Devoted

by Alycia Taylor

  He laughed. “So just be submissive?”

  “That’s the word I was looking for,” I said with a grin. “Yes, Braxton, to make it fair you should submit to me.”

  I thought he would protest, but instead he spread his arms and legs and lay back on the water. Testing him, I picked up one hand. His arm was loose like a noodle and when I let it go, it fell down, splashing into the water.

  With a lecherous grin he said, “Dominate me.”

  He had his eyes closed and he looked tense. I think he expected me to dunk him under, but I just wanted to see if he would trust me enough to “submit,” and he did. So I leaned down and softly pressed my lips to his. His arms quickly “un-noodled” and he reached up and pulled me down onto his chest.

  We shared a long, hot kiss and when we finally broke it Braxton said, “Wow, if I had known submission was so much fun I would have done it a long time ago.”

  “You should have read Fifty Shades of Grey,” I told him.

  “Wasn’t that about him being the dominator? I could get into that,” he said, his grin broadening.

  He started chasing me and dunked me. He then challenged me to a race which he cheated to win.

  “I’m hungry,” I finally said. “Are you ready to eat?”

  “I’m ready,” he said. On the way out of the water he pulled me to him again and we kissed. God he was sexy. I wasn’t an exhibitionist at all, but I could seriously do him right there right then.

  We went back under the tree where our stuff was and I laid out the blanket I had brought and Braxton helped me set up the food. I brought egg-salad sandwiches, chips, pickles, store-bought macaroni salad and Capri Suns to drink since they fit nicely in the basket. We ate and Braxton raved about the food like I had made him a steak and lobster dinner. It was another thing I loved about him, he was always so grateful for everything. I guess when you grow up with not much it makes you appreciate things more.

  Sitting back on his elbows he looked around and said, “We’ve come a long way since the first time we were here.”

  I laughed. “You’ve definitely come a long way and at least you have pants on.”

  He laughed sarcastically. “You know what I mean.”

  I did know and I agreed, “Yeah, you’re right, we’ve come a long way.”

  “I wanted you so bad, but you know what I never thought I’d admit? I didn’t think I’d ever actually get you. All I was thinking about then was sex too. I really had no illusions that you would ever want to date me.”

  I leaned back next to him. “Why? What made you think you’d never get me? You can get any girl you want and you’re usually arrogant enough to admit that.”

  He brushed a piece of hair out of my eyes and replied, “Because you’re different and I recognized that right away. You’re not someone to be played with, you’re a keeper. At first, it was the biggest reason I wanted you, just because I knew you would be a challenge and I could say I cracked you. But you got under my skin, quick. No other girl has ever had the kind of effect on me that you do.” It was refreshing that he was being so honest. I loved talking with him like this.

  I lay my head on his shoulder and admitted, “I feel the same way about you. When I first met you, I had a lot of preconceived notions, just based on what you looked like and your reputation.”

  “I know about the reputation, but tell me, what did you think I looked like?”

  I laughed. “You are so full of yourself,” I said, jokingly. “I thought you were gorgeous, of the drop-dead gorgeous variety.”

  “That was as true as the reputation,” he said with a laugh. I pushed his shoulder away playfully and he said, “Well, if we’re admitting things, I have to admit that I had some preconceived notions about you too.”

  “Like what?” I asked him.

  “Like…you’re so ridiculously gorgeous that I was totally convinced you were like one of those ‘mean girls’ I went to school with. I didn’t think you would give a guy like me the time of day because I could never make your social registry.”

  “Social registry,” I said with a laugh. “You were right about one thing though, I am kind of mean.”

  “I agree…” he said. I snickered and hit him in the shoulder. He wrapped me up in his arms and kissed me, hard. God, I loved spending the day with him like this. He held me back and said, “I love you, Emmi.”

  I still wasn’t used to saying it, but I could feel it. ”I love you too, Braxton.”

  We finished our lunch and the cheesecake puffs I’d brought for dessert and then I lay out on the blanket, moaning from being so full.

  “I have news I’ve been dying to tell you, but I kind of wanted to savor it a little bit too.”

  “The way you savored those cheesecake puffs?” he asked with a grin. I shot him a scowl and he said, “So what is it you want to tell me?” He sat up straight and gave me his full attention. Another thing I loved about him was that he could capture a moment in his eyes and make it seem like there was nothing else in the world that mattered.

  “Well, I went into the newspaper office yesterday to drop off my photos and Sarah was waiting to talk to me.”

  “Uh oh,” he said.

  “That’s what I thought, but it wasn’t an uh-oh at all. She was nice and she even apologized for her behavior toward me lately.”

  “Well, that’s good,” he said. “I hated thinking she was treating you badly because of something I did to her.”

  “Yeah, it is good, and I never blamed you. But it gets better. She’s going to graduate after fall semester is over. She was tasked with appointing her replacement and she picked me.”

  “To be the head editor of photography?”

  “Yes!” I squealed again. I guess it was just a squealing kind of announcement.

  “Emmi, that’s awesome! I mean it’s seriously an amazing post for a freshman to be the head of any department.”

  “I know!” I was truly content with my life for the first time in a long time and happier than I had ever been.

  CHAPTER SIX

  BRAXTON

  Emmi and I had a great time at the lake. The next day we were both back to school and then I had another session with Sam so I wasn’t going to see her much. I was really glad we spent that time together. I missed her almost every minute we were apart from each other.

  I was coming out of my advanced business class when I saw Zoe. That reminded me that I had one more thing I needed to do before I could propose to Emmi.

  “Hey, Zoe!”

  “Hey, Braxton! What’s up?” Zoe was with one of her sorority sisters.

  “Are you rushing to another class or do you have a few minutes?”

  “I’m finished for the day, what’s up?” I glanced at her friend who gave me a forced smile.

  “Maybe we could go get a coffee? I’d kind of like to talk to you in private for a few minutes.”

  Zoe looked at her friend. “Do you mind?”

  “No,” her friend said. “I have another class in ten minutes anyways. I’ll see you later at home.”

  “Okay, thanks, Clarissa.”

  “So what’s going on?” Zoe asked me on the way to the Student Center. “Is Emmi okay?”

  “Emmi is perfect,” I told her.

  She raised an eyebrow but refrained from asking any more questions until we got our coffees and sat down. “So what’s going on?” she asked as soon as her butt hit the chair.

  I took a deep breath and said, “I’m planning on asking Emmi to marry me. I wanted to make sure you’re okay with that.”

  She gave me a suspicious look and drew her brows together in the middle and said, “And if I’m not okay with it?”

  I felt a tickle of apprehension building in my chest. I hadn’t thought this through…yet again. “Um, well, maybe you could tell me why and I could try and fix or change whatever the problem is.”

  She laughed and said, “That was a really good answer. Emmi loves you and for whatever reason, you make her happy, so
I’m happy for her and for you both.”

  I breathed a sigh of relief. I knew how convincing girls’ best friends could be. Then I really thought about what she said. “You can’t see what she sees in me?”

  She laughed and said, “You would pick up on that part. What difference does it make, really?”

  “It doesn’t,” I told her, “but it would be nice to think my fiancée’s best friend thinks I’m good enough for her.”

  Zoe turned serious and said, “Of course I think you’re good enough for her, or I would have told you straight up that you’re not. I just like to give you a hard time and you have such a fragile ego, you make it easy. I’m super impressed with the way you turned your life around for Emmi. I think the fact that you were willing to do that is proof in itself of how much you love her. I don’t wish either of you anything but the best.”

  “Thank you, Zoe. I’m glad. I was really worried that you wouldn’t approve.”

  She smiled and said, “You’re welcome. Thank you for making my best friend happy. So when are you going to do it?”

  “Saturday night after the fight. It’s my last one, forever. That makes it a significant night already. If she says yes, it will make it the most significant and the best night of my life so far.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  EMMI

  “Do you want to go to a yard sale?”

  Braxton laughed, but when he saw my face he said, “Oh, you’re not kidding?”

  “My mother kind of volunteered me to help. It’s at her church. It’s actually a bazaar I guess, not really a yard sale. She has her bridge tournament tonight so she wasn’t going to be able to make it. I have to go and I’d love it if you’d go with me.” I did my best to bat my eyes at him, it wasn’t a trick I used often, but I thought I’d give it a shot.

  He rolled his eyes and said, “Lay off the eyelashes, I’ll go.”

  “Thank you!” I said, hugging him. I normally didn’t mind going places by myself, but my mom’s church is full of old ladies who have known me my whole life and if I went alone they would corner me and expect me to tell them all about what’s going on in my life. I was hoping that if Braxton went with me they might leave me alone and let me just volunteer my time and go. Besides, I wanted another evening with Braxton. We had a great time at the lake on Wednesday, but I had hardly seen him since and tomorrow was the big fight so he would be busy most of the day.

  We made the hour-long drive with the back of Braxton’s pickup loaded with clothes and shoes and things that I didn’t wear any longer. My mother said she would send her stuff with a neighbor. I had asked Braxton if he had anything to donate and I ended up with two faded pairs of jeans that were scuffed on the bottoms and two holey T-shirts.

  I looked at them and said, “Really?”

  “What, it’s for a church, right? And they’re holy…get it?”

  I loved him but I was glad he didn’t ever want to become a comedian.

  He turned into the front of the church building and I directed him around to the back parking lot. There was a long line of cars parked across the street from the back of the church.

  “So where should we park?”

  “I have no idea,” I said. My eyes were scanning the lot for Pastor Cross when I suddenly saw my mother, waving her arms at us and directing us into a parking spot.

  “I thought your mother had bridge or something.”

  “Me too,” I said, wondering what she was up to. Braxton had already flipped the truck around and was backing it into the spot. There were tarps set up in front of all the cars, vans and trucks. Tables were set up under the tarps and people were busily setting up their wares. The canopies stretched from one side of the church, around the back and along the other.

  “Hey, Mom,” I said as I stepped out of the truck. “I thought you had bridge this evening.”

  “It was canceled, can you believe it?” she said. I was suspicious of her for some reason. “Hi, Braxton, I’m glad you came. There are so many people I’d like you to meet.”

  Oh no, that was her motivation. She knew I would bring Braxton and it was her opportunity to show him…and me, I guessed, off. Braxton smiled indulgently and said hello.

  She dragged him off right away saying, “We’ll be right back, Emmi. You can go ahead and start setting up if you want to.”

  “Sure,” I said, looking forlornly at the trunk full of crap my mother had brought. Sighing, I started taking the stuff out and tried to decide how to organize it on the table. I glanced up to see my mother and Braxton talking to Pastor Cross. They seemed to be having a serious conversation and I wondered what they were talking about.

  “Hi, Emmi,” I heard the voice of a woman I didn’t want to see. My stomach was in knots. Finally, I took a deep breath and looked up into the face of Trent’s mother.

  “Oh, hi, Mrs. Blackwell, how are you?”

  “I’m very well, Emmi. How are you? You look lovely, as usual.”

  “I’m well too, thank you.”

  “Is your mother here?”

  “Yes, she’s speaking to Pastor Cross.” Trent’s mother’s eyes went straight over to where they were, telling me that she was just as sneaky as Trent even before she said, “Oh, there she is. Who is that handsome young man with her?”

  “That’s my friend, Braxton.”

  “Oh, the fighter.” I had a feeling Trent told her about the bar incident. He was pretty close to his mom.

  “Yeah, he does a little of that,” I said.

  “Well, it was good to see you, Emmi. Trent’s here, I’ll send him over to say hello.”

  My entire night was just ruined.

  By the time Braxton and my sneaky mother got back, I had already pulled all the boxes out of her trunk and sat them on the ground. She had also brought lawn chairs and a little ice chest full of waters. My mother was always prepared.

  “I don’t know where you want everything, Mom.”

  “Anywhere on the table where it can be seen is fine, honey. Pastor Cross is going to have Jeffrey come over and help Braxton set up the tarp. I have price stickers and markers so we can price our items too.”

  Braxton stepped over next to me as I took things out of the boxes. “I’m sorry, I think my mother wants to show you off.”

  He grinned. “That’s fine. I understand. Who wouldn’t want to show me off?”

  I poked him in the ribs. Turning serious I said, “Braxton, Trent is here.”

  His face looked like he’d just bitten into a lemon, but he calmly said, “I’ll be good, I promise.”

  I gave him a soft kiss on the cheek and said, “I know you will, I just feel bad. I dragged you out here and my mom’s introducing you to pastors and old people and my ex-boyfriend is roaming around.”

  He put his arm around me. “You know what I thought about the other day?”

  “What?”

  “You put up with crap from Sarah and I doubt she’ll be the last of my exes that you’ll have to deal with face to face. I know I was wrong to punch Trent that night and I won’t do it again. I need to handle things better like you. Hell, I’m about to graduate from college. I need to be more of a man and less of a hot-headed boy. This will be good practice.”

  I smiled at him. I really did appreciate that he was trying. I glanced over to where my mom was. Trent was standing there talking to her. He had his most charming smile pasted on his face. After what Trent did to me, my mom and dad both would just as soon shoot him as look at him, but in a situation like this, I knew my mother would force herself to be polite.

  I looked back at Braxton and told him, “I guess now’s your chance to try out some of that new found maturity. I doubt he’ll do or say anything too stupid here.”

  The lemon look was back and I couldn’t help but have a small tickle of anxiety in my belly. Maybe it was PTSD from the last time they met. I picked up one of the boxes and carried it closer to the table and started taking things out. My mother had gathered all of her old jewelry and clothes,
and I was pretty sure a few of my dad’s good T-shirts that he would have never agreed to give away.

  “Hi, Emmi,” this time it was Trent. I sucked in a breath and looked up at him. He had a strange look on his face, one I’d never seen before.

  “Hello, Trent.”

  “Emmi, I didn’t get a chance before…I needed to—”

  Suddenly, Braxton was standing next to me. Trent stopped talking and looked at him. Finally, he said, “Hi.”

  Braxton gave him a chin-nod and with an almost pained expression on his face, Trent went on, “Anyways, that night I saw you at the bar I was already a little drunk. I was way out of line and I owe you an apology.”

  I was surprised. I think that may be the first genuine apology he had ever given me, one where there was no benefit for him in the end. “Okay, Trent, thanks,” I said.

  Braxton’s spine straightened next to me all of a sudden. I didn’t know why, PTSD again, but I startled a little when he moved. I should have had more faith in him though because what he said was, “You’re not the only one who was out of line. I’m sorry that I punched you.”

  Trent looked embarrassed as he said, “I had it coming and if you had been treating Emmi the way I was that night, I would have punched you too. But thanks for the apology. I better get going, take care, both of you.” Braxton and I, both still a little stunned, watched him go.

  When he was out of earshot Braxton asked, “What do you suppose brought that on?”

  “I have no idea,” I said. Then with a giggle I added, “Maybe just the simple fear of getting his ass kicked again.” Braxton couldn’t help it, he laughed too.

  We spent a few hours “helping” my mother who didn’t need any help, but was having a great time introducing us to everyone. A few of the older ladies and I mean really old like my grandma’s age said things when my mom introduced them to Braxton like, “Oh, so this is Emmi’s “gentleman.” I was afraid that would embarrass Braxton, but he took it all like a trooper. When all was said and done, I think I have to say that the old ladies loved him as much as the young ones did. On the way home, I looked at his profile and thought about the fact he had just given up his Friday evening to attend a church bazaar with me. And, he apologized to Trent for punching him. He must have really loved me.