Unsocial (63 page)

While we’re sitting around the table, I tell all of them what to
expect as well as assure them they have nothing to worry about.  After the
dishes are done, I end up hanging around longer than normal. Sitting around we
make a few plans for Saturday, but none of them come close to what Dylan and I
have planned. It makes me happy to see Luke in a much better mood and the much
easier going attitude with Dylan. I think their talk the other night went a
long way in resolving the deeper issues that had gone ignored too long.

I wanted some alone time with Dylan and invited him over to my
apartment since Alex already knows about our relationship, but he wasn't sure
if he should be out all night, especially with the kids not knowing where he
is. So a few hours later I sneak into his room for the last time.

Dylan chuckles at me again as I try to stifle a loud moan whenever
he thrusts up while I slide up and down in a slow rhythm.  He’s hitting that
spot every time; it’s about to drive me crazy. "You know we could be loud
and just let them catch us now."

My breath hitches sharply when he adds pressure to my clit to rush
my orgasm.  It’s his thing; he loves to make sure I come at least once before
he finishes. Now how can a woman not love a man who takes care of her like
that? I smile down at him. "No, that would traumatize the hell out of
them."

He laughs and sits up bring us chest to chest causing his cock to
go deeper in a different angle.  I’m so close that stars are making an early
appearance in my vision. His hands are on my waist speeding up our rhythm with
shallow thrusts. Face to face and sharing our breaths, this is one of our
favorite positions. Making love like this seems so intimate. I snake my fingers
through the hair on each side of his head and guide his lips to mine for deep
kisses. Our tongues are dancing to the same rhythm of our hips. He pulls back
from my mouth and locks his gaze to mine. “I love you, Brooke,” he whispers
harshly.

“I love you, so much,” then slam my lips back to his to finish out
the race to a powerful release. He slows the grind of our hips so I can savor
my orgasm before rolling me under him. I can feel him getting thicker and
harder inside, and I know he’s near his end as well.  Sliding my nails down his
spine to his waist always speeds things along since he likes the slight bite of
pain it gives when it mixes with the pleasure he’s experiencing. A few more strokes
and he buries his face in my neck releasing a long low groan muffled against my
damp skin.

He allows himself to rest on top of me for a moment before rolling
to my side and pulling me against him.  I plant kisses along his neck and jaw
and savor the closeness after making love to him, "Can you believe how
lucky we are. It was only a few days ago that everything felt like it was
falling apart."

He holds my hand as we both look up at the ceiling, "I know,
but I'm fucking happier than I've ever been."

"Me too."

Wednesday I make the most important phone call out of any for the
whole week. He answers on the second ring, “Hello?”

“Luke, it's Brooke.”

“What’s up?”

“Are you okay with everything tomorrow?”

“I’m fine with it.  Don’t worry about me. I promise to do what you
ask.  I’ll be honest about the fight, and I’ll even apologize and sound sincere
about it.  We’ve come this far, so let’s finish it.”

“Thanks. I’ll see you guys tomorrow in front of the courthouse.”

“Bye, Brooke.”

When I hang up, I feel confident that Luke it come through for us.

Thursday goes better than expected.  Janice and I are called in
first, and both of us praise Dylan on how good of a job he’s done adapting his
life to becoming a sound guardian for his family.  Neither of us voices any concerns
about the issues the judge tries to point out from their file.  Afterward, each
of the children is called in one by one, and when they all step out with smiles
on their faces, I breathe a sigh of relief. When Dylan goes in for his meeting,
I send a silent prayer that the judge isn’t an ass, and when the two men emerge
from his chambers together with friendly smiles and shake hands, I can barely
stay seated from the happiness that’s coursing through me. When the final
papers are signed, Dylan thanks Janice and rushes the kids to the parking lot
where they wait for me.  That’s when Dylan tells me that the celebration begins
at noon.

We actually did it.

Saturday’s celebration is a boisterous backyard barbecue. The
whole afternoon is taken up with playing catch with the football, chasing Toby,
and cooking up a mountain of food. Turns out the time was moved up because
Dylan decided to allow Luke to go to his junior prom that evening.  He was
supposed to have a date, but that changed with his grounding. Now he’s planning
on going stag with a group of football players, and he seems happier about that
than having to escort someone. Around five Alex then Jax show and join in the
fun.

After a final game of tug of war with Toby and a ball on a rope, I
head to the deck where Dylan is manning his huge grill. And if manning a grill
can be considered sexy then he hits all the marks.  I lick my lips at the site
of his muscles flexing whenever he lifts the lid and flips burgers. I can’t
resist walking by a little too close to feel the slide of my breasts against
his back. He turns and wraps an arm around my waist and pulls me closer. It
feels so right and so natural to be able to touch him like this.  He whispers
in my ear, "You look so beautiful."

Jax laughs when he catches us embracing, "So I guess today
you two are coming out of the closet, or bedroom?"

I know that Dylan and Jax had a long talk about us, and afterward
he ended up being pretty cool about all of it.  He said Jax was pretty shocked
after Dylan told him that he was in love with me, but said and I quote, “She’s
a pretty fucking awesome chick.” He said Jax told him he could understand why
he fell for me. It makes me happy that Jackson approves of us because I know
how important he is to Dylan.

I move out of Dylan’s arms and start preparing the sides for the
hamburgers and hot dogs and answer Jax, "Yes, I think they deserve to know
now that I'm not their social worker."

Jax nods, "I'm sure they will be happy about it. God knows
they talk about you all the fucking time. The weekend I watched them while
Dylan went to Missouri, it was Brooke this and Brooke that.”

Dylan and I smile at each other because Jax obviously doesn’t know
that we were together the weekend he’s talking about. “Yeah, about that
weekend, thanks for watching the kids for Dylan. The cabin is now my new
favorite place on earth.”

He huffs out a surprised laugh, “Are you two fucking kidding?”

“Nope,” I smile at him. I turn back, and he's grinning back at me.
“And by the way, I love them too.”

“Well, now aren’t we just one big ole happy family,” he laughs.

I don’t miss the secret little grin on Dylan’s face while he
finishes pulling the food off and calling the kids to the table which is
immediately bombarded with small hands and large hands grabbing for food. After
everyone has a full plate, the Monroe dinner table is full of laughing and
joking.

Alex and Cassie have been glued to each other all afternoon, even
managing to get some hair done courtesy of Alex going on.  Jax and Dylan just
groaned and shook their heads when Cassie drug a stool and all of her hair
product out to the deck for an impromptu beauty shop show complete with
fingernail and toenail polishing.  For once I wasn’t Alex’s beauty target, and
Cassie ate up the attention.

At the table, Dylan and I are sitting thigh to thigh, and he’s
reaching over and pulling chips off my plate.  Finally, Luke lets the cat out
of the bag when Dylan leans into me and kisses my shoulder. “Oh, my God, please
tell me you two aren’t going to be like this all the time.”

Four curious sets of eyes pop up and look around.  Jax and Alex
laugh around their mouth full of food at the guilty look on mine and Dylan’s
faces.

Dylan lays his burger down and picks up my hand. “So, I’m…uh…I’m
guessing you guys wanna know what big mouth is talking about?”

Is he really nervous?

Luke just shakes his head and laughs at his brother for acting all
flustered, “Oh hell, just tell them.”

 Michael asks, "Tell us what?"

Dylan squares his shoulder and looks over at me and winks.
"Brooke and I are dating."

Well,
that's good, just rip
off the band-aid
. Very Dylan. Cassie
looks cautiously over at me and then Dylan, "Dating?"

He nods, "Yes, we've been dating for a few months."

Cassie’s face goes from excited to upset all at the same time,
"Why didn't you tell us?"

I interject, "We wanted to, believe me, it was awful keeping
it from you, but it could have affected your case if anyone at my office found
out."

"And Brooke could have lost her job," Alex adds.

Cassie looks more hurt by this, "You think we would have told
someone about you guys?"

I shake my head, "No, of course not. But it was hard enough
for us to keep the secret, we couldn’t have asked you guys to do that for us.
It wouldn't have been fair."

She thinks about that then nods like she understands. After that,
her pretty young face gets all hopeful and dreamy with a side of excitement.
"So you’ll be here like all the time now.”

I laugh, "I still have a job, and you know that it keeps me
busy, but yes, I’ll be here a lot. Well, if it’s okay with all of you.” I
figure I better not be too presumptuous.

Cassie nods excitedly and Gabby exclaims, "Yay, we can play a
lot more because I never get enough time like Luke and Cassie when they do
something bad."

Dylan and I laugh at that oh, so, very true statement.

Jax taps my leg with his foot from where he’s sitting across the
table, “I told ya they would be happy."

Dylan leans in, and we give into our first show of PDA in front of
the kids.

“Oh, no, Luke. You’re right, this is going to get gross fast.”
Michael groans followed by fake gagging.

Cassie shuts him up, “I think it's sweet.” she says dreamily.

“Of course, you do,” Michael returns sarcastically.

After some more teasing banter back and forth we begin talking
about summer plans. Dylan goes in the house to take a call leaving Jax and me
at the table watching Alex learn all of Toby’s tricks with the kids out on the
lawn.  “You know I always knew he would find someone.”

I look at him stunned, “What?”

“Dylan and I are different because he, at least, knows a little
bit about the love of a good woman from living with his stepmother, and I
always knew he missed that closeness he had with her and the kids, no matter
what his relationship was like with his father. I never knew anything like that
because my gramps raised me. I only know how to be a bachelor.  All this shit
here is a novelty for me. But I think Dylan missed this but was too hurt by
what went down a few years ago. He was in a bad place for a long time after
that. All the women through the years were insulation around his heart, so he
wasn’t ever that vulnerable again. Then you blew in and somehow made him feel
safe enough to take a chance, one that he deserves.”

This deep, insightful side of Jackson is a revelation in more ways
than one.

“He means everything to me, Jax. And I love the kids too.”

He grins like I really didn’t need to say that to him. “I’ve seen
how much you’ve done for them, and it’s pretty damn amazing. You’re good for
all of them, but especially Dylan.”

I know Jackson well enough now to know that this isn’t a
comfortable conversation for him, but it was obviously important for him to get
off his chest, and I think it was his way of giving us his blessing.  “Thank
you, Jackson,”

He grunts, “And I want to tell you right now, Ms. Social Worker,
you owe me big time for stealing my wingman.”

An idea for a new mission comes to mind. “I’ve got your back,
Jax.”

With that he joins the group and then after helping clean up, Luke
disappears to get ready for prom.  When he comes out, he stops in front of me
and points toward the bow tie of his tux. I reach up, undo the knot, and drape
the ends on each side of his neck. After I pop the first two buttons on his
shirt, I smooth down his lapel and smile. “There, stand out and make a
statement.”

Alex walks up beside me and reaches her hands to Luke’s hair and
gives it several well-placed swipes and brushes finally achieving a perfectly
sexy tousled look.  “And there you go.  Perfect look for the hot high school
male going to the prom.” She turns to me and says excitedly, “We should totally
have him pose right now and get some pictures.”

Slumping back on a lounger, Cassie’s rolls her eyes, “Fantastic,
Monday I’m gonna get to hear, “Cassie, your brother is so hot.”
“Did you see Luke Monroe at the prom, oh, my God?”  Please.”

I smile,
just one big ole happy family.