Chapter 38

“Those boys,” Brian remarked as we started our northward journey the next morning not long after the sun rose.

“Yeah,” I said, laughing. Just as they’d done with Liz, Lucas and Brandon had charmed the former Marine Corps corporal.

“All of them were just ... cool,” Brian said. “They didn’t make me feel like an outsider or a stranger. They just...”

“We’re a little family,” I said, shrugging.

“Matt’s mom pinched my butt,” Brian said, laughing.

“You’re lucky that’s all she pinched,” I said. “Last summer we all went to the beach on a Saturday. She wore a bikini that would have made a stripper blush.”

“She said she has no tan lines,” Brian said, shaking his head.

“You should have asked for verification,” I replied.

“I didn’t dare,” he told me. “I mean, I have friends with moms that ... good looking but none of them are so brazen about it.”

“She didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable,” I replied. “I’ll tell her to tone it down.”

“It was funny and it didn’t bother me,” Brian said. “I just didn’t want Matt to get mad at me.”

“He’s used to her,” I said. “I don’t mean to make you feel like a piece of meat but she acts that way to everybody. She torments me; she teases Chris; she even flirts with Rick and Eric. She’ll be that way when she meets Ryan and Dom, too.”

“It’s a good thing Carly is gone,” Brian said. “She would freak out about that. Uh, how was Liz?”

“She was fine,” I said. “We had told her about Marcie and she knew what to expect.”

“She can get jealous,” Brian said, glancing over at me.

“Everybody gets jealous,” I replied with a shrug. “It’s a normal human reaction.”

“She’s ... different around you than I’ve seen her before,” Brian told me. “I know that a lot of the guys she’s been seen with were for publicity. But she’s had serious dates since I’ve been around. She didn’t ... she didn’t include them in most of her life. She compartmentalized them into a tiny corner and that’s all they got of her. I ... I’d never heard her mention your name. I did the advance work. There are usually a couple of people in every city that Liz wants to give tickets to. But she didn’t say a word about you.”

“She didn’t know I lived there,” I said. “It was just luck. A guy at work ... well, he’s a total prick. Susan said something about hearing one of Liz’s songs. I made a casual comment that I had gone to school with her. He called me a liar and things went back and forth. He printed out something from her web site that said she graduated from Nashville Performing Arts High School. He knew she was signing autographs and he wanted to embarrass me, I think. It didn’t work out as he hoped.”

“Have you thanked him yet?” Brian said.

“Oh, no,” I said. “I bet him a week’s pay that Liz had started at the same high school as I did. In return, I made him wager a free punch in the face. I’m going to collect. I’ve pictured his teeth flying out of his head almost every day for the last week.”

Brian smiled and nodded. We spent the next 90 minutes just learning more about the other. I liked him. I realized that I had liked every person I’d met through Liz but one. I couldn’t even say I disliked Sean. He had done his best to defuse two tense situations. My only grudge against the guy concerned the fact he covered for his wife after she had revealed potentially damaging information about Liz to persons unknown.

Liz was still slumbering when I slipped into bed beside her. Her eyes flew open and it took her a second to figure out who was there.

“You’re back,” she said, smiling.

“Maybe you’re just having a dream,” I said with a wink. “Go back to sleep and you can tell me how it turns out.”

Liz pressed up against me and threw a leg over my waist.

“Uh-uh,” she said, shaking her head and sitting up. She pulled her T-shirt over her head and tossed it aside. “Now you.”

She tugged my T-shirt upward when I didn’t move quickly enough. I took over the chore and she resumed her spot on my chest.

“Skin to skin,” she said softly before she kissed me on the chest. “Love you.”

I ran my hand over Liz’s soft blonde hair. It didn’t take her long to return to slumber.

I had been awake for almost three hours. The boys had wanted to watch the sunrise and they made certain that we saw it, too. Rick, Brian and I had joined the boys in sleeping bags on the back deck after a long day of chasing after them. I had slept pretty hard despite the fact that I was on a wooden deck with four males instead of in a soft bed with a woman I adored.

Liz slept for another hour. I managed to doze for a few minutes but I was content just to have her in my arms. I first knew Liz had awakened when I felt her hand slide down my stomach to stroke my dick through my shorts. I decided that gave me license to slide my hand around her torso and play with her breast.

She shifted and looked up at me for a moment before moving atop me and propping her chin on her fists. I ran my hands down her back and then put my thumbs beside her spine and pressed as I brought them back upward.

“Umm,” Liz moaned and I leaned forward to kiss on the end of her nose.

“No fair, you brushed your teeth already,” she said.

I wrapped her tight and pulled her forward until our lips met.

“I missed you last night,” I told her.

“You must have,” she said. “When did you get here? Midnight?”

“It was about nine,” I said. I explained how we’d watched the sunrise with Lucas and Brandon.

“Those boys,” she said with a grin.

“We’re going to have a couple more to spoil soon,” I said.

She offered a questioning look.

“Susan and Chris are going to have a baby in a few months,” I said.

“That’s awesome!” Liz said. “I need to call her.”

“Wait a minute,” I said. “Their adoption papers also went through. They had just gotten home from the OB-GYN when the lawyer called to tell them.”

“Are they going to go ahead with it?” Liz asked.

“Yeah,” I said. “But not a baby. There is a little girl named Amber that’s in foster care. They’re adopting her. She’ll be there next weekend.”

“Baby shower!” Liz declared.

“You can’t take babies into a shower,” I said.

“You dork,” Liz laughed, sitting up and showing off her charms to me. “I can’t believe you didn’t call me yesterday to tell me!”

“I knew you were busy and I wanted to tell you in person,” I said. “I’ve heard women get horny when they hear about things like this.”

I used my hands like Pac-Man to munch toward her boobs.

She slapped them away and laughed at me.

“Well, I have 30 or 40 seconds so do your best,” she said.

“Oh, a challenge!” I said.

She giggled when I grabbed her and threw her on the bed.

“I have a concert tonight,” she said.

“What’s your point?” I asked as kissed her on the chin.

“Seriously,” Liz said. “I want to, but I like to conserve my energy for the stage. Sorry.”

I kissed her cute little nose.

“No problem,” I said. “You could just do like normal and lay there like a dead fish.”

“Oh, ouch!” Liz said, smiling again. “Guess that was payback for the 30-second jibe.”

“One of them,” I said. “That was so harsh I’ll have to spread out the retribution.”

I was between Liz’s spread legs, her ankles over top of mine and holding myself up. She lifted her pelvis a couple of times to bump against my dick. She had her hand on my butt and she pulled me closer.

“I guess I could think of England,” she remarked.

I rolled off of her before I was tempted to take her up on the offer.

“Tease,” she said.

“Me?” I said. “I race back to your bed. What do you do? You strip us both down and then fall asleep. Hey, I’m just playing with you. I’m not the least bit serious.”

Liz’s face had fallen when I made my ill-advised remarks. I rolled over until we were face to face.

“Come on,” I said. “Let’s get moving. You can call Susan while I fix your breakfast. It worked well last week so I brought the tea kettle and stuff from home and picked up some fruit at a stand near my house.”

Liz blinked.

“You’re serious!” she said.

“Hey, I take care of my girl,” I said, kissing her softly again.

“You do,” she said cuddling up to me again. I stayed there, rubbing her arms for as long as I could.

“This is killing my arm,” I said, rolling to my back again.

“Sleeping outside didn’t do it any favors either,” Liz said, kissing my shoulder.

“True,” I said. “Plus, the water yesterday. The boys wore my ass out ... not mention Brian’s ass and Rick’s ass and Sarah’s ass and Susan’s ass.”

“It’s pretty unkind to mention other women’s asses when you’re in bed with your girlfriend,” Liz noted.

“Wait until you see the suit Susan wore yesterday,” I said. “She usually wears more clothes to the beach than you do. Yesterday she shows up in this tiny red thing that barely covered her butt crack. She said that mothers didn’t dress in bikinis unless they were ... uh, total whores, that’s what she said. Unless they were total whores like Sarah.”

Liz sat up again and stared down at me.

“Seriously?” she asked.

“She was joking,” I said. “Honestly, I think they got together and decided if they got sexed up no one would give me a second glance. They were right. No one even paid a second of attention to me until we were in the parking lot on the way home.”

“Huh,” Liz said. I remembered Brian’s comments about her jealousy.

“You’re not worried that I’m ... messing around with Sarah or Susan?” I asked.

“No,” Liz said. “I was just thinking that the next time we go to the beach, I’ll see if Stephanie will wear a thong. That should give me anonymity. If not, I’m sure I can get Jill to help. I figure she would go topless all the time if I’d let her.”

“Why would you discourage that?” I asked. It got me a nudge in the ribs.

“Let me guess,” Liz said. “She has cute tits. That seems to be your answer to everything.”

“She does,” I replied. “But not as cute as yours. You seem to leave out that part of my replies. You have the cutest ... everything ... right down those adorable little piggies.”

“Uh-huh,” Liz said. The smile on her face was in contrast to the dubiousness in her voice.