Jem…Chapter 121

Jem…Chapter 121 by Bailey Summers Copyright © 2013 Bailey Summers All Rights Reserved.

Chapter 121

*Before…

I nod. “He’s scary and I sort of grew up with him. He’s a violent asshole when he thinks he can get away with it and if he’s mad…and I mean really mad. I don’t know what he’d do.”
Rayne hugs me. “Like other than pull strings and hire bikers and firebomb Mike’s car and your Dad’s house.”
I nod. “Exactly and on the scale of fucking with Adam it was pretty low stuff compared to what we’re trying to do.”
She turns us and she leans me against the counter then she does that ballet pick me up and sets my bum on the counter top and she steps in between my legs and she does a little tip-toey thing and she kisses me.
My mind’s already in the squee feel oh this is from my dream thing and it’s also going into this safe warm place too as she’s doing a really, really good job at kissing me.
“He’s not going to hurt you Angel, I won’t let him.”

*And Now…

It’s a very good thing.

This, this being held with Rayne’s arms around my waist as I’m up on the counter and her pushing herself up high enough to kiss me.

And telling me that I’m safe.

I know that things are a lot more complicated than that. I get how dangerous Adam is and all of that and yet that’s not the focus on the whole safe thing. It’s the way we’re feeling right now that’s got all the meaning, what she wants and what she means with what she says. It’s that promise of beyond that and more than that too.

That’s a very good thing and it is certainly adding to the sexy time and the make out time that we’re having.

Make outs are of the good.

We keep it up too all the way through the bubble and gurgle of the coffee perk making a fresh pot and even when we stop we’re doing this thing where I’m leaning over and down and my forehead’s touching hers and we’re smiling and we’re looking each other in the eyes and it’s just about perfect as perfect gets.

Which of course in when someone is Murphy-bound to walk in and stuff. We look over and see Mike coming in and he’s stopped and he’s looking at us and he blushes and he smiles. “Sorry girls…should I just turn around or can I come in.”

I laugh. “Sure come in, besides I’m starving.”

Rayne helps me off the counter into her arms and more and we’re grinning and there’s a peck and then I head to the fridge and look for breakfast stuff. Wow…they’ve already put a huge dent into the cheesecake. I smile though and take out some of the leftovers and I mash some stuffing and dressing together with a little bit of water to get them together but just enough that I can make patties out of it and I heat some of the squash and then take a slice or two of bacon and fry those with an egg.

Mike’s cutting bread and making toast and I grin at him eating the crumbs from cutting the bread and then he takes the husk for himself. “Gods this is good even with just butter, you make really good bread y’know.”

I smile. “Thanks but I had to learn and so did dad because we had all Mom’s baking stuff ad once we figured out the bread maker it was actually better to try to do it the old way like mom used to.”

“Your dad still uses the bread maker.”

I nod. “Yeah, but I like the openly raised stuff, it’s got a different texture.”

“Yeah bread maker bread tastes close to bough ten.”

I grin. “I’ll make a new batch to raise today; I want to try a few things.”

Rayne looks at me. “I thought we were going to kick back today?”

“I am. I just want to play a little.”

“You’re such a girl hon, you think of cooking as playing around.”

“It wasn’t forced on me Rayne; it was about kind of connecting with Mom more than anything else.”

I take the dressing patties out and they smell good and they have a nice crisp on them and I put on the slices of bacon then the fried egg and the squash in a dollop on that and I pass one to Rayne and one to Mike who goes “Oooh, oooh!” and the takes it and I get mine and we sit and eat at the table.

Rayne’s trying it looking dubious and Mikes scarfing it down.

See the thing is to use the runny yolk to mix with the squash, and you have to have the squash right too not runny or watery but thick like a whipped potato. See it mixes with the egg and it makes it richer and then the crispy part of the egg helps and then there’s the salty bacon and then it all helps the dressing cake and it makes the herby goodness better for the crunch I put on the cake and it all blends really well.

There’s a sort of an art to leftovers.

I’m smiling with a mouthful as Rayne’s expression is changing.

“This is really good.”

I lean over and we kiss. “Thank you.”

“Thanks for breakfast Ange; you take care of us so well y’know.”

“I love you, all of you so yeah it’s easy.”

We kiss again and Rayne asks. “So you’re going to play around in here?”

“Yeah, You?”

“I…I think I’ll watch the girls jam but I have a Kate Tiernan book I want to read.”

“Oh…good?”

“Teen stuff pretty cool wiccan based stuff actually.”

“I’ll have to read them sometime.”

“If you’re good later we’ll snuggle and I’ll read the first one to you.”

I tilt my head. “Seriously?”

She kisses me again. “Seriously.”

I grin. “Okay deal that’s sounds very cool.”

I mean I love to read but at the same time being read to seems like such a guilty pleasure.

And reading with snuggles…I almost kind of want it now.

We kiss again and she heads out and upstairs to get her book I think and Mike too went off to be with the girls and then I head back into the kitchen and I clean up the dishes and I get out a few things I wanted to try.

A couple of cans of Dr. Pepper and Hire’s Root beer and I pour them into a pot each to boil and cook. I want it reduced but flat too.

Then I take out some raisins and dates and set them to soak and then take out the molasses and then I take out the flour and then I get the yeast ready with some warm molasses water and then I get the flour and toss it in the oven in a big steel bowl. I’m not cooking it but warming it as the oven gets up to temp and if a little bit gets toasted then that’s still good too.

See yeast likes warm, not hot but warm and it works really well that way.

The rest is waiting so I go and get my laptop and I go online. It might be the holiday but with online banking and things it’s different and it’s not Thanksgiving in the United States and other places so I’m signing into our accounts for the Pay pal stuff from our online sales and I start doing our accounting things.

We’re doing really good, not millions or even tens of thousands but we’re doing really, really well.

So first off, very first thing I sink in another month’s rent. I pay off our song lists for our covers both old and new; send in money for our dues even though they’re not due for a year. Then the credit card, electric, gas, water, phone…oh that I was planning on doing with us needing more access and things so we are getting us the big friends and family pack with the phone plan and the new smart phones and there’s tablets one’s for free with the package and after talking to the accounts person online with them agreeing to two other tablets instead of the big flat screen they were offering because I’m getting the phone and internet and cable all bundled and then I pay them three months in advanced and get us bumped for an early call tomorrow. All of that for under a hundred a month is a good deal, and the unlimited texting will save us cash too actually and we’ll need it with everything we’ll be doing.

Then I go online and look through Kijiji and look through the stuff there and get a deal on two tambourines and a set of Cuban shakers and Keytar…a SHS-10 Yamaha classic red version for a $125.00 I pay for it all from my bank account and set the deliveries up and everything.

Okay I feel accomplished right now.

So with that all I get up and turn off the reduced soda and add in a few ice cubes to chill it off and then I start mixing flour and yeast and soda syrup and there’s two batches one with Dr. Pepper and the soaked dates and the other with the Hire’s and the raisins and I set it all up to raise.

The others are still doing their thing so I start in on making leftover stew. Celery and onions all cooking and then chicken stock and I whip up a bit of a roux for later and I add leftover turkey and veggies and the dressing and stuffing I buzz up with flour and baking soda and an egg and roll them into balls.

Cream of turkey soup with stuffing and herby dumplings on a fall day…and there…okay
I whip up some pie crust with salt and pepper and bake it off in the over for some crunch.

But I hold off on the roux and I turn the heat down and I get the bread panned and let it proof a little more in the bread pans and I wash up and then sit back down in front of my computer and I start to write.

*Never Enough.* Written by Angel Benton for Starlight Butterfly.

I think about us all the days…
I daydream about all the stuff that I want to say…
I roll over in the morning into your embrace.
And it’s far too short, and there’s the day to face…

I dream about us while doing all those other things.
I smile wistfully…at your phone voice…do you know I do that…
We sneak our little talks and we’re just us.
But I love that, and I want more.

(Chorus.) I just found you like yesterday…
I never thought these blues could go away…
You’re my love song on the radio.
I want more…oh I want forever.
But even forever….Just is Never enough.

I see you in the glass at the corner store.
A quart of milk and some eggs then I’m headed home.
My lonesome ache…too long a day.
But thinking about you helps me find my way.

(Chorus)

We turn down the lights and it’s finally us.
Burned out, stressed out, you fell asleep on the couch…
Waking you up with a kiss just to go to bed.
And as bad as it is, it’s still pretty great…

And I want more…
And I want more…

(Chorus X2)

It’s a little different but it kind of fits the day that I’ve had so far and I sort of have almost this older working black and white video and car or driving shots in the rain and the cadence in my head is sort of this like a song that Feist would sing maybe some keyboard piano with some light acoustic…

Yeah I think that that will work.

I save it in two places then put my computer away. Then I bake off the bread and while I’m doing that I finish off the stew and all of the fixings and add in the roux and let it cook and thicken and I get stuff out for dinner but it’s a serve yourself kind of thing and I head out with two bowls and some of the bread sliced carefully and still literally steaming hot and with real butter and I make my way into the living room looking for Rayne and Carmen points upstairs.
Molly’s looks in full computer genius mode and Mike and Brooklyn are nowhere to be seen and Kim’s online with what looks like You Tube and I smile.

“There’s fresh breads and there’s dinner or supper in the over in the dutchie help yourselves okay.”

I get nods and waves and I head upstairs and I hip nudge our door open and Rayne’s there laying on her stomach reading a book and listening to Sarah McLaughlin looking so very laid back and into the book and really, really beautiful.

Right there, she’s exactly why I just wrote that song right there.

She looks up at me and she gives me the sweetest smile as she sit’s up and she brushes some of her hair back out of her eyes and does that little tuck behind her ear…that smile and well just like everything.

“Hey, dinner?” I say.

She smiles. “I’d love some, come here.”

I go over and she slides the book mark into where she was at and she sets it on our nightstand and she takes off another one with that smile again. “C’mon and settle in chere.”

My little canopy over the bed, our blankets and comforters, good music and some comfort food and a good book.

And just stopping.

(Sniffle-Yays)