Runaway - Chapter 52
Friday
Jacob started laughing.
I put my book down on the beach blanket and stared at Jacob and Miller practicing football in the sand. I smiled to myself as Jacob threw the ball a few feet right onto the ground.
“Good job, champ,” Miller said and picked it up. “You almost got it right to me!” He tossed the ball back to Jacob and crouched down. “Let’s try that again.” He put his hands out for Jacob to throw them in.
This time when Jacob threw it, Miller was close enough to the ground to catch it. “You did it!” Miller cheered.
“Yessie!” Jacob started doing his signature touchdown dance. Which was him shaking his little hips.
“Mommy!” Jacob yelled and raced toward me. “I did it!” He launched himself into my arms, getting sand all over me. But I didn’t even care. He was my little sugar-coated doughnut and I loved him to pieces.
“I saw.” I held him tight. “It was a perfect throw.” I started attacking him with kisses.
He giggled as he wriggled in my arms. “Jump! Jump!”
I knew exactly what he wanted. I grabbed one of his hands as I slowly stood up, and Miller grabbed his other hand. We all ran down to the water together.
Every time a wave came we lifted him up so he could pretend he was jumping them. It was his favorite thing in the world. Well, this and football. And I’d keep doing this until my arm ached because his smiles made me smile.
I looked over at Miller. And I was very aware that he was smiling over at me instead of down at our son.
And I have no idea why, but I could feel myself blushing. How could he still make me blush after all these years?
***
“Wake up,” Miller whispered. “I have a surprise for you.”
“Miller, you know I don’t like surprises.” But I could already feel myself smiling as I sat up in bed.
“Oh, I think you’ll like this one. I got the monitor so we don’t have to worry.” He held up the baby monitor. “I just need you to come with me.” He put his hand out for me.
“Shouldn’t I change?”
“No. You look amazing just the way you are.”
I smiled and slid my hand into his. I loved that whatever he had planned didn’t require me to change into something fancy. Or put on many clothes in general. I had gone to bed in one of his old t-shirts.
I held his hand as he guided me out of the beach house and down the stairs of the deck.
The sand was cold now. But I knew I didn’t need to hop along on it for very long because I could see our destination in the distance.
Miller had strung lights between two beach umbrellas and there was a blanket underneath them.
It was like a little piece of our backyard at the lake house had been plopped down in the middle of the beach.
But it also reminded me of the little blanket fort he’d made me one of those first nights, years ago, at the beach house when I swore I needed to be outside.
“Happy anniversary, a few days late,” Miller said when we reached the blanket.
I smiled up at him. “Happy anniversary. This is a little different than saying ‘I do’ in the snow.”
“Just as perfect.”
I smiled and looked out at the water. I’d fought so hard not to fall in love with Miller years ago at the beach house. But it had taken me a few months and a beach in California to make me realize that I’d already fallen. A spot just like this, hundreds of miles away from here.
“May I have this dance?” Miller asked. He stepped away from me and then put his hand out.
There wasn’t any music. But I’d never pass up a dance with the most handsome man I knew. “Always.”
He pulled me back in close and we swayed to the sounds of the waves crashing.
“We’re going to be okay,” I said, wrapping my arms around his waist and smiling up at him.
“I know.” He kissed my forehead.
We both stared out at the water as we slow danced.
I knew better than anyone else that loss eventually faded into a dull ache.
Which eventually faded to a blurry memory.
We were definitely going to be okay eventually.
Even if my heart still hurt right now. If I’d learned anything about a life with Miller, it was that he always made everything better.
He knew exactly how to cheer me up. And a summer sun in the middle of winter to chase away the cold.
Ever since we’d stepped foot on the beach I couldn’t help but smile.
But this? Right here with him? I could already feel my heart healing.
“And before I forget,” he said and smiled down at me. “We have champagne. And midnight snacks.”
I laughed. “I thought we gave up midnight snacks?”
“Not on our anniversary.”
“Oh, of course.” I laughed as he pulled me down onto the blanket.
After giving birth to Jacob I’d stopped eating late night ice cream as I tried to lose the extra weight.
But sometimes everyone needed a little late night ice cream.
And Miller didn’t disappoint, because he pulled out a container of mint chocolate chip from the cooler.
“I love you,” I said. “More than you could possibly know.”
He handed me the whole container and I laughed. “I love you too, kid.”
I stuck my tongue out at him.
“Keep doing that and I’ll have to retaliate.” He popped the bottle of champagne and poured me a glass.
“And how will you retaliate?” I took a sip of champagne and smiled. I loved how cozy and fancy this seemed at the same time.
“Oh I can think of a few ways.”
The way he said it made me swallow hard.
Miller was always patient with me. But especially the past couple of months.
I was grieving for what we lost. And even though I didn’t think I was pulling away from him, I think I always tended to do that when I was hurting.
Like somehow I was protecting him from hurting too.
And it had been a while since we’d had sex. “A few ways?”
He smiled, but the humor didn’t quite reach his eyes.
All I could see was desire. He’d gotten sexier over the years, if that was even possible.
And I knew I hadn’t. I had stretch marks on my stomach and I was pretty sure my butt was twice the size it used to be.
But he always looked at me like that. Like he couldn’t get enough.
And I didn’t want to be grieving tonight. I just wanted…him.
“I’m ready for your retaliation, good sir,” I said.
“You are, huh?” He put his glass down and leaned over me, not caring that my glass fell over in the sand.
I hitched my legs around his waist. There was something about Miller and the way we fit together. Like we were always meant to be. I felt like I was home when I was with him. And I felt so loved I could just burst. “I’ve missed you,” I said and buried my fingers into his hair.
“I’ve been right here.” He kissed the side of my neck as he pushed my t-shirt up. “I’ll always be right here.” He kissed my stomach, not caring about my stretch marks. “Always, Brooklyn.” He slowly pulled my panties down my legs.
And I tried not to cry out when his lips found my clit and his fingers slid inside me.
God I’d missed his mouth. And his fingers. I pulled him closer as his tongue swirled around me, his fingers driving me insane.
“Shit, Miller, the lights.” I was staring up at the twinkling fairy lights above us. Which lit us up on the beach.
He reached over and switched them off, shrouding us in darkness.
I blinked and stared up at the stars in the sky.
Or maybe it was just stars in my eyes because he’d just started doing that thing with his tongue that I loved…
fuck. I came embarrassingly fast. Or at least it would have been embarrassing if Miller wasn’t so damn happy with himself. I could feel his smile against my skin.
I propped myself up on my elbows so I could see him. “Oh and you don’t think I can make you cum just as fast?”
He kissed the inside of my thigh. “No.” He kissed the inside of my other thigh. “No, I don’t.”
“Challenge accepted.” I pushed him back, straddling him. Somehow we’d wandered off the blanket, but I didn’t even care. I’d dreamed of having sex with him on the beach years ago. And it was crazy that we’d never done it.
All those runs we went on together…I should have just tackled him.
I should have made him mine right away. Why had I waited so many years to say “I do”?
I loved this man. I loved him so much and being here with the salt in the air and the sand on my skin reminded me just how much we really were always meant to be.
If I hadn’t just accepted a challenge to try to make him cum as fast as possible, I would have made love to him in the sand.
But…I was never one to back down from a challenge.
I was going to give him the blowjob to end all blowjobs.
I pushed down his shorts and boxers, wrapping my hand around his length. He was already impossibly hard.
I shifted, the cold sand against my knees sending a chill down my spine, as I placed my lips against his tip.
Miller’s sharp exhale was all I needed to spur me on. I wrapped my lips around him and he buried his fingers in my hair.
I moved my head, taking him all the way to the back of my throat.
“Jesus,” he groaned.
I bobbed my head up and down faster, pressing my lips harder against him. I swore I was seconds away from making him cum when his fingers tightened in my hair, pulling me back.
“You win,” he said before I could protest that he was cheating. “But I don’t want to come in your mouth.” He grabbed my waist and flipped me over, my back hitting the cold sand. He thrust himself inside of me.
God. I gripped his shoulders.
“Do you have any idea how many times I dreamed of having you just like this?” His breath was hot on my neck.
“Probably as many times as I have.”
He groaned. “I never imagined you’d really choose me.”
His words would have broken my heart if I wasn’t so consumed by the feeling of him inside of me. “Miller…”
“My wife.” He kissed the side of my neck. “My heart.” He kissed between my breasts. “My home.” He kissed my chest where my heart was pounding. “You’re mine.”
“I’m yours.” My fingers dug into his back. I was his. And I was pretty sure I would have always come to my senses and chosen him. He was my person.
He slammed into me harder.
God, I loved this man. He moved faster, a relentless pace that was making it hard to think about anything but him. Each thrust made me feel more like myself. Like he was piecing me back together again. I’d needed this so badly.
“I loved chasing you down the beach, Brooklyn.” His hand slid to my ass.
I moaned, the change of angle hitting me in all the right places.
“I would have chased you forever.”
“No need for chasing,” I said. “My heart was already yours. You knew it all along.” As much as I tried to fight it…I couldn’t. I’d loved Miller at that beach house. I’d always loved him.
His thumb brushed against my clit. “You really lost this challenge, because I’m going to make you come again before…”
“Hey! I don’t think so.” I wrapped my legs around his waist, pulling him closer.
He groaned.
I lifted my hips, matching each thrust. “Please, Miller.” God. “I need you. I need this.”
He groaned again, his cock pulsing inside of me.
My fingers dug into his back as I clenched around him. I held his body to mine as I came, my toes curling into the sand.
We were both panting, our chests pressed together.
I grabbed his face so I could stare at him in the moonlight. All the good and bad had led me here. To this moment. And as hard as the bad times had been, I’d never change this moment for anything. I looked up at the stars. “We were written in the stars,” I whispered. “You and me.”
“The three of us,” he said, rolling us over so we could both look up at the starry sky.
I rested my head against his chest. The three of us. I smiled listening to his steady heartbeat. I was okay with being three.