by Rye Hart
And all of her reactions were finally making sense.
“He died, didn’t he?” I asked.
“No questions. It’s your turn,” she said.
“My wife was pregnant with our second child when she died. I didn't just lose one child that day, I lost two, along with the woman I loved.”
Delia covered her mouth with her hand, gasping, as she stared at me with such intense pain in her eyes. “I'm sorry, Drake. I had no idea.”
I wasn't sure I could handle talking even more about it, so instead, I took a deep breath and said, “Your turn.”
“Shortly after my Dad left, the police called. They said there’d been a crash and that my Dad was hurt. He’d run a red light in his drunken stupor and crashed into an oncoming car. He was dead before my mother could get out to him,” she said.
“Holy fuck,” I said, as I drew in a deep breath.
“After the investigation and after his truck was declared totaled, I bought it from the scrap yard. I learned how to fix trucks and cars because of that thing.”
“That old rust bucket truck is the one your father crashed?” I asked.
“It is. It’s the only thing I have left of him. Whenever I sit behind the wheel, I feel like he’s with me. And I need that—especially now.”
I squeezed her hands in reassurance as a tear trickled down her cheek.
“I was a mistake to my parents,” I said.
Delia slowly panned her gaze over to mine as her eyes locked onto me.
“My parents were just hooking up when they got pregnant with me. And my Mom was like you, according to my Dad. She was hesitant to even do this with him. She wanted an abortion, but he convinced her not to get one. They tried to make it work, but it wasn’t easy. But they did go on to fall in love with one another, to lead a great life. They had my sister and that brought on a whole other set of struggles, but they did it. They stuck by one another because they knew they could trust the other to be there.”
“You’re making that up,” she said.
“God as my witness, I’m not. Took my father six months, according to him, to convince my momma to do it with him, to raise me together instead of separately. He believed in a unified home and he believed Momma and he could do it. And they did. They built all of this together, but what brought them both to it was me. The mistake.”
“This child isn’t a mistake,” Delia said. “No child ever is.”
“Then we’re one step ahead of them, in my eyes,” I said.
In the span of thirty minutes, I felt like I knew her better. Like I knew her for the woman she was. Her past made so much sense now when it came to her actions and her words. And the way she was so desperate to keep me at arm’s length was because I reminded her of her father. Not the good part of him, but the bad one. The one that left his daughter on the front porch screaming for him as he drove away drunk.
But she reminded me of my mother, of her strength and her beauty and her integrity. Her fiery personality and her stubbornness. It was familiar to me in a way that home should be.
She was familiar to me in a way home should be.
I slid her legs from my lap and crept closer to her. Delia’s eyes were connected with mine as I pressed my lips against hers. I felt her stiffen underneath me before she gave way, her tongue licking across my lips. I allowed her entrance, her body unfolding for me as her legs spread to accommodate me. Our tongues collided, and I could feel her trembling, her moans being swallowed in my kiss as her hands gripped my back.
I sank down on top of her, cloaking her with my body as I tasted her sweetness. How I had missed her. How I had dreamed of her during my stint in rehab. Every night when I closed my eyes, I imagined her next to me, smiling at me and talking me through things as I laid there alone in that cold, hard bed. And every morning I would reach for her. Expecting her to be there.
But she never was.
Until now.
I pulled back from her, our chests heaving and our lungs panting for air. Her lips were swollen from my kiss as her dazed eyes looked up at me. I could feel her desire for me humming through her veins. I captured her lips with mine one last time, feeling her arch into me as her hands ran through my hair.
“Now, I’m gonna order that pizza so we can celebrate the fact that we’re officially together,” I said.
“What?” Delia asked.
“I know you better, and you know me better. And instead of pushing me away, you leaned into me. You opened yourself up to me. You trusted me, and I trusted you. Now, you’re mine. And we’re gonna order pizza to celebrate.”
The shock that rolled over her face caused me to sit up and laugh.
“You’re—we’re—that’s not how a relationship works,” she said. “You can’t just announce that we’re together.”
“Isn’t that how it works? People announce engagements in the paper all the time,” I said, as I grabbed my phone.
“Yes. After the man asks the woman to marry him,” she said.
“That what you want me to do?”
“What?”
“You want me to ask you to be my girlfriend?”
I listened to her stumble over her words as I took her hands within mine.
“Delia Jakobson, you’re a beautiful woman. Feisty. Independent. Stubborn as hell. You’re carrying my child, and that makes you a priority. The priority. Now, will you accept the pepperoni pizza I’m gonna order us and go steady with me?” I asked.
I saw her shake her head as a giggle fell from her lips. Her eyes darted around the room, taking everything in. I sat there, my nerves getting the best of me as I held her hands tightly. She had to say ‘yes.’ I didn’t have any other tricks if she didn’t.
“I guess, yeah,” Delia said. “Under one condition.”
“Figured there’d be one,” I said.
“I go home Sunday night. I’ve got work to do and a workday to prepare for on Monday. I have to go home for that.”
I sighed as I relinquished defeat and nodded my head.
“Then you rest while you’re here,” I said. “You need it more than you think.”
“I’ll stay until Sunday and rest however much my body asks for,” she said.
With that, I grinned as I released her hands and went to order our dinner.
CHAPTER 30
Delia
I couldn't sleep. I tossed and turned in Drake’s guest bedroom, but I couldn’t get comfortable. I was too hot, then I was too cold. My mind was too loud, then it was too silent. The shirt Drake gave me to sleep in was too uncomfortable, then it felt weird sleeping naked in the bed.
But I knew what it really was.
It was Drake.
The kiss on the couch, the way I felt comforted by him. The looks he had given me during the talks we’d had. How things were clicking in place. Just the act of trying to get to know me better had weakened me towards him. But the heat of his kiss, the electricity of his tongue, and the way he kept undressing me with his eyes, as we all ate pizza.
Probably the only thing stopping him from taking me then and there was the fact that Elsie and Tammy ate dinner with us. Elsie had warmed up to me again after our little scare, talking about the book she was reading and asking me how I was feeling. My conversation flowed easily with Tammy, giving Drake the opportunity to stare at me with a predatory heat in his eyes.
I couldn’t believe how he had just announced we were a couple. How I apparently didn’t have a say in it. But there was something alluring about that too. His confidence was intoxicating.
And though it was also a bit infuriating, I secretly enjoyed it.
I felt like I was going crazy. My hormones were buzzing, and I was trying to rid him from my mind. My body was heating up as I wore his shirt against my skin, his cologne wafting up my nose. I was never going to be able to get a good night’s rest with him on my mind.
I decided to give up on sleep and head to the kitchen to grab a snack. I was hoping that putting something in my stom
ach would help ease me into a restful slumber. I needed the rest. My body ached for it. But as long as I was thinking about Drake, it wasn’t going to happen.
But when I entered the kitchen, I didn’t find food.
Instead, I saw Drake standing at the sliding doors, staring out into the backyard. Like he was in a trance.
I studied him for a while, watching the way he was lost in thought. His guard was down and his eyes were vulnerable. The look he had on his face was one I’d never seen before. I felt myself gravitating toward him. He was clad in nothing but his pajama pants, and before I could stop myself I was threading my arms around his waist.
Leaning my cheek into his back, I could feel his muscles expanding with his every breath. We stood there for a minute, with no words exchanged between the two of us. The more time I spent around him, the more I understood him and his need for control. All of his life, he had careened out of control. I thought back to his admission that his wife had been pregnant when she’d died. I knew he felt like I was his second chance, and it made me feel hopeful for our future. Hopeful that we could actually have one.I pressed a kiss into his skin, trying to comfort him in his time of need. I felt like I had very few choices with him, yet he was offering me the world. All he wanted was to keep me around.
“Can’t sleep?” Drake asked.
“Not really,” I said.
“Why not?”
“Just not tired,” I said.
He turned around in my arms, a grin spreading across his cheeks.
“I’m sure I could find a way to tire you out,” he said, with a wink.
“Oh really?” I asked.
“Yep,” he replied, then his eyes grew hot again.
He picked me up and I squealed, burying my face into his neck. He ran me back up the steps, then burst into his room. The two of us fell to the bed, our lips intertwined, and our bodies spread out for one another. I could feel his callused hands roaming my body, tugging at the shirt that separated my skin from his.
I was underneath him in a heartbeat. His hands were shoving his pants down as his lips wrapped around my nipples. I rolled into him, moaning and clawing at the bedsheets as electricity ricocheted through my limbs. He was intoxicating. I could barely breathe with the way he kissed me. I spread my legs for him, wanting him inside of me.
Needing him to fill me.
He slid into me with one fluid motion. His mouth swallowed my groans as my hands reaced up his back. His hips pounded into me as wet sounds echoed from between my thighs.
His lips raced down my neck, raking along my skin as I shivered underneath him. I clawed at his back, my legs wrapping around him to pull him in deeper. I felt him stutter as my pussy began to pulse. The friction of our two bodies was too much for me to bear. My eyes were rolling into the back of my head as I clung to him, feeling every sinewy muscle of his body work for my pleasure.
“Don’t go. Don’t leave. Please stay with me.”
His words were so desperate. At first, I didn’t think I’d heard him right. His plea smacked me right across the face. Tears burst forth from my eyes as I came around his cock, tugging him deep into my body as he stilled. I shook against him as he laid off to the side, taking my body with him as tears trickled down my cheeks.
His lips were so soft against my neck, as his cock stayed seated in my body.
“What?” I asked breathlessly.
He kissed my shoulder, causing my body to shiver as he began to move again. I felt him throbbing with the need for release. His hand wandered down my body, sliding over my hip and hooking around my leg. He pulled it over his as he plunged deeper into me.
He held me tightly to him, like he never wanted to let me go.
“Drake,” I said, with a sigh. “You feel so good.”
“You always feel good. Always, to me,” he said.
He rolled deeper and deeper, pressing his cock as far as it could go. My ass slid against his pelvis every time, causing me to gasp for air. I loved the feeling of him against me. I loved the way his arms wrapped around me. One hand tugged at my nipple while the other slid between my pussy lips, coaxing me to another precipice as he circled my clit.
I allowed myself to be overtaken by him.
I bucked against him, adding friction to his growing want as he groaned into my neck. He nipped at my skin and sucked welts into my shoulder, marking me as his cock continued to swell. I reached behind my head, running my fingers through his hair as I pulled his lips to mine.
Tilting my head off to the side, I captured them as we both reached our ends.
He shoved himself deep into my body as my pussy vibrated around him. He held me close to him, his muscles twitching with pleasure as I moaned and whimpered. I curled my fingers tightly into his scalp, drawing him nearer as he spilled into me.
We were panting. Gasping. Overtaken by our want of one another. My eyes grew heavy as Drake’s hand roamed down my side, slowly unhooking my leg from around his body.
But he didn’t slide from between my legs. Instead, he threaded his free arm around me and pulled me closer. He curled around me, filling me up as I nodded off to sleep.
CHAPTER 31
Drake
“I told you I was going home Sunday night, and you convinced me to stay the night with you. So yes, I had Hank bring my damn truck so I could get to work,” Delia said.
“I just want you to take it easy,” I said to her.
“I’m going to work and that’s that. That was the deal we made. I’m fine and the baby is fine Drake, you heard the doctor, it’s just my body growing to accommodate the baby. Now I need to go. You don’t get a say in how I run my life.”
“You’re pregnant with my child. I'm worried about you,” I said. “Why are you upset at me about that?”
“Because I have work and you seem to think that I can just drop my life and bend to your every whim. But that isn’t how this works. That isn’t how a relationship works, Drake.”
“I’m not asking you to quit, Delia! I’m just asking you to stay home until I can get you in to a doctor to clear you for work.”
“You mean like the one in the hospital that said I was fine?” she repeated. “It’s not like I play hockey, I sit at a damn desk all day. I am going to work.”
I hated losing. It wasn’t what I did. I watched Delia walk out of the house and out to her piece of shit truck. She climbed in behind the wheel and flashed me a look as she backed down the drive. Dammit that woman was stubborn.
As she drove off, my heart fell into my stomach. My hands began to tremble as I fought through an incoming panic attack. I hated her being behind the wheel. If I could, I'd drive her everywhere. Hell, I'd keep her wrapped in bubble wrap and near me at all times if it meant I wouldn't lose her. Seeing her in the hospital brought back so many painful memories for me, memories of losing my wife and baby girl.
I couldn't lose Delia too, especially since she was carrying my child. I cursed Hank under my breath for bringing that fucking truck here. He should’ve hung up the phone and called me when Delia called. He wasn’t hired by her. He was hired by me. I told him to take that shit to her apartment, and that was what he did.
And now, it was driving down my damn driveway carrying my child.
I slammed the front door and stalked out back. I couldn’t focus on the fight or how angry I was at her. I had a ranch I was leaving tomorrow for some fucking mini tour again and I still hadn’t heard from the guys. Far as I knew, I didn’t have a damn band to perform with anymore. Just me and a fucking bus with their faces plastered on it, and Hank. Fucking Hank.
I hadn’t even had a chance to talk to Delia about the new schedule for the tour. Hell, I hadn’t had a chance to talk with her about the tour in general. I had less than twenty-four hours to right my mind for it before I’d have to haul ass out of here, and I didn’t even know when Delia was coming back.
I was still cursing and tossing shit around when Paul rode up out back. He hitched the horse to the back porch and
helped me shovel shit around, keeping quiet as I worked out my frustrations. I’d caved and ordered a new damn tractor to be delivered to the house today. I wasn’t gonna have Paul busting his ass trying to fix the shit pile we had out back of the barn.
I didn’t ride the tractors. I could fix them, but I wouldn't ride them. Setting aside the fact that my knee was always gonna be in pain from being shattered and replaced, that fucking thing took my mother from me. The mere idea of sitting on it gave me nightmares. Seeing my momma trying to pull me from its path. They were fucking monstrous machines, and I didn’t dare get on top of them anymore.
But Paul loved the fucking things, so he was the one dealing with the delivery.
I stayed out back with his horse while the delivery took place. Paul signed for it and gathered the paperwork, then came around the corner of the house with a smile on his face. He was whoopin’ and hollerind’ like some babe had just taken her top off and tossed it at him. He drove it all the way back to the barn as I leaned against the house, catching my breath and feeling the sweat pour down my back.
Paul was so busy drooling over his expensive new toy that he forgot about his damn horse. I hopped onto the back of the beautiful animal and rode it all the way back to the barn where I found Paul stroking and eyeballing the damn tractor. Hell, I half expected him to whip out his dick and fuck it. I laughed as I shook my head, then got his horse into a spare stall so I could feed and water the damn thing.
“When you’re done makin’ love to that tractor of yours, your horse is in the barn,” I said.
“Hey. This thing is a beauty. Must’ve cost you a fortune. Thanks, Drake. It’s really gonna help around here,” Paul said.
“Fuckin’ hope it does. A fortune is only half of what I paid for that thing.”
I walked back up to the house as the sun began to rise high in the sky. My stomach was growling for lunch but my mind kept wandering back to Delia. Had she gotten to work okay? Did she have something to eat? Should I take her something? Would that piss her off even more?
