Page 11 of The Fire and the Roar

“I’ll bet you wished you had a gun handy to have let off a shot in the air to really get their attention instead of using your boobs.”

“Well, yeah, but—wait, are you implying that my boobs aren’t showstoppers?”

“Your boobs aremyshowstoppers.” He raised up over me, his tongue lashing at the underside of a breast, swirling around, his teeth nipping at my curves. “You feeling me?” His warm breath fanned my skin.

I giggled at that time worn phrase, squirmed, my teeth grazing my lip as he devoured my breast. “Oh yeah, yeah, I’m feeling you….”

A hand slapped my ass. “Good.”

I hissed in air at the delightful sting. “I’m so excited that you’re here, but I thought you were going on a run to the Colorado chapter this week?”

“Considering what day tomorrow is, I got special permission from our Prez and left Colorado a day early. Our schedule’s changing and I’m not sure I’ll be able to come to Minnesota in a couple of weeks, though, but I thought I’d much rather surprise you tonight for tomorrow. It was worth it, even if it’s just for one night.”

Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow.Only that famous passage from Shakespeare’sMacbethcame to mind as I watched Wreck light a cigarette.

Tomorrow. My heart stopped.

OH FUUUUUUCKKKKK, TOMORROW IS VALENTINE’S DAY!

FUCK

FUCK

FUCKKKKKK

How could I have forgotten Valentine’s Day? No, it’s not as if we were in high school or junior high where these holidays were monumental, essential events, but still….Valentine’s Day! What an idiot I was.

Hadn’t Georgia remarked over the phone to me a couple of weeks ago how she’d set up a really cool Valentine’s Day front window at the General Store? Not the usual floating hearts, but this year she’d created a tableau of buffalo and horse figurines with red foil hearts attached to their bodies, charging over a fluffy plain of cotton clouds, with cupids floating up above, aiming at them with their arrows. A Barbie and Ken doll in full cowboy gear were on horseback in the distance.

How could I have forgotten? What kind of girlfriend was I? A CRAPPY ONE.

Wreck eyed me as a stream of smoke left his lips. He rubbed at the side of his jaw. “Man, I can’t wait for tomorrow…”

“What? What do you mean?” I leaned up from the mattress.

Wreck got up from the bed in his bare magnificence and stalked to his huge leather jacket, a hand digging in an inside pocket at the chest. He returned to me, a taut smile on his lips.

“Here.” He put a small box on my bare tummy. “For you.”

A jewelry box stared back at me.

“Honey,” my voice croaked, my mouth dried. I sat up and took the small black box trimmed with gold in my hands.

“Happy Valentine’s Day, Is.”

I snapped it open. A ring. A wide cuff of a ring covered with small dark red garnets. “Oh, it’s so beautiful.”

“It’s an antique I found in a store going out of business in Deadwood. It’s Black Hills gold, the guy said. Wanted you to have something from home to remind you where your heart is.”

“My heart’s with you, wherever you are,” I breathed.

“I know.” His voice was low, husky. His eyes filled with water.

I clasped his hand. “I don’t want you spending your money on trinkets—”

“It’s no ordinary trinket, baby, and I wanted you to have it. I want to be able to get you more, buy you—”

“Honey…”

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