Page 10

Rebel

L ast night had been the best night of my life in more ways than one. For some reason, Lacey saw me as a potential romantic partner rather than a co-worker. I couldn’t pinpoint exactly what changed on her end. Maybe it was seeing me get patched into the Slayers and being celebrated by my club brothers. Or it could have been seeing another woman hanging all over me. Maybe it was good old-fashioned jealousy?

I wished I knew, because right now, I was worried that it might have been the copious amounts of alcohol that we’d both drunk. I’d hate to think she was more tipsy than she seemed, and that was behind her decision to follow me into the basement and jumping into my lap.

Waking up to find her side of the bed cold only increased my anxiety. She wouldn’t be the first beautiful woman to wake up and find herself in bed naked with a man who she might not have chosen sober. Since I’m the guy who never caught a break when it came to women, I was already primed for her to act like it never happened. In fact, that could be why she wanted to ride my cock so bad, because she never intended to give me more than one night.

Fuck.

I sat up in bed and ran my fingers through my hair, trying to figure out my next move. It was the weekend and since I wasn’t a prospect anymore, I didn’t have anything on my schedule. For the first time in almost a year, I was free as a bird.

Therefore, I jumped in the shower, got dressed and climbed on my bike. A ride out to our family homestead seemed like the perfect way to spend the morning. I stopped at a local florist and bought a bouquet of roses and box of chocolates. With images of my gran flickering through my head, I was soon pulling into the driveway in front of the two-story farmhouse. It had been in my family for generations, with each generation building onto it and ensuring it was kept in immaculate condition for the next generation.

I came up the steps and opened the front door. I could smell the scent of pancakes and maple syrup as I walked in. Making a beeline for the kitchen, I found my grandmother sitting at the table in her long velvet robe working on a word search puzzle while her caregiver scurried around plating up her breakfast.

Her caregiver, Beatrice, caught sight of me first and said, “Good morning, Mr. Ross.”

My gran eagerly looked up from her puzzle book and a brilliant smile lit up her face when she saw that I came bearing gifts. “It is my birthday again, so soon?”

I held out her flowers first and then her chocolates. “Even better. It’s your unbirthday. You only get one birthday a year but three hundred and sixty four unbirthdays.”

“You used to love Alice in Wonderland when you were a boy.”

I sat down beside her. Intent on spoiling her breakfast, I opened her box of chocolates and slid them near enough for her to help herself, before explaining, “It was never Alice that I liked. It was the Mad Hatter. He was mad, like me.”

My grandmother laughed before clutching at her chest for a second. “You’re going to be the death of me, Benny. But I’ll die laughing and that’s more than most folks can claim.”

I reached out and patted her small, thin hand. “You’re going to live to be a hundred and twenty. Just wait and see.”

Her expression darkened, “I’ve already lived too long, Benny.” Her bottom lip trembled but she didn’t say the rest. I already knew what she was thinking. She had said before that no parent should outlive their own child. She had even mentioned that at my mother’s eulogy. Her funeral had been packed with people who knew and loved her. Her death had left a gaping hole in both our lives.

My gran just sat there staring straight ahead, as if she were replaying it all in her head. The only indication that she was cognizant of what was going on around her and not totally lost to old memories was her hand reaching out to get a chocolate and bringing it to her lips. After a few seconds, she nibbled a small bite off the end and murmured, “This is good chocolate, Benny. You always get the good stuff.”

I told her a tall tale, “Well, you know all the other chocolate companies went out of business back in seventy-four. This is the only kind they make, so it’s good that it happens to be your favorite. Otherwise, you’d be out of luck.”

My grandmother gave me a withering look. “Benny, you were made in the spitting image of your grandfather, may he rest in peace. Along with his unruly hair, big hands, and ungainly gait, you inherited his love of joking. And just so you know, I do not approve of lying. Not at all.”

“Now Grandma,” I said soothingly. “You know it’s not lying if the lie is too big to be remotely believable. It’s a tall tale. A completely different animal altogether.”

Just then Beatrice put down a huge platter of pancakes and my grandmother said primly, “Let’s put all this business with tall tales aside for the moment and have some breakfast.”

“You know what they say about pancakes, right?”

By this point my gran was onto me. She stifled a smile and told me, “No, I don’t know what they say about pancakes and neither do you. You’re just angling to tell another tall tale. Eat, and then we’ll go for a walk and pick blackberries. You can take some to those starving boys you hang around with.”

“Yes, ma’am.” She’s only ever met Storm and Celt. To my gran’s credit, they really had been hungry that day. She had loaded them down with fruit and berries, marveling at how much they could eat at one sitting.

By the time our visit was over, my gran had managed to tell a tall tale or two herself. I ended up with a gallon bag of blackberries because her gardener forgot to cut back the bushes last year, so she got a bumper crop, some larger and healthier than others but all of them were edible. I barely managed to fit them in the compartment on the back of my bike.

***

On the way home, I thought about last night. I couldn’t seem to get Lacey out of my mind to save my life. When I was riding through town, I decided to call her to see if she would like some blackberries. She said she would, and I could drop them off at her parents’ house, where she was still staying.

Her parents lived in a two-story light colored brick house in a solidly upper class neighborhood. It was clear that Lacey had a very different upbringing from me. Other than our family homestead, our family had very little. It was the one thing we took genuine pride in.

She answered the door right away when I rang the bell, all smiles.

I held out the blackberries, “I come bearing gifts, ladybug.”

She grinned, “Berries instead of flowers. That’s a welcome change around these parts.”

Before I could think of something clever to say in response, her mother approached us. “Welcome, Mr. Ross. Lacey has told us so much about you. I’m glad to get the opportunity to put a face to the name.”

I shot Lacey a quick glance. She spoke up immediately, “I told them all about how you’ve helped turn Livingstone Electrical around by improving customer service and completing a record number of jobs each week.”

They ushered me into their living room where Lacey’s father was sitting in a recliner watching television. He clicked it off immediately. I walked over to shake his hand. “It’s good to meet you, sir.”

“You as well. Have a seat. Lacey has been telling us what a prolific worker you are. Do you mind if I ask where you got your training?”

“Not at all, sir. I had an electrical MOS in the Army. They have very strict standards. I managed to get in enough hours to qualify as a Master Electrician, so I sat the exam.”

“That’s the way to do it. You get paid to train rather than paying someone else to train you.”

“Yes, sir. That’s about the size of it.”

Lacey was still holding the hefty bag of blackberries. She held them up for everyone to see. “These are larger than anything I’ve seen before. Where did you get them?”

“I rode out to visit my grandmother this morning. She insisted upon picking blackberries, so that’s what we did. We had a great visit, and it gave her caregiver a bit of a break.”

Lacey spoke up, “You said she has some medical problems, right?”

I nodded, not particularly liking where this conversation was going. “Yes, she has cardiac problems, but other than that, her doctors say she’s in good condition for her age.”

Gesturing at the bag of berries, I asked, “What do you have in mind for your berry acquisition?”

She just shrugged, “Blackberry cobbler, blackberry cobbler, and then maybe some more blackberry cobbler if there are enough berries.”

I grinned, “So there’s no blackberry pancakes, muffins, jam, or pie. Just cobbler all day long and then some.”

Her mother’s expression lit up, “I love that expression and yes, we’re big cobbler fans. We usually do peach, so this will be a treat for us.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll send you some,” Lacey said with a smile.

“I wouldn’t turn down cobbler,” I told them. Worried I might have overstayed my welcome I stood up and said, “It was nice meeting you both. Hope you enjoy the berry bounty. I’m due at the clubhouse to do some wiring for our security cameras, so I’d better get going.”

Lacey and her mother came to their feet, but her father just reached for the remote control. He was a man after my own heart for not standing on ceremony. Lacey and her mother talked to me all the way to the door. On the one hand it made me feel welcome but at the same time it was all kinds of awkward. I really wanted to ask Lacey why she’d left without telling me this morning, but I couldn’t very well do that with her mom present. However, the fact that she seemed really happy to see me made me think that I hadn’t scared her off.

The woman I hoped to make my own walked me out to my bike. I threw one leg over the seat, intending to talk to her for a bit. Once we were alone, I decided to broach her absence this morning, “You tore out of my bed pretty early. Hope the four rounds of sex didn’t scare you off?”

She grinned at me. “Not one bit. I have to admit I was feeling it this morning and if we’d added a round of morning sex I might have been walking funny for the foreseeable future. You were totally out for the count and I didn’t want to wake you, so I left a note on the nightstand. I only left early because I promised my mom that I would help her convince Dad to go to his medical appointment later in the week.”

“Yeah, old men can be stubborn that way. Maybe he’s just tired of the womenfolk fussing over him. Tell him that if he wants, I can get a sidecar for him and take him there myself. We can grab a beer afterwards.”

She frowned, “He can’t have beer with his meds.”

“That’s fine. I can get him a nonalcoholic beer. If your mom’s worried, she can meet him at the doctor’s office. If he’s not interested, that’s cool too.”

Her mouth fell open for a brief moment. “No, I think he might really enjoy something like that. He’s on a new treatment and has been more coherent lately. I think anything we can do to get him out in the community will help, doing normal things will be good for him.”

I was glad she thought I could be helpful, I told her, “Let me know what he says. If he’s interested in the sidecar, I can bring an extra helmet. So he doesn’t have to worry about that.”

Lacey stepped close and slipped her arms around me. Giving me a tight squeeze, she whispered, “Thanks for offering to give him a nice new experience. He really needs that right now.”

“I’m happy to do it. Your old man seems like a cool guy. I like the stories you tell about him starting a bowling club for his employees and inviting them to family events. He’s my kind of guy, a role model for the next generation.”

She pulled back, looking a bit suspicious. Poking me in the ribs, she asked, “Who are you and where did my grumpy partner go?”

I frowned at her gentle teasing. Before I could respond, she jumped on her tiptoes to look me in the eyes. “Blink once if you’re still in there Benny, and twice if you need help.”

“You’re not funny. You know that, right?” Even though I was saying the words, I was fighting to keep an expression of amusement off my face.

“Yes, I am. If I weren’t, you wouldn’t be smiling.”

“Call or text me about your old man. I’ll see you at work on Monday.”

She nodded, still smiling away. “See you on Monday and thank you for taking an interest in my dad. I appreciate it more than you know.”

I put on my helmet and sped away, thinking that this woman I’d been hoping to impress might just be developing real feelings for me. Something constricting around my heart loosened a notch.

Before heading to the clubhouse, I rode up and back down the coast and let myself enjoy the idea that Lacey might be my one —my chance at the kind of happiness that my club brothers seemed to be finding. Maybe it was finally my turn for some true happiness? Between getting patched into the club and Lacey coming to me all on her own and asking to be with me. Who would have thought all this goodness would come my way at the same time?

I was thrilled later that day when Lacey sent me a text letting me know that her dad was jazzed about riding in the sidecar. It was something he remembered from old black and white movies and had always wanted to do. She said her mom was so happy to finally get him to his follow-up appointment that she got tearful about it. These were nice, decent people, and it did my heart good to help them out in their time of need.

I had a couple of club brothers with sidecars and texted them both asking to borrow one. I knew my chances were good because they both regularly loaned them out.