Forgiveness Creek: The Creek Series (17 page)

“Have you been sick much?”

“Yeah, quite a bit, but it comes and goes. I can tell now, and it doesn’t catch me off guard as much.”

“I couldn’t help but notice your breasts today in your dress. Beautiful.”

“Really? Yeah, I’m finally getting some.” She leaned over the console and gave me a kiss on the cheek, then trailed her lips to mine. “Find a private place to pull over,” she said against my ear.

I caught the private part of her request. She didn’t have to tell me twice.

Wrenn

I sat on my bed, surfing through pages of notes of cardiac arrhythmias and various treatments, and my mind began to wonder.

Before my mother’s death, I’d found myself falling in love with Dane and I knew it. But after the communication problems and the strange woman answering his phone, I reverted back to my old thoughts that men couldn’t be trusted.

Then along came baby.

Children alone couldn’t make a relationship or marriage work, and my conviction was that Dane would want to do the “right” thing by society’s standards, but would it be the right thing for the three of us?
What was the right thing?

I needed breathing room to figure out who I was and what I wanted. After all, I was alone with zero family and a half-finished education plan. At least as a nurse, I’d be able to support the baby and myself, anywhere I wanted to live. But what about baby? Keeping him or her away from his or her father was history repeating itself, and Dane didn’t deserve that.

When I stopped thinking about what I wanted and started considering someone else’s thoughts and feelings, I realized I wasn’t alone. I had family. Blood didn’t make someone family; love, kindness, and actions did. It was the heart of the human being that makes us want to spend every second of every day with that person. That realization made me start craving Dane in every way.

I thought about him until I fell asleep, and I woke up thinking about him and what he might be doing that day. The gifts and surprises he’d started sending over didn’t help. Each time the doorbell rang, I’d get excited about what I was going to receive next.

I laughed, but very much enjoyed the pizza and the cupcakes from Crave Bakery. However, the crème brûlée had me in tears.

The notes were the sweetest. What man delivered a bag full of batteries with a straight face? He could claim they were for baby, but I knew what he had on his mind.

Yes, he was definitely swimming with sharks. But he wasn’t the only one who had been on bad behavior, and somehow, I needed to make it up to him.

That was where Mr. Lawrence came to the rescue.

The week before graduation, I’d been leaving the hospital cafeteria when I ran into Mr. Lawrence and Peggy.

“How’s my beautiful bride?” he’d teased.

“Awesome. How’s my favorite patient?”

“I’m getting some blood work done. First, they try to starve you, then tell you to eat a ton afterwards. Can’t make ’em happy.”

“Well, go enjoy yourself. There’s plenty to choose from.”

“Wrenn, do you mind if I have your new phone number?”

“Not at all. Hand me your phone, and I’ll put it in.”

We’d texted or spoke at least twice every day, and I was happy I could still be a part of his life. I didn’t know how he would handle the news about the baby, but he was thrilled at the idea of another boy named Asher Dane Lawrence in the family. He said he would do the right thing for his great grandchild, and when he said it, my heart was gripped in thorns.
It wasn’t my desire to be in someone’s will. I wanted to be in their life, their present—their future.

I didn’t think he would actually come when I’d invited him to my graduation, but I’d wanted him to know I was thinking about him as my family. I didn’t have anyone else to put in my reserved seats.

Then it had occurred to me he could help me get Dane there, but I wasn’t sure how.

“Leave that part up to me. I know exactly how to work that boy.”

Dane’s call came out of the blue on the morning of graduation. I wasn’t certain of what to expect when he arrived at my house, except that he was going to be charming as usual, but the pearls were a beautiful surprise and meant more to me than he would ever know.

When we were standing in the bathroom, he had his hand on my stomach with his fingers splayed out over the baby, and it had been a sweet moment of affection. I didn’t think it was an intentional gesture, but I loved the image just the same.

By the time the guests started leaving his grandfather’s house, I was feeling like my old self. His grandfather had needed rest, and Dane had played the likeable host and included me by his side. Unlike when I’d first met him, he wasn’t pushy, and he was giving me the space I needed. But when our lips had collided in the kitchen, the passionate fire was there and neither of us had intended on stopping it, until we were interrupted.

I watched as his tongue licked the spoon of ice cream and remembered other good ways he’d used his mouth. The sinful thoughts had me squirming in the plastic seats of the bright ice cream parlor. There were no tablecloths to hide my hands, and I fought for control. Getting arrested for indecency in a public place wasn’t on my agenda.

After ice cream, I had more sexual frustration built up than I could stand to hold in. Days and nights fantasizing about Dane had me on overload. Call it pregnancy hormones or just plain horniness, but I had no intention of waiting. I was ready to climb him in the car, and from the fullness in his shorts, he was going to be happy to oblige me of the release I craved.

“Find a place to pull over,” I whispered against his ear.

And, he did.

He turned off the main highway onto a county road that was dark, with no houses in sight. Sex in a sports car was almost impossible, but we managed to tangle.

“We could go to jail for this,” he said with a groan.

“Then I suggest you hurry and give me what I need.”

“When I’m with you, there’s no hurry. I intend on savoring this moment.”

My body was stinging with every nerve ending sensitive, on fire by my desire for him. It had been too long since we’d been complete, and the exhilaration of possibly getting caught made the moment even hotter, if that was possible.

The feeling of him completing my body filled the void and healed my wounded soul. It had been my mistake to stay away from him for so long.

He was my safety net, my friend; even more, he was the best part of me.

On the way back to my house, he passed the turnoff to the loop and kept driving.

“Where are we going?”

“My ranch. There’s no one there, and we have complete privacy.”

“Can I stop by my place and get some clothes?”

“You won’t need them. I’m planning on keeping you naked in my bed for the next—however long, until we decide to crawl out.”

“Sounds delicious, I like your plan.”

He stopped the car at the gate and punched in a code. I sat in my seat, anxiously awaiting the moment I would be lying in his arms.

I loved his home and found it very masculine. Dark stained woods, earth tones, and lots of leather, hide rugs, and furniture. When he led me to his bedroom, I had that giddy, first-sex moment again—like everything was new. In reality, it was because we were morphing into a couple again. A new couple with a baby on the way.

He sat down on the bed and pulled me onto his lap. He stroked my arm with his fingers, but we were both quiet for some time.

With my shoulder turned, I leaned back, so I could see his face. “What’s wrong?”

“Not a thing. You’re here and I’m happy. I’m really happy. I didn’t think this day would come.”

“I’m sorry I put you through all of that, I-I just had to find myself. I thought I’d lost everything. My life has been so broken and filled with empty promises.”

He nuzzled my neck with his day-old scruff and nibbled my jaw, but he kept me wrapped tightly in his arms. “When I met you a year ago over a dead battery, I thought about you non-stop for days. Curious where you were headed and who you were really. I waited for a message that never came. I even sat there at the same store countless times, hoping I’d see your car. I figured you must not have returned to school.”

“What did I do that morning to catch your eye?”

“Well, your ass looked great in those jeans, when you leaned over into your car. I’m not gonna lie,” he paused and reached under me to give my ass a grip. “But, when you said you were going home to see the only person you had in this world, I thought how true that was for me too. Grandfather was all I had until I met you. When he’s gone, you and our baby will make us a family.”

I turned to face him, sitting cross-legged in between his spread thighs. His heart was visible to me, laid out with his love for me to see—to feel.

I placed my hand on his chest, feeling the thunderous race of beats under my fingers. “Loving someone is very risky. You never know if they’re going to return your love or stay with you out of pity. At first, I loved you from a distance, afraid that if I let you in, I’d be hurt when you left me. Scared of losing myself, I looked for an out and easily got it when that woman answered your phone. After Stephan died, I knew I wasn’t ready to open my heart again, and I didn’t trust myself, much less anyone else. But I now know I don’t have to keep you at a distance. I can love with all my heart and believe that if God takes you from me, that he’s left me with the most precious gift of your child. I’m saying I love you, and I want to be with you forever—for however long we have—if you’ll have me.”

“Only ever you,” he answered, pulling me on to his lap.

He kissed me with conviction, passion, and pure lust. Our clothes flew through the air, pieces at a time. We were ripping, pulling, and clawing our way into each other’s soul.

I kept waiting for him to claim me—take my body for his, push me to that place of ecstasy as he had earlier in the car. His movements became slow and taunting, and he bore an evil little grin dimly lit by the lamplight—the sparkle in his blue eyes was back.

Unable to control my lust for him, I moved from his side and climbed over him. With my hips rocking back and forth—teasing his erection underneath, but not inside me—his eyes searched mine. The cocky grin gone, the presence of desire returned, as he closed the distance between us.

He flipped me on my back and slowly entered me again. Slick from his earlier climax in the car, it was easy for him to slip back in to me. With his elbows propped beside my face, he paused his thrusts into me. “Sex and making love are two different things to me. What we did in the car was plain hot,
fucktastic
sex. What we’re doing now—making love—is committing our bodies to the beautiful escape only you bring for me. I want you to remember that. Know that I’m one hundred percent with you, and no one has ever moved me the way you do.”