Knitted Hearts: A Small Town Romance (Poplar Falls Book 6)

by Amber Kelly

  Her body starts trembling with need, and she brings her right leg up and hooks it around my hip, trying desperately to get closer.

  I feel her back arch, and her shirt stretches across her breasts, drawing my attention there. She slides her hands from my hair and down my back, the tips of her fingers digging into my sore muscles.

  I let out a guttural groan as my mouth runs down the column of her throat, sucking and nipping as I make my way to her chest.

  The need that pulses through me catches me off guard. She’s like lava in my hands. She burns so hotly.

  Did I ever think I was the one in control here?

  I grip her tighter as my tongue explores the tops of her breasts, exposed above the deep plunge of her neckline.

  I suck her nipple between my teeth through the thin fabric of her shirt, and she moans her approval, loud and expressive.

  Her moan turns to a purr of encouragement as I move from one mound to the other.

  I bring my head up at the sound, and before I have a chance to object, she drops to her knees in front of me and reaches for the button of my jeans.

  “Sonia.” Her name falls from my lips in a raspy plea as she slowly slides my zipper down.

  I’m hard as a rock and ready as she reaches in to release me from my boxer briefs.

  She holds the base of my shaft with one hand and strokes me firmly with the other. When she runs the nail of her finger down the hard ridge of my erection, it twitches in her grip, and my breath catches as I watch her work me.

  “Don’t tease me,” I say as my hands drop to her hair, and I begin to massage her scalp.

  “I wouldn’t think of it,” she says as she darts her tongue out and licks my tip, causing a drop of salty serum to escape.

  “Mmm,” she murmurs as she locks eyes with me, and I watch as she licks the release from me.

  I groan, and my hands fist her hair.

  She lets her tongue roll around my swollen bulb a few times before opening her mouth and taking me deep inside.

  She keeps her fingers wrapped tight around me as I glide in as far as I can go, and then she begins sucking as I thrust slowly in and out of her mouth.

  I throw my head back and mutter unintelligible words as my hips flex. I try to hold on to my control as best I can.

  She sucks me in deeper, and then she relaxes. She grips the back of my thigh with her free hand and holds on as she pulls back her lips and lightly drags the edge of her teeth down my length.

  I growl low and deep in my throat, and it sounds like a strangled cry as the speed of my thrusts increase.

  This woman drives me completely wild. She can bring me to the brink of sanity with her touch.

  My fingers tangle almost harder in her hair as I come close to losing myself.

  I look down and watch her face as she gets completely lost in my pleasure.

  My breaths quicken as I feel the bolt slide down my spine. Then, I groan her name as my body stiffens, and I come hard down her throat.

  Her eyes are squeezed tightly closed as she swallows me down. Savoring every drop and no doubt the knowledge that she possesses the ability to bring me to my knees.

  “You’re amazing, do you know that?” I say as she opens her eyes, and I fall from her lips that are still slick with my seed.

  Her expression is intense, and it makes my heart clench. She is so fucking beautiful. Every part of her, seen and unseen.

  I reach down and urge her to her feet, and I hold her to me as I feel the first few droplets hit my shoulder.

  Then the sky opens and the rain comes down in cold steady sheets.

  I lift her into my arms and shield her as best I can as I carry her toward the silo.

  I don’t ever want to let her go.

  Sonia

  Foster and I spend the day in bed before finally rising to get ready for the evening. For the last couple of weeks, George and I have either stayed over at his place or he and Sue have stayed with us. The puppies have grown so attached that they whine when we separate them.

  I understand the feeling.

  Tonight, we are going to his grandfather’s house for dinner.

  He took me to meet his parents last week, and his father was kind and welcoming and reminded me so much of Foster. His mother, not so much. It took her a while to warm up to me, but when I showed interest in the old photo albums from when Foster and Truett were young, she opened up slightly. She sat and told me the stories behind every single photograph, like it’d happened yesterday. She obviously loves her boys.

  The next time we spent the evening with them, it was a bit smoother sailing. At least she had removed the framed photo of Foster and Wendy on their wedding day that had been present on the mantel in the living room during our first visit.

  “It’s progress,” he said as he walked me to the car after dinner.

  My parents took zero time in accepting him. In fact, both Don and Momma talked more to Foster than they did me the night we joined them for dinner and game night.

  Every Friday, they pull out a different board game from my youth and beg anyone and everyone to come over and play with them. They have been doing it for years.

  It turns out, Foster is a Scattergories pro, a feat that earns him mad respect from my stepdad.

  “How do I look?” I ask, walking in, wearing a cream-colored linen dress with small, dark flowers on it. My hair is loose and flowing down my back.

  “Stunning, but I’ll tell you a secret. You could wear a brown paper sack, and you’d still be gorgeous,” he says.

  We head out and pick up Truett.

  “Gramps is going to love you, Sonia. He’s a sweet-talker too. A bona fide lady’s man,” Truett tells me on the drive over. “That’s where Foster and me get our good looks and charm from.”

  I roll my eyes.

  “I hope he likes me,” I say, nervously, and Foster reaches over and squeezes my knee.

  “Of course he will,” he assures me.

  Their grandfather meets us in the drive and takes my hand, and he kisses it when Foster introduces us.

  “It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Tomlin,” I say.

  “You call me Gramps. Mr. Tomlin is something you’d call an old fart, and that’s not me,” he insists, and I find it amusing that he thinks the name Gramps somehow sounds younger and hipper than his actual name.

  Gramps is a retired blacksmith, who still fashions horseshoes for a select few ranches in the county, including Stoney Ridge. He serves us his famous five-alarm chili for dinner, and I do my best not to let him see the water leaking from my eyes or the sweat beading on my brow as I finish my bowl. He regales us with stories of Poplar Falls when he was a boy, his time overseas in fighting the Nazis, how he met the boys’ grandmother, and even tales of them as kids. His body might be old and worn, but his mind is still sharp as a tack.

  As we get ready to leave, he stops us at the door.

  “You’d better hold on to this one, son. She has the same smile your grandmother did. You can see a woman’s heart through her smile.”

  I kiss his cheek, and he grins as he walks us out to the truck.

  He stands in the drive and waves until we are out of sight.

  “You passed the Gramps test with flying colors,” Truett informs me.

  “There was a test?” I ask as I turn to look at him.

  “Yep, you got a comparison to Gramma. That’s the highest score you can get,” he assures me.

  We drop Truett off at home, and Foster’s mother actually waves to us as we back out.

  “First, you charm Gramps, and now, you get a smile and wave from my mother. Are you some kind of witch?” he asks.

  “You caught me. My mother and I brew love potions in the back of the shop. I dab a bit on every time I leave my apartment, so the world will instantly fall in love with me.” I giggle.

  “You should bottle and sell it because it works. Everyone I know falls head over heels in love with you, Sonia Pickens.”

  My breath
catches at his words. “Did you just …”

  I decide not to finish that sentence when he looks at me from the corner of his eye.

  “Did I just tell you that I love you?”

  I stop breathing altogether as I wait for him to answer his own question.

  “Absolutely. I’m one hundred percent in love with you.”

  Tears fill my vision, and I leap across the bench seat and crawl into his lap. He fights to keep the truck on the road as I start peppering kisses all over his face.

  He finally manages to pull to the side of the road. I wrap my arms around his neck, and he caresses my thighs that are resting on either side of his legs.

  “I love you, too, Foster Tomlin.”

  I plant my lips on his, and I do something I’ve never done before. I have sex in the driver’s seat of his truck on the side of a road in plain sight of anyone passing by, and it is mind-blowing.

  “Tell me this is going to last,” I pant as I ride his cock. The horn of the truck goes off every time I slide up and come back down.

  “Forever,” he says as he takes my mouth.

  I scream my release down his throat, and his comes right behind me. We stay that way for a while with the radio playing and the wind kicking up. Him still inside of me. Connected in a way I’ve never been connected to another human being.

  In his arms, I feel safe.

  “Baby,” he grunts.

  “Yeah?”

  “I have to move. My leg is cramping,” he says, and we both start to laugh as I climb off of him.

  He removes the condom he slid into. He wraps it in a paper towel and drops it in the console. Then, I watch as he gets out of the truck and stretches his legs. He rubs his right knee a few times, and I feel a bit of guilt that his injured knee is bothering him.

  When he gets back in, I ask, “Are you okay?”

  “Never been better,” he says. He takes my hand and kisses the back of it before lacing his fingers with mine. “Let’s go home and check on the kids, shall we?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Foster

  The bliss I was riding from the other night is short-lived.

  I should have known the universe was not going to allow me to be this damn happy.

  I arrive home from work on Wednesday afternoon with plans to shower and head to pick Sonia up to take her over to Walker and Elle’s for the evening.

  When I pull in, I see a familiar black foreign car parked in front of my home. Wendy is sitting on the top step with her arms around her legs, staring off into space.

  When I get out of the truck, she jumps to her feet.

  “I’m in a hurry, Wendy. What do you need?”

  “We need to talk. I left you several messages,” she says.

  “I got them, but I’ve been busy,” I say as I pass her to unlock my door.

  “Too busy for a five-minute phone call, Foster, really?”

  “Yes, really, and I have to go now, so spit out whatever it is,” I say as I open the door and turn to face her.

  “Can I at least come in?” she asks.

  “You can say whatever it is right here.”

  She huffs. Then, she reaches into her purse, pulls out something, and tries to hand it to me.

  “What the fuck is it?” I ask without taking it from her.

  She opens her hand and holds it up, so I can get a good look at it.

  It’s a positive pregnancy test.

  I stare at it in disbelief.

  “Are you going to say anything?” she asks.

  I bring my eyes from the test to hers. “Congratulations. Is that it?”

  “It’s yours, Foster.”

  It can’t be. This is another one of her stunts.

  “Right.”

  “I haven’t been with anyone else since you left in May. If you don’t believe me, we can do a paternity test. You can do them before the baby is born now.”

  I start doing the math in my head. That would make her five months along. I look at her stomach.

  “No, I’m not showing much yet. My doctor says that’s normal, perfectly normal, and the baby is fine.”

  “How do I know that’s even real and you aren’t just squeezing me for more money now?”

  She reaches in her purse again and produces three more unopened pregnancy tests, all from different manufacturers. “I thought you might say that, so invite me inside, and I’ll take all of these right now.”

  I open the door wide, and she walks in.

  I stare at the tests on the coffee table in front of me. One has a plus sign, another shows a double line, and the last one is a digital test with the word yes in the window.

  Fuck my life.

  Wendy paces behind the couch.

  “I just don’t understand. Did you think that a baby would somehow fix everything between us? Or was it a way to keep your hooks into me?” I ask.

  She stops moving, and angry eyes bore into mine.

  “You think I got pregnant on purpose?” she asks.

  “Didn’t you? Because I thought you were on birth control the whole time,” I accuse.

  “I was!” she shouts.

  I shake my head in frustration.

  “I was, Foster. I don’t know how, but it happened, and now, we have to deal with it.”

  “I don’t think … I don’t want to … I can’t be a husband to you. My heart belongs to someone else,” I tell her.

  “Yeah, I know. Bellamy’s friend, Sonia, right? I saw you two together in town. You were holding hands and walking puppies together. It was cute,” she says.

  “It’s more than cute. I love her,” I confess.

  “I could tell.”

  “Fuck,” I scream.

  “Do you think I want to be the person you settle for? Because I don’t. I’m not trying to trap you, Foster. That’s no life for you, me, or the baby. I want to be someone’s whole world. I want to be wanted by someone who I want with all I have, whose heart belongs to me. I deserve that too,” she says, surprising me.

  “You do,” I agree.

  We were both young and stupid when we promised forever. Neither one of us knew what that truly meant at the time.

  “What if it’s too late for me to find that kind of love? What if I’m too hideous for someone to love me like that?” she asks.

  I stand and walk over and lay my hand on her stomach. I can’t believe that I have a child growing in there.

  “It’s not too late. You have someone right here who will love you like no other. You can start there,” I assure her.

  She places her hand on top of mine. “Yeah, I guess that’s one relationship I haven’t had the opportunity to fuck up yet. Maybe he or she won’t hate me.”

  “Not unless you want them to,” I point out.

  “I don’t,” she whispers.

  “I know.”

  “But I didn’t want you to hate me either, and here we are. I don’t know if I’m ready to be tied down, Foster. I don’t know if I can do this,” she admits as tears begin to stream down her cheeks.

  “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying that I’m not ready to be someone’s mother. I can’t even take care of myself. I have no clue who I am or where I want to be. I just know it’s not here. Not in Poplar Falls,” she says.

  I drop my hand.

  “I don’t want you to terminate this pregnancy,” I say, and I know it’s the truth. As much as I didn’t mean for any of this to happen, there is a little life inside of her.

  “I’m not saying that you want that either. I’m just … I’m scared,” she says.

  “That’s normal, I think, but we’ll figure it out. And if you decide you’re not cut out for it, then I’ll take over for us both, and I won’t ever make you feel guilty for walking away,” I promise.

  “You’d do that, wouldn’t you?”

  I nod.

  She swipes at her nose and looks at the floor for a few beats.

  “Okay, I’ll stay until the baby comes, a
nd we’ll see how I feel then.”

  Sonia

  “I have no idea where he is,” I tell Elle over the line. “I called out to Stoney Ridge, and he left hours ago. He’s not picking up his cell or home phone. Do you think I should be worried?”

  “No, it’s probably nothing. Truett could have asked him to give him a ride somewhere, or he could have bumped into Marvin on the drive, and he needed a hand.”

  I know she’s right, but why wouldn’t he pick up his phone and let me know?

  “It’s just odd.”

  “I know, but men can be odd sometimes. Trust me. Just wait for him to arrive and then call me when you guys are on your way.”

  “Okay. I’ll call you soon.”

  I click off the line and recheck my messages just to confirm he hasn’t called.

  I look down at George and Sue, who have been patiently waiting to be fed and walked. I was going to hold off until we made it to Elle’s to give them their dinner, but I know they are starving.

  “Okay, okay, enough with the sad eyes. Mom will feed you guys.”

  They follow me into the kitchen, and I empty a food pouch for each of them into separate bowls and set them down. They pounce on their meals like they haven’t eaten for days.

  “Always ravenous,” I say as I scratch both their heads.

  Then, I give them clean water and leave them to it while I go back to the living room to pace and silently freak out.

  By the time I hear a tap on my door, I’m in full-blown panic mode.

  I run down the steps with the pups on my heels and throw the door open.

  Foster is standing there, looking like he just left the ranch and he lost his best friend on the way here.

  I launch myself at him as relief floods my limbs. He catches me and wraps his arms so tight around me that it’s like he’s the one who has been sitting at home for hours, thinking I was dead in a ditch somewhere.

  I let him hold me until I can no longer breathe, and I push at his chest. He brings his eyes to mine and asks if he can kiss me.