"This Papa Rayman’s?" I ask with a mouth full. Ain't got time to let this pizza go cold.
"Uh huh, fastest pizza in Georgia."
"Debatable." I grunt.
On finishing my last slice, I look at the empty box longingly, grease staining the brown cardboard where the pizza used to be. I could eat that again. I look over at Cinders and she’s only three slices in.
"You want some?" She asks, poking the box towards me. Damn, she caught me looking.
"I mean if you’re not eating it."
"Have at it."
I swipe up a slice before she can change her mind and wrinkle my nose at the mushrooms. Who has vegetables on a pizza? Oh well, beggars can’t be choosers and I'm hungry as hell. I haven't been this starving since Junior year when me and Tucker got the munchies and ate all his Mom's pies for the bake sale. That was a hell of a good day.
"So what are you gonna do about a job?" Cinders asks, using a napkin to dab the corner of her mouth. She's such a lady, all elegant and neat. Me, I’d just use the bottom of my shirt, it's only gonna be washed anyway.
"I don’t know." I shrug. "I might become a hippy or something. Get one of those trailers on the back of my truck and live with fucking nature for a while. Whatcha think Cinders, wanna live off the land with me?"
"My Dad might have a job for you." She ignores my idea which I thought was a pretty damn good one if I do say so myself. Even as she asks her question I'm still making plans. We could get rid of all our clothes, live like Mogley in Jungle Book. Sure it'd be strictly R rated but I could live with that. "Brady are you even listening to me?"
"Huh? Yeah, yeah course I am Cinders."
"I said my Dad might have a job for you. It's pretty hard I think, all manual labor but you'd be working with Luke and Tucker."
"Tucker?"
"Yeah Tucker works for my Dad." She says it slowly.
"I think I’d know if one of my best pals worked for your Dad , Cindy." I scoff. Like I'm falling for that.
"Tuckers worked for my dad since High School finished."
That was two years ago. No, there's no way. I’d know. I'm not that dense.
"If you say so." I’m not convinced. "So a job huh?"
She nods her head, dropping a crust onto her box. I could work with Cindy's Dad; it'd give us some bonding time. Plus, I’d have access to the all the machinery, I’m sure there’s some fuckery I can get up to with that. I can picture the digger races now. Tucker and me, winner takes all. I’d be willing to bet my truck on me beating his ass. Course i I' d want his Pokémon deck. Hey, nobody can judge me, Tucker had the best deck around. He'd have made Pokémon Master five times over with it.
"Anyway," I shake my head, remembering that I'm not here to shoot the breeze with Cindy. I’m trying to woo here. "Enough about digger wars-"
"Digger wars?"
Shit she'll rat me out. Act cool Brady act cool. Hell maybe I’m not as sober as I thought.
***
"Should we wake them?"
"No leave them alone, don’t they look adorable Jim? You remember when we were young and in love and would fall asleep in each other’s arms."
"What do you mean? I am young and in love my beautiful little petal."
Fuck I’m either having some seriously fucked up dream about Cindy’s parents or I'm currently vulnerable and unarmed while Cindy's Dad stands over me while I've got his daughter in my arms. Damn I hope I haven’t got wood. If I have, then I'll fucking help him chop my stupid dick off.
I open my eyes quickly an d I’m am met with Deena’s soppy smile and Jims glare.
"Uh Morning?" I croak and rub the sleep out of my eyes.
"Not morning Son, it’s eleven at night." Jim says, looking from me to Cindy.
I follow his eyes to see Cindy curled up at my side. I can't help the smile that comes to my face. She fits perfectly, like a piece of jigsaw slotting into place. Her dress has ridden up her thighs, exposing milky flesh that causes the big boy downstairs to stir. Not the time, so not the fucking time.
"We'll leave you to it.” Deena pats her husband’s chest and gives him a warm smile. "Come on Jim." She grabs onto his hand and pulls him along.
His eyes don’t leave mine for a minute.
"Don’t forget the rules." He calls behind him.
"Oh hush honey, don’t you remember what it was like to be young and in love."
"Oh yeah that’s the problem."
He gestures that he's watching me just as she drags him from the room, leaving me and Cinders alone.
"Hey Cinders." I tap her shoulder and she wrinkles her nose before burrowing into my side. Damn if it wasn’t such a pansy ass move I’d melt. "Come on Cinders, time for bed." I say gently, in a voice that’s so high I'm grateful nobody's around to hear it. I sound like a fucking woman.
"Mmm Brady." She sighs. "Love you."
My heart thumps in my chest on hearing the words I haven't heard in six long months. She loves me. She still loves me. Damn who knew those words could bring such relief. I didn’t realize till she'd said it that I’d been waiting for them. Fuck if I don’t feel on top of the world.
"Oh you got no idea how long-" A snore sounds out. She's asleep! This is one of the best moments of my life and my woman is fucking asleep like there’s no t a care in the world.
Shit she must have been dreaming. Oh who gives a fuck, she was obviously dreaming about yours truly so it's still all good in the hood. I gently lift her up so I can stand and lay her head on the armrest. She groans and turns, her hair no longer straight but with kinks here and there covering her face. Little strands that are over her mouth puff float a little with every breath she blows out.
I kneel down next to her and brush it away, not able to resist the urge to bring it up to my nose. Looks like that’s where the strawberry scent comes from. Shit , how after this many years did I not know that? I’m an asshole that’s why. I’m a blind asshole that deserved to be fucking dumped by her. Never again will I neglect her, never will I take her for granted. She’s my whole world.
"Brady." She sighs and for a minute I think she's dreaming again. I gotta be honest, I get a kick outta the thought that she's dreaming about me. She blinks her eyes open and I get even more of a kick that I'm the first thing she thinks about on waking up. "Did we fall asleep?" She asks softly, taking a yawn.
"Uh huh."
"What are you smiling about?"
"You love me." I smirk.
"W-what?"
"You fucking love me. You said it, no take backs."
"When?" A frown mars her forehead and I rub my finger against it to set it straight.
"When you were sleeping." I shrug.
"That doesn’t count, Brady." She rolls her eyes and I straight away grab her face, cupping it in both my hands.
"Hey, I love you ok. I love you so fucking much I get a pain right here." I thump my chest to get my point across. "I'm not gonna fuck up again Cinders. We're for keeps. Forever together."
Her eyes are wide and darting from side to side as if looking for an escape. Nuh uh, not this time Cinders. She gnaws on her lip and I’ i d give fucking anything to be able to see inside her head right now , to know what she's thinking about. For a few moments we just stare at each other. If someone walked in right now they'd probably think we'd gone off at the deep end. Just when I start to get nervous, thinking her eyes are gonna roll into the back of head or some shit with how intensely they're looking at me, the most beautiful, heart stopping smile spreads across her face.
"I love you Brady." Her voice is so quiet but I still catch it. "I really really do."
I lay my forehead against her and hell if I don’t feel like crying like a damn woman.
"My Cinders. Everything's gonna be ok you know."
"It’s gonna take a while."
"I know but i I t will. I’ll do anything to have you back, to fix this." I will, I’d saw my own arm off. She's worth it. "I can't live without you no more."
"Me nei
ther."
"You won't. Hey you know what this means, don’t ya?" I wiggle my eyebrows. "Make up sex."
"You’re such a horn dog." She whacks me in the chest and I feign being hurt before scooping her up in my arms. "Yo, Brian!" I call out, listening for the telltale sound of claws scratching against the floor. He comes zooming in, a hat on his fucking head which I’m sure is down to Cindy's sister. "Come on boy."
"Brady where are we going?" Cindy squeals as I head to the front door.
"You think after you finally admitting you still love and finally giving us another fucking chance you’re not gonna be sleeping next to me tonight? Woman I am gonna rock your world tonight."
Chapter 16
Brady (Again)
"You taste good." I mumble against Cinders lips.
She tastes like a mixture of chocolate and coffee, basically a Mocha. I got my very own Mocha Cinders sitting in the passenger seat of my truck. My tongues in her mouth, my hands on her ass and life’s pretty damn good.
"Uh huh." She whimpers, pulling at the ends of my hair. She doesn’t have to do that. I don’t think I can get any closer to her, I’d fucking climb down her throat if I could and live in her stomach. Course I'd have to climb out and kick some guy’s ass every now and again when he hit ’ s on my girl.
I squeeze her firm round butt and growl. Only she could turn me into a caveman with just a thought. I feel like clubbing her over the head and dragging her back to the cave by her feet. Instead I gotta go to a teeny bopper birthday party cause I’m trying to be a good boyfriend and shit.
Seriously, I always thought being a good boyfriend was giving my woman as many orgasms as possible and making her as happy as can be. Why the fuck she'd be happy going to Avery’s boring ass birthday I don’t know. Apparently it’s the family thing to do and we can't lie in bed for another day. I call bullshit.
There a tapping behind me and I swear to God if douchebag Noah’s standing there I'm gonna knock his teeth out. I certainly don’t give two flying fucks if he’s all gummy in his Wedding pictures.
There's more knocking and I feel Cinders tense up in my arms. I blink my eyes open to see what's up with her. I can't see much because I'm basically attached to her face and shit but her eyes are like fucking saucers. I pull away with a frown. What the hell is wrong with her? Looks like she's seen a ghost.
"Cinders." Her eyes don’t meet mine; they're just staring past my head.
I turn around and find myself face to face with a person. No, that’s not a person , that’s a fucking giant. He's waving his hands around in the air and throwing daggers at me with his eyes . I swear his heads like the size of the tires on my truck.
"The lights turned green." Cinders points out. When the hell did that happen? "He doesn’t look too happy."
I look in the rearview mirror behind me and see the line of cars going down the street, some blaring their horns. I didn’t even hear all this going on I was too wrapped up in my handful and mouthful of Cinders.
"Time to go." I quip, pressing my foot down squealing away.
Yeah I'm willing to throw down when I gotta but I'm too pretty for this shit and I’m definitely not getting into a fist fight in my woman’s presence. That’s just not how I roll. I look in the wing mirror to see behind me. The guy that was at my window’s straightening up. That was a close call. He looks about seven feet tall.
"Damn girl, that mouth of yours is gonna get me into trouble one of these days."
That gets a giggle which eventually turns into a full on belly laugh. You know the kind that racks your whole body and takes your breath away? I wish I knew what was so damn funny cause I’m pretty sure it wasn’t my joke.
"I can't believe that just happened." She wheezes out, a wide smile splitting her face.
"Did you see that guys face? I thought I was gonna end up his bitch." I’m not even exaggerating either.
"Next time let's leave the kissing for when we're actually parked and not when we hit a red light. I wouldn’t want your pretty face to get hurt." Oh now she's asking for it.
"I coulda took him." I pout. I coulda. I'd have just junk punched him. That move always works.
"Ok." She says with a roll of her eyes.
"Damn, I've got moves women. I got killer moves. These guns of steel could a of took him down in a heartbeat."
That gets more laughs. Fucking charming.
I turn into Cindy’s street and the first thing I see is her parents’ house. I mean sure technically Cindy still lives there but she's spent every day for the past two weeks with me so I'm assuming she's moved out. If she hasn’t I'll have to fucking let her know that she has. Anyway, the house looks like Barney puked up on it. All purple balloons and silver banners saying 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY'.
"Oh she is not gonna like this." Cindy mumbles staring at the house while I park up.
"Why not?" I shrug. Personally I think it's hideous but I guess a seventeen-year-old girl might like it. Never been one though so I guess I'll never know thank fuck.
"Avery doesn’t like attention."
"Well I don’t think anyone could miss this."
I jump out and stride round the other side to let my woman out cause I’m all gentlemanly and shit. I lift her down, making sure to cop a feel as I do. What can I say? She’s got one hell of an ass.
I’m about to kiss her when I hear the sound of someone clearing their throat behind me.
Seriously, why does nobody want me to kiss my girl? I turn around to find Luke standing there, hand s on hips and giving me some kind of disapproving look. Well he can fuck himself, I remember walking in on him and Christine Hoppman in the boy’s locker room once so he can take his hypocritical ass inside.
"Move out the way Cooper." He says, bouncing me out the way and taking his sister into his arms. "Where ya been Cindy?"
"Oh I've just been with Brady."
"So it’s true then, the lovebirds are back together."
"Uh huh, it's true." I pull Cindy back to my side, wrapping my one arm tightly around her. "Not gonna be changing either."
That seems to get him laughing. I don’t know what the hell’s going on today with people laughing at me but I know I’m not that fucking funny so I’m starting to get pissed. I stand there for a good two minutes completely straight faced while dickhead over there gains his composure.
"Ah, good to see your ugly ass back in the fold, Cooper." He claps me on the back before pulling my woman into his side and walking towards to house.
"Guy’s lucky he’s her brother or I'd lay his ass out." I mumble to myself, not giving a fuck if they hear or not.
I quickly grab Avery’s present, wrapped in silver shiny paper and follow Cinders and her brother into the house which looks as bad inside as it does outside. There’s silver banners everywhere, balloons hanging on fucking everything. The faint sound of Justin Bieber comes from the backyard and we follow it.
I walk past a pretty tasty looking birthday cake even if it is in the shape of a purse. Seriously, nobody’s gonna miss the candy buckle, right?
"You're here!... Brady Cooper, stay away from that cake, I can see you eyeing it."
"Me?" I point to myself and put my most innocent expression on for Deena who just popped out of fucking nowhere. Can't a guy just eat a whole birthday cake that’s not for him in peace?
"Uh huh, I can practically see the drool on your chin. You can have a slice later. There's burgers outside."
"Did you say burgers? Never mind that, Avery won't notice if you give me a little slice."
"Shoo outside with you. You’re late already and you'll miss Baileys show."
I take the hint and head outside, greeting everyone as I go and wishing the birthday girl a Happy Birthday while keeping an eye on Cinders. Trust me, if you saw that little blue sundress she's wearing, you would be too! After giving Cindy's grandma a loud wet kiss on the cheek and narrowly avoiding that lethal stick of hers, I head towards the barbecue, manned by Jim.
"Jim, I hear t
here's burgers!"
"Yep, should be done in about five minutes son."
I peek at the grill and wish I’d have stayed the hell inside. Not only have they shrunk to the size of a nickel but I’m damn sure they were done five minutes ago. This guys a worse cook than Cinders and that’s saying something. I hear a squeaky voice and turn around.
"Give me an A! Give me a V! Give me an E! Give me a..." The little miniature cheerleader frowns.
"R! It’s R damn it!" Avery shouts at her little sister, looking pretty pissed.
"Oh yeah. Give me an R! Give me a Y! Happy birthday Avery WOOHOO!" Bailey runs around in a circle before throwing the pink and white pom poms up in the air.
Oh shit, just as I think Avery couldn’t look any more pissed, one bops her right on head.
"Oh crap!"
I spin around to see Jim holding a burger with a pair of tongs. All would be normal except the burgers on fucking fire. Yep I think I'm gonna move. This face is way too pretty to get burnt.
I make a quick exit, leaving Cindy's Dad cursing and stamping on the fire burger. I hope the cakes soon, I’m hungry and there ain’t no way I’m eating anything that’s cooked by Jim.
"Cinders." I say low, coming up behind my woman and wrapping my hands around her waist. "That dress is killing me."
"You do realize my whole family is in this backyard."
"Wow you really know how to take a guy’s boner away."
"Yeah and my Grandmothers sitting about five feet away."
"Yep that'll do it."
She laughs as I blow a raspberry into her neck. The smell of strawberry’s makes me even more hungry than I was. I lick the skin just below her earlobe, ignoring the squeal that comes out of her. She might smell like strawberries but she tastes like woman. My woman. Fuck, I love her. I love her more than the air I breathe and the food I eat. I love her more than my truck. I love her more than Brian though don’t go telling him that. The thing I love more than anything though is that she’s back in my arms, she’s back where she belongs, she’s back with me.
Fuck if the past two weeks haven’t been fucking ace. I guess some sappy asses would call it the Honeymoon period, when everything’s sex, love and more sex. If it didn’t fuck me up so much being without her, I'd break up with her for a day every couple of months just to get this feeling. My dicks rubbed raw, my hearts alive and hell if this isn’t shaping up to be the best Summer of my life.
Forever Together (Forever Love #2) Page 21