Hope Blooms

by Jamie Pope

  She was, and he walked out of there with the best haircut of his life.

  Chapter 14

  The smell of warm bread greeted Wylie as he walked into the house that evening. It was a welcome smell. For so long he had been used to coming home to an empty, quiet house, eating dinner over the kitchen sink and watching TV until he passed out. Since Cass had come, he realized that returning to his house at night felt entirely different.

  For a moment he leaned against the doorjamb and watched her work. She was making dinner again, chopping tomatoes for a salad and humming softly as she did. She wore a baby pink shirt and jeans that hugged her increasingly beautiful body, but she was barefoot, with her toes painted a bright shade of red. So different than how he saw them last night when he ran his fingers over them. He couldn’t take his eyes off her—not just because she was beautiful, but because part of him still couldn’t believe she was with him again.

  He had made love to her last night, and all throughout the day he kept thinking about it: the way her legs felt wrapped around him, the way she moaned his name and pushed her sweet body against his. And the smell of her scented cream lingered on his skin even in the morning. He thought about not washing it off so he could take her scent with him wherever he went that day. Every time he thought about her, he hardened, wanting to rush through his work so he could get back to her. Yet, he felt guilty for seducing her. And he had seduced her. He knew as soon as he walked into her room, he was going to make love to her that night.

  He wasn’t sure if she was ready to take such a big step. Ready to make love to a man who wasn’t her husband. That’s why he talked to her so much, so she would know it was him she was with, so she would equate his words with his touch.

  She said his name while he was inside her. She looked him in the eye while they were making love. Still, he wondered if she thought about Terrance while she did it. It was an ugly thought after a beautiful moment, but it was there.

  “Are you just going to stand there being creepy, or are you going to come over here?”

  “How did you know I was here?” He walked over to her, placing his hand on the small of her back.

  “I can feel your eyes on me. Plus the sound of your truck pulling in the driveway is a dead giveaway.”

  “And here I thought all my special military training helped me be sneaky.”

  Her lips curled into a smile that simultaneously aroused him and brought him comfort. She was so lost when she first came here. Sometimes he thought she was never going to smile again. “Didn’t anybody ever tell you never to sneak up on a woman holding a knife?”

  He pulled her into him, her back into his front, her soft behind into his groin. His slid his hand up her arm till it met her wrist that held the knife. Finding her pressure point, he squeezed slightly, causing her fingers to release her grip. “I can still disarm anybody. I’m really good at that. Top of my class in school.”

  “Were you, macho man?” He let her go, but she didn’t move away from him, instead she leaned into him more. “Sometimes I wondered if I knew how to disarm him, would all those people have had to die?”

  Her words left him speechless. He was just playing, being silly, but he of all people knew that anything could trigger a nasty flashback. He wrapped his arms around her, resting his lips on her ear so she would remember where she was, remember that she was here with him and not in some hellish nightmare. “You saved those babies in your class. You did exactly what you were meant to do. There was nothing you could have changed.”

  “I yelled at Teo today,” she said, her voice coming out shaky. “He was pretending his finger was a gun and shooting at imaginary bad guys. He kept saying, ‘Die! Die!’ and I snapped at him. I asked him if he really knew what it was like to see somebody die and I told him it was horrible and that it haunts you. I yelled at him and he was just being a little boy. He was doing what all little boys do.”

  “Don’t beat yourself up. You couldn’t help your feelings. It takes time.” He kissed the side of her face. “And Teo needs to be yelled at once in awhile. It helps keep him grounded.”

  She turned in his arms, stood on her tiptoes and gently pressed her mouth to his. “Thank you.” She kissed him again, a little longer, a little deeper this time.

  “For what?” he asked. He felt breathless again, excited. She was the only one who ever made him feel that way.

  “For accepting my crazy.” She went to kiss him again, but he pulled away.

  “You’re not crazy,” he said firmly. “You’re normal. You’re going through what any person who lived through that hell would go through, and I want you to stop thinking that there is something wrong with you.”

  She looked at him for a long time, as if processing his words, and then kissed him again. Her tongue swept into his mouth; her hands crept up his shirt to feel his skin. He went rock hard then. It didn’t go unnoticed, because she pushed herself into his erection, rubbing against him, wearing at his already-thin control.

  “Cass, what the hell are you doing to me?” he asked in between her deep, drugging kisses.

  “You’re beautiful, Wylie.”

  “Not as beautiful as you.” He kissed her forehead and stepped away from her. “But if you don’t stop that, I’m pretty sure we’re going to end up with a burned dinner.”

  She bit her lower lip, looking at him through her lashes. She nodded, then did the sexiest thing he had ever seen her do. She turned off the oven and in the process turned him on more than he had ever been. He felt a low growl escape from his throat. Her eyes widened, but she didn’t step away. She didn’t run like she should have. She stepped closer; her hands trembling slightly as she reached for his zipper. He froze; his breath came out ragged; his heart slammed against his rib cage.

  She looked into his eyes as she unbuttoned and unzipped him. Her warm hand slid over his swollen member and he shuddered. Her touch was too good. He clenched his teeth, watching her as she licked her lips and took him in her mouth.

  He cursed, letting out a long string of foul words, because it felt like she was hurting him. That warm pull from her silky, wet mouth was so damn exquisite that it was painful. She took him all the way into her mouth and he couldn’t take it.

  He yanked himself away from her and she let out a little yelp as he pulled her to her feet and savagely tore at her pants. He was never going to make it to the bedroom or living room. The kitchen table was even too far, so he leaned her against the wall and pushed inside her. She was wet and tight and hot and welcoming, and he pumped inside her wildly like the ruffian some people accused him of being. She came, squeezing around him, urging him to come to his own climax, but he didn’t want to let go yet. The sex was too good, and too raw, and too hot, to be done so soon. So he kept pumping, loving the way their smells mingled, loving the way the bodies sounded as they slapped together, loving the way Cass wasn’t quiet, the way she cried out and groaned, and dug her nails into his arms.

  Orgasm struck her again and this time the pull of her sweet wetness around him was too much. He let go, spilling himself inside her as he chanted her name. When his breathing slowed, he let her down and she slid to the floor, her jeans around her ankles.

  “I think I’ve gone blind,” she said, exhaling, a tiny smile playing at her lips. He got on the floor with her, pulling her pants completely off. The sight of her sitting on the kitchen floor, with her bare bottom, was enough to cause him to go half hard again.

  He couldn’t help himself; he slid closer to her so he could feel the smooth skin on her legs.

  “Was I too rough with you?” he asked, kissing the curve of her neck.

  “No. No.” She shook her head. “I just think my legs are not good anymore.”

  “They feel good to me.” He ran his hand up to the back of her thigh, his fingers just brushing her body.

  “Take off your pants. I shouldn’t be the only one with none on.”

  He did as she asked and she watched him, her eyes never leaving his
quickly forming erection. “You see what you do to me?” He sat down next to her again. “You probably should sleep somewhere else tonight, like another state.”

  She grinned at him, leaning over to set a chaste kiss on his mouth. She reached beneath her shirt, unhooking her bra, and sliding it off without removing her shirt. Her nipples pressed against the thin fabric and she knew he was watching her. She knew she was arousing him even more. She took one of his hands, placing it under her shirt, right on her breast. His thumb immediately went to her erect nipple.

  “See what you do to me?” She lay back on the floor, pulling him down with her so that he settled right between her legs. “One more time, please.” She kissed his mouth softly as her hand settled on his behind. “One more time and then take me out to dinner. We’re going to need to eat after this.”

  * * *

  “Where’s Miss Cass?” Teo asked Wylie from the passenger seat of his truck.

  Wylie smiled at the mention of her name. Last night . . . he couldn’t find the right words to describe it. They had been wild and rough in the kitchen, then tender and slow that night in the bedroom. He didn’t know what was going on between them. He didn’t want to think about the future or the past. He just wanted to live in the present. But he knew he could only live that way for so long.

  “She’s at the house, buddy. It’s Saturday. I figured I’d let her sleep in today.”

  “She came with us last Saturday,” he said with a little bit of a pout in his voice.

  “Yeah, but that was before fall T-ball started. I always take your games. It’s man time. I thought you liked it.”

  “Miss Cass didn’t come because she’s mad at me.” He looked down at his feet. “She don’t want to see me no more.”

  “That’s not true. She’s tired today, Teo.”

  “I was bad yesterday, Uncle Wylie. I was playing too much.”

  “You weren’t bad,” he said as he pulled into the parking lot of the field. “You just made Miss Cass think of her husband. She got upset, but not at you.” He paused for a moment, floundering to find the right words to explain it all to a five-year-old. “She’s upset at the bad man who hurt her and her husband.”

  “He’s dead,” Teo said bluntly. “She told me.”

  “Yes, that’s right. But she was sad last night when I got back from taking Mansi to the doctor, because she felt bad for yelling at you. She wants you to like her.”

  “I love her,” he said matter-of-factly. “She’s good with me, you know.”

  “I know,” he agreed, trying to hold back a grin when his nephew was so somber. “She takes care of me too, and she’s not mad. I promise. We stayed up late last night and she was tired. And I don’t know why you’re so sensitive about her yelling at you. Me and Mansi yell at you all the time. You don’t seem to care about that one little bit.”

  He waved a dismissive hand at Wylie. “Ah, I don’t even hear you guys anymore.”

  That time Wylie did laugh. “You don’t hear me anymore, boy?” He ruffled his nephew’s hair. “Well, I guess you aren’t going to be able to hear me when I invite you out for hot dogs at Jimmy’s this afternoon. Or when I order ice cream later. Me and Miss Cass will go without you.”

  “She’s going to come?” Teo looked up at him hopefully. The kid had it as bad as he did. He couldn’t blame him.

  “Yeah, unless she’s still sleeping. I told you she was tired. We stayed up late last night.”

  “Were you kissing?”

  “What now?”

  “Were you kissing Miss Cass last night? I saw you kissing her before. I know you like to.”

  “She’s pretty,” he said, not giving an answer.

  “Yeah, I think you should marry her,” Teo said, nodding. “That way you could be her husband and she won’t be sad that she don’t have one no more.”

  He looked at his nephew’s innocent face and wished it could all be that simple, but it wasn’t. Things between him and Cass never were. “It sounds like you really care about her feelings. You want to marry her?”

  Teo looked horrified at that suggestion. “No. She’s really too old for me. I want you to marry her so I can live with you and her.”

  “Live with us? What about Mansi and your mother?”

  “Mansi’s too old. She’s too tired for a little boy.”

  “Your mother’s not too old.”

  “No, but she’s too busy for me. She doesn’t want me anymore.”

  * * *

  Wylie found Cass in the kitchen when he came in from T-ball later that day, but this time her head was in the oven and the whole kitchen smelled like lemons. It was also sparkling clean. He felt uneasy about it. He didn’t like the idea of her cooking and cleaning for him.

  “What are you doing?” He grabbed her by the hips and pulled her into him. She wore yellow rubber gloves and one of his T-shirts. There was a smudge of something on her cheek and he couldn’t help but think how cute she looked. Although it never mattered what she wore, because he found her sexy no matter what.

  “I’m performing brain surgery. What do you think I’m doing?” She turned in his arms and kissed his cheek. “How was T-ball?”

  “Good.” He frowned at her. “You were supposed to be lounging around the house today, acting like a well-satisfied woman, or maybe I’m not taking care of you good enough?”

  She grinned at him, a full happy grin that lifted his mood just being in the presence of it. “Are you saying my not staying in bed all day is an affront to your manhood?”

  “Yes.” He nodded.

  She laughed and rested her face against his chest. “You take care of me. I feel more taken care of with you than with anybody else. But I spent a year in bed. I wasted a year of my life doing nothing.”

  “You were mourning!”

  “See? You even make excuses for me. I can do stuff around here. I thought we talked about this already.”

  “But I thought that meant you were just going to cook sometimes. Not scrub my oven.”

  “Your oven needed to be scrubbed. Have you ever cleaned that thing? It’s bad.”

  “It never occurred to me to clean it.”

  “You’re so different than Terrance. He would knock me out of the way to clean the kitchen. And I like to clean, but I couldn’t do it as well as he could, so I just let him do it. I wasn’t going to argue with him over who gets to clean.”

  “He would have done well in the Marines. I’ve never seen a man make a bed so well.”

  “No. He wouldn’t have. The man couldn’t take an order to save his life. He was too outspoken, too intellectual. His mouth would have gotten him in trouble.”

  He had always been compared to Terrance. It was unfair, but Terrance always came out the winner in the end. “Yeah, and I’m the big, dumb guy who can always take orders. That’s a point in my favor.”

  She smacked the back of his head, her eyes sparking. “What the hell does that mean? Do you think that I think you’re dumb? Because if you do think that, then you don’t know me at all. I have never—”

  He cut her off with a kiss, knowing it was never Cass who made him feel less than. “Hush. I’m jealous of Terrance sometimes.”

  “Why?” Her forehead scrunched in confusion and suddenly things became much clearer for him.

  “Because he ended up with the only thing I’ve ever really wanted. And sometimes I hate him for it.”

  Cass was quiet for a long moment, studying his face as if trying to find meaning in his words. “You shouldn’t hate a dead man. It’s not doing either of you any good. What happened ten years ago, Wylie? You didn’t just disappear from my life. You disappeared from his too.”

  “Nothing happened, Cass.” He shook his head, hating to lie to her. It was clear she didn’t know the thing that ended their friendship and he wondered why Terrance never told her. Surely, it would have made him look like a hero in Cassandra’s eyes. “We were talking about my dirty oven. It’s on its last legs. I was thinking I should
get a new one. You can pick it out if you want. You can pick out some other things too. It was past time I started fixing up the house, and you might be better than me at picking out the pretty stuff.”

  “I wouldn’t be.” Her expression didn’t relax and he knew his effort to distract her wasn’t working. “You made our room beautiful all by yourself.”

  “Our.” She said our like they had something together. Like whatever it is that they were was lasting.

  “I had help. Tanner did a lot.”

  “You’re an idiot sometimes,” she said, still studying his face. “You don’t ever realize how good you are. I want my own car.”

  “What?”

  “I want a way to get around the island without having to depend on you all the time. I want to be able to go to the grocery store and visit Nova and take Teo places sometimes. It doesn’t have to be new, just something to get me around.”

  A car meant that this situation was more than temporary. They should talk about it, about what it meant for them, but he couldn’t bring himself to bring it up. Because he didn’t want to risk her coming to her senses and going away. “Okay,” he agreed. “We’ll go today. I came in here to tell you that Teo is waiting outside for you on the porch. I brought him back with me.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me sooner, you dope?” She took off her gloves and he followed her outside to the porch.

  His nephew was sitting on the swing, his feet dangling high above the ground. In his lap was the bunch of sunflowers they picked up at a local farm stand.

  “Hello, Mr. Teo.” Cass sat next to him on the bench, wrapping her arm around him, bringing him close like it was the most natural thing in the world.

  She would have been a mother by now. He knew the loss of her unborn baby sent her reeling, but he felt sorry for that baby too, sorry that he would never know a mother like Cass.