In Love With My Bully Step-brother

Chapter 9 | Mother’s Feeling a Little Salty

Susie’s POV

I tried not to think about the words that Ashleigh had just spoken to me but it was quite difficult.

The gifts were supposed to be a surprise but she’d walked into the room much earlier than I had anticipated. Sure, I may have been moved to buy them because I felt guilty about how much distance I had kept between us since she arrived.

It wasn’t that I didn’t want to be close to my daughter. It’s that I didn’t even know how to be close to her and her words had reminded me once again of my shortcomings.

Leaving Ashleigh all those years ago had been the hardest decision I’d ever had to make. But how did you explain to your child that you’d abandoned them for their own good? It wasn’t a conversation I was ready to have…with anyone.

I pushed open my bedroom door, the one I didn’t share with Reginald. The one I had kept for situations such as this. Reginald was a very caring person and sometimes I needed to get away from all the love he liked to shower so, I had kept this extra bedroom for times like that. He understood, even though he wished it were different.

In addition to a bed and work table, the room also functioned as a box room so, I stored a lot of my extra stuff that couldn’t go into the master bedroom here. Amongst these things was the sacred box which I never left anyone see. Okay, maybe I might have let Reginald take a peek or two. It was a box filled with memories from my past. A time where I was a different person but with the same dream.

I went to the top shelf of the closet where I kept it. I was about to pull it down when I heard a slight knock on the door. Then, the person pushed it open and I know it had to be my fiancé.

“Thought I would find you here,” he said.

He briefly glanced at where my hand had been and then at me. He knew not to ask so, he just ignored whatever he was thinking.

“The wedding planner has been trying your line all evening. She says you need to call her back ASAP. It’s about the venue.”

“Oh!” If it was about the venue then it really had to be urgent.

I had been trying to book one of the largest halls in LA for the wedding. It had an outdoor garden with a fountain which I thought would be perfect for the joining ceremony. But the problem was, the management just couldn’t find the perfect time to accommodate us. Either their chosen dates clashed with something on my calendar or it was the other way around. I really hoped Mona, my planner, was calling with good news.

“I’ll be out in a minute,” I told Reginald. I was fidgeting with my fingers but I didn’t move from my position.

“Did you give Ashleigh the gifts yet?”

I sighed. I didn’t want to visibly react but it was all still fresh in my mind and Reginald was the last person I could lie to. He always saw right through me.

“I did. She loved them. I think.”

Reginald chuckled. He advanced toward me and pulled me into his arms. “I know you feel like you’re doing everything wrong sometimes.”

“Sometimes?” I sighed, hugging him tighter.

Reginald laughed again. “It’s that way with kids. Especially when they’re all grown up. I know. I had to go through it twice and it didn’t get easier with each child.”

“Does it get easier at all?” I needed to know that I wouldn’t always feel like I was in a battle with my child.

“I mean, you did miss most of Ashleigh’s milestones and with the two of you, it might be difficult. But, you just need to find something to bring the two of you closer.”

I knew that even as Reginald spoke to me, he was also talking to himself. He didn’t exactly have the best kind of relationship with his kids. I didn’t yet fully understand the whole deal but I knew they blamed him for his failed previous marriage. Perhaps Ashleigh blamed me too for everything that has gone wrong in her life.

In my case, I guess there was a little truth in the accusation.

“Hey,” Reginald inserted an index finger under my chin and lifted my face up. “If you just need a moment, all you gotta do is say the word.”

What he meant by a ‘moment’ was actually vacation. He’d done it for me before when I had been swamped with so much work that I was finding it hard to concentrate. He’d made reservations at some exotic island, told me to f**k work and shipped me off to have the most incredible week of my life. I had been so disappointed when I had to return but the trip sure had helped.

This time around though, I couldn’t exactly escape from the problems at hand. Firstly, I had a wedding to plan and there was no way I was leaving my dream wedding to the hands of someone else. Trusted hands, but I was here for the whole process. Secondly, I might not be doing so well as a mother but the last thing I wanted to do was disappear on Ashleigh.

“I’m good,” I told Reginald. “But thank you for the offer. I’ll save it for a later date.”

“I’ll take that,” Reginald kissed my nose, laughing even as he did so.

Then he moved to my cheeks and neck and uh-oh, I knew where this was going to lead to. His fingers landed on the top button of my blouse. Once he had gotten them all open, he pulled me closer by my bum and I felt the bulge in his pants. I started giggling.

“Was Mona really calling me or you just needed an excuse to come in here and do this?” I asked him, accusingly.

“Both, actually,” he responded and spun me around so that my back was to his front. “May I?”

I nodded. Perhaps a vacation was too far-fetched but s*x with Reginald could definitely work as a welcomed distraction to my present dilemma.