Chapter 21 #4
Cadence nuzzles his cheek. "They are teasing you, my love. I am not."
Felix dissolves into laughter again before mastering himself. "Okay, okay. Holy shit, Cadie. Okay." He takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. "So, why can't we go to the Lock Box?"
Riley shrugs uncomfortably, his arms still crossed over his chest. "I had a thing with the manager a couple years ago. It didn't end super well."
"Did it ever, with any of them?" I ask.
"Eat a dick, Manny. I don't know for sure that Wil still hates me, but there’s a better than average chance she’s liable to chuck a rocks glass at my head."
"Wil?" Felix echoes.
"Wilhelmina," Riley explains. Her parents are from Germany. She has, like, half a dozen nicknames, but mostly goes by Willa or Wil."
"Well," I say, lifting my beer. "I'd say we should try it. If she still hates you, we know it's out. If not, we're good."
Riley frowns. "I suppose." A glance at Cadence. "Would you be okay with that?"
She blinks a few times, thinking. "Yes. You had a…thing…with her a couple of years ago. If I were to take issue with you running into every female you've engaged in coitus with, we would not go anywhere."
Felix crumples into laughter again. "And burn.”
Riley eyes his fiancée almost warily. "Are you upset with me or something? Because damn, honey."
She blinks at him owlishly. "No? Why would I be upset?" She looks at Felix. "Oh. A burn is an insult. I've insulted you." Her eyes go wide as she looks at Riley again. "I apologize, dear heart. I was not intending to burn you."
Riley shakes his head, laughing as he kisses her knuckles. "It's fine. I've earned it. And it's all in good fun anyway. I'm not that man anymore." A laughing sigh. "Yeah, we can try the Lock Box. I'll just apologize to Willa, talk about my fiancée, and we'll have a new dive to go to."
Cadence frowns. "I do not understand you men and your strange obsession with what you term dive bars. They are, by every measure I can see, a poor substitute for a fine establishment such as this."
Riley rubs her back with the heel of his palm. "It's hard to explain."
"No, it's not," I say. "Cheap beer, hot waitresses in low-cut shirts, loud music, and you don't have to behave yourself." I glance at Lacey. "Just the facts."
She just grins at me. "You won't catch me at the Lock Box with you grunty cavemen, but I've got no problem with you going, as long as your hands stay to yourself and you come home to me at night.
" A pause. "And where your eyes go doesn't concern me when I'm not with you. Just don’t ogle or flirt with waitresses in front of me. Eddie does—did that and I hate it."
"I second that," Ember says, and then tugs on Felix's beard. "I do care where your eyes go, though, so keep 'em off the waitresses."
He pulls a face. "Like I have eyes for anyone but you."
I look at Lacey. "You know I—"
She leans over the table and covers my mouth with her hand, and then kisses me. "I know." She sits back down, taking one of my hands. "Just making my position clear early on. I don't do dive bars, I don't do cheap beer, and I don't do loud, horrible, Satanic music."
“It's not Satanic, just heavy," Riley says.
"It's super satanic," I stage whisper.
"You were headbanging the last time we caught a set," Riley says. "And the lead guitarist has a degree in theology. It's just music."
Lacey laughs. "I'm teasing, Rye."
"Been a lot of teasing me the last few minutes, so forgive me if I'm a little touchy."
"I can be a little touchy," Cadence says. "Perhaps that will lift your spirits."
Riley shoots to his feet, lifts Cadence clear over the table, and carries her over his shoulder out of the bar. Cadence manages to look almost dignified, hanging over his shoulder with her butt in the air—which he smacks several times, eliciting a half-hearted protest from Cadence.
There’s a tense, weird silence, and then Felix and I shoot to our feet in perfect synch.
Felix scoops his wife up, sets her on her feet, and then frog-marches her out.
Bear and Noelle just stare as I grab Lacey by the hands and yank her to her feet with enough force that she's airborne for a split-second before landing heavily against my chest, laughing breathlessly.
"It's like that, is it?" she says, eyes gleaming.
"Yes, it is."
She wraps her arms around my neck and leaps, trusting me to catch her, which I do, of course, one arm under her thighs, the other around her shoulders. "Then carry me."
"As you wish."
"As long as there are no R-O-U-S's," she says.
"What?" I ask.
She groans. "You really don't watch TV, do you? You haven't even seen The Princess Bride?"
"Maybe a long time ago."
She seems quite content to let me carry her out to my truck, Noelle and Bear following hand in hand with matching bemused expressions. "We're getting a TV, and I’m making you watch movies with me."
"Oh, the hardship," I deadpan.
We're nearly back to the farm when something occurs to me.
As long as you come home to me.
We are getting a TV.
I pull up in front of the front porch steps. "We're home."
She looks out the window at the old house, so badly in need of new siding and a new roof and a new everything inside. Then she looks at me, and she's not exactly smiling—the look is too emotionally fraught for that, but it's a joyful, contented look all the same.
"Home," she says, sniffling. "Yes." A hard swallow. "Home—I'm home."
"You aren't even aware of what you said, are you?" I ask.
She gives me a puzzled frown. "What? What did I say?"
"That it doesn't matter where my eyes go when I’m not with you, as long as my hands stay to myself and I come home to you at night. And then just now you said that we are getting a TV."
Her brow slowly furrows. "Oh. I…oh. No, I wasn’t aware of…that I said that." A worried look crosses her face. "I…Cole, I hope I'm not, like, assuming incorrectly—"
I kiss her quiet. "I spent fifteen years without you, Lace. I don't want to spend another moment apart."
"Me either," she whispers. Her hands wander toward my zipper. "In fact, we're too far apart right now. Take me inside and make love to me, Cole. Please."
"As you wish," I repeat.