Denial

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Serenity

I wiped the drizzle of sweat off my face and glanced up at the sky. The weather has been pretty accommodating these last couple of weeks. Just as she promised, Rae sat through dinner with us and her family. She'd even come armed with a new nickname for Gideon. Now, she calls him J'onn J'onzz or J'onzz for short. Apparently, she believes him to be hiding behind a made up persona instead of showing who he truly was on the inside.

How ironic is that?

"Ren, honey," my mom called. When I glanced over at her, she continued. "When you're finished raking up the leaves, the lawn needs to be mowed, the kitchen needs to be deep cleaned, the carpets need to be washed, the cars need to be washed, the dogs need a bath, and the basement needs repainting."

Where the hell does she pull these damn jobs from? Her ass? Speaking of her ass, she's sitting on it, sipping on a cup of lemonade and reading a self-help book about being a good mother and housewife. You could start by helping me do all of these damn odd jobs. At this rate, I will have to bail on my friends, again. If Gideon were here, he'd be helping me out, but he's currently at a Boy Scout meeting and dad's at another one of those debrief thingies. He won't be home tonight.

Sighing to myself, I was just about to go back to raking the leaves when another, more pleasant voice called my name. Looking up, my eyes locked onto the beautiful golden halos of Rae's. Her hair was cascading down her shoulders in gentle curls. She wore a simple navy blue button up with the top three buttons open to show some cleavage along with a pair of faded blue skinny jeans and blue running shoes. She had a small smile on her face as she made her way up to me.

It was nice to see that smile considering she'd been having a rough couple of weeks. Junior told me all about the huge blow out after I noticed the tension at the table. She had somehow managed to ignore it and mess around with Gideon the whole time. I'd never seen him smile so much in his entire life. It made me realize, though, that she was good at hiding things. Too good. There was no way of truly telling how she was actually feeling because she always wore that mask of hers.

Straightening up, I met her halfway. When we were close enough, I realized her eyes were looking lower. Glancing down at myself, I realized I was only wearing a sports bra and a pair of basketball shorts along with my basketball shoes. When I glanced up at her again, her eyes had finished roving over my well-defined 6 pack and were now drinking in my breasts. I was proud about my abs. I worked hard to get them and dammit I'm gonna show them off.

Chuckling, I reached out and tilted her chin up so she was looking at me. "My eyes are up here, angel."

Without the slightest bit of shame, Rae licked her lips and my gaze dropped to them, the memory of our kiss on the track bulldozing its way into my thoughts. "Angel? Where did that come from?"

Although it was excruciating, I pulled my gaze from her lips to her eyes. I couldn't help but smile at her as her golden brown eyes smiled at me. So that's where she keeps her real smiles. "It just sort of came to me as I watched you walk up and I knew it was perfect for you."

She laughed at that. "Me? An angel?" she shook her head at me, her smile turning rueful. "There's nothing angelic about me, Ren. I'm more of a soul stuck in a never ending purgatory." She turned her gaze away from me, looking at my house instead. It was a simple two story townhouse. There was nothing special about it. We had a yard big enough for the dogs to run freely and we had a basketball goal attached to the garage for me to practice on. There were mounds of leaves here and there from when I'd been raking and apparently, mom had gone inside at some point.