Small Town Girl (15 page)

“Nope,” he said. “From Milwaukee. Just
stopping through on my way to Winner, South Dakota.”

“Well, welcome to Rock River,” I said.
“You stopped at the best diner in the area, so you’re in luck.”

He stared at me like I was some sort of
idiot. I was simply trying to be friendly.

“Would you care for some tea or pop or
water?” I asked.

He sighed. “Coffee.”

“Alright,” I said. “Be right back.”

I ran back and filled up a carafe with
coffee, grabbed the creamer set, and a mug and saucer and returned them to him.

“Miss are you going to check on our
food?” the family of six called after me. It couldn’t have been more than five
minutes since I’d put in their order.

I smiled. “Yes, will do.”

I ran back to the kitchen. Their ticket
was third in line. It was going to be a while. I dreaded my walk to their
table.

“It’s just going to be a little while
longer,” I told them.

“Are you serious?” I heard the mom say to
the dad.

I wanted to tell them this wasn’t
McDonald’s and that if they wanted to go to a sit down restaurant, order six
meals, and expect their food to be ready in five minutes, they were at the
wrong establishment. Instead, I bit my tongue and walked away.

“Ma’am, you haven’t taken my order yet,”
the middle aged man called after me.

I ran up to his table and whipped out my
pen and paper. “So whatcha having tonight?”

“Is the beef stroganoff any good?” he
asked. “I’m not a huge mushroom person.”

I wanted to tell him not to order it if
he didn’t like mushrooms, but we were trained to say that everything was good.
We weren’t allowed to tell people what to order. That had gotten us in trouble
too many times, and Marge did not like to give away free food.

“It’s good, but there are mushrooms in
the sauce, sir,” I said. “We have a really good fried chicken dinner. It comes
with a roll and two sides.”

I pointed to the menu to show him where
it was.

“I hate chicken,” he said.

“Okay, can I recommend our baked
cavatelli?” I suggested. “It comes with garlic bread.”

“Yeah, whatever, I guess,” he said as he
closed his menu and shoved it towards me.

I tried to wrap my head around all of it.
The last few weeks I’d been waited on hand and foot, pampered, and treated like
a queen. I’d thrown it all away and come back to wait tables for minimal tips
and to be treated like shit from people like him. I couldn’t make a smart
decision to safe my life.

I spun around and put his order in
immediately. The last thing I wanted was for him to short my tip because the
food took too long. People like that, especially the out of towners, were
notorious for doing that.

As I put in the order, Sarah noticed I
wasn’t quite myself.

“You okay, Brynn?” she asked as she put
her arm on my shoulder.

My eyes were a little teary, but I tried
to smile to make them go away.

“Talk to me,” she said.

“I can’t wait tables the rest of my life,
Sarah,” I said. I hoped she didn’t hate me for saying that. She was in her
thirties and had waited tables most of her adult life. She wasn’t going
anywhere. This was her career.

“Rude customers?” she asked. “Don’t let
them ruin your night.”

“Don’t you ever think about doing something
else?” I asked her. “There are other options for us.”

“Yeah, but I’ve been here so long,” she
said. “And this job plus child support pays all my bills. I don’t need a lot.”

“I should probably go check on my
tables,” I said. “They’re impatient tonight and I need all the tips I can get.”

The bell dinged and the food was ready
for the obnoxious family of six.

“Thank God,” I muttered as I loaded up my
tray and ran everything out to them.

“It’s about time!” one of the snot-nosed
little girls said to me with her hand on her hip. She was trying to be cute,
but I didn’t have the energy. I sat down their food, refilled their drinks, and
checked on the man from Milwaukee.

“Ma’am, what is taking so long with the
cavatelli?” he asked. “Do you make the pasta by hand?”

“No,” I said. “Let me check on it for
you.”

I staved off tears once again as I ran
back to check on his dinner. He was next. It wasn’t going to be much longer.

“Brynn, there’s a guy out there
requesting you,” Sarah said as she bit her lip. The twinkle in her eye said it
all, and I instantly knew.

I straightened my apron and smoothed my
hair as I walked back out to the floor. Behind an enormous bouquet of exotic
florals sat Hudson Smith. He peeked his head out from around the ridiculous
display and smiled with a bit of apprehension.

“Hudson,” I said. I was suddenly thrilled
to see him, though I wasn’t going to let him know that.

“Brynn,” he said.

“I was not expecting to see you,” I said.

“I know,” he replied with a sexy smile.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

“I’ve come to take you home,” he said.
“You’re coming back home with me, Brynn. Where you belong.”

“Ma’am,” the Milwaukee guy yelled. “My
cavatelli?”

“It’ll be ready soon,” I called back to
him. He looked pissed, but I didn’t care. He didn’t get to talk to me that way.

“You don’t need to work,” Hudson said.
“You don’t need to be here. You don’t need to be talked to like that.”

He glared at the cavatelli guy.

“Hudson, stop,” I said. “It’s okay. I’m
used to it.”

“No, it’s not okay,” he said. “I’m going
to get you out of here.”

“I had to beg Marge for my job back,” I
said with an eye roll. “She told me never to leave her hanging ever again. I’m
supposed to work the next two days.”

Hudson shook his head. “Plans change.”

“I have to keep my word,” I said.

I heard the ding of the bell and began to
walk off, but Hudson grabbed me gently by the wrist.

“Let me get that guy’s food,” I mumbled
as I nodded to the customer who’d been shooting daggers our way. “I’ll be right
back.”

My feet couldn’t carry me fast enough to
the kitchen where a plate of steaming pasta and garlic bread sat under the heat
lamp. I rushed them out to the grumpy man who didn’t seem pleased at all.

“This looks like mush,” he said with a
scowl. “I can’t eat this.”

He shoved the dish away and it nearly
fell off the other side of the booth. Hudson was watching the entire thing.

“Do you want me to put in another order
for you? Our meatloaf is good,” I said. “It’s homemade. Secret family recipe.”

The man glared up at me. “I can’t eat
meatloaf. I don’t eat dog shit.”

“Do you even want to try your pasta?” I
said. “I’ve had it before. I promise it’s good.”

The man covered his face with his
hands,
dragging and pulling on his lose skin until I could
see the undersides of his bloodshot eye balls. He was about to snap at me, I
could feel it. He stood up and walked over to me as I took several steps
backwards. I couldn’t believe he was going to yell at me because he didn’t like
how the food looked.

I closed my eyes and waited for him to
start up, but all I heard was a thud. I opened my eyes to see the grumpy man
lying on the floor rubbing his jaw and Hudson standing next to me rubbing his
clenched fist. Hudson had punched the guy who was about to get in my face.

The entire restaurant erupted into a fit of
applause, even the crazy family of six, as the Milwaukee man scrambled to get
on his feet and get the hell out of there. By then he had to have known he was
acting inappropriately. He about assaulted me. If he had an ounce of
intelligence, he wasn’t going to go the cops about any of that.

“Hey, isn’t that Hudson Smith?” someone
called out.

“Yeah,” another person replied. “What’s
he doing in town?”

“Uh, oh,” I said with a laugh. “You’ve
been spotted.”

“Let’s get out of here,” Hudson said,
ignoring everyone around us. Amidst all the chaos and bullshit, it was still
just
him and me
.

I thought about my promise to Marge.
She’d given me a second chance, and with her, there were never any third
chances. I glanced over at Sarah, who was smiling in the corner, watching
Hudson wrap his arms around me. I thought about Luke, and Piper, and my mom,
and everything that had changed, including myself. I couldn’t work another
minute in that
hell hole
, and I couldn’t stay another
day in Rock River.

“Let’s go,” I said with a smile as I
untied my apron and flung it over the back of a counter stool. I waved bye to
Sarah as Hudson and I ran out the door and hopped into my car. We high tailed
it to my apartment where we ran up the stairs and took refuge in my living
room. Heaving and out of breath, we both fell down in a fit of laughter.

“That was insane,” I said. “I’ve never
seen that place get so nuts before!”

I sprawled out on the floor, giggling
over what had just happened, as Hudson crawled over towards me, placing his
hand on my hip and pulling me closer.

“You made the right choice, Brynn,” he
said. “Leaving with me.”

“I hope so,” I said. I knew I’d never be
entirely sure about any of my choices.

“I’ll make sure you never regret it,” he
promised. “I just want to make you happy. I’ll do whatever it takes.”

He leaned down and placed his perfect,
soft lips against mine, and I was once again putty in his hands.

“I can’t keep my hands off of you,” he
breathed into my ear as his hand slipped up my shirt. “I can’t get you out of
my head. I’m constantly thinking about you.”

I smiled, not knowing what to say. A
small part of me didn’t believe it was possible for him to be so smitten with
me.

He nuzzled my ear then nibbled my ear
lobe before working his way down my neck, trailing soft kisses the entire way.

“I had to come out here,” he said. “I had
to see you. I had to convince you to come back.”

“I see that,” I whispered.

“I don’t think you realize how much I
like you,” he breathed. “You’re different from anyone else I’ve ever known,
Brynn.”

“As are you,” I giggled. He was much
better with words than I ever could be.

His hand slipped down and unbuckled my
pants, slipping under the waistband of my panties. His fingers slipped between
my
slit
as he began to massage me hungrily.

Moans and sighs escaped my mouth as his
fingers worked their magic. His hot mouth covered my neck as I arched my back.
We were still lying on the hard floor of my apartment, but I didn’t care. When
I closed my eyes, all that mattered was that Hudson’s hands were all over my
body once again.

He slipped my pants and panties down and
began unzipping his jeans. I ripped off my t-shirt and unhooked my bra,
flinging them as far away as possible. I stared up into his eyes and saw
something I’d never seen before. He was hungry for me, and he wasn’t going to
stop until he got what he wanted.

Hudson grabbed me by the hips as he
positioned himself between my thighs. He pulled me closer to him, my back
sliding against the hardwood floor beneath me. He pulled a rubber from his
pocket and wasted no time putting it on and placing his cock right at my
entrance. He wasn’t going to wait another second. There would be no teasing
this time. Just us. Connected.

As he shoved himself inside of me, a
release washed over my body. Our hips moved in tandem, thrust for thrust, as we
made love. Three days apart had been three days too many, and I hadn’t realized
how much I missed his touch until that moment, on the floor of my apartment in
Rock River.

As we were one, Hudson’s eyes never left
mine. I reached my hand up and stroked the side of his face, tracing the
outline of his lips before he kissed mine on his way down. I’d never felt so
connected to anyone before and certainly sex with other guys was never this
passionate.

Hudson buried his face in my neck once
again as he continued plunging himself deep into me. I loved the way our skin
felt when it touched. It was almost electric and otherworldly.

Without any sort of warning, he slowly
pulled himself out of me and walked over to the sofa, motioning for me to
follow him. He sat
down,
legs spread, and patted his
lap. I sauntered over to him, straddling his lap like he wanted, and placed
myself upon his still-throbbing cock. As I slid down, shivers went down my
spine. I tossed my head back as I began to rock on him, up and down, back and
forth. His hand reached down and rubbed my clit as I worked my hips and grinded
harder and faster.

I didn’t want it to end, but I could feel
it coming. My orgasm was just seconds away, and I couldn’t fight it. Hudson’s
hand on my lower back, guiding my movements, was all it took to send me over
the edge.

I screamed out one final time before it
took over me and I was spent. The look on Hudson’s face told me he had come as
well. The man had self-control and amazing timing, I had to give him that.

I leaned forward, placing my bare chest
against his, and listened to the thumping of his heart as I tried to catch my
breath. Minutes later, I stood up to go get cleaned up and changed and returned
to find Hudson lying on my couch, shirtless and jeans zipped.

“Here,” he said as he patted his chest.

I walked over and
laid
on top of him, stretched out and snuggled up to his warm body.

“It drove me wild thinking you were done
with me,” he said. “I’ve never felt those kinds of feelings before. I didn’t
know what to do.”

“Really?” I asked.

“Not knowing if I’d ever have you again,”
he said. “It brought out a different side of me.”

My heart fluttered with his words.

“I have to show you something,” he said.
“I don’t know if this is the right timing, but I just want you to see it.”

He pulled his phone from his pocket and
pulled up a video, handing it to me to watch.

It was
Hadley,
I
could see that right away.

“Hi, Brynn!” she said in her thick,
southern accent. She waved a single, lithe arm as if to say “hello” and her
beauty queen pageant smile was flashing big and bright. “Hudson has told me so
much about you. I’m really sorry about what happened with you and Hudson last
weekend. I know the pictures from Friday make things look bad, but I promise
you, there is nothing going on between us. We’ve been friends for a very long
time. He is like a big brother to me. I really hope I get to meet you sometime,
okay? If you still want to talk to me, Hudson has my number. Take care! Mwah!”

She seemed likeable and believable
,
I had to admit
.
And I did feel a little better about the entire thing. If she was in love with
him or hooking up with him, I was quite sure she wouldn’t have done that.

“So you’re coming home with me tomorrow,
right?” he asked as he studied my face.

I bit my lip and nodded. I couldn’t say
no. In his presence, I was powerless.