Chapter Twenty-six
Alyse
Kaden is worried about Gavin. He’s been tossing and turning the past few nights, and I can’t do anything to help him. Gavin is adamant to leave and try to center himself. I don’t understand it. I think you need to be around people who care about you to help. Going at it alone only can cause more stress, at least I think.
I honestly don’t know how I would have survived if I didn’t have Willow, Kat, and Britany. They all contributed in some way and got me through some tough times. I know that my grandparents would have stepped up somehow, but I would have felt guilty about it.
Willow has snuck over to get K.C.; they always spend the day together when she has off. She doesn’t stick around, though, so I miss her. She refuses to be around Gavin.
I think Gavin is affected by her, though. He’s tries to casually stroll through the house when she drops K.C. back off. She just gives me a quick hug and runs out the door. Then Gavin goes to the deck and sulks the rest of the night.
I want to tell him that it’s all his fault, but I can’t rub salt in the wound.
I’ve told Willow about it, but she just responds, “Don’t care.” I know she does, though. I see how she looks at him. Kaden tells me not to get involved, but I see something. The whole fate thing keeps coming to mind. I’m trying not to meddle. I just want to see them in a room again together.
I want to plan a going away party for Gavin. I’m planning it on a night that Willow has off. I’m not going to tell her, but I’m going to try to guilt her into staying after she drops K.C. off. Yes, I can be devious if I need to be.
♦♦♦
Kaden, Rigs, Bryce, and Gavin are out on the back deck. I can tell they are in a serious conversation. Kaden is shaking his head, and Gavin is doing his usual pacing.
I’ve picked up on some of Gavin’s characteristics since he’s been staying with us. He paces when he’s frustrated.
Willow walks in with K.C. and stops in her tracks, “What’s going on?”
“Just a little going away party. The guys are outside doing guy things. Stay a little bit. Get something to drink and eat,” I say as I take K.C. from her arms. “Did you have fun with Auntie Willow?”
“Wait, why didn’t you tell me? I was just here dropping him off. You could have told me. Damn it, Alyse. You’re setting me up, aren’t you?” she says, looking out to the deck.
She throws her hands up and starts walking away.
“Willow, stop,” I beg.
“I love you, Alyse. But right now, I don’t like you very much. So uncool,” she says, rushing out of the door.
I see Gavin rush through the French doors and fly out of the front door. Emma, Rig’s wife, Lisa, and I rush to the front window.
Jessica comes over and takes K.C. “Adult drama. So much to look forward, too,” she deadpans.
We watch as Willow stops and spins around, shoving her finger into Gavin’s chest. We can’t hear what she is saying, but I can see the spit literally fly from her mouth. Gavin puts his hands on his hips and tucks his head as Willow spins back around, gets into her car, and spins out of the driveway.
He starts turning around, so we scurry back into the kitchen and act like we weren’t just spying on them.
“Alyse, can I talk to you?” Gavin says once he gets back into the house.
I follow him back out to the front porch and close the door.
“How much did you see?” he says, caulking his head and making a knowing face.
“Saw it all, but heard nothing,” I say, shrugging my shoulders unable to lie.
“She hates me. I get that. I can’t give her anything. Not now at least. I can’t stop thinking about her, though. I don’t want to ruin all my chances in the case that I get my shit together. I can’t explain it, but I don’t want her to hate me,” he says. I see the pain in his eyes.
“I’ve known Willow for a long time. She’s been hurt, Gavin. She goes off of first impressions, and I’ve never seen her change her opinion. Once she feels someone has fucked up, she’s done….” I trail off.
“However,” I say, touching his arm. “I’m not saying this to give you any hope because you have some major ass kissing to do in your future…but I know her, Gavin. She was hurt. Really bad. That means something. She didn’t even know you, and you hurt her. She is one to fire back and stand her ground, but you made her crumble.
“I’m not saying this to make you feel bad, but to make you think. She is a fighter and respects someone who will stand up and fight for her. I will also say, don’t go into this lightly. If you don’t think anything will come from it, don’t you dare even try. If you hurt her, I swear, I don’t care who you are to Kaden. You will be dead to me.” I cross my arms across my chest.
“Understood,” he says and walks away without another word.
The rest of the evening goes smoothly. There are laughs and stories that are shared. I’m feeling like I’m getting to know these guys more. I can’t believe the amount of brotherhood that they share. I never looked at guys having such a bond. I always just thought of them being so casual, but they are human and have hearts and feelings. I just never thought they would be more like women when they got together. The bond is real and tangible.
We end up setting up blow up mattresses in the other empty bedrooms. We are all pretty drunk, except for Emma who is nearly about to give birth.
Jessica insists on camping out in K.C.’s room. She is going to make a great mom one day.
I love that I can take a break from being a mom and get a little stupid with the girls. Jessica is only twelve, but she seems so much older. I trust her. The mom in me slows down with the drinking, though. I don’t want to be so incapacitated that I can’t react if something should happen.
As they guys keep to the outside deck, the girls keep to the kitchen. Lisa leans over and says, “You two are so sweet together. I don’t mean to pry, but I’m in need of a good wedding. Any plans?”
I shrug my shoulders and respond, “We haven’t talked about it, but it’s what I think we both want. I’m thinking about proposing. Is that weird? I mean, I’m not conventional by any means. I always thought that I would be swept off my feet and have some special proposal. However, I’m a realist. I think it would be cool to be the one to do it. Kaden isn’t exactly good with words and can be a little awkward, but he’s also a man. I don’t want to cross any lines and make him feel like less of one.”
“Bring it up. If he doesn’t step up, do it. I don’t see anything wrong with it,” Emma says.
The guys end up having to carry Gavin to his room. They are carrying him by his arms and legs as they are all laughing. The girls and I all just cry laughing as we watch these big strong men struggle to carry Gavin, who is laughing and struggling to break free.
In all the time his been here, I’ve never seen him so free. His face is flush as he laughs straight from his gut. You would have to be dead inside if you didn’t react to the amount of laughter that consumed the house.
As Kaden and I finally laid down in bed, I rolled into him and let out a sigh. “He’s going to be okay, Kaden.”
“I wasn’t sure, but after tonight – yeah, he’s going to be okay. It’s not going to be an easy road, but he’s going to be fine. We stressed how he needs to keep in touch, and the guys and me have a plan to put together a schedule to reach out to him in intervals. We don’t want to be imposing, but we all vow to not let him go at this alone. We’ve all tried to go at it alone, but after tonight, I think we all realize the power of our bond is stronger,” he says.
“I want to get married,” I blurt out.
There’s a pause of silence, so I nervously lean up and look to see if he suddenly fell asleep.
His eyes are closed, but I see one come open and feel a rumble of laughter roll through his chest.
“You always seem to surprise me. I wanted to surprise you for once. Dammit, girl.” He smiles big.
I shift my head and give him a questionable look. “I’m sorry?”
He pushes me down with a full palm to my face and rolls out of bed. I quickly sit up and watch as he goes to his dresser and opens a drawer. Pulling something out, he turns around with the biggest smile.
“I was going to do something extravagant. I had no clue on how to top your level of surprise, but this seems fitting enough. This is me. Standing before you in nothing but my boxers.” He glances down. “With a full erection, I may add.”
I let out a laugh and crawl to the end of the bed. “My Greek god.”
Walking to the end of the bed, he bends down on one knee. “Alyse. The moment I walked into your little diner and saw this incredibly beautiful woman swaying her hips and slapping down slabs of deli meat, I was done. I somehow knew then you were my destiny. There were more than just fireworks that night. Your face was all I saw when I closed my eyes. I even had dreams of hazel eyes looking back at me. I then saw those same hazel eyes the first time I met my son. You are an incredible mom. You are an incredible woman. Please do me the honor and be my incredible wife that I already know you will be. Let me put more babies in you and fill this incredible house that you have graciously made into a home for us. Will you marry me?”
As the tears roll down my face, all I can do is nod my head in quick movements. As he stands, I stand on the bed and leap into his arms. We fall into bed in a tangled mess, and I can’t stop laughing and crying at the same time.
“That’s a yes?” he says, kissing me.
“Yes,” I say between happy gasps. “That was perfect, Kaden. I couldn’t have been more surprised.”
He rolls us over with me straddling him and scoots back so he’s propped up against the headboard. Opening the ring box, he takes out the most beautiful vintage round cut diamond. It has little twists of diamonds running down the sides.
As he slides it on my finger, I pull him free and slide down on his hard length. I don’t ever think I’ll get tired of feeling him inside of me.
Grabbing a hold of his shoulders, I slowly lift up feeling every ridge and vein. I roll my hips to tease the tip of his cock.
He grabs hold of my hips, and I can feel his fingers start to dig in. His eyes are hooded with his mouth slightly open. Leaning forward, I suck his bottom lip in my mouth as I slowly slide back down.
I pick up my pace as he takes over the kiss, mumbling, “Fuck me, baby. God, you feel so good.”
His raspy voice sends tingles down my spine. The feeling of his large, strong hands on my hips pushing me down is driving me crazy. He removes one hand and reaches between us to rub my clit. Throwing my head back, I arch and grind down on his cock and fingers. Just as my orgasm hit me, I’m flipped onto my back, and my legs are thrown over Kaden’s shoulders as he continues to thrust into me hard.
Another strong orgasm hits me, making the muscles in my whole body tighten. Trying not to yell out, I press my lips together and hum out my pleasure.
Kaden lurches up while pushing my body into the bed with his hips and growls out his release. I can feel each pulse as his body continues to do little jerks until he’s completely empty.
Every jerk and pulse sends jolts of pleasure through my entire body, causing mini orgasms. I can’t catch my breath.
“Wow,” is all I manage to say.
“Yeah, wow,” Kaden repeats as he twists and falls on the bed beside me.
We both lay flat on our backs, covered in sweat as we try to regulate our breathing. I roll over and place my hand on his chest, looking up at him and smiling. He covers my hand with his and plays with the newly placed ring.
Looking down at me he smiles. “Now that was baby-making sex right there.”
It was my turn to give him the palm in the face as I laughed and rolled off the bed to use the bathroom and clean up. In my head, I was thinking, I sure hope so.
♦♦♦
The next morning my head feels a little fuzzy, but the sun shining in the window and my screaming bladder has me up and out of bed.
I glance at the clock and see it’s barely after six in the morning. K.C. usually isn’t up this early, so I throw on a pair of sweat shorts and a t-shirt. I head out to start some coffee, and as soon as I open the door, I see Emma at the stove and Jessica at the table feeding K.C. breakfast.
The smell of food and coffee hit my senses. I’m not sure why I didn’t smell it before.
“Morning,” I grumble as I stumble to the coffee maker and pour myself a cup.
K.C. giggles and calls for me, so I head over and sit down next to his high chair.
“Good morning, little man,” I say, kissing his forehead. “Smells good. You didn’t have to cook you know. That’s usually my job. You have to be so uncomfortable.”
“I’m fine, and I know it’s usually your job, that’s why I’m doing it. Plus, I’m an early riser by nature and even more early now that this little man seems to be constantly playing soccer these days. Figured with the amount of food needing to be cooked for those monster men, I should get a move on. Oh my God…what is that on your finger? When did this happen?” Emma squeals and rushes over to the table to grab my hand.
“Last night. I told him I wanted to get married and got a face palm to the bed. He had this already and he proposed. It was so incredibly sweet,” I say, looking down at the ring.
“It’s beautiful, Alyse. I’m so happy for you,” Emma say, giving me a side arm hug.
There something about men and food. It’s like they have extra sensory perception and can sniff it out. No sooner did Emma throw on the bacon did every single bedroom door in the house open and barely clothed men came stumbling out, rubbing their eyes with their noses in the air.
Kaden comes over and kisses K.C.’s head, then mine, and takes a seat as he smiles to the group.
Bryce goes immediately to Emma and folds her in his arms from behind and rubs her belly while whispering in her ear.
After getting coffee, Rigs takes the seat across from me and immediately notices the ring.
“Couldn’t wait, could ya?” he asks, lifting his coffee mug. “Congratulations.”
Kaden just shrugs his shoulders. “It was either that or let her take my balls and propose first. I had to do something to maintain my manhood,” Kaden jokes.
The breakfast food is brought to the table and everyone sits down. We are one seat short, so being odd man out, Gavin takes a seat at the island bar with Jessica.
“So, Rigs. I know we’ve had the nickname conversation before, but I’ve never gotten your real name. All the other guys have gone back to them, except you. How come?” I ask.
Rigs makes a face, and I hear the snickers and snorts coming from the men around the room.
“What?” I ask, looking around.
I look at Lisa and she just makes a zipper and lock motion across her lips with a giggle.
“Shit, there’s a reason I kept Rigs, okay? We all joke about how excited Kaden was to get his nickname and it sucked. At least mine was cool. I finally got to be called something other than the handed down family name. The name my mother insisted no one ever shorten to anything remotely cool,” he responds with a grimace.
“Oh, come on! It can’t be that bad,” I say to Rigs.
“It’s Alabaster. Okay?!” he groans.
“Um…okay. Rigs it is,” I say, trying to contain my laughter.
The house is suddenly filled with a roar of laughter. As soon as I see Rigs join in, I let loose until tears are rolling down my cheeks.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Kaden
Iwanted to do something special when I proposed. But as fate would have it, Alyse almost beat me to the punch. I’m just glad I already had the ring. I swear we don’t do anything by the rules. We seem to just make them up as we go.
The house is quiet for the first time in months. It seems weird. I just got back from dropping Gavin off at the airport and am pulling into the driveway when Alyse comes flying out of the door carrying K.C. on her hip.
She flings the backdoor open and quickly straps him into his car seat. I’m just sitting there having no clue what is going on, waiting for her to say something.
As she jumps in the front seat she looks at me in a panic. “Emma is in labor. Get to the hospital. Go!”
“Shit… shit! Okay, I’m going,” I yell as I throw the car back in drive and speed down the driveway.
We get to the hospital and find Jessica reading a book in the Maternity waiting room.
“Hey, kiddo. Why you out here all by yourself?” I ask as we walk in.
“They wouldn’t let me stay in the room. Dad comes out and checks on me every once in a while. I’m okay. I knew you were going to be here soon,” she says, putting her book down.
Alyse puts K.C. down, who immediately runs over to Jessica asking her to “Pay wif me, Jess”.
He’s eighteen months old now and almost talking full sentences. He has the normal problem with some of his pronunciations, but he’s reading. Just like I knew he would.
It’s been a few hours, and Alyse has been back and forth visiting with Emma. Each time she comes back, she shakes her head.
“Nothing yet. Her water broke and she’s dilated. I overheard a doctor say the baby may be too big and might have to do a C-section,” she says, whispering the last part.
“How’s Bryce?” I ask, thinking of his over protective nature and how he’s probably ready to reach in and pull the baby out himself.
“Most of the doctors jump when he makes the slightest move. The man has a scowl that even scares me a little. And I know him,” she says, laughing.
Suddenly Bryce’s head peeks in the door. “Fucking finally. They are taking her down for a C-section. Jessica. Your momma’s doing fine. Get ready to meet your baby brother soon,” he says, disappearing again.
We finally got to meet Jonathan Bryce, who weighed in a whopping ten pounds six ounces and had the exact same scowl face as his father.