Glancing up to his face, I held his stare for a few seconds—not because I needed to think it over—but because I wanted to soak up the way he looked right now. Every now and then, I saw a side to Travis that he tried to hide. It wasn’t insecurity—he was one of the most self-assured people I’d ever met.
It was vulnerability. And every time I got a glimpse of it, I felt like I was seeing into his heart, into the deepest part of him.
“I’ll keep it,” I promised.
I hadn’t been to this zoo—or any zoo, for that matter—in over ten years. When I’d come here as a kid it seemed so big. Huge. Epic.
But now that I was seeing it from adult eyes, it seemed so small and I suddenly felt silly for bringing Angel here. That is, until I saw her face.
Her face held an expression of awe as she walked towards the wallaby exhibit. My eyes followed the innocent, yet seductive sway of her hips as her dress swished around her thighs.
“Look!” She pointed to the gate. “It says we can go inside.”
I swung our laced hands between us as we walked, and Angel chattered on about how cute the wallabies were—most of which were hiding behind the logs and bushes.
She got out her phone to snap some pictures and after she was done, I took it from her hands to turn it around on us. I wanted a selfie with my girl.
When we came to the otters, Angel did some sort of spastic happy dance, which was really fucking cute, then practically fell over the wall of the habitat trying to get a closer look.
Because her dress—the white dress that drove me crazy—was already short, it rode up way too high for my liking while we were in public. I came up behind her to make sure no one got a peek at what was mine.
Unfortunately, it meant she was bent over in front of me and I felt my cock stiffen immediately. By now, I should’ve been used to getting hard at awkward times. Being around her did that to me.
But no amount of being used to it was going to change the fact that public boners were awkward, not to mention inappropriate.
When she finally stood up, I encased her body with my arms and linked my hands around her stomach. We stood that way for several minutes, Angel watching the otters, and me holding her while I rested my chin on top of her head.
“Aren’t they just the cutest?” she gushed.
“They are pretty cute.” I had to agree. “Kinda smelly, though.”
She laughed at my honest observation and leaned her head to one side to look at me. “You’re kinda smelly, too, sometimes, but I still like you.”
Grinning, I started tickling her sides. She squealed and spun away from me toward the petting zoo. When I caught up to her, I gave her a long kiss that was borderline indecent for a public place.
The goats were definitely my favorite. There was a food dispenser where you could get a handful of pellets for twenty-five cents.
“How genius is this?” I asked Angel as I inserted a quarter into the machine. “We pay the zoo to feed their animals.”
“It’s a win-win for everyone. Looks like they’re not hurting for a meal.” She hitched a thumb over her shoulder at the groups of people crowding the area waiting for their turn.
The goats eagerly stuck their heads through the wide slats of the fence, necks stretched out to reach the closest hand.
“It feels so weird.” Angel snickered as the soft muzzle nibbled at her palm. “Now, now. You have to share with the others,” she softly scolded the greediest one and offered the rest of the food to a smaller goat.
After our hands were empty, we attempted to pet their heads, scratching them behind the ears. But once they realized their snack was gone, they moved on to other people who were willing to give them what they really wanted.
It only took us about forty-five minutes to get through the entire zoo. Before we left, Angel excused herself to the restroom and I sat down on a bench to wait for her. Since I had the bench to myself, I was able to man-spread as I relaxed into the seat.
Don’t judge. Man-spreading was comfortable.
A squawking sound came from somewhere close behind me and I turned around to find my face mere inches away from a goose standing on the other side of a chain link fence.
Laughing, I looked my new companion in the beady eye he had cocked in my direction.
“Well, hi,” I said, and he honked in response. “Sorry, I don’t have any food for you.” I held up my empty hands so he could see I was telling the truth.
He flapped his brown and white wings, wiggled his tail feathers, and let out a shrill squawk. I wasn’t sure what he wanted from me.
Thinking maybe he wanted me to pet him, I started to stick my fingers through the hole in the fence.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Angel warned as she stepped up beside me, a smirk on her face.
“I think he likes me.” I went back to poking my finger through the chain link fence.
“I think he wants to bite your finger off,” she retorted.
As if to prove she was right, the goose stuck his beak through the hole and snapped at the tip of my finger.
“Ow.” I pulled my hand back and glared at him. “I thought we were friends. Not cool, dude.”
Angel laughed, then kissed the end of my smarting finger.
All better.
After we left the zoo, I drove to a small town called Elmer, which was about twenty minutes away from Tolson. My plans for the day weren’t finished yet but I refused to tell Angel what we were doing, no matter how much she pestered me.
I’d just parked the semi when Hank called.
“What’s up?” I answered.
“Travis, what’s your twenty?” he asked professionally, making me chuckle.
Angel started bouncing in her seat and motioning for me to give her the phone. Smiling, I handed it over. I’d taught her some trucker lingo on the way to the drop-off this morning and it seemed she wanted to put it to good use.
“Hi, Hank?” she said after putting the phone up to her ear. “What’s our twenty?” With raised eyebrows, Angel sent me a look that said ‘I’ve totally got this’. The sun glinted off the sequins on her flip-flops as she propped her feet up on the dash, then proceeded to babble random trucker talk. “We’re double nickels in the hammer lane and a dragon wagon.”
I had to stifle a laugh with my hand, playing it off like I had an itch because I didn’t want her to know I was laughing at her.
She had it completely wrong. More or less, she’d just told Hank we were going fifty-five-miles-per-hour in the fast lane of the highway with a tow truck.
So, not even close since we were parked in front of the grocery store in Elmer.
Even though the phone wasn’t on speaker, I could hear Hank laughing on the other end. Angel laughed along with him before turning to me.
“He said I did good!” she whisper-yelled at me with a proud expression on her face.
That time I did laugh out loud. She spouted off a few more nonsensical phrases then said “Ten-four” and hung up. At least she got that last one right.
I gazed over at her, entirely amused and caught up in how gorgeous she was. I must have been staring too long because she started to look uncomfortable.
“What?” she asked, self-consciously pawing at her face and hair.
“You’re beautiful,” I told her with tenderness in my voice.
“Thank you.” Her lips tipped up and her cheeks pinked.
Fuck, yeah. I loved that I could still make her blush like that.
“You ready for this?” I asked, getting out of the semi.
She made a face at me. “Well, I could answer that question if you told me what we’re doing.”
“Not a chance,” I replied before kissing the scowl off her face.
I made my way through the store to the deli section and picked up a package of bologna.
Angel raised her eyebrows. “Are we making sandwiches?”
“No.” I chuckled.
“Are you going to tell me wh
at we’re doing?”
“No.”
“Just a hint?” she begged.
“Nope.” I laughed and she huffed.
The gentle sway of the paddle boat was calming as Angel and I drifted on the water of Elmer Lake. I was sitting patiently with my line in the water, waiting to get a nibble.
Something tugged on the hook, causing the bobber to briefly dip into the water. After reeling in my fishing line, I was annoyed when I saw my bait was gone, yet I had no fish.
“Maybe you’re not doing it right,” Angel suggested with a teasing smile as I loaded the hook with another strip of bologna.
I shot her a look. Before I could respond, Angel’s bobber got tugged under the water as she caught another fish. She squealed with happiness as she lifted the good-sized catfish out of the water.
“I can’t believe how good the fishing is here!” she exclaimed, handing me her catch, which was still on the hook.
Shaking my head in amusement, I carefully removed the hook from its mouth because Angel couldn’t do it. Said she couldn’t stand the thought of hurting them. My girl was a sweetheart.
As I placed the new addition into the five-gallon bucket, I counted the six fish we’d caught. Well, Angel caught most of them. The smallest bluegill flapping around in the shallow water was my only accomplishment.
I frowned. “If this were a contest, you’d totally kick my ass.”
“What can I say?” She shrugged. “Fish love me. Probably because I won’t eat them.”
“You won’t eat fish? Even if it’s cooked?” I asked, remembering her adorable rant about sushi on the first day we met.
“Don’t look at me like that. Not everyone likes fish. Try hating seafood while living in Maine. I was basically a social pariah,” she joked.
“This isn’t seafood.” I pointed out at the water. “That’s a lake.”
“It’s still fish.” She wrinkled her nose.
“So you’re saying we have to throw them back?”
“Of course.” She looked shocked that I would even suggest otherwise.
“Colton will be disappointed. He loves a good fish fry.”
She waved her hand dismissively. “I’ll just make him sloppy joes and he’ll be happy again.”
“Okay. But not tonight. You’re not cooking on your birthday.”
We finished off the day with dinner from Pizza Palace.
“It smells so good,” Angel said, holding the large pepperoni pizza on her lap as we drove back to my apartment.
“Best pizza you’ll ever have,” I told her. “Let’s just hope Colton isn’t home. He’ll eat half of it himself.”
Trying to look as inconspicuous as possible, she slowly lifted the lid on the cardboard box, snuck her hand in to pull out a corner piece and started nibbling on it. I wasn’t sure why she was trying to be sneaky about it, but it made me smile.
“If you’re hungry, you don’t have to wait for me,” I encouraged.
She smiled gratefully before flinging the lid off and digging in. After she devoured at least a quarter of the pizza, she held a small square piece out to me.
“Do you want some?” she offered, but since her mouth was full, it came out more like ‘ju ju wum shum’.
I laughed. “I’ll wait, thanks. It’s kinda hard to eat and drive.”
“I could feed it to you.” She extended her arm toward me again.
Now there was an idea. As innocent as her suggestion was, it conjured up all kinds of images in my mind.
“As much as I would love to get kinky with you, now’s not the best time.” I smirked, hoping to make her blush again.
“It’s a pizza, not a dildo.”
Her crude statement took me by surprise and I barked out a laugh.
“Okay, one piece.” I tilted my head in her direction and she unceremoniously shoved it into my mouth.
I laughed as Travis chewed happily on his pizza while he drove. One piece turned into several and I was having way too much fun feeding him.
“So, tell me something about Claire or your dad,” he requested between bites. “Or is it too hard to talk about it?” he asked cautiously.
“My dad and I weren’t really close,” I replied. “He worked a lot. Cops have weird hours sometimes and he usually worked at night. I spent a lot of nights at Claire’s. She was already pretty involved in my life before he died, and that’s probably why the transition was so easy for me when I moved in with her.” As I talked, I was pleasantly surprised to notice it didn’t hurt to talk about my crazy aunt. “She was wacky. Kind of a hippie-type. Spontaneous. Fun.”
I searched my mind for a favorite memory. It was hard to narrow it down to just one.
“When I was fourteen, we dyed our hair together—red.” I laughed and ran my hands through my hair as I recalled our love for Anne of Green Gables. “It was one of those cheap box dyes you can buy at the pharmacy. It was supposed to be temporary—the kind that washed out after six weeks. Only, it didn’t. Claire and I had to wait almost two years for our hair to grow out back to our natural color. For a while, the top half of my hair was blonde and the bottom had red tips. It almost looked like I did it on purpose.”
Now that I’d started to talk about her, I felt like I couldn’t stop. It felt good to be able to share stories about her with someone else.
“She wasn’t squeamish about sex talks. At all.” I shuddered when I thought about the time she demonstrated how to put a condom on, using a banana. “And she had the worst luck on dates, so you would have been able to swap stories with her. A few years ago, she went on a date with a man she met at the grocery store. They bonded over the avocado sale.” I waved my hand at the unnecessary detail. “Anyway, he invited his mother along on their date to the pumpkin patch. I mean, it was sweet that he wanted to include his mom and all, but he was forty. And it was a first date. He even made Claire sit in the backseat of his car so his mom could ride shotgun. She totally felt like the third wheel.” I laughed, remembering how pissed she was when she got home from the date.
Travis was grinning. “She sounds awesome. You must miss her a lot.”
“I think I’ll always miss her. She was my best friend.”
“You’ve made quite a few new friends,” he pointed out. “That Beverly’s a handful.”
“That’s an understatement,” I agreed with a smile.
Tolson came into view as we drove down Main Street and Travis pulled the semi up to the designated spot beside the shop. Before we could get out, I stopped him by reaching over and grabbing his hand.
“Travis?”
“Yeah?”
“Thanks for today. It was the best day ever.”
After unbuckling my seatbelt, he tugged me over until I was sitting on his lap. He didn’t have to tug very hard. I’d always go to him willingly.
Framing my face with his hands, he kissed me long and deep until I felt breathless.
“It was the best day for me, too,” he whispered before rubbing his nose over mine. “Happy birthday, baby.”
The next morning, I couldn’t put off reality any longer and I finally called my case worker. And I was really glad I did. The weight of my guilty conscience lifted when I apologized profusely for leaving the way I did. I informed her that I was staying with a friend and when I told her about my plan to find my mom, she was extremely helpful about the process.
Apparently, there were forms I needed to fill out in order to be added to my mom’s approved visitors list. She sent the paperwork to my email, along with the correctional facility website, which had a list of rules including visiting hours and a dress code for guests.
I had no idea visiting an inmate could be so complicated. It would’ve been a horrible disappointment to get there and be turned away.
Now, I found myself back on Beverly’s porch.
“Why, Angel,” she exclaimed, pretending to be shocked as I stepped inside. “What a pleasant surprise. Back so soon?”
“You must think you’re pr
etty sneaky, huh?” I scolded with my hands on my hips, but my tone was a mixture of amused and impressed.
“Whatever do you mean?” Her eyes danced with mirth.
She might be able to fool other people with the sweet old lady act. In fact, she was quite good at it. But I knew better.
“You know what I mean. I spent the whole ride to the train station wondering how you possibly passed a driver’s test! I seriously feared for our safety, Beverly.”
Beverly cackled. “Oh, please. There was no way we could’ve been injured going that slow. Hell, I could probably ride a bicycle faster than that,” she said as I followed her to the kitchen.
“Why did you agree to take me to the train station?” I asked. “You didn’t even try to talk me out of it.”
“If I’d tried to change your mind, would it have worked?”
I shrugged. “Maybe not. I probably would’ve tried to find a different way.”
“Exactly.” She pointed at me.
“Well, anyway, thanks for sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong,” I teased.
All joking aside, I really was extremely grateful for her meddling. If she hadn’t interfered, who knows where I would’ve been right now.
“Maybe I should be thanking you. I haven’t had that much excitement in years. Would you like some Oatmeal Crème Pies? Or…” She opened the fridge and took out a round container. “How about some cake?”
She beamed as she took off the white plastic top to reveal a round, vanilla frosted cake with a big number ‘18’ drawn in pink icing in the middle.
“You made me a birthday cake?” I asked, touched by her thoughtfulness.
“Of course I did. We’re friends, aren’t we?” She raised her eyebrows, giving me a look that meant she actually wanted me to answer her question.
“Yeah, of course we are. I just didn’t expect anything special.”
“We’re led to believe that expectations are our enemy,” she said as she placed the cake on the counter, then she turned to look at me. “The greatest expectations lead to the greatest disappointments, right? Well that’s a bunch of bullshit. In this life, you expect nothing, you get nothing. Expect great things, Angel. Expect everything. Don’t ever sell yourself short. You got me?”
The Good Guys Box Set: TRUCKER, DANCER, DROPOUT, and A Trucker Wedding Page 17