Chapter 24 Released Tension
RELEASED TENSION
Somehow, Sunday rolled around and Clay was having dinner with his family. The entire family.
And Meredith.
It’d been a month since she interviewed and now she was sitting by his side after he’d seen her naked and tasted every part of her body.
She did nothing more than smile and nod her head on Friday when he suggested she spend the weekend with him. Tomorrow, after he checked the window, she could move back.
It’d be better for them both.
But what was better didn’t seem to be the way things went when they were in each other's presence.
“You don’t want me to go to dinner, do you?” she’d asked him earlier today.
He’d turned from where he was on his laptop finishing up with a few things for work. Reenie had sent over designs for the labels on the bottles of hard cider that he had fermented already for his limited edition.
“I’m not going to let you sit here alone,” he said. “If I’ve got to put up with my family then so do you.”
She frowned.
They had a much more relaxed weekend than he’d thought they’d have.
He was working on the land yesterday, leaving her to her own devices. Most of the time she’d spent on all the wedding planning stuff. They’d spent more time than he cared to count talking about it last night until he finally shut her up with a kiss.
One that ended in the bedroom.
She’d slept with him for three nights now. She was a cuddler. He wasn’t surprised.
Thankfully, she’d roll over to her side of the bed after some time. Maybe he nudged her in that direction, but it worked.
“They aren’t that bad,” she said.
“That’s because you like Gale,” he said. “She’s the worst of them.”
Her mouth hit the floor. “Crap. I never told her about us.”
He rolled his eyes. “Trust me, she knows. Everyone does.”
“How?”
“My mother,” he said, closing his laptop down. There was no reason to kill any more time. Everyone would be there by now.
“If Gale knows, I wonder why she hasn’t reached out?”
“So that she can get her digs in more in person,” he said.
Who the hell knew with his sister?
Meredith inhaled, let it out, then shook her arms, her butt following. “Okay. I should be fine.”
“What was that all about?”
“What?”
His arms moved around. “That movement you just did.”
“If you’re going to do it,” she said. “Do it right.”
“I’ll take a hard pass there.”
She smiled and squeezed his side with her fingers. “I was letting out tension. You could learn from that.”
“You haven’t been complaining about the ways I’ve released tension this weekend.”
Her arms came around his waist.
Clay wasn’t used to this from anyone.
No one he’d ever been with before had been this open and affectionate.
He didn’t know how to handle it.
Her arms tightening some in a squeeze told him she had this. She’d guide him through it. Maybe there were times she helped more than he realized.
She looked up at him, her lips puckered for a kiss. He gave her one. Hard and fast.
She let out a giggle. “Not in the least. I’m going to miss it being back in my bed, but the truth is you’re just too hot at night for me.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “Thanks.”
“I didn’t mean it in terms of sex,” she said, moving out of his arms.
“I think you did.”
“Well, yeah, but that comment had more to do with your body heat.”
“You’re the one glued to me,” he said. “There is a lot of room in that bed to sleep on your own side.”
Her nose twitched twice. “I know. I just have to keep telling myself this is real.”
So did he.
“What is it you want or are looking for?”
“Now you’re trying to drag your feet going to your parents’.”
“Yep. But we should know this before we show up.”
He wouldn’t be caught unaware when it came up. He was damn sure it was going to.
“I don’t know what we’ve got,” she said. “I don’t think you want to share what is going through your mind and if I say what is on mine, you’ll run. So it’s like, isn’t it better to keep it to ourselves?”
In the past, he would have agreed with that.
He wouldn’t be that person.
“No. I don’t want you to feel you can’t say things to me.”
“That’s funny coming from a guy who barely talked to me for weeks and half the time was purposely rude so I’d shut my mouth.”
He smirked. “You caught on pretty quickly.”
“I did,” she said, nodding. “Aren’t you glad about that?”
“I haven’t decided yet.”
“Now I know you’re joking,” she said, grinning.
“I think it’s you that is avoiding the question,” he said.
Clay wasn’t sure why he was pushing so much. He was positive it had more to do with him having the knowledge than his pending family dinner.
She sighed. “The only label I want to put on anything is that we are exclusive.”
“That goes without saying. I don’t share and you don’t want to find out what I’d do if it was otherwise.”
“From someone who just got blindsided with a cheating ex who put me into this mess, you can be sure, I’d never do it. I wouldn’t have before.”
“Then I don’t understand why you think that answer would bother me or make me run.”
“Clay,” she said, moving closer again. “Everything about you is such a contradiction lately. I’m trying to get a grasp on it.
What I know of you and how it makes me feel is both secure and frustrating.
I like what we’ve got. I like that when I called you, you came, but I don’t want either of us to mix those things up either. ”
He nodded. “Good.”
“So you aren’t doing this to protect me?”
“Fucking you?” he asked barely holding in his smirk. She slapped his arm.
“Is that all it is to you?”
He laughed. Her eyes widened, which caused him to laugh even harder. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have said it that way. Don’t expect sweet words out of me.”
“I’ve never heard you laugh like that,” she said. “Now I’m going to want to get you to do it some more.”
“You’ll exhaust yourself trying.”
Her head went side to side. “Then it’s something to look forward to. But I mean it, Clay. Is it only sex for you? If it is, tell me.”
“It’s not,” he said. “I can’t tell you what more it is, but I don’t need to sleep with you to protect you either.”
“That’s better. Not that we do much sleeping.”
He tugged on a lock of her hair. “You’ve got a wise mouth on you.”
“Watch it,” she said. “Or you’ll find glitter in your underwear.”
He picked her up and put her on his shoulder, his hand coming down on her ass. “You’ll get some back in yours if you do.”
She was laughing so hard she was shrieking.
The sound of it distracted him from his front door opening, his brother standing there shocked by the sight he was seeing.
He put Meredith on the ground. “Don’t you know how to knock?”
“I heard a yell,” he said. “I thought there was a problem. Or maybe she was ready to brain you with a pan.”
“I have thought of it a few times,” she said. “But not this weekend. I got Clay to laugh right before you came in. Someone mark it down. It might not happen again for another decade.”
“Go,” he said, pointing to the door. “Out.”
She sashayed by and out the door. He followed, then locked the doors on his phone.
Meredith walked toward the end of the driveway. Since he didn’t see his brother’s truck, and Reenie was with Meredith now, he assumed they were walking down.
No reason not to.
“Damn,” Ford said. “She’s good for you.”
“Shut up,” he said, shoving his brother. All he got was laughter over that.
“Meredith,” Ford said. “Slow up.”
The two girls stopped and turned. “Yes.”
“I talked to Lana finally. She returned my call on Friday, said she was at work, but I wanted proof. She gave me names, and I verified them last night. It wasn’t her that threw the rock.”
“I should have realized it wouldn’t be that easy.”
“Nothing with you is easy,” Clay said.
“My mother always said I was put on this earth to spice up everyone’s life.” She had a smart mouth on her he was coming to appreciate.
“You shouldn’t be concerned with everyone’s life now. And start paying more attention to everything around you.”
“Don’t ruin the rest of my weekend, Clay. Unless you think there is something for me to worry about on your family’s property, then can we just drop it for now?”
“You never have to worry here,” he said.
“We should go on a double date,” Meredith said. “You and me and Ford and Reenie. That’s what Reenie and I were talking about.”
“Ugh,” he said. “Men don’t do double dates.”
“Then to dinner. We’ll go to dinner together and not call it a double date. You and Ford can talk about manly things like guns and beer, and Reenie and I will talk about the website for the wedding part. There, it’d be a tax write-off for you then.”
She turned on her heel and resumed walking, Reenie laughing and following her.
“She’s going to give you a run for your money,” Ford said.
“Yeah.”
At least she wasn’t upset over the gun he wore all the time. It was as if she had to recalibrate her brain to him having it on him and they moved forward.
They got to his parents’ house without him saying another word. His brother was used to that too.
Just like he thought, everyone else was there.
“And the new couple has arrived,” Gale said, clapping. “I should have seen this coming but didn’t think anyone could crack open Clay.”
“I wore him down all the times he had to catch me or kill a bug,” she said.
“That makes more sense,” Blaze said. “Nothing gets Clay’s blood pumping more than hero action.”
He lifted an eyebrow at his brother. “Says the man running from patient to patient in the ER. Meredith, this is Blaze. Not sure if you remember him or not. Try not to trip or dislocate a finger shaking his hand.”
She gave him a little shove when she walked toward his brother.
His siblings all saw it. He tried to ignore their grins.
“It’s nice to see you again,” she said. “I like to hug if you’re okay with it. Clay didn’t even remember who I was when he saw me and I’m sure if I tried to hug him, he would have run.”
He rolled his eyes while she hugged his brother. She’d done the same to Ash last Saturday when he’d come in to work for the wedding.
Meredith was right. He wouldn’t have known how to handle it if she’d tried to hug him right away. He wasn’t good with affectionate gestures.
“Sounds like you’ve got my brother pegged well,” Blaze said, returning the hug. “Few do.”
“Including his family,” his mother said. “But I’m seeing a glimmer of something old coming back.”
This was exactly what he wanted to avoid with this dinner, but if he didn’t get it over with, it’d be this shackle on his ankle every time he passed his parents on the property.
“So we don’t embarrass Clay more and have him shut down on me,” Meredith said, “I’ll just let everyone know things are progressing slowly because that is how Clay has set the pace. I’m good with it and it’s working for us. There is no name on it. Labels aren’t a good thing for anyone.”
“There you go,” he said. “Now we can talk about other things.”
He should have added to what was said because the shocked looks on his family’s faces told him there was more going on than he’d admit.
Never in his life had he let anyone speak for him, yet he was thrilled she’d taken charge, proving that maybe he wasn’t the only one that had some saving tendencies.
“Where the hell is she?”
Karl was watching her townhouse like he always did and there was no sign. He’d driven by her parents’ house and didn’t see her car there either.
How could he prove to her that he could care for her if she wasn’t around for him to do it?
He needed another game plan. A better one because the one he had didn’t seem to be working fast enough and he was running out of time. Not much longer before his lease was up and he’d have to move.