The door hadn’t closed on them when Tack turned me into his front and both of his arms closed around me.
“Is it me or was that weird?” I asked.
“It’s not you. Like I said, Elvira’s a nut. Gwen’s a nut too but the cute kind. Mara, I don’t know very well but what I do know of her, she’s solid.”
“And what was that all about?” I went on.
Tack’s eyes roamed my face and the way they did I wasn’t certain I liked.
“Right,” he said softly. “A while ago, Gwen had a thing. Like yours, it involved kidnapping. Unlike yours, it also involved drive-bys.”
Holy crap!
Tack continued. “I got involved in her thing. I wanted to be more involved with her. That didn’t work out which, at the time, sucked for me.”
Peaches.
Gwen was blonde. Gwen was the “cute” kind of nuts. This meant Gwen was the “sun” he said had “staying power”.
Now I got it, all of it, and I didn’t like it.
Tack’s arms gave me a squeeze.
“At the time, babe,” he said quietly. “Now, it doesn’t suck for me at all.”
I remained silent as I considered all this information.
Tack’s arms squeezed me again and stayed tight.
“Baby,” he started, still talking quietly, “her thing was intense. We got close during it. And we stayed close. But she’s Hawk’s and, a man like Hawk, she… is… Hawk’s. They’re not only married, they’re tight. I got that a long time ago but that didn’t mean somethin’ didn’t keep growin’ for her and me. It did. We still got that and I hope we always do. And part of us havin’ that is, she heard about you and although Elvira looked like the ringleader of that sneak attack, Gwen was the brains behind the operation. Hawk told her I’d claimed you and she wants to be sure it’s all good for me. It’s sweet. It’s friendly. And that’s all it is.”
Okay, to trust him I had to trust that. I still didn’t like it but… whatever.
Moving on.
“And Mara?” I asked.
“Mara’s a long story that I’ll tell you while I’m makin’ you chops tonight.”
I didn’t know if that was good. What I did know was that chops sounded great.
“Pork chops?” I queried.
“Are there other kinds of chops?” Tack queried back.
“I don’t think so.”
He grinned then confirmed, “Yeah. Pork chops.”
“Do you make good chops?”
“Cooked for you twice, Red. What do you think?”
That answered that. He made good chops.
I hadn’t had breakfast and my mouth started watering.
But I had to know.