*Author's Note*
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A Night Cap
Novella POV:
I could feel my heart hammering in my chest as I pulled into the driveway. What was I doing? This was stupid, I shouldn't be here. I should be across the Tug, not at Cap's farmhouse. What's wrong with me? How can I spend the morning with Tolbert and his daughter only to turn around and spend the night with Cap? What kind of person am I? My nerves flared up, frizzing and going into overdrive whenever I saw the white house stand out in the dark starry night sky. Leaving out a sigh I parked my car in front of the garage door. I grabbed my bags from the passenger's seat before getting out of the car.
As I walked the path to the front porch and up the steps to the door every bone in my body rattled, ready to run. It wasn't very smart of me being here, but nevertheless I was here. My brain wasn't working tonight, instead my messed-up feelings were. Taking a deep, but shaky breath I closed my hand into a fist and knocked a couple times on the door. After a few moments the porch light flickered on and the door opened, revealing Cap in his signature wifebeater and sweatpants that he lounged in.
With a shit eating grin he moved aside, letting me enter his house. Shutting the door, he told me, "I just heated up some can-chili. Ya hungry?"
"You can make me a bowl." After drinking with him and Jim eating something would do me good, soak up some of the booze still in my system. "I'm goin' to put my bags in your room, if you don't mind."
"Not at all, babe. Just grab a shirt and boxers from my drawer to change into while you're up there." With a suggestive smirk he teased, "Wouldn't want ya tied up in that dress all night, would we."
"I'll just be a few minutes."
"Sure, just meet me in the kitchen." Cap nodded before walking off down the hallway toward said kitchen.
Quickly I made my way upstairs and into his room. The very room I had stayed in last night and would be in again tonight. I placed my purse along with the grey Walmart bag onto the top of the long-mirrored dresser. I took the few hygiene and beauty supplies I bought out of the bag and placed them onto the countertop of the bathroom vanity sink. I kept the few clothing items I bought in the bag on the dresser and quickly changed into the first shirt and pair of boxers I grabbed from Cap's drawers.
Right as I was ready to leave the room my phone began to ring inside of my purse. With a sigh I grabbed it. Mo-Mo flashed across the screen. "Bro, why're you calling me for?" I asked my brother as soon as I answered.
"You're not home yet. You left work and's still gone so do I gotta cover for you 'gain or what?" My brother asked, his voice deep and flat over the phone.
"Yea, reckon you better cover for me."
"Christ, you're really gonna fuck Cap another night in a row? I get sowin' wild oats, I do my own share of beddin' questionable hoes, but really? Really, you gotta spend more time with him so soon?" Moses lectured me in a loud bark, reminding me of how Uncle Perry would reprimand us growing up.
"Yea, Mo, I really got to spend more time with him." I spat, feeling a bit offended by my brother's chastising of me like I was a small child.
"Why're y'actin' so thirsty for? You got Tolbert that's itching for ya to take him back and you're off doin' the nasty with the one-eyed gorilla."
"Hey, I thought you supported me on this. Don't go callin' the man I'm with names." I snapped, feeling a sudden anger at my brother for calling Cap a one-eyed gorilla. I didn't view him that way so hearing him called mean names pissed me. Wasn't his fault he only had one-eye. Hell, he was lucky to lose his eye instead of his life when he was a teen.
"I do support you, but only cause you're my sis." Moses told me, his voice going a tone softer than usual. "I still think that pussy could soften him up or cloud his judgement, but I didn't mean that you need'a spend all your time with him. Shit once a week or so'll do just fine."
"Moses, just tell whatever lie you need to tell so Perry won't suspect anything. Okay?"
"Okay. But I do think it's shitty that you spend a nice family friendlish day with Tolbert and Sally Elle in the mornin' only to go home and fuck Cap's brains out in the night." My little brother told me, verbally slapping me in the face with his words.
"Don't, just don't go there." I warned my brother, my flowing voice going low and getting a bit agitated. "Thanks for covering tho. Bye, Moses."I quickly told my brother, hanging up on him before he even got a chance to reply.
I tossed my phone onto the bare nightstand, the one framing the side of the bed that Cap didn't use, before walking out of the room. My heart felt heavy as Moses' words bounced around in my skull. I've been juggling with my decision of coming to Cap's ever since I pulled into the damn Super Walmart parking lot. I knew it was wrong in a way to be spending the night with Cap after having bonding time with Tolbert and Sally Elle earlier, but for some reason a deep part of me didn't care. I was jumping at Cap's offer, quicker then a dying man in the desert running to an oasis.
"Hey, baby, chili's ready for ya." Cap announced from his perch at the kitchen island, pointing to a steaming hot bowl with his spoon, as I walked through the archway.
"Thanks, Cap." I smiled at him a bit tightly as I shuffled over to the seat next to him.
He raked his mismatched eyes over me while plopping a spoonful of chili in his mouth as I sat down. "Somethin' bothering ya, babe?" Cap inquired, watching me pick up the spoon by my bowl.
"No. I just talked to my brother. He's going to cover for me, again." I remarked before scooping up some chili and taking a bite.
"He say somethin' to ya bout us, didn't he?" Damnit, Cap was too smart and inquisitive for his own good.
"No-" I began to protest until I was suddenly cut off by Cap's deep rolling comment of, "Nova, baby, don't lie to me. You're actin' melancholy so he had've said something."
"Moses just thinks I'm being shitty spending the night with you, again, cause this morning I helped Tolbert with his daughter's Pre-K stuff." I confessed between eating my food, looking at my bowl the entire time.
Cap grabbed his can of pop and took a swig before telling me, "I don't see why Moses thinks it's shitty for ya to spend time with me just cause you helped out the crazy McCoy with his kid's school shit earlier." To further prove his point, he tipped his can at me while stating, "You're not with Tolbert, you're with me so ya can be here whenever ya want."
"You don't get it, babe." I sighed, letting a term of endearment, one that Cap often uses for me, to slip off my tongue as I scooped a spoonful of chili from the bowl. Cap took another swig from his can, quirking a brow up at me, as I ate my chili. I placed my spoon back into the bowl and began to stir it around a bit idly while explaining, "Everyone I know back in Pikeville, hell in Pike County, thinks of me and Tolbert as some Nicholas Sparks type story. Everyone and I mean everyone's rooting for us to fire our spark back up, fall back in love."
Cap put his pop down before placing his hand on mine. His icy eye and its milky twin bore into me while he softly told me in his deep waving tone, "What everyone in Kentucky wants don't matter. It's what you want that matters."
Never breaking eye contact with him I let out a small, but soft flowing, "I know."
"You and Tolbert might be the Kentucky Nicholas Sparks story, but Nova we're the Hunger Games couple goin' up 'gainst all the bullshit with the odds not in our favor." Cap winked at me as he let my hand go and picked up his spoon from the chili bowl it was set in.
"Dear lord, I should've never made you watch that movie series." I shook my head, a small smirk crossing my face.
"Eh, I didn't mind. Besides I've made you watch movies out of your comfort zone too."
"Like what?" I asked as I resumed eating.
"The IT remake." He pointed out around a mouthful of food.
"That only made me squeamish cause I saw the original when I was 9 thanks to the McCoy boys."
"See, them McCoy boys were always no good. Made ya scared of clowns." Cap chuckled before shoving a spoonful of chili into his mouth.
I just shook my head and lightly smacked Cap on the arm, playfully might I add, before grabbing the can of pop that was near my chili bowl. "I'm not that scared of clowns anymore, just the creepy IT one." I informed him before taking a sip of my drink.
"Well, don't worry I won't make you watch killer clowns tonight." Cap assured me in a joking way. "After we finish eatin' we'll head up to my room and watch some of those Criminal Minds reruns that always plays on that one channel you like."
"Yea, sounds good."
True to his word as soon as we snuggled up in bed under the blankets Cap turned on the tv and put on the Criminal Minds reruns. I had my head resting on his chest as I watched the tv screen. My legs were brushing his and my hand rested on his chest under my chin, just above the blankets. Cap's fingers tangled in my copper hair as he told me, "I know you're gonna zone out and fall asleep 'fore this is over. You look tired."
"I had a long day, but I'm not too tired to watch this." I protested, adamant that I was able to stay up to watch a few episodes of a show that happened to be a favorite of mine.
"I gave ya booze and fed ya so you should be ready to call it a night soon."
"Yea, well, who am I to turn down free booze and food from such a handsome man."
"You think I'm handsome?" Cap squawked out, his deep rolling voice hitching a bit. He quickly composed himself though and made the cheeky remark of, "Well, baby, that warms my cold iceberg of a heart right there."
"Of course, you're handsome." I assured him, tracing my fingers along his chest. "In a rugged way tho, not a pretty boy one." I added, tilting my head to look up at him.
"Seems that you like your man rugged instead of pretty these days, don't ya?" Cap asked, a smug look crossing his face, as he looked down at me.
"Mhm, seems that way." I nodded before resting my head back onto his chest.
"Good, cause I'm as rugged as they come baby." He huskily replied, his chest vibrating against my ear. "Nova, ya know you're the sexiest, most damn beautiful, woman I've ever met. Been with too." Cap confessed as he trailed his hand up and down my side, his waving deep voice a tone softer then usual.
"Really? Okay, but I don't think I'm anything special." And I really didn't find myself to be special or sexy or beautiful. I was a petite redhead with hair that tangled easily. I wasn't tall or curvaceous with silky golden-blonde or chesnut-brown hair like the women most men drooled over looked like.
Cap rested his hand on my hip, under the covers, and pulled me tighter to him. "I don't know what you've been told in the past, but you're somethin' special to me."
While tangling my legs with his I told him, "Clearly since you never dropped your pursuit of me even after we split up shortly."
"I'm never going to drop you, you'll have to rip my heart out of my ass and leave me first." He vowed, seriousness laced in his deep waving timbre.
"If I hadn't come back here and would've stayed in Baltimore would we be together right now?" I seriously asked him. For some reason I believed he would've ran after me, since he was so unyielding about perusing me here in the Tug River Valley, but I wanted to know his answer all the same.
"Yes." Cap firmly answered before going on to tell me, "I missed ya a lot and the whore just wasn't cutting it. I would've gone back and groveled for forgiveness, but fate brought ya here to me instead."
"Oh." I smiled, feeling relieved by his answer.
"You wish we were still back in Baltimore don't ya? That way you wouldn't be lying and backstabbing your friends and kin?"
"Cap…things won't ever be easy for us here like it was back east. Even casually seeing each other's going to be hard, especially with the trial."
"I know, Nova, and that's why once the trial's over we're going to label what we are."
"Let's not talk about this tonight. Okay?" I sighed, wanting to avoid the label topic. The topic he always tried to sneak into whatever conversation we were having.
"Okay, baby, we'll just watch the show." Cap conceded to me as the Reid on the tv was babbling on about some kind of ritualistic marking from ancient times that were found at the crime scene.
I must've fallen asleep in Cap's arms because I stirred, my groggy eyes blinking open, whenever I felt his body shift. "It's just me turnin' the tv off and sticking the remote on the table. Go back to sleep, baby." Cap whispered, assuring me everything was okay. I simply nodded against his chest and closed my eyes, letting sleep take me once again.
"Damnit, Cap, we're going to me late!" I screeched as I pulled my cheap sweater over my head as I saw the time on his digital clock that was on his night stand. 7:15.
"Babe, calm down, you'll get to work in plenty of time." Cap assured me as he slipped on his button-up shirt.
"No I won't, and it's all your fault." I spat at him, pulling my new pants out of the bag that was on the dresser.
"How's it my fault?" He asked, taking a pair of pants off the hanger that had a 2-piece suit set on it.
"Cause you just had to get frisky in the shower."
"Hell, woman, I didn't hear ya complainin' when 'Will, oh Will, please Will, harder harder Will' was coming out of your mouth." Cap told me, even imitating me with a high-pitched voice as he quoted some of the things I told him during our morning shower impromptu sex session, as he quickly pulled on his pants. "Hmm, don't got a remark for that I see." He smugly remarked, taking his suit jacket from its hanger.
"Just get dressed. Hell, I still got to put on my makeup." I snipped, marching into the bathroom to do my said makeup.
"Yep, I saw that you poured the entire Maybelline aisle out on my sink." Cap remarked, I wasn't sure if he was being a smart ass or not though. As I looked into the mirror to put on my concealor I saw him putting on his tie. "Guess I gotta buy ya a makeup thing to stick it all in, babe."
"You don't have to, I can always just take it with me." I told him since I didn't want him to feel like he had to keep all of my makeup in his bathroom. He was a manly man, having my makeup stuck in his space would probably give him a heart attack.
"Nah, that's stupid cause then you wouldn't have any makeup the next time you spent the night and would have to buy more." Cap told me, grabbing his shoes from his closet and going over to his bed. Slipping on his loafers he said, "Just keep it on the sink, next time you come over I'll have a case in there for ya."
"Cap, you don't have to do that." I assured him as I did my eye makeup.
"I don't mind. Ya can also keep your dirty clothes here. I'll toss 'em in the wash with mine and ya can get them the next time you're over." Cap told me in his rolling wave of a voice as he made his way into the bathroom.
"Okay." I gave in, smiling at him.
Standing right behind me he asked, "Can ya grab me my cologne from the cabinet?"
I just nodded before swiftly getting the Yves Saint Laurent bottle out of the cabinet and placing it into hi hand that was waiting right over my shoulder.
"Thanks, babe." He sprayed the sandalwood scent on. He placed the bottle on the counter when he was done with it while telling me, "I'm gonna head downstairs and make some coffee." I just nodded my head, continuing with my makeup. Instead of leaving he asked, "Ya want a cup? I got travel mugs."
"Sure. I'll be there once I finish putting on my face and slip my heals on."
"A'ight, Nova. I'll be waitin' for ya at the kitchen island." Cap told me before taking off to make the coffee.
Wow. He's making me coffee to take in a travel mug. Cap's never done that before but guess there's a first time for everything. Not that I'm complaining, he's got a Keurig.
AN:
Cap's a sassy blunt one ain't he? LOL. Errr Novella might be in head over heels for our boy Cap huh…But of course she's still got feelings for Tolbert her first love eck! And Moses is such a great brother covering for Novella so she can see Cap, but telling her she's being shitty to Tolbert too LOL. Oh boy. Next chapter should have Tolbert. Yay!