Junkyard Dog (22 page)

T
he kids are exhausted by the time we finish
shopping at Big Top Souvenirs in Fantasyland. I drag the bags to where we can
catch a bus back to the resort. Hayes texts to say he’s an hour from finishing.
I text back to say I need sleep and ask how he’s doing with his daddy/son time.
He sends me the middle finger emoticon.
My man is always eloquent.

Sitting on a bench, I hand Chipper the bottle of
soda we bought in the store. He takes a gulp and hands it to Cricket. She
drinks a little and leans against me.

“I love it here,” she mumbles.

“Me too,” an exhausted Chipper says.

“Me three,” I add and then decide the time has come
to mention Hayes’s proposal. “Hayes wants to marry me and become a family.”

Cricket tightens her grip on my hand. “No.”

“Why no?” I gently ask, having assumed she wouldn’t
be excited.

“I don’t want to move. I like our house. I want to
stay where we are. So no.”

Chipper looks at me in the same way he did on the
golf course. He’s torn between wanting what he has and craving what Hayes
offers.

“I love him,” I explain as people pass us.

“He yelled at you.”

“He yells at everyone. He also apologized, and he
never apologizes. He loves me, and I think he’s falling in love with you two
too. That’s why he brought us here. To make you guys happy.”

“I don’t want to move,” Cricket whines, crying
against me. “I like our house.”

Chipper can’t handle his sister crying and begins
to sob too. I ignore all the people looking at us.
Screw those idiots.
Their
kids were likely bawling earlier in the day. Now my kids get their turn.

“I was thinking about Dreamy,” I say, wrapping them
against me. “She’s so scared of the new house, and it might take a long time
before she gets used to Hayes’s house too. I think we should stay at our house
some nights and his house other nights. That way, Dreamy will get used to the
changes. Nightmare will probably need time to adjust too. He’s used to having
the house to himself.”

Hearing about the animals calms their tears.

“If you marry Hayes, we’ll live in his house?”
Chipper asks.

“Well, technically they’re both his houses. We’d
eventually move to his bigger house. We don’t have to do it right away. I think
Hayes needs time to get used to us living there. We all need to get used to new
stuff so we won’t rush.”

Tears over, they rest against me and wait for the
bus. Cricket takes a sip of the soda and then clears her throat.

“Hayes got us a nice room at the hotel,” she says.
“That cost him a lot of money.”

“He wants us to be happy.”

“He scared that little kid yesterday when we were
in line,” she says, grinning at me. “The kid kept staring at him, and he stared
back, and the kid cried. That was funny.”

“He’s a scary guy, but he’s good inside.”

“Like Cricket,” Chipper says, and his sister sticks
her tongue out at him.

“I like Hayes,” Chipper says as we stand for the
approaching bus. “He’s nicer than Dad.”

“Yes, he is.”

Cricket helps me with the bags, and I see her
already adjusting to this new reality.

“I wonder if Nightmare and Dreamy will fight,”
Chipper asks once we’re on the ride back to the hotel.

“Probably. We’ll keep them apart if we have to.
They’ll adjust with time, and we’re in no rush.”

The kids smile at me, and I feel a burden lift from
me. Soon we shuffle into the hotel and take the elevator up to our room. The
minute the air conditioning hits our sweaty bodies, we’re ready to crash. I
drop the bags on the couch and walk into the kids’ room where two beds await.
They crawl into one and then watch me full of hope I’ll take the other. I kick
off my shoes and collapse on the second bed.

The kids laugh at my dramatic display before they
get comfortable. A few minutes later, I hear them sleeping. I don’t take long
to follow them into dreamland. Sometime later, Hayes returns to the hotel. I’m
too tired to lift my head. I don’t want to call out to him and wake up the
kids. I just wait for him to find us and hope he’ll curl up with me.

Hayes moves around the suite for what feels like
forever before I feel the bed shift. His fingers slide up my spine and caress
the hair from my neck. He kisses the exposed skin and then relaxes against me.
I smile at how the four of us must look like a normal family after a long day
on vacation. I doze off thinking this is probably the first time Hayes has been
normal in his entire life.

O
n our last day at Disney World, the four of us try
to get in every last bit of fun. We hit our favorite rides, eat at our favorite
restaurants, and spend the evening watching the animals on the savanna outside
of the hotel. I know we didn’t do a million things on the trip, but there’s no
time to visit every sight and ride every attraction. Hayes promises the kids
we’ll come back soon, and they believe him. They’re realizing he isn’t their
father who talks a great game yet never comes through. Good or bad, Hayes is an
open book. If he says something, it happens.

At our last dinner, Balthazar and Lizzy Anne join
us at a long table at a Mexican-style restaurant. Hayes claims his father
thinks I hate Lizzy Anne. I claim I don’t and spend a good part of dinner
proving my lie.

Balthazar finally says we don’t have to pretend.
Family doesn’t have to like each other. Lizzy Anne and I share a smile at the
thought of being family. Then we spend the rest of dinner ignoring each other.

Back in the hotel room, the twins babble wildly at
their grandparents about everything they've done on the trip. Grandma and
Grandpa Eddison sound genuinely happy, yet I suspect they’re unsure about this
man suddenly playing the father role. I know they’ll want to visit and meet
Hayes. I know he’ll scare them initially, but they’ll end up respecting him.
The Eddisons appreciate money and power and Hayes possesses both.

After the twins crash from exhaustion, I sit on the
couch in the suite and look at my ring still in the box.

“We’ll get it resized in White Horse,” Hayes says,
stripping down for bed. “I figured it was better to get a size too small than
too big. I know how women are about their weight.”

Laughing, I watch him disappear into the bathroom
and listen to the shower. Waiting for him to return, I study the ring and think
about the last week. I never had a father yet never missed out. I spent most of
my adult life without a man, and I never missed that either. I was satisfied
because being unsatisfied meant becoming my mother. She gave up, and I refused to.

Now I had Hayes, and he needed me. Not to look
pretty or fuck him. No, he needed someone to have his back. From following him
around White Horse, I learned how many people viewed Hayes as indestructible.
He was a flesh and blood man, though, and needed someone capable of letting him
be weak when need be.

Hayes appears from the bathroom wearing only boxers
and smelling like soap. I’m drawn to the bedroom where he rests against the
headboard. He’s tired after a long week of playing family man with his dad,
kids, and future wife.

“I always thought people were full of shit when
they said they needed a vacation from their vacation,” I say, closing and
locking the bedroom door. “I get that saying now.”

“If you’re asking for a few days off when we
return, the answer is no.”

Crawling on the bed, I smile. “You’re a tough
boss.”

Hayes shares my smile and reaches out to caress my
sunburned skin. “You look sexy with that burnt nose.”

I rest on my knees and drink in all of Hayes. With
him wearing only boxers, I decide it’s time to get reacquainted with what’s
hiding underneath.

“Hello,” I say, stroking his cock through the
fabric. “Remember me?”

Hayes reaches out for me, but I shake my head.
“Keep your hands to yourself. I need to concentrate. Oh, and no holding my head
or shoving your humdinger down my throat or maneuvering me.”

“You’re finally giving me a blowjob, huh? Should I
be worried?”

“For my safety?” I ask, grinning. “Sure. For your
dick’s safety? Sure. This could go terribly wrong.”

I tug off his black boxers and stroke the colossal
dick. Hayes says nothing and watches me like I might be a threat. I don’t blame
him for worrying. I’ve given two blowjobs in my life, and I bit down both
times. In each case, the dick was half his size and my mouth hasn’t gotten any
wider.

“Be nice to me,” I tell the dick while my hand
slides along its length. “I’m the sweet lady attached to the vagina you enjoy
pounding.”

Hayes fights a grin, but he looks nervous.

“Shh, don’t cry,” I say and lick the drop of
pre-cum.

Exhaling hard, Hayes is a minute from simply
fucking me. The tension of having an inexperienced chick like me in control of
his dick is palpable. I ignore him and focus on the hard flesh in my hands.

My tongue bathes the length of it and the damn
thing twitches with appreciation. I smile and take another long lick before
teasing the slit. I think Hayes says my name, but I’m too focused on staying
focused.

The thick head of his cock slides easily into my
mouth, coating my tongue with discharge. I suck once, twice, and finally a
third time before sliding my tongue down the tender underbelly to his heavy
balls. Hayes makes a pained noise when I suck gently at the flesh. My hand
continues to pump the length of him while I make him squirm by teasing his
balls with my tongue.

By the time my lips return to the head of his cock,
the slit leaks thick cum. I lick it off and glance up at Hayes. He feels
vulnerable, exposed, but unafraid. My man trusts me. The rest of the world
might come crashing down on him, but I never will. I’ll always be at his side.

I feel Hayes’s balls ready to explode. Stroking his
cock with both hands, I suck steadily at the head, enticing it to let go. My
earlier fears are gone, and I only want to hear Hayes’s groans as he finds
release.

The first spray of cum against my throat startles
me for only a moment before I swallow the hot liquid. Sucking more from him, I
close my eyes and enjoy the wild moans of a man completely under my control.
He’s lost in pleasure as I drink down what feels like gallons of pent-up need.

Hayes’s body is spent long before his cock softens
under my touch. My tongue circles the head, licking it clean. I stare up at a
blissful Hayes watching me. He doesn’t look even a little bit arrogant. No, I’d
say his expression is more grateful than anything else.

I finally relent and gently rest his relaxed cock
against his thigh. Crawling up to Hayes, I lick my lips.

“Want to taste what I accomplished?”

Hayes grips the back of my head, and his sudden
touch startles me. His kiss is hot and desperate. He’s a man afraid he’ll lose
something important if he lets go. I wrap my arms around his neck and straddle
him. He needs to know I’m not going anywhere.

“I love you,” I whisper when his lips leave mine.

“You survived,” he said, attempting to joke, but his
expression remains too panicked to sell the humor.

“I think your dick and I have come to a mutual
understanding. That means you won’t go through the rest of your life without
blowjobs.”

Hayes understands how I mean to keep him. Even
after the proposal, he worried I’ll change my mind. Trusting people never came
easily to either of us. I doubt it ever will, but we’re not people. We’re Angus
and Candy, and I’ve trusted him from the beginning. I couldn’t always deal with
his bullshit, but I always knew where the bullshit was coming from.

Hayes isn’t a mystery to me. I hope I’m not one to
him. If I am, he’ll have a lifetime to figure me out.

W
hite Horse doesn’t change while I’m on vacation. As
Moot puts it when I return, “the world didn’t end without Asshole Hayes telling
it what to do.” I’m relieved to know I can relax without the place going to
shit. With a woman and kids in my life, I suspect I’ll relax a lot more often.

On the flight from Orlando to Nashville, Chipper
sits next to me again. He explains how Candy said we’ll live half of the time
at my house and the other half at the rental place. At first, I’m unimpressed
with this plan. I believe in tearing off the Band-Aid fast rather than
prolonging the pain.

Candy calmly reminds me how Nightmare won’t be
thrilled with sharing the house with two loud kids and a skittish cat.
Splitting our time will allow the dog to adjust. I realize what she's saying,
and she has a good point. If the dog has trouble with change, so will the kids,
and they’re slightly more important than my beloved pooch.

Also on the flight back, Chipper gives me a long
explanation about how public school sucks and he needs more individual
attention to “unlock his potential.” Candy wasn’t wrong about her kids being
sneaky. They’ve clearly done their research on how to sell homeschooling. I
don’t disagree with them, though. They’re weird kids, and public school will
try to make them normal. I know since I was weird too. Despite the best efforts
of my teachers, I remained weird yet turned out better than anyone else I knew
growing up.

Candy says she’ll think about starting
homeschooling after the Christmas break. I know she worries about teaching them
wrong. We both worry about how she’ll handle the office and schooling the kids.
Plus we’ll barely have any time alone, and Candy is excited about practicing
her new blowjob skills.

Donna at the Waffle House gives us a solution. Her
sister was a homeschooler. Now Leslie’s kids are at college, and she’s looking
for a job. Candy likes Leslie a hell of a lot more than she does Donna, and we
find our nanny/teacher for the kids.

“We learn with the lady during the mornings,”
Chipper explains to his grandparents on Skype. “We stay with Mom and Hayes in
the afternoon.”

“At work, we’re learning life skills,” Cricket
adds, really playing up the entire thing.

The grandparents nod in unison. Watching their
weird rich bullshit, I tell Candy I don’t like them. She only laughs and says
life never promised me a rose garden, so I need to stop my whining. The
grandparents love the twins and we’ll need to deal with them for a very long
time. Much like we will with Balthazar.

When my father returns to White Horse and Gladys
the Cat, I expect him to fall back into his old routine. He surprises me by
wanting to meet for weekly golf at the nearby course. I’m wary at first, having
gone a long time without a close relationship with him. In fact, I’m more
comfortable being uncomfortable during my visits. Now he wants to be friends,
and I feel a little lost.

Balthazar acts less like my disgruntled father and
more like a guy shooting the shit. We play a few holes, stop for lunch, and
finish up before he’s ready for his nap. He talks a lot about Mom and him when
they first married. I like hearing the stories. My mother only died ten years
ago, but I feel like I’ve lived most of my life without her. Now she’s alive
again with his stories. Balthazar even mentions their infidelities and how
marriage was difficult with him on the road.

“She was my love, and I never loved another. Maybe
we weren’t the perfect couple, but I was never unhappy enough to consider
leaving. She might have gotten lonely, but she only loved me.”

Balthazar never admits I’m not his biological son,
but whenever he makes a point to say Gladys was his only love, I feel like he’s
telling me I wasn’t a mistake created out of a bad marriage. I also wasn’t why
they stayed together, and he never regretted having me around. Spelling it out
in more detail wouldn’t be our style.

Upon our return, I find my office perfectly
renovated. Moot shrugs when I look surprised.

“You don’t believe in no one but yourself, Angus.”

“True. Nicely done.”

Candy walks around and shakes her head. “You took
too much space. Now my office space is cramped.”

We frown at her, but she only smiles. “Just
kidding. I’m going to organize your office now.”

I look at Moot and shrug. “She likes to organize.”

“Good thing he met you,” Moot says to Candy, and I
instantly frown.

“Don’t talk to her,” I growl.

“Ever?”

I glare at him until Candy clears her throat. “What
if I’m falling off a cliff and Moot is the only one who can save me? If he
offers me his hand to pull me up, can I take it?”

“How high up is the cliff?”

“Pretty far,” she murmurs, sizing up Moot. “Can I
take his hand and then hug him super tight when he saves me?”

“No.”

“So I should just plummet to my death?”

“Or don’t fall off the fucking cliff in the first
fucking place.”

Candy smiles wider. “Okay, but then you can’t have
women touching you. Oh, and don’t even fucking think of cheating. If I catch
you cheating, I’ll cut the bitch’s face off and sew it onto your face. That
way, if you want to see your bitch so much, you can just look in the mirror.”

Candy sounds genuinely pissed and threatening. Her
warning makes my dick hard.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” I say, and she walks into
my office to begin organizing.

“You found the perfect woman for you, man,” Moot
says. “Not just anyone would look you into your scary eyes and threaten to sew
someone's face on you. That takes a special brand of crazy.”

“Don’t call my future wife crazy. With our money,
we’re considered eccentric.”

“I stand corrected,” Moot says, laughing as he
heads out for another site.

With us alone for the time being, I lock the doors
before cornering Candy in my office and bending her over the desk. She pretends
to be annoyed even though two orgasms. The chick knows how to commit to a lie.