by Natalie Ann
“No. But it was expected. It’s been a great career and one you looked down on.”
“So that’s it. You were forced into it and felt I needed to be?”
“You always thought you were better than the rest of us.”
He stood up. “No. Never. I never thought that and if you think I did, then you don’t know me at all.”
“Just like always,” his father said. “When things don’t go your way, you run. You never face anything head-on.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” he said. “I’ve wanted to address our relationship for years and you wanted no part of it. You’ve never wanted to hear me out and you don’t now. You believe what you want and that is it.”
His father didn’t say a word to him. “Then why didn’t you want to work here? Because you couldn’t stand to work with me?”
“You know, Dad. We got along just fine for the most part until I was a teen and told you I didn’t want to take over. If this were what I wanted then I’d have no problem working with you. But when things don’t go your way in life, that is when you blame everyone else. Just like now with your cancer. You can’t control this anymore than I can. But what you can control is how you treat those you love.”
He walked out the door, letting it slam behind him.
21
Understand Each Other
“How long are you staying here?”
Taryn looked up to see Logan standing in the doorway of her office. She glanced at the clock. “It’s four.”
“Yeah, and I bet you’ve been up baking since five.”
She just grinned at him. “But I didn’t get here until a little after nine.”
“Go,” he said. “Unless you’ve got something pressing to do.”
“Not really. I mean nothing that has to be done. You signed all the checks hours ago. I’ll drop them off at the post office when I leave.”
“Then close down and leave now. Monday will be a crazy day with receipts you’ll have to deal with. Things are picking up and that will take you all day or more.”
She’d noticed how busy it’d been in the past two weeks and knew it’d only increase. Mondays and Tuesdays were spent just entering in all the receipts and reconciling reports from every part of the park to match what was collected.
“It will. I wanted to talk to you about that too.”
“Do you need help?”
“Geez, Logan. Don’t waste money. I can handle it and you know it. But the accounting software that is here is limited. If we got something better, I could run reports for you by department and you could see where you’re making your money.”
“Let me know what you think will work and I’ll check things out. When you’ve got time. Now get out of here.”
She shut her computer down and stood up. “Will do. Have a good weekend.”
She knew her brother-in-law spent a lot of time at the park, but Kennedy worked a ton at her spa so it was fine for them. On Sundays, Kennedy was used to coming here to have fun, now she came to help out if she was needed. Even Taryn had come in if she had to, but Logan seemed to have a good handle on it all.
She texted Justin when she was walking to the parking lot and by the time she was in her car, he’d told her to come over and make sure she was dressed comfortably. He was ready to hit some balls.
She hadn’t talked to him since this morning and hoped his conversation with his father wasn’t that bad, but by the sounds of it, maybe it was.
When she pulled into the golf course parking lot, she saw it was packed and wondered how long they’d have to wait to get to the driving range.
By the time she found a spot, Justin was walking toward her, pulling her into his arms and giving her a kiss. “In the future you can drive back and park where the employees do on the side.”
“No laughing if I swing and miss. It’s been years since I’ve picked up a club for anything other than mini golf.”
“I’m sure you’ll do fine. More than fine. I get the feeling you are capable of doing anything. At least I told your brother that.”
“What?!” she asked, pushing back and putting her hands on her hips. “When did you talk to Trevor?”
“Part of my wonderful day yesterday. I was getting gas when he pulled in for a friendly chat.”
“A friendly chat, my ass. I told him to mind his own business. What did he say?”
“Nothing,” he said, laughing.
“I don’t believe that.”
“You can ask him. He was beating around the bush.”
“He’s good at doing that.”
“I was faster and said what is between us is between us and if he had concerns or questions to talk to you, that you were a big girl and could handle yourself.”
“I bet he just laughed at you,” she said, relaxing. “At least I hope so.”
“He did. We understand each other. I expected him to seek me out at some point. We got along years ago and I don’t see any reason for him to hunt me down now.”
“No, but I’ll be hunting him down this weekend and giving him a piece of my mind.”
“That’s between you two,” he said calmly.
“Does anything ever bother you? I mean make you lose your temper?” she asked.
“It’s been known to happen, but not often.”
“Did you lose it this morning with your father?” she asked. He turned and looked at her and then gazed out into the distance. “You don’t need to answer that. I know it’s probably prying on my end.”
“Not prying. I brought you into my feelings on things when I came over on Tuesday. I’m to blame for taking the fun out of what we’ve got. We can put it right back in tonight.”
“I’m not so shallow that I can’t have a mature conversation about serious topics in your life, but if you don’t want to talk about it, just say the word.”
“Touché.”
“Did I touch a nerve with you?” she asked.
“Not really. I keep wanting to put what we have in a category and you are pushing it out.”
“Is that a bad thing? Should I just leave?”
He pulled her over to the side away from people. “No. I don’t get in a mood often and I’ve been in one. I’ll apologize for that.”
“Don’t apologize. We all have moods. It’s what makes us human. The last thing I want to do is add to any of your stress. I know you’re under a lot. The reason you are here is stressful. Your relationship with your father, even your job is probably stressful.”
He started to laugh. “My job is the least stressful thing outside of you. Except when I get to pull vegetables out of body cavities I’d rather not.”
“Do I want to know?” she asked, cringing.
“No, you don’t. And as for my father, we had words. We always do. I’ll never be good enough for him. He brings up old news all the time. He thinks because he was forced to take over the resort and it turned out just fine that I should have done it too. That I think I’m too good for it.”
She frowned. “So he got stuck and why couldn’t you just accept it too?”
She wasn’t sure how she’d feel if her parents felt that way about her decisions in life. She liked they gave her the freedom to fly. Especially since it brought her right back here.
“That’s what he said. It was all news to me. Then he said something silly like I didn’t want to do it because I didn’t want to work with him. I pointed out we had a good relationship before I told him it wasn’t what I wanted so that made no sense.”
“What was his response?”
“Nothing. Thinks I’m making it all up and I slammed out of the house. Of course I did get my lecture in about making my mother and Ashley cry. That he had a right to be pissed, but hurting everyone around him wasn’t helping either. He gets this way when he can’t control shit. I told him how he treated me over my decision to move on is what he’s doing to Ashley and my mother over his cancer. They aren’t to blame.”
Interesting. At least he had
no problem standing up for himself. “I’m sure he didn’t appreciate that.”
“No. He’ll apologize to Ashley, I’m sure. He won’t do it today and admitted he was going to stay home and relax.”
“Then maybe you got through to him.”
“One can only hope. And now between your brother, my interesting night at the hospital, and my father, I’m ready to slam some balls into the wind again.”
“Again?” she asked.
“I played a few holes of golf earlier this morning. It calms me.”
Which she wanted to point out was ironic since it seemed this place was what caused all his frustrations with his family. “Well, now that you are calm, you can help me out. Though I don’t need to take any aggression out on the balls. My two dozen cupcakes sold out in four hours today. They were gone by midafternoon.”
“That’s great and not shocking in the least.”
“I also got two more orders to fill for the weekend of July Fourth. I had two cakes to make and now I’ve got two cupcake orders.”
“Even better.”
“Do you have to work next weekend?” she asked of the upcoming holiday. They were by the driving range now and he’d picked up a bag with clubs and a large bucket of balls that had been sitting there.
“Friday and Saturday night, but I have Sunday off since my father has treatment on Monday.”
“And you’re working Sunday this weekend right?” she asked.
“That’s right. I’m all yours tonight and tomorrow night if you want.”
“Oh, I want,” she said. She wanted more than she was willing to admit.
“You did much better than you led me to believe,” Justin said when they were at the shooting range outside of town. It was close to the park and it seemed closed to the public. “I don’t remember this here before.”
“It’s not open yet. This is Logan’s land. He and Trevor are going to open it up at some point but are working things out. Some hunters had it before and set it up for fun to hang out. Right now we just use it in the family and some of Logan and Trevor’s friends or other members of the force or state police.”
She’d had to put a passcode in to get in the gate and now they were parked at the actual range. When they got in the shooting stalls, he said, “There are cameras here.”
“Yep. They are fed to Logan’s and Trevor’s phones so they know if someone is here. The passcode changes to get on site daily. Logan gave it to me right before I left.”
“Remember,” he said. “No laughing.”
“Never,” she said.
She’d already pulled out one gun from a case that they’d stopped to get at her place. “What kind of gun is that?”
“This is a Glock G19. The other is a rifle.”
“I figured as much,” he said. “I don’t need names or details. They don’t mean much to me.”
“It’s just one of my father’s old hunting rifles. I picked it up at Trevor’s. This might be easier to show you than the Glock, but I’d personally rather fire the Glock.”
An hour later he had to admit though his aim wasn’t that great, he’d hit the targets and it did feel pretty damn good. And since this was private property and there were no witnesses to see him hesitating or looking like an idiot his first few times, he wasn’t all that embarrassed.
Taryn was a good shot, exactly as he’d thought she’d be. But she didn’t make him feel bad about showing him what to do either.
“See,” he said. “We both learned something today. I’m sure your brother was watching me on the cameras while I fumbled my way through it.”
“Not if he knows what is good for him. He and I will be having some words soon enough. Trust me there.”
“Don’t get into a fight on my account,” he said.
“It won’t be a fight. Just me saying what is on my mind.”
“My mother brought your name up to me,” he said. He figured now might be a good time to say something.
“She did see us eating out together.”
“And she asked what was going on. I told her.” No need to say his mother thought he might be playing with fire. Or maybe she was hoping for something that would never happen. He didn’t want to hurt Taryn.
Though he wasn’t sure she would be hurt. They were both very clear on where things stood.
“I don’t know why everyone is so concerned about us. They should all just pay attention to their own lives.”
“Exactly,” he said. “But what the hell. I’m hungry and we might as well go out and see how many people see us and give this town something else to flap their lips about.”
“Great minds think alike,” she said, giving him a quick kiss. He caught her eyes on the camera with a big smile on her face and it just made him laugh.
22
Spend It With You
“Though the air conditioning felt nice in the pub, I’m hot and sticky. I feel like I need a shower after being on the driving range and then the shooting range,” she said the minute they got back to her place.
“I could totally use a shower,” he said. “I’ve got a change of clothes in my car. Guess I hoped on spending the night, but it will come in handy to change now.”
“And we can wash the clothes you’ve got on so that you can wear them tomorrow clean,” she said.
“Do you have plans for tomorrow?”
“I thought you said you were mine for two nights,” she said, poking her finger into his side. “Or are you taking that back?”
“Not taking it back. Just didn’t know if you had things to do during the day. Any orders you had to fill or things to bake.”
“Nothing pressing. I normally spend the weekends doing chores or trying new recipes. My place is clean and I’d rather spend it with you if you’re available.”
She hoped that didn’t come off as clingy by any means, but she knew their time was limited and it’s not like they even spoke daily let alone saw each other. They had to get what they could and she was going to take advantage of it.
“I’m more than available,” he said, pulling his shirt over his head and walking toward her bedroom.
But she grabbed his hand and stopped him. “There is more room in this shower than mine.”
She just had an individual stall in her master and a single sink. The bathroom in the hall had a tub unit and a double sink. When Kennedy had the place redone years ago she wanted two baths, even if the one off the master was small. Thankfully the kitchen was plenty big with a lot of counter space.
“I do my best work in tight places,” he said, “but stretching out works for me too.”
“Turn the water on and I’ll go get a condom in my room. I bought more too.”
She hoped the one from before didn’t break because it was old. It’d been awhile since she’d had sex, but she didn’t think they were a year old.
And she wasn’t going to even think of that. Not when she had a hot sexy guy getting naked in her bathroom.
By the time she ran back, the water was running and Justin was dropping his shorts.
“I guess I’ve got some catching up to do,” she said, pulling her shirt over her head and letting it fall. He reached for her bra and unlatched it while she undid her shorts and pushed everything down and kicked them away.
She stepped over the tub and got in, Justin in front of her, his back to the water, his hands going for her hips and yanking her close to his growing cock. She wanted to jump up and wrap her legs around his waist and start to rub against him, but they’d left the condom on the counter like idiots.
Sure, they could get out to get it, but for now they could just wash up and play.
She pushed him back a step to get under the water, her hair getting drenched in the process, but she’d forgotten she didn’t have shampoo in here. Just a bar of soap.
With her hands, she pushed her hair out of her face, then reached for the bar of soap, but Justin took it out of her hands. “I insist I do this.”
“Go
at it,” she said, standing there while he lathered his hands.
She took the bar when he was done and they both started to cover each other, reaching, touching, rubbing and breathing heavily.
He knew all the right places to touch. All the ways to make her body sing.
She would have thought she’d be sated after they’d had sex multiple times on Tuesday night, but all she was thinking was how much more she needed from him.
He pushed her back against the wall, the cold tiles adding another form of sensation for her overheated body.
When his hand slid down between her legs and pushed into her folds to find her swollen bud, her knees wanted to buckle.
The urge to wrap her legs around his waist was even greater, making her reach for his cock and start to stroke him.
“Slow down,” he said.
“I can’t. Either we are going to come like this in the shower or we get out and get that condom now.”
His hands dropped away from her, the two of them rinsed off as best they could before he shut the water off.
The curtain was flung aside so fast, she was afraid he was going to rip it off the wall. Had she said before he was always so calm? Guess there were some things that made him lose his cool.
She had one foot on the tile before he picked her up and put her wet ass on the counter. She almost slid off but grabbed the edge to stay on.
Water was getting all over the floor, but she didn’t care.
Justin had the condom in his hand and was quickly rolling it over the length of him, then pulling her to the very edge and plunging in deep.
She got her wish and was able to wrap her legs around him and hang on while her hands stayed where they were so she didn’t fall off.
It probably wouldn’t matter if she fell off because he was going to have her, she was sure.
There wasn’t much thought in her brain other than how well he filled her up and the way he was sliding in and out.
Controlled and paced when she just wanted him to let loose.