In My Head (22 page)

Inching his face closer to mine, I involuntarily lean into him hoping for a kiss. He divulges me, and gives me a quick kiss on the lips. “None of that. I don’t need you distracting me. Oh! I got it. When we had sex, at the lake, where you impressed with my mad skills?”

“Mad skills? Are you serious right now? I’m pretty sure you’re the last guy on earth that needs his ego stroked.”

A grin lights up his face. “That’s answer enough. You said I don’t need my ego stroked, so answer or not, I’m taking that as an astounding yes.” He turns away from me and shoots the ball from the same position. And he makes it again.

This is going to be a long day.

“ROBERT?” I’M CALLING
my real dad today, to see if he wants to come over for dinner tonight.

“Yeah?” Comes the reply in my ear.

“It’s Lyla. I was wondering if you wanted to come over for dinner tonight. You haven’t been able to meet my kids yet. And Ben should be home somewhat early tonight.” I pace nervously around the kitchen as I await his answer. “I know it’s last minute, but I figured I would call and ask.”

“Sure thing, I’ll just need your address and I’ll be there.” I rattle off my address and I hope he’s writing it down. “Well, I guess I better get off of here and start getting ready so I can head out.”

“All right, then. I will see you tonight.” I hang up my phone and set it down on the table. Now I need to figure out what to make. Walking over to the pantry, I open the door to see what I have inside. I could do stuffed shells, I do have all the ingredients to make that. Pulling all of the stuff out that I need, I place it over on the oven.

Walking back out of the kitchen, I head into the living room to start picking up toys that were left out again. “Hey, Kay?”

I hear her little voice screaming from her room. “Yeah, Mommy?”

Rolling my eyes, I tell her, “Why don’t you come downstairs, instead of yelling down the stairs?” She drops whatever toys she was playing with and comes stomping down the stairs. Clearly very put out by me asking her to come talk to me.

She comes down the stairs and stops right at the bottom. Crossing her arms across her chest and just stares at me expectantly. I see so much of my attitude in her, I always laughed when my mom told me she wished I had a child that acted worse than me.

“Mommy has a friend coming over tonight. I want you to be on your extra best behavior. I don’t want him thinking I’m raising wild animals, okay?” She looks thoughtful for a minute.

“Who is your friend?” She dropped her arms to her side and is starting to swing them back and forth. My child can’t hold still for the life of her.

I try to come up with something that will placate her a little bit, without giving her the truth. Because she won’t understand. “He’s just an old friend of Mommy’s. I’ve known him for a while, but we haven’t seen each other in a long time. So, Mommy and Daddy wanted him to come over and have dinner tonight.”

I silently plead that that is enough to keep her happy for right now. “Okay, Mommy,” is all she says before she’s heading back to her room. Well, okay then. I continue to clean up the living room, and then I clean the downstairs bathroom. I don’t think we’ll be doing a tour of the house or anything, so I don’t bother with the upstairs stuff.

When I finally get the downstairs as good as it’s going to get, I head back into the kitchen to get the stuffed shells started. Pulling out a bowl, a skillet, and a pot. I dump the ground turkey into the skillet and turn it on to brown. I take the pot and put it under the faucet and turn the water on. I fill it up with enough water to boil the shells in. I set that back on the stove to boil.

Dumping the rest of the ingredients into the bowl I set that aside to wait for the turkey and shells to be done. I grab a spatula and move the turkey around in the skillet, trying to get the parts that haven’t browned yet on the bottom of the pile. When the shells are done I run them under cool water.

I start stuffing the shells and line them up in a baking dish. Covering them with foil, I place them in the oven. Setting the time I go back out towards the living room. Looking at the time on the clock on the wall, I see that I still have time to get a shower before Robert is supposed to be here.

I rush up the stairs and walk into Kay’s room, letting her know she needs to stay in here and play with her toys until I get out of the shower. Walking into Kody’s room next, I check on him. He’s been napping for about an hour or so now. He seems content to stay sleeping too. I place one of his tractor toys in the crib with him, so if he does wake up he has something to entertain himself with.

Running into my room, I strip my clothes off as I go. Gathering them up, I shove them all into the dirty clothes hamper. Turning the shower on, I wait a few minutes for it to get hot before I jump in. I dunk my head under the shower spray and get my hair wet. When I pull my head forward again and wipe my eyes the shower curtain gets ripped to the side.

I jump and scramble to cover all my parts and scream at the top of my lungs. When I finally get my bearings, I realize that my husband is standing there with a big smile on his face. Naked. He steps into the shower and I drop my hands, not having a reason to cover my goodies up now.

“I was hoping to help you cook, but I see you got all of that under control so I decided to come jump in the shower with you.” He smiles suggestively. Damn him. I can’t help but grin back. I close the few feet that separates us.

Wrapping my arms around his neck, I ask in a low voice, “What is it you think is going to happen in here? We don’t have
that
much time.”

“Are you forgetting who you’re talking to? I can make this quick, just turn around for me and I’ll be done soon.” He grabs onto my arms, and uses them to turn me around.

I brace my arms on the wall in front of me and lean forward, sticking my ass out for him. He smooths his hands over the globes of my ass, and spreads my cheeks apart. Moaning deep in his throat he says, “Baby, you are too good to me.” He takes one hand and lowers it to my entrance. Slowly inching two fingers inside of me, he starts pumping in and out making sure I’m ready for him.

“Ben, we don’t have time for a build-up. You need to get it in, get us off, then get out.” I growl at him. He loves his anticipation.

His low chuckle sends shivers down my spine. “Baby, you’re just so impatient.” I feel the fat tip of him nudging against me. The head enters me and he stills. Holding himself there he grasps my hips in a bruising grip. Holding me still, as well, because I’m trying to slam myself back into him.

“No, no, no. Just wait. I’ll make it good, but you have to behave. Let me do this myself.” Ben loosens his grip on my hips now that he thinks I’ll hold still for him. I do though, as soon as every inch of his beautiful cock is deep inside of me, I’ll take matters into my own hands.

I feel him inch deeper into me, only to stop and pull back to where just the tip is inside me and then slams himself back in. He pulls back again and slams back. He repeats this a couple times before he starts a punishing pace. I press my cheek against the tile on the wall, and drop my hand to play with my clit.

“That’s right, baby, I love knowing you’re playing with yourself as I’m slamming into you from behind. This glorious ass on display for me.” He pulls one hand back and smacks my ass five times, leaving me panting and wanting more. I love when he gets like this. He always wants to leave his mark, to possess me. I used to think it was just how he was. Maybe he knows on some deeper level that he really does need to mark his territory.

THE DOORBELL RINGS
when I’m walking downstairs. I decided to actually dress “nice” tonight. I threw on a pair of leggings and a white sparkly tank top that has a little extra room in the belly area with a long sleeved cardigan over top. I didn’t have time to do anything with my hair so I threw it up into a wet messy bun. Whatever, at least I look nice clothes wise.

I grab the doorknob, turning it and swinging the door open, I stare openmouthed at this man that doesn’t at all look like the same man I met. This is a cleaned up Robert. He actually has clothes on, albeit clothes that look very well loved. He also looks like he recently got a haircut and the color of his skin looks better than the last time I saw him.

“Come on in!” I say a little too enthusiastically. “I’m glad you could make it, even as last minute as it was.”

He cautiously takes in his surroundings, probably intimidated by my house in comparison to his. “I wouldn’t have missed this for the world. If I would have had plans, I would have changed them.” He smiles at me warmly.

Just then my daughter decides to come tearing down the stairs in all of her crazy glory. “Hi! You’re Mommy’s friend, right? She told me you were coming and that I have to be on my best behavior, because she doesn’t want you to think we’re wild animals.”

I cover my face with my hands and laugh silently. She hates when you laugh outright at something she’s said. I drop my hands and look at Robert. He hasn’t said anything yet, but he has a smile on his face that looks like it’s lighting up his entire world. He kneels down onto one knee and sticks his hand out to her to shake her hand.

“Hi, I am your mommy’s friend. I’m Robert. What’s your name?” She stares at his hand for a few beats before sticking her small hand into his larger one.

“I’m MaKayla, but everyone calls me Kay.” She quickly pulls her hand out of his and continues to stand there.

Robert stands back up and says, “It’s very nice to meet you, Kay. You’re very pretty, you look just like your mommy.” He turns to look at me then. “She’s gorgeous and does look just like you. Wild animal behavior aside, it looks like you’ve done a great job.”

Ben comes down the stairs just then. He’s not even completely down the stairs with Kody in his hands before speaking. “Hi, I’m Ben. Lyla’s husband. How are you?” He stops when he makes it to the middle of the room. It’s then that I realize we’re still standing in the doorway to the house.

I gesture to the living room then say, “Come on in, make yourself at home.” He takes his jacket off then turns to hand it to me. I take it and put it in the closet behind the front door. As I shut the door to the closet, I take a deep breath. Steeling myself for a long night. I want this is be as not awkward as possible, but considering everything I don’t know if that’s possible.

Facing the room again I see that Ben and Robert are making small talk on the couch. Robert is looking at Kody, gazing at him in wonder.

“How was the drive up here?” Small talk is a good place to start in any situation, as forced as it may be.

He makes eye contact with me then turns back to looking at Kay this time. “The drive was uneventful, which is always good.”

Nodding, I don’t say anything back. I’m not sure what to say. I look at Ben, showing him my panic.

“Robert, would you care for a drink?” My eyes go as big as saucers and I try to very subtly start shaking my head. And then I stop like a kid caught with their hand in the cookie jar as soon as Robert turns to look at me.

Giving me a weird look, he turns to look back at Ben. Clearing his throat he says, “I, uh, I would like a water.” He cast his eyes downward like he’s ashamed he has to clarify what he wants to drink.

Ben stands up and takes Kody with him to the kitchen to grab a couple bottle of waters. As soon as he is out of the room I turn to Robert to apologize, but he beats me to it. “It’s still new. I’m trying to adjust, so I’m sorry if I made it weird.”

I jump up off the chair and make my way over to Robert. He stands when I get close and I just wrap my arms around him. He stiffens as I hug him, but after a few minutes he relaxes and puts his arms around me. Ben must have lingered a little bit in the kitchen to give us a moment alone.

When he comes back in, he tells us that food is done. I get up and go get everything ready in the dining room, you know since we never eat in there anyways. We always eat in the living room in front of the TV or in the kitchen.

I have to go back into the kitchen to get Kody’s high chair, since it’s on wheels I drag it back into the dining room. Satisfied that everything is how it should be, I go grab the food and the drinks and set everything in the center of the table.