0215543001348293036 vaughn piper oshea m.j. (25 page)

Piper Vaughn & M.J. O’Shea

Chapter 13

Rue

“MORNING, hon!”

I smiled at Daisy, who was, ironically, a goofy little bleached blonde who seemed like an airhead but was wise underneath her giggly exterior. My life seemed to be populated with silly but amazingly wise little blonds. She was also the owner of the salon where I had my very first
real
job doing hair. It wasn’t a glamorous Hollywood salon for the stars, or anything even close, but thankfully it wasn’t the Tom Tom Club either. At six, I got to clean up my station and run my happy ass home to Alice and Erik so I could make it in time for dinner, which was even sometimes waiting for me. Well, it was on the nights Dusty was there. Erik was still learning about foods outside of the Top Ramen group.

It had felt so good to give notice at the Tom Tom. Maybe in a few months, when I wasn’t sick to death of the sight of the place anymore, I’d take Erik there for a night of dancing like I’d envisioned a few months before. I’d wear my tightest little jeans with the bikini and the fishnets underneath. Erik
really
liked the fishnets… and I really liked how crazy he went when I wore them. God, my boyfriend was hot. I shuddered. Still. It had been four months, and even when I tested myself, prodded and searched for any internal hint that I was starting to get that light feeling in my chest that told me it was time to move on, I still wanted nothing more than him. We bitched at each other

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sometimes, everyone does, but it was overwhelmingly good most of the time. We laughed and made love and raised Alice together, who I was coming to think of as Erik’s daughter too.

He was proud of me for getting a job so quickly. The recommendations I got from my instructors helped, and my desperate desire to be home at regular times of the day and night. I felt bad Dusty hadn’t gotten anything yet, and that whatever he’d had going with Paul had fizzled out shortly after our Rehoboth trip, but he kept working at The Bean and told me with his characteristically sunny smile not to worry. He’d find something eventually. And as far as Paul was concerned, well, he’d always known it wasn’t meant to be.

For the first time in years, the golden shine of the Hollywood Hills started to fade from my peripheral vision. Instead I was filled with roots, growing down to the ground and attaching themselves not to any one city, but to the people I loved most. It was something that, in my younger days, I could have never imagined happening. But it felt good.

“Hey, Daisy, how’s Lindsay?” Lindsay was the woman I’d replaced when she left on maternity with no real plans of coming back any time soon.

“The size of a barn.”

“She must be happy that it’s almost over.”

Daisy smiled. “She’s excited to meet her daughter.” She gave me a pointed look. “Speaking of, I’m excited to meet
your
daughter. When are you going to bring her in?”

I chuckled. Every day of the two and a half weeks I’d been there, Daisy asked to meet Alice.

“I’ll have Erik bring her in sometime soon.”

“And Erik, that’s the partner?”

My heart swelled. “Yeah.”
It feels so good to say that….

“Well, I want to meet him too. See who manages to put that silly grin on your face every day when you take your break.”

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Piper Vaughn & M.J. O’Shea

I blushed, a habit that seemed to be getting more common lately.

“How ’bout we stop by on Tuesday when I’m not working?” Tuesdays and Sundays were my weekend.

Daisy grinned at me. “I promise not to grill the boy too much.”

“Daisy!”

“What? I just want to get to know stuff about my new employee… and friend?”

I chuckled. “Of course we’re friends. I’ll bring Alice and Erik by to meet you on Tuesday, but you’ve gotta be gentle, okay? Erik’s a bit shy.”

“
You
? With a shy guy?”

I nodded. “It works. And he’s not shy once he gets to know someone.”
Not at all….
I thought of how uncharacteristically dominant he’d been in bed the night before, how he’d held me down by my wrists and pushed into me with a low grunt. I’d have hated that with anyone else, but with Erik it drove me wild. I just wrapped my legs around his waist and held on for the ride—and a hell of a ride it had been. I could still feel him when I moved.

After my last client that day, who of
course
had to be a full foil, I came home to the smells of garlic and sautéed butter and something that smelled suspiciously like baking cobbler. My mouth watered.

Dusty must be here.
He was indeed there, making pasta primavera and salad. He poured me a glass of chardonnay and gave me a kiss on the cheek.

“Thanks,” I told him, taking the wine. “Hey, where’s Erik… and where’s Alice?”

“I sent him to the store for ice cream, and he decided to take her too. They had the most amazing peaches at the farmer’s market today. I couldn’t resist making cobbler.”

“It smells amazing. I can’t wait. Let me go change, and I’ll come out to help, okay?”

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By the time I came out in my comfy cargo pants and a tank top, Erik and Alice had come back from the store. He gave me my daughter to greet, then kissed me himself, deep and slow.

“I missed you today,” he murmured. “I keep thinking about last night.”

Ohhh, last night.
“Me too.” I shivered in the early summer heat.

“I can still feel you inside me.”

“Maybe we’ll have to try it in reverse tonight. Think you could manage that?” He gave my neck a little bite and blew on it. I melted into a pool of goo. I had to concentrate on holding onto Alice and not letting her slide down my legs.

“Uh, yeah. I think so.”

Erik gave me a wicked grin. He still surprised the hell out of me sometimes. I loved this new wild streak. Couldn’t wait to see what else there was in store for me.

“I’ll be back. I’m going to go grab the ice cream scooper from my place.”

I nodded and sank down onto the couch with Alice so I could hold her and rub her tiny back. “Hi, love. Papa missed you today.” She made a little grunting noise and wriggled closer to me like she’d missed me too. She reached up and pulled on my hair with fingers that were getting more dexterous—and strong—by the day. “Ow, that hurts.” I gently removed her fingers from my hair and let them curl around my thumb.

“How’d that interview go today, Dust?” I called to the kitchen, which was after all, only a few feet away.

“Pretty good. It looks like I have a station when one of their girls goes on maternity in a few weeks.”

“Another one?” I chuckled. “It’s a good thing the stylists in this town keep getting pregnant, or else we’d have never found jobs.” He stuck his head around the corner. “No kidding, right?

Speaking of babies and hair stylists, I think it might be in her blood.”

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Piper Vaughn & M.J. O’Shea

He gestured at Alice. “She nearly took a hunk of my hair out this morning with that death grip of hers.”

Dusty had gone with Erik and Alice to Gymboree earlier that day to her little gym class. I was envious I didn’t get to participate too, but they didn’t have an infant class on the days I was off work. Dusty had texted me that Alice was doing great and the teacher loved her. Erik told me that everyone there had assumed he and Dusty were a couple and he thought it was hilarious.
Yeah, real hilarious.
I couldn’t believe my jealous streak with him. It was so very unlike me, and I was still working on trying to control it. Didn’t mean I wanted people assuming he belonged to anyone but me.
Mine.

Erik came back with his ice cream scooper, and it was time to eat.

Dinner was delicious, and the peach cobbler was so juicy and tangy it made my mouth water just to smell it. Bed afterward was even better. I held Erik down that time and slid deep into him, showing him in every way I could how very much he belonged to me, and me only. If his whimpers and moans were anything to go by, he agreed whole-heartedly. I couldn’t have been happier.

ON TUESDAY, I took Erik and Alice to meet Daisy at the salon. She was charmed by Alice’s giggle and her silky puff of black hair. Erik was shy and sweet and smiling, and Daisy whispered, “He’s a keeper,” to me as we were leaving. I grinned at her and nodded as I reached out to take his hand. That was my plan, after all.

We decided to grab coffee and take a walk around the park afterward. It was a gorgeous day, breezy and warm and sunny, and the flowers would be blooming in the park, bunches of riotous color Alice would be entranced by.

Alice was passed around at The Bean. Her face was plastered with kisses and nuzzles from the employees who’d been watching her for months. Dusty made us lattes and gave Erik a chocolate cupcake with orange frosting that disappeared in a matter of seconds.

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“You coming over for a movie tonight?” I asked him as we were leaving for the park.

“Yeah, I’ll get there around seven. Is that okay? I can bring pizza.”

I looked at Erik, and he said, “Yeah, that’ll give me time to get some of my edits done.”

“Cool. See you at seven, Dust.”

We left Temple of the Bean with waves and more kisses for Alice, and walked to the park nearby that had a paved half mile trail through the gardens. The day seemed idyllic and soft, nothing to worry about, no one to—

“
Fags
!” It wasn’t loud, but it shattered the happy little bubble I’d been floating in. Erik was pushing Alice’s stroller, and I had my fingers hooked casually into his back pocket. I tried to ignore it, hoped he hadn’t heard anything, but whoever it was back there wasn’t done being an asshole. “I’m talking to you, fags! Why don’t you keep that shit where no one can see it?”

I squeezed my eyes shut.
Just ignore it. Just—

Erik turned back. My hand dropped from his pocket.

“Is there something I can help you with?” His voice didn’t even waver. Wherever he was drawing it from, his voice was filled with strength.

The heckler turned out to be a kid, maybe no more than fourteen.

“I just don’t want to see your fag asses in public. It’s gross.”

“Then perhaps you should turn and walk the other way.” I could hear Erik’s teeth grinding together. A deep flush went up the back of his neck.

I put my hand in Erik’s pocket again and pulled him back toward me. I didn’t want to engage the kid. What if his (probably) bigoted parents were somewhere in the park? That would be trouble Erik and I didn’t need.

“Babe, let’s just go,” I said quietly. “Please?”

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Piper Vaughn & M.J. O’Shea

I hated Wilmington. That dumbass kid just reminded me why.

Erik and I didn’t belong there, Dusty didn’t belong there. Erik let me lead him down a different path toward our car and away from the homophobic little kid. I seriously felt like crying and had no idea why.

I’d run into more people like him than I could count. Maybe it was because he made my happiness feel dirty, because he’d stepped on the first thing in my life that had really mattered.

I was silent in the car back to our building. I just stared out the window at the old brick buildings, the aged and cracked streets, and I wanted out. But where would I go? And there was Erik—I’d never leave him, and I didn’t think he’d be willing to leave what was familiar.

“Rue?”

I looked over at Erik. He reached over to hold my hand, and I let him, even though it still felt weird after what that boy had said to us.

“Yeah. I’m okay.” I’d lied, and I was sure Erik knew it.

“No, you’re not. You can’t let that one kid get to us. Wasn’t the rest of this morning nice?”

I could barely remember the nice without having it be warped by the ugly. “I guess so.”

“Baby….” He kissed the back of my hand. I wanted it to feel like it had just an hour before. “Let’s go home, and you can do some yoga or something while I write. You’ll feel better later. I promise.”

“Don’t be condescending.”

“I wasn’t trying to be anything. I just….” I could tell he was at a loss for what to say.

“I’m sorry, it just sucked. Like nothing bad had tainted us before today. I’m being stupid, I know.”

“It won’t seem so bad later. I promise.”

I looked over at him. “How’d you get to be the expert? It’s not like you’ve been called a fag before.”

Erik shrugged. “Fag, weirdo, nerd, freak-show…. It’s all the same. Fag might be the only one out of all of them I
haven’t
heard a

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one small thing

million times. You never really get used to it, but it hurts less after a while.”

I felt awful. “I’m sorry I assumed you wouldn’t understand. And usually I don’t let it get to me. I just don’t want anything to ruin us.”

“You have to give us more credit than that. We’re not glass, Rue.”

“I just wish we could go live somewhere else.” I sighed.

“It’s the same everywhere around here.”

“I know. I meant… never mind. I love you.” There was no point in even bringing California up.

“I love you too.”

I WAS still in a bit of a funk later when Dusty called to say he’d left work and was on his way to get pizza and snacks for the movie. I tried to buck up and stop being such a damn baby over juniorphobe in the park back there. It didn’t matter in the long run, right? I was happy with my little family, and there were plenty of gay people here as long as we went to the right places. The pep talk worked. Sort of. I got up from the couch and went in to wake Alice from her nap so I could feed her. I was leaning over to pick her up from her crib when my cell rang again.