27. King
The week that has passed hasn’t done anything for my anger. I can’t believe this guy got the drop on me, but he won’t get so lucky the next time. Ace was ready to go light Chapel Falls on fire to smoke Chad out, but somehow River talked him out of it. River ended up rescheduling his appointments this week, and we have come up with a schedule, so no one is alone at work.
Sparrow hasn’t let me out of her sight, and goddamn do I love her, but she refuses to have sex with me until I’m better.
I’m better and my balls are about to fall off. Convincing her of that is another story.
I just dropped Sparrow and Loch off at Cam and Skye’s. Cam will be there but has informed me that he will be hiding from the women. Apparently, planning a baby shower is serious business that Cam wants nothing to do with.
Getting Sparrow to leave me took a lot of work. I had to promise her that nothing would happen to me because I'd be with one of my brothers every minute and that I would check in every hour for her to agree to go spend time with her best friend.
Telle and I are meeting my dad at the bar to go over what needs to be done so I can open back up. For all the shit my dad got into when he was younger, he shockingly is good at business and really set my brothers and I up well. It also helps that Ace’s best friend and his brothers own a construction company, and do all of our work.
“You know what I think?” Telle asks from the backseat.
Looking in the rearview mirror at Telle and Benny, who has turned into the best dog, if I do say so myself. Telle smirks at me revealing a matching dimple to mine and his uncles, so I know this is going to be good.
“What do you think, bud?” I try to swallow my laugh, but it escapes before I can stop it. Telle tries to act older than he is and often shuts down if he feels like he is being laughed at. He and Ace are eerily similar.
“I think we should get another puppy. That way one is always with me, and one is always with Loch,” Telle matter-of-factly informs me.
Benny didn’t know who he wanted to stay with and whined when we pulled away from Loch. But I also know that Sparrow might cause bodily harm to me if I bring another dog home.
“You and Loch start school soon, Telle. We shouldn’t get another puppy while you guys are in school all day.” There, that sounded like a reasonable answer. One that I’m pretty sure would be Sparrow’s answer.
Parking next to my dad’s truck, I look around before moving to the back door and letting Telle and Benny out. All the kids are aware of is that the bar had a small electrical fire due to faulty wiring. No way were we going to tell them that their mother’s attacker is here.
They should probably already be in therapy, this would push them over the edge.
Walking into the bar, Telle still hasn’t let the topic go. “But, Dad, it makes sense. It’s teaching us responsibility.” He stops short when he takes in what the inside of the bar looks like; I downplayed it originally to Sparrow, something she wasn’t happy about when we came here the other day.
Finding Dad taking measurements alongside Seb, Ace’s best friend, I wait until they stand up to speak. The men turn to face us, my dad’s face lighting up when he sees Telle. This man was a questionable father when my brothers and I were young, but he has mastered being a grandparent.
“Hi, Papa Jack!” Telle shouts, making Benny bark next to him. He runs over to my dad, wrapping his arms around him, while my dad smiles down at him.
“Let’s go see if there is still any ice cream back in the kitchen while your dad has this meeting.”
Ahh…thanks, Dad, get him all hopped up on sugar and let me deal with the aftermath.
Once they walk off in search of ice cream, I turn to the man that’s probably going to put me in a bad mood.
“How bad is it?” I question.
“Well, King, I’ve got good and bad news. The bad news is the whole floor needs to come up. The good news is that Bear hit the jackpot last month at a barn sale and found bowling lane wood. There’s enough for the whole bar and I think it will look perfect.”
Looking around the space I try to envision the new flooring. While I never cared to make the outside look pretty, I do care about what the inside looks like. My motto has always been that anyone from around here knows that High Society is a bar, and the out-of-towners can take a gamble stopping in if they want to.
“You have enough to do the whole bar?” I ask questionably, because that would be a lot of bowling lanes.
“Sure do,” he responds with a nod of his head.
“Okay, give me a minute. I want to run something past the missus.”
“Smart man.”
Pulling out my phone, I start a new thread with Sparrow and River.
You guys want to do a project together?
Bird
What are you thinking, King?
Riv
What are you trying to get me to do?
Not just you, Riv.
All the floor needs to come up, got a line on that, but what if you guys painted a mural on the back wall.
Bird
King, I don’t know. I haven’t painted in a long time. Maybe just River is better.
Riv
I’ll only do it if you do it, Spare.
Ha, that’s my brother. He knew how to get her to do it.
Bird
Fine, but it’s not my fault if my part looks like shit.
Laughing, I pocket my phone and turn back towards Seb. “Alright, let’s do it. Ace is building the new bar top, so that’s crossed off the list. What else?” The next twenty minutes are spent going over everything that needs to be done to get back up and running. My savings are going to take a dent, but it’s just money, I’ll make more.
Once we agree on everything, Seb takes off, with a promise to get me a schedule within the next few days. Surprised that my dad and Telle haven’t come back up, I go in search for them. Stopping at the kitchen door, I listen in on their conversation.
“Papa, I think you should get a puppy. Then he can come stay at my house.” My dad lets out a loud laugh, but I know that if Telle keeps asking, my dad will be a proud dog owner.
“I don’t know, Telle. Why do you think I should get one?”
“I asked Dad for another one, so Loch always has one with her, but we start school soon. Papa?”
“What is it, Telle?”
“Do you think my dad will leave us again?” my son asks softly.
I’m about to barge into the kitchen when my dad answers, “No, Telle. He will never leave you, your sister, or your mom. Your dad loves you guys more than anything else in this world.”
“Promise?”
“Oh, buddy. Yes, I promise.”
Pushing my way into the kitchen, my dad has Telle wrapped in his arms, Benny sitting at their feet. There will never be a day that I don’t hate myself for not being there for my family when they needed me.
“Hey, Telle. You ready to go get your mom and sister?” I don’t miss that my son wipes his cheeks before stepping away from his grandfather. I also don’t miss the misty look coming from my dad.
“Yep! Maybe we can go to the diner for lunch!” Telle exclaims, making me chuckle. The kids love the diner, which is just a truck stop diner, but surprisingly, it has great food.
After my dad tells us he is going to lock up, he wants to get started ripping the floor up, Telle and I head towards the door. I stop him when he tries to run ahead of me, stepping out of the bar first to make sure we don’t have any unwanted visitors.
Pulling away from the bar, I wonder if there’s anything else I should be doing to prove to my kids that I’m not going anywhere. I want to banish that thought from their minds altogether. The only thing I can do is continue to show up every day for them and hopefully one day the time I wasn’t with them will barely be a memory.
Pulling my shirt over my head, I look over at Sparrow. She has been working all night on a cover and I’m dying to see it. She doesn’t think of herself as talented, but she’s always been. She could have taken the art world by storm, given the opportunity. Now, she is turning authors’ dreams into a real-life vision.
“You almost done for the night, Bird?” We did in fact take the kids to the diner, where Telle wasted no time asking his mom for another puppy. Not surprisingly, Sparrow shut that down pretty quickly.
“Yeah, my eyeballs are starting to hurt. This will be done tomorrow. I need to design some new stickers and bookmarks for my shop, but I’ll do that over the weekend,” Sparrow tells me as she sets her iPad on the bedside table.
Walking up to the bed, I quickly lift her shirt up and throw it over my shoulder. I need to give my woman some attention and show her that I’m better and she doesn’t need to handle me with kid gloves.
“On your stomach, Bird.” Sparrow narrows her eyes at me but does what I ask. Throwing the blanket off of her, I start massaging her calves and continue up her legs.
Sparrow lets out a moan when I get to her lower back. I bend down and kiss the scars on her shoulder. “God, this feels so good,” she mumbles into the pillow.
I don’t know who I need to thank for bringing Sparrow back into my life, but I will be thankful every day.
Lowering myself down next to her, she rolls over to look at me. “What are you thinking?” she whispers.
“I heard Telle ask my dad if he thought I would leave you guys again. I’m thinking of anything I could do to take that thought out of his mind.”
Sparrow shuffles closer to me, throwing a leg over my hip. “King…you are doing everything. It won’t take him long to no longer worry. Both the kids know that you aren’t going anywhere.”
We could continue this conversation, but Sparrow is naked and very close to me, and I’m just a man. One that is in love with the woman before me, and I’m desperate to sink into her. Bringing my hand down, I slowly start circling her clit. Sparrow rocks her hips, and I know I’ve got her.
Injury? What injury?
Sparrow shocks me when she pushes me on my back and straddles me. “No pain today?” I quickly shake my head no . Even if I was in pain, I might be tempted to tell a little white lie. Sparrow reaches behind her and grabs ahold of my cock.
I let out a deep growl when she drops down on my cock, showing me that she has in fact missed me this week. “Goddamn, Bird. You feel so fucking good.” Her nails dig into my chest, I won’t last long if she keeps this up. Grabbing her hips, I quickly flip us, throwing her left leg up to my shoulder. Her right foot digs into my ass, spurring my movements.
“King!”
“That’s it, Bird. Are you going to milk my cock?” I pant out. I need to get her over the finish line before I embarrass myself.
Lowering her left leg, I pay attention to her nipple with my tongue. Slowly licking around it, I take her nipple into my mouth, lightly biting. I don’t ever want to do something that will trigger her, so I’ve slowly been adding things, and thankfully, she hasn’t seemed against anything. Feeling Sparrow tightening around me, I take her nipple between my teeth again.
“Fuck! King!” Sparrow yells out.
“Bird!” Two more thrusts, and I’m screaming my release. Both of us are out of breath when I fall down, pulling her into my arms.
“I love you, Sparrow. You and the kids are everything I dreamed of. A family of my own.” None of us talk too much about our childhood, not having anything worthwhile to go down memory lane for. But even as a teenager I wanted this with Sparrow, I just dumbly thought that I wasn’t good enough for her.
I’m the only one for Sparrow.