My Next Door Neighbor

Chapter 48

Penelope's POV: One month later

"Thank you, come again!" I smile at the customer as she walks away. George comes up to me. "Switch time" I nod and walk away as George takes over the cash register. I walk around the counter and walk to Maria, Liam, and Carlos. "Hey guys, everything good over here? Need anything else?" Carlos smiles at me. "Could I have another bagel? Your bagels are so good" I smile. "Of course Carlos, anything else?" Liam speaks up.

"Can I have hot chocolate and a hug?" I smile and nod, leaning down and hugging Liam. "I was hoping to speak to your fiancé face to face, I wanted to thank him for helping Maria" I look over at Carlos. "He'll be here soon but you know, he just helped Maria because that's just the type of man he is. He's kind, loving. He'll always help people in need, that's just how he is, and I love that about him" Maria smiles behind me.

"Aww sunshine, I knew you loved me" I roll my eyes as he wraps his arms around my waist, kissing my forehead. "I hate you" He chuckles and tightens his arms around me. "I love you too sunshine" Carlos stands up. "So you're the guy that saved Maria from that piece of shi-" Maria clears her throat. "Language Carlos" Carlos fixes his words. "Poop, piece of poop" Grayson lets go of me and stands in from of Carlos, they're about the same height, fucking tall as fuck.

I sit down in the booth and Maria leans in and whispers. "Why is it that them standing in front of each other is hot?" I nod. "Yea they are" Carlos holds out his hand. "Thank you for doing what I couldn't do" Grayson nods and takes his hand, shaking his hand. "It was my pleasure to help Maria"  Grayson and Carlos smile at each other before turning to Maria and I, smirking at us.

"So we were hot?" I blush and look away, looking at Maria to see her blushing too. "Hot? Papi, thumper, do you guys have a fever?" We all laugh and Carlos picks up Liam, "No mi amor, it's hot outside. That's what we meant" Liam nods. "Ohhh okay, yea it is hot outside" I glance at Maria and she looked at me at the same time and we bursted out laughing. Kids are so fucking funny.

~*~   

Grayson comes up behind me and hugs me, kissing my neck. "You look so fucking beautiful in this bathing suit" I nod. "Thank you, but are you sure this looks okay on me? My stretch marks look a little funny and my stomach looks bigger than normal plus the scars that I have from Tom's abuse"

Grayson's grip tightened on me. "Okay? Baby you look gorgeous. Your stretch marks and stomach are just proof of all the extra bits I love about you, and your scars show people and yourself that you survived something scary and thrived. You went through hell with Tom but you were resilient and patient with yourself to heal and look at you now."

"After years of abuse from Tom about your ideas for your own business and hating on the way you look, you are now a self made boss lady with your own cafe, making your own money, slowly loving yourself and your body and getting married to a man that worships the ground you walk on" I smile as he kisses my cheek and neck.

"And besides, if someone comments on how you look, I might get a bloody knuckle. But you shouldn't hide the way you look because of someone else's comment, it's hot today, and the cooling system is down on the first two floors, we have every right to use the pool here" I nod and turn around. "You're right and you being cheesy can disgust me sometimes" He chuckles and winks.

"I live to make you cringe sunshine, you look so cute when you scrunch up your nose" I groan and walk away from towards the door. "Take your pants and shirt off, and before you comment on how I said that, don't. I'm not getting in the pool by myself" He smirks and nods, taking his pants and shirt off, leaving him shirtless with his swimming shorts on.

He grabs both our towels and holds them over his shoulder and walks towards me, taking my hand and opening the door and we walk out. Once we're in the pool area, I do get a bit self conscious and hold his arm closer to me. "It's okay baby, no one is going to say anything to you, not while I'm here" I nod and we find place to put our towels down. "Thumper!"

We look over to see a running Liam coming towards us. Carlos shouts out. " Be careful Liam!" Grayson jogs to Liam and reaches him just as Liam slips on the slippery floor, thankfully Grayson catches him. "Whoa buddy! You gotta be careful here, it's very slippery." Liam nods and looks up. "Sorry" Grayson smiles down at Liam, shaking his head.

"It's alright bud" I look over to see Carlos walking over. "Thank you Grayson" Gray just nods. "No problem Carlito" Carlos furrows his eyebrows and points a finger at him. "Nobody calls me Carlito, ya hear?" Maria walks up behind Carlos. "No one, Carlito?" He blushes. "You know only you can, amor" She smiles and kisses his cheek which deepens his blush and he clears his throat.

"Come on Liam, let them get settled" I shake my head. "I'm about to get in the water, Liam can join me" Liam smiles and looks up at his dad. "Can I papi? Please?" Carlos laughs. "Of course, I trust these two" Liam holds his little hand out and I take it, leading him down to the steps. "Jesus, it's cold" Liam says and I laugh softly, nodding. "We just have to get used to it then we'll be warmer" Liam nods and we get deeper in and not that long after, Maria joins us while the guys just sit and watch us.

Grayson's POV

"I think we've been sitting here for too long, wanna join our women?" I nod at Carlos words. "Yea but in a bit, I'm admiring my girl" I smile as Liam splashes sunshine and she just laughs before splashing him back. I glance over at Carlos and see him watching Maria. I chuckle and shake my head slightly. We're both fucking whipped for our girls.

My smile widens as my girl beckons me towards her. I get up and walk to the edge. "Yes sunshine?" She smiles up at me. "Come get into the water with me, Carlos too. Us girls want our men in the water and it'll be fun to see you two interact with Liam" I chuckle and crouch down, grabbing her hand and kissing it. "Okay, I'll be right back" I stand up and walk to Carlos.

"Come on, our girls want us in" He chuckles and nods, standing up, he takes off his shirt and lays it on the chair and I look over his body. I sound gay. "Damn you are covered in tattoos" He chuckles and rolls his eyes. "Like you don't have quite a few of your own" I shrug and smile as I make my way inside the water. "Jeez that's cold" I wade in the water and go to pen and she hugs me.

"Another reason I wanted you with me was a couple of girls was looking at you and biting their lips, I needed to show them that you're mine" She whispers and I smirk, picking her up and holding her up with my hands on her ass. Now I'm thinking of fucking her in this position and spanking her. I shake my head and kiss her soft lips.

"All yours" She humphs in triumph and leaps out of my arms and walks to Liam and whispering something. Before I could ask what she said, Liam splashed me. "Ah! I'm not used to the water yet! That was cold" Liam and Sunshine laughs and I hear another splash from Maria to Carlos, with Carlos making a similar remark as mine.

"You're gonna regret that" I quickly make my way to Penelope and pick her up over my shoulder, getting out of the pool and  making my way to the deeper side of the pool. She realizes what I'm gonna do and starts struggling. "Wait! I'm sorry, I'll give you a nice time tonight fiancé, if! If you don't do this" I smirk and grip her ass slightly.

"It's all right, I always have a nice time with you around, hold your nose" She holds her breath and nose as I drop her in the deep end of the pool. I laugh as she resurfaces with her hair all over her face, I bend down to help her out when she grabs my hand and drags me in, making me fall in the deep end. I should've fucking known! I resurface with a glare at her before smiling at the sound of her laughter.

                                    ~*~

I gently hand a sleeping Liam over to Carlos and once he secure in his arms, I kiss his forehead and since Pen is short, she just kisses his hand. "Goodnight you guys" Pen says and I nod. "Yea, goodnight" Maria smiles. "Goodnight you two" Carlos just nods and walks inside their apartment. Maria just rolls her eyes but laughs softly. She waves us goodbye as she closes the door.

I take pen's hand as we get in the elevator to get to our floor. She groans and lays her head on my shoulder. "Playing with Liam, you plus the chlorine, has made me so tired, actually I've been so tired lately" I chuckle and nod. "Yeah I know and I'm really tired too. But we gotta wash this stuff off before sleeping" She nods.

"Imma just do a bath and you can wash me, I'm so freaking tired, I can't move" I smile and kiss her forehead. "Sure sunshine, anything for you" She hums, smiling. "My true knight in armor or however the saying goes, I'm too fucking tired" I laugh at that. My beautiful weird girl never ceases to make me laugh.