Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
Damien
“I think we’re two consenting adults, we’re both single, and there’s nothing wrong with us dating,” I slowly reply. “Is it weird that in a way Levi brought us together? Maybe. But I’d like to think he would be happy that we found each other. He was my best friend, and he was yours. The two of us connected in a way that I never had before with anyone else. As long as you’re okay with it, that’s all that matters. Well, Levinia too, of course, because she’s part of you.”
“Can we take it slow?” she asks. “Levi’s the only one I’ve ever dated or been with, and I’m not gonna lie, there are folks in town who still talk about the scandal of me being pregnant in high school.”
“Are you shitting me?” I ask, angry on her behalf. “Why on earth are they stuck in the past like that?”
“Because it’s a small town and that’s what some of them do. They have nothing better to do with their time than to gossip and I was a hot topic for quite some time. My parents and his both fought with the board to keep me in school, Damien. It was a huge, scandalous ordeal around here. Swimming kept me sane because a lot of my friends ghosted me.”
“Did they think they’d catch pregnancy?” I question. “It’s not transmitted like that.”
“Ah, but I was a good girl from a good family so how could I ‘besmirch’ my family’s name in that manner,” I retort. “Levi was hailed as a hometown hero for serving his country, and of course dying while on active duty, while I was reviled like that chick that was in The Scarlet Letter .”
“I’m sorry, Em. People can be assholes sometimes,” I say. “So, how are they around Levinia?” I’m already making plans to destroy anyone who hurts that little girl, who looks so much like her daddy it’s almost painful to look at her sometimes. She’s got a lot of his mannerisms as well as his slow, southern speech pattern, even though she’s not always grammatically correct.
“Yeah, they can definitely be that, although they act nicely toward me when I show up for an emergency. It’s hard to be the bigger person, but this is mine and my daughter’s home and it’s where her father was raised and her grandparents live, so I’m not leaving.”
She has a stubborn set to her jaw right now and looks positively adorable, but I don’t think she’d appreciate me chuckling at this point in time, so I suck my lips into my mouth to keep from doing just that and nod.
“Plus, both Dale and my dad let it be known that they were thrilled to have something to remind them of Levi besides the tombstone,” she adds. “Speaking of, I should take you there tomorrow if the weather is nice.”
“What’s your work schedule like coming up?” I ask. I need to check with the motel to see if they have any kind of long-term stay plan available, because outside of flying to Arizona to check in with my family, I want to stay in Possum Creek. I also need to figure out a job. While I got a rated disability which will give me a monthly pension from the Navy, I can’t sit on my ass the rest of my life.
“Um, I’m off again tomorrow, then the next two weeks are kind of scary,” she admits. “I’ll do ride alongs during the day and dispatch at night. Vinnie will be spending a lot of nights with Miriam and Dale since my folks are out of town. That’s the downside of them being gone half the year, I feel as though I’m taking advantage of Levi’s parents because they have to keep her so much.”
“From what I saw, they love that little girl with every breath in them. I mean, Dale has a kid-sized milking stand so she can ‘help’ him with the cows and the goats, and Miriam has an egg basket with Vinnie’s name on it. Plus, she has her own chicken!” I exclaim, causing Emerie to start laughing.
“You’re not wrong,” she stammers out. “She has her own room at their house, which is next to her daddy’s room. While Miriam cleans his room, everything is the same as it was from his last leave. Not only that, but Miriam is teaching her the basics of cooking, and by basics, I mean really child-proof. She got her a set of knives that literally only cuts food so she can slice the bread, chop the cucumbers, and massacre the tomatoes.”
Since I’ve been on the wrong end of trying to neatly slice tomatoes for sandwiches, I can just picture Levinia’s face when it devolves into a pile of seeds and juice and start laughing, which has Emerie joining along. We’re both laughing so hard that it’s almost second nature when she leans into me while wiping her eyes. Careful not to take advantage, I slide my arm around her shoulders and ask, “Is this okay?”
“Yeah,” she whispers, looking up at me. “Will you kiss me again?”
This time when our lips meet, I allow all the burgeoning feelings that are coursing through me to come through. So much so that by the time we’re done, we’re both breathless and I’m slightly regretting wearing sweatpants because my hardon is beyond evident. When her face turns beet red, I wave my hand over my crotch and say, “Ignore him.”
She snorts out a laugh and says, “Yeah, that’s not gonna be easy to do but I’ll try.”
“How about we watch a movie?” I suggest, needing a distraction.
“I like that idea. Why don’t you go ahead and take your meds so we can get comfortable because there’s no way I can watch a movie sitting up.”
Intrigued, I ask, “How do you watch a movie?”
“I’ll show you,” she teases, grinning at me. She then gets up and walks down the hallway where I presume the bedrooms are, before she returns with two pillows and a huge fluffy throw. “Okay, stand up for a second.” Once I stand, she places the pillows on the armrest then motions for me to lay down with my back to the couch, then she plops down on her side in front of me, so our heads are on the pillows together. She reaches down and pulls the throw over the two of us then grabs the remote. “So, what do you like to watch?”
* * *
I wake up to a face full of soft, fragrant hair and immediately know where I am. My arm is wrapped around her waist, holding her tight, while her ass is pressed into my groin. I know if she wakes up, she’s going to realize that I’m hard again.
“Sorry, man,” I whisper. “She’s a delectable temptation and I’m going to need a shit ton of lotion to survive.”
A little giggle followed by a not-so-subtle wiggle makes me realize that Emerie is, indeed, awake and she just heard me talking out loud to my dead best friend. Fuck me.
“I do that too,” she confesses.
“Do what?” I ask.
“Talk out loud to Levi,” she admits, before she rolls so we’re facing each other. How she managed to do that without falling off the couch is beyond me. “I did it before he died, too, whenever I was missing him.”
“That’s when I do it too, or like right now,” I reply.
For the first time I can remember, I feel my face heat and know I’m blushing like I got caught with my hand in the cookie jar. Still, we’ve both admitted we’re attracted to each other, and want to see where things will go, so it would make sense that I’m having a physical reaction to her nearness.
“Um, well, it’s not really a good idea to go out after dark,” she says, reminding me of her superstitious beliefs. “So, while I’m comfortable, I know you probably aren’t. I have a king size bed that’s plenty big enough for us to get some decent sleep.”
I don’t question her reasoning of why it’s not safe to go out after dark. And while I know we’re taking things very slow, I’m content to sleep by her side. “Yeah, otherwise, the hot tub will lose the effect it gave me,” I reply, my voice husky. “I promise to behave.”
She opens her mouth to say something in retort, then quickly closes it but I watch with great interest as her cheeks turn red. “Okay, then let’s get comfortable, Damien. We can fall asleep to a mundane program, I’m sure, plus I have a sleep timer on my television, so we don’t have to worry about shutting it down.”
She rolls off the couch and onto her feet without landing on her ass, which impresses the hell out of me. “Damn, you’re flexible,” I mutter as I maneuver my body until I’m sitting up. She laughs and holds her hand out to me, which I instinctively take.
We pass Levinia’s room and I burst out laughing. “A tree house?” I question looking inside the bedroom.
There’s a huge tree in one corner with a rope bridge that goes into a cubby hole and inside is a bed that’s piled sky high with a myriad of stuffed animals. Below the bridge is a desk that’s got jungle themed items such as art supplies and other various school type essentials.
“She’s always loved The Jungle Book and when she found out Mowgli lived in the trees, she begged Dale and my dad to build it for her. They even made sure that there’s enough room so she can have a bigger bed later on down the road. It’s solid, too, and if you look closely, you’ll see that there’s a hidden door in the trunk of the tree.”
I can’t resist the temptation of checking it out, so I walk inside and find the latch in the tree trunk. When I open it up, I start laughing because there’s a mini fridge that they painted brown to match the bark of the tree and above the mini fridge, there are several shelves with snacks neatly stored. “So, she’s pretty much set when she starts school,” I remark as I get a closer inspection of the desk.
“She plays school all the time with her stuffies,” Em replies, a look of admiration plastered on her face. She glows with happiness anytime a topic arises that has to do with her daughter and her accomplishments. “Right now, they’re all on break or something since she’s been at Miriam and Dale’s house. She’s got a great imagination which I think will probably drive her teachers crazy, but I refuse to discourage her.”
“Bet she’ll be creative like her dad was,” I murmur. Levi had a way with building something from nothing, and man, he could tell stories that would pull everyone into the world.
“Well, she’s got some great examples, that’s for sure. Between his parents and mine, she’s been allowed to explore her little world. I’m just glad she doesn’t insist that Bonnie come live with us. I’m okay with a cat or a dog, but I don’t want a chicken living in my home.”
At that, I burst out in a gut-wrenching laugh, because she’s got such a disgruntled look on her face. “Come on, take me to bed, woman!”