As soon as he sits down, he looks over at me. “You looked deep in thought when Romona and I were bringing up the Christmas plans. You okay with things or what’s goin’ through that noggin of yours, Shelb?” I swear my dad has always been able to tell when something is bothering me. Before I can answer, he quietly asks another question. “Do you have a problem with me living with Romona or joining the club?”
I answer immediately. “No, I love seeing you happy, Dad, and she makes you happy. You deserve it. You’ve always said that the men in the club were good men and not like some of the other clubs you hear about.” He gives his lawman look, and I know that he’s not done with his inquisition just yet.
“Well, I’m glad you’re good with that. Now about our plans for Christmas…” Crap. Crappity, crap, crap. I have never been able to lie to my dad. I take a sip of coffee before I let the truth loose,like only my dad can get me to do. “I think the club thing sounds like fun, and I know a few people besides you and Mick.” I swear I can feel his eyes studying me, just trying to wait me out, like he knows I have more I haven’t said yet. “I just…I just… I really am happy that you’re happy. It’s just…it just feels like we’re wiping away some of our traditions. I know Mom has been gone a while now, but—”
Dad puts his hand on my knee to stop my rambling. “We’re still going to do our Christmas Eve tradition. Romona’s always hosted dinner on Christmas Day, and that’s when she was talking about. We will still do our pizza, hot chocolate, and the best Christmas movie ever. She’s not trying to erase that, Shelb.” I guess I missed that little fact about the date. “I was gonna invite Paris to Christmas dinner because she has nowhere else to go and no one should be alone at Christmas.”
A voice from behind me in the doorway speaks up. “Invite her. Mom was serious when she said everyone is welcome. I don’t think we’ve ever had a Christmas without a few extra people with nowhere else to go. Micah has come most years and will again this year. Your friend is more than welcome.” Mick walks out the front door with a baby bag and another bag in his hand. He lifts it up. “Mom always makes extra food. We had two extra people tonight, and she’s still sending us home with food. She wants you to feel welcome here anytime, and the same goes for yourbrothers. She always wanted a big family.” He walks over to their SUV to load up their stuff.
Dad speaks up again. “You good now, Shelb, or is there other stuff clouding your thoughts?” My dad… always the one trying to fix everything for me. I give him a genuine smile. “I’m good, Dad. Well, I’m freezing my ass off and gonna go back inside, but other than that, all’s good.” Sometimes it takes a bit to adjust to the turns life takes.
CHAPTER TWO
December 7th
Jason
It’s been a week of retirement, and my ass is dragging this morning. Between cleaning out my office, moving Romona’s art room around, and working on her gift, I would’ve kept plenty busy. You throw in the annual club lefse day and Grandpa duties a couple of days on top of prospecting shit, and I think I was busier than a typical work week. But fuck if I haven’t enjoyed it all. The absolute best part, though, is waking up with my love every morning.
I know it’s still early, but we both have to get up soon. She’s got a craft day at the elementary school that she does yearly, helping kids make gifts for their loved ones. She’s done it since Mick was in school and swears it’s a high point for her every year. I love my kids and my grandkids, but the thought of helping a couple of hundred kids do arts and crafts makes that vein in my forehead throb. You know the one I’m talking about—it’s the same one that came out all the time when my kids were teenagers.
I feel the bed move slightly, which tells me that Romona is starting to stir awake. I know that if I don’t roll over and embrace her, she’ll be out of this bed in a minute or two. She’s never one to lie awake in bed, saying that’s how one grows old, and it doesn’t suit her soul. However, she’s never made a single complaint when I’ve pulled her to me and snuggled with her. I stretch out and roll over, pulling my love to me, burrowing my face into her neck, slowly peppering it with kisses. “Mmmmm. Someone woke up early this morning.” She’s not wrong. I usually sleep till the alarm goes off. I looked and we have a few minutes before it dings, and we both need to get up. In between continuing to dot her neck and collarbone with kisses, I tell her my idea. “Well, love, we’ve got a few minutes till our alarm goes off, and I can think of something that could occupy that time. What do you think?” I pull her body right next to mine so she can feelexactlywhat I’m thinking.
We may be in our fifties, but we ain’t exactly dead yet. Romana’s flexibility surprises me daily. She says it’s the years of yoga. I say it’s her because no one I know, after a broken hip and heart attack, can move like she does. Hell, I would be in traction for weeks.
In one swift motion, she turns over to face me, pushes me onto my back, and climbs on top of me. Looking down at me, she’s got the most gorgeous smile. “Why, Mr. Stone, I do believe you have the best ideas.” She leans down and gives me a gentle kiss.No, that won’t do. I reach up, pull her down, and kiss her with everything I have. She’s so responsive and opens up, a silent invitation for me to slip my tongue in. While I kiss the set of lips that has me getting hard every time I touch them, I move a hand down to grab on to that gorgeous ass of hers.
Color me shocked when I feel nothing, as in she is naked under her nightgown—no panties of any kind. I break the kiss and look at her just in time to see a slight blush come over her. Being assertive in her life is easy and second nature, but taking control during sex brings out the same shy girl I knew all those years ago in high school. Both versions are equally beautiful and sexy as sin. She shrugs her shoulders. “So you weren’t the only one with this idea this morning. I feel like we’ve been so busy…” She stops talking when I pull her head back down and kiss her like I know how she’s always loved to be kissed. The kind of kiss you feel in your soul. She’s always been able to get that from me. Without words, she knows to lift her body off me slightly so I can shove my pajama pants down enough to free myself. I’m so hard, and it’s not just morning wood.
As soon as I free myself, I feel for her entrance. Romona’s hand joins mine and guides me into her. “Fuck me, you always feel so good, baby.” She starts moving ever so slowly. “Ride me like you mean it, gorgeous.” I’m gonna have to run through ten codes so I don’t blow too fast. Gods, she’s incredible and feels so fucking good.
Romona
Iswear I’m still surprised by how right he feels every time he enters me. I love teasing us both and slowly ride him, building both of us to the point of no return. “Ohhh.. you fill me just right…ohhh hell…” Gods, this man. “Baby, slow ain’t gonna work for today.” He may say he can’t move fast or surprise me, but just a few seconds later, he flips us, and I’m on my back. He starts pounding into me, hitting that spot that makes my eyes roll back in my head. This ain’t sex. This is fucking. Pure and simple and soooo fucking good. “Yesss…I’m so close!” I look at the man who’s taken my heart and see a light sheen on his forehead, a telltale sign that he’s trying to hold off coming till I do. It’s just right there.
Jason’s gotta be closer than I realized because he reaches in between us, and as soon as his thumb presses on my button that causes me to speak in tongues, my eyes roll back so far and the shaking starts in my toes. “Ahhh, I’m…Yessss!” I know more came out of my mouth, but I couldn’t tell you a single letter of any of the words that spewed out. I may not be a woman who can come more than once, but the one I get is fucking phenomenal.
I’m vaguely aware that he pumps into me a few more times as I’m shaking, till he comes with a shout. “FFFUUUCCCKK!” I can feel him pulsing in me as my shaking slowly subsides. He pulls out, and I feel the loss until he flops down next to me and pullsme into his strong arms. It’s afterward that I always get the sweet and sentimental side of my man. It was the same way all those years…he’s just always been that way. I don’t need to harsh my mellow by remembering my actual age at this moment.
Jason nuzzles into my neck again—his favorite place to kiss me in the morning. “Baby, I don’t care how many times we do that, it’s always fucking amazing. Love you.” I couldn’t keep the smile off my face if I tried. “Love you too. I—” I’m cut off by our alarm clock making itself known.
I feel the thunk of his head as his forehead lands on my shoulder. “I thought when I retired I wouldn’t have to use one of those things, yet I have almost every day so far.” I chuckle at him. I know if I turn around to look at him, he’ll be pouting. “You’ve been retired for a week. A week in December, when there’s always a lot going on. I know in the not-too-distant future you will have days with no alarm, babe.” He grumbles some sort of response as I sit up. “But today’s not one of those days. I gotta get up and get ready to go to the school, and you’re having breakfast with your brother. Do you know if he’s coming to Christmas dinner?”
Jason, the person who definitely needs caffeine in the morning, grumbles some more as he sits up next to me on our bed. “Baby, I love you and that your mind works in amazing ways, but you’re expecting me to think first thing in the morning before coffee and after I just came as hard as I did. I couldn’t even do thatwhen we were teenagers, and I definitely can’t now.” He leans over, kisses my cheek, stands up, and heads to the bathroom. “Okay, fair point.” I get up to head to the kitchen to make coffee, when a hand sticks out of the bathroom door to stop me. “We’re not in that big of a rush. Come take a shower with me, Love.” My mama didn’t raise no fool. A shower where I get to freely ogle his body? Yes, please and thank you gods for that gift.
Jason
As soon as I walk into the diner, I see Jeremy already sitting at our usual table. I give Millie a nod in greeting. Rob calls out, “I’m about to grab a fresh pot to bring out, so go sit with your ornery-ass brother and I’ll be there in two shakes!” Chuckling, I get to our table and Jeremy’s staring daggers in Rob’s direction. As I sit down, I ask the question of the morning. “What did you do to annoy Rob this time? Did you call her Roberta again?” Jeremy turns his glare in my direction, however, I haven’t been intimidated by it since I was in my early teens. “No. I haven’t done that in months. I’m pretty sure I have a scar on my hand from herhandingme that fork the day I did that. All I did was ask Millie why she was all dolled up today with all that makeup stuff, and Rob’s been plotting my death since then. I’m surprised I don’t have a lap full of coffee at this point.”
I know overall, Jeremy is not an idiot. He’s smart enough to be reelected sheriff three times. However, his intelligence seems to vanish whenever he has to deal with the opposite sex outside of work. The man’s picker is as off as anyone I’ve ever met. Divorced twice, with two ex-wives who are two of the most horrible human beings ever to have been born. The man goes after all the wrong women, but can’t see the one who’s head over heels for him and has been for years. To top it off, she would be perfect for him, but he hasn’t noticed her for one second. One of these days, he’s either going to get his head out of his ass about her or she’s gonna meet someone else. It’s looking more and more like the latter.
Rob comes up to the table with a pot of coffee and pours me a cup. She pauses and looks at Jeremy. “You know I’m still waiting for the day you come in here and either don’t put your foot in your mouth the second you fucking walk in here or see what’s been standing in front of you for more years than any of us would like to admit. Your brother opened his eyes and found the woman who he’s supposed to enjoy these years with. Thought that meant that there was hope for you, but every week that hope dwindles.” She shakes her head and then pours his coffee. She pours it to the very top of the mug so he’ll spill some when he takes his first sip. Gotta love her mix of sass and passive aggressiveness, especially when it’s not aimed in my direction.
As soon as Rob walks away, Jeremy does what my granddaughter, Zaria, does to her hot chocolate and bends down to the mug and takes a sip. He glares at me again. “Not one fucking word.” I bite my lip to keep me from making a snippy comment. Jeremy shakes his head. “Most of the time I know what I did to get the wrath of Rob, but today I don’t know what the hell crawled up her ass.” See? Clueless as all get out. I won't enlighten him today. He needs to figure this shit out on his own.
We both sit in silence for a few minutes, savoring the coffee and letting the caffeine take effect. Rob comes up and quickly takes our order as she’s got more tables filling up and needs to get them served as well. Jeremy takes a notepad out of his pocket. “Now I know you’re retired, but you’re still gonna help with the shop-with-a-cop night, right? We never have enough officers, even with the detectives and retirees.” I nod my head. “Yeah, I’ll be there. I told Jonah about it. He said if you need to deputize him and some of the other brothers just for the night, that they’d be more than willing to help out.”
Jeremy chuckles. “I don’t think most of the younger generation could pass for cops with the kids if they wanted to, but if Jonah, Wyatt, Jackson, or anyone of our age wants to do it, I think the kids wouldn’t be any the wiser. We could use the help. Our department hasn’t grown a ton, but the number of kids who qualify for this event has grown by leaps and bounds. Way more than Dad could’ve ever imagined.” I nod. “I’ll let them know. Iknow they like doing that kind of thing, so just get me the info and we’ll be there.”
