Page 90 of Surrender
“I’m fine.”
“He was just trying to get a rise out of you.”
“He succeeded. If he’s smart, he won’t try it again.”
She nodded at him, and Dallis had fully expected her to tell him he shouldn’t be fighting and that he didn’t need to for her, but he assumed the conversation they’d had after he’d gotten into it with Porter stuck with her. While Max hadn’t put his hands on her, he wasn’t about to let him spew bullshit and disrespect his girlfriend either.
Colbie pulled in behind her car when they made it to her house. Once inside, she instructed him to take a seat while she went and got the first-aid kit. Dallis looked down at his hands and found a few scratches on his knuckles, and his jaw hurt enough for him to know it would bruise and swell a little.
Colbie came back with the kit and sat in front of him. She cleaned his knuckles first, putting some disinfectant on them. She tended a cut on his right eyebrow, and he winced, not having felt the injury before then. A small bandage was placed on it before she closed the kit and went to the kitchen. She returned a couple of minutes later with an icepack, placed it against his jaw, and set down a glass of water and a bottle of Aleve.
“Thank you, baby,” he stated, holding the pack to his jaw.
“You don’t have to thank me.” She picked up the first-aid kit. “I’m going to put this up and get in the shower. Make sure you take two of those,” she concluded, pointing to the pill bottle before leaving the living room.
Dallis sat there for several minutes, holding the ice to his face before placing it aside and taking the medication. He took the glass and the icepack back into the kitchen, putting the latter into the freezer and washing the former. He turned off the light over the sink that he’d noticed Colbie always left on if she would be coming home after dark before turning off the living room light he’d turned on when they entered.
As he made his way down the hall, he thought about the day. Even though their first date in town had ended with him getting into an altercation with Max, he would call it a success. They’d enjoyed everything until then, and there was something different about taking her out where they lived and having to take her where no one would see them. They weren’t hiding anymore, and Dallis couldn’t have been happier about that fact if he had tried.
He grabbed a pair of the boxers he’d left there, deciding to shower in the guest bathroom before joining her in bed and calling it a night.
29
Colbie double-checked that she’d gotten everything from the store. It was the weekend of the cookout with her family, and she was a bit nervous, but she figured now that their relationship had changed from having to keep it to themselves, she could introduce Dallis to the rest of her family. His parents had even agreed to come for moral support, and Dylan volunteered to do the grilling, which was fine by Colbie because she always became way too hot when she did it.
Dylan and Joyce arrived an hour and a half early to help get everything started and the tables set up in the backyard. It wasn’t going to be a big event. Just their families since her mother, father, sister, and niece would be meeting her boyfriend for the first time, and she was sure her mother would have something to say about it.
Colbie almost hadn’t invited her mother. They hadn’t spoken much after the last conversation where Colbie had essentially told her that she would live her life the way she wanted to, and her mother could accept it or not be a part of it. However, she’d ultimately invited her to show that she was in a relationship and happy—sort of the icing on the cake to the conversation.
Once she was sure she’d gotten everything. Dallis and Dylan went about seasoning the meat for the grill while she and Joyce began to shuck the corn she’d bought to also go on the grill. Joyce bumped her lightly with her hip when they were alone in the kitchen.
“You seem nervous.”
Colbie nodded at her. There was no reason to lie. “I am a bit. I’m banking on someone having something to say about my relationship, and I just don’t want to hear it.”
Joyce nodded. “I see. You know, in today’s society, people tend to lack the ability to mind their own business. Regardless of who they are, they feel the need to comment on what someone else is doing. Do you know what I’ve found helps with that?”
“What’s that?”
“Not giving a fuck about what they say and then spouting off my unsolicited opinions of them. They don’t seem to like it,” she finished with a smirk.
Colbie found herself laughing because she was aware that no one welcomed unsolicited opinions of themselves. But she hadn’t thought to use it as a weapon, a defense. She would remember it in case she needed it later.
Once the two finished shucking the corn, they buttered and seasoned it before wrapping it in foil. Colbie placed it to the side until there was room on the grill to add it. She then washed her hands and started slicing fruit for the fruit tray she had planned while Joyce started boiling some eggs.
As they moved around the kitchen, they started a conversation about several different things, and Colbie questioned if Joyce knew where Dallis was planning on taking her for her birthday. He wouldn’t tell her, and since he said they were driving, she wouldn’t be able to rely on the airport signs. She knew she could use the road signs, but it would only narrow it down until they got there. Joyce hadn’t known since Dallis hadn’t told her. Both women figured it was because he knew Colbie might ask her, and he knew his mother would tell her.
There was a knock on Colbie’s front door thirty minutes before she set the time for the gathering to start, and she knew it was Drew. Her brother was always early to things. She also knew that since he was working nearby, it hadn’t taken him long to get there.
Opening the door, she was proven correct as Drew smiled at her, a brown paper bag in one arm and a case of beer in his hand. Colbie stepped aside, allowing him to enter as they greeted one another. Drew made his way into the kitchen, and Colbie conducted introductions as her brother placed the bag on the countertop. He and Joyce shook hands before he opened her refrigerator and tried to find room inside for the beer. She had a cooler somewhere, but they’d need to get some ice.
Colbie told Drew as much, and he volunteered to go to the store and grab a few bags. Since it was only a five-minute drive, he wouldn’t be gone too long. He made his way out the door, and Colbie went to her hall closet to get the cooler. She was bent over as she removed things from on top of it, when she felt hands on her waist.
“What are you doing, baby?” Dallis questioned.
“I’m getting this cooler out.”
He tapped her waist. “Here, let me get it.”
