by Susan Stoker
He tucked her arm in his and they ambled up the front walk to the house. Cheyenne took a deep breath and steeled herself for whatever was going to happen. She decided right there to do whatever it took to enjoy herself. These people were important to Faulkner, and she wanted them to like her more than was probably healthy. She warned herself not to be a dork, a spaz, or a flake. She’d just be herself. Hopefully that’d be enough.
Chapter Seven
“Faulkner!”
Cheyenne took a step back as the front door burst open and a brunette dynamo slammed into Faulkner. He took a step back and laughed as his arms came around the woman and lifted her off her feet.
“Hey, Alabama. How are you?”
“It’s been too long since we’ve seen you!” Alabama pulled back and kissed Faulkner on the cheek. Suddenly turning and pinning her eyes on Cheyenne, Alabama said, “Oh shit, I’m sorry, it’s just been too long since I’ve seen him. That was so rude of me. Jeez.”
Cheyenne relaxed a bit. She immediately liked this woman. “It’s okay, really.”
Dude leaned down, kissed Alabama on the cheek, then turned to Cheyenne. “Come on, Shy, let’s go inside and I’ll introduce you to everyone.”
Cheyenne nodded and smiled at Alabama as they made their way inside. They went into the living room and Cheyenne froze. Shit. She knew there would be a lot of people there, but seeing them all in the same place at the same time was daunting. Looking around at the muscular men, Cheyenne sighed. She knew it. She leaned into Faulkner and stood on tiptoe. He leaned down toward her so she could reach his ear and she told him earnestly, “I knew it, you do hang out with a gang of hotties!”
Dude threw his head back and laughed. God, his Shy was fucking hilarious.
Cheyenne looked at Faulkner with a small smile on her face. She loved when he laughed. She remembered how serious he’d been at the store when he was working on the bomb. Being able to put some levity into his life seemed like the best gift anyone could have given her.
“Girl, you’re officially one of us now. I’ve never seen Faulkner laugh like that before. Ever.”
Remembering where they were and who they were standing in front of, Cheyenne blushed and looked at the woman who’d spoken.
“I’m Caroline. It’s so good to meet you. When Fiona called and said that Faulkner needed her to get some food over to your apartment, it was all we could do not to all bust over there. We’re so glad you came over today. I’m sure you’re freaked, we all were when we had to meet each other. Just know you aren’t alone.”
Cheyenne smiled, liking the other woman immediately. It seemed there was a lot of “saying it like it was” around these people.
“It’s good to meet you too, Caroline. Thanks for having me over today.”
A big man came over to stand next to Caroline. He looked older than the other men, but he was absolutely gorgeous. He had large muscles that Cheyenne could see rippling under his shirt.
“Let me make the introductions before you have to use mind-melding skills to figure out who everyone is.”
Before he could continue, Caroline poked him in the ribs and looked up. “And tell her everyone’s real names. You can’t just use nicknames.”
Wolf smiled indulgently down at Caroline. “Yes, dear.”
Caroline rolled her eyes.
Cheyenne smiled again and relaxed a fraction. They all seemed so…normal. Faulkner put his arm around her waist and she turned to him for a moment. He smiled down at her then leaned down. “Told you they’d like you,” he whispered.
Cheyenne just shook her head. She’d only been there for like two point three minutes, the jury was still out in her mind, but it did look good…so far.
“I’m Wolf, or Matthew if you prefer, and this is Caroline, my wife. Sometimes you’ll hear us call her Ice, that’s her nickname.”
Cheyenne watched as Matthew looked down at Caroline with so much love, and lust, it made her blush. She tried to ignore the big man standing next to her, and concentrated on the introductions.
“Over there is Mozart, or Sam, and his woman Summer. Next to them is Cookie, or Hunter, and Fiona. Then there’s Abe, whose real name is Christopher, and Alabama. And that lonely looking guy over there is Benny, or Kason. He’s the last one of us to find a woman.”
“Hey!” Benny protested, “I’ve got women!”
Everyone laughed.
Cheyenne laughed with everyone else, but inside was quaking. How in the hell would she ever remember who everyone was? She was horrible at names. The first thing she did every time the phone rang at work and she asked the person on the line what their name was, was write it down on a sticky pad next to her keyboard. Shit, she already forgot most of the people’s names already, and she was just told them all.
“Everyone, this is Cheyenne Cotton. Please don’t freak her out tonight. Keep all the scary and weird stories to yourself. I don’t want her to run screaming from the house.”
Cheyenne waved self-consciously at the group. God, this was awkward.
“Okay then,” Caroline said, taking charge of the group. “Matthew, you and Christopher go and grill up the steaks. Anyone want to help me with the rest of the grub?”
Cheyenne immediately spoke up. The last thing she wanted to do was stand around while everyone else got the food ready. “I will.”
Caroline smiled at her. “Great. Thanks. I could use the help.”
Cheyenne went to follow Caroline into the kitchen, but Faulkner wouldn’t let go of her waist. She looked up at him questionably.
He just looked at her intently for a moment.
“What?” Cheyenne whispered, suddenly wondering if she should’ve offered to help after all.
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For being here. For helping. For trying, for me.”
“They seem very nice, Faulkner. I’m glad you brought me.”
Cheyenne could tell there was more Faulkner wanted to say, but instead he leaned down and kissed her on her forehead. He let his lips linger for a beat longer than was probably proper in front of his friends, with a woman he’d met only the day before, but he soon brought his head back up.
“Go make me food, woman.”
Cheyenne laughed and smacked him on the arm. “Whatever, Dude.”
Dude squeezed Cheyenne’s waist affectionately and let her go. She headed off to the kitchen smiling.
* * *
Cheyenne looked around the crowded room contentedly. The evening had been wonderful. She’d relaxed much sooner than she’d thought possible. The women were funny and cheerful and didn’t care if they said something stupid or silly in front of her or the men.
And the men. Holy smokes. Cheyenne actually pinched herself at one point to make sure it was really real. That she was really sitting in a house with six incredibly hot men chit-chatting. It was surreal.
She hadn’t remembered everyone’s name, and she certainly didn’t know which nickname went with which man, but ultimately it didn’t matter. She just went with the flow, and no one seemed to notice.
“I’m stuffed. Jesus, Caroline, did you have to make so much damn food?” Fiona complained. She was sitting in an easy chair on Hunter’s lap. Cheyenne could see Hunter’s hand absently stroking her hip.
“I might have overdone it a bit, but it was all so good wasn’t it?”
“I think if I ate one more bite I would explode like the guy in that Monty Python movie did,” Alabama grumbled laughing.
“I loved that movie,” Cheyenne spoke up. Parroting the line from the movie, she said in a fake British accent, “I couldn’t eat another bite.”
Everyone laughed, and Cheyenne smiled at them all.
“How’s school going?” Dude asked Alabama, knowing she was working toward her degree.
“It’s good. It’s the helicopter parents that are really crazy. There was one mother that actually came to class to take notes for her kid. It was ridiculous. It’s hard sometimes to be i
n classes with teenagers who have no idea what the world is really like though. If they had any idea how precious an education is they’d work harder at it and not take it for granted.”
“That is so true,” Summer said. “I worked my butt off for my degree and loved every minute of working in Human Resources.”
“I remember when I worked at a University in Texas I’d have to deal with those kind of parents every day. I even had a parent call once for her thirty one year old son. He couldn’t figure out how to order a transcript. It’s crazy!” Fiona added, shaking her head.
Cheyenne would’ve loved to have asked questions, but kept her mouth shut and just let the conversation flow around her. Hopefully in the future she’d get to know these women better and would have a better understanding of what made them tick and she could contribute to the conversation and not feel weird about it.
“Ice, did you ever figure out that new compound you were working on?”
Caroline laughed at Benny’s question. “Do you want the technical answer, or the short answer?”
Knowing she could go on all night about chemicals and what she did, Benny smiled and told her, “The short answer.”
“Yes.”
Everyone laughed when Caroline didn’t elaborate.
“Good job then. Congratulations.”
“Thanks, Benny. Hopefully in the future it’ll mean a lot of people won’t have to go through such horrible treatment for some of the worst diseases out there if it does what we think it should.”
There was quiet for a moment in the room, then Summer asked, “So what do you do, Cheyenne?”
Cheyenne shifted uncomfortably on the couch. Faulkner was sitting next to her and of course he noticed. “Summer,” he warned his friend, knowing Cheyenne was still working through her feelings about her job and hating that Summer had unintentionally put Cheyenne on the spot.
Cheyenne quickly broke in, and put her hand on Faulkner’s thigh to ease him. “No, it’s okay. It’s not a big deal. I answer phones for a living.”
“Oh, so you’re in customer service or something?”
“Not exactly. I’m an emergency services operator.”
No one said anything for a moment, then Fiona asked apologetically, “What does that mean exactly? I’m sorry if I should know, I just don’t.”
“Oh no, don’t feel bad, I should’ve explained better. I answer the phone when people call in with an emergency. If there’s a fire or someone’s having a heart attack or something like that.”
“You answer 911 calls?” Caroline asked in a weird voice.
Cheyenne looked at Caroline who was sitting across the room in another big fluffy arm chair. She too was sitting in her man’s lap, and Cheyenne watched as Matthew’s eyes immediately went to his wife. He didn’t look happy at the tone of her voice. He looked worried.
Cheyenne tensed. Oh shit. Was Caroline offended? Did she have a bad experience with 911 in the past?
“It’s okay, Shy,” Dude murmured next to her, sensing her discomfort. He put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her into his side.
“Yeah, I answer 911 calls,” Cheyenne told Caroline carefully.
Cheyenne watched as Caroline unfolded herself from Matthew’s lap and stood up. Cheyenne risked a glance at the other people in the room. The women’s faces were soft, the men’s weren’t exactly hard, but they weren’t relaxed either. Something was happening and Cheyenne had no idea what it was.
Caroline came across the small room to stand in front of Cheyenne. She went to her knees in front of her and put her hands on Cheyenne’s knees.
Cheyenne didn’t know what to do. She risked a quick glance at Faulkner, but his eyes were locked on Caroline. Cheyenne turned back to the woman kneeling at her feet nervously, not knowing what to expect.
“Thank you. It’s obvious you have no idea how important what you do is.”
Cheyenne didn’t know what to say, so she said nothing.
“I’ve always wished I could’ve met the 911 operator that helped me.”
Oh shit, Cheyenne didn’t know if she was ready to hear this story. She tensed and Faulkner tightened his hold on her and grabbed her left hand with his scarred one. Cheyenne gripped his hand as if it was the only thing standing between her and the firing squad.
Cheyenne heard Faulkner tell Caroline, “I already told her this, Ice, but I’m not sure she really understood. Tell her your story. Maybe between all of us we can convince her how she changes people lives.”
“Faulkner…”
“Shhhh, Shy. Listen.”
Cheyenne turned back to Caroline, then flicked her eyes up to Matthew. He was looking at Caroline with affection from his seat across the room. He’d sat up and was resting his forearms on his knees. He looked relaxed, but Cheyenne knew he could be across the room in a heartbeat if he needed to be.
“When I lived in Virginia, I was followed home from work one day. Matthew and the rest of the team were away on a mission. I’d just started my job and didn’t really know anyone yet. A man broke into my apartment and I had to hide in my shower. I was really scared and called 911 almost without thought. Every kid is taught from a young age to call when they need help, and that’s just what I did. I didn’t have a long conversation with the lady on the other end of the line, but she was awesome. She didn’t panic and had the police on their way within seconds of hearing what my problem was.
“I have no idea who she was or what her name was, but she was my lifeline. I’ll never forget her. So on behalf of that lady, and for anyone who has ever called 911, thank you. Thank you for being there. Thank you for caring enough to try to help us. Just thank you.”
Cheyenne watched as Caroline’s eyes filled with tears and she lay her head down on Cheyenne’s knee. Cheyenne lifted a hand and put it on the back of Caroline’s head. “I…you’re welcome.” Cheyenne didn’t know what else to say, she was uncomfortable and touched at the same time.
Caroline finally lifted her head and gave Cheyenne a watery smile. “You, my friend, will have good karma for the rest of your life because of what you do.”
Cheyenne was embarrassed and hoped the conversation would soon switch so it wasn’t focused on her anymore. She still wasn’t ready to jump up and down with glee about her job, but Caroline and Faulkner had started her on the path to thinking that maybe she really did make a difference in the world. At least for some people.
“So…how about them LA Kings huh?” Benny said, trying to lighten the mood of the room, and succeeding.
Everyone laughed. Caroline stood up and wiped the tears from her eyes. She walked back to Matthew and he pulled her into his lap and kissed her deeply.
Cheyenne watched as Matthew put his hand on the back of her head and shifted her until she was lying sideways over his lap. Her legs were dangling over one of the arms of the chair and her upper body was supported by Matthew’s arm. Wow.
Cheyenne shifted in her chair and shivered when Faulkner whispered in her ear. “Told you you were amazing.”
She just smiled.
After a bit more time had passed, Hunter turned on the television. The group was feeling mellow after the large meal, emotional revelations, and spending time with good friends.
After watching a mindless sitcom, the evening news came on. Cheyenne stiffened in surprise when she heard the newscaster say her name. They all watched in fascination as the anchor spoke while a clip from the day before was shown.
“In other news, Cheyenne Cotton was released from the hospital last night after suffering only superficial wounds in the bomb threat at Kroger yesterday afternoon. Five men were killed after they strapped a bomb to Ms. Cotton and tried to negotiate their way out of the store. A bomb ordinance technician from the Navy was called in to defuse the explosive. Here they are leaving the store after the bomb was neutralized.”
Cheyenne watched in shock as a video of her and Faulkner coming out of the store was shown. She looked pale and she was holding his hand as he led the w
ay across the broken glass from the front of the store toward the ambulance. She watched as they were surrounded by reporters and Faulkner put his arm around her waist to steady her. The clip ended and the camera panned back to the anchorman sitting behind a desk as he finished his story.
“The five men who were killed, seemed to be working independently. As of now, the police can’t confirm or deny if they were part of a gang. The authorities are withholding their names because of the ongoing investigation. Ms. Cotton has declined any interviews and the Navy isn’t releasing the name of the bomb technician that defused the bomb and saved many lives yesterday. We will continue to investigate the story and will report back with any new information. Next up is Tina with the weather for the week…”
No one said anything for a moment until Mozart breathed, “Jesus, Cheyenne, we had no idea that was you. Are you all right? Should you even be out and about?”
Cheyenne couldn’t help but giggle. Jesus, these guys were all the same. Protective to the bone. “I’m okay. Faulkner got there in time.”
Dude spoke up. “The bastards wrapped her up in so much duct tape it took me ten minutes to get to the damn bomb. The tape ripped off parts of the skin on her arms and you can see the black eye she has from the assholes as well.”
Cheyenne glared up at Faulkner. “I can talk, you know.”
“I know, but what would come out of your mouth would probably be something like, ‘I’m fine, thanks for asking,’” Dude said in a high pitched voice, mocking her.
Cheyenne could hear the other women giggling. She tried to keep her mouth from twitching, but couldn’t. It was funny, dammit.
“Well, I am all right, Faulkner, and it was nice of them to ask.”
That made everyone around the room laugh out right.
“You guys are hilarious,” Fiona told them. “We’re so glad Faulkner was there yesterday. Seriously, he’s the best at the bomb thing.”
“The bomb thing?” Dude mock growled.
“Yeah, the whole bomb thing.”