Page 59 of I Do, or Dye Trying
“Yeah, he’s done a great job so far,” Raymond said bitterly.
Raymond’s mother let out a long-suffering sigh, and I had a feeling they’d had that same conversation more than once. “That doesn’t mean I want you to snatch purses, Raymond. If I’ve learned one thing these past few months, it’s that there are no guarantees on time. I don’t want to spend the time I have left visiting you in jail, Ray Ray.”
All the fight left the kid, and he released his grip on the purse that we’d been fighting over like it was the after-Thanksgiving sale at Macy’s or something. I grabbed the purse and rose to my feet then offered my hand to Raymond to help him up. He hesitatingly accepted, which was smart because I grabbed him by the collar of his shirt once he stood in front of me.
“Do what your mother says, Ray Ray. Stop making things harder on her and spend some time with her. And don’t ever insult my husband ever again.” I used my most menacing voice, which seemed to work because he swallowed hard and nodded his head sharply. I turned loose of him and faced his mother. “Ma’am, I’d be happy to help you if you’d let me.”
“You’ve helped me enough,” she said proudly. “Thank you.” I wanted to insist that I could help her, but I saw in her eyes that she wasn’t receptive to the idea. “Just make sure that purse gets back to its rightful owner.”
“I promise,” I said. “Good luck to you, ma’am.”
“Bless you,” she said to me before she turned her attention back to her son. “Get your ass in here so we can Netflix and chill.”
“Ewwww, Mom. That’s just gross,” Ray said. His face turned a flaming red color when Josh laughed so hard I worried something would rupture. “That doesn’t mean what you think.” Ray shivered hard and walked into the house with his mom.
“What does it mean then?” I asked Josh who still hadn’t stopped laughing.
“Oh, Gabe, you’re so damn funny!” Josh wiped the tears that were streaming down his face. “When teenagers tell their parents that they’re going to someone’s house to Netflix and chill it means they’re having sex.” It was the first time in my life that I felt… old. I considered myself pretty hip on terms kids were using since there were plenty of times I had to interview them in my line of work.
“Does everyone talk in code now?” I growled when I reached him on the sidewalk. “I feel like I should start taking notes for when we have kids.”
“Oh, these codes will be replaced long before then. I’ll make sure you stay on top of things though.” Josh nodded to the purse in my hand. “What are you going to tell the woman when we get back to the café?”
“I’m going to tell her the kid dropped it and I stopped to pick it up instead of continuing after him,” I replied. I would never condone Raymond’s behavior, but I’d been around long enough to know that bad deeds didn’t always equal a bad person.
“You’re such a good man, Gabe,” he said tenderly.
“You didn’t think so five minutes ago. You called me by my first name, Sunshine. You only do that when you’re pissed.”
“Well, I didn’t expect to find my brand-new husband grinding against another man’s ass so soon,” he said smartly.
“I wasn’t grinding; I was apprehending,” I argued. “So soon?” I asked, needing clarification. “Don’t tell me you actually think I’m going to stray sometime down the road?”
“No,” Josh said immediately. “That was a slip of the tongue. You have too much integrity to fool around behind my back. You would tell me if I stopped doing it for you.” He said it as calmly as if he was talking about a new pair of shoes he wanted to buy while my heart hurt just hearing those words leave his lips.
“I’m happy that you believe in me so much, but I’m a little worried that you think there could come a time when you wouldn’t be the one I wanted. I figured there’d be times that we argue, and possibly moments that we don’t like one another, but I am certain there’ll never come a day that I walk this earth and don’t want you by my side.” I leaned down and kissed his lips softly. “I’ll prove it to you,” I said, knowing that I would need to show him and not just tell him.
The police had arrived at the café when we got back. I returned the purse to the grateful lady, who introduced herself as Carol from Rhode Island. I felt guilty for lying to the police, but I also knew it was the right thing to do. Hopefully, it was the break that Raymond needed to turn his crap around.
As our time in paradise came to an end, I began thinking of ways to put an end to the situation with Jimmy. I couldn’t continue to live with the threat hanging over my family. I put the planning and plotting on the back burner until it was the final night of our honeymoon and I could no longer ignore the danger waiting for us to return.
I held my husband in my arms and made a crucial decision. I needed to find a way to draw Jimmy out of hiding and get him on my turf, so I could take him down.
RETURNING HOME AFTER TWOweeks of living in our little private oasis in Hawaii was bittersweet. I was excited to see our friends, our pets, and to sleep in our bed again. I was eager to resume filming at the news station and looking forward to the grand reopening of Curl Up and Dye after the renovations. I wasn’t looking forward to the unpleasant intrusions into our life—namely Gabe’s concern that Jimmy De Soto was still planning to strike.
I felt the tension rising and growing stronger inside him the closer we got to our departure day. He was thinking so hard that I could almost hear the gears grinding and I knew he was working out a plan in his head. He was great at covering it up, but the stress lines around his eyes gave him away. I don’t think he slept more than a few hours the night before our flight home and he didn’t sleep at all on the plane. I expected him to crash hard once we finally walked through the door, but he kicked into Josh gear and started channeling his emotional restlessness into physical activity. Hell, I’d have been okay with that ifIwas the physical exercise he’d chosen as his energy outlet, but he chose to unpack the suitcase and sort laundry.
The way I saw it, there were two ways to handle the situation: old Josh would’ve pouted, but new Josh joined in and waited for Gabe to come around because he always did. I just needed to be patient and wait for him to talkorjump him in the laundry room when his guard was down.
“I need to help with laundry more often,” Gabe said, leaning on the dryer to catch his breath. “Those clothes were clean.” He pointed to the clothes basket beneath him that caught a different type of load. I smiled at Gabe’s splattered cum on the top of the formerly clean, dark clothes.
I couldn’t resist his pert ass in the air while he was bent over to pull the clothes out of the dryer. “Good thing you have lube stashed in nearly every room,” I told him.
“Damn good thing,” Gabe agreed.
I could see fatigue from lack of sleep and a long day of travel moving in fast and hard like the pounding I’d just given him. “Baby, why don’t you go upstairs and start the shower. I’ll join you as soon as I toss these clothes back in the washer.” I smiled wryly at him.
“Don’t be too long,” Gabe said then dropped a lingering kiss on my lips before he left.