Golden Trail (33 page)

* * * * *

Layne sat at a chair at his outside table, a
burning smoke between two fingers, the other three wrapped around a
beer, his eyes on the dark, small wood behind his house.

That wood was one of the reasons he picked
this place, his front faced houses, he had to drive through a sea
of them to get home, but he walked out on his back patio and saw
nature. It wasn’t a lot of it but it was something.

Devin sat across from him with a stoagie
between his lips.

“I know who she is, boy,” Devin said quietly
around his cigar.

“I know you know,” Layne replied quietly
back, lifted his beer and took a pull.

They’d spent a lot of time together and they
didn’t talk a lot but both of them had talked and Devin knew all
about Raquel.

Devin fell silent for a long while. Then he
pulled his cigar out of his mouth, blew out smoke and whispered,
“Look at that.”

Layne looked at Devin to see Devin looking
over his shoulder into the house so Layne twisted and looked into
the house too.

The kids and Rocky were playing a game,
girls against boys. Keira was up on her feet, jumping up and down,
her long, dark hair flying everywhere, her hands straight up in the
air. Jasper was sitting back in an armchair, his arms crossed on
his chest, pretending to scowl but his eyes were glued to Keira and
far more than a scowl could be read from his expression and none of
it was bad. Layne couldn’t see Tripp because he was sitting on the
floor. Rocky was on the couch, her head was to the back of it, her
hands were up in front of her clapping and he could hear her
laughter mingled with Keira’s shouts of triumph.

Blondie, being a female but mostly being a
canine, was jumping around Keira and sharing in what appeared to be
a feminine victory by barking repeatedly.

Keira bent and he lost sight of everything
but her behind as she gave Blondie a rubdown.

Layne turned back to the night.

“You lose hold of that again, boy,
any
‘a that, I’ll hunt you down and shoot you. Understood?”
Dev declared.

“So that shit you handed me about the HOA is
just that? Shit?”

“Fuck, Tanner, when I was your age, I’d
join
the fuckin’ HOA patrol if it meant I could come home to
that,” Devin answered.

Layne didn’t reply, he fell silent, took the
last drag of his cigarette, stubbed it out in the ashtray on the
table and sipped his beer while Devin enjoyed his stoagie.

Eventually, he said, “I need you to go to
bed early, soon as Keira leaves.”

“Why?” Devin asked.

“’Cause you’re sleepin’ on the couch, I
wanna talk to Rocky and if you’re on the couch the only place to do
it is upstairs.”

And Layne wasn’t talking about the weight
room.

“Gotcha,” Devin said instantly, knowing
Layne wasn’t talking about the weight room.

Layne kept speaking. “I know I briefed you
yesterday but I’ll repeat that we need more than the tail Astley’s
been chasin’ to make him come to heel. I told you Rocky was in a
luxury apartment complex but I didn’t tell you I talked her into
signin’ the lease and I did it at a time when I thought she was far
from hurtin’. With him cuttin’ her off, she’s gonna be hurtin’. I’m
not in the position with her yet that I think she’ll take help from
me. Her brother doesn’t have it, neither does her Dad. Short-term,
maybe. Long-term, negative. That means time is against us, Dev. I
don’t want her worried more than she already is. We need somethin’
on this guy that’ll make him take the pressure off Rocky fast and
then we need something that’ll make him go away almost as fast. The
dirtier, the uglier, the better.”

“If this is time sensitive, I can make him
dirty,” Devin offered quietly.

“I’ll let you know if it comes to that but
humiliation only comes on the heels of bein’ outed for shit you did
yourself. I don’t only want him cowed, I want him brought low. You
make shit up, with this guy, we’ll be treated to righteous
indignation and that doesn’t help us and might even hurt.”

“And if there isn’t anything to find?”

“There’s somethin’ to find, this guy is an
asshole. You just need to find it.”

“You said he’s investigating you,” Devin
noted.

“Got nothin’ I’ve done I’m not proud of
outside of walkin’ away from those boys and everyone knows about
that.”

“Nope, you’re right, Tanner, you haven’t but
the shit you’ve done could be made to
look
dirty. This guy
isn’t afraid of not playin’ fair, you gotta be ready for that to
happen,” Dev returned.

“Not worried about that either, Dev, people
in this town, includin’ my boys and Roc, know me and what kind of
man I am and, not includin’ my boys but definitely Roc, know him
and what kind of man he is.”

“Yep, boy,” Devin said softly, “that girl
knows what kind of man you are.”

His tone made Layne turn his head to look at
Devin. “What’s that mean?”

Devin kept peering into the night, puffing
on his stoagie.

“Dev,” Layne prompted.

Devin didn’t turn his head when he replied,
“You don’t wanna know.”

“You’re wrong,” Layne returned, he wanted to
know and this was communicated further to Devin because Layne’s
voice was rumbling.

Devin looked at him. “Okay, then, you’re not
ready
to know.”

Layne straightened from his slouch in the
chair. “Not in the mood for a mystery, Dev.”

They stared at each other across the table
then Devin asked, “You want her back?”

Instead of answering outright, Layne said,
“You spent the evening with her.”

“You want her back,” Devin stated.

“Dev –”

Devin straightened, pulled the cigar out of
his mouth and leaned toward Layne. “Tanner, that girl knows
exactly
what kind of man you are,” he repeated and finished,
“and you scare
the snot
out of her.”

Layne felt the muscles in his neck get tight
and he said, low and curt, “I’d never hurt her, old man.”

“That ain’t what scares her,” Devin shot
back.

“Come again?”

“How’d this start?” Devin suddenly
asked.

“How’d what start?” Layne asked back.

“You and her, why’s she back in your
life?”

“She had some stupid ass scheme…” Layne
started then stopped, it hit him, it hit him so hard it suddenly
all became clear, he turned away from Devin and looked out into the
night.

“Boy,” Dev prompted.

“She came to the hospital when I got shot,”
Layne answered quietly.

“Right,” Dev whispered.

Layne closed his eyes and muttered,
“Fuck.”

“Right,” Dev whispered again.

Layne opened his eyes and whispered into the
night, “Jesus.”

“You’re as domesticated as I suspect you’re
gonna get, dog, kids, house in a small town, office over a coffee
shop. That don’t mean you don’t got dark and wild in you, boy. You
got dark and wild in you, ain’t no gettin’ it out. Trust me, I
know. A woman can see dark and wild. She can be attracted to it.
She can want it. She can even fall in love with it. That don’t mean
she can live with it.”

Layne stayed silent.

Dev sat back in his chair, put his stoagie
to his lips and puffed.

Then he took it out and spoke. “Far’s I can
see, you got a lotta shit you gotta deal with. Her soon-to-be ex,
whatever’s happenin’ at that church but the biggest mission you got
on your plate is to convince her that comin’ home to dark and wild
is a good thing but, more, convincin’ her to
be
home and
take a chance on the fact that that dark and wild may mean one day
you
won’t
be comin’ home.”

“Nothin’s gonna happen to me, Dev.”

“I know that, you know that, your girl, she
don’t
know that. So she’s gotta think it’s worth the
risk.”

“Her father was a cop,” Layne pointed out.
“Anyone knows the score, it’s Rocky.”

“A cop who got shot,” Devin said and Layne
turned his head to look at his friend.

“What?”

Devin turned his head too. “A cop who got
shot. I remember her story, boy.”

“So she knows the score.”

“And, I’ll repeat, Tanner, that don’t mean
she can live with it.”

“She’s close with her Dad, she’s close with
her brother, she’s fine.”

“Wild dreams,” Devin replied.

Now the old man was just irritating him and
he let it show when he said, “Dev, that doesn’t make sense.”

“You told me she shared your wild dreams.
You went huntin’ for yours. She ever leave this town?”

Layne stared at him then answered, “No.”

“Somethin’ means the world to you, you think
one day you’ll lose it, you got two choices. You cut yourself off
from it so, when you lose it, that don’t destroy you or you hold it
so close, it can’t ever go away but, if it does, you got as many
precious memories as you can bag. Thinkin’ about your girl, do
either of those sound familiar?”

Layne suddenly found he was struggling to
get enough oxygen in his lungs.

“Well, Tanner? Do they?”

“You know they do, Dev.”

“So what you gonna do?”

Layne reached for his smokes and looked to
the night.

“Two cigarettes, that’s tellin’,” Devin
muttered.

“Shut up, Dev,” Layne muttered back.

Devin shut up. Then he stubbed his stoagie
out in the ashtray and got up. He moved around the table and stood
behind Layne’s chair as Layne fired up a cigarette.

On Layne’s exhale, Devin said, “I’ll leave
you to your smoke.”

“Obliged,” Layne murmured.

Devin moved to the door and Layne knew
there’d be a parting shot even before he heard Dev hesitate in
sliding it open.

“Grab hold, Tanner,” he whispered into the
night then Layne heard the door open.

“Fuck,” Layne whispered one second after he
heard it close.

Toothbrush

Rocky’s warmth was pressed against him, her
head on his chest, her arm heavy on his stomach, her knee resting
on his thigh – pinning him to his back in the bed.

Her head shifted, her arm tightened around
him and she slid up so her lips were against the underside of his
jaw.

“You need to wake me up, baby, I need to get
to work,” she whispered.

* * * * *

Layne’s eyes opened and he saw dark.

But what he felt was Rocky’s warmth pressed
against him, her head on his chest, her arm heavy on his stomach,
her knee resting on his thigh – pinning him to his back in the
bed.

Layne stared into the darkness and let the
smell of her, the feel of her, the warmth, the softness, Rocky
pressed close, pinning him to the bed for the first time in
eighteen years, penetrate.

He closed his eyes and focused on those
sensations and the golden trail they left.

Then he opened his eyes and smiled.

* * * * *

The night before, after Layne sat outside
brooding in the dark through his second cigarette and to the end of
his beer, he entered the house to find Jasper and Keira preparing
to leave and Rocky and Tripp in the kitchen putting the finishing
touches on cleaning it.

Layne’s eyes went to his watch and he saw
that Jas had half an hour before Keira’s curfew and Keira lived at
most a ten minute drive away so either his son was trying to
ingratiate himself with Cal and Violet by taking her safely home
with time to spare or he was going to take Keira somewhere so he
could make out with her.

Layne was guessing the latter.

“Be back, Dad,” Jasper called from the front
door, his hand in Keira’s.

“Thanks for dinner, Mr. Layne,” Keira called
after Jasper was done.

“Any time, Keira,” Layne called back and
they disappeared.

Layne looked at Devin who was standing at
the front of the couch, already had his arms stretched over his
head and was faking a huge yawn.

Then he heard Rocky announce in a firm,
school teacher voice, “Layne, I need to talk to you.”

Surprised at her tone, his eyes cut to her,
she gave him a look and then strutted to the steps and up them,
still wearing her heels, her ass swaying with every step.

Layne stood there and watched because he
liked the show but also because she was heading up the stairs and
he hadn’t had to make a complicated play to get her up there.

He heard Devin chuckle and he looked to his
friend, saw his eyes shining and Layne grinned at him.

“Got some homework to do, Dad,” Tripp
informed him and Layne’s gaze went to his son.

“Do me a favor and do it down here,” Layne
replied, Tripp’s eyes went in the direction of the stairs he
couldn’t see from his place in the kitchen then they came back to
his old man, he grinned then he nodded.

Layne headed up the stairs.

The light over the desk was on when he got
there but Rocky was standing in the middle of the set up, her head
moving slowly, her eyes taking in the exercise equipment. When he
arrived, they shot to him and he knew something was up. Rocky was
not
happy.

Jesus, how long was he outside?

She glanced at the open double doors to his
room then back at him.

“Private,” she said in a low voice, turned
on her high heel and strutted into his room.

Layne stared after her a second then dropped
his head and grinned at his boots while he followed her. He walked
in, closed the door, wiped the grin off his face and looked at
Raquel standing in his room.

Melody had come out after Layne had closed
on the house. Melody had also chosen every stick of furniture and
most of the homewares in that house. This included Layne’s bedroom
furniture, burgundy sheets and dark gray comforter. This also meant
all of it was expensive, masculine, in good taste and of excellent
quality. She’d bought him (using his money) three sets of sheets
because she knew his aversion to laundry. Layne hadn’t changed the
sheets Rocky had slept in for over a week because it took that long
for him not to smell her perfume. This could have been his
imagination but he didn’t fucking care.