6. 2
Toolie’s job was to basically fish with him and make sure he had what he needed in between time.
It depended on the competition, but sometimes what the co-angler caught and the boater or angler caught were pointed together.
In this competition, they were not.
Gunner said that it was my job to keep him company in the front of the boat while Gabrielle kept Toolie company in the back.
If we got bored, there was a television in the main cabin of the boat.
“Belle, you don’t need to wear makeup on a damn fishing boat. That shit is going to melt off your fuckin’ face. You’re beautiful without it,” Gunner argued.
We were in our bedroom in the suite.
He asked me what I planned to wear tomorrow, so I showed him.
I mentioned my hope that there would be good lighting in the bathroom for touching up my makeup.
“Gunner, we’re going to be on national television. I’m not trying to look bad.”
“Adabelle, short of being a crackhead junkie, there is nothing that you can do to look bad. You’re beautiful just like that… fresh face chilling with no makeup on.” I mumbled that he was just saying that, and his response shut me right up.
“Why the fuck wouldn’t I think my girlfriend is beautiful? My woman is thick as fuck, beautiful, got good pussy, and contrary to popular belief got a good head on her shoulders. She can be a lil mean though.”
My mouth wanted to say something, but my mind was stuck on his reference to me as his woman.
He wore a sexy smirk that made me want to jump on him.
“When did I become your woman? I don’t remember having that conversation.”
His nostril widened; his left brow dipped while the right one rose.
“We definitely had that conversation. It went like this. Hey, you’re coming with me to my competition. See? We had the conversation.”
I gawked at him for a beat before I roared with laughter.
“Are you serious right now? Holden, that’s not how it works.”
The smile on his face was absent.
He was dead serious.
“That’s exactly how it’s going to work, Adabelle. Tell me you don’t want to be my woman. I would hope you don’t go around letting random niggas dick you down raw. Speaking of, we might want to talk about your birth control situation.”
“Gunner, we’ve been fucking for how long and you’re just now thinking about birth control.” All I could do was shake my head at him.
Desperate to change the subject, I conceded to not wearing makeup tomorrow.
He laughed at my deflection.
It was a good thing that I had enough sense to get on birth control after the first time that we had sex unprotected.
All I needed was to be irresponsible and get pregnant.
That would be the cherry on top of my fucked-up year.
“Don’t think I didn’t miss that you didn’t tell me that you didn’t want to be my woman. I’ll take your silence as acceptance.” He walked over to me from where he stood in the bathroom doorframe.
His arm wrapped around me, his hand gripped my ass, then he pulled me into his body.
His lips locked onto mine passionately.
My tongue requested permission to enter his mouth.
He gave it access.
My body shivered to his touch.
When our lips disconnected, I felt it in my soul and pussy.
“Let’s get in bed. We have to be up early.”
Sleep didn’t take long to find us after we got into the bed.
Like I did every night, I wrapped my body around him.
This was the best way to sleep.
Morning came way too quickly.
Gunner woke me up with dick, and I still was grumpy.
When we got to the competition, I understood why the branding firm was alright with Gabrielle and me getting on the boat with our men.
Our men. I’d accepted Gunner as my man.
The wives and girlfriend that came to the competition were either like the old me or homely as fuck.
No matter how they were, they had no interest in getting on the boat with their men.
When it was announced that we would be joining Gunner and Toolie, we got the nastiest stares and hushed conversation.
My best friend and I dressed for the occasion with a fashionable flair.
Oh, and color me shocked to find out that anglers had groupies.
If you thought Black groupie bitches were savage, then you hadn’t met a sour cream groupie.
A bitch was out here with a shirt that read I want my pussyfish on your line .
Her ass had the nerve to yell out Gunner’s name.
Gabrielle passed her Sparta foot strength over to me because I tried to kick that bitch in her throat.
Gunner enjoyed that bit of toxicity in me.
It was a blessing that the inside of the boat was air-conditioned because it was hotter than a preheated oven.
We were three hours into the fishing day.
So far, Gunner had caught eight bass and Toolie five.
From what my man told me, the number of fish you caught was often dependent on the size of the body of water.
The larger the body, the less fish versus the smaller the body the more fish.
Gunner said this lake was smaller compared to others that he’d fished in.
“Baby, do you want a beer?” I asked when I came from the inside of the boat to the platform.
I already had the beer in my hand just in case he said yes.
He had a rule that he limited himself to a beer every two hours.
The only other thing that he drank was water.
He glanced down at his watch, then looked over his shoulder from the seat he sat in.
“Yeah, baby. Come here.”
I giggled at him pulling me into his lap when I tried to give him his beer.
“What are you doing? You’re supposed to be watching out for the bass. You better be quiet before you scare the fish away.”
“Not going to happen unless I had a bullhorn or something. Sounds above water aren’t forceful enough to breach the surface tension of water.” He kissed my neck again.
“I could fuck you right here, and you could do all that yelling you like to do. It wouldn’t make a difference to the fish.”
My hand slapped his arm.
“Shut up! I don’t yell. I simply express my excitement boisterously.”
His head fell back with laughter.
Toolie yelled from the back of the boat that we were loud.
“Mind your girl, and I’ll mind mine!” Gunner yelled back.
Toolie and Gabrielle were in the back of the boat, doing their own thing.
I stayed on the platform with Gunner for another hour before he told me to go downstairs to take a nap.
These competitions could be anywhere from six to eight hours, and we were only almost five hours in.
Let me take a catnap.
I groaned at the feeling of something on my face.
I waved my hand to smack whatever it was away.
Gunner came into view when my eyes finally opened.
“What are you doing?” I asked with a groggy tone.
“Wake up, baby. They’re about to announce the winner. I want you next to me,” he asked.
I shot up from the bed.
“Why did you let me sleep that long? Did you catch more fish? I’m sorry.”
I felt horrible that I stayed asleep longer than I planned to.
I’d been his woman all of one day, and I was already fucking up.
I refused to do the same things that I did in my earlier relationship.
I wanted our relationship to last.
“Baby, why are you sorry? I know this shit is tiring. Gabrielle just woke up too. Thirteen. I caught thirteen more fish in three hours,” he informed me.
I jumped into his arms. “Baby! That’s good, right?” I was excited and didn’t even know if that was a good thing.
“It’s a very good thing. Come on.” His heavy hand slapped my ass.
He told me the average angler could catch two to three fish an hour.
Pro anglers caught anywhere from four to six.
I made sure my hair was under control and my clothes were straightened.
Toolie and Gabrielle were already on the platform, waiting for us.
All of the other contestants were close in their boats.
I felt nervous with all the cameras around.
You could feel the anxiousness in the air as the announcer started to talk.
I felt the pins and needles sticking at the bottom of my feet.
They announced the second and third place.
Gunner pulled me into his side when they said it was time for the first-place winner.
My breath hitched in my chest. I heard them say the beginning part of his name, but the rest of it was drowned out by the screams of the crowd.
“Fuck yeah! You still that man,” Toolie congratulated.
He celebrated with Gunner for a moment before he moved to get lost in my best friend.
Gunner gripped my ass and slammed his lips against mine.
I thought it would be a quick kiss, but nope.
There we were, tonguing each other down on national television.
The announcer was nice enough to wait for us to finish our kiss before he announced the award.
I controlled my facial expression when he said that the payout for this win was twenty thousand dollars.
For catching some fish that he had to throw back!
This was just one of three days for this competition.
After the announcement of the win came a photo shoot with the last big fish that he caught.
He took pictures by himself, with the commissioner, with Toolie, with me, and with Toolie, Gabrielle, and me.
When he conducted his interview, I stood right next to him.
I felt so honored that he included me in his accomplishments.
I reflected on my relationship with Carson, and this was a feeling I never had.
Whether it was by my own doing of not caring, the fact was that he never included me in his accomplishments.
They were told to me as an afterthought.
His wife was who he shared them with, perhaps.
If he had included me, maybe I would have been more attentive.
At this point, it was a moot point.
That was old, and I needed to leave it where it was.
Holden Gunner Becket Jr. was my right now.
I hoped he would be my forever.
Lord, I’d fallen for a country boy.
“So, you have to do the same thing tomorrow, baby?” I asked Gunner.
We were back in our suite, and he’d just gotten out of the shower.
I loved to watch the water glisten on his body.
It was so damn sexy and lickable.
His body was toned by way of his home gym.
He also ran daily.
His hand rubbed the body oil into his skin that he used to moisturize his body.
There was nothing like a man who took his self-care serious.
His eyes fell on me through the reflection of the mirror on the wall.
“Pretty much. You don’t have to come on the boat tomorrow if you don’t want to. I know that shit is draining and can be boring.”
With a cheeky smile, I responded.
“There’s no place that I rather be. Besides, who’s going to get you beer and give you kisses?”
His cheeks rose high.
He grabbed something off the counter.
He walked over to me, then sat on the bed.
His hand went around and grabbed my hip.
“Get up here and moisturize my beard.”
I straddled his lap before I took the small bottle of beard oil out of his hand.
He told me not to use too much of it.
I did as he instructed, then massaged it into his beard.
I couldn’t help leaning in to kiss his lips.
When I pulled back, my head leaned to the side.
“Did you think we would get here? Like start liking each other and decide to be in a real relationship?”
“Nah, I didn’t. After we fucked the first time, I thought that’s all it would be. You tried to make me your sneaky link with your slick ass.” We both laughed because I really did.
“I knew I wanted to explore something with you when you came over with Tink and my sister. You talked about what you wanted to do, and that shit turned me on. It also showed me that there was a shift in your personality that I could finally get down with.
“Since that conversation, you’ve taken steps to do what you said you wanted to do.
That proved to me that it wasn’t all talk, which is important to me.
The way you love My Boy and Stitch is something else that mattered.
You show love to all my babies.
In my mind, how you love and take care of animals tells me what kind of mother you’ll be.
I want babies with my forever person, so I look for that in the woman I’m interested in,” he concluded.
Since our conversation about school and my jewelry, I’d picked a school that had the merchandising major that I wanted.
I figured that would help me when I really started with my jewelry business.
There were so many new techniques on how to make jewelry.
I was able to find a class in Birmingham that I enrolled in.
Gunner told me that he was proud of me after I told him about it.
We weren’t even together then, and he cared.
“I just want to be a better person who doesn’t depend on someone else for my income or success. I’ve been there with my ex, and I never want to be there again. My fall from grace taught me a lot.” Eye opening was all I could say about the past year and some change.
Gunner wrapped his arms tightly around me.
“Are you sure you fell from grace, or were you elevated to where you were supposed to be all along? Change your thinking, change your ways, baby.”
I’d never thought about it like that.
We were talking about my classes when my phone buzzed on the bed.
I picked it up to see that it was an inbox on Instagram.
I took the time to open it and became stuck.
Car_Son_TheGreat: Hi Belle.
It’s been a while since we last talked.
I was watching the news this evening and was surprised to see you on there at a fishing competition of all places.
It looks like you’re in a new relationship.
You’re not too far from me, so I wanted to know if you wanted to meet to catch up. Let me know.