22. Jedd
JEDD
Pancakes are hot on the griddle as I sip my coffee while Andy gets dressed. A muffled thump comes from somewhere in the house before a door creaks open.
“Uncle Jedd?” Piper rubs her eyes as she comes into the kitchen in her nightgown.
“Hey, Pipsqueak. Sleep good?” I look her over, a little anxiety from last night surfacing.
She nods and mumbles something. I get a cup from the cabinet and pour her some orange juice, then set it on the island for her. She clambers onto the stool but just fiddles with the glass, her eyebrows pinched so similar to another redhead I love.
“What’s up?” I ask.
She won’t look at me, instead keeping her gaze on the cup in front of her. When she stays quiet and starts to chew her lip, I click the burner off and skirt the island to come around to her.
I lower myself until I’m almost eye level.
“Pip. You can talk to me. What’s up?”
She sighs. The sound so familiar to me, I can’t help but think again that Andy’s been more of an influence on this little girl than she thinks.
“You must think I’m such a baby.” Her eyes flit to mine and immediately dart away again.
I reach out and still the hand that’s picking at the rim of the cup.
“Piper. I don’t.”
“But I freaked out. You probably think I’m a freak now.”
I don’t know the details of what she and Andy talked about last night, but I caught the gist from listening as much as I could at the door.
“Yesterday was a lot. I would never think that you’re a baby. Or a freak. Sometimes we have big emotions, and sometimes they come out in ways that are hard for us to understand at the time. The important thing from yesterday is that you knew you could call me and Andy when you needed us.”
She shrugs, unconvinced.
“Have I ever told you about the time Uncle Harlan wrecked my mom’s car?”
Her gaze flies to mine, widening.
“Yeah. Uncle Harlan wasn’t always perfect. He was fifteen at the time. Took Mom’s car to go meet a girl.”
Piper pulls a gross face, and I laugh.
“He wasn’t paying attention and drove it right into the Robinson’s mailbox.”
Mr. Robinson was a paranoid bastard. His mailbox post was a metal pole that he filled with concrete, convinced that if someone ever came mailbox smashing, they’d learn their lesson.
Unluckily for Har, it totaled Mom’s car.
“My mom was so mad. Her face was so red. I thought ‘that’s it, Har’s dead.’ She screamed at him for a solid twenty minutes when they got home in the middle of the night.”
The whole house woke up to the verbal flaying she gave him in the living room.
“But she wasn’t mad about the car—or not mostly.
She was scared. Scared that Harlan could have been hurt worse.
Scared that she didn’t have control of the situation.
But it didn’t come out as fear. It came out as anger.
Because Mom wasn’t ready to be scared that one of us could have been hurt.
Sometimes when we feel one thing, it doesn’t come out the right way.
Sometimes it comes out another way. A way that’s easier for us to deal with.
I know yesterday was a crazy day, and you’ve had a lot of changes over the last few weeks.
So no, Piper, I don’t think you’re a baby or a freak for needing a little bit to come to terms with some of the things in your life. ”
She pinches her bottom lip between her teeth again. “Are you sure?”
I brush my hand over her shoulder. “I’m sure. I’m just glad that you called us when you needed us. You know that you can do that whenever you’re scared, or sad, or upset, right? You can call us any time you need us, and we’ll come, because that’s what family does. They come when you need them.”
She nods.
I catch movement out of the corner of my eye. Andy’s leaning against the wall at the entrance of the kitchen.
I lock eyes with her and find gratitude in them as she smiles at me.
But I don’t want her gratitude. I just want her, and this little girl.
To be mine. To be my family.
When they need me, I’ll be there.
“Now. Who’s ready for some blueberry pancakes?”
“You got laid.” Rhett bobbles his eyebrows at me as he walks into the garage early Monday morning.
Duke chucks a roll of paper towels at him, that he deftly dodges, which is the better option since I’m holding a ten millimeter socket wrench.
Though I’m tempted to throw that at him too.
“Dude. Shut the fuck up,” Finch says, more irritated than normal at his partner in crime.
“He did the same damn thing to Harlan,” Rhett grouses, picking up the towels and setting them in one of the many bins we have set up around the shop.
“Will you all just shut the fuck up?” Harlan bites out as he presses his fingers to his temples. “If you guys are just going to gossip, I can go home and spend time with my woman.”
After talking with David and him agreeing to give me first shot at the property assuming things go well at the bank, I decided to kill some time packing up the things that are going into a temporary storage shed behind the shop.
I need to clear out some space before my meeting with the bank later to finalize my loan application with Andy on it.
My team and I will work out of two of the bays while the shop is under construction, so we need more room to move than we currently have.
My brothers caught wind of my plans and converged to “help.”
And like I told Duke, I’m not going to turn down manual labor when the timeline is short. The longer the garage is closed, the longer my employees are suffering, and that I won’t allow.
“How are things going on the Andy front?” Boone asks.
I grin, unable to stop myself. Remembering the way she came apart while riding me. The feel of her hips shifting in my hands. The tight clench of her on my cock.
“We’re good” is what I settle on.
“Oh shiiiit,” Rhett crows, and Duke cuffs him upside the head.
“Stop it.”
I hold up my hand and shrug. “He’s fine. He’s not saying anything I haven’t been feeling.”
“What’s the plan with all of this?” Finch asks as he closes one of the industrial bins and labels the top.
“Andy and I are going to go to the bank this afternoon to finalize our application for the loan. After that, I’m going to meet with the contractor to go over the timeline for the expansion. Once that’s done, I’ll call David and update him.”
“You revamp your specs yet to meet the new requirements?” Finch asks.
I shrug. “Kinda, I’m going to have Samson take a look at them before the contractor gets going and see if he spots any trouble areas.”
We get to work, and by the time I need to leave to meet Andy, the garage is clutter free and arranged for efficient work in the reduced space.
After some more ribbing and my brothers making kissy noises at me, I lock up and head out. It’s a quick walk to Andy’s salon, and as I step through the door, a wolf whistle pierces the air.
“Jedidiah Calhoun, as I live and breathe,” Jenner says adopting a southern drawl.
“Hey Jenn, she in the back?”
He nods. “Yep. Restocking dyes.”
“Thanks.”
Just as I put my hand on the supply room door, it opens and Andy steps through, nearly plowing into my chest.
“I’m not late. I’m coming right now,” she says as she pulls the apron off her neck and bundles it up.
“Mmmhm. Sure.” I grin at her. Andy’s not late to everything, though she usually cuts it close enough that she’s in a rush.
She steps past me, to drop her apron at her station I assume, but I snag her by the wrist and tug her back to me. My fingers play with the hemline of her turtleneck.
She’s also wearing a pair of knee-high leather boots that I want framing my beard while I make her fall apart on my mouth.
“What are you doing?” She frowns at me. “We have to go or we’re going to be late.”
I pull her close and drop my mouth to hers in a brief, but hot kiss before stepping back. “Hello, wife.”
Adorable color creeps into her cheeks.
I thought I’d seen all facets of Andy, known everything there was to know about her, but I’m learning new things every day. Like the fact that the woman I’m lost over is unsettled by a little PDA.
She smiles at me, the color on her cheeks blooming brighter. “Hi, husband.”
“Oh my god, will you two stop? You’re giving me a case of the vapors,” Jenner calls, still talking in the southern accent.
She rolls her eyes. “Come on, god forbid Jenner see what real romance looks like.”
“Adam has no complaints, I assure you,” Jenner fires back.
“Mmmhmm. Sure he doesn’t.” Andy throws the strap of her purse over her shoulder and pulls me outside.
“How’s your day been?” I ask as we cross the road.
“Good. Busy morning. After we’re done here, it’ll be about school pickup time, so I’ll grab Pip and then head home. You have the meeting with your contractor tonight, right?”
“Yeah, we’re going to go over the timeline for everything and see how long I’ll be under construction. Then I need to reach out to the guys and let them know the plan for the shop.”
It’s going to be a tight fit for the next few weeks.
Once the expansion is complete, and we get a final inspection completed, we can open up more appointment slots and do more work. I’ll be able to pass down some of that new profit to my employees for sticking with me through this mess.
“Anything I can do to help?” Andy asks, swinging our arms back and forth.
I shake my head. “Nah, just a lot of logistics. I’ve got it though.”
“Whooowheeee, look at those love birds,” a voice calls out from behind us. I turn to see Jerry Singer sweeping the sidewalk in front of Everette Grocery.
Andy’s hand tightens in mine for a fraction of a second. If I wasn’t paying attention to her, I would have missed it.
This is new for us, and we live in a small town. Word was bound to get around that we got married.
“Hello, Mr. Singer. How’re you doing?” I call out with a wave. I keep moving, not wanting to get stopped.
“Not as good as you two, that’s for sure,” he says with a hoot and holler before we round the block and lose sight of him.
Andy and I walk in silence for another thirty seconds or so before I ask. “Are you okay?” First the blush with Jenner and now this.
If she’s uncomfortable, it’s my job to make her secure, but I can’t do that without knowing what’s going through her head.
We’re each still finding our way. There’s bound to be speedbumps with the change in our relationship, but I’m confident we can figure anything out as long as we talk to each other.
“Yeah. Just thought we’d have a little more time,” she mumbles.
“A little more time?”
“Of just us. Before the Everette grapevine took over and spread far and wide that we’re together.”
I nod. We did keep our wedding pretty small. And most everyone in this town knows that we’ve only been friends up until recently. It makes sense that the change would cause a stir.
But a small part of me is disappointed. That Andy wants to keep us a secret. That she doesn’t want to shout that we’re together far and wide.
Because that’s what I want to do.
“You okay?” she asks.
I nod, trying to put my thoughts in order.
She tugs on my hand to stop me. There’s a small space between the buildings, and Andy scoots us into that break before pulling us to a stop.
“What’s wrong?”
“Are you ashamed of being with me?” The question pops out before I can revise it into something less defensive.
Her hand jerks in mine, like she was just slapped. “What? Of course not. Why would you think that?”
“You got shy in front of Jenner, and then just now …” I wave toward the grocery store. Hard to miss those signals.
“Are you serious?” she asks, pulling me to face her. Her eyes are lit up.
“Yeah, I’m serious. You agreed to give us a chance, but you flinched when Jerry called out to us. Kinda hard for me not to think that you don’t want people to know we’re together.”
She stares at me for a minute, looking deep into my eyes.
Then she doubles over with laughter.
Each chuckle is more irritating than the last. “What is so damn funny?”
“You’re an idiot,” she says between guffaws.
That rankles.
“But you’re my idiot. I don’t care if a single person knows about us.”
“Then what was all that?”
“I meant that I wanted you all to myself. Just for a little bit,” she says with a sly twist to her mouth.
Oh.
My confusion and frustration evaporate faster than water in the desert. “Is that so?” I tug her closer and wrap my arms around her.
She nods and presses her hips against mine. “It is. You and me, and what we did in bed yesterday morning, and again last night, and then this morning.” She grins impishly and nips at my lips. “It’s pretty much been living rent free in my head.”
Fuck the bank. Fuck the loan. I need to find a private place where I can get her alone and get under the swishy skirt that’s been torturing me since she pulled it over her black lace panties this morning.
She reaches up and threads her fingers through my hair, pulling me down to her.
“Yeah?” I breathe against her mouth, desperate for a taste of her.
“Yeah. I keep remembering how heavy you felt inside of me. The stretch … the press of your fingers into my hips.”
“Goddayum, woman.” I groan, battling the urge to grind my erection into her. If my brother wasn’t the damn sheriff of this town, I’d risk a public indecency charge in this little alleyway.
“But we have adulty things to do.” With that, Andy pulls back and grins at me.
This little fucking vixen. She took my insecurity, reassured me, and then teased me into forgetting my fears.
“Mischief,” I grit darkly, letting some of the perpetual want I have for her color my tone.
She chuckles as she turns and flounces out of the alley toward the bank. I enjoy the moment, watching that devastating fucking skirt kick up around her thighs before adjusting the raging fucking erection she gave me and following.