by S. M. Shade
I shouldn’t have started this. He’s way better at tormenting me. And dark has never seemed so far away.
“You okay?” he asks, and I want to kiss his taunting smile.
“I’m good.” Sure, just ignore the fact my voice is way too high.
“Turn over, let me get your back.”
A glance at the pool shows me the kids are playing with innertubes, taking turns jumping into them. As soon as I roll over, he smacks my ass. “Neal! The kids!”
“Are completely ignoring us.” He sits on the edge of my chair, and I let out a groan when his hands start kneading my shoulders. Slowly, he works his way down to my lower back leaving me in a puddle on the chair. Leaning over, he murmurs in my ear. “You can suck me all you want tonight, but you’re still going to end up with your ass in the air, trying not to scream while I fuck you.”
Dead.
I’m dead.
He wins.
“No fair. I’m no good at dirty talk.”
He chuckles and squeezes my ass before retreating back to his chair. “But you like it.”
“From you, yeah.”
His eyes squint at the edges as he smiles at me. “You can talk dirty. Anyone can.”
“Nope, I’m terrible at it.”
“We’ll see.”
The kids run up, and Aiden flops down beside me, dripping cold water down my back. “I’m hungry.”
“Me too,” Bailey adds. “Can we order a pizza for dinner?”
Neal glances at me and shrugs. “Sounds good to me.”
My phone rings, and I get a strange look from Neal and Bailey when they hear my ringtone. What can I say? The wicked witch music from The Wizard of Oz is perfect for my mother’s tone.
Neal snorts out a laugh when I say, “Shit. It’s my mother. I need to take this.”
“Come on,” he tells the kids. “You guys can get showered while I order some food.”
I mouth a thank you before accepting the call I know is going to make me do something I don’t want to do.
Chapter Ten
Neal
While the kids are hogging the bathrooms, taking their showers, I watch Veronica through the window. She paces back and forth around the pool while she talks, her face reflecting her annoyance. Finally, she hangs up, sits down on the chair, and flops back, rubbing her forehead. I hope she didn’t get bad news.
By the time I’ve ordered our dinner and made sure Aiden is dressed, I hear her come back into the suite. Aiden curls up on the bed to watch cartoons, and Bailey stretches out on the other bed to read, so I head over to the suite to wait for the pizza.
“Hey,” she says, a smile pushing across her face. “Do you want the next shower?”
“Nah, go ahead. I don’t have sunblock to shower off. When you have the golden skin of a god, you don’t need it.”
She snorts and shakes her head, grabbing a change of clothes.
“Is everything okay?”
I don’t want to push her if she doesn’t want to talk, but she’s also not the type to just volunteer information, especially if it’s negative.
“Yeah, just my mom and her bullshit. I’ll tell you about it later, okay?”
She heads into the bathroom, and I hear the shower start up. The urge to join her is only slightly less than the fear of one of the kids wandering over, plus I have to wait for our food. It’s killing me that she’s all naked and soapy on the other side of the wall.
With a sigh, I sit at the table by the window and prop my feet up on the opposite chair. I wonder what her mother said that riled her up. She doesn’t really talk about her parents. I mean, I know she never knew her father, that he bailed before she was born, but her mother lives nearby. It’s a little odd in all the time we’ve spent together that I’ve never seen her. She’s never come by, not even to pick up her grandkid. There must be some kind of family drama.
“Neal! Grab me a towel from the drawer. The kids took them all,” Veronica calls out.
“Come on out and get one. The kids are in the other room,” I tease.
“Don’t be an ass!”
“Okay. Hang on.”
I get to my feet just as there’s a knock at the door. Assuming it’s the pizza guy, I call out while I’m opening the drawers, trying to find a towel, “Come on in!”
The door opens, spilling the late afternoon light across the floor. “The money is on the table,” I tell him, absently. It takes a second before I realize the room is dead silent, but it doesn’t stay that way. A squeal echoes through the room, and I look up to see Veronica streak back toward the bathroom, her naked ass glistening and jiggling, while a young guy stands frozen in the doorway, his eyebrows touching his hairline.
“Uh—yeah, sorry,” he mumbles. “I thought I heard you tell me to come in.” He snatches the money off of the table and puts the boxes in its place.
“I did,” I reply, trying not to laugh as a string of curses spills from the bathroom. Most include shoving something into one of my orifices not designed for such use. The kid can’t be more than seventeen and his face is growing redder by the second. “I’m sorry. Keep the change.”
As soon as the door shuts behind him, I step into the bathroom and hold out a towel. Veronica sits on the edge of the tub, glaring at me. “You told me the kids weren’t there and to come on in!”
“No, I told the pizza guy to come in and you to hang on a second.” A laugh jumps from my throat. “It was a misunderstanding.”
“Stop laughing at me!” She throws a wet washcloth at me and it slaps against my chest before hitting the floor. “I probably scarred the kid for life.”
“I’m not laughing.” My guts are about to burst from holding it in, though. “And you made his day.” My eyes are pulled down to the bare patch between her legs. “When did you start shaving?”
“I’m going to shave your balls in your sleep if you don’t wipe that smile off your face. Get out of here before the kids see us.”
The twitch of her lips assures me she’s not really mad, but I can’t wait to tease her about this later.
The kids eat at the table in their room where they can watch cartoons, which gives Veronica and I a little time alone. I’m trying to find a way to ask her about the call from her mother in a way that won’t sound nosy when she asks, “Do you think you could keep Aiden for a few hours tomorrow? I need to help my mom with something. Max will be here overseeing the work crew until around six, and I’ll be back before then, so you wouldn’t need to do anything other than entertain the kids.”
“I don’t mind watching Aiden. What’s going on with your mom?”
“Nothing out of the ordinary,” she grumbles, taking a bite of her bread stick.
“You never talk about her. She lives locally, right?”
“Out in the county, about thirty minutes from here. We aren’t close or anything, but I’m her first call if something goes wrong.” She pauses long enough for me to think that’s all the information she’s willing to share, but then continues. “The board of health is threatening her with fines if she doesn’t clean up the property a little and cut the grass. It hasn’t been cut at all this year so it’s probably waist high in some areas. I just need to go out and cut the area around her house and down to the road. They’ll leave her alone.”
“Does she live alone?”
“Her ex lives in another trailer on the property and he was keeping up with it, at least enough to keep the board of health off her back, but he broke his leg and can’t do it right now.”
I have a ton of questions, but I’ll save them because her clipped tone tells me she isn’t thrilled about this conversation. “I’ll go with you. You can hang out with your mom and the kids while I cut the grass.”
“No.” The word flies from her mouth whip fast. A second later she says, “Sorry, I don’t mean to snap at you, but you don’t know what you’re getting yourself into. It’s going to be a damn jungle.”
“I’ll borrow George’s field and brus
h mower. It goes through anything.”
Sighing, she sits back and wipes her mouth with a paper napkin. “It’s not just grass. I don’t take anyone out there, Neal. It’s disgusting. Her and her ex are both hoarders. Her house is stuffed full and trust me, you wouldn’t want Bailey in there. It isn’t safe.”
Her face flushes, and I reach across to grab her hand. “V, you don’t have to be embarrassed. I swear I won’t judge. We can’t control what our parents do.”
She’s quiet for a moment, and I give her time to think. “The field and brush mower would probably make the job quick. There’s a nice little creek on the property. I could take them there to play, I suppose.”
“Good.”
Her gaze meets mine. “It wasn’t that bad when I lived at home. I mean, it was bad, and I couldn’t wait to get out, but not like it is now. I’m not…dirty like that.”
I get up and pull her to her feet and into a hug she really looks like she needs. Veronica is always so happy, peppy, and quick witted. She doesn’t display this vulnerable side very often and I want her to know she can. “I would never think that. Your place is always spotless. If anything, you’re a bit of a clean freak.”
And now I understand why.
“It’ll be fine. Let me help. This is what we do, remember? We help each other. I cut your mom’s grass, you have the sex talk with my daughter, quid pro quo.” Yeah, I threw that in there. I’ve been trying to find a way to bring it up.
Laughing, she steps back. “You want me to tell Bailey about sex? I hate to break it to you, buddy, but she probably already knows. By her age, her friends have spread the word.”
Groaning, I sit back down. “Maybe, but she needs to know everything. I’m sure she has questions. I was hoping my sister would step in, but Bailey doesn’t trust her the way she does you.”
“Of course I’ll talk to her. So, should I start with blow jobs or lube or—”
“Stop!” I cover my ears and put my head down. Her laughter makes me smile, and when I look up again, Bailey is walking toward us.
“Why were you covering your ears?”
“Because he’s a big baby who can’t stand hearing about woman things like epithelial linings,” Veronica says, and they both break into laughter.
“Very funny. Is Aiden finished eating?” Definitely time to change the subject.
“Yeah, but he’s falling asleep. I thought you might not want him to.”
Veronica is on her feet. “Oh hell no. If he takes a nap this late, he’ll never sleep tonight.”
Bailey grins at me. “Can I go outside and ride my bike in the parking lot? I’m bored.”
“Sure, no need to get salty, brah, I’ll sit out with you.” I get the usual eye roll from Bailey, but I hear Veronica giggle from the next room.
By the time Veronica has dragged a whiny Aiden outside, I’ve pulled the kids bikes off the rear rack of my car and Bailey is happily circling the lot. Aiden perks up when he sees his, and Veronica barely has time to strap the helmet on his head before he’s off, following Bailey.
Veronica grabs two folding chairs from her trunk and we sit down under the tree to watch them. “He’s ready for the training wheels to come off,” I observe, watching the way he controls the bike.
“Yeah, I just haven’t made the time to teach him yet.”
“I can show him this week.”
Veronica smiles, watching the kids play. “That’d be great. He won’t whine as much when he gets hurt if you teach him. He has to keep up the tough guy act, you know.”
“It’s not an act. Males are tougher. It’s just a fact,” I tease.
“Says the man who was going to take his daughter to the emergency room for a period.”
Grinning at her, I shake my head. “Touche.”
“We should take a cooler with some drinks and sandwiches with us tomorrow. We need to keep the kids out of her house. I have a bag cooler that will work.”
“Does she have running water? A working bathroom?”
“Yeah, but they’d be better off pissing in the woods.”
Christ. “That bad, huh?”
“You’ll see,” she sighs.
It’s not that I don’t believe her, but everyone is a bit embarrassed of their parents and where they come from. It’s probably not as bad as she makes it sound.
It’s worse.
Oh god, so much worse.
As soon as we pull into the driveway of Veronica’s mother’s house, I know this isn’t going to be any quick job. It’s a good thing George loaned me his mower because no normal riding mower would have made it through this.
Not to mention, I’d have to keep getting off to move stuff, like the two toilets sitting in the field, surrounded by rotting wooden pallets.
“Listen, guys,” Veronica says to the kids, before they can climb out of the back seat. “I know I already explained once, but I want to make sure you remember. If she asks if you’d like something to drink or eat, the answer is no. I have food in the cooler. I don’t care what it is, it could make you sick. She never checks expiration dates. We’re just going to say hi, and let Neal get started, then I’ll take you into the woods to play in the creek.”
“I want to try to build a dam,” Bailey says, helping Aiden out of the car.
“You can’t say that!” His mouth drops open. “Neal! She’s cursing!”
“Ade, don’t be a tattletale. And she’s talking about a big wall that holds back water. That kind of dam isn’t cursing,” Veronica admonishes.
Aiden stops in his tracks. “So, I can say it?” A grin spreads across his face and he whispers. “Dam.”
Bailey giggles as he continues.
“We can build a dam. Dam dam, we’ll build a dam dam.” He dances around, singing his dam song, and Veronica turns away to hide a grin.
“I think that’s enough,” she says, as a woman opens the front door of the house and steps onto the porch. Well, she walks through the narrow path carved out between piles of junk and down the steps. Veronica must take after her absent father, because there’s not much resemblance, other than the red hair.
“I didn’t know you were bringing company,” she says, watching us like we might make off with some of the crap piled around us. Are those toasters? Who needs four toasters and why are they on the edge of the porch in a rusting heap?
“Mom, this is my friend, Neal, and his daughter, Bailey. Neal is going to cut the grass while I take the kids back to play in the creek.” She turns to us. “This is my mother, Patty.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Patty,” Neal says.
“I’m going to build a dam!” Aiden announces. “It’ll be the best damn dam that ever…dammed!”
“Aiden!” Veronica snaps. “Enough!”
“Well, come on in and cool down before you get started. It’s hot out here.”
“Thanks, but Neal needs to get started. We have some other stuff to do this evening,” she lies. “I have a picnic lunch packed if you’d like to join us at the creek.”
“In this heat? You must be soft headed. You guys go on and do your thing. I’m going to check on Marvin. Let him know what’s going on.”
With that said, she hurries down the steps and across the drive toward the dilapidated trailer on the far side of the driveway. She must go back and forth a lot, because there’s a path between them.
“Nice seeing you,” Veronica mumbles. She forces a smile and turns to the kids. “Okay, let me show Neal where the shed is, and we’ll go play. Stay on the path. With the grass this high, there could be a snake and you don’t want to step on it.”
As we make our way behind the house to a surprisingly new and shiny shed, Bailey starts teaching Aiden about snakes. “There are a lot of species who live in our area and most are harmless, but we do have copperheads and if we’re close to water, probably cottonmouths.”
“They have cotton in their mouths?” I look behind us to see he’s taken her hand.
“No, they’re called that
because the inside of their mouths are white, like cotton.”
“Oh.” It’s cute and funny the way he responds to her. Anything out of Bailey’s mouth is gospel.
Veronica pulls open the shed to reveal a riding mower, weed eater, and an assortment of tools and trimmers. “Whatever you need, I’m sure they have five of them,” she says. “And there’s gasoline in those cans.” She points to a few gas cans in the corner.
The air in the shed is too hot to breathe for more than a minute or two. This is crazy. “You can’t store gas like that! It could explode and set the whole place on fire.”
She lets out a humorless laugh. “They have set the woods on fire twice…in the last year. This is a compromise because the last time I visited, there were gas and kerosene cans in the house. Better to blow up the shed.”
That is insane.
She turns to me. “It’s not too late to change your mind. I told you it’d be terrible.”
And let her do it? Yeah, that’ll happen. “No way. I’ve got this.”
“Okay, well, only do the front yard and along the edge of the road. That’s what the county is complaining about. The fields are so full of trash you’d tear up any mower you tried to use anyway.”
“How much land do they have?”
Veronica gestures to the tree line. “Almost two hundred acres. This place was a working farm back in it’s day, and the back field was an apple orchard. The trees still bear occasionally, but it’s so trashed and overgrown, they just fall and rot with the other garbage.” She points to a narrow path in the woods. “That path leads down to the creek. It’s only about a quarter of a mile. If you come looking for us.”
The kids start down the path, and Bailey stops by a tree where we can still see them.
Veronica hesitates and shifts the backpack cooler she’s wearing. “I hate this. This isn’t your job. I should at least be helping.”
“Psh. This is one of those manly jobs. You need my masculine muscles and strength. Now, you go make sure the kids don’t drown, and I’ll get all nice and sweaty for you.”
“Yeah, man stink really turns me on. You know me so well.”