The One Left Behind (The One Series) (32 page)

My parents are barbecuing and my mom insisted that I invite Pierce’s mother and sister. I told her she was being ridiculous, as usual, and that there was no rush in her meeting his family. Her response was, “Nonsense, if you don’t invite them I’ll track them down and invite them myself.” So I gave in and invited Pierce’s family. I just hope they can handle my mom since she can be a bit much at times.

I am putting the finishing touches on my make up when Ali’s head pops up and she jumps off the bed running towards the door. I always know when Pierce is here because Ali goes running for the door. I hear it open and Pierce yells out, “Hey, Addison. Where ya at?”

“In the bathroom just finishing my make up.”

Pierce walks into the bathroom and has on his swim trunks and T-Shirt and flip flops. His T-shirt is snug giving me a clear view of his cut biceps and well-defined chest. He’s so sexy. He flashes me a playful grin that warns me that he’s about to attack me as he devours me in a slow, luscious kiss.

He pulls away, “You don’t need any make up. You look beautiful without it.”

Once I’m able to form a coherent sentence after that kiss I say, “You have to say that because you’re my boyfriend.”

“I don’t have to say anything. I say it because it’s true. You’re the most beautiful woman I have ever laid eyes on.” His eyes fill with lust as he looks back down at my lips again. This is why he makes me feel sexy.

“Come here.” I pull Pierce by his shirt bringing him closer to me and kiss him. I pull away before things can get too heated since I don’t want to make us late.

“Are you almost ready?” Pierce asks as he tugs on the string on my bathing suit bottoms.

I swat his hand away, “Yeah, I just have to throw my cover up on and I’m good to go.”

“Okay, I’ll go get Ali ready.” He gives me one last kiss on the lips before walking away to find her.

I didn’t bother telling my mom I was bringing Ali since she’s always loved dogs. When she stopped by the other day and saw her, she spent an extra hour at my place just playing with her.

Once Ali is on her leash, we make our way to my mom’s.

“So,” Pierce begins, “I was starting to think you were an orphan. I know you don’t have any brothers or sisters, but I was starting to think you didn’t have parents either,” Pierce jokes.

“Believe me, after meeting my mom you will have wished I was an orphan,” I say in a flat tone.

Pierce laughs at my joke. “She can’t be that bad.”

“Care to wager a bet on that one, Charming? She will be so overbearing you will be begging me to leave early.”

“Sure. What are we playing for?” Pierce says with an arched eyebrow showing he’s up for the challenge.

“If I win, I want a foot rub every night for a month.” Pierce is always giving me foot rubs so I figured I’d go easy on him since this would be an easy win for me.

Pierce looks at me from the corner of his eye, “And if I win?”

“Whatever you want.” I’m a little overconfident at this point. There is no way my mom won’t send him running for the hills.

“If I win, I want sex on the beach, and not the drink. I want you, naked in the sand under my body,” he says with a cocky grin as he looks my body up and down before looking back at the road.

“Deal.” I don’t even have to think about it. Poor Pierce doesn’t know what he’s getting himself into. By the end of the night my mother will know everything about him from how many kids he wants to the thread count of his sheets.

We pull up to my mom’s house and I am happy to see we arrive before Lexi and Catherine. I grab Ali’s leash as she jumps out of the car. I knock on the door and walk in.

“Mom, Dad, we’re here.” I take off Ali’s leash and she runs off toward the kitchen. I hear my mom’s voice as she greets her and I follow it to the kitchen.

“Ali, what a nice surprise! Come give Grandma kisses,” she says in a baby talk voice.

I look at Pierce and give him my best ‘I told you so’ look. He walks up to my mother and pulls out flowers from behind his back. Before I can introduce them, Pierce greets my mother with the flowers and a hug and he even adds a kiss on the cheek for good measure.
Suck up.

“Hello, Mrs. Ramsey. It’s so nice to finally meet you. I was just telling Addison on the ride over it’s a shame we couldn’t meet sooner.” Then he flashes her the million dollar smile and I know my mother is a goner. My mom’s face lights up and the biggest smile spreads across it. I know in that minute there is no way I am winning this bet. I am so screwed.

“Oh Pierce honey, I couldn’t agree more. I have been hearing such great things about you. And please, call me Jenna.”

“Okay, Jenna it is.”

So if my mom was not going to be her usual self, I would have to depend on my dad to be my ace up my sleeve.

“Mom, where is Dad?”

“Oh, he’s out back in the pool. Why don’t you take Pierce to meet him while I set these flowers in some water?” She takes in a lungful of air as she’s smelling the flowers and smiles again.
Traitor.

I grab Pierce’s hand and walk out back. “I didn’t know when we made the bet that you would be playing dirty.” I say to Pierce with a pout.

“What? I’m just being my usual
charming
self,” Pierce says innocently.

“Pumpkin!” My dad shouts to me as he’s getting out of the pool.

I walk towards him and let go of Pierce’s hand so I can give him a hug. As I step out of the hug, I feel Pierce grab my hand again.

“Dad, this is Pierce, Pierce this is my dad.”

“It’s a pleasure, Mr. Ramsey.”

My dad waves his hand dismissively and says, “Call me Mason.”

What the hell? Were my parents drinking before I got here? Normally all my boyfriends got interrogated before they were given permission to use first names. I feel like I’m in the twilight zone.

“Pierce, would you like a beer?” my father asks.

“That would be great. I remember Addison mentioning that you like cigars. One of my employees, Garrick, just got some Cuban cigars in and I brought you one to try. I hope you don’t mind.” Pierce pulls out two cigars from the pocket in his bathing suit. Hearing Garrick’s name makes me wonder if Lexi told Pierce about him yet.

My dad takes the cigar from him and holds it up to his nose to smells it. “Now, that is a cigar. Come on, son, let’s go smoke these before Jenna comes out and complains about the smell,” he says with a wink.

My mouth falls open. I give Pierce an ‘are you kidding me’ look. He came prepared, I will give him that. I have never seen my parents warm up so fast to any guy I’ve ever brought over. Although I can’t be completely sure since I don’t remember their introduction to Colin. I wonder if they’re being nice because of everything I’ve been through. Either way, it’s nice not having to deal with the craziness of my mom, but as nice as it is I just lost a bet and I’m going to have sand in all kinds of places by the end of the night.

“Can I make you a drink real quick?” My dad asks me. As soon as Pierce is taking a sip of his beer I say, “Sure, I’ll take a sex on the beach.” I give Pierce a pointed look. He spits his beer out and starts to cough. I laugh as my dad pats Pierce on the back.

“You okay, son?”

“Yes, sir, just went down the wrong pipe.” Pierce shoots me an amused look and I wink at him.

I take my drink from my dad and he asks me to bring the cosmo he made into the house for my mom. I walk to the kitchen and hand my mom her drink.

“Here Mom, Dad thought you would like this.” I place the drink on the counter.

She takes a sip. “Mmm, delicious. Thank you. So it’s been six months since the accident. You seem like you’ve adjusted well. Is work and everything going good? Are you back to a routine that works for you?”

“Yea, things are great Mom. I couldn’t be happier.” I can’t keep the smile off of my face as I think about Pierce and all the happiness he has brought to my life.

I see my mom pause like she’s hesitant to say something before she finally speaks up, “And how’s Colin? Were you able to clear things up with him?”

When the whole mess with Colin went down, I called my dad to tell him about what happened. He wasn’t home so I told my mom. To my surprise, she was very understanding toward me and listened.

“Yeah, I met with him and we’re going to try to give being friends another go. I really took what you said to me to heart and I want to try and keep him in my life. It hasn’t been easy, but I’m trying.” I fiddle with the hem of my cover up as I think back to just how hard this has really been.

My mom comes around the counter and hugs me. “I know I can be overbearing and I’m trying to fix that…”

I interrupt her by saying, “So that’s why you’re being so calm with Pierce?” I joke

My mom laughs. “I like him. He seems like a good man who has his life together. And the way he looks at you—I can tell he would do just about anything for you, and that’s enough for me.”

I’m not really sure what to say since I have never seen my mom act like this. I don’t even have a word for what
this
is. But I can honestly say I like it.

I hear the doorbell ring and go to answer it. I greet Lexi and Catherine and walk them into the kitchen where my mother is. Ali comes running to Lexi and jumps on her leg for attention. I make introductions and we all go out back to the pool. My dad is playing bartender to everyone while he and Pierce are smoking their cigars.

“Mason, you know I don’t like the smell of cigars,” my mother begins to scold. “Couldn’t you wait till our guests have left to smoke that?” My mom is now scowling at my dad.

“Jenna, our guest brought the cigar for me. It would be rude for me not to smoke it in his company.”

“Oh, well that’s a different story then. Enjoy your cigar.” She waves her hand dismissing her earlier scolding.

Pierce and I laugh. He puts his cigar down and heads toward his mom and sister. Pierce greets them both, and makes sure they are taken care of and don’t need anything before returning to his cigar.

The day is going great. Everyone is getting along well and I’m glad Lexi could make it since my mom and dad are both monopolizing Pierce’s time. They seem to be really hitting it off with Catherine and Lexi as well. I am bringing Lexi up to speed on the bet Pierce and I made. She breaks out into a fit of laughter.

“Oh, you’re in trouble. You’re so going to lose. Parents love Pierce,” she says between giggles.

“I’m beginning to see that. It’s really weird because normally my mom is all up in people’s business and my dad is grilling them until they sweat. I thought for sure this would be an easy win.” I slump further down into my chair in defeat.

“Don’t feel bad, Pierce is a natural with parents. He’s such a good guy I think it just oozes out of him.”

“What oozes out of me?” Pierce asks as he walks up to the lounge chairs we are tanning on.

“Oh, you know, the fact that you hustled me. You’re so damn charming that it just oozes off of you and everyone melts like putty in your hands.”

“Hey, I can’t help that my mom raised me to be a gentlemen. She would whoop my ass if I wasn’t.”

We hear a loud splash and a lot of laughter. We all look to the pool to see Ali swimming her way toward the stairs.

“What’s so funny?” I ask Pierce and Lexi. We were so wrapped up in our conversation that we missed what our parents found so humorous. We look around in confusion and see Ali running toward the diving board. She jumps up on it and runs right off the board into the pool. We all break out laughing this time as Ali comes up from the water swimming in circles. The look on her face as she’s flying in the air with her tongue hanging out to the side like she’s having the time of her life is quite comical. Lexi decides she is going to join Ali and dives in.

Pierce gets up from the lounge chair and holds out his hand. “Come on, let’s go for a swim.”

“No thanks I’ll wait until after dinner.”

“Suit yourself.” Pierce says with a grin on his face.

Everyone gets into the pool and I am the only one tanning while reading a book. I keep getting badgered to get into the water but I just wave them off. I really want to finish my book and I am getting to a good part when Pierce comes out of the pool dripping wet. I look over the top of my kindle and stare at him. Water droplets are running down his body, curving over each and every muscle. I hide my face behind my book hoping he can’t see the desire behind my expression. He walks over to me and I put the book down. He leans down to give me a kiss and drops of water land on my stomach, making me jump slightly at the feel of the cold water on my warm skin.

“You’re getting me all wet, Charming,” I say with double meaning.

“I love it when you talk dirty to me,” Pierce says suggestively, “and since you’re all wet…” he trails off as one of his hands slides slowly up my leg. As he’s inching up my thigh I start getting nervous since my parents are right over his shoulder. He takes his other arm and wraps it around my back before lifting me off the lounge chair and jogging toward the pool.

“Pierce, don’t you dare! Do not throw me in that pool!”

As he gets to the edge of the pool, everyone, and I mean everyone, is chanting, “Throw her in. Throw her in!” Before I can protest any further, Pierce jumps into the water with me still in his arms.

I swim to the surface and both of our families are laughing. As soon as Pierce comes up, I take his head and dunk him under the water. He grabs my waist and pulls me under with him and kisses me beneath the water. We both pop up and I climb onto one of the floats in the pool.

We finally get out to cook and eat. Dinner goes great and Mom and Catherine share embarrassing stories from our childhood. When Catherine sees Lexi laughing so hard that she is crying, she says, “What are you laughing about? Do you remember the time you were running around in circles in the front yard trying to beat the sprinklers and you ran into the only tree out there? Or what about the time you were sleep walking and snuck out of the house, walked across the street, rang the neighbor’s doorbell, came home and went back to bed?” Lexi instantly stops laughing now that the spot light is on her. I look around the table and notice all the smiles and laughter on everyone’s faces. I’m lucky to have a family that loves me so much that they accept Pierce without question. I’m also lucky to be able to share Pierce’s family with mine.