Chapter 32 – Kirby
thirty-two
Kirby
I get up the next morning, and when I reach for her, I come up empty-handed.
The bed’s still warm from her body as I listen to hear if maybe she is in the bathroom.
No noise is coming from there, and when I look at the bedroom door, it’s shut, so I know she’s already up and out of the room.
I toss the covers off me, grabbing a pair of shorts from the chair, and seeing the pieces of my suit from last night trailing all across the room, along with her dress that’s in a heap on the floor too.
Her one shoe is on one side of the room, while the other is on the other side.
I pull open the door and hear her voice.
“It was fun,” she says and then I hear another voice.
“Well, the picture you sent us of you and Ariella looked like you two were having fun.” I walk down the steps and into the kitchen, seeing her on the stool with her phone propped up in front of her.
She’s wearing one of my workout shirts that falls to the middle of her legs. “I can’t wait to be there on Friday.”
“I can’t wait for you guys to be here,” she says excitedly. “Mom and Dad are arriving on Friday morning. Matty is getting here Friday afternoon, and now the Sunday lunch is going to be a Friday dinner, since Matty has to leave as soon as they finish the game to head to Vegas.”
“I heard,” her sister says, and I walk in quietly and she looks over at me. I point to the fridge and she just nods. “Hi, Kirby,” she says and Lexi laughs.
“Hi, Zara,” I reply, pulling open the fridge.
“When am I going to meet you?” she asks and Lexi motions with her head to go over to her. I walk around the island with the bottle of orange juice in my hand. “Hi,” she says with a huge smile on her face when I stop beside Lexi, bending to kiss her head. “Aww, so when are we going to meet?”
“Whenever you want,” I tell her and I can see some similarities with the two, but in my opinion Lexi is prettier.
“It would have to be Sunday morning since we have to head back on Sunday afternoon. Colson has to be back in school on Monday.”
“Name the time and place and I’ll be there,” I reply and she smiles at me.
“Okay, it’s time for me to get up and get my ass in gear,” she states. “I’ll see you Friday,” she tells Lexi and then blows her a kiss. “Bye, Kirby.”
“Bye,” I reply, holding up my hand and she disconnects the phone call. “Morning,” I say as Lexi looks up at me, “you snuck out of bed again.”
“I did,” she confirms. “I was going to surprise you with a whole breakfast feast, but my sister called.”
“Want to prepare it together?” I ask her and she shrugs. “How about you tell me what you want, and I’ll make it for you?”
“You would cook for me?” She leans back in the chair.
“Baby,” I say, bending to kiss her lips again, “I’d do anything for you.”
“I need a shower.” She gets up and grabs her cup of coffee. “How about I jump in the shower and then come and help you?”
“Okay.” I know by the time she comes back out of the shower, breakfast will be all done. “Waffles or pancakes?” I ask her as she walks out of the room.
“Surprise me,” she says with a wink and my cock stirs. I think about joining her in the shower and then turn back and start to make my waffles. I take out the waffle iron as I mix the batter, tossing in some brown sugar instead of white sugar and then adding a touch of cinnamon to it.
While the waffles are being made, I scramble up some eggs and then toss some sausage in the pan. She walks into the room twenty minutes later, with her hair wrapped in one of my towels on the top of her head and wearing a pair of her shorts and matching tank top. “It smells delicious.”
“I made waffles,” I toss over my shoulder as she comes over to me and holds my hips in her hands and leans in to kiss my back. “Surprise.”
“Did you know,” she starts, walking over to the fridge and grabbing the bowl of strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries she always has, “that Trent used to watch how many calories I took in?” I look over at her, my hand gripping the fork tighter.
“He would do this thing when we first got together.” She puts the bowl down and now leans her hip against the counter and then puts her foot on her other foot.
“If my waist was bigger than this”—she hangs her hands down together with her thumbs touching before curling up the three fingers and then extending her pinkies—“it would be unacceptable.” I close my eyes as she laughs at the ridiculousness of it, and I have to be happy that she sees how much of an idiot he was.
“I should have done the same to his dick.” The bark of laughter leaves my throat. “I’ll grab the plates.”
I sit down next to her once the waffles are done and the plates are in front of us. Grabbing my waffles and then some eggs, I pass her the syrup as she puts some on her waffles and then some on her eggs. “Did you have fun last night?” I ask her and she nods her head.
“I did, once I got a little bit of confidence in me,” she admits and I chuckle. “People are going to ask you questions.” She takes a bite of her waffles.
“They can ask, doesn’t mean I have to tell them anything. That’s the beauty of all of this. You tell them what you want them to know and keep some things to yourself.”
She nods. “Are you okay with meeting my sister?”
“Yeah, why?” I ask her and she shrugs.
“I’m scared,” she finally says. “Like, I’m so happy, I’m scared it’ll all go away.
” She looks over at me and gives me a small almost sad smile.
“I’m scared this whole thing is going too fast and then it’s going to crash and burn.
” She grabs a piece of strawberry on her fork and then plops it in her mouth. “But it’s like I can’t stop it.”
“I’m scared also,” I admit to her, “scared that I am going to be the rebound guy and then you will just up and leave when you realize how strong you are.” Her eyes look at me in bewilderment.
“But living in fear has never served any of us,” I state, and then I don’t know why I say it but I do, “I’m falling in love with you, Lexi.
” I put my fork down. “Pretty much I have fallen in love with you. When I met you the first time, I thought you were the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. Then I saw you with Trent and I was so jealous of him because he had you and he didn’t know how good he had it.
” She puts her fork down and looks at her plate, and I can see her chest rising and falling.
“I felt like a total dick feeling what I was feeling for you, knowing you were a married woman. I barely knew you and yet I knew you were one of those people who would come into my life and leave a mark.” I put my hand on her leg.
“Then I really got to know you, and I just fell deeper and deeper for you.”
“Kirby,” she says my name and looks at me with tears in her eyes, and all I can do is shake my head side to side.
“You don’t have to say anything to me. I’m not telling you so you can say it back to me, or telling you to pressure you into anything.
I’m telling you because I’ve never in my life told another person, who wasn’t my sister or my mother, that I loved them.
” Her breath hitches. “But I wanted you to know, I can be patient with you. With us. With this.” My hand moves from her leg to her cheek as my thumb catches the tear.
“I’m going to be patient because you are worth it and deserve the time to figure this out too, Lexi. ”
“I don’t know what to say.” Her voice quivers.
“You don’t have to say anything. I just wanted you to know that you aren’t the only one who’s scared.
” I lean to kiss her lips. “We can go as fast or as slow as you want us to go. I don’t have to meet your parents this time.
Or your sister.” I rub her cheekbone. “You’ve already made such big steps in the last couple of months.
” I smile. “It’s a marathon, not a sprint.
” I turn and cut another piece of waffle.
I can tell she’s not ready to finish this conversation, so I change the topic, hoping one day she’ll be ready.
“I’m off today. Did you want to go and spend the day at your house and take a walk on the beach? ”
“Yeah,” she says and I can hear her voice quiver, “that would be nice.”
“We can invite Kylie over for dinner, if you want?”
“You are okay to stay at my house?” she asks me and I look over at her.
“You are the one always wanting to come here.” I point at her.
“It’s Ms. Jefferson’s fault. I don’t want her to be all alone.”
“I leave tomorrow,” I remind her, “and I’m already back on Friday.”
“Who is watching her?” she asks me.
“She has food all the time,” I remind her. “She has her own personal water bowl that is hooked up to the bathroom faucet and gives her fresh water. She’s fine.” I push away from the counter. “But if you want to come and check in on her, I can give you a key.”
“Do you think I can take her to my house?” she asks and I snort. “Probably not, right?” she backpedals. “Okay, I’ll come over every night and sit with her so she doesn’t get lonely.”
“That works,” I agree. “I like the fact you’ll be in my house.”
“Oh yeah,” she says, loading the dishwasher and cleaning up, “why is that?”
“I don’t know, I just like knowing you’ll be here,” I tell her. “Go get your hair done and then we can go.”
“But you are leaving for five days and you want me to take you away from Jefferson for another day?” She shakes her head. “No can do.”
“You know she doesn’t even care, right?” I look around. “We’ve been up for two hours and she hasn’t even bothered to come and see if we’re okay.”
“But she knows we’re here,” she defends and then I can hear the sound of her bell coming closer to us. “See?” Lexi says, walking to her and picking her up and cradling her. She looks up at Lexi and then looks at me with a glare. “Don’t worry, pretty girl, we are going to stay here with you.”
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