Pushing the Boundaries (Picking up the Pieces #3) (35 page)

She’d been sure to immediately turn around and fire him
and
Marissa at the same time she served him with divorce papers. Now my mom was a business owner who found her worth in successfully rebuilding the company that my dad had all but sunk into the ground. It gave her something to strive for; building a sense of pride in her I’d never seen before. I was shocked at the transformation I’d witnessed in her in just a few short months. We’d talked at least three times a week and she’d gone above and beyond to make up for being a neglectful parent. It had taken more than a little convincing to get Lizzy to accept my mother, but she’d finally gotten on board. My woman was nothing if not protective. She needed to see with her own eyes that my mom was worthy of me.

Mine and my mother’s relationship wasn’t perfect, but we were building to something I felt was going to be pretty damn good one day.

Plus, she’d had an epic bitch-smack down with Coraline the likes of which I’d never seen. Watching Mom put my sister in her place was like Christmas, New Year’s, and every one of my birthdays all rolled together with the very moment I’d lost my virginity. In other words, It. Was. Awesome! And because of that, Coraline and I were finally starting to forge ahead like a brother and sister should. We fought like cats and dogs, but eventually apologized to each other and moved on like it’d never happened.

As for my father…well, before everything went to shit for Carlisle, Marissa had already been scheming to get what she wanted. Unbeknownst to Dear Old Dad, she’d gone off the pill and intentionally gotten herself knocked up. What she wasn’t counting on was that her meal ticket was only a few weeks away from being flat-broke and homeless. I’m not a mean-spirited person, but I couldn’t help but feel that she got what she deserved when he up and bailed on her when she announced she was carrying his offspring.

As Nana liked to say, God doesn’t like ugly. Marissa was stuck reaping what she’d sown.

“She said she’s been talking to Coraline and they’re thinking of heading this way for Thanksgiving. I told her they’re more than welcome to crash with us if they decide to spend the holiday in Cloverleaf.”

I threw my head back on a groan. I loved my mom and sis, and yes, things were finally starting to become good between us, but that didn’t mean I wanted all of us under the same roof. That was a recipe for disaster. Visions of Coraline and me going at it until the police were forced to intervene played through my head. I could easily see her trying to choke me to death with a turkey leg.

“Can’t we just put them up at the Inn?

“Nope. They’re family. Family stays here.” She twisted the knob on the burner and turned to me with a smile as she wiped her hand on a dishtowel. “But I have something that’ll cheer you up.”

My mind went straight to the gutter. “Is that right?” I asked salaciously.

“Come with me; I have a surprise for you.”

I expected to follow her up the stairs, but when she took me through the hall to the door that led to the garage, my brow furrowed in confusion. Reaching down and picking up a cardboard box that had been sitting by the door, she spun back around and thrust it at me.

“Open it!” Her face was bright with excitement as she shifted from foot to foot in anticipation. Damn, my girl was cute.

Ripping the tape from the box, I flipped open the sides and peered in, immediately taken back by what I saw inside. I was man enough to admit I felt a little misty-eyed as I sat the box down and pulled out the neon beer sign that had been nestled inside the box.

“You like it?” she asked with a beaming smile as I clutched it close to my chest.

“I—” My voice came out in an embarrassing croak and I had to clear it before I could answer. “I love it, babe.”

Lizzy burst out in laughter. “Oh, my God, you’re crying!”

“I am not!” I replied defensively. “I’m a man. Men don’t cry. I’m just…leaking from my eyeballs.

“Well, if this makes you all whimpery just wait until you see the rest of it.”

“I’m not whimpery. I—”

I was immediately stunned speechless when she pushed the door to the garage open and waved her hand like a game show host, stating proudly, “Your new man cave!”

One half of our two-car garage had been converted into every man’s dream room, complete with a pool table and a fully-functioning air hockey table. A flat-screen TV hung from the wall in front of a plush-looking brown leather couch, my old blue Barcalounger set up right next to it. But the piece de resistance was the mini-fridge and kegerator set up against the wall.

Now
I was going to cry.

“Your beer sign will look awesome hanging up in here. So what do you think?” she asked after several minutes of silence as I took in the wonderfulness that was my man cave.

When I felt I could talk past the lump that had formed in my throat, I turned to her and declared, “You just earned yourself a solid thirty minutes of my mouth between your legs.”

She let out another peel of laughter. Damn, but I loved to listen to her laugh.

“You’re such a romantic,” she giggled as I walked to her and wrapped her in my arms.

“You love me the way I am,” I said before pressing a wet kiss to her lips. Every time I thought I couldn’t love her more, she did something to make me fall even harder and deeper.

“This is very true,” she said as her thumb rubbed over my bottom lip.

“Do you have any idea how much I love you?” It was the question I asked every single night before we went to sleep. And the answer was always the same.

“Yeah, because I love you just as much.”

“Can I invite my friends over to play? Can I, can I, can I?” I hopped up and down, earning myself another beloved laugh.

“After dinner,” she said. “Family’ll be here soon, and Dad’s already got himself all excited to hang out in your new man cave. Mom told me he full-on squealed like a little girl when she told him about it.”

“I can appreciate his excitement.”

“So, you’re happy?” she asked, leaning into my chest and wrapping her arms around my waist.

“
Cher,
as long as I’ve got you, I’ll spend the rest of my life completely happy. I love you.”

Those shining green eyes smiled up at me.

“Good answer,” she said. “I love you, too.”’

Then we spent the next half hour christening the new pool table before the family descended and the craziness ensued.

No doubt about it, life was perfect.

THE END

Keep reading to see how the Cloverleaf gang got it’s start

Past: Summer 2005

“What the hell do you mean, you enlisted?” I couldn’t catch my breath. It felt like the ground had just been pulled out from under me. My best friend, the person I had grown up next to my entire life, just informed me that he had enlisted in the Marine Corps. This couldn’t be happening.

“Emmy, baby, it’s okay,” Luke told me in a consolatory tone. “It’s just the Marines. It’s not the end of the world.” I didn’t understand how he could be so casual. I was terrified.

“Are you out of your friggin’ mind?!” I screeched. “We’re in the middle of a war, Lucas! You just signed up to go over to a war-ravaged county and potentially lose your life in the process. Please explain to me how that isn’t the end of the world?” If anything were to ever happen to Luke, it would be the end of
my
world. I had no doubt about that. It felt like someone had reached inside my chest and was squeezing my heart.

Luke grabbed my shoulders and pulled me into his chest. I wrapped my arms around his waist and inhaled his familiar scent, letting it calm my frayed nerves. Luke had always done that for me. He’d always been my peaceful place when things got too rough. I couldn’t imagine what my life would be like with him not in it. I didn’t want to. “Baby girl, I know you’re mad right now, but this is something I just have to do,” he said as he ran his hand down the back of my head. I knew he needed my blessing to feel good about his decision, but this was the first time in my life I had trouble giving it to him. I wanted to be selfish and scream at him that he couldn’t do this… that I couldn’t support him. But I didn’t. I knew this meant a lot, and I wouldn’t take that away from him.

“Why, Luke?” I needed to understand. I pulled my head away from his chest and looked up into his emerald green eyes. I could see the emotion running through them and knew exactly what he was feeling before he even said anything.

Letting out a deep sigh, he responded, “I just do.” Dropping his arms from around me, he ran his hands through his black hair, sending it into a disarray that would have looked messy on anyone else, but always managed to look sexy on him. “I can’t stay here any longer. You just graduated and will be leaving for college soon. What’s left for me after you’re gone?” I knew my leaving was weighing on him, but I honestly had no clue that he was taking it
that
hard. Luke and I grew up living next to each other in a smaller town not too far from Houston. He and his parents moved in three houses away from me when he was six, and even though he was two years older than me, we’d instantly become friends and had been inseparable ever since.

The two of us had been through more than any person our age should ever have to go through, and we both managed to get through it with the help of each other. It was my window he would climb through when he had to sneak out of his house at night to get away from his parents’ screams as they fought with each other. It was me who would bandage up his cuts and wipe away the blood when his dad drank too much and took his anger out on Luke. I hated his father with a passion and had no respect for his mother. She allowed Luke to be abused for all those years and did nothing to stop him.

He was the shoulder I cried on for months when I lost both of my parents in a car accident when I was only thirteen. My parents were the complete opposite of Luke’s. For all the bad they did, my mother and father tried to counter with acts of kindness. They took Luke under their wing without question, just accepted him as my best friend. I adored them both whole heartedly and when they passed, I never got that piece of my heart back.

Even though my grandmother moved into our house in order to raise me, it was Luke that I went to whenever I felt like life was a weight too heavy for me to carry on my own. I could always count on him to help lift my burdens.

So while the idea of him not being a car ride or a phone call away felt like a knife in my gut, I understood. I knew that the only reason he hadn’t left his drunk of a mother was because I was still here, three houses away. Now that I was going to be four hours away attending college, I knew Luke viewed this as his chance to get out of our little town and finally make something of himself. That didn’t mean it didn’t hurt any less. His leaving was going to hurt almost as much as losing my parents. That’s how close we were. The consolation I had was that he’d at least come back to me.

“I understand,” I finally conceded, even though I didn’t want to. “But I swear to God, Lucas Matthew Allen, if you get dead, I am so going to kick your ass.”

His deep chuckle rumbled through me as he pulled me back into his strong arms for another hug. “No worries, Emerson Kristine Grace. I promise you, I won’t get dead.”