I shoved the bottle of water in the pack, pulled it over my shoulder, and stood from my rather comfortable rock.
“You want to follow the river?” she asked as she pointed along the exposed edge of the cliff.
“Sure,” I responded.
As she began to walk along the rock formation I adjusted my pack. A few more steps toward her, and she froze.
“Alec…” she whispered as she raised her hands in the air.
“What?”
“Rattlesnake,” she whispered.
She no more than spoke, and I could hear the rattling of the snake’s tail. As far as we were from the truck, and as long as it would take for us to get to a hospital, the possibility of dying was pretty probable if one of us were bitten.
Fuck.
Standing behind her and with the snake in front of her, I couldn’t see it, but I could hear it, and it didn’t seem to be interested in going away. It wasn’t uncommon in the latter part of the summer when the days began to shorten and the nights became cooler for rattlesnakes to lie on rocks and absorb the warmth. When startled, they coiled, raised their heads, and prepared to strike at whatever they thought was a threat.
But in all actuality, the snake was just as scared as the human.
“How close?” I asked as I began to quietly make a large sweeping circle around where she stood.
“Five feet,” she whispered.
“Don’t move,” I said as I walked around her.
“Alec…” she whispered.
“Don’t worry,” I said.
As I walked past her, I saw the snake. Easily four or more feet long, it was one of the largest rattlesnakes I had ever seen. Coiled and prepared to strike, there was no doubt if it felt threatened any more than it already did, it could bite her from its current position. I circled around her, stepped behind it, and stood still.
“Don’t move,” I whispered as I silently snapped a branch from the mesquite tree beside me.
She nodded her head.
One carefully placed step at a time, I approached the back of the snake, holding the stick in front of me for protection. When I was close enough to touch it, I lowered the tip of the branch onto the rock surface behind the snake’s back.
I pressed the stick against the stone ledge, making a scraping sound with each stroke. The snake quickly turned toward me, coiled, and struck at the stick.
“Walk away,” I said flatly as I continued to distract the snake.
She turned and walked away, toward the rock where I was seated earlier. After taunting the snake for a few more seconds, I dropped the stick and walked toward her.
Standing beside the rock staring down at the ground, it was obvious the encounter with the venomous snake had her rather upset. As I stepped in front of her, she reached out and wrapped her arms around me. I pulled her against me, held her tight, and I could feel her body trembling.
I leaned back and pulled my chest away from her. Her eyes were fixed on the ground between us. Slowly, I reached out, lifted her chin, and gazed into her eyes. They were filled with fear, and it was genuine. Although I couldn’t always comfort those with fear-filled eyes I had seen in the past, there was something I could do for her.
It was something I wanted to do, but had not yet attempted. With our eyes locked on each other, I lowered my mouth to hers and kissed her.
Her soft lips pressed against mine, kissing me fully, passionately, and perfectly. As we embraced, our hands fumbled to find the perfect place to land, each of us positioning them in a location making the kiss even more flawless than it already was.
It was the first time I had kissed her, but it seemed to be my first kiss ever. Later, I decided it was. For that moment, it was the only kiss in my life that mattered, and I wanted it to never end. Throughout the embrace, she was slowly transforming me from a man with very little emotion into a man whose mind was opening into a sea of possibilities.
If a simple kiss had the ability to allow a person to see the compatibility of a prospective partner – and I did believe that to be the case – it was immediately apparent Katie and I were not only compatible, but placed on this earth to be kissing one another.
The kiss was long, passionate, and exactly what I felt I needed. When our lips eventually parted, she said two simple words. Simple, but more effective than anything else she could have said to convince me both of our lives were clearly in order.
“Don’t stop,” she breathed.
And I didn’t.
Chapter Two Hundred Sixty-One
Late summer 2014, Austin, Texas, USA
It had been a month since Katie and I started dating, and our time together was always enjoyable. Ripp and Shane shocked the family three-weeks prior, announcing simultaneously that their wives were pregnant. I couldn’t have been happier for either of them, and was excited for the day to come when their children arrived. In my opinion, no one was more excited than Katie’s father, who was having a hard time hiding not only his excitement, but his naturally protective nature of those he loved.
He pulled his fork from his mouth and wagged it toward Ripp. “You need to give that woman some space, Mike. You’re crowding her. Inch over and give her some damned room.”
I shifted my eyes toward Ripp. Sitting in his wife beater, covered in muscles, and littered from head to toe in tattoos, he probably didn’t appear to be a soon-to-be father by all of those who saw him, but I knew where his devotion lied.
He lifted his head from the piece of chicken he was eating, glanced toward his father, and glared.
“The table ain’t shrunk since we was all here last has it, Dekk?” Ripp asked as he stared at his father.
Shane looked up from his plate. “Not that I know of.”
“A-Train, table seem smaller to you?” he asked without shifting his eyes from his father.
My assigned position at the table had changed from being seated beside Ripp to across the table between Manda and Katie. I peered over the table toward him and shook my head.
“Same size,” I responded.
Still staring at his father, and his father steadily staring back, Ripp released his piece of chicken dramatically and tossed his hands into the air as his chicken fell to his plate.
“How in the hell can I be crowdin’ her when we’re all sittin’ in the same spots we’ve always sat in, Pop?” he growled.
“She needs more damned room,” his father growled in return. “She got one in the oven.”
“It’s the size of a damned piece of rice,” Ripp said as he reached for his piece of chicken. “And Vee’s fine, aren’t you, Vee?”
“I’ve got plenty of room,” she said.
His father shook his head. “A piece of rice? Where in the Sam Hill do you get your information? That kid’s the size of a damned orange.”
Ripp sighed loudly, lowered his piece of chicken from his mouth and let it dangle from his fingertips. “Internet, Pop. Maybe you heard of it.”
“Oh, Lord. You can’t go believing everything you read on that damned interweb” he said as he glanced down at his plate and began to eat.
“It’s true, Mr. Ripton. Rice baby. I’ve looked,” Kace said.
Mr. Ripton raised his head, turned toward Kace, and lowered his chin. “Is that a fact? Never would have guessed it.”
Ripp glanced at Kace, shook his head, and shifted his eyes to his father.
“So Kace says it and it’s a fact. I say it and I’m an idiot?” Ripp howled.
“You are an idiot. Rice baby or not, you’re a damned fool, Mike. Now, eat your chicken,” his father said with a gesture from the tip of his fork.
“Don’t call Michael an idiot, it isn’t nice,” Mrs. Ripton said.
I grinned and glanced around the table. Everyone in attendance acted as if this was typical, and from what I had seen of the dinners at the Ripton residence, it was quite normal for the family to act in the manner they were acting. Vee rarely spoke unless spoken to, and Shane never said a word unless aske
d a question or paying Mrs. Ripton a compliment on the food. Manda, Ripp and Katie’s sister, seemed to have a hidden agenda, and attended the meals only to eat, never saying a word one way or another.
Ripp cleaned the meat from the bone he was chewing on and tossed it aside. “You need to treat everyone at this table the same, Pop.”
“I do,” his father said without glancing up from his meal.
“Don’t either,” Ripp responded. “I said rice baby, and I’m a damned fool. Kace said rice baby and you said is that a fact. Be fair. I’m not a damned fool, and stop calling me one. I’m excited about this baby.”
“So am I, Michael,” his mother said.
“So am I,” his father said with a hint of love in his eyes. “But you’re a damned fool, baby or no baby. And I call ‘em as I see ‘em.”
“Like a fuckin’ umpire, now, huh? Now you’re a god damned umpire, callin’ ‘em like you see ‘em?” Ripp snarled playfully.
Katie gripped my leg slightly above my knee and squeezed, causing me to jump, hitting my leg on the bottom of the table.
“Michael Allen. Not. At. The. Table,” his mother said as she looked up from her meal.
“Sorry, Ma,” Ripp said.
Kace turned toward Ripp and cleared her throat to get his attention. “If we’re treating everyone the same, why do you always say Shane is kissing your mother’s rear end when he compliments her on the meal, and you never say the same to Alec?”
Ripp turned toward her and furrowed his brow. “Dekk’s the all-time biggest ass kisser ever. A-Train’s just sayin’ when he likes something. It’s different,” Ripp explained.
“Nicknames, Michael,” his mother said.
“I can’t win,” he said.
Ripp reached for the platter of chicken. After digging through the platter and tossing each piece of chicken to the side without actually taking a piece, his father looked up, tilted his head to the side, and widened his eyes. Still tossing pieces of chicken left and right as if looking for the perfect piece, Ripp didn’t notice his father’s glare.
“What in the hell are you doing, fingerin’ all the damned chicken? Nobody’s going to eat it now, who knows where those damned hands have been?” his father snarled.
“I know where they been, and they’re clean,” Ripp said without looking up.
Ripp turned toward his mother. “You buy breastless chickens, Ma?”
She shook her head. “Two per chicken, just like always.”
“No extras?” he asked.
She shook her head. “It was before the football game, and they were out.”
He pushed his chair from the table and crossed his arms in front of his chest, like a child throwing a fit.
After a few long seconds of no one caring about his act of defiance, he cleared his throat. “Where the hell did you go?”
“HEB, just like always,” she said.
“Eat a damned thigh,” his father said, pointing to the platter of chicken with his fork. “Thighs are good.”
“I ain’t looking to get fat just because Vee’s gonna get fat,” he said.
Oh shit.
“Excuse me?” Vee said. “I’m pregnant. I’m not getting fat, I’m giving birth.”
Vee had a dark complexion, had dark hair, and was what I would guess to be Italian. She was all of a size two at the absolute most. If she doubled in size she wouldn’t be the size of one of Ripp’s thighs.
“Well, you know what I mean,” he said. “I’m done. I’m full. Food was good, Ma.”
“Thank you Michael,” his mother said.
“We’re going to have to get out another leaf for this table when those grandkids get here,” Mr. Ripton said as he glanced around the table.
As our eyes met, I nodded my head in agreement.
“So, Alec. You like kids?” his father asked.
“Yes, Sir. I love ‘em. They’re our future, and there’s not a thing on this earth more innocent and eager to absorb all we’re willing to offer them. I look at a child as our opportunity to right the future wrongs of this earth – in how we raise them and the values we instill in them,” I said.
He nodded his head and grinned.
“I like that. Be a lot of fixin’ right here though,” he said as he wagged his fork toward Ripp.
Ripp shook his head, stood, and stomped to the kitchen with his plate full of bones.
“Good answer,” Katie whispered.
“No secrets at the dinner table,” Mrs. Ripton said.
Katie squeezed my leg again, causing me to jump slightly, but not as much as before.
“I said it was a good answer. I didn’t think the table needed to hear me,” she said.
After a shallow breath, she tilted her head back slightly and shouted. “Good answer!”
“There, now everyone knows,” she said as she pushed herself from the table.
Eating dinner at the Ripton residence was nothing short of a three-ring circus.
“Are you finished?” she asked as she reached for my plate.
I nodded my head and handed her my plate. As she walked away, I realized little by little she was coming out of her shell. Be it because she was more comfortable with me, letting go of her past, or that we were simply making progress in our relationship, I didn’t care.
One Sunday dinner at a time, I was becoming human again.
And so was she.
Chapter Two Hundred Sixty-Two
Fall 2014, Austin, Texas, USA
Several months into Kace’s pregnancy and Shane disappeared. For those who didn’t know Shane, maybe it wouldn’t have seemed at all a shock or out of character. For me, however, I knew something was terribly wrong, so I went to his home and talked with Kace at length about his disappearance.
“So, the doctors did that test, you know, the amnio deal, and they said our baby was probably going to be special needs,” she said.
“How’d he take it?” I asked.
She shook her head and tossed her hands in the air.
I nodded my head and reached for my glass of tea. “Well, for what it’s worth, I’m sorry. I know sorry doesn’t fix things, but it’s out of our control, you know? This is all God’s will. So, did you two discuss it?”
She shook her head. “He clammed up, Alec. He wouldn’t talk. He freaked out. I just thought he needed some space, but then he was gone. He hasn’t talked to Ripp or Kelsey or anyone. And he’s supposed to be getting ready for that fight. I swear, when he does come home…”
“I’ll find him,” I said.
“How?” she asked.
“I have my ways,” I said.
“Kick his ass, Alec. I mean it. You know, everyone thinks he’s so nice, and this? This is bullshit. Who leaves their pregnant wife? Who?” she asked.
Someone who’s scared, that’s who.
“I don’t know,” I said.
Kace was a saint. She was barely five-foot tall, a blonde, and more full of spunk than any other woman I had ever met. Her husband, six-foot two and 200 pounds of undefeated professional boxer, was no match for her. She would challenge him in a moment, and argue with him until she was blue in the face if it was something she believed in.
For Shane to leave her at such a time was absolutely unforgivable, but I fully understood. His reasoning for doing so was similar to my reasoning for keeping my distance from my father. The space that separated Shane and Kace prevented him from dealing with the issues in life he took exception to.
But a man can’t hide forever.
Sooner or later, we’re all forced to face reality whether we like it or not. It’s only a matter of time.
I stood from my seat. “Well, thanks for taking the time to talk. I’ll be in touch.”
She stood and waddled to my side. After a heavy sigh and kicking one of the pillows across the floor, she gave me a hug.
“I meant it about kicking his ass,” she said as I walked toward the door.
“We’ll see,” I said.
I had yet
to meet a man I was scared of. If push came to shove, I’d fight Shane over this, but I sure didn’t want to.
First, I had to find him.
The entire thought of Shane leaving Kace, their child potentially being born with special needs, and not having the best of luck finding him, and I went to Mr. Ripton and requested my cigarettes back.
Six days, half a pack of cigarettes, and 600 miles after talking to Kace, and I rolled into the parking lot of a shitty little diner in Anthony, New Mexico. Spitting distance from the Mexican border, and miles from any real civilization, Anthony was a small town of 9,000 people and a step into yesteryear, with half of the residents still riding horses.
As I pulled my motorcycle alongside Shane’s filthy Harley, I peered through the glass and caught a glimpse of him sitting at a booth facing the lot. I wanted to walk in, grab him by his thick hair, and drag his ass back to Austin. After smoking two long drags off the cigarette, I put it out, and placed the butt in my shirt pocket alongside the others.
“You might need a lesson or two in how to hide, Dekk,” I said as I walked into the diner.
He gazed back at me as if I were a ghost. “I won’t even ask.”
I walked to the edge of his booth, pointed to the empty side of the seat and waited. After a nod of his head, I sat down.
“In the future, you need to use cash. That debit card of yours is like a flashing beacon of fucking light.” I said.
Without speaking, he pulled his hood over his head.
I glanced around the diner, then fixed my eyes on Shane. “I’m going to tell you a story. Say my peace, so to speak. When I’m done I’m going to walk outside and smoke another cigarette then ride out of here. I hate shitty little dusty towns like this. They remind me of places I’m trying to forget about.”
I glanced out the window at the dust blowing down the street in front of the restaurant. “You know, if God was going to give the world an enema, he’d more than likely stick the tube in this shitty little town.”
“When I leave you can either head out with me or stay here, I don’t care either way,” I said as I pointed toward a full cup of coffee on my side of the table.
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