“Agreed,” Goose said. “The chances of another dirty cop catching us and letting us go are slim to none. The next cop that catches us is going to either shoot us or handcuff us and take us in. I’m not interested in doing time.”
Ally tugged the bill of her ball cap low on her brow. “I’m doing whatever Goose is doing.”
Reno’s look hardened. “I’ll warn each of you now. When I go out, I’m going out in a blaze of gunfire. They’re not locking me up in a six-foot by eight-foot box, that I can guarantee you.”
Baker glanced at each of us. “I’ll get a timeline put together for this job before next week’s meeting. We’ll plan on doing it next Thursday. The coin show is on Saturday. On the other matter, I’ll have a talk with Cash.”
Reasoning with Cash was never easy. To succeed, a person needed to convince him that all ideas discussed were his own. In this circumstance, doing so would require Baker to be extremely creative.
In short, it would be nearly impossible.
“Good luck,” I said. “Because you’re going to need it.”
233
Reggie
I pulled the drapes to the side and stared at the silver late-model Chevrolet sedan that came to a rest in the driveway. It looked like Tito was sitting inside, but I couldn’t be sure with the sun’s reflection gleaming off the windshield.
As I studied the silhouette, the door opened. Dressed in his normal attire of a white tee shirt, cuffed jeans, and a pair of boots, Tito stepped outside the car and opened the back door. Surprisingly, he removed a large wrapped gift from the rear seat. Tied around the center of the shiny white package was a big lavender-colored bow.
I ran to the front door and snatched it open. My only earthly concern was finding out the contents of the box. Mentioning it, however, would make me seem materialistic, which I wasn’t.
I was simply curious.
“Why are you driving that car?” I asked.
He jostled the package back and forth as he stepped onto the porch. “I couldn’t carry this on the bike.”
“Oh,” I said, feigning surprise. “I didn’t even notice.”
He lowered the package and gave me a look. “Really?”
“Well, maybe I did.” I moved to the side. “What is it?”
“It’s a surprise.” He edged his way past me. “For you.”
“For me?”
“Well.” He leaned the gift against his only remaining option, the love seat. “It’s not for me.”
Curiosity ate away at me like a cancer. “What’s it for?”
“It’s just a gift,” he replied. “For you.”
I kissed him. “Can I open it?”
“That was the plan,” he said. “I bring it over, and you open it.”
Getting a gift for no reason was better than almost anything. I fought not to act like a giddy eight-year-old at her birthday party.
I glanced at the large flat package. “Now?”
He seemed to be nearly as excited as I was. Grinning from ear to ear, he tried to play it off as if it was no big deal. He shrugged. “It’s as good of a time as any, I suppose.”
I started to reach for it, and then paused. “I feel crappy.”
“Crappy?” His brows pinched together. “Why?”
“Because I don’t have anything for you.”
“It’s not a gift exchange,” he said with a laugh. “I just got you a little something.”
“Just because?”
He smiled. “Just because.”
I removed the bow, set it aside, and carefully unwrapped the gift. As I suspected, it was a picture frame. Upon seeing what the frame contained, my heart faltered.
A dark-blue sphere filled with constellations and the names of the stars. Beneath it, the latitude and longitude of the location and the time of day.
The Stars Above the Buckle
June 6, 2019 2:07 p.m.
32.806063 N 116.967509 W
Above it, the title:
The Moment Our Adventure Began
“Is this…” A lump rose in my throat. “Is it the—”
“It’s the stars above your store on the day and time we met,” he said. “I thought it was better than a bunch of flowers or a bottle wine.”
“It’s uhhm…” I swallowed the emotion that was tangled in my throat. My lips parted, but no words came out. I swallowed again.
“You don’t like it?” he asked.
I’d never received anything so thoughtful in my life. At a point in time where most men would have given me nothing and a select few would have given me a dozen roses in hope of receiving a blowjob in return, Tito gave me a picture of the stars we were standing beneath on the day we met.
The day he asked me on our first date.
I met his wondrous gaze with eyes that were quickly welling with tears. “I love it,” I muttered.
“I thought the Adventure thing was a nice touch,” he said with a smile. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to look back on that day as the beginning of a meaningful adventure.”
I had every intention of saying something. As fate would have it, I couldn’t manage to speak. Overcome with feelings for the man who stood before me, I leaned the frame against the love seat and drew a silent breath.
On shaking legs, I faced him and opened my arms.
We embraced. For a long moment I held him in my arms, cherishing the feeling of having his body pressed against mine. Eventually, he leaned away and looked me in the eyes. I wanted him to kiss me, but still feared asking him to do so would allow the emotions that had built within me to come spilling out.
As if he read my mind, he granted my wish.
The kiss was every bit as earth-shattering as our first. It wasn’t surprising, each time he kissed me it had the same effect: my heart raced, the temperature in the room rose ten degrees, and my panties became soaked.
I kissed him in return, hoping to express my gratitude without speaking. In no time, we were both hopping around on one leg attempting to rid ourselves of our last article of undergarments.
We collided, chest to chest. We kissed. Embraced in the kiss, we stumbled across the living room floor, coming to rest with my back against the wall. Our mouths parted.
His eyes met mine.
Holding my gaze, he cupped my butt in his hands. He lifted me from my feet. I wrapped my thighs around his waist, inviting him to take me right then and there. He propped me against the wall and accepted my invitation without pause.
His entire swollen length penetrated me in one stroke. The breath shot from my lungs. Feeling him inside me provided all the proof I needed that he was the last man I’d ever need to meet.
Apart, we were nothing more than two souls searching blindly for what we didn’t know. Together, we defined perfection.
He withdrew his hips. My eyes shifted to the front door. In my haste to open the gift, I’d failed to close it.
“I left…the front door…open,” I stammered, muttering the statement to coincide with his well-timed strokes.
“I don’t care…if you…don’t,” he replied.
I dug the tips of my fingers into the flesh of his butt, encouraging him to continue. He repositioned his feet and pressed his chest tight to mine, pinning me to the wall. I bit against my lower lip and prepared for what was to come.
Without regard for our secrecy we fucked like animals in heat, filling the small room with the carnal sounds of our pleasure.
Through the course of our lovemaking, a long list of nevers was crossed off my list.
I’d never had sex at ten am on a Thursday morning, nor had I had the pleasure of being fucked while pinned against the living room wall. Any wall, for that matter. Furthermore, I’d never had my heart swell with affection during sex like it did.
Moments later, it was over. Pleased beyond words, we were laying side by side on the floor. Drunk on orgasmic pleasure, I looked into his eyes. “Where did you come from?”
“What do you mean?”
At
the moment in time that we met, the last thing I needed—or wanted—was a relationship. Nevertheless, Tito appeared. Over time, he proved to be the perfect man.
Perfect for me, anyway.
“You just appeared one day,” I said. “It’s, I don’t know, crazy to think about.”
He smiled. “All I wanted was a hat.”
I couldn’t help but to smile in return. “I wanted a year or two of being single.”
He swept the hair away from my face with the tip of his finger. “Now look at us.”
“I like looking at us,” I admitted. “From any angle.”
“There’s nothing about me that bothers you?” he asked.
He was the opposite of what I thought I desired. Yet. I wouldn’t change one thing about him if I was given the chance.
“No,” I responded. “I like you just the way you are.”
“I think I fell in love with you,” he said.
I should have felt nervous.
Resistant.
Apprehensive.
Instead, his admission put me at ease. “I think I fell in love with you, too.”
“When?” he asked.
“A little bit each day,” I responded, glancing at the star-filled globe that leaned against the loveseat. “That thing bowled me over, though.” I looked at him. “What about you? When did it happen?”
“I’m not sure,” he responded. “But I realized it the other night, when Mel came over. I asked myself if I loved you before I offered my assistance regarding her concern.”
“Oh,” I said, surprised by his response. “It sure seemed like you offered yourself up without much thought.”
“Maybe I already knew the answer.”
“What do we do now?” I asked.
He leaned forward and gave me a kiss. “Love one another.”
As eagerly as my heart accepted him, I felt that there was nothing that would—or could—tear us apart. Prepared to continue with Our Adventure, I smiled. “I like that plan.”
234
Tito
We walked along the beach hand in hand. Every few moments the waves washed over our feet, cleansing them of the sticking sand. A few dozen steps would follow, covering our feet with the granular matter once again, only to be swept clean by the next wave that pulsed ashore.
I slowed my pace and watched a wave encompass our feet. “Not a bad way to spend a Sunday morning.”
When the wave receded, Reggie tugged against my hand, prompting me to continue our leisurely stroll.
“We should make this a ritual,” she said.
I couldn’t agree more. Holding hands while we walked along the water’s edge was oddly more comforting than I expected anything could be. I wondered if it was the atmosphere, or if it was nothing more than my sheer satisfaction with Reggie’s existence. Convinced it was the latter, I continued leading the way up the beach.
Satisfied with each other’s presence completely, we didn’t speak for some time. Half a mile—and two dozen waves—later, she broke the silence.
She gestured toward my legs with her eyes. “You look cute with your pants rolled up like that.”
I scowled at her. “Cute?”
“Yeah,” she said. “Cute.”
“Thanks, I guess.”
“It’s a compliment, if that’s what you’re wondering.”
Although there had been no formal announcement, I’d all but moved in with Reggie. Since our first official night together, I’d slept in her bed nearly every night. Waking up next to her allowed me to realize what my life would be like with her in it. Furthermore, it gave me a good means of comparison to my former life.
The one without her in it.
Now that I had a taste of life with Reggie in it, returning to the way things were before I met her wasn’t an option. Not one I was interested in, at least. I couldn’t imagine waking up without her beside me.
Every morning, as soon as I woke, I rolled to my side and confirmed her presence. Simply seeing her brought a huge smile to my face. One that lasted long enough to get me through the day.
“I never thought of myself as cute,” I admitted. “I can’t decide if I like it.”
“Well,” she said. “If you’re going to walk around barefoot with your jeans rolled up to your knees, get used to me saying it. You’re cute.”
“But not when I wear my boots?”
“When you wear your boots, you look like a badass.”
I laughed. “From badass to cute just like that?”
“Yeah.” She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “Pretty much.”
“What about when I get out of the shower?” I asked. “Cute, or badass?”
“Out of the shower?” She smiled. “You’re irresistibly handsome.”
“But not cute?”
“Not at all. The only other time I can think of that I’d describe you as cute is when you shave.”
“When I shave?”
“Yeah. Like the way you look so serious when you’re doing it. You’re uber-focused.”
“Shaving is serious stuff,” I said with a smile.
“Try shaving your shin,” she said. “Or your ankles. That’s serious stuff.”
“You’re cute when you cook,” I said. “You always sing when you’re doing it.”
She laughed. “I don’t know why, either. I’ve always done it.”
I was fascinated by Reggie and was embarrassed to admit it. Everything about her brought a smile to my face. The way she squinted when she was trying to make a decision. Watching her rifle through her clothes in the morning, incapable of deciding what she would wear. How she sang every time she prepared a meal or fixed her hair.
“You sing when you fix your hair, too,” I said.
“Yeah. Maybe it’s a focus thing. You know, some people hum when they’re focused. Maybe I sing.”
“Well,” I said. “It’s cute.”
“I don’t want this to sound like some cheesy line from a book, but I look around now, and I can’t believe this is my life. It’s almost like I can’t fathom that I deserve you.”
“You wonder if you deserve me?” I coughed out the words. “I feel the same way about you. I was just thinking how every morning when I wake up that I roll over and look at you just to make sure you’re still there. Waking up beside you is so much better than waking up alone. It’s going to take some getting used to, though.”
“You’re not used to it yet?”
I couldn’t get used to holding her hand when we walked wherever we were walking, but not holding it seemed like a crime. Sleeping with her was going to take some serious time to get accustomed to.
“I’ve been sleeping alone my entire life,” I responded. “It’s going to take a while.”
“Haven’t you had a live-in girlfriend, or anything?”
I squeezed her hand. “Nope.”
“Never had a girl sleep over from time to time?”
“Not once.”
She gave me a look of disbelief. “You never had a girl fall asleep in your bed?”
As hard as it was to believe, I hadn’t. I shook my head. “No, I haven’t.”
“Wow.” With my hands held in hers, she spread her arms wide, pulling me close to her chest in the process. “I’m flattered.”
I kissed her. “So am I.”
She pushed me away and gave me a puzzled look. “What have I done that flatters you?”
“It’s sad to admit that a man’s world is this way, but it is. A beautiful woman has doors of opportunity open for her that an average woman will never have the chance to walk through. Those opportunities are apportioned by men. A beautiful woman with a shitty personality can get a date with any man she wants, because the primary concern of most men is satisfying the desires of their eyes.”
“So, men are superficial pigs?”
“Yes, they are,” I replied. “In fact, most men are blind to what a woman really has to offer. I’m with you because of your values, your wit, your
intelligence, your willingness to stand up for yourself, and how you make me feel when we’re intimate, not because of what you look like. That doesn’t diminish the fact that you’re beautiful. Because of that beauty, you could have had any man you want. Of the countless options before you, I’m the man you chose.” I grinned a guilty smile. “I’m flattered.”
“I don’t even know what to say,” she said.
“Don’t say anything,” I responded. “Just keep on doing what you’re doing.”
“Which is what?”
I kissed her. “Allowing me to wake up beside you.”
“I really do love you,” she said.
I laughed. “Opposed to not really loving me?”
“You know what I mean.”
“Yes,” I said. “I do. I really do love you, too.”
She kissed me. “Speaking of rituals.” She broke our embrace. “It’s time for another.”
“I don’t buy into all that shit,” Hap growled. “I think they lie to us about a hell of a lot more than we know. I’ve been eating pork fat since I was a kid. Contrary to what they’d like you to believe, there’s not a damned thing wrong with my heart. I’m not fat. My cholesterol is good. My blood pressure is good. The fruit farmers get politicians to manipulate the media to say pork is the devil’s work. That way, they can sell more fruit to the tree hugging hippies.”
“Exactly!” Reggie said excitedly. “Finally, someone who agrees with me.”
“Pork fat’s good stuff, isn’t it?” Hap asked.
Reggie winced. “I don’t know if I’ll agree to that, but I’ll agree to your theory. The food people lie to us. Organic cream, for instance. It’s nothing but cream out of a cow. That’s it. No additives. No preservatives. It had a date on it that says it’s no good after May 5th. Well I have personally used such cream well into June, and it isn’t spoiled. They put that date on there to get us to buy more cream. Before we actually need it.”
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