Page 114 of Always Been Yours

After we are both spent and so fucking satisfied, I stay on top of him. Catching my breath, I can still feel him twitching inside of me and my walls fluttering in response. I’m not ready for the empty feeling of him pulling out yet.

So, we lay there for who knows how long. Time doesn’t exist when I’m naked in Grady’s bed, his body wrapped up with mine. After several minutes that end entirely too quickly, Grady brushes the hair off my face and demands that I meet him in his shower to do it all again.

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Grady

My eyes crack open at the banging on the front door. It’s muted but loud enough to hear upstairs. Silky red strands are sprawled across my chest, and I consider ignoring the door.

If I stay here, wrapped up in the sweet vanilla berry scent of Vivi, maybe they’ll go away.

That’s until her hazel eyes flutter open. She’s the lightest sleeper in the world I’ve quickly learned, I’m surprised it took this long to wake.

Vivi sits up, wiping the sleep out of her eyes with one hand and playfully shoving my shoulder with the other. “You need to get that.”

“Stay here,” I mumble.

Grabbing a pair of sweats from the dresser, I slide them up my legs before making my way downstairs. My exhaustion and frustration dissipate when I open the door.

Blake is standing on the porch with a miserable looking Daisy in her arms and Stella silently crying next to her.

I scoop Stella up and reach for Daisy immediately. “What happened?”

“They allwoke up about an hour ago, one getting sick after the other.”

I feel their foreheads.Definitely a fever.“All five of them?”

She nods and looks over my shoulder. Vivi put on a pair of leggings and a sweater she must have brought with her. She stops a few feet behind me, giving a sympathetic smile to my sick daughters. Her and my sister give each other an awkward but polite wave. “Sorry to interrupt. But they wanted to be with you.”

“Thank you for bringing them home. I’ve got this. Go be with your kids, and I’ll call to check on Knox.”

Blake quickly makes her way to her car, not looking back. I take a mental note to call her later.

When I face Vivi, I don’t know what to say. This isn’t how I want to end our morning, but I don’t have the capacity to give her anything more right now. Not when my daughters need my full attention.

“Viv, I—I need to get them into a bath.” My thoughts are jumbled. This isn’t the first time the girls are sick at the same time but it’s the first time that I have to do it all alone. “Can I call you a car? I’m so sorry but I just…” I trail off, shaking my head. Daisy is gripping tightly to my shirt, and I can feel her cool sweat through her pajamas.

She recovers quickly from the shock of my dismissal. “I’ll text Calypso. Go take care of them.”

Stella’s tears wet my shoulder. “I don’t feel good,” she says in the smallest voice I have ever heard. Daisy nods on my other side.

When I don’t move, she waves her hands toward the stairs. “Go, Grady. I’ll be okay. They need you.”

I nod, taking the first step. Then another and another. I look back only once to give her a grateful smile. Hers is sad but understanding. I know it isn’t fair but even though I gave her a blatant dismissal, I wish she would push her feet into the ground andstay. It just doesn’t feel fair to ask her to stay. This isn’t her responsibility even if I desperately wish it was.

I feel in over my head for the first time since I became a single parent, and I don’t want to be alone again.

An hour and a half later, I’m making my way downstairs. Both girls are bathed and sleeping in their beds. Neither one has thrown up in the last thirty minutes—it feels like a small victory. One I’ll happily take right now.

I hear the noise before I get to the kitchen. It sounds like someone is tinkering around in the drawers before I hear the faintclick click clickof the stove turning on.

A sigh of relief escapes me realizing it’s probably my mom coming to check on us. Blake definitely saw my panic, even if she was avoiding eye contact. It’s like her to call for help—she’s stronger than me in that way. And as pathetic as it is, the thought of my mom coming to help is so comf—

Not my mom.

Vivi.

Her beautiful red hair is pulled half up, and she is in her green sweater and shorts outfit again matched with a pair of white fuzzy socks. She turns when she hears me shuffle in. With a shy smile, she gives me an awkward wave. “Hi. I—uh. I know you asked me to leave,” she mumbles, her brows furrowing, “but it didn’t feel right.” I take a small step toward her. “I stopped at the store on my way back. I was going to make some chicken noodle soup for the girls, and I brought crackers and Gatorade. I, uh, also brought you lunch… I figured if they were asleep, we could eat really quick then I’ll leave. But if I’m overstepping then I’ll go now.” She takes a step back; I take a larger one coming in front of her.

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