One more abrupt lurch, and now she’s fully in my lap, her legs wrapped around my waist with her arms and face buried in my neck. I feel us moving downward, but with her chest pressed firmly against mine, I can't focus enough to tell her that we’reabout to be saved.
“Sorry,” she whispers into my neck again, her voice like smooth velvet, bringing me back from the dead. “This is so embarrassing. If you have a girlfriend, or wife or something, I swear I’ll give them free tickets to a concert for me violating you like this.”
I chuckle gently, liking the way her soft curves wrap around mine perfectly. Her breasts squish into my chest and her long hair tickles against my biceps. I keep my fists in balls and plant them next to my sides as a last-ditch attempt not to touch her and to brace myself in case we come to a crashing stop. My will power is being tested, having not been with a woman since returning to the States, and knowing it’s Dove, the woman version of my friend who is sure of herself, kind, beautiful and funny, well, I need them to open these damn doors before I do or say something I can’t take back.
“Don’t have a wife or a girlfriend. No worries. Happy to help.”
The elevator finally comes to a resting stop with the metal doors opening in a loud screech and dramatic ping. Light floods in from the lobby to illuminate the cramped space as I blink a few times, trying to adjust to the change in brightness. Dove cautiously lifts her head, pulling her face out of my neck and then looks into my eyes for the first time.
Her eyes are large and brown, just the way she’d described. Her teeth perfectly white, a defined nose, high cheekbones, curly eyelashes and not a trace of makeup on her pretty face.
She’s a rare, completely natural beauty and looking in those eyes so full of trust and kindness to a perfect stranger, I begin to wonder why I’d waited so long to try to find her after moving here.
She’s my Dove.
And she deserves an apology for me ghosting her all of those years ago after the friendship we’d built.
“Hi,” she says smiling, before quickly unraveling her long limbs from around me and scrambles to her feet to stand in the doorway.
I notice her eyes slowly tracing my body as I rise to my feet, trying to ignore the way my back and knees crack and pop with the movement, one of the few parting gifts I took with me when I left the Marines. Some shrapnel in my knee cap and a sprained back that’s never really recovered.
“Hi.”
“Are you two ok?” a firefighter in full turn out gear rounds the corner and assess our stances. “Oh damn, is that you Dove?”
She finally breaks eye contact and turns with a smile plastered on her face to greet the firefighter, and though I've been instructed that the people in town know to treat her like anyone else, I can see a touch of something change behind her expression from when she’d been looking at me moments before. It’s as if she’s performing.
“Hi, Chief Hollister, good to see you again. How’s Maggie doing?”
I nod in acknowledgement at the fire chief, then silently step around their reunion to make my escape outside.
Sure, I still needed to change my driver’s license, but today, after the events in the elevator with Dove, I decide that I can be a resident of Los Angeles for a little while longer…
Chapter 18 – Dallas
Later that night…
“Happy almost Thanksgiving, neighbor,” Wylie claps me on the back as soon as I enter Rex's Rodeo House Bar a few hours after my escape from the elevator. He hands me a bottle of light ale beer, then raises his own in mock toast. “To your first holiday spent in Lonestar Junction.”
“Cheers to that.” We cling our glasses and Wylie instantly launches into a stream of ideas for the next time I show up wanting to drink and shoot stuff at his house. My hearing fades out as I scan the crowded bar, hating how loud it is.
His friendship was certainly one of the least expected things I’d gotten out of my brief time living in Texas. Since saving his life, I’d quickly realized that he didn’t keep many close friends in his circle outside of his family and now I understood why. Partially because there just isn’t time for maintaining friendship when managing a multiple thousand-acre ranch, and partly because he has a great wife and loving family whom he’d rather spend any free time with. I was sure I’d feel the same if I had a support system like he does.
“Hey, Dallas,” Stevie says wrapping me up in a hug that elicits a growl from her husband. We may be best friends now, but Wyliewill always be protective of anyone touching his wife, even while she’s pregnant with his unborn child.
"Down, dog," Stevie jokes at Wylie who pulls her closely to his side.
“You're having Thanksgiving with us at Nash and Jovie's tomorrow, right?” Wylie asks not so much as a question but more as a statement. I'd somehow become part of the Cameron family now by extension and I knew that included showing up to the big and little things.
I nod my head in agreement, “Yep, I’ll be there. Thanks again for the invitation.” My eyes scan the large, overly crowded warehouse bar again, distracted by my mission to find Dove and her dark auburn hair somewhere in the sea of happy faces celebrating the night.
I’ve always been on high alert in large crowds and try to avoid them as much as possible most days. Even living in Los Angeles, surrounded by throngs of tourists, heightens my vigilance and the need to be in control to protect myself and the ones I care most about.
Wylie's younger brother Nash joins our group and the two shift their conversation into discussing the storm we had last week while Stevie takes the opportunity to pull me aside.
“I saw her and her siblings slip in a bit ago. Think they might have headed toward one of the bars but I’m guessing they’ll make their way over to us soon.”
I nod, grateful to have at least one other person also on the lookout for a woman that I’ve been in the dark with for hours earlier today but haven’t been properly introduced to.
