Chapter 17 Wren
WREN
Icould barely sleep.
Not sure if it was the twenty-year-old couch my parents have in their living room or the fact that my mom might be dying.
One of those probably had to do with it.
I’ve been up since the crack of dawn, making sure my parents’ house is spotless. I’ve made three freezer meals and have dug through their mail, trying to find anything from her oncologist that might give me more information.
My phone rings, and I see it’s my dad.
I’m still angry, but I don’t have the luxury of leaning into that right now.
“Hello?” I ask, walking out onto the back deck so I don’t wake up the boys.
“Hi, honey,” he says. “We’re getting discharged soon.”
I swallow.
Discharged.
That means that whatever care she needs is more than what she’s going to get in the emergency room.
It means it’s too far gone.
“Okay, Dad,” I say. “I made some meals, and I emailed Cole’s teacher to let her know what’s going on. I also—”
“Wrenny,” my dad cuts me off. “Listen to me. Your life has to keep going, honey. I promise you we will keep you in the loop, okay? And don’t you worry about Cole.
The Fennwicks are going to take him for a few days, let him play with the boys.
Let him be a kid. She meets with the oncologist next week.
We will have some more answers then, okay? ”
I bite my lip and nod.
“Okay, Dad,” I say. “I’ll be here when you get home. I’ll help Mom get settled, and then I’ll go back to the city.”
I hang up, and for the first time since he called me yesterday, I let the sobs take over.
But they are doing too much, and now so am I.
I’m loud. I walk down the deck steps and farther into the yard, down the little path my dad laid when I was a kid and toward the bench that sits centered by the trees farther in the yard.
But I don't make it to the bench. I drop to the ground in front of it, knees to dirt.
I let out a guttural scream I didn’t know I was holding in. I wrap my arms around myself, and I let the tears flow, letting the sobs make my chest heave up and down.
Then I feel two strong arms wrap around me.
Brooks spins me around to him, but he doesn’t try to pull me to my feet.
He doesn’t try to stop me. Instead, he joins me on the ground, knees to dirt.
He pulls me into his chest, letting me sob against him, letting my tears soak his shirt, stroking my hair as I cry.
I let out all the emotions of knowing my mom might die.
I let out the betrayal of being left in the dark.
I let out the utter despair of knowing what it all could mean for Cole.
I just let it out.
After a few minutes, I finally feel like I have freed it all. I feel like I can breathe again, despite the puffy eyes and stuffy nose. When he feels that I’m more stable, he stands and pulls me to my feet.
But he doesn’t say a word.
He just walks me back inside. Letting me be.
I shower and change into something of my mom’s, make breakfast and lunch for Cole, and get dinner in the slow cooker. A little while later, my parents pull up in the driveway. I run out to greet them, Cole side-swiping me to get to them first.
We get her inside, and while Brooks helps Dad rearrange some furniture in the living room to make it easier for Mom to get around, I get Mom in the shower.
“You don’t have to do this,” she tells me as I wash her hair.
But as I look at her fragile body that I know has been trying so hard to fight off this threat, I am almost humbled right back down to my knees.
Because what an honor it is to care for the woman who has given me so much.
Who has cared for me since the moment she created me.
And I make myself a promise that, for however long I have left with her, I’ll never let these moments go by without sitting in them and realizing how lucky I am.
Once everyone is settled, we say our goodbyes. Dad promises to let me listen in on the appointment this week, and Cole promises to call us tonight before bed.
And before I know it, I’m heading back to the city, back to the chaos of the Everett family, like my own family devastation doesn’t exist.
I haven’t slept this hard or this deep in what feels like forever.
When we got back to Brooks’s apartment, I was basically asleep before I made it up to the bed. And it was only six o’clock in the evening.
I roll over and look at the clock.
Ten a.m.
I slept for sixteen straight hours.
I roll over to look at the perfect man next to me.
He’s got one hand on my hip and the other up over his head as he sleeps like an angel.
A hot, sexy-ass angel. I run through all the things he’s done for me and with me over the last twenty-four hours, and I feel overwhelmed by how much he means to me.
I climb over closer to him, laying a soft kiss on his chest. Then another on his shoulder. Then I can’t help myself. I trail kisses up his neck, and he starts to stir. I get up on all fours and climb on top of him, straddling him. His eyes pop open.
“Well, good morning,” he says sleepily. His hands run up my thighs to my hips, underneath the fabric of his t-shirt I’ve been sleeping in.
I lean forward and kiss him long and hard, letting my tongue give him a preview of what's to come.
Then I scoot down, reaching into the waistband of his boxers and springing him free.
I wrap my lips around his cock, moving my mouth up and down over and over again, letting myself get messy on him.
I slurp and lick and suck, and I feel his hands playing in my hair as he presses back against the mattress.
I’m overwhelmed by what I feel for him, and I can’t find the words to tell him.
So instead, I’m going to let my body show him.
I come off him, crawling back up his body. I center myself above him then reach down and slide a finger under the lace of my panties, lifting them off my pussy. His eyes widen when he sees me. Then, I grab his hand, pushing it toward his mouth.
“Open,” I say, and he does. I push his fingers into his mouth, and then I draw them back out, bringing them to my pussy. He starts to rub my clit then presses two fingers inside of me, making sure I’m good and wet.
I let him pull his fingers out, and then I slide down onto him, slowly.
His eyes widen as he realizes what’s happening—he doesn’t have a condom on.
“Baby,” he says, but I cup his chin in my hand.
“I want to feel you, Brooks,” I tell him. “All of you. I’m on the pill. Is that okay?”
His eyes widen even more as he reaches up and pulls me down for a kiss.
“Yes, baby. It’s more than okay.”
Then I start to rock back and forth, picking up the pace as I go. I fuck him hard and fast, leaning forward and letting the friction of our movement work my clit as my pussy works him. He lifts my ass slightly, fucking me hard and fast from beneath me before he flips me over onto my stomach.
“Give me that pussy right now,” he growls, pushing my legs apart and bringing my pussy to his mouth from behind.
He licks me up and down, front to back, pulling my lips into his mouth and massaging them with his tongue.
He slides a finger inside of me, then another, and fucks me hard with his hand until I’m seeing stars.
And just before I’m about to come, he thrusts himself back into me, his big, veiny cock filling me back up, and he pulls me up so that we are chest to back.
He pulls my arms behind my back and fucks me until we both explode, and the bed in front of us is covered in a beautiful mix of me and him.
It was loud and messy and hard, which is exactly the way that I want to love him.
And as he pulls me into his chest, I realize that I do.
I am fully in love with this man.
We spend the entire day in bed. He orders us breakfast, then lunch, then dinner, and we stay naked all day.
Occasionally fucking, occasionally watching TV, and occasionally sleeping.
And as he sits here, dragging strawberries up and down my naked body, I realize that this might be the best day of my life.
And how wonderful is that? That in the midst of the world burning down around me, I found someone who makes it stand still for just a little while.