“Thanks,” Thomas said as he sipped his coffee and started in on his sandwich.
“Move over, I’m driving,” I ordered.
“It’s fine. I’ll drive, just give me a second.”
“Oh, no. Don’t you start with me. My driving is just fine. Now move over and I’m going to drive us the rest of the way. You can eat and drink your coffee and work on brightening up that mood so we can have some fun.”
“You’re really bossy,” he snorted as he moved over. “Please be careful. No taking the corners like you were doing in town.”
“I’ll drive the way I want to, thank you very much,” I joked as I put my seatbelt on and then slowly pulled back onto the interstate.
I wasn’t about to mess around or drive erratically though. I kept our course to his house and managed to pull into the driveway safely without running into anyone or anything. It was actually really fun to drive that big of a truck. Well, it was fun on the highway, but I didn’t suspect it would have been very fun in the city at all.
Jackson and Jenna were outside and unloading the truck the second we pulled in. They both really seemed to like the new chairs and took some time to look through the other items we had in the truck as well.
“I arranged for Alana to put some money in my meter tonight and again tomorrow morning. I should have left her the keys but I guess I’ll plan ahead better next time.”
“Tomorrow morning, eh?” Thomas winked at me and motioned with a head nod up to his bedroom. “You’re going to be spending the night?”
“You aren’t driving us back in that truck tonight are you?” I said reminding him that we still had the truck. “Now shh, don’t talk about stuff like that in front of the kids.”
“Stuff like what?” Jackson asked.
“Don’t worry about it,” Thomas said and grabbed his son. The two of them started wrestling right there in the driveway and were soon on the ground trying to pin each other.
I was taken aback by how quickly the wrestling turned serious.
I wasn’t used to seeing guys go at it like that. I must have looked terrified because Jenna came over and stood next to me and offered me a little bit of encouragement. “It’s normal. It’s a guy thing. They wrestle all of the time.”
One time in high school I’d seen a couple of guys start wrestling in the middle of the hallway. I thought they were fighting until one of them started to laugh. Guys were weird creatures that were really hard to understand.
It was really funny to me that men always said women were hard to understand. Well, I’d never seen two women randomly decide they were going to start wrestling on the ground. Not once had I seen something like that.
“Even in the dirty driveway?” I asked, clearly already knowing the answer.
“Oh, yeah. They don’t care where they are. I think it has something to do with their testosterone,” Jenna said as if she knew exactly what she was talking about.
“What are we supposed to do?”
“Let’s go inside and get the Pictionary game set up. They will come in when they are finished.”
I followed her to the door and stopped to watch Thomas and Jackson wrestling around. Thomas looked up and smiled at me for a brief moment before going back to wrestling with his son. In just that tiny glance from him, I suddenly realized what was happening.
Jackson liked to wrestle, and Thomas appeared to be doing to it make his son happy. I didn’t know if there was a winner or a loser in these little wrestling matching, but it made my heart warm to see that Thomas had fixed his grumpy attitude and was outside wrestling in the dirt with his son.
What a great father Thomas was. On a couple of occasions, I’d seen just how truly dedicated Thomas was to his kids. It was a special thing to see a parent devoted to their children and willing to do whatever was necessary to make them happy. I really loved that side of Thomas.
“We have Pictionary ready,” Jenna yelled as we heard the front door slam.
It was amazing how much you could hear in that house even though it was very large. The guys went to the bathroom to wash up first.
Jenna and I had the game all set up and she even had a portable chalkboard that she pulled out for us to draw on. It was another sign of their wealth that they actually had a chalkboard in the home. How many families could say they had a rolling chalkboard for playing Pictionary?
“I’m ready to kick your butts,” Jackson said as he jumped into the couch across from Jenna and me. “We are playing boys versus girls, right?”
“Yeah, unless you want to play old people versus young people?” Thomas suggested and looked at me. “Although, I’m not sure Niki fits into the old people category.”
“I definitely do not fit into the old person category. You’ll have to redefine the parameters of that category if you want me to be in it,” I laughed and then looked at Jenna who’s smile had switched to a frown. “Anyways, I really like my team right now. I think girls versus boys is the best because we are going to kick your butts.”
“That’s right, we are going to kick your butts,” Jenna added with much more excitement.
Thomas and I exchange a quick smile and then he joined Jackson on the other couch so we could start the game. I was bad at Pictionary. I was actually terrible at the game. The more I had to draw pictures the more I felt horrible that Jenna was stuck with me as a partner; she couldn’t figure out most of my drawings. Luckily she an amazing artist and I happened to guess her drawings really quickly and we were winning after an hour of playing.
“We can beat them, Dad,” Jackson said desperately as they went into the last round.
We were all laughing and playing and having so much fun that I honestly didn’t care if we won or not. Jenna looked like she was having fun and Jackson was clearly having a blast. It was such a fun evening; I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had so much fun.
“Dad, you aren’t going to guess this right,” Jenna said trying to psych him out. “It’s really hard,” she continued on as she watched her brother draw.
“Do you know what it is?” I asked her, a little confused at how she knew it was so hard.
“Oh, yeah, we have twin talk. That’s why it’s not fair when we are on a team together. I knew what he was drawing almost right away. It’s so hard, Dad you’ll never get it. Maybe you should just give up.”
I wasn’t sure if Jenna really did know what the clue was or not but she was doing a great job distracting her father and keeping him from getting the clue. When the time finally ran out and it was our turn to guess, Jenna paused for a minute and then gave the answer.
“We won,” she said without all that much excitement.
“That’s bullshit,” Jackson slammed his fist on the table and pushed the cards to the ground.
I felt terrible as I sat and watched him storm off. He had gotten really into the game and wanted to win so bad and Jenna and I who didn’t care all that much at all were the winners. It didn’t seem fair.
“I’ll be right back. Can you two pick up the game?” Thomas asked before following Jackson up to his bedroom.
“I’ve got it. No worries,” Jenna said and got onto the carpet to get everything picked up. “It’s my fault. I should have let him win. I didn’t care if I won or not.”
“No, it’s a game and he has to learn to lose with a better attitude. I’m sure your Dad will talk to him a little bit. Do you mind if I make a couple quick phone calls before it gets too late?”
“Sure, I’ve got this.”
With Thomas upstairs, I pulled up his parent’s number on my phone and dialed them quickly. I wanted to see what was going on with this party and if they really were going to come or not.
His mother answered the phone and we talked for a minute. She said that they had a good deal on a cruise and were going to take it that year instead of staying home. She also told me that her other son was going to be staying home with his family since he had two small children. Ashley might decide to come but t
hey weren’t sure.
It was terribly disappointing to hear that his close family didn’t want to support him. His mother seemed really nice on the phone so I was still confused at why they wouldn’t have made their plans around the date of the party. The only conclusion I could come up with was that they genuinely didn’t believe that Thomas was going to follow through on his word to throw the party.
It made me sad to think that we were putting so much work into this party and his family might not even come. But if the only people there were his kids, I still knew it would be a great party. It was going to be a really expensive party for only his children to see though, so I put a reminder in my phone to call his sister when I got a chance. His sister would know more about what was going on.
Chapter 13
Thomas
“Where did Jenna go?” I asked when I returned to the great room to find Niki sitting there all by herself.
“I think she went to her room. You must just have missed her. How is Jackson doing? I feel bad that he lost. Jenna and I didn’t care if we won or not.”
“Don’t feel bad. He struggles with this and we are working on him doing a better job and playing nicely. I hope he works through it before he gets to college. Those kids aren’t going to put up with his attitude.”
She smiled as I talked and I imagined she had been thinking something similar when Jackson threw his fit over not winning. It was a tough lesson to learn but you couldn’t be a poor sport as an adult. People wouldn’t want to hang around you at all if they thought you would act all crazy every time you lost. Jackson would have a hard time keeping friends if he was doing that as an adult and I suspect he already struggled to keep friends if he acted like that very often now.
“I poured us some of that delicious wine,” Niki said pointing to the glasses of wine on the kitchen counter way in the other room. “It’s like a mile walk in there. You might need to carry me.”
“It does feel like a long way away,” I playfully picked her up and cradled her in his arms.
Her head fell softly onto my chest and she took in a deep breath of my cologne. She seemed to like my smell and let it permeate into her nostrils. I always tried to smell good. It was amazing how much I also enjoyed taking in the scent of Niki as I leaned down and let my nose touch her hair.
“I really did love this wine. Since we have the truck, how about we load it up and bring a bunch to my place,” she teased.
“Sure, we could bring a couple cases over if you’d like. Do you want to go down into the cellar and look through everything?”
“Yes, I’m not even going to pretend like that is a no from me. I’ll take all the free wine you want to give. So far you’ve proven to be very good at choosing your wines. Much better than Alana and me. Usually, we are just downing the wine in an effort not to waste the nine dollars we spent.”
“You are so adorable,” I laughed. “I would love to give you some wine. I have a lot of it and not enough shelf space for it. If you and Alana will drink it, let’s get you girls some wine.”
We grabbed our wine glasses and walked down some winding stairs to the cellar. If I hadn’t already started to have feelings for her and her for me, this would have been really awkward. She probably would have felt a little nervous going into the dark basement of my home. It was the ideal location for a murder, not that I’d ever considered such a thing. But every time I walked into the basement I thought the same gory thought.
The dark stairway led to a dark hallway and then a larger room that had wine racks on each side. There was room for more racks along the walls but instead, I just had cases and cases of wine all over the place. It wasn’t pretty. I was a little embarrassed by the mess that was down there, but I trusted that Niki would be understanding, especially since I was going to pack up a few cases of wine from around the world and send it home with her.
“What is going on down here?” she laughed at the disorganization. “Your kitchen is so well organized and then you get to this wine cellar which is just boxes all over the place. That can’t be good for it at all.”
“Rose organized the kitchen,” I started to say and then stopped myself. I knew women didn’t like it when I brought up my late wife while I was spending time with them. “I just never got around to finishing the cellar.”
“You know, it’s okay to talk about Rose with me. It doesn’t bother me. I know she was your love and that you miss her. I know this house was probably a dream that she had and designed. You can tell me about it, I actually would love to hear more about her.”
Her words hit me so hard. I’d never had a woman be so open and willing to accept the emotions of my love from the past. I grabbed her wine glass and put it on one of the boxes. I picked her up and sat her on the table in the middle of the room. At one time or another, it had been used for crafts or other projects but it was currently cleared off without even a single bottle of wine on it. The perfect place for me to make love to Niki.
“You just may be the most wonderful woman in the world,” I said as I kissed her.
“Why?” she laughed.
“That was a really sweet thing to say and I appreciate it. But I don’t want to talk about anyone else right now. I want to talk about you and how many times I’m going to make you moan right here on this table.”
“We don’t have protection, don’t you go getting too excited,” Niki teased me.
I grabbed her hand and wrapped it around me so she could feel my back pockets. They each had a condom in them. I’d grabbed them while I was upstairs because I planned to take her out to the pool house instead of sleeping up in my room.
The kids had never been home when a woman stayed over, and I wasn’t sure I was ready for them to know that Niki and I were sleeping together. The pool house seemed like a good alternative.
“I’m not actually a boy scout, but I play one sometimes.”
“Let’s get this wine together, I have my priorities. Then you can show me to a more comfortable spot than this hard table. How about that?”
“That sounds like a deal,” I said and kissed her as I pulled her back off the table.
It may seem a little weird but I really loved that she slowed me down and refocused me on the task at hand. I loved that she felt confident enough to say no to making love in the cellar and asking for me to take her someplace comfortable.
We spent a lot longer going through the wine than I had intended. Each box I opened I would tell her where it was from and try to describe the taste of it. She picked a few of them to try and I picked a few that I thought she would like. Soon we have five cases stacked up by the stairs and ready to go out to the truck.
“You should wait until tomorrow to bring those to the truck,” Niki said as she wrapped her arms around me and grabbed my butt. “I don’t want you to be too tired for the things I’m going to do to you tonight.”
“Oh, yeah? Did you have something special in mind?”
“There are a few gymnastics moves I was going to try on you. I don’t want you to hurt your back before we get going...”
By the time we got to the top of the stairs, I could hardly walk I was throbbing so hard for her. Every image that popped into my head was of her twisting and turning into delicious moves that I couldn’t wait to try out.
“This is the pool house,” I said opening the door to the small house in the backyard.
“You have a house in the yard of your house? This is getting a little ridiculous, Thomas. Why aren’t you renting this out to someone? It would be a great way to make some extra money,” Niki said and then started to laugh. “Oh, I guess you don’t need the money. Sorry, I just always think of ways to not waste things.”
“It’s a good idea, but I don’t know if I’d trust anyone enough to stay out here when I was gone though. Do you want to rent it?” I asked and pulled her in close to me. “I’ll give you a big discount.”
“Then you’d be my boss and my landlord. I think we have enough of a messy situation
going on here,” she was teasing me, but I still felt a little bit of a gut punch at the idea that I was her boss.
Years of corporate mumbo jumbo and sexual harassment trainings were jammed into my mind. Of course, this was a different situation than an office romance, but I was painfully aware that I was the one who had hired her for the position.
It wasn’t a big deal though. Niki and I were both adults and had gotten into this together. I wasn’t trying to make her sleep with me in order to get or keep the job. I think the semantics of the situation just bugged me. I was looking forward to the party being over and being able to date Niki like two normal adults.
That was assuming she wanted to date me. I hadn’t really taken her out on a normal date yet and wasn’t exactly sure if she considered what was going on between us dating at all. I was stuck in my head trying to think about the situation as we moved into the living room of the pool house.
“You are right again,” I admitted. “Okay, this is the living room. There are two master suites, one on each side of the house. The kids use that side for slumber parties with their friends so I have a couple of bunk beds over there. This side has a regular bed though,” I grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the room with the big bed.
“Wait, why aren’t we sleeping in the bunk beds? I get the top,” she said and then ran into the other room.
“What are you doing?” I ran after her but she had already climbed up to the top bunk and had her feet dangling over the edge. “Come down here or I’ll take you down.”
Niki smiled at me and leaned back as she took her pants off. She threw them across the room and then used her finger to motion for me to come there. As she sat on the top bunk she was at the absolute perfect height for me.
“Wow, okay, you thought this through didn’t you?”
“Not really, but it is a good idea, isn’t it,” she said seductively as she opened her legs and motioned for me to put my head there. “I think you have some work to do.”
Mine on Christmas Page 14