Chapter 8
Chapter
Eight
Mr. Cocky Biker: Pick up your phone! Call me!
Mr. Cocky Biker: This is getting ridiculous! Just tell me what’s wrong!
Mr. Cocky Biker: Trixie, baby, please. You can’t see it, but I am on my knees begging.
Mr. Cocky Biker: Please, just call me. You wouldn’t even look at me today.
Mr. Cocky Biker: Tell me what I did or didn’t do or whatever happened. Please.
Mr. Cocky Biker: I’m starting to get pissed and I don’t want to be. If you would just TALK to me…
The text messages just kept going. Her cell phone had just as many missed calls and voicemails. He wasn’t giving up. Trixie didn’t know how she felt about that. He was fighting for them, so why wasn’t she?
She kept replaying Sunday night in her head.
Cayden had gone upstairs to get something, something special.
Then Geordi came running up to her from the kitchen with his childish grin.
“I’m so excited, Ms. Trixie. Cayden said I could be his best man at your wedding! ” And her entire world had plummeted.
Trixie was willing to admit she’d fallen in love with Cayden. It truly hadn’t been that hard to do. He was an easy man to love. But marriage?
She’d seen the bitter sides of marriage.
Her mother had left her husband with four kids to raise on his own.
That ring on her finger hadn’t prohibited her from abandoning them.
Addy and AJ had been headed to the altar and the ring he’d placed on her finger hadn’t prevented those cuffs from going around his wrists.
If anything, that ring had put them there.
Marco and Lindsey had made it down the aisle and he’d still been shot.
Marriage? What was Cayden thinking? He was still on parole, not that that truly mattered, but it was still a factor.
Plus, they’d only known each other a little over a month.
A month! Well, known each other closer to two months, but they’d only been seeing each other officially for a month.
Their missed weekend had been only their fifth and he wanted them to get married?
Trixie really wished she had some alcohol. Her Rocky Road just was not cutting it.
She saw her phone buzz with a message. It was Cayden. Her head tilted though, because the message was in all caps.
Mr. Cocky Biker: PICK UP THE FUCKING PHONE!
Her ringtone immediately started to sing. Trixie turned the screen over, which did nothing to silence the song. A few seconds after it stopped, she heard the dual beeping that indicated she had yet another voicemail.
She wasn’t being fair to him. She knew that. She needed to put on her big girl pants and tell him the truth. But once she did, she feared they would be over. He wanted marriage and she…didn’t. There was no getting around that, no getting over it. Dealbreaker.
She knew she was torturing herself by listening to his voicemails. As twisted as it was, though, she needed to hear his voice. His baritone brought her comfort, even when his words didn’t.
“Baby, listen, I talked to Geordi.” That got her attention.
She sat up straighter. “What he said, well, he was confused. He doesn’t…
He doesn’t understand things the way you or I would.
To him, we’re getting married because I’ve been spending the weekends with you.
In his head, a man and a woman only get together if they’re getting married.
I don’t know why you couldn’t talk to me about this or why you felt you needed to shut me out.
Believe me, I am not happy about that, but please, talk to me now.
I swear, I’m not going to pop the question and I…
Oh, hell, I don’t know what I’m trying to say. Please, Trix, just call me.”
Well, fuck.
With a shaky hand, Trixie pressed the button to call him back.
“Finally! You really know how to drive a man to the brink of sanity!”
Trixie closed her eyes, feeling her chin quiver. “I’m sorry.”
She heard his sigh. “Baby, it’s okay. I freaked a bit too when Geordi first said it to me. Mind, I think he has our wedding pretty much planned out if you ever want any pointers.” A wet laugh escaped her. “Trix, I’m not proposing.”
She nodded, even though he couldn’t see it. “I’m sorry.”
There was a small pause. “Damn, I wish I could hold you right now. Listen, I’ll be there bright and early in the morning. I’ll tell Mr. Wynn we have a delivery or something coming in. I’ll be there around seven. Please, baby, just get some sleep. I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Cayden,” she said quickly, not wanting him to hang up the phone just yet.
“Yeah?”
“Are you… I mean, are you mad at me?”
He let out a long breath. “Well I’m certainly not happy about the silent treatment. It was a misunderstanding that could have been completely avoided if you’d just talked to me.”
Sorrow and guilt warred within her. She deserved him to be mad at her. She’d acted like a child rather than a woman in an adult relationship. “Cayden?”
“Yeah?”
She glanced down at herself and then said, “I’m not wearing panties.”
Mr. Wynn pulled into the Romero’s parking lot at seven-o-two the next morning. Cayden nearly leaped out of the truck before it came to a full stop. “A delivery, really?”
Cayden gave him a sly smile. “A very important delivery.”
Mr. Wynn rolled his eyes. “Don’t forget to have her fill out that furlough paperwork.”
Never. It was currently burning a hole in his back pocket. “Thanks for the ride.”
He didn’t watch to see Mr. Wynn drive off. He rushed to the employee door and punched in his code. She was waiting for him on the other side. Cayden’s shoulders slumped the moment he saw her red eyes. Despite their phone sex, he’d had a feeling she had cried herself to sleep.
He took her into his arms, letting the door close behind him. She clung to him, fisting the back of his shirt. Cayden picked her up and walked them upstairs to her office. He sat them down in her office chair, cradling her close.
They stayed there in silence for nearly ten minutes. He was wondering if she’d fallen back to sleep when she took his right hand between her two on her lap.
He wasn’t sure how she’d take it, but he needed to say it. “So, apparently marriage is a sore subject with you.”
Her dry giggle lifted the boulder that had been sitting on his chest since Sunday evening. “I’m sorry.”
He pressed his lips to her forehead. “You keep saying that, but you haven’t told me why.”
She let out a long sigh. “Let’s just say that my family hasn’t had a good history with marriage.”
“Vague,” he responded. Cayden really was going to need more than that. He planned to pry the entire family history from her this weekend. They didn’t have enough time. “You thought I went upstairs to get a ring?”
She nodded against his chest. “I’m a total bitch. I’m so sorry for giving you the silent treatment. You deserved better than that.”
“I’m not happy about it, but please don’t call yourself that. You are the least bitchy person I know.”
“Doesn’t mean I can’t act like one.”
“Look at me.” He waited for her to lift her chocolate eyes.
“You and me, we got a lot of baggage to work through, but I mean to work through it. With you. Trix, you’re it for me.
” Her breath hitched. “I am not proposing so stop looking at me like that.” She relaxed slightly.
“I just mean that I’m in this for the long haul.
But,” he added, tipping her head up further, “I need to know that you are too. I need to know that the next time something scares you that you aren’t going to run from me.
You need to talk to me. Otherwise, we’re doomed before we start. ”
She nodded, though she’d dropped her eyes again. “I know. I messed up.”
Cayden rested his cheek against the top of her head.
“Just a bit.” He took a deep breath before admitting, “But I did too. You went silent on me, and I panicked. It’s not easy for me to be forced to a schedule and curfew like I’m some fucking child.
You wouldn’t talk to me, and I didn’t know if it was something I did or if something had happened to you and I just…
Well, I’m sorry for all the phone calls and texts. ”
Her giggle was a symphony to his ears. “So what you’re saying is we’re both not perfect?”
He snorted. “You’re the closest thing to it in my book.”
“Um, can I ask…” She paused. “If you weren’t going upstairs to get a ring, why did you go up?”
He raised an eyebrow though she couldn’t see it. “I don’t think that’s how this works. You mess up and you still expect a gift?”
Trixie slapped his chest lightly. “I’m just curious.”
He shook his head. “Nope. I think you owe me a present.”
“How about a pink slip?”
He gasped. “Ouch. I take back that not-a-bitch comment.”
She grinned. “Really? You’re not going to show me?”
Cayden shook his head. “Nope. Once you’re back in my good graces, maybe I’ll give you your present.”
Trixie shifted on his lap, straddling his hips. “I know exactly how to get back into your good graces.”
The office chair wasn’t big enough for them to comfortably do this, so Cayden picked her up and plopped her bottom on her desk. He kept his hips between her legs and hovered over her. “Are you saying I’m easy?”
She nodded mischievously. “So easy.”
He met her smile with one of his. “You know this will be a first for me.”
Confusion crossed her face. “What will?”
He unzipped his jeans. “Make-up sex.”
When Jeff came knocking on her office door a few minutes after eight, Cayden was helping her button-up her coveralls. She winced at the sound. “I owe them an apology too.”
“We do,” he corrected. He’d also been a bear these past couple of days.
“What do you want me to tell them?”
She was wrinkling her nose in worry, so he kissed it. “Well, we can leave out the non-existent marriage proposal detail, but we can tell them the rest.”
“Everything?”
He nodded. “I’m not ashamed of us, and I have no desire to lie about my past. You trust me, and that’s enough for me.”