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It’s later in the evening and I’m curled up on my couch reading. I see headlights sweep across the living room, indicating that Clarissa is home. I stick the bookmark inside and close the book, tossing it onto the table in front of me. I stand and cross my arms, waiting for her to unlock the door. She pushes it open and turns around to snick the door shut quietly.
“What the fuck, Riss?” I demand and she screams, turning around and dropping back against the door.
“God damnitt, Lexie, don’t do that shit,” she avoids my eyes and makes her way out to the kitchen, pulling an open bottle of wine out of the fridge and pouring herself a glass. I follow her, leaning against the counter and narrowing my eyes at her.
“What the hell are you doing staying out until 2 am in a town where you know literally nobody?” I question.
“Sorry, mom,” she rolls her eyes, finishing the glass and pouring another, but still avoiding my question.
“Cut the shit, Clarissa. I was worried. You didn’t answer any of my messages, your phone went straight to voicemail. I don’t know what the hell is going on with you, but don’t you dare cut me out,” I say, pulling in a shaky breath, tears springing to my eyes. Her face softens.
“I know, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for you to worry. I’m just.. I’m still not. I can’t,” she finishes, shaking her head, her eyes overflowing with tears.
“I get it. I do. But please for the love of god just answer a text message, okay?” I ask, making my way around the island and pulling her into my arms. I don’t know what’s happened to my best friend, but I can tell it’s something that’s eating her up inside. She sobs quietly against my neck, clutching my sweater. I’m afraid whatever it is will be huge.
Ford
"Bachina." I freeze on the stairs, tipping my head, trying to figure out what my sweet little girl just said. I creep a little lower on the stairs and can see her at the table, legs swinging, while she colors.
"Ba. China." She says again, scribbling back and forth on the paper in front of her. I finish my trek down the stairs and drop a kiss on top of her head.
"Whatcha colorin', sweets?" I ask, wrangling her curls into a ponytail on top of her head and securing it with a band. Crawford James, professional hair-doer. I pause, taking in my work. Not bad.
"A picture for you to hang on da fridge. Daddy, what's a bachina?" She asks, reaching for her juice box and slurping it down. My face twists in confusion.
"Uh, I'm not really sure. Can you use it in a sentence?" I snag one of her grapes from her bowl and pop it in my mouth. She plops her juice box back on the table.
"My friend Josh at school said girls have bachinas and boys have penises, but I told him that can't be right, because I don't even know what a bachina is!" She ends her sentence on a huff and I choke on the grape that's in my mouth.
"Jesus Christ," I cough out, surprised as shit at the words that just left her mouth. What the fuck are they teaching in Kindergarten? Dislodging the grape from my throat I scrub a hand down my face. "Aria. Don't say penis." I say, shaking my head and laughing a little.
"But why? It's not a bad word. Zane has a penis. You have a penis. Daddy, why don't I have a penis?" She pouts. For fuck sakes. I crouch down.
"Baby, please," I choke out, "for the love of god. Stop saying penis. Only boys have those. Girls have vaginas. I think that's probably what your friend was trying to tell you. Boys have a penis and girls have a vagina." I need a beer. Now. I stand up and walk towards the kitchen.
"Well why didn't Josh just say vagina? Yeesh. I know what that is." She goes back to coloring. I open the fridge, shaking my head, and reach for a Corona. Popping the top, I slice a lime up quick and put it in the bottle. I take a swig and drop it back on the counter. I hear a tap on the sliding glass door and look up to see Lex standing there shyly. She wiggles her fingers in a wave and I crook my finger at her, telling her to come in.
She slides the patio door open and closes it behind her.
"Hi," she breathes, her cheeks turning pink and I know she's thinking about what we did last night. I sure as fuck am. Haven't stopped thinking about it since she pranced her sweet ass back over to her side of the fence this morning. "I hope it's okay that I'm here," she says, cutting her eyes to Aria at the table and hefting herself up onto the bar stool at the island.
I smirk at her, leaning over the counter, and press a kiss to her lips after making sure Aria isn't paying attention. "Don't apologize. You're always welcome."
"Hi, Mizz Carter, daddy and I were just talking about vaginas," Aria shouts from the table. And I die. Right there on the spot. Lex shoots me a questioning look and arches an eyebrow.
"Vaginas?" She questions quietly so only I can hear her. "Do I even want to know?" She laughs, reaching over and snagging my beer before taking a drink. Her tongue sneaks out, catching a drop that snuck free. My eyes narrow and she laughs.
"You better watch it," I say, leaning in and dropping my voice low enough so only she can hear, "or I'll drag your sweet ass back to the laundry room, sit you on the dryer, turn it on high, and eat your pussy until you're screaming."
At my statement, her jaw drops open and she bites her lip. I reach out with my finger and free it from between her teeth. Her breath hitches. I’m just about to lean in and steal a kiss when the front door opens, and I hear Zane and mom.
I step back and put some space between me and Lex just as they round the hallway into the kitchen. "Hey bud," I say, giving him a chin lift. "How was the sleepover?"
Zane returns my chin lift and says his hellos to Lex before swinging open the fridge door and grabbing a water. "It was good. We stayed up all night playing Fortnite."
"Cool. Did you tell your gramma thanks for picking you up?" I ask, knowing he already did, because he may be a little shit, but I taught him manners.
"Oh Ford, of course he did." Ma answers, entering the kitchen and dropping a kiss on Lex's cheek before doing the same to mine. I take the casserole dish that she's carrying and sit it on the stove.
Zane mumbles his thanks and heads back down the hallway. It isn't long before I hear two sets of footsteps on the stairs and Aria hollering for him to wait up. Ma sits on the stool next to Lex after pouring herself a glass of sweet tea.
"I am plum tuckered out," she exclaims. Her phone dings in her bag and she focuses her attention on rifling through it to find it. I roll my eyes and Lex stifles a laugh. "What are you kids up to, today?" Ma asks, still fumbling with her phone, unlocking the screen.
"Well Nina, I just popped by to see if Ford wanted to take the kids to the pumpkin patch with me," she says, stating her reason for showing up unannounced.
"Oh well that sounds fun! I'd tag along but Steve is picking me up at 7," ma says nonchalantly.
"Ooh, Steve?" Alexis questions, propping her chin in her hand and resting her elbow on the counter. "Who is Steve?" My vision starts to get blurry. Who the fuck is Steve?
Ma waves her hand in the air dismissively. “Just this guy I’m seeing,” she says, tapping out a text on her. I make a sound somewhere between a choke and a growl.
“Guy? What guy?” I ground out. She finally meets my eyes, having the decency to look embarrassed.
“Oh, now Crawford. Don’t be like that. I may be old but I ain’t dead yet,” she huffs out. “I loved your daddy for a good long time. I will always love that man, God rest his soul. But Steve is nice. And handsome. And he tells me I’m pretty and buys me flowers. Can you please let me have that?” She gives me a watery smile and I instantly feel like an asshole. Dad has been gone for a long time.
I round the island and step up behind her, wrapping my arms loosely around her shoulder and dropping a kiss on top of her head.
“I know ma. I’m sorry,” I sigh, “You do deserve to be happy. Can ya just make sure Steve knows Zander is Special Forces and knows a million ways to dispose of a body?"
Lex snort laughs and ma shakes her head but smiles the entire time.
◆◆◆
The kids are in the back of the truck watching a cartoon and we are headed to the pumpkin patch. I glance over at the gorgeous blonde riding shotgun, her sneakered feet on my dash, enormous sunglasses on her face, and her hair blowing in the breeze coming in from the sunroof. She catches me looking at her and smiles.
"I can feel you starin' at me, Crawford James," she lolls her head to the side to look at me and I sneak a peek at her before looking back to the road. Taking the wheel with my left hand I reach across the center console and snag her hand, bringing it to my mouth for a quick kiss before resting our linked fingers on her leg.
"Can't help it that you're so god damn gorgeous. It's hard to take my eyes off ya," I say as she rubs her thumb across my hand. She sighs contently.
“You make this so easy, ya know? I never knew being with someone could be like this. My last relationship was such work. I felt like I was always working to make him happy, working to keep us together. With you it doesn’t feel like work. It just feels…” she trails off, “I don’t know, it’s just an incredible feeling.”
I’m quiet for a moment, letting her words sink in. She’s not wrong. Sometimes my relationship with Zoe felt like a lot of work. It was hard.
“Things with Zoe weren’t always easy,” I began, shif ting in my seat a little, glancing in the rearview mirror to make sure both kids had their headphones on still. “We got pregnant young, had a baby young, and then we were both working on our careers. Me working construction during the day and going to school at night. Her cutting hair during the day and raising a baby at night while her husband was in school. I mean, don’t get me wrong. I love that woman with my whole heart,” I swallow over the lump in my throat, glancing over to see Lex’s face showing nothing but compassion. I squeeze her hand and turn my eyes back toward the road. “I loved her so much. And the good days outweigh the bad days. Made ‘em not seem so bad, ya know? And it won’t always be easy with us but I hope we always have more good days than bad. I want all of it with you, you know that right? It’s okay if we have a bad day… it’s okay if some days all we do is survive. Because barely surviving with you is a hell of a lot better than the barely surviving I was doing before you barged into my classroom.” I’m turning into the parking lot for the pumpkin patch and swinging my pickup into an empty spot. Shifting it into park, I chance a glance at my girl in the front seat and tears are streaming down her face. I reach over and wipe one away with my thumb.
“Shit baby, I didn’t mean to make you cry.”
She chokes out a laugh and wipes the rest of the tears away from her cheeks, shaking her head.
“These are happy tears. The happiest. You make everything better. I can’t imagine my life without you and these kids. You’re it for me.” I can’t take it anymore, I lean over the console and snag her by the back of the neck, tilting her head towards me pressing my forehead against hers before meeting her lips with mine in a searing kiss. My heart thumps in my chest, reminding me that I’m alive and well and that Zoe would want this for me. For us.
“Eewwww! Lex don’t let my daddy kiss you! Boys are gross and they have a penis!” Aria squeals from the back. Moment ruined.
I shake my head and chuckle. “Never a dull moment,” I say, pulling myself away from Lex and snagging the keys out of the ignition. “Come on, guys. Let’s go see who can find the biggest pumpkin.”
Lex
It’s dark out by the time Ford swings his truck into his driveway. We picked pumpkins, we played in the barn at the pumpkin patch, we ate apple cider doughnuts, and we completed the corn maze. Twice. The kids had a blast and wore themselves out, they are both snoozing in the backseat and I must have dozed off as well because I wake up to Ford brushing my hair away from my face.
“Baby,” he whispers, “baby wake up. Were you expecting more company?”
“Hmm?” I mumble groggily, sitting up, looking at him like he’s lost his mind. “Company? No, no one else knows… I mean, no one mentioned anything.” I glance out my window and see a white Honda parked in the driveway. My heart starts racing. Just as I’m getting ready to turn and tell Ford to haul ass out of the driveway and call the cops, movement on the front porch catches my eye.
“Oh my God!” I squeal, flinging the door open and tearing across the small yard that separates our houses.
“Jesus Christ, Alexis. It’s about time you got yer ass home. I’m too old to sit on your porch for hours like this. Where the hell is Clarissa?” Ronnie’s grumbling from the front porch, pushing herself up and out of the swing. I come to a skittering halt in front of her and fling my arms around her tiny frame and squeeze. Hard. Clarissa got a part time job serving drinks at the tavern a few towns over, but I just ignore Ron’s question because I’m so excited to see her.
“Damnitt child, I’m old and my bones are brittle,” Ronnie says, while squeezing me back just as hard. I can’t believe she’s really here, and I tell her just that. She reaches up and pats me on my cheek.
“Of course I’m here, baby. I had to come check on my girl.” My heart soars. This woman, I love her so much and I can’t believe she’s standing in front of me. “Now, how about you introduce me to your fine as hell man friend?” She’s already stepping around me and making her way down the steps and towards Ford who’s crossing the yard carrying a sleeping Aria with Zane trailing behind him. He’s looking at me quizzically. He still doesn’t know much about my life before I came to Alabama, but he does know about Ronnie. I’ve been staying tight lipped about everything else.
Ronnie reaches him and introduces herself to him and the kids. She immediately reaches out for Aria and takes her in her arms, giving her a squeeze. I lean my shoulder against the pillar on my front porch, taking in the scene in front of me, my heart soaring. All of my favorite people are finally in one place. Ford breaks away from the three of them and strides towards me, his hands stuffed in his pockets. He steps up onto the bottom of the step so we’re eye to eye, his face soft.
“You really didn’t know she was coming,” he asks, reaching out and hooking a finger in my belt loop and pulling me flush against him. I rest my hands on his shoulders, shaking my head.
“No clue. She’s insane. What eighty-year-old lady takes off on a whim and drives hundreds of miles on her own,” I continue shaking my head. His face is still soft.
“The kind that must really love you,” he says, pressing a kiss to my temple. I run my fingers through the stubble on his face. I smile.
“She does. And I love her, too.” Ford makes a humming noise in the back of his throat before pressing a kiss to my lips which I happily return.
“And you know what else?” I ask, wrapping my arms around his neck as he drops his hands to my ass and squeezes, igniting that fire low in my belly. The stir that I get each time I’m near him. “I love you, Crawford.” I don’t miss the look of surprise on his face before I rest my chin on his shoulder, staring at Ronnie and the kids playing in the yard, trying to ignore the nervous butterflies in my stomach from his silence. Hoping I didn’t just fuck all of this up by announcing that. Is it too soon? Too much? Is he ready to fully love another woman after losing what he thought was the love of his life?
“Baby,” he rasps out and I lean back to look at his face. My eyes flicking back and forth between his, trying to get a read on him. He reaches up and tucks my hair behind my hair, shaking his head.
“I love you so fucking much,” he finally says, pulling me back against him. I breathe out a sigh of relief.
“Oh, thank god,” I say, “I thought I went and fucked everything up by saying it too soon.”
“Never,” he says. “You could never fuck this up.” He takes a step down and reaches his hand out to me. “Now, let’s round up those three kids,” hitching his thumb over his shoulder to where Ronnie is hiding behind a tree playing hide and go seek with the kids, “and take this crazy lady inside to get settled in.” He whistles for the kids and strides up the porch to grab Ronnie’s b
ags, pulling his spare key out of his pocket. The kids and Ronnie make their way back across the yard and into the house and I can’t help but feel so fucking happy and so sure about the decisions I made that brought me to Alabama.
◆◆◆
The next morning, I wake early and drag my tired self out of bed, feeling too old for all the fun we had with the kids yesterday. Throwing my robe on over my sleep shorts and tank, I make my way to the kitchen and stutter to a stop, taking in the sight in front of me. Ronnie in her housecoat, making her way around my kitchen to brew a pot of coffee. My heart soars again.
“Good morning,” I say as I come into the kitchen, pressing a kiss to her wrinkly cheek. She grins at me.
“Good morning, child. Did you sleep well?” She asks, reaching into the cupboard for some mugs.
“I did,” I say, opening the fridge for creamer and closing the door. “I wish you would have taken my bed though and let me sleep on the pullout.” I narrow my eyes at her. She’s so stubborn. She insisted that she was not taking my bed last night and told me I could either shut up about it and go to sleep or she was driving to the nearest hotel and sleeping there. I quickly shut my mouth because there was no way I was letting her crash at a hotel after she just drove all this way to see me.
Fall for You: Boys of Alabama Page 10