“Even now, you’re not thinking about me. My father’s fighting for his life somewhere in this hospital and my family is scared out of their minds and you don’t care. You don’t give a fuck. All you care about is you and what you want. I’m standing by a man who dropped everything, and he’s been on the trail of a murderer for a month, and he did it just to get me to my family. Have you ever done anything like that in your life?”
“You love me, Ree, you told me you did even after I explained about Hayley,” Brad reminded me. “You said we’d find our way back, make it work.”
“I did,” I agreed, “because I was scared and I was blind. Blinded by hope. I’d waited for something special and convinced myself you were that. Then you proved you weren’t and taught me the valuable lesson that special isn’t out there. Special doesn’t exist. So the best you can do is find real. I found real, Brad, and I like it.” I let Tate go, straightened and moved to his side. “I guess I should thank you for being here so I can thank you to your face for teaching me that lesson. I wasted a lot of my life hoping for something special. Now I’ve realized I’m good with what I’ve got.”
I watched Brad open his mouth to speak but I didn’t get a chance to hear what he had to say. I didn’t get that chance because Tate tagged me with an arm hooked around my neck, he yanked me into him so I collided with his body and his head came down, his mouth on mine, and he kissed me hard and deep, with tongues.
Right in front of my Mom!
This, at the time, didn’t register on me because it was Tate and he was good with his mouth therefore that was the only thing that registered.
Then he lifted his head half an inch and stated, “You’re gonna find special, Ace.”
I shook my head in the minimal space allowed partially in a negative, mostly to recover from his kiss.
“Special doesn’t exist, Tate,” I told him. “And I’m okay with that.”
His lips came back to mine and when he spoke, he did it gently. “It will for you, baby.”
“I like him,” Mom declared loudly.
I watched Tate’s eyes smile.
“Maybe we shouldn’t neck in front of my Mom while my Dad’s in ICU,” I suggested and then watched the smile in Tate’s eyes deepen.
“Don’t mind us,” Mack called. “They probably don’t get a lot of foreplay in hospital waiting rooms. You’re breakin’ the monotony of tears and tantrums.”
“Mack!” Carrie hissed. “Tate just kissed her, that’s hardly foreplay.”
“You weren’t watchin’ close enough, honey. That was definitely foreplay.”
By this time Tate’s head had gone up about three inches so I could see his mouth struggling against his smile, or, perhaps, out and out laughter.
“My family is a little crazy,” I whispered.
“I get that,” Tate replied.
“Perhaps I should go,” Brad noted and Tate didn’t release me but his head turned toward Brad.
“You think?” he asked.
I started giggling and seeing as my hands were clutching Tate’s t-shirt at his waist, I just slid them along so they were loosely wrapped around his back and I could rest my weight into his body.
But Brad wasn’t done. He got close and I turned my head to look at him too.
“I get this,” he said, “this guy.” He jerked his head at Tate. “Wild oats. But I know you Ree. You’ll want your manicures and martinis. You’ll be back.”
I looked at Tate and noted, “I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that. Can we buy some martini glasses for the bar?”
“No,” Tate replied.
“All right,” I muttered.
“Can we go to the hotel?” Mom asked. “I need to rest, I want to be back to check on your father first thing in the morning.”
“You girls’ll have to scrunch in the back. Tate and my legs are too long,” Mack declared.
“It’s your car, hon,” Mom said and she sounded tired.
“Mom sounds tired,” I whispered to Tate and he let my neck go but didn’t step out of my space.
“Be with her,” he whispered back.
“Okay,” I agreed then called, “Captain?”
“Yeah, Ace.”
“Thanks.”
His hand lifted and he trailed the backs of his fingers along my jaw.
My mind automatically committed the feel of his touch to memory right along with the look on his face when he did it.
Then I went to my Mom.
*
“I’m sorry about this,” I said to Tate as we entered the hotel room my Mom insisted on getting us.
Us!
Our farm was only a thirty minute drive away from Indianapolis and Carrie and Mack lived in the city but they lived on the other side and Mom didn’t want to drive back and forth so we’d all checked in and would be in (at least Mom and me) until she felt Dad was okay to leave for awhile.
After having a very late dinner, we’d gone to the hotel and Mom had insisted that she pay for Tate and my room.
Tate tried to protest, Mom was losing so she looked at me, pulled out the big guns, and said, “It’s what your father would do if he was here.”
Tate’s eyes sliced to me, his jaw clenched then he sighed and then I let Mom get us a room.
Now we were stuck together in a room with a king-sized bed.
Tate dumped our luggage on the built-in luggage rack and I looked around the room that was in a Marriott which was about as far away from Ned and Betty’s below average (but now it was home) room as you could get.