21.

*"I don't need the two in the bedroom to have you naked,"

Hailey said with a shake of her head. She set her gla.s.s on the table and smiled. "One is in the windowsill, the other is mixed in with the DVDs. Do I have to physically fetch them to make them count?"

I polished off my gla.s.s of wine and shook my head.

"Panties first." I stood and slipped them off. Hailey scooted her chair back from the table. "Come here."

I did as she asked and wound both hands into her curly hair, pulled her head back, and kissed her as I straddled her lap. "Is this what you had in mind?" I looked down into her eyes.

Hailey's smile was firmly fixed. "All day long." She tugged on my shirt until I sat on her lap. "Happy Valentine's Day," she whispered against my neck as she covered it with kisses.

Something hard pressed against my stomach. I pulled back suddenly and nearly fell off her lap. "What is that?"

"Your Valentine's Day gift." Hailey's smile was huge. "I heard you like them so much that you actually sank to stealing one. Now I know why you were vibrating that night."

"That b.i.t.c.h." I tried to stand. Hailey was laughing hard as she pulled me back to her.

"Alicia was really drunk and embarra.s.sed when she told me the story, and the only reason she did was because she thought you were mad at her."

"I'm furious with her, even more so now."

"Forget her." Hailey pulled me tight against her.

"Have you been wearing that thing all day?" I asked when Hailey resumed her kisses, turning my anger into something else.

"No, I stopped at your apartment before I came here. I bit one of your cookies, though."

"Let me see it." I tried to wiggle from her hold.

"I'd rather you feel it." Hailey tightened her grip. "It's two- sided and it's putting pressure on my-" Her eye lids fluttered when I pushed against it.

The thought of the other end being inside of Hailey sent chills down my spine. "We can go into the bedroom now."

Hailey shook her head. "Walking in here and collecting those 214.

*two hearts nearly killed me." She leaned down and sucked one of my nipples into her mouth, gently biting before she released it.

"Let's stay right here." She pushed up on my hips until I stood, then guided me down as she pushed the tip of the d.i.l.d.o into me.

"Slow," I said as she began to thrust a little.

Hailey tilted her head back with a groan as her green eyes shut. "We can go as slow as you need."

Watching her excited me more than I could ever imagine, making it easier for me to take the d.i.l.d.o. She groaned again as I absorbed its length. She pushed me back slightly and reached down between us, and I felt a new sensation when she switched on the twin bullets. "s.h.i.t," Hailey said in an expelled breath. I laughed as I ground my hips into her, making her squirm.

"I want to be on top of you," Hailey said as I unb.u.t.toned her shirt and slid it down her arms.

I pushed into her again and watched with a pleased smile as her head lolled back. Then I pulled her to me roughly and kissed her hard as I unclasped her bra. "It was your idea to stay right here," I said against her lips. "And I have all the control."

She pushed me back and caught me before I toppled off her lap. "You don't have as much control as you think you have."

I planted my feet and lifted off her; she followed me to the floor and kicked the chair out of the way as I tossed her bra after it. We both groaned when Hailey slipped her hand between my legs, then guided the d.i.l.d.o into me. "Go slow at first. I've never been on the business end of one of these."

Hailey's eyes showed surprise. "Ever?"

"Ever. You're my first."

"Well then, this is a first for both of us," she said before she kissed me.

It might've been Hailey's first encounter with a strap-on, but she had it figured out pretty d.a.m.n well as she moved. Her thrusts were slow and deep, and she used the positioning to both our advantages. The variety of sensations was incredible. The feel of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s sweating against mine, her soft thighs moving between mine, and the muscles in her back as they flexed combined with the strap-on sent me to heights that I never wanted to come down

21.

*from. But her loud cry when she came was my undoing and sent me spiraling fast behind her.

We lay flat on our backs staring at the ceiling as we tried to catch our breath. "When Kalen asks me what you gave me for our belated Valentine's Day, I'm going to tell her bruises on my a.s.s."

Hailey laughed breathlessly. "If you're crazy enough to tell her that, then you may as well explain how, but I don't want to be around when you do."

We made a half-a.s.s effort to clean up dinner and went into the bedroom where I gave her the necklace, and she gave me a silver charm bracelet that she would add a heart to every Valentine's Day until she ran out of room. Though we didn't discuss it, I went to sleep that night wrapped in her arms thinking that this day would be our anniversary.

21.

Epilogue.

"Hailey, if you have any more stuff, we have to burn it." I flopped down onto the floor next to her, feeling like every muscle in my body was on fire.

"That's the last of it," Hailey said with a groan. "Did we bring Fuzzy?"

"She's in the backyard chasing squirrels. When we put in a garden, we won't have any problems with those guys."

The Healys weren't particularly thrilled that we wanted to break the lease on Hailey's apartment. Mine had long expired since I lived there for what felt like forever. Mrs. Healy did give us a break when we offered a replacement tenant-Marvin, who was recently promoted to manager of the Rampart salon.

Hailey and I bought a house two blocks away from Kalen and Toad's and spent the last two weeks painting our new place and moving. Everything seemed to happen in the blink of an eye. The catalyst for all the change occurred one hot night when Hailey burned our dinner and I ruined one of her shirts while doing the laundry. It was our first fight...

"Why?" Hailey exclaimed as she held what was left of her favorite silk shirt in her shaking hands. "Why on earth would you wash something like this with the towels?"

"Because you put it in the hamper with the towels." I slammed the lid down on top of the pan of fettuccini Alfredo to stifle the smell of it as it fried. "I asked you to watch this. If you hadn't been so busy b.i.t.c.hing at me, then we'd have something to eat besides molten lava."

"Did you use an entire gallon of bleach on that load of towels?"

Hailey tossed her spotted shirt at the trash can. "If I weren't so in love with you, I'd choke the s.h.i.t out of you right now."

We both froze and stared at each other. "Do you mean that?"

21.

*"Yes, I want to choke you." A sliver of a smile tugged at Hailey's lips.

"I love you, too, Hailey, with all my heart."

We started house hunting the next day.

"I just want to shower and go to bed." Hailey sat up and looked at me. "Or we could skip bathing and sleep right here on the floor."

The sound of tires screeching and a horn blowing had us on our feet in an instant. I know we both had the same thought- Fuzzy escaped the backyard and had gotten into the street. Hailey threw the front door open with me on her heels and stopped short.

I nearly ended up on her back. Mom's head was hanging out the back window of Kalen's car. "The baby's coming."

Toad burned rubber backing out of our driveway, leaving us to stand bewildered in a cloud of exhaust fumes.

"He's going the wrong way," Hailey said as she followed me back into the house.

"Lived here all his life, too." I found my car keys and pulled on my shoes. "Guess sleeping is going to be delayed a while."

Hailey was moving ninety miles an hour around the house as she brought in Fuzzy and set up the DVD player. We were on the road in less than ten minutes, which in hindsight was stupid. We could've taken ten showers and slept until three in the morning because that's when Brianna Page Cavanagh made her arrival into this world.

While Mom and Dad argued over holding the baby and Toad and Hailey slept despite sitting straight up, I sat on Kalen's bed holding her hand. "She is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen,"

I said as I wiped my eyes.

Kalen smiled up at me wearily. "She is. Has all ten fingers and toes." Kalen looked past me to Dad, who had won the argument and was sitting in a chair holding his granddaughter. "He's crying.

He never cries."

I sat for a long time watching Kalen drift in and out of sleep.

She'd open her eyes, look for the baby, and smile, then drift off.

Her hair was a mess, makeup smeared from crying, and I thought

21.

*she looked lovelier then than she ever had. My big sister was a mom.

In the wee hours of that morning when Hailey and I drove to our new home, we decided to start a family of our own. The next day, we made a visit to the hospital, then went straight to the place where the babies were kept.

Hailey and I separated as we walked along the rows of them crying out for adoption. I wanted to take them all and fill our house and yard with them, but we'd made a promise before we came-only one. I stopped at one kennel that didn't have a dog scratching at the wire mesh. A sign said "male, two months." I bent and looked inside, and there he sat against the back wall, the ugliest thing I'd ever seen. He crouched against the back wall as if he knew no child would want him when there were so many adorable younger and fluffier compet.i.tors.

I pressed my hand against the wire and he approached timidly.

He sniffed at my hand and licked it. When his eyes met mine, I knew.

"Is he snarling?" Hailey came to stand beside me.

"No, he's scared." I pointed to the smaller sign at the bottom of the door that explained that he'd been hit by a car and lost a portion of his top lip. "And he's perfect."

"Can we take a closer look at this one?" Hailey asked an attendant.

The woman gave us a knowing smile as she opened the cage and lifted him out. His brown paws that gave way to black legs weren't that big. I watched his big brown eyes as they regarded Hailey when she presented her hand for him to sniff. His tail thumped the keys hanging at the attendant's waist as he licked the back of Hailey's hand.

"He's smaller than he should be," the attendant said. "He was severely malnourished when he was brought in."

I looked up to find Hailey looking at me. She nodded. "We'll take him," I said.

"What will we name him?" Hailey asked as our new baby rode in the backseat with her.

"Pitifully Ugly, P.U. for short."