Rason & Eliza - Cee Bowerman Page 0,57
up and kissed me softly before she pulled away, her hand trailing down my arm until only our fingertips were touching. She held on for just a second longer and whispered, “Be safe, Rason. I don’t want to lose you.”
I watched her walk out the garage door to get into Jace’s truck. When the door clicked shut behind her, I let my head drop down. I stared at the floor and whispered, “I love you, Eliza.”
15.
“Honey, I’ve been with you long enough to know that something’s only illegal if you get caught.”
Nicole
ELIZA
“That is the ugliest houseplant I’ve ever seen,” Grunt grumbled as he stood there in front of the fruit vines. They’d quickly grown to their full size and they now hung on the vines to ripen and change color. “What the hell are those things, anyway?”
“It’s called gấc. It’s a fruit,” Nicole explained. “I’d never seen one either.”
“This was worth committing a felony?”
“Definitely,” I vowed with a laugh at the look on his face.
“It’s their love vine,” Nicole explained. “She’s going to tell him she loves him when the fruit is ripe.”
“When I want my woman to know I love her, I buy her chocolate covered strawberries and lick whipped cream off all her naughty spots.”
Nicole had just taken a sip of water and it sprayed out of her mouth all over Janis. The baby blinked her pretty brown eyes a few times, and just stared nonchalantly from her bouncy chair as Nicole coughed on what was left of her mouthful of water.
Hank snorted out a laugh from beside them and I was laughing so hard that I had to lean against the table and hold myself up. Shannon laid her head down and cackled, slapping her hand on the table.
“I’m so sorry, baby girl,” Nicole cooed when she got control of her cough. She wiped her baby’s face with a hand towel and told her, “Uncle Grunt’s an asshole and I couldn’t control myself.”
Nicole threw the towel at Grunt and he caught it with a smile. “I’ll be here all week. Tip your waitress.”
“Is there any word on the trial date?”
“Yeah, the prosecutor told him to be at the courthouse at 9:00 on Friday.”
“They’re going to start the trial on a Friday? Who does that?”
“The prosecutor said it should go really quickly. She waived her right to a jury and is leaving it all in the judge’s hands.”
“Because she knows she fucked up bad enough that a jury would want to roast her on a spit in the middle of the town square.” Shannon laughed. “Can you imagine if you heard all this shit as a juror?”
“The judge is gonna go into it knowing that she’s been arrested for this same shit twice already and is still a suspect in two more cases just like it. She’s fucked,” Hank surmised.
“I hope so.” I sighed. “I really hope so.”
“It’s times like this that I wish it were easier to bribe a judge, but I’ve thought that before,” Grunt said as he walked to the refrigerator for another beer. He stopped by the open French doors that led out onto the deck and stuck his head out to yell at the kids. “Vada! Untie your brother, dammit! What did I tell you yesterday? Petra, stop teaching her shit!”
“I’ve been thinking about it, and I’ve decided that maybe we should only have one child,” Nicole mused as she watched the kids out in her yard.
“Shit! It’s more fun when there’s a whole passel of them, Doc. They learn life lessons that way,” Grunt said as he sat down next to Shannon.
“Like how to tie knots?” Hank asked in disbelief. “Unless you’re going to grow up to be a sailor or into Shibari, how is that a necessary life lesson?”
“Shibari?” Grunt asked. Shannon leaned over and whispered in his ear and Grunt’s smile turned wicked. “Oh. That.”
“Yeah, that. How’s that a life lesson?” Hank asked.
“If they fuck up and whoever they’ve got hog tied gets away, they learn to tie the knots better so they won’t get away the next time. That’s the life lesson.”
“With him helping raise them, your kids are going to grow up to be the subject of a true crime documentary,” Nicole told her friend.
“You’ve known them for years. You think they weren't already headed that direction?” Shannon scoffed. “Have you ever had a conversation with my youngest daughter?”
“Good point,” Nicole said as she tilted her head in acknowledgement. “Very good point.”
“Are you going to go to the