I found all of that interesting.
I didn’t pay it much mind because I found it concerning that Mamie stuck by our sides until the very last minute, trudged to her mother only when called as they were leaving, and she did this like she was dead ballerina walking.
Also concerning was the fact that Corinne popped by once during the game to give her father a pointedly dutiful hug and kiss, her greeting of me and meeting of Andy vast degrees warmer than the chill she gave her dad. I noticed she hung with friends most of the game, and left with them, but that didn’t mean she didn’t spend a whole quarter of the game sitting beside her mother and her family.
The dis to Hix was not veiled just as Mamie’s dis to her mother wasn’t either.
Yes, this was all concerning.
But these were the only things that dimmed the brilliance of the night, having Andy with us, but mostly having Hix make a statement to the entire town that he was with me. When the opportunity was afforded him, he did it with his arm thrown around my shoulders, holding my hand, dipping down to touch his mouth to mine. And he did it in a way no one could be in any question, what with Andy and Mamie with us, Corinne dropping by, Lou and Maple sitting close, and in the end, Shaw, that we were to the point we weren’t together, we were together—merging families.
And although I was concerned about both Mamie and Corinne, I loved all that so much that the dim of that barely shadowed the brilliance of the rest.
Making things better, we were only T minus the trip to Sunnydown and back before I could connect with my man in the way I’d been wanting to connect with my man since the second he actually, officially became my man.
When we hit the Bronco Hix opened my door for me, and I caught Andy’s big smile that he did as my brother climbed into the back seat.
I settled in and was grabbing the seatbelt while Hix was closing the door, and that was when I caught the soft look on his face as he stared at my ass sitting in his passenger seat.
And that was when I knew.
Andy sitting in Hix’s Bronco.
Me sitting there.
Andy being invited to Junk Sunday.
T minus less than an hour before I had Hixon Drake naked.
Yes, that was when I knew.
I knew this was it.
Having this, building it, keeping it . . .
I’d fight for it.
Finally, I’d found something to fight for.
Mom could pull her shit, and I’d battle her to the death.
Hope could pull her shit, and I’d go head to head to keep hold on my man, his kids, the promise of the life he was offering.
I’d take any lick they could offer, and if it meant having Hixon, I’d keep on ticking.
Hixon had barely closed the door after he’d folded himself in the driver’s seat when Andy asked, “Are you comin’ with Ta-Ta to get me on Sunday?”
Hix’s eyes slid to me, his mouth twitching, his hand turning the key in the ignition, as he replied, “Yeah, bud. You up for early? We do donuts in the morning.”
“Heck yeah!” Andy cried.
I felt my lips curl up as I looked out the windshield, the ignition caught and Hix slid her in reverse, thinking, yes.
Oh yes.
I’d finally found it.
Something worth fighting for.
And if I had to, I was going to fight for it.
Because I was falling in love with complicated.
Hix’s head dropped so he could bury his face in my neck and I felt his heavy breathing against my skin just as I felt the weight and warmth of his body pressed to mine, his cock buried deep, fingers of one of my hands in his hair, the fingers of the other one laced in his, my legs curled around the backs of his thighs.
He’d just come.
He’d taken me there a few minutes before.
It had been like the first time. Fast and desperate, then slow and gentle and sweet. Kissing, nuzzling, touching, tasting, gliding, connecting like we had all the time in the world.
And like we’d have just that.
For the rest of our lives.
Hix’s breath started to come easy and his mouth started to work my skin where he murmured, “You good?”
I’d never been better.
“Yes.”
“Your nose?”
“It’s fine, baby.”
He lifted his face out of my neck and looked into my eyes before he touched his mouth to mine, to the tip of my nose, and then he slid his hand from where he had it curled around the back of my neck down to where his thumb came out and he stroked the side of my breast.
“Good night?” he whispered.
Yes, it had been good.
More than good.
I slid my hand from his hair to his cheek and whispered back, “No, Hixon, it was great.”
His blue eyes registered that, openly gave me just how much it meant to him, before he dropped his head and kissed me, deep and wet and beautiful. All through it his fingers threaded through mine, as they’d been since the moment he’d slid inside me, squeezed.
He ended the kiss, his eyes roamed my face then he raised them to look over my head before he looked again at me.
“We neglected your headboard.”
I grinned at him. “It’s not going anywhere.”
His return grin gave me a shiver when he replied, “Nope.”
His face disappeared into my neck again where he slid his lips up from the junction of my shoulder to my ear, sliding his cock out as he did, and he said, “Sucks, but I gotta get back to the apartment early tomorrow, sweetheart.” He again lifted his head and looked at me. “Shaw and I have packed approximately three boxes in the last week. We don’t have a lot but I gotta get him outta bed and we gotta get some more shit boxed up. We have the unit until the end of the month but the sooner I can close the door on that place forever, the happier I’ll be.”
This made me frown, because in the last week when he wasn’t working or with his kids, he’d been with me and it hadn’t occurred to me once to go to him and help him get ready to move.
“I’m sorry, Hix, I didn’t think. We should have been packing last night, not making out on my couch.”
At that, he didn’t grin but smiled huge like I was hilarious.
“Babe, if you think I mind rollin’ out of your bed at oh dark thirty to start a day of packing boxes and lugging crap because I made the decision to make out with you on your couch and not pack boxes last night, you’d be wrong.”
I smiled back. “I see.”
“And tomorrow’s gonna suck because moving sucks, but after tomorrow I’m gonna have my kids in a good place that’s two blocks from you and that is not gonna suck.”
I kept smiling. “I hear that.”
He was still smiling too. “So what I’m sayin’ is, I gotta deal with this condom and then we gotta settle in because I need some shuteye, seein’ as I’m not twenty-three anymore and I can’t go all night with a woman and roll outta bed and spend all day doin’ somethin’ physical without it kicking my ass.”
I was enjoying gliding my free hand along the skin of his back, holding him anchored to me with my legs around his thighs and also still smiling when I asked, “When you were twenty-three, could you go all night with a woman?”