Chapter 16 #3
“Uh oh. I sense some turmoil in the Blackjack Brotherhood,” Dilynne says as the girls return from the bathroom and Elodie takes her seat beside me again.
I pull her chair closer, resting my hand on her thigh under the table.
She leans over and kisses my cheek, making the urge to take her back upstairs grow at lightning speed.
“Everything is fine,” Elliot grumbles around a mouthful of food.
“Says the guy who’s the least fine of all,” Dilynne snaps back.
“You really need to learn how to mind your own business.”
“Funny, because I’m sure the guys feel the same way about you right now.” My sister flashes a placating smile at Elliot from across the table.
Elliot wads up his napkin, tosses it onto his plate, and stands, pulling his wallet from his back pocket before tossing a few bills onto the table. “I’m out.”
Fletcher turns to my sister. “Did you really need to say something?”
“I’m sorry, but he needs to stop using his broken heart as an excuse to be rude as fuck,” she fires back. “I’m tired of it. And if he acts like that at yoga next week, I’m gonna pants him in front of everyone to teach him a lesson.”
Rhonan clutches his stomach as he laughs. “Oh, fuck. Please do it anyway.”
“Does that mean that you’re going to participate this time?” I ask him, knowing his aversion to yoga.
“Fuck no. I told you, I’m not bending over in front of people for fun.”
“It’s because you’re afraid to fart, isn’t it?” Elodie interjects, making Laney snort.
Rhonan glares at his sister before looking over at Elodie. “No, that’s not it.”
“It’s okay to fart, Rhonan. You don’t have to be ashamed if you’re an abnormally gassy person,” Elodie continues, making Fletcher break this time.
I’m also fighting to keep my composure.
“I’m not afraid to fart,” Rhonan counters a bit too defensively. “I just think yoga is dumb. It’s not challenging, and…”
“Oh, you’re afraid to be shown up by a bunch of girls and your friends.” She nods. “Got it.”
“It’s not that. I just don’t need to prove anything to anyone. Yoga isn’t impressive, and I can do other things that don’t involve showing my ass to a bunch of strangers.”
“So, it is the fear of farting then.” Elodie reaches across the table and covers his hand with hers. “It’s okay. This is a safe space, right everyone? We accept you even if you can’t contain your flatulence.”
And now, we all lose it, laughing uncontrollably while Rhonan’s face grows red. “It’s not about farting,” he says, standing and tossing his napkin on the table, stomping off in the same direction that Elliot went.
I lean over and kiss Elodie as everyone else is still laughing. “God, you’re something, Elodie Olsen,” I whisper to her as her eyes shine with amusement.
“Yeah, Henley Clark. You sure are something too.”
***
“Hey, baby bear.” Elodie lifts Remy in her arms before kissing her cheek and squeezing her to her chest. “Gosh, I missed you.”
I lean down and kiss her cheek too. “Yeah, little one. It was really weird without you.”
Carol clears her throat, reminding us that she’s still there. “She was great. Slept well, enjoyed our walks in the stroller, and I can see a little tooth getting ready to cut through her gums on the bottom.” She pulls down Remy’s bottom lip to show us.
“Jesus, already?”
Carol rubs my shoulder. “They grow up fast, Henley. Ask me how I feel seeing you as a father?”
When my eyes meet hers, a sadness overwhelms me.
Maybe it’s the look in her eyes or the tone of her voice, but it’s one I’ve never picked up on before.
She sounds like a mother—my mother—or what I always imagined hearing something like that from my mother would sound like—that reverence of watching your child grow older and become their own person, a combination of pride and sadness.
My eyes move back to my daughter as I watch her smile at Elodie.
My daughter will never have that with her own mother either. Elodie’s love is the closest thing she’ll get.
God, I wonder if she thinks Elodie is her mom?
Clearing my throat, I focus back on Carol while my heart beats roughly behind my sternum. “Well again, I appreciate you and Nick watching her for us.”
“Anytime. How was the trip? The game sure was a nail biter.”
“Yeah, Fletcher’s last catch secured the win for them, but he was irritated they didn’t win by more.”
“We had such a good time, though,” Elodie interjects, glancing my way as her cheeks burn bright pink. She has to be thinking of last night if she’s blushing like that.
Carol catches it though, smirking up at me with an arch in her brow. “Is that so? Glad you enjoyed yourselves.”
Remy makes a bunch of noises, telling us that she’s ready to leave—at least that’s how I interpret it. “I need to get my girls home, Carol. We’ll catch up more later, all right?”
Pushing up on her toes, she reaches up to hug me. “Sounds good. Let me know if you need any more breaks. I’m more than happy to take my granddaughter.”
“Thank you.”
“Love you, Henley.” Her words slice through my chest like they do every time, but I kiss her temple and lead Elodie out to my truck without saying anything in return.
By the time we get home and unpack, Remy is ready for her afternoon nap.
She’s down to two naps a day now, but her afternoon one is longer.
Needing to make up for lost time, I rock her to sleep in her nursery, admiring the walls that I spent hours painting and the room that Elodie decorated.
Before I know it, she’ll be walking around in here, potentially drawing on the walls, or asking to hang up posters of her celebrity crush.
Time moves so fast, reminding me of how just two days away from this little girl makes me think that she grew while I was gone. I reach down and stroke her soft skin on her cheek as her eyes flutter closed, and that’s when it hits me—I’m her dad.
The truth isn’t one I hadn’t already known, but in this moment in time, it feels like I’m accepting it—that from now until I’m no longer on this earth, I’m the person she will run to when she needs help, the person that will always make her feel safe, the only man she will measure every other man against—if I take this responsibility seriously, that is.
I would never want my daughter to end up with a man like I was before she entered my life. I wouldn’t want her with someone who is so terrified of being left that he leaves her first and breaks her heart.
And I would never want her to be with a man who second-guesses how he feels about her.
But that’s exactly what I’m doing with Elodie.
As soon as Remy drifts off to sleep and I move her to her crib, I close the door to her room and search the house for Elodie, finding her in her room with her guitar next to her on the bed and a pen in her hand moving furiously across the paper.
When she feels my presence, she looks up, our eyes locking as I make my way into the room and pull her up from the bed, smashing my lips to hers.
“Henley…”
“I need you,” I whisper against her lips, pulling her with me and down the hall to my room, away from the nursery.
“Are you okay?” she asks once I’ve shut us inside and given her an inch of space.
I reach behind me and take my shirt off, tossing it behind me. “No.”
“What’s going on?” I’m taking off my pants when she reaches down and stops me. “Henley, talk to me.”
“I need to feel you, El. Please...” The desperation in my voice surprises me, but I don’t know how else to say what I’m feeling—that if I don’t have her right now, I feel like she might vanish or realize that trusting me could be a colossal mistake.
Her eyes move between mine for a beat, and then she’s stripping as well, throwing her clothes haphazardly around the room until we’re both naked.
“Okay, but we’re talking afterward.” I nod as she stands before me, waiting for me to make the first move before I walk toward her and frame her face with my hands, kissing her softly as I feel her hands move from my waist up my back, pulling me to her.
“Get on the bed on all fours, Elodie.” I grab a condom from my nightstand as she follows my directions.
“Fuck, you look perfect right now, ready to let me own you, trusting me.” When I return to her, I lean down and press a kiss to the heart tattoo I memorized the location of the night I saw it for the first time.
“And this. Fuck, I really like this,” I say, rubbing my thumb over the ink.
“I got it when I was eighteen. Rachel from Friends got one, and I thought it was something I wouldn’t regret.”
Licking my lips, I grab both of her ass cheeks and lower my mouth to the spot again, licking the heart and then biting it gently. “It’s fucking sexy.”
Her entire body shivers as she lets out a moan, tossing her hair over her shoulder while peering back at me. Rubbing her ass cheek, I savor how her silky skin feels beneath my calloused hands and then move my fingers between her legs as I stand upright again, feeling how wet she already is.
“Fuck, you’re ready for my cock, aren’t you, baby?”
“Yes, Henley. Please…”
I waste no time pushing myself into her, filling her with every inch of me and loving how her moan drags out as I give her my cock. My need for her has spiked into a full-blown obsession.
“Fuuuuuck…” I groan, freezing to give myself time to find my control so I don’t blow my load too fast.
She drops her head to the bed as I slowly piston my hips. “Oh…God…”
“Jesus, Elodie. This pussy is so fucking addicting.” I go a little deeper and harder. “I can’t get enough of you...”
Her eyes meet mine over her shoulder. “Show me. Tell me.”
Wrapping my arm around her waist, I pull her up so her back is to my chest. I’m still standing at the edge of the bed with Elodie perched in front of me, fucking her deep and slow because I don’t want this to end.
I don’t want us to end either.
My head drops to her shoulder as that truth travels through my chest. “Elodie…”