Worth The Fight (Worth It Series Book 1)

by Breanna Mansfield

  I lowered my mouth to her nipple and never took my eyes off of hers. When my teeth clamped down, her knee buckled. I took my hand and wrapped her other leg around my waist and grasped her ass with my hands, never taking my mouth away from her nipple. Her moans made me thrust my hips to hers, and her body shuddered. I pulled the neck of her sweater to the other breast, and pulled the cup of her bra down, and drug my tongue across to her nipple. I blew on it before I reached up and pinched it with my fingers and caught her moans with my mouth. I thrust my tongue in her mouth, while rolling my hips against hers. She pushed her hips into mine with more speed as she bit down on my lower lip whimpering. I broke the kiss to run my lips around to her ear. I pulled her earlobe with my teeth. I brought my lips up to her ear and whispered, “Let go for me, baby girl.”

  One more pinch of her nipple, a nibble behind her ear, and she was screaming my name into the foyer of my house. Music to my fucking ears.

  After her rapid breaths started to slow, I let her slide down my body, but I keep a hand on her hips to steady her. I grip the back of her hair, tilting her head up, and run my nose down hers.

  “You make me want to lose control,” I tell her. Because it’s so fucking true.

  “Is that a bad thing?” she asks.

  I chuckle and kiss her forehead, “I’m not even sure, baby girl.”

  I fix her bra and pull the sweater back to her shoulder where it goes. I take her hand and walk with her outside. There are workers pouring asphalt on the road behind my gate and you can smell it on the wind. I look over and see Bridget’s face tilted up to the sun light as she takes a deep breath through her nose. Her face transforms into a smile and when she opens her eyes and looks at me. I’m taken back by how stunning she is. High cheek bones, beautiful long lashes, those blue eyes.

  “Do you smell that?” she asks.

  “Yeah, I do. Sorry about it, but they are working on the road out front, so the smell will be pretty fresh for a few days.”

  “Do you ever have those moments in your life, where a sound, or a smell, or even the sight of something weird, will trigger a memory that you never thought too much on?” she asks while closing her eyes again.

  “Sometimes, yeah. Nails are one for me. The sound of a nail gun. Reminds me of long nights in the barn with my grandpa,” it’s most likely why I got into construction in the first place.

  “Asphalt is one of those for me,” she laughs. “My uncle Joe, he used to be a construction guy. Did all kinds of stuff, but one of the things he did for a while was work for a buddy of his, and they poured asphalt for people. And when I was little, my mom would take us to his shop for a while, and some days, we got to go out on the job with him. Joe was always at our house too, so when he’d walk in the door, I’d smell the asphalt on him. It’s crazy, but I love the smell of it. It reminds me of Joe, and how I need to go back home and visit him when all this crazy blows over. I lived with him after my mom died. He has always been there for me.”

  “I’d love to meet Joe one day,” I tell her as I open my truck door for her.

  “I’m sure you will too,” she replies after she climbs up into the cab.

  Damn. She looks fucking perfect sitting in my truck.

  ***********************

  “We have about two hours left of the drive, so you can ask me anything you wanna know. I figured this would be a great way to get to know each other a bit. Sort of like twenty-one questions,” I tell her.

  She’s sitting in the passenger seat of my truck with her hand out the window, and that wild, curly, red hair blowing in the wind. She looks over at me and a smile lights up her face. She looks like an angel right now. The sunlight is reflecting on her face, her sunglasses sitting on top of her head, her smile made up of perfect teeth. She had this one dimple on her right side, but not the left. Her eyes were the most perfect shade of blue, and when the sunlight hit them, like it is right now, it looked like they were sculpted out of the finest sapphires you could buy.

  “I’d like that. You ask the first question.”

  “Okay, um. . . what’s your favorite childhood memory?” I ask, playing it a bit safe. I want to know so much about her. Hell, I need to know everything about her.

  “My favorite memory. Well, I have loads of them with my brother. But one of my favorites, it would be this camping trip we went on. I think it’s my favorite memory because it has my brother, mom, stepdad, and me all in the same one. One morning, we were sitting around our campfire, and I must have been about six or seven, and we were having waffles. My stepdad bought this waffle maker for the fire pit and he was excited to use it. So, while he was cooking, he was humming. He was tall, and had such long dark hair. It was always pulled into a loose pony tail around the back of his neck. I think he might have had some Indian in him.

  “Anyway, he made us waffles, and we ate them and when we were done eating I stood up and put my plate in the trash then I took my hand and put it on his bare back. My hand was so sticky from the sugary syrup. When I rubbed it on his back, I remember him jumping up and squealing. Then he got the syrup bottle, poured a little on his hands, rubbed them together, and proceeded to chase me around, tickling me with sticky hands every time he caught me. And the best part? My mom and brother all jumped in and ganged up on him, and then it was the three of us against Allen. When we were all covered in syrup and our stomachs hurt from laughing, we all went to the lake at the camp ground and just jumped in. Clothes and all. That was a pretty fun day, and I loved my mom’s smile that day. When I think of her, I think of that smile.”

  She had this far away look in her eyes, and I wondered what happened to Allen. Why did he just take off?

  “Okay, it’s your turn to answer. What’s your mom like?”

  “Oh, that’s an easy one. My mom is basically an angel that fell from heaven. She would do anything for her kids. She thought she’d have all boys, but when Hudson came out, she wasn’t a boy at all. But mom kept her name the same anyway. Mom has dinner every other Sunday, and wants all her kids around the table. I will tell you -- none of my brothers, or my sister, are married. Not even dating. So when we get there and she finds out I brought a girl home for Sunday dinner, she is going to swoon all over the place. She has been hounding us all to settle down, and she is going to be ecstatic that I’m bringing her a girl to meet,” I end with a chuckle. My momma is going to freak out because I didn’t give her a notice to get the fine china out, to properly treat the girl. I can’t wait to see that.

  “None of your family knows I’m coming? Oh my gosh Aaron, they might be mad I’m intruding!” her eyes are wide, really thinking they might be angry. When she finally meets them, she’ll understand. They have hearts of gold.

  “Chill baby girl, I did shoot Hudson a text, but told her not to tell mom. I want her surprised. So you know that whatever way she treats you is genuine. Not a staged act. But I do believe it’s my turn for a question?”

  “Yup. Ask away,” she says.

  I slide my hand over the center console and rest my palm just above her knee. I love touching her, but it also soothes my soul. I want to tell her the shit about Hudson, but I don’t know how to bring it up. I’ll tell her sometime this week. I don’t want to start this relationship off on lies. But at the same time, I don’t want to take the risk that she will run.

  “What was Leroy like? Where did everything go wrong? You can skip this question if you’re not ready to talk about it with me yet.”

  “No, I’m comfortable telling you basically anything.” She takes a deep breath and launches into the story of how they met, and he was the typical sweet guy, and he treated her like a princess.

  “Then I started to notice how he was acting different. He would ask me where I was, who I was with, when I’d be leaving, when I was going to arrive somewhere. I started noticing women smiling at him as his office parties, and there was this one party, where he told me he was going to the bathroom, but he was gone for about thirty-five minutes. I didn’t th
ink anything of it at first. But one day I came home a little early, and found him with one of the girls from his office. I was so pissed. I was pissed at myself, mainly. I had this perfect image of him in my head, and here he was, right in front of me, showing his true colors. I walked out of the room, and his ass never even stopped fucking her. I had packed up everything that meant anything to me, like my mom’s stuff, and walked out the door. I never looked back. The whole time he’s telling me it was a mistake. If it was a huge mistake, then why did he keep doing it when I walked in?

  “He begged me to stay, called me, text me, showed up at my uncle’s. He started to show some stalker tendencies, but I looked the other way thinking he was heart broke. Then my uncle’s dog died and was left on our porch. I didn’t have any proof it was him, but my gut said it was, you know. Then he started leaving notes. Saying stuff like, he will get me back, and no one will ever love me, a bunch of stupid stuff. But then there was the last note on my bedroom window. On the inside of it. It said If you come back to me now, I won’t hurt you. But if I have to chase you, I’ll make you pay. So my uncle helped me plan a life in Carrollview. And one night, I loaded up my car and left. I was here for about a year, then I noticed little notes, and I thought, well – hoped, that was as far as he’d take it. Then my car doors wouldn’t lock one night, didn’t think anything of it. Then my house burned down, and that’s when it clicked. Because I was supposed to be at home, sleeping. In the fucking room that caught fire. The doctor asked if I could stay over, and I remember being annoyed at first, because we were not even busy, but I thought to myself, why the hell not. My best friend I made here was working, so I figured I could hang out with her most of the night. I loved doing that, and often I did stay after. Just to hang. But then the notes have started coming more and more lately, and I’m so close to just moving again.”

  I didn’t like the fucking sound of that. At all. If it was the last thing I did, I would make sure my woman was kept safe.

  “You’re so damn strong, baby girl.” I lift her hand up and let my lips graze her knuckles.

  “Ha. I guess so. But I do know that I won’t let a man walk all over me, especially when that man doesn’t even love me like they were supposed to do.”

  “Your turn to ask,” I tell her.

  “Yes, let’s see,” she says and rubs her chin in mock thoughts. She’s so damn cute.

  “What’s your favorite memory of your sister growing up?” she asks, surprising the hell out of me.

  “I’d have to say, there was this one time I got grounded because I beat this kid up at school. What I didn’t tell our mom was that the kid was spreading rumors around about Hudson being an easy lay. So naturally, big brother beat the hell out of him and so on. But anyway, I got grounded for fighting in school, and Hudson snuck into my room after everyone went to bed to tell me she was sorry that I got in trouble because of her. But I wasn’t sorry at all, because after the fight I made him tell everyone the lie was a lie, and she wasn’t the way he was painting her to be. So then she asked if I wanted to risk getting in even more trouble with her. And of course, I naturally said yes. So, we snuck out of the house and we went to this little bar called Clarks.”

  “How old were you?” she laughs.

  “I was about seventeen and she was about fifteen. The barkeep knew how old we were, but in a small town, they didn’t care much back then. So I went up to the bar, acting all tough, and was like, ‘sir we need some shots.’ And he looked at me and was like ‘sure thing, bud.’” I used this really deep voice when I told her what he said. I was trying to not laugh, but I remember the way he looked at me. I thought I knew it all then. Oh those days.

  Bridget was giggling. The sound was magic. “You did not,” she giggles out.

  “Yup, and the mistake I made was that I didn’t ask for a certain type of liquor. So, he handed us our shots with this evil grin on his face, and Hudson and I were all giddy. We clanked our glasses thinking we were doing a shot of cheap vodka. Come to find out it was moonshine. Pure fucking moonshine. Homegrown hooch in that shine. Needless to say, we were wasted when we got home. Our mom was so pissed off at us.”

  “Oh man, I bet y’all got in so much trouble,” she laughs.

  “That’s the thing though. We were never punished exactly. Not in the sense you’re thinking of anyway. She woke us up the next day by playing the drums on the pots and pans. When we came out of our rooms, she vacuumed the floors for an hour, I swear,” I grimaced thinking back on the way my head was about to explode.

  “Maybe the floor needed swept really bad,” she continues to laugh.

  “We had hardwood floors, baby girl. She swept them over and over, with a vacuum. And that’s not the last thing she did either. I’m pretty sure she washed every single dish in the house. She banged them around and was so loud. It was horrible. My sister and I learned to not get drunk ever again.”

  “Oh, that is priceless.” Her head was tilted back on the headrest and she had the biggest smile on her face.

  “You getting hungry, babe?” I asked her.

  “Actually, yeah. You can stop where ever. I’m not picky.”

  I take the off ramp to this tiny town that I usually stop at when I make this trip. There is a little diner that I think she’d love. There is only about an hour left to drive, so this will be a good resting spot before the chaos starts. I wonder what my mom will say when I tell her we are staying for a bit.

  “This is one of my favorite places to eat. They have some good home cookin’ here. Just don’t tell my mom I said that,” I wink at her.

  I pull in and shut off the truck. I lean over the seat and grab her chin and kiss her hard. I don’t know what it is about this woman, but fuck she is under my skin. When I end the kiss her eyes stay closed, and she looks so fucking beautiful I don’t know what I did right to have her walk into my life.

  Chapter Thirteen

  I need to step back for a moment. No one has made me feel so much so fast, and I am surely going to get fucked on this. What’re the odds we can really have a future together? I’m a nurse practitioner. I can’t leave town whenever he wants to come down here. My field is demanding. I work weekends and holidays and long hours in the ER. Granted, I’m most likely the only NP that works in an ER, in the history of ever, but finding an actual medical office means putting down roots. It’s making a promise to patients I’d see regularly. I can’t just up and leave when Leroy gets to be too much to handle. He’s nearly there now. I wish my brother was home. I miss him so much, and Leroy always seemed kind of skittish around him. Well, besides the comment he made at the Four J’s the other night. I haven’t gotten to see him in so long.

  “You alright baby girl? You look a little sad right now,” he asked me. I was never good at hiding my emotions. They played on my face for everyone to see. I needed to work on that.

  “Yeah, just missing my brother. I haven’t talked to him in over a month, so it’s killing me,” I say with a shrug.

  He reaches across our tiny table at this little diner and puts his hand on mine. As soon as his skin touches mine, I’m instantly comforted. The warmth from his touch spreads throughout my body, and settles in my heart. It’s these little moments that make me fall harder for this man. We may have just met, but the connection between us is unreal. Not to mention pretty scary.

  “I’m sorry,” he says. “Is there a way for you to contact him?”

  “Kinda, I can message his social media page, but he can’t always answer. Sometimes weeks go by before he gets a moment to send an email back.”

  “Oh, that sucks. Tell me your favorite memory of him.”

  I love that he’s trying to lighten my mood with good memories. I tap my finger on my chin as I think of the best one. When I got it, my smile stretches my face and the feeling is welcoming.

  “My favorite memory has to be from when he was home last time. I had just left Leroy, and I was all sorts of heartbroken. I knew he was an asshole, but it didn’t mean
that I wasn’t sad for all of the time wasted with him. Anyway, my brother came over one night and told me to get dressed. I didn’t know where we were going, but he told me to just get dressed and get ready for a fun night. So we leave my apartment, and we go to his house. He had this little townhouse outside of town a bit, and when we got there it was a party going on inside. I wasn’t really up for a party, but I went along with it anyway. When we got inside, I noticed it was only like five people there. So I felt better right away. We sat around and drank and laughed, oh my, the laughs. I still remember the belly aches, and my cheeks hurt so badly from the smile I had on constantly. It turned out to be an amazing night.”

  He smiles and rubs his thumb across my palm as I continue.

  “We were playing beer pong at one point of the night, and I’m shit at the game to be honest, but it didn’t matter with them. It was Brent, his two buddies Tyler and Wade, then me. Brent and I were a team and it was our turn to shoot. But then the radio started to play that song from Taylor Swift, “Shake it Off,” and Brent runs to the other side of the table and starts dancing around with Tyler and Wade. Then Brent takes a cup off the table thinking it was an empty one and tosses it at Tyler. But there was water in it and the water went all over Tyler.”