“It all sounds so good,” she says, looking at me. “What are you getting, Braxton?”
“I usually get the surf and turf, sweetheart. If you have a taste for something else, we can always share.”
“The parmesan-crusted chicken looks good and so does the grilled shrimp.”
“Well, if you’re game, I’ll get what I generally do, you get that and we’ll share between us,” I tell her. “Fair warning, though, I don’t share my asparagus.”
She starts laughing and says, “It’s all yours, handsome. I don’t care for asparagus that much. They’ve got grilled green beans so I’ll go with those and yes, I’m okay with sharing since I like steak and lobster as well.”
Once DJ and Hatch order, we sit back and wait for our drinks to arrive. I’m enjoying being out with my woman. Thinking back to Daria, I realize that I was never in love with her, more in love with the idea of having something that was just mine. She wasn’t happy when she got pregnant and until she left then finally divorced me, I remained faithful. Hell, she terminated her parental rights to Lily, something that still blows my fucking mind. At least, if this goes where I’m hoping, Cara can adopt Lily so we all have the same last name. I made up for that four years of celibacy as soon as I got the final documents, going through women so fast that even my mom was appalled. But no one, until Caraleigh, had captivated me to the point I was making long-term plans, at least in my head. I could picture her lush curvy body beneath me, flushed with desire and passion. Swollen belly holding a child we had lovingly created. Teaching my daughter and her son and any children we had everything they needed to know to become fine, upstanding citizens.
I’m brought out of my thoughts when Stephan returns with our drinks. I’m anxious to see what Cara thinks of the drink. I know it’s one of Mom’s favorites which is why I recommended it to her and DJ. Seeing she has taken a sip, I ask, “What do you think?”
A beaming smile turns my way and she replies, “It’s delicious! I usually like strawberry margaritas, but this is a great addition to the adult beverages I am willing to drink.”
“Glad you like it, Cara,” I tell her as I drink some sweet tea.
A different server brings out our salads and we start eating. I’m watching her, paying attention to every little thing she likes and when they bring out the warm honey wheat bread, I take the cutting board and slice it before asking, “Which part of the loaf do you prefer?”
“Don’t laugh but I like the ‘bread butts’ on loaves like this, even though I throw them away on regular loaves of bread!”
I can’t help it—I start laughing. She’s so damn serious and the earnest look on her face has me enraptured. “I told you not to laugh,” she says, lightly touching my arm.
“Honey, that’s kind of funny if you think about it.”
“How so? On this kind of bread, you put on butter and it melts in and gets all gooey and yummy. Regular bread does not do that at all.”
As our dinner progresses, the conversation flows and I find out more about the woman I have my eyes set on. Once we receive our entrees, I take the extra plate and cut half the steak for her, then break the lobster tail and scoop out half the meat. “Braxton, that’s too much!” she exclaims, even though she’s done the same with her chicken and shrimp for me.
“Whatever you don’t finish, we’ll take home.” No big deal. If she wanted both meals, I’d let her have them.
“Okay, if you’re sure,” she replies, handing me my plate.
Once dinner is done, I’m eager to head downstairs to dance, wanting to feel her close to me. Seeing Stephan approach, I motion for the check and he crouches down next to me. “Dad said that tonight is on the house for the earlier problem you had.”
“Can’t do that, Stephan. We’ve got drinks on the bill as well.”
“You can take that up with him, I’m just the messenger. He wanted me to ask if you wanted dessert served up here or down on the dance floor? He has a booth set aside for y’all.”
Fuck me. How did I get so lucky? “Yeah, we’ll do that, can we order it down there or what?”
“Either one, he’s told the waitress at that section that the drinks are on the house as well, so whatever you decide, just let me know.”
Hatch, catching onto what Stephan is saying, pulls out his wallet and pulls several twenties out and hands them to Stephan. “What’s this for?” he asks.
“Just because your dad is comping everything tonight doesn’t mean we don’t take care of the waitstaff,” Hatch tells him. I give him a chin lift because he’s correct. We aren’t stiffing our waiter or the waitress downstairs just because everything is on the house tonight.
* * *
Caraleigh
* * *
When we get downstairs, Gino leads us to the booth he’s had reserved for us. With a nod to the waitress, he leaves us to settle in. “I can’t believe he did that for us,” I say to the table.
“He didn’t have to, but it’s much appreciated,” Braxton says. “You want another of those drinks?”
“You mean heaven in a glass frosted with sugar? Yes please,” I reply. They’re so yummy but I need to be careful. I’ve never been much of a drinker and I don’t want it to go to my head. Hopefully, a full tummy will help. Plus, he did mention dancing. Another good thing to add to this scenario is that I don’t have to wake up to a rambunctious little boy in the morning, who knows, maybe I will let my hair down a little tonight and have some much needed adult fun.
As our waitress sets our drinks down at the table she compliments my skirt and tells me how much she loves my boots. DJ and I talk fashion with her for a few minutes before she’s pulled away by another customer calling out for her. She seems like such a lovely woman, someone DJ and I could definitely become friends with if given the time. She was so down to earth and funny, she told us funny stories about patrons and some of the things she’s witnessed. As she walks away, Braxton grabs my hand to get my attention, “I’ve been dying to get you on the dance floor, Cara. I want to hold you in my arms as we sway to the music...what do you say, care for a dance, sweetheart?”
“I would love to,” I tell him. I hope my excitement is showing with my smile. I want him to know how he makes me feel with my actions instead of words. Because words are just that words...they can be used for lies and manipulation and I would rather show him with my actions what he’s become to mean to me. When we get out on the dance floor, there is a slow song playing. Braxton pulls me in his arms, places one hand on my hip and the other around my shoulders. We lazily sway at first, then he pulls moves that I wasn’t expecting. Next thing I know he’s waltzing me around the floor to a country and western song. One I haven’t heard before, but it’s a beautiful ballad.
The next song is a faster pace, I’m surprised at how well my man can dance...wait a minute, backup there a second, Cara...your man, since when? I get swung out and pulled back in which immediately gets me out of my head. The next thing I know we’re dancing, laughing and all my troubles disappear. DJ and Hatchet are dancing next to us and we’re all having so much fun that I already regret when the night will come to an end. If I could stay in this moment for eternity, it would be the most rewarding time spent here on earth. I could die a happy lady and look back with no regrets. Holy shit! What has me thinking these crazy ass thoughts? This is not me, I’m down to earth Cara, I don’t daydream, I don’t think outside of the box. I’m always the level headed one, the one that keeps everyone else around me grounded and on track. I need to get my head out of the clouds and enjoy my time with Braxton, but at the same time keep reality from becoming fantasy.
“You ready to sit down and get some refreshments, beautiful?” he asks and I nod my head in agreement. I’ve worked up quite the thirst twirling around the dance floor, not to mention I think I feel sweat dripping where it’s not meant to be.
“Yes please, but first I need to visit the ladies room.”
“I’ll come with you,” DJ calls out to me
. “All that maneuvering on the dance floor has jiggled the bladder and it’s begging for a release,” she says to me as we make our way. She always says the craziest things that make me laugh. I haven’t had so much fun in years! We each take care of business and meet at the sink. As we wash our hands we look up at the mirror at the same time and burst out laughing...not sure what’s funny but I’m willing to go with it.
“Are you having fun tonight, DJ?”
“I am having an amazing time. Hatchet is a trip and he makes me laugh and smile,” she says with a huge grin covering her face. “What about you, Braxton doing it for you still?” she asks, teasing me, she knows he is she’s just being a nosey bitch.
“I don’t think I’ve ever had this much fun on a date before.” That’s kind of sad if you think about it. I was a married woman and Braxton makes me feel more alive than Graham ever did.
“If anyone deserves it, you do,” she tells me as she applies more lipstick. I’ve never been one to wear it, preferring a flavored lip gloss instead, which I quickly reapply.
“I really like him, DJ. But don’t you think it’s all moving a bit too fast?” I ask her.
“I don’t think so at all and anyway, isn’t that for you and him to worry about?” she fires back.
“I guess so. I’m just worried because it’s not just us, we’ve both got kids to think about.”
“Well, from where I’m sitting, that man’s on a mission and you’re going to find yourself wedded and bedded or vice versa before you know it!” she says before closing up her purse. “You ready?”
I’m still processing her last words. Wedded and bedded? A man like him that could have anyone isn’t going to want to saddle himself to a woman like me who has the sagging boobs and stretch marks from a child. I refuse to get my hopes up. Putting a smile on my face, I say, “After you!”
* * *
Braxton
* * *
While we wait for the women to return, I look at Hatch and say, “Need to send a text out so we can have church on Monday. Get the runs set up for the next week, figure out how we can stop Mom from doing any more at the clubhouse, and I’m going to call for a vote about making Cara my old lady.”
His eyebrows raise as he sips his beer. “Kinda fast, ain’t it?” he asks.
“Nope. I can feel it down to my bones that she’s the one. But, need to make sure that the brothers are okay with it before I ask her if she’ll be my old lady, y’know?”
“She’d make a good one from what I can see,” he muses. When he stands up, I turn my head and see the women coming back. Standing up, I let Caraleigh get into the booth before I sit back down, putting my arm around her shoulder and pulling her close. “I’m having a good time, sweetheart,” I whisper in her ear, her delectable perfume weaving its magic around me once again.
“I am too, Braxton. I wonder how Nan is faring?”
“Let me send her a text,” I reply, pulling out my phone. My heart rate increases when I see I’ve got a text from Mom already, but when I open it, I burst into laughter. “Thinking all is well, y’all,” I say, turning the phone around so they can see the picture.
Mom set the kids up in the family room apparently, and the three kids are passed out on the pallet on the floor. The caption says, “Wore them slap out, now time for some wine!” Seeing the innocent faces, limbs all over the place, as they sleep has a warmth spreading through my chest. If things were different right now, I’d be booking a room for myself and Cara so I could see her limbs spread out as she lay sleeping, sated and satisfied. Soon.
“Aw, look at them,” Cara says, her finger tracing their little faces while a smile plays on her lips. “They look like they’ve had fun.”
“Knowing Mom, they undoubtedly did,” I tell her, sending a quick text back to Mom and then putting my phone away.
“So what do they have available for dessert?” DJ asks. “All that dancing has worked up another appetite.”
“Yeah,” Hatchet’s eyes open wide and I know something tasteless is fixing to come out of his mouth. Therefore, I reach over and grab the menu and hand it to her. “They’ve got some finger items as well,” I state. “I know we ate a full dinner, but I’m good with ordering one of the sampler plates and a few desserts.”
“Anything chocolate?” Cara asks.
“They’ve got a chocolate thunder cake that has vanilla ice cream in the middle covered with hot fudge,” I reply. Her face is a little flushed and I don’t know if it’s from the dancing or the alcohol, but she doesn’t strike me as someone who overindulges, so I chalk it up to the dancing.
“That sounds wonderful, can we get one?” she questions.
“Anything you want, sweetheart.”
I see a teasing glint come to her eyes before she leans closer and whispers, “Anything?” Her words are a straight shot to my dick and I have to work hard to stifle my groan.
Deciding to tease back, I reply, “Whatever I’ve got is yours, sweetheart.” A tiny whimper escapes and I grin, knowing that my words hit their mark.
Motioning to the waitress, I put in an order for Cara’s dessert, refills on the drinks and an appetizer sampler. Hatch, after whispering with DJ, asks for a different dessert and another appetizer. Looks like we’re staying for a bit longer.
“Let’s dance,” I say, holding my hand out to Cara.
* * *
Caraleigh
* * *
I’m lost in thought trying to remember the last time I had so much fun. Our night finally winds down and I get the impression if we had been alone, I would have broken the longest-running dry spell in the history of dry spells. We leave The Barnhouse and I notice it’s around eleven and now we are headed back home. I can’t hear the conversation from the back, but I know that DJ and Hatch have really hit it off. Sighing because I know I probably won’t get the kisses I’d like, I turn and quietly say, “I really had a good time tonight.” I’m starting to feel like a broken record repeating the same thing to him over and over again, I just can’t seem to help myself.
“I did too, sweetheart,” he replies, turning to grin at me. He’s been holding my hand since we got in the truck and the slow, subtle way he’s been rubbing my hand has me thinking things that I’ve never entertained in my life!
I also get the feeling that if DJ and Hatch were alone, they’d be a lot more active than they have been. So this double date may end up being a double-edged sword. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Hatch communicate something to Braxton, using nods and what-not, and my curiosity is roused. “We’re making a stop at the clubhouse,” Braxton says, interrupting my thoughts.
“We are?”
“Yeah, Hatch and DJ want to have a few more drinks. Do you want to stay or head on home?”
I just want to be alone with him. “Home, I guess, if that’s okay with you?”
He grins and says, “Perfectly fine with me.”
Once we’ve dropped Hatch and DJ off, he heads back to the complex, my hand tucked securely in his. Instead of parking in front of my place, he pulls in at his and once he helps me out, says, “Thought I’d walk you home if that’s okay?”
As if I’m gonna say no! “That’s fine. Would, would you, umm...would you like to come in for a little while?” I rush out before I lose what little nerve I’ve summoned up.
* * *
Braxton
* * *
Would I like to come in? Hell yeah I would. I’d like to come in and never leave, but I’m not sure that she’s ready for that quite yet. Some alone time with Cara though, has all kinds of racy thoughts in my head. I wonder if she’d like to do a little making out while we’re all alone for the evening? As those thoughts enter my head, she opens the door and suddenly I’m as nervous as a teenage boy seeing a boob for the first time. Those are the kind of feelings that let me know this is real, this isn’t some infatuation that will leave once the sun rises in the morning. Now, I need to climb over those walls and tear them down from the inside out that sh
e’s built around herself. I understand why she’s built them up, but I don’t want them anywhere around when I’m with her. We walk in and she shuts the door behind us, she sets down her keys and purse on a table in the entryway, she leads me to the couch and sits down so I sit next to her.
“I don’t have any beer stocked in the fridge, but I do have bottled water and some lemonade made. Would you like anything to drink?”
“Just some water would be good, sweetheart,” I tell her. Watching her walk away, I can’t help but admire the view in front of me. She is so beautiful, a goddess in her own right. My dick grows hard in my pants, not for the first time tonight. My poor appendage is going to fall off if we keep it up at this rate. I watch as she bends in the fridge and grabs a couple of bottles of water, I am mesmerized by her body. Each graceful movement, every blushing glance—it all has me wanting her. Under me. Over me. Beside me. Something that needs to happen sooner rather than later. I know that it may be too soon for this, but I need her—I need to show her physically and emotionally what she has come to mean to me.
I know a lot of people would condemn me for moving so quickly, but there is something between us that is immovable, it’s solid. I’m ready for the day that I can make this delectable woman my old lady—my wife. I want to see her round with with my children. I want her standing next to me, I want to have nightly conversations about our day each night as we lay in bed wound in each other’s arms. I want to be a father-figure for Luca, I want to be the man he looks up to and comes to when he has troubles. I want them to trust me, to know that I will always have their backs, and never let them down. They will never need or want for anything as long as I’m around.
“What has you lost in thought over here?” Cara asks me. So I tell her, I tell her everything that was just running through my mind. I look at her the entire time I’m relaying this information and watch as tears run down her cheeks, I know that they’re happy tears because she has that smile on her face—the one that lights up the room as you walk in. She sets the waters down on the coffee table and bends over me. I pull her into my lap where she initiates the first kiss, a kiss that means everything to me. A kiss that tells me she’s as into this relationship as I am, one that is the beginning of the rest of my life. A new beginning, a brighter future than one I’d ever planned on. “And you don’t think we’re moving too fast?” she asks once we break apart, breathless.
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