Paradise Park

by Carolina Mac

  “Or what?”

  “Or I’ll make you wish you hadn’t messed with me,” Lonnie whispered.

  “Yeah, like I’m scared of you?” Rob tossed his head back and laughed loudly.

  Lon held it together and stomped down the steps, the wooden heels of his cowboy boots ringing in the quiet night. He took the long way around, by way of the road, giving himself time to cool down. After confronting Rob, he felt no better than he had before. Worse, in fact. Now he felt fuckin worse. Nothing had been accomplished by threatening Rob. In fact, he might have made matters worse—challenging Rob and making him more determined to visit Gracie whenever he wanted. Lonnie needed a different plan.

  Before he went to bed, Lonnie tried once more to talk to Grace. He knocked on her door and Ted whined inside. She didn’t answer.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  WHEN I HEARD the engine turn over in the big rig next door, I woke and glanced at the clock. Six a.m. All through the night I had tossed and turned, guilt-ridden for making Lonnie so upset, even though I had no control over Rob’s comings and goings. Rob was a stranger in my eyes—a park resident and nothing more. Lonnie was over-protective and concerned for my safety and I loved him for that. I just couldn’t take the confrontation and the fighting that Rob’s crush was going to cause. The stress of it was already bubbling up and I could feel it filling me with dread. There had been too much of that in my life already.

  That was the main reason I started a new life away from my brother. Jerry was convinced every man I dated was not worthy of his sister and would break my heart. He was super critical and always pointed out the flaws in every man I introduced him to. In the past, no relationship had lasted more than a couple of weeks. For the sake of peace in my brother’s household, I always gave up any guy Jerry didn’t like. I was ill equipped to withstand the pressure. Now I had my own place in the country and a peaceful life was all I wanted. Alone if it had to be that way.

  Untangling my bare legs from the sheets, I flipped on the light and hurried outside in the morning gloom. I couldn’t bear to let Lonnie drive for another whole day with this tension between us. I dashed out on the porch in my nightie, down the steps, across the dew-covered grass and over to the truck before he pulled out.

  Lonnie jumped down from the driver’s seat when he saw me running towards the truck. He gathered me into his strong arms and held me tightly. “I love you, girl.” He kissed me with passion as I rubbed his back under his t-shirt.

  “I love you, cowboy.”

  “Come with me today,” he whispered as he stroked my hair.

  “I want to but I can’t. I have a marketing meeting and I’ll be in the city. We’ll have dinner tonight and talk.”

  “Okay.” Some of the tension in his face eased.

  I mussed his hair. “You don’t have to be jealous, sugar. You’re the only one I want.”

  Lonnie kissed me again and climbed into the cab. I waved to him from the deck and watched until I couldn’t see the truck any longer. “Let’s go back to bed, Ted.”

  My alarm buzzed at nine. I had slept soundly since Lonnie kissed me at dawn and my mood had lightened considerably. I showered, dressed and toasted a bagel before leaving for the meeting with my publisher. My truck was humming along and almost to the end of Hickory Lane when Rob rode up Pine Street on his Harley. I gave him a quick wave, turned onto the highway and kept on going. Avoidance was the order of the day.

  My meeting with the marketing department was over by noon and my editor took me for lunch at a small bistro on Queen Street. Even though I lived in the country and loved it, a day downtown in the hustle and bustle always got my creative juices pumping.

  By two o’clock all business was taken care of and I was free as a bird. I drove back from Toronto on the 401 and stopped in at the duplex in Oshawa on Mary Street to see Jerry and Kate. No one was home. I scribbled a little note on a scrap of paper and tucked it in their mailbox. Ted had a short run in their backyard and we headed north. We stocked up on groceries, beer and dog treats and arrived home by five.

  Busy in the kitchen, I opened a beer and sipped it while making a salad and a shepherd’s pie, then sat on the deck with Ted anticipating Lonnie’s return. Things would be better tonight. I would make sure of it.

  Mrs. Mancuso stepped outside wearing bright red gardening gloves and began pulling weeds in the flower bed between the two trailers. I leashed Ted and the two of us ambled over to talk to our new neighbor. “Hi, Mrs. Mancuso. Do you like living in the park?” I bent down to smell the pink peonies that bloomed in profusion in her garden.

  “Oh, yes dear. I love it. Peaceful and quiet. My husband loves it too. He’s going to put up a new shed at the back of our property for tools and such. Would you object to that? Now that we’re living in the country, he’s keen to have a tractor for grass cutting.”

  Glancing around her property, I didn’t see enough grass to warrant a riding lawn mower. “No, of course not. You can do what you want on your own lot.”

  “There are park rules.” Mrs. Mancuso pulled her pruning shears out of her apron pocket and lopped off a two-foot-high thistle at the root.

  “Yes, there are rules, but most of them are common sense and for safety. Nothing strange. Mr. Deegan isn’t like that. He’s a good man and an experienced park supervisor.”

  “He is nice. I liked him the first time we met.” She checked her watch. “I have a casserole in the oven, dear. Nice talking to you.” She retreated into her trailer.

  “Let’s go home, Ted.” Ted’s brown eyes were focused on Mrs. Mancuso’s front window. “Oh yeah, I see that big kitty. Good thing he’s inside.” Ted balked when I tugged on the leash.

  After a quick check of my own oven, I emerged onto the deck with my second beer to find a huge black Harley in the driveway and a handsome biker leaning against the railing. My heart fluttered a little. It wasn’t fear any more. More like…holy hell, what was it like?

  “Hey,” I said with the trace of a smile.

  “Hey yourself,” said Rob with a grin. He showed a perfect set of teeth in a face that was too gorgeous to belong to a down-and-out biker bum. His hair looked freshly washed and was secured with a red bandana around his forehead.

  What the hell was wrong with me?

  “Got an extra cold one?”

  I hesitated. “Don’t think that’s a good idea. Lonnie will be home soon.”

  “Just one and I’ll be on my way.”

  “Okay, one.” I went inside to get him a beer. My heart hammered as I pulled the can of Coors out of the fridge. This is bad, Gracie girl. Really bad.

  He grinned as he took it from my hand. “Thanks, beautiful girl,” he whispered.

  He’s a lot younger than I thought he was. He can’t be more than twenty-three.

  “Lonnie’s coming home for supper,” I said and then sucked in a breath.

  “He doesn’t scare me.” Rob narrowed his gorgeous eyes.

  “I don’t want him to scare you. I just don’t want him to be upset because you’re here again. When he’s upset, he… never mind.” My hand shook as I tried to drink my beer.

  “So…it would be better if we saw each other when he wasn’t home?” he gave me that killer grin and I fought the urge to giggle.

  “No that’s not it. It would be better if we never saw each other at all. That’s what Lonnie wants.”

  “I don’t give a fuck what Lonnie wants,” said Rob with a vengeance. “I care what you want.”

  “Lonnie and I are a couple and we’re happy. That’s the way it is.”

  Rob smiled. “But you want to see what I’ve got for you that he doesn’t have. I can read it in your beautiful purple eyes. It’s all good. I can wait. I’ve been hard for you since the first day I saw you and that won’t change. You’re my only thought, Grace. I wake up in the morning and there’s that half a second before I think of you and then you flood my brain until I sleep at night.”

  “That’s a lot of emotion for a bike
r.”

  “Yeah, I’m a fuckin poet,” he laughed.

  “Would you mind leaving before Lonnie gets back? It would save me so much hassle.”

  “I don’t mind at all, now that we’ve got kind of a thing going on here. It’s a huge turn-on.”

  I shook my head. “No, we don’t have anything going on, but thanks for understanding.”

  “Anything for you, baby. Anything you want.” He finished his beer, ambled down the steps, started up the bike with a huge rumble and took off down the street.

  LONNIE ARRIVED HOME at seven. He had texted Grace at six and given her his ETA. His arrival time helped her plan dinner and she tried so hard to please him. He didn’t deserve her. They had a beer together on the deck and he tried his best not to let his tension show. “How was your day?” he asked, trying to sound casual but the words came out sounding strained.

  “The meeting with the publisher went well. They chose a cover design I can live with. I handed in the last pages, the dedication, the acknowledgements and all that.”

  Lonnie didn’t know what she was talking about—book talk—so he nodded. He should pay more attention and show more interest in her work.

  “Then I had lunch with my editor. She’s a nice girl and we had a glass of wine together.”

  “Good,” said Lonnie. “You’ve been under a lot of stress.”

  “I have to take dinner out of the oven,” she said, “are you ready to eat?”

  “I could eat,” he said with a grin.

  “That’s a permanent state for you, cowboy.” Gracie touched his hair and he wanted to kiss her, but he was too tense. Nothing could happen until this was resolved. He was choking on it.

  Lonnie felt that things were getting back to normal. Almost there, but not quite. They ate dinner without too much conversation and he knew deep down that for his own survival he should let it go. Gracie hadn’t cheated on him. She wouldn’t. She loved him and she wanted him to stop stressing about Rob. Wait until there was something to be upset about. Don’t make something out of nothing. His gut was in knots and he could barely swallow. He shouldn’t ask this question. His brain told him not to pursue the Rob issue but he was on self-destruct and he couldn’t stop himself.

  Gracie poured the coffee and Lonnie almost choked trying not to ask her. “See Rob today?” His voice sounded like someone else’s.

  The wheels on his world ground down in slow motion. He watched as she turned and put the coffee carafe back on the burner. Without looking at him, she picked up her purse and keys, walked out the door and drove away in her truck.

  Sleep wouldn’t come. Not a chance in hell. He was fucking up the best thing he ever had in his whole stupid, wasted life and he had to do something about it. This was a runaway freight train. He figured from Grace’s response that Rob had come over and she hadn’t been able to do anything about it. She couldn’t stop him from being pissed and she couldn’t stop Rob from coming over, so she had bolted. Understandable, now that he thought about it. She had been away most of the day, so Rob couldn’t have been there for long. Maybe a few minutes when she got home from the city.

  Damn it anyway, he was handling this all wrong. He had to turn it around.

  He phoned her cell and left a message. “Please come home, Grace. I love you.”

  No response.

  He phoned Jerry. “Hey man, this is Lon. I’m just checking to see if Gracie is there. Yeah, a little disagreement. Don’t need to talk to her. I’m just making sure she’s safe. She’s okay? And she’s sleeping over? That’s great. Thanks a lot.”

  “Good, she’s at Jerry’s in Oshawa, Ted.” He patted him on his head. “I know you’re missing her. She spoils you.”

  Lonnie locked up Grace’s trailer and went next door to his own digs. He showered, walked Ted and crawled into bed exhausted from the driving and from the Rob stress. He would fix things tomorrow.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  GARY STUMBLED OUT of bed and headed across the hall to the bathroom. He left Sheila sleeping, grabbed his jeans off the floor and headed outside for a smoke. He started when he saw Rob sitting on the deck drinking coffee. “Fuck, bro, what are you doing up so early?”

  My life’s going so great right now I can’t wait to start the day.”

  Gary shook his head. “You have fuckin lost it so bad.”

  “Had a beer with Gracie yesterday on her deck. We had a long talk about our future.”

  “Bullshit. You don’t have a future with her. That trucker has got her locked down tight.”

  “She asked me not to come over when he was home.”

  “You sure she said that?” Gary shook his head, his hair wild and uncombed. “I think you’re hearing what you want to hear.”

  “Believe it. Her and me—we’re gonna be private.”

  “You’re gonna be private all right. That trucker is gonna kill your private ass and barbecue your private parts when he finds out.”

  “He might try, but it will be worth it.”

  “You’re an ex-con and she thinks you’re a rapist, bro. She’s not going to hang with you.”

  “Told her I didn’t do it, and she believed me. I looked deep into those purple eyes and I know she trusts me.”

  “She doesn’t trust you. A high-class girl like that is careful. She ain’t some street chick you can snow with your pretty face. She’s not gonna trust a biker that just got out of the slam.” Gary took a long drag on his cigarette. “Besides, you’re a kid. You’re way too young for her.”

  “How do you know? I think we’re making some big progress in our relationship.”

  “What do you know about relationships? You’ve never had one in your whole fucked-up life.”

  “I’ve got the feel. I’m easing into one right now.”

  “The only two things you’re easing into are a busted skull and a return trip to the lock-up.”

  Rob chuckled and lit up a fresh smoke.

  Gary kept on with his warning. “The only thing you’ve got is hardwood. That’s what’s keeping you going down this insane road you’re on. Pick a different chick. Do it for me.”

  “I’m committed,” Rob said with a grin.

  “Fuck.” Gary threw down his butt in disgust and went inside.

  EXHAUSTION PRESSED DOWN on me as I arrived home from Jerry’s place. I hadn’t slept a wink all night and the last thing I wanted was to get into it again with Lonnie. I parked the truck and went inside my trailer without looking to right or left to see where he was. Since it was Saturday and the rig was parked, I knew he’d be doing maintenance. It was his regular routine. I started a pot of coffee, set up my laptop and only had enough time to type one word before there was a knock on the door.

  “When did you start knocking on my door?” I stood face to face with a grease covered trucker and my resolve melted.

  “Since you were mad as hell at me and I didn’t know if you would throw me out or not.”

  I stared at him through the screen door and sighed. “I won’t throw you out as long as you don’t say the ‘R’ word.”

  “I promise.” He held up his right hand as if he were taking an oath.

  After a deep breath, I pushed the screen open. “Want a coffee?”

  “Okay, thanks. I’d better wash my hands.” He headed for the bathroom next door to the kitchen.

  “Have you had breakfast?”

  “No. Got up and started working on the truck.”

  “I’ll make you some eggs if you like.”

  “Thanks, Gracie. You’re so good to me and I don’t deserve it,” he said as he returned to the kitchen. He stepped close, but didn’t touch me, obviously waiting for me to take the lead.

  Damn he was adorable. “I’ll make you pay.” I slid a finger through his belt loop and pulled him closer.

  “I want to make up for being so jealous over nothing.” He kissed my cheek.

  “Maybe I’ll give you a chance later to show me how sorry you are.” I kissed him back and headed o
ver to the stove.

  Lonnie grinned. “Why don’t I take you out for dinner tonight?”

  “Is it date night?” I turned the eggs and scooped the sizzling bacon onto a paper towel.

  “Should be. A beautiful girl like you deserves a night out once in a while.”

  “Thanks, Lon. That sounds like fun.” Something I hadn’t enjoyed a lot of lately. I put the plate of bacon and eggs on the placemat in front of him and poured his coffee.

  “Thanks, baby.” He slipped his arm around my waist and pulled me close to him. “Aren’t you eating anything?”

  “I ate with Jerry and Kate. They made me breakfast before I left. Jerry was so happy I slept over he almost cried.”

  Lon smiled. “He misses you.”

  “Kate is there and she’s his girlfriend. He shouldn’t miss me as much as he does. Isn’t healthy.” The toast popped up and I buttered it. “Want some jam?”

  “What kind?”

  “Are you fussy?”

  “I like strawberry.”

  “I think I have that.” I checked the fridge, brought over the jar then sat down opposite him.

  Thank god, Lonnie is back to normal.

  After breakfast, we carried our coffee mugs out onto the deck so Lonnie could have a smoke. Ted was lying contentedly at my feet oblivious to the world around him until Mrs. Mancuso’s orange tabby ran by. Ted was up and gone like a streak of lightning.

  “Ted, come back,” hollered Lonnie. We jumped to our feet and chased him all the way to the end of Hickory Lane at warp speed.

  We were both out of breath when we caught up to the big hound at Edgar’s trailer. The Plimpton residence was situated at the extreme other end of the street and there was a turn-around at his property for those motorists not realizing it was a dead end.

  “I didn’t know he could run so fast,” I said, gasping for air between syllables.

  “He’s pretty speedy when he’s hunting,” said Lon, “He just doesn’t get the chance to do it much.” Lonnie sucked in a big gulp of air. “Here, Ted,” he hollered. Then he whistled and got no response.