Craving Absolution by Nicole Jacquelyn Read Free Book Online Page B

wouldn’t even be able to tell if she was happy or mad. For the first time I was inside the inner sanctum, able to gauge every reaction—but only because she was allowing me—and it was a hell of a place to be.
    I guess Callie ’s call was about more than checking in. My sister had decided to finally move from Sacramento to Oregon to be with her man, so Gram and Farrah were in full-on planning mode, making lists and shit for all the things they needed to do. I knew Gram would follow Callie, but I couldn’t help the smile on my face as Farrah told Gram she was going with them.
    I caught Farrah’s eye as we sat across from each other at Gram’s scarred-up table, the shy smile on her face making my entire fucking day. I wanted to take her back to bed that very second, but even if we hadn’t been in the middle of a conversation with my grandmother, the massive hard-on I was suddenly sporting wouldn’t have allowed me to stand up from the table. Goddamn . The woman wound me up without even trying.
    Farrah insisted on taking Will with us that afternoon to the Laundromat and to buy boxes from a moving company. There was something about the way she and the boy played off each other that had my chest tightening. It wasn’t a maternal thing, really, but the way she loved on him and knew exactly what he needed and how to take care of him made me feel stupidly proud, really proud.
    You could see the connection between them—not surprising since he ’d lived with her his entire life—but it was more than that. Farrah would kill for him, and it showed in the way she held him protectively and watched him like a hawk. She loved that boy with an intensity that matched my own, and it made me dig her even more than I already did.
    By late that afternoon, we’d finally made it back from our errands. I didn’t know how she was so unruffled when I felt like dropping the baby at Gram’s and taking off on my bike to get some quiet. Will was bouncing off the walls, exhausted because he hadn’t gotten his nap, and asked every two seconds for his mom and dad. The poor kid had rarely been without both of them at the same time, and he’d finally reached his limit as we’d packed Farrah’s clean clothes into the trunk of her car. He’d cried the entire way home, and when we got there, refused to stand more than a foot away from the front door, as if he was waiting for Callie to come through it. It was sad as hell . . . and gave me a massive headache.
    “ Hey, Will! You want some Cheerios, dude?” Farrah asked calmly as she strode out of the kitchen holding a little bowl of dry cereal.
    “ Wan’ Mama.”
    “ Yeah, I hear ya, buddy,” she told him with a sigh as she crouched down in front of him, the long skirt of her dress pooling around her on the floor. “Mommy and Daddy are on their way. You sure you don’t want any of these absolutely scrumptious little o’s?’
    She popped a piece into her mouth with an exaggerated look of pleasure, and I couldn ’t help but smile when Will walked between her knees and laid his head on her shoulder, then grabbed a Cheerio from the bowl with his chubby little fingers.
    “ Only a little bit longer, bud,” she murmured gently, kissing the top of his head.
    She stayed that way, crouched down in front of him while he leaned his body into hers for a few minutes, before he scooted back to sit on one of her thighs. He was standing on her dress and as he moved, pulled the dress down until she dropped the Cheerios to the floor as she scrambled to catch her neckline before her tits came popping out. I watched the surprise on her face while Will pushed at her, and in what seemed like slow motion, they both toppled over and burst into laughter.
    “ My legs are like Jell-O!” she screeched at him, pulling him up so he was straddling her belly. “You’re getting too big, Wilfred.”
    “ No Wilfred!” he yelled back, giggling.
    “ Wilbur?”
    “ No!”
    “ Wilhelmina?”
    “ No!”
    “