Chapter 26
26
HANK
I picked her up from her place half an hour before I was expected at campaign night. She insisted that I wait for her outside, so I stood next to my bike and waited for her to come down. As she exited her building, she came out wearing tight black leggings and a baggy T-shirt. The closer she got, the more I realized the shirt was mine. She had worn the ARMY T-shirt home after staying at my house last weekend and was wearing it now underneath a cream sweater. Her hair was curled and fell loosely around her shoulders and once she was close enough, I caught a glance of the smile that always made my day brighter.
“Hey there, handsome, thanks for picking me up,” she sang, leaning in and kissing me on the cheek.
“What happened to ‘soldier’?” I appreciated that she called me handsome, but I much prefer her usual name for me.
“You don’t like ‘handsome’?” She cocked her hip out and placed a hand on it. Her eyebrows were pulled together and she gave me a half smile.
“I like ‘soldier’...” I pretended to be sad and dropped my head down which caused her to laugh and throw her arms around my neck.
“Oh my lord, soldier it is!”
I smiled at her, unable to hold it in because the Southern twang in her voice as she said ‘lord’ made my heart melt. I handed her the second helmet and buckled it for her under her chin. Before moving away from her, I reached through the helmet and tapped her nose with my index finger. I then reached into the saddlebag on the back of my bike and pulled out the new jacket I bought after the first time she rode with me. I had to make a guess on the size but as she slid it on, I knew I had guessed right. She smiled at me from under her visor and climbed on behind me once I had sat down. It didn’t take us long to get to Kolbi’s since he lived downtown like she did.
I had texted him earlier in the day to make sure it was alright that I brought her along with me. Mostly because it was his house we met at and also because I knew I was going to need backup with the others when I showed up with a girl. He didn’t give me shit for wanting to bring her and told me he was excited to see her again. I always loved Kolbi for his unwavering support.
Holding her hand in mine, I pushed open the front door and shouted down the long entry hallway toward the kitchen where I knew the guys would be.
“Alright, assholes, who’s here already?”
“We’re in here you dicklicker, hurry up so we can start!” Conrad shouted back. I turned to look at my girl who was laughing as she followed me.
“You wanna a beer Hanky? Hey, how’s that hot piece of a—” Malcolm had his head in the fridge as he was speaking but stopped abruptly when he turned around to see who was with me.
“Hot piece of what now?” Bailey mocked as he made eye contact with her. Her head was cocked to one side and a grin was growing on her face. That’s my girl, give it right back to him. My heart swelled with pride watching her hold her own with my friends.
Conrad took a step closer to us, looking towards the voice that didn’t belong, and furrowed his eyebrows together as he looked at Bailey. “What is she doing here?”
“Conrad, that’s no way to speak to our guest.” Kolbi looked to Conrad from the table before standing and making his way towards her. He took her hand and pulled her in, placing a cordial peck on her cheek. “Hello Bailey, it’s nice to see you again. You’re looking as beautiful as ever.”
She gave him a friendly smile before placing her hand back into mine and wrapping her free hand around my arm. The move signaled to everyone who she belonged to and watching my friends stunned expressions was almost too much to handle.
“Thank y’all for having me. I was very happy when Hank told me I could join you guys tonight.” She looked at all of my friends before beaming back at me. I leaned in and kissed her forehead before looking back at the guys who had been my lifelong friends.
“Disgusting,” Malcolm joked before pushing a beer into my chest and taking a seat at the table.
“I’m happy for you, brother.” Kolbi gave us both a warm glance and headed towards the table too. The only one who didn’t say anything was Conrad who gave Bailey a disapproving look from where he’d been standing at the table. I knew why he was looking at her like he was, but I wasn’t going to bring it up right now. I glanced towards the table and counted only four chairs before looking back towards my girl.
“Do you want a drink or anything? Looks like there’s only room for four at the table but you’re more than welcome to hangout in the living room. It’s just around that wall.” I pointed around the dividing wall between the kitchenette and where the living room was. You could see the table the guys and I would be playing at from the couch.
“I would take a water if you don’t mind. And I’m fine, I promise. I told you I would bring my book, I can read while you play. I really just wanted to hangout with everyone and be with you.” She squeezed my hand and the corners of her mouth reached for her eyes.
After getting her a water and showing her where the bathroom was in case she needed it while we played, I finally took my seat at the table.
“Can we start now please?” Conrad grumbled from where he sat. His tone didn’t hide how annoyed he clearly was. Kolbi gave him a shaded glance before looking back at me. Malcolm shrugged at me from his seat as he took a pull from his beer.
“Something wrong, Tolith?” I spoke to him in character because I knew part of his irritation was the fact that I brought her with me to a campaign night.
“I just didn’t expect to have an uninvited companion joining us tonight for our journey. I didn’t realize NPC’s were welcome here,” he gruffed, reaching across the board and avoiding my gaze. I don’t know why he was so upset that she was here, she wasn’t even playing with us. Leave it to Conrad to insult my girl in the nerdiest way possible by calling her a ‘non-playable character’. You normally only heard that insult when you were playing online with random twelve year olds who were talking shit over Voice Chat.
“What are you, fourteen? This isn’t a ‘No Girls Allowed’ club. Besides, I asked Kolbi before coming over if he was fine that I brought her with me and he said it was.”
“You asked him but not us?” Conrad jutted his hand out and waved it between him and Malcolm. I looked towards Malcolm who was playing with the cap from his beer bottle.
“Are you annoyed she’s here too?” I directed the question towards Malcolm and couldn’t hide the irritation that was growing in my voice. I couldn’t believe Conrad was acting this way.
“Please, Auffroy, Denis de Brey is never upset when a beautiful maiden is around,” he boasted, giving me a slick grin and bringing his hand to his chest, puffing it up as he did.
“And don’t we know it, brother,” Kolbi slapped his hand down on Malcolm’s shoulder and all of us laughed, including Conrad. Kolbi looked around the table now that the tension had been dispersed, “We good to start now everyone?”
I nodded my head and looked at Conrad who just shrugged. I could tell he was still annoyed with me and I didn’t love that I had upset him. These guys were family and I never liked being the reason they were unhappy. While I didn’t get why it was such a big deal to him that Bailey came with me tonight, I still didn’t like knowing he was mad at me.
Over the next few hours, my friends and I played through the storyline that was weaved for us. Every so often, I would stand and look into the other room only to find her curled up on the couch reading. A few times I looked in at her, she was already looking back at me with a smile. She looked so at home there on the couch, like she was meant to be there. Having her close to me, even if she was in the other room, gave me a sense of peace and warmth I haven’t felt in a long time. She had an energy to her that I could feel even from another room.
“Auffroy, what’s your roll?”
I was looking towards the living room again, wondering about what she was reading that could be causing her to look at the pages like she was. She had a smirk on her face she was trying to cover with the back of her hand. ‘ Something hot and steamy ’ she had once told me. Maybe she was reading something hot and steamy now. Suddenly my dick twitched under my jeans.
“Auffory, what’s your roll? Auffroy!” Kolbi shoved me in the shoulder, breaking my glance from Bailey and bringing me back to the table. My friends all looked at me, each of them with a varying degree of annoyance on their faces.
“Sorry,” I snatched the die off the table and threw it across the board, “sixteen on the dice, twenty on the roll,” I announced.
“Very nice. With that roll, you get lucky and find the sacred scroll you’ve been searching for inside the ancient library. With this discovery, you and your party find a map that will lead you to the city you’ve been searching for.”
“Good shit.” Malcolm slapped his hand down on the table.
“Finally. Nicely done, Auffroy.” Conrad sighed. We had been stuck on this quest for over an hour, each roll setting us back a little bit. We’d battled an ogre, fought some goblins, and solved two different puzzles before getting to this point. Kolbi was putting us through it today and the dice weren’t playing in our favor.
“Auffroy?” Bailey’s voice came from across the table and we all looked to her. We had been so enthralled in the game that none of us noticed her walk in and stand next to the table.
“You okay, hermosa ? ” Shit. I squeezed my eyes shut before looking at my friends. The nickname had slipped and I knew I was going to hear about it.
“Yeah, I’m good. I was just going to get more water. Anyone need anything?” Her hands rested on the backs of Conrad and Malcolm’s chairs. Malcolm turned his neck to look at her and I didn’t miss how his eyes passed over her chest for a few seconds too long. Conrad kept his eyes on the board as if looking at her would turn him to stone.
“I would take another beer, beautiful,” Malcolm mused up at her, giving her his most charming look. I wanted to punch him in the throat.
“I’m fine, thank you for asking,” Kolbi gave her a warm smile which she returned.
“You need anything Conrad?” She looked down at him but he continued to ignore her glance.
“No,” he grunted. She gave me a look, furrowing her eyebrows just long enough for me to see. I could tell Conrad’s lack of enthusiasm towards her was throwing her off.
Before leaving the table, she walked behind my chair and wrapped her arms around my shoulders possessively and rested her chin there, “And what about you, you need anything?” She spoke directly into my ear and a shiver ran down my spine. The growing bulge in my jeans was almost too much to hide.
“I would take another beer if you don’t mind.” I brought my lips to her cheek and kissed her. Fuck my friends and what they thought, I wasn’t afraid to show my girl affection in front of them. I would deal with the hounding I’d get from them later.
“You got it,” she whispered before kissing the top of my head. As she walked towards the kitchen I whipped my head towards Malcolm.
“Don’t call her ‘beautiful’,” I spat.
“Why? You did.” He gave me a cocky smirk before crossing his arms over his chest confidently.
“How did you?—”
“I took Spanish in high school you moron, I know what ‘hermosa? 1 ’ means. I might be Asian but my Spanish is quite good. It also doesn’t hurt that I heard you speaking it with your dad growing up.”
“Well, don’t call my girl beautiful like that, or look at her like you did, it’s disrespectful.”
“Your ‘girl ’? So you’re official now?” Kolbi interjected.
“I mean, I think so. We haven’t given it a name yet.” My mind flashed back to her laying under me this past weekend when I had called her mine and how she told me she would like it if she was. I guess I just assumed that meant we were together. Maybe I should ask her just to be sure.
Malcolm looked as if he was about to say something when Bailey came back in with a fresh glass of water and two beers. She handed one to Malcolm before walking over and handing me the bottle. She leaned over to meet me at eye level and placed a tender kiss on my cheek.
“I’m going to go back to my book, let me know if you need anything,” she hummed.
“I will for sure, thanks.” Her lips being so close to mine felt like an invite and I wanted nothing more than to press my lips to them. She stood and walked down the small hallway once more and I watched her go.
“That is one fine woman you got yourself there,” Kolbi said quietly so she wouldn’t hear.
I was too distracted by the way her hips swayed and how much she felt like she belonged in this chosen family of mine to respond. But I knew he was right.
Bailey was one fine woman.
And she was all mine.
1 ? beautiful