CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Easton
As I waited with Avery and Nicole for Brooke while she had her biopsy, I realized that life was too short. I wanted to introduce her to Cheyenne. I wanted my two worlds to meet—my two girls to meet. If Brooke had cancer and she couldn’t fight it, then at least Cheyenne would meet a strong woman.
I watched Brooke as we drove to the hospital. I knew she was hiding her feelings—trying to be strong, but breaking inside. I didn’t want to draw any attention to what she was about to undergo, so I just held her hand. Occasionally, she would squeeze it as if she was making sure I was still there. I wasn’t going anywhere—ever.
I needed to introduce my girls, because I needed to be there to take care of both of them. I couldn’t do that if I was hiding Brooke from Cheyenne. I just needed to figure out how I was going to do it. I wanted to be with Brooke every weekend and to make that work; Cheyenne would need to accept her.
Brooke let out a soft snore as we watched the movie she chose. She had a long day, and I didn’t blame her. I was where I wanted to be, with her in my arms and taking care of her. She deserved to be taken care, and I’m glad we came into each other’s lives at what seemed like the right time.
I didn’t even want to think about where Jared would be instead of taking her to the biopsy. I’m glad that fucker was out of our lives and I could be the man that Brooke needed me to be.
As the credits rolled on the TV screen, I scooted off the couch, picked Brooke up in my arms, and carried her to her bed. She didn’t wake as I moved her or placed her down on the bed. After stripping off my jeans, I crawled into the bed behind her and drifted off to sleep with her in my arms.
*~*~*
The sun had set and it was dark by the time I woke. Brooke was lying on her side, facing me. It reminded me of how I would wake up with her on the cruise, but this was better. We were closer than three feet, almost flush with each other and I could feel her breath on my arm.
“Hey, how are you feeling?”
“Fine. Sorry, I fell asleep.”
“Don’t be sorry. We had a late night, and then you went through all that today.”
She blushed at the memory of the night before. Are you hungry?”
“I’m always hungry. I’m a guy.” I laughed. I worked out at the gym five to six days a week, which made me eat a lot.
“True.” She laughed. “Want to order pizza?”
“Anything you want,” I said, then leaned closer to give her a kiss.
“I’m really happy you came.”
“I wouldn’t have missed it.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” I kissed her again.
She slid out of the bed and walked to the living room. I glanced at the clock and saw that it was almost eight, and I needed to call my Peanut.
“Hey, Daddy. How’s work?”
“Uh…work is work. Are you having fun with Grandma and Grandpa?”
“Yeah, they loved the snow globe I brought them back from Disneyland.”
“That’s good, Peanut. I knew they would.”
“Grandpa and I played catch today.”
I laughed silently thinking about my old man throwing a softball and not throwing out his shoulder.
“My throw is getting stronger. I just know it. Before long, I’m going to be able to throw from the grass all the way to first base.”
“I have no doubt.”
“Why didn’t I stay with you last night at home?”
“Because you’re spending the weekend with Grandma and Grandpa.”
“I’ve never stayed the whole weekend.”
“They’ve missed you, Peanut. They didn’t see you for a whole week.”
“I know. Did you bring a girl home?” she asked, mocking the word girl.
“What?” I protested.
“A girl, Daddy. Like a girlfriend.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked, sitting up in Brooke’s bed.
“I heard Grandma tell Grandpa that you met a girl.”
“Peanut…” I groaned. “I need to get back to work. I didn’t bring a girl home. We’ll talk about this tomorrow when I pick you up. Remember I’ll be late.”
“I know.”
“Love you, Peanut.”
“Love you, too, Daddy.”
This was either going to be the easiest thing or the hardest introducing Cheyenne to Brooke. It seemed that Cheyenne was okay with the fact that I “met a girl”. However, I was still nervous. Cheyenne doesn’t know much about Dana, doesn’t remember her, so I’m not worried that she is going to compare Brooke to Dana…but what if she does?
I’ve heard horror stories about step-parents and step-kids not getting along. Heard how they would fight, and sometimes kids would run away. I couldn’t let that happen. My situation was different. I didn’t try to replace Dana. I waited—hell, I wasn’t even looking.
“Pizza should be here in forty,” she said, crawling on the bed.
I set my phone on Brooke’s black nightstand that matched her king-size bed. “I just talked to Cheyenne.”
“Oh yeah? Does she miss her Daddy?”
“She does, but she doesn’t know I’m here.”
Brooke turned to look at me, her eyes huge. “Really?”
“You know I’ve never brought anyone home to meet her. I haven’t told her about you, yet, because I didn’t know where we stood.”
She was silent for a moment. “That makes sense.”
“I want you to meet her, though, and soon.”
“Really?” she asked again.
“Yes, really,” I pulled her down towards me on the bed, careful not to touch the bandage on the back of her neck. “We have forty minutes right?” I asked, giving her my panty-melting smile.
“Uh huh.” She smiled.
For the next forty minutes, I enjoyed her body again. We had just come down from our high, both panting when there was a knock at the door. I threw on my jeans, went to the door and paid for the pizza.
I’d never realized that dating someone could be like this. Brooke didn’t want me just for my body—even though I know she enjoyed it, but we had a bond. If she weren’t single on the cruise, I probably would have fucked her hard and got her out of my system, but she was so far in my veins that there was no turning back.
We ate the pizza in front of her TV, I drank a few beers, and we watched baseball. It wasn’t my Angels—I didn’t care. My girl liked to watch baseball!
After a few slices and a few beers, we showered and I paid extra close attention to her wound. It was just a small hole, but I didn’t want it to get infected.
“It’s small,” I said.
“That’s what she said.” She laughed.
I pinched her butt. “You know it’s not.”
“It’s not, but come on…”
“I know, smartass. Anyway, what I was saying…your hole is sma…shit.”
Brooke busted out with a laugh again, causing me to laugh and grab her face and plant a kiss to shut her up.
“Where they stuck the needle is a small hole,” I corrected.
“Is it?”
“Yeah, I bet tomorrow it will be closed up.”
“That’s good.”
I washed around the hole in her neck, and rubbed her shoulders with the soap as she hung her head down, enjoying the massage. I squirted more of her apple-scented shower gel in my palms, soaping each arm and then down her back and around her front.
I didn’t want to push her. I knew that she had been through a lot today, but I just liked touching her. I wasn’t looking forward to returning to New York the next morning, but I knew I had to.
While I still could, I ran my hands all over her body with the soap, memorizing her feel and the look of her golden skin. Everything was perfect. Her hair, eyes, nose, lips, smile, teeth—her neck, collarbone, breasts—her flat stomach. Her mostly shaved pussy—her smooth legs and perfect feet and toes.
After I finis
hed washing every inch of her, she returned the favor, concentrating more on my cock. Her slick, soapy hand tightened around my stiff shaft. I groaned as she slid her hand up and down, milking me. She knew exactly how I wanted it. Our eyes met as she continued to slowly pump, then increased the motion and grabbed my balls lightly with her free hand at the same time.
My head fell back, and my hips had a mind of their own as they moved to match the rhythm of her hand. Before I knew it, cum squirted out, landing on her recently washed stomach.
I had to rewash her. Not that I was complaining or anything, but I figured it was part of her plan. I placed a new bandage on the back of her neck when we were done with our shower. We were both spent and crawled into bed where I held her the whole night.
*~*~*
The next morning, I woke to the smell of bacon and coffee. I instantly smiled, knowing that Brooke wanted to return the favor from the morning before. Little did she know, I didn’t do it because I wanted to do something nice—I mean I did, but I did it because I was used to getting up early with Cheyenne and making breakfast. I would make Brooke breakfast every morning if she let me.
“Mornin’,” I said, kissing the top of her head.
“Did I wake you?”
“No, the bacon did,” I said, giving her the same line she gave me the morning before.
For the first time, we had an awkward silence around us as we ate breakfast. We both knew I was leaving after breakfast.
“Do you want to come next weekend?” I asked.
“What about Cheyenne?”
“I want you to meet her.”
“I know, but should I like stay in a hotel?”
I thought for a moment. “No, I’ll sneak you in when she goes to bed.” I winked.
“Oh really?” She laughed.
“I’ll talk to Cheyenne. It will be fine. We’ll have dinner together and then watch a movie with her or something. She won’t care.”
“Are you sure?” she asked, cutting into her pancake with a fork.
“Well…I’ll let you know. She knows about you.”
“Wait, I thought you said she didn’t?”
“I didn’t think she did, but she heard my mom talking to my dad,” I said, sticking a bit of strawberry in my mouth.
“You talked to your mom?”
“Of course. I needed advice about introducing you to Cheyenne.”
“I see,” she said, not pressing the situation more.
After breakfast we said our long goodbye. Now I knew why she bolted when I was in the shower on the cruise. Goodbyes were hard even if they were only for a week. A lot could happen in five days, and I wanted to spend those five days with her. I wanted to spend every day with her.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Brooke
Sunday was hard with Easton leaving. I didn’t want him to go, and it was nice not being in an empty apartment. I always thought I wanted to be alone when I was with Jared, but I realized it was because he would ignore me the whole time, and I was his slave. Easton helped me and he was a guest in my home.
I tried not to cry when I watched Easton drive away, but I couldn’t hold my tears in. I didn’t cry much, but I was sad. The stupid four and a half hour drive between us felt like the whole United States.
Me: Did A leave yet?
Nicole: Not yet. What’s up?
Me: E left already because of Cheyenne.
Nicole: He’s leaving soon. Want to do dinner?
Me: Yeah, where?
Nicole: Your place?
Me: Sure.
Nicole had never really been over to my apartment before. Everything was different now that I broke up with Jared—or maybe Nicole thought I was fragile now that I had a tumor. We didn’t know how long I had the tumor, so I was leaning more towards that she was okay with coming over because Jared was long gone.
After I did my Sunday routine of laundry and cleaning my apartment, Nicole came over with bags of food.
“You do know I’m not helpless right?” I asked, staring at her arms full of bags.
“I know. I went to the store to get stuff to make dinner and I picked you up a few things.”
“A few things? You bought the whole store.”
“Eh, whatever,” she said, waving her hand to brush off my statement.
We put all the groceries away. I was actually grateful that she had gone to the store. Usually my shopping day was Saturday, but with all that had happened, I didn’t get a chance to go.
“How you feeling?”
“Good.”
“Does your neck hurt,” Nicole asked, twirling her finger around to motion for me to turn around. She lifted one side of the bandage and looked at my wound.
“No, it feels fine.”
“It looks good too. I think you can take this off.” She removed the bandage and threw it in the garbage.
“I don’t want to talk about it. Can we talk about you and Avery?”
Nicole’s eyes lit up. She loved talking about herself and the men she was dating. “Oh my God, B, he is so sweet. You want to know what sealed the deal for me?”
“His big cock?” I said with a laugh.
“Well, duh, but no. Did you know that he helped Easton raise Cheyenne after Easton’s wife died?”
“Easton briefly mentioned it.”
“I think Avery loves that girl like his own.”
“I think he is just a really good Uncle.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right, but knowing that he helped raise a kid just makes me want him more. My clock is tickin’,” she said, slicing chicken into bite size pieces.
“Tell me about it,” I huffed.
I never thought that I would be thirty and not married with kids. The times were changing, and women were having babies later, but I just always assumed I would at least have one by thirty.
“Also, the sex is really good. Like the best I’ve ever had.”
“Sex with Easton is the best I’ve ever had,” I said, putting a cup of brown rice in the rice cooker.
“Okay, start from the beginning with him showing up without telling you.”
“I thought it was you at my door. He was on the phone with me, so I didn’t even think it could be him. When I looked in the peephole and saw him standing there, my heart like stopped. I swear to God, it stopped. The last time that I’d actually seen him face to face was when we awkwardly went to bed the last night of the cruise.”
“Okay, okay, get to the sex.” She laughed.
“Whenever I have imagined sex with him, he would throw me on the bed and fuck me hard, but it was so…passionate. I’ve never had it so slow and good before. I don’t know, I can’t explain it. Jared used to just lick and stick, but Easton…he paid attention to my needs. It was perfect.”
“Now are you happy I got you a trip on a cruise for your birthday?” Nicole had moved onto slicing a few bell peppers and zucchini.
“Yes, but I wish I didn’t waste a week with Easton.”
“I don’t think you wasted a week. You got to know him, and I know you, you wouldn’t have been able to wrap your head around the fact that he has been married before and has a kid if you didn’t get to know him first.”
“I know. I still can’t wrap my head around it actually.”
“B, I’m not telling you to marry the guy. Just have some fun.”
“Avery is rubbing off on you.”
“What does that mean?”
“Ever since you met him, you’ve called me B. You used to call me by my name or Brookie.”
“Huh…” she said, trailing off, and it looked like she was trying think about what I was saying.
“Anyway, Easton wants me to meet Cheyenne.”
Nicole dropped the knife from her hands. “Oh my God, really? Avery said that he’s never introduced a girl to his daughter before.”
“I know. I’m really nervous. What if she doesn’t like me?”
“Well, I think you will be okay. She’s ten. If she were a teenager,
I would tell you to wait until she was out of the house.”
I tried to remember what Bailee was like at ten. She was starting to figure herself out. She stopped playing with dolls and started to play more with the kids in the neighborhood. By thirteen, she thought she knew it all. If all girls were the same, I had three years to prove myself to Cheyenne.
We finished making the chicken teriyaki bowls that were our usual go to with a glass of wine. It was easy and healthy. After dinner, we watched some reality TV on Bravo and made plans to go to New York together on Friday after work, and then called it a night. She assured me that she would call me first thing when Doctor Sam got the biopsy results.
*~*~*
I actually went to work on Monday. Ian dragged me into his office first thing, trying to reprimand me for being gone for two weeks. I explained to him about my tumor, and he apologized, but still seemed a little standoffish about it.
Each day as I tried to work, I waited for a text from Nicole about the biopsy. It didn’t come until Thursday. She told me that Doctor Sam couldn’t tell me the results, but Doctor Bloom, my surgeon needed to talk to me. I was scared, but she told me not to worry about it and that it was standard procedure since Doctor Bloom was the actual doctor to order it.
Not long after Nicole’s call, Doctor Bloom’s office assistant called to schedule an appointment with me. I didn’t want to miss any more work than needed, but I scheduled it for Friday at four. At five o’clock, Nicole and I were New York bound.
I didn’t tell Easton that I was coming on Friday. He thought I was coming on Saturday because I couldn’t get to New York until almost ten in the evening—if not later since Nicole would need to stop and pee a few times.
Just like the week before, Easton and I talked every night. It amazed me that we could talk every night, but our conversation never ended until it was time for us to go to bed so we could get at least a few hours of sleep. He also wanted me to call him first thing once I talked to Doctor Bloom.
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