“Did you buy it?” Andy asked with a hint of excitement in his voice.
“Sure did. We’ll follow you guys,” Ryan confirmed, taking the key from my hand.
I tried to talk him in to stopping somewhere so I could pick up some black hair dye, but he said we would do that later because he didn’t quite remember where he was headed and he didn’t want to lose the crazy driver in front of us.
Twenty five minutes later we pulled up to an older tri-level home with a stone façade and an ancient tire swing in the front yard.
“I used to live in that house there,” Ryan pointed to the large brick house next door. “These idiots were my neighbors.”
“I’m surprised you survived it.”
Our bags were in the trunk of the Caprice and Ty had already unlocked it and was pulling them out. “Which ones are yours, Leese?” he asked.
I tried to grab mine, but he slung them over his shoulder.
“I don’t want you to have to carry them, I just wanted to be sure I wasn’t carrying Pumpkin Heads,” he said, throwing the other two bags at Ryan.
I could hear the air leave Ryan’s chest as the bags smacked into him. “Thanks a lot,” he gasped. “You’re a real great host.”
We walked into the house and a familiar odor hit me. Garlic bread? Lasagna? It was some kind of Italian food being prepared.
“Ma, were home!” Andy yelled out.
A heavy set woman with a kind face and an oven mitt on each hand came around the corner. “Ryan? Is that you? Good Lord, baby, what did you do to your hair?”
“Hey, Miss Naomi.” He dropped his bags and gave her a warm embrace.
“I know it’s you, ‘cause it’s the same handsome face and those perfect blue eyes,” she said, with an oven mitt cupping each of his cheeks.
“Ouch! Hot, Miss Naomi,” he whined.
“Oh, Lord, I’m sorry. I forgot I just took a big pan of lasagna out of the oven with these dumb things.” She pulled off the mitts and tucked them under her arm. “You’ve grown a foot since I seen you last. How’s your momma?”
“She’s fine,” he replied. Both of his cheeks were as red as if he’d been out in the sun too long.
She looked at me waiting patiently behind him and she smiled, “Well, who is this pretty young woman you’ve got with you?”
“This is my good friend Leese. Leese, this is Naomi Saint-George, mother of thing one and thing two,” he said pointing to Andy and Ty.
“It’s just George,” Naomi corrected him. “I’m no saint.”
“Sure you are,” Ryan continued, kissing her cheek, “You’ve had to put up with those dummies for twenty-some-odd years.”
She suddenly seemed a little worried, “I-I only have one extra bedroom, unless we put you on the couch, Ryan,” she mentioned with a little flush to her cheeks.
“Leese and I can share a room.,” He said throwing a cocky glance at Andy and Ty.
“Sure we can,” I said, a little miffed that he blurted that out, “Pumpkin Head can sleep on the floor.”
Andy and Ty burst out laughing.
Pumpkin Head withered under my stare. Maybe I didn’t have to get that black dye tonight after all.
“Well come on,” Naomi said, “Let me show you to the room so you can put down your bags-oh, I know what we can do. Ty, go down to the garage and grab your old twin bed. We can fit it in there so Pum-Ryan doesn’t have to sleep on the floor,” she said, giving me a wink.
It was only four in the afternoon, but Naomi said the food was done and we might as well have dinner. The only thing Ryan and I consumed today was donuts and coffee at the Murfreesboro airport when we fueled up, so I was starving. She made a big pan of lasagna, which I thought was enough to feed ten people instead of five, until I watched Andy and Ty take their servings out of the pan. Wow, those guys could eat! When we finished they went back for seconds and wiped out the remainder.
I learned a little more about them around the dinner table. Ty had just turned twenty and Andy was twenty-one. They had lived in Colorado Springs all their lives and their parents were divorced. Naomi had been raising them, single-handedly, for the last ten years. Both joined the military right out of high school and they worked as MP’s at Peterson’s Air Force Base.
With the meal finished, I asked if there was a shopping plaza or a drug store nearby so I could get some dye to correct Ryan’s poor, color-flawed hair. We drove to a nearby Walgreens and grabbed a box of Just for Men black hair color and returned to Naomi’s.
I offered to help Ryan do it, but I think he didn’t want the guys to tease him so he opted to do it himself. It was five minute hair color and he was going to shower when he washed it out, but he must have spent an hour in the bathroom, and I was starting to worry what went wrong.
We were all seated in the living room watching the six o’clock news when he emerged. His hair was glistening black and damp. He had a towel over his shoulders, and just a pair of jeans, no shirt. It was the first time I had seen his bare chest and I now regretted I said one bedroom would work. He wasn’t thickly muscled like Micah, but he looked more like one of those guys you’d find carrying a surfboard down to the beach. He had softly defined six-pack abs and a light tan and I was considering he would be a great model, when he waved his hand in front of my face.
“Hello? I asked how you like the hair,” he had this big smile on his face because he knew I was checking out almost everything except his hair.
“N-nice job,” I managed to say.
“Yes,” Naomi spoke up, “you look better sticking with your natural black, honey.”
“I think he looked better as a pumpkin,” Andy smirked and then jumped up and said he called the shower next.
By the time eight o’clock rolled around, I was surrounded by shirtless bodies. Andy emerged from the shower shirtless, toweless, and practically pantless. All he had on was a pair of swim trunks. Next Ty took a shower and followed the example, coming out equally undressed. They were all really hot and I had a feeling that the parade was solely for my benefit. Andy kept catching me glancing over at him, but it was hard to help since he was the one that had the closest ‘Micah’ body.
“Is my air conditioner not working?” Naomi asked as she finally stirred from the movie on the television.
Ty rose up and looked at the thermostat, “It’s seventy-two, isn’t that what you normally keep it on?”
“Yes it is, but why the Sam-hell are all you boys practically naked?” she scoffed.
“Would it be okay if I used your shower, Miss Naomi?” I asked. I was ready to hit the bed, but I really wanted a chance to clean up first.
“Of course you can, honey, but I have to warn you we only have the one bathroom in the house so I can’t promise that these knuckle heads left it in decent shape.”
“That’s okay,” I replied, but inwardly I knew we’d have to find a place to stay real soon, because I loathed the idea of showering behind that many people.
“You can come out shirtless, too!” Andy yelled as I headed down the hallway. I heard the loud smack as he yowled, “Ouch, Momma! What did you hit me for?”
I smiled.
The bathroom was fairly small, but the troops had been decent about not leaving it nasty. I grabbed my shampoo and soap and stepped under the running water. It had been a long day and I was hoping I could fall asleep tonight without Ryan’s assistance. I was grateful he helped me last night, but surely I could manage tonight by myself.
I toweled off and put on a pair of shorts and a tank top and went back to the cramped bedroom. There was one queen-sized bed and the small twin they brought up from the garage. I decided Ryan wouldn’t fit so well on the twin, so I took it and left the larger bed for him. I could still hear the guys in the living room, laughing, talking and reminiscing.
I drifted off, but within an hour, my eyes were open. I grabbed an extra pillow off the large bed and tried wedging it behind me for a stand-in, but it wasn’t warm and there was no strong arm to slip around my waist. I heard Ryan coming down the hallway as he told everyone good night. He came into the dark room quietly, the only light being the red display on the clock and a seashell night light on the other side of the queen bed.