“She did, then she headed back home. I don't ask anymore, she knows I'm here if she needs me. I'm sure she'll be here soon,” my aunt says.
“Right, well Mama's in the kitchen.”
I see Tucker walking slowly down the hall and up the stairs, no doubt to my room. He's like this every Christmas. My Aunt Savannah says it’s because he was found on Christmas with two dead parents’ downstairs and that was the start of his Second Chances journey.
I go to walk down the hall but stop when I hear the knock on the door. I turn back around and open it and stop in my tracks, all words completely stolen from my mouth.
“Merry Christmas,” Normani says smiling at me.
I smile too because that's the only thing my mouth seems to be capable of doing at the moment.
“I uh...brought cake. Chocolate devotion,” Normani says studying me.
“Right, cake. Christmas. Merry Christmas. You look...beautiful, really, really beautiful,” I stutter like a fucking teenager.
I shake my head and close my eyes. My fucking God, this woman. I'm already on my knees and she hasn't even taken her pants off yet.
I feel a soft touch and open my eyes. Normani's hand is on my cheek and she moves her head closer to me, pressing her lips to mine softly.
As soon as I register what’s happening, I grab her waist and deepen the kiss, sliding my tongue inside her mouth. She takes it, willingly and wraps her other hand around my neck. Her hand lands on the belt of my jeans and she pulls me closer to her by the belt loop.
“Alright, I'm really a bad influence if I got Normani to be all sex kitten,” we hear a voice say.
Normani steps back quickly, almost tripping over the rocking chair on the front porch. I put an arm on her shoulder steadying her and we see Lacey walk up the porch steps.
“Merry Christmas to you too Lace,” I laugh shaking my head.
Lacey hugs us both and walks towards the door and Normani follows. I reach for her arm and stop her.
“We gonna continue that kiss later?” I ask my voice deep and husky in her ear.
She points above her head.
“If you find another spot with mistletoe, sure,” she says giving me a little smirk.
I let go of her arm and laugh, shaking my head. I guess my mother is now on board with this matchmaking plan my Aunt Savannah has cooked up. Since when did we put up mistletoe?
“Dev, he's up there again. You mind talkin’ to him?” Savannah says sadly.
I nod and head to the stairs turning back towards Normani.
“Christmas is a hard day for Tuck. Let me just go talk to him.”
“Mind if I try?” Normani says softly.
I furrow my brows and shrug my shoulders. I know she hangs at the house a lot with the kids, but I didn't know she was that close to Tucker.
She climbs the stairs, patting my chest as she walks by. I stay where I am as she disappears into the room and softly shuts the door behind her.
After a few minutes I walk over to the door and crane my ears to listen. It's wrong, I know, but she intrigues me, and I can't walk away.
“I know I should be happy, I am happy. It's just hard for me to forget the bad Christmas,” I hear Tucker say.
“It took me awhile to forget too. Sometimes I have a bad day but now look at everything you have. You have a great family that loves you.”
“Do you have a family that loves you now?” Tucker asks.
“I have y'all. That's enough for me,” Normani says.
“I feel bad for the kids there that won't get presents. Did you get presents when you were there?”
I freeze at Tucker’s words now putting together the pieces of the conversation.
Fuck. I'm an idiot. I push off the wall and walk downstairs, now aware of Bella and Damon in the kitchen. I take Bella by the arm and drag her out into the hallway on the opposite side of the house.
“Ouch asshole. Merry Christmas to you too,” she grumbles, and I release her arm.
“Why the fuck didn't you tell me Normani was from Second Chances,” I snap.
“Because it wasn't my place to say,” she snaps back. “I told you not to hurt her, that's not enough of a clue?”
“I thought you just said that because you didn’t wanna ruin y’alls friendship.”
“Well yes, that too. I really like Normani so yes, please don’t fuck that up for me either.”
“Dammit,” I say running a hand through my hair.
“What did you do?” Bella says eying me.
“Nothin’. We're takin’ it slow. God, that explains her reaction to that kiss and the scars. Dammit,” I say slamming my hand against the wall.
“Calm down. Why are you gettin’ yourself stressed about this? She's still Normani, just be aware of it now.”
“Bells, you know me, I'm already all in with her and it's gonna drive me fuckin’ nuts that someone hurt her. She isn't okay. She warned me to stay away and I didn’t listen. I can’t listen. I need to protect her.“
“She doesn't need protectin’,” Bella says placing a hand on my shoulder. “She's a grown woman. She just needs someone to trust. Someone to help break her out of her fears.”
I nod and Bella squeezes my shoulder then leaves the hall. I run my hand through my hair and lean against the wall crossing my arms over my chest.
“No mistletoe, but I think we could make it work,” I hear a voice say from next to me.
I turn and look at Normani and her face drops, probably noticing my expression. I try to hide it, but I can't. I've never been good at hiding my reactions and right now my face reads upset, heartbroken for this beautiful woman and what she had to go through.
“You know,” she says more like a statement rather than a question.
“I overheard you talkin’ to Tuck. Normani, I-”
“Don't,” she says cutting me off. “Don't give me that look Devin and you sure as hell better not apologize. I told you I was gonna be hard to love, I thought you understood.”
“I do I just...I saw the scars but I didn't know.. I'm s-...I.. “
“That's exactly the reaction I was hopin’ to avoid. I'm gonna go,” she says turning away from me.
I jog up and grab her wrist and she pulls back like I've burned her.
“I'm sorry I didn't mean to hurt you I-”
“When I told you I was fragile, I meant with love Devin. You can't hurt me physically. No one can,” she says with conviction.
I ball my fists hearing the strength in her voice. A voice that says someone used to hurt her, and I see red.
“Normani,” I rasp out. “I would never hurt you either way, I hope you know that.”
“Well right now you are. I don't do this Devin, I’m givin’ it a chance because my body will not listen to my head. No matter what I try and tell it, it wants you. I want you, so badly, but I don't want fuckin’ pity Devin. I'm a grown woman livin’ with my demons just fine, I don't need you to look at me like I need to be fixed.”
“I don't wanna fix you, Normani. I want you too and I'm happy you're givin’ this a chance. I don't look at you with pity, it's...rage.”
She steps back eyeing me and I can see the fighter inside of her. She may have stepped back but that's only so she can prepare herself to launch forward. She's not scared of me and a small smirk lifts at the corner of my lips.
“You're pretty sexy when you get all Ronda Rousey on me like that darlin’,” I say stepping closer to her.
She shakes her head and crosses her arms over her chest.
“Don't do it Gavinwood. You got your out, fair and square. You kiss me right now and it's game over.”
Her hand goes up, colliding with my chest and she fists my shirt.
“Darlin’, it's been game over since I caught this pretty little body from droppin’ to the ground back at my mama's birthday party.”
“You haven't-”
“No,” I say sternly. “It's been ball and you. My phone is only blowin’ up because of you. I sti
ll owe Damon fifty bucks for chauffeurin’ me back to Double Play to see you.”
“You came that day to see me?”
“As much as I love my sister, you were the only woman I was goin’ to that office to see. I uh...got you somethin’. I don't wanna take things too fast but...”
I reach into my back pocket and pull out the small box.
Normani eyes it skeptically and shakes her head.
“I didn't..I don’t have anything for you.”
“All I want are these,” I say running a finger down her lips.
She smiles and shakes her head.
“You're a dog.”
“Hey, I got demoted from caveman to dog? Open that up and see if you still think so.”
She slowly opens the box and her mouth drops open. The gold band bracelet catches the light and she shakes her head again.
“Devin, I can't-”
“You can. Flip over the band, there's an engravin’ in there.”
She takes the bracelet out of the box and flips it over.
“God gives his hardest battles, to his toughest soldiers. My Superwoman. Devin this is…”
“Fast, I know. I just want you to always have a reminder of the way I look at you. I don't need to know your whole life to realize you're a resilient, strong, amazin’ woman Normani. Beautiful too of course, but your forcefulness, your optimism is what's most beautiful about you.”
“Thank you,” she says softly her eyes glistening. “God Devin, you make it impossible to resist you. I-”
“Am gonna pretend there is mistletoe here and kiss me? Good plan darlin’.”
I wrap my hand behind her head and pull her face to mine, crashing our lips together in a frenzied kiss. Her arms wrap around my lower back and she pulls my body closer to her, pulling kisses from my lips like they're giving her life.
“I want you so much, Normani,” I groan breaking our kiss.
I kiss down the side of her neck and then move to the other side. She's panting heavily in my ear and I feel my dick tighten in my jeans.
“I...I...do too.”
Her voice is husky and breathy, and I pull her closer, my erection pressing into her belly.
“Look what you do to me darlin’,” I whisper.
“Dinners ready,” I hear my mama yell from the dining room.
We break away from each other quickly as my father walks into the hallway.
“Hey Normani, it's great to see you. Merry Christmas.”
My father eyes us as he walks towards Normani, giving her a hug and she smiles, trying to control her breathing. My lips lift in a smirk.
“Thank y’all for havin’ me. I feel like I'm crashin’ all the holidays.”
“Nonsense. You're always welcome, you're family. Dev wanna grab some of the trays in the kitchen and bring them into the dining room?” my father asks motioning towards the kitchen.
I nod, taking the bracelet from Normani's hand and fasten it around her wrist. I kiss the top of her hand, then another quick kiss on her lips as I follow my father to the kitchen and walk over to the stove. I grab a mit as Normani takes the other one and lifts a tray and smiles at me before bringing it into the dining room.
“I know I don't have to say it,” my father says stopping me in my tracks. “But she ain't a bat bunny Dev.”
“I know, Dad. Believe me, I know.”
And I did. Normani Jameson was far from a bat bunny. She was the forever kinda girl. I already felt it in my bones that she was gonna be my forever kinda girl, I just had to keep convincing her of that.
Chapter 5
Devin
I walk into the kickboxing studio and see Normani on the ground, wrestling with a man, a muscular man and he has her pinned to the floor. She taps on his leg and he let's go of her as they both laugh.
“Asshole, I told you I don't wanna get taken to the ground today,” Normani says.
“Well you need to learn it's not all about what you want, brat,” says the man bringing her in for a hug and kissing the top of her head. “What ya gonna do with your newfound freedom? Still come for our ass kickin’ dates?”
Normani laughs and pushes the man away and I ball my fists next to me and walk further into the studio.
“I ain't interruptin’ anything am I?”
Normani's gaze snaps up to mine and her eyebrows furrow as she untangles herself from the man. She's pissed, but I don't care, she's the one that told me to come here.
“What are you doin’ here?” she asks.
“Here to pick you up for our lunch date.”
“We didn't have a lunch date,” Normani says confused.
“Bella told me you left your phone at the office and called from the studio for me to pick you up for lunch.”
“She did huh? Damn meddler,” Normani says crossing her arms.
“Well now I'm here, so are we goin’ to lunch or are you gonna continue your wrestlin’ match and ignore the guy that you had your lips all over the other day.”
I look over to the guy, seeing if that got a reaction and he turns his gaze to Normani.
“Really Mani?” snaps the man.
“It's not...I...it was one time...well two times or three I don't know I…” Normani stutters.
“Oh yeah? Can’t keep track?” I snap.
“Hey man, watch your fuckin’ tone,” snaps the guy.
“You wanna make me tough guy?” I seethe, hopping up into the platform of the ring.
“Alright enough, both of you!” Normani yells putting her hands up. “Miguel, Devin; Devin, Miguel.”
I look at the hand the man extends to me and reluctantly shake it, making sure my grip is deadly. My gaze is hard, challenging him as I stare into his eyes. His green eyes, his really fuckin’ green eyes.
“My brother,” Normani says through gritted teeth.
“I…” Miguel laughs at my speechless state and Normani grabs my arm, dragging me into the hallway of the studio.
“Why the hell are you here, Devin?”
“I wanted to have lunch with you.”
“I don't want you here,” Normani says crossing her arms.
“Why not?” I ask crossing my arms too.
“Because I wanna keep this,” she says motioning between the two of us, “Between us, and not make it a part of this,” she says motioning to the studio.
“What does this have to do with that?”
“They're totally separate and I wanna keep them separate. I don't want you involved in this part of my life, it’s in the past, I wanna keep it that way,” Normani says exhaling.
“Darlin’, if I'm gonna be a part of your life, I'm gonna be a part of every aspect of your life.”
She shakes her head and closes her eyes.
“You have no idea what you're askin’ for,” she says quietly.
“Yes, I do.”
I step closer to her and brush the hair away from her face and put it behind her ear.
“I know what I'm askin’ Normani and I'm gonna get it. You. All of you. Every single part of you. That's what I'm here for,” I say softly.
She opens her eyes and rolls them, laughing.
“Your mama probably had a field day with you as a teenager. How'd she ever get mad at those big blue eyes and dimpled face?” Normani says putting her hands on her hip.
“What can I say? Use what ya got,” I say winking.
“Let me just grab my stuff. We'll head to lunch.”
Before she can walk away, I grab her wrist and pull her back to me, kissing her softly.
“Take your time darlin’. I'll be outside.”
I walk back into the studio and Miguel sizes me up.
“I don't gotta give you the speech big guy, do I?”
“No sir. I got a sister of my own so I invented the speech. Sorry about before, I get a little protective,” I laugh slapping him on the back.
“I get it but don't let her fool you. She's a tough cookie to crack but once you do, she's...she’s been through a lot. Don
’t hurt her man, she's an amazin’ woman.”
“I already knew that,” I say smiling.
“Okay, I don't like the two of you talkin’. Let's go caveman,” she says dragging me out the door by the hem of my t shirt.
Changeup (Double Play Series Book 4) Page 6