by Alex Wolf
“Fuck, Abby.” I groan out her name just as she clamps down on me.
My cock kicks and I shove her down on me, as deep as humanly possible before I blow inside her sweet cunt.
Her forehead falls onto my shoulder. A few seconds pass and her eyes drift up to mine. We both turn and look down the hallway to my bedroom.
Through rough pants, I say, “We almost made it.”
She nods in agreement. “Almost.”
“There’s always next time.”
“Indeed, sir.”
Abigail
I’m on my third outfit change this morning. I don’t know what I was thinking agreeing to go to the Collins family Thanksgiving. What if I screw up? What if the food I made is terrible and gives them all food poisoning? What if I make a complete ass of myself and say the wrong thing or do the wrong thing? What if Dexter decides he doesn’t like me as much as he thought he did?
Thanksgiving is for family. Everyone will be there. It’s too much.
We haven’t been dating that long. I mean, we’re both obviously in love, but it’s still too soon. I told him I loved him too early and now I’m about to lose my sanity.
You’re psyching yourself out. Stop being ridiculous.
I glance at the clock and wonder if it’s too early to start drinking. It’s a holiday. Day drinking is acceptable. At least I think it is. I need a Xanax because my anxiety is off the charts. I almost wish Barbie was here to talk me down from the ledge, but she left last night to stay at her parents. They live about two hours away in Indiana.
Pull yourself together, Abby.
Dexter is going to be here soon and I’m a damn mess.
My cell rings and I pick it up. “Hey, Mom. Happy Thanksgiving.” Perfect. I should’ve already called her. If anyone can get me through this, she can.
“Hey, sweetheart. I wanted to check in on you. Did you make plans?”
“I’m going to Dexter’s to meet his family and I’m freaking out a little, to be honest.” I yank a casserole dish out of the oven with the phone clutched between my cheek and shoulder.
“It’ll be fine, baby girl. Just be yourself. They’ll love you.”
“I wish I was at home with you and Dad. I should be there.”
“Nonsense, you’re coming home for Christmas and that’s enough for us.”
“Thanks, Mom.” There’s a knock at the door. It’s probably Dexter. “Shit,” I mumble.
“Abigail Louise!”
“Sorry, Mom. I just. I’m all over the place. I gotta go. He’s here. I’ll call you tonight if it’s not too late when I get in.”
“Okay. I love you.”
“Love you too.” I end the call and open the door.
It’s Kyle.
We haven’t spoken since the night at the bar when Dex headbutted Nick.
“Wow. You look great.”
I glance down at the tan wrap sweater dress I settled on and raise an eyebrow. “Umm, thanks. What are you doing here?”
He scratches the back of his neck and rocks back on the heels of his feet. “I know things have been weird, but I wasn’t sure if you had plans or anyone to spend Thanksgiving with. Barbie told me she was going to her parents last night and I just wanted to invite you to go down to the mission with Nick and me.” He holds up a hand. “If you want to. I’m sure you made plans already.”
“I appreciate the invite, but I’m actually waiting on Dexter. We’re going to his brother’s. His parents are in town.”
“Meeting the family.” He mumbles something else I can’t hear under his breath. “Sounds like things are getting pretty serious.”
I glance down at the floor, I don’t know why I feel so ashamed. I don’t know why I feel any kind of way. Kyle and I are friends, at least I think we are, but I won’t sit around and listen to him badmouth my boyfriend. I can do whatever I want.. “Yeah. We are.”
He kicks at an imaginary rock. “Cool.”
“I really like him. I’m sorry if you don’t get along, but he’s going to be around. If that’s going to be a problem…”
“I just miss hanging out with you. I still want to be friends. We just won’t talk about your boyfriend, okay?”
“Sure.” I agree even though I know it’ll never be how it was. Too much has changed and even though Dex headbutted Nick, I don’t know what Kyle said in the bar. I just don’t want to be rude. We’ll see each other in passing and say hi until I finally move out, then I’ll probably never hear from him again. It makes me sad, but I love Dex and I just need to keep the peace a little while longer. I already have half a security deposit saved up and I’m sure my parents will give me money at Christmas time, even though I tell them not to.
“Guess I’ll see you around then.”
“Yeah, see ya.” I close the door and pull a few other dishes out of the fridge and set them on the counter. I made pecan pie, caramel drizzle cheesecake, and banana pudding for Dex, plus sweet potato pie because even if they made it you can never have enough, and I don’t know if they make it right up here.
A few minutes later, Dexter shows up. He kisses me good and deep, grabbing my ass in the process.
“What’s all this?” He motions to all the dishes on the counter.
I pace back and forth, trying to calm myself down. “I’m an idiot. It’s so dumb. I just didn’t know what to make and where I’m from you don’t show up empty-handed when someone invites you over.”
“This all looks amazing.” He starts to dip his finger in my pudding.
I smack at his hand. “Don’t you dare touch that food, Dexter Collins. I slaved all night making these for your family. Not just for you.” Wow, we sound so domesticated already, and it’s actually nice. It warms my heart and makes this whole thing easier. We just work together.
“You’re gonna make me fat if you keep cooking like this.”
I wag a finger at him. “Well keep your fat fingers out of it, okay?”
He holds his hands up in surrender. “Okay, Betty Crocker. Damn.”
When I look away, he gets a finger full of pudding and shoves it in his mouth, grinning his ass off.
I scowl at him. “No more for you today. You’re in a timeout.”
He grabs me by the hip and yanks me into him. “Abigail, you love me because I don’t give a shit about rules. You did this to yourself.”
I shake my head at him. “I will tame you.”
He laughs at that. “For real, though. That pudding is amazing.” He leans forward into my ear. “I’ll have to get a spoon from my brother’s house, for later.”
He always knows how to make me blush.
We get to Decker’s and the moment we walk through the front door his daughter, Jenny, and Tate snatch the food I brought and take it into the kitchen.
A woman, who I assume is Dex’s mom, launches herself at us, hugging us both tight. “You must be Abigail. Let me get a look at you.” She holds my hands and pulls back assessing me from head to toe. “Gorgeous.” She drops my hands and smiles, then turns to Dexter.
She’s a thick woman. Tall, like an athlete, but very graceful. She’s wearing this goofy sweater that reminds me of Dexter’s sense of humor, and I start to see where he gets his silliness from. There’s a cartoonish turkey on the front in a suggestive pose and it says ‘Pour some gravy on me’ above it. I think we’re going to get along just fine.
“Jesus,” Dex mumbles.
She smacks his arm. “You watch your mouth, Dexter Harrison Collins.”
I glance up at him. “Harrison?” I grin.
“She says it’s after the president, but we all know she had a crush on Harrison Ford when I was born.” He turns to her. “Because there’s no way she’d name me after a president who died a month into his term, right, Mom?”
She giggles and gives him a big hug. “I love you, baby boy.”
“Love you too, Mom.”
She takes me by the hands. “Now, Abigail, has Dex cooked you breakfast yet?”
“Oh
my God, yes. And it was fantastic.”
Quinn and Tate walk up about the same time.
Quinn says, “Deacon cooks amazing breakfast too.”
Tate nods, like she’s in a trance. “So does Decker.”
“You’re welcome, ladies.” Mom grins at all of them. “I taught all my boys to cook breakfast and told them that’s the secret to keeping a good woman, because I always wished someone would cook breakfast once in a while.” She flashes a dirty look across the room like she’s looking for her husband.
He’s oblivious, talking to someone else.
All the boys turn around, suddenly interested, and Dex glares in a playful way. “Wait, that was just a trick to get us to cook?”
“Dexter Harrison Collins, the girls are talking. You mind your business.”
“Someone’s in trouble.” Donavan laughs and walks up behind us. “I heard the middle name come out.”
She wheels around on him. “Don’t you start getting mouthy, Donny, or I’ll go around the room asking why you can’t keep a woman happy like my other boys. At least they have someone to cook breakfast for.” She shakes her head and looks at me again. “Four boys and only one grandbaby to spoil. You see what I’m dealing with here?” She turns to Deacon. “You should think about getting your sperm tested.”
Decker damn near shoots whiskey out of his nose. “Mom!”
Quinn turns bright pink and smiles up at Deacon. Deacon’s eyes bulge and he freezes up.
I’ve never seen the Collins brothers look so nervous in my entire life. They usually walk around with scowls while employees scurry around trying to look busy.
She turns back to me. “You and Dexter are going to make beautiful babies. I know these things.”
I try not to gape at her, but holy crap we just started dating. Babies? I don’t even know if I want kids, but there’s no way I’m going to admit that here. My face must say it all.
She smiles and runs a hand across my forearm. “I’m not trying to scare you off. I’m just armed with a mother’s intuition.”
An older man walks into the room and damn near takes all the air with him. He has on a collared shirt with a sweater pulled over it and looks like he could’ve stepped out of a Calvin Klein catalog. He looks regal and stately, with silver hair slicked back perfectly. He leans down and pecks Mrs. Collins on the cheek. “Give the girl room to breathe, honey. Let them get their coats off before you start counting future grandchildren.” He turns and holds a hand out to me. “Nice to meet you. I’m David.” He leans in close. “The father of all these little shits running around here.”
Great, another D name to remember!
I laugh. “It’s nice to meet you both. Thank you so much for having me.”
“Don’t mind Donna. She gets excited about grandkids. We have Jenny, but she’s older and chasing boys around now.”
Decker glares in his direction when he hears it but doesn’t say anything.
I follow Quinn and Tate into the kitchen and politely make my escape from the family craziness for a few minutes.
“I’m so glad you came.” Quinn smiles.
“Thank fuck you brought pecan pie,” Tate mutters, eyeing my desserts. “Man, I miss the food back home. And my mom’s cooking. And Daddy’s fried turkey. They don’t do Thanksgiving for shit up here.”
I laugh. She’s probably right. You can’t beat Thanksgiving in the south. “How do you and Decker handle holidays with your families in different states?” I ask because I’m curious, but I also want to see what the future might be like for Dex and me.
“We’re flying down in the morning. We couldn’t leave knowing that his folks were coming from Florida. Did you see Jenny invited her boyfriend? Decker’s shitting bricks but trying to be nice. It’s hilarious.”
I follow Tate’s gaze to the dining room where Jenny and a boy are seated next to each other looking at something on her phone.
“Oh, she went for the bad boy right out the gate. Well played.” He has dark shaggy hair that lays to the left side and his bottom lip is pierced. He’s wearing a hat turned backward. Decker is in major trouble.
“Right? Boys did not look like that when I was in school. Just saying,” says Quinn.
“Amen to that.” Tate grins. “All we had were jocks and country boys. Trucks full of shoulder pads or rifles. No angsty artists and tortured souls in leather jackets.”
“Babe, come here I want you to meet someone.” Dex practically yanks me into the other room and thrusts me in front of a man who looks almost identical to David Collins, and a young woman, maybe mid-twenties. Wow, she’s beautiful. She has tattoos up her ripped arms, just like Dex, and jet-black hair with icy blue eyes. “This is my uncle, Damian, and my cousin Harlow.”
I hold out my hand to both of them. “It’s nice to meet you.”
They’re both super nice even though Harlow looks like she could beat the hell out of anyone in the house. She’s seriously intimidating, the way she carries herself, but she’s as nice as can be and stunning.
Dex can’t stop singing her praises; they must be really close. “She works in digital marketing. She’s been killing it too, ever since she graduated. Just started her own firm here in Chicago.”
“Speaking of that, I wanted to talk to you. We need to set up a meeting.”
“What for?”
“Work.”
“Might want to talk to Decker about that, if it’s about marketing…”
“Look, you hire my firm for the financial services division. I’ll have you kicking everyone else’s ass and make you look like a fucking hero at your firm.”
“Harlow, language,” says Damian.
“Oh fuck that. We’re all family.”
“What kind of shit do you do?” asks Dex. “I don’t handle marketing much. Haven’t studied it since undergrad.”
“I’m sure you pussies probably have billboards and other lame shit, sponsor events, things that get you a bullshit ROI. I’ll install pixels on your website, launch Facebook and Google adword campaigns. Highly targeted with warm audiences to get your ads in front of the right eyeballs.”
Dex looks like a deer in headlights but shrugs. “All right, fuck it. Let’s get something on the books.”
Harlow smiles. “You were always my favorite cousin.” She dives into Dex and wraps her arms around him. “My pitch kicked ass, didn’t it?”
He kisses her on top of the head; they look more like brother and sister than cousins. “Kicked all the ass.”
She leans up and whispers something in his ear, and he stares right at me and grins wide. I want to ask Dex what she said, but Decker walks into the room.
“Okay, we’re ready to eat. File in, ya bunch of animals.” Decker’s voice booms through the house.
Everyone moves to the dining room to find their seats. Their dad says a prayer over the food and then everyone jumps up to go fill their plates.
I lean over to Dexter. “What’d Harlow whisper to you?”
“That I’m lucky you didn’t go to college with her when she went through her phase.”
I damn near choke on the water I was taking a sip of.
The four brothers start for the food, looking like ravenous wolves, and their dad glares right at them. They freeze in their tracks, and I’m starting to see where they get their commanding presence from. Hell, he stared at them and I shrank back in my seat a little.
He turns to the rest of us. “Ladies, go ahead.” He turns to the boys and I hear him grumble as we walk by, “Act like you have some damn manners.”
After everyone fills their plates, I sit next to Dexter, and Donavan takes a seat on the other side of me. Jenny and her boyfriend sit at the kitchen island on barstools, secretly holding hands where they don’t think anyone can see.
The food is fantastic. Tate baked a ham. She said she marinated it in Coca Cola. Everyone eats and makes small talk at the table.
Dexter’s parents crack me up. I was expecting them to be more, I don’t kno
w, not how they are. They’re both really down to earth, but Mr. Collins seems like he’s mellowed out a lot from how he probably was. He definitely fits the hard-worker personality type. Man of few words, but when he does speak, it matters, and everyone listens.
One thing I do notice, that sends a warmth spreading through my veins, is that he looks at his wife the way I’ve seen the Collins brothers look at all of us. I think the way a man treats a woman is learned behavior; his experiences watching his parents interact shapes the way he’ll be one day. Mr. Collins might look hard and no-nonsense, but his face lights up, even when his wife tells an embarrassing story in front of him. He changes when she walks into the room, and that’s really what it’s all about, having that effect on the man you end up with.
“It’s just a beach we go to. It’s no big deal.” Dex’s Mom says it proudly, and all the color drains from the boys’ faces.
I lean over to Tate and Quinn, because I was daydreaming, waxing poetical about how I think Dex will treat me. “What was that? About a beach?”
Tate grins her ass off. “They go to a nude beach.”
Mr. Collins shrugs when all the boys, his brother, and Harlow look at him like there’s no way he’d ever do anything like that. He takes a huge bite of turkey. “Don’t knock it ‘til you try it. It’s quite liberating, actually.”
“Jesus Christ, like I don’t get enough of this shit at work,” Decker mumbles and buries his face in his palm.
Dexter
I look over at Abigail and can’t stop grinning like a complete idiot. She fits in like she’s been coming to these things for years.
Mom walks up while I’m spying on her helping with the dishes. “I know that look.” She bumps me with her hip.
I inhale a huge breath. “So, what’s the verdict?”
Mom narrows her eyes, then she puts her arm around me. She says, “Are you kidding? You haven’t brought a girl to meet us since high school, and that was for prom.”
“I’m nervous. What if I screw things up? What if I hurt her?”