by K. Renee
I pay our bill when we are done and we make our way out the door and towards our trucks. I tell Tate that I’ll see him at the ranch and he just nods. Starting my truck, I pull out of the diner’s parking lot and make my way towards the house. I have a lot of shit I need to get done today.
As soon as I pull into my drive, Max starts barking and running towards the truck. Putting it in park, I hop out and he jumps up on me for some lovin’. Scratching behind his ears, I force him down and make my way towards the barn. Yesterday one of my ranch hands flooded the place and now I get to clean the shit up.
I hear Tate’s truck and when I turn around, he’s getting out and Max is running towards him. He gives him a pat on his head before making his way towards me. “What the fuck happened in here?” he asks as he looks around at all the destroyed cardboard and hay that is now soaked through.
“One of the guys left the water on in here.” I pull the garbage can over to me and start to shovel up the pieces of soaked cardboard and dumping it in. Tate and I spend the rest of the day cleaning up the mess. When we finally get everything cleaned and done, I make my way back to the house and pull out my phone.
I try to call Lyndley, but it goes straight to her voicemail. I send her a text instead as I grab a water bottle out of the fridge. I hear Tate come in after me and I toss him one too.
“Thanks.” He says as he unscrews the cap, taking a huge swig before setting it on the counter. Looking at my phone, I hit Lyndley’s contact and it goes straight to voicemail again.
“You’re already pussy whipped and you’re not even getting any.” He shakes his head and pulls out his own phone.
When I don’t say anything, he starts to laugh. “Wait, you already did get some. The ice queen let you fuck her even with all the drama you two have?”
I toss my empty water bottle at him and it hits him in the side of the head. “Fuck you.” He starts to laugh harder and I just walk out of the kitchen towards my bedroom to shower.
Once I’m done, I get dressed in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. Tate's long gone so I decide on heading over to see my girl and iron out our date plans. Making my way to my truck, I look back at the front door and I think about when Lyndley told me about the type of house she wanted.
“Jaxson!” She calls from the other room. We were sitting on my bed in my room, but my mom wanted me to take out the trash for her so I ran back through the house and up the stairs to where I left her sitting on my bed.
“Yeah baby?” I take a seat next to her and she holds up a drawing.
“This is where I want to live.” She grins widely and I look down at her drawing. It’s beautiful. It’s modern and rustic, all at the same time. She blows me away with how talented she is at drawing.
“I’ll build you whatever you want baby. You draw the pictures and I’ll make them a reality.” She pulls me in for a kiss and I end up rolling her over onto her back. Pressing my body against hers, I let her know what she does to me and she wraps her legs around my waist.
“I love you Jaxson. Always have, always will.”
Getting in my truck, I make my way towards Lyndley’s house. When I pull into their drive, I see that the lights are still on. Putting the truck in park, I make my way towards the door and knock. It takes a few minutes before the door opens and I see her mother standing there smiling at me.
“Hello ma’am. Is Lynnie here? She isn’t answering and we had plans.” She drags me inside, causing me to grin. Her momma and daddy are some of the most caring people around. They've continued to treat me like family even when I didn't deserve it.
“Yeah she is, but I haven’t seen her in a few hours. Maybe she’s taking a nap.” I nod my head.
“Thank you ma’am.” I start to make my way towards her room, but her mom stops me.
“Jaxson Harper, you know better than to call me ma’am.” Looking over my shoulder at her, I see the smile on her face.
“I’ll try and remember that Terrie.” She walks over to me and smacks my arm before walking into the kitchen.
Going to Lyndley’s door, I gently open it and the room is dark. Closing the door behind me, I walk over to where she’s laying and I brush the hair out of her face. She starts to stir and I just watch her. She looks up at me, blinking her eyes like she thinks she’s seeing things and it’s quite comical.
“Babe, I see your eyes. I know you’re awake,” my voice is quiet and I don’t want to frighten her. Before she says anything, she reaches up and pinches me. “Ow!” I yelp, falling on top of her. I didn’t expect that shit. Instead of letting her know she startled me, I play it off like she wanted to get me in her bed. “You know, if you really wanted to get me in bed, all you had to do was ask, darlin’. I would have been glad to hop in with you.”
“What are you doing here?” she asks yawning. I can barely see the outline of her face at this angle.
“You weren’t answering your phone, so I wanted to make sure everything’s okay and you didn’t back out on our date.”
She gives me a small smile before she answers me. “Sorry. I turned my phone off after I got a call from someone I didn’t expect to talk to ever again.”
“Is that person the reason you came home?” I ask, pulling her body into mine. I have a feeling that I’m going to hate her answer, but I need to know the truth. Starting this relationship on lies is the last thing I want to do. I want us to last and for that to happen, I need to know about the last guy in her life and if he’s a threat to us or to her.
“You can tell me, Lynnie. I get you were with someone else. I get you could have even been in love with another man. Hell, all I care about is that it’s over between the two of you. I don’t want part of you. I want all of you. I won’t share you with anyone else.”
“It’s over between us,” she says quickly. “Tyler is the reason I came home.” I tighten my grip around her, preparing myself for her to tell me about the dickhead. “He’s a stockbroker who decided money was more important than being smart. He started insider trading and funneling money out of his boss’ accounts. He got caught and as they were taking him away, he told me it was my fault. That I was the reason he had to do it because I needed to have designer things just to be happy.”
“He sounds like a fucking moron,” I mutter, rubbing my hand up and down her back. She doesn’t want to talk much about him, I can tell that much. He sounds like a real tool and I’m glad he got caught. He doesn’t deserve her anyway.
“I can’t believe my parents let you in my room,” she giggles, and I know that she is trying to change the subject. She doesn’t like to talk to me about her time in New York and part of me is glad about that. I hate knowing that she was in someone else’s bed besides mine. We were always supposed to be together until I ruined it and stayed behind for my pops.
“Well, baby, we are married. Anyway, I’m pretty sure your momma is in the other room just praying that I knock you up so they can have a grandbaby.” I see her flinch at the mention of a grandbaby and I feel like shit for saying anything. “I’m sorry.”
She's quiet at first, but then she finally speaks. “No, it’s okay. I’m glad I finally have someone to talk to about her.” She puts her face in my chest and she cuddles into my body. I start to silently laugh as she all but buries herself into me.
“You know you can’t bury yourself in my chest, right?”
“Yeah, but I feel safe here.”
“Good, because I like you right where you are.” I tighten my arms around her and I feel her body relax. Her breathing evens out against my chest and I close my eyes too.
My phone vibrates in my pocket, waking me up. Looking down at Lyndley, I see that she is still cuddled into my body with her face resting on my chest. Checking my phone, I see a text from Tate telling me that he isn’t going to be able to come by tomorrow morning.
Sliding out from under Lyndley, I put a pillow where I was and lay her down on it. Using my phone for light, I find a piece of paper and leave her a note.
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Lyndley,
Sorry I left without waking you, but you looked so peaceful, I didn’t want to ruin it. I turned your phone on so I can call you in the morning. As much as I wanted to stay with you all night, I know it’s not part of starting over and I really want this to work.
Xoxo Jaxson
Placing a kiss on her forehead, I take one last look at her before I leave the room and walk out of the house. If I don’t leave now, I probably will stay here all night with her wrapped in my arms.
Getting in my truck, I start it and make my way home. Looking at the clock when I put it in park, I see that it’s a little after midnight. Cracking my neck, I run my hands down my face. What if Tate is right? What if everything that I’m doing is being wasted on something that will never last?
Do I want things to last between us? Hell fucking yeah. I want her as my wife like she was always meant to be. I know she’s still holding back information from me. She didn’t give me everything earlier and it’s starting to eat away at me. I need to know what we are going to be up against.
She was pretty shaken up by that phone call that she received before I decided on coming over. There is no way that she would have retreated into herself if it was nothing.
Getting out of my truck, I make my way to the door and see Max come running towards me. Opening the door, I let him in and make my way inside. Dropping my wallet and keys on the counter, Max and I make our way into the bedroom. He goes to his bed and I strip out of my jeans and t-shirt before sliding in under the covers.
Closing my eyes, I feel like I’m missing something. I need her in my arms. Rolling over to my side, I try not to think about her or the way it felt to have her wrapped up in my arms again.
Waking up early the next morning, I get a few things done around the ranch. I spent the first hour or two on the fence that is located on the left corner of the property. On the way back to the house, I got a great idea. I’ll call Lyndley and invite her to breakfast since we didn’t get to actually hang out last night. All week I’ve been dying to be able to spend some more time together.
It doesn’t take her long to answer the phone. “Hey.” Her voice is sweet, I can feel my cock harden in my jeans. Fuck, I need to get laid.
“Hey, darlin’. How did you sleep?” I ask. I notice some of the guys off to the side of the property digging a few holes, so I make my way towards them. Putting the truck in park, I finish my conversation before I get out.
“I had the strangest dream that some man was in my bed last night.” Her giggles ring out across the line and I wish that I could see her face right now.
“Yeah? Was it a good dream?”
“Well, the weirdest part was he didn’t even try to get fresh with me. I thought dreams were supposed to be all hot and sweaty sex. Sadly, this was not.”
“Hmm… That sounds like a dilemma. Maybe you should have kicked the dream man out of your bed and found the real deal.”
“Well, I think I know just the guy. I’ll be sure to call him later.” I smirk at that. She has no idea how fucking good that sounds. I would gladly be the one to welcome her back into my bed. At least now we won’t have to sneak around like horny teenagers. Not that I would complain because we had some of the best sex of my life out on this ranch.
I chuckle before I tell her why I really called. “Well, I actually called to invite you to breakfast.”
“Shoot. I have to work this morning,” I can almost picture the frown that she probably has on her face right now.
“Well, what if I sit in your section. You can have breakfast with me and work at the same time.” She tells me that it’s a date and I let her go shower and get ready for work after talking to the guys about what I want done where they are digging holes. I make my way back to the house. Walking into the kitchen, I grab another cup of coffee and watch Max outside chasing the ball that one of the worker’s kids is throwing for him.
I spend a little over half an hour doing some paperwork upstairs in my office before I finally make my way towards my truck to go get breakfast.
When I pull up to the diner, I see Lyndley walking around taking orders and delivering drinks and stuff. The bell on the door rings when I walk in and Lyndley turns to look. She points to her section and once she places the drinks on the other table, I walk over to her and pull her body into mine.
“Hey, darlin’.” Her body feels good against mine, I have to keep myself from thinking dirty thoughts about her.
“Hi, handsome.” She smiles at me.
“You call that dream man of yours?” I grin at her and she gets a cute look on her face.
“Yeah, I did. He said he was taking me out to dinner tonight.” I take the bait and ask her where she’s excepting me to take her tonight.
“Oh yeah? Where is he taking you?”
She leads me to one of her empty tables and I wait for her answer. “Well, he said he wanted our first date to be amazing, but I’m not sure if he can top the last one.” I take a seat and grab her hand. She has no idea how good I’m going to make this second first date. She’ll never need another first date after tonight.
“If it were me, I would make this the last first date you ever had.” I pull her hand to my mouth and place a kiss along her knuckles. Lyndley’s name is called from someone in the back and she pulls away smiling back at me.
I watch her ass sway as she makes her way towards the back and a few seconds later she comes out with a couple of plates of food. My eyes never leave her as I watch her smile at a few of the regulars. She makes them laugh and I wish she was over here with me right now instead.
When she comes back over to me, she has a cup of coffee and a grin. “Are you ready to order Jaxson?” She tries to hide her smirk and I give her an answer that is better than food.
“I’ll take you at my place tonight at seven.” I wink at her and she leans forward.
“I’ll be there with bells on.” She smirks, then I tell her that I want to order some eggs, bacon and toast. She walks away to put my order in and checks on her other tables. I watch a few people come and go and even a few of the men stop to talk to me about how the ranch is doing and if I needed any help yet. My busy season is coming up, I know I’ll be searching for a few good hands, so I let them know that.
I watch her grab my plate and start to walk towards me. Her hips sway and I have to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from getting up from my chair. She leans forward when she puts the plate on the table in front of me and I get a great look at her tits. Groaning, I have to move a little in my chair. “Damn, baby.” I grit my teeth. “You have no idea what I want to do to you and the fantastic ass of yours.”
She winks at me and struts back to where she came from. Shaking my head, I mutter under my breath and start to dig into my food. I’m fucking starving, I know damn well that this food is not what I’m hungry for.
I see Jessica Mitchell walk over to Lyndley and I watch the exchange from my chair. As soon as that bitch opens her mouth, I want to get up and go over there, but I doubt that Lyndley would want me to. “Well, look what the cat dragged in,” she snorts to her bitchy little friends. I watch as Lyndley gives them all a big smile and says, “Hi, ladies.” She looks over at me and I have to grip the edge of the table.
Jessica spent years trying to get me in bed through high school and even after Lyndley left. She’s always tried to one up my girl, but I already knew her games so I didn’t even bother to bite. I’m sure she’s told everyone who would listen that her and I had sex, but I would never do that to Lynd no matter how pissed off I was at her.
“So I see you’ve decided on coming back for seconds, huh?” Jessica sneers at Lynd.
“I see you’re still pinning after Jaxson. At least I have a shot,” Lynd says with a huge smile. Now everyone in the diner is watching the exchange and I start to stand up.
“Not when he finds out what a big whore you turned out to be. Or the fact that you killed his baby.” I see Lyndley flinch at her words and
then she goes completely silent. My anger rises and I ball my fists as I walk over to my girl. She doesn’t deserve this shit, I won’t let this bitch hurt her just because she’s jealous.
Wrapping my arms around her when I reach her, I pull Lyndley into my body. “Hey, Jessica, why don’t you learn the fucking facts before you spew your venom? Our daughter fucking died at birth, and you have no fucking right to say shit to Lyndley or anyone else about her.” I grit out. I want to say so much fucking more, but I bite my tongue.
Pulling Lyndley with me, we make our way out the back door. When we stop, I wrap my arms around her and just let her cry. Her tears soak through my tee shirt, but I don’t even care. I only care about making sure she’s okay.
“Lynd, don’t let anyone blame you for her death. There was nothing you could have done differently. She’s just jealous of you, always has been,” I whisper against her hair.
“Why would she say that in front of half the town? Why does she hate me so much that she would say I killed her?” The tears don’t stop falling down her face. I wish there was something I could do to comfort her, but I know that what Jessica said was hurtful.
“Baby, you did nothing wrong. She’s just mad because I still wouldn’t sleep with her even after you and I broke up. She just wants what you have.”
“I don’t have anything.”
Grabbing her chin, I force her to look at me. She’s hesitant, but I need her to know this. “Lynnie, you have me. You’ll always have me, and we will always have Gracilyn in our hearts.”
It takes me a few minutes to get her to calm down as I continue to wipe the tears off her face. I hate seeing her cry, I wish that I was able to take away all the pain she has had to handle all on her own all these years. I never should have stayed behind. I should have gone to New York with her.
When we walk back inside, Stu comes over to her and asks if she’s okay. “I’m fine. We won’t cause any more scenes.” She says trying to brush off the hurt. I hate watching her have to be so strong all the time. I want to be the strong one. She deserves to be able to fall apart every once in a while.