by Lacey Black
I chuckle at him, at the thought of my gentle, book-smart brother getting violent over anything. “You are the best big brother ever. I love you, William.”
“I love you too, Avery,” he says as he throws his arm around my shoulder and walks us out of the corn maze.
*****
Halloween night proved to be perfect trick or treating weather. Travis and Will are over at my place to walk the neighborhood with me as Brooklyn goes trick or treating. This is the first year that she can actually give the whole trick or treating thing a try. Travis has been working on her saying ‘Trick or Treat’ for the last couple of days, but it still comes out ‘twicks tweets’.
“Come on, Ave! Trick or treating started a half hour ago! If you don’t hurry up, Bean’s gonna miss it,” Travis yells from the living room.
“Almost ready!”
Brooklyn runs out of my bedroom after I finish securing the final pin in her long, blond hair. She’s bundled up underneath her pretty princess gown. And no princess can be without a tiara.
Travis picks her up and gives her raspberry kisses on her neck. They head down the front steps with Will and I trailing a very short distance behind. We wait on the sidewalk as Travis and Brooklyn go from door to door around my block to gather plenty of sugary treats.
An hour later as we head back down the sidewalk towards my house with a bag full of candy, a squad car pulls into my driveway. I see Maddox and Jake hop out and wait at the sidewalk for us to get there. Brooklyn sees them waiting for us and takes off running, but it isn’t her uncle that she runs to. She runs straight to Maddox. As Maddox picks her up, Jake looks at their exchange with questions in his eyes. Will and I exchange looks, knowing that this could play out very badly.
“Seriously? Uncle Jake gets no love?”
“Don’t be jealous that she likes me more than she likes you. It’s not my fault that women find me irresistible,” Maddox replies with a big grin for his friend.
“She’s all sugared up, Jake. Don’t take it personally,” I say as casually as possible as I approach. He leans forward and gives me a kiss on the cheek as Brooklyn fills Maddox in on all the houses they went to trick or treating. “What are you guys doing here? Shouldn’t you be patrolling for toilet paperers or pumpkin smashers?”
“We were just in the neighborhood so I wanted to swing by. I promised Bean I would stop by to see her costume.” Jake walks over and grabs Brooklyn from Maddox. I over hear him tell her how beautiful she looks in her dress and ask her who her favorite uncle is. I love that each of my brothers try to out-do the other when it comes to Brooklyn’s affections.
Maddox walks over casually, not really making eye contact. “Did she have a good time?”
“Yeah, she drug Travis from house to house and insisted that he ask for candy too.” I look over at Travis and Will to see them both scavenging through her candy bag, stealing a few pieces of their favorites. “Hey, don’t take the Snickers,” I yell over at them.
Maddox looks on as Jake and Brooklyn go over and dig through the candy bag with her other uncles. “I’m more of a Reese’s man, myself.” He clears his throat and shifts his weight from foot to foot in a nervous gesture. “So, I won’t get off until late tonight but I thought maybe you and I could go grab dinner tomorrow night. And maybe Bean can go with us.”
I look up into his chocolate brown eyes. I’ve never imagined someone wanting to take my three year old with us on a date. Is it a good idea to take her with us? She’s already ousted our relationship to Will, which Maddox took surprisingly well when I told him about what happened at The Pumpkin Patch. I weigh my options for a few moments while I watch her with her uncle’s. But really, there’s nothing to think about. I want to have this time with Brooklyn and Maddox together.
“That sounds like fun.”
“Okay. I’ll text you details when we don’t have an audience,” he says just as the entire gang walks over to us. Will is giving me a pointed look that makes me squirm a little under his scrutiny. It’s like he knows all about our secret plans for tomorrow night.
“Well, we better go,” Jake says. He kisses Brooklyn one more time and then hops into the driver’s seat of the squad car. Maddox gives me a wink while all eyes are focused elsewhere, throws a ‘good-bye’ to everyone over his shoulder, and gets into the passenger seat.
“Come on, kid. I’ll help you sort all that candy,” Travis says to Brooklyn as he leads her into the house.
“You guys are playing with fire,” Will says quietly so Travis and Brooklyn can’t hear us. “When this thing all blows up, and you know it will, I hope I’m not around to witness the carnage.” He takes my hand and drags me into the house, my mind filled with different scenarios and outcomes to this relationship. But maybe, just maybe, it won’t blow up. Maybe it won’t end. I reach out and grab onto that spark of hope and hang on to it for dear life.
We have plans tonight to go to St. Charles and eat pizza. I thought maybe we could go to the arcade in the mall when we’re done eating and let Brooklyn play all the games her little heart desires. I never thought I’d be excited to hang out with a toddler during a date, but as I get changed, I can’t believe how excited I actually am to spend the evening with my girls. My girls. I’ve come to realize in the last week or so that they are, in fact, my girls. I want to spend as much time with them as possible.
After I clean out the back seat of the Silverado, I head over to Avery’s. When I ring the bell, she hollers at me to come in. Inside, I can hear the sounds of the girls getting ready in the back followed by running feet. Brooklyn runs around the corner and flings herself at me. As I bring her up to my torso, I feel this unfamiliar tightening deep in my chest. I love holding her. The thought is alarming and exciting all at the same time. It scares the shit out of me.
“Hi, sweetheart. Are you ready to go?”
“Yep! Mommy’s coming too!”
“I know. Is she still getting ready?”
“Uh huh. She’s wate.”
I smile at her matter-of-fact tone. When I hear heavier footfalls in the hallway, I turn to catch Avery walk into the room. She steals my breath every time I see her. She is, without a doubt, the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. Has there ever been any other woman who gives me this reaction? The answer is no. Hell no! My pants grow tighter below the belt as I follow her approach with my eyes. The gentle sway of her hips; the way her long legs sort of cross over the other as she walks. Her crystal blue eyes are sparkling and her face is lit up like Christmas morning.
“Hi,” she says.
“Hi.” I lean forward and give her a lingering kiss on the lips. My pants tighten further as our bodies touch ever so slightly. Brooklyn giggles and kisses me on the cheek. “Me kiss too.” Avery smiles against my lips.
“You want a kiss too?” she asks her daughter as she stands up on her tip toes to kiss her cheek. “Let’s go! Mommy’s starving.”
After a quick detour to her Jeep to get the car seat, we secure Brooklyn in the backseat of my truck. Heading out of town, I reach over and grab Avery’s hand, linking our fingers together. She gives me another one of her killer smiles. I can’t remember the last time I held hands with someone. Ever?
We talk comfortably the entire trip to St. Charles. When we get there, we are fortunate enough to find a parking spot up front. I grab Brooklyn out of the back of the truck, and we head inside; Brooklyn tucked safely in my arm and Avery’s hand tucked securely in my other hand.
“Two and a booster? Booth or table?” the young girl says as we walk in.
“A booth would be perfect,” Avery says as she shakes her head.
“Right this way.” She grabs a couple of menus and leads us into the dining room. After Avery gets Brooklyn settled in the booster seat next to her, we start browsing the menu.
“Order whatever you and Brooklyn want. I’ll eat anything on my pizza.”
“Hi, guys. I’m Megan, your server. Can I get you drinks to start?”
Avery lo
oks over the menu and decides on Coke. “A pitcher of Coke, please,” I say. “What about Brooklyn?”
“I have juice for her in the bag.”
“Okay. Any appetizers while you decide on your pizza?” Megan asks.
We pass on the appetizers and go straight to ordering the pizza. “Large sausage, mushroom, and green pepper, please,” she says with a slight question in her tone, looking at me for guidance.
“Perfect,” I reply. Megan snatches up the menus and promises to be back quickly with our drinks.
“So, what are your plans this weekend,” I ask as I reach over to link my fingers with hers across the table. Who knew I’d like holding hands. I can’t get enough of it. Or her. Maybe it’s not the act of holding hands, but with whom I’m holding hands with? That has to be it because I can’t imagine wanting to touch anyone else like I want to touch her.
“Holly’s off this weekend so we’re talking about going shopping on Sunday before dinner at my parent’s house. Brooklyn needs new winter clothes. I think she grew two sizes this summer.”
Brooklyn perks up from drawing with a crayon on the paper placemat at the sound of her name. “I go shopping!”
“Yes, you are going shopping too, sweetie. What about you? You’re working twelve’s this weekend right?” referring to twelve hour shifts both Saturday and Sunday.
“Yeah. I think I’m heading up to Jack’s on Saturday night with Jake. We work all weekend so we won’t have more than a beer or two, but he’s been in a mood lately and he just wants to go hang out there for a bit and maybe shoot some pool.”
“What’s wrong with Jake? He hasn’t said anything.”
I chuckle a little before I answer. “Actually, I think it’s about a girl. I think he likes someone who wants nothing to do with him and it’s bugging him.”
“Seriously? Jake’s worked up over a girl? I never thought I’d see the day,” she says as she takes a drink of the Coke that Megan had just delivered to our table.
“I guess. He won’t talk too much about it. Maybe I’m way off base, but I know something’s up, and it’s the only thing I can put my finger on.”
“Huh. Good for him. He needs to find someone who will settle his butt down a little,” she says with a grin.
I squeeze her hand and lock eyes with her before I reply. “Yeah, there’s something about finding a great woman to make you rethink your views on life.” I give her my best thousand-watt smile.
“You have new views?” she asks, the nervousness evident in her question.
“Yep. I have this girl that I can’t stop thinking about. A girl who invades my thoughts day and night. A girl who I can’t get enough of talking to, seeing, or spending all my free time with.” I lean in and drop my voice so that only she can hear me. “On top of that, she’s smoking hot and the sex is fucking awesome.”
She laughs her wonderful laugh, eyes sparkling with delight. “Sounds like a very lucky girl.”
“See, that’s the thing. I’m the lucky one.” I bring our laced fingers up to my mouth and gently place a kiss on her knuckles; all while keeping my eyes locked on hers.
Megan arrives minutes later with our pizza. Avery places a slice on a plate for Brooklyn, cutting it up into bite sized pieces. Brooklyn dives into her pizza with delight and happily chats with me about dolls and cartoons. I catch Avery gazing at me a few times during dinner, watching us with a look of longing. I know what she ultimately wants out of life. Marriage. More kids. Unbreakable love. I’m not sure if I’m that man to give her all those things that she wants, but I might want to try. I do want to try.
When Avery takes Brooklyn to the bathroom to wash up her hands and face, my phone vibrates in my pocket. I glance down at it. Vanessa. Again. Why does she keep calling me? I already told her there was nothing between us. I send the call to my voicemail, not wanting to deal with her brand of drama this evening. As I start to slide it back in my pocket, it rings again.
I exhale and hit the answer button. There’s only one way to figure out what she wants. “Yeah,” I say with a short, snippy tone to my voice.
“Hi, Maddox. How are you?”
“Vanessa, I’m busy right now. What do you want?” I glance towards the bathroom to see if Avery is coming back yet.
“I haven’t talked to you in a while. I miss you.”
“Vanessa, there is no reason for this phone call. I’ve already told you that I’m not interested in seeing you anymore.”
“Well, I thought we were friends, Maddox. Isn’t that what you said? You want to be friends?”
“Vanessa, I don’t want to be mean and I don’t want to be rude, but we are not friends. You need to move on.”
“Move on?” Her voice raises a couple of octaves as she becomes slightly unhinged. “You expect me to just move on? I love you, Maddox!” she shouts into the phone. And this is exactly what I was trying to avoid. I look up and see Avery and Brooklyn making their way towards our booth.
I lower my voice to a harsh whisper to avoid being overheard. “Listen to me. There is nothing between us. I’m sorry if this hurts you, but I don’t want you.”
I hear her soft cries coming through the receiver. “Is there someone else?”
“No. I’ve gotta go. Don’t call me again,” I say as I hang up the phone.
“Everything okay?” Avery asks as they slide back in the booth.
“Yeah.” I put my phone back in my pocket, avoiding eye contact with her.
“It didn’t sound like it. You sounded upset.”
“Everything’s fine. Don’t worry about it, okay?” I reach over and take her hand again. I love how soft and silky her hands are. When I look up into her eyes, my anger immediately subsides and I feel myself relaxing. She searches my eyes, my face, for a moment and finally replies with a soft, “Okay.”
“Let’s head to the mall and play some arcade games. How does that sound, Brooklyn?”
“Yay! I pway games!”
I head up to the counter to pay the bill as Avery slips coats onto Brooklyn and her. For the first day of November, we had a fairly mild day weather-wise, but tonight, that’s a different story. The temperatures have dipped down in the low thirties already giving the Midwest a taste of what is sure to be an early and long winter this year.
The drive to the arcade doesn’t take us too long. As we walk the mall heading towards the arcade, Avery’s hand in mine and Brooklyn in my arms, we browse at all the different shops doing a little window shopping. Brooklyn points out a pink and purple dress hanging in the window of a children’s store. Avery lingers in the window of the lingerie store checking out sexy night gowns, bra and underwear sets.
“You would look amazing in that black one,” I whisper against her ear.
She gives me a half smile. “You think?”
“Oh, yeah. Fucking hot.” I have to walk away from her because thinking of her wearing that black, lace corset with matching thong panties has me about at full mast in the middle of the busy mall surrounded by families with children. Avery joins us as we continue our leisurely walk towards the arcade. It’s store after store of clothing for women, men, and children, but eventually we come upon a jewelry store. Big sparkling diamond necklaces, earrings, and engagements rings fill the windows. Avery slows down to look which doesn’t freak me out as much as I thought it would have. As Brooklyn sings a song in my arms, I watch Avery’s face light up as she gazes at the exquisite gems.
“They’re so pretty,” she mumbles to no one in particular. I watch her entire face light up when she sees some big, dark brown stone surrounded by smaller diamonds. “That one’s gorgeous!”
My throat tightens and I can’t seem to get words out. The ring is beautiful; breathtaking in all its sparkling glory. Probably does cost two months’ salary like those old commercials used to say. But that ring holds nothing compared to Avery’s beauty.
She straightens up with a big smile on her face and grabs my hand again. We walk side by side to the arcade. As we approa
ch, you can hear the sound of parents everywhere losing all their hard earned money at the hands of their excited kids. We walk inside and Brooklyn points at every machine with their bright lights and loud noises. “I want to pway dat!”
I kiss her on the forehead and set her down. “Stay here with your mom and I’ll go get us some tokens.” It doesn’t take too long at the token machine, and I’m back to my girls before I know it.
“Come on, girls. Let’s play some ski ball.” We head off towards the ski ball games first, but it proves to be too complicated for Brooklyn’s little arms. So we let Brooklyn pick the games from here on out. We play a few arcade games, and a bunch of games that just involve hitting a button to hopefully land tickets. And tickets result in prizes.
An hour and a half and fifty dollars later, we’re heading up to the ticket booth to trade our tickets for prizes. When it’s all said and done, we leave with a plastic tiara and wand set, a decent sized stuffed monkey, and a coloring book with crayons. The smile on Brooklyn’s face is worth every cent, even if the stuff she won wasn’t worth a quarter of the money I spent there.
We’re heading home after our date night, Brooklyn starting to doze in the backseat, when Avery’s phone rings. “Hello?”
“Good. How are you?”
“Yeah, I still want to go. What time are you thinking?” Avery says into the phone. It must be Holly since Avery mentioned earlier they were planning to go shopping on Sunday before family dinner.
“That sounds good. We’ll be ready.”
“Okay, I’ll try to be ready,” her tone dripping with sarcasm.
“See ya then. Bye.”
She ends her call and drops the phone down in her purse. “That was Holly. She wanted to confirm our shopping trip on Sunday.”
“I figured. What time are you girls heading out?”
“Eleven. We’re gonna grab lunch before we hit a few stores.”
I grab a hold of her hand again, stroking the softness on the top of her hand. I continue to watch the road as I flip it over and gently continue to stroke her palm. When I hear her sigh, I bring her palm to my lips, first kissing it several times, and then running my tongue along the lines of her palm. I glance over at her when I hear her gasp; her eyes go wide and dark. I can tell that the touch of my tongue on her hand has turned her on. I focus my attention back on the road as I link our fingers back together and set her hand on my leg.