Chapter 12
Wren
The tree is done and it’s beautiful. Amara’s choice of red and gold was perfect.
Her gift bags for her teachers are also filled and labeled.
It’s late, almost eleven, and she’s downstairs in her bed.
I’m still up and so is Meleck. After showering and changing into pjs, I met Meleck here in the attic.
We’re comfortably chilling in the bed. Our backs are on the headboard and I’m sipping my much-needed cup of apple cider and vodka.
I lost it this evening.
I let my emotions get the best of me…
But he was there and he’s here now.
Losing my dad five years ago was the hardest thing I’ve ever been through.
Seemingly out of the blue, he got sick and deteriorated rapidly.
Three months after his terminal diagnosis, he died.
The first man to love me and the only parent who loved us enough to stick around was gone.
He left me the ranch and my ten-year-old little sister, who was devastated.
Amara and the ranch needed me, so I left my senior year at Crescent Falls University, came home, and accepted my new role in Amara’s life.
I couldn’t grieve. I couldn’t break down and I couldn’t cry.
I had to keep it together for her and the sake of our family ranch.
For her, I swallowed my grief and put up a brave front.
For five years, that front was solid. I’ve held it all together, but tonight, something was different.
My front crumbled, and when I retrieved my dad’s hat box from the back of my closet, I broke down.
My tears started to fall and I couldn’t stop them.
I definitely couldn’t let Amara see me weak.
So I stayed in my room and tried to pull my shit together for her.
“You good?” he asks as his fingers trace nothing on my arm.
“I am now,” I admit honestly, because I am, thanks to him.
He’s here, holding me. He’s been holding me since I ventured up here. With no judgement, he wrapped his arms around me and held me until I cried my eyes out. And when my tears stopped falling, he coaxed me onto this bed and held me longer.
I can’t explain it, and Lord knows, it doesn’t make any sense but I’m comfortable with Meleck. He makes me feel safe enough to let my guard down and be what I’ve never been…vulnerable.
“Do you want me to turn the TV on?” he asks.
“No. I like this. I don’t want to hear anything but our voices.”
“You like my voice?” he asks with lightness in his baritone.
“I do,” I admit.
“Well, let me tell you something. I have a confession to make,” he says and I instantly tense.
My next words come out hesitantly and cautiously, because honestly, I’m not trying to hear no shit that’ll ruin what I think we are developing. I place my drink on the small table next to the bed, then shift my body a little to see his face. When I do, I notice a smug look on his handsome face.
“What is it?” I ask and he chuckles.
“Damn. You look like you want to kill me and it’s just a little confession. I don’t know what you’re thinking, but whatever it is, push that shit out of your pretty little head.”
In a quick but smooth move, his hand is no longer around me and he’s hovering over me with fists planted on the bed. He leans all the way in and touches his forehead to mine. My body relaxes a little but I’m still bracing myself for his confession.
“Just tell me,” I say.
“You can’t tell?”
“Tell what?” I question, feigning annoyance. The smile on his face now eases all of my apprehension.
“I grabbed one of your soaps when y’all were making the gift bags,” he begins and I smile. “I used it when I showered.”
“And?” I ask, super curious about his thoughts. I definitely know my soaps are fye but his opinion, oddly enough, means a lot to me.
“And I liked it. I really did but it’s got me all soft like a woman and smelling like one,” he says and I burst out laughing.
“Nothing, and I do mean nothing, about you is womanly.”
“You don’t smell me?” he asks.
I sit up and deeply inhale him. Mixed with his normal scent that I’m obsessed with are subtle notes of brown sugar.
“My brown sugar butter soap. I smell it now,” I say, smiling.
“I’m glad that’s back.”
“What?”
As he traces his thumb across my lips, he says, “This smile. It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”
Wow!
“If I could make you smile every day, I would.”
Every day? Is he saying what I think he is? Nah, can’t be.
Discounting my thoughts, I simply say, “You using and liking my soap definitely makes me smile.”
“Is that the only thing?” he asks after dropping his head to the side of my face. The air from his words tickles my neck. Then he pulls my earlobe into his mouth and sucks lightly.
“Well,” I moan. “That too.”
He sucks on my lobe again then plants tender kisses behind my ear down my neck.
For a man with strong rancher hands and a body with zero percent body fat, Meleck’s lips are pleasantly soft and the feel of them on any part of my body is heaven.
My eyes close and my body sinks into the mattress as his lips graze my skin.
From my neck to my collarbone then down my cleavage, his lips take a much-appreciated tour of my body. When he lifts his head, there’s a salacious smile plastered on his handsome face and the sight of it has my heart beating and my clit throbbing.
Both intensify when his hands join the party. One snakes into my panties and I’m already wet. No other man has solicited such an immediate reaction from my body like this. I don’t question it; I just enjoy it, enjoy him.
First, his hands grant me an earth-shattering orgasm then his lips and tongue deliver another. Before I drift off to sleep, he enters me and ushers me to another orgasm. I don’t open my eyes again until too many hours later.
The sun shining through the skylight pulls me out of my slumber. Its brightness causes me to immediately reach for my phone on the table. “Fuck!” I utter. It’s after nine and I’m still in bed, alone. “Shit! Amara.”
In a panic, I bolt out of the bed, grab my pjs off the floor, and dress. I rush to my snow boots, clumsily put them on while standing, then throw on my coat. When I open the outside door, the cold wind knocks the hell out of me and causes me to wake all the way up.
I take the snow-covered stairs two at a time and stomp through the snow to the back door. When I burst into the kitchen, he’s there, standing at the stove and pouring hot chocolate from a pot. The smell of bacon and eggs startles and surprises me. All I manage to ask is, “Amara?”
“She’s at school. I took her,” he says calmly while handing me a cup of hot chocolate.
“Why didn’t you wake me?”
“Because you were knocked out and I figured you needed to sleep in. Amara was good. She ate bacon and toast before I dropped her.”
Still processing that I’d actually overslept by hours, that I missed Amara this morning, that he took her to school, and that he’d cooked breakfast, all I manage to say is, “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Now, sit and let me feed you.”
“Can you cook?” I ask, truly curious.
“I get by but I’ve mastered bacon, eggs, and toast. Plus, there’s gourmet jam for the toast,” he says and I can’t help the smile forming on my face.
I’m amused at and appreciative of all things him and the sight of this fine ass man standing in my kitchen in front of my stove is breathtaking.
I want to enjoy every moment, so I take my happy ass to the table, sit, and watch as he fries my bacon, scrambles my eggs, toasts my bread on the grill pan, and fixes my plate.
When he places it in front of me, he watches me intently until I take my first bite.
Part of me wants to keep him in suspense but the anxious look on his face causes me to give him immediate feedback.
“These eggs are so delicious and fluffy. So good. Thank you,” I tell him.
“Was that the last brown sugar butter bar?” Amara asks as she places the bar of soap into the box.
“Should be. Do you have any more stickers?” I ask for confirmation.
“No. They’re gone. That’s not why I asked. It’s my fav and I need another bar in my room,” she says.
“Another batch will be ready in five days,” I assure her.
Jubilee is tomorrow and we are getting ready by packaging and labeling all of my soaps and jams. Since Amara is out of school this week, she has been a big help, but so has Meleck.
My barn is rewired and the freezer is back in there.
Meleck finished it Sunday morning, and that night, I started a new batch of soap. All sixty-five bars are setting.
Things on the ranch are perfect. Meleck was offered a spot at the Circle Bar G ranch, but thankfully, he declined.
He’s working on my roof, which means we have him longer.
Honestly, I don’t want him to go, not to another ranch or anywhere.
I like him here with me and I like the routine the three of us have developed.
Today, he’s at The Phoxes Den. His uncle, Mr. Rufus, called him early this morning because there was some electrical emergency in the milking barn. Because it’s the day before Christmas Eve, no one else was available. So as a favor to his uncle, he went.
“Did you count the boxes before you closed them?” I ask Amara and she rolls her eyes.
“We do this every year,” she huffs.
“Just amuse me.”
“Yes,” she sighs. “I counted and there are one hundred in that box. Total, you got one hundred brown sugar, sixty-five peppermint, and one hundred lavender. Do we have to wrap the broken pieces?” she asks and I hear the angst in her voice.
We’ve been doing this since eight this morning and she’s getting tired.
“No. I’m going to bag them up and just add a label to the bag. The pieces will be ten dollars a bag. I’ve got it, you’ve done enough and I appreciate it,” I tell her and she smiles.
“I can help with that too,” she offers but I decline.
“I got it. Call Kimmie. She can come over if you want.”
“Can she stay and just go to Jubilee with us tomorrow? You know her mom doesn’t really like to go. She can help us sell.”
“She can if her mom says yes,” I say and she hops up off the sectional. Before she runs off, I add, “But Traci has to text me. I’m not trusting you two. A text, Amara.”
“Okay. I’m gonna call her right now,” she says before jetting out of the living room. Not even five minutes later, she rushes back in here. “Check your phone. She said yes and texted you.”
“My cell is in my room,” I say and she runs off before I get my last words out.
“Here,” she says as soon as she’s back with my phone. “The notification is on your screen.”
“Thank you but can you sit for a minute? I need to talk to you about something,” I say and her smile drops.
“Is everything okay?” she asks with too much worry and concern, so I immediately assure her.
“Yeah. It’s nothing like that. I just need to talk to you,” I tell her. “Give me five minutes, okay? I just need to know how you feel about something,” I say.
With her big eyes glued to me, she steps over to the sectional and sits right next to me. “Are you sure everything is okay?” she asks again.
“Yes. I promise,” I say, smiling with my mouth and eyes to assure her.
Things with me and Meleck are heating up pretty fast. I’m in the attic every night. He’s the first person since our father died who I’ve had all up and through the house like this. Not even my ex was around this much, so Amara’s feelings are very important to me.
“Okay. What’s up?”
“I just need to know how you feel about Meleck. I know you’ve picked up on us being together. I like him and just need to know if you’re comfortable with him being around so much,” I say and her naturally arched brows pinch together. “You don’t like him?” I ask after seeing her facial reaction.
“Oh my God, Wren. Yes, I like him. You know I do. Just like I know you and him are together. I can hear you up in the attic with him,” she says and I’m pretty sure my mouth hits the damn floor.
Hear me? Lawd! What does she hear?
If my sister heard him putting me through the damn mattress, I will die.
“The stairs are by my window. I hear you going up and when you close that loud door. I’m not crazy.
You really like him and I know he likes you.
He’s your boyfriend. I’m not a child,” she says, then rolls her eyes.
“He can sleep in the house so you don’t have to go out in the cold at night,” she adds and I swear the weight of the world lifts off my shoulders.
Amara is my heart and she means the world to me.
Her feelings, wants, and needs are so important to me.
It’s clear that Meleck cares for her. He literally does anything she asks.
Him getting up, cooking her breakfast, and taking her to school just further proves that.
I just needed to hear her feelings out loud before I make my true desires known to Meleck.
While we have fallen into a routine of working on the ranch, having breakfast together with Amara, enjoying family dinners, and spending each night together, we haven’t had the conversation. We haven’t talked about his temporary status here in Miller’s Pointe and him leaving.
“You’re really okay with him being in the house with us?” I ask her.
“Yes. You’re stressed out over nothing. It’s not that serious,” she says while shaking her head and smiling.
“You’re not nothing. You’re actually everything to me. I love you and care about what you think, especially when it comes to our ranch.”
“I know you love me. I just need you to chill.” She smirks and stands, then leans in and wraps her arms around me. “I love you, Wren,” she says while squeezing me.
“I love you too.”