The Beginning of Us (305 page)

"Char! God baby, you feel so good." He moans.

"Yes, just like that, please don't stop." I cry.

"I am close Char, come with me!" He lets out before I can feel his cum shoot into my body.

"I am coming with you, oh god!" I can barely understand the words that are coming out of my mouth. I am taken to a whole new world in this moment and I don't want it to ever end.

RILEY

After Char and I have our moment of pure bliss, we lay with each other. We are a pile of arms and legs all intertwined, but neither of us seem to mind. I run my fingers through her long hair and she is drawing over the lines of the tattoo across my chest. I love this woman. I don't care that I have only been in her life for a few weeks. The way I need her, the way I feel around her is like nothing I’ve ever felt before. She consumes me and I feel like without her I would just be a lost soul.

"Char?"

"Mmhhhmm."

"I want to talk to you about something that happened before I moved to Boston. I want you to know more about my past, because sooner or later I am going to have to face something and I want you to be by my side."

She sits up and pulls the sheet to cover her nakedness. I move myself up against the headboard so that we are both looking at one another. I am not scared to tell Char about what happened I just need her to know and hear it from me.

"A few months before I moved to Boston some bad shit went down between me and my family." I look to Char and she is intently watching and listening to me.

"Wait I guess I should back up even further." I tell her and grab her hands into mine. I need to feel her.

"Ok, I am listening. Just tell me whatever you need to however you need to."

"Alright, well my dad started up his own contracting business, RPK Contracting, when I was in High School. It wasn't much of anything big, just a few small jobs here and there. It brought in enough money to keep the business afloat and pay the bills so my Mom didn't have to work."

"Sounds like a great business to me." Char chimes in giving me a big smile.

"It was and I was a lucky kid to have him as a father. He taught me a lot about life, how to love my family, and to be a hard worker. All through high school and college I would help him out on jobs. Once I graduated he made me his lead building contractor. It was a dream come true to work side by side with my dad. I loved going to work every day, seeing him and working with him. We went from being a small business to one of the best known contracting companies in North Carolina."

"Your father must have been so proud of you Riley." She says while placing a kiss to my hand.

"He was proud of me, but then I let him down." I want to continue to tell her what happened next, but I don't want to let her down too.

"Riley, I am sure you did not let him down. Tell me what happened next."

Char is just too perfect. Not even knowing what I am about to tell her next, she is acting so compassionate and supportive.

"We needed more people to help us with the amount of work we were bringing in so Dad asked Keith, my brother-in-law, to join the team. Since Dad was heading most of the work and needed to settle more time in the office he put Keith in charge as the general contractor. The three of us got along fine and never argued about anything, we were a great team. Then six months ago, my parents were killed in a car crash. My entire world came crashing down on me." I can feel the tears falling down my face onto my cheeks and Char's sheets.

"Shh baby, don't cry. You don't have to tell me anymore if this is too much. It’s ok. Shh I am here for you."

Char does her best to comfort me, but the more she tries to soothe the pain the more tears fall. I haven't really thought about all of this since I left North Carolina. I never really had a chance to mourn the loss of my parents because I was too worried about losing the business.

I take in a deep breath and try to calm myself down. Char takes her small hands and wipes the tears from my face. She places a kiss on my nose, my forehead, my cheeks, and my chin.

"Now, do you feel better?" She says while smiling her beautiful smile for me.

How can I not love this woman? She completes everything about me. She makes me feel like the man I want to be for her and for my future.

Chapter 27

CHAR

Riley is an incredible man. The story of his past that he is sharing with me rips my heart apart. Seeing the emotions run through him is hard. I am doing my best to comfort him, but all I can really do is sit back and listen to what he wants to share.

"God Char, what would I do without you here right now? You have no idea how much it means to me to have you like this with me." He tells me as the last tears fall from his face.

"I will be here for you as long as you want me to be. If you are ready and willing to tell me more, I will listen and do anything I can to support you." I say looking right into his eyes.

I want him to know that I mean these words and they are coming straight from my heart. He has been put through a tremendous loss; he needs me to be strong for him.

"After my sister, Emma, and I heard about Mom and Dad's accident we both got to the hospital as fast as we could. By the time we got there, they had already passed away. It was the hardest day of my life. I wanted to be strong for Emma till Keith got there, but I couldn't find the words to comfort her. There was no way for me to tell my big sister it would be ok, because I knew it wouldn’t be the same again."

"I am sure she appreciated you just being there for her." I try to tell him.

"Yea, I guess." He says shaking his head no.

"A few days had gone by after the accident and Emma and I needed to situate the house, the business, and Mom and Dad's finances. They both created a will in the event something was to happen to them, but it had not been updated since I had graduated college."

Riley goes silent and moves to stand and get up from the bed. He pulls on his boxer briefs and sits down next to me on my side of the bed. I can tell he is feeling anxious and honestly I don't know what to do to help him through this. So I just rub his back and look at him to show that I am still willing to listen.

"Emma is ten years older than me, so Mom and Dad had her listed as their executor of their will and their power of attorney. Since I was still in college when the last edit to the will was written pretty much everything was to be sold and divided among Emma and me except for the business. RPK Contracting was fully given to Emma and Keith to do as they wished. I was crushed, devastated, and heartbroken. It tore me up to know that everything Dad and I had worked so hard to create was now out of my hands. I tried to talk to Keith about letting me partner up with him, but he said I was still a kid and didn't know how to run a business. I was angry and wanted to fight for what was really mine."

Riley stands up and his body is shaking. He has broken out into a full sweat and I can see his fists are clenching together. He is angry and I have no clue what to do to help him relax.

"Riley, I think we should take a break. This is hurting you and I can see that. I don't want you to have to relive everything that you’ve walked away from."

"Char you don't understand. He took it all; he took away my life, my family and left me with nothing. I wanted to do anything I could to get that business for myself. I went to banks for loans to buy him out, but nothing worked. Every time I tried to talk to him about it he just blew me off. It got to the point that our relationship was completely destroyed. Since there was no use talking to him I tried to go through Emma, but she just gave me the same line. I am too young and naive to run a business. I’m only a building contractor and there is no way I could be the man that Dad was and keep the family name afloat."

I am in shock at the things Riley’s family had to say about him. He worked hard to build that business with his father and he deserved more than anything to be a larger part of that dream.

"That night after leaving Emma's house I went to a bar down the street for a drink. I’ve never been a big drinker, but for that night I wanted it all to go away. I missed my parents, I missed my dad, and I missed the way things were before he died. I drank one too many beers and before I knew it I was pretty wasted. I had walked down to the bar so I wasn't too worried about how I was going to get home. As I got up to leave Keith came in looking for me; wrong choice on his part. He started running his mouth about how I am a disappointment to my father and that I could never be the business man he was. Before I could stop myself I was hitting Keith with everything in me. I lost control and hurt him pretty bad. One of the patrons at the bar knew Keith and me so she called Emma to come as soon as she could. By the time she had gotten there I was gone and Keith was knocked out cold."

"Oh my god Riley!" I say without even realizing the words had come out of my mouth.

I can feel my entire body quivering and the way Riley is watching me I can tell he sees it too.

RILEY

Shit! I can tell that I am scaring Char. Her body is shaking and she is just sitting there staring at me.

"Baby, I am not a drunk and I am not a fighter. What happened that night is something I have never done before and will promise you I will never do again."

I sit down next to her and take her into my arms. I can feel her body start to relax with my touch and hate that I have upset her so much by telling her my story.

"No, no Riley. I could never be scared of you. You would never hurt me. It's just the story is so intense that I guess my emotions got the best of me. Please keep going I want to hear more."

I continue to hold her and finish the ending to my story, the family I lost.

"I tried to call Emma for days after that night, but she wouldn't answer my calls. I went to work, but Keith had me removed from the building because of a security concern. He even had me banned from my team's work sites. My world was falling apart right in front of my face and there was nothing I could do to stop it. I didn't want to give up so I waited to go over to the house when both Keith and Emma would be home. I needed to talk to them together; they were the only family I had left."

"God Riley, I am so sorry." Char has tears running down her face and I hate that I’m the one that put them there.

I had to tell her this; she needed to know what happened to me and why I came to Boston.

"Baby don't cry for me. That is my past and you are my future. Let me tell you the rest and put this story away for good. That way we can move on with a new chapter of life together."

"You are such a good man Riley. Don't ever forget that." She says and gives me a sweet kiss.

"I went to the house and stayed outside in the Durango for a while before getting up the nerve to ring the bell. Finally Emma came out after seeing me sit out there. I jumped out of the truck and ran over to her. She lifted her hand in the air and demanded that I stop and never step foot on her or Keith's property again. She told me, in that moment to turn away and never come back. I was not the brother to her that I once was and that it would be best to not contact her, her husband or the business ever again."

I let out a huge sigh of relief.

"The next day is when I made the decision to get the hell out of North Carolina and move to Boston. Thank god I saw Derrick's ad on Craig's List and called him."

"I am so glad you found that ad, if you hadn't we wouldn't be here right now. Everything happens for a reason Riley and I thank my lucky stars that our reasons brought us here and together."

I grab Char up in my arms and hold her as tight as I possibly can. I just shared with her the hardest parts of my life and all she can say is that she is thankful I am here with her.

"Char. I told you I was going to take things slow with you, but that really didn't happen. And I said that I would take the whole love and baseball analogy day by day with you. But Char, I just can't do it. I can't take things slow; I can't wait to take things day by day."

I pause for a moment and look into her big, dark eyes. I want to tell her, I want her to know, and I don't want to regret a second that she didn’t understand the way she makes me feel.

"I love you Char."

Chapter 28

Wednesday August 29, 2012

CHAR

Once again I am awakening by the horrible sound of my alarm clock. Why can't I have one of those alarms that plays music or the sounds of nature? I would rather anything other than this awful beep, beep, beep.

"Shut up! I am up! I am coming!" I yell at my alarm.

As I look around my room, I am reminded that Riley is not here. After all that we went through last night and how he shared his tragic story with me and professed his love to me...he went home.

I don't know if it was the shock of hearing everything that happened to him prior to his move or it was the fact he told me he loved me. I couldn't say those words back to him. He means a lot to me and I am falling in love with him. It’s just hard for me to actually say I love you to someone and give myself to him one hundred percent.

Riley is amazing and caring and sweet and wonderful, but I still need a little bit more time. I am close. I am just not ready yet; soon just not yet.