Sweet Ride (35 page)

“Mom, I didn’t
intentionally hide it from you. With everything that’s gone on
since my birthday party, it kind of just slipped my mind. You’re
not angry with me, are you?” I ask, but I can tell by her voice
that she’s not.

“Hell no. Good for
you, baby girl. He’s a fine piece of ass.”

“Really, Mom! You did
not just say that!” I shout at her.

“What? I’m married,
not dead. He’s hot. You’re a lucky girl, sweetie. And you’re
going to have beautiful babies with him,” she says the last part
softly.

“Mom!” I groan,
twisting my body and putting my face into the pillow again. This is
not happening. “What else did Jack say to you?” I grumble.

“Not much. Other than
informing me of your new living arrangements, he wanted to know when
we were coming out. I gave him the dates, and he told me not to worry
about anything, that he’d purchase our plane tickets for us and
take care of our hotel accommodations. I said that wasn’t
necessary, but sweetie your man’s really insistent,” she informs
me. Yeah, like I didn’t already know that.

“Tell me something I
don’t know,” I mumble. She chuckles into my ear.

“I told him to go
ahead with the airplane tickets, but I’m going to call Ella to see
if we can stay there. Not only do I need some quality time with you,
but I need some with her and the babies as well. Ryder’s a whole
other story,” she purrs the last bit.

“Ugh, Mom. Really?”
I say with disgust. Yeah, Ryder’s hot and all, but this is my mom
here. I mean, come on.

“Okay, okay. I’ll
stop,” she says through laughter.

I turn serious all of a
sudden when I say, “Mom?”

“Yeah, sweetie?”

“I can’t wait to
see you guys. I miss you all like crazy bad,” I confess.

“I know, baby girl.
And we miss you, too. So much. Listen, I don’t want to keep you on
the phone too long with that stud close by.”

“Mom!” I snap at
her.

“Sorry. Love you,
Payton. Take care, baby, and I’ll be talking to you soon,” she
says.

“Love you too, Mom.
Bye,” I touch the screen to disconnect the call. I stand up on the
bed, jump up and down, and squeal in excitement. Shit, shouldn’t
have done that. I forgot my head still hurts a bit. Jack quickly
makes his way up over the stairs and walks to the edge of the bed. He
stands there, looking at me with a happy look on his face.

“My family’s coming
in two weeks!” I screech.

“What else did she
say?” Jack asks.

“Um … ah … she’s
happy for us that we’re living together,” I tell him. Which is
more or less the truth—just leaving out the whole thing about her
thinking he has a fine ass.

“And?”

“She loves and misses
me,” I tell him.

“Anything else?” he
inquires further.

“That we’d have
beautiful babies,” I whisper and can’t help but smile.

“She’s not wrong,”
he tells me, placing one knee on the bed as he leans over to grab me
by the waist. We fall back into bed and spend the rest of the day
there. And I’m not talking in the biblical sense either. All we do
is nap, cuddle, and talk, and I love every fucking second of it!

* * *

A couple weeks later,
we’re finally at the airport picking up my family. They’re only
here for a week, so I’m going to make the most of the next seven
days. I didn’t realize how much I actually missed them until I see
my mom and stepfather walk off their flight. I run over and smash my
body to my mother’s, hugging her as tightly as I can. She returns
my hug with the same fierce intensity.

“Oh my, baby,” she
says, pulling back and looking at me.

“I missed you, Mom,”
I confess, feeling the tears lightly falling down my cheeks.

They still don’t know
about the kidnapping, and I made Jack promise not to tell them.
They’re going through enough right now worrying about me and how
I’m coping with the rape; I don’t want to add more to the pile.
He isn’t happy about keeping them in the dark and thinks that they
should be informed, but I just want to enjoy the time I’m going to
have with them. He still won’t let me go anywhere by myself
considering one of my kidnappers is still on the loose.

Over the last two
weeks, Jack has made sure that I’ve had protective detail assigned
to me at all times until they find the fifth guy. I haven’t been
alone—other than bathroom breaks—for the past fourteen days.
Since my family is in the dark about the recent goings-on, he ordered
them to stay unnoticed while my family’s visiting by parking
farther down the road in an unmarked car.

I finally release Mom
and turn to embrace my stepfather.

“God, we missed you,”
he tells me, kissing my cheek. I really love him. When my father was
sick I never dreamt my mother would remarry because she loved my dad
so much, but a little over a year later she started getting better
and laughing a bit more. Finally, Ella’s mother, who was also my
mother’s best friend, convinced her to start dating again. She
wouldn’t go for it at first, but after a couple of weeks she agreed
to go out with one of Ella’s father’s co-workers. I remember how
nervous she was before their first date and then how happy she was
when she came home and told me all about how handsome, funny, and
nice he was. They dated for a few months before she let him meet us.
When we first met him, we instantly loved him as well. Surprisingly,
they married exactly a year to the day of the anniversary of their
first date. He isn’t my dad, but he’s the next best thing, and I
know he loves us like we’re his own. He spoils us in every way
possible.

They tried to have a
child of their own, but it just never worked out for them, which was
sad because I know from the way he treats us that he would’ve made
an amazing father. He definitely deserved one of his own, but he
seems happy and content enough with what he has, and that makes it
all okay.

“I missed you too,
Daddy-O,” I say, pulling away from him. I turn around to see where
Jack is and helplessly watch as my mother pulls him into a tight hug.

“Um … Mom, do you
think you can stop molesting my boyfriend?” I ask, chuckling.

“No, I don’t know
the next time I’ll get to hug a sexy man like this, Payton. You’ve
done very well for yourself, honey,” she says, winking at me and
pinching his ass at the same time. I’m guess that’s where I
inherited my ass-squeezing obsession. I watch as Jack tenses and
looks up at John nervously. All I can do is laugh.

“What do you mean,
Karen? I’m not sexy enough?” John asks, puffing out his chest,
trying to look like Jack, but completely failing.

“Oh hush, you’ll
get your turn. Just give me one more minute,” Mom tells John,
smiling brazenly at him.

When she finally
decides to stop groping Jack, we head over to the baggage claim to
get their suitcases. As we wait, I ask my mom where Evan is.
Apparently, an unexpected paper was due in class, and she needed to
stay home to work on it. She was disappointed that she couldn’t
come, but she told them to make sure that I know how much she loves
and misses me. I personally think the paper excuse is a lie. I’m
thinking the real reason she didn’t want to come out here goes by
the name of Cade Foster.

Once we have their
luggage packed away in the car, we make our way to Ella and Ryder’s
house so Mom can see them all. She’s very anxious because she
doesn’t get to see them very often. As soon as we walk through the
door, Ella comes running at us and shrieking like a banshee. She
pulls both my mom and stepfather into a hug at the same time.

“Where are Ryder and
the twins?” my mom asks, pulling back from Ella’s embrace.

“He’s in the
bathroom trying to get Hendrix to use the potty. Harley is in there,
watching, and hopefully learning. It’s hit and miss with the both
of them. Can I ask you how long it took to potty-train Payton and
Evan?” Oh shit, I don’t need Jack knowing stuff like that. How
embarrassing.

“Payton was a fast
learner. She was twenty-two months old, but her sister was a whole
other ordeal. Sometimes I swear that girl wasn’t trained until she
was ten years old,” she says, obviously joking. We all laugh at the
comment. “Don’t worry about it, sweetie. When they’re ready,
it’ll happen,” she adds.

Not five minutes later,
Ryder walks out with my two favorite little munchkins following
closely behind. He makes his way over and hugs my mother, who once
again sneaks in a little ass squeeze, but Ryder’s used to that now
and isn’t taken by surprise like Jack was. He gives my stepfather
one of those one-armed man hugs. Mom instantly bends down and snags
Hendrix and Harley up off of the floor and hugs them tightly as they
scream out, “Nana Karen!”

“How’s my little
cuddle bugs? Nana missed you guys so much,” she coos. Ella’s
cuddled into Ryder’s side now watching the exchange between her
children and my mother with a wide smile on her face. “Who wants to
play?” my mom asks. They answer with a synchronized, “I do!”

A half an hour later,
we’re all still playing with the twins when Jack comes along and
scoops Harley up from the floor. He’s blowing raspberries on her
little tummy and talking baby talk to her. He’s so hot right now
that my ovaries start to throb—he needs to have kids of his own.
Not right now, but in good time. He deserves that, and I want to be
the one to give it to him.

“Woo, Harley girl,
you sure know how to put a grown man to shame. That’s more toxic
than your daddy,” he says, holding her at arm’s length and
screwing up his nose.

“Here, I can change
her,” I offer, walking over to him with my arms held out.

“I got this,” he
tells me before heading toward their room so he can change her. I
follow them in, curious as to what he knows about changing babies.
“I’ve changed lots of poopy bums. Had lots of practice with my
nieces,” he says winking at me.

“Yeah, I keep
forgetting that,” I say grinning. Just watching him with her sends
little warm fuzzies through my body. The way he gently moves her as
he cleans her, exchanges the dirty diaper for a clean one and speaks
softly with her the whole time makes me picture Jack changing our
little baby someday. I know right then and there that this is what I
want for the rest of my life. I still need to work on myself, but I
want him and a family right along my side.

“All set,” Jack
says, jarring me out of my thoughts. I look up and notice him lifting
Harley off the changing table, and she’s all clean, thanks to Uncle
Jack.

“Come see Auntie
Payton,” I coo at her. Jack hands her over, and we head back out to
the living room. I sit on the floor next to Mom and Ella where we
spend the rest of the afternoon playing with my two favorite people.

“Hey, baby,” Jack
leans over kissing the top of my head. “Ma just called wanting us
to have dinner with them at D.W.’s house. I told her not tonight,
but maybe next time because Karen and John are visiting, but she
wants them to join us, along with Ryder, Ella, and the kids, too.
What do you think?”

“Um … I don’t see
why not. I love your family, so they’re all going to have to meet
eventually,” I say, shrugging and getting up to see if everyone is
cool with the plans for supper. They all agree, and we head our
separate ways so we can all get ready. Mom and John are staying at
Ella’s because there’s only one room at our place and they have
tons of room since they built an extension to their house.

* * *

We make a stop at a
grocery store to pick up a few things for the barbeque, before
heading over to D.W.’s house to meet the rest of the family. That’s
what Jack calls them anyway. After he introduces everyone to his
mother, sisters, brother-in-law, nieces, D.W., his wife, Donna and
their daughters, Klaire and Tina, the women all head off to the
kitchen to help set everything up while the men ‘
man the grill
,’
as they say.

After about twenty
minutes the doorbell rings and Devon and his newest ‘girlfriend’,
Amy, walk in. Wow, she looks like a complete bitch. They all do the
whole introduction thing again, and we invite her into the kitchen
with us. She’s a beautiful girl, and she definitely knows it. She
comes in the kitchen along with her attitude and sits at the island,
watching us get everything ready.

“Hey Amy, can you
help me with the salad?” I ask, not wanting her to feel left out.

“I can’t. I might
ruin my nails. I just had them done,” she says.

Okay, definitely a
bitch. What the hell is Devon doing with her? She totally doesn’t
seem like his type. All of his other women didn’t last any longer
than a week or two, but at least they were nice. We all go about
trying to make small talk with her, but it doesn’t really seem to
work. She only speaks with one-word answers. From the little we learn
from her, she comes from money, and she doesn’t work. She doesn’t
have to, so she spends most of her time shopping and travelling.

“Steaks are done,”
someone yells from out in the yard. It makes me flinch and not in a
good way.

“Okay, tables are
ready, so everyone outside, grab a place to sit, and let’s eat,”
Donna tells everybody.

When we walk out into
the backyard, I notice three picnic tables set up with fancy
tablecloths. The trees all have tons of lanterns hanging from them,
and there’s tea-light candles lit in glass jars on the tabletops,
giving the backyard an inviting glow. Everyone grabs their food, sits
down, and digs in. As everyone is enjoying the wonderful meal, I look
around and realize how lucky I am to be brought into this family, and
also for them to accept my family at the same time. It’s beautiful.
I watch all the conversations going on, and take it all in. This is
my life.

After dinner, Mom and
Daddy-O tell us all to go out somewhere and enjoy some time together,
so we get Jack’s mom to take Gia’s kids to her place and Mom and
John take Harley and Hendrix back to Ella and Ryder’s house. Izzy,
Gia, Sofie, Kurtis, Devon, Amy, Ryder, Ella, Jack, and I all decide
to go to a quiet little sports bar so the guys can watch a game and
the girls get to chat.