His body moved again in the same way then he closed his eyes. When he opened them, what I saw made that velvet shroud wrap closer, my pug snuggled in and licked my face.
Before I could struggle with this too, Nick started talking. “I like Vance. I like that, since he came into your life, you got girlfriends throwin’ you parties and folks showin’ up at your house to watch football. I like lookin’ out the front window seein’ guys I don’t know, but I know I can trust, knockin’ on your door. I like knowin’ you aren’t alone over there with just Boo and Stevie Wonder for company. No, I don’t think you’re movin’ too fast. What happened to your family hadn’t happened, I’d have married Reba within months of knowin’ her. When you know it’s right, you just know. I got a feelin’ Vance knows it’s right. I’m glad that you figured it out. I’d be honored to walk you down the aisle, if we were walkin’ towards Vance, even if you told me it was happening tomorrow.”
I couldn’t help it, one night off the job and I was already losing hold on my head crackin’ mamma jamma. Therefore at his words I burst into tears.
I felt as his arms came around me, I shoved my face in his neck and I heard Auntie Reba’s voice in my ear.
Home.
My tears turned to sobs and now I was emotionally struggling with the fact that I was a big sissy.
A knock came at the door.
“Yeah?” Nick called.
I heard it open and I lifted my what I was sure was red, wet and scary face away from Nick and saw Vance standing there watching us.
Shit.
“I’ll come back,” Vance murmured.
“Think you best take over here,” Nick answered, gently moving me towards Vance.
“I’m okay,” I wiped my tears with my fingers but made one of those silly, girlie, sobby hiccoughs.
Vance came forward and his arms went around me. At the feel of them, I started crying again, and harder, so I shoved my face in his neck.
“What happened?” Vance asked Nick.
“I don’t know. Do you ever know? She’s a girl,” Nick answered.
My body went solid and I pulled my head out of Vance’s neck. “I’m not a girl!” I shouted at Nick. “I’m a head crackin’ mamma jamma!”
“Sure you are,” Nick soothed but I could swear he sounded a little bit like he was laughing.
I narrowed teary eyes at him. “I am!”
Vance totally ignored me but kept his arms around me. “We’re goin’ to Lincoln’s for dinner. You’re welcome,” Vance told Nick.
“Nah, game on tonight,” Nick answered.
“Another time,” Vance said.
“Sure, sounds good, haven’t been there in awhile.”
“Not much has changed.”
“Best part about it.”
“Hello!” I shouted, pulling out of Vance’s arms and pointing to myself with both hands. “Having total emotional breakdown! Anyone? Anyone?”
Nick started out-and-out laughing. Vance just grinned at me.
“You done?” Vance asked me.
I rolled my eyes.
Whatever.
I’d finish my total emotional breakdown later when I was alone, possibly while listening to Stevie Wonder singing “All in Love Is Fair” which was the best time to have them.
“I’m hungry,” I grumbled, wiping my face with my hands. Then I called, “Boo!”
Boo trotted in, tail straight in the air, equally oblivious to my emotional turmoil.
I scooped him up, glared at Nick, swung my glare to Vance, walked out of Nick’s and went to my side.
I was in the bathroom cleaning up my face and repairing makeup damage when I heard Vance return. Then I heard a rustling bag.
When I walked into the kitchen Vance was eating an M&M cookie.
“Don’t eat that! Those are for Luke, Ike and Mace.”
Vance stared at me for a beat then looked into the bag.
Then he looked at me. “There’s at least thirty cookies in there.”
“Thirty-three,” I told him. Then I scowled at his cookie. “Now, thirty-two. How am I going to divide thirty-two cookies three ways?”
He didn’t answer me, instead he said, “Why are you giving Luke, Ike and Mace thirty-two cookies?”
“They beat people up for me,” I replied. “That requires payback. Since I can’t bake, I can’t make them cookies. Knitting is boring, as in super boring, so I can’t knit them sweaters. I don’t think they’d like a homemade card or anything I could do with the stickers I bought. There will likely not be a time where I could beat up someone for them. Therefore,” I pointed to the bag, “cookies.”
He took another bite of his cookie while walking up to me. His hand went to my neck and he brought me closer to his body by putting pressure there.
I put my hands on his waist and looked up at him.
“Princess?”
“What?”
“You have to be the fucking craziest woman I’ve ever met.”
I was back to glaring at him. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
He grinned. “I meant it as one.”
Well.
There you go.
I couldn’t help it, I smiled.
* * * * *
We were sitting at Lincoln’s Road House. It was after we ate, the dirty dishes still in front of us and we managed the whole thing, from duplex to bike; bike to Road House; door to table; menu to ordering; ordering to eating, all without fighting (or even bickering) once.
It had to be a record.
I was enjoying my second beer, relaxed, mellow maybe even at peace with the world.
“You wanna tell me why you were cryin’?” Vance asked and my eyes moved to him.
I instantly decided I was not at peace with the world.
“Um… no,” I answered.
There was no way I was ready to tell Vance that Nick was cool with walking me down the aisle toward Vance even if it happened tomorrow.
No way in hell.
Vance shook his head and looked away, his eyes moving to the television hanging by the bar and I had the feeling I’d disappointed him.
“What are you doing tonight?” I asked to change the subject and his eyes slid back to me.
“Got a job. It’ll take a few hours.”
“Are you coming back to my place when you’re done?”
I found I was worried about his answer.
“Yeah.”
I found I was relieved at his answer.
“Okay,” I smiled at him.
His gaze dropped to my mouth, taking in my smile. Then he looked in my eyes again and his were serious.
“Princess, we’re gonna have to do something about your inability to share.”
“I’m working on it,” I promised.
He watched me a bit and then said, “Somethin’ else.”
Uh-oh.
He still had the serious look in his eye.
“Yeah?” I asked, but I didn’t want to know.
“I’m wonderin’ why you bought Mace, Ike and Luke cookies when I’m the one who brought in Clarence and Jermaine yesterday.”
I didn’t know what to make of this question. The answer seemed obvious to me but I gave it to him anyway.
“You get naked gratitude,” I told him.
He stared at me a beat and again I knew I threw him.
Then he gave me one of his shit-eating grins.
“A lot of it,” I went on.
The grin turned into a smile.
“Vance!” a female voice called from behind me.
Vance’s eyes cut to the voice, his smile vanished and I looked over my shoulder.
Coming toward us was a fantastic-looking, curvy, leggy, long-wavy-haired brunette. She had on a short skirt, high-heeled boots and a tight sweater that was giving some serious cleavage.
She was also smiling at Vance in a way that I did not like.
“Hey,” she breathed when she got to our table and I realized instantly that this had been one
of the many girls who had come before me.
Poof! There it was. My head crackin’ mamma jamma came out.
“Jackie,” Vance replied. He was across the table from me but I could see his face and it was blank.
I hated his blank look when he directed it at me. I liked his blank look when he was giving it to leggy brunettes in short skirts that he’d fucked somewhere down the line.
Jackie’s eyes moved to me, looked me up and down where I sat on my stool then she dismissed me and her eyes went back to Vance. She turned so her back was slightly to me.
Um.
No.
“What’re you up to these days? Haven’t seen you in ages,” Jackie asked Vance in a way that communicated she thought his answer might just be the key to the meaning of life.
“Jackie, this is Jules,” Vance said, I thought making a point and I could have kissed him.
She swung her head (as well as her hair) around and glanced at me again. “Jules,” she muttered, then she swung her head (and hair) back. “So, how’re things?” Jackie went on, missing the point.
Vance opened his mouth to speak but I’d kind of had enough.
“Things are good,” I put in and Jackie’s head (and hair) swung back to me. Her eyes had narrowed.
“Excuse me?” she asked.
“Things are good,” I repeated, giving her a huge, happy smile. Then my eyes moved to Vance. “Aren’t they, honey?”
Now that, I hoped, was a point Jackie wouldn’t miss.
The corners of Vance’s lips turned up.
Jackie didn’t wait for Vance to answer, to me she said, “I’m so pleased for you.”
She did not mean this.
Translation: Shut the fuck up, I’m not talking to you, I’m flirting with your boyfriend.
She swung back to Vance and leaned in a bit (the better to show her cleavage), smiled, and said in a voice I was meant to hear but she was pretending I wasn’t, “We’ll talk some other time. Give me a call.”
Vance again opened his mouth to speak but again I got there first.
“What did you just say?” I asked.
Vance’s eyes moved to me. “Jules,” his tone held a warning but he looked like he was about ready to laugh.
I wasn’t paying a lot of attention to Vance, my eyes were on Jackie.
Jackie leaned back and put up her hands. “Nothing to get excited about,” she said.
I came off my stool. “Are you saying that you coming onto my fucking boyfriend right in front of me is nothing to get excited about?” I demanded and my voice was a wee bit loud, so much of a wee bit people started to stare.
Jackie looked from me to Vance then back to me. “If he’s your man, then, girlfriend, you got nothing to worry about from me.”
She did not mean this either.
Translation: If he’s your man, you better keep him happy, you don’t, I’ll pounce.
It was at that moment, I really wished I had my gun.
Then she went on, not, I noted, very good at reading body language as in my body language said I was about to kick her ass.
“We’re just friends. Good friends. Hey, Vance?”
I looked at Vance. He was still sitting on his stool and it was evident that he had decided not to intervene. I also noted that his lips were twitching.
“She must have been one of those easy things you were talking about,” I said to Vance.
He pressed his lips together and shook his head slowly. This was not a negative headshake that said Jackie wasn’t one of his easy things. It was a negative headshake that said he thought I was the fucking craziest woman he’d ever met.
“Excuse me?” Jackie asked again.
Jackie now turned full body to me and I stepped clear of the table preparing to throw down.
“I said you must be one of the easy things Vance told me about. You know, easy pieces of ass. Before he met me,” I informed her, my voice dripping with acid sweetness.
“You did not just say that,” she said to me.
“I sure did,” I shot back.
“Jackie, I wouldn’t rile Jules,” Vance decided to wade in.
“You calling me easy?” Jackie decided to ignore Vance.
“Have you slept with Vance?” I asked, even though I knew.
She leaned forward with a catty smile. “It was the best night of my goddamned life.”
“It’s good you’ll have that memory,” I stated calmly as if I was truly happy for her.
“You bitch!” she screamed. Then she came at me, hand out, probably to grab my hair.
I was getting that opening a lot these days. I planted my feet, caught her wrist and flipped her on her back on the floor without barely moving.
Vance did move. He had his wallet out and threw some money on the table. Everyone was staring now most of them had turned to us enjoying the show.
I took a step toward her so I was looking down at her. “Stay away from Vance,” I warned.
She was struggling to get up. “Fuck you!”
“That’s Vance’s job,” I retorted.
Vance had me around the waist and was pulling me toward the door as Jackie made it to her feet.
“I won’t forget this!” she yelled after us.
“I hope not!” I yelled back at her, fighting against Vance’s arm. “That way, next time you’ll keep your fucking mouth shut or you won’t find it so easy to get up!”
Then Vance had me out the door. He let me go, grabbed my hand and dragged me to his Harley.
“I cannot believe that just happened,” I ranted at his back. “What a bitch! I wish I had my stun gun. I wish I had my mace. What a bitch!” I repeated.
He stopped at his bike, pulled me so my back was to it, I was facing him and he settled his hands at my hips.
I looked up at him. “You could have done something,” I snapped.
“And missed the show?”
I hadn’t noticed it but right then I did.
He was grinning, huge.
“You think that was amusing?”
He stepped into me, arms going around me and he touched his lips to mine.
I stood stiff as a board.
“Princess?”
“What?” I clipped.
“Take your time learnin’ to share.”
I blinked. It was my turn to feel thrown.
“What?”
One of his hands went to my jaw and his thumb came out to run along my lower lip. “All the time you want,” he said softly, not answering my question.
The velvet shroud came around us again and I leaned into him.
“Am I going to be beating up all your ex-lovers?” I asked.
“No. Just Jackie, she’s a bitch.”
I didn’t want to ask. I knew I shouldn’t ask. But I asked.
“What were you thinking, being with her?”
“She’s not a bitch to me,” he replied.
True enough. It was pretty clear she really liked Vance.
Then for some reason, do not ask me why, I threw myself in the deep end. “Was she good?”
“No,” he replied immediately.
This time I sagged into him, glad I hadn’t sunk to the bottom of the pool like a rock.
“You’re not just saying that?” I asked.
He shook his head.
My hands came up and I started to play with the edges of his leather jacket. “When do you have to get to your job?”
“Gonna see to my other job first,” he told me.
“What other job?”
His white teeth flashed. “The job of fuckin’ you.”
He was teasing me.
I stopped playing with his jacket. “This isn’t really funny,” I snapped.
“It’s hilarious. That, particularly, was my favorite part.”
“I’m so glad you enjoyed it,” I said, sounding snotty.
He touched his lips to mine. “Let’s get you home.”
Whatever.
He let me go and got on the
bike. I got on behind him.
He leaned back, grabbed my wrists and wrapped my arms tight around him.
I put my chin to his shoulder and we took off.
* * * * *
Sometime in the dead of night, I didn’t feel the bed move when Vance got in it but I did wake when his warmth hit me from shoulders to heels.
“Hey,” I mumbled.
“Hey,” he replied softly, “go back to sleep.”
I felt Boo walking up the bed and then heard him slip off the side to the platform with an I-meant-to-do-that meow.
“It was Nick,” I told Vance, still half-asleep.
“Sorry?”
“Nick made me cry. He approves of you, like, a lot.”
Vance’s arm tightened around me and drew me deeper into his body.
“Go back to sleep, Jules,” Vance whispered into my hair.
“Okay.”
I snuggled in and then fell asleep.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Shrink-Wrapped
The next morning I woke up before Vance and I tried my new skill of waking him with a kiss. This time I decided to put my lips on other parts of his anatomy.
I was left in little doubt that he appreciated my creativity.
We were showered, dressed and in the kitchen eating bowls of Cream of Wheat that I prepared because you could cook Cream of Wheat in the microwave. Vance was sitting on the kitchen counter. I was standing with a hip leaned partially into the counter, partially into Vance’s knee. Boo was sitting in front of us, tail sweeping the floor in a wide arc, staring at our bowls with greedy eyes.
“What’s on for your day?” Vance asked.
I looked up at him and gulped down a bite of Cream of Wheat. “Shelter. Then I should go talk to Heavy, Frank and Zip, tell them the party’s over.”
“Good idea.”
I had one more thing on my agenda that was waiting for my period to come. Vance and I were moving fast but not fast enough for me to share that.
Instead I said, somewhat wistfully, “I’m gonna miss the street.”
“You left it in good hands.” Vance’s lips weren’t smiling but his eyes were.
“How’s that?” I asked.
“Jack told me a dealer’s entire car was shrink-wrapped the other night.”
I felt my eyes widen. “What?”
“Tex shrink-wrapped a dealer’s BMW. Wrapped the whole thing in plastic wrap and then used a portable blow drier on it to tighten the plastic. Word has it, it was several layers deep.”
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