Chapter Seven

 

 

When Hindsight Is a Sweet Dream

The nearly three-hour flight and subsequent trek through massive-ass Hobby Airport drained the little bit of energy I had left over from…consummating my union to the enigmatic Jereth. My limbs were sore and my pussy was so sensitive that every brush of fabric against my skin set my teeth on edge. I’d had to take my panties off in the bathroom before we boarded the plane just to get some relief, thankful that the shorts I’d chosen to wear were loosely fitted. I’d managed to catch a nap once we’d reach cruising altitude but it was restless and unsatisfying. From the moment we touched down until I walked through the door of the home I shared with my sisters, I was crashing. Traveling always did it to me, but it felt expounded because of what I’d done and what I’d left in Nevada.

After a quick shower, I fell into bed feeling surprisingly melancholy. Impulsive wasn’t a word I’d ever used to describe myself and especially not after I became a divorcee and a mother at twenty. Once my decisions started to directly affect someone else’s life, every move I made became calculated and planned. Until now. What the hell had I been thinking?

Just as I began to descend into a deep, dark pit of shame and regret, the vibration of my phone on the bed next to me caught my attention. Thinking it was my son calling to see what time I was picking him up from his dad’s house tomorrow, I snatched it up, sliding my thumb across the screen and bringing it to my ear without checking the display.

“Hey, baby.”

“Nicknames already? I guess I sent you off right.”

I sucked in a breath, heart beating way too fast for me to just be lying on the bed doing not a damn thing.

“Jereth,” I said, sounding breathless to my own ears as my eyes closed and I sank deeper into my covers. “Hey.”

“You made it home?”

I nodded, though he couldn’t see me. “Yes.”

“So, why didn’t you call me?”

My eyes popped open at the question. “Uh. I didn’t think to do that.”

“I asked you to call me when you made it back so I could know you got home safely.”

That’s right. As soon as the words left his mouth I remembered his request. He’d made it just after giving me a goodbye kiss that made me want to drag him back to the hotel. The memory of it made my skin heat.

“I completely forgot about that. I apologize.” It was quiet for a moment, and I wondered if he was really upset that I hadn’t called him. Just as I took a breath to ask him, he spoke.

“It’s almost midnight there, right?”

“Mmhm.”

“You in bed?”

“Mmmhm. What about you?” Wherever he was, I could hear a lot of noise in the background. Not so much that he had to speak up to be heard, but enough that I got the idea he was outside on the streets of Las Vegas. Probably on The Strip, where his hotel is located.

“I’m heading back to my hotel from the arena. The game is over and the West won, as usual.” He chuckled but I had no idea what that even meant. I didn’t keep up with sports outside of the ones my baby played. “Man, the streets are so packed that our car had to drop us off a mile away from the hotel because we couldn’t get any closer. It’s insane. We’re walking back now.”

“Oh, that’s what all that noise is.”

“Yeah, the sidewalks are full of people. Everyone is discussing that good-ass game.”

“I guess your team won.”

He laughed again. “Your team won, too. Houston had two players on the team this year.”

I shrugged, though he couldn’t see me. “Oh. Well, good for them.”

This time his laugh was heartily amused, stirring up a heaviness in my belly. I liked this sound. It was a guttural, carefree thing that bubbled up out of him and wafted over me.

“Okay, I see you aren’t a basketball fan. Tell me something else about yourself.”

I shifted, pulling my comforter up and tucking it under my chin. “What do you want to know?”

“Everything. What’s your favorite season?”

“Well, we don’t really get seasons in Houston anymore. We used to have everything but winter; now we get summer, diet summer, black ice, and summer with rain. If I had to choose from those four, I’d pick…summer with rain. Even though it’s humid as hell and screws up any hairstyle I call myself trying to rock—except braids, of course—at least the ten minutes or ten days of rain bring some kind of relief. Until it starts to flood then it’s the end-of-days, and the whole city goes into a panicked rescue mode. Which, in their defense, is warranted because the flooding gets so, so bad. Like, cars-under-water-and-boats-are-the-only-transportation-that-matter bad. But summer with rain is the lesser of four evils, I think.”

His laughter brought a smile to my face, and I just knew my teeth were gleaming in the darkness of my bedroom.

“Are your only siblings the two sisters I met?”

“Yep. It’s just me and my woes. Established in nineteen-eighty-something or other.”

“Something or other?”

“Mmhm. Those heifers act really funny about their age, so I just say something or other so I don’t have to hear their mouths. Let Toy tell it and she’s a damn nineties baby. Ol’ lyin’ ass.”

The sounds of cars and loud talking around Jereth suddenly died out, and I heard a clear, authoritative voice welcome him to his hotel. Jereth asked me to hold while he thanked the man.

“How old are they?”

I heard the ding of an elevator opening and expected him to put me on hold again but he didn’t. “We’re all two years apart. Toy is twenty-nine and Tasha is twenty-seven.”

“That’s kind of like me and my brothers. J is two years older than me, but I’m only a year older than my baby brother.”

My eyes watered as I attempted to suppress a yawn. It was well after one o’clock in the morning, and I had to be at the shop in less than five hours. The smart thing to do would be to get off of the phone, but my actions over the weekend had already proven me to be a few fries short of a Happy Meal.

“It’s a good age gap for when kids are babies. I wish I had been able to have a second one when Wisdom was around two.”

There was a pause then, “You want more children?”

“Nope. No sir. Not at all. I wanted another one many years ago, but that was because I didn’t want my baby to be an only child. That ship has sailed now, at least on my end. I have no doubt that his father’s girlfriend will try to squeeze out at least one child, if not to lock Evan down for an extra eighteen years at least.” I chuckled at the thought, but my words were becoming airy and slurred as I floated toward unconsciousness.

“That’s good to know.”

In the state I was in, I couldn’t tell if he was annoyed or disappointed by my answer, and I was too tired to be worried about it either way.

“Did you want kids?”

“I never considered them. Honestly, I wasn’t sure if I’d ever be in a position to have them. If you would have said you wanted more then I’d give you as many as you want but hearing that you don’t doesn’t affect me in a negative way. Besides, before we even start to think about babies, we need to get to know each other better or at least longer than a day.”

No matter how true that was, it was an interesting comment coming from a man who’d proposed marriage to a complete stranger. I wanted to ask him about that, to get clarity, but just as I started to answer him, I let out a huge yawn that wouldn’t be suppressed and made my eyes water, and my exhaustion made me shorten my response. “Ouu eye.”

“Uh…what?”

As soon as it passed I groaned. “You’re right.”

His laugh sounded low and husky to my ears. “Alright, you’re halfway asleep already so I’ll let you go.”

“Mmkay.”

He wasn’t getting any argument out of me.

“See you soon,” was his reply and the thought of seeing him again excited me, but I was too far gone to ask what he meant by “soon”. I hummed something that hopefully sounded like “Okay” and, managing to plug my phone up and drop it on the nightstand, I was asleep moments after my head hit the pillow.