Chapter 14 #2
I chuckled. “You remembered.” When he was silent, I rolled onto my side and propped my head up on my elbow as I faced him. “You always got that mixed up in school. It’s good to see you remembered the rule.”
He rolled onto his side, too, extending a hand to slide a finger down my nose. “I had a good tutor. Whenever I got it right, she sucked the skin off my dick.”
“Oh my…stop it,” I said delivering a playful slap to his shoulder. “Don’t say it like that.”
Grinning he grabbed my hand, bringing my fingers to his lips for a light kiss. “Like what? That’s what you did, and I loved every minute of it.”
My cheeks warmed and I giggled. “You still don’t have to say it like that.”
“You are not shy about sex talk, Serra. Don’t forget you’re the one who asked me to fuck you until you forgot last night.” He gave me a serious look then. “Is that what’s going on in your head now? Did you start to remember all that shit that’s going on?”
I couldn’t lie, not when he was looking at me as if he could read my soul like tarot cards. I nodded and dropped my head.
“Stop it.” He hooked a finger under my chin and tilted it up until our gazes locked again. “Worrying isn’t going to change anything, except to make you sick if you let it. You’ve got a lawyer, right? One of your brothers or your father?”
“No. I didn’t want them involved.” It felt so good to be laying here with him. It felt right. “I hired my own attorney. And I’ve got a great publicist who I didn’t listen to.”
“Alright then, you’re handling it in every way you can.” He stroked his thumb over my chin. “Let them do their job and you do what you came here to do.”
I lifted a brow. “Hide?”
He shook his head. “Help your grandfather. I hear he’s been trying to take care of everything at the lake house by himself since your grandmother passed.”
“Yeah, and that’s not going too well. Grammy did so much at the restaurant, but she ran the lake house like a corporation.
I had to go through some of her old files to find the landscapers that Pop Pop stopped calling to take care of the property.
He thought he could do it himself, but that seated lawn mower is more powerful than he considered. ”
Noah chuckled. “That’s a lot of property for him to try and keep up with on his own. I can come over to help. Can probably bribe the guys with some beer and pizza to get them to come along.”
“Thanks, but that’s okay. The landscapers are coming Monday, and I have someone coming to look at the air conditioning unit. It’s muggy as hell in there, and summer hasn’t even officially hit yet. I’m not trying to be in there sweating bullets in a few weeks.”
“Oh yeah? You think you might need a whole new unit?”
“That’s what Pop Pop thinks, and that’s why he’s been ignoring it. Doesn’t want to pay the cost. But I’m gonna take care of it. He’s got asthma. The last thing he needs is to be in a sweltering house when he’s not down at the restaurant.”
“Did you take care of the tax bill when you were downtown that day?”
“I did.” I rolled my eyes. “That was a mess. Pop Pop swore he’d been paying those bills, but nope, there was no payment on record.” When he rolled onto his back, he looped an arm around my waist and pulled me until my top half was on his chest and one of my legs was draped over his.
“Yeah, well you pay attention to all the records from down there. I don’t trust those council members or anybody else in this town’s government for that matter.”
“Yeah, I heard. Rylan said you didn’t get the permits you applied for.”
He sighed heavily. “That bullshit has been annoying the fuck out of me, but I’m trying not to let it get to me. We have a plan B, so the event’s still gonna happen, just on a smaller scale and on the couple of blocks by the bar.”
A thought occurred to me as I listened to him talk, and I folded my arms over his chest, propping my chin up so I could see him when I said, “I’ve got an idea.”
His brows raised. “You wanna suck the skin off my dick?”
His tone was way too hopeful as he waggled his brows. I couldn’t help it, I blushed again and shook my head. “You’re incorrigible.”
“Only for you,” he replied and blew me a kiss.
I tried to ignore how that simple playful act had my heart stuttering and plummeting in my chest. “No.” I cleared my throat.
“I was thinking that it would be great if you could actually have your field day on a field. Or, you know, a big piece of land so you can have all the activities you planned to have before.”
He didn’t speak so I kept going. “And we can get Pop Pop to cater. Vera, the manager at Lakeside, is phenomenal. I could work with her to put together a great menu, and you and the guys can come out after the landscaper leaves and map out where you want to put everything. It’ll be so much fun!
Remember when we used to have those bonfires out there at the end of the summer? ”
“Yeah.” He nodded. “I do remember that. We used to do relay races down by the lake, then jump in once we were finished and all sweaty.”
“Yeah. See. This will work. Right? You don’t need any permits because it’s Pop Pop’s land.
All you’d have to do is re-route the vendors you already hired and change the location on any promo materials you already have out.
But, Noah, this will be fantastic. There’s no better place in town than the lake house. ”
He cupped my face and pulled me up to meet his where he placed a loud, wet kiss on my lips.
“It’s a fuckin’ fantastic idea! I’m gonna call the guys right now so we can meet up before the bar opens and run through the plans.
” He kissed me again and was just about to reach for his phone when it buzzed.
I could see the clock now and it was a little after six. We both frowned at the early notifications. The guys knew Noah worked out early in the morning and that he hated being disturbed during his workouts so if any of them were reaching out to him, there must be an emergency.
He grabbed the phone, swiped over it, then cursed.
Sitting up and taking me with him, he said, “Get your phone and call your publicist. Now.”