Never Saw it Coming

by Bernadette Marie

  If he didn’t lay her down, she was going to slide to the floor in a pile of goo.

  As if he knew what she’d been thinking, Mike hoisted her up, her legs instinctively wrapped around him. He carried her to his bedroom, his mouth planted firmly on hers, and laid her on his bed.

  Their lips separated, and she opened her eyes to see him looking down at her in the dimly lit room.

  She was afraid to ask why he’d stopped.

  “You are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met.”

  “I’ve seen pictures of your ex-wife,” she reminded him and thought it was certainly the wrong time to bring that up.

  He shook his head. “Your beauty doesn’t need enhancement. It’s visible and shines from your soul. I’ve never been able to stop looking at you, even when I was irritated with you.”

  “I irritated you?”

  “Only because you’re so headstrong, which is sexy too.” He accentuated that with a kiss on her collarbone which had her moaning. “I might have been irritated because I think I fell in love with you the moment I laid eyes on you. You sealed it with that tattoo with Jason’s name.”

  Why was it she would cry around this man? Tears welled in her eyes when he said her son’s name with love and warmth. “You fell in love with me?”

  “I am in love with you.”

  There was security and certainty in the words, and she felt them hug her like a warm, comforting blanket. “I love you, too. You make me feel whole. You’re very important to those that I love, and that means a lot to me.”

  His mouth took possession of hers again, and she wrapped her arms tightly around him, feeling his skin pressed to hers.

  “I want to take this slowly,” he said, his words strained against her throat. “I don’t know if I can.”

  Chandra pushed her fingers through his hair, wrapping her legs up and around him again. “Then don’t. I’m not leaving this bed all night. We can do this as many times as we want to.”

  Even in the shallow light, she saw his eyes grow dark with passion, desire, and need. With that, they each freed themselves from the bits of clothing they had on, and let the moment take over as they both gave themselves to one another in a passionate eruption of lovemaking.

  ~*~

  Chandra woke from what felt like a drunken sleep, to feel Mike’s finger tracking the lines that had been drawn on her arms in ink. Sunlight now filled the room, but she wasn’t sure she’d managed more than a few minutes of sleep all night.

  She’d lost count of how many times they’d made love, and at that moment too, she realized it hadn’t just been sex. It was so much more.

  When she could manage it, she turned her head toward him. “Good morning.”

  “It is indeed,” he said pressing a kiss to her shoulder. “Why the dreamcatcher?” Mike asked as he traced the lines of it on her shoulder.

  “To always remind me to chase my dreams and never forget them.”

  “What are your dreams?”

  She had to think. It had been so long since she didn’t just go through motions that the tattoo’s reminder seemed to have been lost.

  “They’ve changed over the years. “I used to want to be a singer, but that was in elementary school. Many years before I realized I didn’t have a voice. Then I wanted to drive semi-trucks like my parents. I was young then too, but I thought it would let me see the world. Every year my dreams changed a bit. Lately, they’ve been more focused on raising a great kid, making sure he’s whole, and sending him in the right direction. I love what I do, so I can’t say I settled, but I don’t know. How do you dream bartending into being something bigger.”

  “If you’re happy, why does it have to be bigger? But from an outsider’s perspective, you’re not just a bartender.”

  Now she rolled to face him. “What am I?”

  “First of all, you run the joint. Yeah, even when Gabe is here. Everyone trusts you in that role of authority. I’ve seen you with the employees. You’re not disliked at all, and they all do what you need them to do. You’re a leader, who happens to pour the perfect drink.”

  “Thank you.”

  “You’re also your son’s role model. Don’t forget that. He’s not afraid of hard work. Trust me. I’ve worked with ten-year-olds before. They don’t have the attention span for tasks like he does. You’re raising an amazing kid. If that’s your dream, you’re following it.”

  Because she felt herself getting sappy again, she rolled so that she was perched atop of him. His hands came to her hips, and she rested hers on his chest. “You know what I’m dreaming of now?”

  He grinned wide. “More sex?”

  She returned his grin with a smile. “Breakfast. Biscuits and gravy.”

  “I could make that dream happen. Shower first?”

  “Most certainly,” she said as they both raised their heads when they heard a pounding on the outside door at the base of the staircase.

  Mike scrambled up. “What are the chances that’s some homeless person?”

  “Knocking like that?” She watched as he pulled on his pants and she searched for any piece of clothing. “God, what if it’s Jason.” Then she looked up at him feeling the blood drain from her face. “What if it’s Austin?”

  “I’m going down. Be at the top of the stairs with your phone ready,” he ordered as he headed out of the apartment, shirtless.

  Chandra scrambled to find her shirt and tug it on, then somehow managed to jump into her pants as she followed him out the door.

  The banging continued as he hurried down the stairs. As instructed, she held her hand on her phone, poised to call for help if they needed it.

  Mike looked through the eye piece on the door. “Holy shit!”

  “What? What?” She began to dial as he worked the lock and pushed open the door.

  The stairwell was dark enough she couldn’t manage to see much. But whoever was on the other side of the door had wrapped their arms around Mike, and now he was laughing. There were more than their two voices, but he didn’t seem to be distressed.

  As Mike pulled the man in, two more followed and they all looked up at her. She realized then, her hair was wild, and her shirt had barely been pulled over her unbuttoned pants.

  She lowered the phone and adjusted the shirt. She felt the flush over her face as she squinted at the face of the man standing next to Mike, shadowed by the dim sunlight coming from beyond the metal door.

  “Ah, I thought this would be different,” Mike said shaking his head and chuckling. “But, Dane, I’d like you to meet Chandra.”

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chandra was sure she was going to be sick. Being raised by the man and woman she had been, she usually didn’t see confrontation as a bad thing. But right now, she was about to be face to face with Mike’s son and his friends, as they ascended the stairs, and she knew what she looked like.

  Managing to wipe her sweaty palm on her pants before shaking Dane’s hand, she said, “It’s very nice to meet you.”

  There was a grin wanting to surface on the young man’s face she could tell. Surely it would match the ones on the other two standing down a few stairs behind them.

  “It’s nice to meet you too. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

  She shifted a glance in Mike’s direction, and he grinned. “Well, let’s go inside.”

  Chandra walked in first, and Mike followed with his arm around Dane, and then the other two.

  “Oh, I should introduce you all.” Dane turned to the other two men behind him. “This is Doug and James.”

  “Nice to meet you,” Mike shot out his hand to shake those of the men who accompanied Dane.

  Dane looked at his father. “We thought it would be fun to surprise you,” he said, his lips twitching to smile wide.

  “You surprised me all right. Us that is.” Because he was an upstanding man, she decided, he moved in next to her and wrapped his arm around her waist. “We were just discussing breakfast. Would you guys be interested?”


  “Most definitely,” Dane said.

  “Sit down and make yourselves at home. We’ll get ready and be out in a few.”

  He turned her toward the bedroom and closed the door behind them.

  She felt the blood rush to her cheeks. “Oh, God. That was horrible.”

  “He’s nineteen.”

  “What does that matter? He knows what we were doing. Did he know about us? Me? I’m not usually one to get embarrassed but…”

  He gripped her shoulders and pulled her in for a quick kiss. “He knew I had some feelings. He’s been waiting for this, I think. I’m not going to be embarrassed by it. No reason to. Remember, he’s the one that surprised us, not the other way around.”

  “You can’t convince me that’s true. He’s surprised.”

  “And I’ll have a good conversation about it with him while he’s here. For now, we’re going to jump in the shower, get dressed, and take my son and his friends out to breakfast.”

  He nipped her lips with another kiss before walking to the bathroom and starting the shower.

  Mike hurried through his shower, brushed his teeth, and dressed before going out to the living room where the three young men sat on the couch, bunched together, watching an old western, which surprised him.

  “Roy Rogers?” he asked.

  “It’s a phase, Dad. Bonanza was a ritual in the dorm last year.”

  Mike laughed. “At least they’re teaching you some culture. Want some coffee?”

  All three of them nodded.

  He moved to the kitchen to brew the coffee, and Dane followed him. He leaned up against the counter next to him as he filled the pot with water.

  “You’re dating the biker chick?” he asked softly since there was hardly a dividing wall between the kitchen and the living room.

  Mike laughed. “It’s brand new. It’s not as if I kept it from you.”

  He noticed his son’s smile, and it warmed him to think it was genuine. “I knew it was coming. I knew it.”

  “You’re a genius,” he joked as he poured the water into the machine. “It feels right. She has a lot on her plate, and so do I. We’ll see what happens.”

  Dane rested a hand on his shoulder. “I’m happy for you. Just remember that when you know you know. Don’t wait too long to have what you want.”

  When he lifted his eyes to see the humor in his son’s, he realized there wasn’t any. Dane was speaking from his heart, and it squeezed at his.

  They heard the bedroom door open, and a moment later Chandra was standing at the table. Her hair was still damp, but braided as it was most of the time. She had on a tank top, which she was about to throw a denim shirt over when Dane halted her.

  “I want to check out your ink,” he said moving toward her. “Dreamcatcher, compass, and Jason’s name. Oh, that’s rad.”

  “Thank you.” She pulled on the shirt. “He’s very excited to meet you.”

  “Me too. We have a game planned against these losers,” he said, and the other men on the couch both flipped him off in good humor. “He seems like a good kid. Dad really likes him.”

  He caught her eye as she looked his way. “He likes your dad too.”

  ~*~

  They’d gone to a nice diner, just a few blocks from the house Mike and his lovely investors had purchased. After they’d eaten, they’d taken the boys for a tour of the house.

  The consensus was that it was haunted, and more than once, one of the boys jumped out from behind a door or wall to scare one of the others.

  Chandra hadn’t realized just how old she was until she was subject to the adolescent silliness of nineteen-year-old boys, but she found she loved it.

  Because there wasn’t enough room in her car, she took them all back to Mike’s and drove to Tracy’s to pick up Jason.

  Tracy opened the door, and the smell of burning incense filtered out. “Good morning, Chandra. Have a nice night?” The grin on Tracy’s flickered between casual and wide.

  “It was very nice. Thank you.”

  “Come in. Jason and your mom are washing the dishes.”

  Chandra shook her head as she walked into the small house which was boldly decorated with eclectic items from around the world, and bright tapestries on the walls.

  “How can she get him to do dishes and I can’t?”

  Tracy laughed easily as she wrapped an arm around Chandra’s shoulders. “It’s a grandmother’s gift. You too will possess it someday.”

  As they entered the tiny kitchen, both her son and her mother turned their heads to look at them, their hands still submerged in the soapy water. “Hey, Mom. Where’s Mike?”

  There was no hitch in his voice, no condemning look in his eyes. Perhaps he was more ready for her to move on than she was.

  “He’s at his place. Dane and his friends arrived early to surprise him.”

  Water flung from Jason’s fingertips as he swung around, his eyes wide, and his smile wider. “No way. They’re here already?”

  She laughed as she nodded and her mother handed him a towel to mop up the floor with. “Yes, they’re here. They look forward to meeting you.”

  “Can we go over now?”

  Her mother cleared her throat. “When you’re done,” she said firmly, and that had Jason turning back to the sink.

  When they were finished with the dishes, Jason scurried off to gather his things. Her mother turned to her, resting a hip against the counter. “Well, it was a good night?”

  She felt the flush creep along her cheeks and her neck, and a smile tugged at her mouth. “It was a good night.”

  “He’s good people, Chandra. He loves you and he loves Jason.”

  She knew that too. Even better, she’d heard him say it, and she’d returned the words. “I know.” The thought warmed her throughout. “I know,” she repeated.

  “Get him and go. He’s so excited to meet Dane it’s all he’s talked about.”

  Chandra moved to her mother and kissed her cheek. “Thank you. I didn’t see this coming,” she admitted.

  “I did. The moment I met him.” She patted her cheek. “Now, go.”

  Jason loaded his bag into the car and pulled on his seatbelt. “What did you have for dinner?” he asked as he settled in.

  She laughed. “I had pizza on Grandma's good china in Mike’s new house.”

  Jason wrinkled up his nose. “It’s dirty there.”

  She laughed. “He cleaned up one room so we could have dinner.”

  Chandra watched him fidget with the zipper on his jacket. “Did you stay at his house all night? Sleep there? With him?”

  Taking a slow cleansing breath, she thought about her answer. She wasn’t going to lie to him. “We stayed at his apartment. And yes, I slept there, with him.”

  He nodded slowly. “Are you going to live with him?”

  That brought a smile to her lips. “He didn’t ask me to live with him, honey. I don’t know what will happen between us.”

  “Do you love him?”

  Again, she thought about her answer. “I do.”

  His shoulders dropped, and she caught the smile that nearly took over his face.

  “That’s okay?” she asked as she pulled behind the restaurant.

  “Oh, yeah. It’s perfect.”

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chandra wasn’t sure why it surprised her that the moment she turned off the engine, Jason jumped out of the car and bounded in the back door and up the staircase. She laughed as she followed, after locking the door, and checking it again.

  By the time she’d reached Mike’s apartment, she could already hear her son’s voice rising over the others in excitement. Dane had him engaged in conversation with his friends, and he fell right in place.

  “Mom, look what Dane brought me,” he squealed as he held his arms out and donned a new University of Southern California T-shirt.

  “That’s awesome. Did you thank him?”

  Dane nodded. “A million times before you even wal
ked in,” he said laughing. “It’s a little big.”

  “He’ll grow into it,” she said as she walked toward Mike, who stood in the kitchen. He wrapped his arm around her waist and pecked her lips with a kiss.

  “Did he quiz you about last night?”

  “A little. He’s okay with everything.”

  He kissed her again. “I knew he would be.”

  They sat at the kitchen table sipping coffee watching their sons bond. Dane had quickly fallen into the role of older brother, but then Mike had felt that tug when he’d held up his phone to the glass at the soccer game, and they’d watched Jason score his goal.

  The boys were busy playing the Xbox that James had brought with him, and each of them included Jason, and surprisingly enough kept their mouths clean.

  Mike watched as Chandra checked her watch for at least the fifth time in an hour. “It’s killing you to not be downstairs, isn’t it?”

  She chewed her bottom lip. “I’m just getting used to the idea of having a day off again,” she said. “And I can’t get over the feeling that Gabe should be home with his baby.”

  Mike ran a comforting hand down her back. “Gabe will be fine.”

  “I know he will.” She picked up her coffee and sipped. “He wants to go skiing with you when you go.”

  Mike leaned back in his chair. “I’m fairly sure Dane isn’t going to go anywhere without him.” He placed a hand on her thigh. “You’ll go with us?”

  He watched her think about it for only a moment. “I have some money set aside for us to do something for spring break. Can I still get a hotel room?”

  Mike laughed easily. “We have a suite with three rooms. You and Jason are welcome to one of them.”

  She smiled at him, flecks of gold shimmered in her eyes only enhancing the smile. Perhaps she understood how much he’d like to share a room with her, but it was too early for that. Jason was more accepting that he would have been had his mother started staying with men. But just the thought of going away with her, even with all the boys, stirred him up.