LOVED (23 page)

He nodded and smiled from ear to ear.

“Yeah, Erik told me about you. I’m excited for you, son,” I said as I shook his hand.

“I won’t let you down, sir,” he said, standing in front of me looking me in the eyes.

“Well, let’s get one thing straight. I’m here tonight for this clusterfuck of a send-off, and this son-of-a-bitch has nothing to do with me. This is Erik and Kelli’s. You’ll never let me down, because this place isn’t mine, and I don’t give a fuck about it,” I said, laughing.

“Well, I won’
t let them down,” he said as he smiled.

“I imagine not,” I responded.

“You must be the
A-Train
,” I said as I approached the boy with the short hair.

He
stopped walking past us and turned around.

“Yes sir,
Alec Jacob,” he wiped his hands on his jeans and shook my hand.

“Pleasure is mine, sir,” he said.

“I could tell you were a Marine by how you walked, son,” I said.

“Once and always, sir,” he said.

“I’m glad you’re here, son,” I said.

“As am I, sir,” he responded.

I stood there and began looking around the dealership, making him feel less uneasy about being in my presence. After a moment, he walked away, toward the others.

When I did what I could f
or Kelli, I did it because
she
asked me to. She explained to me what had happened, or at least what she thought happened. I never met the kid before, but I felt as if I needed to do whatever I could to help him. It was nice to put a face with the name, and to finally see who he was and what he looked like. I could tell from looking into his eyes that he was a good man. He was little war torn maybe, but a good man none-the-less. Meeting him made me happy that I had helped him what little I could. In his eyes, regardless of what
actually
happened, he did nothing wrong.

He walked through the sales floor and looked at the bikes, smiling. These boys were sure proud to be a part of this in either helping Erik and Kelli by working here, or just knowing that the dealership was finally in the hands of someone that would run it in a manner that they found acceptable. Seeing them happy made me happy.

I walked up beside Erik and followed him as he walked through the shop. He looked around, taking in all of what was there, and where things were. A few other boys filtered in as we walked around and admired the facility.

When we walked back into the sales floor, Erik went to talk to Kelli. There were a few people talking by the Harley gear that was beside the sales floor – shirts, and jackets and such. One man was sitting on a motorcycle on the sales floor. He was about as big as Erik, and had similar tattoos and a shaved head. As he grabbed ahold of the handlebars,
a tattoo on the back side of his arm caught my eye. I slowly walked up to the right side of him, studying the tattoo as I walked. It wasn’t the
tattoo
that caught my eye, it was
what
it depicted.

A Navy anchor.

“You a sailor, son?” I asked as I looked at his tattoo.

“No sir,”
he said as he moved his arm.

He
seemed a little self-conscious about it.

“My father
was
,” he said over his right shoulder.

He added emphasis on the word was. I needed to tread lightly.

“I was a sailor. Vietnam. Gunner on a swift boat. They called me
Gunner
. Gunner Parks. My
name
is Gene Parks, I’m Kelli’s father,” I said in a soft tone.

He studied at me for a long
second, and proceeded to speak.

“They called my pop
Bunny
. He was a SEAL. SEAL Team Three. He died in Somalia in 1993. Kid shot him in the throat. He bled out on the way back to the chopper,” he said.

“Pleasure to meet you,” I said as I extended my hand.

“My name is Steve, sir. Steve Easter. Pleasure sir,” he said as he grabbed my hand and gave it a firm shake.

As he shook my hand with his, I felt it tremble. I looked at his vest and saw the name patch on the left side.

Bunny.

The Easter Bunny
.

My goddamned heart skipped. I stood, his hand in mine, knowing that this was the man that saved my life. He was the one that gave an old man that he never met another chance at living life. I would have given him anything I had. Hell, I would have given him
everything.

Yet.

He wanted nothing. He didn’t even want recognition. Or praise. I released his hand. There was so much I wanted to say, but I didn’t dare. I needed to respect his wishes. He had his reasons for wanting to go unnoticed, whatever they were. To truly appreciate what he did for me, and why, I needed to practice what I always preached.

Never miss a good opportunity to keep your fucking mouth shut.

“Nice to meet you, Steve.
I’m sorry about your father. I never had a son, always wanted one. I’ll be adopting that dumb fuck over there here pretty soon,” I said as I pointed at Erik.

He laughed. As he did, I chuckled.

“I suppose, you all adopted Kelli, so to speak. So, in a sense, I’m adopting all of you. What are you going to do here for Erik and Kelli?”

“Nothing sir, I work construction. Home remodels. Times are tough. I make it fr
om job to job,” he said lightly as he looked at the handlebars of the motorcycle.

“Construction
? Well, I’ll be dipped in shit. I don’t know if dumbass or Kelli told you, but I just retired. I need to build a shop onto the side of my house, but I need it to be a damn nice one. What do you know about building garages onto an existing home?” I asked.

“Quite a bit, sir,” he responded as his eyes lit up.

“It’s going to have to be top-notch, I live out east in one of those high profile neighborhoods,” I bragged, smiling.

“I understand fully sir. My work is second to none,” he said as he stepped off of the bike and onto the sales floor.

“I’d love to give you a bid,” he said as he reached for his rear pocket.

He reached in his pocket and pulled out his wallet. He
opened it, removed a crumpled business card, and handed it to me.

“My number is
on the card. You give me a call, and I’ll give you a bid,” he said, smiling from ear to ear.

“Well,
the money doesn’t matter to me son. I don’t need a
bid
. I need the work done. I need it done by a man that’s honest, trustworthy, has a high standard for himself, and can make it look like the new addition had been on the house since the beginning. In a perfect world, as I like to say, he’d also be the son of a sailor,” I said, smiling.

“I’m that man sir,” he said.

“Well, I’ll give you a call, we can look at it together and see when you can get started,” I said.

“I’
ll look forward to that call, sir,” he said.

He smiled and nodded his head. When he turned to walk away, I reached for my wallet. I opened it and looked at the card before I put it in.

Steve Easter. Honest. Trustworthy. Loyal
. On the bottom was his phone number, and in the upper right hand corner, an Easter Bunny.

The Easter Bunny.

ERIK.
Kelsey Theodore Wilson. Otherwise known as
Teddy
.

My best friend.

He didn’t judge, was open-minded, and he wasn’t afraid to tell me when I was making a mistake. Friends like him are once in a lifetime, and they’re more valuable than gold. I attributed the majority of my progress to several discussions that we had throughout my relationship with Kelli, and the fact that he wasn’t afraid to tell me when he thought I was fucking up.

“Un-fucking believable is what it is,” he said as he set his mug of beer onto the table.

“Yeah, it’s something. Hell, I’ve always hated change. But right now, to turn back the clock to a year ago? I wouldn’t accept it,” I said as I looked at into the parking lot.

“So, you used to the heft of it yet?” he asked.

“Hell, Crash. A bike’s a bike. Bagger, chopper, they’re all the same,” I said.

“Well, you got her looking real nice with them apes and those bags. Sounds good with those pipes,” he said as he nodded his head.

“Kelli loves it,” I said.

“Bet she does. Hell, I’d have to be wanting a ride pretty damned bad to sit on your chopper on a little seat stuck to the fender with a fucking suction cup. That, my friend, is the craziest shit I ever seen. You know, when I was a kid, I had one of them guns that shot them darts with a suction cup on the end. I used to watch cartoons and shoot the T.V.,” he paused and chuckled as he took a drink.

“Well,
them darts would fall off the T.V. after a second or two. Always wanted ‘em to stay there forever, but they wouldn’t. I always think of them darts falling off when I’d see Kelli on that seat of yours. Wondering how much longer it’d be before she just fell off,” he laughed.

“So, cruise control, stereo, and a soft seat, you gonna ride that fucker to Arizona bike week?” he asked.

I nodded.

“Taking Kelli?” he asked.

I nodded.

“Yeah, we already talked about it. I’m going, and taking her. I’m headed south when it’s over to see my witch friend. Haven’t seen her in years,” I said.

“Shit, I ain’t looking to be around no damned witch. I’m haulin’ Heather with me, but fuck that. I’ll stay north and wait for you to come back up. Ain’t looking to get any spells cast on me,” he laughed as he finished his beer.

I laughed.

Trying to explain to people the intricacies of my friend sometimes proved difficult at best. It never changed how I felt about her. She was as good as gold. I’d used the talisman as a crutch through the problems with Kelli’s father, and I wanted to tell her how things worked out. Sometimes a face to face talk worked so much better than a phone call or an email.

I looked out at my new bike and smiled.

“You can stare at her all you want, Doc. She ain’t gonna change,” he laughed.

“Hell, I know. It’s new. I like looking at it,” I chuckled.

“June’s gonna be here before you know it,” Teddy said, referring to our wedding date.

“I know it. Hell, I’m ready now,” I said.

For so much of my life, I lived it hoping from time-to-time I could turn the clock back and live at a different part of my life. Go back to the past and live it over in a different fashion. Now, I couldn’t wait for the tomorrow’s to get here. Whatever tomorrow brought for Kelli and I, I wanted it. She truly has changed my life. I have no one but her to thank for how well my life was going now.

For that, I was truly grateful.

“So, when do you think you and Heather will get married?” I asked.

Teddy had his beer mug tipped forward. He had his finger in the glass, feeling the temperature of the beer.

“You ever wonder Doc…well, about them jugs that keep hot things hot and cold things cold?” he asked.

“A t
hermos?” I asked.

“Yeah, a t
hermos. How’s that sum bitch know whether to keep something hot or keep it cold? This is the kind of shit that makes me sit in bed at night and wonder. Now, me and Heather? Well, I don’t know. Now that you and Kelli are getting’ hitched, we’re talking about it more. I’m ready. Heather does it for me. I like the fact that she’s tempestuous. I just want her to be comfortable, and know I ain’t doin’ it ‘cause you did it,” he said as he pulled his finger from his beer.

“I don’t know about the thermos, Teddy,” I lied, shaking my head at the ‘new’ Teddy.

“As far as you and Heather - I suppose when you’re ready, you’re ready,” I said as I finished my water.

“So when you two leavin’?” Teddy asked.

“This weekend.
Gene’s taking us to the airport. Be gone ten days,” I answered.

“Well, I hope you two have fun. Heather said Kelli
ain’t never seen a beach or the ocean,” he said as he held his beer glass over his head, hoping for one more drop.

“
Well, she hasn’t since she was five or six,” I said.

“You about ready?” he asked as he set the mug back onto the table.

“Thought you’d never ask. Let’s ride to the dealer and check on the fellas,” I responded.

He set a twenty dollar bill under his beer mug and placed it back on the table.

“Let’s ride,” I said.

“Glad you’re back, Doc. It’s damn nice
havin’ ya back,” he said as he slapped my shoulder.