Chapter 28 #3
“Just to say, I have no interest in cooking, cleaning up a kitchen or making my bed when I’m on vacation. That doesn’t say vacation. So…all-inclusive.”
“We agree vacation philosophies so…fine.”
“Only you could pretend somewhat convincingly you aren’t excited to go to an island all-inclusive.”
“I’m only pretending because you’re rubbing in your win.”
“Oh yeah, I’m doing that,” he murmured, deep voice vibrating with humor. “But are you gonna keep it up while we look at packages?”
“Only for part of the time. Then I’ll get excited.”
To that, I got a grin and an order. “Grab your laptop, babe.”
I grabbed my laptop.
We decided on Turks and Caicos.
And I pretended to be annoyed only part of the time.
Then I got excited.
That big king bed and a room with a view of tranquil blue waters?
Oh yeah.
Very excited.
* * *
The next day was Super Bowl Sunday and Knox and I were at a big party at Mace and Stella’s.
Everyone was there. Stella had laid out a massive nacho station in her dining room. But there were chips, dips, and bowls of M&Ms and cashews all around.
I was scrunched in a chair with Knox, not watching the game.
Watching other things.
“This is—” I began.
“Don’t,” he warned, eyes to the TV.
“But it’s—”
“Babe, leave it.”
I crossed my arms on my chest and stewed.
I felt Knox’s attention shift from the game to me, so I looked at him.
“Didn’t you learn from us that it’s gotta go how it’s gotta go?” he asked.
I did not concede this point.
Because Roam and Alice were avoiding each other like the plague, and I wasn’t the only one who noticed. Moses’s eyes followed both of them. Shirleen’s did too.
Oh, and Cap’s did too.
And Gemma kept casting longing glances at Brady, who was pretending she was just a bud, thus staking her in the heart with every bullshit friend move he made.
But Liam and Shanti had this act down pat. They were both acting like they were besties. Joking. Ribbing. Giving each other shit.
And they weren’t fooling anyone, not even themselves.
Last, now that I’d seen Lan’s reaction, I was watching him watch Joey.
Joey was clueless, but not because she was clueless. Because Lan was doing such a good job hiding he was watching her. It was only that I’d caught his frown at the wedding committee meeting that I could see it.
I leaned into Knox’s ear and told him, “You need to have chats with them.”
“Not gonna happen.”
I pulled away and demanded, “Why not?”
“Luna, you wanted to keep us a secret so everyone would stay out of our shit.”
“Yeah, but we were sleeping together then, not dancing around each other like idiots.”
“Then we danced around each other like idiots for thirteen months.”
It totally sucked when his point bested mine.
I started stewing again.
“It’ll be what it’ll be,” he said gently.
“Whatever,” I replied.
“Do you think, even for a second, that either of us, or Raye and Cap, Jessie and Eric, Mace, Tex, fuck, any of us would let them be unhappy for the long haul?”
And it totally sucked when he said something and that meant I couldn’t settle in my stew.
I blew out a breath and gave in. “Okay. I’ll let it happen how it happens.”
He gave me a squeeze. “Good call.”
My eyes fell on Shaw.
“So Shaw’s the only one who’s free and breezy,” I remarked.
I got another squeeze and looked back at Knox.
“Leave it,” he ordered again.
“What?” I asked.
“No matchmaking either.”
I thought about it and said, “I don’t have anyone to match him with.”
“Thank fuck,” he muttered, and went back to the game.
I mentally perused my friend posse, most of which was in that room, but there were some outliers.
And no.
No one was good enough for Shaw (that was one reason why they were outliers).
I guessed we’d have to wait and see on that one.
“Share another plate of nachos?” I asked my guy.
“Perfect,” he muttered to the game.
I unwedged myself and went to the dining room table to scoop up a shit-ton of nachos on a plate.
I grabbed a bowl of cashews so they’d be close on the way back.
I rewedged myself with my man.
In the end, Knox was happy because his team won.
And I was happy because the halftime show rocked.
* * *
“Turn on the audio.”
“I’m not turning on the audio.”
“We need to hear what’s going on.”
“I’m not turning on the audio. They should have privacy. It’s skeevy just watching it.”
“I could listen to the audio.”
It was Monday after my shift. I was in the control room with Knox, Moses and Jeff.
Knox and I were the ones backing and forthing about the audio.
The last one to speak was Moses, and I knew why he wanted to listen to the audio.
I’d had a word with Tito.
Tito told me he’d do what he could.
So now he was in the conference room with Shirleen and Marjorie, brokering a peace deal.
We were voyeuring the sitch.
Without audio.
As such, I was dying to hear what was happening.
At first, Shirleen had a lot to say.
Then Marjorie had a lot to say.
Gesticulating started to happen, and that was when Tito started to talk.
Surprisingly, both women piped down and listened to him.
That was what was happening now.
Moses reached to a switch, but as he did, everyone in the conference room stood up.
Marjorie and Shirleen headed to the door, talking to each other, nodding, and then they both started laughing.
Whoa.
“Fucking hell,” Knox muttered.
We heard the laughter in the hall.
I watched as Tito stood.
He looked to where the camera was and gave it an OK sign. He then gave it a hang ten sign.
The man was wearing yellow-framed sunglasses, a blue fedora with glitter on it, a Hawaiian shirt, board shorts, and red Keds.
How had he—I checked the clock on the bottom right of that screen—negotiated peace between those two women in twenty minutes?
Now we heard their laughter outside the door to the control room, then said door opened and Shirleen swung in.
“Gonna get an appletini with Marjorie, hon,” she said to Moses like this was the most natural thing in the world. “She’ll bring me home or I’ll get a Lyft.”
“Gotcha,” Moses choked out. “Let me know when you’re heading home. I’ll start dinner.”
She sent him an air kiss then said, “Hey, kids,” to Knox and me. “If I don’t see you before you go, have fun on vacation.” And with that, she disappeared.
Not so news: we were leaving for Turks and Caicos Saturday morning.
“Should we ask him?” I inquired, watching Marjorie return to the conference room to get Tito. “Or will the magic dissipate if it’s spoken of directly?”
“I think he’s going for drinks with them,” Jeff remarked.
We watched as Tito left the conference room with Marjorie.
We shifted to another screen.
And there they were, walking down the hall, Tito having tucked both their hands in his elbows, and connected, they walked down the hall, entered the outer office, and left.
“No asking him now,” Moses muttered.
“I say don’t question it,” Jeff suggested. “If that worked, let’s allow the fragility of it to strengthen so we don’t have to hear what section whatever, paragraph whatever, subsection whatever says as quoted to Shirleen all the time.”
“I vote for that,” Moses seconded.
Cody came into the room.
I took a good look at him.
We didn’t have a lot of Cody time. He mostly did second shift control room. He was also younger than all of us by several years. He might pitch up at a pool party or a bar, or the Super Bowl gig that just happened (something he did), but not often, partly because he was working during happy hour.
Still, he was cute.
“Did I see Shirleen and Marjorie linking arms with Tito wearing a glitter fedora in the hallway?” he asked.
“That man in the glitter fedora just created a tentative peace. Don’t speak openly about it. It might shatter,” Jeff joked.
“I’ve erased seeing them from my memory,” Cody replied.
Boy, that handbook recital must be getting old.
I didn’t doubt it.
“We’re out,” Knox said, pushing up from his chair.
That meant I had to push up from mine, and that was a bummer, considering it was fun hanging with these dudes and watching stuff I didn’t know why they were watching it (outside the Shirleen/Marjorie/Tito deal—I didn’t ask what was happening on the other screens because they couldn’t tell me), but it was important regardless.
Anyway, there were lots of knobs and buttons, and everyone knew when there were lots of knobs and buttons, it was fun.
See what I mean about this being the command deck?
Knox must have read my face because, after we said our goodbyes and headed out, he said, “It seems fun. Spend a whole hour in there, it will be very unfun.”
“Is Cody getting over being stuck in there?” I asked.
“Yeah. And Mace wants him in the field, training. He also wants to send him up to Denver for a while so he can work with Brody and Vance and extend his tech skills. So we’re recruiting again.”
“Ah. So you’ve alerted the modeling agencies.”
He gave me a startled look, then burst out laughing.
After that, he slung an arm across my shoulders and kept it there all the way to the parking lot, where we separated for him to go to his truck, and me to go to the Prius.
I got to use my new card thingy to release me from the parking fees.
And the second-best part of my day occurred.
I followed Knox home.
So I could get to the best part of my day.
Being home with my (two) guys.
* * *
Knox had just finished lavishing pretty much every inch of my body with attention.
It was time to return the favor.
He agreed, since he let me roll him, and then with fingers, lips, tongue, even my nose, I covered every inch of him, from his delicious mouth to his strong jaw, his neck, his throat, his collarbone, his pecs, nipples (you get me).
I was dipping into the dents in his abs when he put his hands under my arms and dragged me up his body while he sat up.
I straddled him.
He reached between us to position his cock.
I settled down so he could fill me.
He filled me.
Perfect.
“This getting to know each other better thing is great,” I whispered, wrapping my arms around his shoulders.
“Yeah,” he agreed, gliding his hands up my back.
I started moving.
We started kissing.
Outside, the waves lapped against the shore.
I had no idea why I fought this vacation with my man.
It was totally worth Raye turning Jacques bougie.
It was worth everything.
* * *
Two weeks later…
We all stood on the sidewalk opposite what was left of Head Southwest.
By “we,” I meant everyone.
The Avenging Angels.
The Hottie Squad.
All the Rock Chicks.
Most of the Hot Bunch.
Tito. Tex. Nancy. Dream. Byron. Mom. Dad. Titus. Alexis. Bill. Zach. Linda. Martha. (Okay, most everyone from Oasis Square.) Jinx, her man Noah. Duane and all our girls from the diner. The Kevster.
We could just say, Annette and The Kevster put on one helluva opening.
Just sayin’: Ritz crackers and squirtable cheese.
And that was even before the place was firebombed.
The firemen were rolling up their hoses.
Water was dripping down on the ashen remains of tie-dyed tees, peace sign blankets, and elaborate bongs.
The Chief of Police was also there, glowering at our group.
No one said anything.
When the first fire truck started to roll away, a voice sounded.
“Um…I think I have some explaining to do.”
We all turned in unison to that person.
But even before I did, I realized the Angels’ hiatus was over.
And boy…
I was not wrong.
The End
The Angels Adventures will continue with…
Avenging Angels: Ambush