“Have you ever broken a bone?” one of the younger ones called out.
“Most of ‘em,” he said.
“Have you met Gisele?”
“Yep,” he said. “She’s overrated. No sense of humor.”
“How many women have you kissed?” a girl asked.
“Until I’ve kissed a girl as beautiful as you, not enough,” he said.
It was a skill that he could juggle, another that he could balance that thing on his head, now he was listening and being witty. “What year did they hold the first Olympics in Ancient Greece?” she called out and everyone turned around.
Trick ducked to thrust the skittle in the air and caught it under his arm after each of the balls fell back into his hands. He smiled right at her. “776,” he said. “B.C. of course… though there’s evidence they may have started before then.” Taking the skittle from under his arm, he dropped it and the balls to the coffee table and began to saunter toward her. “They were held in honor of Zeus… contestants were male…”
“And?” she asked as he came up close and rested his forearm on the frame above her.
“Nudity was common,” he said. While the youngsters giggled and whooped, he ducked to kiss her. “How did you sleep?”
“Better than I have since we were last together,” she said, resting her hands on his chest. “Where is everyone? How did you end up with—”
“Your mom is upstairs in a special Strickland bubble bath.”
Grinning, she almost laughed. “You drew my mom a bath?”
Pride made him boast. “Not just any bubble bath, the king bubble bath of all bubble baths,” he said.
“Hmm,” she said, overwhelmed and in love, she linked her fingers at the back of his neck. “I might be jealous.”
Bumping his head down to hers, Trick murmured, “All your bubble baths come with me in them from now on.”
An addition her mother wouldn’t have appreciated. Straightening her arms, Lyla arched up. “And my Auntie Ann?”
“At the store with a neighborhood posse, they’re buying up the place so we can have a cookout this afternoon. Getting everyone over all at once is the best way to stop the door a-knocking every minute.”
How did he know this stuff? It made such good sense. “The funeral is on Monday,” she said, returning to reality. “We couldn’t do it at the weekend.”
“I know, Ann told me… and you need pallbearers.”
Reality sucked. She exhaled and found the worry that she’d been without for the last few minutes. “I know, I don’t even know who to—”
“Hey,” he said, smoothing his hand down her cheek. “I’ve got it. Don’t even worry about it for another second.”
Pulling her body closer to his, she wanted to climb inside him where it was safe. “When are you leaving?”
Lyla didn’t want to face the idea of being without him, but she didn’t want to be blind-sided by his departure.
“I’m not,” he said. “Josie is on her way over with stuff from my place, and from yours. We’ll have clothes, whatever we need, and Sadie is taking care of Risk.”
This was like some kind of parallel universe; Trick was taking care of her. Calm, rational, organized, this was the real Trick. No joking, no being unreliable, he was a rock. “But the show—”
“I told Bunyan where he could stick the show,” Trick said. “I told him he’s got two weeks of footage, if he wants to run it, he can and we’ll see where we are after. If—and that’s a big if—we decide to carry on we should talk about last Wednesday’s show, I don’t know if you saw it, but—”
Smiling, Lyla shook her head and pulled him down for a kiss. “Please don’t insult me by suggesting I might think you did anything to hurt me,” she whispered. “I don’t care what the world thinks. I care what we think. I care that I love you. I care that you’re here. I care that…”
Her voice wobbled and she had to suck in a breath to catch her tears.
“Baby,” he murmured. “You go back downstairs and I’ll—”
“No, they’re not sad tears, I… I’m just overwhelmed. You’re being so incredible and I… I was really struggling, I couldn’t admit it, but… I lost you and then losing my dad so soon after… I thought I was being punished.”
“What the hell could you be punished for?” he asked. “You’re the most amazing woman in the world, and you didn’t lose me… You’ll never lose me.”
“All the way?” she asked. “This is us, all the way?”
He nodded, but someone behind them laughed. “Lyla asked Trick to go all the way.”
Trick turned his back on her and she let her face fall against his spine as he addressed the kid who was probably the same age as the twins. “We’re married, dork-weed, all the way is in the contract,” Trick said and she smacked his hip.
“You can’t call kids that,” she whispered.
“You’re lucky I didn’t swear,” Trick tossed over his shoulder.
“You better not,” she said, wrapping her hands around him to hook her thumbs into his front belt loops. It felt so good to be able to press her body into his like this, to take his strength and lean, just like he’d said.
Another kid guffawed. “Her hands are right there at your junk.”
Trick laughed too. Geez, teenage boys were really something, and her husband was apparently at their level. “Maybe, hubby, you should remember how vulnerable your junk is when my fingernails are this sharp,” she said and when he stopped laughing, she smiled.
She was playing, and he knew that, but this was what she needed, to just be herself with the man she loved. “If my wife is threatening our fun times, we’re all in trouble,” Trick said. “You kids, out back, all of you, we’ve got setting up to do.” Trick moved back a step, pressing her to the wall of the archway again, though she kept her place nuzzled against his back. “No one crosses the property line! Everyone stay in the yard and if you see a stranger scream fire.”
Laughing, Lyla waited until the herd was gone before she asked, “Fire?”
He shrugged. “No one comes when you shout rape… I tried it.”
“You tried shouting rape?” she asked. He unhooked her thumbs and turned around. “I can actually believe that you did.”
“I’ve gotta go setup for this cookout. I’ve got tables that need set and catering on the way,” he said. “If I get you a blanket and a good book, can I trust you alone for an hour?”
“Alone?” she asked. “I don’t get to help out back?”
Stretching an arm above her head, he leaned over her and scowled an apology. “I’m sorry, sweetheart, I’m just worried that you might be a bad influence on these kids. They’re at a very impressionable age and with your questionable reputation—”
“I’m not wearing panties right now.”
He immediately grinned and exhaled a laugh. “See, stuff like that,” he said, but his glittering interest betrayed he wasn’t going to take the risk she was only playing. “Really? Are you really not?”
Scooping a hand under her skirt, he fondled her ass and she laughed when he felt the cotton and grumbled in disappointment. “I had you.”
“You always have me,” he said and bowed to kiss her.
Taking her hand, Trick led her through the kitchen and down the stairs to the back porch. “What would you have done if I wasn’t?” she asked.
“Walked around with a boner for the rest of the day,” he said. “The kids would’ve been traumatized.”
“Traumatized?” she asked. “Your penis isn’t that scary.”
“Well, thank you, but I would’ve kept it in my pants,” he said, stopping at the edge of the yard to pull her against him. Wrapping her in his arms from behind, Trick propped his chin on her head, and settled against the rail at the outer edge of their deck. “Most of these boys are getting to the age where they’re terrified of the dreaded spontaneous boner. How bad would it be for them if they saw me, a grown guy, unable to contain his? They’d think it happen
s forever, that they never get over it.”
That was kind of a contradiction. “But if you can’t control it? Doesn’t that mean they never will get over it?”
“I got over it for a decade and a half… and then you came into my life.”
“Are you trying to flatter me?” she asked, wriggling deeper into the vee of his thighs.
“Why would I do that? Because if you like me, there’s the prospect of me getting laid? No, why would I do that…?” Lowering his mouth to her hair, he breathed in. “Why? Is it working?”
“Wait until I take my panties off later and we’ll find out,” she said, pulling his arms further around her body. “Shouldn’t we help them?”
The kids were running around trying to open folding tables and crates of utensils. “Nah,” he said. “What’s the point of having minions if we don’t take advantage of them?” She tutted at her husband and moved forward, but he tensed his arms and she bounced back. “I’m thinking about my mom.”
She didn’t get it, until she remembered what he’d said on the bus once upon a time and she arched her back to push her ass into his groin. “I thought you didn’t have a boner.”
“I lied,” he said, “we’ll just wait here a minute until it goes away.”
It had been a couple of weeks since they’d had sex, he probably had some pent up frustration lingering in his system. “Ok,” she said and exhaled to lean on him again. “I used to think you thought of me as a sister.”
“Yeah,” he said, with a scowl in his tone. “Where did that come from by the way? What the hell did I ever do to make you think Caligula and me were bros?”
It was funny, but so attractive, when he referenced anything she’d told him about history. “You didn’t want to sleep with me, not back at the start.”
“Who said that?”
Sheesh, he had a short memory. “You did,” she said. “You said at the wedding that you weren’t attracted to me.”
“Ha,” he said in a single laugh. “No, I didn’t. I said you weren’t my type and you’re not. The women I went for before you were easy, blonde, bimbos… You’re none of those things, love.”
Maybe not all of them. “I’m pretty easy,” she said.
They both thought about it for a second. “Yeah, ok, you are pretty easy.”
“And I could go blonde.”
“Nope,” he said. “I love your hair. Don’t touch it.”
“I could pretend to—”
“I love your mind more than I love your hair,” he said, anticipating what she was going to say. “And what was it you said to Kira? If you were the same as every girl who came before, this wouldn’t be what it is, would it? I never loved any of the other girls. I love you. And I don’t want you to change a damn thing about yourself.”
“Mr. Strickland!” one of the girls called out.
“Shit,” he said with a smile in his voice. “She makes me sound like a damn hockey coach.”
Trick kissed the back of her head and eased her forward so he could go over to help the girl who was struggling with the table.
That was him, her husband. He was nowhere close to resembling any hockey coach, but he was hers, and he was here, taking care of business. Lyla had never been more in love or certain of her future than she was right now.
TWENTY-SEVEN
“Thank you for coming,” Lyla said and the neighbor whose hand she was shaking began to guide her toward the house like they wanted to be walked out through the building.
Trick had been impressed by his wife’s fortitude loads of times, but just when he thought she couldn’t do any more, she surpassed herself.
Far as he could tell, the cookout had been a good idea. It seemed to be a success and it had turned into an impromptu celebration of the life of the man he wished he’d had time to get to know better.
Standing at the edge of the yard, Trick scanned those who were still seated around the tables and made sure no one looked to need anything. The kid at the end of the table closest to him noticed him looking and averted his eyes.
Hmm, interesting.
The kid was Lyla’s cousin, Todd. She’d said he was thirteen, not a great age. The kid was just starting his journey to adulthood. Trick decided he’d have to stay away from the teenager, make sure not to have any negative impact on the boy who was probably a good kid.
Todd glanced at him again, and Trick slipped his hands into his pockets.
The neighbors had fallen into two categories that he was familiar with. The ones who did everything they could to be as near him for as long as possible, and those who were terrified to get within twenty feet of him. He’d thought he’d done ok with the family. It was important that he did given that he’d be seeing a lot more of them, but the kid seemed nervous.
As he considered what he might have done to scare the kid, Trick saw Todd rise from the table and start toward him. Good, ok, so he wasn’t scared, that was good. But why the hell did he look so shifty?
“S’up?” Todd asked when he got to him.
Ok, so they were just two cool dudes hanging out, Trick could do that without corrupting the kid. “Nothing,” Trick said. “How you doing, kid?”
“Good… I’m cool.”
Trick didn’t want to smile, but the kid was really trying his best to be gangsta. Grabbing his shoulder, Trick gave him a shake. “Don’t try so hard, man,” he said, laughing and punching his arm. “I’m the one trying to impress you, ok? And we’re family now, right?”
Todd did seem to relax; he smiled at least, so Trick took that as a good sign. “So you’re… you’re sticking around?”
“Sticking around?” he asked. “Yeah. Why wouldn’t I?”
“Joy says you’re only here ‘cause of the show, that you and Ly aren’t really married.”
Great, everyone had an opinion. Taking a mental breath, Trick reminded himself that these were just kids. “I’m sticking around. I love Lyla, I’m in this for the long haul.”
He had respect for the kid trying his best to step up for his cousin, even if there was fifteen years between them. If it ever came to it, Trick would let Todd kick his ass for hurting Lyla, not that he ever planned to, but if he did, he’d let the kid do his worst and wouldn’t fight back, just ‘cause it was the right thing to do.
“But Lyla’s so… plain… that’s what everyone says.”
Backtracking, Trick folded his arms and frowned. “Really? Who says?”
Todd blinked and took a half-step backward as he blanched. “I… I love Lyla, but she’s… she never had guys around. Mom says she’s got high standards.”
Trick smiled. “Then she married me and you realized they were bullshitting you?” Damn, it was hard not to swear. He put an arm around the kid’s shoulders. “Listen, man, most women fall into a category, some of them you’ll know already, some of them you’ll learn. But once in a while, like once in a blue moon, a woman comes along who doesn’t fall into a category… Your cousin Lyla is one of those women. She’s smart. Headstrong. Modest. Kind… And the sexiest woman I ever met. You want to find yourself a woman just like her and don’t settle for anything less than a woman who grabs your heart so tight you feel it in your balls, you know?”
The kid’s eyes were wide for a second, then he blinked and looked away like he had at the table. “And how do you… get her to like you back?”
“Kid, you’ve got time, plenty of time to…” Todd looked to the table, and then away again. When Trick followed his gaze, he saw a freckle-faced redhead steal a look at them and he couldn’t stop his grin as he cajoled the kid with a shake. “Hey, man, you’ve got one on the hook.”
Todd’s face went bright red and Trick turned them away from the table to huddle. “What’s her name?” It better not be Joy who thought his girl was plain.
“Stacy,” Todd mumbled, looking at the grass beneath their feet. “She’s Joy’s twin, like me and Avril.”
Nodding, he gave the kid’s chest a pat. “Good, something in common, g
ood springboard… You talk to her? You hang out?”
Todd shook his head. “Joy asked me to the Halloween boy-girl dance.”
Sisters. Interesting. Complicated. “But you want Stacy?”
Todd’s head shot up. “I want to go with Stacy. I don’t want… I don’t want Stacy.”
“Right,” Trick said, “my mistake.” Apparently, there was a difference, he was out of practice with teenage lingo. “Did you ask her?” Again, Todd shook his head. “There’s your problem.” Slapping the kid between the shoulder blades, he grinned. “Go ask her.”
He might as well have suggested the kid run for President, Todd managed to look terrified and bereft all at the same time. “I can’t do that! I can’t… I can’t just… ask her.”
“Sure you can,” Trick said. “Joy asked you. Just do it like she did.” He frowned. “You did say no to the sister, right?”
“I… I said I’d think about it.”
Ok, that was better than agreeing, but worse than a flat no. “That’s ok,” Trick said, giving him a pat. “That’s ok, we can pull this back.”
“We?” Todd asked, searching his eyes.
Trick had never seen anyone look so grateful and hopeful in all his life. “You need help with homework, call Lyla… You want advice on women…” Trick winked. “You call me.”
“I can… I can call you? Like… on the phone?”
“Sure,” Trick said. “Like I said, we’re family.”
Glancing over the kid’s head, he saw Stacy looking at them again. The kid was fine. He had this. That girl was already his; he just didn’t have the confidence to claim her. But as Trick was about to reassure the kid, he saw Cece in the shadow on the back porch waving at him, but trying not to draw the attention of the rest of the guests.
“I don’t know how to get her to like me,” Todd said.
“Lesson one,” Trick muttered, worried by how frantic Cece looked. “Make her laugh.”
“What? How do I do that? Is that how you got Lyla?”
Trick took a step away and smiled, trying to be as relaxed as he could, so as not to draw Todd’s attention to whatever issue that must have risen. “Lyla fell in love with me when I took her shoes off,” he said. “Have a think about it. Stay here. I’ll be back in a minute.”
Getting Tricky Page 26
