Welcome to Blissville

by Walker, Aimee Nicole

  “Don’t tease me, man. Where are the cast iron skillets and pots?”

  Gabe almost looked afraid when he pointed to the oven. He kept them stored in the oven? I released an excited breath and opened the oven door slowly. There they were, the bastions of true Southern cooking stacked inside the oven. There had to be at least three Dutch ovens and ten skillets in various sizes.

  “The lids are in the drawer below,” Gabe said.

  “Baby, do you have any idea what I can do with cookware like this? Have you ever had a steak seared and cooked on these bad asses?” I saw an image of me standing in my kitchen spooning butter over perfectly seared meat while a potato dish was baking in the oven and Brussel sprouts were sautéing in a garlic butter and herb sauce in a separate skillet on the stove. “We need to stop at the store on the way home.”

  “You already have some of those pans, don’t you?” Gabe asked. I noticed his ignored my comment about going to the store. I suspected he’d rather undergo a root canal.

  “God love your heart, Gabe,” I said shaking my head. “They’re not the same quality and these pans have already been seasoned with love for decades. There’s just no comparison.” I pulled a skillet out of the oven and looked at it. “It’s beautiful, as will be the food I cook in it.”

  “I have no doubts about that, Sunshine. You’re the best cook I’ve ever known.” He pinched my ass and I turned to look at him. “Don’t be telling my mother I said that.”

  “Oh my God! I make one little mistake with the mushrooms and suddenly I’m a blabbermouth who tries to destroy your relationship with your mother.” Okay, he didn’t really imply that, but it was fun to harass him all the same. “You wound me, Gabe.” I gave a fake sniff.

  “Sunshine, however can I make it up to you?” he asked, playing along.

  “Let me think about it,” I said, setting the skillet back in the oven and closing the door. “How about we have a final farewell fuck in your house. I’m sure the next tenants won’t be nearly as exciting for these old walls to witness.”

  Gabe gave me the good hard fucking the situation called for then we packed up the rest of the things. I learned that most of the stuff was getting donated, but someone actually wanted the boring old living room furniture. My guess was they wanted it for a man cave, which was fine because only other knuckle-draggers would see it there.

  We stopped by the grocery store so I could buy the items I needed to fix the steak dinner from my imagination. I was all for being treated like an equal until it came time to lug that heavy-as-fuck cast iron cookware upstairs. I let Detective Weightlifter handle that. I even told him he could thank me later for helping him get in an extra workout. I heard him grumble about working something out in my ass, but I let his comment slide.

  “What are you going to do with those apples?” Gabe wanted to know. “Going to serve them as a side dish?”

  “No,” I told him. “I’m going to make apple crunch in the oven with our cast iron skillet.”

  “Sunshine, you say the sexiest things,” he said, pressing himself against me where I stood at the counter slicing apples. “You know all of my weaknesses.”

  “Hmmm, I’m sure you’ve hidden one or two, but I’ll figure them out. And when I do,” I pressed my ass into his groin, “I’ll own you.”

  “You already do,” he said gruffly in my ear.

  The steak, potatoes, and Brussel sprouts turned out better than I imagined. Gabe gave his usual grunts and groans while he ate, which warmed my heart and challenged me to find new recipes to please him. The smell of the cinnamon, apple, and butter began to invade all corners of our home by the time Gabe started pulling items out of his box from his house.

  In all honesty, I would’ve gladly put out anything Gabe wanted in his home. I wondered how important they could’ve been since they were in his closet and not on display though. I was expecting old football trophies or accommodations of some sort. Instead, they were family pictures. My heart ached in my chest when I saw his brother’s smiling face in several pictures of the two of them together eating an ice cream cone beneath a big shade tree, riding bikes, or playing in a treehouse. My favorite by far was of them as little kids dressed up as superheroes for Halloween. I noticed that his brother had been dressed as Superman and I remember Gabe saying that Dylan had been his hero, his champion.

  I bit my lip to keep from crying. Once I had a handle on my emotions, I turned to face Gabe and asked, “Why didn’t you have these beautiful pictures displayed at your house?”

  “It never really felt like a home,” Gabe said with a small shrug. The way his voice thickened with emotion told me so much more than his words actually did. In case I didn’t pick up on his unspoken meaning, he cupped my face and said, “I’m home now.”

  “Big Daddy’s home,” Savage squawked.

  “Even the bird knows,” Gabe said.

  “I wonder if the bird knows how much I love you, Gabe?” I asked.

  “I do,” Gabe said, pressing his forehead to mine. “I love you more, Sunshine.”

  I stood in his arms and thought about where I had been just a few months prior. I had known what it was like to be with Gabe, but not what it was like to be loved by him. I had known the way his naked skin felt pressed against mine, but not the sound of his heart that beat for me. I had known that there was something between us, but I never guessed it was something to live for.

  Two weeks later, Josh and I had been invited out to eat with Adrian and Sally Ann. They’d had an ultrasound the day before and wanted to celebrate the upcoming birth of their baby girl with us. Sally Ann chose an upscale steakhouse in Northern Kentucky that overlooked the Ohio River. As far as steaks went, it honestly wasn’t as good as the one Josh made for me the night I officially moved in. The smug smile on his face told me he knew it too.

  Sally Ann told Josh all of the details she was planning for their unnamed daughter’s birthday while Adrian and I caught up on the week’s activities on our different task forces.

  “The Feds came back with some surprising information about the drugs Billy had in his possession,” Adrian said. He had my attention and knew it. “The drugs in his urine, the ones from the school locker, and the stash from Bianca’s house all trace back to drugs that had been stolen from the evidence room in an El Paso police department. Guess who worked there at the time?”

  “Billy?” I whispered, not wanting the name to ruin Josh’s fun night.

  “You guessed it.” Adrian leaned forward and continued. “When faced with the evidence against him he confessed. He brought them with him back to Ohio and had them at a storage unit. They turned up missing and he feared that the drug cartel had tracked him back home. Billy was sure they had an inside guy on the force feeding the drug cartel information. He was afraid to be around his wife and kids so he started squatting at vacant homes around town, including Georgia Beaumont’s. He kept moving around in hopes that he wouldn’t be caught.”

  “That’s how he ended up with the scissors,” I said to Adrian. Unfortunately, that meant we still didn’t know who ransacked the mansion. “How did the drugs end up in the school?”

  Adrian shook his head as if he still couldn’t believe what he was about to tell me. “It obviously wasn’t the drug cartel who took his drugs, it was his mother. She thought by taking them that he would get clean. She didn’t realize that she’d only found part of his stash in his storage unit. She was the one who disabled the cameras in the high school so she could hide them until she figured out what to do. She wanted to help him but couldn’t bring herself to turn him in. Now, she’s in hot water too and out of a job. Ironically, Mary Rogers,” the former principal that Delaney has suspended and cast suspicion on in the process, “was appointed as the temporary superintendent until the board convenes after spring break.”

  “Holy fuck! Billy told you all of this?” I asked him.

  “No, Delaney came in with her attorney and confessed to taking the drugs and stashing them in the sch
ool locker. Even if Billy hadn’t confessed, she had come to terms with turning him in.”

  “Wow,” I replied.

  “So, what’s been up with you this last week? Anything new on the Nate Turner case?” Adrian asked.

  I started to answer him, but my attention got snagged by a tall, dark, and handsome man entering the restaurant. My mouth dropped open in shock for a few seconds and then I said, “I don’t fucking believe it. Adrian, either I’ve lost my fucking mind or Nate Turner just walked into the restaurant.”

  Adrian turned and looked behind him then faced me with wide eyes. “Or we’re both seeing a ghost.”

  To Kim Hay,

  You were a beacon when I needed it the most. To the moon and back, lady!

  I couldn’t stop myself from glancing at Gabe across the table in the fancy restaurant where we went on a double date with Adrian and Sally Ann to celebrate the upcoming birth of their baby girl. They’d just discovered they were having a daughter the day before and invited us to dinner with them. As happy as I was for them, and I was over the moon and back at least three times, I was even happier that I got to go home with Detective Delicious sitting across the dinner table from me—the one engaged in a hushed conversation with his partner.

  I knew what the leaned-in heads and lowered voices meant. They were discussing their cases, most likely Billy Sampson, and Gabe didn’t want me to overhear and become upset. He was protective and cute like that, but I was certain he would learn that I was made of much sterner stuff than he ever imagined. I had survived Billy’s heinous treatment of me in high school and his childish attempts at harassing me as an adult wasn’t even a blip on my radar. Billy Sampson was a man who hated himself and turned to drugs in his attempt to escape the truth. He would have to live with his actions for the rest of his life, but I didn’t.

  “What do you think about this crib mobile I found on Pinterest?” Sally Ann asked from beside me. She held up her phone and showed me a picture of a mobile with miniature stuffed animals that looked like zoo babies. “I think I want to keep the theme neutral,” she told me. “At first I thought it would be pink or blue everywhere depending on the gender, but I’ve changed my mind. Maybe my daughter will hate pink stuff. Maybe she’ll want to wear baseball jerseys instead of dresses. Yeah, I think I need to let her decide what her personality is rather than cramming it down her throat from day one.”

  “If I weren’t gay as fuck, I’d steal you away from Adrian,” I told her.

  “Shucks,” she replied, blushing. “You say the most charming things.” Sally Ann batted her eyelashes playfully at me.

  I looked over at Gabe for the hundredth time in twenty minutes and thought about the lovely burgundy color of his tie. It was one that I found scrunched in the back of his dresser drawer when we moved him out of his house and into mine. Wow! It was still so shocking to me that we had made such a bold step and that I was the one who suggested it. I remembered how cool the silk felt against my fingers when I handed it to him to wear that evening—after I got the shameful wrinkles out, of course. I silently observed how lovely the color looked against my fair skin and was shocked that I’d even consider letting Gabe tie my hands up during sex.

  I had never given that kind of trust to anyone because they had never deserved it, but Gabe did. I had found a man—or maybe, like with trouble, he found me—who was steeped in goodness. I admired his dedication to his family, friends, and justice. I loved that he was patient with me when I struggled at times to fight my demons and that he accepted me for how I was, not who he thought I should be. Of all the gifts that Gabe brought to my life, those were my two favorites. And somehow, someway, that beautiful soul was in love with me.

  “He’s crazy about you too,” Sally Ann said, nudging me with her shoulder. “I’ve never seen Gabriel so happy as he is with you.” Her words meant a lot to me because Sally Ann had gotten to know Gabe when he first moved to town with his ex-boyfriend, Kyle. She would’ve seen them together as a couple and saw their connection. Even though Kyle himself told me that Gabe and I had something they never did, it was great to hear it from someone outside of the relationship. Sally Ann had no reason to blow smoke up my ass; if she didn’t believe it, then she wouldn’t have said it.

  “I know,” I said softly, but not arrogantly. I never took Gabe’s affection for me for granted, but I wouldn’t pretend I didn’t know it existed either. I was never one to fish for compliments. My days of begging for crumbs of attention were over.

  “How’s cohabitating going?” she asked.

  “It’s been surprisingly easy so far,” I replied honestly. “I expected it to be more challenging in the beginning as we got used to one another’s personalities and habits, but it’s great. There’s a big difference between sleeping over a few nights a week and living with someone.”

  “There sure is,” Sally Ann agreed. “I’m glad it’s going so smoothly for you both. It wasn’t the case for Adrian and me.”

  “Really?” I asked in surprise. They seemed so in tune with each other, and it was obvious how much they loved and respected one another. I leaned closer, lowered my voice, and asked, “How so?”

  “We were both thirty years old and had lived on our own pretty much since college, which meant we were fairly set in our ways. Like with you and Gabe, our personalities are so different, but Adrian and I are both stubborn and don’t compromise as well as you guys do.”

  I laughed then because I was quite stubborn and Gabe did most of the compromising when we first met. I guess you could say that he was equally as stubborn because he refused to give up on us when all I did was pull him close then push him away. Luckily for me, Gabe knew it wasn’t done in a manipulative way and was astute enough to realize I was afraid and fighting my growing feelings for him.

  “Give me an example,” I told Sally Ann.

  “Toilet paper.”

  “As in you liked different brands?” I asked curiously.

  “No! He,” Sally Ann pointed across the table at her husband, “puts the roll on wrong.”

  “I do not,” Adrian fired back instantly, letting us know that we weren’t as quiet as we had thought. “There’s no such thing.”

  Sally Ann shook her head vehemently. “There’s scientific evidence that you use less toilet paper if you pull the paper over the roller versus under.” Wow! Sally Ann was serious about her toilet paper.

  “You’re so fucking cute with your science talk,” Adrian said to his middle school science teacher for a wife. “According to the Debunkers,” he said referring to a new show that debunked common myths, “that’s not true at all.”

  Sally Ann threw her head back and laughed. “Those guys aren’t real scientists,” she shot back.

  Adrian looked at me and asked, “Do you know how Gabe and I yell at the referees for getting the calls wrong in football?”

  “And basketball,” I reminded Adrian.

  “Wait until baseball season starts,” Sally Ann said to me beneath her breath.

  “I heard that,” Adrian said, good-naturedly.

  “You were supposed to,” Sally Ann replied in a sing-song voice.

  “Well, anyway,” Adrian said, trying to get back to his question to me, “she is so much worse when I watch Debunkers.” Adrian laughed hard when his wife flipped him the bird across the table. “She yells, ‘that’s not scientific’ or ‘that isn’t how you measure it,’ every five minutes.”

  “Or less,” Sally Ann added. “I’d rather watch sports any day of the week.”

  Gabe and I sat smiling at each other over the table while Sally Ann and Adrian playfully bickered about his favorite show. It wasn’t that Gabe and I liked the same shows because that was the furthest thing from the truth, but we compromised or watched television in different rooms. To be honest, we didn’t watch a lot of TV when he first moved in because we were too busy entertaining ourselves in a more mutually pleasing way.

  After the cute little tiff was over, Sally Ann returned her atte
ntion to me while our guys resumed their case-talking positions.

  “Josh, I’ve meant to ask you something, but I wasn’t sure I should,” Sally Ann said. Her worried tone and the way she wrung her hands had me curious.

  “Sally Ann, you can ask me anything.”

  “Will you teach me to pole dance after I recover from having my baby?” She grimaced once the words left her mouth.

  “Why do you look so nervous about asking me that?” I asked her.

  “Well, you’ve never told me about your pole dancing studio, which means I either heard it from Gabe or Adrian. Logic points to Adrian, and I don’t want you to think that Gabe is telling him intimate details of your life together.”

  She had a point, and I could understand her hesitation. I had to admit I was curious about how the conversation came up, but I was certain that Gabe wasn’t telling Adrian details of how I worked the pole. Six months earlier, I wouldn’t have felt the same way; I would’ve jumped to all kinds of conclusions. “I don’t think you said anything bad or inappropriate about me and I would love to teach you how to pole dance. It’s amazing exercise for strengthening your core muscle groups.”

  Sally Ann leaned over and hugged me. “You’re amazing, Josh. I’m so lucky to call you my friend.” She pulled back and looked at me appraisingly. “Do you want to see more nursery ideas or is that boring you to death?”

  “It’s not boring at all,” I assured her. “I’d love to paint a picture for her nursery once you decided on a theme.”

  “You paint too?” she asked.

  “It’s just a hobby,” I replied. “I’m not sure I’m all that great at it, but I will make it with love for baby Adrianna.”

  Sally Ann tilted her head, and she got a faraway look in her eyes. “Why had I never thought of that name?” she pondered out loud. “It’s a combination of both our names. It’s perfect!”

  “Sunshine,” Gabe said. The shock in his voice pulled me away from my conversation with Sally Ann. I looked over at him, and he asked, “Are we,” he gestured back and forth between him and Adrian, “tripping or did Nate Turner just walk into the restaurant?”