by Elle Aycart
And he left, while XL and Ash and Monti whistled and cheered.
Rachel made it out of her room and down the stairs in time to see the OGs standing in front of the couch, where Adrian was sitting. She grimaced. She’d known they should have met somewhere else. Adrian picking her up from home was asking for trouble.
“I really didn’t see this coming,” Rebecca whispered.
“Me either,” Greta answered, and then looked at her partners in crime. “Are we okay with this, girls?”
They remained quiet for a long while, pondering. “We ought to give him a chance,” Wilma finally said. “Depending, of course, upon the immediate return of our taser. Tasers.”
Greta and Rebecca agreed profusely. “And the commutation of our community service,” Greta added.
Adrian was already opening his mouth when Rachel broke into a run. “We’ll be on our way now,” she interrupted, grabbing him by the arm and helping him to his feet. “Bye-bye, ladies.”
“Bye, dear,” Wilma answered innocently, as if they hadn’t been about to blackmail the sheriff.
“The thing about the tasers. A joke, right?” he asked.
“What do you think? I told you this wasn’t a good idea,” Rachel whispered as they left Wilma’s house. The three grandmas stood on the porch, watching them.
He clicked the car open. “You should have thought about it before publicly marking my ass as yours.”
True. He hadn’t helped matters much, either, the way he’d jumped at the opportunity, practically shouting it from the rooftops. Be that as it may, news of the raunchy grease handprints on the sheriff’s ass had spread through Alden like wildfire. There were even jokes going around about his particular ability to fingerprint suspects.
“Where do you want to go?” she asked, jumping into the car.
“Nowhere in particular. Let’s get something to eat at the diner. Later, we could buy ice cream and sit on a bench in the park. All the things we haven’t been able to do before.”
“We could have done that before,” she reminded him. “And there wouldn’t have been as many expectations as there are now.”
Adrian disagreed, because he intertwined their fingers and lifted their joined hands. “Not like this we couldn’t.”
“Well, you could always have arrested and cuffed me—more or less the same result, but with a much less messy aftermath.” People wouldn’t blink at an arrest, but seeing them getting along or holding hands? That was a different ball game.
Remembering her rough skin, she tried to break the hold he had on her hand, but he wouldn’t let her. “What?”
“My skin’s too rough.”
His grip tightened. “So’s mine.”
“Calluses on men are sexy. On women… not so much.”
Without moving his eyes from the road, he brought her hand to his mouth and kissed it in several spots. “Nonsense. These are working hands. Very sexy.”
He parked in front of the diner and drew her in for a kiss, wrapping his arms around her.
“We better stop,” Rachel said. “Everyone is looking at us.”
“That’s nothing compared with the stares I got the other day before I could change my pants. I haven’t checked, but I’m pretty sure there’s a pic of my ass on Facebook.”
Several, actually. Some memes too.
“You ashamed of me?” he suddenly asked after they got out of the car.
Ha. She grabbed him by the collar and brought him to her, kissing him hard and long. “It’s your reputation that will suffer.” Having their relationship out in the open created expectations in many people. And once she and Adrian were done, questions were going to need to be answered.
Chuckling, Rachel walked toward the diner, not stopping him when he took her hand again.
He was dead wrong. She wasn’t ashamed of him. If anything, she was ashamed of herself. Of the shit she’d done when she was young and stupid. There were things from her past that she would have wanted to tell Adrian before their fling advanced to something more… significant. With more information, he could have made an educated decision and not jumped into the pool headfirst and blindfolded.
She had a big day coming: her last assignment before graduating. She’d had only the OGs and Josh to talk to. It would be nice to share this part of her life with Adrian too, but she was afraid of his reaction. People don’t change, that’s what he’d said.
With his hand on the small of her back, he directed her to an empty table. They ordered huge platters of fries and burgers. If this had been one of her typical dates with a prospect, she would have dressed up and played coy with the food, but this was Adrian. There was no need to pretend to be someone else. Which reminded her…
“Listen, there’s something I’d like to talk to you about.”
“Sure. Shoot.”
Man, she wasn’t ready to have this conversation. Maybe she should have brought her rap sheet; that would have been much faster. Although her arrest record painted a very bleak picture. To the point, but bleak. Or maybe she should start with her present activities. It would lead to explaining about her past ones, but the initial shock might be smaller. “The thing is—”
“Hi guys.” It was XL.
“Hi kiddo,” Rachel answered.
XL seemed a bit off. He stood with his hands in his pockets, feet shuffling, looking uncomfortable. Adrian must have noticed it too. “What’s up? Something wrong?”
XL pointed to the street. “No. Ash and Monti are waiting for me in the car. We’re going to go pick up my things from your place.”
Adrian frowned. “Why?”
XL looked at Rachel and then back at Adrian. “You probably want to be alone from now on, and I’d be a bother. I’m old enough; I can manage.”
“Shut up, XL. If you dare leave, I’m putting a BOLO on you.”
“A BOLO? For what?” XL’s smile was back.
Rachel snorted. So typical of Adrian to threaten to put a “be on the lookout” notice on the kid. “He’d come up with a reason, believe me. Don’t risk it. Stay put.”
At that moment, their platters arrived. “Hungry?” she asked.
“No, no,” XL said, his eyes never leaving the food.
Rachel lifted her gaze to Adrian, who gave a swift nod. “Sit,” she ordered, while Adrian stood up and signaled the other two to come in.
XL dragged his feet, but only for a second.
Ash and Monti came right away. “Are you staying in Alden?” Ash asked.
“Of course he’s staying,” Rachel answered. “You two sit down. We’re having dinner. Burgers okay?”
Adrian was already flagging down the waitress, and, in no time, their date transformed into a rowdy dinner for five. The kids bitched and whined about Adrian, but they worshipped him. They spent the whole evening explaining to Rachel about all the times he had arrested them and how running away from him had done squat. She hadn’t laughed so wholeheartedly in a long time.
“Aside from when he arrested you,” Ash asked her, “did you ever have trouble with the law? I bet not.”
She considered for a second jumping in and telling them about her own run-ins. That would be a way to get it all out in the open. But that was a conversation to be had with Adrian alone. “When I lived in the city, I had my encounters with the authorities. Nothing too serious.” Which wasn’t a lie per se, because “serious” was open for interpretation. “Here in Alden, and since Adrian became the sheriff, I’ve visited their office almost daily.”
The kids scowled at him, shaking their heads. “What?” Adrian asked, kissing her on the cheek. “Can you blame me?”
She hadn’t noticed before how touchy-feely Adrian was. He kept his arm over her shoulders most of the time, dipping fries in mayo and feeding them to her. The kids looked at him funny, but he didn’t seem to mind.
“By the way, where’s Sara?” Rachel asked. If XL wasn’t at the garage, he was always with her.
“We just came from the gym,” Monti expla
ined, “where she beat the shit out of all our sorry asses combined. Your woman is a menace, man.”
XL growled at his friend, his eyes shining with pride. “Careful what you say about her.” The kid was so frigging in love; everyone could see it.
“Chill, dude. You know we think she’s fucking cool.” Ash turned to Adrian and added, “The four of us and some of her friends are going to Boston tomorrow.”
Adrian stared them down and the three of them lifted their hands in surrender. “Nothing fishy. All clean fun. We swear. Even Mike approved,” XL assured him.
Poor Mike. As if he didn’t have enough trouble with the OGs.
“Say, have you noticed everyone is staring at us?” Monti whispered, looking around the diner. “Is something wrong?”
Yeah, Rachel had noticed that awhile back. She pointed at Adrian and then at herself. “Nothing wrong with you guys. It’s us they’re staring at. I told you, Boomer, this was a bad id—”
But she couldn’t finish because Adrian kissed her. “Shut up.”
She shook her head, resigned. Keeping a low profile was going to be impossible.
“Wow, so masterful,” Ash said, clapping. “You got some moves, old man.”
“I’m humoring him,” she informed the kids. “I don’t want to hurt his male pride.”
“We know,” XL replied as the three of them chuckled. “I bet you can kick his sorry ass too.”
Bantering and laughing, they polished off all the food, and Adrian ordered more for everyone. Rachel knew from watching them at the garage that they liked milkshakes, so she opened the menu and chose five different ones, the most original recipes she could find.
The five large milkshakes went around the table, everyone trying a sip from every glass, until they concluded it was impossible to decide which was the best flavor combo.
Then came time for dipping fries into the milkshakes. Adrian drew the line at that, but she made him try.
When the check came, the kids dug into their pockets, bringing out a bunch of wrinkled bills.
“That money…” Adrian started, suspicious.
“I gave it to them,” Rachel confessed. “They spend so many hours at the garage, I’m paying them for the extra work.”
“Put those bills away,” Adrian ordered them. She tried pulling out her card, but he wouldn’t hear of her paying, not even half. “You take care of the dessert,” he decreed.
Dessert? Was he joking? “Forget ice cream on a bench,” she told him. “I’ll explode if I eat anything else. Next date is on me.”
Once the check was settled, they left the diner. Promising to drop XL at Adrian’s place, Ash and Monti split and Adrian drove Rachel home.
He parked in front of Wilma’s and they both got out of the car. Putting her finger on her lips for him to be quiet, she walked to Wilma’s pickup, opened the quilt the OGs kept in the bed, and lay down.
“Perfect stargazing spot,” she whispered. “And hidden. Our speed.”
Chuckling, he jumped in and lay by her side. He held her hand, and they both looked into the sky. “Thanks for allowing the kids to wreck our date.”
“It’s okay. I’ve grown attached to them. I had a lot of fun. I hope we can keep them on the straight and narrow.” Once the community service ended, she was going to hire them. If they agreed to it.
“I hope so too. South Boston is toxic for teenagers. I’d rather keep them in Alden for as long as possible, because once they’re in too deep, there’s no way to save them.”
“I survived South Boston,” she let out.
“Not everyone has the OGs to fall back on.”
That was totally true. “Listen, XL is turning eighteen soon. I was thinking about throwing him a birthday party. What do you say?”
He turned to her. “I’m sure he’d love it, but you don’t have to. I—”
“The OGs love throwing parties. I’ll draft them,” she interrupted. “And I’ll make sure you’re the hero of the afterparty. A private one between you and me to celebrate your birthday. You said it was the same days as XL’s, right?”
“Right.”
“What do you say, then? Do we have a deal?”
Adrian’s eyes were full of promise. “Deal.”
“By the way, sorry for coming to dinner in this informal attire,” she said, gesturing at herself. “But I thought it would set a bad precedent to let the OGs take part in the arrangements. They’d meddle even more than they do now.” As it was, they were already expecting favors from him.
“You look gorgeous, grease babe.” He tucked a strain of hair behind her ear.
Grease babe. She liked that nickname even better.
The beep of her cellphone distracted them. She fished it from her pocket and checked.
“The OGs?” he asked, leaning into her.
No. It wasn’t the OGs. They were alone. Maybe now was the time to have that heart-to-heart talk. She momentarily paused, his words reverberating in her head. People don’t change; they just get better at hiding shit.
And she got cold feet. His gaze was soft, full of trust. She couldn’t bear for that to change. Not yet.
She shook her head and hastily closed the message, ensuring Adrian couldn’t read it. “It’s about some spare parts I need to go pick up in Boston tomorrow afternoon,” she lied.
“I can go with you and we could stay in the city afterward?”
“Not sure how long it will take. I’d better call you when I get back, now that we can be seen here,” she said, shifting the conversation. Explaining what she was doing and why would require delving into her past. She wasn’t ready to do that, much less do it sober.
He narrowed his eyes, studying her. “You don’t have something going on on the side in Boston, right?”
She stilled. “Like?”
“Like a boyfriend?” he offered.
She burst out laughing. “Sure.” Like she had the time to cheat on Adrian.
He rolled over her and placed a kiss on her stomach while she kept giggling. “You go there at least twice a week, dressed up. That is, no sweatpants, makeup on, and your hair neatly controlled in a braid. That smells like a secret romance with an older man.” Another kiss, this one closer to her pants.
“Please don’t make me laugh, I’m too full. The secret romance was with you, dummy. Those trips are work. The world of spare parts for old cars is very competitive. It never hurts to look decent. And I told you I was taking some courses, remember?”
He nuzzled her abdomen and moved lower. “Ah, the early midlife crisis. Weren’t those courses online?”
“Not all.”
“Which diploma are you going for? Yoga instructor? Reiki masseuse?”
She laughed. “I see, Boomer. You’ll get a sports car for your midlife crisis, and I’m supposed to get what? A masseuse’s certificate?”
“Okay, okay,” he said, appeasing her. “What then? Private eye? Pilot?”
She pondered for a second and made a decision. “I’ll tell you when I graduate.”
“Deal, grease babe.” He kissed her again, this time on her mound.
“Fuck,” she hissed, stroking his hair. “I’d love to have sex, Sheriff, but my aptitude for acrobatics after such an insane amount of food is very restricted. I might orgasm and throw up at the same time.”
Chuckling, he moved up to place a kiss on her stomach and then between her breasts. He lay on his side again, propped on his elbow, and with the other hand brushed her lips. “We might have gone overboard with the milkshakes.”
“That’s probably why women don’t eat much on their dates—so they can perform to impress in bed afterward.” She noticed his body shaking in laughter. “What?”
“You’re very different from all the women I’ve dated up to now.”
“Is that good or bad?” she inquired, not sure she was going to like his answer either way.
“I’ve always had a weak spot for juvenile thugs, and over the years, I’ve tried to help many. Not one of
my girlfriends ever behaved like you. Any time I invested in those kids was a waste in those ladies’ minds. The five hours they used to get ready for a date were well invested, though. Today, Jade would have thrown a tantrum and refused to eat with them. Heck, she would have tried to kick XL out of my place.” He snorted. “Not that she’d have ever agreed to set foot in a shabby house in Alden for longer than a quick visit.”
“What exactly did you see in those women?” Because what he’d described was a standard bitch.
“Honestly?” he asked, pensive, while stroking the top of her head. “I don’t know.” He lowered his mouth to hers, slowly and without breaking eye contact. His kiss was soft and sweet, and it made her stomach somersault. She didn’t feel that full anymore.
They were kissing when they heard some throat-clearing. They turned to see Wilma’s and Greta’s heads peeking over the metal side of the pickup, their hands clutching it as if afraid they would fall.
“Grandma!” Rachel yelled.
“You see? I told you I wasn’t hearing voices,” Greta said.
“Sorry,” Wilma apologized. “Rebecca, hold off on the air gun. It’s not a racoon or mice. It’s Rachel and the sheriff.”
“Air gun?” Adrian asked, looking panicked. “They have an air gun?”
Before Rachel could answer, they heard a loud pop and an “oops” coming from Rebecca.
“Girls, I think I just executed a garden gnome.”
They had so many cars to repair at the garage, even the kids were working overtime. That was probably the only reason no one realized seven huge gang members had walked up to the open garage door. Rachel lifted her eyes from an engine and froze. She snapped her fingers at Julian in warning.
“Something you need, gentlemen?” she asked, cleaning her hands with a rag and walking in their direction.
By the way he carried himself, the asshole in the middle was the boss. He smiled arrogantly and took off his sunglasses. In spite of the tattoos, or maybe because of them, Rachel recognized him. She didn’t recall his name, but he was someone who had already been a dangerous criminal ten years ago when she lived in Boston. He hadn’t had as much power then as he seemed to have now. He’d obviously gone up in the chain of command.