Kristen Ashley: Play It Safe

They moved away from each other and she turned and waved at me.

I waved back.

She moved to the driver’s side door and Gray bent to look into her backseat where I could see the thick, burnished blond-haired head of Holt who was strapped in a child’s seat and I could also see Abel’s near-identical hair where he was secured in his baby seat.

Norrie started up the truck and waved again as Gray backed away, not waving but jerking up his chin.

Then she reversed out as he turned and made his way to me.

He had to go to the stairs because there was a lush, thick, wide border of white, pink and red impatiens all around the house including the porch. He could leap it, I had no doubt, but he never did.

Norrie drove down the lane as I watched my husband move. And as he made his way to me, he lifted his hand, doing what men do for whatever reason they did it. He grabbed the bill of his baseball cap, pulled it off, flipped it back on, pulled it off again then settled it back on his head.

I didn’t know why men did that and I didn’t ask because I didn’t care. Like everything Gray, when he did it, I thought it was hot. I didn’t want to bring his attention to it because if I did, he might stop.

He walked up the steps and came right to me, bending low to grab his beer bottle that he left on the porch floor when Norrie came to get the kids.

She did this often and she did it to give Gray and me a break. But she mostly did it because she was a grandma who loved her grandkids and she was a mother who missed her son growing up. Therefore, if she could help it, she was not going to miss any more of her family.

This sentiment was shared by Hoot who came regularly, stayed long and, not as often, but it happened, took the boys off on some adventure with their Granddaddy.

I grew up with very little.

Therefore I loved it that my boys had everything.

Gray settled on the swing at my side, immediately hooked an arm around my chest and pulled me into him, forcing my hips to twist in the seat as he pulled my back to the side of his front.

With ease borne of practice since we sat here often just like that, I lifted my bare feet and tanned legs, cocked my knees, set my feet in the seat and I settled my weight into Gray.

When I settled, my eyes aimed themselves toward the paddock where the horses were standing or wandering lazily. The sky was blue. It was late afternoon but the sun was still bright and warm. There was no sound except the whispered rush of a breeze in the leaves of the trees.

I sighed.

Then I smoothed my hand over the stylish (I thought) but still countrified, cowgirl sundress I was wearing, my hand moving over the growing baby bump that was my belly.

For awhile, Gray and I sat in silence as we often did.

Then I broke the silence.

“What do you think about the name Booker?”

I named our first boy Holt Grayson Cody. Gray named our second boy Abel Lash Cody.

Yes, Lash.

Seriously, I loved Grayson Cody.

Now, we’d found out the baby growing in my belly was another boy.

I didn’t mind another boy. The two I had were awesome.

But it was my turn to name our child.

“Booker?” Gray asked.

“Booker Frederick,” I answered.

I felt him take a sip of beer.

Then he muttered, “Works for me.”

Easy as that.

Works for me.

I grinned at the horses.

We fell silent again and the swing swayed gently.

Then it hit me I was in a swing when I first met Gray.

And now we were in a swing together on the porch on his house on his land.

Him and me.

“Baby?” I called.

“Yeah, dollface,” he answered.

“Paid in full,” I whispered and his arm gave me a squeeze.

“Say again?” he asked.

“You promised me by the time I left this earth, you’d pay me back. You should know, you paid that debt early,” I answered softly then slid my hand again over my belly and finished quietly, “ Way early and way paid in full.”

Gray was silent and still a moment then he shifted and I felt his lips on my hair.

He shifted back and muttered, “Good.”

I grinned again.

Then we fell silent again and swayed.

We did this awhile.

Then Gray asked, “Feel like headin’ into town for a pulled pork sandwich and a coupla games of pool at The Rambler?”

I turned toward him and shifted up then looked into his beautiful eyes.

Then my gaze drifted up to the short, barely visible scar over his eyebrow.

I lifted my hand and, with a finger, I touched it gently.

Then I dropped my hand to his chest and my eyes back to his.

His were tender.

Yeah, oh yeah, I loved Grayson Cody.

Then I replied, “Works for me.”

Gray lifted a hand and tucked my hair behind my ear.

Then he grinned, giving me the dimple.

I grinned back.