twenty-six
rutledge
I saw the heat mixed with uncertainty as she looked up from between my legs. Fuck. It was the hottest look I’d ever seen. Her lips red and swollen from sucking me off, her tongue darting out to lick them. Hair wild from my hands running through it. A flush of pink shading her cheeks.
Absolutely fucking beautiful.
Her sucking me off was fucking amazing. But she could have licked my cock like a damn lollipop and blew on it and I’d still get off on it because it was Peyton.
She did no wrong in my eyes.
I did an ab curl, grabbed her under her arms, hauling her up the bed, along my body. But I didn’t stop her, kept on going until she was straddling my face.
“Hands on the headboard,” I roughly demanded.
Her breathing was more like panting as she followed my orders without the slightest hesitation. I grinned.
The sweet smell of her pussy just mere inches from my nose had my cock twitching and my mouth watering. I clutched her hips and pulled her down.
Her taste filled my mouth and it was fucking heaven.
“Oh God,” she moaned as she pressed into my mouth.
Jesus.
She was so fucking wet. All from sucking on my cock. I drove my tongue deep inside her, sucking up all the juices that lay there.
“So fucking sweet,” I grumbled.
Moving my tongue, I ran it along her clit, causing her body to spasm above me.
“Ride my face, baby,” I demanded.
Another order she followed without hesitation as her hips started to move, finding what she liked. The sounds coming from the back of her throat were the sexiest sounds I’d ever heard. I thrust my tongue into her and she moaned. Sinking deeper at the same time, she purred, “You feel so good.”
She rolled her hips, rubbing her clit against me, another moan before she sank deeper onto my tongue. Pure fucking bliss. She found the rhythm, working her clit then taking my tongue. Her soft moans turned louder.
“Oh God, Rut.”
Her hips moved faster, her legs tightened around my head. And I waited, waited for her to come on my face. I’d jerked off so many times to the vision of her riding my face, but her actually doing it was beyond what I’d dreamt. I knew she was about to come before she screamed my name. The sweetness of her pussy dripped, and I savored the flavor of her on my tongue, in my mouth and moving slowly down my throat. Her hips didn’t stop as she prolonged the pleasure with each shift. I’d always thought nothing beat the taste of Jack, the way it coated my throat and warmed my gut.
But that was until I had Peyton.
***
Pulling into the parking lot of the warehouse, I saw workers milling around. Trucks being loaded, pallets of merchandise being dropped off. Peyton sat in the passenger seat, quietly. She was killing me, causing my aching cock to throb with every damn suck on the straw of her fucking drink. We had gone to a drive-thru grabbing lunch on our way, since we decided to hang around Ogg’s Point for a few extra days to see if we were able to catch anyone on the footage from the cameras that’d been installed. But no such luck. On Tuesday morning I told her we had to leave, couldn’t stay around waiting for something we had no clue when it’d show.
Even hanging back the extra days, having to arrange shit at work, it’d been nice. We focused more on us than the house shit. Watched movies, fucked, ate, made love, cooked together, showered, and just spent time as a couple. And with every day, hour, minute and second I spent with Peyton, I was falling more in love with her.
I parked in my normal spot, next to the warehouse office, and the iron stairs leading to the loft apartment above it.
“Ready?” I asked and looked to her.
But her eyes were scanning the area, wide with wonder, as her tongue continued to play with the straw, totally lost in thought.
“Peaches!” I yelled.
Her head whipped to me, her gaze hit mine, that fucking straw still in her fucking mouth. “Yeah?”
My voice was hard. “You think you can save my fucking cock from exploding in my jeans and take that goddamn straw out of your mouth?”
It took a second before a wide smile spread over her face, and in an exaggerated show she pulled the straw away from her mouth. She studied me for a second before she said, “Better?” I didn’t miss the grin.
“What’d be better is my cock being that straw right now, but yeah, fucking better. Now, you ready?”
She reached for the handle, started opening the door, then glanced back at me. “We haven’t had our show today. Just saying.” She jumped out of the truck.
I followed suit and got out, saying, “Days not over, baby. Just saying.”
I rounded the truck, went to her, placed a kiss on her nose. She smiled at me and I grabbed her hand, walking us to the front of the building. The large sign stretching along the front of the building, in bold red lettering spelled out Raines Auto Parts Distribution. There had been a time when I’d look up at the sign proudly, all I felt now was disgust. I wasn’t sure when that had started, but I felt it, and more so every time I pulled into the damn parking lot.
The gawking eyes of my employees didn’t go unnoticed as I held Peyton’s hand tightly in mine, she was a step behind me as I guided us to the end of the building where Smitty was signing off on a delivery.
“Hey.” I stuck out my hand toward the old man.
“Boy,” he muttered, cigar hanging from his mouth, lips tipping up at me.
His eyes moved to Peyton. It was a smile I had never seen on Smitty’s face. Fucking bright. Fucking happy.
“We finally meet, young lady.” He put his hand out to her.
“Peyton, Smitty, Smitty, Peyton,” I offered.
If I thought Smitty’s behavior was odd, Peyton’s was even more so. She slipped her hand from mine and approached Smitty. Hesitancy in her movements before she stepped into him and wrapped her arms around him. He was so thrown he almost dropped the cigar from his mouth. Took him a second before his arms came around her. She didn’t let go, even when he made a move to pull back. Finally, she released him and stepped back, Smitty’s eyes finding me over her head. I didn’t get it until she turned, and tears were rolling down her cheeks. Love looked back at me from those pale eyes and then she asked, “Where’s the bathroom?”
I grabbed her upper arm, hauling her into me as I firmly wrapped my arms around her and whispered to the top of her head, “Baby.”
She didn’t say anything, just held me as tightly as I was holding her. She didn’t need to tell me what was wrong, I already knew. Smitty was someone that loved me. Smitty cared about me and what shit went on in my life. Peyton hadn’t known I had that at first and when she found out about Smitty it touched her. Now seeing him, it hit her hard.
“Well,” Smitty drawled. “Never had that kinda reaction but...” He gave his signature throaty laugh and finished, “I’ll take it as a good one.”
“You do that,” I said to Smitty, smiling at him.
Peyton was still buried in my chest when she mumbled something and sniffed. I let her have her moment, but she was going to have it with me whether she liked it or not. So with my arms still around her, holding her close, I began talking to Smitty like she wasn’t there.
“My father been around?”
He shook his head. “Nope. Haven’t seen him in weeks.”
“Odd,” I uttered and lifted an arm to wave to one of the workers waving at me. “No word of anything since I told ya about him being in Ogg’s Point?”
“Nah,” Smitty said, and started to move.
I did to, but tucked Peyton to my side as we walked. She gripped my tee at the bottom, raised it and wiped her eyes. I chuckled.
Smitty kept talking, “Just did like you asked and called Jeff, but he never saw them cross the state line.”
“Hmm,” I grumbled as I opened the office door and we all walked through. “Hey,” I called down to Peyton still tucked to my side.
Her eyes lifted, they were really pale from the tears. “Yeah.”
I reached in my pocket, pulling out my keys I held them out to her. “Here. Stairs on the side, by my truck. They go up to my place. Why don’t you go up, take a minute, yeah?”
She curled her fingers around them. “Thank you.” Then she lifted up on her toes and pressed a kiss on my mouth before she walked away.
I watched her. The way her ass moved, an ass I only got to see naked. Then I noticed how she was taking in her surroundings, her head moving from side to side, but she didn’t appear to be focusing on any one thing. That concerned me. Just weeks ago she held her head high, eyes to everything within her sights. Now it was like she was trying to be invisible and I knew it was the fear she was harboring, fear stemming from the shit happening back at the house.
Fuck, it even baffled me. Years that fucking house sat and no one touched it. All of a sudden shit starts happening out of the fucking blue. High school kids, bullshit. No way I believed that shit. If it was high school kids they’d be stealing shit, selling it for money. Not going in and smashing shit just because.
Herb was instructed to give me a shout if he saw anything out of the ordinary on the footage. Peyton didn’t know this. And if she found out I was keeping it from her, so be it. I needed to protect her because there was something out there, I just didn’t know what yet.
“Hey!” Smitty yelled, breaking me from my thoughts.
I turned to see him sitting in his chair. “Yeah?” I asked.
“Feels good, huh?”
“What?”
He smiled that same smile he gave Peyton only minutes before, and then muttered, “To be in love.”
I let out a small laugh, not answering him, I didn’t need to, he knew.
“I’m gonna do it,” I told him as I took the seat behind my desk.
He nodded. “Knew you would, and I don’t blame you one bit, boy. You’re young, you’ve been working your ass off for years. Finally found your happy,” He jerked his head toward the door. “Go live life. Be happy, you deserve it.”
At his words, ‘you deserve it’, a chill ran down my spine. They hadn’t spoken in days, but at the sound of that one fucking word, deserve, they woke the fuck up. A small voice in the back of my head whispering, you don’t deserve it.
“Boy!” Smitty yelled.
I shook my head and looked at him. He continued, “Don’t do that shit. I know you, Rutledge.” At him using my name, I gave him my full attention. “You earned for your life to be good, boy. You take that happy and ride it out.” I nodded because maybe I did warrant it.
I hadn’t even noticed that the demons kept quiet when Peyton was around. Or the shed. Not that I ever focused on it for too long, but even that wasn’t bothering me as much anymore. Maybe it was time to be fucking happy. I smiled.
“Yeah,” Smitty muttered. “See, you know it too.” He smiled, nodding at me. “Now, you sell this place, go be happy but I’m warning ya. There better be a seat at your table on Christmas day with my name on it, eating whatever that woman of yours whips up. And I don’t wanna be uncle or any shit like that, boy. Smitty, that’s what I want the little brats to call me.”
Be happy, kids with Peyton, that thought made me fucking happy.
Smitty was still watching me. I shook my head, straight up laughing at him, but I would give him what he wanted. I’d have him every year at my table for Christmas day. And every holiday after that. And I would definitely teach my kids to call him anything under the fucking sun besides Smitty, just to piss the old man off.
***
I walked into my place to see Peyton sitting on my bed. Her eyes had been wandering but came to me the minute I walked through the door, those soft, sweet pale green eyes. I didn’t say anything and she didn’t either as I stalked across the room. Once in front of her I leaned down, pressed my lips firmly to hers before pulling her to her feet.
Still she didn’t say anything, neither did I.
I dropped to my knees, and was quick about ridding her of her Chucks, jeans and panties. Rising, my hands caught the bottom of her sweater, pulling it from her body as I went. Her breath came in pants. Body shivered with every brush of my hands against her warm skin. Wrapping my arms around her body, I freed her tits from their confinement. She sucked in a breath as her bra fell onto the pile of clothes on the floor. My shirt followed when I removed it. My hands to her hips, I turned her.
Still no words were spoken.
Putting a hand to her back, I put pressure, she understood and complied when she put a knee to the bed and crawled onto it. Quickly, I toed off my sneakers and removed my jeans. Because the vision of her like that was going to make me blow before I even had a chance to sink inside her warm, tight body. Ass up in the air, on display for me, waiting for me.
One hand on her hip, the other guided my cock. I entered her body, slowly, inch by inch I savored the feeling. The feeling only she was able to provide. A sense of freeing my mind and thoughts, letting everything around us fade away. Leaving nothing but the two of us, the two of us joined as one. Seated as deep as her body would allow, she let out a throaty groan.
Still, we kept silent.
Withdrawing as slowly as I entered her, relishing in the feeling of her hot pussy. I took a deep breath, hoping she understood what came next. Forcefully, I rammed into her causing her to yelp. I didn’t let up. Drive after drive I pounded into her. Her moans and whimpers filled the small shitty apartment I called home. I gripped her hips hard, my fingers sinking into her soft flesh, ramming into her I closed my eyes.
I did deserve this. I was entitled to be happy.
Plunge after deep plunge, I lost myself in her. Aggressively I fucked her. Strong groans ripping from my throat. Hard whimpers falling from hers. I stopped, and with a knee, I pushed her legs even farther apart and joined her on the bed. Knees to the bed, I pulled her up to hers too, and pulled back on her, causing her to plunge onto my dick. Stiff, powerful movements, I jerked my hips, causing my cock to deeply penetrate her. Moving my hands, one went to her right tit, where I gripped it, the other to her clit, where my fingers quickly worked it.
It wasn’t a minute later she found her release, screaming through it, as I kept up my harsh thrusts into her body. Her pussy convulsing around my cock caused me to follow behind her. Seating her flush onto my cock, I released deep inside her body, grunting, “Mine.”
Minutes passed, our rough, rasping breaths evened out. Her slick back still pressed to my front, cock still in her, come rolling down my thighs.
Her head turned, her eyes looked back at me, and in them I saw understanding. A beat passed between us before she simply said, “Anytime, baby.”
No other words were needed. She knew I needed her. Needed to get lost in her.
Wrapping my arms tightly around her, I whispered against her ear, “God, I fucking love you.”
Without missing a beat she whispered back, “I know you do.”
***
Two hours later we sat at a table in the bar shooting the shit with Max and some chick named Allison.
“So, you lived in Boston, right?” Max asked Peyton.
“Yeah, the Back Bay area.”
Max tapped his hand on the table and said, “Shit, what’s that place? They got the French toast…” He trailed off.
Peyton almost launched from her chair, as she pointed at Max, excitement all over her face. “You know about Jake’s?”
“Fuck!” He pointed to her. “That’s it. Yeah, damn, their French toast...” He stopped and closed his eyes and I thought he was coming in his damn pants.
“Jesus, am I the only one that hasn’t eaten there?” I chimed in.
The blonde chick, Allison, piped up and added, “No, but maybe we can go together.” She gave me a look and smiled.
Hmm, wonder how my little spit fire is gonna handle this.
I grinned at the thought and looked to Peyton.
She was eyeing this Allison chick, but it was her hands fisting in her lap that gave her temper away. “Maybe the one you should be asking is the one sitting next to you...Allison, was it?” Peyton asked.
I let my head fall back and began to laugh. Max joining me and muttering between his laughter, “I like her.”
Allison turned her eyes to Peyton and said, “Well the both of you have already been, so, I thought me and Rutledge could go together.”
“You have seen a map, right? Do you know where Boston is in relation to New York?” Peyton asked then pulled out her phone. “I can show you, if you need a visual aid.”
Allison huffed, “I’ve seen one, thanks.”
Peyton didn’t miss a beat. “You might want to look at one again.”
Allison ignored Peyton as she turned her head away. Peyton’s focus turned to Max as she pointed between him and Allison. “How long have you known each other?”
Max looked to his watch and deadpanned, “All of two days.”
“It’s been three,” Allison chimed in.
“Oh,” Max drawled. “Then three days.”
A smile spread over Peyton’s face. “A man of obvious taste...three days, that makes sense then,” she offered. The meaning was not lost on me or Max. It went right over Allison’s head.
Again, I began to laugh, not able to hold it in this time. I grabbed my girl’s chair, pulling it closer to me, and laid my lips on hers. “Reel it in, babe.”
Her eyes came to me, she lowered her voice so only I could hear. “It’s reeled in, babe, but if she doesn’t stop fucking you with her eyes, I’m going to blind her. Fair warning.”
I moved my mouth to her ear and whispered, “Who was on my cock just a few hours ago?”
She shocked the shit out of me when she grabbed me right there at the table, her eyes hot when she purred, “Mine.”
“You trying to get fucked in the bar bathroom, Peaches?” I asked her loudly, loving the feeling of her hand cupping my junk.
“Hey,” Max bellowed. “Enough of the love birds shit.”
Peyton didn’t let go of the topic as quickly when she reached for her beer and muttered, “Sounds like something that should be on my must do list.”
I shook my head, looking at my girl, but it was definitely noted and now was on our must do list.
“How’s things?” I asked Max, he knew I was talking about his girl.
His lips tipped up. “Good, man, good.” He looked around and added, “We’ll talk about it soon, lots of shit is going on.” I didn’t like his answer with ‘lots of shit going on’ so, I raised my brows at him.
“No, man, it’s all good shit.” Max gave me more when he saw the look on my face. He smiled, and I knew then to relax and that Max was heading toward a good place in his life too. Or I at least hoped so.
I nodded, smiling back. Allison chose this time to go to the bathroom. When she was out of earshot, I turned to Peyton.
“You have any single friends?” I jerked my head toward Max. “For him?”
“No, but finding him someone is on my must do list because...” She bit her lip and looked sheepishly at Max. “Sorry, I shouldn’t speak poorly of your date.”
Max waved a hand at her. “Nah, it’s all good. No plans of keeping her around anyway.”
“Well in that case, maybe as a parting gift you should give her a world atlas,” Peyton muttered.
My cell vibrated in my pocket and I looked to see who it was. Herb.
“Hey, I gotta take this.” I looked to Max, “Watch my girl, yeah?”
He nodded. I turned to Peyton kissed her lips and said, “Be right back.”
Once outside, I called Herb back; it took me longer to weave through the crowd to get outside.
“Hey, what’s going on?”
He seemed to be out of breath as he told me, “Got a figure on the video footage—”
I cut him off. “You see who the fuck it is?”
“No,” he rushed out. “Can’t see a face. Looks like a short, maybe, stocky guy.”
I walked away from the entrance to the bar when a stream of people exited. “What makes you think it’s a guy?”
Herb took a deep breath. “You can tell. The way the figure walks, bends down, inspecting shit…”
“What the fuck was he doing?” I asked harshly, still walking down the sidewalk.
“Rut,” he said and didn’t go on.
“What?” I demanded in a hard tone.
“Shit,” Herb breathed out and went on, “Was looking around the trailer, at the locks. Then he moved to the shed, inspected those locks too. But...” Herb paused as my blood began to boil in response to the news he was relaying to me. “I’m on my way there now, Willy’s gonna meet me there, I have a plan. I saw the guy lift up some old boards in the yard. Gonna set a trap, put shit under a tarp, cinder blocks on one side, forcing him to access in view of the camera hiding on the widow’s walk.”
I took a deep breath, ran a hand through my hair. “Okay, sounds good. And Herb?”
“Yeah.”
“I want at least two extra crews, three if you can wrangle them up, out there at the house, getting the renovations done. Got it?”
He took a breath and questioned, “You know what that’s gonna cost?”
“I don’t care, just get it done.” And with that I tapped the screen, ending the call.
Fuck.
I leaned against the cool brick of the bar’s facade. What the fuck was going on? Why would someone want to fuck with things? It was truly starting to piss me the fuck off because I had no clue who or why someone would do this shit. I pushed off the building and went back inside.
When I caught Peyton’s eyes, I smiled like everything was fucking great. Sitting down next to her, I grabbed for my beer and took a long pull from it.
She touched my lap, her voice soft when she asked, “Is everything okay?”
I couldn’t even look her in the eyes when I lied, “Yeah.”
The squeezing of her fingers into my thigh, she knew. She knew I was lying, but so unlike Peyton, she dropped it.
***
The scent hit me the moment I walked through the office door. And I smiled because as much as I hated Smitty smoking in the office, I was gonna miss it.
“Hey,” Smitty called out. “Where’s ya girl?”
Thoughts of Peyton riding me earlier this morning skated through my mind and I smiled. “Naked, sated and fell back to sleep.”
Smitty grinned and added, “How long I got you here?”
I poured coffee into a Styrofoam cup and started toward my desk. “Few days maybe. Gotta get all the papers and shit ready for the buyout. But since we decided to go with that accountant last year, they’ve kept up on shit, so shouldn’t take long. Plus, I got the lawyers drawing up the papers and shit. Just a few things I need to gather from here.” I ended with sitting at my desk, logging into my computer.
“I’m not staying,” Smitty muttered.
Those three words had my eyes lifting from the screen to him. I didn’t need to ask when he told me.
“Thought about it last night, while I was at home eating a damn TV dinner,” he chuckled. “I get my cut from you selling, and I retire. Maybe find one of those beach communities, sit back, watch the chicks in their bikinis.”
“You hate the beach.” I told him something he already knew.
He shrugged his shoulders. “I know.” He looked off into the distance and added quietly, “I need to find my happy, boy.”
I tapped on the keyboard, logging into the file that only my lawyer and I had access to. “Can I suggest Ogg’s Point?”
“What the fuck am I gonna do in Ogg’s Point.” He let out his throaty laugh and kept on, “I’m only in my mid-fifties, boy, I ain’t dead yet. What do ya expect me to do, start going to bingo?” He paused for a second then asked, “Chicks that age, they like bingo, right?”
I laughed, scrolling through documents. “They fucking might.”
“Hmm,” he hummed. “Maybe I’ll go visit this Ogg’s Point place, see what they got to offer.”
“You do that,” I said, but I was distracted as I read the same two lines over and over again in a document that predated me taking over.
“Smitty?” I called, my eyes to the screen.
“Yeah?”
I jerked my head. “Come look at this.”
He rose from his chair, grunting when he did. He reached my side, put a hand to my desk and leaned in to where I was pointing when I demanded, “What the fuck is this?”
Smitty righted himself and questioned, “You didn’t know about that shit?”
I looked up to him, met his concerned eyes. “No, I had no fucking clue.” I paused, thinking over the years if my father had ever brought it up. But either he hadn’t or I couldn’t jog my memory to find it. I was going with the first.
Just then the office phone rang and Smitty moved to his desk to answer it. So I took the time to look closer at the document. With closer inspection, my blood began to boil, my eyes not believing the dates that sat in black basic font on my screen. It was all there is black and white as it all came together. My past, the disgust, the betrayal of my father. It was all coming together.
I quickly rose, causing my seat to roll and hit the wall behind it. Storming out of the office, I kept walking, getting as far as I could from the building. All the while pulling the cell from my pocket, and harshly tapping at the screen.
“Well, look who it is.” His voice slurred in my ear.
“He paid you off.” The words slipped from my mouth. As fucking vile as they were. The thought behind them disgusting.
“What?” My father’s voice didn’t seem to slur that one word.
He fucking knew. He had to know I’d find it one day.
“That’s why you’re so fucking against me selling the business,” I breathed out as all the pieces began to form the puzzle of my past. “ʼCause you knew I’d fucking find out when I did.”
“I…” He began to stumble. “I… don’t know—”
I cut him off, rage crawling through my veins, I shouted into the phone, “He fucking paid you off, gave you goddamn hush money and you took it. I…” I couldn’t continue.
The thought that my own father, my own flesh and blood would do something like that had my gut twisting. I bent, putting a hand on my knee. I was going to fucking throw up. Deep breaths, in and out.
“You don’t understand, Rut. I needed the money. The business was taking a hit.” He calmed for a second before finishing, “Your grandmother had just passed away, didn’t have shit in life insurance, left me with nothing. I needed to put fucking food in your stomach damn it.”
The last sentence he spoke had me straightening, before I grated out between clenched teeth, “You needed to put fucking food in my stomach?” He tried to answer but I stopped him, “I would have fucking starved. Would have fucking eaten scraps out of a damn garbage can if that’s what I fucking had to do to survive.” I took a deep breath and finished, “All for my father, my dad, the man I once looked up to, to be at my side. But you fucking weren’t. You left me out in the fucking cold, by myself to deal with something I had no goddamn clue how to fucking deal with,” I roared. “All so you could put fucking food in my stomach!” I began to pace, and with every step the fire, the rage, everything I held in for so many years that I had for my dad came pouring out. “I was nine fucking years old, dad, nine!” My breaths were coming in pants.
“Son, I…”
“Don’t ever call me your son ʼcause you never were and never will be my father,” I spat out and finished, “My lawyer will give you your cut of the sale as I have no fucking way around it, ʼcause if I did you wouldn’t see a goddamn motherfucking cent. Then I want you out of my life.”
With that I took the cell from my ear and hurled it across the parking lot. As I watched it soar through the air, the last bit of my father leaving my life, it landed next to a still Peyton.
Fuck.
I thought I knew all of my girl’s looks, but I had never seen this one. Her pale eyes were dark like an emerald, her hands weren’t twisting in nerves, but at her sides like she was a fucking statue. She’d heard everything by the look that twisted her features. There was devastation and heartbreak, but under that was rage and a strength about her I hadn’t appreciated until that moment.
Fuck.
She didn’t approach me, stayed back and gave me a minute to pull my shit together, the demons and the fury. When she did come to me, her steps were sure, her focus never leaving my face. I thought she was going to hug me, or offer me words of understanding. I didn’t want to fucking hear that, didn’t need to hear that shit. I should have known better. She stopped in front of me, her eyes never leaving my own, and reached for my hand, linking our fingers. The significance rocked me causing my feet to take a step back. She heard me, I’d been out in the fucking cold, but now, with her, I wasn’t anymore. That small gesture, that she knew I needed to feel that connection, meant every fucking thing.
***
We were ten minutes shy of pulling up to the house.
The last four days had been fucking hectic. Getting papers in order, signing, copying, signing. Jesus. I knew it was going to be a lot to sell the business; I just hadn’t been prepared for what hit me. Poor Peyton, I had dragged her around with me. And when Smitty hadn’t been too busy he asked if he could hang with Peyton. I thought he was being nice, offering to keep her company, since all she did most of the time was sit in on meetings with me, my lawyer, the buyers and their lawyer.
It wasn’t until I came back from a meeting early one day that I caught them in the act. Peyton had on a bright red visor, matching Smitty’s, and all the workers were surrounding a folding table. Playing poker. I had no idea my girl could play but apparently she could, and fucking good at that. The first day she had stayed back with Smitty he played a hand with her, and she won. Smitty hadn’t taken that easy. He took his poker seriously, so it had been game on. When I wasn’t around, they set up a makeshift poker table in the warehouse, all the workers intently watching them.
One look at her in that stupid fucking visor, sunglasses on, cards held high, she was so fucking adorable. Not to mention, fifty bucks richer.
I was able to finish any remaining paperwork for the sale through emails, until the final meeting where I’d get a huge check before handing over the keys. I was so looking forward to that fucking day. To move on. Start a new chapter in my life.
At that thought, I looked over to Peyton. Her eyes were glued to the house as it came into view. She still had no idea I had Herb bring on extra workers to get the house done quicker. When we pulled in the drive, it looked like a brand new fucking house. I was even fucking floored. The front porch was totally complete. The weathered cedar shakes, cleaned. As we rounded the house, the back porch sat in pristine condition, and fitted with two rocking chairs.
I heard her inhaled breath before she said, “I can’t believe how much they got done. It’s perfect…” Her voice broke. “It’s absolutely perfect.”
I stopped the truck by the trailer and turned to her and said, “Surprise.”
Her head turned to me, brows furrowed in confusion. “I don’t understand.”
I leaned over the console and took her hands. “I had Herb bring on extra crews, get this shit done quicker.” My focus shifted beyond her, taking in the beauty of the home and asked, “They got all this shit done on the outside can you imagine what the inside looks like?”
She didn’t answer me. And it was the lack of response that had my focus coming back to her. There was a part of me that wondered if she was pissed that I went behind her back and brought on more guys. If so, she’d have to fucking get over it. Her voice was soft; I had to lean in to hear her when she said. “It’s only perfect because you’re here.” Her focus shifted out the window. Whatever she was thinking now, she looked a million miles away. “I lost my family. You lost yours too. The stories you shared about your grandmother, this place, I wanted it to be a home again.” She looked back at the house, her eyes growing bright. “But I realize it isn’t the building that is home.” Those pales eyes hit mine. “It’s you. You are my home.”
“You saying you want to get fucked in the truck right now, Peaches?” I questioned her with a rough tone. Her words hitting me right in the fucking gut.
A smile touched her lips and she wiped at her eyes then glanced at all the workers milling around. “I’m all for a show, but not when it is a packed audience.”