Page 94 of Justice for Radar

I looked over and couldn’t help the smile that curved my lips over that last part.

“Really?” I asked.

“Absolutely. Soon enough we’ll be back with the rest of the crew, and my kid, and we’ll be wrapped around the axle trying to figure out how to integrate our lives and forge a new home outta my house and I just want one more evening just you and me. A nice dinner out, a long walk on the beach, making love to you – all of it.”

“Okay,” I said after letting all of that sink in for the moment.

“Not that we won’t get back to a lot of those things pretty quickly,” he said, “but there’s just something a little magic about the here and now.”

“I agree,” I said softly and he reached for my hand over the center console and tangled his fingers with mine, kissing them.

At one of the last rest stops before Panama City, he had me pull over and asked to drive.

“Easier,” he said. “I know where I’m going.”

I nodded and relinquished the driving duties a little grateful, I’d almost immediately regretted taking them up after lunch. Between my shoulder blades knotting with my grip on the wheel about twenty minutes in.

Panama City Beach’s west end was apparently a little quieter, and not as crowded as the east side of town according to Radar. I had expected to pull into a hotel chain but was surprised when he pulled into a parking lot of what looked like higher end apartments or maybe condos.

“This doesn’t look like a hotel,” I mused and he chuckled.

“Condos,” he said. “A lot of them are for rent, Air B&B style, I picked one up fairly on the cheap – I got lucky couldn’t pass it up.”

“How do you know about this place?” I asked, curious.

“Been out here before,” he said quietly, in a way that felt… I don’t know… for him, certainly shy.

“Old girlfriend or wife?” I asked softly.

He nodded. “Yeah, some of the best memories I have of her were made here. I hope it isn’t skeevy or weird that I want to share that with you.”

I smiled and shook my head. “Neither,” I said. “Endearing, and very sweet is more like it.”

Which it was, given that his last girlfriend, or old lady, or whatever the honorific or label might be for her, had passed away from cancer. There was no jealousy here. I mean, what was there to be jealous of or to feel weird about? We all had our histories and with as much as he’d put up with mine and the drama that had come out of it… this was a simple ask-without-asking from him.

We went up and stowed our luggage and I took the opportunity to freshen up with a quick shower and a change of clothes. Mostly because I had slaughtered myself with some ketchup and mayonnaise dripping out of the back end of my burger and had gotten not only my shirt but my jeans and for the last several hours, it was all I had been able to smell, you know?

Once out of the shower, Radar came up behind me to wrap his arms around my waist and kiss the back of my shoulder as I stood wrapped in a towel going through my moisturizing routine in front of the bathroom mirror.

“You okay?” I asked softly.

“Mm-hm, just checking on you.”

I smiled. “Doing much better now that I’m smelling like.” I checked my lotion bottle. “Citrus and ginger rather than ketchup and mayo,” I responded.

“Either way you’re good enough to eat,” he said and nipped my shoulder. I giggled and cuddled back into him and he held me a little tighter.

“I wan you,” he declared.

“What, now?” I asked.

“Right now,” he said, pulling back on me a little. I laughed and let him drag me out of the bathroom and into the master bedroom with its king-sized bed.

My fresh clothes that I had laid out on it had been relocated to the love seat against the wall and had been re-laid out with such love and consideration. I smiled and turned in the circle of his arms and put my arms up around his neck. Confident, letting the towel slip to the floor.

He stooped and picked it up, laying it on the bed and said, “Get your ass up there, since you want to make good use of it.”

I complied and he grinned wolfishly at me and jerked me to the edge of the bed so my ass was practically hanging off of it. I yipped in surprise and let out a peal of giggling excited laughter.

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