Marin
It’s crazy here today in the best way. Janie and Stevie are battling.
They’ve had an ongoing war since breakfast about whether Judge Judy would win a fight with Jerry Springer.
Stevie watches too much garbage TV but I gotta say, my money is on Jerry. He’s had to duck and cover from a lot of flying chairs from the little I’ve seen and I think he could dance and dodge around Judge Judy until he took his shot.
So, that battle rages on as I try to teach my caveman, mountain man how to make apple fritters and pork barbecue.
Janie is ah-mazing, don’t get me wrong, but she’s from Texas and they make the wrong kinda barbecue down there. I would never tell her that but it’s time this house did barbecue right.
“I don’t like vinegar.” Davis grumbles as I pour the distilled apple cider vinegar into a measuring cup then over the pork butt. “Doesn’t barbecue just mean put it on the barbecue?” He bobs his eyebrows with a frustrated frown.
“Shush. You need to expand your horizons. You can’t just throw a piece of meat over hot coals and hope for the best. Once this is marinated, then, oh then, we will slow cook it over just the right hickory wood for six hours…
baste at the end with sauce and…” I pinch my fingers to my lips, then make a kissing sound.
“I can get behind that if there’s kissing involved.”
He brushes my hair behind my ear. Such a simple touch but it sends a cascade of longing and comfort deep into my soul.
I give him a soft punch in the rock-hard muscle of his shoulder.
“You made a right mess out of the apple fritters. And be careful, that pan of oil is still hot.” I point toward the pan then give a sad look at the over-fried dough sitting in a stack on a plate like lumps of coal.
“I want to make a mess out of you.” He leans down, trailing his tongue up my neck and heat blooms on my cheeks, my heart hammering away like it always does when he gives me that look.
“Shhh, they’re right there.”
He tosses a look over his shoulder into the living room, where Stevie is in the middle of his passionate closing argument on how Judge Judy would knock out Jerry Springer, paying us no mind at all.
“I don’t care who is where when I need you. You should know that by now.”
He’s right. It’s been two more days of Mountain Marin being pummeled in the best way by her Mountain Prince and I’d hazard to guess at least a third of our waking hours is spent in some form of fornication. I’m getting my cardio in at least.
So, I’m pretty sure Janie and Stevie are down with what’s happening between us. Davis made no attempt to conceal that I was sleeping in his room with him. Only, there wasn’t much sleep going on.
Until about three AM last night. Davis fell asleep inside me still hard. Like, bam, he finished, gave me a kiss, spooned me slipping back into home base then, he was out.
I laid there for a few minutes wondering if this was some new sexy game but when he started snoring? I was pretty sure the jig was up. I drifted off pretty quickly as well, but woke up to him sliding in and out of me, but it didn’t take me long to realize, he was sleep-fucking me!
He was babbling all this filth but when I’d respond, he was in his own world. Didn’t stop his hands and cock from sending me to the heaven again though. When we both woke up this morning Davis was frantic, looking the clock and muttering about sleeping five hours in a row.
Turns out, that hasn’t happened in years. He has nightmares and insomnia but last night, seems the cycle was broken. He said I have a magic pussy. Bush and all.
Snort.
He does have great pillows too. He even had a few brand-new ones stacked in his closet. He really is the cream in my coffee. Snort. Not a metaphor but
“Did you finish your water?” Davis asks as I brush my hands down the front of the flannel shirt I’m wearing, and I nod.
“Yes, enough with the water. You’ve hydrated me until my eyes are bulging. What’s with you today and the water?”
“Water’s good for you.”
“Yes, I know. As well as B-12 and Vitamin D and Magnesium and the other six vitamins you make sure I take every day. But, really, enough with the water today. I just finished two more bottles.”
“Good. Did you pee?”
I squint, shaking my head. He’s certainly a stern sort of steward but, geez-whiz, is he going to start keeping track of my urine output?
“Ouch, fuck.” Davis grunts, breaking my train of thought. He holds up his hand and the right side is bright red and dripping with oil. “Fucking burned myself.”
Janie and Stevie look over.
“You okay, bro? You’ve been damn distracted lately.” Stevie snorts.
“Yeah, I’m okay.” He eyes me and I know I’m being railroaded. “Marin will be my nurse. We’ve got burn cream in the medicine chest. You guys…just don’t start acting out the Judy vs Jerry showdown.”
They go back to ignoring us as Davis winks and tips his head to the hall. “I need medical care.”
I roll my eyes as his looks turns hungry and wet warmth explodes between my legs. “You need mental health care, is what you need, and to ask for forgiveness because you just burned yourself on purpose in order to not have to learn to cook. You are troubled, Mr. Davis Ray. Troubled.”
He rolls his sexy hazel eyes, pressing his boot to my butt in a mock kick, urging me forward down the hall to the master bedroom. He shoulders the door shut behind us and nods toward the bathroom. “In there.”
“Are you seriously hurt?” I ask as I tighten my brow and reach for his hand.
“I’m fine. Get in the bathroom.”
We’ve spent plenty of time together in the shower and with me bent over the counter, and sitting on the counter, and down on my knees, but there’s something different going on here.
Tingles ripple down my back as he ushers me inside with heavy hands on my shoulders and points toward the commode.
I’m right confused at this point, but Davis stands like a statue waiting for me to comply.
“You have to pee, don’t you?” he asks and I slow nod, trying to puzzle together if this is a new sexy time thing or what.
“Yeahhhhhh. You’ve been force hydrating me for the last hour. My bladder is bursting.”
“Good. Take your pants down but don’t go yet.” He turns toward the double vanity where he fucked me bent over while I tried to brush my teeth this morning.
The ample-sized rustic bathroom still makes Davis look larger in the smaller space. His blue flannel is rolled up above his elbows and his forearms are epic. Thick with veins and dusted with dark hair and the sinuous muscle flexes and moves under his tan skin.
Uggg. His forearms are directly connected to my bang-me button and I’m not even the least bit ashamed. But, I’m trying to put together what’s gonna happen right now and for the life of me, as creative as I am, I’m not seeing his vision.
He rustles in one of the drawers of the vanity and pulls out a small box, his thick fingers working the top in an attempt to get at whatever is inside.
“Pants down,” he commands and my belly tumbles. He growls as he fumbles with the little box, finally ripping it in half and two white plastic things about the size of a toothbrush come flying out. One hits the wall, the other Davis catches in midair as he steps my way.
“What is that?”
“Pregnancy test,” he says, like it’s the most normal thing in the world.
I swallow hard. I know they make them, I’ve just never seen one nor imagined I’d be taking one at eighteen after meeting a mountain man in a cabin where my grandfather dumped me for the winter.
Phew. That’s a lot.
Nevertheless, I’ve been a willing participant in Davis’s rather obsessive need to test out the functioning level of my womb, so…
He picks up the pamphlet that fell to the floor, squinting at the microscopic print on a sneer, then tosses it in the trash can on a sniff. “Pants down and sit, but don’t pee until I tell you to.”
This is level twenty-bananas but by the set of his jaw and the way he’s holding the little green and white stick, aimed at me like a gun, he’s as serious as a heart attack.
I wiggle my jeans and panties over my hips and down my legs and Davis drops to his knees in front of me as I sit, tugging the fabric down to my ankles.
“I’m not sure I can pee with an audience. I get stage fright.”
“Well, sooner or later your body will do the right thing and I’ll be ready when it does.
” He meets my eyes with a rare smile that turns me into a marshmallow.
“Just picture Niagara Falls.” He reaches over and turns the knob on the closest sink to full blast so the sound of the rushing water fills the room.
Then he pops the little top off the test and tosses it over his shoulder. It chitters across the tile floor as he muscles his body between my legs until the insides of my knees brush the sides of his torso.
“Now, pee.” He holds the stick just under where…well, where you’d think it should go but instead of peeing, I burst out laughing.
His forehead tightens as he brushes the back of his other hand over his grimace.
“This isn’t funny. I think you are pregnant, and I want to know.
I want to know if I’m a father the day I take root inside you.
The tests I bought say they can detect pregnancy within a day of conception.
I don’t want to miss anything. Now, stop laughing and pee. ”
Watching this huge mountain man on his knees, holding the pee stick between my legs, barking orders is more than my little heart can take.
Tears run down my cheeks as I laugh and finally, my body can’t take it anymore and my big mountain man gets his wish.
***
“I’m going to be a father.” Davis buries his face into my neck as I hold the little stick with two pink lines in my hands, sitting curled on his lap.
After the peeing, Davis rushed us out of the house giving me a piggy back ride all the way to the barn. He wanted privacy and didn’t think the bathroom was quite the right venue for the event.
I bounced along on his back in a daze, the reality that I’m pregnant taking up most of my brain space.
Now I’m sitting on a bale of hay, the horses in their stalls chomping away at their breakfast oblivious to the way my life has just changed.
I think of my mother and the school photos I found that are tucked into my own bible on my bedside table back at my grandfather’s house.
Would she be proud? Ashamed? I’m only a year older than she was when she had me. The barn swallows swoop and chirp as they fly up and down the aisle and the world feels…new.
I have a passing thought of my Grandpa as well. This was exactly what he didn’t want for me. Exactly what he thought he would prevent by leaving me in that cabin.
“Baby.” Davis grips my jaw, turning me to him, his other hand pressed warm and flat on my belly.
“You okay? You’re gonna be the best mom.
I already know it and I’m going to do everything.
I’m going to do all the diapers and the potty training.
I’m going to sit up at night when you nurse them. If you don’t sleep, I don’t sleep…”
“It’s just…” I feel floaty and warm. “It’s a lot but I’m happy. I am.” It’s true. Sitting on Davis’s lap here in the barn, I’ve never been happier.
His warm lips meet my forehead, his hand releasing my jaw to run up and down my back when he pulls away, his eyes wide, and I practically see the thought bubble over his head.
“We need to get married,” he says, wild eyed, settling me on the hay bale as he spins in a circle, eyes darting around. “Now.”
“Wait, what? I—”
He drops to one knee, grabbing my hands in his, his chin low, my heart in my throat as he looks up. There are tears on his cheeks.
“Marin…you will marry me.” His voice cracks as I screw up my face.
“You mean…will you marry me?”
He shakes his head his hair falling over his forehead. “You will marry me. I’m letting you know.”
“Wow.” I chuckle at how fitting his anti-proposal is, given his bossy nature. “So, if you were asking, I would be saying yes. But, you’re not asking.”
“Right.” He nods, grabbing my face and pulling it to his, his tongue invading my mouth in a long, warm kiss before he pulls back and stands, tugging out his phone. “I’ve got it all set up,” he says, tapping the screen. “It’s all legal and binding.”
“What is set up? What do you mean, legal and binding?” I ask, then perk up. “We need a selfie.” I smile, turning into a side pose. He’s been taking my pictures all day every day and it’s better than modeling for some stranger, but the pictures are darn good if I do say so myself.
He holds up a finger, stepping back, holding out the phone then turning so I can see the screen.
“Hello?” A woman in her forties I’d guess comes on the screen. “Mr. Ray?”
“Yes, we’re doing it. Can you do it now?”
What in the what is going on?
The woman nods as he turns the phone so I’m showing in the little square at the bottom of the screen.
“Go to the form link I sent you, both of you can sign with your finger at the ‘X’s’. Then, we can proceed.”
More tapping on the screen, then Davis sits next to me, holding out his phone. “Sign here.” He says as I blink and look from his excited eyes to the screen.
“It’s a marriage license. Sign it. She’s going to marry us. Now.”
He reaches for my hand, tucking my fingers into a fist, then pulls out my index finger and points it at the screen as my jaw falls open and a beam of sunshine cuts through the dust in the aisle and lands on the phone.
“Marry…” I say, swallowing. “I’m getting married?”
“Like I said, it’s all legal. Virtual weddings, they do them now and I spoke to the officiant earlier.”
“But I’m getting married? Right now?”
He nods. “You can have whatever kind of wedding you want with whoever you want. But, that’s the celebration, it can come after.
I don’t want you pregnant and not married to me.
You’re mine now, I need that to be true in every way.
You’re my soulmate. I know it. I’ve had happily ever after going on in my head since I saw you that first night.
Be my wife, baby, I love you now and always and forever.
We’re going to make it official and fuck. Then, then we will celebrate.”
He uses his finger to sign his spot on the electronic form, then waits for me as the woman in the background shuffles something, breathing quietly.
If you are happy, I am happy. I’m with you always, Marin.
It’s like a whisper on a breeze that flutters into my ear. It’s my mother’s voice. I know it as well as I know anything and as Davis holds his breath, brushing the backs of his fingers across the tear on his cheek I nod and swipe my signature on the phone.
“Yas!” Davis’s arm wraps around me, pulling me up next to him as he holds the phone at arm’s length. “Okay, let’s do this.”
And just like that, I’m Mountain Marin, married to her mountain man.