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He squeezed me tightly before letting me go. “Hurry it up, sweet cheeks. We’ve got a date to get to.”Chapter 18Running drops pounds. Beards drop panties. Add those two together and that woman doesn’t stand a fuckin chance.
-Life lesson
Memphis
“What the hell was that?” I asked as Downy stopped me to let a young man cross in front of us first.
He shrugged. “He who has the biggest beard shall go first.”
I looked at him blankly for a few precious moments as my brain comprehended what had just come out of his mouth, shaking my head when I decided he’d been serious.
Barely suppressing the urge to laugh my ass off, we continued on, me in front of him. “So why did you let me go first?”
He didn’t answer for a few moments, instead doing something behind my back that I couldn’t see since it was so effin’ dark where he was taking me.
“Because I like to stare at your ass,” he admitted.
I snorted. “Of course you do.”
He chuckled darkly, the soft timbre dancing over my skin as he did.
“It’s those fucking jeans. They look like they’re painted on. I could literally stare at your ass for hours if you’d let me,” he answered honestly.
“Mommy, what’s an ass?” A little boy’s voice rose from the darkness beyond.
“Milton Donovan, we do not use that sort of crass language,” a mother’s annoyed voice snapped from the darkness.
“Maybe lunar golf wasn’t the best of ideas,” Downy said from his position at the next putting green.
I snorted. “You think?”
I was enjoying myself, however. Even though I couldn’t hit the hole from two inches away, let alone two feet. He was enjoying himself more than me, and I was enjoying myself watching him enjoy himself. It all worked out in the end. We were both happy with how the night had gone.
We started out at dinner. Then we’d gone to the home improvement store to pick out a gallon of paint to paint his bathroom in. I chose a blood red color that nearly matched my shirt, and he’d gone along with it because I thought the color was so perfect for the Texas theme he had going on.
If left up to his own devices, he’d have chosen another brown color like the rest of the house.
“Goddammit, Mocha. Leave my balls alone,” Downy growled.
“Mommy, what are balls?” The boy asked loudly.
Downy choked and suppressed his urge to laugh while I didn’t even bother to hide it. There was no way to.
“I think we should go,” I said laughingly as we finished our final hole.
Mocha had evened out the playing field because she liked to chase Downy’s green ball better than my orange one. Therefore, each time Downy went to hit it, the ball wouldn’t even make it three feet before she had a hold of it. It was a lovely handicap that made the game enjoyable instead of annoying.
I was a competitive person, and regardless of whether it was lunar mini golf or Monopoly, I wanted to win.
The last time I’d played Monopoly I’d ended up sweeping my arm across the table when Sean had put his fifth hotel on Parks Avenue. Needless to say, it was ugly and nobody in my family would play with me anymore.
Downy and I gave our putters back and started the dark trek out of the mini golf place in the mall slowly but surely.
Slowly, because Mocha kept having to stop and steal people’s balls like a ninja. Then we’d have to pry them out of her mouth and hand them back to the unsuspecting victims who thought it was hilarious.
“Shouldn’t she be on a leash?” I asked in concern.
“Probably. But she ate through her leash the moment we got in here,” Downy laughed.
“Oh,” I replied dumbly.
I hadn’t even realized.
He’d said something about her leash, but I’d been too busy concentrating on my putt to listen to him.
Oops.
“It’s just something about the leash. She hates it,” Downy sighed. “I haven’t gotten into trouble with it yet, but it’s only a matter of time. Being a cop doesn’t give me the right to blatantly break the law, and that’s exactly what I do when she’s not on a leash.”
He held the door open to the lunar golf place, and we started walking down the aisle towards the food court, and beyond it to the parking lot and Downy’s truck.
“Peter has a metal leash,” I offered. “He hasn’t used it since he’s learned to walk without pulling me along for the ride. You’re welcome to it.”
He took my hand and we weaved through a shit load of cars to the very back of the lot.
It’d been the only parking available at the time, and still looked to be, even with ten minutes until closing time.
He shook his head. “No. Then she’d just chip her too…” He trailed off when something caught his eye.
Then I was violently shoved to the ground at the same time I heard a loud whimper from Mocha at my side.
My hands were the first things to land, followed shortly by my body, and then my face.
I cried out in agony as the gravel from the asphalt under my hands dug into the skin of my palms.
I knew instantly they’d be scraped raw, but it was put out of my head quickly by the rush of adrenaline that shot through my veins when I looked up to see a man fighting with Downy.
Downy was bigger, and much more experienced.
I could tell that by the way Downy easily sidestepped each swipe from the knife that the other man had in his hand.
There was also a commotion of some sort going on behind me, but I couldn’t tell exactly what, since the altercation was happening in the shadows behind the parked car I was shielded against.
Mocha was fighting something, and my best guess was another attacker.
Hands shaking, I pulled my phone out of my pocket and dialed 911.
“911, what’s your emergency,” the dispatcher answered instantly.
“This is Memphis Conner. I’m at the mall parking lot close to the back of the lot on the food court side. A man with a knife is trying to stab my boyfriend,” I whispered frantically.
