I'm excited to see where this story goes. Let me know.
IzzyPOV;
I walked towards the bar, smiling. I leaned backwards and watched Peter and Jasper in their conversation. I couldn't tell what they were talking about, but they were concentrated on each other. Jasper didn't look very happy, so I wondered what had them so interested.
"New boy caught your eye?" Cece said from behind me. Cece, Cecelia Vander, is my bartender. I turned to look her in the eye.
"CeCe, you have no idea." I groaned and hit my head on the bar. "I don't get it! It's like, liking myself… He reminds me of Jasper, who in turn reminds me of myself." I lifted my head and swiveled around again, resuming my leaning posture.
I looked towards the table, where Peter and Jasper just sat. Yet Peter wasn't there, hmm. I let my head fall back and my eyes close.
"A bottle of Jack, ma'am," I heard his deep voice rumble from in front of me, "What about you, Isabella?"
I sat up quickly, he was closer than I expected, but I didn't back down. "Izzy. Or Iz. Never Isabella, I swear to God I will kick your ass ten ways to Sunday Church Service." He chuckled, but stopped when I lifted my knee, hard and fast, but stopped just short of his crotch. "A shot of tequila would be nice, Peter." I continued as though nothing had happened, and he let out a low whistle.
"Alright, Cece," He stated. "A shot of tequila, too, please."
I heard her footfalls as she stepped away to get his and my drinks. He took a step back, and offered me a bar stool.
"Sorry 'bout that, darlin'," He said, taking his own seat as Cece set down our drinks and walked way again. "I thought you knew I was comin'." He winked at me, "But you enjoyed it."
I laughed, downed the shot, and squared him with a level stare. "Now, is that a way to speak to a lady?" I glared playfully a bit, and then continued. "Maybe I did," With that, I walked away again.
The rest of night passed uneventfully, but I had an early shift at the restaurant, so I left around ten. I drove the 20 miles back to the farm and smiled as Jeremiah opened the door for me.
"What's cookin'?" I asked as delicious smells hit my nose. I couldn't make out what it was, but followed it to the kitchen.
"Deer jerky and fried green beans," He replied, setting a plate in front of me. "Thought I'd cook up what we didn't eat last weekend at the barbeque." He sat down with his own food as I dug in.
"Mmmm..." I replied, my eyes fluttering to the taste of the food. I swallowed and spoke again, as I got up to get some tea. "Jasper, Jeni, and Peter will be on their way in a bit; they were just locking up the bar and settling our night-customers in beds."
"Peter?" He asked, "Who's that?"
"You didn't meet Peter yet?" He shook his head. "He was a military General, Jasper's first hand man. He needed a place to stay, 'cause his old girl was cheating on him." I laughed, "I don't get why; that boy is all sugar and iced tea."
"Sounds like you know from experience, are we talking brown sugar or cane?" I smiled at my brother. "Oooh, is he a hot chocolate mocha, or a frozen Kiwi Lemonade?" In hindsight, Jeremiah didn't look or act at all gay, it was all on the inside; just who he liked, not who he was. He caught a lot of hell for it in high school, but everyone grows up some day.
"Definitely pure cane, baby doll," He sighed. "And I find him more of a black coffee with a buttered biscuit. Mmmm, he looks all kinds of delicious."
"Who looks all kinds of delicious?" I heard his deep, sexy voice come from the door way.
"Speak of the devil and he shall appear," I smiled at him. "You, of course Peter, you're gon' be the talk around here for quite a while. None of the tourists have ever looked as good as you." I winked and put my plate in the sink.
"Howdy, Peter. My name's Jeremiah," They shook hands and then stepped back again. Jeremiah looked awkward, so I decided to save him embarrassment.
"Help yourself, Peter," I nodded to the stove where all the plates of food were. "It's deer, freshly hunted last week, and fried green beans. I hope you don't mind, we'll have to get to know you better before we know what to cook and what not to."
He grabbed a plate and sat down, speaking with a hint of Spanish accent on his tongue. "This'll be great darlin'; I can't imagine y'all are gonna fatten me up to do something with me, so I'll eat whatever."
"I can tell ya that you're gonna put on some weight, General, but I can't promise that we'll eat ya. I don't know about Izzy, but I don't want that." I heard Jasper's voice from the doorway. I turned to look at him, smiling at his 'normal' clothes. He wore a pair of baggy sweats with his hair wet, no shirt on. I could see his golden framed tattoo on his chest; 'Ali Shae' was written inside of a grey rose, framed by gold light.
"Hmmm, I can't promise I won't Peter." Jeremiah winked at him, then dried his hands on the dish towel and walked towards the door, speaking again. "I'm going to hit the hay, darlings, see y'all in the morning."
I laughed at him, winking at his expression.
"So, Major, who is 'Ali Shae'?" Peter asked, quizzical, examining his tattoo.
"Ali Shae was my daughter, Peter. Born October third, '09; she died in a car accident on her second birthday. Her momma, Alice Brandon; you'll meet her later, was driving when a drunk man slammed into the side of the Sedan on the way home from day care. Ali died on impact, but Alice survived with just a few broken ribs and a broken heart." He took a deep breath and steeled himself for the next part, taking a seat across from me. "Alice blames herself, says that it was her own stupidity that cause Ali to leave us for heaven. She was depressed, and still is sometimes. She'll catch me off duty and bawl to me on the phone about how 'stupid she is'. See, a couple months after it happened, Alice tried to commit suicide and failed. They locked her up, but let her go when the doctors diagnosed her with a late trauma disorder. She just takes meds for it now, and she's doing better." I leaned in and wiped the stray tear away.
"Oh, fuck. Man, I'm sorry for bringin' it up." Peter stood up. "Fuck. I'll just go take a shower."
Jasper let his head fall as his friend left the room and the sobs started up. I stood up lifting his head and sitting in his lap. He wrapped his arms around me and cried for a while, just to let it all out. I let him. When he was done, he took a few deep breaths and looked at me with blood shot eyes, standing us both up. Peter had already gone to his bedroom and was asleep, so we padded down the hall to our bedrooms and were out a bit later.
*-*-*_*_*-*-* (Time skip)
It was a few days later, a few days of watching Peter interact with other people and wallowing in my own self-pity of not being able to love him, because he was Jasper's friend. I felt bad because I liked him so much, I just couldn't figure out what drew me to him so much.
Jasper and I were cooking breakfast for everyone before I went off to work; myself in shorts and a camisole, Jazz in his sweats and no tee.
"I give you my permission, baby girl." Jazz said all of a sudden. With my look of confusion, he continued. "To date Peter, if you want. Not that I could stop either of you." He kissed me on my forehead and left the room. Peter appeared at the door a few minutes later, dressed similar to Jazz, with black sweatpants instead of grey.
He smiled at me "What was that I heard about permission?"
We'd had this discussion on Friday night, right before Peter and Jazz talked, more like argued. I guess they'd worked it out overnight?
"Well, I was thinking… maybe you'd like to head out to the lake with me tonight, after work?" I asked, bold.
"Isn't it supposed to be me asking you that question, doll-face?" I laughed at his expression and sat two plates at the table. I gestured for him to take a seat with me.
"Maybe, but we need to get some things out in the open before I tell you what he said and now is not the time nor place." I looked at the clock, and then back at him. "We have 45 minutes to get ready for Morning shift at the restaurant, and we both need showers."
"Right," He winked at me, a cocky smirk on his face.
"Oh, get off your high horse, Peter." I winked back and then began shoveling the bacon and sausage gravy down my throat. It scorched, serving to wake me up along with my coffee.
We finished the rest of our breakfast in content silence and rinsed our dishes. We walked down the hall, but he stopped with me at my door.
"Can I tell you something, Izzy?" He asked, grabbing my hand that was on the door knob. I nodded at him, signaling his continue. "I've only liked on girl as much as I do you, and she hurt me. Forgive me if I'm slightly off about some things, okay?"
"Yes, absolutely, Peter," I told him.
"Thank you, Isabella." I didn't have it in me to complain as I watched him retreat into his own bedroom.
I took my shower, the hot water washing the knots away.
My week had been less stressful than normal with Jasper in town. Things were easier to deal with, with my twin 'round. The bar had been great, and with the harvest from the farm doing good this year, we got the new work uniforms for the bar. They consisted of a stretchy-fabric tank top with 'Whitlock Manor' across the front. The bottoms, which were plain elastic banded shorts, are now a tight mini-skirt with the employee's name on the butt. It gave the customers more entertainment and us more tips; more cash, more improvements, more for the customers. It was a win/win situation.
The day passed in a blur of booze and baby spit up. We had a regular couple that came in for lunch, every Saturday, for the same thing. They had a 5 month old daughter, and this is where they'd met, so it was a tradition.
After my shift, I waited for Peter by the Ford, and we drove out to the lake with a picnic dinner in the back. We set up with a plain orange blanket by the crest and the truck's music playing in the background.
We had our dinner and began our discussion.
"Isabella," I had come to allow him to call me that in serious situations. "I just wanted to say, that whatever happens today, I'll always thank God for the time we had."
"Peter, this morning Jasper told me something that really surprised me. We hadn't even been talking about it, at the time we were debating adding a new type of liquor to the bar's collection and he just comes out with it."
"Breath, Izzy," He replied. "Keep going."
"He told me that we 'have his blessing' to date." I chuckled a little under my breath about the next part. "And then said 'not that I could stop you' and walked away."
He chuckled with me. "Tha's right." He winked at me and then leaned in a bit. "Can I kiss you Isabella?" He leaned in a bit more at my nod of reassurance.
He leaned his head down, slowly. When our lips touched, the kiss tingled with sweetness, starting fires inside me. He pulled away a few minutes later, my breath shaky and my insides quaked and scorched. He pulled back a bit, resting his forehead against my own. He sighed pecking my lips again and pulled away to breathe some more.
"Wow."
"Wow, it was." I replied.
I'm thinking a Peter chapter is coming soon? Hit me up!
