Shooter (Burnout)

by West, Dahlia

  Hayley was quiet for a long time and actually seemed to be considering his words. But then she said, “I can’t-” She stopped and took a deep breath. “When Jimmy kissed me? That’s the first time anyone’s touched me in five years. I don’t- I mean I can’t be what you want. There’s just no way. That woman at the picnic? I can’t ever be that.”

  “If I wanted the blond, I’d have her. And if that’s the first time anyone’s kissed you, then you don’t know what you can do. I got a pretty good glimpse of it last night and you’ve definitely got fire inside you. You may have scared yourself with it last night. You’re used to letting that head of yours talk you out of anything that seems too dangerous or out of control. But I’m a patient man. I can wait.”

  She made a face. “But you’re used to women who throw themselves at you. You can’t-”

  “Don’t tell me what I can and can’t do, Slick. I know exactly what kind of man I am. Whether you’re in my bed or down the hall, you’re mine. And if you’re mine, I’m yours. And that’s all there is to it. There won’t be any other women. That I can promise you. I’ve been through Basic, and Ranger school, and three tours and believe me, I can go without. But I won’t be going without. You’ll be in my kitchen, in my tub, and on my couch at the very least, and that’s good enough for me.”

  “Forever?” she asked, almost sarcastically.

  “Forever’s a long time, Slick. I’m not offering you forever. I’m saying for right now, for as long as you can stay, I can be faithful without asking for anything more in return than what you’re already giving me. But you’re gonna have to stop kissing Easy. That’s a rule.”

  She let out a surprised laugh. “I did not kiss Easy! He kissed me!”

  “Yeah, but you liked it. Only reason I’m willing to let it go is because you liked kissing me more. A whole lot more.”

  “How do you know?” she asked, but even in the dark he could swear he could see her blush.

  He scoffed. “You read romance novels, Slick. Pretty sure that means all the parts are in good working order. And Easy didn’t get tongue like I did.”

  “I did not-!”

  “I was there, Slick, remember? Your tongue is about as sassy in my mouth as it is in yours. And I’m not gonna ask, but you offer me a handjob again, I won’t be turning it down.”

  She considered this. “And if that’s all I can ever do?”

  “Well, then at least it’ll be your hand and not mine, and I can actually look at you while you do it instead of just jerking off by myself in the shower and picturing you, like I’ve been doing for a while.”

  Her mouth dropped open. “You don’t.”

  “I do,” he replied. “A rather embarrassing amount considering I’m well out of my teenage years.” He grinned. “There’s a thought that maybe should’ve stayed in my head, but there you go. I want you, Hayley. I want whatever you’ll give me.”

  She looked up at him and her bottom lip quivered. “You…want me?”

  “Yes. Absolutely.”

  “Not the blond?”

  He put his head back and looked up at the sky. “Jesus, you fuck up one time….You want to know why she approached you, Slick? You really want to know? Because she’s threatened by you. And she should be. You’re younger, which is a big deal to her; prettier, which is a big deal to me, and it probably didn’t help that while I was fucking her, I accidentally called her Hayley.”

  She gasped and covered her mouth with her hand. “You did not.”

  “I did. And for a while there I had the claw marks on my back to prove it.”

  “Oh, my God.” Hayley giggled in spite of herself. Then she sobered quickly. “Chris, you know, we might never-”

  “Cook for me, give me some of that sassy tongue, and I’m really hoping for the occasional handjob, since you already offered once. Anything else happens if it happens.”

  Hayley bit her lower lip until it nearly bled and then finally, slowly, nodded.

  Chris’s heart squeezed. “Yeah?”

  “Okay.”

  He took her in his arms. “You won’t regret this. I’ll make certain of it.”

  Chapter 21

  The next morning Hayley woke up in her own bed, for the last time. Chris had brought them back home after Midnight, but she hadn’t yet felt comfortable enough to just head to his place rather than her own. She’d needed time to think about a few things and she’d been too tired to do that last night.

  She slowly walked through the house, gathering her things, choosing to focus instead on the task at hand rather than any quandaries that were going to arise later. After she packed up the last of her clothes in her duffel bag, she made the bed with fresh, clean sheets and snagged Pepper off the couch.

  In Chris’ house, Pepper headed off to the kitchen, already seemingly at home. And why not? She already spent at least half her time here. So did Hayley. She walked down the hall, frowning with every step. The door to the spare bedroom sat open. It’s clean yet sparse room was familiar to her. She’d spend a few nights here, in that bed, when she’d had a few too many beers on Poker Night. She slung the bag onto the bed.

  Some small part of her, though, beckoned her to look around a little more. She hesitated in the open doorway to Chris’ bedroom. He’d already given her free reign to look around when she’d agree to cook for him, but she’d never really taken him up on the offer. She’d never been in Chris’ room aside from the night he’d been incapacitated. In the light of day it was perfectly....well, perfect. Crisp white walls, hospital corners on the bed, no clothes strewn about. It was as orderly as the rest of the house.

  There was one thing out of place, though. Stepping into the room for a better look she realized that one of the dresser drawers was half open. Edging closer she peered at it. It appeared to be empty. She took hold of the brass handle and tugged. It was, indeed, sitting empty. Empty and open.

  After staring at it for a while, she suddenly stepped toward the closet and opened the doors. She discovered a row of neat and orderly (of course) hung shirts, on the left side of the closet. The right side was bare. Chris had made it clear that the choice of bedrooms was hers, but he’d gone out of his way to make his preference known, if she cared to look.

  Pepper bounded it and leapt onto the bed. She settled into a ball in the center of the bedspread. Hayley smirked at her. “Guess we know what your vote is,” she said to the kitten.

  ***********************

  Chris was actually a little apprehensive when he pulled into the driveway at a little after five. Hayley’s little blue house was shut up tight, no windows open liked she liked to do in the cooler evenings. He picked up on the smells coming from his kitchen before he actually saw her. She was leaning against the island, paperback in hand. A pot on the stove proved to be source of what was already making his stomach growl.

  “Gonna take a shower,” he announced. She merely nodded in reply. He couldn’t tell if she was feeling the same way he was. So far, there was nothing different about this evening than most other evenings. He caught himself saying a silent prayer as he headed to the bedroom. He found the cat first, who attacked him when he came into the room. He scooped her up and nuzzled her. With his free hand, he snagged the handle on the third drawer down and tugged. Something like a mixture of relief and joy flooded him as he saw neatly folded stacks of jeans, shorts, and various female underthings. He smirked at the female underthings, but slid the drawer shut.

  “Never lived with a woman,” he confided to the deaf cotton ball, who began to purr. “Now I’ve got two of ‘em.”

  Dinner was gumbo, hot and spicy, and Chris watched Hayley diligently scrubbing the bowls at the kitchen sink when they were done. There was no pointing out to her that she was three feet away from a dishwashing machine. She’d scrubbed every utensil at least twice and picked up a fork, obviously planning on washing the shine off it.

  “Hayley,” he finally said, shattering the silence.

  Hayley, who knew damn we
ll that Chris was in the kitchen, fumbled the fork anyway after being startled, which bounced on the floor. She snatched it up and turned the water back on to wash it again. Chris finally decided an intervention was necessary. He stepped over and turned off the hot water. He took the fork from her and put it on the counter.

  “Hayley,” he repeated.

  Hayley took a deep breath and turned her head slightly toward him but didn’t really look at him. “Sorry,” she declared.

  “No need to be sorry,” he replied. He took hold of her chin, turned her head, and leaned in to kiss her forehead. “Long day today,” he announced. “Gonna hit the rack. I’ll probably be asleep before you come in. The alarm’s already set for 6:30.”

  ***********************

  Hayley watched Chris give Pepper a tickle under the chin and saunter off down the hall. Every muscle in her body went slack and she leaned against the counter. It was all well and good and easy enough to put clothes in drawers and hang shirts on hangers, but she’d put off even really thinking about getting into bed with a six foot two Army Ranger who outweighed her by more than a hundred pounds.

  She recalled falling asleep against him on the couch and understood, rationally, that Chris would never hurt her. But she also imagined all sorts of other things that bothered her more. Would she even be able to fall asleep? What if she tossed and turned all night like she usually did? What if she had a nightmare? What if, in her sleep, she forgot Chris was there and started screaming if he accidentally brushed up against her? She could imagine no way to avoid appearing certifiably insane by attempting to share a bed with him.

  She folded the dish towel and squared her shoulders. She’d made her proverbial bed, well Chris had made it, ha, and now she would lie in it. Or at least try. He’d already had to deal with her nightmares. He knew she didn’t sleep well. There was really nothing, probably, that could actually surprise the man. She didn’t relish the idea of looking crazy, but neither was there a damn thing she could do about it. So she set off for the bathroom and settled for hoping he was at least asleep by the time she was ready for bed, as he’d said he would be. It would make things far less awkward.

  ***********************

  Chris heard the bedroom door open and remained still, on his side of the bed. Well he wasn’t sure which side of the bed was “his” necessarily, because he could count on one hand the number of times he’d actually spent the night with a woman, but this side, the right side, was closest to the gun in the nightstand drawer and to him that made the most sense. He rolled on his side earlier, back to center of the bed, facing away from the door, so that he could more easily appear asleep. And non threatening.

  It had been hell watching Slick work herself into a near breakdown washing dishes, trying to put off going to bed for as long as she could reasonably get away with it. She knew he wouldn’t hurt her, but he couldn’t fault her for being stressed out in a new and wholly unfamiliar situation. In the end he decided the best course of action was to nip her fears in the bud by announcing he was beat to shit and would be sawing logs by the time she was ready for bed. Now it was time to play along with his little charade.

  He felt the sheets slide back a little and felt Hayley slip into bed next to him. He also felt the whisper of the bedspread being only slightly dented as Pepper made her way onto the foot of the bed and curled into a ball at his feet. He rolled his eyes as the rumbling of the kitten’s purr on his soles. It took quite a bit of time for Hayley to find a position that was comfortable. He couldn’t say for sure what position that was, since he was facing away from her, but eventually she seemed to settle in. True to his word, he closed his eyes again and let himself drift off to sleep. He was happy with himself for defusing a potentially awkward situation. He was even happier when he woke up.

  ************************

  Hayley couldn’t really sleep. That much was obvious. Chris liked to have the air conditioner on throughout the night and it was slightly chilly in the room. It wasn’t the only reason she couldn’t sleep, obviously, but it was the most convenient to blame. She ran through her options. She could go to the other room after getting a blanket from the linen closet. But she didn’t want to fail at this relationship-thing on the very first night. She turned slightly and gazed at Chris’ sleeping form. He was wearing a t-shirt, probably shorts, from what she could tell. His breathing was soft and even and so he must be asleep by now.

  She remembered those few moments before coming fully awake when they’d both been on the couch. His arms had been around her, his body was warm and yes, hard, but surprisingly comfortable, too. His scent had been pleasant. He was facing away from her and so any attempts to recreate that were likely to wake him up, which she didn’t want to do. She gingerly lifted herself up and moved closer to him on the bed. She put her head on Chris’ pillow and cuddled up to his back, instead. It was a lot warmer, she noticed, and it gave her almost the same sense of security she’d had when she’d awoken on the couch. She finally fell asleep a few minutes later.

  *********************

  Chris came to in the dark of his bedroom, at first a little confused. He was apparently pinned to the edge of the bed. It took several seconds for his sleep-muddled brain to process the situation. His feet were pinned because the cat was using him as a cushion. It took him a little longer to realize he couldn’t turn over because Hayley was pressed up against his back. He smiled to himself. He carefully reached back and found her hand, which had been resting on his back. He took hold of it and pulled it around, draping her arm over his side in a decidedly more formal embrace. Then he laid his head back down on the pillow and fell back asleep while marveling at having two females in his bed where none had really been before.

  Chapter 22

  Moving Slick in was quite a bit easier than moving Easy in, mostly because Easy didn’t want to be easy. He grumbled and bitched about leaving the rehab facility, even though he didn’t living there. He bitched about everything, really. By the time they arrived out front, Chris couldn’t decide whether he wanted to hand Easy the keys to the little blue house or just punch him in the face. Hayley had somehow managed to remain pretty chipper throughout the whole ordeal. She seemed to have an amazing capacity for putting up with the younger, brooding man.

  When Monday rolled around, Chris hadn’t been able to get Easy to come in to work. Jimmy had complained that his leg still hurt from moving his belongings the day before. Chris decided to let it go. On Tuesday, he only managed to get Jimmy into the garage for half a day. Wednesday had held the same luck. Thursday, though, Jimmy had become interested in Chris’ custom build of a Chevy hot rod and had spent more time looking at the engine than the clock on the wall. But he’d insisted on knocking off early, as usual, and refused to go to Maria’s for lunch with the rest of the guys. Instead he limped to Chris’ truck, with Chris thinking he was either in a lot of pain from the shitty prosthetic he was still wearing or he was exaggerating in order to be alone. Chris didn’t like either of those options very much.

  After Easy rolled out of the gravel lot while Tex, Hawk, and Chris climbed into Tex’s Hummer and headed to Maria’s down the road. It was slow and Slick was off today, but she’d said she was going shopping this afternoon and therefore the boys were going to have to fend for themselves for lunch.

  Chris’ phone buzzed as he bit into a chicken wing. He carefully dug it out of his pocket with two fingers and a napkin. Easy calling… He tapped the screen with his knuckle. “What’s up?” he asked, returning to his wing.

  “Your woman,” Easy growled. “That’s what’s up!”

  Chris glanced at the other men and frowned down at the phone. “What-”

  Into the phone, Easy yelled, “She’s launched a full scale invasion of my house, Shooter! Of. My. House!” At Hayley he shouted, “Boundaries, woman! Do you have them?”

  “Don’t take that tone with me, Jimmy!” Slick’s voice rang out on the speaker.

  Chris put down his wing. “W
hy are-”

  “You stop right there, woman!” Easy shouted. “Don’t you come any closer with that! I am not playing! Put it down, right now!”

  Before Chris could intervene, the phone disconnected. He stared at it.

  “You think she got a hold of your gun?” Hawk asked.

  Chris blinked at the man. “Negative. We talked about it. She absolutely knows she’s not allowed to shoot anyone. Not even Easy.” His scowl deepened. “Although…”