Destined to Succeed (24 page)

I asked Larry to get the horses saddled up and Suzy Q filled the saddlebags with our picnic necessities. Izzy B insisted I ride Trigger with her, so Suzy Q got Old Smokey to herself. Old Smokey was a dark gray horse and Trigger was a chestnut color. I was so glad they’d been out to pasture the night of the fire. Sunshine hadn’t been so lucky.

We rode out over the pasture headed out to the old pond. It was a beautiful day for a ride. I let Izzy B sit in front and hold the reins. Trigger wouldn’t give her no trouble. She was super gentle. That girl talked all the way. Her little mouth never stopped. She was tellin’ me jokes, talkin’ about the sky, askin’ her momma for a puppy - anything you could think of that girl talked about it on our ride.

“Momma, are you gonna marry Uncky Cade?”

Whoa!

Suzy Q looked at me and I looked at her. Finally, I answered, “Yes, baby girl. Someday your momma and me are gonna get married. And we’re gonna be a family. What do you think about that?” That’s when the conversation got really awkward. Suzy Q was starin’ at me with this huge, gorgeous smile on her face. Izzy B had stopped talkin’ and when I looked down at her I could tell her little mind was workin’ a mile a minute. I was gonna marry that woman. She was my life and so was Izzy B.

“I wub it! I wub you, Uncky Cade. You’d never be mean to momma and me,” she shrieked as she dropped the reins and turned around and caught me in a big ole bear hug. I grabbed the reins and held onto that baby girl for all it was worth. Like hell would I let either one of them go ever again.

That had to have been one of the most perfect picnics ever. We sat on the swing in the gazebo and talked about the future. We spread out a blanket by the pond and ate our lunch. Suzy Q and I told Izzy B all about the fun we used to have at this pond when we were kids. When it started to get dark we watched Izzy B chase lightenin’ bugs as we swung on the swing in the gazebo.

The. Most. Perfect. Picnic. Ever.

We didn’t ride back up to the house until dark. It was easy to find our way home. We’d done it a million times. I carried Izzy B into the house. She had passed out on our way back. I tucked her into bed and then I took the horses to the barn.

When I got back up to the house, Suzy Q was nowhere to be found. I checked in to see if she was with Izzy B, but she was sound asleep in her bed alone. I went into my room hoping she was there, but my bed was empty. I didn’t think she would sleep in the extra bedroom tonight. Not after last night. As I walked past the bathroom, I heard the water runnin’. That was it. She was takin’ a shower. Sounded like the perfect way to end the perfect day to me.

I went into my room and stripped down. I wrapped a towel around me just in case Izzy B woke up. I didn’t want her to see me walkin’ around naked. I snuck into the bathroom and gently closed the door behind me. I slid the shower door open and there stood my redheaded angel. She was rinsin’ her hair under the showerhead, so she hadn’t heard me yet. I put my hand on her shoulder and she jumped. I thought she was gonna kick my ass, but when she saw it was me she calmed down.

“What took you so long?” she asked.

“I’ve been askin’ myself that same question all damn day.” Then I kissed her. I kissed her like we’d never kissed before. I kissed her like she was the only woman I’d ever kissed or ever would kiss again. With this kiss, I wanted to show her that I knew I’d screwed up, but that I would never do it again. Who was I kiddin’? I probably would screw up many more times. But I would never let her doubt my love for her ever again. This was it. She was mine and I was hers until the end of time. I felt like such a pussy, but I really didn’t give a shit. That was what I was feelin’ and I knew that was never gonna change.

She broke away from the kiss. “Making up for lost time, cowboy?”

“You bet your pretty little ass I am. I ain’t ever missin’ anything with you ever again. You hear me?”

“I hear you, cowboy. Now kiss me again.”

And I did...over and over again. I kissed her lips, her neck, her breasts, her stomach, and when I went to move my mouth lower she stopped me.

“It’s your turn,” she whispered as she dropped to her knees and took cowboy into her mouth. It was a good thing I was close to the wall because I fell smack into it. Her mouth felt so amazin’ on me. She was lickin’ and suckin’ in the perfect ways.

“Damn, Suzy Q. That feels so good.” I could hardly speak. My words came out as more of a growl.

I was so close and I wasn’t sure what she was gonna want me to do. So I tried to warn her. I know I did, but the words were garbled in my head. Instead of backin’ away like most women would, she held me tight and took everything I had to give. She stood up and kissed me. There was a tear in her eye. I was so afraid I’d done somethin’. Had I already screwed up again?

“What’s wrong, hon?. What’d I do?” I couldn’t stand the thought of me hurtin’ her.

“Just hold me. Please.” She cried harder. I pulled her into my arms. We stood that way for a long while, then I turned off the shower and dried us off best I could.

We walked into the bedroom and crawled into bed. She nuzzled into my chest. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to freak out on you.”

I put my finger under her chin and tilted her head up to where she was lookin’ at me. “What happened in there? Did I do somethin’?”

“No. No, it wasn’t you. I…I…it’s just…” She seemed to be havin’ a real hard time gettin’ the words out.

“Just what? What happened?” Lookin’ down into those sad brown eyes was killin’ me. She started to cry again.

“That was the first time…the first time I did that for anyone besides Branch.”

“Oh…” That was all I could say? Really?

“You don’t understand. I didn’t freak out because of that. I acted that way because…because Branch would make me do that to him when he was upset. He used to make me do it really hard and it would hurt. He would pull my hair and…” I pulled her body as tight to mine as I could get it. I was smoothin’ her hair with my hands and I was tryin’ my damnedest to make her feel safe.

“I’m so sorry he hurt you. You don’t have to ever do anything that makes you uncomfortable. As good as that felt, and it really did feel great, you don’t ever need to do it again. I can’t stand the thought of those memories comin’ back to you when you’re with me.”

“It made me happy to do that for you. I think it’s just gonna take some time for me to get past all of the bad shit that happened with Branch. I’ll try to not bring it into what we have, but there will be times when I can’t help it. I guess I just want to apologize to you in advance.”

“No apology necessary. I love you, hon. No matter what we do in the bedroom, or the bathroom, or the truck, or the couch….”

“Shut up and kiss me, cowboy!”

“My pleasure, ma’am.”

Suzanna~

Saturday night was here before we knew it. Cade and I were living like a happily married family with Isabella and I couldn’t be happier. I’d spent all day Friday with Callie. We drove into town and got our nails done, bought me a dress for the wedding, and picked up something special for the party tonight. I couldn’t wait for Cade to see his surprise.

My parents had agreed to keep Isabella for the night and she was so excited to stay with them. My mom and I had really started to get closer and I think her and Dad were too. I hated to believe it, but maybe the fact that I was abused by my husband brought me and my family closer. It was sad, but unfortunately it seemed to be true.

I’d bought a short pink sundress for tonight. Normally I would never wear pink with my red hair, but this shade actually looked pretty good on me. Callie and the sales clerk had both agreed I had to have it. It came about mid-thigh. It was much shorter than any dress I currently owned. It had spaghetti straps and was kinda gathered around the bust. I put on a little bit of make-up and I actually bought some pretty white sandals to wear with it -instead of my normal cowboy boots. I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. I didn’t look half bad.

Cade knocked on the bedroom door, “Hon, you ready to go?”

“I’ll be right out. Have a seat downstairs. I’ll be down in a minute.” I had just finished putting my earrings in and now I was trying to get my sandal buckled.

I walked downstairs and Cade was waiting for me at the bottom.

“Damn, you look gorgeous,” he said right before he pressed his lips to mine. The kiss got intense pretty damn quick.

“If you don’t stop kissing me like that, we’ll miss the party.”

“I don’t see a problem with spendin’ the night here in bed….or on the couch…or how about the kitchen counter? As I recall, we had a lot of fun on that counter once. Or was it the table? Hmmm…I remember now. It was both.” And there was that sexy ass Walker smirk that I knew so well. I honestly believed it could melt panties. Seriously.

“I won’t argue with you there, cowboy. We could have a hell of a good time staying at home, but I promised Callie we’d come to their party tonight. So we better do that first. Then we can revisit the kitchen counter later.” I said with a wag of my eyebrow.

“Fine.” He grinned and we started to the truck.

When we pulled up to the creek, I started having flashbacks to my younger days, back to all the times we spent at the creek as kids and teenagers. So many things had happened out here. I’d slept with Branch, fought with Cade, and watched so many of my friends do things they shouldn’t have been doing. I had a lot of good memories of our times here too, though. Not everything about it was bad.

“You about ready to go see what trouble we can get into?” Cade asked with a wink of his eye.

“Speak for yourself, cowboy. I won’t be getting into any trouble tonight.” I leaned in real close to his face and pressed a soft kiss to his lips. “Not until we get home anyway. I’m too old to do naughty things at the creek.”

Cade grabbed me and pulled me in close. “Hon, you ain’t ever too old to do somethin’ naughty at the creek.” Then he kissed me. God that man could kiss. I was about to see stars before he finally broke away and opened his truck door. He pulled me out by the hand and as I fell out of the truck he caught me around the waist. “I love ya, Suzy Q.”

I would never get tired of hearing that…ever.

“I love you too, cowboy.” We started walking toward the bonfire. I saw Callie and Walt sitting on the tailgate of their truck. They were making out like a couple of teenagers - just like old times. It just wasn’t Walt she was usually making out with at the creek. They made my heart swoon. I was so happy for them and now I was happy for me too. Cade and I were gonna be happy together. I was finally gonna get my happily ever after.

I kissed the frog and he led me to my prince.

We grabbed some beers. Cade spread out a blanket on the ground and pulled me down onto his lap. We were snuggling and the excitement of spending the night with Cade to explore the feelings we were finally admitting we had for each other, had me in a tizzy. I didn’t want to sit at a bonfire and drink and dance…I had more important things to do. Like make love to my man.

After a few beers, I heard Callie yelling at me from across the fire. “Suzanna Marie! I’m so glad you’re here! I lurve you so hard!” She was dancing and laughing. “I saw you kissing him. You lurve him so hard!”

Normally, I would’ve died of embarrassment at my friend’s words, but I didn’t care who knew that I loved Cade and I had a little bit of a buzz.

“I lurve you so hard too!” I yelled back at her. She started whooping and hollering.

“You need to take that man out in the dark and do dirty, dirty things to him.” Gotta love a drunk bestie at her pseudo bachelorette party.

“Sounds like an excellent plan, Callie.” Cade grinned as he grabbed my arm and pulled me up off of our blanket.

“What are you doing? I’m not doing anything dirty with you out there in front of all of these people. Are you high?” I was flabbergasted. I don’t know what kind of person he thought I was, but it wasn’t the kind that had sex in a field after her friend announced it to everyone at the party.

“I’m not high. I am a little buzzed, but definitely not high.” He shook his head and started laughing.

“What are you laughing at?”

“You.”

“Enlighten me?”

“Sure. I just thought of what I shoulda said when you asked me if I was high. It made me laugh.”

“What should you have said?”

“I am high...high on you.” Then he laughed that big ole belly laugh. I punched him in the arm. “Hey, don’t hit me. I didn’t say it. Well, I did. But that was only because you made me think it.”

“You’re obviously more than buzzed. You must be shit-faced drunk.” I laughed and realized that he had walked us out to the grove of trees just beyond the creek.

He put his hands on my waist and pushed me up against the trunk of an old familiar maple tree. I was trying to catch my bearings, when he rubbed his nose along my jaw. He nibbled on my ear and then licked a trail from my ear to my shoulder. The cool evening air made me shiver when it hit the path he created. Cade pressed into me and started rubbing cowboy up against my sex. I was about to explode.

He took the hem of my sundress between his fingers and started sliding it up my thighs. Cade reached around and ran his hands over my butt. That’s when he felt his surprise. He pulled back and his eyes were as big around as saucers.

“What…what is…what do you have on?” he asked with a look of pure shock on his face. Now for most women what I had bought Cade as a surprise wouldn’t be that crazy. For me it was insane. I didn’t wear things like this.

“Um…a thong.”

He gulped and those piercing green eyes of his grew dark with lust. “Holy fuck, Suzy Q. That is hot.”

I knew he’d like it. As his grip tightened on my waist, his attitude became more serious. This was going to be intense. He leaned in and his breath was warm against my face, and my heart was racing. This man had unlocked my heart and soul. He had brought me back to me.

He slipped the thin straps of my sundress down over my shoulders and down under my breasts. I had worn a strapless bra that matched the thong. They were both white lace with little peach bows. Not super sexy, but I wore a thong. That had to count for something, right?