Hold On

I nodded against his neck and gave him more.

“Mom’s always been a waitress. Dad’s always been a deadbeat. She couldn’t give me a lot, but she tried to make sure every summer we went on vacation. Without any money, we didn’t go far and we didn’t have much. Shitty motels. Diner food. But she did her best. And she always found water. Driving us to some lake. Putting our asses on a Greyhound down to Florida and hitting some seedy hotel, but one that was on a beach. We didn’t give a shit it was seedy or cheap. I was an asshole to her, but not on vacation. We had fun. We relaxed. We forgot life sucked.”

I lifted my head to look at him and kept talking.

“Good times. The only really good times probably for the both of us that weren’t clouded by the shit of life or my bent to be a pain in her ass. So I like water. Maybe it’s because I just like water. But I think it’s because Mom busted her ass to give me those times and it means something to me because my mom means something to me. And because it reminds me she gave me the most important thing I ever got—all I need to be a good mom to the kid I got. I couldn’t call myself Cher Lake or Cher Ocean or Cher Beach. So I picked Rivers. It works.”

“Yeah,” he said. “It works.”

But the way he said that, my attention on him sharpened.

And when I saw what I was pretty sure I saw, I accused, “You’re plannin’ a vacation for you, me, Ethan, and maybe even my mom somewhere near water, aren’t you?”

The faraway look in his eyes vanished and he smiled at me.

“Caught,” he whispered.

God, it had happened.

No, it kept happening.

I’d hoped. For the first time I’d hoped—hoped I was wrong that life couldn’t get better.

And he kept proving me wrong.

“You’re never gonna get a new house at this rate,” I warned.

“Yeah, I am,” he replied. “Shower sex with you is fantastic. Sink sex with you is out of this fuckin’ world. But you only got one bathroom in your pad and your boy is right next door to that and right across the hall from your room. And when you and Ethan come for sleepovers, I’m good with getting creative but not a big fan of having my options limited. So at least one of us needs a house that offers me options. Since it’s doubtful you can even disassemble your tribute to the flower generation and reassemble it in a new place, much less wanna do that, it’s up to me to find it. And a man will go to great lengths for options, which include the possible option of future vacation sex.”

“You’re gonna break the bank in order to secure fuck options?” I asked.

“Am I a man?”

“Yes.”

“Then do you realize that’s a stupid question?”

I started laughing. “Yes.”

“So I won’t bother answering it.”

I gave in to laughing.

As I was doing it, Merry joined me at the same time he rolled me so I had his weight and heat covering me.

When I was done, I slid a hand up his chest to cup his jaw.

“Prepare for gooey,” I warned.

His eyes were still lit with humor, but with my words, one side of his lips tipped up.

“Sock it to me.”

I didn’t delay in socking it to him.

“You don’t just make me happy, Merry. You keep making me happier.”

His face got warmer and more beautiful than ever.

“That’s the goal, brown eyes,” he whispered.

“You’re an overachiever,” I whispered back.

He didn’t reply.

He kissed me.

Then it was his turn to make love to me.

And there it was again.

Merry making me happier.

*

Garrett

Monday Morning

Garrett slid the pancakes he’d made in front of Ethan, who was sitting at the table.

He headed back to Cher’s stove.

Cher was at the countertop, bent over it, the ball of one foot resting on top of the other one, her eyes to a pad of paper on the counter.

“You’re still into the Star Wars theme?” she asked the paper, her question directed to her son.

“Yeah, Mom,” Ethan answered his pancakes, slathering butter on them.