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Kenny and I kept in touch every day, yet found new stuff to talk about.But tonight’s conversation was more than routine.
“She did what?”Had I heard right?
“Stayed over.Slept on my couch.Laney Granger.After we bonded in the bathroom, we had a few drinks.Mine were water, but she drank too much to drive home.So I invited her here.”
“And?”
“It was…fun.”Kenny giggled, a delightful sound that I owed Laney for.An honest, innocent giggle, with no shadows of grief.Only my kids had been able to get that reaction from her.“She apologized.Can you believe it?Laney Granger.Apologized.”
“How did she do it though?”I could see Laney say something like,I’m sorry you were too dense to figure it out yourself.In fact, she’d actually said that to one of the football players our sophomore year.She’d aced the algebra test, but the guy claimed she’d cheated when he’d failed and had to sit out a game until he raised his grade.
“Sincerely, except for what was the truth.”Another giggle.“We’re going out again this weekend.”
“Rattler’s?”
“Maybe, then a movie at my house.”
I snorted.“You’re dating Laney.”
“I kind of am.Weird, right?I think living at home is a hard adjustment for her.Anyway, have you heard back from Hattie?”
“I did today.She wants to work with me.She’d carry the item, include it in her catalog, and then she’d keep a percentage of the sale.I’d need to provide her with a steady supply.”Once I gave myself permission to brainstorm, I’d had a lot of ideas.Firepits, furniture, home decor.
“Will that be hard to do in the time you’re home?”
“About that.”My excitement rose as I thought back to my call.I was as giddy as the boys Christmas morning.“Hattie said her friend is a manager at the mine in Washburn.She offered to put in a good word for me, so I applied.”
“Liam.”My name was a whisper on a cloud of excitement.“That would be awesome!”
I broke into a grin.No one could see, but it didn’t matter.My life was finally turning around.“It would be a commute, but the drive isn’t more than forty-five minutes on a decent highway.I wouldn’t be far from Coal Haven.I’d still need Grandma Gin’s help with the kids, but it wouldn’t be twenty days in a row.”
“I’ll be here too.Oh, Liam.That would be so nice.”
“Mm.”My gaze bored into the off-white ceiling.“Not just nice for me, Grandma Gin, and the kids?”
“No,” she said softly.“Not just for them.”
My grin returned.“Good to hear.Because I took a gamble and put in my notice.I’ll be home for my ten days next week, go back for my last twenty, and then I’m done.I want to make sure I’m around when the kids start school.”
“You have your house and land.A local-ish job, and a second job as an artist.”
“Artist?”She’d said that before, but that was when I’d been playing around as a hobby.
“Your work is beautiful, Liam.That firepit you did would make it hard for me to light a fire inside of it.”
“I’ve been thinking of other designs.Firepits never go out of style.”A lot of good things were happening, but I didn’t want to dwell on them.I’d get excited when I was home for good and I had worked a few shifts at the mine.Good things like this didn’t happen to me.It seemed too easy.
She might’ve tried to smother her yawn, but I heard it.
“I should let you go.”
“I don’t have to get up tomorrow.But you do.”
“Nah, it’s nothing.”It was something.I wasn’t used to pulling a ten- or twelve-hour shift and drinking all night anymore.Staying up late to talk to Kenny wasn’t on the same level as those days so long ago.
I pictured her tucked into bed, only the bed I imagined was mine.Her rich brown hair spread over my gunmetal-gray sheets.Seconds later, blood redirected to the dick that wouldn’t stay down whenever I thought of her.“Whatcha wearing?”
“It probably sounds sexier than it is, but bootie shorts and a tank top.”
“There’s no way that isn’t as sexy as it sounds.”Her laugh was breathy, a little flirty.Encouraging.“You lying down?”
Bedsheets rustled.“Now I am.”
I sensed the hesitancy.She was in her home.In her bed.Getting kinky over the phone in the bed she used to share with her husband would be a new level of intimacy and a new hurdle for her.“Want me to tell you how I picture you, or do you want me to tell you good night and that I’ll dream of you?”After a cold shower and a quick jack off.
During the silence on the other end, I prepped how I would tell her good night so she didn’t feel one ounce of guilt.
“How…how do you picture me?”
My grin was easy.I flicked open the fly of my jeans.“Your hair’s spread out…”
