Maid to Order (Man Maid Book 4) Page 21

  Turning to find her standing there, Rusty’s expression said what his words didn’t. The man was insatiable. She could feel herself blushing at his bold gaze as it raked over her.

  Getting up from his chair at the table, he walked into the kitchen and poured some coffee into a mug and added a single serving creamer to it. Then he brought it over to where she stood. His eyes burned with desire as he approached. After handing her the coffee, he gently reached into his pocket and pulled enough of her panties out of his front pocket so she could tell what they were.

  Then leaning down, he kissed her on the cheek and whispered, “Were you looking for these, Ms. Carlton? Two can play this little teasing game of yours.”

  She knew her mouth was hanging open but no sound was coming out. With a smirk, he shoved the panties back into his pocket and turned away from her to sit back down at the table with Ian and his wife, Courtney. Amy made her way over to the remaining chair at the table.

  “So are you ready to explain this?” Seth asked, holding up the notepad that he probably found on the floor in the same place she’d thrown it down yesterday.

  “The Army was all I’ve ever done besides working for Man Maid… and all I ever really wanted to do. The men and women I’ve served with over the years… they were all I had. Knowing that my inaction, when they needed my leadership the most, could have cost them their lives… I knew it was time to get out. What I didn’t know was how hard it would be to go from the roller coaster ride of active duty… where one day you’re bored out of your skull and the next you’re in the middle of hell… to what most people think of as normal. For me… that roller coaster is normal,” Rusty explained. “I felt like I couldn’t go forward with my life because the military is all I know but I couldn’t go back because I was no longer fit for duty. I mean… Christ… Buck did my fucking job that day. I lost myself in that feeling of failure… and couldn’t see a way to fix my life. For what it’s worth I’m sorry for my shortcomings that day and every day since.”

  “Sergeant Buck is an amazing dog, Rusty. I mean, he can make women faint at his feet. It’s just one of his many talents. He used that skill on me when I first met him and when I came to, there was this handsome man kneeling over me… so I kissed him,” Kayla said, smiling shyly at Ronnie. “Up until then I had failed miserably in the love department. I managed to find a way around my failures, though, and try one more time. Lucky for me… Ronnie just so happens to belong to Buck. A package deal I guess you could say,” Kayla said with a smile. “If I’m not mistaken, you’re the one that assigned them both to work for me.”

  “Besides, we’re not the only ones he’s saved in his lifetime. You may remember he found Kayla’s mom. I sure as shit couldn’t have found her all the way out there by myself,” Ronnie replied, rubbing Sergeant Buck’s head and ears. “Saving lives was his job, Sir. Yours was to finish the mission. And you damn sure finished it… didn’t you?”

  Amy glanced at Rusty who stared into the darkness of his coffee, clearly remembering and experiencing the pain all over again. The room was silent waiting for Rusty to speak.

  “I respect what you’re saying, Sergeant, but up until that day I’d always felt that I was a highly qualified soldier. Men followed me because I got them back home… safe. I was always extra cautious. I was damn good at my job. Then one off day… and I was left drowning in self-doubt while that damn dog led you guys out,” Rusty finally replied. “There’s no place for an ‘off’ day when you’re in a combat zone and you damn well know it, Ronnie.”

  “An off day, Sir?” Seth asked in amazement. Then he laughed sarcastically and said, “You’re pissed because you had an off day? I was a male stripper, for God’s sake, and the one woman I wanted more than anything wanted nothing to do with me. If not for Ronnie letting me borrow that damn dog, I might not be sitting here married to that woman right now! Hell, he was present the first time I got up the guts to kiss Tori… long after it normally took me to make a move on a woman, I might add. Especially considering how much I wanted her. If I’d quit after an off day with her, I’d never gone back to work for her a second day. So I guess that makes me inferior to him too.”

  “Not to mention, he helped Zach learn to read, when I… his own mother… couldn’t,” Tori joined in. “I guess my name can be added to the ‘inferior to Buck’ list along with the others.”

  Rusty was listening but he wasn’t responding. Amy couldn’t figure out if he was just absorbing what his friends were saying or if he’d shut down and was no longer listening.

  Each of the men looked to be lost in their own thoughts. Looking from one to the next, it dawned on Amy that this was healing for all of them. It was meant to help only one of them but in all reality it was helping all these brothers in arms.

  “If it weren’t for me, none of that shit would have happened to begin with,” Ian said with a heavy sigh. Courtney reached across the table and placed her hand on Ian’s arm. He smiled at her and then continued, “For a long time I felt like the little brother no one wants hanging around. Following you here to Ohio, I thought I could maybe make up for it… working for Man Maid. I shouldn’t have been goofing that day… but I have accepted it as something that I can’t change. I’m also grateful that Sergeant Buck was there to lead me out of a mess of my own making. It took a lot longer to forgive myself for that day than it did for you guys to forgive me. So how does my screw up somehow transfer to being your fault, Sir? Help me to understand that one…”

  Again Rusty was silent for a long time before finally saying, “You are a lot of things, Ian. However, a little brother is not one of them.”

  Suddenly the room broke into laughter.

  Once the tension in the room lifted a bit, Courtney sat forward in her chair and rubbed a hand over her huge stomach and said, “I think that Buck’s job has always been to look out for you guys. Even you, Rusty. I remember Ian inviting me over here for dinner once. Left alone for just a few minutes with Buck, I was surprised when he knocked over a picture of you and then just looked at me like he wanted to tell me something. I think what he was trying to communicate to me by way of those big brown eyes was that he was worried about you. I get that now. That damn dog saved my husband’s life and if all he wants in return is for me to help save yours… to help you find solid ground… safe ground… then it’s the least I can do. I want you to be happy, Rusty. You were instrumental in me finding happiness… you’re the reason Ian even happened to be in Ohio. I would never have met him if he hadn’t stuck around here to work for you at Man Maid. Oddly enough, Buck was around for a lot more than kissing where Ian and I were concerned. So will you let me help you as a way to show my gratitude?”

  “I’m not sure what you can do to help… what any of you can do… but I promise that I’m in a different place now than I was when I wrote that letter,” Rusty said.

  “I want you to talk to someone… like Courtney. Maybe even get on medication if that’s what it takes to help you. I don’t want to worry that every time I best you in an argument, decide to give you the silent treatment for some well-deserved reason or that an off day will get the better of you, causing me to lose you permanently,” Amy ordered. As an afterthought and retaliation for making her sit in the same room with all his friends without panties on, she said, “And I’d like that in writing. Do you have a pen in your pocket by any chance?”

  Knowing full well that the only thing in his pocket was her panties, his eyes shot daggers of lust at her. Yet he smiled, took a sip of coffee and look around the room at his friends. Then his gaze landed on Sergeant Buck.

  “I’m beginning to think that Sergeant Buck has been in charge all along,” Rusty laughed. “He not only saved our asses that day but, in one way or the other, he led us to women willing to put up with us. You can forget medicating me but I’ll give the rest to you in writing later, Amy. Courtney, once those little ladies are born and you’re back to work, I’d like to make an appointment to come and talk to you for a whi
le. As for the rest of you… thank you for giving a shit about a grumpy old man. I hope that I haven’t been so bad that you decide not to come to my wedding.”

  In the next minute the room exploded in noise. Cheers, laughter, congratulations and lots of hugs were passed around. Amy had never felt as awkward as she did hugging his Army buddies and their wives knowing that her panties were in her Rusty’s pocket.

  Soon couples began leaving since some of them had to be at work. When the last one drove down the street and out of sight, she turned to find Rusty holding her panties out on the tip of his index finger.

  Pointing her finger down the hall and trying to contain her laugh she said, “Bedroom… now!”

  She could only smile when he grinned and said, “Is that a direct order, Ma’am?”

  Epilogue

  Taking his coffee mug to the dining room table, he sat down, placing the notepad and pen he held on the surface. It was hard to believe that one year ago today was the first time he’d sat in this same seat and debated on not answering his cell phone… and ending it all instead. How things could change in just one year. Rusty smiled to himself.

  It was the first bit of peace and quiet he’d had in days. Between watching Ian’s twin girls, Jessica and Julia, while Courtney and Ian were in Columbus and trying to organize and schedule a new batch of recruits for Man Maid, life was chaotic… and awesome.

  Glancing over at Sergeant Buck, who laid on the floor between Grudge and Rusty’s chair, the dog looked to be enjoying the solitude that the girls’ nap provided too.

  Ian was sitting for some state board exam for his nursing program today and Courtney had gone along for moral support. It was hard to say no to babysitting duty when the two little blonde haired beauties would break into fits of giggles and squealing at the mere sight of him. Those smiles and the way they clapped their hands at him.

  That much cuteness in one baby was a bit much, times it by two and it was like they were heartbreakers in training. Thankfully Ian was big enough, scary enough and a right good shot with a riffle to head off the young boys who would be pawing around them in about fifteen years… maybe less.

  Sergeant Buck got saddled helping Rusty with the twins since Ronnie and Kayla had left last week to get Addie situated in her dorm room at a college out of state. It was hard to believe the girl was a grown up now... at least by legal terms. To Rusty, she was still the freckle faced little cheerleader who’d roped Ronnie into a new career and played match maker between him and her mother.

  Pulling the notepad over closer, he looked at the names of the six men he and Seth would be training for blue collar service jobs and the remaining twenty five more that made up the wait list and sighed. He needed to hire help… find others who could teach men like Danny Carlton skills they could use in their quest for independence. If Seth wasn’t helping in this venture already Rusty would be in a world of hurt.

  They’d already managed to get one young man a job stocking shelves at a local grocery store… and another one was working for Seth doing job site cleanup. Even with Caleb keeping the books for the business and Tori helping find employment opportunities for them when she wasn’t working, it made for a long day.

  Yet, Rusty felt it in his soul… this was what Man Maid was still in business for… to give everyone a chance… a purpose. However, with only two Army veterans doing all the training, Man Maid could only take on so many at one time.

  Jess Reynolds’s genius idea of hiring other veterans to train the men was a perfect solution. Rusty was working on that concept but in the meantime it was just him and Seth. And with his fast approaching wedding, he needed to balance his work life with his home life. With Danny and Amy both working at AmyCakes today… he should be working on his home life … not his work life.

  He’d managed to get the twins to both fall asleep at the same time and had thought to finally start writing his wedding vows. Finding the right words to pledge himself to a sexy little siren of a woman who wore icing and cupcake batter like it was the latest fashion had so far eluded him.

  He loved her with everything in him but somehow simply saying “I love you” wasn’t enough. He showed her every chance he got, because if he didn’t, she would remind him in ways that made it hard to focus on anything else for days afterwards.

  Attending therapy for several months and taking an anti-depressant had eased his daily struggles significantly. On those few off days he did have, one of his makeshift military family members would inevitably show up and rope him into some shit he didn’t want to do and before he knew it… it was a new day. It was a constant battle but well worth the fight.

  During therapy, Courtney had pointed out his ability to express his feelings in writing really well and he hoped to do that now. Instead, all he could think of was the original note he’d written a whole year ago and how that letter might sound now if he were to re-write it. Pulling a clean sheet of paper from the notepad he put his pen to paper.

  Friends and Family,

  This letter finds me living a life I never would have expected a year ago. A life filled with lots of laughter and just a few tears, loads of fun and a mere handful of monotony, an existence that I look forward to everyday now. Much like the roller coaster that the military was… I’m finding that life is much the same. No two days are alike, so if I find I’m not suited for one, I simply await the next. I’ve found my purpose in life as well and it is to live and love… specifically to live and love with one woman by my side, Amy Carlton.

  She mixes my life in meaning and joy unlike anything I’ve ever known. Then she spreads on cheer so thick that there is barely room for grey areas. To tell her that I love her is not truly telling her what she means to me. Yes, I do love her but I also appreciate her, I honor her, I cherish her and I live because of her. She is the other half of my soul and the one thing I cannot do without. So it is with those thoughts and emotions in my heart that I make her my wife today and for always.

  Oddly enough I’ve found the one mission in my life that will never be completed… that will never truly end… the one thing that the effort it takes to achieve is more pleasurable than anything else in my life … making Amy happy. For that opportunity I will gladly report for duty for the rest of my life.

  Rusty

  ISBN: 978-1511703628

  MAID TO ORDER

  Copyright © 2014 by Rebecca M Avery

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are being used fictitiously with permission, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  All Rights Reserved

  No part of this book may be reproduced or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.

  Table of Contents

  Maid to Order

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Epilogue