by Gina Watson
“Blue raspberry.”
“Done, but tonight it’s water or tea.”
“I’ll take tea,” she mumbled through a frown.
“Ouch!” Jess waved her finger in the air to take out the sting. She’d burned it while trying to warm the buns.
Sawyer grabbed her hand and inspected the burn. “You okay?”
“Yeah, but I wish we had a pair of tongs.”
“Put it on the shopping list. I’m doing construction right now. Money is good.”
Jess walked to the pad on the counter and wrote the item down.
“M-A-S-S-A-S.” At the table Riley slammed down her pencil in a frustrated move. “How do you spell Mass-a-shoe-sits?”
Carrying the tea and tumblers to the table, Jess sat next to her. “First of all, it’s Massachusetts.” She poured tea for three, and then focused on Riley’s troubles. “Let me see.” She took the pencil and helped her complete her homework. “And what is the capital?”
“Boston.”
“Good.”
“What about Delaware?”
“Oh, that’s a hard one.”
“It’s still going to be on the test.”
“Can I have a clue?”
“Starts with the same thing as the state.”
“Oh! Dover.”
“Okay. I’ll be quizzing you later. Make sure you’re ready.” Riley’s head flopped to her forearm as she groaned.
Sawyer dropped three plates of sloppy joes on the table and sat to join them. “Riley, you’re up.”
They folded their hands and listened. “Bless us, Oh Lord and these thy gifts which we are about to receive through thy bounty. In Jesus’ name, amen.”
“Good girl.” He nodded. “Ladies, tell me what we have up and coming—schedules, expenses, needs, wants. Let’s hear it. I’d like to stock up while we’re in the money.” He took a huge bite of his sandwich and chewed with purpose. He’d said goodbye to his dog today and he just wanted to be surrounded by his little family.
“I wanna get a puppy.” Riley offered.
Jess slapped at her arm. “Hush. Eat your food.” Jess turned solemn eyes on Sawyer. “I’m sorry, Murph. I told her to shut up, but she can’t help herself.”
“It’s okay Jess. Thank you anyway.”
“I’m sorry. I forgot.”
“It’s okay, Riley.” Sawyer chuckled in spite of his loss. The girls could always be counted on to make him smile.
Jess cleared her throat. “So uh…there’s a Winter Wonderland dance coming up and I uh…I got asked and would like to go.”
Whoa! His little sister who was thirteen was invited to go to a school dance? An eighth-grade dance. He remembered attending one himself, but found this news of Jessica’s tough to take because it meant she was growing up. And who was asking her to a dance? “Who asked you?”
“Dallas Garner.”
“Chuck’s boy?”
“Yeah.”
Well at least he knew of the kid. He seemed to have a good head on his shoulders. And Chuck, being ex-Army, wouldn’t tolerate any shenanigans.
“I’d need you to take me for a dress and shoes. And I’d need somebody to fix my hair, but if we can’t afford it I’ll tell him no.”
“We’ll go this weekend and have a look.” Shit! Where would he take her to get those items? He’d seen some nice stuff at the supercenter, but he didn’t think a dress for a dance could be found there. She surely couldn’t get her hair done there. Maybe he could ask Courtney. Fuck! Why did his mind constantly go to her? He’d been fixated on her since day one—no matter what he tried he couldn’t shake her blue jewels out of his head. After the way he’d treated her she’d never speak to him again.
“I know a lot of girls like Forever Twenty-One.” Riley added.
Riley was quite girly where Jess on the other hand was a total tomboy. Jess and Sawyer shared a quizzical look before Jess asked, “Is that in the mall?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted.
“Yes. There’s one in the mall and one next to Costco,” Riley said.
Jess gazed dumbfounded at her sister. “How do you know these things?”
“I wanna be a designer.”
They laughed and finished off the sandwiches. Jess jumped up from the table, “Who wants chocolate pudding?”
Two hands went up.
They shared pudding, and then the girls went to work on homework while Sawyer cleaned the kitchen. As he cleared the table his mind wasn’t far from her. He’d thought about sending her a bouquet, but he really wanted to try and put some of this money away for when they were really desperate. When he’d called Flowers by Rachel and had been told it would cost seventy-five dollars to deliver a half dozen roses he declined.
He shouldn’t have used her body in the way he had. His only explanation was that they’d both been skirting around their attraction for days and the pent up tension broke free like a dam had been removed.
During sex she’d been as frenzied as he was. That didn’t excuse the way he’d left things. If not flowers maybe he could send her a text. Something simple…How are you? How do you think she is after you fucked the hell out of her and then told her to get lost? Okay, so not how are you? Maybe I’m sorry. Or can you forgive me?
No. Definitely no to both. He was drying dishes when he heard the door. With the dish towel in his hands he walked to answer it. There really was nothing he could say to Courtney in short of I’m sorry and he decided he’d do that first thing tomorrow after he arrived at the cheese shop.
Opening the door his eyes settled on a very wet, very blue-eyed angel holding a white basket filled with a liver-colored lab pup with a red bow tied around its neck. He was frozen in the very spot where he stood in the doorway. Water dripped from her hair and slid down her face. She smiled, but he didn’t return it because he couldn’t. One million things were coursing through his mind…
…the dog, her wet cream-colored blouse, the crystal blue of her eyes, her perfect smile that sent sparks straight to his cock, the gentle clearing of her voice, his sisters. Shit! His sisters! He stepped from the house and pulled the door closed.
Her smile had diminished to be replaced with a gaping mouth and wide eyes. “I uh…I have a…um…friend. Her dog’s had pups. He’s just like Liver.”
He tried to talk. He felt the knot in his throat bobbing up and down, but it wasn’t working to produce speech. She looked anxiously down. “If you don’t want him I can take him back.”
He heard the pitter patter of feet inside the house. The evidence of her cocked brow indicated she’d heard it too. Hard not to—they sounded like a heard of rhinoceros. How would he explain them?
“I see. Well I’ll just be going then. Sorry to bother you.” She stepped from the dry porch and out into the pouring rain.
“No.” His voice was a whisper. Should he invite her in? Would it upset the girls? He couldn’t let her leave. He shook out his shock and ran after her, whistling loudly. When he tapped on the trunk of her car her brake lights lit up. She rolled her window down a fraction. The rain drenched him as he stood before her car. “I’m sorry. Please, come inside.”
“It’s okay, Sawyer. Really. It’s not a big deal.”
“No, please. I want you to.”
“It didn’t seem like you did.”
“I know, but I do. I really, really do. Please.”
The window rolled up, and for a second he thought she was going to drive away but the car’s engine died and he heard the crack of her door. He helped her with the basket and they made it onto the porch. “I’m sorry, Courtney. I was just a little shocked.”
“Well that’s okay. I can see you have company so if I need to leave just tell me.”
“No. I don’t have company.” Her brow furrowed in confusion. “Come inside and I’ll get you a towel and you can meet my sisters.”
“Sisters.”
From a basket of laundry in the living room he reached for towels and passed her one. They d
ried their hair and arms, and then she cuddled the little pup in a towel—well she attempted, but he was only interested in biting the corners of the towel.
He watched her play with the little guy and his heart swelled. “You brought him for me?”
“Yeah.” She shrugged. “Clara told me about Liver. I’m so sorry.”
He reached down and picked up the pup. He stilled immediately as Sawyer held him out at face level and they summed up one another. He chuckled. “Cute. Very cute. I can’t tell you how much this means to me.”
“I’m glad. I was hoping you’d want him. I know his mother is a great hunter.”
“I’m sorry, Courtney. I’m sorry about everything. I uh…when you arrived on my porch I was a little shocked.” He set the dog down. “Those responsibilities I have are my sisters. I’m their guardian. I’ve more or less raised them, but a few years ago we were left completely on our own. I work days and sometimes nights and then I come home and cook dinner, get baths out, do laundry, supervise homework, and get them in bed by nine. I don’t know where a girlfriend would fit into the equation, but if one could…” He rubbed at his chin. “I don’t know what I’m saying. I’m rambling.” He chuckled. “I guess I’m a little nervous, and you haven’t said a word.”
She grabbed his hand in hers. “I haven’t spoken because I’ve been listening. You’re amazing. I’d like to meet these sisters of yours, if I could.”
“Of course.”
He pulled her through the house and toward the room the girls shared. He pushed the door to their room open. A large box covered with a sheet vibrated with giggles. “I thought you were doing homework.”
A flashlight shone from beneath one flap on the box, “In the box, Murph. Relax. She’s got the state capitals down…except for West Virginia.”
“Charleston!”
“Hey…high five.” The snap could be heard outside of the box.
His eyes met Courtney’s. “I’m guessing we’re going to have to enter the fort if you wanna meet them.”
“I love forts…back in the day, I was quite the builder.”
She. Was. Amazing. He was aware of the big dumb smile on his face that was currently beaming at her.
A piercing cry broke through the air. Little Liver had made it around the corner and was demanding to be held by Sawyer. He’d sat between Sawyer’s feet and scratched at his jeans.
The whines had the girls on hands and knees crawling from the fort.
Riley gasped, “It’s a puppy!”
“Murph, you got us a puppy?” Jess said clutching her chest.
“Actually, Courtney got it for us.”
“Who’s Courtney?” they asked in unison as they played with little Liver, not looking up.
“Come here and meet her.”
Their heads popped up at once. Riley took in her attire from head to toe, her smile growing all the while. Jess observed with a reserved frown. “Courtney?”
“Yes. And you’re Jess?”
“Jessica, but everybody calls me Jess.”
Jess stood, looking from Courtney to Sawyer. “You’re my brother’s friend?”
Courtney shrugged. It was the first time he’d seen her unsure about anything. He intervened, “Yes, she’s a very good friend of mine.”
“I didn’t know,” Jess said, puzzled.
“I like your shoes.” Riley said as she gave them a good look, and then stood.
“Courtney works in real estate right next door to the cheese shop.”
Jess smiled. “Cool. Murph needs friends.”
“Your dress is real fancy,” Riley smiled, and then reached out to run her hands down the material of Courtney’s skirt.
“Riley,” Sawyer admonished with a shake of his head.
Courtney giggled, “That’s okay. And thank you for the compliment.”
“Do you have a fancy bag too?”
Sawyer nodded. “She does…A Michael Kors.”
“Murph, you know Michael Kors?” Jess asked on a cocked brow.
“Of course. Everybody who’s anybody knows Michael Kors.”
Riley squealed in a fit of laughter and Jess giggled. Next to him Courtney stood beaming…at him. He knew he was in trouble when his heart sighed at the vision before him. Shit! He was going to fall hard and fast, if he hadn’t already.
They migrated to the living room—Riley’s arms full of the liver-colored sleeping lab. Dropping the fat-bellied pup into his white wicker basket, Riley stood admiring the infamous MK bag. She hefted a large gold lock apparatus from the front of the bag into her palm and tested its weight. “You can lock it up?”
Courtney looked on the lock as if seeing it for the first time. “Huh, I guess you can, but it would make it extremely difficult to grab your wallet or phone.”
“Maybe it’s for when you travel. Like on a plane,” Jess added.
Courtney nodded and Riley laced her arm through the hole made by the straps of the bag and slid them onto her shoulder. She moved back, effectively sliding the bag from the coffee table, and then sagged under its weight. “Whoa, this is heavy!”
Sawyer nodded in affirmation. “Courtney likes to carry her rock collection around with her.”
“Really?” Riley asked with wide eyes.
“No. I have no rocks in the bag.”
Courtney and Sawyer sat on the couch while Jess sat cross-legged on the floor, stroking the sleeping pup’s back. “I think we should call him Levi.”
“Levi?” Sawyer questioned.
“Yeah, it’s still close enough to Liver, but no one can replace our Liver.”
“Levi. I like it,” Courtney smiled.
“Me too,” Sawyer’s gaze met hers and locked for several beats. “Thank you for coming.”
“You are most welcome.”
“I’m really sorry about Saturday night.”
She shook her head. “Don’t mention it because I’m not.”
With a crease between her brows, Jess scrutinized their interaction and their words. “You guys were together on Saturday night? I thought you were working at the cheese shop.”
“He was, but once the bachelorette party started, he took a break and went to dinner with me.”
He sat back and listened as the girls discussed him like he wasn’t in the room. Courtney was great at communicating the facts that were needed and leaving certain details of their night private.
“So were you like on a date?” Jess inquired.
He was so not getting into this conversation!
“It was a date—with a very handsome, hardworking man.”
“Is Sawyer your BF?”
What the hell is a BF?
“Hmm, you know Jess, I can’t answer that. We haven’t used that word yet.”
“Do you want him to be?”
“Well I can’t tell all of my secrets now, can I?”
“What’s BF?” The girls giggled at his question.
“What?”
Riley froze, striking a catwalk pose and said, “It means boyfriend.”
His eyes bugged while all of the women in his living room laughed.
“Oh my God, you have the chocolate bar!” Riley set the bag that was half her size down on the coffee table. “I heard it smells like chocolate…does it smell like chocolate?”
“Take it out and give it a sniff.”
She started rummaging through Courtney’s bag and pulled out a long, brown cardboard box. She flipped the top and took a huge sniff. “Mmm.” If he wasn’t mistaken it was a box of eye shadow or blush.
“I wanna smell it.” Jess joined her and they sniffed the box repeatedly. “It smells like hot cocoa with mini marshmallows.”
“Do you wear it?” Riley asked.
“I do.”
Jess pulled a shiny, flowered bag from Courtney’s purse. “Wow, you have so much makeup.” She pulled three tubes from the bag. “I love lip gloss.”
“Hey, Courtney may not appreciate you going through her things.” Both girls droppe
d their hands and looked intently at Courtney.
“I don’t mind. If it’s okay with your brother.”
He shrugged. What the hell was he going to do? It was girl power in the living room. He was outnumbered and he recognized a lost cause when he saw it. “As long as you’re okay with it.”
She leaned in and whispered in his ear, “I was thinking I could apply light makeup to Jess.” Her moist breath had him going hard. Not good…this was most inappropriate in front of his sisters. He grabbed a throw pillow.
“I think she’d love that.”
Sawyer leaned back against the couch and clasped his hands to the top of his head. He watched as his sisters and Courtney sat on pillows in the middle of the cozy living room and painted each other’s faces. Courtney graciously allowed them to make her into an eighties goth creation. Wiping away the excess makeup on her right eye, Courtney was in the middle of teaching Jess that less was more when applying eyeliner. Riley’s fingers never left Levi’s back as she continued to slowly stroke him into a deep comfortable puppy dog sleep. He’d be dreaming of biscuits and bacon, and of chasing rabbits.
Sawyer had a few dreams of his own. He constantly tried to push them to the back of his mind, but as he watched Courtney receive the stabbing brunt of the lip gloss wand in Riley’s hand, his dreams floated to the forefront of his mind.
He could see Courtney advising Jess on the perfect dress to wear to the dance, and on how to tie back her hair. Riley would be in the middle of the two, soaking up every ounce of essence that oozed from Courtney’s pores. But there were other dreams…dreams that were too close to reality, dreams that had him anxious and needed to remain hidden. An image of Courtney in his arms across the conference table, her back perfectly arched to accept him. Sparkling eyes shining with lust and satisfaction.
“And then you blot like this.” Courtney grasped a tissue and demonstrated while he felt the precum drip from his cock. Shit. He snuck into the restroom. Looking at himself in the mirror he gasped. He looked more like his father than he wished to. The rugged lines, the bronze skin, the devilish smirk. That smirk that cost him a few swats on the hand from Mrs. Ellen’s ruler back in grade school. She’d thought he was misbehaving, but his face had been frozen in a snicker until he’d become an adult.
