37. Jeb
Chapter thirty-seven
Jeb
“Is it weird to be showering together?” Fallon giggles when we step under the hot stream of water. “In the bathroom you renovated with Sal and Dreya?”
“Not for me, but if it is for you, we can get in the other shower,” I offer.
“No, thanks.” I wait in the cold misty air while she lets the water run in warm rivulets down her skin. I’ve showered with girlfriends before. I know the deal.
I freeze in the spraying mist of the shower water, but I make myself useful by massaging shampoo into Fallon’s hair. She moans, and I hit the same spot again and again to hear that sound come out of her lips.
She turns toward me, then dips her head back into the spray, rinsing the suds. I take a nipple in my mouth, sucking one and then the other, back and forth.
“Jeb!” she squeals, and my lips turn up at the corners. I pull away until she says, “Pinch them, too.”
Her head tilts back while I play with her tits. Pinching, sucking, flicking, pulling, twisting. Fallon smooths her hands through her hair, helping the suds escape. She grabs me by the cheeks and guides my face to hers. She leans her mouth toward mine, and when I open before she kisses me, she opens too, our tongues tangling outside of our mouths.
She strokes my cock, and the water mixed with a few leftover suds has my dick feeling extra good right now.
“Fallon,” I croon.
“Shower sex or back to the bed?” she asks, hiking her leg around my waist. I reach below her ass and pull her up so her other leg follows suit.
“Let’s go to the bed.” I put her back on the ground.
“Here, dry off first,” she says, grabbing a towel from the bathroom closet and throwing it at me.
I wipe my arms and legs, shake the water from my hair, and wrap it around my waist. “What are you thinking?” I ask timidly.
The last thing I want to be is a regret. Tonight, there were a lot of big emotions, and as much as she says she was ready for them, it’s not always cut and dry and as simple as that. I wish it was, but it’s not. And I want to give her space to think.
“That I’m ready for round two?” she answers skeptically, wrapping herself in her towel.
“As much as I want that, do you think we should take it slow? If I’m being honest, I don’t want you to wake up in the morning with any regrets. My dick is telling me to give you everything you want, but my heart is telling me we don’t need to rush. And I don’t want you to regret this.”
“Let’s take it slow.” She lifts on her toes to press her lips against mine.
“That sounds like a perfect plan to me. If you wake up in the morning and wish none of this ever happened, just tell me, and it will never happen again. We can go back to being friends.” I put my briefs on. “I have one more thing to show you,” I add, suddenly remembering the easel “And it’s not another renovated bathroom, so don’t get your hopes that high.”
“I’m excited for any surprises, you know that, Jeb.”
I grab her hand, and she squeezes mine as I lead her to the spare bedroom.
I open the door, and she spots it right away. A newly stained, collapsible, sturdy, wooden easel with a little side table for her paints.
“You didn’t have to do this, Jeb.” She brings a hand to cover her mouth and I wonder if it’s not something she likes.
“It’s no big deal if you can’t use it. I can donate it to the senior center.” I give myself an out.
“No, I love it. It’s just… I spent a lot of time feeling sorry for myself on the trip, and coming home to two different surprises really makes me feel good.” I wipe a tear spilling from her eye with the pad of my thumb.
I pull Fallon into a hug before showing her how the easel collapses and latches for easy transportation.
“I’m glad you’re back safe and sound.” I place a kiss on her forehead. “Thanks for letting me stay here, but I think I’m going to head home.”
“You’re leaving?” She sits on the edge of her bed with the towel still wrapped around her center.
“If you need time alone to process everything—” I stop my sentence abruptly, knowing she knows exactly what I mean.
“Don’t overthink it, Jeb. Stay here tonight.” She stands, taking each of my hands in hers.
I bring our linked hands to the center of my chest, kissing the top of hers.
“Okay.” I stare into her eyes, realizing I’d give her anything she asked for. “I liked playing with your body,” I whisper in her ear, wanting her to know how much being with her meant to me.
“I like when you play with it.” She smiles, grabbing my hand to cup her boob, and I squeeze it. “Sleep first?” she says, reaching for a pair of silky pink pajamas.
“Yes,” I tell her, unzipping my bag and grabbing a pair of athletic shorts for myself.
“Get under the covers.” She lifts a corner of the comforter, already snuggled beneath.
I oblige, spooning her from behind.
“Hey, Fal?” I whisper a few minutes later.
“Yeah?”
“It’s wild having the real you in my arms instead of just smelling your pillow and dreaming about you.”
“Is that what you did when I was gone?”
“Every night.” I kiss her on her cheek, and she grabs my hand, lacing her fingers with mine.
“Did you know they were having a fundraiser for Rhett?” Fallon yells from the kitchen.
I walk toward her, trying to remember whether I heard about a fundraiser, but nothing rings a bell. Fallon’s sitting at the kitchen table with her laptop open, staring intently at the screen.
“I don’t think I’ve heard of anything. What are the details?” I pull my socks on before heading to work.
Last night was the first time I spent the night at her house since the day she got back from vacation. This past week, we went for a run one day and went out to eat another, but Fallon’s been super busy catching up on work, and I’ve made an effort to make sure we both have enough space to think about things.
“ Will you stay with me tonight? ” she asked sleepily while I fed her a spoonful of the strawberry cheesecake last night. She fell asleep on the couch and I carried her to bed, tucking her in and brushing a kiss to her forehead. Something about being allowed to kiss her makes my knees weak and my heart gallop.
“It’s literally tomorrow, at Blake Creek Brewing. If I hadn’t logged into Facebook just now, I would’ve never even known. What the fuck.” I pull her into my side, looking over her shoulder at the computer. Sure as shit, there’s a fundraiser in Rhett’s memory tomorrow night at the brewery.
“No one said anything to you?” I peck a kiss on her cheek and give her a little squeeze. “Does it say who’s hosting it?”
“Yeah, Reed Priegel is the host, so I’m guessing all of Rhett’s high school friends put it together. It says the money will go toward a scholarship in his name.” The tears fall freely from Fallon’s face, and I attempt to wipe them away before kneeling on the ground and letting her soak my T-shirt.
“There’s got to be some miscommunication. Maybe someone thought someone else told you or whatever.”
“My freaking parents clicked going. I bet Corbin is, too.”
“Well, should we find out for sure, or should you just show up?”
“Oh, I’m going.” She pulls away from me, wipes her eyes, and clicks the mousepad. I pour a glass of water and hand it to her. “I was his fucking fiancée. I knew him better than any of those guys.”
“There’s no way they wouldn’t invite you on purpose, right?”
“Who freaking knows anymore. It’s not like they checked on me after he died. Maybe once, and that was it.”
“Life ebbs and flows, Fal. And I don’t want to stick up for them, but there has to be a reason no one has told you. They probably think you were told by someone else.”
“Why are you always the voice of reason?” She lifts her eyebrow at me.
“Because I know what it’s like to do something you wish you never did. I know how it feels to fuck up beyond belief and still make it through to the other side.” I look up at the picture of Fallon and Rhett. “Sorry, Rhett,” I say to him. Rhett and I talk every time I come over. Well, I talk, and hopefully, he listens.
“You know what I just realized?”
“What?”
“No one has called me this week. They didn’t call me during the vacation, but they haven’t called me this week either. You think they don’t want to bring up the fundraiser, so they’re avoiding me?”
“Maybe they know we’ve been naked half the week.” I stand behind her and move her hair to the side, kissing the spot where her neck meets her shoulders.
“God, I hope not.” She smiles, placing a big wet kiss to my cheek. “No offense, but you know I’d rather not have to explain anything to anyone just yet.”
“I know. Are you painting today? I’ll take your easel out before I go to work.”
“Yeah, that would be good. Should I call my mom and ask her about the fundraiser?”
“If you want to. If not, just show up tomorrow.” I grab the easel from the deck and set it up under the oak tree that Fallon likes to paint under. When I come back, she’s on the phone, presumably with her mom.
“So you’re going?” Her voice is somewhere in between normal and yelling. “And no one was going to tell me?”
A few seconds later: “Yeah, but even if you thought someone else told me, you could’ve mentioned it.”
Another pause.
“Mom, I got back a week ago.”
Her mom says something else and she responds with, “Corbin doesn’t get on Facebook either, and he probably still knows.”
Then: “He was my fiancé. Not some guy I met a couple of days before he died. We lived together! We were going to get married!”
I walk out to the deck to try not to eavesdrop, but it’d be impossible with Fallon’s voice more powerful with each sentence.
“Not only should I know about the fundraiser, but I should’ve helped plan it. I should be picking the charity! I should be designing the fucking invitations, for shit’s sake.”
It’s true. She should be involved. She should use her talent to design invitations or sell a painting at the event to raise funds. I can’t think of any reason she’d be in the dark about this. It makes me so upset for her. I don’t think Fallon’s parents or Rhett’s parents would keep this from her maliciously, though.
It could be something as simple as not wanting to bother her by asking her to help, but that’s for her to decide, not them. I’m just glad that Fallon found out the day before the fundraiser and not the day after.
It sucks not to be included when she wishes she were, especially when it has to do with Rhett.
“Well, whatever,” Fallon says on the phone. “I’ll be there whether they want me to come or not.” I hear a heavy sigh, and then she says, “I’m not so sure they do. Okay, see you then. Bye,” before hanging up.
“So she doesn’t know why you weren’t told?” I ask.
“Nope, not really. Oh well. I’m going anyway. You’re off tomorrow, right?”
“I’m off, but I definitely don’t think they want me there.”
“You just said you're BFFs with Sal and Dreya. Who cares about Hunter, Reed, Logan, and all of them?”
“I just don’t want to cause any issues. It’s probably best if I stay home.” I plant a kiss on the top of her head.
“I want you to come… but let’s not go together. I’m sure some of the firehouse guys will be there. Find out today at work and text me to let me know. But I really want you to be there.”
“I’ll think about it,” I tell her, and she winks like she knows I’ll go anyway.