Chapter 9
Bryson
“If life is taking you for a ride, the best thing to do is enjoy it.”
~ Rowan O’Sullivan
“Off.” I tugged my sweats harder, trying to get them out from under the hundred and ten pounds of dead weight that was laying on top of them, holding them captive.
Goliath didn’t budge. He loved laying on clothes when they first came out of the dryer, and I’d tossed my sweats on the bed on the way to the shower. I always put freshly laundered clothes on top of the dresser, but I’d been distracted. All I could think about was getting under the hot spray of water and getting some relief from the tension I’d had since Kelsi took off at the pond. That tension only increased when I’d seen how she looked at me when she was picking up Milo. I’d been in the middle of wiping my forehead when I’d seen that she was there picking up her brother, and they were both looking my way. The connection I felt as she stared at me sent a thrill of pleasure surging through me. It had felt real, like a touch. As her eyes hungrily skimmed my torso, it was like her fingertips were brushing over them.
When she’d driven away, I’d wanted to jump in my car and rush home to handle the aftermath of that interaction. I’d almost been able to do just that, but I’d had to deal with kitchen renovations.
Cut to four hours later, finally home and still suffering with the blue balls that a single look had given me and I’d needed relief. I’d jumped in the shower and taken matters into my own hands.
I’d never been a guy that pictured specific women, especially women that I knew, when I jacked off. It just wasn’t something that I did. I liked to keep my fantasy life just that, a fantasy. But Kelsi was my fantasy come to life and I’d imagined that it was her hand on me, her mouth on me, her body surrounding me as I stroked myself to completion.
My body was temporarily satisfied, but I knew it was going to be a short reprieve. What I felt for Kelsi wasn’t going to get out of my system from jerking off to her once. If anything, it had just made me want her more.
There was a knock at the door, and I pulled harder. “Come on, man.”
These were the only pair of clean sweats I had, and I didn’t want to put jeans on because I’d worn my last clean pair of underwear today. I didn’t mind going commando in sweats, but denim was another story, especially when the area was as sensitive as it was right now.
Goliath flopped his head down on the side of his cheek, which was his way of saying that he didn’t plan on going anywhere.
He might not want to move for me, but I knew that he would want to move for what was waiting for him on the front porch.
I dropped the cotton pant leg and said the magic word. “Pizza.”
He was up and off the bed in no time flat, racing towards the front door. I pulled on my sweats that now had a layer of brown dog hair on them and was right behind him.
“Stay,” I instructed as I grabbed the two twenties that I’d set on the entry way table. The last time I’d ordered pizza the delivery kid was almost pummeled. Goliath plopped down on his hind legs, his tail thumping from excitement against the hard wood floor.
I opened the door, but I was still watching Goliath to make sure he didn’t get overexcited and lunge at the poor pizza boy.
“Hey, Goliath,” the kid said, except it wasn’t the pizza kid it was the Karate Kid.
My head turned, and I saw Milo and Kelsi standing on my porch. Kelsi looked as stunned to see me as I was to see them. Her eyes were the size of saucers, and her jaw hung open. I thought it was an odd reaction since she must have known I lived here but then I noticed that she wasn’t looking at my face, she was staring at my chest. I hadn’t answered the door shirtless on purpose, but now I considered it a happy accident.
“Hey, guys!” I greeted my very welcome unexpected visitors.
Kelsi blinked up at me. She looked dazed for a moment, but then, like a switch flipped, she was the picture of composure. “Sorry to bother you, Milo just wanted to…”
Milo, who’d bent down to pet Goliath stood up and pulled the iPod I’d let him borrow today out of his pocket. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to take this home.”
I’d told him that if he was going to live in Texas, he needed to get a country music education. The truth was, I knew that for me, work went faster when I was listening to tunes, and he’d worked hard. Harder than I’d expected him to.
I didn’t take it from him. “No worries. Why don’t you hang onto it?”
“You don’t have to do that.” Kelsi shook her head.
“I don’t mind.”
“Thank you, but it’s too much,” she volleyed back.
Milo’s eyes bounced between the two adults that held his musical fate in their hands.
I hoped if I gave her some more information she’d be swayed. “I can’t even remember the last time I used that thing. It’s so old. I’d lent it to my mom, and she gave it back to me today, that’s the only reason the thing’s even charged.”
Kelsi’s cheek hollowed like she was biting the inside of her mouth. I could see she was caving as she looked down at her little brother, who was rocking some serious puppy dog eyes. Today, I’d seen that he really was a good kid. He worked hard; he was respectful, even my parents fell in love with him after he offered to take out the trash, something that apparently I’d “never done at his age.”
I figured I would do my best to try and swing the vote in his favor. “He worked really hard today, even doing extra chores for my parents. How about if he keeps it on a temporary basis. If he continues showing up for work and doing what he did today, if he stays out of trouble and helps you at home, then he keeps it. If not, it’s gone.”
There were several seconds of silence before she relented. “Fine.”
Milo’s face lit up as he tucked the iPod back in his pocket.
A concerned expression crossed Kelsi’s beautiful features as she looked down. “Oh, did we scare him?”
I looked down to see Goliath backing up, his tail between his legs just as a meow sounded, announcing David’s presence.
“Oh, you have a cat?” Kelsi looked down at David who was brushing against her legs and purring loudly.
“Yep and Goliath is terrified of him.”
“Of him?” Milo pointed at the runt of a feline rubbing his neck on Kelsi’s foot.
“Yep.”
Kelsi bent down. “What’s your name, little one?”
“David,” I answered.
“David?” She looked up at me with questioning eyes for a brief second before her lips split open in a wide grin. “David and Goliath, I love it. Wow, you have quite a talent for naming animals.”
Before I had the chance to bask in her appreciation of my clever naming skills, the visitor I’d initially been expecting joined the party. As I paid for the pizza, I could feel Goliath inching his way back to the front door. If there was one thing that trumped his fear of David, it was his love of pizza.
By the time the delivery kid left, he was back at my side; his nose pressed to the bottom of the cardboard box.
“Okay, well, thank you for…everything,” Kelsi spoke with the same urgency that she had when she’d sprinted away from me this afternoon. “We didn’t mean to take up this much of your time. Have a good night.”
Her heels were turning to leave, and she had a hold on Milo’s shoulder, turning him with her. Earlier today, she’d gotten away, but tonight I was armed with ammunition that no red-blooded man or woman, could resist: Goodfellas pan pepperoni pizza.
“Have you guys eaten yet?”
“No, and I’m starving.” Milo looked at the box like a man that had been on a deserted island and hadn’t eaten anything other than fruit and twigs for months.
Kelsi didn’t miss a beat. “We’re going to eat as soon as we get home. Let’s go.”
“Didn’t you say you were going to order pizza? He already has it.” Milo pointed to the box like there might be some confusion about what I was holding.
“Milo, we’re going.”
I knew that it was shitty to undermine her, but I found myself doing it anyway. “I have plenty. I always order extra because Goliath likes to eat it cold, but the last time I took him to Dr. Waters, he said that he could shed a few pounds. If you guys stayed, it would take away his temptation. Goliath has no willpower where pizza is involved.”
Goliath chimed in with a bark, most likely triggered by hearing his name in such close proximity to the P word.
Milo, being an unintentionally amazing wingman, ran with it. “See, KiKi he wants us to stay. We’ll be helping Goliath.”
Kelsi sucked in a sharp breath, like something significant had happened and she was taken aback by it. I wasn’t sure what the reaction was about, but whatever it was, she shook it off quickly. With a sigh, she relented once more. “Fine, if it will help Goliath. Go wash your hands.”
Milo nodded, and as he passed me we exchanged a low five in recognition of our teamwork and job well done, and I told him, “Second door on the left.”
I stepped to the side to let Kelsi in, and she started to pick up David, who was now making circle eights around her ankles.
“Oh, he’s not my cat.”
She stilled and straightened back up. “David’s not your cat?”
“No. I’m allergic to cats.”
Her head tilted to the side. “But you named him?”
“Yeah.”
“Annnd those are his bowls?” She pointed down to two bowls that had kitten paws on them.
I explained, “He showed up one day, and I ran him off because of my allergies, and he scared the shit out of Goliath. Then he came back the next day, and the next day, and the next day. After a couple of months, I named him.”
“So he’s your cat, he’s just an outdoor cat,” she reasoned.
“He has a house,” I corrected.
Two tiny creases appeared between her eyebrows. “He belongs to someone else?”
I stepped out on the porch and leaned slightly over the railing, still holding the pizza because there was nowhere that I could set it down in the house that Goliath wouldn’t get it. “That’s his house.”
She bent around to look, and her arm grazed against mine. Skin to skin. It was probably only a few inches of contact for less than a second but that was all it took for a tingling sensation to spread through my entire body. At the bar, women would make sure their hands brushed mine as I handed them their drink or they would brush my arm as they placed their order, and yet, I never felt anything like this. This wasn’t attraction, this was explosive chemistry.
“Is that a small replica of your house?”
“Yep.” I’d figured that since David couldn’t come inside the main house, I’d build him one of his own. It was about the size of a gardening shed, and the inside was a cat jungle gym.
“Where did you find it?”
“I built it.” It was building David’s house that inspired me to take on renovating my parents’ house.
She stood back up, her arms up and palms facing me as her head shook back and forth. “Let me get this straight. A stray cat shows up on your porch, and you can’t keep him because you’re allergic, and your dog is scared of him…sooo…you name him, feed him, and build him a house that’s a tiny version of yours?”
“Yep.” When she put it like that, it sounded kind of crazy, but honestly, it all seemed right at the time.
“Are you for real?”
Usually, that question was asked sarcastically, but it seemed like she was genuinely asking me.
Before I had time to answer, Milo called out, “Come on guys. We’re starving!”
Kelsi and I looked inside the house and saw both Goliath and the kid at the kitchen table.
“After you.” I held out my arm.
She hesitated, and for a split second, I thought that my cathouse was going to send her running in the other direction. She looked up at me with uncertainty filling her golden stare. “You’re going to put on a shirt for dinner, aren’t you?”
“I hadn’t planned on it,” I lied. That was the first thing I’d been planning on doing as soon as we went inside but where would the fun be in revealing that? With a grin, I added, “I always eat dinner shirtless. But if it makes you uncomfortable…”
She grinned back, her eyes narrowing with a knowing look. It was obvious she knew what I was up to when she whispered under her breath, “You’re lucky Milo’s here because otherwise I would call your bluff and raise you. Believe me, this is not a game you want to start because you will lose.” With that intriguing threat-slash-promise, she walked past me and joined her brother at the table.
Damn. I’d always loved a good challenge and Kelsi had just thrown down an irresistible one: a flirt-off. Even if I lose, I still win. Game on.