I tried not to think about it. I really didn’t like Terry Wilcox but I didn’t want him dead.
Incarcerated. Yes.
Out of my life. Absolutely.
Dead seemed kind of harsh, even for scary, creepy, icky Wilcox.
As for Wilcox’s goons, Gary, Teddy, The Moron and the Steroid Sidekicks, Lee told me they would no longer be a problem. I got the impression that this had to do with Lee and his badass army “having fun”, as Vance put it, but I tried not to think about that either.
Last, no one ever found out that Eddie shot someone on my behalf, such was the clean sweep of Uncle Gino.
Eddie and Lee had issues about this. Lee had told Darius that he and Marcus were working together to take care of Wilcox, once and for all. Eddie was kept out of this deal. Eddie might be a maverick cop but he still liked to work within the bounds of the law (when it suited him). Stepping aside for a mob clean up was something he frowned on. With a bit of na**d gratitude as incentive, Lee told me that Eddie and Lee had a chat, with Darius playing intermediary. They worked it out but I could tell, it took a bit of effort.
That was it.
All that drama and then, in one day, it was over.
* * * * *
It was a few weeks after the final showdown and life had gone back to normal. Normal, that was, with Lee coming home to sleep in my bed every night which was a new, happy normal that I really, really liked.
Lee was a good roommate, he brought me coffee in the morning, he wasn’t in my hair all the time and he called to tell me when he was going to be late.
There were drawbacks, of course.
He threw the towel in the sink when he was done with it and thought that the words “floor” and “closet” where synonymous but I was quietly working through these issues.
A girl could get through these things knowing that sometime during the night (or late morning, depending) the boy she’d loved since she was five was going to slide in bed beside her.
That, and there was also the fact that Judy, the housekeeper, also came with Lee moving in.
Ally and I were lying out in the sun on my balcony with melting spiced rum and diets, the phone and an egg timer when we heard, “Yoo hoo!”
I lifted my torso up, looked through the balcony railing and down and saw Tod standing on the decking at the end of their yard.
“Hey,” I called.
“Drag Duty, Saturday night. You up for it?” Tod called back, shielding his eyes with his hand, Chowleena sitting by his feet.
“Sure.”
“Stevie’s on a flight that night, Ally, you doin’ back up?” Tod yelled.
“Um-hum,” Ally mumbled loudly. She was lying on her stomach and her face was smushed into the lounge chair.
“What time?” I asked.
Tod paused, then said, “Girlie, aren’t you forgetting something?”
“What?”
Tod shook his head. “You’re living with Hunk-A-Licous now, you might want to ask him if he has plans for Saturday night.”
Ally’s eyes opened and trained on me.
Shit.
I was really not good at this relationship stuff.
“Call Lee,” Tod advised, “then come over and let me know.”
“Gotcha,” I shouted and settled in, reaching for the phone and hearing Chowleena’s nails tapping on the bricks as she and Tod walked back into the house.
I started to punch in Lee’s cell number.
“I’m still pissed you’re not pregnant,” Ally said into the lounge chair.
“For goodness sake, why?” I asked.
“I’m never gonna get a niece named after me.”
I hesitated before hitting the call button. “Ally, I hate to break this to you but it’s likely genetically impossible for me to have a girl. I don’t think Lee’s boys will allow the female chromosome to dominate.”
“You can name a boy ‘Ally’,” she tried.
“I’m not naming a boy ‘Ally’. He’ll get the shit knocked out of him in school.”
“Muhammad Ali didn’t get the shit knocked out of him, he knocked the shit out of everyone else.”
“Muhammad Ali was born with the name Cassius Clay. Cassius Clay is a kickass name. No one would f**k with a Cassius Clay.”
“No one would f**k with Muhammad Ali either.”
I couldn’t debate that point.
I gave up and hit the call button.
Lee answered after the first ring. “Yeah?”
I got a thrill down my spine at Lee’s voice saying that one word. I wondered when that would stop happening and I hoped the answer was “never”.
“Hey. Do we have plans Saturday night?” I asked.
“I thought I’d take you to Barolo Grill.”
“Yippee!” I cried.
Shit.
Did I say that out loud?
I snapped my mouth shut.
Silence on the phone.
“Lee?”
“Gorgeous, I know you don’t like it when I say this but you’re incredibly cute.”
That gave me a thrill down my spine too.
I’d never, in a million years, admit that to Lee.
“Whatever,” I said instead. “Anyway, Tod’s asked me to do Drag Duty.”
Lee, who was good at this relationship stuff, said immediately, “I’ll tell Dawn to make it an early reservation.”
Hee hee.
Lee was going to get Dawn to make our dinner reservations.
At the beautiful, fabulous, romantic Barolo Grill.
I loved that and I didn’t even care, not one bit, what that said about me.
“That sounds good,” I said and I couldn’t help it, I sounded happy. This was maybe because I was happy.
“Is that it?” Lee asked.
“Yes, no, yes,” I answered, because I didn’t want it to be.
Shit.
“Which is it?”
I lost my courage. “It’s no. Later.”
“Later.”
Before I heard the disconnect, quickly, I pulled myself together and told myself that even Rock Chicks could fall in love.
Then, I said, “Love you.”
Silence for a beat then, quietly, “Love you too.”
That didn’t only cause a thrill, it gave me a warm feeling in the pit of my stomach.
I hit the off button and Ally said, “You guys are kinda making me sick with all this gushy stuff.”
I stared at her. “I just said ‘love you’. That’s hardly gushy.”
“It’s gushy for you.”
This was true.
“Did Lee say it back?” she asked, squinting at me.