by Fiala, PJ
“Make yourself come, baby. Do it quick.”
Joci slid her hand between herself and the mattress and began putting pressure on her clit. It wouldn’t take much, even with all the orgasms she had just had. This just felt so good. Jeremiah started moving in her, and every time he pushed into her, it pushed her hand against her clit and into the mattress, creating perfect pressure. Joci was panting; she was going to explode.
“Jeremiah…I’m coming.”
Jeremiah pushed into her hard a few times, and they both fell over that wall together. He pushed into her, holding himself inside of her while he released himself. He could feel her pulsing. He could feel himself pulsing as his seed was released. He fell forward onto her back, holding himself with his elbows. He kissed her temples, her cheeks, her jaw, her hair.
“This spell you’ve spun over me has totally consumed me. I love you. I love you crazy.”
Joci smiled a lazy smile. “I love you too, Jeremiah. I love you crazy. I would rather die than not have you in my life.”
Chapter 25
The Exes
Sunday morning, Joci woke to Jeremiah kissing her head. Her eyes came slowly open, and she looked around. Jeremiah was on his back with his right arm wrapped around her. She was on her side, with her right leg thrown over his legs, her right arm thrown over his waist, and her head cradled on his shoulder. Bliss. That was the only way to describe it. After they made love the first time last night, they showered and went to sleep. True to his word, Jeremiah woke Joci up again to make love to her.
Joci stretched and lifted her head to look at the clock. Holy crap, it was nine o’clock. She started to get up, but Jeremiah pulled her back down.
“Let’s snuggle some more. I love it.”
Joci smiled. “Nothing in the world sounds better, but Gunnar and Connor will be here in an hour. I think we have clothing discarded all around the house.”
Jeremiah smiled at the thought. “Yes, I believe we do. So what?”
Joci kissed his mouth and pushed herself up. “So what is I don’t want my son walking in and looking at my underthings lying around the room.”
Jeremiah laughed at her. “He knows how much I love you. He knows how beautiful you are. He would assume, correctly, that I couldn’t wait to make love to you.”
“You are a naughty man, Jeremiah.”
Joci kissed him again and slid out of bed. She pulled on a pair of yoga pants and a t-shirt and walked out to the kitchen to get them a cup of coffee. She was pouring coffee into their mugs when Jeremiah walked up behind her, naked and pushed himself into her behind.
“You felt so damn good last night, Joci. I can’t stop thinking about it. Look, I’m already hard again.”
Joci pushed her backside into Jeremiah and wiggled a little.
“That thing has a mind of its own. I don’t know how it keeps standing after last night.”
Jeremiah laughed and spun her around to face him. “It stands because you’re parading around in a flimsy little t-shirt with no bra on and I can see your perky little nipples. Everything about you makes it stand. Can’t help it. Don’t want to change it.”
He kissed her again. His tongue delved into her mouth, mating with her tongue.
Joci kissed him back, wrapping her arms around his neck. When they needed air, Joci pushed him away with a gentle shove.
“You take away my resolve. I need to shower before Gunnar and Connor get here.” Joci smiled up at him.
She kissed him again. Then she began to pick up her discarded clothing. She took her coffee cup and walked back to the bedroom to jump in the shower. She had just enough time to shower and throw some clothes on before Gunnar and Connor got here.
Joci walked out of the bedroom to the kitchen and heard Gunnar and Jeremiah talking. Her hair was still wet from the shower, and she quickly ran a comb through it. They were sitting at the dining table talking.
“Hi, honey. Did you just get here?” She hugged Gunnar and winked at Jeremiah. He winked back at her.
“Just a minute or two ago. I called to see if I could bring something over and Jeremiah asked me to stop at the bakery and pick up a cream cheese coffee cake. He said you guys slept in this morning and hadn’t eaten yet.”
Joci’s face turned flame red. Jeremiah was watching her. She was so adorable when she blushed. She walked to the coffee pot to warm up her coffee and brought the pot over to pour each of them another cup. Just as she put the pot back into the coffee maker, they heard a knock on the door. Joci looked at Jeremiah and Gunnar and sighed. “I guess we’ll soon find out what this is all about.”
Joci opened the front door and invited Connor in. She walked him into the kitchen and got him situated with coffee while Jeremiah and Gunnar greeted him. Joci sat at the table with Jeremiah on one side and Gunnar on the other. It was a square table, so they were all able to see each other. Connor sat directly across from Joci. Gunnar started cutting the coffeecake while pleasantries were exchanged. Jeremiah looked over at Joci.
“Would you like me to go in the other room?”
“No,” both Joci and Gunnar said at the same time. This was Jeremiah’s house first, and second, there was nothing that he couldn’t hear. She would just have to repeat it to him anyway.
Jeremiah smiled at both of them. He was relieved as hell to hear that. His stomach was rolling now that Connor was sitting here.
Connor finally cleared his throat. “I know this is going to be difficult to hear, but I wanted to let you know that Keith is back in town. He and Dianna and the boys moved back last week. They’re living at Keith’s parents’ house.”
Joci looked at Gunnar to see how he was taking this. Her son’s jaw was tight, and she could see him grinding his teeth together. Gunnar looked at Joci and then back at Connor.
Connor continued, “He wants to see you. Both of you.”
Gunnar slapped his hand on the top of the table, hard, making Joci jump. He stood up suddenly, knocking over his chair. “Tell him to go and fuck himself. I sure as fuck don’t want to see him.”
Joci looked at Gunnar and, even though she felt the same way, she was surprised that he didn’t want to see Keith. Joci looked at Jeremiah to see his reaction. His jaw was tight. His lips were pressed together in a narrow line and his hands were balled into fists on the table.
Connor took a deep breath and looked at Joci. “How do you feel about it, Joci?”
Joci snapped her head to look at Gunnar again and then at Connor. “I don’t have anything to say to him. He left us twenty-five years ago with no word, no contact in any way, shape, or form. No forwarding address, no way to contact him if Gunnar needed him. I can’t possibly imagine why he would think either of us would want to see him now.”
Connor nodded. He understood, but he was hoping they would agree to see Keith. He looked at Gunnar again. “He’s your father, Gunnar. Don’t you want to meet him?”
Gunnar exploded. “He isn’t my father. He’s a fucking sperm donor. He has a lot of fucking nerve asking to see me after all this time. Up until now, my fathers were you and Uncle David. Now I have Dog. He’s the only father I want.”
Joci was stunned. She knew Gunnar really liked Jeremiah. She had no idea he felt like Jeremiah was a father to him. She was so happy at that news, a tear slid out of her eye. She looked at Jeremiah, who was tearing up as well. He got up out of his chair and walked over and hugged Gunnar. Gunnar hugged him back, hard. They held on to each other for a long time.
Joci couldn’t take her eyes off them. She felt like she had a complete family for the first time in her life. Her heart was so full of love right now she was having a hard time breathing. The tears slid down her cheeks, fast and furious.
When Jeremiah and Gunnar pulled away from each other, they both had tears streaming down their faces as well. Jeremiah held Gunnar’s head in both of his hands and kissed the top of Gunnar’s head. With a voice full of emotion, Jeremiah said, “I love you, Gunnar.”
Gunnar threw his arms
around Jeremiah again and said, “I love you, too.”
Wow, what a surreal moment. Once they were able to compose themselves, they sat down again. Jeremiah reached over and grabbed Joci’s hand. She squeezed his hand and looked into his eyes. Everyone was quiet for a few moments, collecting their thoughts.
Connor looked at Joci. He reached over and laid a hand on top of the hand she had on the table. Jeremiah leaned forward like he was going to object, but Connor spoke up.
“Joci, I love you and Gunnar. I always have. I wanted to be there for you both when Keith left. I know this is hard for you. Both of you.”
He looked over at Gunnar, and then back at Joci. “Keith is dying, Joci. He has stage four lung cancer. He realizes what he did was wrong. He wants to apologize for his behavior.”
Joci slowly pulled her hand away from Connor. Now she was mad.
She looked at Connor and said as softly as she could, “How long are you going to do his dirty work? When he left, you stepped in and picked up some of the brunt. You were doing what he should have done. Now that he’s dying and wants to absolve himself of his wrongdoing, he sends you here to once again do his dirty work. How dare he want to see us when he is dying? He isn’t thinking of us. He isn’t thinking of Gunnar; he’s worried that he won’t get into heaven without asking for forgiveness. It has nothing to do with us!”
Joci stood up. “You go tell him that, Connor. He has no right to ask this of us. He has no right to try and use his final days to disturb our lives to ease his guilt.”
Joci started to walk outside when she heard Connor say, “You’ll regret this, Joci. I know you. You’re the one always saying to step up and be the better person. If you let him die without seeing you, you’ll always wonder if you should have given him the chance to apologize.”
Joci spun around to yell at Connor, but Gunnar punched him in the face first. Connor flew back and fell off his chair. Gunnar went to lunge at him again when Jeremiah stepped in and grabbed Gunnar.
“Son, it isn’t Connor’s fault that Keith is a coward. If you hurt him, you’ll feel bad about it. Let’s just let it go. Please.”
Gunnar looked at Jeremiah for a few beats and then nodded his head. He walked out past Joci and into the backyard. Joci followed him out. She didn’t want him riding his bike when he was pissed. She caught up to him and asked him to sit with her on the swing.
Joci had brought this swing from her house when she moved here. She used to swing with Gunnar on it in the evening while they read books. Later, when Gunnar was older, they would sit in the swing most evenings and talk about what had happened during the day. Gunnar would tell Joci about school and Joci would tell Gunnar about her latest project at work.
Joci started to move the swing back and forth, slowly, to help calm them both down. Neither said anything for a long time. They just swung back and forth.
Finally, Gunnar took in a shaky breath. “I’m sorry, Mom. I don’t want to see him. Are you mad at me?”
Joci pulled Gunnar to her for a hug. He rested his head on her shoulder, like he used to as a kid, and she rubbed his back.
“I’m not mad at you, baby. I don’t want to see him either. I can’t even process what’s going on.” After a short silence, Joci said, “I had no idea you loved Jeremiah like a father. I can’t tell you how happy that makes me.”
Gunnar smiled a little. “Didn’t you wonder why I always tried to get you to go out with him? There was something about him right away. I was drawn to him in a way I couldn’t explain. He’s been so patient and kind to me. Always teaching me things, just like his boys. Never yells, just corrects and explains, and we move on. Just like I always dreamed my father would be.
“Mom, when you finally started dating him, I was so fucking happy. I thought I would finally get my family. I don’t mean to make you feel bad, but I always wanted a dad. You’re a great mom, and Uncle David has been great over the years. But, I wanted a dad. My dad and not Keith. A dad who loves me.”
Joci had no idea. Tears slid down her face and into Gunnar’s hair. She didn’t care; she let them flow. Something changed just then. Joci felt, for the first time in her life, that she had a bright future. Jeremiah was the one. Her son felt it, too. Things were going to work out. They were going to be a family.
They sat like that for a long time. Joci lost track of time.
“May I join you?”
Joci and Gunnar both looked up into Jeremiah’s beautiful face. They both smiled at him and scooted over to make room for Jeremiah on the swing with them. Jeremiah sat next to Joci and put his arm around her shoulders and rested his hand on Gunnar’s shoulder.
“I take it Connor left,” Joci said.
“Yes, quite a while ago. I cleaned up the table and wanted to give you two some time to talk. But, I was spying on you. I sat at the table and watched you two sit and swing out here for a long time. I got jealous and decided to come and join you.”
He was smiling, and Joci looked up at him and kissed him. “You’re always welcome to join us. You should never feel like you can’t.”
Gunnar nodded. “Agreed.”
They sat that way for a while, each processing his or her thoughts separately.
“Did I hurt Connor?” Gunnar asked.
“Well, he has a sore jaw, but nothing’s broken. He feels bad. He said you had a point, Joci, about his doing Keith’s dirty work. He had never looked at it that way. He wanted me to tell you both he’s sorry he came here to ask you to see Keith.”
They were quiet for a while.
“My mom called and wanted to know if we would like to go to Pamperin Park for a barbeque this afternoon. How do you guys feel about that?”
“Nothing I would like more than to be with my family,” Gunnar said. He looked at Jeremiah when he said it. Jeremiah smiled and nodded at him. He squeezed Joci’s shoulders.
“You good with that?”
Joci nodded. Tears were sliding down her cheeks again. Geez, she was emotional today.
“Yes, that sounds like a fabulous way to spend the day.”
* * * * *
The following day, Jeremiah asked Joci to have lunch with him at the shop. He wanted to go over some things for the staff party they were having the weekend after next. Jeremiah had a party for the staff every August. They would go out to a nice restaurant and dress up and have a nice evening. There would be another staff ride in the fall, to see the colors in the trees.
Joci had been working on the plans with Jeremiah for the party for the past few weeks. She had also worked hard on the video from the Veteran’s Ride. She wanted to show them all at the staff party before the DVDs were all made.
Joci walked into Rolling Thunder, and Janice greeted her with a huge smile.
“Hi, Joci. How are you?”
Joci smiled right back at her. “I’m great, Janice. How are you doing?”
They spoke for a few minutes, and Joci walked upstairs to the offices to see Jeremiah. His office door was open and she walked in to find him reading something. Joci walked over and kissed the top of his head.
He looked up at her and smiled while pulling her down on his lap. Joci giggled and wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed his lips. Mmmm, she loved kissing him.
They were kissing when a gravelly voice from the doorway said, “Well, well, well. What do we have here?”
Jeremiah hissed out, “Fuck.”
Joci turned to see a woman who looked like an older version of LuAnn. Oh. My. God. Bleached blonde hair. Tattoos everywhere. A ton of jewelry. Over-tanned skin. Dark eye make-up. She looked like someone had dragged her behind a bike.
Jeremiah stood holding on to Joci. “Barbara, what brings you here?”
Barbara? This was Barbara? She looked like LuAnn’s mother, well, grandmother.
“Aren’t you going to introduce me to your plaything of the day?” Barbara smirked.
Jeremiah took a deep calming breath. “Barbara, first of all, she’s not my ‘plaything of the day
’. This is Jocelyn James. She’s my girlfriend, and I won’t allow you to disrespect her.”
Fuck, why did she have to show up? Jeremiah hadn’t really thought she would come around again after her blow-up with JT last year. He had laid into her pretty good. But then again, he figured she would just ignore it and try again. No doubt she wanted money.
“Joci, this is Barbara, JT and Ryder’s mother.”
Joci cleared her throat. “It’s nice to meet you, Barbara.”
Barbara sneered. “Sure.”
“I need to speak with you, Dog … privately.” She looked at Joci as she said that.
“Tough. If you have anything to speak with me about, you’ll say it in front of Joci,” Jeremiah said with a tight jaw.
Barbara sauntered in and flopped onto the chair across the room like she owned the place. “Suit yourself.”
Jeremiah and Joci sat in chairs opposite Barbara. Joci looked at Jeremiah, trying to gauge his mood.
“Go ahead, Barbara. Spit it out. We’re on our lunch break here.”
“Yes, I saw what you were eating.”
Barbara was snide and bitchy. Hmmm, maybe she was jealous. Whatever. Joci didn’t care. She still couldn’t believe that she looked like LuAnn. Or that LuAnn looked like her. At any rate, this was clearly the type of woman Jeremiah liked. Joci’s ugly doubts started crawling back into her mind.
“I need money, Dog. I’ve kind of fallen on hard times.”
Jeremiah huffed out a breath. Figured as much. Boy, she was a useless bitch.
“Tough. JT told you last year, and I’m telling you this year, no. If you need money, get a fucking job like everyone else.”
“I bet your little ‘girlfriend’ gets all the money she needs from you.”
Joci opened her mouth to say something. She was sick of being disrespected already. Barbara’s little “air quotes” as she said girlfriend was the last straw. Before Joci could say anything, Jeremiah jumped up and pointed to the door.
“Get the fuck out. For your fucking information, Joci works. She always has worked for a living. Something you wouldn’t know anything about. I told you I wasn’t going to let you disrespect her, and you’ve done it again. Get the fuck out.”
