Chapter 3 #2
“My thing first, mama’s little errand boy!” Waving the envelope around in the air wildly, I pointed it at him.
“Smell,” he grunted out.
“Smell what?” My brow puckered in confusion. What was he talking about?
With a long, drawn out sigh, Cy gave me a look and grumbled, “Can smell Elm on Pru. No care. Still want you.” With a snuffling chuff, he tapped the side of his nose for emphasis.
My mouth opened, closed, opened, then closed again. I did a little blinking as his words slapped me about the face. He can smell… Elm on me?
“Bullshit,” I burst out.
Cy frowned until it looked like he was squinting. “True,” he got out between what sounded like half grunts, like they were stuck in his throat.
“Bull,” I argued. “You’re just covering your ass because Elm told you and you weren’t supposed to tell me!
” That made way more sense than the smell thing.
Humans can’t smell other people on people like that.
That’s such a weird thing to say. It was obviously bull crap he’d concocted on the fly.
“Just like you kissing me just so you can distract and sneak deliver your mama’s damn envelope!
” Lifting the envelope to wave it about again, it was rather belatedly that I realized that was not in fact Sunny’s bubbly handwriting across it but a thin, scribbling scrawl, and the envelope was a more blue-blue, like Cy’s eyes, than the dark blue of Sunny’s envelope.
“That you think?!” Cy grabbed the envelope from my hand with a snarl and stormed towards the back door.
“Hey! What a minute! What the hell was that?!” I called after him.
He threw the door open and was growling under his breath, stomping down the steps, before I woke the hell up and gave chase. “What is that? Why were you stuffing it into my back pocket?!” I demanded to know as I chased after him.
“Not need know, think Cy stupid errands mama’s boy!” he snapped as he marched across the backyard.
Running up to him, I reached around and tried to nab the envelope back.
Cy whipped around and nabbed it right back.
“Damn you! That’s mine! It has my name on it! I saw it!” I barked as I scrambled to snatch it back.
“No see no name. No need know, think my kisses to sneak mail for Mama,” he huffed and puffed and growled as he made his way over to his truck.
“Cypress Tree, you give me my damn letter, right this instant or I’ll- I’ll-” I honestly didn’t know what I’d do. I just wanted him to hand the damn thing over already.
Cy lifted the envelope over his head and used it to wave me off. He didn’t bother looking back. “Cy letter now. No need-”
He didn’t get to finish that sentence. With a growl that rattled my chest, I launched myself at him.
Rushing him, I grabbed his shoulder, planted a slippered foot right above his ass, and launched myself up. Snatching the envelope right out of his hand, I would have toppled right over him to slam head first down into the snow if he wasn’t faster than me.
Lightning quick, he scooped me up before any of that could happen, curling me to his chest as he righted himself.
The look he gave me had me smiling despite the death glare. Stuffing the letter inside my hoodie, I stuck my tongue out at him and rolled right out of his arms.
Jolting as I landed on my feet, I took off for the back door. The snow was coming down really hard, thick, fluffy white stuff piling up all around us as far as the eye could see.
Cy didn’t curse so much as growl in a way I took as cursing.
I made it a short ways away from him before I felt a heavy hand land on my upper back, the back of my hoodie grabbed. I was forced to stop or choke.
“Damn you!” I snarled.
Cy tried to reach around me for the letter but I snapped my teeth at him, hunched, and growled. He kept pushing it, so I nipped at his fingers. The noise he let out, part yelp, part shocked surprise, had a small, evil smile tugging at my lips. I was feeling rather victorious in thwarting him.
Twisting out of his hold, I reached into my hoodie, grabbed the letter, and shoved it down the front of my pants. “Hah! There. Go get your letter now!” I crowed.
Unaware of what I’d done, Cy reached around me, crowding me. Two hands shoved up my hoodie and began to feel around.
“Oy! Handsy! I didn’t think you’d actually do it!” I shouted, right before he skimmed a ticklish spot and I dropped towards the ground instantly in a puddle of laughter.
Cy, wrapped around me, stuck to me literally, his hands jammed up my hoodie trapping him, dropped down with me. “Oof! Ey! Big idea?! Eh?!”
My nemesis rolled us to our sides, pausing in his skimming hands tickle ambush, to lean over me and eye me.
“It’s mine now, bitch! Fuck off!” I growled as he glanced down my person. Sizing me up, his eyes narrowed thoughtfully.
“I dropped it,” I lied.
Leaning in, his nose brushed the side of my face as he inhaled deeply. “Lie,” he rumbled out, like he actually thought he knew.
“Is your nose a scent-a-lie detector?” I snarked.
“Yes,” he said simply, very matter of fact.
“Right. Okay. So… you’re crazy.” Smiling up at him sweetly, I kept that saccharin sweet look plastered to my face as he leaned further over me, one of his hands squished beneath me, the other still stuck in my hoodie.
Fuzzy eyebrows arching, he gave me a look.
I snorted in the face of that nonsense. “Bet.” Holding my hand out, I waited.
Instead of freeing his captured hand, Cy leaned in, sniffed at my hand, then, quick as a flash, that mother fricker nipped me.
“Ow! You jerk!” I spluttered out on a laugh. My hand clapped to his mug and I shoved him away from me. The problem was, shoving Cy was like trying to bully a brick wall.
A guy that had actually made it to a fourth date with me once informed me I’m too rough. My first thought had been, the guys’d never thought I was too rough for them. If anything, they were always trying to be careful not to be too rough with me.
Cy let out a growl that wasn’t really anything. His laughter slipping through ruined the effect.
Instead of pulling away from my hand, Cy leaned into it, going so far as to nuzzle into my palm. His chest began to rumble and he mumbled something into my hand I couldn’t make out. His eyes slid closed and that rumble slipped into a purr like the one Elm made with me.
Pausing, he cracked an eye open, his face still mushed into my hand, peering at me between two fingers. “Where my letter?” he asked.
Sobering, I widened my eyes innocently. “What letter?”
Cy pulled back. With a grunt, his gaze darted around. Unerringly, those blue eyes dropped to my hoodie, namely where his hand was still jammed inside it.
With a look just shy of evil, his hand began to shift. I let out a squeak, followed by a shocked laugh, then my hand slapped down over his, where it gripped his fingers tight. We looked like we were holding hands through my hoodie.
“Don’t you dare,” I warned him.
“Where?” he rumbled out softly, his voice a deceptively silky purr.
Breaking character, I frowned up at him. “It has my name on it. It’s more mine than yours at this point.”
“Where?” his cajoling tone had left the building, replaced with a scowl.
Staring up at him, thinking over him pretending to smell Elm on me to protect his slip, I blurted, “Did Elm tell you anything else? I mean, did he say anything else about what happened when he was here?” Swallowing past the lump forming in my throat, I licked my lips and forged ahead. “Did he- Did he say why he- Did he-”
At the look on Cy’s face, I had a feeling he had no clue what I was getting at.
My face reddened so much it was hot with heat. Shaking my head, I mumbled, “Nevermind.”
“What happen, Elm come to Pru’s?” Cy asked. Gone was the teasing and the back and forth. Serious Cypress was in residence and he was kind of a bossy butt.
“Doesn’t matter.” Extricating his hand from my hoodie, I went to stand but found myself yanked back down to Cy. “Oof.” I should have kept my fat trap shut.
“Matters,” Cy grumbled. Giving me a gentle shake as he trapped me wrapping an arm around me, he leaned in, whispering right next to my ear, “Cy not tell. Tell.”
Wriggling away from him, angling my head out of ear whispering territory, I muttered, “That’s just it. There’s really nothing to tell.”
“Tell,” the stubborn butt insisted.
“Elm likes to wear my underwear,” I chirped. Twisting to smile up at him, it was more a teeth baring than any kind of real smile, but he got the point. “Happy now?”
“No.” He gave a grunt. “What Elm do Pru?”
“Who said Elm did anything to me?” Dancing around the subject was easy enough. It’s the only kind of dancing I’ve been up to in too long to care.
“Where’s the letter?” I barked.
Cy opened his mouth to speak, paused, then frowned.
Elbowing him in his side— a trick Birch had taught me— he grunted and released me.
Rolling away from him, I popped up and rushed for the house.
Cy snarled at my back but the sound grew farther away, the faster I ran.
Bolting up the steps, I made it all the way to the door.
A strange wave of disappointment hit me when I realized he hadn’t followed after.
Popping inside, I turned as I went to close the door to spy him still holding his side, one leg propped up, the other outstretched. Falling backwards, he was flat on his back, staring up at the sky as snow tumbled down around him.
Giving a little whistle to get his attention, I lifted my hoodie, pulled the letter from the front of my pants to wave it at him, and closed the door on his surprised mug with a shit eating grin.
Instead of charging after me, he laid there, staring up at the sky, and laughed.
With a shrug, I let the curtain on the back door I was peeping at him through fall and locked the door.
Walking to the front window, I sat on the window seat and stared out. He should really be getting home now. It’s falling down like mad out there. Glancing over my shoulder, I walked back towards the back door. When I peeked out this time the backyard was empty.