Chapter 13

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EPOV

 

Keeping an eye on Sookie means I’m not sleeping much. It’s like the first time Jake got sick when he was a baby and we were afraid he was going to stop breathing in the middle of the night. I’m not worried Sookie will stop breathing, but I am worried about her head. The pictures from the accident make me beyond thankful she’s okay.

My Jeep was totaled, but I can replace it. Replacing her isn’t possible and I didn’t think it would happen so fast, but I realized that I love her while she was lying there unconscious. It amazed me that Jo came running right to me when both of her grandparents were at the hospital waiting for her, but it was the next best thing to being able to hug Sookie.

Seeing her so battered and fragile in the hospital bed was like having my heart in a vice. I never want to go through that again. It’s going to be a few weeks before Sookie is all healed up. The driver in the other car was arrested for DUI, child endangerment, reckless endangerment and he has two warrants for other crimes so the guy is definitely going to be doing jail time.

Sookie’s parents keep Joey for four days before Sookie feels good about having her come home. I’m going to keep staying with her until she tells me to go. I’ve learned that I can tell the difference between when she’s just being stubborn and when Sookie means business. It’s a good thing to know.

When Corbett drops Joey off, Sookie’s napping so I have to hold the little monkey back from waking Sookie up.

“Mommy still has boo boos so she needs to get lots of sleep to help her get better,” I explain to Joey.

Patience and toddlers don’t go together very well, but she’s gotta learn sometime.

“But I want to see her. I promise I won’t bug her,” she says, batting her eyelashes at me.

Oh hell.

“Just a peek in the room. Then we can make brownies if you want,” I tell her.

“Okay,” she agrees, then she goes running toward Sookie’s room.

“Tiptoe, Jo,” I say quietly.

Corbett’s chuckling but I’m thankful I’m used to Jake. They’re different kids, but at least it makes dealing with Joey a little easier.

“Clearly that one will be running the joint until Sook wakes up,” Corbett chuckles. “She does it to me too,” he admits.

“I’ve learned to pick my battles. Some things just aren’t worth fighting over. Do you want some coffee or do you need to get going?”

“I should go. The missus expects me to run by the store on the way home. Tell Sook I love her when she wakes up.”

“Will do. Maybe on Saturday we can take the car out,” I suggest. I’m driving the fixed up lime green monster until the insurance stuff is taken care of on the Jeep, and I know Corbett would love to get behind the wheel of that baby.

“Sounds good. I’ll be in touch,” he smiles and gives me a little wave, the same one both Sookie and Jo give, before he walks out.

I go after Joey and find her staring at Sookie’s face. Her mom is still pretty banged up, but she’ll be okay.

“Joey,” I whisper from the door.

She whips her head over at me and whisper-yells, “What?”

“Come on. Let’s let Mommy rest. We can bring her brownies and milk when she wakes up.” I hold out my hand to her.

She looks down at Sookie one last time before she shimmies down the side of the bed and runs at me. She keeps going and by the time she’s in the kitchen she’s at top speed. I follow behind her and start pulling things out to make brownies.

“Did you have fun with Gramma and Pop?” I ask as I get the oven going.

“Yep. Gramma let me help her cook and stuff. Pop took me fishing, but that was icky,” she says, scrunching her little nose.

“You didn’t like putting the worm on the hook?” I chuckle.

“No!” She raises her hands, silently asking me to put her on the counter.

“Use your words,” I tell her since Sookie would say the same thing, and Jo knows it.

“Can you help me up, please,” she says politely with her arms still high in the air.

“Yep. Wanna walk up?” I ask her.

“Yes!” If she keeps yelling, she’s going to wake Sookie up.

“Inside voice, kiddo. We don’t want to wake up Mommy,” I remind her as I take her little hands. She’s not expecting it when she gets to just the right spot and I nudge her so she ends up doing a somersault and landing on her feet again on the floor.

She giggles like crazy, and then looks up at me. “Again!” she laughs and throws her hands back up.

“Inside voice.” I take her hands and when she gets to the same spot, I flip her over again. “Jo, you’re supposed to climb up, not do flips,” I tease.

“I’m not doing it,” she laughs.

I sigh dramatically, hold my hands out and say, “Let’s try it again.”

She takes my hands and starts walking up my leg, and again I flip her over.

“Eric!” she laughs and her eyes light up when we hear a voice clear behind us. “Daddy!” she yells and drops my arm to go running toward Sam.

I look at Joey’s father and I immediately want to punch him in the balls.

“Do you usually just let yourself in here?” I ask him instead of introducing myself.

“When I need to, yes,” he glares.

“Daddy, that’s Eric,” Joey says with a smile, she can’t tell Sam is shooting daggers at me through his glare.

“I know who he is, princess.”

“You should start knocking when you come over,” I tell him. “It’s good manners and Sookie wants Joey to learn good manners.”

He can glare at me all he wants but he’s only intimidating to someone Joey’s size. I’m not sure what he’s doing here. He didn’t make arrangements to come by or to pick up Joey. I’m not letting him just take her. Father or not, Sookie should be the one who decides where her kid goes, and from what she’s said, I trust my two-year-old more than I do this clown.

“Maybe the door should’ve been locked. I just came by to check on my girls–”

“Daddy, Mommy got hurt real bad,” Joey explains.

“I know, princess, I came to see her,” he smiles down at her.

Yeah, it’s only been five days since the accident so I guess he hurried over as soon as he could. Jackass.

“Sookie’s sleeping right now, but I’ll be sure to let her know you stopped by,” I tell him.

“I’m sure she won’t mind if I wake her up,” he smirks. He looks down at Joey and asks, “You wanna come with me to wake up Mommy?”

“She needs her rest,” I say firmly.

I want to grab him by his scrawny neck and throw him out on his deadbeat ass, but if he wakes Sookie up, she’ll verbally castrate him. That could be fun to watch too.

“Eric said we have to wait,” Joey tells him.

“Eric isn’t your dad, you don’t have to listen to him,” Sam says and looks up to glare at me again.

“You can save the tough guy crap, Sam. You wanna wake up Sookie, go right ahead. I’ll be here making you an ice pack for your raisins,” I smirk.

That makes him think twice.

“Daddy, no, she has to rest to get better,” Joey parrots. I assume Michelle told her that a few times over the last few days.

“Fine,” Sam huffs and then a wicked grin spreads across his face. “Do you want to come home with Daddy?” he asks Joey.

Oh fuck me sideways.

“I can’t let you take her, Sam,” I tell him. “If you want Joey to go with you, you need to clear that with Sookie first.”

“No,” Joey says firmly, taking us both by surprise. “I want to stay with my mommy.”

“Wh-wha-what?” Sam stutters.

That’s right, fuck-o, she wants to stay. I keep my mouth shut and just smile a little. He can’t seriously be surprised that Joey would pick Sookie over him. He’s a part-time dad at best, and a complete fuckhead at worst. Of course Jo wants to stay here.

“No,” she repeats and takes a step toward me.

“Baby, you can’t mean that. You always want to come with me,” he tells her with a smarmy smile.

“No.” She’s firm on this and she goes running down the hallway.

“I think you should go, Sam. I’ll let Sookie know you were here,” I tell him.

He shakes his head and turns to leave. I make sure to lock the door once he’s gone. I find Joey curled up on her bed and I kneel down next to her.

“Your dad left. Do you still want to help me make brownies?” I rub her back. She looks pretty upset about what just happened.

She nods and reaches out for me to pick her up, but stays quiet. I lift her up easily and she wraps her arms around my neck. I keep rubbing her back and carry her to the kitchen.

“Are you okay, kiddo?” I ask her. I try to put her down but she’s not letting go.

She nods into my shoulder as she holds tighter. She’s not okay at all. Joey is definitely her mother’s daughter.

So I just keep rubbing her back for a little while. Trying to get a toddler to try and explain their feelings isn’t easy, but I try.

“Are you feeling sad?” I ask her.

She nods.

“It’s okay to be sad. Even grownups get sad sometimes, but it will get better,” I tell her. “When you’re ready we’ll make the brownies. Should we put chocolate chips in them?”

“Mmhmm,” she hums, “Mommy used to get sad a lot. Not no more though,” she explains quietly.

“Well it’s good that your Mommy doesn’t get sad anymore. I love your mom very much. I don’t want her to be sad. I don’t want you to be sad either.”

“Okay,” she says, “I love you, Eric.”

I smile at that and kiss her little head. Joey’s a good kid. Sookie’s done a great job raising her. I tickle Joey’s ribs and it makes her squirm.

“Boy are you squiggly all of a sudden.” I hope distracting her will work.

“You’re tickling me,” she points out with a little giggle.

“Nuh uh,” I say as I tickle her more. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I blow a raspberry on her shoulder.

“Mommy said lying is bad!” she squeals.

“That’s right,” I hear Sookie smile behind us.

“Well she got a case of the wiggles and I don’t know where it came from,” I tell Sookie, even as I’m still tickling Joey’s sides.

“Right, you must’ve given her worms and now they’re working their way through her little body.”

“Eeeew!” Joey yells as she continues to squirm.

“Are we ready to make brownies now?” I ask Joey. I stop tickling her.

“Yes, please,” she smiles, nodding her head.

“You guys are making brownies without me?” Sookie gasps and slowly makes her way across the room to join us.

“Well the plan was to have them ready when you woke up, but first Joey couldn’t walk right and then we had a visitor who just let himself in the house and wanted to take Joey with him,” I tell Sookie.

Her eyes go wide and she covers her mouth.

“Thanks for not letting her go,” Sookie whispers. She reaches up and strokes Joey’s back. “I want to hold her, but I don’t think I’m ready.”

“You could sit down at the table and let her sit on your lap,” I suggest. “Jo, do you need to go potty?”

She hasn’t gone since she’s been home and with all the laughing she might need to go.

“Yes,” she nods.

“I’ll take her. I assume her legs still work?” Sookie says.

“Should we show her?” I ask Jo.

“Yes! Mommy, watch!”

“You’re going to want to take a step back,” I tell Sookie as I set Joey down on her feet. I take her hands and after Sookie takes a step back, Joey starts walking up my leg, I only to get flipped over backwards. Jake does this all the time.

“Good job little monkey girl,” Sookie praises and claps.

“Eric showed me!”

“She just kept doing it so we got distracted from baking. Go potty and then we’ll get to work,” I tell Jo. I let go of her hands and she takes off running. “Hey, real quick, you should know that Joey chose to stay and she went running off to her room all upset.”

“She always wants to go with Sam. That actually surprises me. She’s been through a lot the last few days though,” she says and comes over to hug me.

“She probably needs some mommy snuggles and she’ll be fine.” I kiss her head. “And I told Sam he needs to stop letting himself in the house.”

“Good, he knows better. I’ve yelled at him a few times about it,” she sighs. “Would you mind if Jo slept with us tonight? Unless you’re going home, then I guess it doesn’t matter,” she says as she pulls back from the hug to look up at me.

“I can clear out if you want some time alone with her,” I offer. “I can come back in the morning.”

“If you don’t have to go I don’t want you to,” she admits. “I need to go get her.”

“Okay. I’ll stay tonight,” I smile at her.

She gives me a quick kiss and then starts to slowly move down the hall to Joey’s bathroom.

***

Sookie heals up and my insurance company cuts a check so I can buy a new Jeep. I take Sookie along with me to pick out a new one. I’m debating between black and silver, but I feel like maybe black would be a bad call.

“What do you think?” I ask her.

“Honestly, I like the silver or I’d even say white. I like the color of the interior on the white one,” she says. “Doesn’t matter, I’m never driving your car again.”

“Silver it is then,” I smile at her. I kiss her head and we go inside to get the paperwork started.

It takes a little under two hours to get it all squared away, but I drive off the lot in a shiny new Jeep. I follow her back to her house. Sookie’s been at her new job for three weeks and she loves it.

Jo is at Sam’s parents’ house for the night, so I have Sookie to myself. I park behind her and follow her inside. Tomorrow I have to go get a new car seat for Jake since I’ve been using a smaller one for him.

We go inside and she heads straight to the bathroom. I go to the kitchen and get something to drink.

“You know, if you park in the garage we can christen the Jeep,” Sookie offers when she joins me in the kitchen and I nearly choke on the water I’m drinking.

I wasn’t expecting that.

“That’s not a bad idea,” I say once I stop sputtering.

“Mmm, nope. I feel good enough now and we’re kidless,” she shrugs. “I can even scream for you.”

Mmmm… I haven’t had sex with Sookie since before the accident and she’s been hesitant to do it because of her ribs. Plus Jo got a little clingy after the accident happened so getting her to leave Sookie’s side wasn’t easy. She was in love with ‘school’ and her teachers, Miss Claudine and Miss Maria.

“That sounds like much more fun than Jake’s way of christening the old one,” I smirk.

“I just need you to be gentle with me,” she purrs as she raises her arms to wrap around my neck.

“I can do that, Toots.” I peck her lips. “Are you sure you want to do it in the backseat?”

“Yeah, or we can put the seats down and you can lay me down in the back.” She kisses me again before moving her kisses down to my Adam’s apple.

“Whatever you want,” I tell her. She’s the boss. I’m not even afraid to admit it.

“I just want you inside of me,” she whispers against my skin as her fingers thread through my hair.

I growl at her and kiss her a little harder. When I lift her, her legs wrap around me and I stagger toward the doorway to the garage. I press her against the wall and we end up making out for a good ten minutes before I set her down.

“Wait here. I’ll pull the car in,” I tell her.

“You couldn’t pay me to leave,” she snickers and kisses me one more time.

I go out through the garage door and pull the Jeep into the garage. Since she wanted the backseat, I leave the seat alone. When I get back into the house, Sookie’s taken the liberty of stripping while I was gone. I’ve seen her naked since the accident since she’s needed help getting dressed or going to or from the bathroom, but I haven’t touched her in a sexual way in about a month.

“I hope Rosie and her sisters don’t get jealous,” I say as I look her up and down.

“Let’s just hope we never have to let Rosie touch you again,” she says, “What are you waiting for?”

“My brain to stop having seizures,” I snicker.

She closes the distance between us and pulls my face to her. She places a series of wet kisses along my jaw up to my ear and she whispers, “Eric, I want you to fuck me… now.”

Yes, ma’am.

My clothes go flying and Sookie leads me to the garage. It’s hot in here, but I don’t care. I get in the backseat first and it’s only when she’s straddling me that I remember we don’t have a condom.

“Condom,” I say. My brain short circuited and I forgot.

“Goddammit, I knew we were forgetting something.” She climbs off of me and asks, “Can you go grab it?”

“Yeah, I can do that.” I love her but I don’t want to take any chances and I’m sure she doesn’t either. If we have a kid together it’s going to be on purpose and not because we were idiots.

I kiss her and then get out of the Jeep to grab a condom from the drawer in her room. To save us some time and awkward positioning, I just put the damn thing on. It’s a good thing I did because when I get back to the garage, I find my girl laying in the backseat, starting without me.

I growl and say, “You’re impatient, Toots.” She’s also extremely wet.

“I just wanted to make sure I was ready for you… I am,” she says, pulling her fingers out and offering them to me.

I lean into the backseat and suck them clean. I groan at her taste. Fuck, I’ve missed her. I release her fingers and pull her by her hips so her ass is closer to the edge of the seat. With her legs propped up on my shoulder, I rub my tip through her folds.

“Don’t tease,” she pleads.

“You like it when I tease.” I let just my head rest inside her. Fuck, she feels good.

‘Not this time, baby, I need it. I need you,” she pants and I can already feel her walls massaging my tip, trying to suck me in.

I groan and let her have what she wants. I slide all the way into her and it makes both of us moan. With her legs up like this Sookie feels even tighter than I remember.

“Damn, Toots. I may cum before you,” I warn her.

“Mmm, I don’t know about that,” she tells me, “And if you do I’m sure you can figure out how to help me get off.”

Oh I already have a plan.

I pull almost all the way out and thrust in a little harder. Sookie cries out so I do it again. I’m moving slow, but I like watching her tits bounce with every deep, hard thrust. Plus the way her pussy clenches a little each time feels fucking amazing.

“Fuck, I’ve missed this, Toots,” I groan, and my thumb moves to rub slow circles around her clit.

“Me too, baby,” she moans. “Mmm, fuck… Just… Like… That!” she cries out.

I keep my eyes on her tits and my cock twitches inside her when her nipples tighten even more. Her pussy starts contracting on each deep thrust when suddenly she screams out my name as her release takes over.

I groan and fight hard to hold back my own release, but I’m no match for what her body is doing to mine. Just a few more deep thrusts and I lose the battle. I groan loud and empty myself deep inside her.

“Jesus, Toots,” I pant and keep thrusting lazily to draw out her orgasm.

“Jesus had nothing to do with that,” she giggles. “Get down here.”

She drops her legs and wraps them around me as she pulls me by my arms to lie on top of her. Her lips graze mine and her fingers play with my hair as we kiss.

“I love you, Toots,” I say against her lips. I don’t want to pull out of her but I have to.

“I love you too, Eric,” she whispers. “It feels good to say that.”

“Yes it does,” I smile and kiss her one more time before I have to pull out of her.

 

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