by Susan Stoker
Sophie reached for the key and started her car. Taking the time to speak to Chief meant she was going to be late getting to The Sloppy Cow, but it was worth it. It probably made her a bad friend, but she’d choose talking with him over getting drunk with her friends any day of the week.
* * *
It was late. Eleven-thirty. Chief was getting worried about Sophie, but he refused to call and check on her because he didn’t want to be “that guy.” But if he didn’t hear from her before midnight, he’d shoot her a short text, making sure she was all right.
“So, things are still going well for you and Sophie, huh?” Squirrel asked.
Chief nodded. “Yeah. She’s great.”
“I’m happy for you, man,” Squirrel told him. “Seriously. I don’t know what’s in the air, but with Sledge then Crash, now you…it gives me hope that maybe I’ll find a woman too.”
“You’ve got lots of women,” Driftwood teased.
Squirrel reached forward and grabbed a pen from the coffee table in front of him and threw it at his friend. “As if. I haven’t been on a date in way too long. You’re the one who has a different chick every other weekend.”
“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean I’m sleeping with them. Gross,” Driftwood said. “First dates…and crappy ones at that. But I’m done with that shit.”
“Yeah?” Squirrel asked. “You becoming a priest?”
“Ha. No. But I’m interested in a girl, and it wouldn’t look cool if I continued to go on stupid dates that never seem to go anywhere.”
“Which site you meet this chick on?” Squirrel asked.
“I didn’t meet her online,” Driftwood said, but didn’t elaborate.
“Really? You’re signed up for like eight different dating websites and you met a chick in real life? Ironic. Who is she?”
Driftwood didn’t say anything, but instead pretended interest in his cell phone.
“Quinn,” Chief said quietly.
“Who?” Squirrel asked.
“Shut up, man,” Driftwood told Chief.
“Wait, who? How does Chief know about this chick and I don’t?”
“You met her,” Chief told Squirrel.
“I did? When? You mean I let a hot chick slip through my fingers and Driftwood claimed her? Not fair!”
“It’s not like that,” Driftwood protested.
“Wait…Quinn? Sophie’s friend? The one with that thing on her face?” Squirrel asked.
He barely had the words out of his mouth before Driftwood moved. Squirrel was on his back on the floor before he had a chance to defend himself.
“Don’t ever speak about her that way again,” Driftwood barked in Squirrel’s face. He was straddling him and had his hands fisted in his friend’s shirt.
“Get off me, man! I didn’t mean anything by it. Shit!”
Chief put his hand on Driftwood’s shoulder. “Let him up, John.”
Driftwood slowly climbed to his feet and glared down at the smaller man on the ground. “It’s a birthmark, asshole. And she’s absolutely beautiful. I won’t tolerate you, or anyone, saying shit about her—to her face or behind it.”
Squirrel didn’t make a move to get up. His voice lost some of its bite. “I’m sorry, Driftwood. I didn’t mean anything by it. Honestly. You know I wouldn’t ever think less of someone for something like that.”
A long moment passed before Driftwood nodded and put his hand down to help his friend off the floor. “I do. I’m sorry for overreacting.”
Squirrel grabbed the offered hand and stood with his friend’s help. They settled back on the couch and Driftwood sighed.
“Yeah. Quinn, Sophie’s friend. But she won’t give me the time of day. I can’t explain it, but the moment I saw her, I wanted her. She’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen…and the kicker is that she has absolutely no idea. She didn’t even notice the other guys checkin’ her out. I don’t know how that could be so, but it is.”
“She noticed them,” Chief told him.
“No, she didn’t,” Driftwood protested. “It was as if she had blinders on.”
“She thought they were staring at her birthmark,” Chief said. “She believed they were judging her.”
Driftwood turned to Chief and stared at him for a long moment. His jaw clenched as if he was grinding his teeth together.
“So if you really want to get in there, you’re gonna have to be patient. She’s Sophie’s age, but Soph says that she hasn’t dated much. She doesn’t know how to play the games that a lot of women have played their entire lives.”
“I can be patient,” Driftwood said immediately.
“You could really hurt her if you’re just looking for a roll in the hay,” Chief cautioned.
“Jesus, I know, Chief. I’m not an asshole.”
Chief held up his hands in capitulation. “Just lookin’ out for Sophie’s friend. That’s it.”
“Yeah. I’d do the same thing. I’ll go slow. I have a feeling she’ll be worth it. Besides, it’ll be nice not to have to deal with another fucking first date. Lord, you guys have no idea how desperate some women can be.”
“Jeez. Crash, Sledge, Chief, and now you, Driftwood…maybe a woman for me will drop from the sky. No, maybe she’ll appear out of the smoke at a fire or something,” Squirrel joked.
“Stranger things have happened,” Chief said.
Squirrel opened his mouth to reply, but Chief’s phone vibrated. He immediately stood and clicked the phone on. He heard his friends ribbing him about ditching them for a girl, but he ignored them.
“Hey, Soph. You okay?”
“I’m s-super-duper,” she responded.
Chief grinned as he headed down the hall toward an empty office. She sounded drunk. “You drunk?” he asked.
“No. Okay, m-maybe a little. But it’s okay, because I already decided I have a gazillion s-sick hours I haven’t used and I’m gonna take a m-mental health day tomorrow. I deserve it.”
“You do deserve it,” Chief told her. “Where are you?”
“Home. Well, not m-my home, but yours.”
“What? You’re at my house?”
“S-Sorta.”
Chief waited for her to elaborate, but when she didn’t, he prompted, “Soph? How are you sorta at my house? You break in?”
“No, s-silly. I’m s-sitting in one of your kick-ass chairs in your backyard. You know, the plastic ones that lean waaaaay back. I’ve got a glass of wine—okay, the bottle is here too—and I’ve got the blanket from m-my couch because it’s chilly out here. I turned on the heat in m-my house and decided while I was waiting for it to warm up, I’d come over here. I wanted to wait for you to get back. I wanna look at the s-stars with you again. I loved that. But, Chief, they’re not as bright here as they were that other night. I want bright s-stars.”
Chief settled into the couch in the office and leaned his head back on the cushion. She was so freaking adorable. “Afraid I can’t turn them up for you right now.”
“Fine. But will you take m-me out to that park again and s-show m-me s-sometime?”
“Of course. I’ll take you anywhere you want to go.”
“Autumn asked why we hadn’t done it yet,” she blurted.
“Done it?”
“Had s-sex.”
Chief decided she didn’t sound upset, so he risked asking, “And what did you tell her?”
“Just that the time hadn’t s-seemed right. It’s not like I don’t want to jump your bones…it’s just that every time we’re together, I’m enjoying getting to know you. Getting naked doesn’t s-seem to be all that important.”
Chief inhaled sharply. Yes. That was exactly what he felt too. “I want you, Soph. I do. I can’t wait until I’ve seen and caressed every inch of your naked body. I feel as if our souls already know each other and our bodies are catching up.”
“Wow,” Sophie whispered. “I love that. Is that really what you believe?”
“Absolutely. From the first time I spoke to yo
u, I knew you were going to change my life.”
“You gave m-me twenty bucks and told m-me to give it to m-my m-man,” Sophie corrected.
Chief chuckled. “I was tired. I’d worked a three-day shift and had been fighting a hell of a fire for the last eight hours. I’m lucky I even made it home without crashing.”
“You s-shouldn’t drive if you’re that tired. I want you in one piece.”
Chief smiled. It felt good to be worried about.
“But even s-still…the s-second time you s-spoke to m-me, you didn’t like m-me.”
“That’s not true,” Chief corrected.
“You accused m-me of awful things,” Sophie reminded him.
“Soph, I sat behind that booth with you and your friends and had been listening to your conversation since I’d arrived. I heard you talking about me, how you had a crush on me. How you’d been mowing my lawn for weeks and I hadn’t noticed. You and your girls chatted about nothing in particular. But every time I heard your voice, it calmed me. I felt as if I knew you, and I hadn’t even met you except for that one time outside your house. So when I misunderstood about the trials, I was crushed. I knew you were going to change my life, but I had no idea you would end up being the other half of my soul.”
“Chief,” Sophie said softly.
“Sophie,” he returned just as softly. He heard her take a gulp of what was most likely the wine she’d brought outside with her.
“Just s-sayin’,” she said after a beat. “I don’t know about all this s-soul s-stuff, but I like you. A lot. And I think Autumn is gonna have a heart attack if we don’t hurry up and get it on. Not that I’m one to talk a lot about m-my s-sexual exploits…because usually there aren’t any to talk about…but you gotta understand, m-me and m-my girls, we haven’t had any in a long time and it’s m-my duty as the only one dating to s-share. Not details, but you know, enough s-so they get s-super jealous because you’re s-so freaking awesome…but I wouldn’t be opposed to…you know…”
Her voice trailed off, and Chief couldn’t get the silly grin off his face. He knew his Soph was funny, but tipsy? She was hilarious. “You want me, Soph?”
“Uh…yeah,” she said, as if she was saying, “duh.”
“So you can tell your girls that we had sex.”
“Yeah. No, wait. No. I want you because every time I hear m-my phone ring, I hope it’s you. Every time you text m-me, I get flutters in m-my belly. And every time I s-see you, I feel s-so happy inside I’m afraid s-something will happen and you’re gonna decide you don’t want to be with the freak chick who can’t even talk right, and I’m never gonna know what it’s like to have you s-so deep inside m-me I can’t tell where I end and you begin.”
Chief made the decision right then and there to get his woman tipsy more often. He was hard as a rock and regretted that he still had another hour to go on his shift.
“Go home, Soph,” he ordered.
“What?”
“Go home. Take the blanket with you. Climb in your bed and close your eyes. You want, I’ll come over when I get home.”
“Really?” she breathed.
“Really.”
“And we’ll have s-sex?” she asked.
Chief chuckled. “Not tonight. The first time I sink into your warm, wet body, I want you completely sober. I want you to remember every single thing we do. We’ll never have another first time together, and I want to take my time and do it right.”
“Tomorrow then? I’m s-sick tomorrow.”
“Yeah, Soph. Tomorrow, when we wake up, if you still want to make love with me, I’ll be more than willing to oblige.”
“Cool.”
“Go home, shi ásdząą,” Chief ordered.
“What’s that m-mean?”
“It’s another term of endearment. Strictly speaking, it means ‘woman.’”
“That doesn’t s-sound all that s-special,” Sophie told him.
“If I said it to someone who I didn’t have an intimate relationship with, it would be disrespectful and insulting,” Chief told her.
“Oh. That m-makes it better then. But I like Ah yo, ah knee nesh yay better.”
“Me too, Soph. Me too,” Chief said, closing his eyes. He swore his heart beat harder every time she told him she loved him.
“Oh! What’s that?”
“What’s what?” Chief asked, his mellowness gone at the sound of alarm in Sophie’s voice.
“Um…I guess nothing. I thought I s-saw s-something.”
“What? A person?”
“No. It was an animal. A dog? Or m-maybe a coyote. That’s s-so weird. I don’t think I’ve ever s-seen one out here before. At least not in our yards. But then again, I haven’t s-sat outside this late at night either.” She giggled; it came out more nervous than humorous though.
Chief didn’t like the sound of that at all. He wasn’t that superstitious, as he’d told Sophie, but he knew many times skin-walkers took the form of coyotes to cause havoc. They’d blend in with their surroundings before unleashing their bad magic on the unsuspecting humans around them.
“Inside, Soph. Now,” he ordered.
“Fine. I’m going,” she said.
Chief heard muffled noises in the background as she stood up and hopefully was making her way back over to her house.
Several moments went by before she said, “Okay, I’m in.”
Chief breathed a sigh of relief. “Lock your door.”
“I did. I’m not an idiot,” she said snarkily. “I m-might be drunk, but I know better than to leave m-my door unlocked. I wouldn’t want that coyote to open the door and come inside in the m-middle of the night.”
She laughed at her own joke and Chief tried not to overreact.
“I’ll call when I get home so you can get up and unlock your door for me,” he informed her.
“’Kay. I wish you had a key though. It’d be easier and I wouldn’t have to get up.”
“Good idea. I’ll give you a spare key to my house tonight.”
“Wow, really?”
“Yeah, Soph, really. We’ve been dating for almost two months. We spend every free moment we have together. We talk or text on the phone every day. We’ve fallen asleep on each other’s couches together too many times to count. We’re going to make love tomorrow…giving each other keys doesn’t seem like that big of a step, compared.”
“You have a valid point.”
He smiled.
“I’m not quite as neat as you are, but I m-might be able to dig through m-my junk drawer and find an extra key for you. I’ve never given anyone a key to m-my house before,” she noted. “This is a big s-step.”
“Bigger than making love?” Chief couldn’t help but ask. He was fascinated by the way her brain worked.
“Well, yeah.” She paused to yawn, and Chief heard rustling in the background before she continued. “Anyone can have s-sex. It’s just a m-matter of inserting point A into point B. But inviting s-someone into your s-space, that’s different. Giving them twenty-four s-seven access to your things, m-memories, food, TV channels, dirty clothes, bathroom, and books…it’s different. It’s m-more…intimate.”
Chief was quiet for a long moment, thinking about what she said. He opened his mouth to respond when she beat him to it.
“Never m-mind, I’ve obviously had too m-much to drink.”
“No, that makes sense. I’m sorry for making you think otherwise. Why do you think I never invited women to my house in the past? I’ll call in about an hour, all right? You in bed?”
“Yeah. I’m here.”
“Good. See you soon, shi ásdząą.”
“Later, m-man,” she teased. “You’ll have to tell m-me how to s-say that in your language.”
“I will. When you have a chance at remembering it. Sleep well.”
“Bye.”
Chief clicked off his phone and took a deep breath. He’d loved spending time with Sophie without worrying about sex, but now that she’d brought it up, and admitted
she wanted him, he couldn’t think about much else.
He also couldn’t wait to get his hands on her. He looked at his watch again. Only thirty seconds had passed since he’d last looked. Damn, the last hour of his three-day shift was going to take forever.
Chapter 12
Ten minutes to go.
“Fuck it,” Chief murmured, and swiped his thumb over his phone. He couldn’t wait any longer. It would only take ten minutes to get home. He decided to go ahead and call Sophie now to make sure she was up and awake enough to unlock her door for him.
The phone rang in his ear over and over, and finally went to voicemail.
Chief frowned and clicked it off without leaving a message. He hit Sophie’s name again, and waited.
It rang…and rang and rang, and once more went to voicemail.
Alarmed now, Chief shouted, “Crash!”
His friend stuck his head out of one of the bedrooms in the back. “Yeah? What’s up?”
“Can’t get Soph to answer her phone.”
Crash walked up to where Chief was standing in the middle of the living area. “It is the middle of the night. Maybe she’s sleeping.”
Chief shook his head. “She’s a light sleeper. She’s never not answered the phone when I’ve called late. Heck, even when I shoot her a text trying not to wake her, she always does anyway and answers me back.”
“Try again,” Crash said, looking more alert now.
Chief did, and just as he was about to hang up and jump in his car and race home, Sophie answered.
“’Lo?”
“Sophie?”
“Mmmmm, yeah.”
“What’s wrong?”
“I feel awful.”
She sounded it too. Her voice was slurred and she seemed completely spaced out.
“How?” Chief knew he was being more brusque than he probably should, but he didn’t like not being there with her.
“I think I have the flu,” she said slowly. “Everything hurts, especially m-my head. I feel s-sick…like I’m gonna throw up. Dizzy. I’m gonna call work and let them know I ate s-something bad.”