Page 12 of All for You

Chapter Eleven

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Rani

He won’t tell me where he is taking me. Not that I care. This has been the best couple of days of my life. In the space of a weekend, I have fallen hopelessly and wonderfully in love. And I hate to see it come to an end.

He pulls up outside a two-story house with a cute as shit little white picket fence in the yard. I can see a tire swing in the tree in the front yard, even despite the fence. Flowers are blooming everywhere and the scent in the air is heavy with magnolias - one of my favorites.

He opens the little gate and leads me up to the porch. I wait for someone to come running out to greet us but that never happens. Charlie opens the door with a key from his key ring and leads me into the front room of the house. Shockingly, it’s empty.

“What…?” I'm not sure what exactly I want to ask just yet.

“I sold my condo.”

“What?” Over the weekend he’s talked a little bit about his condo and a part of me wanted to visit it.

A huge part of me wanted him to take me back to it and tell me I never had to leave again. That this thing between us is forever. And now he’s telling me he sold it.

“Why? Why would you sell your condo?”

“Because you deserve a house, with a front yard to look at while you rock and a back yard for entertaining all those friends you and I talked about. You deserve flowers and not just a condo.”

“Oh my God! Are you…? Are you asking me to move in with you? Here?”

He nods his head and pulls me in close. “I already have my stuff here and I want you to start to bring stuff too. I want you to decorate it how you want it and tell me what you like and don’t like so I can fix it on the weekends I have off.”

Holy Shit!

“Are you…are you asking me to…?”

“Not yet.” He quickly interrupts me but before I can feel dumb for suggesting something he didn’t even think about he goes on, “I want you to focus on school and graduating. I want you to finish and feel like you had the best year of your life and that you didn’t miss out on anything.”

“But…you will…ask? In the future?”

“As soon as your pretty feet leave the stage.”

I give him a big smile and wrap my arms around him tight. “Then yes. I will move in with you and make the house of our dreams come true and in…” I do some quick math, “and in ten months I’ll say yes then too.”

Chapter Twelve

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Charlie

Today has sucked! Most people say that, and it’s still alright. No one has died. No one’s life has been changed irrevocably. But when a cop says they had a bad day it means all of that. And today really sucked!

I let myself in and hear the music in the living room off to the side. Rani’s here. I'm not sure if that’s a good thing or not today. She’s been here most of the time since the summer but now that she’s back in school she’s staying a little more at her mom and dad’s. It makes me feel like Hades having to share his Persephone. She is my spring.

And now she’s in our living room doing yoga. When I walk in she has her leg thrown up over her head and wearing nothing but a little sports bra that barely covers her ample tits and skin-tight capri leggings that hug her ass like…well, I do. Like I plan to.

I don’t speak, I don’t give her time to speak. I just walk into the room, pull off my jacket and pull her up into my arms. And God bless Rani’s soul, she comes willingly. She doesn’t ask questions, she doesn’t resist. She wraps those strong arms around me and makes my world better.

Our mouths meet and my soul settles. I clutch at the little thing in my arms like she’s my lifeline…because she is. She makes the bad things pause in my head and reminds me why I do the things I do. Why I try to make a difference in the world.

I lift her in my arms so I can carry her to our bedroom upstairs, but we don’t get that far. I barely make it to the nearest wall before I am all but ripping her capris open so I can get to the sweet honey pot she has waiting for me. I’m inside her before either of us can say a word.

“Oh, mmm, hello.” She smiles at me and cups my face to kiss me as I take her while standing. Her body pulls me back from the darkness that is ever lurking just at the edges of my life.

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