Falling For A Redneck (9 page)

Dirk
shrugged at her apologetically. “Boys, we gotta keep it quiet for Marissa. Her head still hurts. Speaking of which, doc said you could take Advil or Tylenol for the pain. Want some now? It’s been a few hours since your last dose.”

Marissa nodded her head and instantly regretted it.

As Dirk turned and walked away, she couldn’t help but admire the view of his ass encased in snug jeans. An ass she’d like to— Embarrassed by the train of her thoughts, she looked away, only to discover she’d gotten caught ogling.

A wide grin stretched Andy’s lips.
“So you and the boss are an item, huh?”

“No,” she stated.
Unless you counted having frantic sex on the wall of her front hall as a relationship.

Apparently he didn’t believe her because he
chuckled. “Hey, it’s okay. I didn’t mean to embarrass you or nothing. The boss is a good guy. He could use a nice lady in his life.”

Nice? Me?
It seemed Dirk hadn’t let his friend know about the bitch next door. Marissa felt like asking Andy if he knew whether or not Dirk had many ladies in his life but kept her mouth shut. She didn’t care about his previous or current paramours, so why then was she grinding her teeth?

Dirk
returned and handed her the pain relievers along with the rescued glass of water. When a crash sounded from the kitchen, he shot a worried look over his shoulder. “Be right back.” Off he jogged into what she guessed was the kitchen area.

Andy chuckled.
“Those boys are a handful. Good handful, but man, I don’t know how he keeps up with them. Well, I gotta go. Nice to meet you, Marissa.” With a saucy grin, Andy left, and Marissa, alone for the moment, could now assess exactly where she sat.

While not dirty, the living room
area certainly appeared lived in. From the toys scattered on the floor to the battered coffee table and sagging couch, the room screamed family. A modest television sat on a plain stand, and the floors were a scuffed hardwood. The chair she sat in, a huge plaid recliner, looked worn but well-loved judging by its position of prominence in the room.

She wondered what Dirk’s bedroom looked like then immediately chastised herself. Surely
, she had no interest in visiting that room, although, if he kissed her again like he had last night, they’d need a new place to baptize.

Who am I kidding? I want him to touch me again.
Stupid, sexy redneck. Can’t believe he made me see fireworks last night.
Of all the people to waken her to the fact her body still had needs, she couldn’t believe he was the one.

Odder still, she was beginning to appreciate him for more than just his body and erotic skill. It seemed more met the eye than just the rough exterior he presented to the world.

Judging by the high-pitched giggles of the boys and the rumble of Dirk laughing, they were having fun in the kitchen. Curious, and somewhat medicated now so that the throb in her head was down to a dull ache, Marissa eased out of the chair and edged toward the doorway. She stopped and stared at the scene of chaos.

The boys each stood on a kitchen chair at the kitchen’s big countertop island. Dirk had a big mixing bowl
in front of him, and the boys were pouring in each ingredient as Dirk handed it to them. Mason dumped a cup of flour in the bowl, and a puff of white particles lifted, making him cough then giggle.

She must have made some sound
because Dirk glanced over and saw her. He gave her such a sweet smile and looked so goddamned adorable surrounded by his boys that she felt her tummy do a whole routine of gymnastic somersaults, and even more surprising, her heart did some too.

He mistook her sudden shiver for one of weakness and hurried over to her
, perching her on a stool, which thankfully had a half-back for her to lean into.

His concerned eyes gazed into hers. “You
were supposed to stay put.”

“I got bored.”

“You should have called me. I would have carried you.”

“My legs are working fine.”

“You’re sure you’re okay?”

“Yes,” said Marissa
, unable to help the sound coming out soft at his evident concern.

“Mari
, look,” said Mason, grinning with a powdery face. “I make pancakes.”

“I see that
, Mason.”

“You gunna eat
them?” he asked, cocking his head at her.

Marissa’s
germaphobic side screamed, “No!”, but she found herself forcing a smile and saying, “Of course I will.”

Dirk nodded approvingly at her
, and she felt warm inside. She really must have whacked her head hard.

The making of pancakes with small children proved quite educational
, not to mention entertaining. Marissa watched them, wistfully thinking of her own childhood. Her parents had loved their only daughter in their own fashion, but they worked long hours, and when she did see them, their expectation of her was that she should comport herself like a miniature adult. Mother and Father certainly never behaved as raucously as these guys, and Marissa felt a pang at yet another example of how a family could act … and love.

After
they all ate the surprisingly tasty, if oddly shaped, pancakes smothered in syrup—a sin she’d have to make up for—Dirk carried her back to the living room, under protest, for another round of sit-in-the-boring-chair.

“I can walk
, you know,” she retorted once he set her down.

“Are you arguing?” Dirk asked
, his eyes fixated on her lips.

Marissa felt a flash of heat and thought about saying “Yes!” just to feel those lips again, but true to form, she instead clamped
them tight and glared at him.

He chuckled and turned to ask the boys what they’d like to do. T
hus did Marissa spend the strangest afternoon of her life playing board games like Sorry!, Snakes and Ladders, and more. The strangest part? She enjoyed it. She found herself smiling more than she had in years, even giggling a few times at the antics of the children.

Talk about surreal
. Marissa felt as though she’d left the world she knew and entered some kind of twilight dimension where, instead of being an aloof bitch, she was actually a part of a family that teased, talked, and enjoyed themselves.
And I don’t want it to stop
, she thought wistfully.

Dinner comprised of delivery
—pizza, wings, and wedges. Marissa stopped listening to the healthy voice in her head screaming about the junk she was eating. Yes, there was a lot of fat, calories and other ingredients on her giant no-no list. Screw her list. For once she indulged, and damn did it taste good!

Once they finished
dinner, Dirk let her walk up the stairs to help put the boys to bed, hovering close behind her in case she got dizzy. At their request, she read the boys several stories. The first,
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
, started out stiff. But when Mason said she needed to do the voices of the bears, she relaxed, and soon had them in stitches with her rendition of the three bears, who, as she told the children, should have locked their door in the first place.

After allowing herself to be hugged and given sloppy kisses
—which she managed not to shudder at—she followed Dirk out into the hall.

“I think the boys really like you,” he said
, leading the way back down the stairs.

“Yeah
, there’s no accounting for some people’s taste,” she joked, still feeling mellow, the pain medication making her head feel light and fluffy.

“There you go again. Putting
yourself down.” Dirk turned around at the bottom of the stairs and shot her a quizzical look. “Why don’t you want people to like you?”

“
What makes you think I care what people think of me?” she said stiffly, moving past him to sink into the plaid chair, which had grown on her after an afternoon spent in it.

“I think you do care, which is why you adopt this bitchy, I’m
-better-than-you attitude. You’re afraid to let people get close to you. You use your attitude as a shield. So let me ask, who made you feel like shit in your past that you now feel you have to be this way?”

Marissa cocked a brow at his
frank question. “Who hasn’t?” she replied with a shrug.
And why do you care?

“I’m gonna take a wild guess here and say an ex
-boyfriend or husband. Am I close?”

Too close.
Marissa forced her expression into a smooth mask lest he guess too much. “I’m sure I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Come on.
Talk to me. I want to get to know you better.”

“Why?”

“Because. I get the impression there’s a heck of a lot more to you than the bitchy exterior you like to present to the world. I think that’s a façade. I think the true you isn’t like that at all. And I think the key to understanding you is in your past with whoever fucked you over.”

Was he guessing
, or did he know something? Marissa felt a moment’s panic. Her past belonged to her, along with all its pain and betrayal. So she did what she did best when she felt uncertain—she attacked. “What did you go to prison for?”

Expecting him to tell her to mind her own business, she couldn’t
hide the look of surprise on her face when he answered with a rueful smile.

“I guess the boys told you
about daddy spending time in jail. It’s okay. I’m not ashamed of it. I did some bad things in the past, and I had to pay for them.”

Marissa eyed the door.
Maybe now is a good time to escape.

Dirk must have sensed the direction of her thoughts because he
laughed, a big belly sound that made her frown at him.

“Oh
, princess. I’m not a raving lunatic or murderer.”

“Says you,” she muttered. “They don’t send choir boys to jail.”

“No, they don’t,” he agreed. “You want to know what I did? Fine. Here’s my story in a nutshell. I belonged to a motorcycle gang.”

Good thing there were no flies
, she could have caught some with her mouth hanging wide open. Dirk, a biker? Yeah, she could picture him in leather on a motorcycle. A totally hot look.

“The gang I belonged to,” he continued
, “was not as hard-core as some, but they weren’t exactly a law-abiding bunch. We were a rowdy group, spending most of our time drunk or stoned. For cash, we grew and sold some of the best marijuana in the district.”

“You’re a drug dealer?” Marissa could only stare at him.
Oh my God, but he seems so nice.
Not like those addicts she saw wandering the streets of town, begging for change to get another fix.

“Was.
I don’t go near drugs now. Back then, though, I was living the high life—literally. And then I got caught. I spent almost two years in jail, and since my release over a year ago, I’ve been drug and alcohol free. My parole officer even makes sure of that, giving me random blood tests.”

“But you don’t act like a convict
.”

“And how does a convict act?” Dirk retorted.
“Never mind. Having seen some of the guys in the joint, I can kind of see where you’re coming from. Honestly, though, being in jail was the best thing that could have happened to me. Not being around the drugs and alcohol, not to mention separated from my buddies, I had a chance to look at my life and realize I didn’t like it so much.”

“But what about the boys and their mother?”

“Ah yes, Clara. Well, see, Clara was a part of the gang. It’s how we hooked up. It’s a wonder the boys ended up normal, what with the drugs we both did. Not to mention she hit the bottle pretty hard while pregnant. When I went to jail, she couldn’t handle the boys alone, not that I was much help back then. She ditched them with my mom and took off with some guy in the gang who decided to run from the cops instead of going to jail.”

“But how could she leave them?” Marissa whispered. “They would have been just babies.”

“Oh, leave them she did,” said Dirk grimly. “And she never looked back. Not one card, phone call, nothing. My poor mom, she had her hands full when she first got them. We hadn’t exactly been exemplary parents. She brought them to visit me every weekend, even though I begged her not to because I was so embarrassed. I didn’t want them to see their dad locked behind bars like some animal. But now I’m glad she did because it made me realize I had to change my life. That the boys deserved something better. Hell, I deserved better. When they released me, I went to live with my mom and the boys for a while. She taught me how to take care of them, and they learned to get to know me. The real man, not the drunken, stoned idiot that I used to be. After about six months, she kicked me out, lovingly, of course,” he said with a grin. “She said the boys and I needed to be a family. That’s when I got the garage and we moved here. We were renting a small apartment at first until I started getting the money coming in then we found this place. Close to schools with a yard, and the kids each get their own bedroom. I think they’re happy now.”