| |
Blair
“Girlfriend?” I ask with a grin when Brede ends the call with who I assume was his foster parents in Kentucky that he told me about.
“Ah, yeah,” he says, glancing away and looking uncomfortable as his fingers trail absently over his forearm. “I mean, you are the only living woman I’ve permanently tattooed into my skin.”
“Living?” I ask in confusion.
Coming closer to my chair, he lifts the cuff of his right t-shirt sleeve, revealing all of the tall, weeping angel on his upper arm.
“Your mother?” I ask him.
“Yeah. Not that I remember what she looked like, but I remember the pictures my dad had...”
“She was beautiful,” I tell him, standing up to run my fingers over her long dress. Remembering the prison bars and number on his other arm, my hand goes to it. “This for your dad?”
“It is,” he tells me. “I hated him after what happened because our whole family came apart, but I did look up to him before that. He was a good man, a good dad to us.”
“I think she was pregnant,” I blurt out.
“Who?” Brede asks, his brow furrowed.
“My mother, the day that she...”
“Wait. You think she was pregnant, like, with my dad’s baby?” he asks, his jaw hanging open.
I nod, sitting back down with my legs tucked underneath me.
“Last night, when I...blacked out, I was back there that day in the kitchen. I mean, I’ve relived the scene a thousand times or more, so I’m not sure how I missed it, but I think she was trying to tell my father she was pregnant. And he interrupted her, saying he knew it wasn’t his. Then he...” My body shivers at the reminder. “He stabbed her in the stomach.”
“Fuck. I’m so sorry you had to see that,” Brede says before he leans down and wraps me in his arms. “And I can’t believe...we would’ve had a brother or sister together?”
“Yeah,” I say on an exhale. “Could you imagine in an alternate universe, all of us growing up in a Brady Bunch family under one roof?”
Brede chuckles. “My dad would’ve probably ended up killing me for sleeping with my step-sister.”
I laugh against his chest, wishing we could have all had that life together.
“I also remembered you and Aden from the pool.”
“When I saw my dad, he told me you were the one we always saw there, and I never knew.”
“I didn’t know your names, but one of you would splash me in my face every chance he got, and the other circled me, pretending to be a shark, which I thought was hilarious.”
“I was the shark!” Brede says, pulling away to look down at me with a smile. “I guess I’ve always been the predator chasing you as my prey.”
“You have,” I reply, reaching for his shoulders to pull him down to me so I can kiss him. Eventually, Brede drops to his knees on the floor and then pulls me down so that I’m straddling his waist, with no panties since the ones from yesterday were ruined.
“You’re so damn tempting,” Brede says against my lips with one of his hands flat against my back, and the other sliding up my thigh, under my dress. “And tomorrow, this pussy is mine,” he promises, easing a fingertip over my clit before pulling it away, teasing me. But this kiss with him is different. While I want to pull his cock out of his pants and ride him, I also just like being held and kissed softly and sweetly.
Still on the floor making out is where Aden finds us some time later.
“Let’s go,” he says, setting a white bag on the bed. “You wanna take this first?” He tosses a box at us that Brede catches in the air with one hand before telling Aden we’ll be right out.
After he’s gone, Brede looks at the morning after pill box thoughtfully. I assume he’s reading the directions, before he says, “I don’t want you to take it.”
“What?” I ask in confusion.
“It’s your decision, and I know that you’re really fucking young and that life hasn’t been easy for you, but I promise you it’s gonna get better.”
Whoa. Is he seriously saying that he wants me to get pregnant?
“You look shocked,” he tells me, stroking his thumb over my cheek.
“Um...” Words fail me the first few tries because I’m too overwhelmed by his pronouncement. “So, does that mean that you’re gonna be sticking around indefinitely? What if it’s Aden’s?” I eventually ask.
“There’s no reason you should trust me after everything that’s happened. But I’m not going anywhere, even if it’s his. It doesn’t matter. Thinking about losing you...nothing has ever hurt so much,” he says with a shake of his head. Tearing open the side of the box, Brede removes the foil that holds a single, life-changing pill, and offers it to me. “Hell, maybe...maybe I’m just tired of dealing with so much death, and now I’m craving a little life. But here, you decide. ”
After I take the pill from his fingers, he lifts me off his lap and sits me on the floor next to him so he can get up. Rummaging through the big bag Aden brought in, Brede pulls on a clean pair of boxer briefs, jeans, and a white tee before slipping on his boots and signature black leather jacket.
“Come on out when you’re dressed and ready,” he says, tossing a clean dress, panties, and sandals down next to me before throwing his old clothes in the bag and walking out the door.
I sit there on the carpet with my back against the bed, holding the foil-covered pill in my hand. For most girls my age, the last thing they probably want is the weight of responsibility that comes with a baby, being tied down, while they lose out on the future they had planned of going to college and partying with friends. But after having nothing in my life but four walls for ten years, all I want is the comfort and stability of a regular family life. Even with all the possibilities in the world open to me, that’s what I want most. I may be crazy and naïve, but Brede is who I want for the rest of my life. Whether or not the wandering man is actually capable of being tied down to a wife and kids, I’m not entirely sure. But even if one day he takes off, I wouldn’t be left behind all alone. Part of him would still be there with me.
Getting to my feet, I change into the clean clothes, thankful to have shoes on my feet again, and grab my family’s photo album we brought in last night. Then I walk out the hotel door, finding Brede and Aden waiting in none other than a black mini-van with tinted windows. If they’re going for inconspicuous, this definitely works.
Shaking my head, I pull open the passenger sliding door and climb inside the bench seat beside Brede.
“Ready?” he asks, and I know his icy blue eyes are questioning more than am I just ready to go.
Reaching for his hand, I place the unopened foil holding the pill into his palm.
“Yeah, let’s go,” I tell him and Aden.
Without looking down, Brede flashes me a grin before slipping the pill into his front jean pocket.
“I don’t know about you two, but I’m starving,” I say, rubbing my grumbling stomach, and imagining what it might feel like in a few months, swollen with the life we created.
“Food first and then Kentucky,” Aden agrees, before backing out of the parking space and pulling away.
