Breathless Awakening (The Breathless Series) (7 page)

I couldn’t think like that. Feeling my cock starting to grow, I had to reach down and adjust it. I always felt like everyone watched me when I did this in public. Ultimately, no one cared, no one would be watching for the brief movement of my hand going to my crotch to shove it around into a more comfortable position as it grew in size, but it felt as if I stood naked on a platform in front of everyone.

“Excuse me, sir, I thought I was completely clear earlier. I guess I will have to be a more blunt this time. Please refrain from touching yourself while on the plane.”

My head swiveled around to see who was paying attention, who heard her say this to me. I started to correct her, explaining that I was trying to adjust myself, but I knew it was best to say nothing. I knew anything I said would cause more trouble so I stared straight ahead. That’s when I saw the MILF looking back around the edge of her seat at me, and she winked at me.

As the flight attendant walked away, I dropped my head, shaking it slightly back and forth. How did I get myself into these situations? If Cailyn were awake right then I was sure she would be laughing hysterically at me and probably teasing me even more.

The pilot came over the intercom to let us know that we were approaching our destination, seats in the upright position, and all of that good stuff. I wish I could have let her sleep, but I gently nudged her awake. “Cailyn, babe, we are getting ready to land. We’re here, wake up, sleepyhead.”

She stretched out her arms and legs, yawning like a kitten waking from a nap after playing with a ribbon had completely worn it out. I had the most adorable wife in the world. She tried to curl back up to doze off again so I reached down and lifted her chin up for a kiss. The electricity that shot through her as our lips touched had her awake instantaneously. From sleeping kitten to hungry lioness, her kisses started to devour my lips, her tongue demanding entrance to mine.

One of the hardest things I have had to do as a husband so far, I pushed her away from me stopping the kisses. “There will be time for that as soon as we get to our room if you are feeling up to it.”

“I’m still feeling a little tender, so you might need to be gentle with me, or we can stop at the bar on the way to the room.”

“Have I told you lately how much I love you Mrs. Roberts?”

Chapter Eight

Aileen

It’s about damn time you showed up, Terry. The girls have been working their behinds off all morning, while you and the boys have been doing what–I’m sorry, good morning. Breck wasn’t it? How are you doing this morning? Why don’t you have a bagel? I’m sure you all have to be starving.”

“No, thank you, ma’am. Zane was nice enough to buy us breakfast this morning. I think he was afraid we wouldn’t want to get up and do anything if we didn’t have some sort of motivation. Do you have somewhere that I can put this box? It has some of Luke’s mother’s belongings in it and I want to make sure that nothing happens to it since they can’t be replaced.”

“Oh, yes, take that up the stairs to the bedroom. I believe Liz is up there dusting and getting the cobwebs out of the corners. She will find somewhere for it up there. Terry, don’t you try to sneak off like that, I’m not done with you.”

“Sneak off? Why would I try to do something like that? I was just going to go say hello to the girls and thank them for helping out with all of this.”

“How long have we been married? I think after twenty‐eight years that I know you a little better than that. Now if only you knew me half as well you would know that I am going completely insane here with nothing to do.”

“What do you mean nothing to do? There is plenty for you to do around here.”

“Really? Are you going to let me get down and scrub the floors, paint, or anything else for that matter? Tell me, what can I do that you won’t yell at me for using my arm and hurting myself?”

“Uh, umm, well you can dust. Hell, I don’t know Aileen. I know it’s tough on you, but I don’t want you to make it worse. The doctor said that if you could take it easy for a few days it would be a much quicker recovery. There will be plenty of time to help around here. Cailyn is your daughter after all.”

“What do you mean by that? She is our daughter.”

“I just meant that when she gets back and sees this place, no matter how clean you have it, she is still going to want to clean it again. By then, a week will have passed since the accident and you will be able to help a little. Not to mention, once she finds out that you were watching over everyone’s shoulder, she will know that it was done right.”

Breck started to walk through the kitchen to head back outside. “Breck, would you like some juice or anything?”

Raising his flask from his pocket and taking a drink, he looked at me before saying, “No, thank you, I have everything I need right here.”

Walking out the door, he closed it before I looked to Terry and asked, “Is he drinking already this morning, on a Sunday?”

“I know. I had a talk with Zane about it a little earlier, and he is going to try to talk to him later when they have some time alone. I asked him to not wait too long.”

“You need to get out there then and keep an eye on him. I don’t want him getting too tipsy and hurting himself or someone else. You had better get you something to eat though. There are some bagels over on the counter.”

“The guys had some food left when I got there so I ate with them this morning. Please take it easy in here today and let the girls do most of the work.”

“Terry, you had better not have had any bacon. You know the doctor told you that you needed to watch your sodium. I know how much you love it, but I don’t need you going to the ER with chest pains today when you are lifting all this heavy stuff.”

“I love you too, dear. Don’t you worry that cute little bottom of yours too much. You behave in here and let the girl’s do the work, and I will do the same with the guys. We have the benefits of having seniority, right?”

Walking into the great room, I almost stepped in the roller pan of paint and got a glare from my sister. “Aileen, what are you doing? Watch where you are walking!”

“I’m sorry, but maybe if you didn’t put it in the middle of the walkway, I wouldn’t almost step in it. Is there anything I can do to help?”

“I’ve already told you that I am not going to let you paint with that arm hurt like that. Just go boss the guys around some. We all know your mouth still works just fine with all the complaining you’ve done this morning, and you are plenty bossy enough.”

“Well look who’s talkin’, sis. You know, I think I’ll go enjoy the view of those boys unloading the truck. Maybe a few of them will take their shirts off and give me a good view while you are in here getting paint all over yourself. Have fun with that.”

As I walked through the house, I looked around and couldn’t help but wonder if it would live up to all of Cailyn’s dreams. I’ve heard her talk about everything she wanted in a dream house for years, and I did my best to find them for her when Terry and I were looking. I wanted to have a house built for her, but Terry was adamant that we wouldn’t be able to get it built before they got back. He wanted his little girl to come home and have a house waiting for her.

When I walked out the door into the garage, I almost collided with Tucker carrying a stack of boxes so high he couldn’t see over them. “Whoa, maybe you shouldn’t carry so many boxes.”

“Oh, sorry, Mrs. Donnelly, I didn’t see you there. I couldn’t really see anything.”

Terry came rushing over very quickly to my defense. “Tucker, what are you doing? Watch where you’re going if it means taking twice as many trips, then take two trips. We don’t need you running people over. Are you alright, Aileen?”

Tucker apologized and stormed off to the truck after setting the boxes down. “Terry, I am fine. Accidents happen, and it’s mostly my fault anyway. He didn’t expect me to be coming out the door, and he’s trying to get the work done as efficiently as possible. You need to go apologize to the poor young man.”

“Apologize to him? You do realize that is the boy that offended our daughter so much last night that she slugged him, right?”

“Yes, I’m well aware that he evidently had trouble acting like a responsible young man while being a little intoxicated. However, I am also well aware that no matter what happened last night, he is still here helping move their belongings while Luke and Cailyn are on their honeymoon. He doesn’t have to be working, he could be doing a lot less work, but he is trying. Maybe he is trying to make right the situation the only way he knows how.

“I remember a certain someone many years ago that didn’t know how to apologize when he hit a baseball through the window of my father’s pride and joy, his Camaro. If my memory serves me right, you were pulled kicking and screaming to apologize, but if you hadn’t been, you may never have met me. Come to think about it, you were what, fourteen? And acting like you were four?”

“Well, my dear, you know my memory isn’t as good as yours in my old age. I don’t remember it happening exactly like that, but I also know better than to argue with you. You do make a very good point though. I will go see if I can apologize to Tucker and possibly mend things with him.”

I noticed as Terry walked toward the truck that there wasn’t a lot left in it and started to think that they had been very busy unloading things. They had only been here thirty minutes or so, but then I looked into the back of the garage and realized there wasn’t much there either.

I reached out with my good hand to grab Zane’s arm as he walked by. “Zane dear, where is the rest of Luke’s things? Is there a reason you only brought half a load in the truck?”

“Well, Mrs. D., this is everything. Luke has never been one to have many belongings, and since he got rid of everything before going overseas, I guess he really didn’t make much of an effort in buying stuff. I think he figured he would wait and let Cailyn get what she wanted when it came time to worry about it.”

“Oh, I think I’m going to have to talk to Terry. We took care of getting some things for them to fill the house a little, but we thought he would have a little more than this. Would you be a dear and ask him to come inside to talk to me when he gets a moment?”

“Sure thing, Mrs. D., I’ll send him right in.”

Terry

I knew that Aileen had a point…well, two really, and I’d never been very good about apologizing for one. I guess that is why I always tried to take the route of avoiding conflict and letting her win rather than deal with having to upset her and apologize later. At least with her, the few times I needed to apologize it was easy. Cliché as it may be, but I would just buy her some flowers, chocolate, and take her out to dinner.

It was almost enough every time I messed up with her, but I had no idea how to apologize to Tucker. For one I was still furious with him about last night. Yes, Aileen hit the nail on the head when she pointed out that he was still here helping out, doing just as much work as the other guys, and no thanks to me, having to carry the heavy stuff at that.

He must have heard me coming because he turned to see who it was. “Tucker, can I have a word with you for a moment? You’ve done your share this morning, let the guys take care of it for a minute and let’s go sit on the porch.”

“Mr. Donnelly, the work needs to get done, and I know that you want me to be out of your way, so if you don’t mind. I would rather keep working so we can finish up.”

“Son, take a break and come with me, please.”

Jeremy reached out, took the boxes from his hands, and nodded for him to go with me. As we walked across the yard, I could see the uncertainty in his face. I guessed after everything that morning, I would be a little hesitant about being off to the side with me as well.

“Tucker, I just wanted to have a quick discussion with you about a few things. I don’t know, nor do I need to know, exactly what happened last night. After this minute, I’m hoping that we can both put it behind us. I’m not happy about it, but I’m hoping that it will never happen again. Not just with my daughter, but with any woman.”

“Yes, sir, she definitely taught me a lesson to be remembered. If the physical sting wasn’t enough, the embarrassment of all my friends being there to witness it certainly did. I’m very sorry that I did what I did.”

“That’s good to hear. Now, the other thing I wanted to talk about was this morning. Even after everything that happened, you are still here helping. I appreciate that. I’ve been a little hard on you this morning, and well, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have acted like that.”

“Mr. Donnelly, sir, there is no reason for you to apologize because I was disrespectful not only to your daughter, but to your entire family. I appreciate the apology, sir, but can we get back to work and maybe try to have a little fun now that we have put this behind us? There has been entirely too much seriousness with all this tension this morning.”

“I’d have to agree with you. Why don’t you go see if you can sneak the garden hose out of the garage and bring it around to the back of the house. The guys should be just about done with everything and I’m sure they are hot after all that work.”

“Sir, I like the way you think. You think you could distract the guys for a minute to let me get around the corner of the house without them seeing?”

Zane started across the front walk towards us. “Tucker, don’t you worry about that at all. I’m glad we had this little talk, now I think it’s time you get back to work.” I reached out to shake Tucker’s hand before turning towards Zane. “Do you all have that truck just about unloaded?”

“Yes, sir, Breck and Jeremy are getting the last few boxes out of it now. We should be ready to head over to your house and get Cailyn’s things here soon. Do you think it would be ok if we took a lunch break before heading over?”

“I think that would be a great idea, because I know you all have worked very diligently this morning. I’ll talk to the ladies and see what they had in mind for lunch.”

“Speaking of the ladies, sir, Mrs. Donnelly sent me to find you. She wants to speak with you when you get a moment.”