“I don’t want Mike here. He already gave up on me. I don’t want him near me. He’s done with me.”
We pull up to the fully enclosed gate to the property. We no longer have to get out of the truck to open it manually. Jake touches a button, and it opens automatically just as a garage door opens with a touch of a button. Even heavy snows do not impair it from opening. Jake leaves the gate accessible for Doug to pass through.
Jake helps me out of the truck before he unhitches the snowmobile trailer and parks the truck in the garage. I go to the back porch to turn the heat on the hot tub. It’s something we regularly use after snowmobiling. I tend to Zeke before switching on the fireplace. I have a residue of salmon on my tongue from dinner, so I walk upstairs to brush my teeth.
Jake has air mattresses and sleeping bags in his hands when he walks through the door. The air mattresses self-inflate with the turn of a nozzle. The sleeping bags are cold from being stored in the garage. I roll them flat and set them in front of the fireplace to warm for our houseguests.
Jake’s phone rings. It’s Doug.
“You have to get out of your vehicle and punch in a code to get the gate to close,” I overhear Jake tell Doug. “I’ll give you the extra remote you can use from now on.”
“I was hoping Doug was calling to say they were heading home for the night.”
Jake smiles and pulls me into him. “I’m just glad you didn’t kick Will under the table with one of your legs that you couldn’t stop swinging during dinner.”
“You saw that?” I cringe, admitting my childish behavior.
Jake nods and laughs. “I wouldn’t have said anything if you did kick him.”
He smacks me on the bum. “Let’s slide into the hot tub before they pull in,” Jake suggests.
I jaunt up the stairs to put on a swimsuit since we have guests staying with us.
When I walk down the stairs with my swimsuit under my sweatpants and sweatshirt, our company walks through the door with their overnight bags. Doug and Jennifer get situated in Jake’s room while Will and Brooke set their bags in the family room area in front of the cozy fire.
Doug and Jennifer brought swimsuits, prepared to sit in the hot tub after a long day of snowmobiling, Will and Brooke did not. Brooke wants to stay inside and watch a movie, but her husband, Will, wants to play one of Jake’s warfare games. I show them how to operate all the electronics while Jake changes.
Doug and Jennifer linger in Jake’s room while we slide into the hot water. I turn the jets on high and Jake slides over to turn them on low so he doesn’t have to talk over the blasting jets. He slides closer to me to nibble on my ear.
Chapter 46: Jake
“Have you thought about what we talked about at lunch?” I ask Liz, bubbles whirring around in the hot tub.
She bats her wet eyelashes. “It’s all I could think about this afternoon while I was riding the snowmobile.”
“Please say yes, Liz. Please come live with me after my next tour in San Diego. It’s that simple; you’re the only way I know.”
Liz is silent. Her lack of words is agonizing.
“The path is so clear to me now.”
Liz looks as if she is frozen.
“What do I have to say to get you to tell me that there’s nothing holding you back?” I am aching as she sits unmoved, staring into the hot water. “This is all I want.”
She frames my face in her wet, warm hands. “Jake, what makes you think I would say no?” Liz kisses me. “It’s all I want too.”
Liz wraps her arms around my shoulders. “I love you, Jake,” she whispers softly in my ear.
I sweep my tongue along hers. Liz’s kisses leave me breathless. I change the angle of our kiss and lift her mouth to mine all over again. Our tongues lick and twist together with a matching of warmth and desire. I am hardening, hidden underwater. Liz reaches for me, her adept fingers searching to untie the strings of my swimsuit. Once loosened, she reaches down and I moan into her mouth. I slide my hands to her, but then I hear a click of the back door.
Jennifer steps out with Doug on her heels. Liz sweeps abruptly away from me, smiles innocently, inviting them to join us. Jennifer apologizes for her arrogant little brother as she steps into the hot tub. Liz tells her not to worry about it, even though she was tremendously annoyed by Will all day. Liz is quick to forgive.
Jennifer tells us how she would have regrets had she not gone snowmobiling today. We talk, laugh, and tell old stories before going back into the cabin. I can’t remember laughing with Doug and Jennifer in such a lighthearted way. Would I be this way without Liz?
When I walk in the back door, Will is glued to the flat screen with a game controller gripped in his hand. There are four empty beer bottles sitting on the coffee table. Brooke is screaming and I begin to feel numb at the chaos erupting in the cabin. It’s not like this with just Liz and me. We will have music playing, watch a movie, or sometimes I zone out playing warfare games, but it doesn’t get intense like it is with Will and Brooke. I want to scream at them to stop! Liz and I don’t fight like they do, and I hope we never do. I breathe in deeply as I remind myself this is only for one night and I can handle having houseguests.
Liz slips her hand in mine and motions me to follow her upstairs. I tell her I’m going to lock up and turn things off. Liz looks hammered after a long day out on the trails on the snowmobile, so I tell her to go ahead without me. I should have followed Liz. I shouldn’t have joined Will when he invited me to play the warfare game late at night with his wife still shouting.
Will continues to play the video game and pound down beers when I retreat to the loft, raw nerves. I thought playing a game would get something out of my system, but it didn’t.
The bedroom is dark. The interior of my mind is racing as I think about the plans I am making with Liz for next winter. I don’t make plans and now I am making plans with Liz. Am I jumping the gun? I need to stop overthinking this. I feel like ants are running all up and down my arms as chaos continues to brew downstairs.
I am pacing in the bedroom, thinking about those people at The Grill who recognized Liz. She didn’t think anything of it, but I just can’t let it go. What will happen if they say something?
Brooke doesn’t go to sleep; she continues to scream at Will as the warfare game plays on. I pace the room back and forth, back and forth, over and over again. I can’t settle down. I can’t slide into bed with Liz until I turn off my mind. I feel like I could jump out of my skin. I haven’t felt this way in months.
It is two a.m. and I am still pacing with heavy feet. I walk back and forth across the room. I am not able to go to sleep even after a long day of snowmobiling. I suddenly feel Liz behind me. I turn around and, in less than a second, I have her pinned face down with my knee in her back and her hands pulled behind her.
“Jake, you’re hurting me,” Liz cries into the rug.
“What do you have in your hand?” I ask.
“A small bottle of baby oil. You seem really tense and thought you’d like a rub massage.”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you.” I haven’t pinned Liz down in a long time. “I just couldn’t sleep,” I say, feeling like a complete idiot.
“I noticed,” Liz says sharply. “Take off your pajamas and lie on the floor or on the bed,” Liz commands. “I’ll be right back.”
Liz throws open the bedroom door, runs down the stairs. I hear her kick the empty beer bottles in her path.
“Enough!” Liz tells Will sternly and she powers off all the electronics.
“Hey!” Will yells, confused.
Three voices echo “Thank you!” through the cabin, one from Brooke and the other two come from Doug and Jennifer.
Liz turns off the lights before climbing the stairs. She locks the bedroom door before throwing the game controller she took from Will on the nightstand.
“I thought I told you to take your pajamas off and lie down.”
I drop to the floor as she commands as if sh
e were my drill sergeant in basic training. However, my drill sergeants were not as beautiful or as petite as Liz.
“Roll over on your tummy,” Liz commands.
She squirts oil in her hands, warming it before she places the lubricant on my back. I’m trying to relax and close my eyes in the darkness of the room. Liz straddles my lower back. It feels incredible having her hands skate up and down my spine. She is rubbing each and every one of my muscles, trying to get me to relax.
Liz starts on my shoulders and moves down my spine to my lower back and then my hips. I try to breathe in and calm down as she works her way down my gluts and hamstrings. Liz continues to rub as she moves down to my calves, ankles, and then on to my feet. Her thumbs press into the arch of my foot before she makes her way back up the way she descended, not missing one inch of my backside from the tips of my toes to the top of my head. Her touch feels so amazing, I should ask her to do this more often.
“Now roll onto your back,” Liz whispers with an air of command in her voice.
Her demanding tone sends a shiver of excitement through me. The nerves of my belly tingle from the sound of her voice. I breathe in deeply, letting her rub me down. Liz straddles me at the waist. Her gentle hands start on my upper chest and move their way down. Her delicate hands are warm and slick. I’m trying so hard not to groan.
She starts making small circular movements up and down my chest, then onto my shoulders. She works back down my chest and stomach, past my groin, and down to my thighs. She kneads my muscles and pulls around to my inner thighs. She moves up my abdomen and then to my chest and then back down to my hipbones. She slides her fingers up my inner thighs and then begins her slow trek upward.
Liz is still straddling me when she takes her T-shirt over her head so as not to get oil on it and tosses it aside. Her breasts rise and fall against my naked chest as she continues to glide her hands all over me. I can’t help myself as I reach for the back of her thigh as she applies pressure on my muscles.
All of the blood in my body has gone between my legs. I am grinding my teeth to keep from exploding. I am twitching as heat radiates from her.
“You’re done, Liz. I can’t take it anymore.”
I half sit up to take off her panties. I grab the bottle of baby oil and squirt some on my palms to rub all over her folds, lower abs, and inner thighs.
“Were you trying to tease me, Liz?” I ask.
“No, I wouldn’t do that. I was just trying to help,” she says innocently.
Liz is still on top of me with her legs pressed on both sides of my hips. She lifts her hips and slides me inside of her. In a single movement, I deeply buried. My lips trail lower, nipping and teasing until I discover her aching breast. My heart feels like it is going to beat out of my chest. I glide in and out of her, tightening my legs around her. I slide my fingers through her hair, cupping the back of her head to plant sensual kisses on her delicate lips.
“I intend to make sure you are utterly and completely relaxed by the time we are finished,” Liz says breathlessly into my mouth. “Just stop thinking. Clear your mind.”
She is making me shake, locked together. I realize an orgasm is clenching her lower muscles as she gasps for air. She cries out my name and I don’t care if it echoes through the cabin or who hears the noise we make between us. I struggle to catch my breath as an orgasm jolts through my body. I carry Liz to the bed with our oil-slicked bodies.
* * * * *
The aroma of breakfast rises to the loft where I lie. I feel so invigorated. I pull the covers off so I can help Liz finish cooking. I open the bedroom door and make my way down the stairs when I see a buffet of Belgium waffles, fresh fruit, whipped cream, bacon, and scrambled eggs already laid out on the counter. Jennifer and Doug helped Liz in the kitchen.
I reach behind Liz where she stands in the kitchen. I squeeze her shoulders and trail kisses down her neck. She smells of sex and baby oil. I love breathing in the scent we created between one another in the darkness of the bedroom loft.
I am relaxed and refreshed, but things are extremely tense, especially between Will and Brooke. I sit down at the table with a plateful of food and a hot cup of coffee in my hand.
Doug leans in. “Their fighting was my alarm clock this morning.”
“I guess I must have slept right through it all.”
“Lucky you. I’m getting them out of here as soon as possible.”
“Thank you,” I tell Doug as I roll my eyes before taking a sip of coffee.
Brooke slides a bundle of papers with earmarks across the table to Will with a pen. Liz takes my breakfast plate before I am able to take one bite and motions me to follow her to the bedroom loft. This time I, follow loyally to avoid any mayhem.
Liz sits cross-legged on the bed with a plate of Belgium waffles, raspberries, and whipped cream in her lap. She motions me with an index finger to join her. The provocative upturn of her lips is noticeable.
“Brooke was planning to give Will divorce papers last night over dinner. She wanted Jennifer to support her. He smacked her around last night after all those beers.”
“I missed that part.”
“Yeah, you were kind of loud last night,” Liz says with a rueful smile.
I flick whip cream on Liz’s cheek, then lick it off with a smile.
The waffle is eaten from the plate, the fruit and whipped cream are eaten off the tips of Liz’s nipples and navel, and then she eats off me.
When Liz walks over to turn on the water to fill the jetted tub, I notice a black round mark on the small of her back. I fall to my knees behind her. I wrap my arms around her waist from behind and kiss the bruise on her back.
“Jake, what are you doing?” Liz asks, looking over her shoulder and trying not to fall back onto me.
“I’m so sorry I hurt you last night,” I say with sincerity.
“Jake, don’t worry about it. You know I bruise easily. I shouldn’t have snuck up on you and I know better than to do something like that in the dark when you’re edgy.”
Liz steps into the warm bath water and I follow. I want to wash her body.
Even though I sleep upstairs with Liz, my clothes stay in my dresser downstairs. I wrap a towel around my waist before opening the bedroom door. Doug has a weary look on his face as he closes the front door behind him. He takes all the tension and chaos with him. I’d rather have his five children here with all the excitement they bring instead of two fighting adults. I can truly relax now they are gone. I do not care about the mess they left behind.
Doug reopens the front door, peeks his head inside.
“Dude, you are one lucky guy!” he says to me as I stand at the top of the stairs wearing only a towel and a smile.
Chapter 47: Liz
It is late winter and the sun is rising when I abruptly sit upright in bed. I have a sharp pain in my lower abdomen I cannot ignore. I feel extreme wetness at the apex of my thighs. My sudden movements in bed wake Jake, who is lying next to me. I rip the covers off to find I am sitting in a pool of blood.
“Something is wrong with me, Jake,” I say, trying to hold back tears.
Jake has a look of horror on his face at the sight of all the blood, my blood. He leaps out of bed to make a phone call. I clean myself before pulling on some leggings.
“There’s a gynecologist in Doug’s clinic. He said they can see you as soon as we can get you there.” Jake is frantically getting dressed.
I slide on a pair of boots and pull a sweatshirt over my head before making my way down the stairs. It hurts to walk as the lower abdominal pain continues. I bend over in pain, but fight through it so Jake does not see me struggle. Jake pulls the truck from the garage, runs inside to help me put on a heavy coat, and lifts me into the cab. I insist on taking towels with me in case I continue to bleed.
The oversized tires tread through the snow with ease. I try to conceal my pain from Jake. He already seems panicked and I don’t know what is going on. I can speculate, but I’m not c
ertain.
I don’t want to tell Jake what I think is wrong with me because it couldn’t possibly be the reason for my vaginal bleeding. There is a zero percent chance what I imagine is happening is actually the thing going on right now. However, it would explain the morning sickness I have been experiencing the past two months, which I have been hiding from Jake. It would explain the repulsion I have had toward food and the extreme tiredness I have been feeling. I dismissed all my small ailments, blaming them on my heart.
Jake pulls to the entrance of the building where Doug’s clinic is located. He helps me from the truck and I wait for him in the lobby while he parks the truck. I read the directory of services and physicians available in the clinic to keep my mind occupied. It’s a range from family medicine practitioners to instant care services. I see a posting of names of obstetricians and gynecologists. Doug must have arranged for me to see one of them.
“Liz!” Doug calls my name once he steps off the elevator. “Is Jake parking the truck?”
I nod, then look out the glass lobby door to see Jake running toward the entrance.
Doug turns to me. “Just to be on the safe side, are you oaky with using my sister’s name again?”
“Is she okay I am using her name as an alias?” I ask, grimacing in pain.
“Yes, I just got off the phone with her. She’s at home and perfectly fine with it. She will do anything for Jake.”
Doug escorts us to the elevator of the clinic. We ride the elevator to the third floor. Doug opens the door to the offices of the OB/GYN. A nurse wearing scrubs awaits my arrival. She opens the door and I follow her to an examining room.
Jake is right behind me. I stop, place my hand on his chest, and tell him to wait in the waiting area until they can examine me. Jake’s brow furrows, not liking what I am asking of him, but he respects my wishes and turns to find a seat. He will most likely spend his time pacing.
The nurse shows me where I can hang my coat. She takes the soiled blood-towels from my hands and places them in a large biohazard receptacle. Asking a few questions about my current symptoms, she types on a laptop that is sitting on a counter in the corner of the large examining room.
Hasty Resolution Page 33