Just This Once by Evelyn Jeannie Hall
Epilogue
Ten Months Later: APRIL
Where do you want this one?” Benji asked as he crossed into Zane’s living room, his biceps bulging around the box of books Lacey had purchased for the past two semesters. Now that she’d switched from online classes to in-person instruction at NYU, she’d begun to accumulate a lot more hardback texts.
“The floor in our bedroom,” Lacey told him, her laptop bag slung over her shoulder while her arms hauled in a new unassembled kitty tower. She felt a thrill of significance at saying “our” when referring to she and her boyfriend’s freshly combined belongings. “Zane already constructed an extra bookshelf for them in there.”
Once Benji disappeared inside, there was a hissing sound followed by his bellowed, “Santo Dios!” A blaze of orange fur then skittered out of the bedroom, Spice’s tail twice the size as normal. Katrina’s husband appeared at the threshold sans box but with a perturbed expression. “Why does your cat suddenly hate me when we’ve always gotten along? She just spat at me like a pissed off camel.”
“What did you do?” Lacey asked him, feigning irritation which her brother-in-law seemed to take as genuine.
“Nothing. All I did was walk by as she sat on the mattress, and she went ballistic.” He twisted as if to plead his case to everyone else. “Our cat Sugar adores me. She even nuzzles my nose if I’m still in bed when Kat gets in the shower.”
“He really has become a dedicated cat person,” Katrina called out a defense of her beloved from behind Zane’s bar. She paused the racket of filling glasses with ice to trace the length of her bracelet. “Not that he wasn’t before.”
“Never had a pet before,” Benji qualified, but Lacey maintained her rigid posture on principle, seeing how far she could push it. At least until her boyfriend wandered in with her suitcases and ruined all her nefarious fun.
“Quit yanking his chain,” Zane rebuked her lightly. “Bro, Spice is not taking this move well. Ever since Lacey let her out of her carrier, she’s been super territorial over our bed. We may have to sleep on the couch tonight.”
“Or on the rug in front of the fireplace,” Lacey mumbled so that only he could hear. At that, her man gave her the Smoldering and gently nudged her shoulder with his as he lumbered on by. The first time they’d made love there back before their fuck buddy days was indelibly printed on her memory. Then, she spoke up. “Sorry, Jadzia.” She referred to Benji’s middle name which she knew he detested.
Her brother-in-law mock scowled at her, his eyes gleaming.
“Just you wait, Billiejean.” He turned the tables on her with her own middle name. She detested hers, too. Even though she knew her mother had chosen that name because of her Michael Jackson obsession, to Lacey “Billiejean” sounded like some antisocial hermit who lived on a secluded hill somewhere with their moonshine still. “I’ll get you back when you least expect it.”
“Bring it.”
Smack talk with her brother-in-law complete, Lacey focused on the exciting events transpiring everywhere she looked. She’d finally agreed to move in with Zane, and even though it meant her commute to Elizabeth’s bakery in Brooklyn would be thirty minutes—in light traffic—rather than sixty seconds, she didn’t mind. Sharing the same abode as her man would be worth it.
She’d be traveling more anyway. Doing her first education observations at one of the local elementary schools had opened her eyes to the joy that could be had teaching small children. In what other job could she fingerpaint, watch kids play with blocks, and teach them their ABCs and 123s? So now, instead of executing the administrative work of curriculum and development, she’d switched—or upgraded was how she liked to think about it—to early childhood education. Her goal was to become a kindergarten teacher. Even better, this change wouldn’t require her to go for longer than she’d already planned.
Zane was now as robust and healthy as he’d ever been. His broken leg and long since healed, and the kidney she’d shared with him had made all the difference in his sugar levels and overall energy. He’d even been able to reduce his dependency on injected insulin.
“Baby, you sure this is everything you have?” He had her garment bag layered over one arm and two suitcases on wheels in tow, the sum total of her wardrobe.
“That’s it. Aren’t you glad I’m such a low maintenance woman?”
He leaned over to give her a good, old-fashioned smooch. “I’m just glad you’re my woman.”
Katrina paused in her drink preparation to clap loudly as if on a gameshow. “Good answer. Good answer. Nice to know that you’re such a shoo-in for boyfriend of the year.”
Zane set Lacey’s stuff down and thrust his thumbs into the front of shirt as if wearing a suit jacket with lapels rather than a fleece hoodie. “Boyfriend of the year. I like the sound of that,” he pitched his voice high and drew his words out, doing his best Goldie the mayor impression from Back to the Future.
Katrina and everyone else laughed, but then, she raised a hand to her mouth, her complexion tinged with green.
“Whoa, Kat,” Benji dragged his wife over to Zane’s suede couch and sat her down on the cushions. “I knew having you here today was a bad idea.”
“Stop it,” she lowered her hand and snapped at him, but without any real heat. “I’m not that fragile. I’m just…” she trailed off, lifting her hand again and holding herself motionless as she jammed her eyes closed. All conversation ceased as everyone watched her cautiously. Then, once the bout of nausea passed, she pressed her forehead into Benji’s neck. “These ovulation induction drugs are a bitch…a-rooni-dooni.”
Lacey concealed her snicker. Both Katrina and Benji had been attempting to curb their potty mouths with varying degrees of success in preparation for what was to come.
“I’m so proud of you right now,” he whispered sotto voce in his wife’s ear, but Lacey still overheard him.
“I’m proud of me, too. Even more proud of Elizabeth, though.”
This was one of the enormous things happening in their lives. Now that Katrina and Benji had been married for a year, they’d discussed starting a family. While they’d considered adoption, the fact that she still had her ovaries meant they should be capable of producing biological children with the aid of a surrogate mother. When Elizabeth heard about their plans, she volunteered her own uterus to assist in this monumental task.
“But you’re busy running your business. We don’t want to derail your career,” Katrina had objected.
“You won’t be. The bakery needs some additional employees, anyway, and they can hold down the fort if I need to go out for a bit. Besides, it’s not unusual for surrogates to be the siblings of the couple in question. Sounds like I’ve been tailor-made for this, if you ask me.”
The three of them had next undergone all the necessary testing to discover that Katrina’s eggs were indeed intact and viable, Benji’s sperm count was high and had excellent motility, and Elizabeth’s womb should be the ideal location to shelter her niece or nephew. Or nieces and/or nephews. Multiples did run in their family after all.
Lacey felt immensely excited to witness this amazing journey her sisters and brother-in-law had chosen to undertake, but it did highlight certain contingencies regarding her own life. If she and Zane chose to go the parent route in the future, being down a kidney meant her pregnancy would automatically be high risk. In fact, getting pregnant at any time during this first year after the transplant would be ill-advised. Not that either of them felt ready to bark up that tree. At first because they’d each been healing, and later because they wanted to fortify their relationship.
Hence the reason why it’d taken Lacey a full ten months to say yes to moving in despite him having asked her right after being released from the hospital. It wasn’t that she hadn’t wanted to live with him—she’d been spending almost every night here—it was getting used to the idea of not having a separate private space to return to. Also, it would mean leaving Elizabeth all alone during a time where she might need a sibling around.
“You’ve never lived all by yourself,” Lacey protested when Elizabeth encouraged her to go. “How can I move out right before you’re about to be with child?”
“Oh, for heaven sakes, Lacey, I’m a grown woman. We all are. If anything, the fact that I haven’t ever been on my own is even more reason to do it. I went right from Mom to Glen to you and Katrina. Then, even after that, I stayed with you. No offense, but I’d like to try having the loft all to myself. I think it’ll be liberating.”
“But what if you have morning sickness? What if you need me in Brooklyn, and I’m all the way over at Central Park West with Zane?”
“Zane needs you, too. Also, it’s only a short taxi or subway ride away. I think I’ll survive. Besides, you’re still taking the Tuesday and Thursday shifts at the bakery, aren’t you?” Elizabeth asked. Lacey had scheduled all her classes on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
“Yes.”
“And you are still the owner of a cell phone, right?”
Lacey frowned at her. “You know I am.”
“If I need you, I’ll call. I’ll also have Katrina and Benji, don’t forget. Since this’ll be their offspring, I plan to put most of my requests on their shoulders. It’s only fair.”
In preparation for Elizabeth possibly staying with them, Katrina and Benji had updated their guestroom specifically for her. They’d next begun to transform their seldom utilized home office into a nursery. Zane already had a guestroom with two double beds—Roberta, Tasha, and Oberlin had all stayed there during Zane’s hospital stay—and he’d turned the extra room he’d largely used for storage into a proper extra bedroom, as well. No matter what, the family had all their bases covered.
Elizabeth chose that instant to come through the door, one of Lacey’s most colorful chenille throws in her hands. Her youngest sister then tossed the blanket across the back of Zane’s couch as if she couldn’t get it away from her fast enough. Lacey soon realized why. Elizabeth’s skin shimmered with perspiration. In fact, sweat had visibly beaded along her upper lip and hairline. She shoved her light sweater over her head, revealing a thin silky tank top, then fanned her hands around her face.
“This estrogen is making me feel hotter than I’ve ever felt in my life.”
“Imagine when you’re pregnant,” Lacey deadpanned.
“If these little boogers time this right,” the youngest triplet spoke as if Lacey hadn’t said a word, “at least I’ll won’t deliver in the summertime.”
“Which little boogers are those,” Katrina asked, “our future children or the microscopic swirlies in Benji’s jizz?”
“Jesús bendito, Kat,” Benji chastised her while Elizabeth blushed. Spectacularly.
Not that Benji was shy, because he wasn’t. But as he’d said on numerous occasions, he did think of Elizabeth and Lacey as sisters. Even though the swirlies in his jizz—mixed with Katrina’s ovum—would indeed be put inside Elizabeth in the not-too-distant future, he didn’t seem to enjoy discussing that particular piece of reality. Elizabeth, on the other hand, was shy when it came to sex slang. Which Lacey suspected was the reason Katrina had asked the question in the first place.
“Fine, fine. No more references to your jizz in mixed company,” Katrina cracked, making Benji roll his eyes and babble something in Spanish again. Then, he marched down the hall toward Zane’s guest bathroom, making some excuse about getting his wife a wet washcloth to soothe her nausea and quell her sarcasm. Both Lacey and Zane snorted in stereo.
Her mortification around jizz jokes aside, Elizabeth had impressed the hell out of Lacey. Not that her youngest sibling hadn’t impressed her before now, but she’d taken the reins of her life so fearlessly in the last year. She’d gone from living a subdued life as a bereft young widow to becoming a business owner and a willing incubator for family members who couldn’t conceive without her. Elizabeth had quietly become a full-fledged badass, her ability to turn crimson at the age of almost thirty-three notwithstanding.
“Can’t believe I’m having my eggs extracted and fertilized next month,” Katrina said, at last changing the subject to something more clinical, and Elizabeth seemed noticeably relieved. “It’ll be the moment of truth.”
For all of Katrina’s wit and bravado, she’d already confided to her two sisters that she feared this wouldn’t work. What she felt most terrified of was disappointing her husband.
“You and Benji are young and healthy,” Lacey bolstered her once she’d joined her two siblings on the couch. Keeping her voice down, she continued, “You’re both in your prime for becoming parents. There’s no reason to think that the IVF won’t work.” IVF, or invitro fertilization, was the procedure the doctors would use to implant Katrina’s fertilized egg into Elizabeth.
“And even if it doesn’t,” Elizabeth continued their effort at supporting her, “that doesn’t mean your husband will ever quit loving you. Benji basically worships at your altar.” There was no denying that. “Also, it doesn’t mean we can’t try again after this first time. I’ll try as many times as you want.”
“Thank you,” Katrina hugged her, but then the two women sprang apart, evidently experiencing a hot flash at the same time. “I know you’re right. We’re going to take all this one step at a time. I love the idea of having a baby or two with Benji’s eyes and red hair. Or our eyes and his hair. Or whatever. But if it never happens, it’s not a dealbreaker. Adoption is always an option. And it’s not like we have limited funds.”
Now that Katrina had been an equal partner of Benji and Zane’s for over a year, she’d confided that she’d hit millionaire status herself. That was a pretty rare occurrence for a CPA, but then again, Katrina had always been the overachiever of the Farrell clan.
Lacey regarded her eldest sister thoughtfully. “It’s so funny. I always pictured Elizabeth having kids, me traipsing all over the world, and you being the boss lady. Even though we’re kind of gaming the system doing it like this, the concept still turned out to be fairly accurate.”
The doorbell rang, and Zane answered it, collecting the sushi they’d had delivered for dinner. Since hopefully such a food would be off-limits for one of them soon, they’d decided to take advantage while they could. After enjoying a pleasant evening of watching hockey and goofing around, their guests went home, leaving Zane and Lacey to their own devices.
“Did you enjoy your sashimi?” he asked her, pressing his lips to the pulse point at her neck.
“I did.” This was ironic considering she’d never had any type of sushi before living on the East Coast. Now, she loved the stuff. “You know what else I’d enjoy?”
Those delectably full lips quirked upwards. “What’s that?”
“You inside me.”
“I’d be happy to arrange that.”
“Would you now?” She cocked her head to the side. Already, he’d picked her up, lifting her as if she weighed no more than one of his king-sized bed pillows as he carried her bridal style to their enormous bed.
“I would,” he told her, and Lacey loved how when it came to sex, they were perpetually on the same page. “But remember that grand gesture I had in the prep stages for you?”
“I remember you mentioning it, yeah.” The truth was, he’d told her about it once they’d made up, and she hadn’t given it much thought since.
“Well, I’d like to make good on it.” He laid her down across the mattress as if she were royalty.
“Zane, maybe I shouldn’t tell you this, but that’s not actually necessary.” Lacey flourished her hands at herself like a magician might. “You already won the girl.”
“Yes.” He smiled his smoldering smile, then reached over her to the drawer at the top of his nightstand. He retrieved an envelope and handed it to her. “Go ahead and open it. I know it’s not your birthday yet, but…” he trailed off enigmatically, and she seized the paper and tore into it. The birthday she shared with her siblings was three months away in July.
Inside were plane tickets. And the destination was the Bambu Indah Hotel in Bali.
“I’ve never been to Bali,” she exclaimed, bolting upwards and bouncing on the bed like a three-year-old.
He chuckled. “Me, either.”
She dropped down on the mattress all at once. “Think it’ll be like the Maldives?”
“That’s my hope. If the pictures do it any justice, it will be. Happy early birthday, baby.”
“You are so about to get laid.”
“For Bali? Or just because?”
“Eh, a little from column A and a little from column B.”
Laughing, he grabbed the bottom of her long-sleeved poet blouse and tugged over her head. Then, he dropped his mouth to that tender spot beneath her ear, suckling the skin there. She sighed then pushed him back so she could strip off his sweatshirt, continuing their silly back and forth. “So how committed are you to making this whole thing happen?”
He traced a thumb along her nipple while still inside her bra, pinching the skin enough for it to pebble for him. “What? Taking you to Bali or getting laid?”
“Both.”
“Pffft,” he made a raspberry noise. “That’s easy. Extremely committed.” Undoing the fastener at the front of her bra, he popped it open. “One, I’ve already presented you with the tickets to our tropical paradise getaway. And two…” Now that she was exposed to him, he flicked his tongue out, moistening the stiff pink peak.
“Two? That’s your final answer?” Her words came out with a rapid pant. “You seem to be playing around instead of treating this with the gravitas it deserves.”
“Playing around, huh?” He stood up and disappeared from their bedroom without warning.
“Zane,” she called out—it might’ve even sounded like a whine—when he returned with his arms behind his back. “What are you up to?”
He was smoldering at her again, his expression downright diabolical. “Close your eyes, baby.”
“Why?”
“Because if you do, I promise you’ll like the results.”
Narrowing her gaze at him once more, she ultimately acquiesced. And when she felt something barely-there against her nipple, she gasped.
“What is that?”
“Can’t you guess?” he teased her.
“It’s so light… It doesn’t feel like your tongue, though.”
“It’s not.”
“Don’t think it’s your finger, either.”
There was laughter in his voice. “Nope.” He delayed answering her as if enjoying her torment. Only after she growled at him did he chuckle and relent. “Remember when I told you I could make you come from nothing but a feather?”
Oh, God. “Yeah.”
“Time to make good on that threat.”
He trailed the tip of the thing down between her cleavage, following the line of her seashell necklace before going to the left side of her torso, opposite from where her incision scars lay. Raising her hands over her head, he took a leisurely path under her arms and along her ribcage, and she couldn’t help but giggle and pull her elbows down in reaction to being tickled.
“Nuh, uh, uh,” he chastised. “Want me to tie you up?”
She opened her eyes all at once. “Ooh, will you?”
He released a loud guffaw. “Woman, you will be the death of me.”
“You love it.”
“I love you,” he swore, and she felt her spirit expand to float over the greater metro area. Every time he said those words, it filled her to overflowing.
“I love you, too,” she vowed back, then she poked her hands through the evenly spaced wrought iron bars of his headboard. “Now, tie me up and have your wicked way with me.”
He lumbered off the mattress, and she watched him rooting around in one of the dresser drawers.
“Shut those baby blues,” he ordered with a grin in his voice, and the next thing she felt was the smooth cool fabric of one of her scarves being secured over her eyes.
“So you won’t cheat,” he breathed near her cheek. Then, he wound another scarf around both of her wrists and two of the bars. The prospect of what he was doing made her excited to the point that she began to shiver, and he hadn’t even removed her wide legged palazzos. “Christ, seeing you like this…” He groaned, and the sound made her core go from damp to positively sopping. That was when he decided to peel those pants off, exposing her desire to his view. “And you’re literally glistening.”
“I’m always wet when it comes to you.”
He proceeded to tease that feather all over her skin. He ran it along the bottoms of her bare feet, up her calves and the back of her knees, and across her thighs. Just when he might’ve gone where she most wanted him, however, he skipped over her various and sundry to lavish its soft tip around her navel, her nipples, and her neck. Zane did this for endless minutes, and after a while, Lacey couldn’t take it anymore.
“Zane, please.”
“I got you, baby. You know I got you.”
It was then that he traced the feather across that swollen kernel of flesh at her core, tapping it, swirling around it, and fluttering over it. Next, using greater pressure, he pressed the quill against her clit, drifting up and down, then in circles. She exploded without warning, waves of elation spreading out from her center to send her straight into the stratosphere.
“I can’t believe it,” she panted out once she returned to earth. “You actually made me come with a feather.”
“A promise is a promise, after all.” He sounded pleased with himself to the level of cockiness, but since he’d earned that accolade, she couldn’t complain.
“I’m still at your mercy,” she reminded him, though he’d bound her loosely enough she could yank herself free anytime she wanted. “If you’ve ever had fantasies about this particular scenario, now’s the time.”
“Be careful what you wish for,” he muttered, sounding like he was talking to himself. In the next instant she felt the bed shift as something that tasted familiar and warm made contact with her lips. It was the thick and bulbous head of his dick, and he was leaking for her. Greedily, she lapped him up like a kitten suckling mother’s milk. “Ah fuuuck…”
Despite being tied to the headboard and blindfolded, Lacey was the one in control now.
Taking advantage of this, she opened her mouth wider to take more of him in, licking and nibbling until he pulled free. She felt him drop down and flick his tongue through her folds before coming right back up to kiss her mouth. Together they tasted the essence of one another, her wetness mixed with his, and the combination made her desire him all the more.
“Okay, enough games,” he grunted out, sounding on edge. “I need you for real.” With that, he tore away her blindfold, waited until her eyes met his, then sank his body all the way into hers. As he rocked them together, she watched him, delighting in the sight of him about to fall apart. “Come again for me, baby, because I’m about to.”
As if that command had been spoken directly to her heart, body, and soul, she did, thrashing with him in a synchrony that meant his orgasm was indeed coinciding with hers. She felt him pulsating, felt the warmth of his release spreading deep within her. Since they’d been tested for every disease known to man prior to going under the knife, and Lacey had chosen to utilize an IUD, they’d been indulging in everything bareback style. She loved feeling the unsheathed version of him, and Zane? He’d been downright ecstatic about it.
“Best feeling ever…” he said as if to reinforce the sentiment. She agreed. Sometimes the heat level between their joined bodies went so high she was amazed they didn’t ignite. Go up like a matchsticks. There was nothing else like it.
There was nothing else like him.
After catching their breaths, he pulled her arms out of her knotted scarf. Still hard inside her, he rolled so she was on top. Lacey bent over him, and they lost themselves in another series of sloppy kisses. She traced her hands over the skin of his torso, feeling the eight-inch scar sliced into his side. Her scars were smaller since her surgery had been conducted laparoscopically, but even still, she liked that they had this in common. There was something so powerful about knowing they shared both their scars and their kidneys.
And now, they’d be sharing everything.
“You know what? It’s early on, but I already adore living here with you,” she told him. His eyes warmed as he gazed up at her, traveling over each feature of her face. Blissfully, she reciprocated his affectionate scrutiny.
“I adore it, too, baby.” He pulled her down to press their lips together again. “I adore it, too.”
THE END
Author’s Note
Thanks so much for reading Just This Once. If you would be so kind as to leave a rating and/or review of this book—which you can do right here—that would be amazing. I appreciate your support and feedback. Positive reviews and high ratings are better than mocha lattes for lifting my spirits and inspiring my creativity (and I LOVE mocha lattes!) Thanks again for reading!
For a brief excerpt of the next book in the series, flip or scroll to the next page…