Perfecting Patience (15 page)

“You might as well quit wearing them.”
He smirked at me.

I was going to remark, but he took the words and the breath out of me as he started to softly suck on the most sensitive part of my body. I squirmed and moved my hips as I began to moan and pant. He knew what he was doing
, and I was letting him do it. He didn’t stop until I came apart.

Once his
jeans hit the floor, the only sounds in the room were our bodies coming together and his soft whispers as he told me how beautiful I was and how much he loved me and the way I felt.

Afterward, I fell asleep in his arms. He held me close and worked his fingers through my hair.
The lift of his chest with his breaths moved my head up and down and rocked me slowly.

When I woke up, he was gone.
I sat up and peeled the warm sheets from my body. The soft rhythm of his guitar came from the other room. He was playing “Patience” and singing softly. It sounded perfect.

I wrapped the
sheet around my naked body and stepped from the bed. My feet met crisp pieces of notebook paper that had been cut into different sized snowflakes. My eyes followed the pieces of paper, which seemed to be laid out in a path to the room where the music came from.

I followed
the path, careful not to step on the perfectly cut paper snowflakes. Occasionally, I’d pass one with a word written on it.

Beautiful, strong, unique, mine, and then at the end of the path in the biggest lettering was the word “Perfect.”

I smiled as I reached down and picked up that particular snowflake and brought it to my lips. Zeke thought I was perfect. As long as he thought I was, then that’s all that mattered. I’d struggled my entire life trying to be my best for someone. It was nice to just be me and have someone accept that and love me regardless.

I pushed open the door an
d stepped into the sitting room lit by a single candle. The flame on the tip of the wick danced in the breeze. Soft shadows moved in corners and made the room feel alive with the light sounds of Zeke’s playing.

The music got louder and Zeke’s voice filled the room. I’d never heard him sing, but it was nice. I looked around for him, but he was nowhere to be seen. Stepping farther into the room, I narrowed down where the music was coming from. A small CD player sat beside the candle. I walked over and turned the music down in confusion. Where was Zeke and when did he record the Guns N’ Roses song?

“You look like a Greek goddess with that sheet wrapped around you like that.”

I spun around at his voice and found him leaning against the doorway I’d just stepped through. His arms were crossed over his chest and the gray sweats he wore clung to his hipbones. He was so unbelievably sexy, and he was mine.

He stalked toward me while his eyes took me in,
and then he pulled me into his arms. The light sounds of him and his guitar played behind us.

“I recorded this for you after we were done with the album. Do you like it?”
he asked as he softly kissed my forehead.

“I love it. I love you.”

He ran a finger down my cheek and his face became serious. “You came into my life when I needed you the most. I didn’t even know I was capable of being the man I am when I’m with you. I was dark and broken, and you lit up my world and put me back together piece by piece. I can’t breathe when I’m not with you. I can’t think of anything but your smile and the way you make me feel when we’re apart. I’ve decided that I never want to be away from you again, and if you’ll have me, I’d like to be yours until there’s nothing left of me.”

He dropped down to his knee in front of me and grabbed my hand. “I want
us to take care of each other. I want to hold you when you’re sad and protect you from anything that threatens to hurt you. I want to fall asleep with you every night and wake up to your sweet smile every morning. I love you more than I could write in a song, more than I could put into words, period, and I want you to be mine always. Will you marry me, snowflake?”

He popped open a ring box and I looked down at the single diamond
resting the cushioned box. Smaller diamonds surrounded it and gave it the look of a tiny snowflake molded into the platinum band. It was beautiful.

Looking down at his eyes, I could see they were watered up. I didn’t even realize I was crying, too, until he reached up and wiped away my tears with his thumb.

“Yes. I’d marry you every day for the rest of my life.”

His smile was the brightest I’d ever seen as h
e took the ring from the box and slid it onto my finger. He stood, wrapped his arms around me, and kissed me.

“Forever
,” he whispered into my hair.

Life had
been difficult for Zeke and me. There were hard times that we almost didn’t make it through. But then we found each other and held each other together. Not everyone meets their other half. Not everyone has the chance to feel the kind of love that Zeke and I have for each other, but I’d like to think that after everything I went through in my life, Zeke was my happy ending.

I’d never be perfect
—no one is—but when I was with Zeke, perfection wasn’t needed. The truth was I was a beautiful mess and Zeke was the crazy glue that held me together.

The wind blew her long platinum hair to the side, covering her beautiful face as she turned toward me. She was leaving and it was killing me. She held up her hand with a frown. Sad, icy eyes stared back at me. My perfect little snowflake. She was mine for such a brief moment in my life, and now, she was leaving and moving on. Expanding her mind and becoming a part of society.

She didn’t need me anymore. She didn’t need me to make it better, to hold her close when she was afraid. It sucked. I needed her to need me. I wanted her to need me until the end of time, but things would never be the same
, and as badly as it hurt, I knew it was for the best.

So I told her good
-bye, watched as she disappeared behind a set of black doors, and I walked away. My heart was broken, I was full of fear, yet I couldn’t help but smile a little with pride.

Before I could make it back to the car, I felt a tiny hand tug on my arm. Turning
, I found her standing in front of me with tears in her eyes.

“I love you,
Daddy.”

Those words turned me to mush every time.
I reached down and picked her up. Who knew the first day of school was such an emotional thing?

“I love you, too, pretty girl. Me an
d mommy are so proud of you.”

I kissed her forehead and s
et her feet back into the grass outside the school. She waved good-bye again and ran back to the entrance doors. Her book bag, which looked too big for her, bounced up and down the entire way.

Before I got back in the car,
I wiped away my tears so Patience wouldn’t know I’d gotten upset.

“She looks too little to be going inside that big school
,” Patience said when I shut the door and cranked the car.

“Yeah
, she does.” I turned and looked at the school once more.

I’
d made it back from touring just in time to be there for Sky’s first day of school. I refused to miss it.

“So who won the bet?” Patience asked as I pulled away from the curb.

“I did.”

She looked over at me with a look that told me she knew I was lying.

“I find it hard to believe you didn’t cry,” she said accusingly.

“Fine. You win
,” I said as I pulled out a hundred-dollar bill and handed it over.

She folded it up with a smile and stuffed it in her bra. Her full cleavage popped out above her maternity top. Pregnancy looked good on my wife.

“Look at the road, Zeke,” she said with a grin when she caught me staring.

I couldn’t wait to get my hands on her when we got home. Since Skylar was born
, we rarely got any alone time and once Kylee, our three-year-old, came, she lived hooked to Patience’s hip. Finn had agreed to take Kylee to the park while we took Skylar to her first day of kindergarten, which meant I had exactly two hours alone with Patience.

When we turned into the
drive of our house, all I could think about was peeling off her clothes and making love to her until she couldn’t take it anymore. I’d been gone for three weeks and when I was gone, I missed Patience so much.

You’d think we’d be used to it by now, but there was nothing like coming home to my little family and then spending that first night home in bed with my beautiful wife.

Patience grabbed her back and made a tiny pain-filled noise as we were walking up the steps to our front door.

“You okay, baby
?” I asked with concern.

“My back
’s been sore lately,” she confessed.

Three pregnancies she’d gone through and every time she never complained. She was only six months in, but I could tell this baby was taking its toll on her. Another girl was on her way. Go figure an ex
-womanizer like myself would be surrounded by all girls. It was my torture from the gods knowing one day my three daughters would grow up to be teenagers and would be approached by guys like me.

Patience made another noise and instead of letting her finish the steps, I scooped her up in my arms and carried her to the front door. She laughed and buried her face in my neck until I put her down to unlock the door.

“Why don’t you go sit down and relax. Is there anything you want?” If she had to carry and deliver the babies, then the least I could do was make sure she was comfortable and had everything she wanted.

“No, but I think I’ll take you up on the sitting and relaxing thing.” She sat slowly on the couch and started to rub her back.

Just like that, I forgot all about my needs. Sex could wait when my snowflake needed something.

Patience

Zeke massaged my back until I fell asleep on the couch. I’d never admit it to him, but this pregnancy was the hardest one yet.

I missed him like crazy when he was gone on tour, but with the girls, I couldn’t go with him anymore, especially now that Skylar was in school.

When I woke up, I was in my bed and it was three in the afternoon. I folded the covers back and made my way into the living room. The guys were there playing with the girls. The girls loved the boys so much, and Finn, Chet, and Tiny—or as the girls liked to call them Uncle Tin, Uncle Tet, and Uncle Iney—had finally met their match when it came to females. There wasn’t anything the boys wouldn’t do for my girls.

I crept past the living room and into the kitchen to get a glass of water.
I passed the photo of our wedding day on the wall and laughed at our crazy crew. Zeke had Finn, Chet, and Tiny on his side, of course, and I had Sydney, Megan, and Hope. The picture was of all of us posing with funny faces.

I loved looking through our wedding photos. It was one of the first times that everyone I loved was in a room together. Even Zeke’s dad made an appearance. Apparently, he’d been sober since Zeke left and had been going to therapy for his anger issues. Zeke still had his issues with him, but whenever we visited South Carolina, we were sure to take the girls by to see him. I could hardly believe how different he was with the girls.

I was rinsing my glass and sticking it in the dish drainer when Zeke came up behind me and put his arms around my not-so-tiny waist.

“How are you feeling, beautiful?”
He kissed the back of my neck.

“Better. You should’ve
woke me up. I slept all day.”

“Good. I’m home now, baby. You relax and let me take care of the girls.”

I turned and put my arms around his neck. My belly poked out so much that I couldn’t get as close to him as I’d like. He looked down between us and then back at me with a sweet smile.

“You know I can’t
just lie around in bed all day.”

He leaned down and kissed me sweetly on the lips.

“How about I keep you up all night tonight, exhausting you until all you want to do is lie in bed all day tomorrow?” He ran his tongue along the seam of my lips.

“That sounds delicious.” I flirted back.

“You’re delicious.”

That night, once the boys went home and the girls were all tucked in. Zeke took me in our room and proceeded to undress me.

“I’ve waited all day to be alone with you.” He kissed my shoulder and ran his fingers down my sides.

“You were alone with me today.”

“Yeah, but you weren’t feeling good and you needed sleep.” He planted tiny kisses from my shoulder up the side of my neck.

“I’m so lucky to have you. Most men wouldn’t care about how their wives felt after going without sex for weeks.” I lifted my arms so he could take off my top.

He leaned down and kissed my stomach, and then he untied my drawstring pants and pulled them down. He worked his hands down my thighs, and then massaged my sore calf muscles until my legs tingled. When he got to my ankles, I couldn’t take it anymore, so I sat down on our bed.

He took his time planting soft kisses on the insides of my legs as he massaged my feet. It felt amazing. It wasn’t long until I was lying in bed completely naked and he was kissing every part of me.

“You’re so beautiful,” he whispered over and over again.

“I feel huge.” I sucked in a breath when he ran his tongue across my nipple.

Everything was so sensitive and I was aching for him. I pulled on his hips to press him against me.

“I promise you’re not huge. You’re perfect.”

I chuckled a little to myself. “Oh, am I?”

He was sucking my earlobe now and slowly working himself between my legs. I could hardly wait to feel him inside me.

“Absolutely. You’re more than perfect and you’re hot. As a matter of fact, if you get any hotter, you might melt.” He smiled down at me with those words.

I could remember when he used to say that to me all the time
, and I smiled to myself when I thought about everything we’d been through to be together.

I leaned up and kissed him while I ran my fingers over the three tiny snowflakes on his forearm. Zeke kissed me back and
then he spent the rest of the night making good on his promise to exhaust me.