while. Hope you like whatever Isabella orders to eat. The woman tortures me with crap from that vegan place down the block whenever she gets the chance."
I laugh and wrap my arms around Max's ample middle. "Thank you, 2 Tio ," I say softly. "This means a lot to me."
"Eh. Thank me after we've actually figured something out. I have a feeling it's not going to be that easy."
----
1 Hermanita = little sister
2 Tio = uncle
A FTE r my meeting with David, Beth doesn’t come back, and I realize just how much I wish she would. It’s wrong, selfish, destructive, but God, how I wish she would. I'm lonely in a different way than I have been in years. In the RH, I had people to talk to, spend time with, distract me. In prison, I had my life to protect constantly, and that leaves very little energy to be lonely. Now, I have time in a safe place, and I have a vision—a vision of Beth and David and the life I once thought I'd lead. It makes me miss people and things that I haven't in years. It makes me so lonely that I physically ache inside.
Then, out of nowhere, on a sunny Friday afternoon, as I’m walking around the corner of the yard, bringing some fertilizer to put on the rosebushes, there she is.
Her hair is loose, a few little pieces blowing gently around her face. I see her reach up and pull a strand away from her lips where it’s stuck in her lip gloss. She’s wearing a pair of cut-offs and a lacy, white top with ruffles and tiny straps. It ends a good couple of inches above the waistband of her shorts and I can see her smooth, tan skin there, beckoning me like a sweet piece of caramel. The urge to lick that little strip of flesh is so strong that I have to stop walking for a moment and take a deep breath.
When I look up, she’s watching me, the expression on her face so serene and beatific that I momentarily think I must be looking at an angel.
“You came back,” I say softly as I step closer to her.
“I told you I wasn't going to let this go," she tells me matter-of-factly.
"I thought, once David explained everything, you'd get some better sense." My words are harsh, but my tone is tender, because I realize that, even if I was furious with this woman, I could never speak harshly to her. She will always be that gorgeous little girl in the floral sundress I need to protect above all else.
"I have plenty of sense." A tiny smile turns up the corners of her lips. "What I don't have enough of is men I care about and want to keep in my life."
"Ah, linda ." I sigh. "You're killing me here. You know that, right?" I move a bit closer to her now, almost near enough to touch.
"Then stop fighting it," she whispers.
I take the last step, leaving only an inch between us, head to toe. I can see the shine on her sweet cherry lips and smell the cinnamon in her hair. "It'll never work. I'll never be free, and I won't bury you with me."
She gazes up at me, and there's so much trust in her eyes, so much faith and pure devotion, that it literally steals my breath away. For a moment in time, everything stops. The birds in the trees, the cars rolling by on the street, the sun beating down on my skin—all of it just stops as if someone hit the pause button. I look into her eyes, and I can't fight it any more than I can fight the gravitational pull that keeps my feet on the ground.
My head tilts incrementally to one side and lowers bit by excruciating bit until her breath feathers across my face and my lips meet hers. I press against their softness, hearing the tiny gasp that she makes. The lip gloss is slick, and I can't help but think of all the other places on both her body and mine that I'd like to make slick. I feel my breathing ratchet up a few dozen notches as my mind goes to static. I haven't kissed a woman since the night before I went behind bars, and my engine is revving at full throttle.
But Beth is special—beautiful and strong. If there is one thing I've learned working for the RH and living behind bars, it's how
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