Every Moment with You (Redeeming Love #1)

by J.E. Parker

“So, you can’t tell anybody about this. Got it?” I ain’t losing you. Those words did funny things to my belly. I nodded. “Yeah, I’v...

Hendrix’s eyes blazed, and I swear to you the world stopped spinning. My mouth was touching something that Hendrix’s mouth had touched. To my thirteen-year-old self that meant we were practically kissing.

Hendrix lowered his face. So. Close. Then, in a low voice that I’d never heard from him before, but loved, he said, “I really want to kiss you.” Cue my heart attack. I was sure I was dying. Or was already dead. “Can I kiss you, pretty girl?” Dead. Dead. Dead. I was dead. And obviously, this was heaven. That or I was dreaming. Dear Lord, please don’t let this be a dream.

Feeling my entire body shake, I nodded my head once, and Hendrix squeezed my sides where his hands rested. “Don’t move,” he said as he lowered his head. Lightly, he pressed his lips to mine. Head tilted to the right, and with a firm hold, he gave me my first kiss.

Hendrix Cole. My next-door neighbor. My best friend. And the cutest boy I’d ever se...

Once at the porch, I hopped up the steps and looked at Daddy. “Don’t scare him away. He’s my best friend.” Daddy glared at me. “Your friends always kiss you on the lips?” “Seeing as he’s the only friend I’ve got, I’m going to say yes.” Daddy narrowed his eyes, and I smiled. Score one for me.

“Seriously, Daddy, be nice.” He shook his head, his jaw tight. “Go get ready for church. God knows your Grandmama will probably form a prayer circle around you to cast out the demon that’s obviously decided to possess you.”

I smiled at the words flashing across the screen. Hendrix: Wait 4 me N the morning. Walking U 2 school. Holding the phone in my shaking palm, I replied. K. C ya 2morrow. I would see him tomorrow. And every day that followed for the next five years.

Despite being only a few feet away from the back door, Maddie insisted on climbing out the laundry room window. She swore the deadbolt on the door made too much noise when being unlocked but I think she just liked sneaking out the window. I guess she thought she was a ninja or something. It was a miracle I’d been able to stop her from trying to slip out her second-story bedroom window. The first time she brought the idea up, I’d squashed it.

My bike came into view as we reached the break in the trees. Maddie squealed with excitement and ran towards it, stopping to stand by its side. She loved it when I took her riding. Guess her Daddy was wrong all those years ago when he told me she’d never get on a dirt bike.

Lifting my helmet off the seat, I sat in on her head, pulled it down tight and strapped it in place under her chin. “That tight enough?” She nodded, flipping the visor up. “Where’s yours?” “You’re wearing it.” “What? You can’t ride without one.” “It’s not a big deal.”

“What if we crash?” I slipped my finger under her chin and tilted her face up towards mine. “First, we won’t crash. You think I’m going to ride hard and fast with you on the back?” No way in hell. “Second, my head’s hard. I’ll be fine.” She opened her mouth, no doubt to protest, but I cut her off before she could get started. “It’s fine. Nothing is going to happen.” I removed my...

Messed up as it sounds, I loved that she worried about me. Loved that she was terrified of something happening to me. Not because I wanted her to be worried or scared but because it meant she cared. ...

“Are those train tracks?” “Yeah.” I walked up the incline and stepped onto the tracks. “What are we doing here? Tell me you aren’t planning on us hopping a train and running away because, if you are, you could have told me beforehand.” “What’s wrong? Scared to run away with me?” She scoffed. “No. I would have liked to pack some clothes and snacks though. I mean I doubt trains offer food to stowaways. And I would have needed to grab a couple of books. Can’t leave those behind.”

“You sound like you’ve thought about this before.” Her eyes widened. It was almost comical. “You have, haven’t you?” I bounced her up and down a little to make her reply quicker. I wanted to hear what she had to say. Thinking that she’d possibly thought about running away with me did funny shit to my heart.

“Hendrix, I swear if I fall and die I’m going to come back as a ghost and haunt you. And I don’t just mean tapping on walls and flipping light switches on and off either. I mean the kind of haunt you where I yank you out of bed while you’re sleeping and drag you into oncoming traffic.”

“Because a man can’t live without his heart. And you, pretty girl, are my heart.”

“And you, pretty girl, are my heart.” My Daddy swore I was too young to understand what love was. I can’t tell you how many times he’d written off my feelings for Hendrix as nothing more than a simple teenage crush. He’d even told me there would be more boys as the years went on. But I knew better.

No matter how many years passed, there would be no more boys, and there would be no more so-called crushes. I may have only been sixteen, but I swear to you, I knew with every ounce of my heart that the boy standing in front of me was the only one I’d ever want.

I felt it in the deepest recesses of my soul, and whether Daddy believed it or not, I didn’t care. I may have been a silly teenage girl, but I knew what was in my heart, and in my heart, was h...

“Why did you decide to get me a book? Normally you just bring me ice cream on your way home from work,” I teased, walking my fingers up his shin. For the last year, Hendrix had been working at a small engine repair shop that sat across the street from the local Dairy Queen. Needless to say, he brought me a chocolate dipped cone at least twice a week.

“Trust me, I like what ice cream does to your body, but I thought we could share this together.” He cut his eyes at me. “Because you damn sure never share your ice cream.”

His eyes dropped to the ground while his cheeks reddened a little. Was Hendrix blushing? Holy crap. “I know how much you like to read and I thought… I thought you could read it aloud so I can…” His voice trailed off as my stomach dropped. He didn’t need to finish the sentence. I already knew what he would say. . . . experience it too.

Hendrix loved books almost as much as I did. Problem was reading was hard for him due to his dyslexia. It didn’t matter though because I didn’t mind reading to him. In fact, I loved it.

“Wuthering Heights? You want me to read this to you?” His intoxicating brown eyes met mine. “Yeah. I overheard you telling Grandmama that you wanted to read it, so I checked it out from the library.” He checked out a book. Just for me. The thought made me giddy.

“Do you know why I wanted to read it?” Hendrix shook his head as I clutched the book tightly in my hands “It was my mother’s favorite.” Hendrix watched me, his eyes glued to mine. “Daddy told me that she probably read it a dozen times.” I smiled to myself. “He also said she cried every time.”

“Just like you do.” Confused, I lifted my brows. “What?” Hendrix licked his lower lip and sat up straight. “Doesn’t matter how many times you...

“I would’ve liked to thank her for giving birth to you.” A cool breeze danced across my skin, and I shivered. “Yeah, she gave birth to me all right.” And by giving me life, my mother had lost hers.

She’d only been thirty-five weeks pregnant when she started getting bad headaches. Grandmama said she’d brought it up to her doctor, but he didn’t seem alarmed by it. He blamed it on caffeine withdrawals since Mama had quit drinking coffee the moment she found out she was pregnant.

Anyway, one night she got a headache so bad she decided to go to bed early. Daddy was busy watching the end of a baseball game, so he didn’t go with her. It wasn’t until an hour or so later that he went upstairs and...

Grandmama called 911 while Daddy tried his best to help her, but it was already too late. She’d suffered a seizure due to undiagnosed toxemia and was barely hanging on. At the hospital, they performed an emergency C-section and, by some miracle, had been able to save me. Mama wasn’t so lucky though....

She didn’t even get to hold me. My heart broke just t...

“I know it sounds stupid but I thought reading this book would make me feel closer to her.” Hendrix kissed my temple, and my belly jumped. “Doesn’t sound stupid at all. Gotta admit I’m kinda looking forward to hearing what it’s all about. The librarian couldn’t stop talking about it. Said i...

“I swear I could listen to that sound all night.” “My laughter?” He nodded. “Yeah. It’s one of the most beautiful sounds I’ve ever heard.”

“then I’ll make it my mission to make you laugh every day for the rest of our lives.” “Every day for the rest of our lives, huh?” “Every single damn day.” “You plan on keeping me that long?” “I plan on keeping you forever.” I softly elbowed him in the stomach. “Forever ever?” He sat up, pulling me into his lap. Wrapping his long arms around me, he pressed his forehead against mine. “Until my dying breath.”

“Because I love you. Because you’re mine.” Because I love you… Because you’re mine…

“You love me?” “I always have.” I couldn’t speak. Hendrix smiled and cupped my jaw with his hand. His touch was delicate. “And don’t feel like you have to say it back just because I said it first. Whenever you get to that point, Maddie, I’ll be waiting.”

“Crazy boy,” I said, turning to straddle his lap and wrapping my arms around his neck, “you have no clue, do you?” Silence surrounded us. “Hendrix, I’ve loved you ever since I was in the third grade and you punched Ty Jacobs in the face for stealing my lunch money.”

Hendrix groaned as his lips crashed into mine. For the second time in my life, Hendrix Cole lit up my world with a simple kiss. Sparks flew. I leaned into the kiss—into him—and took everything he was willing to give.

“Thank you.” Pulling back, Hendrix licked his lips. His eyes were hooded and his irises appeared darker than normal. “For what?” “For not pushing me. For waiting. For always listening when I ask you to stop. For everything.”

Clutching my hands in his, he entwined our fingers together. “We’ve got the rest of our lives, Maddie.” Lifting my right hand, he kissed and nipped my knuckles with his teeth. Once. Twice. “I’ll wait until the end of time if I have to.”

“I love you, Hendrix. From here until the end of time, I love you.” Chest to chest and with the tip of his nose touching mine, he then whispered the sweetest words I’d ever heard. “I love you too, Maddie. I always have and I always will.” My heart melted. My soul sang. “Promise?” “I swear it.” “Good ’cause I plan on keeping you.”

Glancing in the mirror one last time, I turned to the side, checking the way my dress fell down my body, hugging both my hips and breasts tight before slightly flaring and hanging loosely around the tops of my thighs. It was short. It was green. And it was made of the softest material I’d ever touched. Hendrix would love it. Grandmama? Not so much. And Lord, it was a good thing Daddy was at the fire station for the next twelve or so hours. He would have had a stroke if he saw what I was wearing.

“Madelyn Grace, get your rear end down here. You’ve got this boy waiting, looking more nervous than a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.”

I’d purchased the cream-colored stilettos just for tonight, so there was no way I was leaving without them. Having never owned, much less walked, in a pair of heels before, I’d been practicing every single day for the last two weeks. Thankfully, after almost breaking my ankles on more than one occasion, I had finally mastered the art of walking in sky-high heels.

“You better marry her.” Grandmama’s words were direct and left no room for argument. Hendrix nodded once. “Planning on it.” Grandmama rolled her eyes. “Good. Now get out of here. My show’s about to come on.”

“Behave, old woman.” She chuckled. “Get outta my house you hooligan.”

Before taking the first step, I reached down and quickly removed my shoes. They were cute and they did amazing things to my legs and butt, but they had to go. As nervous as I was, if I tried to take another step with them on I’d more than likely fall and break something.

Quickly unzipping the bag, I pulled out the items I’d meticulously placed inside. Candles. Lingerie. An expensive bottle of lube I’d ordered online. Lord, had that been embarrassing. Browsing for the sexy stuff on the internet made my face heat. I had no idea there were so many different types of vibrators.

Shaking my head, and refusing to think about the way my skin burned as I looked at the different toys and wondered which ones would feel the best, I placed the candles around the room, lighting them as I went.