CHAPTER NINETEEN
-:- DALLAS -:-
Waiting at the clubhouse is one of the worst things I’ve ever had to do. Winter and Star are used to this, so they don’t worry. I’m not used to it and I am as fidgety as all heck, pacing the room.
“Dallas, sweetie. If you don’t stop wearing a groove in the floor, I’m going to bloody well murder you, hide your body in my boot and send Cork on a wild goose chase looking for you.” Star smiles at me and I believe she means it.
“Your boot?” I frown.
“Trunk to you, trunk of my car,” Star smirks.
Sitting back at the table, I’m only seated for a minute when I start to stand again.
“Sit down! If you’re going to behave like this every time Cork is out of sight, you’re going to make yourself gray and old before your time.
If you don’t trust Cork to keep himself safe, trust the others to do it for him.
” Star sounds agitated, and I’m not sure I want to push her to the next stage, like being angry at me.
“I don’t know how the pair of you can sit there, as calm as you like, while your men are out there doing this shit!” I blurt out and to be honest, I’m nearly in tears.
Winter takes my hand and gives it a squeeze.
“We are just as worried as you are, but we know to conserve our energy so that if our men need us, we are fully charged and ready to do whatever they need of us. By the time they get back, you’re going to be a rundown nervous wreck.
What if Cork was injured and needed you by his side?
Within a couple of hours, you’d be exhausted and of no use to him.
You also have to remember that both of our men are prior military.
This is old hat to them. They’ve done far worse than blow up a ranch before.
There are only four thugs out there, too.
Meat or Target could do this on their own without breaking a sweat.
Wings and Chaos could too, but they're both too big of an asshole to have a good woman waiting for them.”
Sitting quietly while I digest this, Star asks if we want hot chocolate while we wait.
Halfway to the kitchen, she stops and looks towards the main door.
“They’re back, screw the hot chocolate.” Star walks towards the door, and as Meat walks in, she throws herself at him.
Jumping into his arms, she wraps her legs around him, and they immediately head for the kitchen.
Target is next through the door, and he just smiles at Winter. She smiles back, and they too get all wrapped up in each other.
Cork comes next, and as soon as I’m within arm's reach, he scoops me up and twirls me around. Instead of kissing me, he’s rattling on about explosions and such. Cutting him off, I take the kiss I want and shut him up.
Wings and Chaos walk in and, having no one to greet them, they head for Axel’s office. Five minutes later Axel’s voice booms out calling the other three to report to him immediately.
Target leaves Winter and goes to the office.
Meat and Star walk through from the kitchen, Star still doing her impression of a monkey and clinging to Meat’s chest. They stop in front of us, Star hops down, and Meat gives Cork a chin lift, then heads off.
Star takes Cork in a hug, looks him in the eye, mutters ‘thank you’, and then goes back to the kitchen.
Cork gives me a shrug as if to say he didn’t know what that was all about, and follows in Meat’s footsteps.
Walking into the kitchen, Star is busy at the stove cooking steaks.
“Why are you cooking at this time? More weirdly, why isn’t Meat cooking if it needs to be done?” This is bizarre to say the least. “What was that thing with Cork?”
“Meat wants to unwind, so he’s gonna cook them all a steak. I’m just prepping for him. Cork will get something special because he saved Meat’s life. That’s what the hug was for.”
“What? Cork saved Meat’s life? He never mentioned that! All he could spout about was explosions.” I’m amazed he missed that tidbit of information.
“From the way Meat told me, Cork doesn’t even realize what he did.
When Meat had placed his explosives, he was on his way back to join the others, and one of the thugs sneaked up behind him unnoticed.
Cork noticed, asked Target who was with Meat, and Target did what Target does best. He took the guy out with a snap shot and saved Meat’s life.
Cork will hear all about it in the office.
They are all proud of the way he handled himself tonight.
” Star looks pleased with Cork, as she should be.
“If he doesn’t tell you everything that he did tonight, I’ll tell you another time. ”
“He did more than save a brother’s life? All he could talk about was the boom and flash of the explosions. Wait 'til I get him home.” I roll my eyes.
“Dallas, be gentle with him. He might need to lean on you when all the adrenaline has settled, okay?” Star gives me a look that tells me he did something that he could regret later.
“He killed someone, didn’t he?” Realization hits me and I want to run to him and hold him.
“It’s his story to tell. But it was the right thing to do, by the way Meat tells it. I think he just beat the others to it, and it sounds like he was protecting you.”
A loud grunt sounds behind us. If Meat is back, my man is around here somewhere. Going in search of him, I almost bowl him over as I rush out the kitchen door.
“Are you ready for home?” Cork asks, but I smother him with more kisses before I answer.
“Not yet. Meat is cooking for all of you. His way of unwinding and honoring a hero, apparently,” I tell him, kissing him some more.
“Yeah. The guys just told Pres that too. If I’d really been the hero, I would’ve shot that asshole too instead of wasting time with words!” Cork sounds like he’s being hard on himself.
“Hold on there, Kemosabe. The others are all trained and experienced in that stuff. You’re a trained sommelier, and you saw something they all missed.
Don’t think like that. If you’d taken that snap shot you could’ve missed or worse, hit Meat yourself.
You gave a warning to the best man for the job, and he finished it.
You were one hundred percent responsible for saving Meat’s life. ”
“You’re biased. You would say that. I am hungry, though. I could eat a horse,” Cork quickly states.
“I wouldn’t say that too loud. Meat might just take you up on that.
You know there are some countries that do that, and I don’t doubt that he would find a damn recipe from somewhere.
Luckily my old horse would be a bit tough and stringy, so he’s safe.
” I think of my old boy enjoying his retirement with my daddy.
I should get back and see him before something happens.
“I’d like to meet your horse,” Cork says.
“What? Where did that come from?” I lean back and look to see if he’s joking with me.
“He has history with you I can’t share. I’d like to meet him. Swap some then and now stories with him. I’d get to meet your parents, too. That would be cool. I think your daddy took to me on the phone.” Cork smirks.
“It’s a bit late for that now, my man. I’m back at work, and so are you. If you hadn’t dragged your heels, we might have got together and had time to do all those things.”
“If you’d made your intentions a bit clearer, maybe I would have got the memo in time.” Cork gives me such a look that I think he’s goddamn serious!
“The only way I could’ve made my intentions any clearer would have been to use a ten-pound sledgehammer.
You were such a laid-back slow-witted dumbass, you didn’t even know I wasn’t asleep when I kissed you!
No woman kisses like that when she’s asleep, for goodness’ sake.
” I watch him trying not to laugh, and know I’ve been had.
Star calls us all into the kitchen, and we troop in one by one. When we’re all seated Star hands out plates to us all with a beautifully cooked ribeye steak. All except Cork. Meat walks over with a large oval platter, which he places reverently in front of Cork, and we all gasp.
In the center of the platter is a stunning porterhouse steak. Around that lie all types of steak. Ribeye, T-bone, Prime rib, flat iron and tenderloin. It’s like a mixed grill of just steak. He’s never going to eat all that meat, I think to myself.
Once everyone starts eating, we watch to see how Cork is holding up.
He works his way around the platter, taking a cut from each of the different steaks.
They all look delicious. He cuts the ribeye in half and gestures toward Chaos’s plate.
He lifts it over, and Cork drops the steak onto it.
Target gets some prime rib and so on until everyone has a new steak on their plate including us ladies.
I get to share the porterhouse with him.
By the time we’ve all eaten, we are stuffed, and Meat has been heaped in praise for the delicious meal. That man can cook!
We all head home for some much-needed sleep, though there isn’t long before we’re all due to be back up and ready for a new day. Cork doesn’t talk about the ranch or what happened, and so I don’t pry or push it. He’ll tell me when he’s ready, or maybe he’ll deal with it on his own.
Going back to work isn’t the fun that it was before I met Cork.
I’m pleased when I find out that it’s going to be day shifts for the first week.
That at least means we’ll get to spend time together in the evenings.
We’ve been so close for these first weeks that I’m sure we’ve been spoiled.
It will certainly feel strange not having him around.
Pryce and his juvenile humor stretch my patience on our first shift, and I have to apologize for snapping at him a couple of times.
There’s no drama at least, and the shift passes quietly.
Dropping back into the work routine only takes a couple of shifts, and then our home life routine starts to take shape. I’ve given notice on my apartment, and we’ve collected some of my gear each evening. I don’t have a lot, so it won’t be long before I’m out of there completely.
Something is bothering Cork, and I think it was whatever happened at the ranch that Star mentioned.
I don’t know if I’m feeding off Cork’s emotions, or whether the fact that I always had a bad feeling about the ranch mission is playing a part, but I still have that bad feeling.
I’ve been having some weird dreams too. The sort you don’t remember in the morning, but they disturb your sleep enough that you know you’ve had them.