Chapter 22
Chapter twenty-two
Greyson
Human koalas don’t have bad breath.
~ The Next Day ~
Last night was a nightmare. Not at all how I expected to spend the night with Emma. I ended up taking a shower once she left the door, and ten minutes later, I was back on the bowl. I didn’t even know that could happen, but I looked it up. It’s true.
When I finally felt safe enough to get into bed, Em was just starting to have droopy eyes. So I grabbed her in my arms and gave her the cuddles she demanded, sliding my fingers through her long red locks and gliding my others up and down her spine as she faced me.
Five minutes later, she was out like a light, purring against my neck. Then I untangled myself from her and headed right back to the bathroom.
This morning, I feel much better. Thank God. Silas is picking me and Clay up later to head to the airport, and we’ll be gone for a total of four days. I hate leaving my girls for so long.
It’s one of those rare mornings where Gracie is still in bed at 7:00 a.m., so I take advantage of the moment by waking up with my beautiful girlfriend still in my arms. Her back is to me, and from the sound of her breathing, she’s still asleep.
I pull her closer, pressing her ass into my morning wood, and pull her hair back, exposing her neck and shoulder to me.
Bringing my lips down, I kiss every inch of exposed skin in my vicinity, and when I get to her ear, she lets out a soft little moan. Her hand reaches back and cups my nape, then turns her face my way and barely pecks my lips when I bring them down to hers.
“Mmm, I wish every morning could be like this,” she murmurs with her eyes closed.
“I know, baby. Me too. But it won’t always be like this. One day, Gracie will be older. And instead of us getting up to get her, she’ll be climbing out of her bed and crawling into ours.” I comb my fingers through her hair and smile down at her when she finally opens her eyes.
“But then that means we won’t be able to sleep naked anymore.” She fake pouts.
“Well, isn’t that a tragedy? You won’t be able to stare at my naked body like a starving woman when you think I’m sleeping.” I bop her nose.
Her hand comes to her chest as she fakes shock with a loud gasp. “I do no such thing.”
“Sure you don’t. Just like I don’t watch your ass bounce its way to the bathroom every time you get up during the night.” This time I kiss her nose.
“Oh, you really are a naughty, naughty Wolf.” She giggles and shoves my face away with her palm. She doesn’t like it when I kiss her in the morning, afraid she may have bad breath. She doesn’t, but I wouldn’t care even if she did.
“Oh, yeah? How about I show you what naughty wolves do to sexy little bunnies that won’t accept their morning kisses?” I climb on top of her and start nibbling at her skin, her neck, her shoulders, and her jaw. Anywhere I can reach as she squeals and tries to push me away.
I love our playful moments together. I love all our moments together.
I never thought I’d feel this way about Emma, but with every day that passes, I can’t imagine going back to a time when we didn’t have them.
To think not long ago, I could barely stand her.
Now I can’t picture my days without her.
I capture her wrists between my hands and finally claim her lips, to which she doesn’t offer much protest. Just as things start to get heated, the baby monitor comes to life with a squall.
I drop my head to the crook of Emma’s neck and groan.
I just wanted some alone time with her before I have to leave.
Her hand comes to my hair, nails scratching at the back of my scalp. “I’ll get her. Why don’t you go start coffee? And maybe after breakfast, we could put her in her toy room and have a little quickie in the room next door? Before you have to leave.”
I smile against her skin and kiss her neck. “That sounds like a good plan.” I roll to my back as she gets up and scurries to the walk-in to grab some clothes.
A few weeks ago, she started leaving clothes in my room so she wouldn’t have to go into hers every time she needed something. I’ve never shared a closet with a woman before, but I’m not opposed to seeing her things in it.
I finally get out of bed and pull on a pair of joggers before making my way to the kitchen and getting the coffee running.
I open the cabinet that holds all the mugs and smile.
She still surprises me with a mug every week.
And every time I place the new one on the shelf, I find myself smiling.
Although we’ll soon have to place them elsewhere, because it’s quickly reaching max capacity.
It’s strange how much someone can change your life in such a short amount of time.
I now understand what Silas was referring to when he met Cecilia.
How, when you meet the right person, you change without realizing it.
Even when I had a crush on Cecilia, it didn’t affect my personality or make me do things I normally wouldn’t.
But with Bunny, I do. I smile and laugh all the time now, something that was a rare occasion. I buy her gifts whenever the mood strikes or I see something she would like. I want to involve her in everything I do and call her every free moment I have simply to hear her voice.
I can’t deny it anymore. I’ve fallen in love with Emma.
“Mmm, I love the smell of coffee first thing in the morning,” Em says with a happy sigh as she skips over with Gracie in her arms. It’s then I realize I’ve been standing in front of the mugs, staring into space this whole time.
“My hero, always starting my day off right. You deserve this mug today.” She reaches behind me and picks up my blue Superman mug with a red cape sticking out the back.
“So all it takes to be your hero is to start the coffee machine?” I question with a smirk and an arched brow.
“That, and a really good D-I-C-K.” She giggles and kisses my cheek before trying to wander away, but I don’t let her.
I grab her waist and pull her back to me, kissing her smiling lips, then my daughter’s cheek. “Good morning, Buttercup.”
The rest of the morning goes as planned. We have breakfast, then put Gracie in her toy room and have a very intense yet quiet quickie in the room beside it. Next thing I know, I’ve packed my suitcase and am making my way down the stairs. Ugh, I hate this part.
I drop my luggage by the door and go over to Gracie.
Lifting her into my arms, I cradle the back of her head and hug her to me.
“I love you, Buttercup. I’m going to miss you.
Be a good girl for me, will you? I’ll call every chance I get.
I promise.” I kiss her crown with my eyes closed, swallowing around the lump in my throat.
I put her back down with her toys and head to the door, knowing Emma is following right behind me. She always says bye once we’re outside. I think it’s because she doesn’t like me seeing how much it affects her every time.
Turns out, Bunny’s a really emotional woman.
She just doesn’t like people seeing it because she thinks it makes her look weak.
The only times I’ve truly seen her emotions on full display are when it has anything to do with the girls, but when it comes to anyone else, she pretends not to feel anything.
Although she’s starting to let me see that side of her more and more.
And it simply makes her more beautiful in my eyes.
I open the front door and pull my suitcase outside. The instant my hand lets go of the handle, Emma jumps into my arms. Her feet are still touching the ground, but I’m basically carrying all her weight.
“Ugh! I hate when you leave. Don’t go, stay,” she whines against my neck.
“You know I can’t, babe. But I wish. Four days will go by fast, then I’ll be back and we’ll celebrate your birthday.”
“That’s true,” she sighs.
“See? You’ll be planning the whole time and won’t even notice I’m gone.” Although I hope that’s not true.
“Impossible, I already miss you.” Em kisses my neck and squeezes her arms tighter around it.
“I already miss you, too.” I take a deep whiff of her hair, letting the flowery smell imprint itself into my mind.
Silas honks his car horn behind us, telling me to hurry up.
“No! I won’t let you go. Not this time.” She lifts her legs and circles my waist, turning into a human koala. “There, now you can’t leave. You’re forced to stay. I’ll stay glued to you forever if I have to.”
“I like the sound of that,” I chuckle, tightening my arms around her body. “But I really need to go, baby. The guys are waiting. I’ll call you when I get to my room. And when I get back, we’ll get someone to watch Gracie for the day so that we can spend time together. Alone.”
“Okay, deal. But not the day you get back, the next one. Little Tulip’s gonna miss you, too. She’ll want to spend time with her daddy.” She pulls her head back and beams at me.
Fuck, this woman. Always putting my daughter first. How could I not fall in love with her?
“Okay.” I cup the back of her head and smile with affection, letting her see how much she affects me. “Bunny.”
I bring her lips to mine, delivering a passionate kiss. We don’t need multiple kisses or a make-out session to pass our message. Just one kiss is all it takes, and I know she feels exactly what I’m feeling.
“Wolf,” she murmurs against my lips.
“Four days.”
“Four days,” she whispers back as I bring her to the ground and let her go.
She gazes at me with shiny eyes and offers me an emotional smile, then turns to the house and walks in, closing the door behind her before I’ve even moved.
I grab my luggage and head to the car, climbing in the back seat since Clay took the passenger seat. I rest my head against the headrest and sigh, looking back out the window at the house. “I hate this shit. How do you guys do it all the time?”
“I guess the fact that Morgan has the girls when I’m away makes it easier.
Before, she would mostly focus on her work when I was gone, and I always worried it was mentally hard on her having this kind of relationship,” Clay says.
“But now she has a family here who understands what it’s like, and they can support each other through it.
That’s what I tell myself to make me feel less like a shitty husband for never being home most of the year. ” He sighs with a shrug.
The way Clay talks sometimes, it seems like he doesn’t have a care in the world, but he truly loves his wife and would do anything for her. The rest of the time, he appears grumpy and unaffected by anything. The only people I’ve ever seen him act out with were Silas and Cecilia.
“Yeah, but you don’t have kids yet. It’s really not the same.
Leaving Minnie when it was just her and me was hard, but now that we have Dante, it’s even worse.
Not gonna lie, I feel like crying every time I walk out that door knowing I won’t see him for a couple of days,” Silas tells him.
“Minnie and I have actually been talking about that. My contract ends in two years… and I don’t think I’ll be re-signing,” he adds, eyes flicking up in the mirror for a second then back to the road.
Clay’s head whips toward Sy’s. “You’re thinking of retiring?”
“Yeah, that still gives me two years with you guys. I know I always said I’d play until I’m forced to stop, but things are different now. I have a family at home waiting for me. You have no idea how much it sucks missing out on your kid’s firsts.” He frowns with anger and shakes his head.
“Hell, just thinking that I could have missed the birth of my kid fucking sucks. I don’t want it to be like that. I know it’s what she signed up for when getting involved with me, but Cecilia doesn’t deserve to go through everything alone, and my son deserves to have his dad around regularly.”
“I know exactly what you mean. Every time Em calls me to show me something new Gracie does, it guts me that I can’t be there with them.
Or the time she was sick and I had to watch her through the phone when all I wanted was to have her in my arms. It was fucking brutal.
” I pull out my phone, needing to see my girls again.
Jesus, I’m pathetic. It’s been what? Five minutes, not even? And I’m already wishing I was back home.
I’m swiping through my pictures when a new text pops up from Bunny. It’s a picture of her and Gracie, each with one of my sweaters on. The thing is already huge on Emma, but Gracie? All you can see is her head sticking out of the hole. It makes me laugh.
“So you’re really serious about Mackenzie?” Silas asks cautiously.
“Yeah, I am.”
“You know, I never would have guessed things would turn out this way. You really didn’t seem like a fan of hers for a while.
” He’s not trying to be a dick with his comment, but it still pisses me off.
Not at him, but at myself for judging her so quickly when I had no idea what an amazing person she really was.
“I saw it coming,” Clay tells us.
Sy looks at him for a second with a frown. “You did? How? They’re so different.”
“That’s exactly why it makes sense. Look at Morg and me. Together, we fit perfectly. But apart, we’re completely different people. Ford and Emma are the same.”
“But he’s always made comments about how much she annoyed him,” Silas adds, confused.
Clay chuckles quietly. “And why do you think he paid so much attention to everything about Em? Did you ever pay such close attention to her? I know I haven’t.”
Silas shakes his head as he answers Clay’s question.
“That’s what I thought. But you, Greyson, couldn’t help yourself.
The minute she was in the same room as you, all your focus fell on her.
What she was doing, what she was eating, if she was laughing too loud or being too dramatic.
” Clay smirks. “And you always had something to say about it. Why do you think that was? Because she was already under your skin, and you had no idea.” He chuckles again when he looks back to see my face in complete shock.
Holy shit, he’s right.