by A. J. Downey
“Sorry, I should have brought you gloves, or had you put your hands in my pockets.”
“It’s alright.”
“No, I should have thought of it.”
Taking her other hand and putting both of them, palms together, I raised her joined hands to my lips. I cupped them between my larger ones and blew on them gently; warming them with my breath as best I could.
She smiled and said, “You’re sweet.”
I didn’t say anything back, just smiled at her and turning, tucked her hand in the crook of my arm, an old fashioned gentlemanly gesture, but one that she surely deserved. I made sure to walk on the outside and we walked up the sidewalk to the lighted entrance of Red and Evy’s coffee and chocolate café.
The rain just began to patter down as we stepped inside, and I held the door, guiding Hayley in out of it first.
It was crowded in here, but I’d told Evy we were coming and she’d had a girl put a little reserved sign at a two seater table for us. It was low and set between two wing backed chairs. Maren, Nox’s sweetheart gave me a sweet smile and a chin lift from behind the glass case of confections and straightened, leaning in to speak to one of the girls who worked the front.
A few words and the girl came out to make the young couple sitting in the chairs by the fireplace move. They were at least gracious about it, which I could appreciate. I guided Hayley into one of the seats by the fire and the girl, I think her name was Sarah, said “Sorry about that, what can I bring you?”
“No trouble at all,” Hayley said brightly and ordered some kind of fancy mocha with more components than I could remember. When Sarah turned to me, my curiosity got the better of me and I held up two fingers to indicate ‘make it two.’
“Alright then; coming right up!” she said cheerfully and went back around the counter to the giant coffee machine.
A light pattering of applause drew Hayley’s attention from me to the little area set aside with a couple of microphones. Her eyes lit up when the singer from the fair stepped up to it with his guitar. The fiddler was with him, but it was just the two of them this time.
The music was supposed to be a little lower and a little slower tonight, which I could appreciate and I’m sure Hayley could, too.
Maren stopped in front of us blocking the view of the musicians just long enough to set down two plates. She winked at me and said to us both, “Glad you guys came, you get to be my guinea pigs and tell me if this is any good.”
“What is it?” Hayley asked curiously.
“White chocolate maple ribbon cheesecake with a regular chocolate ganache finish. I’m trying to come up with a new autumn themed sweet or two for next year. Mandy wants me to get creative.” She made a face like the prospect both excited and scared the hell out of her and I smiled up at her and gave her a nod. Hayley spoke for us without even thinking about it.
“We will definitely let you know, but it sounds absolutely amazing. I’m going to be in sugar overload before we leave here, I can tell.”
“You only live once,” Maren said and scrunched up her nose in this adorable way that she did before she took off back to the kitchen, just in time for the fiddler to draw his bow across the strings in a slightly mournful tone; the opening notes to their first song.
The blonde girl, came by with our coffee and set it on the low table beside our cakes and winked at me and took off before I could pull money out of my jacket. I shook my head slightly and smiled to myself, figuring Evy had something to do with it. Hayley smiled at me and picked up her mug that could double as a soup bowl, sipping at the frothy liquid inside. I smiled back and picked up my own off the saucer.
She wasn’t kidding about the impending sugar coma. Between the coffee and the rich cheesecake sitting in front of me, I would be lucky not to get a stomach ache. Still, it was something learned about our woman, that she had a sweet tooth. I watched her watch the musicians behind me while I watched her and kept an eye on the door behind her out of habit.
The duo played and sang for around an hour before taking a thirty minute intermission. My nerves hummed to life when they set down their instruments, knowing that I would have to speak to her yet having no idea what I was going to say.
She gave me a short reprieve by getting up and going to the restroom before there was too much of a line. When she returned and sat back down she smiled at me and I couldn’t help myself but to sit there and just stare for a long minute. She was so beautiful when she smiled. Like some mythical creature from another world and totally out of my league.
“What?” she asked, her smile beginning to die at the expression on my face.
“Just realizing how far out of my league you are,” I said.
She blinked and scoffed a laugh. I cocked my head to the side.
“What’s funny?”
“You! That whole idea. If anyone is out of anyone’s league it’s that you’re way out of mine.”
I blushed then and shook my head rapidly. No, that wasn’t how that worked. She laughed again and I looked at her. She was serious… she wasn’t just saying it to be nice. I wished I could find the man who shook her self-confidence. I’d make him pay for it. Of course, I wouldn’t say such a thing to her. I didn’t want to scare her. If anyone was going to do that, it was going to be Cell.
“I’m glad you asked me out, I mean, again, I mean that you were persistent,” she said softly blushing as she tripped over her words and I smiled.
“I’m glad you finally said yes.”
“Me, too.”
Awkward silence.
“So, um, where did you learn to fold the pretty things you do?” she asked.
“I uh, actually taught myself.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, I taught myself out of a book, and when I learned all of those, one of the CO’s started printing off directions for me and bringing them in with him until I figured out those.”
“I’m sorry… I don’t know what a CO is.”
I swallowed hard. Crap, I didn’t know if she knew Cell and I had been sent up. I bit the bullet and came clean.
“CO means Correctional Officer… Uh, we moved here after we got out of prison.”
“Oh. I um, I think I knew that actually.”
She kind of shrank back, cringing into her seat but I didn’t think it was from fear but rather a bit of embarrassment by how she blushed.
“It was stupid. Cell and I took the fall for our entire chapter for running guns, we went up on several weapons charges. We had a good lawyer. He managed to get it down to one charge. Possession of an illegal weapon with intent to sell. Carried a ten year sentence but we were out after a nickel.” I shut my mouth, her eyes gone wide at the severity of our transgression.
“Oh… I…”
“We came down to this chapter because they’d cleaned up their act. We don’t do any of that shit anymore. I seriously never want to go back to that life. Completely understand if you’d rather not see us anymore.”
She sat very still and I watched the wheels in her head turning. Finally she said, “You swear to me you don’t do anything illegal now?”
“I swear it on my life, on Cell’s life and all the lives on the rest of my club. We’re out of that life. It was the craziest and stupidest thing I’ve ever done and I wish I could say I had a noble reason for doing it, but I was in it for the money.”
“There’s more important things to life than money,” she murmured.
“I figured that out the hard way; it’s my biggest regret.”
She pressed her lips together and nodded, “Thank you for being honest with me.”
I could tell she meant that, I could also tell that she wanted to ask me a question, but wasn’t sure.
“You can ask me anything,” I said and meant it.
She searched my face and asked, “Does Duracell feel the same way that you do about it?”
I didn’t want to lie, but I didn’t want to frighten her either so I took the easy way out on that one.
“I don’t know, that’s something to ask Cell.”
She nodded finally and said, “Fair enough.”
God. Fuck. She’s going to bail on us…
The truth fucking hurt, alright. I was living proof right now.
The musicians returned and effectively cut off any more conversation for the time being. I turned to watch them for a moment and a light touch to the back of my hand made me jump.
I turned to look and Hayley held out a hand to me. I took it and she smiled and simply held my hand while we listened. I stopped staring at the duo playing, my eyes suddenly stuck fast to our joined hands.
Maybe I hadn’t completely fucked up after all.
Chapter 7
Hayley
I studied Blue’s profile as he watched the musical players and it was grim, unhappy, as if once again something had been ripped away from him. I thought about what he’d said, about his past, and I knew he’d been to prison – I just hadn’t known for what.
I mean, I could easily believe it of Cell, but Blue? I pressed my lips together and thought about myself. While I could never do anything that would send me to prison, I thought about what had led me here, to right now, and I couldn’t honestly throw stones. I mean, I’d once tried to kill myself. If ever there was a poor life decision, that was certainly a doozy, wasn’t it? So who was I to throw stones?
So far, even though this was our first date, Blue had treated me so well. I felt like a princess in his presence, a sensation I had never really had before with all of the law abiding men I had ever dated or been with before.
I reached out and touched Blue’s hand and he jumped, twisting back around to look at me. I tangled my fingers with his and he reached out his arm so that we were both comfortable and could continue holding hands. He smiled at me and it was almost heartbreaking with how beautiful it was. The rejection he’d been fearing sliding right out of his eyes as if it’d never been.
I hated that my reaction had left him feeling that way, and I wondered how many times before it’d happened. I suddenly thought I may have found something in common with Blue. Rejection was likely something he encountered daily and if it hurt him like it hurt me, then it was any wonder that it took him over a year to finally really ask me to go out with him. While I was sure that really had more to do with the fact that they were asking me to date both of them, I would cross that bridge when I came to it.
For now, I just wanted to learn about Blue, and see where things went and not think about Cell too much until I was there… That would be soon enough and something I was uneasy about, but I had a feeling about Blue. A really good feeling, and I didn’t want to give up on that too quickly. I feared if I did it would be a great source of regret for years to come, if not the rest of my life.
The music was soothing and we listened, hand in hand, letting it carry most of our concerns away. When the set finally ended it was with several of us standing and applauding. I laughed lightly, my spirit and heart done good, refreshed by the night out. Honestly, I think that most of that had to do with the company I kept.
We let the café clear out, the parking lot empty some before we got up to leave. Blue saluted the girl who had brought the delicious cakes and she came over to us.
“So what did you think?” she asked.
“Oh my god… That was one of the best desserts I’ve ever tasted. You have to keep it. I wouldn’t change a thing about it.” I gushed, and I couldn’t help it. It really had been that good. Blue nodded emphatically in agreement with what I was saying.
“Really? You really think so?”
“Absolutely.”
She squealed a bit and bounced on the balls of her feet. “I’m totally going to go ahead and have Mandy and Evy try it then.”
Blue patted her on the shoulder and she said, “You guys have a good night. It was nice to see you again, Hayley.”
“Nice to see you, too, Maren.”
“See you at the club sometime, Blue.”
He nodded and placed a hand at my lower back to guide me around and to the doors. One of the girls was standing by to lock it behind us.
“Good night!” she called as we slipped through and I looked back over my shoulder and called back, “Good night!”
It was wet out here. The air humid, but the rain had stopped for now. We went down the sidewalk back to the bike which was beaded with water, small puddles pooling on the leather seat. Blue told me to wait a moment and unlocked his saddle bags with a key. He pulled out a towel and wiped off the seat really well and handed me a helmet. He put the towel back and brought out his own helmet and sat astride his motorcycle. He started it and brought it up out of its lean, putting up the kickstand.
I waited for him to give me a wave before I got on behind him, wrapping my arms tightly around his waist, he took my hands and guided them into his pockets, tucking them down inside.
“Hold onto me, but this will keep your hands warm,” he called. I nodded and he took us carefully down the lot and out onto the street.
My heart was in my throat, more so on this ride than the last. The streets slick with rain, I was terrified we would slide but Blue seemed like he was an old hand at this. He piloted the beast of a bike over the wet carefully. The wind damp but fresh until we were probably less than ten minutes from home. That’s when the sky totally opened up and it began to pour.
I held tightly to him as he cursed and swore in front of me. He took the quickest route to my place but there was really nothing for it. We were soaked inside a minute. It was worse, somehow, for riding into the droplets as they fell. At least that’s what I imagined.
When he pulled down the long drive and shut off his bike by the back door, I couldn’t let him ride home in this… I mean, I was shivering already and just because he was a man didn’t mean he didn’t feel cold. That and illnesses didn’t care how tough you thought you were.
I jumped off the bike, taking off the helmet and grabbed his hand. The rain was still coming down in sheets, loud and fierce and rather than yell and risk worrying my dad I gave an insistent little tug on his hand, urging him to come with me. He shut off his bike and leaned it over at the same time he heeled down the kickstand, just like that in one fluid practiced motion and I was captured by how amazing and, well, how hot it was to watch. Slinging a leg back over the bike’s saddle, he stood and followed me.
I didn’t want to take him into the house because, well, my dad was probably asleep – or waiting up for me, and that wasn’t totally awkward despite the fact that I was a grown woman. It was a good thing I had another option, which is, I think, precisely why my father had helped me rebuild mom’s studio into one of my own. To give me privacy and the ability to have a moment like this, which I was totally grateful for right now, by the way.
I pulled my keys from my pocket and went through them, inserting the proper one into the deadbolt lock on the studio door. Blue was at my back, trying to protect me as well as he could from the rain which was adorable but completely unnecessary. It was already far too late for any of that. I mean, I don’t think either of us could get any wetter.
I got the door open and went in, hanging the helmet off to the side on the coat tree. Blue followed me and I flipped on the studio lights. He paused, letting his eyes adjust as I closed the door on the pounding rain outside and hung my keys on the hook.
“You live out here?” he asked and I shook my head.
“I live in the house, but I have my own space out here. Well, except for the washer and dryer, they’re behind the bathroom, here. My dad wanted an office in the house to do the diner’s paperwork and deposits, so we converted the original laundry room in the house for him and moved the washer and dryer out here, since I do all the laundry anyways. It’s a good thing right now, too. I can dry these wet clothes.”
I think I was babbling because it was distracting me from how my teeth were trying to chatter. I shrugged out of my coat and hung it on the coat tree by the door, over the loaned helmet. Blue shrugg
ed out of his coat and colorfully patched vest and hung it beside mine, his helmet followed by the strap on another branch of the old fashioned stand.
“Hang on,” I said and opened the bathroom door. I snatched the clean, dry towels off of the bar and handed him one. He put it across his shoulders and rubbed it over his hair. I went into the studio space and around to behind the bathroom. I opened up the shutter closet doors on their track by pulling the little knob and they folded, opening quietly revealing the washer and dryer.
I pulled some clean sleep shorts and a cami of mine out of the dryer, and put the rest of my clothes in there into one of the whicker carry baskets on top of the dryer to carry back into the house later. I checked the washer and there was nothing in it. I pursed my lips.
“I don’t have anything dry for you, let me grab a blanket from the loft.” I turned around, right into Blue’s arms. He caught me and stared down at me for a series of heartbeats before his mouth descended to mine.
I was shocked, but the attention wasn’t unwelcome. I closed my eyes and turned my face up to his kiss and it was magical. His lips were careful and soft where they moved against mine and I felt the tension leave my body, pouring out of my muscles even as the rain poured outside.
He broke the kiss and leaned back from me murmuring, “I’m fine. Do you have something dry to put on?” I nodded and he ordered gently, “Go change.”
“Okay, but put your wet things in the dryer,” I insisted.
He searched my face and nodded and I took my dry things up to the loft. I changed quickly and when I turned around, lowering my cami over my stomach, it was to see Blue, frozen down below, watching me. His shirt was off, and his boots and socks, and he looked absolutely delicious standing barefoot and in only his wet jeans against the polished cement floor.
I tossed a blanket down over the railing and he dropped his shirt to catch it. He smiled and I smiled back and said, “Let me know when you’re covered.”
I pointedly turned around, smiling to myself and gathered my wet things off my loft’s floor. I waited and heard an almost timid, “Okay.” I went down the ladder and found him sitting at my large worktable on my old metal stool, the burgundy chenille throw I’d tossed down to him knotted at his hip and his pile of wet things in his arms.
