Paper Cranes (23 page)

New Orleans is pretty much on lockdown for Mardi Gras, which means mini vacation for this girl. There are so many parades going on that a majority of the streets are shut down for at least a week. What would normally only take me 15 minutes to get to work, could take hours.

I wasn’t complaining too much considering I didn’t exactly want to be stuck in an office. I was feeling so much better, and the last thing I wanted was to fart around when the streets were filled with fun. I’ve lived in N’Orleans for so long and yet I have never once taken advantage of all its amenities including Mardi Gras. I always kept myself at a safe distance, and simply immersed myself in my job.

Collecting my belongings to “work from home” this week, I saddled up and sent Lee a text.

Me:
You ready to get our Mardi Gras on?

Nearly seconds later, Lee chimed in as if he were waiting patiently next to his phone. The anticipation of tonight was like the night before a much needed vacation or Christmas Eve.

Lee:
I’m already at your house. JoJo is enlightening me on the guys you’ve dated in the past. It’s proving to be very interesting.

Me:
I’ll be home in ten. Tape her mouth shut if need be.

Lee:
Oh, but why? I’m rather enjoying the talk, however I did have to break it to her that we are just friends. She seemed a little upset with your decision. I think she’s taking a liking to me.

Me:
Make that five.

Lee:
ha ha ha

I wasn’t sure why I was racing home, but the thought of JoJo scamming on my territory irritated me. She had no mercy for men. She was too bossy, not to mention high maintenance.

I made it home in record time as I bust through the front door. Sitting in my living room was JoJo, Lee and a guy I vaguely remember seeing before. He was spitting image of Lee leading me to believe it was Gage; Lee’s younger brother.

The brothers had nearly identical tats, although Gage was cleanly shaven with much shorter hair. In a twisted way, I was glad he was there distracting JoJo from her predatory ways. She knew I wasn’t “dating” Lee, which meant Lee was free game. However, if she were a true friend, she still wouldn’t touch him.

Sitting in an accent chair no one ever sat in, was Lee himself. Pushing himself off the armrests, he stood to greet me. God, did he look good. He wore a Saints ball cap backwards, clingy v-neck black shirt that showed the faint lines of his chest and worn jeans. He wore work boots, but they were incredibly attractive. They said, “I can get down and dirty, AND down and dirty.”

“Hey, Dove,” Lee stated as he walked over to give me a hug. He never gave me random hugs at least is front of anyone that is; it was strangely comforting though. Kissing in private, sure, but not random hugs. There it was again, oil and pine needles.

Pulling back from our hug, I gave him a questioning look. “What was that for?”

“I figured you were cold-free and you needed it. Plus, I kinda missed ya.”

“Aw, that was really sweet, but I just saw you the other day. Now what do you really want,” I joked.

“Dammit, okay, I was wondering if Gage…”

“AND ME,” JoJo blurted.

“…and Jo, could come with tonight.”

“I’m Gage by the way, since my bro is so rude,” he stated as he picked me up and began swinging me around.

“Nice…to meet you…Gage,” I squealed with laughter.

“This asshat over here can’t stop talking about you,” he thumbed in Lee’s direction.

“OKAY, that’s enough talking,” Lee interrupted.

“Oh, no, no, no. I want to hear what you’ve been saying about me behind my back.”

“That you’re…”

“ETT,” Lee tried to interrupt. “Zip it!”

Gage rolled his eyes, “That you’re beautiful.”

“That’s it, that’s all he said?”

“And you’re…”

“SHUT THE FUCK UP, DIPSHIT,” Lee tried to interrupt Gage’s thought.

“Smokin’ hot! I tend to agree.”

Down casting his eyes, Lee covered his face in embarrassment.

“Is that so?” I gave Lee a wink. “Did he also tell you we’re just friends?”

“Yep, he said…”

“FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, DOUCHEBAG! SHUT YOUR PIE HOLE!”

“…he didn’t care. He was going to try everything and anything to make you his girl. He’s such a dumbass. Hard to believe we’re related.”

“Well, we’ll see about that,” I grinned.

“Yeah, he even talks to Jack…” he suddenly cut himself off. Wide eyed, he looked at Lee terrified he had spilled a can of beans.

“Jackson? Yeah, I know about him.”

“Oh thank, God. I wasn’t in the mood to have my ass handed to me tonight.”

“Who’s Jackson?” Jo chimed in.

“My five-year-old son,” Lee beamed.

“Wait, you gotta kid?”

“Yep. He’s my world. My everything.”

“He really is a great dad,” Gage said meekly.

“That’s sorta hot,” Jo added.

“JOJO!” I scolded.

“It’s okay, Dove. I’ll take the compliment any day of the week.”

I tried desperately to ease the awkward tension, “I’m going to change out of my work clothes and we can head out.”

“Okay, Capitano!” Gage saluted me as he snapped into attention.

“At ease soldier,” I joked.

Just as I reached the top of the stairs, I could hear the faint sounds of Gage’s voice.

“I like her, big bro. Well done.”

“Shut up, dick. Your mouth is going to get you into trouble. Just…lay low if you can, got it?”

“Roger that.”

We parked Lee’s truck at their shop towards the end out the route on Canal and took a cab back to Napoleon and Tchoupitoulas where the route started. JoJo and Lee walked ahead as I put my purse under the seat of his truck.

“You’re girl, JoJo, is smokin’ hot. Sweet Jesus, look at that ass! You gonna hook me up?” Gage waggled his eyebrows up and down as he threw an arm over my shoulder.

“Something tells me you have no problem getting girls, Casanova.”

“True.”

“You are one cocky S.O.B. She’ll love that,” I giggled.

“So what the hell is up with you and my brother? Why are you dickin’ him around? You know he’s crushin’ on you something fierce, Kat.”

“I mean I get it. I feel the same way.”

“So what’s the problem?”

“I can’t ask him to sacrifice his time when I’ve got…”

This time it was my turn to cut myself off. I wasn’t sure how much Lee had divulged to Gage.

“ALS?” He finished.

“I guess you two really do talk about everything.”

“Yes, we do. He wasn’t always like that though. Lee was in a seriously dark place before Jackson was born. That boy saved him from a life of destruction. Seeing him light up talking about you reminds me of the day Jackson was born.”

“What if I disappoint him?”

“He’s offering his heart to you, Kat. My suggestion - take it. If he loves you as much as he does Jackson, and I have a feeling he does, you won’t be disappointed or alone in this.”

Wiping a tear from my cheek, “What happened with Jackson’s mom?”

“That’s not a story for me to tell. And Kat, don’t get mad at the guy when he gives you details. He’s changed; he’s not the same guy he once was. Just remember that.”

“What’s going on slow pokes?” Lee turned around as him and JoJo made their way through the crowd.

“Just chatting. I was telling her about your weirdo habits,” he smiled reassuringly at me.

“He’s lying! He was ogling Jo’s ass, saying she’s smokin’ hot!”

Jo immediately stopped, whipping around sending a clear message that she thought Gage was interested in me and not her. Her sulking expression immediately changed to delight.

“She’s right though. Baby, you have an ass to die for!”

Like a scene in a romance movie, Jo ran and leapt into Gage’s arms. Catching her easily, she wrapped her legs around his waist and drew him in for a movie worthy kiss. It’s one thing to see it on the big screen, but seeing it in action was almost comical. I couldn’t help but gape at their public display, then again, nothing at Mardi Gras shocked me.

“Schanks, At,” Gage tried to get out between the attack of kisses from JoJo. I’m not gonna lie, even I was hot and bothered watching him squeeze her ass as she attacked his face.

“Well this just got awkward,” I muttered.

“Forget about them. Let’s go get on this float.”

“Jo, we’re going to go now,” I shouted above the crowd.

With a backwards flip of the wrist, she waved me goodbye. Still refusing to pull away from Gage’s hold on her, they continued their shameless PDA.

Lee grabbed my hand, giving it a squeeze as we made our way to the float.

“I guess we don’t have to worry about sneaking them on the float now,” Lee said.

“Excellent point,” I agreed.

“I can’t believe this is your first parade.”

“Believe it, Daniels. So why are there so many people dressed up as kings and queens? Seems a little off considering.

“It’s said that the Rex Krewe is the only group who can denote a true King and Queen of Mardi Gras. It’s been a long-standing tradition that the kings and queens represent Grand Duke Alexis RomanoffGrand and his arrival to New Orleans in 1872. After the destruction and devastation from the Civil War, the unnamed Krewe of New Orleans, an organization who orchestrates a lot of these parades, wanted to honor Rex on his arrival. Hence, the parade was established, and that particular Krewe is forever called the ‘Rex Crewe. It’s said to be one of the originals.”

“Why do you know this kind of stuff?” I looked at him amazed.

“I think it’s important to know your heritage and city, especially if you live in New Orleans. Some may say it’s a trashy place to be in at times, but I think it’s perfect. There is so much history and tradition. My question, how did you get us on the Krewe of Bacchus float? I’m dying to know.”

“Well, I pulled some strings for them in 2010 to get Drew on their float. Now I know why he was dressed up as a gold Caesar. For the longest time I thought they just wanted him to resemble a shiny cupid. Now I know the real reasoning.”

“Yeah, but you don’t have him on the float this year. What gives?” Lee questioned.

“I may have promised to get him back on the float as soon as they win a super bowl title,” I grimaced with a slight smile.

“You are evil woman! You know damn well that will be years,” he busted out laughing.

“Yeah, well, they are still holding out hope.”

“Well, I think it’s bad ass.”

“I had wanted the team to have one, but I didn’t realize I couldn’t just slap them on a float. I guess that was my fault for not researching a little more. Who knew?”

“Well now we don’t have to suffer with fifty or so hungry, horny, football players. Thank goodness for your lack of efficiency,” he chuckled.

“Oh shut up!” I chuckled.

As we reached our destination, we are quickly whisked away in opposite directions in order to change into satin and sequined costumes. Looking down at my apparel, I about died at the absurdity of these outfits. In the background I could hear the clanging of the brass band, pre-gaming us before climbing aboard our float.

My giant purple, satin pants were clearly a one size fits most. They were partially obscured by my giant gold and green tunic. Blazed across my chest was the emblem of the Bachuus Krewe, not to mention several gilded fleur-de-lis. As soon as they handed me my hat/mask, I nearly doubled over laughing. Nestled between my fingers was a sparkling green crocodile.

“I look like king cake threw up on me,” Lee laughed hysterically as he made his way to me.

“Laissez les bon temps rouler, baby!” I cheered.

“I can’t believe you actually got that out. I’m pretty impressed, Dove.”

“Trust me. I’ve been practicing. I didn’t want to disappoint you,” I gleamed.

“You could never disappoint me.”

Maybe Gage was right; maybe Lee really was serious about us. Perhaps I should be thinking more about it myself.

As we finally loaded the giant float, I had to mentally prepare myself. Soon, we would be thrust into a bead battle, never to be the same again. Making our way to a designated area, we kicked our way through boxes and boxes of beads, bells and coins with the Greek God’s face representing the Krewe.

The boxes surrounded us; protecting us from any retribution should it come our way – a shield of sorts. There had to have been thousands of bags of beads in front of us. I had once heard that in any given Mardi Gras season nearly 25 million beads are thrown. That’s completely insane. That is a lot of boobs jumping around!

As the float roared to life, we were jostled a bit with its initial jolt. Almost losing my balance, Lee gripped my shoulders to stabilize me.

“Easy there, Dove,” he chuckled as he placed my mask on my face.

“Thanks,” I grinned, not exactly wanting to move from his grasp. I straightened his mask as well as we began to move forward. Turns out it’s required by law that float riders wear masks at all times. Who knew?

Also, thankfully, there were glorified port-a-potties on board. Probably to assist those riders who drank a little too much. There was no shortage of alcohol either. Crates of Bourbon, Whiskey, Fireball, Tequila and Vodka were stashed for our seven-hour trip.