Skye Blue, page 24
part #6 of Firsts and Forever Series
When we finally broke apart, I smiled at him and said, “Have you forgotten about my hair yet?”
His fingertips traced my lips as he murmured, “What hair?”
After resting a bit, we quickly finished washing up. I’d forgotten to bring towels, so we both dripped our way to my bedroom, where I handed him a towel and took the last one for myself. A major laundry excursion was in my very near future.
I noticed the mouse’s empty cage and sighed as I tucked the towel around my hips. “Poor little guy. I hope he’s safe,” I said. “I also wonder how he got out of there.”
Dare came up beside me, securing his own towel around his hips, and poked the little hatch on the side of the cage. It pivoted around the still-secured latch like a revolving door. “Apparently he figured this out.”
“But if he can do that, why didn’t he run away sooner?” I asked, and Dare shrugged. “I’m going to see if I can lure him back in.” I retrieved a few morsels of food from the kitchen. When a hunk of parmesan, a grape and a bit of bread were lined up inside the cage, I sat down on my bed beside Dare with a sigh.
“I think it’s sweet that you got so attached to a random mouse,” he said, picking up my blue hand.
“I always wanted a lot of pets,” I said, my eyes still on the empty cage. “My dad wouldn’t let me get any because he claimed I was too irresponsible to take care of them. That’s kind of ironic, since he taught me to drive when I was eleven.”
“You’re kidding.”
I shook my head. “He liked going out and getting drunk every weekend and I was his ride home. Apparently I was responsible enough to operate a car, but not to feed a cat. Maybe he could have just told me he didn’t want pets, instead of turning it around on me.”
Dare had been watching my profile and said after a moment, “Come on. Let’s see if we can figure out where the Royal Rodent went.”
He crawled around with me on the living room floor, peering into the big pile of miscellaneous scrap items and proving once again what an incredibly good sport he was. The cat meanwhile was perched at the top of the metal mountain on high alert, scanning the area with quick jerks of his head. That made me think he hadn’t found and eaten the mouse yet.
I gave up after a while and laid down on my side right there on the living room floor, my line of sight still directed beneath my scrap pile. “I need a do-over for my do-over,” I told Dare. “Once again, I managed to utterly destroy our date. I wanted to make it perfect for you.”
He curled up right behind me, spooning me as he slid his arm under my head to act as a pillow. “It is perfect.”
“Oh, come on.”
“I mean it. I got to make love to you in a shower. What could possibly be better than that?”
I grinned and said, “Well, okay, that part was great. But I wanted you to experience a real date before we got to the good stuff. I was going to make you a nice meal and set the table with candles. I don’t actually have a table, but I was going to figure out how to make one out of some of my junk and put nice linens over it. I even bought candles and a tablecloth just for that reason.”
“Thank you for wanting to do all of that.” He kissed my bare shoulder.
“Don’t thank me, I totally wrecked it. That’s why I want another do-over. Are you free next Monday night? I think we both work all weekend, so I guess that’s the soonest we could try this again.”
“You really don’t have to keep going through all this trouble, Skye.”
I rolled over so we were eye to eye and said, “This is important to me, both because you’ve never had a real date before, and because I need to prove to myself I can do this. Please say yes.”
“Well, okay. You can have Monday, but then it’s my turn. On our next night off after that, I want to take you out and show you a good time.”
“You show me a great time, even when we stay in.”
“That’s good to know, but you get what I’m saying. I want to wine and dine you, hold your hand at the movies, go on a long, romantic walk on the beach. I want to woo you, Skye.”
That made me smile. “Woo me, huh?”
He grinned at me and said, “That’s right. I want to woo the hell out of you. That reminds me.” Dare looked around, then got up and brought over a canvas shopping bag that he’d left beside the front door. He pulled out a single red rose, which he handed to me, and then carefully lifted out a little pink box, which contained a perfect miniature chocolate cake. “I thought I’d bring dessert, since you were cooking dinner.”
“Thank you. That’s adorable. In fact, it’s so cute that I feel bad eating it.”
“Let’s eat it anyway.” He went to the kitchen and brought back a couple forks and a glass of water to put the rose in, then we curled up on the couch and enjoyed our dessert.
When every delicious morsel was gone, I decided to see if I could salvage anything from dinner. The sauce turned out to only be burnt on the bottom, so I carefully poured off the undamaged part into another pot and returned it to the stove. Dare chuckled as we leaned against the counter and waited for the sauce to reheat, and I asked, “What?”
“Nothing.”
“What is it?”
“Don’t ask, it wasn’t very nice of me.”
“Tell me anyway.”
He grinned and said, “Well, okay. It occurred to me that you now have blond hair and blue skin, so my previous Smurfette insult is suddenly dead-on.”
I burst out laughing. “Oh my God.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be, that’s hilarious.” Someone knocked on the door just then and I said, “Be right back.”
When I swung the door open, River took one look at me and said, “Oh honey, no. Go back to the blue. Blonds don’t have more fun.”
I stepped back to let him into the apartment. “You’ve seen me color my hair. This is the step that comes before the blue.”
“Oh, right. I forgot. What happened to your hands?”
“I spilled the dye and tried to clean it up.”
He frowned at that, but managed to avoid any disparaging comments. Instead he said, “I’m sorry that I kind of blew you off when we met for drinks yesterday. I came to see if you wanted to try again.”
“No need to apologize. Did you ask Cole out?” He looked a bit embarrassed as he nodded, so I asked, “Did you ask him out after going home with him last night?”
“Yeah. You know I don’t normally sleep with people I just met, but we just couldn’t help ourselves.”
“Well, damn,” I said with a grin.
“There’s somethin’ really special ‘bout Cole. I’d noticed him before when you and I had dropped by Nolan’s, and as soon as I started talking to him, well, that was pretty much that.”
“I’m happy for you, River. I’m happy for him, too. Did he tell you about his ex? His happiness has been a long time coming, I think.”
“Yeah. We stayed up talkin’ all night.”
“Wow, you two really did click,” I said.
“Big time. I’ve never felt anything like this before,” my brother admitted.
I smiled at that and said, “On that note, there’s someone I want you to meet. Someone really special to me.” I headed toward the kitchen and he trailed after me, then stopped abruptly in the doorway at the sight of the half-naked man in my kitchen.
Dare was scrubbing out the big stock pot in the sink. He glanced over his shoulder and said, “Oh, hi,” before rinsing and drying his hands and crossing the kitchen to us.
“Dare Evans, this is River Flynn-Hernandez, my brother.”
That seemed to fluster Dare a bit, and he stammered as he stuck his hand out, “Hi River. This really isn’t how I’d hoped to meet you. In a towel, I mean. I’d say it isn’t what it looks like, but, well...it kind of is.”
River stared at him for a long moment before finally shaking his hand. They both fidgeted awkwardly until Dare said, “I’m going to get dressed. Can I borrow some clothes, Skye?”
“Of course. Help yourself to anything you want,” I told him.
As he rushed off toward the bedroom, River asked, “Why does he need to borrow clothes?”
“There was a plumbing incident earlier, that’s how we both wound up in towels. His outfit got soaked.”
That seemed to relax him a bit. “Well, that’s good. I assumed you were both naked because you were sleeping together.”
“Oh, we’re definitely sleeping together,” I told him. When my brother’s eyes went wide I added, “You get that I’m twenty-one, right?”
“Christian told me about your crazy plan to lose your virginity to the first guy that asked, but I really didn’t think you’d go through with it.”
“I didn’t, River. I wasn’t serious when I said that. If I’d really wanted to give it up to the first guy that asked, I had my pick of horndogs on that dating site I joined with Zandra. This thing with Dare isn’t just about sex, far from it. He’s an incredibly great guy, and I think we have a real chance of building something here.” My brother still looked skeptical, so I added, “Why don’t you join us for dinner so you can get to know him?”
“I don’t know. I feel like I’m intruding.”
“Oh, come on.”
“Well, I do.”
“Tell you what,” I said, crossing the room to the refrigerator and taking out a beer (one he’d left behind when he moved out). “You take a couple minutes to get over it and I’ll go get dressed. Then you can tell me what you think of my homemade marinara sauce.”
“Wait. You cooked?”
I handed him the beer as I left the kitchen. “Weird, huh? Almost like I’m a real grown-up and everything.” I shot him a smile.
Dare was pulling on a pair of shorts when I went into the bedroom and shut the door behind me. He had a bigger build than I did, but had managed to find some things that were baggy on me, so they fit him well. Seeing him in one of my favorite blue t-shirts made me smile. He looked at me with a concerned expression and said, “River hates me, doesn’t he?”
“No. Why would he?”
“Because he just found me naked with his kid brother. I’m pretty sure he wanted to punch me in the face.”
“But he didn’t,” I said as I tossed my towel aside and pulled on a pair of briefs. “So we’re off to a good start. I asked him to join us for dinner, I hope that’s okay. I’m not sure if he’s going to take me up on it, he’s a little freaked out right now. But I’d love it if you two got to know each other.” I pulled on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt as Dare chewed on his lower lip, and then I picked up his hand and led him back to the kitchen.
River was stirring the pot on the stove, beer in hand. “This isn’t half-bad,” he said, indicating the sauce. “I would have used more garlic, but that’s just me.” He’d apparently decided to stick around and make an effort.
“So would I, but I’m on a date. Duh,” I told him, then flashed him a big smile. To Dare I said, “I think I mentioned that my brother’s a caterer. He’s kind of a genius in the kitchen, but his ego is already out of control so I never tell him that.”
“Kind of?” River joked.
The rescued sauce and the rest of the meal turned out better than I’d expected. I made sure to keep the alcohol flowing, and gradually River seemed to warm up to Dare. It helped that my date proved to be a total foodie, and the two of them went off on long tangents about exotic ingredients, culinary trends, and other topics that bored me senseless. But I didn’t care, because the two of them were bonding and that thrilled me to no end.
Chapter Twelve
River was just saying goodnight when someone knocked on the door. It had to be almost eleven, and I wondered who was dropping by. No one was in sight when I looked out the peep hole, so I swung the door open and said, “Hi Nana.”
“Hurry up, Skye, and find your sneakers. It’s on!” she exclaimed. “Oh good, River’s here too, we need all the help we can get. Dare, sweetie, I don’t think you should be anywhere near the place while this is going down because the guards could make you. Maybe you can wait in the car.”
“What’s she talking about?” River asked, and I shrugged.
“No time to explain, I got this all timed out. Trevor and Vincent are downstairs, you’ll be going in their SUV. I’m gonna create a diversion. When you see it, that’s when you’ll strike.” She rushed away before we could ask any questions.
I turned to my companions and said, “I find the best thing to do is just go with whatever Nana says.” I ran to my bedroom, slid my phone in my pocket and stuck a baseball cap over my blond mullet. I then grabbed a pair of flip flops and an old pair of sneakers, which I brought to Dare. “Your shoes are wet, so take your pick.” He chose the flip flops, and once we’d put the shoes on the three of us hurried downstairs.
A black Land Rover was double-parked in the street in front of Nana’s white stretch limo. Dare, River and I piled into the back seat of the SUV. Vincent was behind the wheel and Trevor sat beside him. “Hi guys,” I said. “Are we dumpster diving? Nana didn’t give us any details about what she’s up to.”
“No,” Trevor said, “we’re liberating Dare’s dog. Nana worked out some kind of plan. I don’t know all the details, only that she’s going to create a diversion in the lobby of Collin Callwell’s building, and then you and Vincent are going to sneak upstairs and get the dog. I’m supposed to act as lookout and sound the alarm when the police show up. Dare, you can help me. Nana’s adamant about you not getting arrested and the security guards could recognize you.”
“Wow. Okay.” I looked at my brother and said, “If you want, we can drop you off before we get there.”
“Why are we stealing a dog?” River wanted to know.
Dare explained the situation concisely and I gave his hand a reassuring squeeze. “Well shit, I’m in. I’ll help Nana with whatever she’s doing,” River said.
We ended up getting a few blocks ahead of the limo and pulled to the curb across the street to wait for her. There were a surprising number of people on the sidewalk given the late hour, flanking either side of the building. Dare said, “I wonder what kind of diversion she’ll be creating.”
“I’m afraid to find out,” her grandson murmured.
The limo rounded the corner just then. We heard it before we saw it. Nana was blasting ‘Don’t Go Breaking My Heart’ from the P.A. system, and had somehow rigged a big disco ball to stick out of the sunroof, which was being hit by a couple pink spotlights on the limo’s exterior.
“Oh shit,” Vincent exclaimed, apparently predicting what his grandmother was about to do before the rest of us.
The limo rolled over the curb and up the steps of the Bancroft Building, then smashed its way through the glass front wall. It wasn’t going very fast, but it got the job done. As soon as the limo was completely inside the lobby, its parking lights came on and Nana jumped out from behind the wheel. People began pouring from the back of the limo. Everyone on the sidewalk must have been with Nana too, and they immediately ran into the building, tossing jackets aside to reveal t-shirts in bright colors and arranging themselves into a big rainbow. And then the most amazing thing happened. They all started to dance to the music in perfect unison.
Dare laughed and said, “Oh my God, she organized a gay pride flash mob. That’s the greatest thing I’ve ever seen.”
Vincent turned to me, his expression all business. “We don’t have much time before the police arrive. Come on, Skye.” He and I darted from the SUV and ran across the street, crunching through broken safety glass on our way into the building.
There had been three security guards behind a marble counter at the back of the lobby, and they were all out of their seats trying to get the crowd under control. Vincent must have done some recon at some point, because he leaned over the counter and grabbed a plastic access card as we swept past, then scanned the card on a little panel and pushed the button for the elevator. No one was paying any attention to us.
I looked back as we waited for the elevator. Nana was up on the hood of the limousine, dancing along with everyone else. She’d taken off her jacket to reveal a rainbow-striped t-shirt with the words Equality Now on the front, which she wore with white bell-bottoms. The woman had style.
In contrast to the mayhem on the ground floor, the elevator was dark and serene with annoyingly soothing music being piped in from hidden speakers. I turned to Vincent as he pushed the button for the top floor and said, “Out of curiosity, why are you and I the ones going after the dog?”
He grinned at me and said, “Nana thought you should be the one to get him so you can be the big hero for your new boyfriend. I’m going along as your muscle.”
“Oh. Thank you, Vincent.”
“You’re welcome.”
Once we reached the top floor and located the apartment, Vincent knocked politely and waited. “What do we do if Callwell’s home?” I asked.
“God I hope he is,” Vincent murmured.
A few moments later, Collin Callwell threw the door open and barked, “Who the hell’s disturbing me at this hour?” I recognized him (and his fake tan) from his TV show.
Instead of answering, Vincent stepped into the apartment, seized Callwell by his throat and said, “We need to talk.” I slipped in too and closed the door behind us. Vincent turned to me, his expression and voice scary-calm, and said, “You know what to do. I just need a few minutes with Callwell, then we’re out of here.” He propelled Dare’s ex into a nearby home office and shut the door behind them.
So Trevor’s fiancé was a straight-up badass. Cool.
I hurried into the living room, taking in the plush surroundings. There was a lot of black leather and dark wood, and a great view of the city sparkled through the wall of windows. The TV was on and I smirked when I realized Callwell had been watching a recording of his cop show. What an idiot. I then noticed the lotion and wadded up tissues on the end table beside the couch. Oh, ew! Make that an incredibly narcissistic idiot.
