Текст книги "Hold On"

Автор книги: Kristen Ashley

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Текущая страница: 17 (всего у книги 35 страниц)

Badass unleashed.

Shit!

I moved to follow him, watching as Trent, nearly halfway up the walk, eyes to feet it weirdly seemed he was dragging, sensed another presence and looked up.

He got one look at Merry and jolted to a stop in a way that would have been funny if I wasn’t worried Merry was about to go apeshit.

I dashed out the door and down the walk, listening to Merry order, “Turn around and go home.”

“Who are you?” Trent asked.

“I’m the man tellin’ you to turn around and go home,” Merry answered.

Trent stared up at him, but when I hit Merry’s side, he tore his eyes away and looked to me.

“Who’s this guy?” he asked, jerking a thumb at Merry.

“Answered that,” Merry bit out, and Trent’s gaze shot back to him. “Now, get in your car and go home.”

“Trent!” Peggy shouted from the car, not opening her window, opening her door. “What’s goin’ on?”

“Ma’am, remain in the car,” Merry ordered loudly.

I watched Peggy register an order that went against what she wanted to do and I saw what she hid barely under the surface.

Apparently, no man but God told Peggy Schott what to do, that “God” being in her head, which meant no man told Peggy Schott what to do.

Instantly, she was visibly ticked.

“Where’s my kid?” Trent asked.

I decided to try to take over. “I told you, Trent, he needs a break from you. And Ethan told you he wasn’t comin’ this weekend. I also confirmed that with you.”

“And Trent told you he was.” Peggy had decided to wade in. She was out of the minivan and hoofing it our way.

I looked to the back to the two car seats her kids were in.

“Mrs. Schott, your children are in your vehicle,” Merry told her, and Peggy’s eyes snapped to him at him using her name.

“You know me?” she asked.

“I know you,” Merry answered, his voice low with more meaning than the possibility that I’d shared who Peggy was.

She made it to Trent and her head tipped to the side as she stared at Merry.

“You were there, at the bar with Cheryl,” she decreed, as if this was news Merry was unaware of.

“I was,” Merry confirmed. “Now, both of you, please return to your vehicle and go home.”

“We’re pickin’ up Ethan,” Peggy declared.

“You’re not,” I declared right back, and Peggy turned her screwed-up eyes to me. “And we’re not doin’ this now. I explained to Trent that Ethan needed some space. I also explained to Trent that while Ethan was gettin’ that, we could sit down and talk about what the future might bring. But that’s not happening now. That’s happening at a time when we’ve all got our shit together and can talk about it rationally. In the meantime, Ethan’s said he doesn’t wanna spend time with you. If you wanna connect with him, talk to him on the phone.”

“Ethan doesn’t get to make those decisions,” Peggy spat. “He’s just a little boy. His father makes those decisions.”

“I’m afraid he doesn’t,” I returned.

“And I’m afraid you’re wrong,” Peggy shot back. “Trent’s his father. He’s got rights.”

“That’s where you’re wrong,” Merry put in sharply, and Peggy’s eyes sliced to him. “Trent Schott relinquished his rights when his girlfriend told him she was carrying his child and he cleared out after he cleaned her out. In this situation, Trent has no rights. In this situation, Ethan’s mother makes all the decisions about where her son will be and with whom. She’s made her decisions. She’s communicated them repeatedly. Now, I’ll say it again, return to your vehicle and go home.”

“You don’t know what you’re talkin’ about,” Peggy snapped.

That was when Merry reached under the hem of his leather jacket and pulled something out of the back pocket of his jeans, that something being the badge he shoved into his belt at his front right hip.

“I know exactly what I’m talkin’ about,” Merry said lethally.

“You called the cops?” Trent asked, his voice high and even more whiny than Ethan’s had been minutes before.

“I didn’t call the cops,” I answered.

“Well, he’s a cop.” Trent jerked his head Merry’s way.

“I am. I’m also her boyfriend,” Merry announced.

Trent’s mouth dropped open, his eyes bugged out, and his torso automatically reared away from Merry.

Peggy’s lips parted, but her eyes squinted so tight, they looked shut.

Trent looked to me and his voice was even higher when he asked, “You’re seein’ a cop?”

“She is,” Merry answered for me. “And as her boyfriend, not a cop, I’m askin’ you one last time to return to your vehicle. You make me ask again, that request will come from a cop.”

All this went down, but it was lost on Peggy.

She was stuck back earlier in the conversation.

“Trent has rights,” she declared, looking between Merry and me.

“That’s simply not the case,” Merry replied. “Not legally. Not informally. The only rights he has are those Cher grants him. And she’s not granting him the right to see Ethan. This means you have no choice but to leave.”

“It means we got no choice but to get Trent legal rights,” she returned.

My heart clenched painfully, but Merry just shrugged.

“That’s your call. But no judge is gonna rise up in a puff of smoke to appear in Cher’s yard to grant them to you right now, so I’ll say it again, turn around and go home.”

No judge is gonna rise up in a puff of smoke…

God, I loved it when Merry was funny, especially when he was funny smack in the middle of Peggy being Peggy and Trent being his normal loser.

Peggy looked to me and threatened, “This isn’t over.”

I looked at her and retorted, “Yes it is.”

“Get ready for the battle of your life,” she warned.

“Already won that,” I fired back. Then I gave her what she needed to try to find it in her to do the right thing. “You can work with me to help you build a relationship with my son, or you can work against me. You work against me, I won’t have to do anything—Ethan will tell you, a judge, he’ll shout it at the top of his lungs that he wants nothing to do with you. And if that’s what my boy wants, that’s what I’ll get for my boy. If you care about him and want him in your life and as a part of your family, you have this window of opportunity to do that the right way. Don’t fuck it up.”

“No judge is gonna let a boy be raised by a woman who’s got no problem usin’ the f-word,” Peggy sniped.

“No judge in this whole fuckin’ country is gonna take my boy away from me,” I returned.

“You’re livin’ a fantasy,” she spat.

“I’m not the one who’s willing to commit the crime of kidnapping,” I said softly.

Her torso swung back, her eyes got wide, and even Trent was smart enough to separate himself from Peggy at this juncture, this bit of news being shared in front of a cop. He shifted away from her side.

“Yeah,” I whispered. “You threatened me. I took action. I’ll keep doin’ that since I got friends who’re good at findin’ out shit, and I’ll find out so much shit about you, about Trent, I’ll bury you. Nothing…not…one…thing is gonna be forced on my kid that he doesn’t want. I’ll go to the mat for that, Peggy. I’ll die for that. I’ll do anything for that. Mark my words, you battle me, you will not win. I’ll fight you every day of my life. I’ll spend every dime I have. And I won’t go down swingin’ because I will not ever quit fightin’.”

Only the barest hint of hesitation crossed her features before she leaned in and hissed, “He needs saved from you.”

Shit, there it was.

“That, that right there,” I returned instantly, “tells me precisely what kind of woman you are and what I gotta protect my boy from.”

That seemed to confuse her.

“We’re his salvation,” she decreed.

Oh my God.

Was she crazy?

“You bring harm to his mother in any way,” Merry entered our conversation, “he’ll think you’re sent straight from hell.”

Trent got close to his wife again, grabbing her arm.

“Peg, let’s go.”

She stared at Merry. Then she shifted her eyes and glared at me.

“Peg, babe, kids are in the car. Let’s go,” Trent urged.

“Get an attorney,” she warned me quietly.

“Whatever,” I replied.

She kept glaring.

Trent tugged cautiously on her arm.

She turned her glare to him, tore her arm from his hold, and stomped her ass to their minivan.

Trent gave me an unhappy look. He gave one to Merry. After that, he followed her.

We stood where we were as they got in, but we didn’t stand the way we were standing when they were with us.

Merry threw his arms around my shoulders.

That felt great.

I slid my hand around his waist.

He tucked me tight into his side.

I fit myself tighter.

And that felt even better.

We watched Trent fire up their minivan and we kept watching as they pulled away, our heads turning to keep them in sight as they drove down the street.

“Bad news, brown eyes. That church lady is fuckin’ crazy,” Merry muttered when the brake lights on the minivan lit at the stop sign at the end of the street.

“The Lord giveth great dinners with handsome cops, followed by fabulous orgasms and a mom gettin’ to tell her boy he gets to eat pizza with a good man he looks up to,” I replied, and as I did, Merry looked down at me and I looked up at him. “Then the Lord taketh away by sending a batshit-crazy church lady to stand in my yard, throw down with me, and, while she’s doin’ it, say words like ‘salvation.’”

Merry started smiling.

“Not sure the Lord gave you those orgasms, sweetheart,” he returned. “And He sure didn’t pay for dinner.”

“I hear you,” I agreed. “That doesn’t mean He wasn’t shining His light on me the last twenty-four hours, save, of course, the last ten minutes.”

Merry didn’t quit smiling, it was just that his smile turned cocky.

“Guys!” Ethan shouted from the house, and we both looked over our shoulders to see him in the storm door. “What’s goin’ on? Why’re standin’ out there, starin’ at each other, and not comin’ in to tell me why Dad and Peggy are actin’ all crazy?”

I stared at my son, who looked angry and worried.

This meant I sighed, which was a choice I made because the other one was losing my mind that Peg and Trent made my kid angry and worried.

The good part was Merry being there, being close, having a hold on me, and shifting me around so we could walk connected to my house.

The bad part was my kid was in my house and I had to explain to him his dad and Peggy weren’t acting crazy, because, at least for Peg, she just was.

We made it into the house and Merry had barely closed the front door behind us when Ethan launched in.

“You don’t have to tell me what went down.” He lifted his chin. “You told me to go to my room. You didn’t tell me not to open my window so I couldn’t watch and listen.”

He was right. I didn’t.

I made a mental note should something like this happen again to do just that as I replied, “Then I’m not sure what there is to add, little man.”

“You started whispering,” he accused. “I didn’t hear that part.”

“And that’s ’cause you shouldn’t, buddy,” Merry said carefully.

Ethan glared at Merry for a moment but only for a moment.

Then he declared, “Right,” stomped to the phone, and jerked it out of its base.

I wasn’t sure that was good.

“Ethan,” I said warningly.

He turned his angry face to me, then he looked down and punched buttons.

“Ethan,” I said again, moving his way.

He put the phone to his ear.

“Baby,” I whispered, getting close. “Maybe you need to think about this. Don’t act in anger. That can lead to bad things, things you might regret, and I don’t want that for you, kid.”

He looked up at me, his eyes sliding to the side as I felt Merry stop there behind me. Then Ethan opened his mouth.

“Yeah, Peg? It’s Ethan,” he stated. He waited. Then he said, “Dad’s drivin’? Okay, I’ll tell you. I wanna see you again never. You got that? I never wanna see you again. Not you. Not Dad. But especially not you. I heard what you said to my mom and that isn’t right. Dad knows it isn’t. He knows. Don’t know why you don’t. He left us all alone, he can’t come back and be all stupid. And you can’t do nothin’ because you’re nothin’ to me.”

He drew in a deep breath and I drew in one with him.

Then he kept giving it to her.

“I gotta tell you, this sucks ’cause I’m gonna miss Mary and Tobias. But it doesn’t suck because I’m not gonna miss you. You bother my mom again, I’ll tell you to your face. You push it, I’ll say it to a judge. I’m never goin’ with you. Not ever. You find a way to make me, I’ll run away. I gotta look after my mom and you made me hafta do that by making it this way. So, later. You got it in you to be halfway decent, give Mary and Tobias a hug from me. Maybe when all of us are grown up, we can get together and talk about how crazy you are. But that’ll have to wait until we’re all grown up.”

With that, he punched a button and tossed the phone to the couch.

He looked back to me. “Okay. Done. Now we got, like, no time to eat pizza. We’ll have to snarf it down before I gotta meet Teddy at the game, which sucks, and I’m blamin’ that on Peggy too.” He looked to Merry. “I gotta get my bag, then we can go.”

On that, he tramped from the room, Merry and me turning to watch him go.

“Just to say,” Merry started softly, and my thoughts on my kid, worried, my eyes drifted up to him, “not sure how much better I gotta get to know your boy.”

I felt my lips part, but he wasn’t done.

He looked down at me. “Think I just fell in love, brown eyes.”

I couldn’t stop it, no way.

I swayed toward him.

He caught me in both arms.

And he still wasn’t done.

“He’s a good man, takin’ care of his mom.”

“Yeah,” I whispered.

Merry smiled at me, soft and sweet.

Ethan stormed into the room, looked at us, and stopped.

“Okay, maybe I was wrong about the gooey, ’cause…gross,” he declared.

Merry didn’t let me go.

Ethan threw out an annoyed hand. “We gonna get pizza or what?”

“We’re gonna get pizza, bud,” Merry said, dropping one arm but keeping his other around me to guide me Ethan’s way.

“You okay?” I asked him as we moved.

“Uh…no,” Ethan answered. “Peggy’s totally crazy and Dad just stood there and let her mouth off at you. All he cared about was that Merry’s a cop. What’s that all about?”

“Well…” I let that trail off, not sure I felt like sharing Trent’s rap sheet and drug history and thus his natural aversion to law enforcement with Ethan at this juncture.

“It doesn’t matter.” Ethan lifted his chin again, eyes on me. “He’s weak. I’m not weak. I’m like you. I can take care of myself. I can take care of you. And I’m like Merry, who’s all, get in your vehicle and go, real angry-like but still patient when you just gotta take one look at him and see he so totally wanted to whale on Dad.” Ethan looked to Merry. “I kinda wish you did, though Mom says hitting people is wrong. Dad needs some sense knocked into him.”

Merry let out a sharp, startled bark of laughter.

I swallowed mine back and, once I managed this, said, “Ethan, honey, you need to calm down.” He looked to me. “You need a shot of tequila?” I offered.

“Yes,” he answered instantly.

“Well, you’re gonna have to make do with the buzz of a two-liter glass of Coke at Reggie’s,” I returned.

He stared at me and suddenly the emotion that was controlling him shifted and I saw his jaw set, but he couldn’t fight it.

His chin wobbled.

My heart skipped and the pain of it nearly took me to my knees.

“They’re not gonna get me, are they, Mom?”

“No, baby,” I answered quickly, firmly, but softly, holding back, wanting to rush to him and put my arms around him, but not wanting to mother him when he was going through a lot, holding it together, and doing it in front of Merry.

He looked into my eyes, nodded, and said, “Sorry, Mom, but he knows.” He looked up to Merry. “You’re police. You know the law. Are they gonna take me away from my mom?”

“Absolutely not, Ethan,” Merry stated quickly, firmly, and not softly.

Ethan swallowed.

Then he nodded at Merry.

“Maybe we should cancel things with Teddy,” I suggested, and Ethan’s attention came back to me. “After pizza, we can all hang for a while.”

“Only if Merry stays for waffles in the morning,” Ethan decreed.

I tensed.

Merry didn’t.

He said, “If it’s cool with your mom, I’m here.”

I drew in a deep breath and nodded.

Merry slid his arm around my shoulders again and stated, “Your mom and me’ll go to the game with you and you can hang with your bud. Then we’ll bring you home and we can all hang here.”

The worry slipped away as Ethan’s face lit when he realized he had me, Merry, pizza, the game, time with his friend, and together time at home. “Awesome! I hate to miss the ’dogs when they’re playing at home.”

“Then we got plans,” Merry muttered.

“I’ll take my bag back and call Teddy,” Ethan announced, grabbed his bag and took off.

I turned to Merry.

“So, we fucked around for a week and a half getting to the zone where we’d start, then I catapulted you straight to hyperdrive with my kid, my life, and my problems. Does your hair feel like it’s on fire?”

Merry smiled at me. “Nope.”

“Well, that’s good,” I mumbled, looking at his shirt.

“Cher.”

I lifted my eyes to his.

“That thinkin’ I did was not about knowin’ I wanted back in your pants,” he stated. “I already knew that. It was about me knowin’ I wanted to be a part of your life. I wanted this to happen, honey. It happens now, two days from now, two weeks from now, I wanted it. I got it early. I’m down with that. So stop worrying.”

I glared at him. “You can stop being perfect. I’m getting a complex.”

He again smiled at me. “You look good. There’s no better ass in a pair of jeans in the entire county and it’s mine to tap. You’re a great mom. You put together a great pad, though I’m worried the ghost of Jimi Hendrix is gonna glide through at any second. You raised a great kid. And I get to make you both waffles in the morning. I’m thinkin’ I didn’t do too bad either.”

God!

Merry.

“Ethan caps my gooey, I’m capping yours,” I decreed.

He dipped his head to me, curling me closer, his tone telling me his thoughts on what gooey was were vastly different than mine. “How much I get?”

I opened my mouth to speak as I mentally told my spasming vagina to behave, but Ethan raced into the room and shouted, “Guys! Seriously!” so I didn’t get to say anything.

I watched Merry smile again.

I liked it.

Then I watched him move away, and after that, I participated fully as I went out with both my guys and had pizza.

* * * * *

“She does this sometimes, passes out in front of the TV.”

I heard that coming in a whisper from Ethan.

“I bet.”

That I heard as a low rumble up close, coming from Merry.

“I usually shake her real gentle until she wakes up. Then I help her make sure the house is locked up, the lights are out, and we go to bed.”

Again from Ethan.

“How ’bout you make sure the door’s locked? I’ll get the lights and get your mom to bed.”

That was Merry.

Me?

I was realizing I was curled up on the couch, my head cushioned by something warm and awesome, but it was not exactly soft because it was Merry’s thigh.

Shit.

I opened my eyes on a blink and saw Merry’s stocking feet on my coffee table. I slowly shoved a hand in the couch and pushed up.

“I’m awake,” I lied, poorly, seeing as the words were slurred.

“Right,” Merry muttered.

I tipped my head back to turn sleepy eyes to him.

The grin he aimed at me was soft and sweet.

Shit.

Total junkie for that look, that grin.

Hell, I was just plain addicted to Merry.

“I’ll do the door and the lights,” Ethan said quickly. “’Night, Mom.”

I turned my head, lifting a hand to shove my hair out of my face and seeing my son on the go. “’Night, baby.”

He also aimed a grin at me as he switched out the light by the couch.

I felt Merry shift and looked his way to see him taking his feet right before he bent deep and took hold of me. He lifted me up into his arms in a bride and groom hold right in front of my kid.

I woke up a little bit more.

“Merry.”

“I’ll get her to her room and help you, bud,” he said to Ethan as he negotiated the space between coffee table and couch.

“’Kay,” Ethan replied.

Merry kept walking.

I put my hands to his chest. “I can make it to my bedroom.”

“I’m sure you can,” Merry said but didn’t put me on my feet.

I rolled my eyes, which was about all I had time for before we were in my room (my house was tiny).

He put me to my feet by the bed.

“Get ready,” he ordered when I tilted my head back to look at him. “I’m gonna help Ethan close the house down for the night.”

“Whatever,” I muttered.

He grinned at me.

I stumbled slightly and annoyingly as I headed to my dresser.

Merry chuckled.

I rolled my eyes again.

I felt his presence leave and the truth of it was, it was late, I was tired (I didn’t get a lot of sleep on any kind of normal basis), life had been a roller coaster lately but we’d had a good night, the three of us, and right then, I was out of it.

So out of it, I didn’t have it in me to dig through my drawers and accomplish the colossal feat of finding sleepwear sexy enough for the first time I wore it around Merry (both our times sleeping together, we’d done it naked) at the same time being appropriate for me to sleep in with Merry and with my kid in the house.

Since I likely didn’t even own such a miraculous piece of clothing, I dragged out some drawstring pajama shorts, a tank, tugged off my clothes, and yanked them on.

I struggled out to the bathroom as Ethan was hitting his room.

“’Night again, Mom,” he bid me.

“Sleep good, kid,” I returned.

“You too,” he said then, “’Night, Merry. Can’t wait for waffles.”

“Me either, bud. Sleep tight.”

I glanced at Merry briefly, went into the bathroom, turned on the light, and shut the door.

I listed around doing my business, put zero effort in brushing my teeth (but I still managed to drag the toothbrush around), rinsed, spit, decided my makeup could stay on, and left the bathroom.

I hit my bedroom to see Merry getting up from the bed, shirt off, socks off, belt undone, and this made me partially rally.

The problem with that was he just grinned at me and walked out of the room, so his chest and the hair on his stomach with the arrow pointing to good things walked out of the room with him.

So I lurched to the bed, threw back my Janis Joplin covers, and did a face-plant in it.

I was snoozing when I felt the bed move, the dim of the lights on my eyelids disappearing completely because Merry turned out the light. Then he fitted the line of his lean, warm, hard body into mine, spooning me.

“Thanks for pizza,” I muttered sleepily into the dark.

He hauled me close with his arm around my belly.

“Shut up, brown eyes, and stop thankin’ me for everything.”

I ignored him.

“Thanks for gettin’ in Trent’s face and bein’ all cool even though you wanted to whale on him.”

His body started shaking.

I kept mumbling.

“Thanks for bein’ nice to my kid.”

“He’s easy to be nice to.”

I knew that, so I ignored that too.

“Thanks for givin’ up an awesome blowjob à la me to watch Fast & Furious 6 with my boy.”

“Just sayin’, that’s a debt you hold, baby, and I’ll be findin’ a time to collect.”

I looked forward to that.

It seemed I had enough strength in me to use my mouth to speak. But not to suck him off, no way, especially with my kid in the house, which was a shame (the not-being-able-to-suck-Merry-off part; my kid being in the house was never a shame).

“Thanks for waiting for me to get my head outta my ass so I could take a shot on this, because so far, it’s workin’ great.”

His arm at my belly got tighter and I felt his breath stir my hair when he tipped his head to me, but he said nothing.

“Merry?” I called.

“Right here, Cherie,” he said softly.

“Thanks,” I whispered.

He kissed the top of my hair and whispered back, “Go to sleep, sweetheart.”

“Okay,” I muttered.

“Just sayin’,” he continued quietly. “You get it. You live with Ethan. You got that in your life. You get that goodness. You don’t get it about you, but I’ll get you there. But at least with half of it you know, the pleasure is all mine.”

God.

Merry.

I snuggled back into him, closing my eyes tight.

He shoved his other arm under me and wrapped it around my upper chest.

“’Night, brown eyes,” he murmured.

“’Night, baby,” I murmured back.

Merry held me close, his body spooning mine.

And I fell fast asleep.