Truth and Humility (53 page)

“Now,” he said with a concentrated frown.  “Bring anything you want...except the posters of what’s-his-name.”

The thought of e thoughher toothbrush in the holder next to his was every bit as appealing to her, but his adorably stern expression prompted her to tease. “I don’t know if your closet is big enough for the both of us, Cahill.”

“You can build us a bigger one.”

She hesitated, struggled not to laugh.  “You sound awfully eager.”

“I’ll help you pack as soon as the cops leave.”

She slanted him a look.  “Are you sure you don’t just need a ride?  Because if that’s the case, all you gotta do is ask.”

His expression morphed into one of deep exasperation and he quickly rolled them over.  Now on top, he held the advantage.  “Okay, how ‘bout this.  If we wait much longer, I’ll be forced to ravage you in your cute little room, in your cute little bed, regardless of whether or not there’s a shotgun aimed at my backside.  I’d prefer it to be in the safety of
my
room, in
my
bed where there’s plenty of space for what I intend to do with you and your lovely body.”  He grinned wolfishly.  “That is, if you have the backbone for it.”

The man was irresistible.  Danny laughed and met his look adoringly.  “Bring it, Cahill.”

The garage door lifted and Danny pulled the Jeep into her space between the white Lincoln Mark LT and the black Challenger.  Austin was home and it was a damned good thing because she had missed the man to distraction.

It had taken two days of Columbia to realize she wanted nothing to do with the campus...or any campus that kept her away from the Bennett/Cahill homestead for too long.  Online courses were perfect, and as long as she only stayed away a few days at a time, she tolerated the classrooms only when needed.  Like during finals.

As always, the garage was impeccably clean, and now cooled by the winter air.  Danny turned to retrieve her duffel bag from the back seat and when she faced forward, there he was.  Hands in pockets, leaning against the door jam all sexy and fresh from a shower after work.  Her breath caught.  The sight of him never failed to stir her blood.  Could her feet move fast enough across the concrete?

“Hey, Cahill.”

“Hey, Cahill.”

The duffel bag plunked to the floor and she jumped into his arms.

Austin crushed her to him, pulled deeply on the intoxicating scent of her shampoo.  H“God, I missed you.”

For a while, she couldn’t respond as they devoured each other in the doorway.  Mouths joined, he backed into the house, kicked the door closed behind him.

“What about my...”

“I’ll get it later.”

He set her down and backed her through the long hall, holding her gaze with a lopsided grin.  “So, how’d it go?”

Trusting him to keep her from immediate danger, she stepped with him Ginger Rogers-style and focused on that full bottom lip.  “I won’t know until next week.  But I think I kicked ass.”

“Any college guys I need to wipe the floor with?”

Her smile was wide.  “None this time.  The wedding ring does the trick, I think.”

In fact, it was a rock.  Effective in blinding any man or woman if angled toward the sun in just the right way.  When Austin had slipped it on her finger four months prior in front of a minister, a fair amount of family and a throng of friends, her mother had simply swooned.  Indeed, Mary was the biggest supporter of their union, but Patricia had dabbed at her fair share of tears according to Ruth.  Herb...well, he made it to the ceremony while the shotgun stayed at home.  He even managed to walk his only daughter down the aisle.  It was a good start.

“Besides,” Danny cocked her brow, “you left quite an impression last time you came with me.  I just might have to wipe the floor with a few obnoxious, horny college girls.”

“I’ve already scored the only horny college girl I’m interested in.”  His hands traveled beneath her wool-lined suede coat and the heavy hide slid from her shoulders, was left abandoned in their wake.

The Christmas tree in the family room bathed them in a festive glow and Danny stopped, lifted on her tiptoes to seek out his mouth again.

“But,” Austin stopped her regretfully, “we have company.  And I’ll trust you to get rid of them so I can get your pants off ASAP.”

Disappointment put a pout on her mouth.

A familiar voice floated from the kitchen.  “Enough of the ooey-gooey crap already!”

Danny gasped in delight, clapped her hands...and promptly left him in her dust.  Shoulders slumped, head hanging, Austin followed her into the kitchen.

“Melanie!”  Danny wrapped her friend in a fierce embrace, careful not to hurt anything.  But the hug only lasted so long before she plunked to her knees and showered the woman’s rounded belly with adoring attention.  “Oh, and if it isn’t my baby nephew!  How is our little climber doing today?”

“The baby talk is a little premature, Danny,” Melanie laughed, enjoying the antics.  “Maybe in a couple of months.”

Danny’s head fell back and regarded her with a knowing look.  “He can hear me.  And he’ll know exactly who I am well before he’s born, isn’t that right baby!”

Back to the belly again.  Melanie rolled her eyes, laughed when she caught Austin and Mac doing the same thing from their barstools.

“Have I told you lately,” Danny said, standing to take her friend by the chin, “how glad I am that my brother knocked you up?”

A cheeky grin.  “A million times.”

“I never thought getting my ass kicked could produce such wonderful results.  I’d gladly do it again.”

Austin’s expression darkened behind her.  He hated the reminder, but his wife was almost gushing over the beating she took at the hands of an abusive coward.  “Danny.”

She recognized the tone and brushed it off, spotted Mac sitting at the island for the first time.  “Well...we wouldn’t have this bundle of joy if Mel hadn’t been so traumatized and missed her pills.”

“Hey, Monkey,” Mac said as they exchanged hugs.

“It’s all in how you look at it, isn’t that right, Mac?”

The big man shrugged, picked up his glass and jerked it toward Austin.  “I don’t think it makes him feel any better about it.  Doesn’t do much for me, either.”

“Or me,” Melanie admitted, frowning at the memory.  “You could just say something like... ‘I never thought one spontaneous round of unprotected highway sex could produce such wonderful results.’  Yeah.  Much better.”

Austin tilted his head while Mac blinked, both in a state of perplexed wonder.  “Still trying to picture that,” Mac mumbled in bafflement.

Danny reached for a glass in the cabinet and cringed.  “The visual, Mel.  The visual.”

“Better than yours.  Besides, you traumatized me more when you threw me out of that tree.”

Water hissed from the fridge dispenser.  “You know, I would have never done that if I’d known you were pregnant.”

Melanie leaned back into her hand, messaged her lower back.  “S’okay, girlfriend.  If this kid is anything like his daddy, the little guy enjoyed the action.”

“Why don’t you sit back down,” Mac ordered from his seat, sensing the woman’s physical discomfort from a distance.  “I shouldn’t have to keep forcing you.”

Danny sighed, plunked her glass down on the counter.  “Quit mothering her, Mac.  Between you and Sue, she’s going to stop coming around.”

“No she won’t,” Austin piped in with a wink toward the expectant mother.  “Babysitters.”

“And plenty of them,” Mac agreed with a smirk.

Danny looked at the two men nodding in agreement and began to tear up...again.  They were
all
having a baby.  At least that’s how it felt.  She knew Austin was every bit as excited as she was, the man just hid it better behind male machismo.  Most of the time.

“I’m not so sure that’s a good idea,” Melanie chimed in smartly.  “You two have done nothing but threaten to teach him bad habits.”

The truth of it was, Melanie felt like the luckiest expectant mother in the world.  She was surrounded by so much love, plenty of good friends and oodles of support.  Though her baby’s father wasn’t here to share the joy, she couldn’t possibly feel lonely, not with the rest of the Bennett family behind her.  As she mastered the ultimate stare-off with the two knuckleheads conspiring to play insubordinate roll model, well...her heart was full.

“There is nothing wrong with teaching a kid how to drive before he’s ten,” Austin informed riotously.  “Hell, he’s already got a car.”

While Danny shot her husband a dry look, Melanie shook her head, sighed and tipped awkwardly back into the ergonomic chair specially purchased for her.  Though the man didn’t say as much, she knew Austin had insisted on buying it partly because he hoped his wife would need it after earning her bachelor’s degree.  At least that was the plan.

Mac grumbled into his glass of soda as he took a drink.  “425 horses of pure penis envy...going to a child.  That’s just wrong.”

But Danny didn’t hear the comment.  Once Austin caught her look, he held it.  Slowly he raised a single eyebrow and those black eyes sent her a promise her body was physically unable to ignore.  Oh, yeah.  Company...

The water forgotten, Danny’s heart picked up in tempo.  “Hey, Mac.”

“Huh?”

“I think Mel needs a ride.”

Mac eyeballed her, then rolled his look toward the petite, rounded, blond in the recliner.  “A ride...where?”

“Anywhere.”

Austin threw back his head and laughed while Melanie struggled to her feet once again.  “Come on, big guy,” she said, reaching for her purse.  “The sexual tension in here is downright copious.  And since you and I already walked down the aisle together, you might as well take me to a movie.”

Mac grabbed her coat and helped her into it.  The two had become pretty good friends since carrying out their most important rolls in the landmark Bennett/Cahill wedding.  His lip crunched with trepidation.  “What
kind
of movie.”

“Wes Nean"lowlyll find out when we get there.”

“Not anything too mushy.  Here, don’t forget your back pillow.”

Melanie took it from him, made a face.  “Nothing too violent, either.”

They disappeared down the hall.  “We’ll flip for it.”

“I call heads.”

The garage door closed.  Austin rose, circled around the island and approached his wife with aplomb.  “I call tails.”

With a giddy laugh, they lunged for each other.  Danny yanked his shirt overhead with vixen-like aggression.  “You always call tails.”  Their mouths fused in a plundering kiss and she broke away to nibble breathlessly on his bottom lip.  “In the shower, in the family room, in the kitchen, in the garage...”

Grabbing handfuls of her backside, Austin lifted, wrapped her legs around him and headed for the stairs.  “Well, maybe we should try the bedroom in case they decide to come back.”

“If you say so.”  Her thighs clamped tight while her hand found and explored the treasures below his waist.

“Christ, woman,” Austin moaned, halfway up the stairs.  “You do like to test me, don’t you?”

Danny smiled against his neck.  “You know what they say, Cahill.  If everything’s under control, you’re going too slow.”

He reached the landing and fell to his knees.  “How can I argue with that kind of logic?”

J. A. Dennam resides in a small Kansas town with her husband and four children.   She shares many passions for the arts including fine arts, culinary arts and music.  Storytelling has been a part of her life since childhood, when insomnia forced a young girl of six into counting popcorn on the ceiling in the dead of night.  Confessing her problem to her older sister, they decided to tell each other stories to entice sleep; however, the inevitable snore always tore through her sister’s nose before she could utter the words
Once Upon A Time.
  So, the stories began to flow in silence, her imagination taking her to quiet, private places so enthralling, the trick was suddenly to stay awake.  Each night, she went to bed anticipating the continuation of the adventure that had been interrupted by sleep the previous night.  Soon, insomnia was no longer a problem and the stories would sometimes take months to complete.