Rock Chick 06 Reckoning (65 page)

Jane was a romantic and she felt the world needed to learn about this love affair.

She felt this because it was beautiful.

They al were.

Then she refocused on her monitor and started typing.

Ava

Five years later…

I was sitting, cross-legged, smack in the middle of Luke and my big bed.

I could hear Shirleen downstairs, talking to Gracie while Shirleen (and Gracie) banged around the kitchen.

I told Shirleen that she should come with us tonight but she wouldn’t. She’d fashioned herself into the Rock Chick version of Auntie Mame and it was clear her favorite of the Rock Chick/Hot Bunch progeny was, by far and away, Gracie. If Luke and I came home to find Gracie and Shirleen spirited away in the night with a note explaining that Shirleen had kidnapped her and would never return, I wouldn’t have been surprised. She loved that child nearly as much as Gracie’s father and I did.

It was lucky for Gracie, Shirleen had a lot of love to give and I was happy she wanted to give it to my daughter.

The shower turned off and my attention went to the door of the bathroom.

Within minutes, the door opened and Luke was there.

He was clean shaven and his hair, worn much longer now than the way he used to wear it when we first got together (that was to say it was thick, wavy and
lush
), was wet. He’d long since shaved off the kil er mustache he used to have much to my despair but with the time he spent with me, Gracie and at Nightingale Investigations, not to mention spending time at our cabin in Crested Butte (where, if we were there very long, which we were a lot these days, he’d usual y grow a beard) he said he didn’t have time for ‘tache maintenance.

He’d done his usual half-assed job at toweling off. There were droplets of water clinging to his beautiful shoulders were droplets of water clinging to his beautiful shoulders and perfectly formed, just hairy enough to be sexy as al hel chest and he had the towel wrapped around his waist.

“Towel off much?” I teased and his dark blue eyes sliced to me.

He stopped moving toward the dresser and one side of his mouth went up in a half-grin.

“Babe, get dressed. We’re gonna be late,” he ordered.

“We won’t be late. I’m total y ready.”

I watched as one of his dark eyebrows went up.

“You’re in a robe,” Luke pointed out.

“I just have to put on clothes,” I replied.

“And half a ton of silver.”

He was right about my silver. I stil wore a lot of silver jewelry even though Gracie was usual y tugging at my necklaces. I was constantly in danger of her choking me to death. She was like he-baby, she was so damned strong (that, she got from her father). Not to mention, she kept shoving my rings (while they were on my fingers) in her mouth and biting hard and that child had the jaws of death, kid you not, I should know, I nursed her. She was teething and the silver must feel cool on her gums so I didn’t mind (much, I was pretty sure one day I’d find the baby Gracie gum mark grooves in my rings cute).

I decided to change the subject to one I wanted to talk about.

Luke had made it to the dresser and was rooting through a drawer.

I winced as he rooted. Our drawers were painstakingly tidy. I liked them like that and put a lot of effort into it.

Everything folded neatly and organized by color or color combination or long-sleeved (then by color) and short-sleeved (then by color), etc. I had a system, a
tidy
system.

Luke didn’t do tidy and he wasn’t al that hot on any of my systems either, no matter how often I explained them to him (which was a lot).

I got over Luke’s ruthless rooting and asked his naked, muscular, sexily dotted with droplets of water back, “What do you think of the name Maisie?”

Luke’s body went completely stil . Then, very slowly, he turned to me and his eyes locked with mine.

“Repeat the question,” he demanded.

“You heard me,” I said softly.

Quick as a flash, Luke was across the room, I was flat on my back, he was on me and wrapping my legs around his hips.

“Luke!”

“Quiet,” he muttered as he yanked the towel away and then kept muttering, as if to himself, “Please God, don’t be wearing any underwear.”

I slapped his shoulder, “Luke, Shirleen is…” He kissed me to shut me up (he did this a lot).

When his mouth moved to my neck, I was breathing faster but I stil said, “We’re going to be late.”

“We’l be quick.”

“Luke, seriously…”

His head came up and his eyes caught mine and I went quiet at their intensity.

“You sayin’ you’re havin’ my baby?”

“You sayin’ you’re havin’ my baby?”

I nodded.

His face went soft and, just as soft, he said, “Then we’re celebrating.”

I smiled at him. There was no denying Luke when he was in the mood to celebrate (not that I’d want to).

“Okay,” I whispered.

He kissed me again.

I kissed him back.

* * * * *

“You never said what you thought about the name Maisie,” I said to Luke.

“I don’t give a fuck what the name is, long as you come out of it alive.”

I felt my breath catch.

Al the Nightingale Men got off facing al kinds of uncertain situations and hair-raising danger but they became a wee bit edgy when their women got pregnant.

This was because Indy had nearly died while having her and Lee’s first, Cal um.

I’d known Lee a long time and I’d never seen him the way he was in the hospital that day when the doctor ejected him from the birthing room. He was always cool and in control. Ultra cool and in control.

That day, he was not cool and in control.

He was so not cool and in control, I thought they’d have to tranquil ize him.

to tranquil ize him.

In the end, it was surprisingly me who calmed him down.

It was funny how life came around and then went around.

Lee had been the one to find me at my worst, my most humiliated, beaten up and taped to a pole after my ex violated me. He had taken care of me, doing so gentle and sweet.

Years later it would be my touch that stopped him from losing it.

I’d put my hand on his arm. He’d frozen at my touch right before he turned into me, slid an arm around my shoulders and yanked me to him, shoving his face in my neck.

I remember it like it happened two minutes before. Then again, it was something you never forgot.

“Fuck, Ava,” he had said into my neck as his other arm wrapped tight around my waist.

I slid my arms around his waist, turned my head and whispered in his ear, “I know, Lee.”

“She was screaming.”

I shut my eyes tight and held on tighter.

“I won’t be able to…” he started and his voice was hoarse.

“You won’t have to,” I cut him off.

He pul ed me deeper into him and I thought he’d crush me but I didn’t make a peep.

“Fuck,” he murmured and said no more, just held on. So I did the same thing.

Indy and Cal um had made it, though the drama wasn’t over. A year later she announced she was pregnant again and Lee went berserk. I’d never seen anything like it and I’d and Lee went berserk. I’d never seen anything like it and I’d seen Luke go berserk once and, let me tel you, when one of these boys lost it, it wasn’t pretty.

It was Vance who cooled him off that time.

Vance and Jules had been riding the wave of baby number three. At that time, Jules was due any day. She’d had a difficult first pregnancy, sick throughout it and nearly two days of labor, a lot of it
hard
labor, when she had Max.

Jules had glowed through her second pregnancy with Sam though, and breezed through the delivery. The pregnancy with what would become Harry was like it was with Sam.

Vance explained that to Lee and Lee sorted himself out and settled in for the long haul. Even though for him, and thus everyone around him, it was a
tense
long haul. Indy ignored this and carried on as always, which was to say, she was her usual crazy self which made Lee al the more tense.

Indy had been the same as Jules when she bore and delivered Alison (named after Al y, but to keep it al straight, everyone, for some reason, cal ed Indy and Lee’s Alison

“Suki”). No problems during the pregnancy or delivery. But Lee took matters into his own hands after that and had what Al y described as “The Operation” in capital letters
with
the air quotation marks she always used when referring to it as she would lift her hands and jerk her index and middle fingers up and down.

It was Indy’s turn to go berserk. Lee had had “The Operation” without consulting her and Indy wanted three kids.

I had kept it between Lee and me but when Indy looked like she was going to hold a grudge for, perhaps, ever, I shared with Indy the episode in the waiting room while Indy was delivering Cal um. Indy got over her tizzy pretty damn quick after hearing that.

I smoothed my tee down over my bel y and left my hands there.

Soon, I wouldn’t be able to wear my jeans, which would suck.

Other than that, my pregnancy with Gracie had been pretty good outside of the crippling migraines I had in the first three months which I had no idea, until Daisy confided in me after Tex confided it in her after Gracie was born, drove Luke straight to Lincoln’s Road House. There he and Lee would drink themselves to oblivion, talking drunkenly about how they should never have let the Rock Chicks “fuck with their heads” and getting into in-depth conversations about the pros (there were many) and cons (there were none) of adoption and Tex or Hank or Eddie would be cal ed to drive them home.

As I stared at my bel y, I smiled. I didn’t mind being pregnant. I hadn’t lost al my pregnancy weight after Gracie.

Not because I didn’t want to but about ten pounds to goal, Luke put a stop to al dieting by showing me in his unique way how much he liked my curves.

I looked at Luke who was sitting on the side of our bed and pul ing on a pair of boots.

“I’m going to get fat again,” I told him.

His head came up and he looked at me.

“You’re pregnant. Pregnant is not fat.”

“Pregnant is fat,” I retorted.

Luke lost patience. “For fuck’s sake, are we seriously having this conversation?”

“You know how I feel about being fat!” I snapped. I’d once been huge and I’d worked hard to lose the weight. I never wanted to go back there.

Luke looked back at his boots. “I don’t care if you’re big as a house, just as long as you never cut your hair or lose your sense of humor.”

I stared at his bent head like it had split open and a dancing mini-Luke popped out wearing a top hat and tails singing “Thank Heaven for Little Girls”.

I mean, seriously, was he for real?

“Luke?”

His head came up then his eyes narrowed when he saw I was stil not ready.

“What?” he asked impatiently.

Crapity, crap, crap. He
was
for real.

“Nothing,” I muttered, turned away and started to pile on my silver.

I really love him,
Good Ava, my sweet little angel, said in my ear.

You think we have enough time to jump him again
before going to the concert?
Bad Ava, my not-so-sweet little devil, asked in my other ear.

Jeez, Bad Ava was such a slut.

* * * * *

Daisy was staring around Sports Authority Field at Mile High which was packed to the gil s.

“Do you believe this shit?” she breathed.

I looked around the stadium. I believed it.

The Gypsies had started out in Denver. This was a hometown gig. There was no way the people of Denver were gonna let Stel a and her boys down.

What I did find hard to believe was watching Stel a on television. Now
that
was weird.

Though she looked good on the red carpet, dressed rock ‘n’ rol cool but couture chic and hanging onto Mace’s arm while walking up to some awards ceremony.

The Blue Moon Gypsies were huge. They were the new definition of cool. They were, as the magazines said,

“Bringing rock back to its roots,” and it was true.

They didn’t do slick, produced, music videos. Most of their videos were clips from concerts or them playing a song, live, on a sidewalk in Vegas (for which they didn’t get a permit so they got arrested which was also touted as bringing rock back to its roots but it wasn’t original, U2 had done much the same for their kickass “Where the Streets Have No Name” video) or they’d shoot the video while playing in a smal , cool-as-shit but seriously dive club somewhere (thus making the club famous and jacking up their revenue).

It didn’t hurt that Stel a was gorgeous and the boys in the band not only weren’t hard on the eyes but they also drank a lot, screwed around a lot, got in trouble a lot and were general y just pure old fashioned rock ‘n’ rol .

We had a roped off section, front and center. We also had backstage passes hanging around our necks.

Stel a took care of the Rock Chicks.

The entire gang was there. Indy and Lee, Roxie and Hank and Ren and Al y (the Nightingale offspring’s parents, Kitty Sue and Malcolm, were watching Cal um and Suki, Hank and Roxie’s kids Leah and Tex and Ren and Al y’s daughter, Katie); Jet and Eddie and Hector and Sadie (Hector and Eddie’s Mom, Blanca, was watching Jet and Eddie’s brood, Alex, Dante and Cesar and Hector and Sadie’s daughter Lola and newborn son, Gus); Jules and Vance (Jules’s friend May was watching Max, Sam and Harry); Daisy and Marcus; Sissy and Dom; Tod and Stevie; Nick; The Kevster; Ralphie and Buddy; Tex and Nancy; Duke and Dolores; Annette and Jason; Smithie and LaTeesha; Tom and Lana; Chloe and her husband, Ben; Roam and one of his (many) girls (this one was new, I didn’t know her name); Sniff (who was alone, for once) and Floyd, his wife, Emily, and his two daughters.