Page 5 of Dead Man's Wish
I looked at Kel and then back at the girls, lost to a fit of giggles as we left the street and started toward the restaurant. The ride was quiet and uneventful. Traffic was light and easygoing even as we cruised around the Trevi Fountain.Dinner was an avenue or two over from it, and we could dine outside while enjoying the finest Roman dishes in the heart of the city.
We parked the bikes, and Kel was the first to take off his helmet.
“Now, you know Marianna’s gonna blame that little stunt on you,” he warned, bending down and securing his helmet. I took mine off and followed suit.
“I will gladly accept that,” I said, flexing my hand at the memory of Bex’s ass. I shook my head to loosen how flat the helmet made my hair, running my fingers through to coax it back into my preferred style of effortless mess.
Which was more effort and less mess in reality.
Kel brushed his hand over his clothes, and I adjusted my shirt as well. I let him lead us inside and when we found a hostess, I gave her our reservation details. She took us back outside and gave us our menus. We ordered water to start with, and as she walked back inside I looked at my watch.
“If they didn’t stop anywhere else, they should be here in maybe five more minutes.” I scanned the street before picking up the menu. The waitress had given us ones translated in English. “Their walk is more direct than our drive.”
“I was there with you; Mari couldn’t possibly add another bag to the dozen she was carrying. Would I put it past her to squeeze another in?” I looked over the menu at that, and he answered it himself. “That’s a different question.” He laughed it off and scanned the items listed.
“Have you guys had fun?” I asked because while we’d done a lot together, we spent a good amount of this trip with our spouses only. We saw many tourist attractions as a group but also explored more intimate aspects separately. That mostly consisted of our bedsheets for us.
“Shouldn’t I be asking you that?” he asked as the waitress set down two glasses. “It’s a trip for you, man. Your birthdaycelebration.” He punctuated that by tapping the table while giving me an incredulous look.
“I don’t care about it like that, Kel. I’m here with friends, with Bex, and that’s more important. I’m happy to have a birthday, don’t get me wrong.” I sat back in the chair and folded my hands behind my head. My T-shirt sleeves stretched over my arms and the threads were strained. “I guess I cherish having people to celebrate these birthdays with more.”
“I can see that, totally valid after the incident.” I snickered at the classification of my sort-of death and resuscitation as a mere incident.
“I lost my dad that year, but that wasn’t much to lose. My mom, however, has—”
“Hey,” someone interrupted me. I dropped my hands to my lap as I sat up straight and looked away from Kel. The woman before me was in her early twenties. She had strawberry-blonde hair ruffled by a day in the wind. A friend stood off to her right and by the blush creeping in, she was mortified by whatever the leading woman had planned.
“Can I help you?” I asked, and when my deeper tone fell on her ears, she perked up even more.
“I was walking by with my friend Rachel”—the girl gave an awkward smile while I glanced at Kel with a slight twitch in my brow—“and I overheard you and realized you were American, too.” The end of her statement sounded like a hesitant question. I could hear a bit of a Southern drawl to her tone, but it wasn’t very strong.
“I could be Canadian,” Kel said in a smartass reply, and I rolled my lips to keep from laughing and snickering out loud.
“Anyway,” I said, stopping Kel from toying with the idiot. “Yeah, can I help you? I’m not a translator or anything.”
“No, no,” she corrected. “Rachel and I, Cameron by the way.” I blinked slowly, already tired of the nonsensical way that she spoke with no point in sight. “We were curious if you’d like to get some dessert after? Maybe find a bar and then you could come back—”
I held my hand up immediately. The band on my left hand was black metal, but the inner ring was made of tiny diamonds and they caught in the setting sun.
“My wife catches serial killers for a living,” I explained. It was my favorite opener for these situations. “She even killed a man once.” I wiggled my fingers and cracked a grin. “I wouldn’t proceed—she scaresme.”
The girls looked at Kel instead, and I realized the two of them initially only propositioned me and then looked to him as a secondary.Rude as fuck.It didn’t matter though; Kel knew this game of mine and played it well.
“They’re best friends for a reason,” he said, holding up his left hand adorned with a flashy silver ring that complimented his rich umber skin tone. Kel’s smile was killer, ear to ear and full of mischief as he leaned to look behind the girls. “Oh shit, is that them?”
I glanced behind them, but they didn’t stay long as they hurried off with rushed apologies. “That never gets old,” I admitted. Most of the time, that was a game played while we were out together and the girls were having their separate night.
This time, in the distance, Mari and Bex were approaching. Bex’s eyes narrowed, and I feigned a look of innocence with my hands up in surrender. Mari had already decided to not believe the bullshit explanation that was about to come from Kel.
“What was all that about?” Bex asked. Her face was flushed from walking all day, and the humidity caused her hair to dampen with sweat, making the bits framing her face curl in tighter.
“I’m innocent,” Kel announced as I opened my mouth. I whipped my head around to face him and reached my arm out to pop his shoulder.
“I believe none of that shit. What’d he do?” Mari asked as she dropped her shopping bags under the table and took her seat. Bex slid into her chair cautiously and eyed me, pretending to read my face for any tells.
“The married game,” I explained. Bex smacked her lips, and they rolled their eyes at the same time.
“You can’t keep telling people I killed a man,” she chastised.
