Thank you for your continuous support. I appreciate it.
Standard disclaimer.
"Let me get this straight," Noah said, putting his beer on the ground between his feet. "You took Mercedes to meet your family, without any type of warning and you were surprised, they didn't believe the two of you were dating?"
"Yes!" Sam said.
"Well, I can see why they didn't believe you," Hunter said, as he snagged another beer out of the ice bucket.
"Oh, and why is that?" Sam asked, as he stole the beer out of his hands.
Hunter grumbled something, but smartly let it go. Then, he grabbed another beer and popped the top.
"Well, wasn't your mother getting on your case about settling down?" Noah asked.
"Yes, and you would think she'd be happy, when I brought Mercedes home."
Noah nodded.
"And for the past year, hasn't she been threatening you, with finding someone for you?"
"Yes, but..."
"And every time you went over there for dinner, party or cookout, hasn't your mother had several women on hand to meet you?" Noah continued.
"Yes, but..."
"Did she have any women at the BBQ for you to meet?" Hunter asked.
"Five or six, I guess," Sam said, with a shrug of his shoulders.
He hadn't really paid attention to any of them, other than to duck the hell out of the way, when they were looking for him.
Just like every other time his mother tried to play matchmaker, she'd chosen needy, well, more like clingy women, who had no other interests, other than themselves and finding a boyfriend.
Both of his friends sucked in a breath.
"Shit!"
"That must have pissed Mercedes off," Noah said.
"I don't think she had time to notice. Not with half the men in my family hitting on her," Sam bit out angrily.
"That's fucked up," Hunter said.
It was pretty fucked up.
No one listened to him.
It was one of the most annoying parties he'd ever been to.
When he wasn't trying to get away, from some really annoying, clingy woman, his mother had invited, with the sole purpose of marrying him, he was busy getting into arguments, with whatever bastard in his family, was asking for Mercedes' phone number.
And like every single other time, Mercedes was completely oblivious to it.
Every time he pulled her aside to talk to her about it, she just laughed, until tears were rolling down her cheeks.
When they returned to the room, it was obvious that she had cried and every man would glare at him.
They acted like she needed protection from him.
It should have been painfully obvious to everyone in the room, how he felt about Mercedes.
He made no secret, that she was his world, not that anyone believed him.
Why was it so hard to believe, that he'd straightened out for Mercedes?
He didn't think there was anything difficult about it. Even if he wasn't constantly hugging her, putting his arm around her, holding her hand or trying to kiss her, he told them, but had that stopped any of those bastards, from trying to make a move on her?
Hell no!
"Your family probably thought, you brought Mercedes there as a decoy, to get your mother to stop harassing the hell out of you, about settling down and to use her as an excuse to avoid those women," Hunter pointed out.
Sam crushed his empty beer can and tossed it into the bucket, in the corner of his deck.
It should be obvious to everyone that he'd changed.
Hell, a year ago, he would have had Hunter toss that beer can up in the air, so he could shoot it with his paintball gun.
Didn't it strike any of his friends as odd, that not only did he toss it into a bucket, but his deck and patio furniture, were also cleaned and repaired, his lawn freshly mowed and the inside of his house was clean?
Those were big goddamn changes in his book.
"That's what I was thinking," Noah said, tossing his can at the bucket and missing.
It landed on Sam's freshly cut lawn and he gestured angrily for him to pick it up.
With an eye roll, Noah did just that.
"Whatever. This is really boring sitting around here, talking about relationships, like we're a bunch of women," Hunter said. "Let's get the hell out of here."
He stood up, waiting for the other two men to follow.
And Noah and Sam shared a look, shrugged and got to their feet.
What the hell, it wasn't like they had anything better to do, since Quinn was off with a client and Mercedes was off hitting up yard sales.
"Great, let's go hit the strip clubs," Hunter said merrily.
"Whoa there, Skippy," Sam said, coming to a sudden halt. "That shit ain't happening."
"What the hell do you mean?" Hunter asked, sounding like a petulant child. "I want to go stare at hot chicks getting naked."
"I'm out as well," Noah announced, though it wasn't necessary. The man hadn't been to a strip club since he met Quinn.
"Come on, it's Tuesday. It's all you can eat hot wings at the Hot Bunny Club. We can go there, fill up, and get a few lap dances. And we can hook up with Cindy and Mindy afterwards. What's more fun than stripper sex?"
Sam could only look at his friend dumbly for a moment. But Hunter was serious, really serious.
"Have you forgotten about something?" Sam asked calmly, more calmly than he felt.
Hunter looked truly confused when he asked,
"What?"
"I have a girlfriend!" Sam snapped, quickly losing patience. "Why in the hell would I want to pay some woman, to show me something I'm not interested in, when I'm dating Mercedes? And why in the hell would you think, I wanted to cheat on my girlfriend?"
If humanly possible Hunter looked even more confused.
"How is it cheating if you're not married?"
Noah and Sam just stared at him.
What the hell was he supposed to say to that?
Actually, it worried him, that not a year ago, he would have been on Hunter's side of this argument. That was truly frightening.
Hell, he would've been the one starting that argument...before Mercedes.
Wow! Just wow! It wasn't exactly the best feeling in the world, to discover how big an asshole he once was.
He'd really changed, since getting to know Mercedes and shockingly for the better.
And surprisingly. he didn't feel pissed off or scared, that she'd been able to bring out these changes in him.
"Come on, man! Come with me. It'll be fun," Hunter pleaded.
Sam grabbed a fresh beer and dropped back into his chair.
"What the hell, Sam?" Hunter whined.
Shrugging, Sam took a long sip of his beer.
And Hunter folded his arms stubbornly over his chest, while he scowled at him.
"I never thought this day would come," he said, with obvious disgust.
"Oh, what day is that exactly?" Sam asked, as he leaned his head back to catch some sun.
Anything was better, than watching a grown man pouting.
"The day Sam Evans became pussy-whipped," Hunter announced, earning a chuckle from Noah.
Sam threw Noah a chilling glare, but the man ignored him. So he focused his attention on the little bastard, who was obviously drunk or possibly high...probably both.
He snorted.
"I'm not pussy-whipped," he said.
Since he'd done everything, but slide into that little piece of heaven, he didn't think the term applied to him.
The things they'd done together, made him stifle back a groan. And although he loved what they did, at the same time, he absolutely hated it.
Having Mercedes, but not having her, was difficult as hell.
For any other woman, he would have simply shrugged at the 'no actual sex' rule and walked away.
But for her, there wasn't anything he wouldn't do.
She was the love of his life, his future and the woman he planned on spending the rest of his life with.
So for now, he'd grit his teeth and fight against the urge to jump her, every time he saw her.
His little grasshopper wanted to stick with foreplay, so that's exactly what he was going to do...as long as she kept doing that unbelievably erotic thing, with her tongue and teeth, along the ridge of his...
"I'm surprised he's not panting after her right now," Hunter said, yanking Sam away from his thoughts of Mercedes...naked, bending over...
He shifted uncomfortably in his seat, as discretely as possible.
"We don't spend every minute of the day together," Sam shot back.
Hunter shrugged.
"Yeah, you pretty much do."
"Well, I'm not with her right now, am I?" Sam snapped back.
"Probably because, she didn't want you with her," Hunter said, snagging another beer. "She's probably getting sick of you."
Sam snorted. Then, for good measure, he snorted again.
His little grasshopper wasn't getting sick of him. He was damn sure of that. She absolutely adored him...loved him even.
He knew it, even if the stubborn woman hadn't said it yet, but she would.
Then, he'd tell her how much he loved her, but only after she told him, because, he really didn't want to feel like an idiot saying it first.
He'd never said it before and had absolutely no idea, how to go about doing it now.
So, the safe plan, was to wait until Mercedes said it. He had absolutely no doubt, that she'd say it soon, since there was no doubt in his mind that she loved him.
And no, the reason he was hanging out with the guys today, wasn't because she was getting sick of him.
It was quite simple.
He was banned from going yard sale hopping with her for one year. Not that he cared, he didn't. But it did seem a little unfair to him, that's all.
And it's not like he intentionally went out of his way to embarrass Mercedes. Those things just seemed to happen, to those around him.
Most accepted that little fact of life, but that hadn't stopped her from banning him.
You tell one or six people, that the stuff they were trying to hawk on their front lawns was crap and all of a sudden, you're banned.
Well, that and the box of antique dishes that he broke, might have had something to do with it.
He didn't know why the guy was pissed. He gave him the fifty bucks for it. He should be the one that was mad, after all, he was the one who was out fifty bucks, for a set of broken girly dishes.
"I bet Mercedes is off with another guy right now-Ow! What the hell?" Hunter whined, as he rubbed the nasty looking red spot on his forehead, which would no doubt, be a noticeable bump by morning.
Noah sighed, as he picked up Sam's half empty can of beer, that rolled to a stop by his feet.
He poured the rest of the beer onto the lawn, and he shook his head in disbelief.
"You knew better," he told a sulking Hunter.
"I was just kidding!"
Noah shrugged.
"That's fucked up!"
"Don't talk about my little grasshopper," Sam simply said. The man should be happy, that all he did was throw his beer at him.
Hunter grabbed a handful of ice from the bucket and pressed it against his forehead.
"She's not even that beautiful," he muttered quietly to himself.
Sam was out of his chair and lunging for the little bastard, before the last syllable left his mouth.
But Noah being Noah, dropped his beer and jumped between the two men, seconds before Sam would have slammed into him.
All three men went tumbling off the deck onto the ground, with Noah doing his best, to keep a very pissed off Sam from killing Hunter.
"Get him off me!" Hunter screamed like a girl, as he tried frantically to crawl away.
With Noah on his back, trying his best to hold him back, Sam lunged and managed to grab Hunter's leg and proceeded to drag the man to him, so he could beat the shit out of him.
"For fuck sake, take it back!" Noah yelled, as he struggled to restrain Sam.
"Aaahh!" Hunter screamed, as he was dragged, inch by inch, towards a future in a body cast.
He tried to dig his nails into the lawn, to no avail.
"I didn't mean it like that! She's hot! Insanely beautiful! I just meant that, you've dated really beautiful women before and you've never acted like this! Oh my god, don't kill me!"
The words rush out of Hunter's mouth, ending on a squeal, as Sam dragged him beneath him and flipped him over, with a fist raised and ready.
Hunter lifted his hands...palms out...trying to get Sam to stop.
"I swear to God, I didn't mean it! I love her!" At Sam's growl of anger, he rushed to continue. "Not like that! I love her like a friend! I think she's great! I swear I didn't mean it!"
"I told you not to tease him about her," Noah groaned, as he tried to pull Sam off the man.
But Sam outweighed him, right now, by a good thirty pounds of muscle.
Sam watched his friend through narrowed slits, as he fought back the urge to beat the shit out of him.
This was one of his oldest friends and part of him knew the man was only giving him shit, but he didn't allow anyone to talk about, or treat his little grasshopper with anything but respect.
With barely controlled rage, he took a deep breath, before he spoke.
"Let's clear this up once and for all," Sam said.
At Hunter's enthusiastic nod...probably because, if he was talking, it meant he wasn't beating the crap out of him...he continued,
"Mercedes is my world," he said, ignoring Hunter's eyes, bugging out at that announcement. "But because, we've been friends since we were five, I'm going to overlook this little act of stupidity." Hunter noticeably relaxed at that announcement. "As long as you stop ogling my girlfriend's ass."
Hunter pursed his lips, thinking over the ultimatum.
After a minute, he dropped his arms to his side and sighed,
"I'd rather get my ass kicked."
Really Hunter? Lol
Stay safe!