Page 10 of Always There Bayou (The BR Bayou #3)

The sound of the door startled me back to the present, and my eyes snapped towards it to see Cory. She smiles, and I feel my heart skip a beat as she comes over to where I am with a couple of bags in her hands.

“What are you doing here?” I ask with a smile.

She returned my smile, holding up a bag of food from one of my favorite restaurants. My stomach growled, and I had to stop myself from salivating. To hell with that cleanse. I was gonna have some of what she’d brought .

“I went out to lunch with Simone and Harley after my therapy session, and I thought I’d bring you and Lilah something since we were at your favorite restaurant,” she tells me. Lilah hears this and immediately skips over. “Hey, Lilah.”

“Yeah, hey, gimme my food,” she says, and I shake my head. She looks up at Cory with an innocent smile as she holds her hands out. Cory chuckles, handing her a bag. “Thank you for always spoiling me. I know I’m the sister you never had.”

“Delilah, I have a sister,” she laughs.

“Yeah, exactly. That’s why I said I’m the sister you never had. Duh.”

“You’re a trip, chick,” Cory laughs and playfully pushes her to the side. “You’re welcome for the food. Now, shoo fly.”

Delilah eyes us as a smirk plays at the corner of her mouth.

I knew she was about to say some shit, but before I could stop her, she said, “You wanna be alone with your Bunny ? That’s cute.

Okay, I’ll make myself scarce. I wouldn’t wanna interrupt whatever super platonic friendship activities y’all are about to partake in. ”

And with that, she scurries off to her office, leaving me standing there with my jaw on the floor.

Cory laughs. Either she was the most oblivious person in the world, or she was ignoring what was right there in front of her face.

I wanted to ask her about it, but she caught me off guard by sliding her hands to my waist. She smiled up at me, making my heart rate kick into overdrive.

Cory was so fucking attractive. Even though she was a few inches shorter than me at only 5’9, she exuded nothing but confidence.

Her deep toffee complexion mixed with her heart-shaped face, deep brown eyes, and swoon-worthy smile always had me about two seconds away from melting.

The locs she rocked complemented her appearance so well, and I sometimes imagined how it would feel to run my hands through them as she devoured me. I shuddered just thinking about it.

“Guess what, Bunny?” she finally asks, excitement written all over her face.

My eyes traveled to her perfectly plump lips, and it took everything in me not to moan out loud.

She didn’t seem to notice my internal struggle because she continued to talk.

“Come on, guess! I promise it’s something you’ll love. ”

“Uh, w-what?” is all I can say as she gently massages my waist. I knew she didn’t even realize she was doing this, but it was driving me crazy. “I’m sorry, I’m a little tired - can you just tell me?”

“Ahh, you’re no fun,” she chuckles before squeezing my waist one last time and letting go. “Leo proposed to Imani! My baby sister is getting married soon!”

“Oh, whoa, really?” I exclaim, excitement rushing through me. “Cory, that’s amazing! Damn, did I miss the proposal?”

“Don’t feel bad. We all did,” she laughs, taking my hand in one of hers and the bag of food in the other.

I felt something like electricity as soon as our hands touched, but she didn’t seem to notice, so I pretended like I didn’t.

All I knew was that my mind was all over the place.

“She said that he proposed while they were on their annual friends cruise. He got all their friends involved, and the whole ship was congratulating them for the rest of the cruise.”

“Wait, that’s so freakin’ cute!” I squeal, taking a seat at one of the tables.

“See, that’s the kind of proposal I’d love one day.

One where my partner promises their love to me in front of hundreds of strangers.

” I sigh just thinking about it. “I’d be a mess for sure, but I’d remember it forever. What about you?”

“What about me, what?” She asks as she sets up our food.

She stops me from taking a plate until she has mixed up my red beans and rice just the way I like it.

She also gave me the legs off her plate and took the thigh off mine because she knows I only eat chicken legs and wings.

Yeah, she took such good care of me that it was impossible not to swoon, but I did my best to contain myself, deciding to focus my attention back on the conversation at hand.

“What’s your dream proposal?” I ask her. She gently slides my plate in front of me before pondering my question. “It can be to someone or from someone.”

“Well, honestly, I never really thought about it,” she admits.

“I guess I would love to be the one to propose. Yeah, definitely. Uh…okay, so maybe I’ll plan this extravagant surprise proposal and make them think that we’re going to do something else that day, but really, it’s me leading them to where I’d pop the question.

Or something like that. I don’t know. I’ll have to get back to you on the specifics.

Marriage is not looking good for me right now. ”

“Why do you say that?”

“I just…I thought I’d be at least engaged by now,” she admits, picking at her food.

“Denny, I genuinely thought that Christie was gonna be the one for me. We were so good together, and I just knew we were gonna be together forever…but then when she started cheating…it ruined that fairytale for me. ”

“So, again, why did you take her back if you knew it’d never go farther than what it was?” I ask, equal parts interested in her answer and annoyed.

“I guess I just got comfortable with her,” she admits with a sigh and a shrug.

My appetite abandons me, and it takes everything in me not to roll my damn eyes.

I hated how attached Cory was to a woman who did nothing but hurt her time and time again.

She deserved better. She deserved to have someone who loved her and treated her with respect, not someone who played on her sympathy and in her face. I was sick of it.

“You good, Bunny?” She asks, and I look over at her. She points to my hand, and I quickly let go of the plastic fork I was holding, noticing that I’d bent it a bit. “You stressed about something?”

“No, I’m good,” I assure her, trying my best to smile through my wounded heart.

Okay, maybe I was being a bit dramatic, but imagine liking someone for so long and thinking you’re doing a great job giving them signals, but it’s not working. Or maybe it is, and she’s just ignoring them because she doesn’t like me like that. Either way, it sucks.

“Oh, okay. Well, what are you doing after this? You wanna come swing by the house to see Imani? I know she’d love to see you,” she smiles, and just like that, I’m internally melting once again. I nod, and her smile gets brighter. “Okay, cool! Let’s finish up then. You wanna spend the night too? ”

“Why not?” I shrug. “You’re driving, so I wouldn’t want you to have to drive me back to this side of town at night because I know how talkative your family gets.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” she laughs, nodding. “Okay, so we’ll drop your car off at the apartment and then you can pack anything you might need for the night.”

“Sounds like a plan,” I nod.

We finish up our food in a comfortable silence as the sun sets outside.

Lilah joins us after a while and tells us a story about a girl she’s dating who stole her favorite socks.

Honestly, she always had some wild ass tale to share, but I loved it.

Aside from Cory, she was one of my best friends, and I loved her to death.

After we’d discarded our trash and cleaned up a bit, we shut everything down before setting the alarm and locking up for the night. Cory and I say our goodbyes to Lilah and then head over to the apartment to drop my car off in the parking garage before heading up to pack a bag.

About an hour later, we were pulling up to her dad’s house off Highland Road, not far from LSU.

It was a beautiful, two-story house that had plenty of room for their family of six.

Cory and her three siblings each had their rooms with en-suites, so they never had to worry about holding each other up or getting in each other’s way.

Cory’s dad and stepmom were well off, so she and her siblings had never wanted for anything after moving in with them back when she was eleven.

The story of why they did was a sad one, but I was just happy that they were able to be in a place where they didn’t have to struggle and were surrounded by love .

And, if it weren’t for them moving here, I would’ve never met Cory, and I can’t imagine my life now without her.

“Shit, Mama B is gonna be so mad when she finds out we already ate,” Cory laughs as we exit the car.

I grab my bag and we walk up the driveway to the garage door.

We enter, making our way to the door inside that is connected to the mud room.

“Okay, pretend like you’re not full and maybe she won’t notice. ”

“Cory, that never works on your stepmom,” I whisper, giggling as she sifts through her keys to find the right one. We jump back when the door swings open, and her youngest brother, Cordell, stands there with a smirk on his face. “Shit, Cordell! You scared the hell outta me!”

“Damn, y’all jumpy. What y’all were out here doing?” He teases, and I roll my eyes, pushing him out of the way. “Nice to see you, too, Denali. Where is my future wife?”

“Boy, my sister does not want you,” I laugh, shaking my head. “You are too young for her.”

“Lies!” He scoffs. “I’m only five years younger than her.”

“Exactly. She likes people who are older than her,” Cory laughs, patting him on the cheek. He swats her hand away. “Give it up, baby bro.”

“Whatever,” he waves her off, sulking like he always did when we burst his bubble about his little crush on my sister. “Mama! Cory and Denny are bullying your baby boy!”

I roll my eyes as Cory takes my hand, pulling me behind her into the dining room, where the rest of her family is just sitting down to have dinner.

They all greet us enthusiastically before inviting us to join them.

I’m immediately comforted by how full of love her family always was.

I felt so comfortable around them, just like how Cory always felt when she was around mine.

If that wasn’t a sign, I don’t know what was.