I Pick You Read online

  I’m not sure why that excited me, but it did. I was there for it, her first beach. “Really? Okay, let’s go.”

  Bay loved, loved, loved the beach. She was fascinated at first sight, and I took it all in. Her little mouth formed into a perfect O and she gasped, seeing the magnificent waters for the first time. Kit lectured me on sunscreen as we walked behind Bay all the way to the boulders and the watery maze. She freaking loved it, and she was the cutest thing ever, captivated by everything she saw. Seashells, the water coming toward her kissing her little feet, the sand, the maze, the rocks, all of it. That’s when I finally understood what Kit meant by her being busy. She was super busy and curious. God that girl was curious.

  I let her climb up one of the boulders and then caught her when she jumped while Kit and I talked, but not about Bay.

  “Where will you stay over there?”

  “In a small village. Omesalia.”

  “Who’s going?”

  “There’s five of us in our team, but we’re working with a construction crew from England.”

  I caught Bay when her toes slipped on the rocks and helped her to the next little landing. “Whoa, careful. Where will you sleep?”

  “In a hotel close to the village.”

  “And you’re filming?”

  “Yes, I will do the narrating and Marty and Casey will do the filming.”

  “Is it dangerous?”

  “I mean, sort of, I guess. Disease, mostly.”

  I frowned at her, trying to figure out why, as Bay ran through the rocks back to the sand. “Like what?”

  “Mostly sanitation. There are no sewer drains, running water, or nearby hospitals for treatment. There are more people than help.”

  “What do you hope to get out of this, Kit? Is it really worth it?”

  Kit slid her hands into her shorts pockets and shrugged one shoulder. “I got to visit Omesalia my senior year in high school. I promised a lot of people that I would go back, and I would do what I could to help them.”

  “You were a kid, Kit. It’s okay to not go.”

  Bay cried when she got knocked down, miscalculating a wave. Kit picked her up and looked up to me. “I know, but I keep thinking about Bay. What if she would have been born there? What if she didn’t have a net to keep her safe from disease infested insects? What if her only meal was a bowl of rice and unsanitary water? If I can make a difference in one child’s life, then it has to be worth it. Right, Brantley?”

  I filled my lungs with salty sea air and lied. Those kids were not her responsibility. This one was, but I didn’t say that because I knew that’s not what she needed to hear. The grown up thing again. “Yeah, Kit. It’s worth it.”

  I made my Grandma Sarah’s famous lasagna while Kit played in the pool with Bay. As soon as I had it in the oven I opened a cold beer and slid to the stool with a notebook full of information. I mean, completely full. Little tabs told me what to do for a hangnail, an ear ache, even numbers to pediatrician’s Kit had checked out herself. Crust off of peanut butter and jelly toast. Potty before bed, first thing in the morning, and all day, twice an hour, at least. I didn’t need to look up the meaning when I read, oatmeal baths for an eczema flare up. Although I outgrew it by the time I was ten, I was sure that condition was passed down from me.

  I laughed when I read the part about too much chocolate giving her the fast poopies, and turned my attention to Kit’s ringing phone. My eyes shifted down to Mom, flashing while I debated on answering it.

  “Hello.”

  “Um, is Kitty there?”

  “You mean, Kit? She’s in the pool with Bay right now. Can I take a message?”

  The confusion in her tone assured me that I had made the wrong choice. I should have never answered her call. “What pool? Who is this?”

  “This is Brantley, Bay’s dad.”

  “Bay doesn’t have a dad.”

  “Um, yeah. I’m just going to let Kit call you back.”

  “Don’t you hang up on me. Where are you? Where is she?”

  “I’m in Florida and she’s in the pool,” I repeated, a little more sass behind my words this time.

  “Why is she there?”

  “She brought Bay to me.”

  “Oh, for heaven’s sake. You’re joking. She’s not still on this Kenya thing, is she?”

  Again, I repeated myself while internally kicking my own ass. “I’m just going to let Kit call you back.” Not giving her time to say another word, I hit the end button, closed the Bay Bible, and went to find Kit.

  “Watch her, Brantley. She has no fear.”

  I smiled at Bay when she fell backward into the shallow end of the pool. Her head went below the water and she came up sputtering, smiling from ear to ear. “I need to tell on myself.”

  “What did you do?” Kit asked in a tone my grandma used to use on me.

  “I answered your phone.”

  “Who called?”

  “Your mom. She’s not very happy with you.”

  Kit wasn’t mad at all. She shrugged her shoulder and smartly told me it was her own fault. “Oh well, it’s not like she wasn’t warned for the past year. She’ll get over it.”

  “She didn’t know you were here.”

  Kit pushed Bay through the water, helping her swim. “She knew. She just didn’t believe me.”

  “So, you’re just going to take off tomorrow night without talking to her? I don’t think that’s the best way to say goodbye.”

  I got a, fuck you, glare and then the cold hard truth, but in my defense, she knew nothing about my mom. “I heard you on the phone last night with your sister. When’s the last time you talked to your mom?”

  “We don’t talk at all, not if I can help it.”

  Bay screamed an ear-piercing, glass-shattering squeal when Kit tried to take her out of the pool. “Okay, okay. Stop doing that. Stay right here on the steps.”

  “Phil.”

  “No, Phil already went swimming once today. We have to let him dry before bed.”

  “Here, Bay. You can have my bottle.”

  “No, she can’t. It’s glass.”

  “And you’re right beside her. She’s fine. Your nipple’s showing a little.”

  “It’s a good thing we only have a couple days together. You’re insane,” she exclaimed with an angry tone, fingers adjusting her pretty red top.

  “I wasn’t serious.”

  “You sit here and play with a glass bottle with her now, and then you can take it away from her. I’m going to shower.”

  I plopped to the top step and watched Kit storm off, two little ass cheeks wiggling away. “Your mama is a nut, Bay.”

  Bay didn’t look up from her bottle filling task, but she did answer, not English, but an answer. “Oil fiddle plane ina brood.”

  “Yes, I know. My thoughts exactly.”

  The rest of the evening was spent watching Inside Out again, even after I begged for something else. “Bay, let’s watch this one. We watched that one last night.”

  “Oil.”

  “I don’t want to watch Oil. I want to watch Up. Look, balloons. You like balloons, don’t you?”

  Bay took the DVD from my hand and read the back of it with one finger gliding over the words. Kit and I glanced at each other, both hiding laughs while she read the description. “Ina owl for de way a doggie dem way high wif a bird.”

  “I got the doggie and a bird part. So, can we watch it?”

  “No. Oil.”

  “You want Joy. Great.”

  “Phil?”

  “In the dryer. Tell Daddy to put Joy in and I’ll go get it for you.”

  Kit held Bay tight to her, kissing her head, and constantly telling her how much she loved her. Bay mostly just pushed her away, trying to watch the movie we’d just watched the night before.

  I ignored two calls from my own mother and drank another beer, surfing my phone rather than watch the movie, or Kit bawling her eyes out—again.

  “I don’t want you to
drink around her all the time.”

  I frowned over at her, noticing Bay’s head starting to bob and her eyelids growing heavy. “I don’t drink all the time. I’ve had like six since I picked you up.”

  “I’m just saying.”

  “Well, don’t. I don’t need a drinking lecture. That’s not a problem. Don’t make it one.”

  Kit turned back to Bay, repositioning her in her arms, and kissing her for the thousandth time. “You have no idea how special she is, Brantley.”

  “I’m figuring it out pretty quick, Kit. She’s going to be fine.”

  “This is the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life.”

  “You should talk to your mom before you go.”

  That got me a glance. “You should talk to your mom. Why don’t you?”

  I smiled over at her and told the God’s honest truth. “I don’t really like her.”

  “Why not? I was really hoping Bay had one normal grandparent in her life.”

  “Yeah, that’s not my mom. Sorry. You want me to carry her to bed?”

  “You’re avoiding it, aren’t you?”

  “What? Talking about my mom? Yes and no. I don’t really know her, haven’t been around her since I was thirteen.”

  “Really? Why not?”

  For whatever reason, I kept my eyes from Kit’s, not wanting to discuss that time in my life with her or anyone else. “She left us. Do you want me to carry her to bed or not?”

  “No, I’ll do it. You can have your bed. I’m going to sleep with her.”

  I had to try. “You can sleep under me.”

  Kit laughed a sad laugh and stood with Bay. “You’re a dick. Goodnight.”

  “Night, Kit.”

  I stood outside with one more beer, trying to wrap my head around my day. I was tired, exhausted as hell. Bay was a full-time job, one that required lots and lots of attention. She was busy, so busy, and I wasn’t sure I could keep up.

  The house was locked up and the lights were off by nine-thirty. That’s how ready for bed I was, and I’m sure that it didn’t take ten minutes to fall asleep after that.

  “Brantley.”

  What? Who’s there? Who said that?

  “Brantley, wake up.”

  “Why? What’s wrong?” I questioned with narrowed eyes, hiding the light from the basketball game behind Kit with my hand.

  “That, did you hear it?”

  I sat up and looked at her like she was nuts, and then the time. I hadn’t even been asleep for thirty minutes yet. “No, hear what?”

  “I think someone’s on the roof.”

  “What?” Now I was sure she’d lost her mind.

  “There.”

  I did hear it that time. “It’s a rodent in the attic, probably a mouse. I’ll put some poison up there tomorrow.”

  “What if it’s not? What if it’s a burglar?”

  “I set the alarm, and why would he be in the attic?”

  “To get inside without the alarm, stupid. Come on. Go look.”

  I started to ask her if she was serious, but I already knew the answer. She was dead serious. I could tell by how anxious she was that I wasn’t about to get out of it. Not bothering to hide my boxer briefs, I crawled out of bed. “I don’t even know where the attic door is.”

  “It’s in the hall. Aren’t you going to put on some shorts or something?”

  “No, I’m not. I’m going to walk out to the garage in my underwear to get some poison, and then I am going to the attic in my underwear to feed it to the itty-bitty mouse.”

  “Well, do you have to poison it?”

  One long growl was the only answer I could come up with.

  “You’re the one that called it itty-bitty. Now I feel bad for it,” she whined, in quiet voice.

  I jumped to grab the handle in the hall, forgetting about the poison, and unfolded the ladder. “You go first,” I teased, my hand pushing Kit toward the steps.

  “Nuh-uh, I’m not going up there.”

  I shook my head and climbed the rungs to search for a noise I didn’t even hear anymore. “So, do you have any idea how many sewer rats you’re going to encounter in Kenya? Not to mention the mosquitos big enough to lift you into the air, and eat off your blood for days and days, and—.”

  “Shut up. Do you see anything?”

  “Yeah, come up here. Check this out.”

  “What?”

  I flipped on the light, taking a wood beam right to the forehead. “Ouch, fucker.”

  “Is it the rat? What happened?”

  “There’s no rat. I hit my head. Come here. You have to see this.” I walked to the far end, careful of the low ceiling, to the window facing the ocean. No wonder Lane had a seating area, a wooden bench and a chair facing the ocean.

  “What is it?”

  “Best view in the house. Check it out. I think that’s a cruise ship.”

  Kit dropped her knees to the bench and looked out the window to the moonlit scenery. “Wow, it’s gorgeous. Look at the stars.”

  “Look, binoculars,” I pointed, an arm nudging for her to take them.

  “It is a cruise ship. There are people all over the place. Look.”

  I looked next and then handed them back to her. Although the view was breathtaking, Kit seemed to appreciate it a little more than I did. I was too busy admiring her beauty.

  “Um, Brantley. I don’t think this is an area to watch cruise ships and twinkling stars.”

  I looked over her head in the direction she was zoomed in on, not seeing anything but a light at the neighbors, at least a football field away. “What do you mean?”

  “Look.”

  I took the binoculars to see what she saw. “Holy fuck. That’s the Pierce’s. Their little girl is in my class. Fuck. Is he spanking her?”

  “Stop watching. We can’t watch that.”

  I jerked the binoculars away from her, taking them, assuring her that we could. “Yes, we can. This chick is scorching hot.”

  “Brantley! We’re not watching your neighbors have sex.”

  “He’s tying her up. Look.”

  Kit looked. I knew she would. “Oh, my God. He’s got a good one.”

  “A good what?”

  I looked again, feeling the growth in my shorts. Paxton Pierce would bury me alive if he knew I watched him and his wife engage in the hottest sex I have ever witnessed in my life. “Have you ever been spanked?”

  “No, and I’m not about to start. What are they doing? Let me see.”

  That’s how the whole thing went down, the binoculars being passed between us while we witnessed the entire thing. All of it. “Jesus, she doesn’t hold back.”

  “Let me see.”

  “No, wait. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God,” she shrieked, her body bouncing up and down nervously.

  I cupped my eyes with my hands, trying to see, but I couldn’t. All I could see was a shadow here and there. I jerked the binoculars out of her hands, feeling my dick reach its full potential. Gabriella Pierce slid down some sort of dildo contraption while her husband kept her mouth full. With his hand on the back of her head, he did the directing. He held her head and made her swallow him. Way better than a porno. I would never be able to look at those lips again without thinking about what she could do to me.

  “This is bad. We’re so bad,” Kit whispered, taking the binoculars right out of my hands again.

  I let her, no longer interested in my neighbor’s sex life. I preyed on the girl in front of me, my cock already in my hand and her back against my front.

  “Stop it, you weirdo.”

  “No, let’s fuck.”

  “No, that makes it even dirtier.”

  “I know, come on. Let me spank you.”

  Gravity forced my feet to step back when her elbow met my ribs. “Quit. Come on. Let’s go.”

  I reached for her, pulling her close enough to cop a feel, and hoped it was enough, “No way, baby. Come on. Just let me finger bang you.” I barely got my finger wet before
she shoved me away again.

  “I’m serious. Stay away from me.”

  “Why?” I questioned, still taking steps toward her.

  “Because you don’t take no for an answer.”

  “Is that why, or you can’t resist what I do to you?”

  “Stop. You don’t do anything to me. I’m serious, Brantley. Leave me alone.”

  My fingers wrapped around her wrist when I pulled her to me, and her fingers did the wrapping all on their own. All I did was guide her hand to my shaft and helped her stroke it a couple times. My hand on the back of her head kept her from resisting my tongue and she caved enough for me to slide my fingers to her wet slit. I wasn’t the only one aroused by the Pierce’s. There was no doubt in my mind that she would have fingered herself had I let her go. That wasn’t about to happen. I was the only one doing any fingering.

  “I fucking hate you,” she whimpered a soft sigh escaping her lungs as her body relaxed into my fingers and her grip tightened around my cock.

  “I’ll make it worth your while.”

  “Let’s go down so we can hear Bay.”

  “You’ll run from me.”

  “Probably, but there’s a mouse up here.”

  “Can I spank you?”

  “No, and you better have a condom.”

  “I do. I’m going first,” I said with a quick dip, deep inside her as a reminder not to cop out on me.

  “I knew this would happen. I knew it.”

  I smiled up to her sweet ass, uncaring of her rant. I was about to get it in and that’s all I cared about.

  Chapter Ten

  I walked Kit backward to my room with my hands down the back of her boy shorts, a handful of her bare-ass, and my lips on hers, trying like hell to keep her on my level. I knew she was into me, I just had to keep her into me. One little slip-up and she’d run. I knew she would.

  Within seconds, what little clothes we had on were on the floor and I was inside her. Kit’s eyes rolled to the back of her head and her body twisted as if she wanted to get away from me. That was not going to happen. Not on my watch. She felt amazing, but I didn’t get three strokes before she stopped me, winding away from me like a snake.

  “Get a condom.”

  Gah. I hated those things. “Aren’t you on the pill? I just had a full physical for my job. I’m clean.”