“Turn right and then I’ll show you where you can stretch her out a little.”
Within a few blocks we were in an area that had a few closed up warehouses, and basically no vehicles in the street.
“Okay, you’ve got about eight blocks of nothing, so check her out and punch her d—”
He didn’t get to utter the last word before I dropped the pedal to the floor and burned down the street. The transmission was in excellent shape and the engine responded like a dream. There was plenty of room in an empty parking lot as I neared the end of the vacant road and I slid her into it, spinning one-eighty and heading back down the way we’d come.
Pearly made no comment about my driving, but he was grinning from ear to ear when I looked into the rearview. Now I could see why they called him Pearly—he had the whitest teeth I’d ever seen. I slowed before turning onto the street that would take us to Ty and Andy. “Ryan, you want to give it a go?” I asked, unable to get the smile off my face.
“It’s your money, Leese. You’re the boss.”
“I’m paying, but I’m not getting the car for me, it’s for you.”
“How about I get to drive it to Andy and Ty’s house?”
“Deal,” I said, reaching over and squeezing his hand.
We pulled the car up behind the Caprice and followed Pearly inside to pay him and get the title. He pointedly told Andy and Ty they could wait outside.
His house wasn’t well lit and the curtains were drawn, but we made our way to the couch as Pearly left the room for the paperwork. I pulled out a pack of hundreds and tucked them behind my purse.
“Leese, how are we going to transfer the title and get insurance on the car?” Ryan quietly questioned.
“Let me handle that for now,” I whispered my response as Pearly returned to the room.
“Okay, I don’t take checks,” Pearly began.
“I’ll pay cash, but I need a couple favors from you.”
At this his eyebrows went up, “I knew you was gonna be too good to be true,” he said, shaking his head.
“No, it’s nothing bad. It’s just that we’re trying to stay out of my crazy ex-husband’s reach. Can I pay you ten grand and I get to keep the license plate? I’d appreciate it if you didn’t drop it from your insurance for several months, so we’ll have time to figure out how to insure it without sending up a red flag that says ‘here we are,’” I finished.
“Crazy ex-husband, huh?”
I could tell he wasn’t totally buying my story, so I reached into my pocket and pulled out my rings.
“Damn, he’s probably crazy ‘cause he wants those back! Not that you ain’t a package worth reclaiming yourself, but them rings cost a pretty penny, I can tell.”
I returned the rings to my pocket and took the bundle of hundreds that had been hidden by my purse, “So, do we have an agreement?”
“Is that his, too!” he exclaimed. “I don’t want him looking for me if he’s got that kind of dough.”
I laughed, “No, the money is mine.”
He reached into a drawer in a small table beside him and pulled out what appeared to be a magic marker. “Not that I don’t believe you, but I’ve been burned before,” he said, reaching toward me.
That was when I realized it was a counterfeit marking tool. I handed him the money as he put it under the light from the table lamp and marked a random sampling of bills.
“You got a deal, lady,” he chuckled, flashing his bright smile.
We shook hands and left with the title.
“Did you buy it?” Andy asked with a hint of excitement in his voice.
“Sure did. We’ll follow you guys,” Ryan confirmed, taking the key from my hand.
I tried to talk him in to stopping somewhere so I could pick up some black hair dye, but he said we would do that later because he didn’t quite remember where he was headed and he didn’t want to lose the crazy driver in front of us.
Twenty five minutes later we pulled up to an older tri-level home with a stone façade and an ancient tire swing in the front yard.
“I used to live in that house there,” Ryan pointed to the large brick house next door. “These idiots were my neighbors.”
“I’m surprised you survived it.”
Our bags were in the trunk of the Caprice and Ty had already unlocked it and was pulling them out. “Which ones are yours, Leese?” he asked.
I tried to grab mine, but he slung them over his shoulder.
“I don’t want you to have to carry them, I just wanted to be sure I wasn’t carrying Pumpkin Heads,” he said, throwing the other two bags at Ryan.
I could hear the air leave Ryan’s chest as the bags smacked into him. “Thanks a lot,” he gasped. “You’re a real great host.”
We walked into the house and a familiar odor hit me. Garlic bread? Lasagna? It was some kind of Italian food being prepared.
“Ma, were home!” Andy yelled out.
A heavy set woman with a kind face and an oven mitt on each hand came around the corner. “Ryan? Is that you? Good Lord, baby, what did you do to your hair?”
“Hey, Miss Naomi.” He dropped his bags and gave her a warm embrace.
“I know it’s you, ‘cause it’s the same handsome face and those perfect blue eyes,” she said, with an oven mitt cupping each of his cheeks.
“Ouch! Hot, Miss Naomi,” he whined.
“Oh, Lord, I’m sorry. I forgot I just took a big pan of lasagna out of the oven with these dumb things.” She pulled off the mitts and tucked them under her arm. “You’ve grown a foot since I seen you last. How’s your momma?”
“She’s fine,” he replied. Both of his cheeks were as red as if he’d been out in the sun too long.
She looked at me waiting patiently behind him and she smiled, “Well, who is this pretty young woman you’ve got with you?”
“This is my good friend Leese. Leese, this is Naomi Saint-George, mother of thing one and thing two,” he said pointing to Andy and Ty.
“It’s just George,” Naomi corrected him. “I’m no saint.”
“Sure you are,” Ryan continued, kissing her cheek, “You’ve had to put up with those dummies for twenty-some-odd years.”
She suddenly seemed a little worried, “I—I only have one extra bedroom, unless we put you on the couch, Ryan,” she mentioned with a little flush to her cheeks.
“Leese and I can share a room.,” He said throwing a cocky glance at Andy and Ty.
“Sure we can,” I said, a little miffed that he blurted that out, “Pumpkin Head can sleep on the floor.”
Andy and Ty burst out laughing.
Pumpkin Head withered under my stare. Maybe I didn’t have to get that black dye tonight after all.
“Well come on,” Naomi said, “Let me show you to the room so you can put down your bags—oh, I know what we can do. Ty, go down to the garage and grab your old twin bed. We can fit it in there so Pum—Ryan doesn’t have to sleep on the floor,” she said, giving me a wink.
It was only four in the afternoon, but Naomi said the food was done and we might as well have dinner. The only thing Ryan and I consumed today was donuts and coffee at the Murfreesboro airport when we fueled up, so I was starving. She made a big pan of lasagna, which I thought was enough to feed ten people instead of five, until I watched Andy and Ty take their servings out of the pan. Wow, those guys could eat! When we finished they went back for seconds and wiped out the remainder.
I learned a little more about them around the dinner table. Ty had just turned twenty and Andy was twenty-one. They had lived in Colorado Springs all their lives and their parents were divorced. Naomi had been raising them, single-handedly, for the last ten years. Both joined the military right out of high school and they worked as MP’s at Peterson’s Air Force Base.
With the meal finished, I asked if there was a shopping plaza or a drug store nearby so I could get some dye to correct Ryan’s poor, color-flawed hair. We drove to a nearby Walgreens and grabbed a box of Just
for Men black hair color and returned to Naomi’s.
I offered to help Ryan do it, but I think he didn’t want the guys to tease him so he opted to do it himself. It was five minute hair color and he was going to shower when he washed it out, but he must have spent an hour in the bathroom, and I was starting to worry what went wrong.
We were all seated in the living room watching the six o’clock news when he emerged. His hair was glistening black and damp. He had a towel over his shoulders, and just a pair of jeans, no shirt. It was the first time I had seen his bare chest and I now regretted I said one bedroom would work. He wasn’t thickly muscled like Micah, but he looked more like one of those guys you’d find carrying a surfboard down to the beach. He had softly defined six-pack abs and a light tan and I was considering he would be a great model, when he waved his hand in front of my face.
“Hello? I asked how you like the hair,” he had this big smile on his face because he knew I was checking out almost everything except his hair.
“N—nice job,” I managed to say.
“Yes,” Naomi spoke up, “you look better sticking with your natural black, honey.”
“I think he looked better as a pumpkin,” Andy smirked and then jumped up and said he called the shower next.
By the time eight o’clock rolled around, I was surrounded by shirtless bodies. Andy emerged from the shower shirtless, toweless, and practically pantless. All he had on was a pair of swim trunks. Next Ty took a shower and followed the example, coming out equally undressed. They were all really hot and I had a feeling that the parade was solely for my benefit. Andy kept catching me glancing over at him, but it was hard to help since he was the one that had the closest ‘Micah’ body.
“Is my air conditioner not working?” Naomi asked as she finally stirred from the movie on the television.
Ty rose up and looked at the thermostat, “It’s seventy-two, isn’t that what you normally keep it on?”
“Yes it is, but why the Sam-hell are all you boys practically naked?” she scoffed.
“Would it be okay if I used your shower, Miss Naomi?” I asked. I was ready to hit the bed, but I really wanted a chance to clean up first.
“Of course you can, honey, but I have to warn you we only have the one bathroom in the house so I can’t promise that these knuckle heads left it in decent shape.”
“That’s okay,” I replied, but inwardly I knew we’d have to find a place to stay real soon, because I loathed the idea of showering behind that many people.
“You can come out shirtless, too!” Andy yelled as I headed down the hallway. I heard the loud smack as he yowled, “Ouch, Momma! What did you hit me for?”
I smiled.
The bathroom was fairly small, but the troops had been decent about not leaving it nasty. I grabbed my shampoo and soap and stepped under the running water. It had been a long day and I was hoping I could fall asleep tonight without Ryan’s assistance. I was grateful he helped me last night, but surely I could manage tonight by myself.
I toweled off and put on a pair of shorts and a tank top and went back to the cramped bedroom. There was one queen-sized bed and the small twin they brought up from the garage. I decided Ryan wouldn’t fit so well on the twin, so I took it and left the larger bed for him. I could still hear the guys in the living room, laughing, talking and reminiscing.
I drifted off, but within an hour, my eyes were open. I grabbed an extra pillow off the large bed and tried wedging it behind me for a stand-in, but it wasn’t warm and there was no strong arm to slip around my waist. I heard Ryan coming down the hallway as he told everyone good night. He came into the dark room quietly, the only light being the red display on the clock and a seashell night light on the other side of the queen bed.
“Leese,” he whispered.
I tried faking sleep so he wouldn’t know I was struggling with it again, and then I tried not to crack a smile as he began to talk to himself. He was speaking lower than a whisper, but I could still hear him.
“This isn’t going to do,” he said. “She should be in the big bed, not me. If she wakes up, how am I going to fit on that little bed with her? All right, baby girl, let’s see if I can move you without waking you.”
I was ready to roll over and tell him I was awake, but his arms were already under me as I began to turn toward him. I guess he assumed he woke me.
“Shhh,” he breathed softly, “Go back to sleep, I’m just moving you to the other bed.”
There was no opportunity to argue with him as he had already lifted me. He turned to the other bed and realized there was a problem as my head was now pointed at the foot of the bed.
“Put me down,” I whispered. He was still shirtless and I was finding it unsettling to have my hands against his bare skin.
“Can you go back to sleep?” he asked as he put my feet on the floor.
“Sure,” I lied. I wasn’t prepared to argue the issues of who should be in which bed. I immediately felt a big difference between the thick pillow top queen mattress and the thin, uncomfortable twin that Ryan was now settling onto. “That bed isn’t very comfortable; sleep up here, but you don’t need to hold me.”
I didn’t have to ask twice as he rose and pulled back the covers, stretched out and sighed, “Much better. Good-night, Leese.”
“Good-night.”
I lay on my side watching the bedside clock tick by.
“You aren’t asleep, are you?” came a whisper in the dark.
I thought about ignoring him, but I finally whispered back, “No.”
His body came up behind me, warmth flooded my skin and his tattooed arm wrapped around my waist. I didn’t expect the kiss on my neck that sent shivers through me.
“Get some sleep.”
I really needed to be asleep before he attempted to replace Micah. It seemed though he found sleeping with me to be relaxing enough that he drifted off and within fifteen minutes, I could hear his deep, steady breathing, just short of trying to snore.
I laid there and wondered if Micah was sleeping right now? I cried silently. My heart ached to hear his voice, to feel his touch, and to taste his lips against my own. I was ashamed to be lying here in Ryan’s arms, knowing I wanted to roll over and let him have his first experience with a woman, but I couldn’t make that fatal mistake. It wouldn’t prove fatal to my physical body, but my heart and soul wouldn’t recover from the betrayal. Somewhere around four in the morning, I managed to fall asleep and, once asleep, I was comfortable and safe in Micah’s arms.
Chapter Twelve
There was a knock at the bedroom door around eight in the morning as Naomi’s voice came through saying that breakfast was ready. It scared me bad enough that I jerked upright in the bed, almost pulling Ryan with me.
“Yes, I will,” he blurted out as he coiled back into the covers.
“You do say funny stuff when you wake up,” I chuckled.
“It can’t be morning yet,” he whined.
“Sorry Sunshine, but it’s breakfast time.”
He moaned and sat up, “It’s gonna take a quart of coffee to get me awake.”
I sat back on the bed beside him and leaned over and kissed his cheek.
His eyes fully opened as he looked at me, “What was that for?”
“Are you awake now?”
He blinked a couple times, “Yeah.”
“Good, let’s go have breakfast before Andy and Ty eat it all.”
He grinned and we left the room.
We were enjoying bacon and eggs when someone knocked at their door. I jumped hard.
Ryan’s hand immediately touched my arm, “It’s okay.”
Ty was already in motion toward the door when Ryan asked him to make sure he knew who it was before he opened it. That earned him a strange look.
“Who is it?” Ty asked.
“Candace, you idiot. Open the door.”
Now it was Ryan’s turn to jump. The front door opened and in walked a young woman about my age. She was shor
ter than me, maybe 5’6” with straight, sandy blonde hair and brown eyes, slim built, but she definitely had me beat when it came to bra size. I was a healthy c-cup, but she had to be a double-D.
“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you had company,” she paused and then recognition hit her. “Ryan? Oh, my God. I don’t believe it!”
Ryan rose and met her half way of the living room as they gave each other a hug.
“What the heck are you doing back in Colorado Springs? It’s been, what? Five or six years? You look great.”
“Thanks. You, too. I can’t believe you’re still here? I thought your dad shipped to California?”
“He did and then he fell off a flight deck and broke his back. He’s okay, but the military gave him a medical discharge and we moved back here. Miss Naomi, why didn’t…”
That was when she looked around Ryan to the table and saw me. I was smiling, but I could see she immediately assumed I was someone significant to Ryan.
“Oh… Hi, I’m sorry, I didn’t know anyone else was—”
“Candace, this is Leese. She and I are—”
“Good friends who flew in yesterday,” I finished for him. I got up and she met me part way to shake hands.
“Nice to meet you…” she let the words trail as she looked at me as if she knew me, “Did you grow up around here? You look so familiar to me.”
“No, I’m from Florida.”
“I swear I’ve seen you before,” she continued.
She was figuring out who I was even with the new hairdo.
“So, you grew up with these guys?” I said, hoping to get her to stop staring at me.
“Yeah, but Ryan of course was only here from like fifth grade to seventh, but he left quite an impression on all the girls with those pretty eyes of his. He was considered the hot ticket in middle school,” she laughed.
“Now I’m the hot ticket,” Ty spoke up flexing his bare chest.
“No, you’re pretty much still an idiot,” she stated, deflating him, “but you’re an idiot that I need at the moment. I came over because I need a ride to work; my car won’t start. I think the alternator is out on it again.”
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