Chapter Four
August Eighteenth
Tanya
The sound of my phone beeping with a text wakes me from my slumber. I crack open my eyes, seeing early morning sunlight shining through the windows, glinting off the hard ridges of Major’s chest. My eyes scan across his body to the digital clock on the bedside table and see it’s nearly eight. Considering Cat Scratch is in a different time zone, it’s almost nine at home, and past time for my daily call to Rusty.
Like with anything else that breaks the routine of his life, Rusty gets upset if I do not call at our normal time. My brother has what the doctors and teachers call high functioning autism. He can do anything that an average person can do, but he becomes very upset in social situations. He wants everything controlled and on a schedule, even his trips to the bathroom.
Knowing I need to make the call before Rusty has a melt-down, I slide out from under Major’s arm and get out of the bed. Not bothering to grab my clothes, I grab my purse off the floor and head to the bathroom. I shut the door as quietly as possible, dropping my purse on the counter. Seeing the huge freestanding shower, I can’t stop myself from walking in and turning on the water.
Adjusting the temperature, I climb into the shower, and as the hot water beats down on me, my lips tip up into a smile. Tucking my hair up into a knot to keep it from getting wet, I grab a bar of soap that smells like sandalwood and lather up my body. As I remove the stickiness between my legs, a shiver works its way through me. Each and every time we had sex last night, Major came inside of me. He refused to pull out or wear a condom. I was too far gone after the first time to even mention it, not willing to lose the feel of him inside me.
After our first bout, he did explain that he had never been with anyone else without a condom. I have but only one, and I was tested as soon as the truth came out about my ex’s woman on the side. With both of us clean and me on birth control, I didn’t feel like there was any need in putting up much of a fight.
Finally washing off last night’s activities, I cut off the water and grab a towel. I dry off, wrap the damp towel around my body, and grab my phone from my purse. My eyes scan the screen, seeing the expected text from Rusty and an alert for seven missed calls; one from Hadley, two from Dad, and four from Mom.
Lifting the phone to my ear, Hadley’s plays first.
“Hey, cuz, you need to call Aunt Marie. She has been blowing my phone off the hook all morning. I didn’t answer it because I had no idea how to explain that you ran off with my brother-in-law. Her voice mails did not sound very happy.”
My heart beats at a rapid pace as I wait for the next voice mail to start. Unfortunately, it’s from my dad.
“I’m not sure where you have run off to, and I don’t care. You better be back here before the end of the week, and you better be ready to take your vows on Saturday. If not, your mother and Rusty will be the ones to pay. They’ll be living in a cardboard box by Sunday morning if you don’t do what you’re told.”
The next message is even worse, claiming I do not care about Mom and Rusty, so I delete it without finishing and move on to Mom’s.
“As soon as you get this, call me back.”
Her voice is a mixture of sadness and aggravation. I know, without being told, my father has already talked to her.
“How dare you do this? How could you take your dad’s bullshit on your shoulders without saying a word to me? I am the mother not you, and I will take care of this on my own. You will not marry a stranger just to keep a roof over mine and Rusty’s heads. We’ll live in a homeless shelter before I let you do that.”
The next two messages are similar, complaining because she wasn’t told sooner, but the last is filled with pure rage.
“If you even think about marrying that man, I’ll walk into the gosh darn church and spank your lily-white booty for all the guests to see. That will happen after I put a bullet in your father’s cold black heart. Now you just stay wherever you are and let me fix everything.”
I can’t let mom try to fix this. That will just lead to her and Rusty being homeless; no way is that going to happen on my watch. I rush out of the bathroom and run straight to the bed where Major is still sleeping peacefully. Any other time, I wouldn’t bother him. In fact, I’d probably call Hadley and sneak out without ever waking him up. I do not have the time for that right now. I need him to get me to my car as fast as possible.
“Major, you have to wake up. I need you to take me to get my car,” I say, laying my hand on his shoulder and giving him a shake.
He slowly stirs, cracking one eye open. “Are you wanting me again, baby? Didn’t you get enough of me last night?”
As much as I’d like to crawl back in bed with him and spend the rest of the day there, I have to get to Mom’s house before she does something stupid. She has a temper that burns even hotter than mine. When it comes to Dad, that temper is legendary. The first time he cheated on her, she destroyed his prize golf clubs. The next time, she tossed his signed Babe Ruth baseball in the river. When he later filed for divorce, she burnt every piece of clothing he had. Considering this time he is messing with me, she may actually do something that could land her in jail for the rest of her life.
“I have to go home,” I say in a near shout, sounding nearly frantic. “Please get up and take me to get my car.”
Hearing the panic in my voice, he quickly sits up and runs a hand over his still sleepy face. “What’s wrong?”
For some reason, I don’t want to tell him anymore than he already knows. Yesterday, moving Mom and Rusty to White Chapel seemed like the perfect solution to all my problems, today, not so much. Mom will never agree; the move would be too hard on Rusty. Plus, this is my problem. I need to be the one to fix it.
“I need you to take me to get my car,” I repeat, not answering his question.
Grabbing my arm, he pulls me into his arms and settles my ass on his lap. “You’re not going anywhere, until you tell me what’s wrong.”
When I stay silent, he leans down and presses a kiss to the top of my head. “Tell me what’s going on, and we’ll figure out what to do together.”
“Dad told Mom about the wedding, and she’s freaking out.” Suddenly it all comes pouring out, and I finish with my biggest fear. “If I don’t get to Mom before she goes after Dad, she could end up doing something she’ll regret.”
“I doubt she’d regret shit,” he replies, his voice firm.
Relaxing just a bit, I let the heat of his skin warm my icy flesh. “She’ll regret it when she gets arrested and she’s not around to take care of Rusty.”
He looks at me a second, his light blue eyes lighting up with understanding. “Give me a minute to get dressed.”
Major places a kiss against my temple, rolls me off of him, and climbs from the bed. Walking toward the dresser, his tight ass flexes with each step he takes. My eyes are glued to his body as he opens the drawer and pulls out a pair of black boxers. As he pulls them on, I nearly beg him to toss them on the floor and come back to bed. Instead, I shake away my lust and jump off the bed.
“Does your mom live near Cincinnati?” he asks as he pulls a black pair of socks out of the top drawer. “Some small town, right?”
“Uh huh,” I answer, looking around the floor for my discarded clothes. “Dad moved to Cincinnati after the divorce, and she and Rusty live right outside Cincinnati, not too far from Hadley’s parents.”
Finally seeing my bra and panties, I pick them up. “Can you let Hadley know what’s going on after I leave?”
“What are you talking about?” he asks, grabbing a T-shirt from the closet. “Why don’t you tell her yourself?”
Grabbing my crumpled jeans from the floor, I look at him. “I’m just gonna jump in my car and hit the road. If I go inside to explain things, she’ll want to come with me, and she doesn’t need to be part of this crap.”
He shakes his head before pulling on a shirt. “We’re not going to the farm, no reason to waste the time it takes to get over there. We’ll drive my truck.”
“That’s not going to happen,” I mumble, pulling my wrinkled shirt over my head. “I’ll be driving my car, and I’ll be going by myself.”
He just grunts and continues getting dressed. He slides on his boots as I step into my flip-flops, both of us quiet as mice. Grabbing my purse, I follow him down the stairs and out the front door. When he opens the door to the passenger side of the truck, I go to my tiptoes and brush a kiss over his soft lips.
“Thank you so much for last night,” I whisper against his lips. “It meant more to me than you’ll ever know.”
It did; it meant the world to me. From the time he laid me on the bed until I looked at my phone, I didn’t think of my dad or his fucked up plans even once. Major gave me that; he gave me one night of peace.
His arms wrap tightly around me before he responds. “That sounds an awful lot like a goodbye to me.”
I bite my lip, unable to say the words to confirm his suspicion. Instead, I force a smile and push against his hold. Not meeting his eyes, I climb up into the truck and grab my seatbelt. As I click it closed, I can feel his stare burning into me but do my best to ignore it.
After a silent moment, he shuts the door and walks around the front of the truck, climbing into the driver’s side. “This isn’t a goodbye, Tanya. This is our beginning.”
I stay quiet as he starts up the truck, not knowing how to respond. The silence continues as we drive down his long driveway and head to the main road. My eyes stay glued to the road as we pass the house that could have been my mother and brother’s new home, a house she will never accept. My silence doesn’t break until we pass the road to Hadley’s house.
“Hey, you missed the turn off to your brother’s farm,” I say, motioning behind me.
His eyes never leave the road as he replies, “Already told you, I’m not going to the farm. We’ll be taking my truck to your mom’s.”
“What?” I mumble, not believing he is actually pulling this shit on me. “You’re gonna drive me all the way to Cat Scratch, Ohio, just to make me ride all the way back here to get my car. Are you crazy?”
“When you come back to get your car, the only place you will be taking it is to my house,” he says, still not bothering to look at me. “I told you last night, once I had you in my bed, I was keeping you there.”
I open my mouth and close it quickly, not sure how to respond. He can’t be serious. There is no way he thinks he can make that decision, not after one night of sex, even if the sex was mind blowing.
“I also want to be there, just in case your dad shows up,” he says, finally looking my way. “You’re mine now; he doesn’t get to fuck with you anymore. No one fucks with you, but me, and I only do it to bring you pleasure.”
I don’t even know what to say to that, so I say nothing. My eyes go back to the window as his words run through my mind. I wish they were true. I wish I belonged to him, so he could take all my problems away. That isn’t how it works anyway. Once you trust a man, they just screw you over.
“Give me a chance to fuck this shit up before you paint me with the same brush as the other bastard men in your life,” he states as if he can read my mind. “Just trust me for a little while, Tanya. I promise you won’t regret it.”
“Okay,” I whisper, hoping like hell I’m not making the wrong decision.