by Lauren Wood
Finally I got a nice guy like Steve to make the trip for me. He was tall and older, but handsome. He had a dimple in his chin when he smiled and he made me feel better about finally getting home. Steve was my savior for the time being.
“Thanks, you don’t know how many people I had to ask before I got to you. No one was willing to take the drive.”
“I saw you walking down the line. I was curious when you got to me what your game was going to be. It was not at all what I had expected.”
“No game. I just need to get home and I didn’t want to drive all the way down. I don’t know why I thought getting a cab to make the trip was going to be so hard.”
“At this time of night, it is slim pickings that will go out of the city. You couldn’t have someone pick you up?”
“Not this late at night. I missed my flight, so I didn’t want to keep anyone up. You know how people are from small towns. They go to bed at eight.”
He chuckled and I saw his dark brown eyes looking at me through the rearview mirror. I wasn’t unused to that sort of attention, but we were going to be stuck in this car together for a while and I didn’t want to appear like I was trying to come on to him. My openness got me in quite a bit of trouble and I was trying to be good.
“Yes, I was raised in a small town in Ohio.”
Steve pulled into traffic and I was able to relax a little bit because his attention was no longer on me, it was on the traffic around us. The city was bustling and even if I had the time to drive down, I never did get the knack of driving in bumper to bumper traffic. It was chaotic and I preferred something a little slower. Steve was used to it though, so I was able to calm down a little bit and enjoy the ride. It wasn’t long before Chicago was behind us and we were on our way across the state lines to Michigan.
The scene outside of my window never seemed to be something that I could get tired of. It was just so pretty and I tried hard to think of it as anything else but magical. I missed home and the reasons why were right outside the glass in front of me.
Seasons changed and instead of the wet, rainy weather I left behind in Seattle, the air here was dry and crisp. Leaves of all colors were on the trees and underneath them, scattered all over to create a collage of color. It was days like this that I missed my home more than anything else. I didn’t come home much because I would get so homesick every time. I would get to missing my family, as well as just the area around me. I missed the fall here the most. It was the prettiest time of year.
“So how long has it been since you have been home? You look like it has been a while.”
“It has been almost a year. I come back in the summertime when I am off of classes last year.”
“What are you studying for?”
“Biology.”
He crinkled his nose up, like a scientist?”
I nodded my head and smiled at his response. It was hard not to get the same reaction all of the time. It was like girls weren’t supposed to be scientists. That or they were picturing me in one of those white vests. It didn’t seem to be hard to stump most people.
“Huh, you must be one of those smart broads.”
“I guess so.”
He looked far less interested and that wasn’t something that I was unfamiliar with either. It was the way of things. I was hot until a guy realized that I wasn’t the cheerleader type. Dating had been interesting since I changed my major from communications. It seemed like the more down my path I was the harder it was to find a guy that I wanted to share it with. Not that Steve was an option, but the way he reacted reminded me that it wasn’t smooth sailing from here.
He rode for a while in silence. It was peaceful and I was able to see the lights going down for the day and the beautiful colors that the sun gave off. If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought that the leaves and the sun were competing against each other. I couldn’t say which one was winning.
“We’re here?”
“Huh?”
My head was leaned against the door and I realized that I must have dozed off in those few moments with no sound but the hum of the engine.
“We are here Sherry. Your directions were perfect.”
I looked up at my childhood home and smiled to myself. It was good to be home and all I wanted to do was get inside and get some rest. It had been many hours of traveling and I was ready to stay still for a time. It was hard to do that when I was always on the go, but now school was over and I had time to decide what was next. I had just finished up my bachelors and I was taking some time off before I tried to conquer a master’s degree. This was the long overdue break that I needed. Not sure where it was going to take me yet, but all I could think about now was drinking some tea on the front porch and watching the leaves fall. It would be a long time, years even that I had been able to do that. Every time I was here, it was either summer or a short stint in the winter for the holidays.
Now I was here for the perfect part of the year. But it was late and everything was dark. Most of the lights were off in the house. It didn’t seem like it was that late to me, but like I had told Steve, things ran a little slower here in Hartford. I made my way up the stairs to the door and let myself in. I wasn’t even going to bother with getting something for dinner. I just wanted to take a shower and then get some sleep. I was still groggy from my nap in the cab and it made me realize how badly I needed to actually get some rest. College life was hectic and I was ready for the slow movement of Hartford, if only for a little while until I discovered what my next adventure was going to be.
Chapter 4
Rex
I just got back from a hot few minutes with Candy in her small apartment in downtown Hartford. She was everything that I had hoped she would be and more. The girl was talented and I had to wonder where she had learned her moves. She was better than any of the city girls that I had had in a while. Candy was going to fit in well at the club. We were going to pick her up in the morning since we were forced to stay overnight. Charlie’s sister had a late flight so she wouldn’t be in until the morning.
When I got back to Charlie’s house, everyone was already asleep and since I was told I could stay in Sherry’s room, I made my way upstairs. She wouldn’t be in for a little while, most likely morning, so I was going to get a few hours of sleep before all of that happened. I didn’t remember Sherry as much as I should have. She was always so much younger It had been years since she had been home when I was there and last time I seen her, she was tall and awkward. It made sense that she was going to become a scientist now.
I went up to her room and noticed that the lights were on. I figured that Rosalyn or her husband had left it on for me. It was one of those thoughtful things that she did that made me feel welcome there more than any other place. It was part of the reason that I always tagged along when Charlie was coming over for a visit.
I put my bag down and kicked my shoes off. I should go jump in the shower, but it was loud and I didn’t want to wake anyone up. It was down the hall on the other side of the house where everyone was already sleeping. Besides, I didn’t need to draw attention to the fact that I was coming in so late. Charlie wasn’t the only one that didn’t want questions shot his way.
With the light on, I could see all of the trophies and plaques that Sherry had won over the years. She was ambitious, not like me and her brother. Her ambition was good and pure. Sherry was into sports and academics. Mine came from a want of money that was hard to get any other way. What would my life have been like if I had parents like these? What would it had been like to have all of my energy pushed into other things.
I shook my head and tittered myself. There was no reason to think this way. I had the life I had and I worked hard to keep what it was that I wanted. Sherry was just a kid, an innocent one and as soon as she got home, me and Charlie would be back in the city and I could forget about the right ways to do things. What I did wouldn’t be considered right by a lot of people, but it gave me the life that I wanted since I wa
s a kid in foster care and never had any clean clothes.
I was tired and after shirking off my clothes real quick, I slid into the bed and sighed. It was so comfortable and after having my way with Candy, I was actually a little beat. I don’t know why, but it had been a long day and that girl had nearly sucked me dry. Candy was the last thing that I thought about as I closed my eyes. She was going to be a fun tagalong, I could see it now. All we had to do was wait a little longer and then we would be back to the city where things were normal and I didn’t feel so damn unclean around these nice sorts of people.
Sleep was fast coming because my body was so sore. It was one of those nights that I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. It didn’t matter that I was in someone else’s room or that everything in there was pink. All that mattered was the softness of the bed and the darkness in the room so I didn’t have to see any of it.
It was a while later that I felt someone shifting into the bed with me and when I was half asleep, I was sure that it was Candy. My mind was still on the wild time that we had together. I called out her name as I pulled her warm body to me. She was wet though and when she made a noise, I knew that it wasn’t Candy and I was getting pulled out of my slumber from the high-pitched sound that came next.
“What the hell! Who are you and why are you in my bed?!”
I couldn’t make out the words, but I could surely see and hear that I wasn’t supposed to be here. It took almost a full minute of me blinking into the bright lights to realize that I was still in Sherry’s room, but now I was not alone. A dark-haired woman was staring down at me and I looked down to what she saw in horror and saw that I was out. I never slept with any clothes on and thinking about Candy had made me rock hard. Now this girl was staring at me like I was a rapist or something, yet it did nothing to staunch my body’s desires. A stiff breeze made me this way and this woman in her bra and panties was doing the same damn thing.
“Who are you?”
“Who am I? This is my room! What the hell are you doing in here Rex?”
Her words finally got to me and I didn’t know what to say. “Sherry?” Was this woman in front of me my best friend’s little sister? She looks so different than I remembered. When did she grow up and become a woman?
Chapter 5
Sherry
“What the hell are you doing in my bed Rex?!”
He looked like he was not with it yet. He kept looking at me weird and repeating my name like he wasn’t sure if it was me or not standing in front of him. It was strange how his eyes kept trying to focus and not as funny when I realized where his eyes landed. He was checking me out and I looked down to see that all of him approved, which wasn’t hard to do because it was so visible through the sheets. My sheets.
“Put some clothes on. Where is Charlie?” I walked off from the naked guy rock hard in my bed and went to the hallway. I pulled the towel around me tighter, the only thing that I could find to throw on when I realized that I wasn’t alone in my bedroom. It was still wet and it was cold against my hot skin.
“Charlie?!”
I called to my brother and when I got to his room, I didn’t even bother to knock. I wanted to know what the hell his friend was doing in my bed, naked with a woody.
“Charlie?”
He wasn’t awake, but my third time calling his name he jerked up suddenly and now I knew I had his attention. “What the hell is your friend doing in my room? He is in there naked Charlie. Is this what happens to my room when I am away?”
He stared at me much like his friend had and I was getting more and more irritated by the minute. What the hell was wrong with these guys?
“I thought you were going to be here in the morning. That is what mom and dad said.”
“I found an alternative flight and caught a cab the other hundred miles. I didn’t want to sit in that airport all night or grab a hotel. You know how bad the area is around the airport.”
“Well we thought you were going to be gone, so mom told him that he could sleep in there. We are here to welcome you home sis, welcome home. Though I would have rather told you that in the morning when I had some damn sleep. Kick him to the couch.”
I pushed him back and got to my feet. “Your friend needs to stay somewhere else and put some damn clothes on. I didn’t need to see all that.”
“He didn’t mean to Sherry. It was just an honest mistake.”
I didn’t believe him and I didn’t believe that it was no big deal. I had seen more than I was supposed to and there were just some things in life that a person couldn’t un-see. I would have the image of him naked in my mind. Not that it was a bad image, just one that I knew I wouldn’t be able to shake every time I saw him from now on. I was always going to see him lying there with a huge erection, no matter how badly I wanted to forget about it.
“Just get him out of here. I am going downstairs to get something to drink. When I get back, make sure that he is gone.”
Charlie agreed, but he pushed me away anyways. “Get out of here Sherry. I am tired too. You didn’t have to wake the whole house up for that. It is not like he was going to do something to you.”
I didn’t answer because I felt like I had reacted the way anyone who found a naked guy in their bed would. Before I had realized what was going on and that I wasn’t alone, Rex had already pulled me to his hard body and started to kiss on my neck. I could still feel the burn of his hot hands on me and the heated trail that he had made with his lips in mere seconds.
I passed him on my way downstairs and soon was greeted by mom and dad in the kitchen. I hadn’t meant to wake the whole house up, but I had. Now we were sitting down to coffee at a little after midnight and with everything going on, it was still good to be home.
“You scared the dickens out of me Sherry. I thought there was a robber.”
“No, just a guy in my bed. Freaked me out. How long are they staying?”
Mom wasn’t sure, but told me that they were most likely going to leave some time tomorrow. “You know how your brother is, always busy.”
“I need to go to the city for a few days and see if I can find something to do there. I need somewhere to work and there is that aquarium I was thinking about. It could be a good job, right up my alley.”
“Well then you should ride up there with your brother when they leave. He says he has business, but there is no telling with him. I will let him know that you want to go as well. It would be good for you and your brother to spend some time together. It has been scarce with you gone to college. A lot has changed in the last four years.”
She was right and I wouldn’t mind a ride to the city. Maybe he would even let me stay with him, but I wasn’t going to suggest that to mom. Mom would make it so that he didn’t have a choice and I didn’t want him getting mad about it.
“I will ask him in the morning when he forgets that I just woke him up from a dead sleep.”
“Are you going to apologize to his friend? Rex didn’t know that you were going to be here. You were always a little temperamental towards him.”
I blushed and didn’t say a word. How did my mom know all of these things about me, but the things that I thought were easy to see, she didn’t have a clue about it? I had crushed on Rex since I was a teen and it did me no good. Seeing him that way, feeling him that way had done something to me and now I never wanted to be around him again. I was so embarrassed with it all.
“I will apologize, mom, but he shouldn’t have been in there naked. That is my bed.”
She waved me off and told me that I was being dramatic. “You sleep the same way Sherry. There is nothing nefarious about this. It was an honest mistake.”
They may have been so, but the honest mistake was going to mess with my head a little bit and I wasn’t okay with that. I was never going to get him and his hard lines out of my head, no matter what I did.
Chapter 6
Rex
“Sorry about last night Sherry. It wasn’t my intention to scare you.
I didn’t even recognize you at first. You have changed a lot in the last year.”
My eyes moved over her body and I could still see where she was curved in all of the right places. Her hips were rounded now and her top was a lot fuller than before. Last time I had seen her, she was a gangly girl, but now she was a full woman and I could tell a sexy one. I would have never thought that the soft body that I had thought was Candy that I had pulled against me was anything but Sherry. It didn’t make any sense, the changes and it made less sense that I had never looked at her like this before. She was Charlie’s sister after all, but she was also one hot woman. How could I have been so blind?
“So have you, I guess. Well, it’s all water under the bridge now, but you really scared the hell out of me. I didn’t know what to think when you pulled me to you.”
I could still feel her in my arms and I wanted to do it again. I knew it was wrong, wanting Charlie’s sister, but damn it things had changed and she was just too beautiful to ignore. Charlie walked in and stopped me in my tracks though. He was the reminder that I needed. It wasn’t okay to want her. She was his sister and the way he looked at me told me that he felt the same way. Could he feel something in between us? I liked to think that there was something there, but it could just be me trying to make it true.
“What’s up with you two this morning? Did you kiss and makeup?”
Sherry gave him a dirty look. “Everything is fine as long as you keep your naked friends out of my room Charlie. Nothing ever changes, does it?”
I didn’t like how she said that, but I could see her point. I just didn’t like how against it all she was. Was she not feeling the same thing I was feeling about it all? I felt like I wanted her back in my arms because that was where she belonged. It didn’t matter if it was wrong or right, it just was and I wanted her badly. I don’t know why, I never looked at her like this before, but now I saw Sherry for what she was and I was sure that she was one hot chick that I needed to pay more attention to. It was unfortunate that I was friends with her brother, because it was going to be hard to deny how I felt. I could feel other parts of me being clear about my needs as well.