As I said this, I realized the lights were still on, moved the covers back off of us, got up, moved to the light switch, switched them off, went back to the bed, got in, and pulled the covers back over us again.
In answer, she snuggled closer and threw her leg over my thighs. I guess she was good to sleep like this.
“Love you, Babe.”
She turned her head, kissed my chest, and whispered, “Me too.”
I was asleep seconds later, but I dreamt that she added, “More than anything, Tuck. Crazy how much.”
Chapter 7
The next morning I woke up to an empty bed. My arm shot out but all I felt were cold sheets.
Closing my eyes again and focusing my ears, I listened so that I could hear if the shower was on or not.
Nope.
Groaning, I cracked one eye open again and confirmed that, indeed, the bathroom light was not on. I guess she wasn’t in there.
Where the hell was she? She wasn’t normally up before me, let alone, gone, leaving a cold bed and dark bathroom behind.
Foolishly, I got up on an elbow and looked around the room. It was like I was expecting her to magically appear or something. I leaned back and covered my face with my hands, trying to make my brain wake up.
After several moments, finally able to process rational thought, I decided I was going to have to get up and look for her.
Expelling a deep, grumbly sigh, I threw the covers off, shifted my weight up to sitting, grabbed my jeans off of the floor, and pulled them on commando. Zipping them up just enough to cover myself up and make sure they didn’t fall off, I headed down the hall, down the stairs, and into the kitchen.
What I saw when I got there made my step falter.
“Am I dead? I must be dead, right?”
Right before my eyes, Talie, the woman I loved, the woman with no domestic skills whatsoever, was cooking breakfast.
“Don’t be an asshole, Tuck. It’ll ruin the taste of the bacon.” She smirked and popped a piece of nicely cooked, perfectly crispy bacon into her mouth.
I tried not to be an asshole, but I just couldn’t wrap my head around the improbability in front of me.
“I’m sorry, but the Talie I know does not cook. And she most certainly doesn’t cook well.”
Unless. “You been pullin’ a fast one on me the whole time? You know how to cook, but you just pretend not to so that I’ll do it?”
I thought only men did that.
“Geez. It’s just breakfast, Tuck. I thought I’d do something nice for you.”
She looked like she might actually be a little offended so I moved to do damage control by rounding the island, coming up behind her, putting my hands to her hips, my lips to her ear, and murmuring, “Sorry, Babe. Just surprised. ‘Preciate it.” I gave her a kiss on the neck and went to move away, but added, “Though, I’d rather wake up to a warm bed with you in it than a warm breakfast.”
Her face softened and she smiled at me just as Kayla walked in.
“Holy sweet Jesus, Hotman. You look good with no shirt on.”
Talie’s eyes narrowed on her sister.
Crap. I had kind of forgotten we weren’t alone in our own house. I met Talie’s eyes and muttered, “Gonna go get dressed, Babe,” before turning and heading back to our bedroom.
********
After taking a quick shower, I had pulled on some clean jeans and was in my closet to grab a shirt to put on.
Instead of rushing in, grabbing a shirt, and getting out, I took in the mixing of my and Talie’s few belongings. I couldn’t help but notice how right it felt.
As my eyes scanned, they stopped on a box that I hadn’t thought about in years. My parents’ most treasured belongings. I reached up, grabbed the box, pulled it down, and headed into my bedroom with it. Setting it down on the bed, I opened the lid and looked inside. On top was my parent’s wedding picture, followed by a recent (recent before their deaths, anyway) picture of them. They looked just as happy, if not happier, in the second picture as they did the day they got married.
Looking at the pictures like this, I also noticed how young they were. They had been together such a long time, that it had often been easy to forget just how young they still were at the time of their deaths.
I brushed the picture of my mom’s cheek with my thumb, took in her blue-green eyes that matched mine, and then set the pictures aside. Next, I pulled out my dad’s wallet and rifled through it. It had pictures of Jenny and I from when we were kids and a mixture of business cards and other miscellaneous scraps of paper.
I shuffled through them quickly, but then stopped when something caught my eye. A green, folded sticky note with ‘Jenny Winniekins’ and a phone number I didn’t recognize was mixed in with the business cards, and it was close to the top of the stack like maybe he had put it in there right before he went to Nashville.
I picked up my phone from the nightstand and dialed the number on the paper. Surprisingly, it rang four times and then clicked over to a voicemail box. “Hey, you’ve reached Jenny. Leave your name, number, and a message, and I’ll get back to you!”
I dropped the phone on the bed like it was a poisonous snake and stepped away from it. I hadn’t heard Jenny’s voice in so long and hearing it now, knowing what had happened to her, made my stomach dip and churn to the point where I thought I might be sick.
Not to mention, I had expected the number to be disconnected or belong to someone else at this point. I hadn’t actually expected to hear her voice, a voice that had matured a few years since I’d heard it last, talking back to me like she wasn’t dead just like my parents.
Quickly putting the contents of the wallet back in and placing it back in the box, I dug around until I found what I had intended to look for when I took the box down. My hand searched until my fingers closed around the velvety softness of the small square box I was looking for. I pulled it out, popped it open, and let my eyes land on the beautiful, round, 1.25 carat diamond of my mother’s engagement ring.
I suppose it would have gone to Jenny one day, but since that wasn’t an option, I couldn’t think of a better place for it to go than on Talie’s left ring finger.
It was currently waiting for a ring, and this one was perfect. It was simple and classy, but big enough to fit her big personality. Talie would also love that it was a family ring, and she would love that it would be a way to keep her connected to Jenny.
I tucked the ring into my pocket because I knew I wanted give it to her as soon as possible. We hadn’t known each other that long, but I honestly couldn’t wait to see my ring on her finger. Somehow, I had known it was right the moment I met her.
They say when you know, you know, but I never believed it. I had never felt anything close to right with another woman, so I figured it was probably garbage. I figured if I didn’t feel right with any of the large number of perfectly good women I’d been through, it wasn’t happening. Then I met Talie. To say she changed things would be a vast understatement.
I popped the now empty jewelry box closed, put it back in the box of my parents’ belongings, and closed the lid. Picking it up, I carried it back into the closet and put it back where it came from.
Back on track, I pulled a gray t-shirt off of my shelf and pulled it over my head, shoving my arms through the holes simultaneously.
I brushed my hand through my hair a few times, flicked out the lights in the closet, bathroom, and bedroom, and headed back downstairs to the women.
********
I didn’t get to give her the ring that morning because Kayla was always there. I wanted to be alone with her when I did it, and the more I thought about it, the more I realized I should probably do something at least a little special. She was right when she said I
told
her we were engaged instead of asking her, so I probably needed to do something romantic to make up for it.
After that, the girls had headed into work, and I had gotten down to business myself. I had to go help a few people because I had been seriously slacking on that lately. People had come to depend on me, and when I didn’t come around it really affected them.
The elderly were my most regular ‘clients’ if you will, and I actually liked it that way. To me, they needed the help the most and they were the building blocks of this place that I loved so much. Several of them, or their families anyway, had been here since the beginning. The Tanners for example were one of the five founding families of Joplin.
Anyway, I had fixed a sink, cleaned a garage, and taken care of all of the regular business at home, and now we were out at the Lizard.
Talie, Ruthie, and Kayla were performing on the bar while Jace stood sentry. I guess he didn’t want a repeat of what happened with Bobby last time, and it hadn’t taken any time for Kayla to fit right in with the girls’ normal routine.
I was standing back, separated from everyone, just observing. My mood had kind of been in a funk ever since I had dialed that number and heard Winnie’s voice this morning.
I hadn’t told anyone about it yet, not even Talie, because I wasn’t really ready to talk about it, and I didn’t want Talie to know why I’d been in that box in the first place.
Another reason to keep quiet was because I also thought I might be losing my mind a little bit. All day, I’d been feeling eyes on me, but every time I did a scan to check the area, I found no one. It wasn’t like the many eyes of the town I had felt the other day, it was one set. I didn’t know where this paranoia was coming from, but I definitely didn’t like it.
As a result, I was a little closed off and quiet even though coming out had been my idea.
I really needed to pull myself out of it, especially since the girls were currently in the middle of a rousing version of “Like A Virgin”. Ruthie was no doubt drunk, but Talie (and most likely Kayla) was just crazy enough to do this kind of thing sober.
After talking myself into it, I made my way through the crowd, saying hi to a few people, including Jezzy, on the way. When I got to the bar, Talie’s face lit up, she dropped down to her ass, and then scooted off the bar into my arms.
Her boobs were directly in line with my face, and the good time she was having seemed to radiate out from her. Long story short, she was the best mood lifter I could have hoped for, so I put everything else out of my mind and enjoyed the rest of the night.
********
“Tuck! Wait for me!”
I turned to see Winnie running toward me, and she looked upset. “What’s wrong, Winnie?”
She sniffled and then burst into tears. Man, girls were always crying. I didn’t understand it.
“Winnie, why are you cryin’?”
“Kyle pushed me down and called me ugly!” Her breath hitched between her sobs as she choked out, “Am I ugly?”
The rage built inside my undeveloped chest and my tiny fists clenched. Kyle just earned himself a visit from me. Nobody messed with my sister, and they definitely didn’t tell her she was ugly.
“No way, Winniekins. Kyle’s a jerk. You’re the prettiest sister I could ask for.”
Her sniffles slowed down and tears stopped falling from her eyes. Her arms wrapped around my waist as she whispered, “Thanks, Tuck.”
********
My body jerked awake, sweaty and panicked. I took deep breaths and slid my hand down to feel Talie’s thigh thrown over my own.
God, I should have never dialed that fucking number. Now I was dreaming about Jenny, and it wasn’t even recent. It had been of when we were kids. Jesus. We were ten years old, and I had already taken up beating up assholes as a hobby. Jenny had never minded me sticking up for her until Drew. I guess the difference had been that she really liked Drew, and it clouded her vision. After all, love is the most prominent cause of blindness.
I rubbed the butts of my hands into my eyes to clear my head, and then looked over at the clock. 2:14 AM. Great. Not only was I feeling eyes on me all the time, I was dreaming of my dead sister and, in the process, waking up far too early with slim odds of getting back to sleep again.
I moved to get up, but all of my grumbling had woken up Talie.
She lifted her head off of my chest, put an elbow into her pillow, and rested her head on her hand.
“Tuck, what’s wrong?”
“It’s ok, Babe. Just had a dream, go back to sleep.”
Instead of doing what I suggested and going back to sleep, she rolled into me and up so that she was laying completely on top of me.
Her eyes were seductive and her voice was raspy and filled with the promise of sex.
“I have another idea. We’re both awake, so it seems like a shame to waste the opportunity.”
Her hand moved down my side, between our bodies, and then grabbed me, her fingers wrapping around. Since we both slept naked all of her actions were feeling really good, and I was already semi-hard.
“Jesus, Babe. I like where your head’s at.”
Talie took over, and it wasn’t long before she came twice, I came once, and I didn’t have even one single thought about Jenny running through my head anymore.
Chapter 8
The next week continued in much the same way as those couple of days had.
I still felt eyes on me, dreamed of Jenny almost every night, and Talie always found a way to make me feel better.
We were heading up to Nashville to see Cade tonight, and I had to go pick the girls up from work. Therefore, I had just pulled up to the curb in front of the diner and parked.
On edge, quite frankly like I always was these days, I looked in the window and could see Bobby sitting at a booth toward the front of the restaurant. He was with another woman, and didn’t appear to be bothering anyone, so my thoughts about him stopped there.
I did a scan of the rest of the restaurant and didn’t see Drew, so I relaxed. Well, I returned to what was becoming my normal level of paranoia, anyway.
Other than my overactive mind, the week had gone by without incident. Drew was around, but he kept to himself and avoided all of us pretty well. I was surprised he hadn’t been causing more trouble, but pleasantly so. It was one less thing I had to deal with.
Talie and Kayla came bouncing out of the diner and opened the passenger door to my truck to climb in. Talie scooted in first, squeezed my thigh, and leaned up to give me a quick kiss on the lips before settling in her seat.
Kayla followed her in, and she didn’t do it quietly. “You’re looking a little rough, Hotman.”
A startled bark of laughter escaped my throat and Talie shot her a death glare before she continued. “Don’t get me wrong, you still have your powers of hotness, but you’re looking like you aren’t getting much sleep.”
She turned to Talie and murmured, “You gotta let him sleep sometimes, Sis. I mean I get it, but go with a little more sleeping, a little less fucking.”
I shook my head and chuckled as I pulled the gearshift into drive and the truck away from the curb. She was half right. There was a lot of fucking going on, but only
after
I was already having trouble sleeping.
Talie was the cure, not the cause.
I put in my two cents by rumbling, “No way. Same amount of fuckin’. If anything, more Babe. Definitely don’t want less.”
Talie smirked, but her eyes also held a tinge of sadness because she knew I was having trouble sleeping, and it bothered her. I still hadn’t told her what I was dreaming about because I really didn’t want to saddle her with it. She had her own problems, and coincidentally, her own
dreams
about Jenny. She didn’t need my shit thrown on top of the heaping pile of hers. She asked all the time, but I told her I didn’t remember.
“Alright, ladies. We’re stoppin’ at home for showers because while I find the smell of cheeseburger endearing, some don’t, and we are goin’ to be in public tonight. Then we’ll head over, get Jace and Ruth, and then head up to Nashville. Sound good?”
Talie managed to answer before Kayla for once and muttered, “Oh, yeah. Sounds good. All except for the part where you said we smell.”
I squeezed her thigh, and then rubbed my thumb along the outside seam on her jeans as I whispered, “I said
I
like it. Just isn’t some people’s thing. In fact, I’ll shower with you, maybe convince you how much I don’t mind the smell.”
Kayla stuck her finger in her mouth and pretended to gag, but Talie smiled. Hoping to jab at Kayla a little I added, “Besides, I thought your sister would wanna smell extra nice when she met Cade tonight. Maybe not.”
Kayla immediately changed her tune. “Righto, Hotman. Get me home, I gotta spend some extra time getting ready tonight. I have extra areas to pay attention to, if you know what I’m saying.”
Talie’s face scrunched up and she said, “Gross, Kayla.”
Man, I was actually really looking forward to tonight. My mood was extremely positive for what seemed like the first time in a week. I hadn’t seen Cade in forever, and I always loved to watch some bull riding.
I pulled the truck up in front of the house, and Kayla kicked open the door and shot out of it in a hurry just as I was coming to a stop.
Talie looked over at me as I put the truck into park and smiled. “Honestly, Tuck, I’m a little scared to know what she has going on down there if it’s going to take her that much extra time to get ready.”
I burst out laughing, turned my hat backwards, and leaned forward to press my lips to hers. I was done talking about her sister, and definitely done talking about her sister’s fucking nether regions.
My lips touched her perfect pink ones with delicate pressure. Her mouth opened for me immediately, and I didn’t hesitate to slide my tongue inside.
God, her mouth tasted good. It always held a hint of a taste of Coke, but it also had a soft, minty freshness that invited you in and asked you to stay awhile.
The more I thought about her taste, the more I realized, we didn’t make out enough. I decided I needed to make a point to change that.
The problem is that, for a man, making out is usually just a prelude to bigger and better things, so sometimes we forget the bigger, less X-rated picture. But in the recesses of my mind, somewhere in a part that was most connected with the workings of a woman’s brain, I knew a woman needed to make out just to make out every once and a while. And, really, it
was
pretty fucking awesome. Especially with this woman.
********
Ninety minutes later, we were all clean, smelling good, packed into Jace’s Tahoe, and on our way to Nashville.
Talie, Kayla, and Ruthie were all chattering back and forth like it was a group of three sisters instead of two. The good news was that their sibling-like relationship didn’t bother me or make me miss Jenny like you would think. Winnie and I never had that kind of relationship. We were the same age, but it was always more like I was an older brother and protector, than a twin.
I had never resented the role I played with her, but maybe she would have listened to me or taken me more seriously about Drew if we had had a more equal relationship.
Jace brought me out of my thoughts by asking me a question. “Cade know we’re comin’?”
I nodded at the same time that I spoke. “Yeah, I called him earlier this week and let him know.”
He lowered his voice and murmured, “Does he know about Kayla?”
I chuckled as I said, “Nah. Thought I’d leave that as a surprise.”
Jace laughed and nodded, but I added, “Though, I did tell him about Talie and Ruth. I figured it would be good to give him advanced notice that he’s to keep his hands to himself.”
That sobered him up quickly. “‘Preciate that.”
I lowered my voice and, knowing it would earn me big points with Talie later if I got an answer, asked, “How’s that goin’?”
Jace tried to pretend he didn’t know what I meant, looking from the road to his hands on the steering wheel and back, but I held my position and waited him out.
When I didn’t look away or crack under the pressure of his silence, he grumbled a sigh and shook his head, but answered. “Alright. It’s goin’ alright, but for the love of God, don’t say anything. She’s jumpier than a jackrabbit about that shit.”
I smirked, brushed some imaginary lint off of my knee, and answered, “Wouldn’t dream of sayin’ anything, Buddy.”
He speared me with a look and cocked his elbow back and up by putting his right hand on the console in between us before retorting, “Bullshit. You’ve forgotten to keep your mouth shut before.”
I knew without question that he was talking about when had I ratted him out to Ruthie for his man-whore ways. “That was different. I was gettin’ back at you for not keepin’
your
mouth shut.”
He grudgingly gave in to my point and explained further, “As long as I don’t give her time to think about it, she’s good. And as long as she doesn’t see Bobby while we’re out. That turns her mood real quick.”
I nodded because I wasn’t surprised. I’d seen it happen at the diner. “Yeah, well, as far as not givin’ her time to think about it, that’s every woman. And the Bobby thing, just keep doin’ what your doin’. She spent a lot of time with him, and I’m sure he put a lotta shit in her head. Gonna take a little time to replace all that shit with good thoughts.” I paused for a second before finishing, “She’s worth it though.”
Jace spoke quietly and more seriously than I may have ever heard him. “Ain’t gotta tell me she’s worth it, Tuck.”
I inclined my head toward him and smiled, and he made it clear that that was the end of our conversation by giving me a look and then putting his eyes back on the road and keeping them there.
Good man. Point taken.
********
We were in the stands, well into the night, when Cade finally climbed onto a bull down in the chutes.
The women were already crazy, hyped up on junk food and the adrenaline rush associated with watching men ride 1800 pound bulls, and their screams only got louder as the announcer called Cade’s name.
“Next up, in chute number three, riding one of our nastiest bulls, Widowmaker, is five time national champion, Coleman Cade!” The announcer drew out his name like only announcers can, and the rest of the crowd went wild. Men, women, children- it seemed like everyone loved him.
Cade had one hand on the gate to the chute, the other strapped in tight to the bull, and a cowboy hat on his head, as he gave a nod. The gate flew open and out they came. Widowmaker jumped and twisted, over and over, changing directions frequently. But Cade went with him, staying perfectly centered, his bright blue chap-covered legs spurring in perfect timing with each jump.
Goddamn, he was crazy.
But crazy or not, it was really remarkable to watch, and he made it look easy, which I knew it most definitely wasn’t. Before I knew it the horn blew to signal that he had made it the full eight seconds, and the already wild crowd erupted even more violently. The shrieks of the women to my left pierced my ears, and my chin tucked into my chest and face scrunched up in defense.
He timed his jump off of Widowmaker’s back and managed to land on the ground safely on his feet, taking off at a run for the protection of the fence. Once the bull was shuffled out of the way by the clowns, he jumped down from the fence and basked in the deafening sound of the cheers coming from everyone, including us.
He had apparently picked us out of the crowd earlier because he came straight in our direction, pulled his hat off of his head, wound it up, and threw it into the crowd. He followed that up with a nod to me and a point of his finger, and finished with a smile and wink that he threw at Talie, Kayla, and Ruthie.
Three women spoke at once.
“Holy shit.” That was Ruthie.
“He has a good wink.” That was
my
beautiful girl.
And last, but definitely not least, Kayla blurted, “I think I just came.”
Sweet Jesus, he was good. It seemed as though he had only improved his game with age. He wasn’t even within 50 feet of these women, and they were already losing their shit over him.
After one last nod to the crowd at large, he jogged back down to the end with the chutes to exit the arena.
Jace and I went back to watching the bull riding, but it was clear the women were in a Coleman Cade fog. I mostly tuned out everything they were saying for the wellbeing of my mental health, and I could only assume Jace did the same.
********
Ten minutes had passed when I heard an uptick in the noise level of the crowd immediately surrounding us. Not long after, a chap-less, new cowboy hat wearing Cade jumped down and sat in the empty spot beside me.
He clapped me on the shoulder, grinning wildly, excited, and full of leftover adrenaline. “Hey’a Tuck! Long time, no see. How’s things?”
Before my mouth and vocal cords could come together to form a response, he flicked his eyes in Talie’s direction, a mischievous look on his face, and answered himself. “Pretty damn good, I see.”
As he perused the three women together, he wasted no time focusing on my woman, and his eyes lingered her a little too long, so I snapped, “Eyes on me, Cade.”
Chuckling, he looked back at me. “I was wondering, but she
must
be as good as she looks if it’s got you barking out possessive commands at me.”
I knew he would never really do anything, but it was hard to separate that from his remarks in combination with his past behavior, in my mind. Not that I was really one to talk if I was basing this on past behavior.
“That’s my fuckin’ fiance you’re talkin’ about.”
Both of his eyebrows shot up, his head jerked back, and it started to shake back and forth as he quietly remarked, “Fiance? Shit man. Never thought I’d see that day.”
He shook his head once more like he couldn’t believe it, but it wasn’t long before a genuine smile attached to his face. “Congratulations. Really happy for you, man. Believe it or not, I wouldn’t mind findin’ that for myself.”
I looked up and gestured with my hands as I said, “Well, it looks like you got a stadium full’a women to choose from.”
He forced a smile, but we both knew that was crap. You could have fun with a million great women, and he did, but the right ones were harder to come by.
Moving things along I said, “Speakin’ of women. These three here are ours. You already noticed my woman Talie, that’s her sister Kayla, and that’s Ruthie.”
I gestured to each of them as I went and gave him a meaningful look about Ruthie. I didn’t want to acknowledge her as Jace’s woman verbally, lest I ruin things for Jace, but I wanted Cade to get the point.
Whether he ultimately wanted more from a woman or not, that didn’t mean he didn’t want some meaningless sex in the meantime. He knew Kayla was his best chance for the night so he immediately zeroed in on her.
“Well, well, Kayla. I see they saved the best for me.” Kayla melted at his words, but Talie rolled her eyes and squeaked a semi-muted guffaw.
I squeezed her thigh and whispered in her ear, “That right there, Baby. That’s part of what you got that’s special. His game doesn’t work on you. Kayla practically already dropped her panties. You gotta teach her the way.” I mulled it over for a minute and then added to that. “Though, I reckon, she meets the right guy for her, it’ll be there naturally.”