A Reason (A Reason, Season, Lifetime Series)

by Champlain, CL

  “Are you okay? What happened?” He’s concerned, blushing, and trying not to laugh.

  “I was done and I wanted to wash my hair in the shower. It’s hard to wash all of my hair in a bathtub. I slipped. Um, can I have a towel? My ass hurts.”

  Ryan snorts and goes to grab more towels. “Apparently you can’t be trusted in my bathtub alone yet, Bambi. Want me to wash your hair?”

  A part of me panics, a little, but a bigger part of me knows better. “Yes. Take your wet clothes off and shower with me. Your amazing shower is certainly big enough for two.”

  He looks in my eyes, I have to give him credit for not staring at my breasts that are uncovered in front of him. I return his gaze so he can see I’m sure. He wraps a towel around me, kissing my cheek and walks to the door. I think he’s leaving, but then he locks the door. He walks back over to me and puts a hand under my chin so I look him in his amazing green eyes.

  “Our first time will not be cheap, it won’t be on a bathroom floor after a shitty fucking day. We will shower, I may even kiss you, but that’s where it ends. Our first time together will be perfect. It won’t be rushed, it won’t be interrupted by Grant breaking down my door, which may very well happen. Just a shower, because I love you. I love you enough that I want that first time to be so special that we both remember it with a smile. I want it to be the beginning of forever, of just us. I want to be able to take my time to know every bit of you as if you were braille, so if I was ever blind I would only know your body by touch.”

  I nod my head, already knowing that was all it was going to be anyway. I know him, he’s such a good guy, after this day that we’ve had, and we just want to be close to each other.

  He turns the shower on, and steps back for me to test the water. It feels good to me, it seems we both like a hot, steamy shower. “Are you sure, babe? I don’t want you to feel like…” Ryan starts to say but I put my finger to his mouth.

  “You already know the answer to that. Look in my eyes again, and know I’m sure. I can trust you, I know I can. We both could use a shower and to just be close to each other. It’s fine, I trust you, and I love you. If it gets to be too much for either one of us, it’s not like we’re locked in. We can get out, either of us at any time. I don’t want this to be complicated. It’s been complicated for too long. We’re together, finally. Let’s just avoid complicated and do what we feel is right. I’m getting in, you can get in too, or you can wait and shower after I wash my hair. I will warn you though, I have long naturally curly hair. It falls out by the handful when I wash it, the conditioner makes the floor slippery and it will look like a small animal is stuck in the drain until I clean out the hair.” I tell him that with a small smile, and he watches me as I drop my towel and step into the shower. It’s a glass enclosed, large shower. We can still see each other, but to make things a little less awkward I face away from him, to the side, and let the water start to soak my hair.

  I feel him step in behind me, and I try not to be nervous. This is Ryan, it should have always been Ryan since the first day we saw each other and couldn’t stop looking at each other.

  He reaches past me to grab the shampoo, and I feel him, hard and fully erect against my side. When we touch, he takes in a deep breath, and I hold mine, but we’re okay. He starts massaging the shampoo through my hair, and it feels amazing. He takes his time, playing with my hair, scrubbing my scalp, and I try not to moan with how good it feels. Every so often we both move just right, and his hardness rubs against me. It must be torturing him, but he’s just washing my hair.

  “You can rinse it now. I forgot to grab conditioner though. I don’t need it since my hair is so short. Sorry. Is it going to be a big deal?” Ryan asks me.

  “Um, maybe not. I will grab my straightener from my bag when we get out and straighten it, then it will be fine.” I tell him. I turn around, and now we’re facing each other. He’s so much taller than I am, that his erection is nearly even with my breasts.

  “I’m not sure if I’m in heaven or hell right now. Close your eyes so I can help you rinse it out.” He says. I close my eyes and he runs his hands through my hair to help rinse out the shampoo. I don’t want to make it harder on him so I keep my hands at my sides.

  “Okay. You’re all rinsed, babe. You can get out and start to dry while I turn this on full cold and try to um, cool down a bit. I’ll be out in a minute.” He gives me a gentle kiss, groans, and then moves me towards the door to get out.

  “I didn’t get to wash your hair though.” I tell him.

  “Is there a reason you’re trying to torture me?” Ryan asks before dipping his head under the shower.

  “No. We tried, it was too much for you. I get it. Though damn, you look amazing naked, and all wet.”

  “Red heads really are the eighth day curse.” Ryan says with his eyes closed and a groan.

  I just laugh and step out of the shower to grab a towel.

  I won’t tempt him any further than we both want to go right now.

  I walk out into the bedroom in my towel to get dressed so I don’t make it any harder by continuing to be naked in front of him. By the time he comes out, dressed, I’m sitting on the bed dressed and have my hair straightener out.

  “I want to straighten my hair, it takes a while. Where would be the most comfortable and safest place to plug it in without standing in the bathroom for an hour?” I have really long, thick, natural curls. It takes a little while, though not quite an hour.

  “Um, well we could straighten it in the game room, you can sit in front of me on the ottoman or downstairs at the table maybe?”

  “We? Are you going to help me straighten my hair?”

  “Sure. I love your hair. I’m not doing anything. Let’s see if anyone else is home yet, or if they’ve called.”

  We walk downstairs and there are bags just inside the door and we see them bringing in more. Ryan grabs his shoes to help.

  “We went to the house and just quickly threw their clothes and important stuff in bags really fast. You took a shower?” His Ma says.

  “Um, yeah. She still had blood all over her, but she didn’t really want to be alone, so we just took a shower. She took a bath first, actually, so you won’t want to see my bathroom right now. I’ll mop it after I help you here. I dried most of it with towels, but I’ll mop it and start a load of laundry before you kill your only son.” Ryan gives his mom a big smile and she rolls her eyes and laughs.

  Eva walks over and touches my hair. “Your hair is wet, do you want me to help you straighten it? Looks like Ryan and Grant can grab everything. We’ll sort it and store it. Ma said they have a big storage area in the basement where stuff will be safe to store. We stopped at the store and got boxes, but we just threw things in bags for now so we didn’t have to be at the house very long.” Eva says to me.

  I look and the guys have the rest of the bags and Ma is closing the trunk. “Yeah, thanks. I should have asked if you guys needed help at the house, rather than just coming here for a shower. Sorry you had to do it all yourselves.”

  “Don’t be silly, sweetheart. You have seen enough of that house for today. Kevin helped us. He’s gone home to clean up and talk to his family about what happened to his brother. His surgery went well, by the way. He is stable and going to be fine, thanks to you. Kevin will be back in a couple of hours for dinner. Let’s go do your hair while the boys put this stuff away.”

  We walk in and Ma steers me towards the dining room table. “I only have a boy, I never get to play with a girl’s hair these days. I don’t think I’ve ever used this kind of thing before.”

  “I’ll show you how, it’s simple, but you just have to be careful not to burn your fingers when the hair is hot.” Eva says and plugs it in to heat up.

  “Is there anything you need to talk about while it’s just us ladies, and Grant is hopefully not killing Ryan right now?”

  “No, Ma. Thanks, but Ryan really is a perfect gentleman. He filled the tub for me, I took a bath
, alone, then slipped getting out because we overloaded the bubbles so the floor was really wet. I yelled, he ran in, and slipped and fell. Since he was already wet and I still had to wash my hair, we took a shower but that’s it. He kept his eyes closed, mostly, and was a perfect gentleman. I wouldn’t disrespect you, or do anything to upset you after all you have done for Eva and me.”

  Ma pats my hand and smiles a little. “I’m glad to hear that my son is a gentleman. I can see how much you two love each other. Just take your time, and be safe. You are both nearly adults now, so I’m certainly not going to tell you what you can’t do. Loving my son isn’t disrespecting me in any way, I am so glad he has found someone that makes him so happy, someone who was a friend first. You are going through some really rough things together, which will only make you stronger as a couple, I think. Do you both have any thoughts about what you want to do with what your mom said today?” She asks, looking between Eva and I.

  Eva stands up to start straightening my hair. “I want to finish out my senior year here. As hard as that will be, if Mom can handle going to Virginia without me, I want to graduate and then move there. I do want to go to that school, they have already shown interest in me, so I don’t think which location I choose will matter much. I applied to the Pennsylvania one, but we’ll work it out. I’m going to ask Mom to let me stay, graduate with Emma, and then I’ll probably go with her.”

  I nod a little, but Eva has my hair, so not much. “I already see this as home. Not just this school and town, but here, in this house. This already feels safe and like home to me. I realized it today after freaking out at the hospital. I want Mom to go, see her family, and get settled there so she can start over. For now, I want to be here. I want to graduate, and see where Ryan and I end up. I can go to nursing school just about anywhere. They need nurses everywhere. I don’t know what will happen at the end of the school year, but for now, this is where I want to be.”

  “Well, we’ve let your mom know that my door is open. We’ll see what she works out with her family and pray for the best outcome for you. I would love to have you finish the school year out here, of course. I always wanted more kids, but my husband’s job was rough and living in the city then, it was harder to afford. I love having you girls here, and I want you to be comfortable enough to make this your home for as long as you need it.” She kisses both of us on the cheek, then Eva shows her how to straighten my hair.

  The guys walk in several minutes later. “I see Grant didn’t kill you.” Ma says to Ryan.

  “Yeah, I figured if strawberry shortcake here seduced him, being a redhead and a country girl, they wouldn’t have had time for a shower and meet us downstairs when we got here. An hour isn’t quite enough time to please a redheaded country girl and take a shower. So he’ll live another day.” Grant says, and we all laugh. Of course, I’m blushing and my face heats up.

  “So what are we doing after her hair is done? Just a quiet day, or do things need to get done? Grant asks.

  “You can go home now, if you want to. We don’t have to train them to defend themselves anymore, so you can go find some trouble of your own.” Ryan says to Grant.

  “I think every girl should know how to defend herself, and I’ll go home when the girls say they don’t need me here. Their father just died today. He may have been a fucking asshole, but he was their father. So what do you ladies want to do this afternoon?”

  Ma walks over to Grant and cuffs him on the back of the head, and we laugh. “You are lucky I don’t make you put money in the swear jar like Ryan has to. You’re becoming family now, young man, so after today you put one dollar for every swear word, five dollars for an F word, or a word that is offensive or degrading to women. For now, you get a cuff. With love, of course.” We all laugh again as Grant rubs his head. Considering he’s about twice the size of Ma, it was funny.

  What he said made me think though. Shouldn’t I be a lot sadder about my father dying? Instead, I feel relief. I’m not sure if that’s normal.

  “I want to just live. We don’t have to afraid anymore, for us or our mom, so I just want to start living a free life. I want to laugh, have fun, and wait for Monday to see what mom works out. The Insurance rep she talked to said it would process fairly quickly once they had the police report, which Kevin said he would send them first thing Monday with the coroner’s report. We don’t have to be entertained or pampered. We’re just happy to be free. I don’t need you here Grant, and I don’t think Emma needs you right now, but we love having you here and if you want to stay, we’re happy to have a friend that really cares.” Eva says from behind me, still doing my hair.

  “I’ll get in touch with Robert and let him know what’s going on. He’s at my house more than likely. What about going out to a movie? Kevin was coming over later if you need him to, but what about just being seventeen year old girls? Go eat some greasy food court food and see a chick flick.” Grant says.

  “I’ve never been to the movie theater, so that could be fun. What’s playing?” I ask.

  “You’ve never been to the movie theater?” Ryan asks.

  “No. Danny was happy to only see each other in school and I doubt my father would have let me go anyway.”

  “Well then we’re definitely going. I am not eating greasy food court food though. We’ll get dinner reservations like normal people.” Ryan says.

  Grant laughs. “Normal old people, maybe. Seventeen year olds don’t usually go to a fancy restaurant for a date, but whatever Casanova.”

  “How fancy? I guess we can run downstairs and see what we have to wear that would work for a nice restaurant. We’re mostly just jeans and t-shirts kind of girls.”

  “Well, then I guess Ma gets to take two ladies shopping and surprise the boys with how lovely you look. What if I call my hair dresser and see if they can squeeze us in, we’ll grab some new clothes and the guys can meet us at the mall?” Ma says.

  I look at the clock and am surprised that even though we have done so much, it’s still fairly early. We should have enough time for haircuts and some quick shopping. “Really? I mean we’ll pay you back, of course, but that would be amazing.”

  “Nonsense. It’s a treat to me to have girls to spoil and shop with. Ryan gets the same boring hair cut every month and he’s old enough to shop for his own clothes. Ryan, you call and see what movie is playing, and choose a time, then I’ll call and make hair appointments.” Ma says.

  We work out that we have a few hours before the movie, so Ma calls to see what we can do for haircuts. Her friend isn’t working, so she calls her at home, tells her what has been going on, and her friend agrees to meet us at her salon in an hour.

  “We won’t have time for dinner as well. We still have to pick out outfits.” I tell them.

  “Oh, yes you do. The movie is at a place called Aimee’s, you eat a really nice dinner while you watch the movie. You’ll love it. Go, be girls and get spoiled. I’ll see you in a couple of hours.” Ryan says to me.

  Eva turns off the iron and my hair is straightened. “Great, all of that work to straighten my hair and now we’re going to a salon. Oops.” Eva and I laugh.

  Is it sad that I’m sad to leave Ryan for a couple of hours?

  “Go get your shoes on and we’ll head out. If we get there before her, maybe we’ll get nails. It takes just about half an hour to get there, she said an hour, so that may leave nail time.” Ma says.

  Eva squeals and runs for her shoes. Mine are by the door so I walk to Ryan.

  “Are you going to miss me as much as I’m going to miss you?”

  “I’m so glad I’m not the only one. It’s crazy, isn’t it? I’ll follow you. Grant and I can go shopping ourselves. I won’t be far.” Ryan leans down to kiss me. A sweet kiss that makes me lightheaded and takes my breath away. Not the up against the refrigerator holy-shit- I-can’t-breathe-because-we’re-drowning-in-each-other kiss, but the sweet I-love-you kiss that is so new to me. I never knew a kiss could say so much.

 
We start out at Deb, and Ma insists on us getting pretty dresses, shoes, jewelry, and new perfume. By the time we get to the salon her friend is just walking in. I tell her I don’t want it washed, since I just washed it and straightened it. We trim it so it looks cute and the ends are healthy. Not a dramatic difference, but it looks pretty. A girl, Ashley, isn’t busy so she offers to do my nails while Eva gets her hair done. Eva had her nails done in pink to match her dress.

  “What do you want your nails to look like sweetheart?” She shows me designs and color options.

  “You can do letters, like that?” I point to a picture.

  “Yes, I can. I have this little pen here, it can do letters, though I’m limited on colors for the letters.”

  I had chosen a black dress at Deb, so anything would work for nails. In the end I went with a basic French manicure look, with black letters. I smile and sing along to the music on the radio, excited over what Ryan would say when he sees my nails. I can’t wait for Monday at school. I’m going to be so careful that nothing happens to them.

  We finish up, and when Ma looks at my nails, she tears up a little and kisses my cheek. Luckily she isn’t wearing lipstick.

  We get to the dinner and movie theater and see the guys are waiting by the door for us. Eva and I say bye to Ma and get out. Ryan smiles a big smile, dimples and his perfect white teeth showing even though it’s dark out, the theater is well lit outside.

  “You look amazing. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you wear a dress?” Ryan says, holding my hand but stepping back to look at me.

  I look at Grant who is staring speechless at Eva. She looks amazing. “Wipe the drool, Grant.” I say and laugh, with my pointer finger pretending to wipe drool from the side of my mouth.

  “What’s on your nails?” Ryan asks. I love that he notices.

  I hold up both hands so he can see them.

  “I love Ryan P. I’m honored. You do know you’re going to have to show off your new lovely nails to everyone, right? In school you need to kitty claw everyone so they can see that you’re mine. That you love me.” He pulls me into his arms, his hand on the back of my neck to pull me in for a kiss. I love how he quietly almost growls the word mine.