Page 25 of Finding Home
After a few minutes, there’s a knock on my bedroom door, and I pull it open to find Lila on the other side grinning up at me. “Daddy said I could get you for dinner,” she says, and I grin down at her.
“Well, thank you, Miss Lila.”
She turns on her heels and runs into the kitchen. “Daddy, I got Miss M.”
The excitement in her voice has my smile growing. The smell of garlic and butter fills the house as I follow Lila into the kitchen. Everett looks at me over his shoulder as he pours a glass of milk and lifts the jug in question, and I nod. Lila’s sitting at the table in the same spot as last time, swinging her feet.
“Is there anything I can do to help?” I ask, and Everett shakes his head.
I pull out the chair across from Lila and take a seat as Everett drops off glasses for Lila and me before returning with plates of food. Everett’s plated everything. Chicken breast with barbeque sauce, mashed potatoes, and asparagus. Lila immediately dives in, and I’m surprised at how she seems to enjoy the asparagus. My parents fought me tooth and nail to get me to eat it until I was almost a teenager, but Lila seems to love it.
I take a bite of mashed potatoes and immediately moan around my fork. They’re so buttery and have the perfect amount of salt with a little bite from the tiny pieces of green onion chopped into them.
“These are soooo good,” I say, already digging in for another bite.
“Daddy cooks good food,” Lila says.
I nod. “Did you get your cheesy chicken this weekend?”
She shakes her head. “No, I told Daddy I wanted to wait for you.”
My hand pauses with fork half way to my mouth. I feel a little more guilty about not coming for dinner this weekend now. I just needed space before I threw myself into Everett’s proximity every day.
“Thank you,” I finally say, breaking the silence.
“You’re welcome,” she says, as if wanting me to share her favourite meal with her is nothing.
Lila holds most of the chatter as we have dinner, filling her dad in on the day at school. It’s interesting to see how she views our days in class and her interactions with her classmates. This is a view I don’t really get to experience, and it’s nice.
When we finish, Lila carries her plate to the kitchen counter, placing it beside the sink before coming back to the table and bringing her glass to the counter. I follow her lead, clearing my plate and glass, and she clears Everett’s as well.
“Thank you, Peanut,” Everett says, and she smiles at her dad before bounding out of the kitchen.
Lila seems like such an adjusted child for having her life completely uprooted and moved to a new town and now spending so much time with new people. I can see that Everett strives to provide her with some consistency in all this change, includinglittle things like chores as part of her daily routine. I can respect that.
I rinse the dishes before loading them into the dishwasher and turning to face the dining table where Everett is watching me.
“Thanks for dinner,” I say, drying my hands with a dish towel.
“Of course,” he half grunts.
“I, uh…” I start, not sure where I’m going with my thought but hating the silence. I’m not feeling like myself right now. I have no idea how I’ve gone from the woman who was getting this man to open up to me a few weeks ago, to now being an awkward ball of nerves around him. I think I need a good night’s sleep and to act like everything is normal. Fake it till you make it, as they say.
“I should shower and get some sleep,” I say, and he nods. I quickly scurry from the kitchen, heading into my room to pull out my toiletries, towel, and pyjamas before heading into the bathroom down the hall from my room.
As I close the door, I hear Everett tell Lila it’s time to get ready for bed and them make their way up the stairs. Stepping into the shower, I allow the water to run over me, letting it slowly wash the tension from me. I’m still tense and need to relax more before I go to bed. I let my hand snake down my stomach, slowly dragging over my skin until I reach the apex of my thighs. I bite my lip as my finger grazes over my clit.
I circle it again, stifling my moan as my fingers dip lower to gather my wetness and rub my clit in gentle circles. I take my time, allowing my orgasm to build, not wanting to rush myself over the edge. As I feel myself get close and my toes start to curl, I use my free hand to brace myself on the wall of the shower as my teeth dig into my bottom lip.
I’m so close, I feel myself on the edge and I can’t hold back anymore. I release my bottom lip and whisper Everett’s name. It’s soft, barely audible even to me, but as my orgasm takes me over the edge, I call it louder, feeling the shock of my orgasm tear through me.
I sit on the bottom of the shower, working to catch my breath, relaxing as the water washes over me before I finally get up and wash myself off.
I quickly towel off and change into pyjamas beforeexiting the bathroom where I almost run into Everett. My cheeks immediately heat as his eyes bore into me, and I worry about if he heard me. He remains his normal grumpy self and doesn’t say anything, just continues to stare. I feel a drop of water land from my hair on my chest and slowly fall down my skin, making its way between my breasts, and Everett’s eyes are tracking it. As it disappears between my breasts, he grunts and turns on his heels, heading back upstairs, and I rush into my room, closing the door behind me and leaning against it.
Holy hell. If it’s already like this after a few hours, how am I supposed to survive months of this? I think I may have gotten myself in over my head when it comes to Everett Lawson.
FOURTEEN
