Page 25 of Secret Baby for Mr. Grump

Still, it was her stormy eyes in my mind and her soft gasps resounding in my ear when I opened the door to my mother’s home later that day. I instantly found a gun pointed at my face.

“Jesus.” I ducked to the side, grabbing the gun from her hand in one fell swoop.

“What did you do that for?” my mother demanded, glaring at me.

“What didIdo that for?” I stared at her incredulously. “Are you trying to get us both killed?”

“Oh, please.” My mother rolled her eyes. “My daddy taught me to shoot. I could also hit you and unbuckle your belt if I wanted to.”

“Ma, why the hell are you holding a gun to the door?” I asked tiredly.

“To get the asshole who’s been snooping around this place.”

Immediately, alarm shot through my system. “You saw someone?”

“Well, not really saw,” she admitted. “More like heard. It was larger than a squirrel, and he was creeping around my rose bushes out in front.”

The alarm within me immediately died down.

“Not this again.” I rubbed my hands over my face.

Back in the day, strangers used to show up at our home at odd hours, either to let us know what they thought of our family or, more often than not, to yell expletives at us. One of the things my mother developed, as a result, was a distinct paranoia bordering on delusions. No one ever harmed her physically, but our house had been desecrated on more than one occasion, and the scene had been pretty traumatic for her. I couldn’t count the number of times she made me search around the whole house because she thought she heard someone open the door and come in.

Conversely, she would sometimes ask me to leave the door unlocked because she was sure my dad was coming back that day.

It was kind of sad that we’d gotten to this point. I tried to indulge her delusions as much as I could, but if she was now holding guns, it might be time to have her see somebody.

“Don’t look at me like that,” my mother snapped. “I’m not crazy. I know what I heard.”

“I’ll check it out for you,” I said, heading outside toward the rose bushes.

“Wait.” I could hear my mother wheeling behind me, but I ignored her. I knew from personal experience that she wouldn’t calm down until I made sure there were absolutely no monsters in the shadows.

The monster seemed to be everywhere else.

I thoroughly picked through the rosebushes, making sure they didn’t look disturbed. Everything looked in place, with no tracks on the half-inch of snow that covered the ground. I turned around to tell my mother, who had a concerned look on her face, “All clear.”

The stubbornness still lined her face. “I know what I heard.”

“Well, whatever you heard, it’s not here anymore,” I told her. “Come on, get inside. It’s freezing out.”

After a quiet dinner and getting my mother settled in bed, I returned to my apartment.

As I lay in bed, I finally let my mind wander back to where it craved, not that I could help it anyway. Allie filled my thoughts, and when I eventually dropped off into sleep, she came to me in my dreams.

It was more memories than dreams. It was a recollection of our first time together.

I couldn’t tell the number of times I’d had the dream, but every single instance still felt like the first.

My entire body was tense with desire, even though I tried not to show it. I’d somehow fit my large body on the couch, and I watched as Allie threw her head back in laughter one more time, slapping her knee in her exuberance. I couldn’t remember the joke, and I didn’t try. I was trying too hard not to show how fucking hard her laugh got me.

Who was I kidding?

Everything about her got me hard. The way she smiled, the way she bounced up and down in her excitement, making all her soft parts jiggle even though she didn’t know it. The innocence that shone in her eyes and the way she treated people like they mattered even when they weren’t worth shit.

I had no business making eyes at this girl. She was far too young for me, but it didn’t stop me from wanting her anyway.

And it all culminated in this one night when my body was strung tight with so much desire that I thought I would explode.

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