Lonnie pulled up to Legion Park, parking the cruiser under a huge Southern Red. The lot was loose gravel, and there were pot holes throughout it making it hard to drive on. When he came here in his Corvette, he had to park on the road. Still, it was his favorite park, mostly because of the creek. It had an arched wooden bridge stretching across it where you could just stand in the middle and listen to the water and think. If she had picked another park, he would have had no problems going there. The fact that she picked this one, specifically for the creek, and unbeknownst to her it being his favorite park because of the same thing, made him all the more sure she was it.
The time she spent with him at his apartment; caring for him, being with him, making him laugh so hard the incision hurt, he learned they had a lot in common. Their morals and values where the same, even though she was an ex-criminal, he knew that it wasn't what she wanted for herself. Sometimes people get delt a shitty hand, and try to navigate it as best they can. He believed if they're good people, they'll eventually get out of it. He saw it all the time here.
It wasn't the first time he had been here since he met Frankie, to think, and inevitably end up daydreaming about her, which she had no idea of. She really had no clue what she did to him - her, just being her.
Lonnie never believed in fate or destiny or anything of that nature. He used to think there was logic behind everything – everything had a logical explanation and pattern to it that could be explained once you had all the information; like a puzzle, you just needed all the pieces to complete it. But that night at the Floyd house, when he was staring at her in the back of the squad car, everything changed. He never felt anything like he did staring at her in his entire life; he felt warm all over, he knew he knew her, and knew she was the one. It took a bit of time for his logical mind to accept it, but in the end, there was no choice. There was no puzzle with this, there was no information, there was no logic, it just was. He knew there was no way their meeting was a coincidence; it was fated, divine intervention by God. He didn't know what he had done to deserve this, but he was thankful every day for it. She was destined to be his, she was made for him, and he was made for her.
He opened Frankie's door and she stepped out with a huge smile on her face and it almost made his heart almost explode.
"Lonnie this place is beautiful! Look at these trees…Can you fish here?"
"You fish?" He was surprised, she was a city girl.
"Yeah, I used to fish all the time before I moved to New York; and there are really great places to fish upstate as well. Bettcha didn't know that Lieutenant." She winked at him, and he smiled. Taking her hand and holding it, they stepped onto the concrete path in the grass. He never held her hand before in public, and Frankie tried to think if there was ever an occasion for him to do so, and she decided there wasn't one until now. She liked it. A lot.
People waved to Lonnie and smiled, covering their mouths and whispering to each other about them, and he put his head down with a shake.
"They don't mean any wrong by you, they just haven't seen me with a woman in some time, I reckon they are all wondering who this beautiful girl is with me." She smiled. "It's a small town, everyone thinks everyone else's' business is their own." He squeezed her hand "I grew up here - never left, so they've known me since I was a baby – known my family for years before that."
"I didn't think anything bad" Frankie said looking down "I'm just not used to seeing that. In New York you can pass by hundreds of people on the street who don't even know your there, they just walk right by like your invisible. It's just different here, that's all."
As they approached the bridge, Lonnie grabbed a clump of Big Bluestem grass from the side of the path and fidgeted with it as they walked, letting go of her hand to do so. Frankie felt a bit disappointment that that connection was gone.
"Do you think you could live here? In Sparta?"
She looked up at the Ray Banz covering his eyes.
"Well" She began, "It would certainly be a change. I mean, I think it's a beautiful town, and it's not like I haven't lived in the country before, but it's been a while." She pulled her long hair up into a messy bun on top of her head and he wanted to grab her and kiss her right there. "I do - I think I could live here, as long as I could do something, you know, normal work after this shit is done, if it's ever done…"
"Watch yourself" Lonnie grabbed her arm as she stepped in a hole at the base of the bridge where the wood had rotted through. She held onto him, loving that he was protective of her like that. It felt good. Before meeting Lonnie, she never thought it would make a difference to her, given how she's trained to protect herself, but it made a difference to her now, because it was him.
They walked to the top of the bridge and stood in the middle, looking at the water rollover rocks, and branches getting stuck at the edge, creating new currents. She picked up a stick by her feet and began peeling the bark off and throwing in in the water below.
"Frankie" She looked up at him, and Lonnie took a deep breath "I'm not good with talking about…" He trailed off and cleared his throat "About things that I feel…I never have been-"
"Lonnie-"
"No, I have to…no…I want too. I want to tell you Frankie." He took a deeper breath and squeezed the railing of the bridge. He took off his sunglasses and hung them in the pocket of his shirt before taking both her hands in his.
"When David took you, I realized I never wanted to…I couldn't ever be away from you. It made me crazy… I thought…It was…I was scared of losing you." He rubbed his eyes and let out a heavy breath, taking her hands again in his, holding then tightly.
"When you came home with me after the hospital, and stayed with me, and took care of me when I couldn't do it myself…when I woke up every morning and you were there with me...I never want to wake up without you again. When I first saw your face in the back of the cruiser when I arrested you…" They both laughed at the memory "It was like I knew you, I felt you…I felt warm." Frankie's eyes went wide 'He felt it too' she thought in amazement. "When I was near you it felt like-"
"-Coming home." He looked at her in surprise. 'She felt it too' Her big eyes were full to the brim with tears and when she blinked they ran down her face like a stream. He gently wiped them off her cheeks, and kept his hands there for a long minute, staring into her gorgeous eyes. "Yes, just like coming home." He kissed her lips and they tasted salty. He took her hands and intertwined their fingers and stared at them, his thumbs making tiny circles on hers.
"I wanted to say so many things to you…for such a long time…so now…I'm gonna say what I need to say." He stared at Frankie while more tears fell from her eyes, and she smiled at him.
"Frankie you are…" Lonnie took another heavy breath, it was harder then he thought to say how he felt, his guts were wound so tight he thought he may never be able to eat again.
"You are the best thing that has ever happened to me. I…" He looked down, than back up to her. She was still tearing up and smiling all at the same time. "I think you deserve a big house, with it done up just how you like it, with sunsets and a big porch, and a big yard, and lots of room for us…for us and…" He was sweating badly now, and wiped his forehead off with the sleave of his shirt. "and… a family – lots of room for our family..." "I want to give you everything Frankie, I want you with me…"
"I love you." She couldn't help it, all her emotions came rushing out, she was so in love with him. He looked at her with his mouth open and his eyes wide. "I've loved you since the first time I saw you. I've loved you forever. I know you, I've always known you, you're the one-" He crashed his mouth on hers and she fell into him, kissing each other as if they were starving.
"Lonnie…I" he wouldn't stop kissing her "I love you with all my heart." Tears filled her eyes once again and they gently fell down her face. He could taste the salty wetness on her lips and moved his face away from hers and sighed. Her tears somehow made her eyes even brighter than they were on their own, and they shone like sunshine on ice. She was beyond the gorgeous; and she was his.
He pulled something out from his pocket, along with a tissue for her to wipe her eyes. When she did, whatever mascara hadn't already run down her face, was now smudged across her cheeks. He took another tissue and wiped the smudges off, kissing her forehead when he was done.
He took her hand in his own before he spoke. "When I was a boy, my Mama took me to this park all the time; it was her favorite, and it's mine too. When you said you wanted to go to a park with a creek, I thought it was funny that out of all the choices there was, you chose this one; just like me and my Mama did so long ago. This place reminds me of her, and sometimes I think she's still here." Frankie smiled up at him and squeezed his hands.
"When I was a little one, she told me a story about the Bluestem grass that grows everywhere in Mississippi, in this park as well. She said that it was magic, and whoever you gave the grass to was the one you promised to stay with for the rest of your life. She told me that anyone who wore it, would be protected and loved for all time. She said it bound people together forever, and made it so no one could ever break them apart. She said I'd understand the magic one day for myself. My Mama told me that same story almost as often as we came here, and I didn't really get it - until you."
Lonnie took Frankie's left hand, and placed a ring of Bluestem grass on her ring finger. He had made it while she thought he was just fidgeting, but he wasn't. He made her a perfect promise ring of Bluegrass, promising her everything; and this is how he wanted to promise her everything - this is how he wanted to show her that he would give her everything her heart could want and more.
Frankie was balling. Whatever control she was trying to cling to was completely gone. She had never felt so much love for another human being ever. The emotion was overwhelming.
"Frankie" He held her hand and the ring of Bluegrass on her finger before he began, never more sure of anything in his entire life.
"I promise I will always protect you. I promise I will always be there for you. I promise I will always have your back no matter what. I promise I will always love you more than anything in the world. I would die for you. I want you forever. I want to grow old with you. I love you. Stay with me."
Frankie was crying so hard she couldn't catch her breath. She threw her arms around Lonnie's neck, trying to speak.
"I…love you…so much. I will stay with you… forever."
They stood on the bridge, holding each other for a long time as people walked by and smiled and winked at them. They felt complete, it was just like heaven.
Back at Headquarters, David's men held the junior officers in the conference room. If any of them made a wrong move, they would be shot right between the eyes. Chief Gillespie, Detective Tibbs, the OPS agents, and all the senior officers looked on at semi-automatics pointed at them from behind the bars of locked jail cells.
"Now, I'm going to ask this again." David began walking in front of the cells with his hands behind his back in his three piece suit, his face still healing from the beating Lonnie gave him.
"WHERE. IS. FRANCESCA?"
