Breathless Awakening (The Breathless Series) (18 page)

“Alright, Daddy, but please have Mom call me once everything is done. You had better mean sitting on the couch and doing nothing when you say back to normal. You need to rest. I know you were going to help me move to Luke’s when we get back, but maybe we can get Zane to come back to help. You need to rest and take care of yourself.”

“I think Zane would be more than happy to help you move, Cailyn. That’s a great idea. I’ll take it easy. Now you go take care of that husband of yours.” The smile on Terry’s face was as big as it was at the wedding. He was so happy to know that Cailyn found such a great guy to take care of her.

“Daddy!”

“Cailyn dear, you are going to have to learn that you may always be my little girl, but us guys have to stick together. I’ve been dealing with you and your mother teaming up on me for how long?”

“I love you Daddy.”

“I love you too, dear. I’ll have your mother call you later.”

Terry handed me the phone to hang up. “Really, we have been teaming up on you huh?”

“You two have had me outnumbered for years. I thought I was going to be able to keep her on my side being my daddy’s girl, but you still found a way to turn her against me. That doesn’t even count the times when Megan was over.”

We both laughed, and it felt good to relax, letting it all out. Everything had been so stressful lately. The days leading up to the wedding, the accident, keeping the house a secret… So many things piled on our plate and I couldn’t believe we sat here laughing before Terry went to have surgery.

We both knew it wasn’t a major surgery, but it was surgery nonetheless. Complications were always a risk when dealing with surgery. That was probably why we were laughing and letting everything go. I couldn’t help thinking about what we tried to instill into Cailyn as she grew up, especially the teenage years.

There are times that you’ll be faced with some of the most difficult situations in life, moments of despair and anguish, worry and concern, or the compounding of daily stressors adding onto each other. In those moments, when seconds appear to drag into millennia, enjoy life. Find something to laugh at, someone to hold you, or a memory to make you smile. The trials and tribulations of life are many. Embrace them for the experience, the knowledge you gain from them, and carry yourself onto the next one with a smile on your face to show that nothing is going to keep you down.

Maybe this was God’s way of telling us to listen to our own advice. I knew Cailyn had plenty of things to make her smile this week, but I didn’t expect to find myself smiling and laughing before Terry went in for surgery.

“You know, Aileen? That felt good. Maybe if I laughed at myself more often, I wouldn’t be in this situation. They say it’s the best medicine.”

“All those years of me laughing at you must not have been enough.” We both erupted into a laughing fit until the nurse walked into the room to take Terry down. She gave us the oddest look, which of course made us both laugh harder.”

Rhylie

It took everything I had to ask Liz to take Rebecca’s appointment for today. I knew that she couldn’t stand to deal with Rebecca, but I had to see Zane. Had I been convincing enough that she didn’t catch on? Explaining that he was stuck at the house with nothing to do or eat, I tried to tell her that I needed to take him lunch. Of course to avoid Rebecca, she had offered to take him something. Surely she had me figured out when I insisted on being the one to go.

Thinking quickly, I realized that she could get through Rebecca’s trim pretty quickly before Jamie arrived for her appointment. Jamie was one of her best tippers so she wouldn’t want to miss out on that. I was glad that I was able to get out of there.

Calling Mrs. Donnelly as soon as I got to the car, she told me that they had taken Mr. D. down for a procedure and they thought he would be able to go home tomorrow. That was great news. I knew he would have to take it easy, but at least he would be home before Cailyn came back from the honeymoon.

Stopping at a drive‐thru to get some food for Zane, I didn’t plan him actually getting to eat it until after I left. I couldn’t believe I felt like this. The nerves that were fluttering around like butterflies in my stomach had me feeling as if I were back in the sixth grade waiting for my first kiss.
Get it together, Rhylie, it hasn’t been that long.

Pulling up to the house, I saw Zane sitting on the front porch. He had pulled one of Luke’s kitchen chairs out of the garage and his feet propped up on the railing. He started to walk towards me, but his eyes were solely on the bag of food I was carrying.

“Oh thank God. I was hoping you hadn’t forgotten about me. Luke has nothing that actually seems edible in any of the boxes I could get to so I was about to start walking, but I didn’t know where the hell to go. I bummed a granola bar off one of the delivery guys.”

I put the bag behind my back. “You poor thing you. Looks like you could miss a meal or two and it wouldn’t hurt you too badly. Might actually do you some good come to think of it.” Who the hell was I kidding? Zane was fit. He wasn’t the muscular build that Breck had; being the size of a linebacker and all, but he had more of the ironman physique. The kind that told you he had stamina.
Oh my God, stop thinking about his stamina.

“Woman, don’t you know that you aren’t supposed to come between a man and his food?”

“Did you just call me woman? I have a name, you ass. Maybe I should take this back to the salon and eat it myself.”

“Rhylie, please. I’m sorry. There’s nothing to do, nothing to eat, and I admit I am a little grumpy.”

Walking up to him, I thought about how fun it was to listen to him grovel a little and shoved the bag into his chest. I didn’t care that I probably smashed the sandwich, he was going to have to deal with it. “I don’t care if you are grumpy. Grow the fuck up.”

With my hand free from the bag, I reached behind his neck and pulled his lips to mine. I hadn’t been able to get those lips off my mind all morning. They felt every bit as divine as they had this morning, maybe more so. “I came over here for that. You teased the hell out of me this morning leaving me like that. If you are so damn hungry, then enjoy your food. I’ll see if someone else can bring you dinner.”

He started to protest. His arm reached out for mine, but I shrugged him off and headed to the car. I had to get out of there before I lost my control. Who was I trying to fool? As soon as I closed up the salon, I knew I would be back here simply because I couldn’t wait to feel those lips on more of my body.

Since things didn’t go quite as planned, I walked back in as Liz was finishing with Rebecca. “That didn’t take long. I thought maybe you were trying to cover something up, but that would have been an all‐time record for a quickie.”

I knew I had to be careful. Working in a salon you learn to pick up on all the little things that people imply unknowingly and how to drag it out of them when you want to. “Shut up. He was an ass so I threw his food at him and left. I had planned on at least keeping him company while he ate since he is there all alone.”

“At least keeping him company huh? And at most?”

Damn, I knew better than to let that slip. I could feel the sweat starting to coat my palms. “Very funny. I figured that he would like some company other than the sweaty fat delivery guys.”

“Give it up, Rhylie. You’ve been single too long. We don’t even have to read you like a book. You are shouting at us right now with your body language. And that smile, yea, that one… It looks good on you after a year of being gone.”

I couldn’t talk to her in front of Rebecca. Liz, I could keep under control, but Rebecca was a gossip queen, and she would go right to Celeste. Anything I said in front of her would get back to Zane, sitting on the front porch all alone, before I could get there this evening. Throwing my hands up in the air and accepting defeat, I stormed off to the back room.

I started looking through the cabinets to see what kind of snacks I had stashed back here. Liz followed me. “Rhylie, you okay? I didn’t mean to upset you girl.”

“You’re fine. I couldn’t talk to you in front of her. That’s the whole reason you don’t like her after all, but you still had to keep digging. Everyone is going to know before the end of the day now. At least I didn’t tell you about the kiss.”

Liz’s eyes lit up like the Times Square Ball on New Year’s Eve. “The kiss? Wait a second. You kissed him? You haven’t shown any interest in a guy in over a year. I was starting to think you were going to become a nun. How was it?”

“When I dropped him off this morning, he kissed me, and I melted. I almost went home to change my panties before I came in here. Zane was on my mind all morning, and I had to take him lunch because I wanted to feel more of those lips.

“Then when I showed up he was a total ass. Whining about being hungry and bored, so I told him to grow up and smashed the bag of food in his chest. I wasn’t leaving without another kiss though, and I didn’t care how mad I was at him, my lips had to feel the softness of his lips again.”

“Whoa, when you dropped him off this morning? Did he stay with you last night? Tell me that he stayed with you.”

“I offered to let him sleep on the futon since all of Luke’s stuff was in the garage. I didn’t think it was right to make him unpack everything the same day he packed it. Nothing happened. I went to the hospital to see how Mr. D. was doing while he took a shower. I did kind of bump into him in the hallway when I got back home though, making him drop the towel and all. His ass looked like Michelangelo carved it.”

“You saw him naked? Please tell me you didn’t make him sleep on the futon.”

“He didn’t sleep on the futon.” Liz started to hop up and down like a little girl that was had been told she could open a birthday present a day early. “Nothing happened, chill. We watched a movie and I fell asleep cuddling with him on the couch. When I woke up this morning, he was still sitting there. I know it had to be uncomfortable, but he never moved me.”

The bell rang up front from someone coming in the door and Liz giggled with cheer. “It’s about time you get out of this slump. The only problem is your boyfriend lives an hour away. What are you going to do about that?”

“He is not my boyfriend. Go see who that is and get to work. I need to find something to eat.”

Before she walked back to the front, she couldn’t help but to laugh at me. “Aww, look at you. You are already starting to pick up his habits of being hungry and grumpy.”

Chapter Twenty‐Two

Zane

What the hell was all that about? Rhylie didn’t deserve me being such an ass, but where did that kiss come from. Holy shit! This morning when I kissed her, it was just a plain kiss on her end. Maybe I had read a few of the signs wrong or something. I wasn’t sure how I could have gotten it wrong with her. She was begging me to fuck her; but it wouldn’t be the first time a guy misunderstood a woman’s intentions. If I were being completely honest with myself, then I would admit that was probably what was causing my bad mood.

Rhylie was different from other girls. She had spunk, she had fire, and she had life. I couldn’t get her off my mind after that kiss. Having her curled up in my lap and sleeping on my chest all night was perfect. We didn’t know each other very well so I didn’t know much about her past relationships, but it was pretty obvious it had been a while. I had turned the place upside down last night while she was gone, and there was no sign or mention of a guy anywhere in her life.

When she kissed me this afternoon, it was full of passion and desire. No, it was full of hunger. I didn’t want a one‐night stand. That was never my thing. Luke had more of those than anyone could count when he was younger. My theory was that he didn’t want to let another woman get close to him so that he didn’t have to worry about losing them like we did our mom.

Our views were different though because I wanted to find that woman and hold her tight. I wanted to cherish every minute I could with them. Luke was old enough to remember the times with Mom before she got too sick. Mom was always sick in the hospital or confined to her room from what I could remember. He ran from those bad memories and cherished the fun they had, doing the same with the women as he had his fun, and threw them to the wind before things could get bad.

Rhylie was worth giving it a shot. No matter how uncomfortable it was going to make me to try to make this work, and I knew she might not be the one; just that it might be worth a shot to give her a chance. If I hadn’t already messed it up that is. How was I going to make it up to her if she sent someone else to give me a ride tonight? I needed to talk to her, but how? Why did I have to be stranded in a city that I didn’t know how to get around? I had no car, even if I did know where I was trying to go, and the one person that I could ask was on his honeymoon.

Another delivery truck pulled up. How much crap did they buy these two? There had already been more stuff delivered than we had moved yesterday. I didn’t know where any of it was supposed to go so I kept having them pile it in the garage for the most part.

As they rolled the door up, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. This truck had everything Luke needed for a workshop. A table saw, drill press, band saw, jointer, lathe, and more that I couldn’t even see. “Is that a Jet Supersaw?”

“Yep, sure is. There’s a lot of nice stuff in here, even if most of it is last year’s models.”

“I am so fucking jealous of my brother right now.”

“Where you want it, boss?”

“I’d love to tell you to take it to my place in Hickory, but since that won’t work, I guess put it in the garage with the rest of the stuff. I didn’t know there was going to be this much though, so hopefully it will fit.”

“We’ll make it fit.”

“I’ll start pulling some stuff into the house anyway.”

It took a good hour for them to get everything off the truck, but they couldn’t get everything in the garage. I had finished pulling stuff into the house and was getting everything pushed into the garage several hours later when Rhylie pulled up.