She laughed and stepped away as I reached out to pull her against my sweaty body.
“Rain check until tonight, Hunter. It’s a beautiful day, we should be outside.”
I guess I could wait. Just. I nodded in agreement, then lifted her hand to my lips, brushing kisses over the tip of each finger.
I still had some moves.
“Yeah, okay. I need to see Atash anyway. He’s got some problem with immigration that he wants me to look into.”
Atash was the name of one of the Afghan men from the café, and weird as it was—the Afghan refugee and the former-Marine—we were becoming friends.
Atash’s family had been forced to leave their village near Lashkar Gah in Helmand Province and were struggling alone in a new country. I spoke Dari so I could help them—with basic stuff to start, but lately Atash was asking me about more important things. I hadn’t mentioned it to Caro because … well, because it felt so damn good to be needed.
Caro wanted me, but she didn’t need me. She said she did, but she was so fucking independent. She had a career and earned good money, paid her mortgage, had friends who were fucking university professors and bankers and shit. And then there was me—the hanger-on who brought sweet fuck-all to the table. Yeah, not exactly a partnership of equals. Caro never tried to make me feel dumb; I could do that all by myself.
I saw Atash most days. Sometimes we just hung at his place, drinking that disgusting sweet, milky tea all Afghans like.
Atash felt uncomfortable coming to our place. I think seeing Caro talk to me without being subservient, it freaked him out a bit. He was getting used to it, but still, he didn’t get it.
I brought my mind back to Caro’s question.
“So, if you’re not talking about sex, Caro,” I prompted, “what’s this ‘challenge’ that you’re going on about?”
She looked up and met my eyes.
“I want you to meet my friends. I miss them, and they really want to meet you.”
Ah, shit.
My gaze dropped away. I wanted to say no fucking way, but I knew I couldn’t put it off forever.
“Okay, I guess it’s time.”
Doomsday—as I called it in my head—was fast approaching. Caro had dragged me all over Long Beach to get the ingredients she wanted, and she’d been cooking up a storm all morning. I was banished from the kitchen on the grounds that I could burn water.
Instead, I helped her clean up the place then went to take a shower. I shaved off the two-day stubble and realized that my hair was getting kinda long, turning into a crazy mop and really blond from the sun. I’d had the buzz cut for so long, it still took me by surprise that I looked more like a surfer than a Marine when I looked in the mirror.
Caro walked into the bathroom while I was pushing my hair off my face.
“Thought I’d grow it for a while,” I said, casually measuring her reaction.
“Fine by me,” she smiled, tugging a lock between her fingers. “I’m going to be gone for a few minutes. I have to go out to pick up a couple of things I forgot. Back in ten, okay? If the oven buzzer goes, better get your cute ass into the kitchen.”
I caught her for a quick kiss before she left, then pulled on a pair of ripped jeans, and shoved my feet into a pair of flip-flops. At least I wasn’t wearing boardshorts to meet her friends. Good enough.
While Caro was out, I decided to make a long overdue phone call and get in touch with Ches.
He wasn’t my brother by blood, but that’s how I thought of him. He’d married his college sweetheart—unfortunately Amy still hated me for sleeping with her best friend. Well, two of them. Whatever.
But I got lucky, because it was Ches’s five year old son who answered.
“Peters’ residence. This is Ben Peters speaking.”
Too fucking cute.
“Hey, Benny! It’s your Uncle Seb. How you doin’, buddy?”
“Hi, Uncle Seb! Daddy said you’ve been sick. Grandpa gave me an Autobot Topsin Transformer. When are you coming to see us?”
“Soon, I hope. Is your dad around?”
The phone dropped with a thud and I heard him yelling for Ches. There were some muffled voices, then I heard my friend.
“Seb, is that you?”
“Yeah, man! Who’d you think it was?”
“I don’t know,” he laughed, “fucking ghost of Christmas past! How are you doing?”
In the background I could hear Ben yelling, “Mommy! Daddy’s swearing!” which made me smile.
“Yeah, I’m good.”
“Really?” His voice was skeptical.
There was a long pause and I hated how fucking awkward this felt.
“I won’t lie, man. It’s been … hard. But I’m doing better now. Still got a fucking gimpy leg, but better than I was. Caro has been amazing, putting up with my miserable ass.”
There was another pause while Ches took that in. I knew he still blamed Caro for a lot of what had gone down in the past. I was over it, but I could tell he wasn’t. Not that I’d ever tell her that.
“So, she hasn’t kicked you out yet?”
“Nope. What can I say, I’m a keeper.”
He laughed loudly.
“Well, f— darn it! You took long enough to call me.”
“Caro said she’d been emailing you, so you knew what was going on.”
“Are both your arms broken, Hunter? You couldn’t send me a lousy email yourself? Jeez, I get a phone call one evening saying that…” He took a deep breath. “Forget it, you’re good now. I was going to fly over and kick your ass myself if you hadn’t gotten in touch by Labor Day. It’s really good to hear from you, bro.”
“Yeah, about that. Would you ... and Amy … be good to fly over anyway?”
“I guess so. Why?”
“Well, it’s just that me and Caro … we’re going to get married, and I was hoping that…”
But I didn’t get to finish my sentence. Ches was swearing into the phone and laughing and getting by Amy in the background. I had to hold my cell away from my ear.
“Seriously?” he yelped. “You’re going to do it? You’re really going to get hitched?”
“Yep, got the ring and everything.”
“You tell me the date and I’ll be there.” Then his voice became more serious. “I know you’ve wanted this for a long time. I’m really happy for you, Seb.” Then his voice rose up. “Oh man! Mom is gonna go crazy! She’ll be dress shopping before I finish telling her. You’re gonna invite them too, right?”
“You think your folks will want to come?” I asked, surprised.
He laughed again. “That’s a hell yeah! You’re their son—an uglier, pain-in-the-ass son.”
Hearing Ches say that—telling me I was part of his family—that meant a lot to me. Maybe I’d tell him one day.
“Well, okay. I’ll let you know a date when we’ve decided it.”
I was feeling pretty good when I ended the call, and then I realized that although I had asked Caro to marry me when we were in Italy, we hadn’t discussed it lately. I knew that was my fault.
I heard the front door slam as she walked back in, and knew I wanted to make it right as soon as possible.
I wandered into the kitchen and leaned against the wall watching her unload a shopping bag, then slide something from the oven. Smelled really good.
“You want something, Hunter?” she asked, pushing her hair behind her ears as she worked.
I let my eyes sweep up and down her long, tan legs. She was wearing a really cute yellow sundress. I was used to seeing her in shorts and t-shirts, so seeing her all girly … yeah, very distracting.
“Uh, I spoke to Ches while you were out,” I said casually.
She turned around and glanced at me in surprise. “You did?”
She sounded pleased that I’d finally gotten around to talking to him—but also maybe a bit nervous?
“And?”
“He said he and Amy would fly out for our wedding.”
I heard the breath catch in her throat and she stared at me, our eyes locked together.
“If you still want to marry me, Caro?” I grit out quickly.
A huge smile spread across her face and her eyes glowed with happiness as she flung herself into my arms.