Quiet Man: A Dream Man Novella

by Kristen Ashley

  Lottie didn’t hesitate to put her head in his lap.

  “Be back, baby girl,” Nancy said.

  “Okay, Momma,” Lottie replied to his feet.

  Mo gave Nancy a look, she gave him a small smile and moved out of the room.

  Mo then gave it a beat, another, up to five.

  Then he murmured, “Okay, now, how’s my girl really doing?”

  “I just had a blip. I’ll be fine.”

  He curled his hand around the side of her neck, ordering, “Stop it.”

  She twisted that neck so his hand was light on her throat and she could look up at him.

  “Really, Mo, I’ll be fine.”

  “That for me, your mom, your sister, a combo, all of us, or are you just lying to yourself?”

  She closed her eyes, rolled her body and shoved her face in his gut.

  It was for all of them.

  Including herself.

  He slid his hand into her soft hair, cupped the back of her head and held her there.

  It took some time before she said, muffled by his stomach, “I will, you know.”

  “What?”

  She turned her head slightly to look up at him. “Be fine.”

  “It’s just now, you’re not.”

  A hesitation before she nodded. “I’m a little freaked.”

  “Natural,” he told her.

  Her gaze went vague and she muttered, “Feels weak.”

  “It’s natural, Lottie.”

  She focused on him again. “Yeah, but it feels weak.”

  “It isn’t.”

  “Okay.”

  “It isn’t,” he stressed.

  “Okay,” she snapped. “Jeez. Stop being all supportive and sweet. It’s annoying.”

  He grinned down at her. “Right, I’ll snap into being an asshole. How’s that go again?”

  “You know, in this moment it’s troublesome you’ve no clue how to do that.”

  “I could share that the first time I had your face in my lap, this wouldn’t be my call on how you’d be using it.”

  She rolled her eyes and mumbled, “That works.” She stopped mumbling to tell him, “Though I will say my blowjob plans being indefinitely delayed pisses me off.”

  “We’ll get there,” he told her.

  She narrowed her eyes at him. “Not a lot of dudes would be free and breezy with indefinitely delayed blowjobs.”

  “The guy who did this to you is fucked,” he announced. “He’s going to be charged on some serious felonies, three of them Federal indictments. It’s doubtful bail will be set, and if it is, he can afford to post it. You’re safe. You got a lot of people who love you and will look out for you. I got all that and I’m with you in your bed, somewhere I’ve wanted to be for what feels like years. I’m gonna sleep beside you here tonight, not on that fuckin’ couch. And I’m gonna wake up next to you tomorrow. With all that, I can wait for a blowjob.”

  Her pretty hazel eyes warmed and she pulled herself up so she was curled in a ball in his lap, not beside him on the bed, her cheek tucked tight to his chest, his arms around her.

  Her head in his lap didn’t suck, no matter how he had it.

  But still, having her in his arms was a whole lot better.

  “I don’t like that I didn’t handle things too well,” she told his pec.

  “You handled them fine,” he told the top of her head, pulling her closer.

  “I buried it. Acting strong isn’t the same as being strong.”

  “Whatever works, works.”

  She tipped her head back. “I fell apart, Mo. Lost it in front of everybody.”

  “Do you think any of those men care you lost it in front of them?”

  “I—”

  “Lawson’s kicking himself in the ass a million different ways, he laid it out for you and the way he did,” he shared. “Education, Lottie. Those men love you. As for Lawson and Lucas, they respect you. And the only thing they’re feelin’ now is honored you’d trust them enough to show weakness. I’ll tell you what, if Tex, Eddie, Hank, Luke and the rest had a choice, only one, either to be there for you and catch that guy or be there for you to catch you, they’d pick the second. In a way, they got that. So move on. They have.”

  “But, they’re action men.”

  “They’re men like me,” he declared, and her eyes widened. “When I saw him and knew it was him, my skin itched to be out there to take him down. But every other part of me needed to be with you. Trust me. You didn’t fight Smithie’s decision to keep them in the dark and I can tell you feel bad about that. But they got to be in on the important part, being here now for you, and they know it. So get over it. It’s all cool.”

  “Right. You’re hot. Have a huge cock. You’re spectacular in bed. You approve of my OCD tendencies. And you’re quick as a whip?”

  He grinned at her. “That’s me.”

  “Then I hit the mother lode.”

  Because he could.

  He did.

  That being, he pulled her up even as he dipped down, and he took her mouth.

  He kept the kiss gentle and light.

  He wanted more, and he’d get more.

  But he’d take it later.

  He broke the kiss and asked, “Chocolate sheet cake?”

  “Yeah.”

  “You gonna eat that?”

  “Probably. But Mom’s just using this as an excuse to get Jet to make one because she loves it. Tex loves it. It’s Eddie and the boys’ favorite. But mostly it’s just because Mom loves it.”

  He grinned at her.

  It faded before he asked, “What’s up with her arm? That happen from the stroke?”

  “Yeah. Her stroke. She had it a long time ago. She fought to get her leg back, but we thought she’d never have her arm. A couple of years ago, some physical therapist was in Fortnum’s, getting a coffee and chatting with Indy while she did. She’d had some success with stroke patients, even years after the event. Indy introduced her to Jet, Jet and Tex talked to Mom, they started working and she got some mobility back.” She shrugged. “Not much. It isn’t strong. She can’t fully grip or lift anything. But she can use it to shove things around to position them and stuff like that. Anyway, something is better than nothing.”

  “Yeah,” he agreed. “Though hate that happened to your mom, baby.”

  “Me too. But she survived and takes care of herself, Tex takes care of the rest, so it’s all good.”

  “Yeah,” he muttered.

  “Mo?” she called, and his focus went back to her. “Chocolate sheet cake means the boys are gonna come over. Since Blanca’s probably watching them, and will hear what happened to me, she’ll wanna know I’m okay so she’ll come over. If Blanca isn’t watching them, one of the Rock Chicks is watching them, so they’ll come over. I need to shower. Get ready, albeit belatedly, to face the day.”

  He bent in and kissed her forehead before he said, “I’ll go down and make sure they’re cleared out.”

  “I don’t mind them here.”

  He studied her closely and saw what he needed to see.

  “Then I’ll make that clear.”

  She nodded and gave him a little smile.

  “Mo?” she called again, even though he was looking right at her.

  The smile he gave her wasn’t small. “I haven’t gone anywhere, baby.”

  “I know. And that was what I was gonna say. Thank you.”

  It might make him fucked in the head, but in that moment, he really didn’t care.

  Because Mo knew the most precious thing he’d ever heard in his life was Lottie shrieking, I need Mo!

  “You really want a big wedding?” he whispered.

  “Is that a problem?” she whispered back.

  “Not even a little.”

  His girl smiled at him. It wasn’t small that time.

  And Mo smiled back.

  * * * *

  Much later, Mo stood on Lottie’s back porch, feeling his jaw get tight.

&nbs
p; Lottie was upstairs, horsing around with her sugared-up nephews.

  The entirety of the “Hot Bunch” and “Rock Chicks,” including Blanca, Eddie and Hector’s mother, and two gay dudes named Tod and Stevie, had arrived, and they were having what could only be described as a party.

  It wasn’t a rip-roarin’ one, loud and obnoxious.

  But Lottie had given them the cue that they needed to be business as usual, so Mo was guessing this was that.

  He was also guessing, since the more of them who came over, the more business as usual they acted, the more herself she seemed, this was exactly what she needed.

  What was loud and obnoxious was the TV he could hear from the neighbors’ place.

  If Lottie was out there, trying to have a moment of quiet to find some peace, it couldn’t happen because her neighbors seemed to want to hear their TV not only from any corner of their yard, but any corner of any of their neighbors’ yards.

  “Yo.”

  He turned his head and saw Eddie step out on the porch with him.

  “Yo,” he replied.

  Eddie came to stand next to him and it took a millisecond for his brows to draw together and his head to turn toward the neighbors’ yard.

  “So this is gonna be you, not Tex?” Mo asked.

  Eddie’s attention came to Mo.

  “Learn now, that man is a woman’s man,” Eddie shared. “After she lost it earlier, Tex is strugglin’ with bein’ five feet from her. Any other time, he’d be out here. This time, no fuckin’ way.”

  Mo nodded.

  He’d gotten that impression from Tex.

  Though anyone who’d heard anything about Tex MacMillan knew that was the way already.

  “She’s deep for you,” Eddie pointed out.

  “Good to know, since I’m there too,” he muttered.

  “Noticed that,” Eddie replied in a mutter.

  Mo didn’t mind he did since he wasn’t hiding it.

  Eddie continued.

  “I probably don’t need to tell you we’ll put the hurt on you, you do that to her.”

  That message had already been made clear.

  “Nope,” Mo stated, hearing the channel change next door, now it was some baseball game, then he could swear he heard a door close.

  “And—”

  “Hang on,” Mo said, turned, walked across the porch, into the house, through the people in the house, out the front door, across the lawn, to the neighbors’ front door.

  He knocked just as he felt Eddie come up behind him.

  “Mo—” Eddie started.

  The door opened and the woman who opened it took one look at him, her head tipped back, then she stepped back, and her face got white.

  “Hey,” he said.

  “Uh, hey,” she replied, her eyes darting to Eddie and back to Mo.

  “Honey, who is it?” a man’s voice came from in the house.

  “Um, come here a sec, would you?” she called, not taking her eyes off Mo.

  “You watchin’ the game?” Mo asked.

  “Sorry?” she asked back, and her gaze went beyond him again just as Mo felt more bodies at his back.

  “You watchin’ the game?” he repeated as a man appeared from behind her.

  He got a load of what was at his front door, his eyes got big and it took him a second to decide whether to join his wife or yank her away and shut the door.

  He joined his wife.

  At least that said something about him.

  “Can I help you?” he asked.

  “Are you watching the game?” Mo repeated.

  “Erm…what?”

  Jesus Christ.

  “The game,” Mo bit off. “Are you watching the game?”

  “I have it on out back,” the man said.

  “I know. I can hear it. But are you watching it?”

  “Well, uh…”

  “He’s listening to it. I don’t like sports on in the house,” the wife said.

  Like he suspected. This was why it was so loud. So it could be heard in the house.

  “He got a radio?” Mo asked.

  “I…I guess not really but he likes to pop out and look in on it when he can,” she explained.

  “While he’s blasting it, but not even there to watch it, it’s disturbing his neighbors,” Mo pointed out.

  “It’s a weeknight. No one’s outside,” the man said.

  “I was outside.”

  “You…do you live here?” the man asked, openly unhappy about the idea of Mo being a neighbor.

  “No, but my woman does, right there.” He tipped his head toward Lottie’s house. “And today, she had a really tough day. Bad as you can imagine. She has her folks around her, but they’ll leave and then she’ll need peace and quiet. Not have to listen to the game. So can you shut it off or turn it down?”

  “I wanna hear it,” the man replied.

  “I don’t,” Mo returned.

  “Right, I’ll go out and turn it down,” the man allowed.

  “Awesome. Thanks. But have a mind. My woman says it happens a lot. I don’t wanna be comin’ over here all the time asking you to have a mind.”

  The man glanced behind Mo, decided to save face and puffed up his chest. “I can do what I want in my own house.”

  Mo nodded. “Yeah, you absolutely can. You can even decide to be an asshole and not give a shit about your neighbors in your own house, all because you wanna hear a baseball game. And I’m free to come to the door and ask you not to be an asshole. Somethin’ I don’t mind doin’ if it bothers my woman. I also don’t mind callin’ the cops and makin’ a complaint. Now, you can deal with that hassle, or you can decide not to be an asshole. Your choice.”

  On that, Mo turned to leave.

  And on that, the man called, “You know, it’s not cool to come over and try to intimidate me like that!”

  Mo turned back. “I made a request, did it as polite as I could in the face of you not bein’ polite at all. And you decided to act your version of a man which is your call, but I’d argue it wasn’t the right one. I didn’t use intimidating language. I just asked you to turn your TV down and have a mind to that in the future.”

  “You’re big as a house, you got ten big guys behind you and you told me you’re gonna call the cops on me for listening to a stupid baseball game.”

  “I got ten big guys behind me because they’re all my woman’s family, and like I said, she had a bad day and needs her family around her and her neighbor not to act like a jerk. And I simply informed you what I would do if you continued not to behave in a neighborly fashion. Last, I can’t agree baseball is stupid, but if you think that, why would you go to the mat for it?”

  The man’s face was getting red. “I—”

  “Listen,” Mo cut him off. “You’re workin’ yourself up for no reason. Just turn it down and have a mind.”

  The man’s face twisted and at that point he decided to work out what were probably some life issues, considering the fact he wasn’t all that tall, and not built at all.

  “You know, guys like you think they can do whatever they want just because they look like you do,” he clipped.

  “What I know, even the way I look, I’d have a mind to the people around me and wouldn’t turn my TV so loud, it’d disturb them,” Mo returned. “But mostly that’s because I don’t think the world revolves around me and I couldn’t give a shit about the fact that it actually doesn’t. I use my turn signal too.”

  The man’s face got even redder at that.

  He didn’t use his turn signal.

  Mo sighed and through it said, “I think we’re done. Thanks for your time.”

  The second he moved out, Eddie moved in and stated, “And just to confirm, I’m family. I’m your neighbor’s brother-in-law. I’m also a cop. And any noise complaint reported on this address will be expedited. So in the end, you’d have been better off dealing with just Mo, considering he has courtesy, patience and restraint, like you’d have been better off just
apologizing and turning down your TV. Every day, we can learn new things. This is today’s lesson for you. Now you folks have a nice evening.”

  Mo didn’t turn back to see the response to Eddie’s message.

  Because Lottie and the rest of the Rock Chicks were crowded on her front stoop.

  Well, not all of them. There were too many. Some of them were poking their heads out of the front door.

  She had her arms crossed on her chest, that top dropping down her shoulder, and it might be insensitive, but he hoped with all the love and support she’d gotten that day, his blowjob was a lot less indefinitely delayed.

  “Your neighbor is kind of a dickhead,” he told her when he got close.

  “I knew that the first time he played his TV loud,” she replied and tipped her head, the mass of her hair she’d arranged at the crown after her shower falling to her shoulder. “You just couldn’t help yourself, could you?”

  He stopped two steps down from her. “Nope.”

  She smiled down at him, white and huge.

  Then she listed forward, like a tree falling.

  Mo caught her.

  And stepping through a sea of Rock Chicks, he carried his smiling girl into her house.

  He felt bad he’d interrupted Eddie’s “You hurt her, we’ll fuck you up” speech.

  But…

  Priorities.

  He had to look after his girl.

  Chapter Twelve

  The Only Good One Left

  Mo

  Mo’s eyes opened, and he saw dark.

  Not unusual. That happened every night.

  What was unusual was he had a little bundle of heat tucked tight to him.

  Lottie.

  He was in Lottie’s bed.

  Not on the couch.

  In the bed.

  With her.

  Mo stayed still and breathed in deep, taking in the scent of her shampoo, the feel of her in his arms, and just her.

  He’d get up in a minute, hit his place, get some clothes, go to the gym, workout and be back to her before she got up.

  But he’d give himself a minute, or a few, to feel having her like he’d wanted her for too long of a time.

  Then he’d go so he wouldn’t disturb her.

  This plan was ruined when Lottie stirred then made a move in his arms.