Penelope ran past me as I entered the bar the next morning, ecstatic to see her mom. "Mommy!" Her excited shouts rang as we entered. "Penelope!" She greets, picking up her daughter as I approached the bar.
"How was she?" Victoria asks. "She was great. We had a lot of fun, didn't we, Pen?" I ask, glancing up through the sunglasses. If I didn't hear from Bradley today, I'm marching my ass down to the base to find out what happened.
My mom and Amelia decided to take the day off and go on a boat trip, while I stayed back to help run the bar. "Yep!" She beams. Although, Victoria was working a double shift. My mom decided to shut down early today, so I'll probably close down around 5, which means she's only working two hours more.
Nodding, I placed my things in the cubby.
"Did you hear from Rooster?" Victoria asks. "Nothing. Radio silence." I sigh, looking up at her from where I was crouched down behind the counter at my cubby.
"I'm sure you'll hear from him today." She replies, adjusting her daughter on her hip. "Trust me, if I don't I'm marching my ass down to the base." I reply, glancing at Penelope when I realized what I said.
"Don't repeat auntie Rae." I laugh, straightening my posture when she nodded. She giggled, clinging onto her mom.
"Alright bug, I set up a little coloring area for you in the back office. I'll check up on you in a bit." Victoria crouches down as I clock in.
"I'm shutting down around 5. 5:30 tops." I tell her as the four year old jogs into the back with the help of her favorite cook, Ben.
"So only two hours, great." She nods, leaning against the bar.
•••
Sniffing, I straightened the bottles in the small refrigerator underneath the bar. Bradley and the team had been on my mind all day, I couldn't stop thinking about him.
A throat clearing gained my attention. Victoria was in the back with everyone else so I was alone closing up front.
"I'm sorry, we're closed." I speak, not even bothering to look up.
"This seems familiar." A deep voice gains my attention. My eyes widen as I spin around, landing on my boyfriend standing right in front of me.
"Bradley!" I shout, barreling towards him. A 'humph!' leaves his lips as I collide into his body, his arms wrapping around my waist as he pulls me up into him. With my arms around his neck, I wrap my legs around his hips before forcing my head into his neck. His scent immediately envelops me, easing my body into his.
"You're safe, oh my god." I whisper, mainly to myself as one of my hands rest in his curls, holding his head against my own. His cheek was pressed against mine as he swayed us.
"Told you you weren't getting rid of me." He laughs, holding me against him tightly. "I missed you." I pull away slightly, just enough to look at his perfect face.
"I missed you too, baby. So much." He replies, hands resting on my hips. Placing one hand on his cheek, I pulled him into a deep kiss.
His lips had a distant Dr Pepper taste, he must have had one not too long ago. "Dr Pepper?" I teased, pulling away to look into his dark brown eyes. He swipes his tongue across his lips, nodding in response. Before I could tease him more, he leans in a presses a sweet kiss on my lips.
"Rae-." Victoria speaks up behind him. Pulling back, Bradley sets me down.
"Oh, you're home!" Victoria sends me a wide smile as she realizes I have company. "He just got here, what's up?" I ask, running my fingers over Bradley's shirt.
"We're about to head out for the night, Penelope wanted to say goodbye to her favorite aunt." She says, moving out of the way so my favorite toddler can say her goodbyes.
Bradley's arm drops from my waist as she nears. She notices, looking up at him as she stops.
"Are you Roo?" She asks. He crouches down, meeting her height. "Sure am." He brightly smiles. "I like your hair." She responds, tapping his hair. Me too, girl.
"Thank you! I like your bow." He responds, motioning to the bow I had put in this morning. "Auntie Rae did my hair." She says, matter of factly before turning to me. She engulfs me in a hug.
"I'll see you later, okay bug?" I say, pulling away slightly. "Yep!" She nods, turning back to her mom before rushing over. "Bye Penelope!" I call behind her as they begin to leave.
"Bye Rae-Rae." She waves back before settling on Rooster. "Bye Rooster." She smiles as he straightens his posture.
"Bye Penelope." He waves back, just as happily.
"Bye you two!" Victoria calls as they leave.
As the door shuts, I turn back to Rooster. "I was worried sick about you." I mumble, placing my hands on his shoulders. His hands come to a rest on my ribcage as he looks down at me.
"I know, and I'm sorry. I didn't have my phone or else I would have told you we had to go through a long debrief." He responds, placing a kiss on my forehead.
"How's Maverick?" I ask, playing with his shirt. The front door opens back up, Victoria stepping back in. "Uh, sorry to interrupt but I kinda need the car seat out of your car." She laughs.
"Oh, right!" I move, grabbing my keys before making my way out to help her, Rooster following right behind me. It was nice to have him back, but this has been one of the worst weeks of my life without him. It made me realize we did move a little too fast, but now that he was back for now we could slow everything down without the thought of him dying on this mission in the back of our heads.
Pulling open my back seat, I leaned over and began unlatching the car seat from my car, handing it to her as soon as it was free.
"Thank you!" She beams, making her way to her car. Looking around, I don't see any other cars than ours.
"How'd you get here?" I questioned, turning back to Bradley. "I got an Uber." He nods, leading down and pressing a kiss on my forehead. Sighing, I relaxed into him as he wrapped his arms around my waist.
"I was so worried about you guys." I continued, inhaling his familiar cologne. He doesn't say anything as I begin to ramble, just pressing occasional kisses on the top of my head.
"Rae, sweetheart." He chuckled, pulling away slightly to look down at me better. "I'm okay, we're okay! None of us are hurt." He affirms, gazing into my eyes with his soft brown ones.
"I know, it's just it felt like my world started falling into place and then you crashed into my life with your blue moons and your mission. It felt strange being here without you." I confessed, seeing Victoria pulling away.
"I know, baby. Tomorrow night, how about we go out to dinner with everyone?" He suggests, gently grabbing my keys from my hand. "Sounds good. How's my dad?" I asked, fumbling with Bradley's neck class enclasped around his neck.
"I can't tell you too much, hell we weren't even supposed to tell you about what this mission entails but I couldn't bare to keep you out of the loop, but he's okay. Minor problem but we got out of there." Rooster nods, softly smiling down at me. Nodding, I reached up and tangled my fingers into the short hair at the back of his neck.
"How about I help you close up and then we can go bother Mav?" Rooster suggests. With a nod, I slowly let go of him to lock up the bar.
————
Stepping inside my mom's house, I listened for their voices. "In here!" My mom calls. Dropping my keys by the door on the table, I made my way to the kitchen.
"Mav!" I greet, seeing him turn the corner to meet me in the middle. "Rae!" He beams, opening his arms for a hug. Smiling, I engulfed him in a hug.
YOU ARE READING
•clueless•
Fanfiction"Why did you make me fall in love with you when you're about to leave for a mission you may not even come back from?" I exclaim, my throat burning as I fought the urge to cry. "Do you seriously think I wanted to fall in love right before I left? Fa...
