Finding Home (8 page)

After she emerged from his guest
bathroom, lipstick newly reapplied, he laced his fingers with hers and they
walked over to Claire’s front door.  He gave her a wink and a smile and
then opened the door and led her inside.  As soon as the door opened, a
high-pitched squeal sounded and two dark haired little girls came running at
them.

“Uncle Colt!” they cried, launching
themselves at him. 

Sarah realized as he released her
hand and caught them, that they hadn’t seen him in two weeks, prompting the
enthusiastic greeting.  He picked them both up easily and twirled them
both in his arms, causing them to giggle and scream in delight.  A warm
feeling settled in Sarah’s stomach watching him.  He was really good with
kids.  It was obvious he adored them and they adored him as well.

“You must be Sarah,” she heard a
woman say.  She turned toward the voice and was struck nearly speechless
by the beautiful woman in white capris and a sleeveless aqua maternity top
walking toward her.  “I’m Claire.  It’s so nice to meet you.”

Claire was just as gorgeous as her
brother, with long brunette hair, tanned skin and amber eyes. 

“It’s nice to meet you, too,” Sarah
replied, her voice betraying how nervous she was, “thanks for inviting me.”

“Who is your friend, Uncle Colt?”
AnnaKate, the oldest asked.

“That is Sarah,” Colt told her,
setting both girls back on their feet.  “Sarah, these are Claire’s
daughters, AnnaKate and Olivia.”

“It’s nice to meet you both,” she
told the girls, giving them a bright smile.  “Your uncle talks about you
all the time.”

“That’s because we’re his girls,”
Olivia replied smartly.

“Yes, you are,” Colt said, leaning
down to kiss the top of the youngest’s head.

“Hey, Colt,” a blonde man with a
close-cropped military style cut greeted him, shaking hands with him.

“Coop.  This is Sarah
Sauter.  Sarah, my brother-in-law, Jack Cooper.”

“Call me Coop,” he said, shaking
Sarah’s hand.  “So, you’ve finally got the big guy interested in something
other than computers and being a soldier boy.  Props to you, kid. 
We’ve been trying for a while.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Colt laughed. 
“Don’t listen to him, Sarah.  He lies.  Always.”

Coop placed his hand over his heart
and feinted being hurt.  “I. Would. Never!!”

“Oh, please, Coop,” Claire said,
shaking her head.  “Colt, you and Coop take the girls out and Sarah and I
will bring the food.”

“We can get it, sis, why don’t you
just relax?”

“No, I’m good.  I’ve got a
couple months yet before this little one starts to really wear on me.  Go
get the girls to run off some of that energy they’ve got.”

“OK, yell if you need us.”  He
kissed his sister’s cheek then gave Sarah a quick kiss on the lips before
following Coop and the girls outside. 

“Honey, whatever it is you’re doing,
please,
please
keep doing it!!” Claire said, leading Sarah into the kitchen. 
“I’ve never seen my brother the way he’s been since he met you.”

“I’ve only known him three weeks…and
two of those weeks he was out of town.”

Claire smiled.  “Yes, but tell
me he didn’t text you as much as he could.”

Sarah laughed.  “Yes, he did do
that.”

“I’m afraid I created a monster when
he was in the Army.  He fought it at first, but I’ve been so used to being
able to talk to him that I insisted he email and text me as often as he
could.  He got very adept at it over the years.”

 “I love that he is willing to
stay in touch with me like that.  It’s nice to have someone to talk to,
who asks how my day went and is actually interested in my response.  I
haven’t had that since losing my parents.”

“Colt said you were young when they
passed.”

“Eighteen.  My dad had a weak
heart.  I lost my mother just six months after him.  Cancer. 
She’d been sick the whole time we were dealing with his illness but kept it
quiet.  Once he was gone, it was like she gave herself permission to feel
bad.  She went pretty fast after he was gone.  They were in their
mid-fifties when they adopted me.  Growing up, I knew they loved me, but I
always knew they loved each other more.  It didn’t surprise me that it
didn’t take long for her to follow him.”

“Bless your heart!  You’ve been
on your own ever since?”

Sarah nodded and forced a
smile.  “It hasn’t been so bad.  The ladies I work with took me under
their wing.  I spent my holidays rotating between their houses until my
neighbors Janine and Grant moved in.  Now I spend holidays with them and
their son, Evan.”

Claire’s smile got even
brighter.  “Except for now, if you and Colt stay together, you’ll be
spending your holidays here.  With family.”

“Oh…wow, Claire, I don’t know.”

Claire winked at her.  “I know
my brother.  Trust me.  If he wasn’t looking toward a future with
you, there’s no way you’d be here meeting me or my girls.”  Before she
could reply, Sarah handed her a large bowl filled with salad.  “Carry that
out to the table for me?”

“Um, sure.  Anything else?”

“Just come back after you sit that
down and I’ll load you up.”

Once they’d carried out all the food,
the guys brought the girls to the table and they all sat to eat.  Colt sat
close next to her, so that their thighs touched.  Several times throughout
the meal, he placed his hand on her knee and gave it a squeeze under the
table.  After the girls had adjourned to the pool, Colt draped his arm
over the back of Sarah’s chair, playing with her loose ponytail while they
talked with Claire and Coop.

“So, Coop, why did you leave the
Army?” Sarah asked after listening to some of his and Colt’s more humorous
tales of being in the Army.

“It wasn’t fun anymore after Colt
left,” he said on a chuckle.

“I don’t doubt that for a minute,”
Claire said, idly rubbing circles over her pregnant belly.

“There wasn’t anyone left to pick
on,” Coop said.

“You mean there wasn’t anyone left to
pick on you anymore,” Colt countered.

Coop laughed and then looked back at
Sarah.  “I’d reached the end of my commitment.  There were some
things going on that I didn’t agree with so, with the decision to re-up or get
out, I chose to walk away.”  He looked at his wife, placing his hand over
hers on her belly.  “Best decision I ever made.”

Sarah watched the couple across from
her and couldn’t help getting caught in the warm glow of their obvious love for
each other.  She leaned into Colt when his arm tightened around her
shoulders, resting her head against his chest.

She saw that Claire’s eyes had grown
bright as she watched Sarah and Colt together.  It was a little unsettling
to know that his sister was putting so much significance on their budding
relationship, but feeling his solid form next to her, she felt safe and content
and allowed herself to believe that just maybe his sister was right.  That
just maybe, he really did want things to work between them.

“Come swim, Uncle Colt,” Olivia
called.

“Not today, baby girl,” he called
out.

“Awww,” both girls called.

“Please!” AnnaKate begged.

“Girls, he said not today,” Claire
said.

“We actually need to head back to my
place,” Colt announced.  “We have plans in just a bit.”

“We do?” Sarah asked, watching him
stand. 

“We do,” he confirmed.

“OK, well, again, thank y’all for
inviting me.  It was nice to meet all of you.”

Claire stood and embraced her. 
“Come back any time, sweetie.  Colt, call me later.”

“Yeah, OK.  Bye, girls!”

He took Sarah’s hand and led her
through the fence into his back yard and into his house.  She tried to
speak but he shushed her, walking her away from his back windows, directly up
his stairs and into his enormous Master Suite.

“Colt,” she started but the look he
gave her had her falling silent, watching him.

He picked up a slim black remote and
pushed a button and music started softly playing.  She wasn’t sure what it
was but she didn’t really have time to contemplate it before he was all over her,
mouth slamming down hard over hers.  She clutched his biceps to try to
keep her balance but then buried her hands in his hair when he lifted her with
one arm around her waist. 

He pulled back and captured her lower
earlobe between his lips, sucking in both her lobe and her earring. 

“I couldn’t take sitting beside you
another second without touching you, baby,” he growled into her hear.

“Yeah?”

“Seeing you in this dress, laughing
at Coop’s stories, smiling so sweet at my girls.  Gotta admit. 
Feeling kinda sappy right about now.”

“Sappy is good,” she sighed as his
lips trailed down her neck.

“Good…because right now, I’m thinking
everything in my life has led me here, to you.  And everything in your
life has led you here to me.  And I don’t want to go one more night
without having you here in my bed.  Do you get what I’m saying to you,
baby?”

She pulled back to look deep into his
brown eyes, cupping his face in her hands. 

“I absolutely get you.”

“Are you cool with that?”

“Kiss me and find out,” she told him.

“Yes, ma’am,” he growled, sealing his
lips over hers and carrying her to his bed. 

All his earlier warnings to himself
went out the window at that point.  What he’d told her was how he felt:
seeing her acceptance of his family and theirs of her, he knew he couldn’t wait
a moment longer for her.  He laid her gently down on his bed and then
joined her, resting on his elbow above her.  When he’d turned his stereo
on he’d also hit the button to pull the blackout shades on his windows so even
though it was still roughly four in the afternoon, his room was cast in
shadows, the only light coming from his dimmed recessed lights.  He
watched the rise and fall of her breasts as she struggled to catch her breath
after his last kiss. 

“You’re so beautiful,” he said, his
tone reverent.

“I think you’re the beautiful one,”
she said, pulling him down for another kiss. 

For what felt like hours, Sarah lay
in Colt’s arms, mouths fused together, tongues dueling.  She decided that
she could easily kiss Colt forever.  He didn’t overpower her or try to
force the kiss, it was just natural and loving and she knew she was fast
becoming addicted to his kisses. 

He began trailing kisses down her jaw
and neck to the swell of her breasts.  It wasn’t long before he had her
top off and after a moment of admiring her black bra, quickly freed her from its
confines so that she was now topless.

“So pretty,” he murmured. 

Her hands again tangled in his hair
and she arched her back as he captured one breast in the warm confines of his
mouth, while he kneaded the other one in his palm.  He suckled deep, his
tongue stroking across her sensitive nipple.  Sarah was writhing beneath
him, a bundle of nerves.  It had been so long since she’d been touched
like this.  He switched to the other breast, giving it equal attention
before skimming his lips down her abdomen to the waistband of her skirt. 
He looked up her body to meet her eyes as his fingers curled into the waist of
the skirt.  At her nod, he pulled the skirt down her long legs, then began
kissing his way up her left leg, pausing briefly at her knee, then skimming his
way up her thigh.

Sarah gasped when his lips brushed
her center over her black panties.  His hands caressed her thighs,
smoothing their way to her panties.  He placed a kiss on her stomach just
above her waistband, then caught the top of the black lace in his teeth and
slowly began peeling them down.  She now lay totally nude before him while
he was still fully clothed.  Surprisingly, it didn’t bother her.  On
the contrary, she couldn’t remember ever being this turned on in her life.

“Baby,” he whispered reverently,
“you’re every dream I’ve ever had rolled into one.”

A smile spread slowly over her
face.  “Lose the shirt, Colt,” she told him, “I want to see you.”

He reached behind him and quickly
pulled the shirt off, then shifted his gaze back to her body.  He reached
down and cupped her causing her to writhe beneath his touch.  When he
slowly slid one finger inside, she gasped.

“So soft,” he groaned.

“Colt,” she cried when a second
finger joined the first. 

“You like that, baby?” he asked,
leaning down to touch his lips to hers. 

“Yes, Colt, please,” she said, her
tone breathless and husky.

He withdrew his fingers and she
whimpered when he placed them both in his mouth, showing her just how much he
liked her taste.  She watched, breathless and wide-eyed as he stripped off
his shorts and underwear in one move, then stood at the side of the bed and
slowly stroked himself while his eyes roamed over her body.