Sweet Days (Four Days Book 2)

by A. S. Kelly

  of her eyes, to see the better part of me that is

  knocking on the door asking to come in. And I do

  it, the moment in which Erin looks for my mouth

  to breathe me in, I let it go free to fly and mix with

  hers.

  “God, Erin…” I’m so near the limit that I could

  explode in a moment. “I want to hear you … and I

  want to see you when you say it. My name. Only

  mine.”

  Erin says my name again and again first slowly

  and then faster as we reach the climax together and

  allow our bodies to quiver inside one another.

  I rest my forehead on hers and kiss her slowly,

  deeply, hoping that it will transmit what I’m

  feeling in this moment because really, I’m not able

  to emit sound, much less an entire phrase.

  And yet, I’d like to tell her how I feel, what I

  feel for her, for them.

  For this thing between us that I did not want or

  look for but that found me just the same.

  Because when love calls, you have to fucking

  answer.

  20

  Erin

  Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road …

  Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to

  go.

  I move in my sleep, cradled by a light melody

  that makes me smile instinctively.

  It’s something unpredictable, but in the end is

  right … I hope you had the time of your life.

  I open my heavy eyelids weighed down by

  tiredness with difficulty. I really did not sleep

  much last night. Patrick was … Wow. I can still

  feel my skin burning after being his prey almost all

  night last night.

  Thanks to the light that’s passing through the

  curtains I am able to focus on what is happening.

  Patrick is sitting on the bed. He’s got a guitar and

  he’s strumming so softly that I can barely hear it.

  But his voice, God, his voice is a concentration of

  tenderness and emotion that brings tears to my

  eyes.

  It’s something unpredictable, but in the end is

  right … I hope you had the time of your life.7

  “What…” I start with a voice weighed down

  with sleep.

  “Good morning.” He smiles with his whole

  face, before planting a kiss on my belly and

  another on my face.

  “Were you singing?”

  He shakes his head and averts his glance.

  I pull myself up and rest on my elbows and I

  realize I’m only wearing his shirt and nothing else.

  “You sing?” I ask, looking for a sheet to cover

  my body.

  “Nah, I have a shitty voice.”

  “But I heard you,” I add, sitting up. “You were

  singing something.”

  “I was just playing around.”

  “Were you singing to the baby?”

  He gets off the bed and turns his shoulders to

  me, revealing his perfect figure in the morning

  light.

  7 Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life), Green Day, Green Day Bluegrass

  “I just wanted to…” He rubs his hand on his

  head. “Let him know that I’m here, I guess. That

  I’m here waiting too.”

  I cover my face immediately with my hands

  because the emotion he invokes in me causes

  another outburst of tears.

  Patrick turns to me and comes in close, kneeling

  down on the bed and moving my hands away from

  my face.

  “What … what is it? Why are you crying? Have

  I said something wrong?”

  “Excuse me!” I say through my sobs. “It’s just

  that … it’s so emotional for me, okay? I am so

  emotional anything makes me cry. And you … you

  were kneeling by my stomach singing to the

  baby…”

  “I’m sorry,” he says in a worried tone. “I didn’t

  want you to feel badly.”

  “I don’t feel badly, Patrick. Don’t you

  understand? You’ve filled my heart to the brim.”

  He looks at me for a few seconds in the eyes,

  and then his face opens in a sweet smile that would

  just kill me and he comes closer to me and sucks

  on my lips in a tender touch.

  “It was just a song, I wanted him to feel safe

  and protected. I’d like him to know that I’m here

  too.”

  I throw my arms about his neck and jump in his

  lap, sitting on his legs and wrapping my legs

  around him.

  “He knows,” I tell him, still weepy. “We both

  do.”

  He smiles in my hair and kisses me sweetly on

  the head. “Are you hungry? I’ll make you

  breakfast.”

  “I’m always hungry,” I reply, making him

  laugh.

  “Now that I don’t feel constantly sick, I’d eat

  anything at any time.”

  “Well, lucky for you you’ve got this guy who

  isn’t so bad and, as an added bonus, knows how to

  cook. Just don’t spread it around.”

  He gets up and stands in front of me.

  He’s naked. Completely.

  Gulp.

  “What can I do for you?” he asks me with a

  twinkle in his eye.

  “I’d say breakfast could wait fifteen minutes.”

  “Fifteen minutes?” he says, raising an eyebrow.

  “I don’t think you’re giving me enough credit.” He

  smiles back before showing me what an hour,

  forty-three minutes and ten seconds of ‘not enough

  credit’ I had offended him with.

  ~ ~ ~

  I get out of the shower wrapped in a towel. I feel

  tired and just plain exhausted for the night passed

  and the morning started, but I also feel light and

  serene. Happy. For the first time in months, I’m

  feeling good, like maybe I will be able to pull this

  off.

  I leave the bathroom and, attracted by the good

  smells coming from the kitchen, I take a few steps

  to the kitchen worktop and find Patrick at the

  cooker, wearing just a pair of jeans, barefoot and

  shirtless.

  He’s humming softly, but I can distinguish

  every syllable and hear it right in my heart.

  I’m feeling better ever since you know me … I

  was a lonely soul but that’s the old me.

  It’s a splendid vision I shall never forget. His

  shoulders designed with letters and embellished

  with images, the curve of his perfect back that

  ends in his slow rise jeans. The way he moves

  slowly with the tempo and the words.

  But with you … I feel again … Yeah, with you …

  I can feel again. 8

  He turns slightly to grab something on the lower

  shelf and catches me watching him out of the

  corner of his eye.

  “Hey, there are pancakes, eggs, bacon and…”

  He interrupts himself and wrinkles his face. “Is

  everything alright?”

  I fill my lungs with all the air in the apartment. I

  smile as big as I can and it’s almost a giggle.

  “Fucking great.”

  8 Feel Again (With Heartbeats–Native) OneRepublic

  Patrick

  After the night I just had, I�
�m feeling strong, I feel

  good, I’d almost say invincible.

  A new awareness has taken hold of my mind

  and my outlook. I haven’t been living at all, all of

  these years. I’ve wasted so much time, gone

  around in a fog, thinking that setting my heart

  aside I wouldn’t have hurt myself. That I could

  live alone with no feelings for anyone.

  What an asshole.

  Then, she came along.

  And I started really breathing and really living.

  What I feel now after having her close to me

  and after having loved her in every way possible,

  it’s something I can’t describe and it’s priceless.

  Because what I feel is so huge and scary, now that

  I’ve been able to touch it with my hands, I can’t

  and don’t want to ever let it go.

  I go back home after having made breakfast and

  taken Erin to University. She had her last exam

  this morning. She was nervous but I’m sure it will

  go well.

  I open the door of my house, sighing like an

  idiot and find everyone at the table having

  breakfast.

  “Hey,” I greet them and their serious faces.

  “Something happened?”

  “Nothing’s happened here,” Aaron says coldly.

  “I’ll take a quick shower and go to the pub,” I

  say, heading towards the stairs.

  “Nope. You’re not going to get out of it like

  that.” He blocks me. “Where the fuck were you

  last night?” he asks me accusingly.

  “I don’t think I have an obligation to let you all

  know about where I go,” I say, stopping at the foot

  of the stairs.

  “Were you where I think you were?” He steps

  closer, threateningly.

  I huff and shake my head, heading straight to

  my room, but Aaron grabs my arm.

  “What’s your problem?” I ask, raising my voice.

  “You were with her, weren’t you?”

  I look him in the eyes without answering. My

  silence speaks for me.

  “I knew it! Christ, Patrick! What is your head

  telling you? That little theatre you put on in the

  pub yesterday? Going against her father? She’s

  pregnant, Patrick!”

  “Do you think I don’t know that? I’ve known

  since the first day, Aaron. I’ve always known.”

  “And you’re going on with this thing?”

  “It’s not important to me that she’s pregnant.”

  “God, Patrick, you’re a real asshole. I always

  knew it, but I didn’t think it was this bad! But what

  does your little head tell you, huh?”

  “Aaron…” Rain interrupts.

  “No, Rain. Don’t try to defend him like you

  usually do!”

  “Aaron—”

  “He doesn’t have any excuses, Rain. And then,

  Erin is your friend, shouldn’t you be worried about

  her? Do you understand whose hands she’s fallen

  into?”

  “Aaron!” Rain jumps to her feet and sets her

  hands down on the table. “You’re the one who

  doesn’t understand! He doesn’t care about her

  condition because he’s in love with her!” She

  smiles.

  Aaron looks first at me and then at her while I

  respond to Rain’s smile with affection and

  gratitude. Rain’s one in a million.

  “What?” Aaron continues to be disbelieving and

  shifts his gaze from me back to her.

  “I care for her,” I whisper, looking at him

  seriously. “About them both.”

  “That means that—”

  “She’s the one I’ve been waiting my whole life

  for.”

  The silence that falls upon the room is

  embarrassing, especially because the last words

  said were mine and let’s just get it out there: it’s

  not like me.

  “Patrick, do you understand you’re about to

  have someone else’s baby? That in a few months

  she’s going to be a mother and everything is going

  to change? Her life is going to be turned upside

  down and yours is going to get dragged along with

  it.”

  “I’m already in this, Aaron. Completely. I am

  fucking hers and I do not intend to go back on my

  commitment.”

  Rain runs to me and throws her arms around me

  so hard that it leaves me winded.

  “I knew it, I knew it,” she repeats as I hug her

  back.

  Liam stands and joins us in the hug and now

  there are three of us. Jay literally jumps out of his

  seat and throws himself at me and slaps my buzzed

  head.

  Aaron remains in silence another second before

  asking me: “Are you by any chance in love with

  her?”

  Am I in love with her?

  Fuck, yes.

  “I am in love with both of them,” I say without

  thinking about it.

  Saying it out loud makes me feel even surer.

  More of a man.

  “I imagine this house will soon be fuller than it

  currently is,” Aaron says while we all break out

  laughing.

  He joins us and piles onto the group hug.

  And so we remain, in the middle of the living

  room hugging and close like we always have been.

  Because this is our family. Full of chaos, loud,

  made of unlikely combinations, but it’s mine and I

  love it. And I’d do anything for her.

  And I’d like Erin to be part of it, and her baby

  will grow up among these walls with love,

  friendship and loyalty.

  And with me.

  With his father close by.

  21

  Erin

  I get up from the chair and accept the hand of my

  professor who, to my disbelief, has given me top

  marks. I didn’t think I had studied enough for this

  exam, worried about a million problems, but the

  night with Patrick and the morning we shared gave

  me something extra that helped me to face this

  with more confidence and determination and the

  professor must have noticed my new attitude.

  I let out a sigh of satisfaction and turn to leave

  when I see someone standing at the door waiting

  for me. I get closer, already feeling my good mood

  evaporate as my father holds his arms out ready to

  hug me. I let him do so and I kiss his cheek,

  nervous about this surprise visit.

  “What are you doing here?” I ask him.

  “I came to see your last exam, I hope you don’t

  mind.”

  “About what happened yesterday night—”

  “Let’s not mention it again, okay? I was taken

  by surprise, I wasn’t expecting that,” he says,

  looking at my by-now visibly swollen belly. “You

  must understand it will take me a while to get used

  to the idea.”

  I nod nervously as I fix my eyes on my gym

  shoes. Things have changed since I’ve been

  pregnant. I dress in a more sporty and comfortable

  way, I don’t wear make-up or things on my hair

  and I feel good. Just myself.

  “Can I take you out for lunch? I’d like to stay a

&
nbsp; bit with my daughter.”

  “Okay,” I concede, worried about how this day

  is going to end, a day that started off in the best

  possible way.

  ~ ~ ~

  We go to a place near campus that’s full of

  professors and researchers and we sit down at a

  table for two at the end of the hall.

  “So, how are things going?”

  “What is it you really want to know?”

  “Everything, Honey. I want to know what’s

  happened in these months we haven’t seen each

  other. How we’ve gotten to this point,” he says,

  looking at me very seriously.

  I tell him about Nate and the end of our

  relationship. I tell him how Patrick has been very

  close to me and that we discovered we feel the

  same way about each other and that things didn’t

  go as expected and I discovered I was pregnant

  almost right away. I don’t go into details, in order

  to avoid giving away something that would make

  Dad understand that the baby isn’t Patrick’s. So I

  lie a bit about the time frames and the dynamics so

  it’s a bit vague and he isn’t able to add things up

  too quickly.

  “And with this Patrick—”

  “Dad, please.”

  “What is it? I’m just asking. I want to know if

  he treats you well, if you’re happy.”

  “Patrick is wonderful.”

  “And he’s going to take care of you and—”

  “—The baby, Dad. You can say it out loud.”

  “Sorry, this is hard for me. You’re my little

  girl.”

  “Well, seems like your little girl is grown up,

  and in a hurry.”

  “So what are you intending to do? How have

  you thought to reconcile things? A baby isn’t

  something to take lightly, dear.”

  “I still haven’t thought of it,” I say, looking at

  my now empty plate. “I’m taking things day by

  day.”

  “And are you and Patrick getting married?”

  “God, no, Dad!” I say, confused and shaken up

  by his question. We just started getting serious;

  even if he said he wants to be there for the baby

  and me, I really don’t think Patrick is the marrying

  type.

  “And how do you both intend to manage the

  situation? Will you live together, will you continue

  to study?”

  There are too many questions that I don’t have

  the answers to. I still haven’t thought of any

  solutions, I’m just trying to face each difficulty as

  and when it crops up.

  “You won’t want to give up your studies.”