfie of them fully dressed.

  “Hi, I’m Sweet-Cheeks cowboy,” he told the camera, “and this is Horny in Houston here. We’re going to make a sex tape.”

  When he finished his introduction, he looked at Eden and saw that she was fighting a smile. Good. That was progress. So was the kiss he gave her because she kissed him right back. In fact, she went right into it, tongue and all.

  He held on to the camera, not sure if he had it angled right and not particularly caring since he would have to erase it as soon as they were done. Well, he might watch it if Eden was game. Right now, she seemed pretty game for anything. The kiss had done its job and heated her up. Of course, her kiss had heated him up just as fast.

  Nico cleared his throat before he went back to the video portion of this conversation prep. “Every good sex tape requires several things. First, consent from your partner. That’s a biggie. Don’t be a dick and spring this on a lover after the climaxes are over. The only other things a sex tape needs are getting naked and getting laid, preferably in that order.”

  To prove his point, he shucked off Eden’s dress. Oh yeah. Little bitty panties and a why-bother bra. Then, he reversed the camera so that she could see herself on the screen. Of course, Eden probably didn’t see what he did.

  That she was a knockout.

  And she probably didn’t know he wanted her more than the oxygen in the air. So Nico showed her. Kissing her, he dragged her hand to the front of his jeans so she could feel his erection. Not the beginnings of one, either. That sucker was full-blown and ready for action.

  This time when she pulled back from the kiss, she was really smiling. “Put your hand in your jeans and adjust yourself.”

  He’d never understood how that could get her hot, but she probably didn’t get the whole itty-bitty underwear thing. Even though it wasn’t going to do anything for his heat rate, he unhooked his belt buckle, opened the snap on his jeans and went in.

  Just as Eden took his phone from him and recorded what he was doing.

  “Horny in Houston will want to watch that again,” she said, her voice now filled with smoke and a whole lot of devilment.

  Yeah, they’d be watching this again, so Nico wanted to make sure he got better stuff than him giving his hard dick a comfort adjustment.

  He reached to take back his phone, but she shook her head. “Strip, sweet-cheeks.”

  Gladly. Because the sooner he got naked, the sooner he could shimmy off her panties and get on to the sex part of the sex tape.

  Nico reached behind him, caught on to the neck of his shirt and pulled it off. Off went his boots and jeans, but he added a warning when he reached for the top of his boxers. “You and I are the only ones who see this. Don’t leave a copy around for anyone else.”

  “Just us,” she agreed. “Now, get all the way naked.”

  He did, but while his boxers were still around his ankles, she was on him. Eden came at him, hugging, kissing and groping all at once despite still holding the phone.

  Nico did something about that. He dragged her to the floor, making sure that he took the brunt of the fall. Eden landed on top of him, and Nico used their new position to rid her of the bra and panties.

  “Sweet-Cheeks Cowboy will want to watch this again,” he said.

  He took the phone from her and levered her up a little so he could get a nice body shot. Her choice in genital grooming was now recorded for posterity. Or in their case, a viewing or two which would likely just crank them up again and lead to more sex.

  Nico turned the screen toward her, hit a quick rewind for her to give him a thumbs-up or-down. He got a thumbs-sideways when she turned the camera, hit Record again and got a very close-up image of his face. Then, his erection.

  He smiled, wondering if she debated the order of which to record first but knew she hadn’t. Eden liked the sex, but he was pretty sure she liked his face even more. He certainly liked hers.

  While he wouldn’t have minded stretching out the sex tape a bit longer, she was starting to wiggle against the second part of him that she’d recorded, and that wasn’t good. He didn’t want accidental penetration—especially considering how several members of his family were already knocked up.

  “Sweet-Cheeks Cowboy here with a reminder to practice safe sex,” he said, tossing his phone aside so he could get a condom out of his jeans pocket.

  He wasn’t sure where the phone landed and didn’t care. That’s because the moment he had the condom on, Eden took
him inside her. Well, it was more like a frantic let’s get this done now, but he was used to that. Both he and his recorded dick appreciated it.

  She caught on to his hands, pinning him to the floor, and showing some “Horny in Houston” tendencies, she rode him like a racehorse. Nico didn’t stop her, not one bit. He just watched, taking her all in, getting lost in the way his erection slid and slid against all that smooth skin. In fact, he got so caught up in it that he didn’t realize soon enough that the climax was bearing down on him.

  And Eden was still going.

  Hell. She was at South Dakota and showed no signs of stopping.

  Nico quickly tried to rein in and slow her down, but she would have no part of that. Her eyes were fierce and filled with the power—yeah, power—of what she was doing. Of what she was capable of doing. And what she was capable of was making him explode.

  The climax racked through him, on and on, robbing him of his breath and his ability to reach between them and give her a few strokes to help her do some exploding of her own.

  But Eden didn’t need that anyway.

  While his body was racking and surrendering, hers did, too. “Wyoming,” she said, and even though it was a murmur, it seemed to be in triumph.

  Nico sure as hell wasn’t going to dispute that victory, and it was one he’d remember for the rest of his life. Maybe even watch it—if the camera angle was right. For now, though, he just gathered Eden in his arms, kissed her and waited for her to come back down.

  She lay there, sprawled out over him for a few moments before she lifted her head. Still smiling, she kissed him. Not some postsex peck. This was the real deal. Hot, deep and it would have gone well past Wyoming if anyone had been naming states. They weren’t. They were just putting some icing on this very nice cake they’d just made.

  And since they’d had their dessert, Nico figured it was time for that talk before she gathered her wits and her fears about discussing this with him.

  “You told your parents you were in love with me,” he said.