One Up: Up Series Book 4

by Robin Leaf

  “There you go. See? You’ll do just fine. I’ll be close just in case.” I patted her knee. “Oh, and I hope you’re not allergic to dogs. Giles is a bit… friendly. He will get in your personal space. He’ll back off if you tell him to, but until then, he loves to meet new people, and he’s pretty aggressive with the licking.”

  She seemed to perk up at the mention of the dog. “I love dogs, and he can be my focus.” She smiled. “Maybe then, I won’t give too much away.”

  I helped her out of the truck, and placed my hand on her back walking up to the door. She rang the bell, and almost immediately, the door opened to Nate’s bro hugs, welcoming us in.

  I made the formal introductions, since they really didn’t get introduced at the wedding, and noticed Kaelyn glancing around nervously, looking like she was trying really hard to not blurt out something awkward.

  “Where’s Giles, Etta?”

  Kaelyn’s eyes found mine, and she smiled her thanks.

  “I let him out right before y’all got here.” Etta walked toward the back door. “He tends to pee all over the place if he gets too excited, so I thought I’d let him empty thoroughly before you showed.”

  “That’s appreciated,” Kaelyn chuckled nervously.

  Right as Etta opened the back door, Giles bounded in, all bouncy and wiggly from our presence.

  Kaelyn got down to eye level with the dog and scratched behind his ears.

  “What kind of dog is he?” she asked.

  “Giles is a Bordeaux Mastiff.” Etta answered, smiling lovingly at her sloppy orange beast.

  “God, he’s so beautiful,” Kaelyn managed to say as he furiously licked her chin, almost knocking her over, which caused her to giggle. “We used to have a small dog, but she was a yippy, needy little thing. Millie was a Chiweenie.” She stood, still patting Giles on the head. “I’ve always wondered what would happen if someone bred a dachshund with something big, like a Great Dane. It’s probably impossible to mate the two, and God help the dachshund if she was the female in that situation. She would probably look like a see-saw by the end of the pregnancy if her innards didn’t get crushed by her own babies, and she would definitely need a C-section.”

  “Uh, Cher –” I began, trying to stop her, but she just talked right over me.

  “And if the Dane was the female, well, now, that’s just funny to think about how that poor little male dachshund would mount her, but if it could work, I wonder if their puppies’ bodies would be huge and the legs would stay short when they grew up, kinda like a big log on roller skates. And what would it be called? A Dach-Dane? A Great-Shund? Maybe a Dane-Shund.” She looked up and smiled awkwardly after her strange little diatribe. “I just think that would be an awesome dog to have.”

  I saw Nate over Kaelyn’s shoulder, covering his mouth as he silently laughed into his hand, and I could tell Etta was having a hard time keeping together in the way she bit her lips.

  Kaelyn looked at our faces and giggled. “I’m sorry, guys. I get awkward, especially when I know someone has heard me having sex. I’m not sure how to act.”

  “So you’ve had it happen before?” Etta asked.

  Kae smiled nervously. “No, this is the first time, but it’s hella awkward.”

  “It’s only fair, Kaelyn,” Nate placed his arm around her shoulder, like she was his long lost buddy. “The first time you met us, you got to hear the live-action version of Etta and me in Brody’s guest bathroom…”

  “God, I forgot to clean the counter in that bathroom,” I groaned, shaking my head.

  “…so, you should consider us even now.”

  She smiled and nodded. “Yes, that’s us. Even Steven.”

  “And I can just add you to the long list of people having sex that I’ve caught this week,” Nathaniel said, smiling down on her.

  “God, please don’t remind me,” Etta groaned.

  Nate removed his arm from around Kaelyn. Leaning in conspiratorially, he stage whispered, “She’s a little traumatized because we caught her parents getting frisky at the wedding when we had to get Emily’s bag from that office at the reception hall.”

  Etta threw up her hands and snarled. “My mom’s boob was out, Nate, never mind where their hands were.”

  Nate made is way to Etta, wrapped his hands around her waist, and kissed her cheek. “It’s not like we saw anything, only heard. Your parents have sex, too, Eddie.”

  “Ew, gross! No they don’t.”

  I shuddered. “Yeah, I’m with you on that one, Eddie.”

  Kaelyn timidly looked down at Giles, who was happily still receiving pets. “I really love your dog. I always wanted a dog bigger than Millie, but when I was younger, I had a friend in Jersey who had a big dog. It was a Rhodesian Ridgeback. He jumped on me and knocked me over so he could hump my face. My friend laughed instead of getting her dog off me. Her mom heard me yelling and came to rescue me, then I had to go home because my friend got grounded for letting her dog molest my face. At least he didn’t come on it because that would have been even more embarrassing than the fact that you two heard Brody and me getting freaky.”

  Oh shit, that’s the word lava I was supposed to stop.

  But how do you stop a volcano?

  “Babe,” I said. “Come outside with me, I want to show you Etta’s pool. I’m thinking of getting a similar pool, and I want your opinion.”

  She nodded and placed her hand in mine.

  When we got outside, I walked her near the pool.

  “God, Brody, why didn’t you stop me?”

  I whipped her around in front of me and wrapped my arms around her, kissing the living snot out of her.

  “What are you…”

  I dove against her lips again, cutting off her question.

  When I felt her melt against me, I pulled away.

  “Feel better now?”

  She twisted her lips to the side. “Actually, yeah. I do.”

  I smiled and grabbed her hand, leading her back inside.

  “So if you start again, I’m going to kiss you. Be warned.”

  “Noted.” She laughed. “That’s a new one. Kiss therapy for anxiety? Maybe we should alert the Mayo Clinic.”

  “We can just tell Emily’s best friend, Vanessa. She just graduated from UCLA with a doctorate in psych.” I smiled and kissed her nose. “Maybe we can offer to be her test subjects.”

  She sighed. “Okay,” she captured my lips with hers. “The things I must do for science.”

  ***

  “So… are you going to be able to play again?” I asked Nate.

  “I hope. I’ll know more when I go back to the doctor in a couple of days,” he explained, “but I know I can’t go back to my position as catcher. My goal is to show up for spring training, and maybe start out as an outfielder or just a DH. They’ll most likely send me down to the minors for a few weeks. It all depends on what happens at the doctor.”

  Nathaniel “Nate Dog” Slaughter was a catcher for a professional baseball team in Los Angeles, and he suffered a pretty nasty knee injury back in September. I watched the game, and damn, I still cringed thinking about it. He moved home to go through rehab, and Etta just happened to be assigned as his physical therapist. I’m not sure if that was by chance or by design, but it happened, and now they were together like they belonged. They were roommates and best friends in college, and I always knew both of them had strong feelings for each other, especially after we hung out eight or nine years ago. When Nate watched Etta leave a party with another guy, he was devastated. I knew he had feelings for her all the way back then.

  Etta and I had discussed it after Nate left for the major leagues. She came to stay with me over spring break, and she was not herself. In fact, she’d never quite been the same since he left. She never told me exactly what transpired… just that it didn’t work out, and he broke her heart. I told her I didn’t believe he had it in him to break her heart, but she remained silent about the details… details I now know thanks to Emily. W
hatever… I’m glad they were finally together. She was obviously very happy, and that’s enough for me.

  I took a sip from my bottle of beer. “What happens if you can’t play anymore, Nate?”

  He smiled, shooting a knowing look at Etta. “We haven’t exactly discussed that just yet, but I have some ideas in the works.”

  He produced a paper from his pocket and slapped it down in front of Etta.

  “What’s this?” she asked, unfolding the documents and reading them quickly.

  “It’s the property next to your clinic. I figured we could get started on your plans for the indoor water therapy and training facility. That way, you don’t have to keep using the university pool for your clients.”

  She turned toward him with her mouth open.

  “Nathaniel,” she breathed out his name. “How long have you…”

  “Since my karaoke disaster before Thanksgiving. I want to be your partner in this. I’ve already started on clearing the land and –”

  She jumped into his lap and kissed him, maneuvering herself so that she was straddling him.

  “Brody, thanks for coming over, but you might want to leave,” she said around his mouth, tugging at his shirt, “otherwise, you’ll do a lot more than just hear us, if you know what I mean.”

  Kaelyn erupted into giggles, and I grabbed her hand.

  “C’mon, Kaelyn. That’s our cue.”

  “It was nice to officially meet you both,” Kaelyn called as I pulled her to the front door. “Thanks for dinner.”

  We ran to the truck. I helped her in and ran to my side and started it.

  “When did it get so friggin cold?” she asked, rubbing her hands together.

  “Welcome to Texas, baby, where Mother Nature is one moody chick. The weather said we might get rain and ice overnight.”

  She clicked her tongue. “It was seventy degrees thirty minutes ago.”

  “Yep, and now it’s forty and dropping. Overnight low is supposed to be twenty nine.”

  She smiled, placing her hand over her heart, and spoke in her really bad southern accent. “Whatever will we do to stay warm, Mister Heroux?”

  I revved up my accent in response. “Well, Cher, I plan ta get ’choo on da couch wit’ a blanket, watch a movie, maybe drink somma dat hot chocolate, and cuddle-fuck the hell outta you.”

  “Ooh, God, that accent. And cuddle fucking sounds like one hell of a plan, Orgasman.”

  Yep, I really liked that nickname.

  Twenty Nine

  Kaelyn

  We spent two glorious days inside, not even bothering to get dressed the whole time, while the cold snap worked its way through the area. Brody didn’t have a fireplace, so we either stayed in bed talking or watched movies and played his game on the couch. The freeze lasted until Friday and was so bad, our flight to New Orleans was delayed.

  The good news was Thomas agreed to let us stay at his house next door to Ruby while he was in New York for the weekend. He wanted feedback on his set up since his first booking on that vacation website started during Mardi Gras.

  It was Saturday, and my meeting ran long. Brody was already here waiting for me. I had to stop myself from liking that too much.

  “How did your meeting go, Cher?”

  I took a deep breath to keep the tears at bay. “Dad sent a lackey to do his dirty work. He didn’t even show.”

  Brody stood from the couch and wrapped his arms around me.

  “I’m so sorry, Kaelyn. I know how badly you wanted to impress him.”

  “Oh, Richard was impressed.” I pulled away so I could kick my shoes off and walked to the bedroom where Brody followed. “He liked all the creations and said he would tell Dad what a good ideas the chef had.” I ripped my dress over my head and turned toward my suitcase for some comfy clothes. “He’ll probably go back and take all the credit for himself.” I pulled on my yoga pants and Prince-symbol t-shirt. “Don’t tell them I said this, but Mom and Stoney are right. Tristan and his band of merry men will never take me seriously.”

  Brody sat down on the bed and pulled me to stand between his legs, keeping his hands on my hips.

  “I take you very seriously.” He leaned in and kissed between my breasts.

  “Thank you, Brody.” I rubbed his head. “Stoney said this was a test to see if I would do what Dad wanted. I decided to make it my own test for him. I gave him this one last chance, but I’ve made up my mind. I’m done going out of my way to impress Tristan Cartupeli.”

  Brody smiled against my chest. “You’re right. You don’t need him or his approval.”

  “I don’t,” I declared, smiling at my revelation.

  “You just continue to be successful at whatever you choose to do. Fuck him.”

  God… this man and his words… swoon.

  I stood there next to the bed with Brody’s arms around me, feeling a load lift off my soul.

  “I’ve wanted to ask,” Brody began, breaking the silence, “why do you call Tater ‘Stoney?’”

  I ran my hands up his arms to his shoulders. “When I was little, I couldn’t say Keaton for some reason. It came out sounding like ‘keystone.’ It developed over the years to Stoney.” My right hand ran through his shortened hair. “What made you cut your hair?”

  He shrugged. “My aunt said I looked like a hippie and asked me to cut it for the wedding.”

  “You’re a good nephew. And I like it. It’s sexy.” I moved my hand to run my nails softly along his jaw. “And this scruff on your face is really doing it for me.”

  He moved his face to kiss my palm.

  “So what are you going to do now?” he asked quietly, seeming a bit nervous.

  I took a breath to answer him, and then realized I didn’t even know what I was going to say.

  On the one hand, I had established a life in Los Angeles as an event coordinator, but I didn’t really have any jobs coming up that required my presence, the next one scheduled for Valentine’s Day. Most of it could be arranged over the phone and overseen by whoever would replace Brittany, who quit right after Ciara’s party. So, I needed to find a replacement for Brittany, but it wasn’t really urgent.

  My social media stuff could be done from anywhere.

  Truthfully, I had no friends to speak of in L.A. other than Ciara, just acquaintances that I occasionally hung out with.

  Stoney lived there, but I really didn’t see him often enough that it would be any big deal if I didn’t live there.

  I had my trust fund, which I hadn’t touched yet, to live off of if I needed it.

  Wait… why am I convincing myself that I don’t need to stay in L.A.?

  Brody noticed my confusion and pulled me down on his lap.

  “Don’t hurt yourself there, Cher.” He moved my hair off my face and tucked it behind my ear. “I’m asking because I kind of don’t want a long distance relationship with you.”

  I felt myself start to panic.

  Is he getting rid of me?

  “It doesn’t have to be that way, Brody. We’ll figure something out, and I really like being with you all the time, and even though you like your bacon almost burned, I think I could live with eating burned bacon. And I’m sorry for what I said; your game doesn’t need sex. I just said that to seduce you on your couch. I like it just the way it is, just like I like you. Oh, and I’m sorry I started my period yesterday. I wish I had control over it, and I know that kind of puts a damper on our weekend, but it’s only usually heavy for a couple of days, three tops, and then we can get back to…”

  He stopped me with a kiss, and when his tongue caressed mine, I sank into him, evening out my breathing. When I felt the panic leave me, he pulled away.

  “Now, can you listen to me?”

  I nodded, biting my lips together.

  “I hope you know that I really like you, Kaelyn. A lot. This past week has been the best I have had in a long time. I like being with you, all of you. I like the sex, yes, but I really like the not-sex parts. I like quiet Kaely
n, argumentative Kaelyn, frustrated Kaelyn, thoughtful, sweet Kaelyn… I even like crazy-rambling Kaelyn. When you called me your boyfriend on Wednesday, I’m pretty sure you were kidding, but I really liked the sound of it.

  “I was thinking that maybe we could really give this relationship thing a concerted effort. I want to be wherever you are. If you need to return to your life in L. A., I can come with you. I have a big client there, too, and I mostly work from my house, so it really doesn’t matter where I go. We can just have two places, yours and mine, and we can stay wherever we need to be.

  “I just hate the thought of being away from you, not because I’m needy or anything. Just because I genuinely like you and…” he cleared his throat, “I’m pretty sure…” he took a deep breath. “I’m…”

  I captured his lips this time, conveying the words in my kiss that I’m pretty sure he was stumbling over. He cupped my cheeks, holding me to him.

  Once the kiss came to its natural end, I laid my forehead against his.

  “I’m feeling that way, too, Brody,” I whispered.

  He breathed out his relief, sagging against me.

  “Oh, thank God. I didn’t want to scare you off by saying anything too soon.” He leaned to the side, digging in his pocket, and sat up straight. “I told Ruby at the bar that I would do this.”

  He produced his grandmother’s ring.

  “I’m locking this shit down now.” He grabbed my right hand and placed the ring on my finger. “I am not asking you to marry me, which is why it’s going on your right hand for now, so quit with the wide eyes. I am simply letting you know that I am in this, one hundred percent. I want it all. I want to get to know you. I want to fall in love with you naturally. I want us to be absolutely committed to each other. I want your good days and your bad. I want to coexist with you. I want to sleep next to you. I want to protect you from everything I can, and I want you to do the same for me, especially from all the spiders.”

  I chuckled, “That spider was so tiny, Brody.”

  “It was fucking huge, and it was coming for me.” He shuddered. “You saved my life.”