“Could you ask him to check out my old house? Just to make sure they aren’t there.”
“No problem, doll face. I’ll give him a call right now.” Her asking for Aaron made more sense. She didn’t like people knowing where she lived back then and I guess she still didn’t. Aaron, Macy, and I were her only friends that knew where her house was.
Badger was more than happy to ride out to Annabelle’s old house and take a look around. I knew her parents were worthless and she never liked them, but she almost seemed frightened of them. “Annabelle, are you scared of your parents?”
“Of course not. I just don’t want to see them. Surely you can understand that,” she replied. I would have believed her if she hadn’t said it faster than normal and an octave too high.
“Try again,” I growled.
She sighed. “It’s not that I’m scared of them, I just don’t trust them. They are toxic people, always have been. I don’t want them in my life and I damn sure don’t want them around my children.”
“I get it. Now that I’ve found you, I’ll put more focus on locating them. We’ll go from there, okay?” I asked.
“Thank you, Phoenix. I really appreciate everything you’ve done for me and for our children,” she murmured.
She didn’t get it. I loved her. I never stopped loving her. Not for one second. Yeah, there had been other women over the years, but they were nothing more than a means to an end. I hadn’t kissed another woman since the first time my lips met hers back in high school. Maybe it was time I told her how I felt.
“You don’t have to thank me, doll face. I would do anything for you. You should know that.”
She fidgeted with her hands and kept her eyes on the floor. “Annabelle,” I commanded, “look at me.” Slowly, she raised her head and brought her eyes to mine. “I love you. I never stopped and I never will.”
I don’t know what kind of reaction I expected from her, but it wasn’t the one I got. She launched off the couch and crash-landed into me. She grabbed my face and stared right into my eyes, “I love you, too,” she confessed and then she slammed her mouth down over mine.
I cupped her ass in my hands and stood, carrying her upstairs to my bedroom. Entering my room, I kicked the door closed behind me and didn’t break my stride until I was placing her on my bed.
Without a word, I kept my eyes on hers while I removed her clothing, followed by my own. I crawled onto the bed, covering her body with mine and gently captured her lips.
Not a word was spoken between the two of us as I took my time and made slow, sweet love to the woman who captured my heart when I was 17 years old. When our lips weren’t locked, our eyes were. We held each other in a tight embrace as our bodies moved together in perfect synchronization until we found our releases together.
***
Badger returned my call later that night. “I went by the house her parents lived in and no one was there. It doesn’t look like anyone has been there for years. The place is completely run down and ought to be condemned if you asked me.”
“Thanks, brother, I appreciate it,” I replied.
“May I ask why you had me ride out there?” he asked.
“Annabelle asked me if I knew where her parents were. I have no idea where they are or if they’re dead or alive. I told her I would have someone ride by the house and she specifically asked if you would do it. I don’t think she wants anyone who doesn’t already know what pieces of shit they were to know anything about them.”
“Makes sense,” he said. “Why’s she looking for them?”
“She’s not. She just wanted to know if they were still around town so she could avoid them,” I explained.
“Gotcha. Well, I’ll swing by a few more times over the next week or so and make sure I don’t see anything suspicious, but I highly doubt anyone is living in that place.”
“Thanks, man.”
Well fuck. A part of me was hoping they might have gone back to that old shithole of a house and another part of me was hoping they were long gone, be it somewhere far away or somewhere six feet below.
“He didn’t find anything, did he?” Annabelle asked.
“Woman,” I hissed. “Don’t sneak up on me like that. You should know better than to eavesdrop on my conversations.” She just stared at me, anxiously awaiting the answer to her question and not intimidated in the least. “No, doll face, he didn’t find anything. We’ll keep looking though.”
Over the next few days, I continued to try to find something on the whereabouts of Annabelle’s parents, anything. I was getting frustrated because every avenue I took led to a dead end. Finally, I sucked it up and called Luke for help.
He never acted like he minded helping me out from time to time, but I hated asking him. I knew he was a busy man with much bigger fish to fry, but my valiant efforts had failed. He readily agreed to help, assuring me it was no problem. I gave him all of the information I had on her parents. We talked for several minutes and he said he would get back to me within a few days.
With that out of the way, I made my way to the common room to make sure everything was on track for the party that night. We had parties often, but this was the first one Annabelle would be attending and I wanted everything to be perfect.
