| |
“That dinner, ladies, was wondrous.” Sawyer set down his knife and fork, flopping back in his chair with a sigh. “I don’t think I can ever move again.”
Beside him, Sam mumbled an agreement around a mouthful of strawberry shortcake. Charlotte caught Carmen’s eyes and smiled slyly; she had eaten nearly as much as the men. Carmen knew the two of them were destined to be great friends. Sam was still shovelling cake into his mouth. He looked rested today, had shaved and tamed his hair. Finally, he sat back and pushed his plate away, caught Carmen watching him and cocked his head, one brow raised in question.
“Charlotte made the cake,” Carmen supplied, though everyone already knew it. To her delight and in confirmation to her suspicions, a flush of colour washed over Sam’s cheeks.
“So, Carmen,” he narrowed his eyes at her, a teasing glint in their blue depths. “Has Sawyer shown you his old room yet?”
“Why, no, Sam, he has not.”
“Well, perhaps you can be the first non-mom female to enter it.”
Sawyer scowled at his brother. “Just because I’m a gentleman doesn’t mean I’ve never had a girl in there.”
Sam ignored him. “When you go in, make sure you check out the poster on the back of the door. Oh! And don’t forget the action figure collection in the closet. Just don’t touch the boxes, though—he’ll crap his pants.”
Sawyer reached over and smacked his brother. “They lose their value if the box is open!”
“Now, you two.” There was no heat to Alice’s reprimand. She practically vibrated with delight at her sons and their bickering. It seemed a rare thing for them to be eating here together. The whole evening must have been laden with memories for her.
“Sawyer, show Carmen your room and then join us outside for a drink on the porch.” Alice turned her gaze on Sam, who sunk his six-foot three-inch frame lower in his chair as if he could avoid her notice. “Sam, honey, take Charlotte outside and show her my new roses.” It was not a request.
Sam’s cheeks turned the same shade as the blooms in question, but he nodded. “Yes, Ma.”
“Are you sure, Alice?” Charlotte stood and gathered plates. “I should help you with these.”
“No, no, you worked all day. Go with Sammy.” Alice speared her silent husband with a look that spoke volumes. “Dan will help me with these.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Dan rumbled and pushed away from the table, stooping to kiss his wife on the cheek as he passed. Alice pressed a stack of plates into his hands and smacked his butt solidly as he headed for the kitchen. Sam and Sawyer both let out disgusted groans, Charlotte let her gaze linger a tad too long on Dan’s rear, and Carmen’s eyes kept straying back to the couple. Envy warred with joy and sadness in her chest. Their blatant love was infectious.
She could not help but smile, and yet her mind reached back, sought some point in her childhood when she had witnessed a similar display between her own parents. She came up with nothing. Was it really no wonder she had failed so miserably in her own relationships? Carmen shook her head. Blaming her parents for her mistakes was juvenile. She took a deep breath and caught Sawyer’s eyes. He cocked his head in a gesture so like the one Sam had given her. She laughed out loud.
“Well, let’s see that room.” Carmen stood and stretched, moving behind his chair to kiss the crown of his head.
“None of you people seem to remember me saying I would not be moving,” he grumbled, but he pushed to his feet and tucked Carmen’s hand into the crook of his arm. “Come on, then. Take my room’s virginity.”
“I don’t believe there hasn’t been a girl in there, not for a second,” Carmen assured him, watching the denim of his jeans pull tight as he ascended the stairs ahead of her.
****
“YOU HAVE MORE NEW KIDS on the Block posters than I ever did, even as a tween.” Carmen turned a circle in the middle of the room, drinking in all of Sawyer’s boyhood secrets with glee.
“There’s only one!” Sawyer protested, flopping backward on the bed with a smirk. He tucked his hands behind his head and watched her examine his room.
“My point exactly. And are those”—she pulled the pillow out from under his head and inspected the faded cotton case—“Yoda?”
“Sleep well on them, you will,” he squeaked, dissolving into laughter when Carmen threw the pillow at his head.
“Oh my God, you’re going to get along so well with Jake.” Carmen shook her head and picked up a photo from the bedside table. Sawyer remained quiet. She looked at him. He was watching her with such blatant hope, Carmen’s throat went tight. “What?”
“You think I’ll get to meet him?” Sawyer picked at a stray thread on the quilt. “Your brother?”
“Yes.” She moved to the bed and brushed a hand over the hair that fell across his cheek. “And Marcy and Dad. If I’m angry with you, I’ll even let you meet Mother.”
Without warning, he snagged her around the waist and pulled her down on top of him. The old twin bed frame gave a groan of complaint at the sudden increase of weight.
“Guess we overate.” Sawyer chuckled against Carmen’s lips before he kissed her. His tongue searched out hers, dipping past her lips and trailing the sweetness of strawberries around both their mouths. Carmen shuddered, her body flaring at the solid warmth of him beneath hers. Big palms skimmed her hips, cupped the swell of her butt, and squeezed. He ground upward against her, and she gave a yip of surprise and desire at the hard, urgent length of him.
“I thought you were too full to move,” she breathed, pulling her mouth away from his and running his lips over the sensitive skin under his upturned jaw. He made a noise deep in his throat that vibrated through them both.
“You know how long I waited to have a beautiful girl in this bed?” He bucked against Carmen again and slid his rough palms up the back of her bare thighs. “And here you are, in your little sundress, no trouble at all to just—” Two fingers flipped the blue material upward, exposing her butt. “Darn, you wore underwear today.” Before she could respond, he kissed her again, stealing the breath from her lungs and good sense from her brain.
Carmen’s breath was coming in gasps by the time she pulled away again. “What if someone catches us?” She glanced at the door. He had closed it when they came into the room. He had been plotting this all along. She was sure of it.
“They won’t come in. They’re not stupid.” His hands slipped around, moving between them as he worked at his fly. “Lose the panties.” The husky tone in his voice strummed her body like a touch. She shivered and did as she was told. When she rolled back on top of him, Sawyer had pulled his jeans down to his knees. “I want to be inside you, Carmen. I need to be inside of you.”
“Oh.” Carmen glanced once more at the door, and back to Sawyer. Drinking in the sight of him. He was so beautiful, so sexy, it made her heart pound. The pounding moved down through her body until it pulsed between her legs.
Without taking his eyes from hers, Sawyer put a hand on each of her hips and lifted. Eased her down to sheath his straining hardness within her body. Carmen’s head lolled. She fisted both hands against his chest to steady herself, ignoring Sawyer’s hiss of breath when she caught his chest hair between her fingers.
He filled her, stretched her to the limits, and she thought she would go crazy with the need of him. The boyhood room dimmed around them as she moved, the struggle for silence increasing the urge to give voice to sensation. Lights burst behind her lids, her body spasmed around him and she collapsed forward, burying her cries against his neck as he clung to her, shuddering. Falling with her into the abyss.
****
CHARLOTTE WAS IN THE kitchen, pouring wine when Sawyer and Carmen came back down the stairs. She gave Carmen a once-over and bent double in a burst of laughter. “Here,” she beckoned Carmen closer and, between giggles, ran her fingers through Carmen’s hair in a futile attempt to straighten the wild mess.
Sawyer sauntered to the fridge, whistling as he gathered his own hair and tied it back. “Is there any more cake?” he asked, sticking his head inside.
Charlotte let out another snort and adjusted the strap on Carmen’s sundress. “I think you’ve had quite enough dessert, mister.” She winked at Carmen, and at her scowl, dissolved into more giggles. “Sam tried to get me to make a bet on how long you guys would be.” Charlotte stepped back and surveyed her appearance. “I, of course, am a lady, and declined . . . but he upped the stakes to a bottle of wine.” She shrugged and held both hand palms to the ceiling. “It left me with no choice. I really like wine.”
Carmen’s face burned from whisker chafe and embarrassment, but she poured a glass of wine and allowed Charlotte and Sawyer to lead her out to the porch. Sam and Dan lounged in chairs on the lawn, eyes closed, while Alice puttered around plucking at various blooms around the garden. Carmen had yet to see the woman sit still. Charlotte dropped into the lounge chair beside Sam, startling him out of a half doze.
“You owe me a bottle of red, Stevenson,” she announced, folding her hands behind her head. “I’ll take a Malbec. And it better be over twenty bucks, ya cheap bastard.”
Sam tipped his head backward, watching Sawyer and Carmen as they came down the stairs onto the patio. “Hmph.” He pursed his lips. “We were both off by five minutes. I’ll buy the bottle, but you have to share it with me.”
“Deal.” Charlotte thrust out her hand and Sam shook it firmly, casting Carmen a sideways smirk.
“Well played,” she whispered, flopping down into the grass on the other side of his chair. Dan opened one eye, gave her a look she did not care to dissect, and closed it again.
They sat in peace and quiet, sipping their drinks and relishing the cooling sun of the evening. Carmen wondered at her failure to be more abashed by what she and Sawyer had done upstairs. Instead of ashamed, she was sated and content. She felt at home among these people, though she had known them for such a short time. When Alice turned a sad eye on her and asked, “When will you have to head out, dear?” Carmen stared at her a moment, a denial springing to her lips.
“Day after next, I suppose,” she replied softly, her joyful heart deflating so suddenly it hit the soles of her feet. She looked over at Sawyer. Saw him swallow and avoid her gaze.
“Dad and I need two more days to work on the car.” He reached over and took her hand in his, raising her knuckles to his lips. Beside her, Alice sighed.
“Why?” Carmen asked, then added, “Not that I mind . . .” Relief flooded through her knowing they would have more time together.
“Something . . . happened.” Sawyer took a long sip of his beer, still avoiding her gaze. “A little thing we have to fix.” Beside Carmen, Sam cast his brother a suspicious look.
“Well, you must stop on your way back,” Alice continued. “Maybe spend the rest of the summer?” She waved an encompassing arm at the surrounding garden. “This has got to be better than the smelly old city. It’s so lovely here swimming every day. Sawyer says you like to swim.”
“I would like that very much, and, yes, I love to swim,” Carmen said past the lump in her throat. “Did he also tell you I beat his butt in a race?”
Alice grinned. “No, he failed to mention that.”
“Since we are all deciding Carmen’s fate for her, I’m putting dibs on tomorrow night.” Charlotte linked her arms through hers, sipping wine with the other one. “My roommate is having a little moving-out get-together. Carmen is coming. She’s been spending way too much time around you, Stevenson men.”
Carmen leaned her head against Charlotte’s shoulder, hiding her delighted laughter in her clouds of hair. It felt ridiculously good to be wanted. She did not doubt for a second any of them meant what they said. The thought of going to a party where she knew only Charlotte was daunting, but she did not want to let her new friend down.
“I . . .” She straightened and glanced at Sawyer. He flashed his crooked smile, but Carmen saw the flicker of disappointment in his eyes.
“I’m doing all the food, and I promise you can take a plate home to Sawyer at no later than eleven p.m.,” Charlotte said in a sing-song tone.
“Deal,” Sawyer and Carmen said together.
****
AROUND 10 P.M., ALICE and Dan wished the four of them goodnight, encouraging them to stay and finish the bottle of wine they had opened a few moments ago. Sam and Charlotte, who was closer to Sam’s age by a couple years, reminisced about their high school years, and Sawyer fell silent. Carmen reached over and threaded her fingers through his, loving the warmth of them, the way they fit through hers like puzzle pieces. They sat, listening to the others talk, breathing the air and relishing the nearness of each other. After a few moments, Sawyer pulled Carmen to her feet.
“I’d like to show you something,” he whispered, leading her down the stone walkway. He drew up in front of a lilac bush. The sweet scent of the tiny blossoms perfumed the air. Sawyer drew her in front of him, wrapping her in his arms.
“It’s there,” he whispered. “Against the fence.” He swallowed hard, and the sound was loud in her ear. Carmen realized with a painful start what she was looking at in the dark behind the bushes. The cross they had put there for the baby.
“He would be four.” Sawyer’s voice barely made it to her ears.
“Oh, Sawyer,” she breathed. “I’m so, so sorry.”
Taking his hands from her waist, she drew them up to her mouth, kissing each of his knuckles softly, then holding the knot of their fingers against her heart.