Chapter 3
Moondoggie walked past the mudroom off the hallway that connected Dunny's apartment to the gas station and froze. He took a moment to grasp what he just saw, threw it in reverse and backed up to the mudroom.
Yep, that's what he saw, a round luscious ass sticking up in the air. He assumed the top half of Sweets was down in that deep freezer, somewhere, but he took a moment to lean against the door frame and enjoy the view. He thought of Jane from the "Firefly" series saying, "I like smacking 'em" and laughed silently.
What a deliciously precarious position she was it.
When he heard her chipping at the ice he knew he needed to step in and help her. He palmed himself before he made a shuffling noise to let her know she was not alone.
"Helloooo," came from the deep recesses of the chest.
"Sweets, what are you doing?" Moondoggie laughed.
"I… I well … I seem to be stuck. Can … you maybe push down on my legs so I can come back up?"
Moondoggie smiled at her awkwardness and reached in, slipping his arms under her arms and lifting her torso out.
When he had her safely on solid ground he pushed her hair back from her crimson face.
"Sweets, what were you going to do if I didn't come by?" he smiled down on her.
As she caught her breath, she worked on straightening her clothes.
He couldn't help but smile at her discomfort. She was so cute when she was flustered.
"Um … I was looking for meat for dinner. I found some stew meat but I need to get it out of the ice pack before I can see if it has freezer burn. Those two don't cook, do they?" Sweets huffed out a breath that blew a strand of hair out of her eyes.
"No, microwave cooking is their forte. Can I help you free the meat from the icy depths?"
Sweets sighed, "Yes please."
~o0o~
Dinner was a collaborative effort with Bella enlisting the three men to help her.
She had Moondoggie and Dunny set up a makeshift table with two sawhorses and an old door she found out in the store room off the garage. While they brought these things in, Bob, her designated sous chef, sat at the kitchenette counter folding handkerchiefs for napkins, cutting onions and opening cans of mushrooms, green beans and a jar of real bacon bits.
Moondoggie watched her drape the old door with a worn beige sheet. She set two jelly glasses with little candles in the center and added a few sprigs of a Texas Olive tree that had been lovingly planted along the fence line decades ago, but had long since been forgotten. It made a nice little center piece.
Dunny, Bob and Edward watched the second half of a game while she finished up dinner. She had shooed them out telling them to go relax before they got dressed for dinner. She heard them groan at that but she wanted this 'thank you" dinner to be memorable for the men.
Dunny and Bob had so effortlessly won her heart. They had welcomed her and made her feel at home.
Moondoggie was something other. His wall of masculine strength was imposing, but at the same time, she found a safety in it. The ride had made her all kinds of stupid. She dropped her guard much too easily with him and found she liked him with a recklessness that scared her.
At six o'clock the men came into the store front area where the makeshift table was set up. She was just setting down a serving bowl of green beans with almonds when she heard the swinging doors.
Bob and Dunny had on clean sweatshirts and had their hair slicked down. She smiled brightly at how cute they looked. Dunny helped Bob go ahead and take a seat but waited on Edward to sit with the rest.
Bella was mixing the noodles with the stroganoff when Moondoggie walked past the kitchenette.
"Moondoggie?"
He backed up and took in how pretty she looked. She had changed into a grey dress, not really her color, but she had draped a colorful scarf over one shoulder belting it to the dress with a thick belt that cinched in her small waist and set off her curves. She had her hair piled up and loop earrings finished her look. She was gorgeous.
"You look pretty tonight, Sweets. Too good for the likes of us," he smiled as she approached him.
"Thank you," she said quietly.
She stopped just short of him and cocked her head studying him. He had on his boot cut black jeans and his blue button down shirt. He looked down at himself to see what was off.
Finally, she signaled for him to lower his head. He smirked but obeyed.
As she began running her fingers through his well combed hair, he started to balk until her fingernails worked a blessing against his scalp.
She smiled as his eyes rolled back in his head, but when she had his hair back to a happy disarray she quickly dropped her hand, patting his arm and adding, "Now you're ready."
He took a moment to gather himself and held the swinging door for her as she carried the beef stroganoff out to the table.
Dunny held her chair out for her and she smiled as she took her place between Dunny and Bob.
Edward watched her smile falter as he sat down across from her. She suddenly looked nervous and unsure.
He stepped in quickly, "Sweets, everything looks perfect. You out did yourself," he smiled and cut his eyes over at Dunny.
"Yeah, Bella girl, everything smells great," Dunny spoke up with Bob nodding.
She smiled and took Bob and Dunny's hands waiting for the three men to hold hands. They stared at her for a long moment before they realized what she wanted. Sheepishly they completed the circle and bowed their heads when she did.
"Thank you, Lord, for this food and friendship, Amen," she said softly.
Sweet and to the point, Moondoggie approved.
She giggled as the three men dropped hands like they were on fire.
"Now, I had to scrounge to find ingredients," she smirked at Moondoggie when he laughed silently, "I hope it's edible. Feel free to help yourselves." She said.
The men didn't stand on ceremony and began passing bowls. When they had their plates piled high, Moondoggie looked across the table to see Sweets beaming as Dunny and Bob cooed over how good the food was.
Again, he marveled at her. She looked so beautiful smiling in the candlelight. After a moment, his eyes dropped to her empty plate.
"Sweets," Moondoggie held the noodles and sauce out to her.
"Oh, thank you," she tucked a wisp of hair behind her ear before reaching for the serving bowl.
Once the men got some food under their belts, they began telling stories on each other. She sat back and laughed at their one-upping. Moondoggie nudged her foot a couple of times to remind her to keep eating.
While Dunny and Bob argued over a play in the game, Moondoggie helped Sweets clear the table and bring out coffee and a plate of Oreos, Chips Ahoy and Fig Newton cookies.
The conversation quieted down with the second round of coffee and when Bob began nodding the party broke up. The men headed to Dunny's apartment with contented smiles and Bella hummed as she cleaned up the last of the dishes and headed to her own safe, warm bed.
~o0o~
"Moondoggie?"
Edward sat up straighter and listened to the pat, pat, pat of socked feet moving closer.
"Moondoggie, why are you up?" she whispered.
"I could ask you the same thing, Sweets," he said as he rubbed his eyes and pulled his blanket tighter around his shoulder.
"I was … well, Bob makes a lot of noise at night," she winced.
Edward huffed out a laugh. "Yeah, well I guess that would be rough." He pulled the blanket from around himself and offered it to her.
She frowned but took it. As he moved to his makeshift bed to retrieve another, she hugged the blanket, still warm from him, closer and asked, "What's wrong with Bobby?"
"He was diagnosed terminal about eight months ago. That's when he moved in with Dunny. They go way back."
He rubbed his neck while he thought, and with a decision made he continued, "They met in rehab." He looked over to see her reaction. When he saw her quietly waiting for more, he continued. "Dunny had a gambling problem and Reno ate him up; when there was nothing left it spit him out. By that time, his wife had taken their two-year-old daughter and left. He's never seen the little one since. She's probably got grown kids of her own by now." Edward frowns down at his hands. "He hit the bottle hard and didn't come out for a good ten years. He was living in a shelter and panhandling. A… a doctor who volunteered at the shelter befriended Dunny and helped him." Edward turned away from her as he rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand.
"I'd like to meet that man someday. What a wonderful thing he did in helping Dunny," she smiled in the dim light of the room. "And Bobby …" she asked looking back at him.
Edward shifted in his seat, "Bob… well I don't know as much of his story. He was in rehab for drug and alcohol addiction. It was his third time in, I think, and to hear Bob tell it 'third time's a charm because Dunny had his back.' Edward and Bella sat side by side near the stove smiling into the darkness.
She reached over and gave his hand a squeeze.
"Look, Sweets, ah… Bella, we've all got a past. I don't need to know your secrets, but I've got questions in my mind that won't let go."
"Okay, how about you ask your questions and I'll answer if I can." She smiled enough to reassure him and turned in her seat toward him. He lifted the blanket, pulled it back over her shoulder, and angled his body toward her, resting his ankle on his knee.
"Thanks, now shoot," she said with a forced brightness.
"Okay, uh … how old are you?" Edward dropped his head as she began to giggle.
"That's your first big question?" she nudged him with her shoulder and he nudged back, "Nineteen. There was a time when I was terrified to tell anyone my age, but I'm a legal adult now so … screw 'em."
He looked at her to explain that burst of venom. She folded her hands on his knee and continued.
"I'm the child of an addict. Apathy was the only emotion Renee, my mother, offered me. I was invisible, a ghost. When I was fifteen, I got a crush and made the mistake of reaching for normal. Renee came home to us holding hands at the kitchen table while we studied and I guess a switch flipped in her."
She looked up as Edward took her hand, encouraging her to continue.
"I had become a threat, competition, I guess. She was relentless. Names like whore and slut were constant. She tripped, slapped, scratched or pinched me anytime I was within reach. The last night she came home high and attacked me in my bed. She took a broom handle to me. When she passed out, I stole three watches from the meal ticket she was bedding, packed a bag and left. I pawned one for eight hundred, bought a ticket to Florida and never looked back.
"Aw, Sweets, I'm so sorry," he whispered into her hair as he pulled her closer, "how did you survive?" He squeezed his eyes shut from the visions invading his head.
"When I got on the bus for Florida, I had days to think and I decided, no matter what, I was not going to smoke, drink, do drugs or sell my body." She paused, cleared her throat before continuing. "I figured if I stayed away from any habit that cost money I wouldn't have to do that last thing to keep up the cost of the others," she shrugged.
"Smart thinking," Edward whispered past the lump in his throat.
"I had the address for a battered women shelter in Jacksonville. I floated a few nights until they found a bed for me there. My face was enough proof that I belonged, but I bought a cheap wedding band at a pawnshop to help seal the battered wife story.
"I helped in the kitchen to keep my bed, worked nights at a laundromat and cleaned office buildings for two years while I got my GED. By then I was close to eighteen.
"Renee was still in Phoenix and I had this stupid idea that if I moved back, I could use her address without her knowing and get resident tuition rates for college. However, that didn't work. I guess she got the meal ticket to marry her, and that put me out of range for grants.
Edward pulled his arm around her and she rested her head on his shoulder. "I'm so sorry, Sweets," he whispered.
"Don't get all maudlin. This is a kick ass beginning to a really great story. My memoirs are going to rock," she whispered past her tears.
I want to ride to Phoenix and take a bat to her," Edward ground out, playing with her fingers.
"I know, and I'm sorry to put that in your head. But I'm safely away from that now. Sometimes I feel as if it happened to someone else. I'm good now Moondoggie. Try to let it go, I have." She smiled softly.
He tightened the hug and rocked her gently. They sat quietly for quite some time.
When she yawned, he loosened his hold and looked at her.
"Before you head back to bed, I'd like to know where you're heading."
She sat back and looked at her hands in her lap, "I'm heading to Forks, Washington to bury my father."
"When do you need to be there?" he asked quietly.
'The funeral is on the nineteenth, three days from now." She said.
"We could make that, I think. Forks is up in the Olympic peninsula, isn't it." He leaned forward thinking.
"Yes," she leaned forward matching his position and looked at him, "we, Moondoggie?"
He noted what he thought could be a tinge of hope.
"I can't let you go up north in that car, in those clothes, after that story. I want to get you there safely," he shrugged.
"Moondoggie, I've taken care of myself my whole life. I learned to make a sandwich by the time I was three. I was grocery shopping at six. I was managing our bills by the time I was ten. My mom has been an addict all my life. I've made my way." She squeezed his hand looking into his face for understanding.
He looked at her while he tried to get his emotions under control. How was it possible for her to go through so much and not be hard and bitter? She was kind, sweet and had wisdom far beyond her nineteen years. Finally, he nodded acceptance. He watched disappointment wash over her and spoke quickly to cut off her thoughts.
"I've been on my own for eight years. I know what it's like to be alone. I'm not asking to run your life. I just thought we could ride in the same direction for a while. I'd like the company." He rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb and looked up to read her.
Her eyes were swimming, but she was smiling.
He held his breath.
"Okay, that sounds nice, if it's not putting you out by changing your plans."
"I was going to hang with a buddy in Vegas through the holidays. But this is better. Much better," he added giving her hand a squeeze.
"K," she smiled shyly and dropped her head.
"Okay," he smiled down on her.
"Let's get some shut-eyebefore the two codgers start barking for their breakfast. You've totally spoiled them." He stood helping her up.
"Do you want to stay out here? I can stoke up the stove and you can bed down out here." He ran his hand down her arm, "nothing funny just sleep, scouts honor."
She hesitated before saying, "K, I'll go get my bedding."
~o0o~
Edward felt someone kicking his foot.
He kickedout at the air.
"Hey, Edward, you stealing the cookies?"
He opened his eyes to Dunny's scraggly face hovering over him.
"What the hell, Dunny, back the hell off me," Edward swatted at the old coot.
"Shh, you'll wake her," Dunny's voice softened at the word 'her.'
The two men looked over at the sleeping beauty snuggled under layers of blankets.
Edward rolled out of his side of the pile of blankets and motioned for Dunny to follow him to the small kitchenette.
He started making coffee while Dunny popped some Wonder Bread into the toaster.
"Stealing the cookies, Dunny?" Edward snickered.
"Well, what's the girl doing in your bed, huh?" Dunny smacked the back of Edward's head.
"Hey," he rubbed the spot, "if you'd look closely you'd see that our blankets are folded in opposite directions with the folds up against each other. It was all quite … chaste."
Dunny watched the back of the boy's neck redden and rubbed his jaw in thought. After a moment, he thought to test his theory.
"She's a young little thing," he said offhandedly.
Edward shot him a glance.
"She's not that young, nineteen, a mature nineteen." He dropped casually.
"That's an eleven-year gap. She's a good girl. You shouldn't play with her is all I'm saying," Dunny busied himself with buttering the toast.
"I'm not playing," he shot back defensively pouring two mugs of coffee, then turning to face his friend.
"I'm not playing," he said quietly. "I care about her, Dunny, she's amazing. She deserves a friend," he paused, "We talked last night. I'm going to take her up north, make sure she gets where she's going safely."
He slid a mug over to Dunny and waited.
Dunny smiled widely, "I'm glad to hear that," he nodded, "Bob will be glad to hear that, too. Yep, that's good news," he nodded again. He shot a look at Edward and added, "You'll be a gentleman?"
Edward smiled down on his old friend, "I'll be on my best behavior. I'll wait until the cookies are offered," he laughed.
"When you leavin' out?" Dunny asked taking a bite of hisjellied toast.
"I'm thinking as soon as Sweets and Bob are up and fed. Can you keep her car until after the nineteenth? I'll call and let you know when I'll drop her back for it. I don't know what her plans are beyond then."
"Yeah, I'll look it over." Dunny said with grape jelly dropping onto his sweatshirt.
Edward pulled a paper towel off the roll and handed it to Dunny, "I have winter tires on the bike. Can you change them out?"
"Yeah, sure, what did you put on?" Dunny asked as he spread the purple stain on his collar.
"Dunlop Sportmax Roadsmarts," Edward laughed as Dunny made a face, "they worked like a charm. The family name still stands proud." He threw his head back and laughed when Dunny threw the balled up paper towel at him.
"Shut up, you little prick,"
"Such a potty mouth this early in the morning, tsk"
Both men turned to see a rumpled, but toasty Bella leaning against the doorframe.
"I'm sorry Bella, you weren't to hear that," he shot a condemning glare at Edward, who broke out in a new round of laughter as Bella winked at him.
~o0o~
Watching her, Moondoggie felt as if Sweets would stay at this run down, forgotten gas station forever, if she had her way. She spent the morning in the kitchen. She made four lunches of cold cut sandwiches and chips, picking the bags that seemed to be the most crumbled for herself and Moondoggie. She was able to make two meals with the leftover Stroganoff and marked them with warming instructions before placing them in the freezer. She made pancakes and eggs for breakfast with enough pancakes left over for two breakfasts for Dunny and Bob.
~o0o~
With keys in his hand, he watched her bend to hug Bob. She didn't let on how much she knew, treating him the same as she did yesterday.
"Bye Bobby, I'm gonna miss you." She gave him another good squeeze and a kiss on the cheek. "I love you," she whispered.
He held on loosely to a strand of her hair as she pulled away, reaching to shake Edward's hand only when it finally dropped from between his fingers.
"You don't be a stranger. Bring her back to us as soon as you can," Bob looked away blinking.
"Will do Bob, not long after the first of the year. Think that'll work for you?" Edward asked shaking his friend's hand.
"Well, if not I'll catch you on the other side," Bob said dropping Edward's hand.
"Save me a good parking spot, cuz I'm bringing the flames with me" Edward smiled.
"Where you're going the flames will be provided," Dunny groused, feeling left out.
Bella turned and hugged him. "I love you Dunny. Thank you for opening your home to me." She squeezed him one more time while he pat her back awkwardly.
Edward took her fingertips, letting her know it was time.
"You'll call them, let them know you saw me?" Edward asked Dunny as he towed Sweets to his side.
"The parental units? Yeah,I'll give them a call once you're on your way."
"Thanks, Dunny, for everything," Edward said as the older man pulled him in for a hug.