Chapter 29 Neil #5
I greeted Judith, cooed at Little Pearl for a few more minutes, and kissed her little face all over. Then and only then was I prepared to step back and let my mother-in-law hold her, giving her a look of warning as I did so.
“Don’t worry, I am familiar with babies,” she reassured me, taking Nicole in her arms and giving her a good cuddle.
Judith was an available and attentive grandmother.
She was always there at Selene’s side whenever she needed help or support, and she had been overjoyed when she found out Selene was pregnant.
Which had surprised me.
My relationship with Judith was odd. There was a definite wariness between us but also a great deal of mutual respect.
I watched her as she left the living room, taking my little one with her, and I already felt the deep hollow in my chest that meant I was missing her.
“So…seems like somebody forgot about something?” Selene approached me with a little extra sway in her hips.
I looked her up and down like a creep, already imagining her naked underneath me.
She wore a knee-length white dress speckled with little blue flowers, and it highlighted all her curves.
She’d put her long hair up into a chignon, and I imagined taking it all down and wrapping it around my fist like a rope as I took her from behind.
“You forgot something first, Tinkerbell. We went from morning blowjobs to morning feedings in a matter of weeks,” I admitted.
Once upon a time, Selene’s first wake-up call was for me. Now, though, we’d altered that habit as well to make room for someone more important.
“Oh my God, Neil! My mother is right there!” Selene scolded, shooting a look over her shoulder to make sure that Judith was far enough away that she couldn’t overhear my usual filthy mouth.
“Don’t try to tell me you don’t miss sucking me off every morning. Quit being such a little goody-two-shoes.” I grabbed her ass a little too aggressively, and Babygirl came crashing into me. Her cheeks were pink as ever, and I peppered them with kisses.
“And what am I supposed to tell my mother about this?” She looped her arm around my neck and used her other hand to point out the bite mark I’d left on her lower lip. I gave her a self-satisfied smile.
I loved to see my marks of possession on her…
Her eyes went wide like she was about to swoon because my version of romance was having a devastating fucking effect on her.
So I decided to keep going. “Tell her that your man is insatiable and he fucks you like an animal, even in his office. And he’s so crazy about you that, sometimes, he just has to take a bite out of you,” I shrugged.
“And then you could tell her about how I love to bend you over my desk and how I completely lose my mind when you let me take your a—” She slapped a hand over my mouth, breathing heavily.
It wasn’t angry breathing, though.
It was the ragged breathing of a woman who was just as turned on as I was.
But just then, we were interrupted by my cell phone.
“Work’s not supposed to call on Sunday; you answer it,” I told her seriously.
I needed to get some distance from her and try to temper some of the arousal pumping in my veins.
I adjusted my pants, looking down at the vulgar bulge that I would not have been able to hide if Judith had appeared wearing one of her arch, dangerous expressions.
I was just about to make good my escape when the doorbell rang as well. I cursed, thinking that someone must have arranged all this specifically to annoy me, and as Selene went into the kitchen in search of my phone, I went to open the door.
Behind it, I found five dazzling smiles: Logan and Janel, Chloe holding tightly onto her boyfriend Simon’s hand, and John, bringing up the rear with a tray of sweet treats.
“Did you just get up? You have a pissed-off face on.” My brother, like always, wasted no time before giving me shit.
I snorted. I couldn’t exactly say I was annoyed about the hard-on that I now had to try to hide with my polo shirt.
Instead, I gave him a sarcastic smile and a slap upside the back of his head.
“How about just this once you just come inside without shooting the shit for thirty minutes?” I said fondly.
“Hey Janel, come make yourself comfortable,” I added to his girlfriend.
She greeted me with a cheek kiss as she rubbed her baby bump, which was even more swollen than the last time I’d seen her.
“Oh, don’t fuss,” she said. “I’m still pretty spry, despite my resemblance to a whale,” she said, gesturing to the little guy in her stomach who was due out in about two months.
“No, you don’t look like a whale. You just look extremely…uh…pregnant.” I bit my lip, hoping that passed for polite conversation. I still wasn’t good at that kind of thing. My brother wrapped an arm around her hips and whispered that that had been Neil-speak for “you’re glowing.”
Cool, we could go with that.
“Never change, big brother.” Chloe launched herself at me and smacked a kiss on my cheek, clinging to me like a koala—my Little Koala. No matter how old she got, Chloe was still my kid sister.
“Hey, kiddo. I thought you were coming by yourself.” I shot a wary look at Simon Lively, who extended his hand in greeting.
The young blond man was the son of my doctor, Krug Lively. It turned out, in addition to helping her process what Carter Nelson did to her, bringing Chloe in for therapy sessions with Dr. Lively had led her to the love of her life. Not that I had known a thing about him until just a year before.
“I’d say that your face looks more like that of a man who was interrupted in the midst of indulging himself with the woman he loves.
” John stepped up and greeted me with a shoulder pat before shutting the door behind him.
I sighed and gave him a speaking look. My father understood me better than almost anyone else.
Our relationship had changed a lot, and fortunately, it has improved. It wasn’t easy moving past the traumatic discoveries I made on the day of my graduation. I still hadn’t been able to forgive my mother for lying for so long.
I probably never would.
Mia was still with Matt, and they lived in the same ostentatious mansion, and despite the poor relationship I had with her, I hadn’t stopped her from being a grandmother to Nicole.
She was free to visit Nicole whenever she wanted, though I usually tried to be at work when she came, and we rarely encountered each other.
Selene was the one who convinced me to let Mia have a chance to know her granddaughter. Only she was able to get me to put aside my pride like that—if it had been up to me, my mother would never have gotten near Nicole.
As for Matt, he was still an asshole. His relationships with me and Selene hadn’t really changed. He was an involved enough grandparent, though his prestigious career still took first place in his list of priorities.
“You’re here already! It’s so nice to see you…” Selene greeted the guests with a hint of strain in her face that did not escape my notice.
She said hello to everyone with her usual graciousness and touched Janel’s baby bump admiringly. The two of them immediately started talking about onesies, diapers, and all the other baby minutiae I didn’t care much about.
What I did care about was the way she stood so stiffly and refused to meet my eyes, even incidentally.
That wasn’t like her.
We communicated as much with our eyes as we did with our words—probably more, in fact. The disquiet I read in her expression worried me.
Something was wrong.
* * *
An hour later, the women were laying out the table in the backyard while the men, predictably, all gathered around the grill. My father and Logan were usually in charge of cooking the sausages and hot dogs, though my brother often ended up cussing himself out as he overcooked them.
While we waited for the sausages, John watched me carefully like he was gearing up to give me another one of his irritating speeches.
“Son, is everything okay with Selene?” he asked finally.
The question also caught Logan’s attention.
I anxiously lit up a Winston and shot Selene a curious glance.
She was hovering around the table with the women, holding Nicole in her arms. Finally, after ignoring me for so long, she looked at me.
Her ocean eyes shimmered, crystalline in the reflected sunlight, but I didn’t like what I read in them: They were a storm-tossed sea.
Those eyes were screaming that she was disappointed and angry.
But why? What had I done?
Maybe she was upset that I was smoking?
“Sure, why do you ask?” I turned my attention back to my father, pretending that all was well, but he and Logan just gave me skeptical looks. Apparently they had also noticed that Selene had barely said a word to me.
Usually, Babygirl would be all over me. Cuddling me, sitting on my lap, and giving me kisses without the slightest concern for who might be looking. Today, however, she ignored me completely, save for the occasional disdainful glance.
“I think you should go and have a chat with her. She’s obviously upset about something, and I’m sure that confronting you will do her a lot of good.
” My father pulled the cigarette out from between my lips and snuffed it out in an ashtray.
“And this crap isn’t helping,” he muttered with a displeased expression.
I knew that he was right, but I was an awfully proud man.
It was a personality defect that I’d been carrying around with me my entire life, and it frequently caused misunderstandings with Selene.
I always waited for her to talk to me or open a discussion. I hated interpersonal problems. I had too many of them already, and arguing was the part of our relationship that irritated me the most.