The Time in Between by Kristen Ashley
Callum arched his back as he screeched out a giggle then patted Cady’s lips for her to do it again.
Cady did it again.
And Coert decided that night was a good night to get her pregnant.
Or at least start trying.
“So?”
Coert looked toward the man who asked the one-word question to see Malc and Tom had gravitated to his side.
It was just after dinner. The women had formed a huddle. The younger men had formed a huddle. And now Tom and Malc were forming their own huddle with Coert.
“She’s not a match,” Coert responded in a guess at the question.
“Shit,” Malc whispered.
“But Cady’s brother told us today that they found a compatible, unrelated donor in the National Marrow Donor Program so there’s hope,” Coert went on.
“This why you’re leaving tomorrow?” Tom deduced.
Coert nodded.
“Right . . . and so?” Malc pressed.
“So . . . what?” Coert asked.
“Felt my son get tense when you and Cady had Callum, probably thought you two were conspiring to kidnap his boy. Is that where this is going?”
“Her birthday is the day after we get back,” Coert shared. “She’s demanded no presents, which sucks because I was going to give her the ring I bought her when I bought her that diamond she’s wearing at her neck. So I’m giving her a ring the day after. But she’s moving in in a couple of weeks and we’re going to start trying as soon as possible. Cady isn’t entirely in on those plans yet, but we’ll talk tonight and she’ll be in on them before she goes to sleep.”
“Simpatico,” Tom muttered.
“We always were,” Coert returned.
“She’s a great gal, Coert,” Malc said. “Figured she was with all you said about her, but it’s nice to finally be able to get to know her.”
“Yeah,” Coert replied, though the circumstances sucked for why they were in Denver, it had been a great night and that was one of the reasons it was.
“Is there a way to tell you how fuckin’ happy I am this is where it’s all ending?” Tom asked.
“No, since I’m living that and there’s no way to describe how happy I am that we got what we lost back,” Coert answered.
Tom nodded.
Malc clapped him on the shoulder.
“This division of genders thing is boring,” Ally called out. “Next thing you know, you men are going to be thinking we’re going to sashay into the kitchen and the miracle of clean dishes will be performed.”
“That’s my girl,” Malc murmured, looking at his daughter with amused eyes.
“God doesn’t send angels down to do the dishes?” Hank teased his sister.
“I’ll remind you I took Luke down our last sparring match,” Ally threatened her brother.
“You did that because Ava walked in, ready for their date night wearing a new dress,” Lee returned.
“He shouldn’t have let his guard down,” Ally shot back.
“It was a nice dress,” Lee muttered, his eyes crinkling.
“How nice was this dress, Lee?” Indy asked, her eyes narrowed.
“Very nice, baby,” Lee replied, his eyes still crinkled, but he saved it when he finished, “But obviously, not as nice as any of yours.”
“Luke’s one of Lee’s badasses,” Ally explained to Cady, and incidentally, Coert, referring to the team of private investigators at Lee’s firm. “And distracted or not, a takedown is a takedown.”
“Agreed,” Kitty Sue said firmly.
“You all kind of scare me,” Cady admitted and smiled. “But in a good way.”
“Trust me, you aren’t the first person to feel that,” Roxie told her.
“I love it. It keeps things exciting,” Lana put in.
“And that’s my girl,” Tom muttered appreciatively.
Cady turned her smile to Roxie and Lana and then it went to Kitty Sue. “I don’t mind helping with dishes.”
“Malc and I’ll do them after you all leave. I want to see pictures of this lighthouse. I can’t imagine living in a lighthouse,” Kitty Sue said.
“Do you have a laptop?” Cady asked. “There are tons of tourist shots online.”
“Let’s go to Malc’s office.”
The women trooped out after Indy deposited her son in his father’s arms.
The young men joined the older and it was Malcolm who went in to take his grandson from his son’s arms.
“We share a soft spot for redheads,” Lee stated, gaze on Coert, this telling him something Coert had figured out since Indy was tall and curvy to Cady’s short and curvy, but they shared the same hair color. “Just hope yours doesn’t have her own code on police band.”
Coert chuckled. “I’m the sheriff of my county and Cady’s recently lost a loved one she inherited a load from. She dropped a load of that on renovating the town’s lighthouse, which she made her home, and then opened it for tours two days a month, and I’m not talking just the grounds. She lets strangers inside. Dozens of them. Two days a month. Which means some of those pictures your mom’s gonna be looking at are online photos of the interior of my woman’s house, because she allows freaking pictures. So fortunately she doesn’t have her own code but she’s her own brand of nut.”
“You allowed that?” Malc asked with not a small amount of surprise.
“You try allowing anything with Cady. If she wants to do it, she does it,” Coert replied.
Or she talked him into being all right with it.
Or at least pretending he was all right with it but instead he found a way to put up with it.
“I feel that pain,” Ren muttered, Ally’s husband, who might be a crime boss’s nephew but as Malcolm told it, was personally legit, and such a good-looking guy, Coert could even call that he was handsome.
“Me too,” Hank said.
“It’s in the blood. Kitty Sue and her best friend Katie made Indy and Ally look like amateurs,” Malcolm told them.
Lee raised his bottle of beer between all of them, tipping the bottom out. “Here’s to lives that’ll never be boring.”
The rest of the men lifted their bottles and clinked the butts.
They brought them to their lips.
“Malc!” They heard shouted from down the hall and all the men looked that way. “We are soooooo vacationing in Maine this summer!”
“When’s your wedding?” Malcolm asked.
Coert turned back to him.
“Sometime this summer,” Coert winged it.
The skin around Malcolm’s eyes crinkled. “Then Maine in summertime it is.”
“I’m feeling the need to give my sister a heart attack. I’m gonna go clear the table,” Hank announced. “Do I got any help?”
“I’m in,” Lee said.
“Yeah,” Ren muttered.
They took off.
Coert, Malcolm and Tom watched them go.
“Finally, you’re at the good part,” Malcolm said quietly, and again Coert turned to him to see Callum had snuggled in to his granddad and was getting sleepy. “You get the fun of makin’ ’em. Then you get the fun of watchin’ ’em grow up and find the one they love. And then you get this.” His hand on Callum’s diapered bottom lifted the baby half an inch. “So it’s been shit for you for a while. But that’s over. And it’s all good from here.”
“That, I’ll drink to too,” Tom said, raising his beer, bottom out.
Coert would drink to that too.
So he and Tom and Malcolm butted beers again.
And then like old times but without the stress, tension and tragedy, instead with kids, grandkids and promise all around, they slugged some back.
Coert was not a big fan of watching Cady slide his cock totally out of her mouth.
Though he did like that she did it to use that mouth to work her way up his stomach and chest.
And he very much liked it when her lips hit his and he felt her adjust to straddle his hips.
He put hands to her hips, sliding one in and up her spine and sliding one in the other way to hit a different target.
Both hands arrested when the fog of goodness that was Cady giving him head drifted away and he processed the look in her eyes.
“No condom,” she whispered.
Coert felt his lips curl up.
Oh yeah.
Simpatico.
But his lips also asked, “You sure?”
“I’m sure,” she said softly. “You sure?”
He felt a different kind of burn hit his gut as he took hold of her, lifted his head to give her a kiss, rolled her while he was doing it, got her to her back and slid inside.
Every time.
Christ.
Every single time.
Heaven.
Once he was planted, he murmured, “I’m sure.”
That was when Cady’s lips curled up.
He hitched a knee and thrust deep, driving a gasp between Cady’s lips and feeling that gasp drive up his balls through his cock.
“She’s a girl, she’s Grace,” he said against her mouth.
“Okay, honey.”
“It’s a boy, he’s Dean,” he told her.
Her fingers clutched his hair, her legs clutched his thighs, her hips lifted to take each of his strokes and her arm around his back held tight.
“Whatever you want. You get to name them.”
He moved inside her faster, and since she was being so agreeable, he declared, “And the ring I’m giving you on your birthday isn’t a birthday present. It’s an engagement present.”
That got another gasp and not only because on his last word he went in hard.
“Ho . . . kay,” she forced out between two thrusts.
“Yeah?” he pushed in more ways than one.
“Whatever you want,” she breathed, trying to take his mouth in a kiss.
He withheld, remarking, “Setting a precedent here to get what I want,” he slid in and started grinding, “when I’m giving you what you want.”
Her nails dug into his back and his hips flexed into hers in response.
“Stop being annoying,” she warned.
“You love it when I’m annoying,” he replied.
“Which is also annoying,” she told him.
He smiled.
He felt the smile fade as he watched her heated eyes get hotter but nothing could burn away the love that shone from there.
“Grace,” he whispered.
She pressed her lips to his and whispered back, “Dean.”
He slanted his head and slid his tongue inside.
Minutes later, Cady tightened all around him and moaned down his throat.
Minutes after that, Coert buried himself deep and groaned down hers.
Dean wasn’t made that night.
He was made two nights later in Cady’s bed at the lighthouse.
On her birthday.
When it happened, Cady wore a diamond at her neck.
And one on her left finger.
Other than that, she and Coert wore nothing at all.
Two weeks after that, Coert and Janie moved Cady into their house.
Precisely, Coert, Jake, Mickey and Junior moved Cady into their house.
This was because Cady was dressed as a fairy godmother and Janie was dressed as a mermaid, while Josie was dressed as a film star, Amy was dressed as Snow White, Alyssa was dressed (it could only be described) as a slutty Greek goddess, and even Midnight had Supergirl’s cape on.
So they were no help at all.
Not a Fucking Thing
Cady
Present day . . .
IT WAS WEIRD AND IT was concerning when I pulled into the garage, parked and entered the house, that when I turned to look into the kitchen, Coert wasn’t there or sauntering in to greet me.
If he was home and I was not, this was what happened.
Usually I was in the kitchen when he came home, cooking him dinner. Over the last two weeks that we’d been living together, Coert said time and again that I didn’t have to.
He’d stopped doing that when I finally convinced him that I knew I didn’t have to, I wanted to.
And anyway, when Janie was home, I now picked her up from preschool and she helped me and that was my favorite part of those days.
Except when she was asleep in bed and Coert and I were alone in our own bed, of course.
But that night was late day mani-pedis at Maude’s House of Beauty with Alyssa, Josie and Amy followed by drinks and dinner with the girls.
Maybe he didn’t greet me because he wasn’t expecting me to get home that early.
I was home early because the weather got weird.
It was March and we were having an unusual heatwave.
This “heatwave” consisted of it getting over fifty degrees the last two days but such was a heatwave for Maine, which meant the snow was melting fast. Making matters worse, on my way home, a thunderstorm had rolled in. There were weather advisories because apparently a cold front was getting ready to slam right into the heatwave and there were concerns that the rain would turn to sleet, hail or snow and the wet that was everywhere was going to ice over.
As another roll of thunder moved over the house, I looked to the ceiling thinking this was where Coert might be. If there was a possibility the roads would be bad, I’d learned that it was all hands on deck. People took stupid chances in weather and most of Coert’s job was dealing with people doing stupid things.
That said, he’d normally tell me he had to go out.
I put my jacket on a hook by the door, walked into the kitchen and pulled out my phone before I tossed my purse on the island.
I checked it for missed calls or texts from Coert.
Nothing.
“Coert!” I called, tossing the phone on top of my purse.
“Bedroom!” I heard.
“Strange,” I murmured and moved into the foyer, up the stairs and into the bedroom.
As usual, the house was illuminated everywhere even though we didn’t have Janie.
Including the bedroom, although the bathroom door was open and the light was out.
And Coert wasn’t anywhere to be seen.
“Coert!” I called again.
“Here,” I heard his deep voice coming from the closet.
Very strange.
We had a small walk-in. It was nice and Coert had set it up so it was exceptionally functional, but it wasn’t going to be photographed for any magazine because that just wasn’t Coert.
Or me.
It was still better than what I had at the lighthouse (which had been close to nothing), and since neither Coert nor I were clothes hounds, it worked perfectly.
I moved to the closet but stopped dead in the doorway.
“What’s happening?” I whispered.
And I whispered this, frozen in place staring at Coert on his side in the corner of the closet amongst a tangle of Coert’s boots and running shoes, his long body wrapped around a visibly trembling to the point I wondered if she was in shock Midnight.
“The thunder rolled in and she lost it, raced up here,” Coert replied, not moving, wrapped around our dog and stroking her full body from her head that was buried in Coert’s shoulder to her rump. “She’s actually better. She was keening, Cady, and fuck, it was the ugliest sound I ever heard. I can’t leave her. If I even move, she starts making that noise again.”
I went to them, dropped to my knees and instantly wrapped myself around Midnight, twining with Coert to do it when I felt the violence of her trembling physically against my own flesh.
While Coert stroked, I wrapped an arm around her and held her tight, pressing my body to hers.
“I take it from your response you haven’t seen this before,” Coert noted.
I shook my head.
I watched the expression on his face shift from troubled to something that, if I didn’t know him, would have terrified me.
“Should we call the vet?” I asked.
I knew how bad it was when he replied immediately, “I’ve been waiting for you to get home to do that. Can’t leave her, even if my phone is on the freaking nightstand, it’s been that bad. But I also don’t think we should make her wait until the storm passes. She needs to be sedated.”
I nodded. “Do you want me to call or do you want me to stay with her and you call?”
“I’ve got her. You go.”
I nodded again, bent my head, shoved my face in her fur and whispered, “It’s okay, baby. We’re gonna look out for you.”
She didn’t shift, just stayed shoved up against Coert, quaking full body.
I gave her a squeeze, carefully slid away, got to my feet and walked as calmly as I could out of the closet.
It wasn’t until I got to the bedroom door that I ran.
I called the vet, explained the situation, told her there was no way we could take our dog out into the storm, begged for a house call, and I must have sounded as frightened as I was because I got one. I took my phone back up to stay with Coert and Midnight while we waited for the vet to arrive.
When the doorbell rang, that time Coert decided to leave me with her, and by then we knew it was the right call because the thunder had passed, the storm hadn’t, and Midnight was no better.
The keening began again when Coert started to disengage from her and hearing it felt like my ears had started bleeding.
I flashed eyes I knew were wild with worry at Coert and tried to waylay him from moving.
“I’ll go,” I told him.
“Be back as quick as I can,” he muttered and moved fast.
When he left, Midnight wailed like she’d been surprised by sudden and intense pain and she shuffled on her belly into the corner, burying her face under her paws.
I plastered myself to her back and wrapped my arms around her, murmuring, “Daddy’s gone but I’m right here. I’m right here, baby. You’re safe, Midnight. Daddy’s going to be back. But I’m right here.”
Coert was true to his word and he and the vet came into the closet within minutes. Since there wasn’t enough space, I let Coert take over, watching Midnight scuttle into him whining and doing it feeling my heart swell as he accepted her fear into his big, strong body at the same time break at the sight of her having it. I moved to stand in the doorway as Coert held a shaking Midnight while the vet looked her over, asked a few questions and then administered an injection.