Chapter 26 #2
Instead, I’m taking advantage of the opportunity to occasionally brush a kiss to Cricket’s neck too.
Torturing both of us, based on the way her breathing hitches.
“Does Lav always dress herself so easily?” Cricket asks breathily.
“No.”
“Didn’t think so.”
“She has plans if she’s willingly dressing herself.” I kiss her neck again.
Her breathing gets more unsteady. “She had a look when she knocked on my door this morning.”
“Sorry she woke you. We’ve talked about how she needs to respect your space.”
“I was already awake. And she’s fun. I don’t mind.”
I shoot a look down the hallway, and when I don’t see Lav, I lower my voice even more and nuzzle her neck. “Can I come see you again tonight?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll leave a box of condoms in your nightstand.”
She shivers. “Make it a big box.”
“This isn’t a date.”
“You’ve made that clear.”
“But I want to—”
“Ladies and gentlemen, cats and girls, introducing the new, only and one, never-deducted, Lavender the Dragon Slayer Princess,” my daughter crows as she runs down the hallway back to us.
I leap back and adjust the boner in my pants.
Cricket straightens and reaches for her coffee cup, which she manages to grab without knocking it over.
Lav’s in a dress printed with the dragon and the princess from The Paper Bag Princess, and she has bright pink lipstick both on her lips and in two circles on her cheeks.
Cricket sets her coffee back down and claps and whistles like she’s at a hockey game.
But if her cheeks go that shade of pink at a hockey game, and if her eyes get that dark and smoky at a hockey game—fuck.
No.
I did that.
I turned her on.
“Three cheers for Lavender the dragon-slaying princess!” Cricket says, her voice higher than normal.
Lav curtsies, then bows, then bows again, then lifts her arm straight out. “You may kiss my hand.”
I bend and kiss her hand. “My lady.”
“Good sir, you’re late on your duties. Braid Cricket’s hair, please.”
“Is that a new dress?” Cricket asks her while I straighten and get back to torturing myself by parting Cricket’s hair and starting her braids, this time without being able to kiss her.
“Elizabeth gave it to me,” Lav says. “I don’t like dresses, but I like this one. It has pockets.”
“Pockets are key for dresses,” Cricket says. “Do you slay dishes too? Or just dragons?”
Lav giggles, then heads to the sink and starts loading the dishwasher.
I pause.
This is new.
“Don’t act so shocked, Dad,” Lav says. “Girls can do dishes too.”
Cricket chokes on her coffee.
“I— Yes. Of course. Thank you,” I say to my daughter.
Without sarcasm, for the record.
Not easy.
“Elizabeth taught me to load the dishwasher too,” Lav says. “I’m sad she’s leaving. Do you think she’ll still send me a birthday present?”
“Whether she does or doesn’t, we’ve been fortunate to get to know her this month,” I say.
“Cricket, when you leave, will you send me birthday presents?” Lav asks.
My heart thuds and falls out of my chest.
And I realize the other problem with dating Cricket.
I can’t date anyone when the winery overall is on such tenuous ground.
If we don’t make enough putting on this wedding, if we can’t find the right investor, if something else breaks—then we’re all scattering to the wind again.
It’s na?ve at best to think that this thing with Cricket would continue if we all had to move.
“I’m not thinking of leaving anytime soon,” Cricket says. “I just asked Ginny for a job with the grapes.”
That has my heart picking itself back up off the floor. “You did?”
She nods, catches herself moving her head, and goes still again for me as her hairdresser.
Whoops.
Gonna have to redo that braid.
How terrible to have to keep touching her hair.
“I did,” she says. “I’ve liked working in the garden so much that I asked her if I could learn to manage the grapes too. It’s…a little uncertain right now…but we’re talking to Mabel about it today.”
If she’s taking on the grapes—
One day at a time, dummy, I remind myself.
But Cricket talking about taking over the grapes means she wants to stay.
If we get an investor.
If nothing else breaks.
If we book enough events.
Fuck moving. Fuck all the reasons it might still be a good idea.
I want to stay. I want to stay and do my part. I want to be part of this family.
“Why do the grapes need so much help?” Lav asks.
Cricket launches into an explanation of how individual plants die and need to be replaced, how they sometimes get sick and need medicine, how someone has to watch the grapes grow and make sure they get picked at the right time, while I accidentally mess up her braids four more times.
But eventually, Lav starts shooting me funny looks, so I finish up Cricket’s hair, she finishes up her explanation of the grapes, and Lav asks her to walk with us to the main house.
“I still have to shower,” Cricket says, which doesn’t do anything to calm the vivid images racing through my imagination or the way my dick leaps to attention either. “But I’ll meet you over there after I’m cleaned up and have checked on The Cluckinator.”
“Okey dokey, hokeypokey,” Lav says.
Cricket gives Lav’s braid a playful tug. “Later-tater, alligator. Thanks for telling me about your dream and letting me have breakfast up here.”
“You’re welcome.”
Cricket glances up at me and smiles again. “Later, Heath.”
I grunt in response like a freaking caveman, which makes her smile even bigger.
And then I remember I have work to do today.
I can’t follow her around like a lost chicken.
And I shouldn’t want to.
Not when I have other, more critical things to worry about in life beyond having feelings for a woman for the first time in forever.