Page 38 of Bad to the Bone
Chapter Nineteen
“I WANTto hear every detail of your weekend,” Sam insisted when Alex met her for breakfast at the Coffee Pot on Monday morning. “All Alanna would tell me was that Ricky Lee had stolen you away.”
“He hardly stole me. We were already in OKC to do informational picketing on the antifracking bill. He just thought we—it would be nice to have a few days away.” Even after the weekend they’d just shared, Alex couldn’t think of himself and Ricky Lee as “we” when he didn’t know how much longer it would last.
“Unless you want me to think it was some hush-hush assignation at a no-tell motel you’re ashamed to admit to, I expect details.”
“Christ, Sam, get your mind out of the gutter.”
“If you expect me to believe you spent the entire weekend with Ricky Lee Jennings and didn’t spend a good portion of it naked and horizontal, I’m calling bullshit right now.”
Alex felt his face flush with heat at the memories of how much time they’d spent in exactly that fashion. He hadn’t found any supplies in the toiletry kit Alanna had packed for him, but any hope that his sister didn’t know exactly what they would be doing died when Ricky Lee fished condoms and lube from his own suitcase with the casual comment that he’d told Alanna he’d take care of all that.
Sam pointed a wedge of toast at him and chortled. “The curse of being a blond.”
“And of having a sense of privacy,” Alex countered, shaking his head at Sam’s unrepentant grin. “Okay, so he’d reserved a room at this quirky little boutique hotel filled with modern art. On Friday night we walked to a restaurant that was styled like a 1940s supper club. They had a small orchestra, and after dinner we spent the evening dancing to big-band tunes.”
“Who would have guessed Ricky Lee is a closet romantic?” Sam sighed.
Knowing it was payback for his refusal to dance with Ricky Lee at the reunion didn’t make it any less of a romantic gesture, so Alex didn’t disillusion her. “On Saturday morning we slept in”—he ignored Sam’s crow of laughter—“and had brunch at the hotel restaurant. The whole place used to be a century-old Ford assembly plant, and there was an incredible light sculpture designed to look like a series of conveyor belts. So since it seemed to be an art-themed weekend, Ricky Lee suggested we visit the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. Did you know they have one of the largest collections of Chihuly glass in the world? Then we had dinner at a great Japanese restaurant called Dekora.” The hostess must have sensed they were a couple and sat them in an intimate curtained room, where they’d ordered a variety of sushi rolls, gyoza, and other small plates that they fed to each other using chopsticks and their fingers.
“We spent Sunday afternoon walking through the Myriad Botanical Gardens, had dinner at a barbecue restaurant called the Hutch that would be reason enough to go back for, and then we drove home.”
“There seems to be a good bit of time unaccounted for, but I’m only a little bit jealous.”
“What about you?” Alex asked before Sam could delve deeper into those unaccounted hours. “Did you get your Muay Thai lesson with Crae?” To his surprise, Sam turned red herself. “You’re lucky I’m too much of a gentleman to make a remark about the curse of being a blonde working both ways.”
“Yeah, you’re a real prince.” Sam shook her head. “Crae’s a fascinating person. I’ve never felt any desire to be a man physically, but being a woman working in what’s still very much a man’s world can be frustrating. Crae’s decision to live as the person they are rather than conform to an artificial stereotype is incredibly courageous. It’s something I respect very much.”
“I’m glad you were able to spend some time together.” Alex wouldn’t let himself wish they could both hope for more. Ricky Lee and Crae might be able to keep Polynomial Software running from Freeland for a short time, but they weren’t going to relocate there permanently.
“Not as much as I would have liked,” Sam said grimly. “We had two more incidents this weekend that look to be drug related—a knife fight in a bar on South Trinity, and a shooting that fell under Comanche Nation jurisdiction that ended up with two men dead. In both cases, we think the perps were coked up.” She rapped a fist on the table. “Freeland’s never had much more of a drug problem than some recreational weed usage—we’ve always made more arrests for liquor than for drugs. All of a sudden that’s changed, and so far we haven’t been able to pin down where they’re coming from.”
Brigit rushed up with her coffeepot as if she thought Sam’s knock had been a summons. “Sorry, Brigit, that wasn’t meant for you. Just some job aggravation.” She glanced at her watch. “Speaking of the job, I should get going. My turn for the check.” She set a twenty on the table.
“I’m picking up Chinese for dinner tonight for Ricky Lee and Crae. Why don’t you join us when you get off shift?” Alex said impulsively. “I can add a few more egg rolls and some shrimp almond ding to the order for you.”
“Sounds better than another date with a carton of Lean Cuisine. I’ll text you if anything comes up.”
“Let’s hope for everyone’s sake it’s a quiet day.”
ALEXhad braced himself for a barrage of brash comments from Alanna when he returned from Oklahoma City on Sunday night, but she’d shown remarkable restraint, limiting herself to a hug and the hope that he’d had a good time. By Monday afternoon, her self-control had apparently worn itself out.
“So tell me everything you did over the weekend,” she demanded when the store was quiet except for a man and woman bickering over paint colors at the far end of one of the aisles. “Ricky Lee wouldn’t give me any specifics of what he had planned other than to tell me to pack the suit you wore to the reunion.”
“I don’t think you want to heareverything,” Alex retorted with a grin.
“I’m twenty-three years old, Xan. I don’t think you can shock me with anything you and Ricky Lee got up to.”
Alex wasn’t so sure of that, but he gave her the same description of the weekend’s events he’d shared with Sam.
“So what happens now?” Alanna asked.
Wishing he knew the answer to that himself, Alex opted for the literal. “Well, I’m bringing over Chinese for dinner tonight, and he wants to keep running with me in the mornings—”
“That’s not what I meant and you know it.” Alanna turned to wave at the couple carrying a stack of paint-chip cards as they left the store. “You don’t have to share all the racy details for me to know you and Ricky Lee have it going on. I’ve lived with you for two years now, Xan, and in all that time I haven’t seen you get together with anyone other than Sam. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s fantastic, but you aren’t a casual hookup kind of guy.”
Pondering the irony of receiving a relationship lecture from his little sister—and how much she sounded like their mother—Alex held back a laugh. “I don’t know that it’s going anywhere, Lan. Ricky Lee isn’t—” He paused since he didn’t know how much, if anything, Ricky Lee had told Alanna about his true situation. “You remember enough about his background to know he isn’t going to stay in Freeland forever. I’m just trying to enjoy it for as long as he’s here.”
