Page 39 of Stone Blind

“Yeah Neary, come on inside,” Jacobs said. “Close the door and take a seat.”

The icky feeling was back. Mustang didn’t like it, but he held his tongue, waiting to see what the man had to say. At the end of the conversation, Mustang was left speechless. The conversation was a game changer.

“Go home, talk it over with the little woman that no one knew you had, and get back to me on Monday,” he told Mustang.

“Okay,” Mustang said, feeling out of sorts. The feeling continued as he drove, making it to the house and entered his home, carrying the empty lunch pail, not knowing what to expect.

The afternoon had grown cool, and the air was crisp with a hint of cold in it. Someone who lived in the South would find the weather bone chilling. It also explained the gas fireplace being on when he walked into the house. The house felt like a sauna. However, a smell of red sauce cooking and the bottle of red on the table meant Italian for supper, and for the damnedest reason, all of it felt right. Helen coming around the corner in fuzzy pink slippers, her hair in a messy bun, and smeared pasta sauce on her blouse also felt...right.

“Hey, how was your day?” she asked.

“Weird,” he said.

“I hope the guys didn’t give you too much flack about me,” she said, greeting him with a spoonful of pasta sauce for him to taste, then a kiss to welcome the man home.

“No, but we need to talk, and the sauce needs salt, basil and oregano,” he said, the weight of his words hitting her in the face. Her entire body language shifted, and she offered a weak smile. “No, not like that, Helen. I don’t want you to leave. I’m happyyou’re here. No, you didn’t embarrass me, and I don’t want you to go. My boss called me in with a job offer.”

“A what?” she asked, looking down at the sauce on her top. “Oh poo. I am an absolute mess. What do you mean by a job offer? You have a job. As a matter of record, you have two.”

“A teaching position has become available, and a request was put in for me to take it,” he said.

“Are you thinking about it?”

“Hell yeah, but before I can answer, I wanted to talk to you about it,” he said. “I know, weird, but all of this has been peculiar. The odd feelings that have been circling me as of late are coming more frequently, almost like an omen. I can’t even start to tell you how hard I was thinking about you and then you popped up on the side of the road in fucking Oregon, and now this.”

“Okay, Stallion, let me tug on the reins. Please explain to me what the “this” is?”

He exhaled slowly, “I have been offered a teaching position at the Trooper Academy in Plainfield, Indiana,” he said.

Her eyes grew wide, her lips formed an O, and she yelled at him, “Shut up! How?”

“The work I did finding you, helping Cherry, and then staying on to help track that madman put eyes on me,” he said. “They want me to come teach tracking at the Academy in Indiana. It will also mean a promotion to Master Trooper.”

“Do you want it? I mean, you’d have to leave all of this,” she said. “All of this is pretty nice.”

“I dunno. I had been considering coming back, being closer to home, to family,” he paused, “I can’t believe I’m saying this...to you.”

“Indiana is my state,” she said with the twinkle in her eye again.

“Helen, you know what I’m asking,” he said. “You’re sharp enough to add it together.”

“I hear it all, but I can’t give you kids,” she told him. “I never thought about getting married or a long-term relationship with a fella. I don’t know. What are you asking, for us to be permanent? Already? So soon.”

“I guess it is too soon,” he said, “but we feel...right. I like us together, and it is too soon, but fate is telling us it is time for us both to stop being alone.”

She sat for a minute. Her eyes raked his body. Then the twinkle was back in her eyes. “I get to have that dick all the time?”

“Yes, and I get to smear my mustache with that vagina all the time,” he said.

“Leave it to you, Jay,” she said. “Your family would be happy, but then I would have to move to Plainfield.”

“Yep, but when we come for a visit to Kentucky, we will have a place to stay,” he said.

“Jay, I still have a shit ton of training ahead of me,” she told him. “My training is supposed to be for a year. I don’t know if I will get breaks like this. I have poisons with Lemon, accidents with Passion Fruit, and Cyber tracking with Sour Grapes. You sure?”

“I have to sell this house, move all my stuff, find another house, buy it and close,” he said. “There is a lot to do if we want this and if we want us. Do you want to try?”

“Yes, but I don’t want to try. I’ve had enough trying in my life. I want to do,” she said. “I want us to do this.”

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