Page 50 of Needing More
The porch creaked behind her, and Vic, who was off to the side sitting on an upside down crate as a stool, working on some sort of greasy engine part, nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I can't think of a bigger boner killer than that fucked up scenario."
Sapphire gave them an innocent shrug. "Okay, so no role play in the future, understood."
"Whoa now, hold up. Let's not get too hasty." Joel looked alarmed and held out a beseeching hand. "I never said that, baby. How about we-"
Joel's phone began to ring and cut him off.
"Sonofa..." he hissed under his breath, before turning angrily away and answering the phone. "Yes, Miss Ellie?"
Sapphire bit her lip at his strained patience as he spoke to the seventy-year-old woman. Throwing back his head in silent torture, he listened to the needy woman's diatribe.
As Joel leaned against the railing, occasionally getting in a few words here and there with the talkative older woman, Hayden hung up his call and looked at her.
"I'll be back later this afternoon. You sure you don't want me to drop you off at the café on the way out?"
Sapphire rolled her lips inward, suppressing a smile. After finding three big spiders in a row, it was unanimously decided they would bug bomb the upstairs floor of the café that day while the guys were out and she would stay at Vic's.
"I'll be fine," she promised.
Still looking unconvinced, Hayden turned to Vic to scowl. Vic stood up and held up his black smeared hands in surrender.
"Okay, okay, I'm hurrying," he mumbled and grabbed a cloth hanging off the banister and wiped his hands. Checking his own phone, he looked at it before looking at her. "All right, angel. I'm heading out too. I'm going to pick up a few things at Judge's and then hit the mechanic. Remember," the smile in his eyes dissipated, turning his dark gaze serious, "the nurse will be here in about forty-five minutes and after that, the bastard should be fine. The nurse will serve him food and give him medicine so no matter what you hear after that, just ignore him or call me. Understand?"
This was the second time he told her all of this, but she kept in her heavy sigh and nodded with a smile.
One by one each man got on their bike: Joel's purple and chrome bike, Hayden's black one, and Vic's midnight blue bike. Like waves of thunder, the bikes started and she watched each one take off down the long drive until they were out of sight.
Turning around, she walked back into the house. Krrsantan greeted her at the door. The big, black and brown dog walked over to her and nuzzled his head into her thigh. Going to the kitchen table where her bag was, Sapphire sat on the opposite end from where Vic had all of his papers neatly arranged. Setting up her laptop and her notebook, she scrolled through the short list of assignments she had to do. Having selected a business major, all of her classes thus far were really just more of high school: biology, math, government, and English literature.
Opening up her notebook, she stopped at the stack of cards sticking between the pages. Sapphire leaned back in her seat and smiled. They were paint samples she had picked up. Forgetting about her homework, she went to the kitchen and rooted around in a drawer until she found the tape. Walking back to the dining room, she stopped at a wall and held up the cards in a fan. They all ranged from variations of cream, antique white, and taupe.
Taping each card to the wall, she stepped back with a smile. With a new coat of paint and a fresh perspective, this place could be something so much more. Something really beautiful.
A thump sounded from upstairs and the warm feeling within her froze. Standing very still, Sapphire turned and looked through the open doorway that led to the foyer where she could see the stairs. For what felt like minutes, but was only really a few tense seconds, both her and Krrsantan waited and listened. Again the heavy thumps from upstairs sounded and a weak shout echoed from above.
The angry words were mostly in Spanish but Sapphire could make out Vic's name.
Alarmed now, she looked at her phone. It had only been twenty-plus minutes since the guys left and it would be another twenty-five before the hospice came.
What if he was hungry or thirsty? No, that couldn't be. Earlier when they first arrived she had seen Vic carry a tray of food and a big cup of ice water upstairs. From what Vic had told her in the past, his father's room had everything he needed: a hospital-grade bed, a portable toilet, a TV, and a mini fridge. No, there was nothing she could do. All she could do was what Vic had instructed.
The thumping started again.
Looking at Krrsantan's sweet face she smiled. "What if you and I go outside and do my homework instead?"
Gathering all her things and a glass of water, she went through the back door and turned left on the porch. On the far corner of the porch was a built-in gazebo-like structure that she could tell used to be screened in and even had old rust marks where the hinges to a door went. Now it was just a rundown skeleton of its old self but Sapphire could still see its potential. If it was painted, the screening repaired, and the door replaced, the private little gazebo could be beautiful once again.
Outside, time drifted lazily by. Only getting up to greet and eventually wave bye to the hospice, Sapphire sat there on the wooden bench and enjoyed the breeze while Krrsantan napped at her feet. Sapphire only looked up when Krrsantan suddenly jerked awake and looked happily beyond her. Turning in her seat, Sapphire stilled at the familiar figure standing on the porch.
She could see from the way he held himself, like a spring coiled too tight, that the amiable attitude he had earlier was gone.
Black eyes clashed with hers and Sapphire bit her lip. Instantly heat pooled between her thighs and her breasts felt heavy even as the guilt began to weigh on her like bricks.
"Vic, no," she whispered, standing shakily up from the wooden bench and edging toward the gazebo's open entrance.
Vic didn't move a muscle. Only the soft, cool breeze ruffled his midnight hair around his hard and unyielding face.
"Joel and Hayden trust you," she tried to reason. "We can't do this."
