Standing there in her nurse uniform with her wisps of silky hair framing her face, left me no choice but to claim her lips. To steal the moment, right out in front of the hospital. I closed the circle between us, interlocking my fingers with hers as my lips grazed hers, she yielded under my touch as I indulged in her tenderness. Felt damn good to do that. I pulled back slowly, keeping her hand in mine. “Had to get that out of the way first. Let’s go to the diner across the road. There’s good food there.”
“Fine by me,” she gushed, touching her lips where I’d just kissed her with a small smile.
We were building our sandcastle back together one bucket at a time. There were moments when I thought the tide would wash it away and parts of it crumbled, but we were still moving forward, and that was the main thing. “Do you think you’d be okay with going to Wheelz again sometimes? I promise Angie isn’t going to be a problem anymore.”
“I’m fine now. I’ve cooled off and I don’t think she’ll say anything else again…because I won’t hesitate to do the exact same thing I did last time,” she threatened.
A new fire was lit in Lucy’s spirit and I liked it. I smirked at her response even though I tried not to. I didn’t want her to be involving herself in fist fights at the club. “Next thing you’ll be ready for the MMA fighting ring,” I added, but I squeezed her hand affectionately so she knew there was no harm meant by the joke.
She narrowed her eyes at me, but a hint of a twinkle sparkled in her eyes.
As we made it inside the diner we sat down in the booth and I realized once again the intensity of my feelings for this woman. I wanted to know if she was truly staying for good. If we could make it together. “How is the alarm system working in your apartment? Are you happy with it?”
“Yes. Everything is working fine. I use it and it feels a lot safer. I haven’t seen anyone creeping around and I check my surroundings all the time now. I’ve been a little nervous since you put out the article.” Lucy rolled her lip around her teeth as she spoke.
I reached for her hands. “Good, I wanna know that my family is safe.” I stared into her warm eyes, wanting the past to be erased between us. For there to be a clean slate.
“Family?” she enquired as she shuffled around in the diner’s booth. “Is that what we are now?”
I could sense her hesitation, but I wanted her to know this is what I saw in our future. I answered her honestly, “I think we’re getting there and I feel like I can trust you – I do trust you.”
“I’m glad we’re here, in this place. We’re really in a good space now. I don’t know how I feel about Angie, but I trust you to handle things with her.”
“Angie and I are nothing. She’s helping us at the club, nothing more, nothing less. I know that’s hard for you to believe, but I can assure you that’s all it is.” I made it plain and as clear as possible, but I knew it might take time after everything.
“I have a bad taste in my mouth about it. I’m not sure I want to be coming down to the club too soon. And if I see her face again, it will be too soon.” Pain ricocheted through her voice as she spoke about Angie.
I knew I had some work to do in order to repair that situation. I’d hoped it would simply fade away and both of them would be able to talk to one another in public. I blew out a weighty sigh. “I don’t want you to feel isolated from the club, everyone loves you down there, especially Harper. Angie won’t be around forever. It will be okay.”
As soon as I mentioned Angie’s name, I saw the horror on Lucy’s face. Her jaw slackened.
I frowned not knowing what would cause that look on her face. I swivelled around quickly to see Angie walking over to our booth. I raised my fingers to my forehead to rub the sudden onset of a headache away.
Lucy’s face clouded over with gloom.
Every time I tried to step forward with her, an event or circumstance got in the way of us.
“Hey guys,” Angie said coldly.
Lucy said nothing, but her eyes radiated hatred in the direction of Angie, the wounds still fresh.
“Hey, were you in the area or something?” I asked, trying to be neutral, but my shoulders were balled-up knots.
Angie took her sunglasses off her face, raising them over her head. “Yeah, I was,” she responded. Angie faced Lucy with a weak smile. “Hey, I wanted to clear the air with you…I drank too much and let my mouth run away with me. I know you guys have something serious going on. I was teasing, really. I know when to back off, sober. I hope we can be cool from now on.” Angie held out her hand while the thick cord of tension mounted.
Lucy’s eyes fiercely locked with Angie’s, and it was a long twenty seconds before she shook her hand, a limp handshake at best. “Thanks, I accept your apology,” she said hesitantly.
“Thank you. I’m starving, so I’m going to keep on the move,” Angie replied and quickly walked away.
I raised both eyebrows at Lucy, waiting for her to explode or say something sarcastic. “I’m glad she apologized. Maybe we can start to move forward now.”
“Maybe we can. Let’s see how it goes for now between us.”
“I’m not going to let her do that again, trust me,” I added.
Lucy nodded her head with a small smile.
We ordered lunch and talked about her job, then laughed about Sarah’s Frog report as she had aced it with flying colors, due to research she managed to get from the internet. When she’d showed us her grade, two days before, she’d stated that she was now Holbeck’s authority on frogs. We had a great time. It felt good to be together.
Later that night, I stood in the club talking to Bones.
He was elated. “Patronage at the club is up by 15% this month and I don’t think that’s any coincidence since the article Angie wrote. I’ve seen people in here that I’ve never seen before. Like the whole of Holbeck was hiding and now, they know we’re here,” he marveled. We were standing near the bar watching the flood of new people entering the bar.
“It’s insane. The last time I saw it like this was when I started the pool competition,” I said with shock.
“Agreed. We got a helluva fight to get the ownership of the casino. We’ve worked so hard as a club to put ourselves in the position to do that. Only for us to fall at the finish line to the Devil Riders. That would be my worst nightmare,” Bones added in a gruff voice.
“We’ve got this. We’ve gotten through every other storm, no reason we won’t make it through this one.”
In the back of my mind, I knew the article would have repercussions for Angie. My gut told me so, and usually, my hunches were right.