Always and Forever (20 page)

“A root and scoot.”

We’re dying laughing now and Mrs. Shull is looking at us like we’re the idiots that
we are.

“A pound and bound.” I raise an eyebrow in challenge.

“A take and break.”

“A flirt and spurt. Or a spurt and spurt. Either works,” I remark.

“A gash and dash.”

I make a face at this one. “Gash? Ew. Uh, a pamper and scamper.”

“Good one,” she says with a chuckle. “Hm. A bam and scram.”

“A bed and fled.”

“A dip and slip.”

“A thrust and bust.”

“A shag and bag.”

“A boff and off.”

“Um…” She pauses.

I wait five seconds then yell, “Aha!” which makes Mrs. Shull jump. “Sorry!” I yell
at her and she smiles back with a wave of her hand letting me know it’s okay. “Anyway,
I win!” I tell Ryan.

“Yeah, whatever,” Ryan says with a roll of her eyes. “You win this round, Frank.”

I frown at her in confusion.

“GTS,” she says with a smirk.

I leave Ryan’s and find Brody in the auto parts store and we walk down to Kade’s lumberyard
to see the new refrigerators he’s gotten in that he told us about at breakfast.

“I’m expanding,” he says with a chuckle.

“I see that,” Brody replies as we walk through an area that showcases several appliances:
fridges, dishwashers, ovens, washer and dryers.

“Instead of just being a lumberyard, my goal is for this to become an out-and-out
home improvement store,” he explains.

Brody nods, impressed. “I think it’s a great idea.”

“Mill kinda gave me the idea but I’d been thinking about it for a while anyway. Just
didn’t go forward with it until she brought it up.”

“I so want that stainless steel French three-door one,” I tell him, pointing at the
fantastic fridge on display.

“Fifteen hundred,” Kade informs me. “But I’ll let you have it for cost which would
be around twelve. Appliance markups are low, only around twenty percent
.”

“Give me a month and it’s a deal,” I say with a smile.

“Give it to her now,” Brody says and my head jerks to him and my mouth hangs open.

“I can’t let you do that,” I protest.

“Babe.”

Why do these men think that’s an answer?

“Brody, no.”

He looks at Kade. “We’re gettin’ it now.”

Kade grins at both of us then walks over to the refrigerator and looks at the tag
on it. He pulls a small flippy notebook out of his pocket along with a pencil and
writes the serial number from the tag on it.

“Brody, you already spent so much to go to the resort this weekend paying, what, six-hundred
a night on top of a plane ticket? I can’t let you do this.”

“Seven hundred.”

I look at him. “What?”

“The room was seven hundred a night.”

“Holy crap! Well, see? No! I’m not letting you do this for me.”

Kade walks toward the back heading to the stock room and ignoring us.

“It’s not a matter of ‘let.’ I’m doing it.”

“God! You have to be the most stubborn man I’ve ever met!”

He grins at me and takes my hand pulling me to go with him to the back where his brother
is. “If it makes you feel any better, it’ll be my fridge too since we’ll be together
anyway.” I’m stomping along beside him, just a teeny bit frustrated with his bossiness.
“C’mon, babe. Don’t get your panties in a wad.”

I cut him a sharp look. “You leave my panties out of it.”

“Try to. Every time.”

God!

~~~

Straddling Brody, my knees in the bed to either side of him, I let out a cry as his
fingers dig into my hips and he slams me down hard on him making me feel him so deep
inside.

“So fucking good,” he leans in and mumbles at my throat moving his hands up my back
to curl over my shoulders. When I slide up on him, going up on my knees so far that
I almost lose him inside, his hands on my shoulders pull me down roughly onto his
hard cock and I’m done, my core clutching at him desperately as I scream his name.

He falls to his back and rolls us where he’s on top and starts moving in a slow, pumping
rhythm that drives me crazy.

I’d already driven him to the same place right after we’d come back to my house. To
show him my deepest gratitude for buying the refrigerator, I’d disrobed him, pushed
him to lie back on my bed then proceeded to taste every inch of his body. When I’d
taken his hard shaft into my mouth, moving my hands up and down to follow the motion
of my lips on him, I’d tortured him by bringing him to the edge then backing off,
doing this several times over until he’d had enough.

And now he’s torturing me.

“Buy you shit every day if this is my reward,” he mumbles, plunging in deep and making
me gasp.

“Baby, I’d reward you anyway you keep making me feel like this,” I reply breathily.

And that does it for him as his hips begin their surge and retreat, driving hard,
pounding inside until he finds his release and he comes with a curse.

“I love you,” I whisper as my heavy lids close and I hear him mumble, “Always and
forever,” just as I drift off.

~~~

I wake to Brody talking.

“Seriously? That’s great. Six? Yeah, we’ll be there. Thanks.” He walks into my bedroom
fully dressed. “Hey, sleepyhead. You gonna nap all day?”

I smile and stretch. “Maybe. I don’t know why I’m so tired.”

I see him waggle his eyebrows at me. “Could be all the extracurricular activity we’ve
got going on.”

“Mmm. Maybe.”

He sits on the bed. “Put me in, Coach,” he says and leans down to kiss me as I laugh.

“That was the cheesiest line ever.”

“Worse than ‘Are you my appendix because I have a funny feeling in my stomach that
makes me wanna take you out’?”

I groan and roll to where my face is pressed against his thigh. “So bad.”

He smacks my ass through the sheet. “Get up. That was Kade. He said they have some
information on where Hannah is. We’re having dinner at Mom and Dad’s at six.”

I sit up putting my hand on his thigh. “That’s awesome. Let’s hope this is the beginning
of the end.”

“Get showered and dressed so we can stop by my place and I can change. Also, pack
a bag ‘cause you’re staying with me tonight.”

I do as ordered finding myself a little anxious about seeing his mom and dad. I mean,
it’s not like I haven’t talked to them over the past year but I have avoided them
somewhat. But they welcomed Amelia back into their fold after she’d left Kade at the
altar then disappeared for five years, so I’m hoping they’ll do the same for me.

I’m ready by a quarter to six and we leave, making the stop at Brody’s trailer where
he changes and I leave my bag then we head out to his parents’ ranch. When we pull
up, we see Kade’s truck and Jeremy’s SUV but there’s also an Escalade parked outside
that neither of us has a clue whose it is.

“Piper!” Carolina, Brody’s mom, says as soon as we step in the door as if she’d been
waiting for us. She pulls me in for a hug. “I’ve missed you…” her voice hitches which
makes me tear up as I squeeze her back. She pulls back putting her hands on my shoulders.
“As beautiful as ever. I’m glad my son finally got his head out of his ass.”

I choke out a laugh as I wipe the tears from under my eyes. I’ve always loved Carolina
especially the fact that she’s always been like a second mom to me. She’s in her mid-fifties
and is half a foot taller than I am. Her long, dark hair is pulled into a low ponytail,
the way she usually wears it, and her sharp gray eyes never miss a thing. She’s very
pretty and is one of the strongest women I know. She’s dressed in her usual rancher
attire of jeans and boots but the purple sweater she’s wearing compliments her coloring
so well that she’s practically beaming.

“I love that color on you, Carolina. It’s perfect!” I tell her.

“Thank you. Had Ryan do my ‘colors’ a few months ago. Seems I’m a cool winter and
purple’s one of my signature colors.” She pops a hip out all sassy and I laugh.

“Well, Ryan called it because you look stunning.”

“Aw, thank you, sweetheart. Adorable as always.” She now looks up at Brody. “And here’s
my handsome second born. Give your mother a hug.”

“Hey, Mom,” Brody says then bends down and wraps his arms around her picking her up
and spinning her making her shriek.

When he sets her down, she smacks him on the arm. “Brody Matthew Kelly, don’t think
it’s beyond me to ground you.”

He laughs. “Yeah, ‘cause it worked so well when you actually thought you could.”

“Oh, you. Get in there.” She smacks him on the butt now then follows us into the living
room.

Lucas, Brody’s dad, gets out of his recliner and comes over to me. “So glad you’re
here, Piper.” He pulls me in for a hug and kisses the top of my head. He leans back
to look at me. “Lovely as ever.” He’s also in his mid-fifties and except for the slight
paunch to his stomach, he’s built exactly like his sons. His hair is russet colored
but I notice a few gray hairs at his temples and his eyes are Brody’s, hazel that
change with his moods. “Come in, come in and have a seat, you two.” He claps Brody
on the shoulder pulling him in for a manly half-hug then lets him go and we make our
way across their huge living room to the loveseat.

Cassie and Jeremy are sitting on the fireplace ledge and Kade and Amelia are on one
of the sofas and they all say hi as we walk by. There’s a tough looking gray-haired
man sitting in the wingback chair to the right of Lucas’s recliner and after Lucas
sits down he introduces the man as Carolina hands Brody and me a beer then she leaves
the living room.

“Brody, Piper, this is Colt Grant. He’s the private investigator Amelia hired to find
this Hannah woman.” Lucas winks at Amelia. “Colt? If you’d like to go ahead and fill
everyone in then after we can eat.”

Carolina has come back in and after handing Lucas and Colt a fresh beer, she sits
on the sofa next to Amelia and at Lucas’s mention of her, Carolina pats Mill’s knee
and gives her a smile.

“Thanks, Lucas. Well, as he said, I’m a P.I. Ms. Chapman hired me a couple months
ago to find Hannah White, age thirty-one.”

I feel my body get tight at the mention of her name but Brody puts his arm around
me and pulls me into him which makes me relax a little.

“I’ve found her. Peyton Stalls, or Capps, whichever name she goes by, has not made
this easy for me, but by going through her mail, legally, of course…” Did I detect
some sarcasm there? Hm. “I found Hannah’s last name and was able to locate her. She’s
in Atlanta living with an African-American man named Terrell Phillips.”

Wow. This guy’s found out a lot. Amelia must’ve paid quite a bit for his help.

Colt opens the folder that’s been resting in his lap. “I’ve got some pictures here
of them with the baby that I’ll show you in a minute.” He pulls out a piece of paper
and looks at it. “I’ve checked into Ms. White’s background to find that she’s of European
descent. Both parents are Caucasian as are their parents. Ms. White does have a recent
felony on her record for shoplifting, which in Georgia if it’s over three-hundred
dollars it’s no longer just a misdemeanor. She has several other misdemeanors for
theft, public intoxication, possession of marijuana and prostitution, along with various
traffic offenses. I’ve also found that she has three other children all of which the
State of Georgia has taken from her because of her lifestyle choices. As far as I
can tell, she’s made no attempts to get them back.”

Wow again.

“Mr. Phillips, too, has a criminal record such as marijuana possession and a couple
misdemeanors from when he was younger, but from what I found for him most recently,
he seems to be living clean at the moment. He’s got a job at a privately-owned car
dealership as a mechanic and appears to be taking care of his family. But I’m not
sure I’m buying it. I did a search on Terrell Phillips and found a missing person’s
report, so I alerted the authorities but don’t know if he’s one and the same.” He
pauses and looks at Brody. “Now, you’ve been paying monthly child support of five-hundred
dollars. Is that correct?”

My mouth falls open and I turn to look at Brody and I know he’s embarrassed. He has
one of those faces where his cheeks do that splotchy thing if he’s disconcerted. It
also happens if he’s been working out or when he’s having sex, which I’ve always thought
was just completely hot and cute. I take his hand and he looks down at me.

“You’ve been paying child support?” I ask.

I see his jaw muscles jump a couple times before he nods.

“You amaze me,” I tell him, totally in awe of the man sitting next to me as I stare
up at him.

He frowns when I say that because I’m sure he thought I was going to chastise him
or go off on some jealous rage. But, no, I admire him for stepping up and being a
man.

“That
is
amazing, son. You’re a good man,” Lucas agrees.

Brody’s face is really splotchy now and I put a hand to his cheek, my fingers behind
his ear and pull him down to me for a kiss. “I love you and I’m so proud of you.”

I look back at Colt waiting for him to continue when Brody tightens his arm around
me pulling me closer then leans down to whisper in my ear. “Thank you. I love you.
You’re the amazing one, baby.”

I give him a smile and put my hand up to hold his fingers that are hanging off my
shoulder and give them a squeeze.

“Also, the paternity test that you took?” Colt shakes his head. “Totally invalid and
totally inadmissible in court.” He takes another paper from his file. “Your name isn’t
on the birth certificate so you have no legal obligations to Ms. White or her son.”

“So what happens now?” Carolina asks looking from Brody to Colt.

He half shrugs. “I’d say he stops the child support payments for now until a legal
paternity test can be administered.”

Amelia speaks up. “The Capps woman has played a huge role in all of this. If she knew
the baby wasn’t Brody’s, what can happen to her?”