Blueeyedcherry, you sweet non-Miracle Whip eater you...TY for your review on FicSisters. This is why I hump you so much!
Mia sent me a package in the mail. It was all kinds of sweetness and sparkles. It's also the start of our revolution to overthrow the world.
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Readers- I love ya like heart-crushing, love-deepening, skin-whispering crazy. Have a great weekend!
Chapter Ten: Tuesday & Twinkles
Papa calls the Masens heathens when they don't show up to church on Sunday. Mama says Rowdy's back still hurts, so there isn't any point in any of them going, but Papa isn't buying it.
Even though Jessie and AJ beg me to walk them over to the Masen farmhouse, I refuse. Rowdy needs his rest and I don't want to seem like a lovesick, needy child.
Turns out, the Masen boys come to us on Tuesday afternoon. Ma's gone to Jackson to pick up my pageant dress, so it's just me and my sisters out in the front yard. I practice my baton in tiny white shorts and a grey shirt that hangs off my shoulder. Papa throws a fit when I dress like this, but according to Ma, "anything for the crown goes". 'Sides, it's hot outside and I ain't going nowhere in public. Jessie rehearses with me, but she's only using a stick. I'm not letting her borrow anything else of mine. She tossed the last one in the creek, and I guarantee it's in Alabama by now.
Jessie whacks me in the leg and I cringe, hopping on one foot. "Dangit, Jessie! Move over!"
"Sorry, Cotton." She scoots over a whole two inches. She's dressed in her black bathing suit and looks like she's got two mosquito bites on her chest.
"It's a front windmill," I explain, twirling the baton above my head and then swinging it in three perfect circles. "Keep your fingers loose. You can't hold it too tight."
"Not too tight," she repeats, dropping her stick again. I sigh in defeat as AJ jumps up from the front step.
"Jasper!" She drops her handful of marbles and runs down the driveway towards Rowdy, Jasper, and Emmett.
Rowdy walks in my direction, wearing a faded white tee and jeans caked in mud. A cigarette hangs from his lips and I can't help the grin that spreads across my face.
"Damn, Cottonseed." He looks me up and down as I brush away a few tendrils of curls that have escaped from my ponytail.
"Hush, you!" I retort, rolling my eyes. "I'm only practicing. I'll go change."
"Don't." I can't help but blush when he looks at me like this, and I know it's not from the heat.
"Yeah, okay," I mumble, not paying him any mind. "Is your back feeling better?" I try to assess him, see if he's in any pain, but he's standing upright.
"I'm fine," he replies, tossing his cigarette. "I came to see if you were ready for my reading lesson."
"Sure, I'm done." I look to see if AJ will be all right out here, but her and Jasper are tossing marbles while Jessie keeps poking Emmett's belly.
I lead the way into the house, but Rowdy seems keen on walking behind me and not keeping up.
"Go wait in the library," I tell him. "I've got to get out of these clothes. They're sticking to me."
Rowdy lingers in the hallway while I climb the stairs and dash towards the bathroom. I wash my face with cold water and smooth back my hair before I head in the direction of my room. Rowdy is there, sitting on my bed like he never heard me.
"Didn't I tell you to wait downstairs?"
He smirks, as if he had no intention of doing any such thing. "Pops told me I was hard of hearing."
"I believe it." Opening my closet, I pull out a simple dress to change into when Rowdy sneaks up behind me. I feel his strong hands caress the skin beneath my shirt as his chin rests on my shoulder.
He makes my knees go weak and they threaten to buckle underneath of me. If I had any self-control I'd leave, but instead I'm doing everything I can to stay.
Rowdy scares me in ways I don't understand. Like now, when he skims my collarbone with his nose. He does it with absent-minded purpose; he's so intentional that he's not.
"What are you doing?" My body is frozen and I'm too restricted by fear to move a muscle.
"Trying to figure something out," he whispers.
"Figure what out?" I ask slowly. His fingertips circle just above my belly button, making my skin tingle with tickles.
"If I should kiss you now or kiss you later." Rowdy always talks like he knows exactly what's happening. Maybe I want a choice in this.
Maybe I don't.
"Wh-what have you decided?" My words come tumbling out, and I can't think straight. He's making me feel all lightheaded and unsteady. But he holds onto me like he's my grounding.
Rowdy's breath blows across my skin as he answers. "I'm debating, Cottonseed. See, if I kiss you now, I know I'm not going to be able to stop. And then I'll just keep thinking about you over and over again. Late at night. When I'm alone."
He presses the rough denim material against me and my eyes go wide. My heart won't stop pounding in my chest and I can't remember a single thing that's more important.
He's touching me.
He's touching me with…
He's touching me with his…
Our Father who art in Heaven…
Two fingers skim the edge of my shorts and I feel goose bumps in places they shouldn't be. "And then I was thinking, if I wait and kiss you later, you'll want it more than I do."
"That ain't true," I say, and I know I'm a liar. I already want him to kiss me.
Please, please, please.
Rowdy chuckles. "Just for that, I think I'll wait."
I moan when I don't mean to. His hand slides across my belly and it's a giving me a warm, sinking, falling feeling. He laughs again and his lips peck the side of my cheek.
By the time I can breathe again, he's gone.
And so, I follow.
.
.
.
"The s-sun do-di-did nnnn-ot ss-shh-hho-"
"Shine."
"Right. The sun did not shine. It wash … no was … it was too we … wheat-"
"Wet."
"Wet to p-p-play. So we sat in the ha-ha. Haaa-ssss." Rowdy frowns at Jessie's Cat in the Hat book, trying to sound out the words. "We sat in the has. Wait, that don't make no sense."
"House," I correct him, pointing to the word. "It has the 'ou' sound, not 'ah'. House."
"Got it. House. We sat in the house." He smiles through his frustration and I'm just as happy for him.
"See? You just read your first page."
"I reckon I did!" Rowdy's grin is all lopsided and charming. Papa was wrong; Rowdy can do anything he puts his mind to. He's trying. Any other sixteen-year-old would have given up by now, but not Rowdy. He tries 'cause he wants to make something of himself. That's more than I can say for people twice his age.
"You're making this easy, Cottonseed. Thank you." He doesn't have to thank me for anything; I do it because I want to.
His mossy green eyes twinkle and everything in my head jumbles. It's like he's holding me and won't let go.
For the first time in my life, I want to.
I lean across the table, over our book, over that voice that keeps telling me a girl should never kiss a boy. His hand touches me, easy breezy, light and soft, and I want to kiss those lips that tell me sweet things.
I want to give in and put my heart out.
Rowdy smiles as my eyelids start to close. I bet his lips are warm and soft. I bet they'll send chills down my spine. I bet they'll curl my toes like they do in the movies.
I bet they're everything.
His arm slides up mine as I lean in to give my first kiss.
"ANNABELLA RAIN COTTON SWAN!"
I suck in a horrified gasp as Papa stands angrily at the door of the library. I glance down, realizing I forgot to change my clothes. I'm a slutty sinner, embraced not in the hands of God, but of Edward Rowdy Masen.
There will be no kiss today. But there is a first of something.
Papa storms towards us, ready to jerk Rowdy out of his chair.
"Shit!"
Someone's cursing, and for once it ain't Rowdy.