“I love this family,” Bond wheezed, and then turned to Jarrod. “I’m thinking you need to name y’all’s kids, though.”
My head had shot up out of my hands and I was thinking that the portal could go fuck itself because I was just going to run and never look back, when Jarrod roared out laughing and pulled me into his side.
“Agreed.”
“Anyway,” Dad forged on. “I decided that I wanted to merge Katherine’s name with Mom’s name,” he nodded at Maude who was sitting smiling at me proudly now. She loved that I was named after her and so did I. “So, I went with Katarianne.”
All the Klines, including Bond, Canon, and Reid had all looked over at me with the same soft expression on their faces, but it was Jarrod who commented on it.
“It’s as unique and special as she is.”
Well shit!
Giving us a moment to just look at each other, Gloria got the attention off us from everyone else leaving us in our own little bubble.
“And Aura? How did you decide on that?”
Seeing as how she’d arrived by this point and had sat quietly throughout the conversation, it was a shock to everyone when she’d stood up and picked up Elodie, holding her like a shield. “I don’t want to play this game anymore. Let’s talk about something else.”
“Oh, now I really have to know,” Canon snickered, leaning forward and shooting Aura a shit-eating grin.
Dad had the good grace to look guilty as he’d blurted, “She came out looking like a fairy princess, too, so I gave her the name Katherine had chosen for Katy…”
“Even though I’d already said I wanted her name to be Melody,” Mom hissed. “Why don’t you continue, dear, so they can hear how her name became Aura and not Arabella.”
Throwing his arms up in the air with frustration, Dad said loudly, “Because I forgot what you’d chosen, ok? You got taken through to surgery because you were bleeding everywhere and I was holding this little fairy in my arms thinking I’d never see you again. I knew it began with an A and ended with one, too, so I went with Aura.”
All the Klines sat blinking as they digested this, and I sighed, “Welp, there goes that then.”
Leaning into my side, Jarrod whispered, “There goes what?”
I hadn’t realized he was as close to me as he was, so when I turned my head my nose had bumped against his, making my brain short circuit for a second. “Huh?”
I watched up close as his beautiful eyes smiled at me and was slightly disappointed that with our positions I couldn’t watch his mouth doing it, too. “There goes what, Katy?”
“Any chance that your family will think I’m normal and like me,” I mumbled, still somewhat transfixed by his eyes and not realizing that it was silent enough for people to pick up what I was saying.
“Oh, we like you all right,” Reid called across the table. “Y’all are fucking crazy crackers and it makes us look normal. I vote aye.”
“Aye,” Canon agreed.
“Total aye,” Bond did too, nodding his head and slapping his hand on the table.
Tilting his chair back so it was supported by its back legs, Dolf stuck his thumb up in the air. “It’s a thumbs up from me.”
Getting up from her chair, Gloria walked around until she was behind mine and gently moved my hair off the back of my neck so it was resting over one shoulder. “You already had my aye, but this is me letting you know you’ve got it. I’m over the moon Jarrod found you,” she told me, squeezing my shoulder for emphasis. “And your grandmother does great hair, so now I’ve got that, too.”
My head snapped up to look at my parents in horror, and then over to Maude, who was sitting smiling happily. “Anytime, Gloria girl. Anytime. The higher the hair, the closer to God.”
“Jesus,” Jarrod muttered, looking horrified at the thought of his mom’s hair getting any bigger.
I didn’t even think it was possible for it to get any bigger.
“Him, too,” Maude agreed.
Gloria had given my shoulder a final squeeze before she moved back to her chair, and as I’d watched her doing this, Jarrod’s brothers had all given me a wink. Holy shit, that felt good.
Still, I leaned into Jarrod and this time kept my voice quiet enough that only he would hear it. “You regretting what you want to start with me yet?”
His head had jerked back, and he’d frowned down at me for a moment before he started chuckling and shaking his head. “Fuck no. I’m thinking I need to celebrate the fact I’ve made the best choice I’ve ever made in my life, baby.”
This hadn’t been said quietly, so all the women sighed happily, their eyes dreaming of romance, hearts and roses, while the men all made gagging noises.
Sofa. King. Great!
-
Even with that, it was a freaking awesome night, and I’d loved every second, aside from passing Elodie over to Mom. Leo was off work for two days, so he was collecting her today and would be spending time with his ‘little pal’.
That left me alone and with time to think.
My family had moved to Piersville just after I’d started college, and it was only natural that we all gravitated back to them once we’d all graduated and were ready to live the adult life. This meant that I hadn’t grown up with everyone here, so I’d had to work hard to get to know people – well, hard for me, seeing as how I wasn’t the most social person. But the second I’d seen Jarrod when I got the job at Ren’s garage, I’d been hooked. It wasn’t just his height and looks that made him stand out, it was the fact that he paid attention. Whenever I spoke to him, I knew I had it and that he’d give it to me until I was done. Then he started to let down his wall, brick by brick, and I got to see the personality underneath. The whole mix was outstanding. Being shy and quiet, though, I never got to fully engage with him until recently, so the sudden change in our relationship and interactions was making me feel off center.
I was going to use today to get that center back, and the only way I knew to do that was to get so engrossed in one of my favorite things that I didn’t have to use my brain for anything else.
So, jogging down the stairs with Duke on my heels, I opened the back door and then bounced from foot to foot, waiting for him to come back in. When he did, I slammed the door shut, locked it and jogged straight back up again before I bounced on my bed. Reaching under it, I tagged the Alienware laptop that I’d saved for for two years, and opened up The Witcher game.
Then obviously I had to attach my phone to my Alexa and play the song, too… on repeat.
Jarrod
Waking up to the song was funny. Hearing it the second time made me laugh harder. By the third time I’d begun to stop finding it so funny. By the fourth I was close to begging her to change it. By the fifth I actually got out of bed and walked through to the study to tap on the wall that separated us.
And then I heard a muffled scream coming from her bedroom and lost my shit.
Picking up my jeans from last night, I pulled them on and ran down the stairs, managing to grab the keys I had for Katy’s house that she’d given me yesterday. Because we’d been helping each other out with shit, she had a spare set for mine, too, in case of an emergency. This meant that as I ran out the house and jumped over that fucking, fucking fence, it only took me five seconds longer than normal to get the key in her lock and turn it because I’d dropped it the first time I tried.
Not even looking around, I made my way upstairs and stopped when I came face to face with Duke, who was alert and looking pissed. When he saw it was me, he stood down and moved to the side, leaving the way to her room wide open for me – which is where I ran to.
I’d had many thoughts of what was making her scream, but not one of them was what I came across. She was so engrossed in what was on her computer screen, and the damn song was playing so loudly that she didn’t even notice me come into her room. A quick glance around showed that nothing looked abnormal in the room, and then I looked back at Katy and made a different type of disco
very.
She was sitting in bed wearing a tank top that had what looked like the line you see on a heart monitor in the hospital (I’d never had one done so I had no idea what they were called) that was attached to an Xbox remote. Covering the bottom of her body was a knitted green creeper from Minecraft, but it was like a sleeping bag that was split up the middle so her legs could go either side and not be joined together like a normal one.
There was absolutely nothing that could stop me from bursting out laughing, which snapped her out of her gaming fog. Her head snapped up, and she finally saw she had company, screamed, jumped, and somehow managed to place her laptop on the free space on the bed. Then she rolled to her side off the mattress and onto her feet and stood up, staring at me like I was a character out of a game.
I’d just opened my mouth to say something when the Minecraft creeper sleeping bag finally lost the battle with gravity and dropped to the floor, leaving her standing in her tank top and underwear. I want to say I was a gentleman, I also want to be able to blame it on anything other than the fact it was her panties, but I looked down and lost the war.
Any laugh that had ever come out of me out of me before had nothing on what came out of me then when I saw Mario from Mario Bros winking at me on her crotch with his thumb in the air.
And then it got better when she turned around to hide it, and on the back it said Talk Gamer To Me…
Falling to my side, I tried to get air into my lungs while Duke took the opportunity to try and lick every inch of my face and neck, and when he couldn’t do it, he started jumping either side of me like it was a game.
“Oh my god,” Katy squealed, finally able to say something. “Wait, which panties… Oh my god…” she shrieked and hurdled over me to where a pair of sweats were lying neatly folded on a chair. I’d only just started getting proper lungful’s of oxygen when she spun around and pointed a finger at me. “You didn’t see those. You walked in and they were pretty girly ones… with lace!” she added as an afterthought.
Rolling onto my knees and using my hands to push up as I gulped in air, I shook my head. “You’re not taking that away from me,” I wheezed. “Those were awesome.”
“Shut up,” she squealed again, covering her face with her hands.
“Are they all like that?” I asked as I got to my feet. “Wait, do you wear those to work, too?”
The thought of her wearing gaming nerd panties in her office was kind of a turn on if I was honest. It hadn’t occurred to me before now that something like that would be, but then, it was Katy. She made things like that hot.
Before she could answer – or her head could explode judging by the redness in her face – there was a knock on the front door. Sending me a glare, she pivoted and walked out of the room, only just remembering that her ankle was still giving her grief.
Still chuckling, I followed behind her with Duke pushing past me to get to where his mama was.
“Don’t be mad, baby,” I called. “I’ll show you mine if it makes you feel better!”
Seeing that I was now in the living room, she made a farting noise at me, and then swung the door open to show Maude standing on the other side with her hand up ready to knock again. Slowly, her eyes moved from her granddaughter to where I was standing, and I belatedly remembered that I didn’t have a t-shirt on.
Swinging back to look at Katy, a huge grin took over her face, and she pushed past her and walked toward me with her arms wide open. When she got to me, she gave me what amounted to as much of a bear hug as she could give, and put her cheek flat against my chest.
“This is the best moment of my life,” she sighed, not letting go.
Shooting Katy a look that begged for her to help me, I gave her a quick hug back and then patted her shoulder gently. When she just held on and stayed holding on, I mouthed, “Help!” at Katy, but she just stood there and shook her head.
“Uh, Maude…”
“You get extra points if you sing to me at the same time,” Maude sighed – again. “Double extra points if you sing Tears In Heaven.”
“Maude loves Clapton,” Katy informed me, and then mouthed, “Karma.”
“Katy loves Clapton, too,” Maude added. “But her favorite is My Father’s Eyes. Used to listen to it and play air guitar in the car with her dad all the time. Well, that was until he did it on a corner and took out a mailbox.”
“No, he still does it,” Katy sighed, making me wonder how into air guitaring someone could get to hit a mailbox.
“I see,” I mumbled, looking down at the top of Maude’s hair that was so voluminous this morning that it almost hit my chin.
Still holding on tight, Maude declared, “It’s taken a couple of decades, but I’ve finally found my happy place.”
Seeing how uncomfortable I was getting – I mean, a hug was a hug, but a five-minute hug? – Katy suggested, “Why don’t we have a coffee, Maude?”
“I’m good.”
“No, really. Why don’t we have a coffee,” she ground out this time. “In the kitchen.”
“He has bumps on his tummy and I’m an old woman. I’m using them like one of those massage mats. It’s therapy.”
“Maude,” she warned, walking up and tapping her on the shoulder. “I think you’re good now.”
Instead of listening, she just shook her head and sighed again.
“Um, Maude, can I go and get a coffee?” I asked.
“Sure, you can do that while I’m still like this. Maybe you could carry me? I have old legs.”
Tipping her head back to glare at the ceiling, Katy snapped, “Ok, fine. There’s an all-male stripper group coming to town next weekend. I’ll take you if you let go of him.”
Those were the magic words because she let go of me, gave me a pat on the chest and then turned around to hug her granddaughter, who looked now like she’d just swallowed acid. I could understand that feeling, because I kind of felt like I had, too.
“Male strippers?” I questioned, wondering why this was bugging me so much.
“Yes, dear,” Maude said over her shoulder as she made her way to the kitchen. “It’s at Sheeve’s next Saturday. A bit like Thunder Down Under, but apparently they’re hung like stallions.”
Following slowly behind her, Katy asked, “How do you know that?”
“Because I wouldn’t go to one where they weren’t, Katarianne,” she said simply, shrugging as she put a pod into the machine and hit the button. “Imagine the force field they make when they shake it about.”
Leaning on the counter, I scrubbed my hands over my face. “Jesus.”
This time when a face hit my chest, it was Katy’s and not Maude back for round two. That meant that I had zero issues putting my arms around her. In fact, she could stay like that for as long as she wanted.
Looking away from her cup and taking our positions in, Maude asked, “So, by the state of undress, I’m taking it you spent the night, Jarrod?”
“No, I didn’t.”
“Mm hmm,” she hummed, and then looked at Katy. “Please tell me you were wearing some of those pretty panties I got you and not a pair of those god awful ones with the characters on them.”
Thinking back to Mario, I burst out laughing and told Maude. “No, they were definitely character ones.”
“Was it the blue spiky hedgehog?”
“Nope, they were the ones with Mario on them.”
Seeing that she was looking blankly at me, I winked with my thumb in the air like he was in the picture.
“Oh, Katy,” she said disappointedly. “And I bought you all of those pretty ones. How are you ever going to get Jarrod’s dragon in your dungeon if you wear that type of stuff?”
Turning her head, Katy hissed, “It’s Dungeons and Dragons, Maude. I keep telling you that.”
“Still sounds perverse,” she sniffed back, pulling her cup out and heading to the fridge. “Like when they put that little mushroom on it with ‘Eat Me’ above it.”
I couldn’t help it, I ha
d to know. “Is that the little Mario mushroom?” When Katy nodded, I tilted my head to the side and asked, “Have you got those?”
Katy turned her head in the opposite direction to where Maude was to look anywhere but at either of us, but it was confirmed when Maude closed the door to the fridge loudly and said, “She’s got them in four colors.”
Lace was hot, but a Mario mushroom with ‘Eat Me’ above it? Abso-fuckin’-lutely.
Waiting until Maude had walked back past us to the living room, I leaned down and whispered, “You wear those, baby, and I’ll do whatever it says on them,” and pulled away from her to follow behind her grandmother. “I’m just going to get a t-shirt. I’ll be back in a second.”
Patting her lap, Maude winked, “I’ll keep your spot warm.”
For the second time in the space of thirty minutes, I burst out laughing hard enough to wake the dead.
Fuck peace and quiet. I wanted Crew life.
Eleven
Katy
I’d been awake for the last twenty minutes, desperately needing the bathroom but too afraid to move. Why? Because apparently I’d fallen asleep on Jarrod again, except this time in my bed. At first when I’d woken up I’d been confused why my pillow was so hard, warm, and was breathing, but then it had all come back and I’d been frozen in place since, telling my bladder it could wait until hell had frozen over for it to get what it wanted. Moving meant possibly waking him up, which also meant that I could never blink again either so my eyes could make their peace with that, too.
Unfortunately, not being able to move gave me time to think, which gave me time to remember – some of it good, some of it embarrassing.
After he’d gotten dressed yesterday, Jarrod had come back over and spent the day with us. I’d been having issues getting the TV in my living room to attach to the internet, so he’d tinkered with it to see if it was a software issue or something. Alas, it looked like I needed a new TV if I wanted to watch Netflix downstairs. Fortunately, the one in my bedroom was newer so I could still watch it up there, but that was kind of a pain in the ass if you wanted to be in the living room.
Talk Flirty To Me: Cheap Thrills Series Book 4 Page 12