I shrugged. "From what I've heard it used to be the place they could do live test firing of things like Patriot missiles, but now I think they let the tanks run around out there. But we don't see them much. You don't even see guys in uniform unless they're National Guard guys getting ready for their two weekends a month type stuff."
We drove on, and pretty soon we started seeing the outskirts of Las Cruces. It's not much of a city itself, with only a hundred thousand people, but compared to T or C, it was huge. We drove over to the east side of the city, where we could go shopping easiest. "So did you decide what shoes you’re getting that young man on the team?”
I nodded. "I'm not getting him Jordans, if that's what you're asking. We’ll see what's on sale."
It was sweltering outside, and I could tell it was getting to Melina. “It'll be cool inside," I said as we walked towards the doors.
The mall was crowded, as you'd expect on a Saturday morning, but not too bad. Melina decided that before we did any shopping, we should take care of the footwear situation, so our first stop was the sporting goods store that was one of the anchors of the mall.
We were able to find Javier two pairs of shoes actually rather quickly, and for less than I'd anticipated with the sales that were going on.
Next stop was the fitness area. They had everything ranging from from boxing to weight training to spin bikes. Melina looked everything over. "When you said work out at home, what were you thinking?"
"Like I said, I'll probably do any heavy weight lifting at school, but there's some things that I'd like to do at home too," I replied. "What about getting some kettlebells, maybe some adjustable dumbbells, and a couple of spin bikes?"
"I'm enjoying actually riding outside," Melina said. “Gives me a reason to get out of the house sometimes. You'll have to teach me about the rest, I used machines the few times I actually got myself into the gym back in Lima."
"So why worry about it now?" I asked, intrigued.
"Because I have a reason to look my best," she said impishly. "And that reason also means I want to have plenty of stamina, too."
"Well you know, the best way to increase stamina at something is to do it over and over again," I replied, cocking an eyebrow. "What about that?"
"We're in the wrong store for accessories for that," she teased. "But okay, whatever you want to buy. Uh, and maybe a yoga mat too. I did a few yoga classes back in Lima that were a lot of fun, and I thought I'd give that a shot again."
Our shopping determined, we went up front and paid, hauling the heavy basket of stuff out to the truck. "So I had another question for you," I said as I loaded the box of weight plates into the bed of my truck. We’d gotten enough so that I could actually make sixty pound dumbbells if I wanted. "Want to get some more stuff for the house? I mean, my couch is pretty ratty."
"I kind of like the couch," Melina answered with a laugh. "We've made some good memories on it in just the time I've been here. But I’m sure we could get something. Why?"
"I was thinking the Bed, Bath and Beyond inside the mall, and maybe Victoria's Secret?"
"That's not interior decoration," Melina teased. "I think you just want to get into my pants."
"Well, they'll be a bit high on my legs and too small in the waist but I can try."
"You're incorrigible."
I grinned. "Thank you."
It took us all the way until four thirty to finish our shopping and get back on the Interstate back towards Truth or Consequences. "So what did you think of Las Cruces?"
"I think the next time we want to get out of town, Elephant Butte sounds like more fun," Melina said. She turned to look at me, and something behind us caught her attention. "Jesus man, slow down."
I glanced in my rear view mirror, seeing a car speeding up behind us. We were about halfway between Las Cruces and T or C, the road actually pretty deserted. "This road gets a lot of speeders. I'll let him pass by."
I edged to my right, giving him plenty of space to swing around in the passing lane, until something caught my attention. It was the double flash of light off the windshield that caused me to look up again, and I felt my heart stop with fear. The windshield was Faraday glass. "That's no normal speeder."
"What do you mean?" Melina asked, her expression changing as I jammed my accelerator all the way to the floor, my Dodge leaping ahead. "What the hell are you doing?"
"Putting space between us and them, I hope," I said. While my Dakota isn't the newest truck on the road, I'd made sure that it had a good engine under the hood. Even still, it was a Dodge pickup, and wasn't built for racing. Surging past ninety, I saw that the car was staying behind us easily, and was in fact starting to close the gap. "Damn."
"What is it?" Melina asked nervously. “And why are we speeding away?"