by Emma Vikes
Milo won a prize for me. It should count for something.
After eating corn dogs and cotton candy for Violet, it was finally time to head home. Violet was too tired from running around the amusement park and was suffering from food coma and asked if Milo could carry her. The moment her Dad picked her up, she fell asleep in his arms. Milo handed me the keys, asking me if I could drive as we reached the parking lot.
“Oh, what an adorable family!” It was from someone behind us and Milo and I both turned around. She was an elderly lady, her white hair thinning and her face wrinkled. The age in her eyes were obvious and I looked at her, waiting for Milo to explain that we were a couple but he remained silently holding Violet. “Make sure to fill her young years with happy memories. That’s the best you can ever give her as parents.”
She walked away from us, gently patting Violet’s back before she left us. Milo and I stayed rooted in our places and I bit my lower lip, realizing how awkward he must feel. “She just probably thought that...”
Milo shook his head and motioned for me to unlock the truck. I did so and he settled in the passenger seat with Violet in his arms as I slipped into the driver’s seat. Once I settled my seatbelt, Milo spoke, “At least she didn’t say that we must’ve had her when we were young. A compliment’s better than all the judgment Rebecca and I used to get.”
I cracked a smile as I reversed from the parking lot. It was a thirty-minute drive to home and ten minutes into it, Milo asked if I still wanted to get dinner. “You’re not trying to make me fat, right?”
He chuckled and shook his head. “No. I’m still full too.”
“If we get hungry when we arrive, I can make something simple,” I promised, my eyes focused on the road. When I slowed to a stop sign, I looked at Milo. His gaze was on Violet and she pushed a strand of her hair aside.
“She’s looking more and more like her mother.”
I wasn’t really sure how to respond to that statement. I’d seen pictures of Rebecca around their home in Irving and Violet kept pictures of her Mom in her room. Rebecca was absolutely beautiful. Brown curls framing a heart-shaped face and startling blue eyes, it wasn’t a question why Milo would fall in love with her. She was breathtaking.
And Milo was right. Violet looked like her Mom but there were some instances when she looked like Milo. “Is that why you used to have a hard time being around her?”
I really shouldn’t have asked that question but I was curious. Milo took a deep breath and exhaled loudly. “It was because of a number of personal things but yes, the fact that Violet looking more like Rebecca broke my heart in a way that I’m not really sure how to explain. I wanted to quietly move on from everything but in doing so, I forgot that I was also meant to still be a Dad.”
Maybe it wasn’t something I was allowed to do but I reached for his free hand anyway and put it in mine, squeezing it gently. “But now on the brighter side, things are patching up between the two of you. That’s better than anything else, Milo.”
The rest of the ride was in comfortable silence, with small side comments and jokes here and there until we finally reached the house. Milo brought Violet to her room and I followed, changing her in her sleeping clothes when after he set her on the bed. I thought that he retreated to his room but was surprised to see him in the living room, two glasses of wine on the coffee table.
“You don’t want dinner?”
Milo shrugged. “A classy person once said that alcohol could substitute a meal.”
“That person isn’t very smart,” I replied, sitting beside him and sipping on the glass that was mine. It was only when I was comfortable in my seat that it dawned on me that Milo and I were technically alone in the living room again and we were consuming alcohol. Last night, nothing happened between us because we were too tired from the drive but obviously, that wasn’t the case now.
“You never really told me why you wanted to put up a salon for yourself. I mean, I get that you love being a hairdresser but I don’t really know why you ended up being a hairdresser.”
I wasn’t sure why Milo was suddenly asking about my career choice but it made it seem as if he was really interested. “My mother used to be one. She grew up learning the ropes from my grandmother and evidently, passed on what she learned to me. I used to watch her whenever she cut the hair of her friends and our next-door neighbors. Mom was in love with it and I guess seeing her that happy doing that made me want to put out a salon in honor of her passion for it.”
I never really talked about this with anyone because no one really asked. Milo sipped his wine but his eyes were looking at me intently, waiting for me to say more. I pulled my feet on the couch and then slipped them under me to make myself more comfortable. “She died when my youngest brother was about 9 years old and I’d started helping my Dad with the financial things in our life while I was in high school and then I got a scholarship in beauty school. Then Dad got sick and he died and I had to drop out.”
Milo placed a hand on my thigh and gently squeezed it. “I lost my Dad too when I was younger but I can’t imagine losing both sets of parents.”
His words were the most sincere ones I’d ever heard from anyone who asked about my parents. Maybe it was because he really did know how it felt to lose a parent. “I’ve worked at the salon that you saw me work for the first time we bumped into each other. Being there, I understood why my Mom loved it so much and I used to want to give my Mom a salon when I grew up and became stable but I lost her so now I still want to do it for myself, but name it hers in honor.”
Milo looked at me and then quirked a smile. “I’ve never met your Mom but I think she’ll be absolutely proud of you.”
I wasn’t sure if it was the alcohol that was in my system- although it wasn’t enough to make me drunk or give me liquid courage- or if it was the blossoming attraction I had on Milo but his hand on my thigh slowly crept caressed me and I leaned closer to him, my hand on his face and then my mouth colliding in his. Milo was quick to respond because both his hands were on my waist now and he was taking dominance over the kiss, slightly pushing me on the couch.
I gasped when I felt Milo’s warm hands flat against my stomach, fingers splayed all over the skin and his thumb gently caressing. I whispered against his mouth, “Bedroom.”
Milo didn’t hesitate on picking me up from the couch, my legs wrapping around his waist as he carried us to my bedroom. He pushed me against the door once we’d closed it and I deftly locked the room, aware that we weren’t the only ones in the house anymore. Milo set me on the ground briefly enough for him to pull off his shirts, giving me access to his muscular upper body. But he was quick to remove the shirt I was wearing and when he pulled down my shorts, my panties came along with them.
“Shit,” he cussed when I began kissing his body, my tongue licking the curves and my teeth grazing his pecs. I unbuckled his jeans and pulled them down along with his boxers and he groaned when he felt my hand on his penis. “No foreplay, Megan.”
I looked up at him, confused for a moment. A low growl came from his throat as his hand reached to cup my face. “I want you right now.”
And in a rush, I was back in his arms again, pressed against the door and in one swift motion, Milo entered me without warning. “Oh my god.”
He moved slowly at first and my head repeatedly hit the door over and over again in a slow and repeated thud. “You just keep on making me want you, Megan.”
Milo said it in a way that made me think it was my fault that he wanted me. His strokes became faster, more erratic and he quickly switched our position and threw me on the bed, pulling my left leg over his shoulder as he pummeled into me. My eyes closed in pleasure when I felt his lips on my body, kissing every heated skin, a hand on my clit, rubbing with such intensity.
I came and Milo’s mouth was pressed firmly on mine, muffling my scream with his lips. He pulled me on top of him, his hands on my waist as he guided me to continue moving up and down on his cock. Despite th
e fact that I just came, another climax started building up again and I realized that Milo was rubbing on my clit still. “Cum with me, Megan.”
And we came together and I fell on top of Milo, both of us trying really hard to catch our breaths. I felt him pull out of me and then wrapped his strong arms around me as I slowly slid onto his side. I rested my head on his chest. His hand was gently caressing my arm and I felt his lips kiss the top of my head.
In that moment, it was a fleeting thought, but maybe, just maybe, this could be real.
Chapter 14
Milo
“You look chipper,” Julian noted as he pushed the cart beside me. We were in the supermarket buying food that we can bring for the camping trip. It was a surprise trip for Violet since she didn’t know all of three of her uncles were in Irving. She was aware that Everett was in town for a seminar since we had dinner with him the other night, but she didn’t know Leo and Julian flew in for the weekend. They planned to have a barbeque dinner at home but I suggested we go camping instead which surprised them because we weren’t ones for the great outdoors.
But Megan was.
One of the first things that Megan ever told me when we were driving to Chicago for the first time was that her father used to take her and her siblings on road trips. Recently, I noticed that she had been calling her siblings more often and I’d seen her scroll through her phone, absentmindedly smiling and sighing at pictures of her sister and brothers and then randomly telling Violet stories about them when they were younger and how rambunctious her brothers were.
It was clear that she missed home and the reason why she wasn’t there was because I had to take her to a different city, away from her family. The road trip slash camping trip was the least I could do to put a smile on her face. “Maybe it’s the Chicago air. Maybe there’s something about it that just makes you feel happier.”
Beside me, Julian made a face and chuckled. “Or maybe because you’ve been screwing around with Vi’s nanny. Because it’s been proven and tested that sex elevates the mood.”
I tossed a bag of sausages into the cart and Julian grabbed it, studying it for a bit before changing it with something else. He was so meticulous with food for a rockstar. “You know nothing, Jules.”
He scoffed and then stopped the cart, looking at me with his eyes, one part gray, the other a deep set of blue that was always startling. He had cat eyes and he used to hate them when he was younger, but he started to realized that he had both color of our parents' eyes, one blue and one gray and suddenly, Julian acted as if he could conquer the world. He was a lot like Leo, two peas in a pod, alike in every aspect from the same dark curly head of hair to the same approach in romance and the same passion for the arts.
“I’ll have you know that sex is my main form of exercise,” Julian said teasingly, grinning at me wickedly. “Get a lot of action from groupies.”
“If you ever say that in front of my daughter I’m going to skin you alive,” I threatened as I watched him add a bunch of spices in our cart, “and we’re going camping, Julian, there’s no time for spices.”
He dusted off his hands and shrugged. “I was rummaging your pantry earlier and I can’t believe my teacher doesn’t have a wide variety of spices and herbs to choose from. You wound me, Milo.”
I chuckled. This was honestly nice. It was nice to have my brothers around us and having them here always reminded me of home. It was funny how I had to be taken out of the place that used to be home to appreciate what I had. Or well, that was how Megan always seemed to put it for me. I could still remember some of our after sex conversations, especially the one we had recently.
“Chicago’s nice,” Megan had suddenly said, her head on my chest while my fingers casually played with her hair. I had been surprised by her statement and I had tugged on her hair and had asked her to elaborate more. “Irving was home. And I love every bit of it. But new beginnings are always nice and sometimes it has to take new ones to appreciate the one that had to end.”
“You’re always so positive.”
Megan had pushed herself up and looked at me with glinting green eyes. She cocked her head to the side, her platinum hair falling to the direction. “If I negative, life would be boring and I will live it with rain clouds above me. I’d rather stay in the sunshine.”
“Even if it takes effort?”
“Yes. Besides, you don’t win anything at life if there’s no effort.”
I felt Julian suddenly nudge me. “Were you in a Megan-induced cloud nine?”
“I was just thinking that it’s nice to have you here in Chicago. Is that a crime to appreciate the fact that my brothers are here?”
Julian rolled his eyes. “Oh please, Milo. I haven’t seen her but with what I can get from Leo and Everett, you look like a love sick puppy whenever she’s around and I can bet a 100 bucks that this camping trip is meant for her and you just thought that having us would be the perfect opportunity to do so.”
To be honest, Julian wasn’t wrong. The intention for the camping trip was to make Megan feel better and having my brothers around was just a mere excuse for me to be able to pull this off without making her think that it was all for her. We hadn’t really discussed what we were to each other but to be honest, I didn’t really want to put a label on what we were. I liked how things were between the two of us and though there were moments that I wanted to end what was going on before one of us fell trapped into the illusion that our feelings gave us.
Because our feelings were exactly that; an illusion that seemed to paint a future that only ended with broken hearts and pained souls.
I looked at my brother and shook my head, shrugging my shoulders. “You can think all you want, Jules, but if there’s anything that I’m certain of, it’s Violet thrilled to go on her first camping trip with her favorite men.”
“We better be her only favorite men,” Julian mumbled beside me as we neared the cashier. I chuckled at his comment, relishing the fact that I wasn’t the only one protective of my little girl. If a boy ever does hurt her or tries to date her, he sure as hell will go through a lot before he can take her out of my front door.
Julian and I agreed that he’ll bring the food with him and that since this was a surprise for Violet, I would only bring few food items that would be good for just the three of us. Julian rented a car and had his own Airbnb where Everett and Leo were waiting for him. We’d already discussed the route we were going to take earlier this morning when I came over where they stayed at and we agreed to have late lunch there.
I had the rest of the groceries with me and I finally arrived home. I’d been planning this since yesterday and I bought sleeping bags and tents after work and stashed them in the truck, making sure that neither Megan or Violet saw. I planned on surprising both of them. This would be Violet’s first time to go camping and I was excited about how she’ll react. I grabbed the rest of the groceries in my car and transferred them in the truck when I arrived back in the house, making sure that they didn’t see me.
“Hey, you’re back,” Megan commented. She was already dressed in shorts and a camouflage shirt. Before I had left, I had told her that she and Violet should be ready to go when I get back and that she should pack clothes for the two of them since it was an overnight trip. Both violet and she had been insisting on knowing where we were going but I’d managed to zip my mouth, even when she gave me a blow job in her bathroom to get the answer out of me. “So where are we going?”
I chuckled and then shook my head, running up my room to get my things. I’d already packed my things this morning in a backpack and I strapped it behind my back, bumping into Violet who had her own bag strapped around her. “Daddy! Where are we going?”
She was looking at me with big blue eyes that were begging me to tell. I almost wavered but I shook my head and kissed the top of her head. “If I tell you, you won’t be able to appreciate the surprise.”
Violet pouted and held my hand as the two of us descended down th
e stairs. We locked the house, got in the truck and drove out of our garage, heading to the mountains. I’d done some research all week since I found out that Leo and Julian were coming into town. Leo coming wasn’t a surprise since he had been coming and going since the first time he came here which was almost a month ago. It had been two months since we had moved to Chicago and I couldn’t say that we had officially settled in and got used to life here but it was getting better each day.
“We’re heading to the mountains? ” Megan noted, her eyes were fixed on our surroundings and she was taking note of every turn I took. She had been around the city more than I had been since we came here because sometimes, she and Violet would get bored so they had to figure out a way to amuse themselves until I got off work so they’ve seen more than I had.
I turned to a rocky path and I could feel Megan’s eyes on me. Violet was busy playing with the dolls she had brought for the trip and was in her own little world. “Where are we heading off to, Milo?”
I grinned, my eyes fixed on the rough road as I prepared the car for the bumpy road ahead. “I thought the great outdoors would be a good idea given how we’ve always been cramped in the house and the only outdoor place we ever go to is the soccer field.”
Violet was still unaware but Megan was piecing everything together. I felt her hand on top of mine. The car was coming down to a crawl because I didn’t want Violet to suffer from motion sickness if I pushed it to its limits on this bumpy road. “Camping. Are we going camping?”
She said it in a whisper and I knew that she intended it that way so Violet wouldn’t hear. I nodded, the corner of my lips moving upward into a small smile. “I thought it’d be fun and new for Vi. Don’t you think?”
Megan bit her bottom lip and her eyes were shining with unshed tears. My eyebrows furrowed. I thought she’d be thrilled at the concept. “What’s wrong?”