Page 99 of Just Enough

Dad looked down at her. “Oh yeah. He knows that I ran my wife into the arms of a woman with my drunkenness.”

He managed to pull another shocked expression from Faith before walking off. Mom laughed rather normally for her own dirty laundry to be brought to light. “You’re getting in on all our family drama,” Mom chirped like it was no big deal.

I felt a slight twitch in my eye. “Every family has it,” Faith said good-naturedly. She caught me smiling at her and returned it. Yeah, we had developed our relationship even further this past week with all the planning we had been doing. It was beautiful which made me feel silly that I worried about this. I could have told her sooner, but maybe she already knew. Then again, she had been too caught off-guard when she had seen Sarah, so Benjamin most likely never brought it up.

At the thought of him, my stomach blazed with heat and anticipation tingled my skin for someone that wasn’t even around me.

I was in the kitchen grabbing things to take outside when he found me. “There you are,” he murmured with affection as he moved up behind me and kissed my neck. I tilted my head to give him better access. “You like that, do ya?” He constantly asked me what I liked when I truly had no clue about the things I liked until he came along and showed my body what it had been missing.

“All right. Don’t forget we’re in the kitchen.” Mom laughed at Sarah’s declaration.

“Sorry, Sarah,” Benjamin said while squeezing me into his chest. I grabbed the tomato in front of me and started cutting it. “I can’t help myself.”

No kidding. My body buzzed with awareness. We used our bodies so much that I had a soreness between my legs that didn’t care if I needed a break when Benjamin was giving it orgasm after orgasm. Until it was over, and I had to walk around all day with the reminder of how thorough Benjamin loved me.

I was beginning to wonder if he could ever be sated for longer than an hour at a time… I hoped the answer to that would be never.

Once I finished cutting up the tomato, I tilted my head and gave him a kiss. I handed him the paper plate. “Will you carry the tomatoes and things out while I put the drinks in the cooler outside?”

“I’ll get the drinks,” he said. “You take the small stuff.”

“I already have the drinks,” Mom said, walking outside. “Come outside with us, Benjamin. We don’t know anyone. You gotta help us break the ice.”

He laughed. “You’re gonna be fine, guys. Mom acts vicious, but she’s a giant teddy to those that she loves.”

“Yeah, well, we aren’t on the love list,” Mom grunted.

“Not yet, but you birthed someone that’s making her way on that list.” I looked back to see him pointing his finger down at my head.

I smiled. “Give it time. She’s gonna love me more than you.” I stated boldly, enjoying the idea of his mom’s affection. I had grown to like Faith, and I couldn’t wait to become closer to her. He was right. She could be cold-hearted, but she was also very loyal and loving to those she cared about.

I wanted to be on that list one day.

Mom and Sarah gave him a smile before carrying the sodas and water outside. He squeezed my butt the moment they left the kitchen. “Do you have any idea how great your ass looks in that tight flowery dress?” he asked me.

“It is a bit snug,” I mumbled with a grin. “Your mom said it looked great on me though.”

“You look like I’d rather be alone with you than at this party with a bunch of single ladies,” he said, turning me around to face him. I wrapped my arms around him. “Don’t get freaked out, but I think maybe my mom is up to something, and it involves hooking your dad up with one of these widows or divorcées.”

He placed his arm around my shoulders as I grabbed two plates while he still held the one with tomatoes. We started walking toward the back door. “Leave her be.”

“You sound like you’re aware of what she’s up to,” he stated, looking down at me as we stepped out on the patio.

I shrugged my shoulders and slid his arm off my shoulders as I placed the plates on the table Faith had outside. I did know what his mom was up to. She told me she’d set Dad up without him knowing. As I looked around her backyard at all these women at her husband’s birthday party—which was supposed to be a family get-together of a few friends and family—she might have gone overboard a bit.

One of the women had already made her way over toward Dad and Ben talking and was smiling and eyeing Dad like he was a fresh piece of meat. I smiled and looked the other way… Hmm, Faith was bound to rub off on me so I might as well start now.

Sorry, Dad, this was for your own good…and mine as well.

I had been sneaky with Faith the last few days, and Benjamin had no idea what I was about to hit him with.

That hot August day spent celebrating Ben’s forty-fourth birthday quickly turned to evening as my mom and Sarah sat around with Faith and a few other ladies and actually got to know each other. I wished Ben a happy birthday but otherwise Benjamin and I kept to ourselves still too wrapped up in each other to really enjoy anything else, not that I minded.

Dad naturally talked to women at ease, and I saw in person how charming he could be. I searched for Mom, wanting to ask if this was what Dad was like before he turned to drinking, but when I caught her smiling at him, I kind of figured it out on my own. He was always going to be a bit damaged, but now I had a feeling he was truly okay. Someone would love him despite all his flaws just like I did. It was never too late to start over. My relationship with him was proof of that.

I understood why Mom left him, truly I did. Sarah was a good person, but I kind of felt sorry for my mom that day. She had wanted the man that was here with us today, but now life turned the tables and gave them something different. She was happy. I took in the way she leaned into Sarah’s shoulder and how Sarah picked up her left hand and kissed the ring on Mom’s finger. Faith watched too with a soft smile as she found her Ben and brought a kiss to his cheek, the most affectionate I had ever seen the two of them, but I had never seen them interact a lot so maybe they still had fire after all these years… Then there was my dad who I sniggered at as one of the women winked and slipped something in his front pocket. I thought something similar had happened earlier with a different woman. Our eyes met, and a knowing grin was shared between us before he slipped in next to Ben and Faith, obviously ruffling her feathers with the way she was visibly huffing at him from this distance.

My dysfunctional family was going to be okay, and I kind of loved us a lot more that day. From the outside looking in, maybe we looked pretty damn cool.

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