It’s been a month since Palmer and I started sneaking around. We barely get any alone time since that would entail asking her parents or Harper to babysit. Sometimes I wish my family didn’t live in the lower forty-eight. We sometimes manage to have some time alone during the day if Adley is at preschool, and I don’t have a lesson to teach, but Palmer has to finish her book so even that time is cut short.
Just as I’m thinking how I can make it happen, my phone dings.
She includes a picture of herself. Not showing anything, but it insinuates that she’s naked, at least on top.
I grab my keys and run out to my truck, speeding out of the driveway. Unfamiliar with the address, I put it in my GPS when I reach the first stop sign. It says it’s along the lake but on the other side. I didn’t even know this road existed.
I follow the directions, winding through the hills along a road that’s not for the inexperienced. Her SUV is parked on a gravel driveway in front of a little cabin that has a lot of character. Is this where she’s been going while writing her book? Her secret place?
I park my truck next to her SUV and climb out. I’m a tad skeptical as I walk along the pathway and knock on the arched door. Peeking into the window, I can’t see anything because the drapes are pulled shut.
The door creaks open, and Palmer peeks her head out. “Welcome.”
I step inside. “Where are we?” The question dies on my lips when I see that she’s wearing a lacy purple baby doll lingerie set. “Fuck, Palm.”
“Do you like it?”
“Is that really even a question?” I pull her to me. “You better take these off. Is it okay?” I touch her cochlear implants.
“Of course.” She removes her left one while I remove her right.
She leads me by the hand to a small bedroom in the back with only a queen-sized bed and a dresser.
“What is this place?” I ask, forgetting that she can’t hear me or see my lips.
She stops at the edge of the bed and turns around. Her fingers fiddle with my belt as I search my mind for any explanation as to whose cabin this is. My pants fall to the floor, then Palmer falls to her knees in front of me, hooking her fingers on either side of my boxer briefs and tugging them down my legs.
Who the hell cares whose place this is? She’s at eye level with my dick as I step out of my pants.
Palming my dick, she looks up at me. I try to convey with my eyes how much I love seeing her there.
She slides me between her lips, and shit, the warmth of her mouth makes me buck. Her tongue twirls around my shaft as she grips the base with her hand. She sucks, and my eyes close at the best sensation in this fucking world. Her head bobs and the sound of her saliva coating my cock echoes in the small space.
My hands itch to grab her head and fuck her mouth, but I clench them at my sides, barely hanging on. She keeps up the pace or gets faster, I’m not quite sure, but she works me until my balls draw tight. I want to come in her mouth so badly, to watch her take it all. But she’s wearing that lingerie, and I have the desperate urge to be inside her.
She looks up at me with her big eyes, and I stare at her. She’s so gorgeous and sexy—I can’t believe she’s mine.
“It feels so good.”
She must read my lips because she pulls herself off my dick and smiles before pumping and bobbing and sucking again. Unable to hold back anymore, I touch her face. She looks up at me again.
“I’m going to come,” I say, and she nods, not moving off my dick.
Fuck, she’s going to let me finish in her mouth.
A rush of heat travels up my back. I think of nothing but her and what she’s doing and the euphoria ripping through my body. I finish in her mouth, and she swallows all of it. My head rolls back, and my eyes close as I finally unleash the built-up tension.
She licks me clean, and I almost become hard again watching her. I urge her up and she comes willingly. I press my lips to hers, tasting myself on her tongue. Picking her up, I toss her on the bed, and she squeals.
She’s the picture of alluring perfection sprawled out on the bed with her long dark hair cascading over the pillow and a flirtatious grin on her face, the lace fabric teasing me with what’s hidden underneath. My knee lands on the mattress and it dips from my weight. We have an hour before I have to get Adley, and we’re going to make the most of that time.
Just as I lie on top of her, ready to kiss her, there’s a knock on the door.
I rear back, and her eyes widen, probably wondering about the shocked expression on my face.
“Someone’s at the door,” I say so she can read my lips.
Then there’s the sound of a key in the lock. I bolt up and slam the bedroom door, grabbing for my pants.
“What the fuck?” I say, but Palmer doesn’t hear me because she’s pulling a bag from the closet and tossing it on the bed. She shoves on some joggers over the lingerie and throws a hoodie over top.
I trip trying to get both legs into my pants and fall on the floor.
“Yoo-hoo!” a woman says. “Palmer?”
I stare at Palmer as she finger-combs her hair. Shit. Her cochlear implants are in the other room.
She walks across the room, laughing quietly. Stay here. Then she slides out the door, shutting it behind her.
A minute passes in which time she must put her implants in because I hear her say, “Alice, what are you doing here?”
Alice? As in Alice from Northern Lights Retirement Home? What the hell?
I get dressed, sit on the bed, and try to listen to their conversation.
After a few minutes, I question why I’m even hiding. My truck is parked outside, so surely Alice saw it.
While I wait to be let out of the bedroom, I look around the room, and finally, the pieces of whose cabin this might be come together. I see pictures of Palmer’s great-grandma Dori. I never got to meet her, but the family tells a lot of stories about her. I think I would have really liked her. Palmer has a picture in her family room of her with her great-grandma, so I recognize her. The man with Dori must be Palmer’s great-grandfather. So this was their place? How come I never knew about it? Palmer has never said anything to me.
I pick up my phone to kill some time, but I have no signal. I look up the Wi-Fi, but the network called Big D’s is password protected. Great. I huff, resting my back on the headboard.
My eyes catch on Palmer’s duffle bag strewn open on the bed, some clothes haphazardly shoved in. Her laptop peeks out. I reach for it. If she’s been working here, she must be on the Wi-Fi. I’ll surf the net or something to pass the time.
I situate myself on the bed and open the laptop. Her manuscript comes up, but I click on the internet. I’ve been wanting to get Adley a swing set for her birthday this year, so I search for a local place to check it out. Between all Palmer’s cousins and me, we should be able to build it with no problem.
Her manuscript tempts me though. I don’t want to pry, but I love reading her work, and she’s been so secretive about this book. Usually she’s asking for my opinion on different plot points or ideas she might have.
Reading a few paragraphs isn’t going to hurt.
Bea’s abdomen was getting bigger by the day and her libido was off the charts. She wanted to have sex, and the more she watched Pete around their apartment, the more her body screamed at her for not taking him to bed.
She didn’t want to give Pete the wrong idea. She knew he had feelings for her that went deeper than friendship, and no matter what, she wouldn’t toy with him. She had to put the baby first.
If she was truthful with herself, she’d admit that she loved Pete as more than a friend. There was no denying her attraction to him that first night at the bar. If Sarah hadn’t showed up that night, Bea wondered if they’d be a couple right now.
I frown, sitting back against the headboard. Is her story our story? It’s all so similar. That first night, my crazy ex showed up at that diner, knocking out my headlights. She had been clingy from the beginning, and I should’ve seen the writing on the wall. Palmer retreated after that, and I’d felt the wall go up, blocking me out.
I scroll down a few pages and read more.
Bea was a nervous wreck. She’d lost her job and knew no one would hire a person as pregnant as she was. Who was going to take the time to train a new employee when that employee was about to go on maternity leave? She’d been at home all night while Pete worked at the bar. She wrote down a list of options for herself, but she only saw one real one. One which wasn’t ideal.
How was she going to tell Pete she wanted to go home? She—they—needed a network of people to help them if they had any chance of making it. But she’d already taken away his snowboarding dream. She didn’t want to force him into a small town he had no link to or desire to be in.
She grabbed some food from their favorite Mexican restaurant and set it up on the small table. As she arranged the table, waiting for him to come home, she convinced herself that he didn’t have to come with her. He could be involved in her life with their daughter as much or as little as he wanted, but she had to go somewhere with help.
The door opened, and her stomach clenched. Now was the moment she’d been dreading since coming to the conclusion to return home.
Pete set his keys on the table by the door as always, and she heard him get out of his boots, placing them on their mat. And when the pads of his steps rang out, she thought she might throw up.
He came in and smiled at Bea, his gaze falling to her stomach. She felt his love for their child grow with every inch she grew. He’d place his hand on her stomach sometimes when they were watching television. He talked to her stomach and played music to it. At times, Bea felt jealous of the attention because, until this point, she had been Pete’s sole focus.
But she’d ruined her chance with Pete. Her fears had kept her from taking the chance of being with him. Now, this little girl who kicked her endlessly was priority number one. She needed a mom and a dad who loved one another and didn’t hurt her with their drama and issues. Bea could not afford to complicate their situation any further than it already was.
“Hey, what’s this?” Pete took in the table and looked at her quizzically.
She could admit she didn’t do nearly as much as she should for Pete. “I got us dinner.”
He didn’t say anything right away, but his smile dropped. “What is it, Bea? Is she okay?”
There was honest fear darkening his eyes. She couldn’t hold off anymore.
“I want to move back to my hometown.” She ripped off the Band-Aid, and his fearful look transformed into misery. Her heart missed a beat as she waited for him to respond.
“When do you want us to move?” he asked.
Yeah, she’d made a big mistake last year when she’d friend-zoned him. Pete was a catch, and she had been stupid enough to let him slip through her fingers. But at least she knew she’d always have him in her life now that they’d share parenting duties. Not ideal, but at least she didn’t have to give up the one person who knew her best and accepted all her faults. That was hard to come by.
I scroll a little more, and the character Bea returns home and surprises her family with the news of her being pregnant.
This is our story.
I listen again and still hear Palmer talking to Alice and some other people. God knows who.
She’s writing our story, and if it’s true, that means Palmer felt the same way Bea did. This entire time, I thought she didn’t have any feelings for me. That this revelation we’d come to was all new to her, but has she loved me the same way I have her all this time?
I can’t help but grieve the time lost but hope springs out of that grief. We’re not going to lose any more time with this wishy-washy crap. What I have in mind is bold, but this time, I’m not going to shy away from what I want with Palmer.