Page 10 of Desire

“Honey, I’m here,” I softly call when I see her with her back to me. She turns and I’m hit with her blinding smile before she drops to her knees.

“Who are these cuties?” she asks, opening her arms. Both dogs tug away from me and waddle run into her body, causing her to drop on her ass, her giggles filling the room. “Oh, you two are just precious. Sebastian, what made you think of getting dogs?”

“I remember you saying you guys had them growing up and you missed having one,” I state, crouching down so I can lean in and kiss her. “Then I passed the shelter and went inside to see what they had. These two are fully vetted already, fixed, and ready to live the rest of their lives with us.”

“Us?” she whispers. I see the hope in her eyes; I know I’ve not been quiet about my intentions, but I suspect she’s afraid to believe it because of how long it took us to get to this point.

“Us,” I confirm. “This one is Fred and that one is Barney,” I say, pointing to the one who’s a bit lighter first, then the other who has a spot of black on the tip of an ear.

Once again, she starts to giggle when I say their names. “And who does that make you?” she teases.

“Your man,” I whisper before I capture her lips in mine for what starts as a simple kiss but quickly heats.

“Mmm, good answer,” she says, her voice now husky and low.

“How much longer are you going to practice?” I ask. “Because I thought we could take these two to the house then do some more shopping.”

“I think we’re just about done for the day. I know my fingers are sore.” She flexes her hands in a way that tells me she’s been playing constantly.

“Jussie, are you in pain?” I question. She’s never really said anything to the others, but I’ve seen her icing her hands and forearms down in the past and know she’s had orthopedic consults. Of course, my woman is stubborn as fuck and hasn’t gone back since they said the dreaded ‘s’ word to her. She’s convinced that having surgical repair won’t work, even though we both know people who’ve had it done and say they wished they hadn’t waited so long.

“I’ll be fine, Sebastian. It’s nothing.”

“It’s not ‘nothing’, Jussie, not if you’re in pain. Remember what the orthopedist said? It was only going to get worse until you broke down and had surgery.”

“I don’t want surgery, Sebastian. It would put me out of commission. Not only that, but what if I have one arm done and then get scared to have the other one done?”

“Sweetheart, you can have both of them done at the same time. You know I’ll take care of you.” Granted, it might be a bit of a challenge, but I’m game.

“Um, just saying, but we haven’t even had sex so there’s no fucking way you’re going to handle the more intimate things I will have a hard time with, thank you very much,” she hisses. “Now, let’s table this and go eat because it’s not up for discussion.”

“What’s not up for discussion, Justine?” Rayne inquires. I have no clue how long he’s been standing there because I’ve been focused on her, but judging by the tone in his voice, it’s been a bit. “The fact that you’ve got a repetitive motion injury on both arms and the doctor feels surgery is your best option? That you think you’ve hidden it from me? Newsflash, sister dear, I’m not stupid and seeing as I get all the damn reports and bills, I’ve known for quite some time. It’s another reason I want to slow down some. Because you need it done.”

She screeches at his words. “Isn’t that a violation of something? I can’t believe you’ve known and haven’t said anything, Rayne,” she huffs out.

“Sweetheart, it’s not a violation if he’s the one who was the overseer of shit,” I reply, throwing him a bone. “Now, let’s go eat and we’ll discuss it further. If you don’t want me taking care of you, then we’ll think of something else, okay?”

She grumbles something under her breath that I can’t hear before she shoulder checks Rayne on her way out to eat. “You’ll make sure she doesn’t drag her feet on this, right?” he asks me.

Nodding, I reply, “I’ll see who in this area is the best at what she needs. She’s so damn stubborn we’ll probably have to knock her out in order to get her there for the surgery.” Rayne’s chuckles follow me back out into the main room where the others are eating. I grab my box and sit next to Justine who is glaring so hard at her brother it’s surprising that he hasn’t exploded in a cloud of ash. I lean in and whisper, “Settle, Jussie. You’re going to get it done and that’s that. Now, eat because we need to take these two home and get them settled.” I’ve decided that we’ll shop for bedroom furniture online; I have an idea of what we both like and know she’s not going to want to leave the dogs. Of course, the two of them are hamming it up for everybody, their sad faces making it hard not to toss them any food.

Justine

Right now,my emotions are all over the damn place. I can’t believe that Sebastian and Rayne are ganging up on me with regard to the carpal tunnel I’ve developed due to years playing. Yes, I cry when I’m alone because the pain is so bad. Yes, sometimes the throbbing is so intense I want to claw my eyes out. But the thought of surgery scares the absolute shit out of me! What if I don’t wake up? What if the doctor fucks something up and I end up perpetually flipping people off? Intellectually, I know that it likely won’t happen, but my imagination has run wild ever since I saw an orthopedist. Now knowing that Rayne is aware of what I was hiding, I realize that the only one holding me back is me.

A wet nose nudges my bare leg and I glance down to see Fred giving me a woeful look. “Sorry, sweet boy, no human food for you two,” I say. I watch guilty expressions cross my brother’s as well as my two sisters’ faces and groan. “You guys know human food isn’t good for pets. Was I the only one who paid attention to our parents growing up?” I tease.

“We only gave them the carrots,” Sibley states. “Those are okay, we used to give them to our dogs, remember?”

“That’s true, but today may be stressful for them and I don’t want their tummies upset.”

“Wait until Hadley meets them,” Rayne mutters. “She’s going to want her own.”

“Well, they’ve got plenty at the shelter if you decide to get the princess her own pet,” Sebastian says.

“I’ll run that by her mom first,” he advises.

“Wise man,” Billie taunts. “Guessing big brother doesn’t want to sleep either on the couch or out in his truck.” We all burst into laughter at her words. While they’ve got a great relationship, with all of us growing up with one another, we know that when Jacey gets her back up, she won’t back down.

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