Chapter 26
twenty-six
HARLOW
“It just doesn’t feel right,” I tell Jo, again. She sighs up at the ceiling in frustration. Not a single platinum blonde strand is out of place in her tight bun. Meanwhile, I’ve been pulling on my hair so much, I don’t think all the detangler in the world is going to fix it.
We’ve been trying to figure out the format for our podcast for weeks. The album comes out in five days, and we don’t even have the formatting down yet. We did come up with a name though. Melt the Ice. Because they’re cold cases that we’re looking into specifically. Ezra’s is the exception, but only by technicality. If he wasn’t declared dead without evidence, his case would be considered a cold case right now.
“You keep saying that, but you’re not offering up any ideas either.”
“We need something that stands out. That makes us different.” It’s the same argument I’ve made this entire time. We have a rough outline of what we want to do, but it just doesn’t feel like enough. For one, I want this to be a success. But even more than that, I want to bring some justice to these families that would potentially be seeking our help. Starting with Ezra.
Jo studies our calendar again. Everything is color coded. Red for band specific events. Blue for the podcast. Pink for anything Cora. Green for anything we have planned for everyone as a group, like Cora’s first birthday.
“What if we put feelers out now?” I ask. I feel like something is at the edge of my mind, trying to break through. “Cal announced our relationship on his socials last week,” I say. I made him wait a little bit so we could enjoy each other. No one ever found that rest stop from the picture I posted, so it gave as time. But since the album is coming out soon, and the tour starts close behind it, I figured it was the end of our quiet time together anyway.
“Oh, I’m very aware. Who do you think is fielding all the calls asking for information?” Jo snorts. I shake my head. She loves telling people off, so it’s not as much of a hardship for her as she’s pretending it is.
“There’s a lot of attention on me right now, so let’s use it,” I offer.
Jo taps her pen on the table as she thinks about it. “People are going to accuse you of using Cal for publicity if you do that.”
“Let them. Everyone important knows that’s not true.”
Jo sighs. “I don’t know how you can be so blasé about people attacking your character.”
“I’m not a feral cat like you,” I tell her and flinch a little at her glare. “But if we get one legitimate person reaching out for every one hundred negative comments, then it would be worth it.”
“Sometimes I don’t think I could love you more, and then you go and say something like that.” Cal comes into the dining room where Jo and I have set up our workspace. The table fits twelve people, and it’s covered in paper. He kisses me quickly and then takes the seat next to me, pulling mine closer to his so that our thighs are touching.
“Can you not show off in front of the chronically single person?” Jo complains, but I see the small smile she’s trying to hide.
“Sorry, Jo. I need to be near her at all times. If I could be in her —” he starts, but I cover his mouth. He smiles against my hand as I squint my eyes at him in warning.
Jo rolls her eyes at Cal and then turns back to me. “So, what’s your plan? Advertise our podcast and hope we get some leads in the middle of a bunch of trolls?”
“Kind of. We advertise and then list the cities we’re stopping at on the tour.” We already chose the cases we want to feature and have spoken to the families to make sure they’re also okay with us using the cases in an episode. “We know the cases. The families have all signed waivers. So if we publish our episode topics now, we can maybe look into each case while we’re in that city.” The idea unfolds as I speak. “Then when we’re back home, we sort through the tips coming in. Spend a couple of months trying to help with those cases and use the podcast to give updates and explain our process. Go over what evidence comes in. People value transparency and they won’t get it with law enforcement.”
“But they can with us,” Jo nods. “Short term, that works. They’re playing fifty shows in forty-two different cities. We only chose twelve. Aren’t people in other cities going to be upset?”
“Well, we definitely can’t do one per show,” I say. “We can end the show asking for cold cases in other areas. Make sure people are aware that this is just the first season, and we aren’t skipping over them.”
“My girl is a genius,” Cal says, kissing my temple. I smile at him even when I hear Jo complain under her breath.
“We can create a whole platform for amateur Internet detectives to use to help the case,” I say. “We’ll have to have someone moderating that though. It can get out of control quickly if we don’t.”
Jo nods, making a list of our ideas and what we need.
“That gives us,” I sigh, thinking about it, “a lot more than we can handle.”
“Maybe not. We can easily hire someone to create the platform in the way we want it. Look,” she says, turning the notepad she was writing on, “moderators will be easy to come by as well. We just really need to figure out exactly how we want the platform to be set up. Do we have forums where people can discuss cases live? That would be great but need moderating at all times. Do we just have a submission section and post the appropriate comments we get?”
“Both. Forums for discussion and submissions for any evidence or insights,” I say. “But we need to make sure whoever we hire to oversee it is as organized as you are. If they’re like me, it’ll be a mess.”
“I think we need a website and an app. I can get to work on that today.”
I smile. “That’s perfect. The platform, combined with the interviews, will give us something no other podcast has.”
“You two are going to kill it and change people’s lives at the same time. Makes me question my job.”
I look at Cal and shake my head. “You’re only saying that because I threatened to strangle anyone who throws their underwear at you.”
That makes Jo cackle. I look at her and frown. “It concerns me how much violence amuses you.”
Jo shrugs. “So, what do you think? This could really work.”
“I like it.”
“Me too. Which is why I got you presents.” Cal says, standing and strutting out of the room.
“You didn’t even know what the plan was until a minute ago!” I yell, following him anyway.
“Ta-da!” he says, arms wide in front of a ton of boxes.
“You’re giving me your recycling?” Jo asks.
Cal rolls his eyes. “Open them, demon Barbie.”
I choke on my spit at that nickname, which she’s never going to get rid of now.
Jo glares at Cal, and I swear I see her lip twitch. Is she trying not to smile?
Jo and I open box after box. It’s top of the line podcasting equipment. Expensive podcasting equipment.
“Cal,” I whisper, at a loss for words.
“Don’t even try saying you can’t accept it. You can and you will,” he says, taking my face in his hands. “Please accept it, baby.”
I pull him to me and kiss him. “Thank you.”
“You can thank me by getting naked,” he says, wiggling his eyebrows. I laugh and shake my head against his chest.
“Thanks, Cal, but I don’t need to see that,” Jo says, putting her shoes on by the door. “We can iron out the finer details tomorrow and then map out the first episode.”
She leaves before I can respond.
I smile up at Cal, and he returns it with the sweetest affection in his eyes. Then I drop to my knees and take pleasure in the way his eyes widen.
“Firecracker. Get up. I was joking.” He tries grabbing for me, but I bat his hand away and pull down his sweatpants.
“I think you deserve to be thanked,” I tell him. “Don’t you think?”
“Yeah,” he says, nodding frantically.
I laugh at his desperate, wide-eyed expression.
“Baby, it doesn’t make me feel great when you’re on your knees laughing with my cock in your hand,” he says while trying to pull back, but I lick the underside of his cock from his balls all the way to the tip. “Never mind,” he moans. “You can do whatever you want.”
I take him into my mouth, sucking gently and then taking him as far back as I can.
“Shit. Do that again. Please do that again,” he begs. Hearing Cal desperate under my touch might turn me on more than anything else he does.
I do as he asks, and then I take his hand, putting it on my head. “Fuck my mouth.”
“Fuck, Firecracker,” he breathes. “You sure?”
I nod as I lick the pre-cum from his tip.
“Tap my legs if you need me to stop, okay?” His eyes are on me, and I nod. “Words, baby.”
“Yes. I understand.”
That’s all he needed. Cal fucks my mouth just like he fucks my pussy, with a beautiful mixture of passion and aggression. I gag more than once, but that just encourages him. He keeps his eyes locked with mine as he takes what he wants from me.
“Jesus, Firecracker. There is nothing more beautiful than you on your knees for me,” he says breathlessly. His hand tightens in my hair at the same time I feel him swell in my mouth. “I’m going to come, baby. Swallow everything. Take everything.”
He comes on a shout, and I swallow every salty drop.
“You are perfection,” Cal says, pulling me directly from the floor into his arms. “I should buy you things more often.”
I laugh and snuggle into him. “That wasn’t for the equipment. That was for believing in me the way you do.”
“You believe in me the same way, Firecracker.”
“Da-dammm!”
Cal sighs, and I barely contain my laugh. There is no getting Cora to stop calling him that weird version of dad and damn she’s created.
“Better go get our girl before she learns a more creative word to call you,” I say, giggling. Cal puts me down and smacks my butt.
“Wait until she starts trying to say your name,” he says like a threat, but we both know the moment she says anything like my name, I’ll be sobbing like a baby.
Cora may not be genetically mine, but she’s become mine in every way that matters.