“I can’t go in there!”
“Why not?” I ask, thoroughly confused.
“We just had sex!”
“Sweet lips, not to point out the obvious, but I think they all know that.”
“But I have your protein sauce all over my stomach!”
“Protein sauce?”
“You know what I mean! I’m all sticky!”
“We wiped it off. It’s fine. You’re being crazy over nothing. Besides, you made me put it there. I would have much rather had my little soldiers swimming inside that sweet little body of yours and eventually dripping down your thighs to remind you of everything we did.”
“Your little soldiers need to stay far and away from my insides, Grayson Lucas.”
“We’ll see,” I tell her, frowning. Getting in her unprotected might be a little harder than I anticipated.
“We’ll see? There’s nothing to see!” she practically shouts.
I ignore her, instead choosing to open the door to the kitchen and gently, but firmly, pushing her inside. She stumbles slightly before looking over her shoulder and shooting me a look to kill. I grin just to piss her off more.
“What are we seeing?” White asks.
“Cooper doesn’t want to have a baby with me,” I tell him like that’s something I discuss every day. The room goes silent, but I ignore them all. They don’t get it. When I decided CC was mine, all of my normal routines were thrown out the window. I’m not interested in other women. I’m not interested in trying to burn her out of my system. I want to keep her attached to my side. I want to make sure she can’t get away. I can’t give her those reasons out loud yet because my CC is as skittish as a young colt. I’m not going to make a big secret about shit, either. She needs to hear some of it. She needs to get used to it because I’m going nowhere.
“I can’t believe you,” she huffs in my ear for me alone. “Ignore him. He hit his head on a stall door in the barn. He’s obviously delirious,” she says louder for everyone to hear. Everyone remains silent, most likely because they know I’m totally serious.
Mom reaches over and takes a piece of hay that was stuck in CC’s hair. “You seem to have hay in your hair, sweetie. You really should have picked the kitchen table. That hay can be mighty uncomfortable. And the barn usually has mosquitoes big enough to carry a body off,” she says.
“Umm…”
“And you needn’t worry. Janson made sure this table could hold up an army. It’s sturdy enough to handle anything you two do.”
“Umm,” CC says again, probably not knowing what to say. Mom has that effect on everyone, and has it often.
“There’s a lot of good memories on this table. It’s our favorite worshipping altar,” Janson agrees.
“You guys, really? I eat off this table!” Cyan growls, being the lone Lucas sibling who still lives at home.
“So do I,” says Janson, grinning and winking at Mom.
Everyone moans at the yuckiness of thinking of our Mom like that. Hell, my own moan joins in.
“You have a very strange family, crayon man.”
“If I had a dollar…” I sigh, then put some roast on CC’s plate before adding some to mine. I do the same with the mashed potatoes.
“What if I didn’t want mashed potatoes?” she asks, then reaches over to get a roll and put it on my plate.
“You love mashed potatoes. The waitress at the diner always makes sure you get a double order and you eat every bite,” I tell her, pulling off a piece of the roll with my fingers and popping it in my mouth.
She turns to look at me, studying my face. “You notice things like that?”
“I notice everything about you, Cooper.”
“Why?” she asks, sounding really confused.
“Because you matter,” I tell her, kissing her briefly on the lips. Then I return to eating, leaving her to think while I get lost in the conversations going on around us. I figure I’ve given her enough to think about.
Rome wasn’t built in a day. Tomorrow, I’ll push a little more.
“This was your room growing up?”
“What gave it away?”
“The naked girl posters.”
“Well, this was also Green’s room, so those are his, and I’d like to point out that some of them are wearing clothes.”
“Like… those two over there?” I point to the wall across from the bed.
“Well, those are Green’s. Really, they all are, except Sophia Loren there. That one is all mine.”
“You’re kidding, right?”
“Hell no! That woman is trophy-boner worthy.”
“Okay, first of all, talking about other women inducing boners while in bed with me? Yeah, that should never happen again.”
“Point made, sweet lips,” he whispers, rolling over me so his body covers mine. He kisses along the inside of my neck and, just like that, I have to struggle to remember what we were talking about.