Who You Least Expect (11 page)

“I can take that,” Blakely said, gesturing toward the can.

“No. I’ll recycle it, and I saw this television program about making chimes with the rings.”

“Okay,” Blakely said, deflated.

She watched as her mother got into the van and drove away. After she’d gone, Blakely stayed put. Cody, the wonderful evening they’d shared, seemed a lifetime ago. And now, as she sat, it wasn’t memories of him, anticipation of seeing him again that filled her mind. No, her mind was now a jumbled mass of thoughts and questions and deep down, hope. Maybe if she’d said the right thing in just the right way, she could have gotten through. Intellectually, she accepted that there were no magic words, no secret code that would get her what she wanted and what her parents needed. But in her heart, she couldn’t help but hope. The tug-of-war between hope and despair was exhausting, made her want to scream or cry or hide until everything just went away. Given that none of those options would help her current predicament, she settled on going to the grocery store to get more bleach.

••••

She was relieved to find the parking lot of the grocery store relatively empty, and as she wiped down the shopping cart with disinfectant wipes, a sense of calm began to set in. By the time she started walking down the aisles, some of the tumult of this morning had receded.

“Hi, Blakely.”

She turned at the sound of her name and smiled brightly when she recognized Ariel Mallick, the person who’d issued the greeting.

“Hi,” Blakely said enthusiastically. “How have things been since the wedding?”

Blakely had briefly seen Ariel, escorted by her cute-as-a-button daughter Dani, at Joe and Verna’s wedding, and then again at Joe and Verna’s house, but hadn’t a chance to talk to her alone at either event.

Blakely usually tried to do her grocery shopping at odd hours just to avoid this type of occurrence, her tolerance for impromptu run-ins with townspeople still as low as it had been when she was a kid, though she was working on it. But Ariel was one of the few exceptions. Blakely liked Ariel and enjoyed her company immensely, and Ariel was unlikely to quiz her on her parents, her past, or Cody, which made her an ideal person to run into.

“You know. Just going day by day, but I have Dani to keep me out of trouble.”

She smiled and glanced over Blakely’s shoulder.

“And speak of the devil,” Ariel said.

Blakely turned and followed the path of the other woman’s gaze, smiling at the sight of the four-year-old decked from head to toe in pink and purple. That smile turned to a frown when she saw whose hand the child was grasping.

“That’s your mother-in-law?” Blake asked.

“Yes,” Ariel replied, shooting Blakely a long-suffering look. “You’ve met, I assume?”

“If by met, you mean I’ve been chided, nitpicked, or upbraided for one thing or another, but only for my own good, then yes, we have.”

Ariel looked up to the heavens as if for strength before she glanced back at Blakely, a patient smile on her face. “Yep, I can see that you and she are very well acquainted, then,” she said.

Blake shifted slightly, her mood now somber. “I heard about Daniel, but I didn’t make the connection before for some reason. I’m sorry for your loss,” she said, patting Ariel on the shoulder.

“Thank you,” the other woman said softly, and they stood silently in the heaviness of the moment.

“Mommy,” the little girl exclaimed as she ran across the aisle, lifting the melancholy.

Ariel kneeled down to hug the little girl. “Hi, sweetie. Were you nice to Grandma?”

“What kind of question is that? Danielle is always delightful, at least when she’s with me,” the elder Mrs. Mallick interjected snidely.

Blakely wanted to slink away but propriety kept her in place, something she cursed when the older woman pinned her with an assessing stare.

“Blakely, how nice to see you still in town.”

Blakely bit back her groan. The woman had just seen her at Verna’s wedding. Was Blakely’s reputation so bad, she and the other members of the Ladies’ Council thought she’d left already? She’d bought a house for goodness’ sake, probably a foolish move on her part and a fact that she was very much lamenting at the moment but something everyone in town knew. But rather than say any of the things that ran through her head, Blakely murmured indescribably, choosing to engage in hopes that Mrs. Mallick would grow tired and move on if Blake gave her something.

That hope proved futile.

“Well, it’s good you’re back. Maybe you can help your parents. It’s a shame that such nice people have to live that way.”

Blakely felt her muscles tense at the other woman’s words and quickly glanced at Ariel, who shot her a commiserating look.

“Well…” she started, but Ariel rescued her.

“We should get together sometime,” Ariel said.

Blake smiled. “Yeah, we should. Verna mentioned a small get-together.

The elder Mrs. Mallick scoffed out her disapproval, but both Blake and Ariel chose to ignore it.

Blakely looked down at Dani. “And it was nice to see you too,” she said, extending her hand to the little girl, who shook it vigorously and then smiled.

“I’ll give you a call,” Blakely said and then she turned and walked out of the grocery store.

When she reached her car, she realized she hadn’t purchased anything she’d intended to, but the thought of going back inside held no appeal. Though the others whispered, Mrs. Mallick had always been one of the few to say what she thought out loud, and Blakely had no interest in or patience for further opinions today. It didn’t matter to them, any of them, that her parents had had their problem long before she’d been born. No, the focus always seemed to be on how much it had intensified when she’d left.

Which meant, at least as she interpreted it, it was her fault, plain and simple. And her responsibility, one that she had shirked for decades. And the worst thing was that deep down, she believed it too. Still, she didn’t need anyone telling her about her parents or what she should do for them, not that that would stop anyone.

Sometimes, she freaking hated this town.

Chapter Nine

“Hello?”

Her sexy voice slinked over the phone line, slid down his spine, and settled at his cock, bringing with it a resurgence of the need that had been with him since he’d last seen her.

“Hey, Ms. Bishop. You busy?”

She laughed lightly, the husky sound raising his desire. “The mischievous part of me wants to play hard to get, tell you that I’m unavailable to talk, but the part of me that’s been playing that night in your house over and over again in my mind is in charge. So no, Cody, I’m not busy.”

“Wise answer. Maybe I can borrow you for a couple of hours?”

“Of course,” she said.

“Good. I’ll be at your house in ten minutes,” he said.

After good-byes, he disconnected the call and then gathered the last of his supplies. He’d driven out to the shopping center to the specialty grocery store and told the clerk to get him the best. Now he had wine, cheese, crackers, and some kind of fruit thing he’d hoped she’d like, though it probably would have been smarter to actually see if she was available before he’d gone to the trouble.

But if her words were any indication, Blakely was as anxious to see him as he was her, a fact that stirred genuine happiness to go with raging arousal. He kept himself from running to the car, but he made it to Blake’s in six minutes rather than the agreed-upon ten. She was outside waiting for him, looking as impeccable as always in a bright blue top and denim skirt.

“How gentlemanly,” she said when he parked, walked around his car, and opened the door to usher her in.

“I have my moments,” he responded when he got back into the car.

“And where is this unexpected trip taking us?” she asked.

“The most beautiful place in the world,” he responded, to which she smiled brightly.

He reached the spot and again followed Blake as she led him down the path, though this time he was laden with goodies. When they arrived, she watched, wide smile on her face as he spread out a blanket and arranged several bags around it.

“Ms. Bishop,” he said, gesturing at her to sit.

With a little laugh, she lowered herself onto the blanket and then ushered him next to her.

“What brought this on?” she asked, trying to sound skeptical, but the smile on her lips betrayed her.

“You seemed to enjoy it last time we were here. I thought a second trip would be fun.”

She closed the distance between their faces and moved her lips over his, kissing him with an unrestrained passion that, if he hadn’t known better, didn’t seem to fit with her normal demeanor. He returned the kiss and let his hand play up her smooth bare leg.

“I hope to enjoy it a little more than I did last time,” she said.

“Is that why you wore a skirt?”

“Easy access,” she said.

“And genius,” he responded.

Then he resumed the kiss, moving his hand between her thick thighs and touching the already damp fabric that covered her. He could make out the contours of her cunt through the fabric, plump lips, cleft that hid her sweet pearl, all of the skin completely smooth. He remembered how his cock had jumped when he’d first seen her, skin bare and shiny with her wetness. He’d been preoccupied then but had promised himself he’d taste her, see if that tender skin was as soft against his lips as it was against his fingers, and he intended to do just that.

He removed his hand and lifted her shirt and bra, releasing her breasts. Full but not large, her breasts were topped with dark brown nipples. He blew a puff of air across them, watching as they crinkled into tight buds, letting out a chuckle at her reaction. He’d found that her nipples were highly sensitive and when he stroked and sucked just right, Blakely would moan and writhe in the most beautiful way. He stroked his tongue across them and then moved, kissing his way down her rib cage and then lower, paying special attention to the curve of her hip bone as he lifted her skirt, grasped her knee, and pulled, opening her to him.

“Cody,” she said.

The tentativeness in her voice stopped him in his tracks and he looked up at her.

“Please don’t…I don’t like that,” she said.

He was torn. He wanted to taste her, had imagined doing just that more times than he could remember, but even more, he wanted to know the why, wanted to understand what made her hold back. His gut told him that she didn’t trust him, not enough anyway, but her shrouded eyes, which were still lit with passion but less now than there had been just moments ago also told him that she wouldn’t open up about it.

“Do you like this?” he asked as he trailed his fingers over her mound and then down to spread her slick lips.

The clouds lifted, and the passion again sparked in her eyes. He kissed his way back up her body, and she lay back, offering herself to him in that way he found almost irresistible. He lowered his pants and sheathed his cock, and then he entered her in one thrust. Arms on either side of her head, he stared down at her and his heart stuttered when she smiled at him, her expression as soft and open as he’d ever seen.

He kissed her and then began moving, his thrusts almost leisurely. Her throaty moans and soft sighs, the sound of nature, the warm air against his skin, her soft body beneath him all played together to heighten the experience. This wasn’t a frantic, lust-filled coupling, or a wary, exploratory experience. As he moved inside her, felt her walls grip him, he was struck by the comfort he felt, how much this felt like home.

Before he could think, he felt the climax clap through him, sudden and uncontrollable. As he spilled himself into the condom, and pretended that he didn’t wish there was no barrier between them, he found the tight bundle of nerves between her legs and began to stroke and roll it between his fingers, wanting her to come with him.

She did. Her body arced and she gripped his arms tight as she rode out her own orgasm. They came down together, Cody holding and kissing her and her doing the same.

“Is the ground too hard?” he finally said.

She nodded and he peeled himself away from her, sad at the loss of contact as he helped her sit up and then refastened his pants.

“I wish I could tell Matt about this,” she said, grinning widely as she adjusted her bra and then pulled down her shirt and skirt, morphing from Passion Blake to Business Blake in the blink of an eye.

He was propped on his elbow and from this perspective, the late-evening sunlight bathed her in a glow that made her beauty almost radiant. It also shielded her eyes from him, which meant he had to rely on her voice to figure out what she was thinking and at the moment, her tone was indecipherably even.

“You can, you know?” he offered. “Tell him, I mean.”

“He’d be utterly scandalized!” she said with a gleeful cackle.

Cody sat up then, alarm ringing in his head. “Why?” he asked, his words more clipped than he’d intended. He and Matt had an understanding, but if there was an issue, he needed to know about it.

“This was our hideout, so I can see him now, getting all huffy about the sanctity of this place being violated.”