If I'd thought being injured and having to work the docks made for the slowest day possible, being injured and having to work the docks while dreaming about spending an afternoon alone with Masyn curled up in my bed was far worse. I was impressed with her ability to keep things about us quiet while we were at the shop. She hadn't gotten all bent out of shape when I didn't kiss her goodbye. She didn't try to hold my hand at lunch where we'd be forced to answer questions. And she hadn't acted any differently than she had since the day we'd started at Farley's. Outside of my house, Masyn was the same girl she'd always been-and I loved it, except, where she'd only entered my thoughts occasionally before, she plagued them now. I swear, I counted every second that ticked by on my watch, making the day infinitely longer.I had to stop myself from sprinting to the time clock at the end of the shift. But not even the group of men gathered near the breakroom could stop the grin that took ov
Once we'd finally gotten rid of Beau and Peyton-who'd shown up with nothing to do, looking for entertainment-Masyn and I spent the evening and the better part of the night wrapped up in each other. There were so many things we'd never experienced, and I loved having the pleasuring of being her first. And as much as I'd already fallen in love with being inside her, having my face between her legs came in a close second-tied with having her go down on me. Masyn was as much fun in bed as she was playing pool, arguing about music, or hanging out on the lake. And when she said we had a lot of years to make up for, she committed to righting that wrong and gave it her undivided attention.I struggled when the alarm clock went off at five thirty. Neither one of us had had much sleep to speak of this week, yet where I was groggy and the fog lingered in my mind, Masyn was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. "You know we have to go over to your house before we go in?" I muttered with my arm draped
The agitation for the cellphone violation quickly vanished when he realized what I was telling him. He and his pops were close. If anything happened to Old Man Farley, we wouldn't see Farley in here for days."Get the hell outta here. Once you get there and know more about what's going on, give me a call and let me know if you'll be in on Monday, but don't worry about this place, we've got it covered."I was about to turn around and race to my truck when I remembered Masyn. "Hey, Farley, can you do me a favor?""Of course.""Can you tell Masyn what happened and that I'll call her when I know more?""Definitely. Now, go."I slapped the metal door casing and gave him a curt nod. It was as close as I could get to saying thank you when I was on the verge of losing my shit. My dad and I hadn't been super close since he'd moved to Atlanta, but he was the only family I had-at least by name and blood-and I loved him just the same. And he'd done his best to be a good father after my
"What do you mean there've been complications?" No one could tell me anything other than to have a seat and wait. "It's been almost five hours since he went into surgery." I estimated based on when I'd gotten the call and when the woman told me he was being prepped to go under."Open-heart surgery is complicated, Mr. Carter. As soon as there's an update on your father's condition, someone will come out to speak with you." Simply averting her stare, she dismissed me as though the conversation were over.The hospital needed to consider classes for their staff in patient-family management. This place currently sucked at compassion.Beau stepped between me and the nurse on the other side of the desk. "Come on, Lee. Let's take a seat. Eating her for dinner won't get you any answers."I turned and let him push me toward the waiting room. "This is insane. He's been here for hours. They have to know something.""I don't think they're withholding information just to get to spend more
True to her word, the nurse returned a short time later to tell me I couldn't stay. It was torture to leave him helpless and alone in that room, but if sitting in the waiting area kept him alive, I'd suffer in silence."You can come back every two hours." The rest of the people in this place could stand to take a lesson in kindness from this nurse. It wasn't what she said so much as the sympathetic way she said it. "I promise, if anything changes, I'll come find you."Rounding the corner to the waiting room that was going to be my home for the next few days, I was thrilled to see Beau sitting in the spot where he'd left me last night. He'd showered and shaved, and he looked like he felt a hell of a lot better than I did.I sat down next to him."How's he doing?"I shrugged with one shoulder and continued toward him. "Okay, I guess. He looks dead. It's eerie.""I brought your bag so you could change clothes and freshen up.""Thanks." I reached out to take it from him. "Hav
Beau picked up the check after we had another beer, which I appreciated but didn't need. And then he took me back to the hospital. I assumed he'd drop me off at the front door, so when he pulled into the parking garage, I was a little confused. He'd been here all day, and he had shit to take care of at his house. He was starting a new job on Monday morning, and all of his crap had been moved while he was in Harden in anticipation of his returning from Paris tomorrow with his wife. He'd dodged that bullet. I chuckled, thinking of him in the Matrix because that's how it seemed. He'd defied fate in that twist of events, and I still wasn't sure how he'd managed to get out unscathed. "You know you don't have to come in, right?" I asked as the glass doors slid open and the medicinal smell of the hospital came barreling out. Nothing like the scent of cleanser and death to welcome you to a building.He leaned over and pressed the up button on the elevator. "How are you going to get to my
The color in his cheeks began to wash away when he no longer felt pressured. "Dude, she loved Harden. And I know things were rocky with Masyn, but Peyton seemed like she genuinely wanted to get to know her. She was willing to try anything we wanted to do-I couldn't have paid Felicity to go off the rope swing. But more than anything, my mom loved her. They hit it off the way I thought Felicity should."It was no secret in Harden that Beverly Chastain approved of the marriage between the two families; she just had no intention of adopting Felicity as her new daughter. Daughter-in-law was the only title she would have ever held in the Chastain household, and that didn't come with affection."Your mom has a sixth sense about things, Beau. She's been pushing Masyn and me together since I learned to ride a bike. If she embraced Peyton, you might want to consider it. You just need to go into it with your eyes wide open, and make damn sure that Peyton knows what she stands to lose on her e
Beau acted like he had an assigned seat in the waiting room. He sat in the same chair each time we walked in. I glanced over my shoulder to see him staring at the screen on his phone, and for once, I wasn't irritated that it was in his face; I was grateful he had something to occupy him so, in turn, he would be here to occupy me. The nurse buzzed the doors open to allow me back into the ward, and I made the trip to my dad's room that seemed all too familiar. For the first time since I'd gotten here on Friday, when I'd held my dad's hand and sat next to his bed, I started talking. I had prayed, I had watched him breathe, I had paced the room, but what I'd yet to do was let him know I was here. I probably should have told him about Beau's wedding catastrophe, or that I'd had a new liner put in the pool, or hell, even told him that I cut my hand. I didn't do any of those things. He would have given Beau shit for getting wrapped up with a girl like Felicity in the first place, scolded m
"Mama, this dress isn't going to work." "Masyn, honey, you're walking down the aisle in five minutes. It's going to have to work.""I don't know how I let you talk me into this. The courthouse would have been much simpler." Not to mention cheaper. After Lee asked my daddy for his blessing, my mama had gone hog wild planning the only wedding she'd ever get to be involved in. It didn't matter that I wanted to keep it small or that I wasn't interested in having a ceremony in a church. In her mind, there was only one way to do things, and now, here we sat, six months, two weeks, and four days after Lee proposed.We were in the same church Lee and I had bailed Beau out of seven months earlier, and I sat in the same room I had that day, as well. Only this time, I wasn't surrounded by snotty women who wore too much makeup and thought Harden was the armpit of America. My aunts and cousins were all here, and Peyton had fussed over me all morning the same way my mom had. I didn't ge
It turned out that Masyn's family wasn't as opposed to a wedding as she believed they'd be, and all those men she swore had no interest in attending a ceremony had a real issue with not seeing her walk down the aisle. After spending the week with Beau in Atlanta, the three of us came back to Harden worn out. My dad was getting stronger each day, but he had an uphill battle to fight. If it weren't for the drill sergeant responsible for his physical therapy, he would have had everyone on that floor living in fear. But, Patty didn't put up with my dad's shit or his sass. I didn't want to leave him, and we'd argued over my need to be there-in the end, I lost. My dad thought it was a waste of my time and insisted we go home. Although, he didn't have a problem with us coming back every weekend so he wouldn't be by himself. I didn't stand a chance in hell of telling him no. Masyn was practically doing cartwheels at the thought of spending the weekends in Atlanta.By the time we'd spent t
Waking up, I still had Masyn in my arms, but she was flat on her back, and I was wrapped around her. She had her hand extended in front of her, tilting it from side to side and staring at the ring I'd put there last night."You regretting your answer?" My eyes were still clouded over and my voice groggy."Nope. Not at all. It's beautiful, Lee. I can't wait to thank your dad.""About that..."She dropped her hand and turned to me, unsure of what I was about to add that I hadn't told her last night. In my defense, she had been naked-and still was-and telling her she couldn't move in wasn't at the top of my priority list. Getting inside her was. Granted, I was only heeding half of the old man's advice, but I wasn't sure how she'd take the conversation at all. I wasn't willing to stop showing her how much I loved her body and taking her to places where she screamed my name like I'd never heard. So, not living together before we got married might sound like a copout. "What?" s
After leaving the hospital, Masyn and I met Beau for dinner at a barbeque place down the street from his house. It was okay, but definitely not worth the price. Another reason Atlanta wasn't for me-paying more for lesser quality wasn't my idea of living high on the hog...it was just stupid."Dinner was good." That was Masyn's way of saying she didn't like it when it came up an hour later right before we went to bed. Caging her in against the dresser, I kissed her and said, "You're a shit liar."Her head fell back with laughter. "Okay, it wasn't great, and who pays that much for a pulled-pork sandwich?""It was probably that fancy roll it was on.""Yeah, they'd be better off to head to Piggy Wiggly and pick up a bag of generic hamburger buns.""The tea was tasty." "It was ungodly sweet, I don't know how you drank it.""That's how Southern boys like their tea." I nibbled her neck, not leaving her any room to move when she wiggled. "And their women.""Is that so?" Her
I had to put his address into the GPS on my phone. His house was easy to get to from Harden, but I didn't have a clue where I was in relation to it from the hospital. I sighed when I saw that an eight-mile drive was estimated to take over an hour with the current traffic. By the time I got back, he'd have Masyn taking a vow of celibacy and entering a convent to maintain her purity to keep her from allowing me to ruin her good name. There was probably nothing in the damn box. Knowing my old man, it wouldn't surprise me if he'd sent me on a wild-goose chase to give him time for a fatherly talk with a girl who wasn't his daughter. I thought about texting her to warn her, but Masyn loved my dad, and she'd blow me off anyhow, so I didn't bother. At the very least, my dad would tell her he'd sent me to run an errand and reassure her I'd be back. My phone started ringing when the GPS gave me my next turn, making it impossible to hear, and I nearly missed the ramp to get onto the interst
My dad moved down two floors, and we followed, even though he'd gone to sleep by the time they allowed us back in his room. At least now we didn't have to sit in a waiting room and stare at the walls...and there was no more Nurse Ratched to deal with, although I was certain every floor had their own version of her. This room was a little larger than the one in ICU and had a loveseat to sit on and a television to watch. Masyn flipped through the channels and settled on some talk show I wasn't interested in. It held her attention, which I was grateful for since I'd gotten lost in my thoughts and my father's warning. Sitting in the corner of the two-seater couch, I'd angled my body toward the TV slightly, and Masyn had situated herself with her back against my side. She played absentmindedly with the fingers on my left hand, and all I could think about was the weight of a ring on the fourth one she held. My future always included Masyn. I never knew if it would be as my wife, since
By the time we crawled out of bed the next morning, the house was quiet and we were alone. Beau had left a note on the counter that he'd gone to work and would call later. I wasn't sure if anything I'd said sunk in or made sense, however, I was glad to know he'd heeded my advice not to just bail but, at the very least, to figure out a plan. Even with GPS, I had to turn around twice while navigating the streets of Atlanta to get to the hospital. The same roads we'd traveled last night were quite different when they were bogged down with traffic and people driving like maniacs. Normally, it would have gotten under my skin, and I'd be hollering out the window at the morons causing problems, yet today, with Masyn next to me, it didn't seem all that important. It gave me a little extra time alone with her before I had to face whatever happened in the CICU. She took my hand when I clicked the button to set the alarm on the truck, as if we'd been doing this since the dawn of time. I had
The lights were off when I got to our room. I had to count the doors to make sure I was in the right place. If Masyn were asleep, turning the light on would likely wake her up. I softly closed the door behind me and waited for my eyes to adjust to the dark. Once I could see my hand in front of my face, I toed off my shoes and got undressed. Masyn had found the remote for the ceiling fan and turned the place into an icebox. As quietly as I could, I eased under the blankets. My head hit the pillow, and Masyn popped up like a weasel. "Jesus, you scared the hell out of me. Why didn't you tell me you were awake when I came in?""I was half-asleep until I felt the bed shift. Is everything okay with Beau?"I snaked my arm under her head and pulled her into my side, finding her completely naked. "No. But it will be.""Felicity really messed him up."I kissed the top of her head before responding. "I don't think it's just her. I think Beau's spent so much of his life trying to be
After I showed Masyn where our room was and got her towels so she could shower, I traversed the mile across the house to Beau's bedroom. The lights were on, so he was either still up and ignoring me, or passed out and unable to hear me. When I knocked and he didn't answer, I ventured in to the second set of doors and tried again."Yeah?" So, he was up."Can I come in?""Depends. You going to keep kicking me while I'm down? Beating me like a dead horse?" he pouted.That was the closest thing I'd get to an invitation, so I took it. "You know that's not my goal.""Then what is? I'm not going to cry if that's what you're hoping for." The sounds of my chuckling weren't what he wanted to hear, either, so I stopped. "All bullshit aside, it's like you flipped a switch this afternoon. I'm just trying to understand where you're coming from.""She drove three hours not knowing what she'd find or if she'd even be able to get to you.""Masyn?" My voice rose with surprise when I sai