Page 98 of Edge of Desire

All of a sudden, the situation hit me for what it was, and I started chortling. My giggles quickly turned into huge belly laughs and I couldn’t stop. How many girls could claim that their bestie was a sumo wrestler who had put their boyfriend, who was not only six feet two inches and over two hundred pounds of muscle, but a former badass undercover DEA agent, in a choke hold and rendered him nearly unconscious? Melissa and Preston looked at me like I belonged in a psychiatric institution. Maybe I did, but by God, I’d laugh all the way there.

It finally caught on, because they joined in, and before long, we were all laughing so hard our sides were killing us.

When we all could talk again, I formally introduced Preston to Melissa and I told Melissa that if she ever laid another hand on him, I would rip her boobs off and then shave her head. Preston burst out laughing and Melissa only nodded. She promised Preston never had anything to worry about as long as he didn’t hurt me. If he ever did, well, that was a whole other story that he would live to regret for the rest of his life.

Melissa was intrigued with our story. Since Preston was officially out of the DEA and with the Durango Cartel out of business, we were able to tell her some details about it. And she was hungry for them. We invited her over for dinner that night. After we’d returned from the cabin, Preston and I had rented another three-bedroom condo in the Lionshead section of Vail.

“I always wondered about the blanks in your story. You were so sketchy about certain things.”

“Yeah, I know. I had to be at the time. But now you know.”

Preston came up to us and handed us each a glass of chardonnay.

“Hey, you got anything stronger than this? Like maybe some whiskey?” Melissa asked.

Preston chuckled and said, “Coming right up. How would you like it?”

“In a glass is good.”

I shook my head and gave Preston a look. “Melissa, he wants to know if you’d like it neat or on the rocks.”

“Oh, on the rocks, please.”

Preston returned and handed Melissa a glass filled with amber liquid and ice. “Oh, this is much better. Thanks.”

Melissa was carrying on her new neon green color. It seemed she was into themes these days. She was wearing a short neon green skirt with neon green tights. Taking that one step further, she had it paired with a neon green sweater that clung tenaciously to her more than ample bosom, and as an accessory, she had added a bright pink feather boa. It matched her new hair color perfectly. I don’t know where she found them, but she was wearing neon green pink-polka-dotted Uggs. My guess was they were Fuggs ... or fake Uggs. She was a vision in neon, fit for a night of dancing. Even her lipstick glowed, not to mention her nails.

“Tell me, have you kept in touch with Griffin and Marley?”

“I’m meeting them later tonight. We’re going to ...”

“No! I don’t want to know!” My arm shot out as I shouted.

“Gee, Ava. I was only going to say dancing.”

“Oh, okay. After your last visit, I was a little worried.”

Preston wasn’t quite sure where he fit into this conversation, so he sat by and watched, just like a good man will do when two women are chatting. Every now and then he’d get up to freshen our drinks and serve us some appetizers. He also disappeared for a time, when he wandered off to cook our steaks.

“So, Ava, when are you two gonna get hitched?”

I choked on my wine. After I coughed everything out, I said, “Excuse me?”

“You know, get married? I assume that’s your next step.”

“Melissa, I’m not quite ready for that. I want to wait a bit.”

“Why do you wanna do that?”

“Well, I, um ...”

Preston walked in then and said, “Yeah, Avery, why do you wanna do that?”

My breath caught again, but for an entirely different reason. We’d never talked about this. Yeah, we loved each other to pieces. And sure, I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him. I supposed he wanted to do the same, or that’s what he told me, and I believed him. But never had we discussed the “M” thing.

“Um, can we talk about his later?”

“Well, damn, Ava, I think you should talk about it now, seein’ as I’m here and all.”

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