by Abby Knox
“Why would you make me fall in love with you just days before deciding if you want to take a new job?”
He smirks. “Would you not miss me either way?”
I nudge his knee with my flip-flop, and he responds by grabbing my feet and pulling them into his lap. His palms warm the tops of my nearly bare feet. He’s behaved like this many times before. Just taking charge of my comfort, and I love that about him. Still, he’s trying to distract me from being annoyed with him. His rough hands feel good on my tired feet, so the distraction works for a second or two.
I sigh, “But you’re leaving, and you’re never coming back to Cherry Falls. Not after that trip.”
Hudson knits his brows together and looks at me like I’ve lost all my marbles. “Of course I’ll come back. You’re here.”
“It’s just… what’s going to happen?”
Hudson opens his mouth to answer, but I hear a text arrive from my mom. Hudson hears it too and says, “Oh, that’s another thing…”
He trails off while I read the text from my mom. “She says she’s just finished giving Peanut his injection, and she says she needs to talk to me.”
Hudson clears his throat. “Yeah. That’s kind of what I needed to talk to you about. I think your mom…
“What?” I ask, curious what Hudson might have to say about her. I know how protective he gets of me when it comes to her.
“Well, I think she…I went and talked to her earlier today, and I told her what happened to us on the boat. She was really unbothered and unsurprised by the whole story.”
I take a few beats before everything registers. “Are you telling me you think my mom is responsible for us floating out to sea? Why? Why would she do that?”
He shrugs. “Beats me. Do you want me to go with you when you talk to her?”
I nod and suck in a breath. “Yes. Damn it, Mom! Just when I thought you were done with your nutty shenanigans.”
Chapter 10
Hudson
When we arrive at Frenchie’s RV and let ourselves inside, it’s not just Mrs. French waiting for us. But also Frenchie’s dad, Kris.
“Dad!” Frenchie shouts. “What in the hell are you doing here?”
Kris stands and holds out his hands in surrender to his outraged daughter. “I know. It’s been way too long and too little contact. But your mom and I wanted to tell you what’s been going on. Together.”
Shocked, I look from Adalee’s astonished face to Mrs. French to Kris.
“I have a confession to make to you,” Jenny says. “Kris and I have decided to take another shot at our relationship.”
“While I was away, I thought a lot about you and your mom and all the regrets I have. So many regrets,” Kris said. “So when I heard that Jenny was getting out of rehab, I wanted to come and help her.”
Frenchie’s face flushes with rage. “How long have you been back in town?”
Kris and Jenny exchange a look. “About a week,” Jenny says.
“And you never thought to call me? Text me? A whole year I don’t hear from you, and now you’re just here all of a sudden because you want to help Mom? What about me? What about all the crap I had to deal with when I was the only one here trying to convince her to dry out? Where were you when I was making the ultimatums that she needed to dry out, or I wasn’t going to be there for her anymore?
“A father should be there for his daughter through all of this. I had nobody but Hudson to talk to about any of this crap.”
Jenny wrings her hands. “I’m sorry, honey. I didn’t think you’d like it. My sponsor tends to warn against jumping into relationships so quickly out of rehab. Still, Kris…” Again, Frenchie’s parents exchange glances and then look pleadingly back at Frenchie. “He wanted to be there for me, and it made sense.”
Frenchie dabs at her eyes with her sleeve and sniffs. I don’t see any issues, so I scurry off to the bathroom and grab a fistful of toilet paper for her. She blows her nose and says, “Well, none of this makes any sense to me. Why are you telling me this now if it’s been on the down-low?”
Jenny darts her eyes around. “I wanted you to understand why I’ve been distracted, and I wanted you to know it wasn’t the booze again. That was important to me. And there’s more. And the rest of the story I feel even worse about.”
At this point, Jenny turns to me and wags her finger at me. “You’ve got devil’s eyes, and I can’t lie to you without feeling like you already know the truth.”
I think I know where this is going. “What did you lie about, Mrs. French?”
“Well, not lie so much as obfuscate,” Jenny says, even though I’m not one hundred percent sure what that word means. “When you came around earlier and told me the story of what happened on the boat, I should have told you the truth. I cut the rope.”
Frenchie heaves out an exasperated breath. “Mom, why?”
Kris clears his throat. “I know. I should have put a stop to it.”
Jenny cringes when I take a step toward Kris. “Damn right, you should have. Do you realize what could have happened to us out there?” I point at Frenchie, who is shaking her head in shock and disappointment. “That is your daughter. Do you get that? Do you know she gets seasick?”
Kris rubs his face, at least possessing the decency to look ashamed.
Jenny puts up her hands in surrender. “It’s my fault. He tried to talk me out of it, but I told him it was fine because she was with you, Hudson. You’re the marina man; you would keep her safe. I figured it wasn’t a big deal.”
Frenchie’s voice shakes as she levels her mom with a fierce stare, her fists balled. “Apart from my safety, you risked damaging Captain Jack’s boat. This is just … appalling, even for you, mother.”
I wince. I know when she calls Jenny “mother” instead of “mom,” she’s beyond angry.
Through gritted teeth, Frenchie goes on. “I hate to even ask this, but what was your cockamamie reason for doing this, mom and dad? And yes, I hold both of you responsible.”
Kris rubs the back of his neck and shifts uncomfortably. “I guess the best way to explain it is to buy Jenny and me more time together.”
Frenchie mutters, “Oh my god.”
Kris looks like he wants to bolt, but I give him credit and spills his guts. “See, the subsidized housing where your mom is staying isn’t allowed to have overnight guests. And I’m splitting a hotel room with a buddy of mine who came up here to surf, so I don’t have a room to myself.”
Frenchie bites her lip, her arms crossed in front of her chest. “A hotel is a thing that exists. That I would pay for if you had come to me from the beginning.”
“Go on,” I say.
“So,” Jenny says. “The only chance we have for alone time was, well, when I’m taking care of the grand-kitties.”
A silence passes around the room for a moment, then Frenchie reaches down and picks up Jelly, covering the cat’s ears. “The two of you had sex in front of my innocent babies?”
Kris snorts. “No. We put them in the bathroom. Cat pouncing isn’t exactly conducive to sexy times.”
“Ew!” Frenchie cries.
“And so when I heard you two were having your weekly movie night on Captain Jack’s boat, I just sort of…decided maybe it would be nice if Kris and I had more time together.”
“Mom! Ew! In my house?!”
Jenny chuckles. “Now, Adalee, since when did you become such a prude?”
Frenchie scoffs. “I’m not.”
“You do know your father and I had to have the sex to make you, right?”
Frenchie is petting Jelly a little too vigorously now, and Jelly begins to squirm so she can get back to her little bed. Finally releasing Jelly, Frenchie shakes her head. “What you did is dangerous, careless, and thoughtless.”
Jenny looks from Frenchie to me. “But it ended up kind of fun, though. Admit it.”
I know what’s good for me, and that’s to be on Frenchie’s side, even if Jenny has one molecule of a
point. “I could have lost my biggest tenant,” I say. “Not to mention a huge opportunity for this summer.”
“It’s my fault,” Jenny says. “Kris convinced me to come clean.”
Frenchie jerks around like she wants to pace and stew over all this new information. The only problem is there is no space in this RV to pace dramatically. Then, having another realization, she throws up her hands. “Oh my god. That’s why the RV was so clean this morning? You just, overcompensated for…your…blech…mess!”
Jenny shrugs, and Kris is suddenly finding his shoes very interesting.
“Ugh! Well, this is a lot to process, and I don’t even know if I can sleep in here tonight, knowing what I know.”
I gently place a hand on Frenchie’s shoulder. “That’s fine. We have more to talk about, so come stay with me tonight.”
She instinctively clutches my hand that’s on her shoulder, and it makes me so happy to feel her fingers on mine.
Jenny claps her hands and starts singing the old John Paul Young tune, “Love is in the Air.”
Fortunately, Kris reminds her, “Don’t get too excited, sweetheart. Our daughter’s still mad at us.”
Chapter 11
Adalee
I immediately begin scoping out any possible nook for Peanut, Butter, and Jelly’s supplies at Hudson’s boat. Because I might not ever be able to sleep in my bed in the RV again.
Not that I’m ready to move in with Hudson. He hasn’t asked, and I wouldn’t presume.
He opens a water bottle and hands it to me.
“So, he says. “I have news about the trip.”
“Oh no,” I say. “Captain Jack found out about what my mom did, and he’s rescinding his offer. God, I’m so sorry, honey.”
Hudson laughs and clasps both my hands in his.
“No, Frenchie. That’s not it. I talked to the captain, and you’re coming with me to the Keys.”
I stare at him and roll his words around in my head for a bit. “I can’t come with you.”
“Too bad, because you are coming with me. Captain Jack said it wouldn’t be a problem at all if my girlfriend wanted to join me. As long as we’re not going to break up and cause any drama in the charter boat business.”
“But the Ferris wheel,” I say.
“Can be run by Amethyst. I’m sure your mom and dad can check in on it and oversee the routine maintenance.”
“But the cats. I can’t bring the cats.”
“Yeah, that’s one problem. But you said yourself you were letting your parents keep the RV, so…”
“I was joking!” Frenchie says, laughing and punching me in the arm.
“But maybe not. Maybe you let your mom and dad get reacquainted, now that they’re both recovering. They can have the RV for the summer, as their little love nest, and they can take care of the cats and walk the neighbors’ dogs.”
I burst into tears because I can’t honestly come up with any other reasons not to. “Tony and Tiny!” I say, sobbing. I’m in total blathering breakdown mode now. Hudson, startled at my outburst, tries to calm me down and wraps me up in his strong arms. “Hey. Who’s Tony and Tiny?”
Through heaving sobs, I tell him all about my favorite customers and that I’ll miss their seventieth wedding anniversary if I leave for the summer.
He laughs. “So you’ll be here for their seventy-first.”
I nod, and I wipe my eyes on my sleeve. Hudson hands me another clump of toilet paper from his pocket so I can wipe my eyes and blow my nose.
“I can’t believe you talked to the captain about taking me. You really have a way of springing things on a girl, Hudson Green.”
I admit it, I really do. She’s right. I’m far too impulsive for my own good. “You’re not wrong.”
“What do we do if we fight and break up while we’re in the middle of the Keys?”
“Then you throw me overboard and tell Captain Jack it was a shark attack.”
“Hudson.”
“Or wait. No. Maybe I should throw you overboard and say you demanded that I come ashore so you could book a ticket back home.”
“Hudson.”
“What?”
I slide myself into his lap, circle my arms around his shoulders. I shush him with a soft kiss. Hudson groans sexily and tries to deepen the kiss with a swipe of his devilish tongue.
“I can’t think of a better place to make a baby than at sea with you.”
Hudson’s eyes light up with joy. “Adalee.” He kisses me hard, pinning me to his body. “And if you want to fly to the Keys and hang out beachside while I do the charter trips, so you don’t get seasick, we can do it that way.”
My heart pounds knowing how much he’s thought about this, how much thought he’s put into making me comfortable.
I shake my head and kiss him again. “I want to give it a try. And I’m sorry, but I’m not taking my eyes off you. There’s no telling what other people on vacation down in the Keys are like with a handsome man alone on a boat all day. We’re a team, am I right?”
Hudson’s eyes flash. “Frenchie. Are you jealous? Do you have a streak of possessiveness that I never knew about before?”
I run my tongue along his top lip. “Jealous? No. I trust you. It’s other people I don’t trust. I need to remind everyone who you belong to.”
“Ooh. I like this new side of you. Any other surprises?”
I smile. “You can make love to me. The way you want. Tonight.”
He kisses me with a fierceness that makes me forget my own name. His breath is my breath. He lifts me up and carries me to the bed, his eyes hooded, his mouth muttering almost incoherently. “Gonna make you so damn pregnant.” Once on the mattress, he bares his teeth and rips my shirt off, buttons flying everywhere.
“Hudson,” I whisper, my voice cracking with need.
He lifts me up to sitting, tugging off what’s left of my shirt and unhooking my bra with a swiftness. Shoving the straps down my arms, he tosses my bra aside.
I stand and shake off my jeans and lacy underwear, too.
“Look at you. Fucking look at you. I always knew you were beautiful, Frenchie. But just look at you.”
I’ve never had too much of a problem accepting the fact that I’m pretty to look at, objectively speaking. Some days I really feel myself. Tonight, I’m really feeling myself. Figuratively and literally.
“You’re the first person to tell me that, Hudson.”
I run my hands over my bare breasts, and Hudson groans again. He looks like he might actually start salivating.
“That’s a damn shame,” he says, his eyes following one of my hands as it reaches lower down my abdomen. “On the other hand, I’m happy because I don’t want anyone else to call you beautiful. Just me. I’m glad I’m the first.”
I slide back onto his lap and let him have his way. His hands explore all of me while his mouth claims my breasts, alternating from one to the other. The gentle nips and sucks grow in intensity the more that I moan. Soon his hand reaches down in between us.
“May I?”
“Please. Anything you want.”
“I want to make you mine,” he says, cupping my pussy, making me purr.
“I’m already yours. I always have been.”
Dropping his gaze to where he’s massaging my pussy, he rumbles, “Frenchie, will you let me taste you?”
His words, combined with his heated expression, make my breath hitch.
“I told you. Anything.”
The next thing I know, Hudson has me flattened on the bed, his arms clasping me close against his bare skin, his lips crashing against mine.
I’ll never get used to the fierceness that would almost be too much if I didn’t trust him with my whole life.
Chapter 12
Hudson
I don’t know what’s come over me. Having my Frenchie in my bed, looking at her splayed out like that across my mattress. Knowing she’s mine, all mine. And she wants the same things I do. She wants me, all of me. A
nd that we have all summer ahead of us to explore each other’s dreams, fantasies, and pleasures. All of these facts combine to make my words come out sounding like a feral growl.
“Baby,” she says, tugging at my shirt.
“Not yet,” I say. “I want to taste you and play with you while I keep my clothes on. I can’t explain it, but I want it.”
Her eyes widen at my suggestion, her lips part to beckon me to kiss her again. “Do exactly what you want and nothing less,” she says.
I lean over, caging her in my arms. Up close, I can see the need in her eyes. “I’m gonna put a baby in you, Frenchie. Tonight.”
She emits a tiny whine and nods her head.
“And I want you to do exactly as I say. You hear me?”
Frenchie bites her lip and nods. “Yes, Hudson.”
I kiss her one more time and use my shoulders to spread her thighs open.
Last night’s taste of her was just a precursor. This is heaven. My mouth on Frenchie’s pussy, her sweet juice coating my lips, I am sure I’ve reached nirvana. Bliss. I feel her hands in my hair, and I correct her. “No, no. Hands to yourself.”
“I need to touch you,” she rasps.
“Are you my first mate or not?”
“Um, what?”
I hoist myself up until I’m even with her face, my lips nearly close enough to touch hers. “I asked you if you were going to be my first mate or not.”
“First? Oh. Oh, on the boat.”
“A first mate has to follow orders. Are you going to follow orders?”
“Yes, captain,” she says.
“Good girl,” I say as she clasps her hands together under her head.
Juice runs down my chin when I get back to business. Bossing her around has evidently made her even wetter than before.
She’s so wet I have to spread her out even wider, coating my fingers with all of her sweetness while I devour her like an ice-cream cone. Side to side with my flat tongue and swirling up to the top. When I reach the sweet fruit at the top, I suck her clit into my mouth, sinking my fingers deep into her gorgeous cunt. Frenchie arches her back, her body overtaken with her release.