by M. K. Moore
“Are you seeing anyone? You probably are, I mean look at you.” What is wrong with me? We have been friends for fourteen years. Why is everything I say so cringeworthy? He just laughs that panty melting laugh again.
“Nope, not seeing anyone. I don’t date much.”
“Me either. I am so busy with the bakery.” I say. By much, I mean not at all. “I go in at three am and work until five or six in the evening. It’s a bit grueling, but I love it. I am usually in bed by nine at the latest. God, I have no life. I am sorry I am so boring. Tell me about you. What have you been up to?” My verbal spew is too much, even for me.
God, I am embarrassing myself, but I can’t help it. He makes me feel like butterflies have taken over my stomach and I like it.
Three
Callum
Out of the corner of my eye, I see she is blushing in mortification and wringing her hands in her lap. But I can also see that she is clenching her thighs together and squirming in her seat. She is so fucking beautiful. Even more so than I remember. She has a light dusting of flour on her forehead and what looks like chocolate cake bits in her long blonde hair.
When I lifted her into the cab of my truck, I noticed more flour all over her legs and mouthwatering hips. She even has flour handprints on her juicy ass. I have to stifle a groan when I see that she isn’t wearing panties, or if she is, it is the tiniest g-string ever. I should have offered to stop at her place to change, but honestly, she looks adorable like this.
“Well, I am sure you heard about the dating app.” Everyone in town has. It was just something I put together when I was bored one weekend at my dorm. I can’t believe one weekend of coding garnered me so much capital.
“Yeah, I downloaded it, but there weren’t any matches within 100 miles.” I knew that too. I put a sexy bit of code in the app to ensure she wouldn’t. Luckily, I still owned the app when she downloaded it. I am a sick man.
“You know about the rig. I just hired five guys to help me out up there. I did keep everyone else on who works there, but I needed some guys that I trust implicitly, helping me out. I have plans to build a house on Old Sawmill Road, but a few things have to align before that can happen.”
“Oh, that’s so cool,” she says, smiling. I know she wants to ask what needs to happen, but she is too polite.
“Here we are,” I say as I pull into a parking space outside The Hair of The Dog. It’s a hole in the wall little pub, but it has always been our spot. It’s about eight minutes outside of Regret. There is another bar in town, Crazy Joe’s, but that is where our father’s drink. We didn’t go there, as it was twenty-one and up. Here they have pool tables and arcade games so it’s family style, and my girl was always a bit of a pool shark. “I thought we could play a few games of pool while we are here.”
“Oh God! I haven’t been here in years. The last time was the day before you left for college. Why didn’t you come back to me sooner? Shit, I am sorry, you don’t owe me anything, especially not explanations. You were living your life. Which I should have done too. It’s not your fault I missed the fuck out of you and I couldn’t get over it. I’m sorry.” Her mortification factor must be high because her face is tomato red, but it makes me ridiculously happy that she hasn’t been here with anyone else.
She goes to open her door, but I grab her left hand, stopping her. “Bree, I owe you more than you think. I should have come back sooner, but there were some things I needed to do, without my father’s help. You understand that don’t you?” I ask her, never looking away from her face. My parents are wealthy, but they taught me the value of a dollar. Everything worth keeping is worth the hard work and time it takes to get it.
“Yeah I understand Cal, I am just selfish. I didn’t know how to thrive without you. Sure, I survived, but I wasn’t really living. I haven’t seen you in six years, but I-” I cut her off when my lips press to hers. That first taste of her sweet mouth is enough to almost kill me. Our tongues tangle, and sexy little sighs and moans come from Bree while I devour her mouth.
“You are so perfect Bree. I have so much to tell you.” Her stomach rumbles and she lets out a giggle.
“Sorry, I haven’t eaten since four-thirty this morning.” She says blushing.
“We can talk later, but let’s get you fed. You need to take better care of yourself,” I say with a mock stern look. I am serious though. I can’t have my woman hungry all day. I get out of the truck and cross to her side. I open her door and reach in to unbuckle her seatbelt.
Grabbing her hips, I lift her out and slide her down the front of my body. Her little gasp when she feels my hard cock almost has me coming. When her feet touch the floor, I devour her sweet mouth again. I force myself to stop kissing her. I am getting ahead of myself and I don’t want her thinking this is just about sex for me. I pull her closer towards me, shutting the door and locking the truck. Holding her hand, we walk toward the front of the restaurant.
When we get inside the pub, it still smells like peanuts, wings, and beer.
The hostess leads us to a two-person booth on the far side of the small dance floor.
“I’ll be honest here, Bree. I’ve missed you so much,
“I’ve missed you too, obviously,” she says laughing, causing me to as well.
“What have you been up to? I tried to stalk you on Facebook, but you don’t have one.”
“Social media isn’t my thing,” I say, chuckling. “I’ve been busy since I left. Made the app, sold it. Bought the old oil company outside town, but there hasn’t been a day where I didn’t think about what you were up to, who you were with.”
She blushes and looks down at her menu.
“I’ve just been at the bakery and hanging out with my sister. I am such a loser.”
“No, don’t think that Bree,” I say, reaching over and putting my hand over hers. Am I a selfish bastard for being glad she hasn’t done shit but work in the last six years? Probably. “I came back to tell you what a mistake it was to leave you. That I love you, am in love with you. Have been for years,” I say, laying it all out on the line.
Imagine my torture when she just stares at me. I may have just fucked up the best thing in my life.
Four
Aubree
I stare at him for what seems like forever, while my brain tries to compute what he just said. My mouth opens and closes like a fish several times. I swallow and words start to form.
“What did you say?” I whisper.
“I am in love with you Aubree Leigh. Have been forever.”
“Why did you leave me here then? I know you had something to prove, but not to me. Never to me,” I say close to tears.
“Bree, don’t cry, baby. I know that now.”
“Don’t call me baby. You should have known then. I, uh, can’t do this right now,” I say getting up from my seat hastily and walking my ass right out of the restaurant.
I don’t have my car, but luckily Regret is about as big as a postage stamp. Unluckily, it’s cold as fuck and my coat is in his truck. Nature decides it's the perfect time to start snow flurries, too. My little apartment above the bakery is about two miles from here and I am wearing my Nike’s, so there’s that. I can’t go back now, so I walk out of the parking lot and head back in the direction we just came from. I am irrationally upset that he left me here, all the while loving me. What a bag of dicks. I am so wrapped up in talking to myself that I don’t notice a truck pulling up beside me. I motion for it to go around me, but it slows further. When I look up, I see that it’s Cal. Of course, it fucking is. Can’t a girl storm off crazy-like in peace?
“Baby, just stop. Talk to me, please. Get in the truck,” he says through the open window. I flip him off like a toddler. When I keep right on walking he puts the truck in park and gets out. I hear the ding-ding noise of the keys still being in the ignition. He catches up to me easily and grabs my arm, simultaneously turning me and pulling me towards him. His eyes are full of lust and his show of alpha-ness makes me wet.<
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“Don’t walk away from me Bree. We have so much to discuss,” he growls. Growls at me. God, I am going to combust right here on the street.
“Why? Cuz that’s your job?” I spew at him. God, I sound like a bitch. “Besides, I’ll walk away from you if I want to, Callum. Calling me baby and grabbing me like you own me isn’t going to make me forget the last six years and all the time I wondered why I wasn’t good enough for you.”
“Fuck, Bree. You’re too damn good for me. Knew it then, know it now.”
“Then why?” Tears are threatening to spill over. I have that lump in my throat too, like any second I am going to start sobbing.
“Does it matter, Bree?”
“Yes. You needing to get out of Regret isn’t a good enough reason. I would have followed you anywhere. Surely you knew that.”
“I had no idea, Bree. I swear.”
“Then you are the only fucking person who didn’t know. Guys wouldn’t even ask me out because they thought we were together. Did you know that? Graham Peterson wanted to ask me out senior year but didn’t. He thought I was yours,” I yell at him, jabbing my index finger into his chest.
“I didn’t know that. And you were fucking mine. Those dicks didn’t deserve you. Did you want to go out with Graham Peterson? Is that what this is about? You’re upset that you missed your chance with him now that he is married?” he asks, angrily.
“What? Oh my God, no. You’re a fucking idiot. You had to know that I was in love with you. Every day I showed you, but I couldn’t say it. I didn’t want to lose you.”
He kisses me then. Kisses me like he owns me. By God, he does, but I am not ready to give into him. I rip myself away from his lips, almost moaning as I do, but I keep it in check.
“You just said you love me.”
“I do, Cal. I really do, but we have missed out on a lot of things. A lot of years.”
“Then let me make it up to you.”
“How are you going to do that?” I ask, cautiously.
“I am going to take you home, finally claim you, and then I am never letting you go again. Does that sound good to you?”
“I don’t know, Cal. I’m upset. Sex doesn’t fix everything.”
“I reckon you’re right about that, Bree. That’s not what I’m trying to do.”
“That’s what it seems like,” I say, dejectedly. My thin t-shirt isn’t doing shit for me now that the snow is coming down in droves.
“Do you remember all those nights senior year when we would lay on the floor in either of our rooms just listening to music?”
2012 seems like a lifetime away now, but I nod. “Yes. I lived for those nights.”
“I did too. Do you remember the night before prom you taught me to slow dance to “Someone Like You” by Adele? I already knew how to dance, I just wanted an excuse to hold you close. My heart was beating so fast, I was sure you could feel it. I listen to that song all the damn time, thinking about you and what should have been. That would have been the perfect time to tell you how in love with you I was.”
My heart yearns for the boy who danced with me in my bedroom, but I have the man he became in front of me. That’s better, isn’t it? He clears his throat, and I look up at him. I am not prepared for him to start singing my favorite song to me.
“I can see the pain behind your eyes. It's been there for quite a while. I just wanna be the one to remind you what it is to smile. I would like to show you what true love can really do. Girl let me love you. And I will love you. Until you learn to love yourself.”
Him singing Ne-Yo is my kryptonite, even after all these years. He used to do this in my little Honda Accord when we’d go over to Pierre for a movie or shopping. He didn’t have a car yet, because of his dad’s value of money ideals he tried to instill in both of us, but my aunt Cindy gave me the car when she had to upgrade to a minivan. I recently gave it to Meredith when I upgraded to a Ford Edge. I needed something larger for deliveries. We get orders all the way to Fargo and old Greta wasn’t cutting it anymore. It pained me to give it away.
There were so many memories in that car. Cal always drove it, holding my hand, like he belonged there. God, we were idiots, it was right there in front of my face the entire fucking time and I always found some reasonable explanation to explain his behavior away. I am done with that.
And just like that, I nod. His lips find mine again and we kiss for who knows how long until a car honking brings us back to Earth.
“Just dinner with a friend, huh?” I look up to find my mother and sister parked next to us.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Mom,” I say rolling my eyes. This would only happen to me.
“I am definitely not going to expect you to work tomorrow,” my mom says. I can tell she is holding back her laughter.
“You gonna finally lose that cherry, Breezy?” Meredith asks, laughing.
If the ground would swallow me whole right this second, that would be great. I know she was just saying that to be funny, but she knows how much I love Cal, so I also know that was a nudge in what she assumes is the right direction.
I chance a glance at Cal. He is grinning from ear to ear. I catch his wink at Meredith and I just want to die.
“We were just leaving, and Mere, don’t make me ask Sheriff O’Grady the very same question about your ass,” I say grabbing Cal’s hand and leading him to the passenger side of his truck. I still need his help getting in even though I’d like to make a hasty exit. I chance another look at their car and Meredith is flipping me off. Her face is red as hell. Serves her right. She moons over the newly appointed sheriff every single time he comes into the bakery, which is daily. Sometimes twice a day. I’ve seen the way he looks at her, but he hasn’t made a move for obvious reasons. For some reason we don’t elect sheriffs in this town. He was appointed by Mayor Tisdale. I am not sure where he was before now, but all I know is he’s single and thirty years old. At least that’s the gossip. Who knows if it’s correct information?
“Of course, dear. It’s not every day you stop in the middle of Main Street to make out, without a care in the world. I’ve heard from three of the five town busybodies what my baby girl was up to. I am sure the other two will be calling shortly. You may want to take this little make out sesh indoors. Toodles.” She and Meredith wave and drive off towards my parent’s house.
Cal helps me into the truck and I sit mortified at what just went down, while he moves around the front of the truck to the driver’s side. I buckle my seatbelt and then we are off. To where? I am not sure, but I assumed his place.
When we pull up to his family’s cabin, I am surprised. We used to spend every summer here until he left. I feel like the gaping hole he left in my life is finally starting to close.
Five
Callum
Cherry? Did she save her cherry for me? Fuck, it’s all I can think about now. I had hoped when she said she hadn’t been out with anyone, but hoping and knowing are two very different things. When we get inside the cabin, she looks around. We take our shoes and socks off since they are now covered in snow.
“It looks the same, smells the same. Pine trees and ashes,” she says, smiling up at me.
“I just opened it for the winter.”
“Did you plan this?” she asks, looking in the kitchen cabinet.
“It was plan b,” I say nonchalantly.
“Plan b?”
“If you didn’t love me, I was going to kidnap you and keep you here until you fell in love with me.”
“So why are we here now?” she asks, laughing.
“I want to be all alone with you, baby.”
“For what?”
“I’m gonna fuck you,” I say.
“I am waiting for marriage,” she says smirking. She takes down a box of mac and cheese.
“Marry me, tomorrow,” I say without hesitation. It’s the end game anyway.
“Because of the sex?” she asks, looking up at me.
“No, I want you to be mine,
” I say quietly.
“Don’t you know by now? I’ve always been yours. You want me to cook?”
“I can do that, Bree.” I try to take the box from her, but she doesn’t let me. I lean down and kiss her instead.
“Let me wow you,” she says after pulling back from me and opening the box.
“You already do, Bree. You already do. I’ll light the fireplace, maybe open a bottle of wine?”
“Sounds good. Dinner should be ready in ten to twelve minutes,” she says after consulting the directions on the back of the box.
“You gonna answer me?”
“You were serious?”
“Of course, I want to be your husband. Your partner in every way. I want to be your best friend again too.”
“You’ve always been my best friend, even though we haven’t seen each other in years. We did talk over the years. Besides, it’s like picking up your favorite book, don’t much matter where you start, you love it anyhow.”
“So? In answer to my question?”
“Yes. Let’s do this, but if I don’t eat soon I might kill you.” She giggles.
As far as marriage proposals go, that was terrible. I can do better, and I will after we eat. I have been holding on to my grandmother’s ring for ten years. She died the summer before ninth grade and my grandfather gave it to me after her funeral. I was so close to Nana Juniper. Bree came to her funeral with me and cried right along with me. Nana loved her and vice versa.
Poppa told me to give it to Bree. He knew then that we were made for each other. He will be thrilled when I tell him. He lives in Florida with my aunt now, but I will call him tomorrow.
I lift her into my arms, kissing the fuck out of her pouty, light pink lips. She grinds her hot pussy onto my hard cock a few times before I set her back down. I have to calm my damn self. I leave her to dinner and head into the living room. I start a fire in both fireplaces and open a bottle of red wine. Personally, I hate wine, but it seems romantic.