Chapter 5 #2
She took him as deep as she could while continuing to stroke him with her hand. The combination usually took him right to the edge of release. Knowing that, she backed off, slowed down and earned a deep groan from him that made her smile.
Chelsea released him and moved to straddle his hips, taking him into her slowly while his fingertips dug into her hips. Then she began to move, riding him until they were both gasping as they climaxed together.
After, she dropped down to his chest, and he wrapped his arms around her. “Feel better?” she asked.
“Much better. You?”
She nodded. They hadn’t decided anything, but wrapped up in his arms, she could finally relax enough to get some sleep.
The next day dawned rainy, gray and cool, the perfect match for Riley McCarthy’s lousy mood.
He’d been determined to throw himself into work so he wouldn’t have time to think about what his father had told him last night, but that plan was failing miserably.
All he could think about was his father having a baby with Chelsea.
Riley couldn’t get his head around the possibility of another sibling at this point in his life, nor could he imagine his dad with a newborn.
Hell, he could be a grandfather before long, and he was thinking about starting another family?
It was ridiculous, but then again, much of what’d happened in the last year had been ridiculous, starting with his mother taking up with her personal trainer.
What a cliché! The news of her affair had devastated his dad—and him and Finn.
Being a grown adult didn’t make you immune to despair when your parents suddenly and dramatically split.
If anything, he’d taken it harder than anyone knew, even the brother he was closest to.
What did it say about him that his parents’ divorce—and subsequent relationships with other people—had fucked him up?
He should be past the point where anything they did could screw him up the way their divorce had.
With hindsight, he could see that the handwriting had been on the wall for them for quite a while by the time it finally happened, but it was how it’d happened that had stayed with him for all the months that’d followed.
His mom had cheated on his father. That sentence still rankled more than a year later.
How could she do that to him? His dad was the best man Riley had ever met, always willing to help someone in need, always there for the big and small moments in his sons’ lives, a faithful husband and a hard worker.
What more could any woman ask of the man she married than what his mother had gotten from his father?
He’d been so fucking angry with her after it first happened and had carried that anger with him for a year now.
He hadn’t seen her since he’d heard about what she’d done and had no desire to see her now, either.
But Finn wanted to see her, so he’d probably have to as well. But he didn’t want to. The entire situation made him sad, and he was sick of being sad about something he had no control over.
“Hey, Riley,” Mac shouted. “Go easy, will you? I can’t build a house with splinters.”
Riley snapped out of his musings to realize he’d been stacking lumber right off the ferry with no regard for how it was landing. “Sorry.”
“Everything all right?” Shane asked when he came over to help.
“Yeah.”
“You sure?”
“Yes.” He liked Shane and appreciated his concern, but the last freaking thing he wanted was to talk about his parents’ divorce and the many ways it continued to impact him.
No one wanted to hear about that anyway.
People had their own problems, and Riley was sick of thinking about it.
He needed to go out tonight, get drunk and get laid.
That would make everything better.
“What the hell crawled up your ass and died today?” Finn asked when he joined him to finish unloading the pickup truck at the site of their next build. His brother hadn’t shaved in weeks, and his eyes were rimmed with red from being out late on a work night.
“Nothing.”
“Don’t say it’s nothing when anyone can see it’s something.”
Riley grasped another bundle of two-by-fours and hauled it from the truck, adding it to the pile next to the foundation that’d been poured last week. This time, he was careful to place the bundle rather than dropping it.
When he returned to the truck for another trip, Finn stopped him with a hand to his chest. “Tell me.”
“You’re going to be pissed.”
“Tell me anyway.”
“Dad and Chelsea are talking about having a baby.”
Finn’s hand fell from his chest, and his face took on an odd expression. “For real?”
“Would I have said anything if it wasn’t for real?”
“This is just… It’s…” Finn shook his head. “Whatever. We should’ve seen this coming. She’s still young, and it’s only natural she’d want kids.”
“But with our old man?”
“Why not with him? They’ve been together a year, and he seems really happy.”
“So you wouldn’t care if he had another kid with her?”
“Why would I? He’s not asking me to raise it.”
Riley stared at his brother as if he had two heads. Could he really be so nonchalant about something so important?
“Riley!”
He turned toward Mac, who was on the phone and pacing. He waved Riley over.
“What’s up?” he asked Mac, who held up a finger.
“Yes, I’m going to send my cousin Riley over to help you.” Rolling his eyes, he said, “Yes, Riley knows what he’s doing, Mrs. Hopper, or I wouldn’t send him.
Mrs. Hopper was Jordan Stokes’s grandmother. Suddenly, this day was looking up.
“He’ll be there in ten minutes,” Mac said, his voice dripping with exasperation. “Yes, ma’am. I know how important Eastward Look is to you and how much you love your granddaughters. We’re on it.”
It took another minute for him to extricate himself from the conversation and end the call. “For the love of God, that woman can talk!”
“What’s up at the house?”
“The roof has sprung a leak, and the granddaughters don’t know what to do. Can you go over there and see if you can shore it up until we can get there to make a more permanent fix?”
“Yeah, I’ll take care of it.”
“Thanks. Give me a call to let me know what we’ve got.”
“Will do.”
Riley jogged over to the company truck that was now empty. “Guess where I get to go?” he asked his brother.
“Where?”
“Jordan Stokes’s grandmother’s house.”
“How come you get to do that?”
“Because I’m the one Mac asked.” Riley flashed his brother a smug grin. “Try not to be too jealous.”
“Finn!” Mac, who was on another call, pointed to the wood that needed to be sorted and distributed for the framing that was set to begin tomorrow.
“Not fair,” Finn muttered as he stalked off to tend to the wood.
Riley laughed as he got into the truck and headed for the island’s eastern shore.