Read Online Mandarin Orange: Sweet and Sour by T. C. Blue - Free Book Online Page B

Unfortunately, his last few exes had spread the word about him. A nice guy but emotionally unavailable seemed to be the consensus, damn it.
    “I’ll bring some beer home. Do you even drink beer? After today, I know you’re cool with tequila, but--”
    “Beer’s fine,” Kelly interrupted with a grin. “Whatever kind you like. See you, okay?”
    Riley managed to say his goodbyes, even while trying to ignore the uncomfortable sensation that he’d just been dismissed. Of course, Kelly was doing something or other on the ‘net, so maybe that was it. Riley hoped so, anyway, because for whatever reason, he didn’t like the idea that Kelly was glad to see him leave.
    He got into his Bronco and backed out of the drive. He tried to call Peter’s cell, but only got voice mail. Again. Riley didn’t bother to leave a message. He’d already left at least ten in the last three days, and he had to face the truth. His uncle would call back whenever the man felt like it. Until then, Riley was on his own.
    Or not exactly on his own just yet, because before Riley even got to the end of the street, he could hear Goober howling to be let in from the balcony, where he’d been sequestered so Pauly and the rest could leave unmolested. Goober had gotten totally fucking attached to Pauly, or maybe to the vegetables with Italian dressing Pauly had kept feeding to the dog. Weird fucking mutt, begging for celery. Goober howled again, just as Riley reached the stop sign. It was strange, and Riley would never admit it -- ever-- but the sound made him smile.

Chapter Five
    It was good to be back on his bike. It was better than just good. Kelly felt almost completely free for the first time in days. It hadn’t taken more than a few minutes to remove the remains of the cracked face plate, and while it wasn’t entirely safe to ride with a damaged helmet, it beat the crap out of no helmet at all.
    Goobs had been left on the balcony with a bowl of food and an even bigger bowl of water. The poor guy wasn’t too happy about it, but Kelly had seen what the dog had been eating and there was zero chance that all that roughage wasn’t going to cause some issues. It wasn’t the first time Goober had gotten into vegetables, after all. The dog would be fine. Unfortunately the same wouldn’t have been true of Riley’s floors or rugs if Kelly had left Goober inside. If the yard had been fenced, Kelly would have left Goober out back, but it wasn’t, so the balcony and some spread-out newspapers would have to do.
    Kelly would deal with that when he returned. At the moment, he had a ride to take.
    The weather was fine, it was still daylight out -- thank God for summer -- and Kelly wasn’t going too far, anyway. Just to the nearest motorcycle shop, which was what he’d been looking for online. Assuming he’d read the directions provided by the map service correctly, it was less than a twenty-minute ride, which Kelly figured would be perfectly safe as long as he was careful, and he was always careful.
    That was one of the things Bob had laughed about, before everything had gone wrong. “I don’t understand how you can have such a sweet bike and never tear it up,” Bob had said at least once a day.
    “And I don’t get how you’re an EMT but think speeding through busy streets without anything substantial between you and the pavement is a good idea,” was what Kelly had usually said back.
    But Bob isn’t here, and he turned out to be a completely different kind of man than he seemed. God, it’s not like I loved him or anything, so why am I still dwelling on this? Just because he managed to fool me? It’s crap and I need to get over it. No, I am over it, as of now.
    Kelly nodded to himself and pushed it all to the back of his mind, letting the air flowing past soothe him. He watched the roads and other vehicles, but that was really second nature, and between moments of pure focus, he darted small glances at the rest of the city around him, seeing