Laughing Fate (31 page)

“
You had better not be making out with my sister,” her brother’s voice yelled out from the couch. It must be a commercial, Puck thought. She looked up at Potter and smiled. How could such a hot man look at her like that? He could be with any girl he wanted, yet right now he chose her. She grabbed his hand and pulled him into the living room with her.

“
I’m just getting some popcorn,” she called out while she pushed Potter away.

“
Good ‘cuz there is a new no making out rule until you’re thirty.”

“
James you seem to be forgetting the hours I spent in the back seat while you were necking with your soon to be wife.”

“
That’s different,” he said distractedly. His show had turned back on. Puck rolled her eyes and curled up on her couch with Potter. She wasn’t completely comfortable, since she had to keep her ankle elevated, but she certainly was happy.

****

The sun was just rising above the ocean. Puck smiled lazily as she watched the colors blend across the sky and into the sea. She loved sun rises. She especially loved being in Potter’s arms during a sunrise. They had gone to the beach way early in the day to get some prime time surfing in. After a particularly bad surf session, they had crawled onto the sand and had cuddled for warmth.

She had convinced Potter to try surfing with out a wetsuit just this once. He didn’t handle hypothermia well, she thought with a grin. She felt her grin slip when she thought of all the times she had wiped out. She was such a kook! She had been beaten black and blue by her own surfboard, had a cut on her leg from her fin, and every single one of her muscles ached.

Potter had reassured her that everyone had bad surfing days, that she was just a beginner, and that besides her ankle was still a bit weak. He had tried to convince her to take a break after the millionth wipe out, but she had insisted on staying out longer than she probably should have. She had been so frustrated! She knew she could surf better than that! She had surfed better than that.

She shouldn’t have let so much time pass without a surf lesson, but she’d been so busy lately. She looked over at Potter, who had his eyes closed. Had he fallen asleep? She nudged him with her elbow and quickly turned her head. She feigned innocence as she did a ‘What? Wasn’t me’ act. She grinned as Potter tickled her- her giggles floating along the sea breeze. Playing with Potter was so much fun.

He stopped tickling her when he got side tracked by a lone woman walking down the beach holding a surf board.  Puck glanced up at him, a question in her eyes. He just shrugged and pointed at the girl. The girl was a woman in her early twenties, wearing a fancy little bikini that fit her curvy body very well. Puck glared at her. She looked like a stereotypical beach bunny. Her boobs had to be in the D’s, her waist was tiny, and her hips were gently rounded. Her long blond hair fell in soft waves around a pretty face with big blue eyes. Puck did not like her.

Her frown deepened when she saw Potter still watching the bimbo. “You know her?”She asked casually. She was not jealous, just idly curious.

“No-never seen her before. I wonder if she knows what she’s doing? I don’t like it when girls surf alone. Too dangerous.”

Puck rolled her eyes. Potter could really be a sexist pig sometimes. She supposed he meant well though. She decided that she’d had enough of Potter staring at the tramp, however, so she elbowed him sharply in the gut and glared at him.

He glanced at her in surprise- that jab had been a little harder than normal. And why was she glaring at him? “What?” He saw the strange girl preparing to get in the water out of the corner of his eye and turned to watch her again. There was a strong rip this morning, he wondered if she’d be experienced enough to spot it.

“
Nothing.” She said exasperated. She continued to glare at him for another minute and then deliberately stood up. The stupid man couldn’t even keep his eyes off the chick for like one minute! I mean sure she had a perfect body, but she was probably stupid as a rock and full of crabs and other STD’s! Come to think of it, she looked a lot like Baby and all the other women Potter had dated in the past. She felt anger and jealousy rise up in her- an inferno that was building in intensity until it consumed her.

The woman was in the water and smoothly paddling over the smaller waves. A big wave came rolling towards her and she expertly duck dived it. Potter breathed a sigh of relief and told Puck that she looked like she knew what she was doing. He continued watching the girl, impressed by her skill as she caught one wave after another.

He turned to tell Puck to watch her technique carefully so she could imitate it. He was surprised to see her stalking away from him, her hands clinched in fists by her side. When had she left him? And why was she so mad?

He jumped up and jogged over to his tempestuous lady and grabbed her hand. She froze him with her glare and jerked her hand out of his.

“Hey! What gives? Why are you so mad at me?”

“
If you don’t know then I’m not telling you.” Puck winced as she heard those typical women words coming out of her mouth. How many times had she made fun of women for saying that? It was a perfectly illogical statement and just served to confuse guys who were stupid and needed to be told what they had done wrong or else they would NEVER know. Puck didn’t care if it was illogical. She was mad. Potter should know better than to ogle tramps in front of her. Especially a stupid skanky bimbo that had a perfect body and looked like a freakin goddess riding those stupid waves on her expensive surfboard!

She hit Potter when he tried to grab her hand again. It hadn’t been a playful hit. It was a drop dead and don’t touch me kind of hit. He stopped following her and stared at her in shock. Puck was really mad at him! What had he done? They had been enjoying themselves and then all of a sudden she was furious with him. He racked his brain for a reason, but none came to mind. He hadn’t done anything wrong! ‘Maybe it was just her time of the month?’ he wondered, scratching his head in confusion.

He watched Puck storming towards his car, he had been her ride this morning. She sat down on the trunk of his car, her arms crossed and her pretty little eyes focused on the sea. She was so focused on the waves that she didn’t notice his approach.

“
So I did something wrong?”

Puck stiffened in response, but didn’t deign to respond. She just kept watching the waves roll into shore, one of her feet twitching with restless energy.  Potter stared at her, noticing the anger rolling off of her and tried to think what to do.  Was there something he could say to put a smile on her face?

“Look Puck, I’m sorry. I’m sorry for whatever I did to make you mad. If you tell me what’s wrong I can fix it. But if all you do is glare at me, then how will I know?”

She rolled her eyes, which Potter took as a good sign. Her foot had stopped twitching too. Good. He sat down next to her on the trunk, leaving her some space- just in case she decided to get violent. You had to think of such things when dealing with Puck.

“Do I need to take safety precautions, Puck? Are you going to kill me? If you do decide to kill me, can you make it fast and painless?”

Puck felt her body relax. She fought to keep her body stiff and to keep the smile from her lips. She was angry at Potter, he couldn’t just charm her out of it…could he? He kept up a silly dialog for several minutes just filling in the silence. Some of the stuff he came up with were quite funny and soon Puck lost her battle to stay mad.

She had been reasoning the matter out in her brain when he had come up to sit with her. She had been on the verge of relenting anyways, he hadn’t done anything wrong. She was just jealous of the bimbo. So once Potter had started going on and on about not wanting to die anytime soon, it was easy for Puck to laugh and lean towards the silly man.

She smiled when his arm snaked around her, a comforting gesture that she had grown so used to. She liked this man’s hands on her. They stared out at the sea in peaceful harmony, but she knew Potter was still clueless as to why she had been mad. No doubt the stupid man was thinking that it was just her time of the month.

She turned to him and poked him in the arm. “I’m sorry.” She probably didn’t sound all that sorry, which was probably because she wasn’t really sorry.

“
I was just mad…I guess you could say it was jealousy. Don’t make a big deal about it.”

“
You were jealous? Of what?” Potter asked, a big satisfied grin on his face. Stupid man.

Puck glared at him and pointed at the bimbo sitting on her surfboard like a hussy. Okay, Puck admitted to herself, maybe she was being a little unfair. Could someone really surf like a hussy? The hussy in question stood up on her board with a lazy grace, water dripping off of her perfect body, and rode the wave like a pro. Hell yeah you could surf like a hussy! She was doing it right now.

“Her?” He asked incredulously. He looked at her again and then at Puck. “Why? I don’t even know her.”

“
She’s hot. Surely you noticed that! You were staring at her long enough,” Puck admitted sulkily. “And she surfs good. The tramp is just your type.”

Potter gathered her up in a warm hug and kissed her eyes closed. “Let’s get one thing straight. You are my type. Not her.” He kissed her warm cheeks, her cute little nose, and lingered on her lips. He gloried in her little sigh of contentment and deepened the kiss. His little Puck was a little unpredictable, kind of violent, and stubborn as all get out. But his little warrior sure was sweet.

He let go of Puck reluctantly and tucked a silky strand of hair behind her ear. He loved touching her, tried to find any excuse to do it through out the day. Sleeping in her bed had been heaven. He pressed his forehead against hers and stared into her eyes.

“
I liked sleeping in your bed.”

“
I bet you did, you pervert.”

“
I’m being serious. I want you in my bed for the rest of my life.”

“
Technically you were in my bed- so I don’t know why we are talking about YOUR bed.” Puck scrunched up her nose, but didn’t pull away. “Besides if I never left your bed I would get bed sores and probably get very, very fat. You sure do have weird fetishes, mister.”

Potter groaned and pinched her hip. “You know what I mean. When are you going to marry me?”

“You haven’t even asked me if I want to!”

“
Do you wanna?”

Puck jerked back and glared at him. “DO I WANNA?! That is NOT how you propose, you idiot!”

Potter glared right back. “It doesn’t matter HOW I propose- as long as I do it!”

Puck glared at him, death in her eyes, and turned her back on him. “That was not a proposal.” She crossed her arms and glared out at sea again. Maybe she shouldn’t waste her time trying not to be mad at Potter. It would be wiser time management to just stay mad at him. The stupid man would certainly keep on doing stupid things.

Who proposed with the words ‘do you wanna’? There had been no talk of love or their future. Just some stupid thing about her bed and oh by the way do you wanna marry me? He was an idiot! She huffed as he tried to dig himself out of the hole. Not gonna happen buddy. Had he ever even said he loved her? No! He took her on one date, ordered her around like some kind of caveman, and snuck his way into her bed. Now he expected her to marry him? She did not think so!

“
It sure as hell was a proposal! What else would you call it?”

“
The idiot ramblings of an imbecile?”

Potter mumbled something beneath his breath and marched over to the car. “You getting in?” he asked gruffly.

Oh poor baby. Had his panties all in a twist did he? Good! He couldn’t propose a life long marriage the same way he’d ask if she wanted to share a stupid pizza! It had to be well thought out, they had to be sure that they would be happy and faithful to each other, they dang well better say that they love each other!

Puck stalked over to her door and sat as close to the door as she could. She didn’t want to touch Potter, she didn’t want to see him or smell his stupid smell that was so lovely. She just wanted to go home so she could call Sandy and tell her all about Mr. Stupid Macho and his idea of a proposal. Did he think this was all some kind of lark? If she got married it would be forever-she would never divorce, ever.

She watched Potter out of the corner of her vision. They hadn’t even discussed the really important things. Like how many children they would have. Cute little children with his eyes and her temperament and wild hair…Puck shook her head to clear it of the picture of a happy family with Potter. She could easily imagine him holding their laughing children on his strong shoulders and beaming with pride. Her mind was an etchy sketch, Puck thought, forcing that picture to shake away and dissolve into a million little specks. He hadn’t even said he loved her.

“
Is the idea of marriage to me so awful to you?”

Uh oh. He sounded mad. She tried to think of something to say. She was the one angry here. Ever girl, even macho ones like her, dreamed of the day when her knight in shining armor proposed to her. It was supposed to be a magical moment, full of promises and declarations of undying love! She should be yelling at him, not the other way around.