Page 19 of The Blessing

“Trev?” I hear her sweet voice question as she approaches my truck.

Not wanting to look like a complete jackass hiding behind his truck like a coward, I grab the pizza with my free hand trying to look as if I were fishing for it in the backseat. When she’s in my line of sight, I take a step back from the truck, kick the door shut, and give her one of my best crooked grins, praying it doesn’t come across like an awkward grimace.

“How’s it going, Trev? I didn’t even see you over here.” She sounds casual and completely unaffected by what I could’ve possibly witnessed. Maybe that was her brother, after all. If it was a date, wouldn’t she feel uncomfortable right about now?

“It’s all good now that I’m off work.” I pause for a moment, shifting uncomfortably on my feet. “You want to come up to my place and have dinner with us? We were just going to veg out on the couch, watch some movies, and eat pizza.”

“That sounds good. I was just planning on ordering take-out and watching reality TV,” she says as she follows me toward the steps of our building. Grey is animated in my arms, babbling to her the entire way. As soon as we reach the steps, Ronnie stops and says, “I can take Grey if you want. I don’t want you to drop the pizza.” She’s teasing me. I like it when she teases me.

I hand her Grey, who is more than happy to be passed off. I suppose he prefers being in the arms of a beautiful woman as opposed to being carried by his smelly uncle, who’s covered in dirt. He immediately begins running his hands through her long hair and smiles brightly at her as if he knew he was the cutest thing in the fucking world. I roll my eyes and snort as I realize I’m jealous of my nephew. He’s touching Ronnie and I’m holding a fucking pizza.

“He’s a giant flirt,” I tell her as we make it to the final flight of stairs. “I can’t imagine what he’s going to be like when he’s a teenager.” If he’s going to turn out anything like me, I’m going to have to give him the “sex talk” pretty early. With the way he’s looking at Ronnie, at least I know the kids going to grow up to have amazing taste. She’s innocence and sin all mixed into one delicious package.

“I’m sure you’ll have plenty of girlfriends, Greyson,” Ronnie says with a giggle as she watches my little guy play with her hair.

Unable to help myself, I peek down her sweater as she gambols up the last few steps. Well, I’m going to need to excuse myself the second we get inside. Maybe she’ll watch the baby while I take a quick shower. I unlock the door to my apartment and kick it open, ushering Ronnie inside. She’s rocking Grey and barely takes any time to look at her surroundings. Which is good, considering my apartment is nothing compared to hers.

“Do you mind watching him while I take a quick shower?” I ask as I walk her to the living room. Her eyes run over my dirt covered clothes that are sticking to my body as if she was noticing them for the first time. Her mouth twitches and she quickly looks away, returning her attention to Grey. I hope she didn’t look too hard at certain areas because that has the potential of being very uncomfortable for me. Sorry, I know I’m your friend, but I can’t help the way you make me feel.

“That’s fine. I’m more than happy to watch him,” she replies as she bounces him in her lap. He throws his head back with a deep belly laugh and I know it’s okay to leave them alone for a bit.

“Well, feel free to turn on the TV and make yourself at home,” I say before I make a bee-line for the bathroom.

There’s two things I need to take care of: first, I need to wash the dirt and sweat off my body so I don’t reek around this beautiful girl; second, I need to get rid of the raging beast between my legs which she’s inspired. I quickly take off my clothes and turn the water temperature to as hot of a setting as I can stand. The water beats down, relaxing my sore muscles as I wash, before taking care of problem number two. As I reach my release, with a fantasy of Ronnie conjured up in my mind, my entire body relaxes in a way it hasn’t in a long time. When I’m finished showing I turn off the water, towel dry, and run to my bedroom with said towel wrapped around my waist. I quickly change into something casual, before returning to the living room to find Ronnie and Grey on the couch where I left them. I should feel guilty about what I just did, but I’m way too mellow to care.

“You’re so good with him,” I comment as I sink onto the couch beside the pair.

“Thanks. He’s so easy-going,” she says with a smile as she reaches down to tickle his belly. “If you ever need a babysitter, you know I work from home.”

“Well, I might have to take you up on that.” It’ll mean more chances to see you. “You want anything to drink before we dig in? I’ve got soda, water, and orange juice.”

“Soda,” she says with a smile as she opens the pizza box.

One thing I’m thankful for when it comes to Ronnie is she apparently doesn’t drink. She didn’t mention alcohol once last night, and that was the type of meal people usually serve with wine. Or, so I assume. I’ve never actually had a meal like that and the only wine I’ve ever had was from a box. I’m so lucky she hasn’t pressed the subject because I really don’t want to delve into my past and tell her all about my ex-vices. I know the topic will come up sooner or later—hell, if it doesn’t come up, I’ll straight-up tell her—but for right now I want to enjoy the innocence of not knowing everything about each other. We’ve just met, just become friends, and I want us to slowly get to know each other. Learn to trust each other. I want us to have a good foundation and that sort of thing takes time and a hell of a lot of work.

I jog into the kitchen and over to the fridge to grab a couple of cream sodas and a bottle of formula for Grey. I know he’s going to pout about it, but he’s still too young to be eating pizza—or most tasty foods for that matter. His favorite food right now is pretty much bananas, so he’s going to freak when he realizes what else the world has to offer. Before heading back into the living room, I grab a couple of paper plates and some napkins from the cabinet. When I return I find Ronnie already digging into the pizza straight from the box. That’s my girl.

“Is it good?” I ask as I hand her a bottle of cream soda.

She blushes and takes a napkin to wipe the pizza sauce off of her bottom lip. If we were closer and not practically strangers, I would’ve been more than happy to lick it off for her. Well, a man can dream, I suppose. “It’s amazing. Thanks for this, Trev. I was starving.”

“Same,” I agree as I take a seat next to her, “I haven’t eaten all day.”

I reach for Grey, wanting to feed him his bottle, but Ronnie stops me. “I can feed him if you want. I used to do this for Harper all the time.”

Once again, Grey’s more than happy with the arrangement as she holds him close to her tits and feeds him his formula. And once again, I’m jealous of my baby nephew. I grab a few pieces of pizza from the box and begin to scarf them down as I pick up the remote and skim through the On-Demand channels. I stop when I come across a few 1980s horror movies, considering all the good possibilities a movie like this could bring. Such as Ronnie clinging to me because she’s scared. I imagine her saying, “Trev, I can’t sleep alone tonight. Not after you made me watch that movie.” God, I’m horrible. I’ve only just met the girl! I know a horror movie is out of the realm of possibilities because it would also give Grey nightmares and then he’d end up being the one who couldn’t sleep. He already has questionable sleeping habits, so why make them worse?

“You okay with watching a Disney movie?” I ask as I stop scrolling once I come across the title The Lion King.

“Of course! I love this movie,” she says, and I can tell she’s serious.

I never find women adorable, but the look on her face as the opening song comes on is one that I find absolutely fucking adorable. As we all sit on the couch I can’t help but notice how normal this feels. It’s like we’ve all known each other our entire lives. In a strange way, it feels as if we were always meant to be here together. My heart twists in my chest and every muscle in my body tenses at the thought. God, I wish Dean were here. Tears fill my eyes before I even realize they were coming. Fuck! I hate the way this feels! Dean would’ve loved this. It’s simple things like this that make me think of him but thinking of him is still so incredibly painful. Most days, I get through the day without dwelling on his death too much; I know he’d want me to move on and focus on taking care of his son, providing him with the life he deserves. However, it’s times like these that really cause his death hit me like a fucking freight train.

Dean loved watching movies and vegging out on the couch with me after a long day of school or football practice. When we were supposed to be doing homework or getting to bed because we had school the next morning, we’d be watching movies on the floor of one of our bedrooms. Dean would lie on the carpet, juggling his football back and forth between his hands as we’d watch whatever movie our friends talked about at school that day. While I never knew Dean as a father, I know he must’ve done this type of thing with Grey all the time. I can imagine him holding his son on his lap as they watched Sunday cartoons together, with no idea of what the future had in store for them. A tear slips down my face before I can hold it back, and I quickly wipe it away with the sleeve of my shirt.

“Trev? You okay?”

“Yeah,” I mutter, feeling embarrassed all of a sudden. “I’m fine. Just some dust in my eye.”

She snorts at this. “It’s okay, Trevor. Mufusa’s death makes a lot of people cry.”

And then I’m laughing. This girl manages to completely change my mood with a minimal amount of effort. I can’t begin to describe how this makes me feel. In this moment, I know what I have to do. I don’t care if that douchebag was her boyfriend. Whatever he is, he sure as hell isn’t her husband and without a ring on her finger, I consider her fair game. I deserve something good in my life and I want her. I’ll fight to win her heart. Her heart, Trevor? You don’t even understand how deep your feelings run. I won’t push her. I’ll just wait by her side until she’s ready for me and then I’ll show her everything I can offer her.