Chapter 24
Mental stability? In this economy?
—Ellodie to Quaid
ELLODIE
4 months later
“I’m just going in for half a day, QuaidCarter.” I crossed my arms over my chest.
“You were literally just released from bed rest yesterday.” He groaned, crossing his own arms across his chest. “This isn’t a race.”
I narrowed my eyes.
I was, mostly, back to one hundred percent.
Or, at least, my new one hundred percent.
I’d found, over the last four months, that there were certain things that I wouldn’t ever be able to do again.
One was making a tight fist with my left hand.
It’d been shattered after Dr. Brewn had stomped on it. Though the bones were repaired, and all the tendons and muscles were about as good as they’d ever be again, there was still a lack of mobility.
Luckily for me, it was my non-dominant hand.
Also, lucky for me, I could move it. I could use it. I could grasp things with it.
The only thing I couldn’t do was use the same kind strength when using it.
Sure, that sucked pretty bad, but the physical therapist had been pretty sure that, over time, I would get some of the flexibility and strength back.
Until then, I did what I could.
Another issue I was having was the physical ache of my head.
I’d suffered a pretty awful brain contusion when I was kicked in the head. The headaches hadn’t subsided, though they were getting a lot better, and I could manage them a bit by listening to my body. And not forgetting that I was still healing.
The doctor insisted that it could take up to a year for my body to get back to normal.
Until then, apparently, I just had to deal with the headaches.
“Are you even listening to me?” Quaid grumbled.
“Yes,” I promised as I slipped my feet into my Clouds. “I am.”
“Feels like I’m talking to a brick wall,” he grumbled.
“Hey, losers!” I heard called from the other room.
My brow rose. “What is that?”
Quaid shrugged, looking slightly sheepish.
Hollis burst in, her baby in her arms, and handed her over.
LittleDarlia cooed.
She was literally the sweetest baby in the world, and I just loved her to death.
“Where are you going?” Hollis asked, confused. “I thought we were going over…”
I silenced her with wide eyes, hoping she’d get the hint.
She looked at Quaid, then started to laugh. “She’s going to work, isn’t she?”
I wasn’t actually going to work.
I was making it seem like I was going to work.
In reality, I was headed on a shopping spree.
Tomorrow we were getting married at a place downtown.
My parents were already on their way into town.
TheCarter family was working double time to tie up loose ends.
AndQuaid was going to work.
Though, Quaid didn’t know that I planned the day, or that I was lying about going to work.
ButI wanted to surprise him in the morning.
Yes, we were getting married in the morning.
TheCarterFamily had weird hours. Ten o’clock on a Wednesday morning was about as good as it was going to get if I wanted their entire family there.
And truthfully, my dad was going out of his way to come down, only to have to turn around and leave later tomorrow afternoon. Because, according to him, the farm didn’t run itself.
“Gimme ’er,” Quaid muttered as he took Darlia from my arms and cuddled her close. “She’s much more alert today than she usually is.”
“That’s new,” Hollis confirmed, her head tilting to gaze at her beautiful baby. “I swear it’s like she understands everything I’m saying now.”
“All right,” I said as I gathered my things. “Hollis, do you mind taking me to work? I’d ask Quaid, but he was called in to cover Assman.”
Hollis smirked. “How’sAssman doing?”
“He’s sick as a dog,” Quaid sighed. “His kid’s even sicker. And half the fuckin’ force is sick. I just hope that when I meet Calamity at the end of the aisle tomorrow, I’m not puking my guts up.”
I pointed at him. “Take that bad juju back!”
He winked. “Are you sure you are going into work?”
I’d actually been to work multiple times since the accident.
Though, a lot of those times were in a wheelchair.
Today would’ve just been the first time I walked in on my own steam.
“I’m sure,” I lied. “Now kiss me.”
Quaid kissed me, then he was pointing at my face. “Don’t overdo it.”
“I won’t,” I promised.
ThenQuaid was gone.
Hollis followed screaming at him. “Hey, give me back my baby!”
I giggled as I waited for the front door to slam.
WhenHollis came back, I was changing into a pair of jeans that were two sizes too small.
“You know,” I said as I tried in vain to get the pants zipped. “This would be a hell of a lot more fun if I had a small belly like you did.”
“Yeah, but at least you get to have the quintessential pregnancy. It was weird telling everyone I was due in how many ever months and them questioning whether I was crazy or not,” she grumbled.
I turned to stare at her as I slipped my t-shirt on next.
“So, where we’re actually going,” I said, “is to get our toes done. Then we’re going to meet Garnett for lunch. Followed by the spa, where we’re going to get waxed to an inch of our lives.”
“Garnett is doing that?” Hollis snickered.
“It was her idea!”
“So why did we lie to Quaid about where we were going?” Hollis asked as she fed Darlia.
“Because if he’d known that I’d planned on doing all of this, he would’ve insisted we have a Carter with us, and to be truthful, I’m getting a little bit overwhelmed with his overprotectiveness,” I admitted.
To be completely truthful, he was driving me bat shit crazy.
I couldn’t do anything, go anywhere, or even poop in peace.
Granted, I’d scared the man to death, but gosh. It would be nice to be somewhere that I could just be.
I was slowly being smothered to death, and he didn’t even know it.
“My son will do better,” Garnett promised as she reached for my hand.
I squeezed it back, feeling my heart flutter.
I loved this family.
I loved them as much as I loved mine.
“You didn’t see him, Ell.” Ande looked at me, having taken one cucumber off her eye. “He was beside himself. He walked into the ER with your good hand in his, and he looked like he’d taken a four-by-four to the face. He was in shock. He was scared. He was pretty much broken. Give him some time.”
I had given time.
AndI would continue to give him some time.
I just needed a break.
And this seemed the way to do it.
Plus…
“I also want to go and buy his wedding present,” I said. “I can’t do that if he’s with me.”
“What is it?” Ande questioned.
“A surprise.” I smiled.
“Who’s next?”
I looked up to find the owner of the spa standing there with waxing strips in her hand.
“Oh, me!” I smiled. “I’m next.”
She gestured me to come back, and I did, waddling my way back.
“How far along are you?” the owner smiled.
I patted my distended belly before saying, “Roughly thirty-one weeks or so. They don’t think I’ll make it to forty, but they’re holding out hope.”
She helped me onto her table, and then said, “Lean on back. Pull the robe up. We’ll get started on the inner right thigh first.”
It took me twenty minutes to get waxed and another five for her to bedazzle my vagina with Quaid’s name.
I’d thought about doing a diamond studded ‘Q’ but decided there were too many Qs in the family for me to go with that.
In the end, I’d gone with his entire name, and even though I couldn’t see it because of my belly, I knew that it was perfect.
“All done,” she said as she helped me sit up. “Massage next?”
I all but melted at her words. “Massage next.”
She led me down a low-light hallway, and my breath started to come out choppy.
But before I could get too nervous, she turned left into a room that was well lit.
“All right,” she said as she pointed to the table. “Face down on the table. Belly goes into that hole right there. Do you want music?”
I thought about it, then shook my head. “Nah. I’m good with silence.”
She nodded once, and then said, “Diem will be in shortly.”
And she was.
Though, Diem’s hands were much more manly than I’d expected.
But since the entire spa was run by women, I wasn’t too worried.
I did start to get a little nervous when she started to find all of my knots, as if she’d done it multiple times before.
The massage was so good, so precisely what I needed, that I started to get suspicious.
It was only when the familiar wave of fingers along the tip of my buttocks swept over the dimples of my ass that I realized that there was a man on the premises after all.
“You’re totally fired,” I grumbled.
“Why?” Quaid asked.
“How’d you know I’d be here?” I questioned.
ThenI groaned when he started to get into a particularly tight spot.
“Do you think I was born yesterday?” He chuckled. “BecauseI wasn’t. I was born thirty-plus years ago, and I know when you’re lying. I’ve been dealing with you too long not to know, Calamity.”
He had a point.
Still…
“I wanted to come here today because you’re smothering me,” I grumbled. “And today was a girl day with your family. I didn’t want to have any boys here.”
“They don’t know that I’m here,” he said. “Or that we’re going to be having a happy ending massage.”
I gasped when I felt his fingers dip a little lower.
“You’re actually going to follow through, Carter?” I challenged him.
He parted my thighs, and then I felt his mouth on my sex.
He spoke against my pussy, a laugh in his voice. “You had to get off bed rest first, Calamity.”
He was such a stickler for the rules.
If it’d been up to me, we’d have had sex two months ago.
“You’re supposed to be waiting until we’re married,” I tried.
He pulled away and bit my butt sharply, causing me to jolt. “You and I both know we got married four months ago in Arkansas, CalamityCarter.”
That was true.
It’d been something we’d done on a whim.
We’d had plenty of free time, and something to celebrate.
What better way to do that than to get married?
It’d only been him and me, and we promised each other after we’d had the city hall wedding that we wouldn’t speak a word of our early marriage to anyone.
We’d kept that promise, though I couldn’t say it’d been easy.
“This position,” he said. “We’re going to have to buy one of these massage beds.”
I had the ‘why’ on the tip of my tongue when I felt his cock at my entrance.
The breath that left me was audible as he pushed inside.
“Ohhh,” I groaned, loving the stretching burn of him filling me.
“Shh,” he urged. “We don’t want them to catch on.”
I covered my mouth with my hand as he slowly fucked me, his cock reaching somewhere deep so it felt like a firecracker was set off along my nerve endings.
“Hey, her massage sounds way better than mine!” I heard Hollis holler.
I made a sound deep in my throat, a combination of a cry of pleasure and a wheeze of laughter.
“Fuck, baby. You feel so good.” Quaid growled. “Hurry up and come so I can get back to work. I only have ten more minutes.”
I laughed at him. “Clearly you have no clue who you’re dealing with anymore. I’m savoring this…”
Except, my challenge only made him try harder.
With a swift buck of his hips, he hit me deep, reminding me of how good it’d been between us before everything had gone so wrong four months ago.
With a near silent cry, I came, unable to stop myself from succumbing to his ministrations.
The sigh that left him let me know he was just as needy as I was, and when he finally stilled deep inside me, he pulled me up and backwards until I was cuddled into his arms.
“I’ll see you at the altar tomorrow, Calamity.”
I smiled, rubbing my face along his jaw, before saying, “I’ll be the one in white.”