Soon they were driving in an older neighborhood populated with small family homes set closely together. Most were well-kept and a few had apparently used the holiday to get a jump on setting out their Christmas decorations. Maggie smiled out the window at wicker reindeer lit with twinkling white lights, inflated Santas and other cartoon characters lit from within, and roofs outlined in sparkling icicle lights.
Bobby pulled to a stop in front of a nondescript split level with brick on the bottom and white clapboard on the top. Black shutters framed the three visible windows. A large tree stood in the front, skeletal in the cool fall air. Maggie looked back to Bobby questioningly.
“This is the home where I grew up,” he said quietly. He looked at Maggie. “We were happy here. Crowded, because there are only three bedrooms and a bath and a half, but we were happy.” He smiled as he looked out across the brown lawn. “See that tree right there? It’s a maple. I planted it from a seed when I was about five. Savannah’s age now,” he reflected.
Maggie smiled too, envisioning five-year-old Bobby slowing down long enough to plant a seed in a paper cup. “Your mom said that you built their house.”
Bobby gazed down at his hands on the steering wheel. “My dad worked on the off-shore oil rigs, was gone for months at a time. Maman taught school. We never had two nickels to rub together, and they worked so hard, both of them. We never lacked anything we needed, but it was always tight. Then Pop got hurt and couldn’t work anymore.”
He looked back to Maggie, his eyes shining. “They always sacrificed so much for all of us. I didn’t want them to ever worry about their home. And I figured, hell, might as well make it big enough for everybody.” Bobby laughed lightly.
Maggie smiled at him proudly. “You’re a good son. A good man.” She slid across the bench seat and leaned up to kiss him deeply. Leaning back she said, “Thank you for showing me this.”
He sighed. “I just want you to know who I am, where I come from.” His eyes took on a mischievous sparkle. “But this isn’t all I wanted to show you.” Putting the truck back in gear, he drove away from the quiet neighborhood and pulled back onto a highway.
Fifteen minutes later the terrain grew less populated, and they were passing endless oak trees bare of leaves but dripping with Spanish moss that glowed eerily in the moonlight.
“Where are we going?” Maggie asked curiously. Bobby winked at her as he pulled off the highway onto an unpaved road, the truck bouncing as he slowly made his way over potholes. Eventually the dirt track opened up into a clearing at the edge of a marsh.
Bobby turned off the truck engine and grinned. “This, cher, is where I passed a good deal of my misspent youth. We’d come out here and go fishing or frog-gigging. But at night, it can be very romantic. Come on.” He jumped out and came around to open Maggie’s door. She took his hand and slid down to the ground.
Bobby kissed her warmly and grinned. “I’ve wanted to bring you here since the first time we kissed.” He led her around to the back of the truck and lowered the tailgate.
Maggie noticed for the first time that the bed wasn’t empty. Tucked against the cab of the truck was a small cooler and a sleeping bag. She looked back to Bobby, her eyes wide.
He grinned at her. “It’s a beautiful night with a full moon, cher. Just right for strawberry wine.”
He hopped up into the bed of the truck and help her climb up beside him. Together they stood looking out over the marsh shining silver in the light of the moon. He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her to himself, lifting her chin with a finger. “You’re so pretty,” he breathed before covering her lips with his own. Pulling her closer he deepened his kiss as Maggie opened her mouth to welcome his searching tongue, giving herself over completely. She allowed her head to loll back as he trailed kisses down the side of her neck and she felt her core become drenched with desire.
Maggie was breathless when he released her. She watched as he rolled out the sleeping bag and she stooped to help him spread it out. He sat and patted the space beside him.
“Come get comfortable,” he grinned as he opened the cooler and removed a bottle of Boone’s Farm Strawberry Hill along with a couple of plastic cups.
“Red Solo cups? Seriously?” Maggie laughed as she sat beside him, her legs curled beside her.
“Oh, cher, we’re going for authenticity,” he returned. He handed her a cup and touched his to hers. “To my sweet strawberry wine.” Maggie took a sip and looked up to see Bobby’s eyes burning into hers. He took her cup again and put it down beside his.
“You aren’t the first girl I’ve ever brought here.” He smiled ruefully. “But I want you to be the last.” With that, he lay her back and leaned over her looking down. “I want to see the moonlight on your beautiful body,” he whispered, raising her arms above her head. Slowly, he peeled off her layers until she lay bare before him, glowing in the light that bathed her skin.
Bobby drank in the sight of her breasts with their points puckered and sharp in the cool night air, her flat belly that ended at her smooth pussy, and he looked back up to her green eyes that gazed back at him, sparkling with desire. “You take my breath away, cher.” He knelt up and removed his shirt and jeans quickly.
“Oh, Bobby,” she whispered as he pressed her legs apart with his body and held himself over her, his hardness teasing her entrance. “I love you so much.”
“Bébé, tu es toute pour moi,” he murmured as he slowly entered her, his eyes never leaving hers.
Maggie brought her knees up, eager to have him inside her as far as he’d go. “God, I love it when you do that,” she hissed.
Bobby’s movements became more intense, his thrusting more urgent, spurred on by Maggie’s moans of pleasure. Buried deeply in her sex, he felt her grip his cock more tightly as her moment neared.
“Oh, Bobby, oh my...”
“Do it, baby, come for me,” he urged her softly.
Maggie shattered as her climax rolled through her body like a tidal wave and she cried out unintelligibly. As her body continued to shudder in pleasure, his own release came and he thrust one last time as he grunted her name. “Maggie...” For a moment he held himself still as his essence poured into her. A lifetime later, as her shuddering subsided, he kissed her tenderly before sliding from her body and pulling the edge of the sleeping bag over them.
Chapter 19
Michael and Veronica spent Thanksgiving together on her husband’s yacht. It was a minor miracle. She’d had to work hard to convince him to leave his apartment. “Why don’t you want to go?” she’d demanded.
“What about your husband? Won’t he wonder where you are?” he’d asked.
“First of all, I hate it when you answer my question with a question,” she’d said. “He’s spending the holiday in Chicago with his grown children. Who hate me, and the feeling is mutual, I assure you.” She’d fixed him with a frank stare. “Charles and I have...an understanding. He has his women and I pretend not to know. For once, I’m going to do what I want to do.”
“Why not just get divorced?” he’d wondered.
Veronica had laughed in his face. “And break up our combined assets? Charles and I will be married until the end of time. It’s just too convenient an arrangement to lose. So we pursue other...interests.” She’d smiled slyly.
Their gourmet holiday dinner had been catered by some high-end chef or other, Michael didn’t really care about the specifics. He watched Veronica as she chattered on about this and that, increasingly aware that he wasn’t quite as ready to be finished with life as he’d thought last week when he was in the throes of self-pity. He realized that he felt reasonably well and the bouncing of Ronni’s tits as she gossiped animatedly about her supposed friends reminded him that there were pleasures still available to him.
Following dinner, they left the staff to clear the table as they retired to the luxurious master cabin where Michael proceeded to fuck Ronni like he had when they’d first met so many years before. He’d
forgotten how sexy she was, how amazing her tits felt in his hands, in his mouth. His concern about how he’d be able to perform evaporated as he bent her over the bathroom counter and fucked her from behind, watching in the mirror as she gave in to orgasm after orgasm. Michael locked eyes with himself and smiled. I’ve still got this.
* * *
When Maggie and Bobby returned to the city on Sunday, she went with him back to his apartment. While he settled in and checked his mail, Maggie let herself into Michael’s place.
“Hi, Michael, we’re back,” she called. Odd muffled sounds greeted her and when she rounded the corner she was treated to a view of a nude Veronica reclining on the edge of the dining room table with a nude Michael standing between her legs mid-thrust.
“Hi, Mags,” he grinned. Veronica smiled at her lazily.
“Holy shit!” Maggie exclaimed, covering her eyes and backing out of the room. “I’m so sorry, I had no idea...” As she closed Michael’s door she heard him chuckling.
“What’s wrong?” Bobby asked as she slipped back into his apartment and quickly closed the door behind her.
“I walked in on them having sex. On the freaking dining room table!”
“Who? Michael and Veronica?” Bobby laughed as Maggie nodded, wide-eyed. “Good for him! Guess we need to work out some kind of signal like a tie on the doorknob or something.”
Later, back in her own apartment, Maggie smiled as she used a magnetic photo of Key West to hang a crayon drawing of herself, Bobby, and Savannah on the refrigerator. The little girl had handed it to her when they were saying their goodbyes.
“This is for your ‘frigidator,” she’d solemnly told Maggie. “This is Daddy, and this is me, and this is you with the red hair.” In the picture they were all holding hands. That Savannah had accepted her so wholeheartedly amazed Maggie and brought tears to her eyes.
Bobby returned to his nightly appearances on the sports news and they anxiously awaited word regarding his contract. In the second week of December they received the news they’d been waiting for.
“They want me, Maggie,” Bobby told her breathlessly over the phone. “They’re offering me a three-year contract.”
After the show late that night, Maggie and Bobby sat at her kitchen table. “I don’t want to live alone anymore, cher,” he said quietly. “Knowing that I’ll be here for the foreseeable future, I want us to take the next step.” He gazed at her intensely.
“You could move in here,” she offered. “I know it’s not what you’re used to, but my lease runs until May. It would give us time to find an apartment together.”
“We can afford a house. What would you think about moving to the country, maybe finding someplace near Holly Springs?”
Maggie blew out a breath and leaned back in her chair. “Living outside the city? Commuting every day?” She looked back at Bobby. “I don’t know. I mean, I suppose we could consider it.”
He took her hand and pulled her onto his lap. “Well, we’ve got time to think about it. I’d be happy living here with you until we decide.”
***
Michael gave his name to the receptionist. “Yes, Mr. Rannigan, he’ll be with you shortly.” He found a seat between a window and a large plant and took off his Yankees cap, running his fingers through the short hair that had begun to return since he’d stopped the chemo.
A light snow was falling outside, and he watched as flakes lazily swirled through the frigid air. Why have I never taken the time to notice how pretty the snow is?
“Michael?” The voice shook him from his thoughts.
He stood and flashed his classic Michael Rannigan smile. “Murph. How’s it going?”
He followed the man down a short hallway and back to his office. Brian took his seat behind the desk and motioned Michael toward one of the chairs on the other side. “Thanks for seeing me,” Michael said.
“I almost didn’t. But I guess curiosity got the better of me. It’s been years, Michael. What do you want?”
Michael looked down for a moment. “I’m dying,” he said quietly.
“What?” Shock was etched on Brian’s face.
“Cancer. I’ve exhausted my treatment options.” He laughed humorlessly. “Or they’ve exhausted me. I’m not sure which right now.”
“Jesus, Michael. I don’t know what to say.” He blinked at Michael for a moment. “I still don’t know what you want from me.” Brian looked at him pointedly. “Do you need money?”
Michael laughed again. “No. I don’t need money. I need to get my affairs in order. I’m hoping you’ll help me. I’d like to put you on retainer.” Michael smiled sadly.
Brian rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “I don’t know, Michael. We’re kind of a small firm here. Nothing at all like the old Murphy, Rannigan.”
“So you couldn’t use an infusion of cash? I’m coming to you literally with my hat in my hand.” He motioned with the Yankees cap. “I want to know that my estate is settled. And I need to make some arrangements.” Michael glanced around distractedly. “You couldn’t use a partner around here, could you?”
The other man laughed incredulously. “You want a job?”
Michael shook his head. “Not me. I was thinking of someone else.” He zeroed in on Brian. “Are you in? Will you help me?”
* * *
It was on a Saturday morning, exactly a week before Christmas when Michael was rushed to the hospital. Maggie had found him barely conscious and called 911. Doctors discovered that the tumors were now causing breathing difficulties, and once Michael was put on oxygen his color improved dramatically. A few hours later and at his insistence, Michael was sent home, albeit with oxygen tanks and the information for a home nursing agency.
“Stop looking at me like that,” Michael complained. Bobby and Maggie had accompanied him home and were trying to help him get settled in.
“Maybe you should have at least stayed overnight, man,” Bobby said. “That was a pretty close call.”
“I’m fine. I’ve got the oxygen, I’ll use it when I need it. Plus, they’ve got some fucking nurse coming in here.” Michael glared out the window.
“Do you want me to call Veronica?” Maggie asked.
He shook his head. “I’ll call her later.”
“What can we do for you, Michael?” Maggie asked. “I don’t want to just leave you here.”
Michael turned back to them with a sharp remark on his tongue. But when he looked at their faces, at the concern he saw there, he softened a bit.
“You know what I’d like?” They shook their heads. “I want a Christmas tree.”
Maggie blinked. “A what? A Christmas tree?”
“Do you want us to go get you one?” Bobby asked.
Michael looked from one to the other. “Yeah. I want a Christmas tree. With those decorations from your tree, Mags.”
“The ones currently hanging on my tree?” she clarified incredulously.
He frowned a bit, seemingly uncertain. “Is that asking too much?”
Maggie looked up at Bobby. “Uh, no, I guess not. So we’re going out to get a tree? And to denude mine?” Bobby nodded at her and smiled.
“Also,” Michael continued, “I want to have the Orphans and Misfits here this year.”
She stared at him. “You want to have everyone here? Seriously?” Michael nodded, eyes sparkling defiantly. Maggie exhaled forcefully. “Okay, Michael. We can do that. I’ll start letting everyone know. You’re sure?”
He nodded again. “I want this.”
* * *
That evening as snow peppered down outside, Michael sat on his sofa, oxygen in place, as he watched Bobby and Maggie set up the huge blue spruce in front of the floor to ceiling windows of his living room. Once they had it level, they added lights, garland, and decorations. Maggie smiled at Michael as she hummed along to the holiday music that played quietly in the background.
“You realize we had to buy more ornaments, right? The stuff from my little tree wouldn’t cover a
fraction of this bad boy.”
“It looks great, Mags. I really appreciate it.”
“It looks so great, I’m sad I won’t be here,” Bobby said as he crossed over to the bar.
“Yeah, me, too,” Maggie said wistfully. “We’ve decided to have our Christmas when you get back from Louisiana, right?”
Bobby winked at her as he put three glasses on the bar and poured. “Until last week I thought I was going to be in Texas. In our custody agreement, Christmas is supposed to be Deanna’s holiday this year, but she decided at the last minute that she’s going on a cruise and wants me to take Savannah. If I’d known earlier, I’d have brought her here.” Bobby handed Maggie and Michael each a glass of bourbon. “Merry Christmas, everybody,” he toasted.
They each raised their glasses before sipping. As Christmas music continued unobtrusively in the background, the trio silently appreciated the decorated tree and its reflection as it twinkled in the night.
Chapter 20
“Merry Christmas Eve, cher!” It was barely 7:00am. Maggie had just gathered up the things she’d need for tomorrow’s celebration at Michael’s and was on her way out the door.
“Merry Christmas Eve to you, too,” she laughed, glancing at the time. “How is everything in Louisiana? And what are you doing up so early?”
He laughed. “Savannah is just a little excited. She woke me at 4:30 thinking today was Christmas. It’s going well, I suppose. I just miss you, is all.”
“You’ve only been gone for three days. Sometimes you’re gone for weeks at a time for work,” she reasoned.
“Nothing’s the same without my strawberry wine,” he countered.
“I miss you, too, but I hope you enjoy the time with your family. Tell them all Merry Christmas from me.”
“Will do. How’s Michael?” he asked.
“He’s alright. I’m just about to head over there so I can make sure things are ready for tomorrow.” She hesitated. “I’ll really miss you in your bed tonight. It just makes more sense for me to stay at your apartment and not come all the way home just to go all the way back in the morning. I’m kind of freaking out about making sure I have everything we need, though. Having Christmas away from my place complicates the whole thing.”
Rannigan's Redemption: Complete Collection Page 48