Chapter 20 Outtake~Bob's Thoughts
Bob sits safely encased in his thoughts, surrounded by the best people of the last four decades of his life. Couples dance around the bonfire, and he watches wistfully as Edward and Mac steal Bella from each other. His heart warms as he watches his newly adopted daughter laughing freely with her hair flying around her like an aura of golden fire.
A sigh escapes his thin frame.
His girl is marrying Dunny's boy. His head bobs at the rightness of it, of being able to let go of the two young people, knowing they have each other, that they will be just fine when he goes.
Hearing Dunny's cackle to the left of him, he smiles.
His wife had asked him one time if he was bisexual. As deep as his love for his Betty was, he understood her curiosity. Betty came along after Bob and Dunny had found their friendship.
He cocks his head to look at his friend. Dunny's yellow teeth gleam in the firelight as he throws back his head in laughter with Carlisle and Eleazar.
Bob smiles to himself.
It would be easier to explain being gay, but the truth is Dunny is Bob's soulmate. There was no physical attraction, just an understanding of being complete with him. Betty never understood their friendship but accepted that to have Bob was also to take on Dunny.
When Bob got serious with Betty, Dunny tried to give them space and had moved out to the gas station and opened his carpenter shop.
Bob took it for a few months and then pulled up on Dunny's lot with surveyors to start a body and paint shop next to Dunny's wood shop. For the next twenty years, they spent their days together, and he spent his nights in Betty's bed.
With that thought, a tender, secret smile ghosts across his face. The love of a good woman and the friendship of a good man; the man upstairs had been kind to him, and he was grateful.
A whoop from Mac draws Bob's attention back to the dancers. Mac rocks with his arms in the air, obviously enjoying being wedged between Bella and a tall, leggy blonde. Damn, that Rose is a knockout.
Movement at the edge of the crowd brings a pissed Edward charging into the ring of firelight. He glares at Mac as he grabs Bella out of Mac's arms. He wraps himself around his giggling girl, burying his face in her long hair as Mac barks a laugh and turns to capture the blonde by the hips, bringing her movements in tight with his.
Dunny, Carlisle, and Eleazar clap and whoop at Mac's skills. Mac just pulls the goddess closer into his web of charm and gives the men two birds behind Rose's back, which he slides over her swaying ass as he gives them the look of the devil himself before turning her with him to give his back to the men.
Bob smiles and nods for his boy as long, manicured nails slide just under Mac's belt as his knee wedges between her thighs.
Bob shakes his head with pride.
His boy's got moves.
Bob's gaze drifts across the bonfire's blinding light to the crowd beyond, and there she is. She's visiting him more often—his Betty—his pretty girl.
A wistful smile graces his lips as his eyes follow her swaying movement through the crowd. She stops and gives him her sly, knowing smile over her shoulder before dissolving into the light of the fire.
His gnarled fingers twitch as he sighs deeply.
"Bob, you getting tired?" Dunny asks as he leans over him.
Bob's eyes rake the crowd around the fire looking for the one not there.
Resigned and suddenly weary, he pats the hand resting on his shoulder. "Yeah."
Dunny gives his arm a squeeze. "Then let's get you inside."
Bob gives one more furtive glance toward the fire as Dunny turns his chair and they head inside.
Bob closes his eyes as a smile plays on his lips. Maybe tonight, she'll meet him in his dreams.