*Author's Note*
Thanks for reading, faving, following, and reviewing.
For all the fans of Cap/Nova this chapter pushes along their part of the triangle. It kinda alludes to how Tolbert's part in the triangle could be too. Oh, by the way this chapter's the longest one I've written for this story. Anyways have fun reading.
Sunday Pt.3
Novella POV:
When Cap said he lived deep in the hills of Logan, West Virginia, he wasn't lying. The street he lived on was nothing but hill after hill. I went up and down so many hills before finding the mailbox at the edge of the street reading 348. I turned onto the path and drove a few minutes before arriving at a white farm house that looked to be a decent size. A detached garage was next to the house, no doubt having Cap's car parked inside of it. I parked on the path right in front of the garage. After turning off my car I grabbed my purse and got out.
With my bag slung over my shoulder I made my way to the white porch steps and ascended them. I walked across the porch til I reached the front door. I knocked twice before dropping my arm to my side, waiting for Cap to answer. About a minute later the door opened and Cap stood at the threshold. "Come on in." He told me, moving aside. As I walked into the house I heard his rough rolling voice say, "Pizza just got here a few minutes before you did, babe."
I took in my surroundings, noting how the staircase was a craftsman style and was up against the wall right next to the white front door. The walls of the entry hall had light mossy paint on them, making the white staircase and wall molding trim pop out. A coatrack was nestled by the door with Cap's pea coat draped on it. As I turned into the first room to my left, the living room, I simply told Cap, "That's good."
Cap followed behind me while saying, "I hope ya still like cheesy bread cause I got that with the pizza. Got extra sauce for dippin' too."
"You know you didn't have to get the cheesy bread and extra sauce. I would've been fine with just the pepperoni and extra cheese pizza." I told him as I walked over to the leather couch and sat down.
"I didn't mind the bigger order, babe." Cap chuckled, pointing to the pizza parlor boxes and paper plates that were on the coffee table across from the couch. "Since you're in yoga pants I'm gonna go upstairs and change into some sweats. Feel free to make up our plates and grab us some beers from the fridge if ya want." He told me before leaving and heading upstairs to his room.
I got up from the couch and walked out of the living room into the main hallway. I had no idea where the kitchen was, but I figured it had to be close by. I walked a few feet before coming across a large open hallway that led into the kitchen. As I walked into the room I noted that it was very updated for a farmhouse kitchen.
It had a new stove, fridge, dishwasher, and under cabinet mounted microwave. All stainless steel too. The cabinets were a blue-grey and the countertops were marbled, different shades of blue and grey tiles were pattered on the walls for backsplash. A Keurig sat on top of a counter with one of those coffee pod carousels next to it. Also, in the middle of the kitchen floor was an island with some bar height stools.
Like I said, the kitchen was very modern. More so then my uncle's in Pikeville and that was saying something.
I quickly grabbed some beers from the fridge and made my way back to the living room. I set the beers on the coffee table before sitting down on the couch and grabbing some plates. I had just opened up the pizza box whenever I heard Cap's footsteps coming down the stairs. As I placed some slices of pizza on the plates I heard his feet pad against the hardwood floor as he made his way into the living room. He silently sat down next to me as I opened the cheesy bread box, placing some onto the plates next to the pizza.
"You can put on whatever ya want to watch." Cap told me as I passed him his plate after putting a dollop of marina sauce on it. I just nodded as I finished setting up my plate. "So, what were the change in plans that let you come and hang out with me?"
"I told off Randall McCoy and got kicked out of his house as soon I sat down for Sunday dinner." I honestly told Cap, shrugging my shoulders, as I reached over and grabbed the remote off of the coffee table.
"Damn, that's my baby." He let out in a low whistle. As I clicked on the Netflix app on his tv and began to scroll through movie titles he asked me, "So, what'd ya tell him off about?"
"In a nutshell we got into it over my bold eastern ways. He said that I needed to get in line and I remarked that if I didn't would he whack me in the face with his belt too like he did Tolbert over the years. I was kicked out so Tolbert dropped me off at my uncle's before goin' back to his parents' house." I explained while I searched for something to watch as he ate his pizza.
"Shit. He just left you and went back to his crazy drunken daddy's?" Cap asked, a look of disbelief fell over his rugged face, as he paused in eating his pizza. I just nodded which caused him to drop his pizza on the plate in his lap before saying, "He's an asshole. I would've taken ya out to dinner or something."
"Yea, cause with you chivalry's not dead." I noted, bringing some humor to the serious situation.
"No, ma'am, it's not." Will winked at me, giving me a small grin.
"Don't call me ma'am. It makes me feel old."
"A'ight, babe, I won't call ya ma'am again." Cap smirked, winking at me with his milky eye.
"Stop." I lightly giggled, a small smile forming on my lips. "So, why'd you want to hang out for? Doesn't your family do Sundays dinners?" I asked as I found a movie that I wanted to watch.
"Goodfellas. Really, babe? We've seen that too many times." Cap chuckled, shaking his head at me. I just rolled my eyes and hit the play button to start the movie. As the intro music came on he revealed, "Reason I ain't eatin' with my family is that I got kicked out too."
"Why?" It's hard for me to believe he got kicked out of his parents' house. Cap is, after all, the straight shooting ADA that's going to bring justice and revenge to his family for his uncle or at least that's how I surmise his daddy Devil Anse sees him.
His brow arched up as he looked at me. "You really want to know?"
Nodding while picking up my pizza I told him, "Yea or I wouldn't be asking."
"Pa don't want me seeing you. He told me to stop or to leave. I left." Cap told me in a very deep, but rough and even tone.
My eyes widened as the reality, the weight, of what he did hit me like a ton of bricks. "What? Cap, you picked me over your own family? But why?"
"Why not, Nova?" He asked me rhetorically before continuing to say, "I don't give a shit what my Pa says when it comes to us. It's our life, not his. He picked my ma and nobody interfered. I feel I'm able to make my own choice when it comes to datin' and settling down."
"Cap, you can't just throw your family away for me." I told him before dipping my pizza in the marina and taking a bite.
"I'm not, baby." He assured me as he grabbed his piece of cheesy bread. While dipping the bread into some sauce he told me, "It's just, Nova, I'm not gonna have no one, not even my pa, dictate who I can or can't be with." He took a bite of his bread before going on to tell me, "I'm a grown ass man and can make my own choices."
I pointed between us with my piece of bread. "But we're not even together anymore."
As I took a bite of my cheesy bread he told me, "Not yet, but we can fix that."
"So, you want to get back together." I stated, not asked, as I dropped my bread on my plate before grabbing my beer off the coffee table.
I brought the bottle to my lips, taking a sip, while watching him grab his own beer while simply telling me, "I'd like to."
"Cap…" I sighed before taking another sip of my beer.
"Nova, babe, we've barely been split up a month. I don't see why we can't make up and get back together."
"You're the ADA for Pike County and I'm working defense with my uncle for the McCoy boys. Now's not the time for dating." I told him, placing my bottle back on the coffee table, as young Henry Hill began his life of crime as a teenage mobster for a family his mom knew back in Sicily in the movie playing on the tv.
"Bullshit. You're using that as an excuse."
"No, I'm not, Will." I told him, earning me a look of disbelief. I let out sigh before lengthy pouring out my thoughts and feelings with, "Really, it's hard enough for me trying to figure out how to plan a defense when I only got bits and pieces of the puzzle to work with but putting a relationship on top of all that stress is just a recipe for disaster."
"Then pull yourself from the case."
"You know I can't."
"Fine. Then we can see each other without labels til the trial's said and done." Cap suggested, hope evident in his rolling wave of a voice.
That could work. No labels meant no expectations. We did no labels before and it went good, til he moved that is. "I guess we can do that."
"Uncle Wall's gonna call up Perry 'morrow or the next day to set the date for the preliminary. He's pushing this thru as fast as he can."
"Okay. How 'bout we just stop talkin' bout work and watch the movie." I suggested before I continued to eat my slice of pizza.
"Sure." Was the deep and rough one word answer that quickly shot out of Cap's mouth as he grabbed his beer.
We were halfway through the movie and had eaten a half of the pizza. A few pieces of cheesy bread remained in the box and the cups of marina were almost gone. A few beer bottles were scattered on the coffee table too. I was curled up into Cap's side, my head was resting on his wife-beater covered chest while his arm was wrapped around me. His hand was lazily running up and down my arm as our eyes were trained onto the tv screen.
"So, how ya like my house?" Cap randomly asked me over the sound of Henry Hill and Jimmy Conway threatening to toss somebody to the lions in the Tampa Zoo blasting out of the tv's soundbar.
"It's really nice. A bit updated for a farm house." I honestly told him my opinion on his house.
"Yea." His lips quirk up into a slight smile. "Uncle Jim renovated it, wanted to sell it or rent it out to make a profit."
"Oh, so then you're renting this place from your uncle?" I asked since that was the conclusion I made from his remark.
Cap shook his head before looking at me and saying with pride shining in his lone ice-blue eye, "No, I bought it from him, baby. I own the house, it's mine."
"Between your job and house, I reckon you're staying in the Tug Valley permanently." I told him, stating the obvious from all the details I knew about both his job and home.
"Yep." Cap popped his tongue. "You're staying too." He stated, not questioned, as he looked over at me with his mismatched eyes. One icy and one milky.
"I planned on going to Louisville when the trial was over. Stay with a friend til I found a job and a place." I told him of my plans. Plans I was so sure of a few weeks ago, but not so sure of now.
"When the trial's over if you don't wanna live in Pikeville with your uncle you're always welcome here with me. I wouldn't mind ya moving in."
"Of course, you'd say that." I scoffed, rolling my eyes and shaking my head at him.
"Just think 'bout it before moving three and a half hours away, babe." Cap told me, his deep waving voice suggestive and somber.
Cap was serious. He would let me stay with him. I can't believe that he suggested me moving in with him after the trial when Tolbert, who also knew that I planned on leaving Pikeville once everything was over, never offered me the use of his house.
I just nodded my head against Cap's chest as I watched the mobsters eat steak dinner in their prison jail on the tv.
"How long you've been gone from the Tug?" He asked, never taking his eyes off of the tv screen.
"A decade." I said a bit too quickly and flatly.
"Really? Well, it's been bout 11 years for me." Cap was quick to inform me as we watched Henry and his wife show Morry and his wife around their new house paid for by coke money.
"So, you left round the time Johnse knocked up Roseanna?" I asked, since that's the impression I was getting from the mental math I'd quickly done in my head.
"Left's a nice word for it. My pa shipped me to Uncle Jim's ma Auntie Deliz over in Virginia cause he didn't want me knockin' up some girl too."
"Wow." Was all I managed to say.
Cap nodded before going on to lengthily explain, "I came back cause my pa said he needed me to take the ADA job. That the only honest man in the Pike County justice system was my Uncle Wall and he wanted to balance the scales. He didn't anyone else to get the job, not after the last ADA refused to charge Parris and Sammy 'Squirrel' McCoy for Bill Staton's murder on grounds that their lawyer, your uncle, claimed they acted in self-defense."
"I heard something about that from Uncle Perry. He said Bill threatened them and they had no choice." I told him the sparse details I knew about that case, which wasn't musch.
"No, what happened was they went into the tavern over here in Mate Creek and got into a drunken argument with Bill. He ran his mouth and then they left." I nodded my head, signaling for Cap to go on with the story of what went down between Bill, Squirrel, and Parris. "Bill didn't live far from the tavern so he walked home. He never made it home cause he was found on the side of the road with a hole in his chest and a knife in his nuts, which were stabbed 10 times."
"Holy shit!" I exclaimed, my eyes bugging out of my head. "That's a bit much. And they got off on self-defense?"
"Yep, cause the old ADA liked to get his palm greased." Cap told me, confirming the rumors that I heard about old man Buckner growing up. Rumors my Uncle Perry assured were slanderous, but actually were true.
"But you're honest, won't take money to toss out a case." I confirmed, now understanding the importance his job was to his family.
"Mhm." Vibrated out of Cap's throat as the mobster's planned the Lufthansa Heist on the tv screen.
"Cap, the more you tell me about my uncle and previous cases or even this current one the more I feel stunned and lost."
"I know, Nova, and I'm sorry 'bout that, but I ain't going to lie to you. I'll always tell ya the truth, no matter what. Good or bad."
"I know. You're a blunt man, Cap."
"We're two sides of the same coin, baby." He smirked.
"Yea, guess we are." I smiled and nodded.
"So, does anyone know you're with me tonight?" Cap asked me, looking at me with his brow arched curiously.
"Just Moses, my brother, but nobody else does." I answered before going on to quickly explain, "I don't want any drama going on by anybody knowing."
Cap shook his head at me, his shaggy blonde hair going every which way, before telling me in his rough and deep rolling timbre, "Christ, baby, you can't lie and have your brother cover our ass while we're seeing each other. You need to tell your uncle and the McCoys that we're seeing each other or they're goin' to find out from somebody in my family and then it won't be drama, it'll be downright ugly fightin' and showing out."
"Damnit, Will, it ain't that easy." I blared out at him, causing him to shake his head once more at me. "Shit, you would open your mouth and tell your family about me."
Turning his head to look at me with honest eyes he told me, "Nova, I got nothing to hide. I don't think you should either."
Before I could stop myself, I opened my mouth and out came tumbling, "Tolbert hates you. He's jealous of what we had in Baltimore. If he thinks we're up to something now he'll come after you, hurt you."
Cap's brows furrowed and a deep look crossed over his ruggedly handsome face. "He's done that before hasn't he? Hurt guys that showed interest in you."
I nodded before revealing, "He got us kicked out of my senior prom for beating a guy to a bloody pulp cause he was talking to me by the punch bowl."
"Fuck, he really is the crazy McCoy."
"He's not crazy, he just has a bad temper. He's not that bad of a guy when he's calm, not provoked."
Looking me dead in the eyes, his icy and milky ones trained in on my cornflower blues, he asked curiously, "You love him?"
"I did, I guess I might still. I dunno really. He was my first everything, Will." I rambled, confusion filling up my flowing voice.
"He still loves you tho." Cap spat distastefully.
"I know." I agreed in a sigh.
"Babe, I won't have you jump from my bed to his back to mine. I won't be made a fool of by havin' you two-time on me." Cap told me, his voice deep and rough as he looked at me a bit coldly. "I know we ain't serious cause of the trial, but I don't wanna share ya. Get where I'm comin' from?"
"Yea, and don't worry I won't be jumping in his bed." I assured Cap, causing his cold look to melt away as he nodded at me. "I already told you that when you picked me up the other night." I reminded him, which resulted in Cap pulling me closer to him and making my bent knees rest on his lap.
"Babe, movie's over." Cap told me, nudgin' me to wake me up since I was dozing off.
"Oh, okay." I mumbled, blinking my eyes open,
Cap's eyes, one good and one bad, flittered between me and the wall clock across the room. "It's late and you're tired. You should spend the night here, it's too risky to drive these deep hills while drowsy."
"Okay." I simply told him since I was tired. I also didn't want to drive all the way back to Pikeville in the night with only headlights lighting my way on the steep mountainous roads.
Cap grabbed the remote from the table, turned the tv off, and tossed the remote back onto the coffee table. He got up off the couch, pulling me up with him. Silently he walked us out of the room and to the staircase where he led me upstairs. As soon as our feet touched the floor of the second story he led me to the first door to the left while telling me, "This is my room." I just nodded as he opened the door. "It's the master bedroom. Got its own bathroom off it." Cap informed me as I walked into the room.
The bedroom was very nice and very large. The walls were painted icy blue, the shade matching the color of Cap's good eye. The bedroom furniture was the same stuff he had in his apartment back in Baltimore. A king-size dark wooden post bed, bedside tables with lamps and an alarm clock, slim upright dresser with a tv propped on top, and a long dresser with a matching square mirror. The bedding was the same too, which was a double sides comforter that was smoky-blue/navy-blue with navy blue plaid sheets and solid navy-blue pillows with matching flat sheet. I noticed on the far wall near the bathroom door was a gun rack with his Winchester rifle proudly displayed. He had that gun and rack back in Baltimore too.
"Your room's nice." I complimented Cap as he made large strides over to the slim dresser by the window, that had navy gingham curtains.
"Yea, guess so since it's pretty much the same stuff I had back east." He replied with a shrug as he opened some drawers, pulling out some stuff.
"The walls are different then back east. Blue now instead of white." I pointed out as he turned away from his dresser, walking over to where I was standing in the middle of his room taking everything in.
Cap just nodded. "Here's a shirt and some boxers for ya to wear." He outstretched his hand, the clothes clutched in them.
"Thanks." I smiled, taking the offered clothes. "I'll go change in the bathroom." I informed in before heading to said room.
As soon as I walked into the bathroom and flipped the light switch I took in the simple décor of the room. Simple beige walls, white topped oak vanity sink, porcelain toilet, and walk in glass doored shower that had tile varying in shades of sand, beige, taupe, and rust. Also a few towel racks with generic white towels hung around the room. As I changed I noticed the medicine cabinet mirror above the sink vanity, knowing without a doubt that Cap's few hygiene products were in there. I also saw through the glass shower door the bottles of shampoo and bodywash stacked neatly on the wire rack hanging from the shower head.
After folding up my clothes and grabbing my shoes I turned the bathroom light off and left the room. As I walked over to the mirrored dresser to set down my clothes I could feel the boxers riding low on my hipbones. I could also see via the mirror that Cap was already in bed, waiting for me to join him.
"My Caps shirt looks good on you." He smirked, referring to the DC hockey t-shirt he gave me, as I made my way over to the bed.
"Not the first time you've lent it to me." I reminded him, a slight smirk on my face, as I climbed into bed.
"I know, baby. Now get over here." Will said with his arm stretched out, making an open space for me to snuggle up to his side.
Instantly I slid up to him, resting both my head and hand on his chest. I felt him wrap his arm around me while leaning over slightly to turn off the lamp on his bedside table. As soon as the room was engulfed in darkness Will used his free hand to tip up my chin. He leaned his head down and captured my lips in a smooth, but quick kiss. "Nite, baby." He told me, his tired voice deep and rolling, after ending the kiss and laying flat on his back.
"Nite, Will." I replied sleepily before shutting my eyes. The feel of his grey wifebeater was soft against my face, feeling better the pillowcase I'd been sleeping on at my uncle's house. Before no time I was lulled to sleep my the rising and falling of Cap's chest, along with his steady heartbeat.
AN:
So, Cap and Novella aren't serious or labeling what they are, but they agreed to see each other and only sleep with each other too. But she still has feelings for Tolbert, yikes! Oh boy, drama's looming in the distance. MUHAHAHA!