While recalling my father’s opposing sentiments when he found out my mother was expecting me, I ask, “Have you ever regretted it?”
I’ve often quoted that Summer and I are oddly different considering how similar our childhoods were. Only now am I realizing it wasn’t the losses of our mothers that shaped us. It was how our fathers stood up to the plate after their deaths.
Summer’s dad was there for her.
Mine tossed money at me like it could replace the love of a mother.
Rye’s reply isn’t surprising, but the emotions it hits me with are. “Not a single day. I’d do it all again in an instant if given a chance.”
As his eyes stray to the flickering flame in the front window of his trailer, a collective hum of confirmation sounds from the people gathered around him. The people who rallied around Summer and him after Rebekah’s death only knew them for a couple of months, but they’ve been there for them as if they are family ever since.
My father could learn a thing or two from them, and I guess the same could be said for me. On her death bed, my mother made me promise that I’d try to bridge the gap between my father and me. I’ve yet to give it a whirl.
After spending time with Summer’s family, the invitation I’ve spent the last two months ignoring doesn’t seem as daunting as it once did. Mending things with my father won’t fix his mistakes, but it will ensure I fulfill my mother’s final wish before I endeavor to reach mine.
That alone should be worth the sacrifice, right?
3
Summer
“Itold you to put on sunscreen. Your skin is too fair for the Buffalo sun. Your neck is as red as a beetroot,” Lennox breathes out with a hiss when I enter my childhood bedroom with a now half-empty tube of aloe vera in my hand. “Let alone the fact you wore a tank top under your overalls. That was just asking for trouble.”
“Instead of lecturing me, how about you help me? I can’t reach the crisscross section on my back, and it’s stinging more than my backside when you spanked my ass while sprinting over the finish line of the cart race with me over your shoulder instead of between your legs.”
My throat grows scratchy.
That sounded more perverted than intended.
Thankfully, Lennox knows my mind is nowhere near as deviant as his.
Grinning, he scoots across my single bed. “I didn’t spank you… Islappedyour ass for a job well done. We may have cheated, but we won, Cocoa, and as far as my family is concerned, that’s all that matters.” The burn of my skin has nothing on the heat that roars through my insides when his smile turns salacious. “I also offered to kiss your boo-boo better. You turned me down.”
I toss the canister of aloe vera into his chest instead of handing it to him. It doubles his chuckles, making his voice husky when he requests that I remove my overalls.
“Remove, remove?”
He jerks up his chin. “At least the straps if you don’t want them covered with goop.”
I realize I have the situation all wrong when the lowering of one strap doesn’t have Lennox’s eyes lifting from the bottle of aloe vera. He squeezes a generous helping onto his index and middle finger before peering up at me with a confused crinkle popped between his dark brows. “You want me to do your shoulder blades, right?” When I lift my chin, too self-conscious that I’m standing in front of him in the equivalent of a bra to speak, he nudges his head to the open door of my room. “Then you’re gonna need to spin, Cocoa. I have long arms, but since most of my length allocation was reserved for my cock, they’re not tentacles.”
“You’re such a pig.”
I spin in just enough time to hide my grin when he oinks. The direction I’m facing does little to save his ears from the squeal that ripples through my lips when I respond to the coolness of the aloe vera gel touching my skin temperature. It’s the equivalent of ice being dragged across my heated core.
“That’s c-c-cold.”
Mercifully, the coolness gives me a perfect excuse for the goosebumps that follow the trek of Lennox’s hand. They follow his soothing movements across my shoulder blades, down my spine, and to the meaty curves my grandmother fondly refers to as ‘breeding hips.’
I’m not exactly sure how I got burned there considering the lower half of my overalls hide the meaty parts of my body I hate, but when Lennox adds a second oiled-up hand into the mix, it’s more heavenly than the icy-cold shower I had to lessen the sting of my sunburn.
It’s so heavenly, no matter how hard I fight to swallow the moan rumbling in my chest, it eventually vacates my mouth. It isn’t an obvious moan of pleasure, but it does freeze Lennox’s hands for half a second.
“Please don’t stop,” I blurt out before I can stop myself, the sensation too blistering for a half-assed response. I’ve never really been touched like this, and although I shouldn’t want to be caressed like this by my best friend, in a way, it feels as natural as breathing. I’m comfortable around Lennox, but I clam up like a virgin when it comes to the remaining members of his gender, so the chances of this happening with anyone else are extremely slim. “It feels really good.”
My head rolls to the side with a second moan when he returns his hands to my body, but instead of rubbing the aloe vera into my shoulders, he massages my aching neck that feels as knotted as the massive kink between my legs.
Lennox’s fingers are so long and girthy, while kneading my neck with gentle strokes, their tips extend well past my collarbone. They’re mere inches from my barely covered and maniacally thrusting chest. One inch lower, he’d be fondling my puckered nipples.
