Page 77 of Peaches

I love thatCasanova, Romeo, Don Juan, Too damn Good To Be True, panty dropping, heart stopping, thigh clenching man so damn much it hurts as the realization explodes in my chest.

I fucking love him, and it thrills me but scares the shit out of me at the same time. I thought I’ve been in love before, but this is all consuming. I’ve never feltthisway before - ever. It’s like, if he would leave me, I’d never be able to breathe again. That’s the scariest part. But judging by the way he was staring at me across the table a few minutes ago, and the way he’s protecting not only me but my family now, I’d say the feelinghasto be mutual.

“This your work, Trudy?” My father grunts, as he holds his neck and still attempts to suck in air. “Always knew you’d eventually pull some trick.”

Brett takes another step forward, challenging my father, but my mother calls out his name and succeeds in stopping him.

“What do you want, Charles?” she asks a second later as she takes a step forward and my brother starts to babble louder.

Brett stands unmoving, a wall between us, and I give my heart to him a little more watching as he never backs down and claims what’s his selfishly. And God, it’s breathtaking and so damn sexy as fuck to watch. Cue those clenching thighs. Impending danger and Brettly Beckett are quickly proving to be an almost deadly combination for my libido and heart. In a good way. A center dampening, butterflies in the stomach, mouthwatering good way as I hand my heart over to him even more than I thought possible.

“Came for what’s owed to me, the duty of a wife!” My father yells breaking me from my thoughts.

I flinch at his words, worried for their meaning, although I sense I already know what’s behind them without him, or my mother, having to explain any further.

“Mom?” I ask in whisper, as she glances my way and Archie breaks out of my arms, his words are coming quicker and louder than before as he rocks back and forth beside me.

She shakes her head and looks back my father’s way. “No, Charles. I told you. It won’t happen again.”

“To hell it won’t!”

A loud snapping noise rings through the space followed by my brother’s yell as Brett’s fist collides with my father’s face. My mother and I gasp as my father clutches his nose, and blood quickly fills his hand. Brett takes a step forward and pushes him up against the wall, bracing his forearm against his chest.

“Fuck you, city boy!” My father shouts. “That bitch signed acontractto do as I fucking pleased when she married me!”

I brace myself for another blow, but it doesn’t come as Brett pulls him off the wall and shoves him towards the front door, never taking his grip off him in the process. Archie’s voice has grown louder as he paces in the small square we are standing in, but I’ve tuned it out as I watch Brett force my father towards the front door and hopefully out of our lives.

“Will you shut that retard up!” My father yells.

The next blow to his face happens so fast I almost miss it.Almost! As I watch him stumble backward and fall to his feet before quickly being pulled up again by the collar of his shirt.

“The only stupid mother fucker here is you!” Brett shouts, backing my father once more up against a wall. “You leave,” he demands through gritted teeth. “Now! And never come back. Or so help me, this ‘city boy’ will find one fucked up way to make sure you’re never found again. Got that, asshole! Or do you need me to spell it out, maybe slow it down for you!”

He pushes him down the hallway and out of sight as I turn to my mother who is quickly trying to talk Archie down from hysteria. I hear muffled words in the front of the house, followed by the slamming of the door. But when Brett doesn’t come back right away and I hear wrestling in the front yard that sounds a lot like a full out brawl, my heart rate speeds up as I turn to my mother and ask a question that is entirely unavoidable.

“What did he mean?” I demand, as my mother finally succeeds in hushing Archie. “What the fuck did he mean, Mom?”

My brother begins to get erratic again at my tone of voice and my mother quickly hushes both of us, although I’m the one that is met with a glare over her shoulder at causing his outburst to continue in the first place when I know better.

“I know I haven’t been around much,” I plead, attempting to pry the answer out of her. “But what did he mean, and why did you tell him ‘it won’t happen again?’ What won’t happen again?”

She eventually coaxes Archie to his front room, and I look outside to see a badly beaten man who barely resembles my father retreat down our driveway backwards, all the while yelling obscenities at Brett who looks no worse for the wear. This will give the neighbors something to talk about and questions neither of us will want to answer, but I could care less, because all the answers I need to know right now are the ones my mother is dead set on keeping from me.

When she finally succeeds in getting my brother calm and in his chair, his TV turned on to his favorite episode of Arrow, she looks up at me and gives me a sad smile. I hear Brett’s footsteps on the front porch and pray she answers me before he comes back inside.

“I haven’t been able to pay the mortgage,” she whispers, as we hear Brett’s steps stop briefly on the porch.

“I sent you money, Mom. Lots and lots of money,” but she doesn’t answer as hurt hangs in her eyes.

My heart sinks as I glance outside and see Brett waiting, watching to make sure my father leaves our property and doesn’t turn back.

“Your father,” she continues, as she urges me to follow her out of the room and back into the kitchen. “He came by about a year ago, when the bills got too high, and no matter how hard I tried money wasn’t enough, even with what you were sending me, I couldn’t make it work.”

“But I would’ve sent more if…”

“It still wouldn’t have been enough!”

The screen door opens, and Brett’s footsteps enter. But they stop after a moment and I hear him make his way into the front room, a muffled sound of his voice talking to Archie a second later fills my ears and my heart swells in appreciation for the man I’ve finally accepted I’ve fallen for.

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