Another One Bites the Dust (12 page)

It was probably to keep my dad from taking out his kneecaps.  He wouldn’t harm his baby, and Max knew that.  He smiled evilly at my dad, and then threw his arm around my neck.

My daddy was a big man.  He was massive at six foot four and two hundred and fifty pounds.  He laughed like a bear, and hugged like one, too.  He strode up to me and wrapped his big brawny arms around me.  I wrapped my arms around his neck and hugged him back.  I loved my dad with everything that I am.  He could be overbearing, embarrassing, and overprotective, but what good father isn’t all those things?

He set me down on my feet and we all took a seat at the dining room table.  Conversation wasn’t an option for the first ten minutes as there was good food to be eaten.  My family is very serious about food, and speaking was not tolerated until all the plates were cleaned of their offerings.

“That was the most divine thing I’ve ever tasted.”  Max declared.

He leaned back in his seat, and ran his hands up and down his stomach.  The cast was now a bright pink, and “Property of Payton” was written in bubble letters over the entire length of it.

“I can’t believe he let you write that on his cast.”  My mom chastised me.

I smiled.  He didn’t even care.  His mind was on other matters at the time.  For instance, my underwear clad vagina running against his blue-jean covered length.  “He had his mind elsewhere.”

“Gross!  That’s disgusting, PP.”  Bennett whined.

“PP?”  Max asked.

“Bennett thinks it’s funny.  He’s been saying it since he was six.  For some reason, my parents don’t seem to think it was that big of a deal.”  I said as I glared at said parents.

“Oh, Payton.  That’s a brother’s job.  Although, Ember started giving me nut shots when I did stuff she didn’t like.  My parents didn’t stop her either.”  He said a little sadly.

Sensing the sore subject, I switched it.  “Max helps battered women get away from volatile situations.” 

The table went quiet, and Max looked a little funny.

He looked at me and asked quietly,  “How did you know that?”

I was confused, was I not supposed to know?  “Cheyenne told me.  When I first met Sam, there were five ginormous men in the room, and I thought I was going to throw up.  Do you not remember me leaving as soon as I walked into the room?  I didn’t really have to pick up my brother, I just needed an excuse to leave.  Y’all made me extremely uncomfortable.  Anyway, she sensed what my problem was, and told me what y’all did to help all those women.”

His eyes softened as I spoke.  He knew how scared I was in situations such as the one I’d entered into, but he most not have put two and two together from back then.  Dad was watching Max with a considering look and mom had tears gathered in her eyes.

Bennett was a different story.  “Can I help?”  He asked.

“As of right now, we need people with certain types of skills.  Jack’s good with a computer, but we could always use someone who is good with that type of stuff.  Can you work a computer?”  Max asked.

“No, sorry.  My fingers are like sausages.  They can only chicken peck.”  He said holding up his hands.

His fingers were large.  They always reminded me of a tennis racket.  They were seriously that massive.  His feet were a size sixteen.  When Bennett finally grew into his body, he would be one intimidating person.  Now, he looked good for a sixteen year old, but still resembled a teenager, not a man.  When he started to put on some bulk, he’d be a heart breaker.

“I’ll ask, but right now I can’t think of anything off the top of my head.”  Max said.

“I’m not good with a computer, but I have connections.  If you boys ever need anything, don’t hesitate to ask.”  My dad said.

“Thank you, sir.  I’ll keep that in mind.  You never know when you will need help.  These women and children could use all the assistance they can get.”  Max explained.

“Maybe when you get out of the Marines, Benny.  You will probably have a lot more skills, and could help them much more.”  Mom added her two cents.

My eyes caught a devilish gleam, and I bared my teeth at Benny in a manic smile.  “Oh, Benny, maybe you should tell them about the Navy recruiter you spoke with the other day.  Daddy, did you know that Benny plans to go Navy?”

My dad’s breath sucked into his body, and it felt like all of the air in the room went with it.  Bennett’s eyes narrowed on me, and the fork with a spoonful of mashed potatoes lifted into the air, but I knew it was coming and dropped to the floor underneath the table to avoid it.

“Bennett Lee Alvarez!  Put that fork down.  Don’t make me come over there.”  Mom yelled.

When she pulled out the mom voice and the middle name, you knew you were in trouble.  I didn’t get three named yet, however.  Once under the table, I ducked down and duck walked to Bennett’s legs.  He was wearing shorts, so this would work perfectly.

Smiling deviously, made quick work of his shoelaces while they argued from above me.  Then I tackled his leg, wrapped myself around it, and started making friction circles with the palm of my hand against his hairy leg.  Anyone who’s done this before, knows it’s painful to get the hairs untangled once you get the friction going well enough, but even more it makes the hairs on your arms stick together, tangle, and then rip out when you tried to unravel them.

Benny had some hairy legs, which is why this worked so perfectly.

“Get off me, you witch!”  Bennett yelled, and tried to kick me off him.

I hung on for dear life, just so I could get the maximum tangle time.  He kicked with his leg, and dragged me out from under the table when he lurched back to stand up from his chair.  I let go then, because I knew when to cut and run.  Annihilation isn’t my favorite thing to experience.

Darting back under the table, I made a mad dash for Max’s legs, just making it in time to grab ahold of his legs before Bennett was there trying to pull me back out on his side.  Max was laughing his ass off from above me, and it sounded so goddamned sexy.  Although, I couldn’t let my concentration waver, otherwise my precious brother would get me. 

I squirmed and kicked before finally kicking him off.  Diving underneath Max’s chair, I came up the other side so he was between me and Bennett, who was ready to kill me if his face could be believed.

Mom and dad were finishing off the remains of their meal, acting as if this didn’t bother them in the slightest.  Which, it probably didn’t.  We’d done this exact scenario so many times that we could probably copyright the act.

Max stopped laughing when Bennett made a go for my ponytail, but Max stopped him with a steely glare. 

I shimmied my ass and stuck my tongue out at Bennett.  “Nanny, nanny, boo, boo.”

“Payton, I can’t always protect you from your brother.  Keep instigating, one day I might not be around, and he’s going to shove you into the dryer.”  Max teased.

“He’s tried that before.  We broke Mom’s brand new front loader, and she never forgave us.”  I supplied.

He rolled his eyes up to the ceiling and rolled his eyes.  “I’m glad Ember isn’t like this.”

“Yea, you’re lucky your sister’s not a psycho nut job.”  Bennett grumped as he ran his fingertips over the matted hair on his leg.

Bennett could whine all he wanted, but just last week he’d given me the mother of all Indian burns.  I still had marks on my left arm.  Even Max noticed them a week after Bennett had given to me.  Bennett caught me on the way to my car after dinner with my grandparents; tackling me to the ground and sitting on me worked every time.

I draped my arms around Max’s neck from behind, and leaned into him before saying, “You had it coming after what you did to me last week.”

“That was retaliation for you putting girly smelling shit in my…”  Bennett said before his words trailed off.  His eyes went wide and he threw his hands up.

“That was you?”  Max said harshly.

I kissed him on the cheek and whispered into his ear.  “We are rough, Max.  Get over it.”

The rest of dinner remained quiet.  My dad was upset about the Navy thing, but didn’t want to bring it up again.  He didn’t like to yell.  He was all about control, and right now, he didn’t have any.  Bennett going into the Marines made my dad so proud; he was happy his only son was following into his footsteps.  Now, to hear that he didn’t want to do that, and quite frankly never wanted to, was a hard pill to swallow.

Two hours later, my dad was walking us to Max’s bike.  He gave it a hard look, and then made sure to touch both of the helmets with his hand as a silent order.  My daddy wasn’t happy that I was riding the bike, but he trusted Max enough to realize that he could handle this large machine. 

If my daddy only knew how Max rode the machine, he might’ve said something.  In fact, Max rode the bike as he went through life.  Full speed ahead.  He was a take no prisoners type of person.  He rode hard, played hard, and lived life to the fullest.  He gave as good as he got, and I loved him more than life itself.

He passed the daddy test, now he has one more to go, and that’s my Pepaw.  If he could impress that man, then I would marry him, and have his babies.  Of course, we would have to practice a lot first, but definitely lots of babies.  Pleasing a man like my Pepaw would take a miracle, but I had faith in Max.  If anyone could do it, he could.

“Can we stop one more place before we go home?”  I asked before he started the car.

“Sure, where to?”  Max asked as he put his helmet on.

Taking my helmet from his hands, I strapped it on before telling him where I wanted to go.  My father burst out laughing, and said, “God help you, son.  Let me know how it went when you get home, Payton.” 

Once the comment left his mouth, he turned and headed back into the house.  Max lifted up his left leg, and then kick started the motor.  The bike roared to life, and a shot of adrenaline poured through my veins. 

I felt almost euphoric every time I got on the back of his bike with him.  Riding my scooter makes me happy, but absolutely nothing compares to riding behind Max.  Snuggling close to his back and wrapping my arms around his waist only makes it ten times more enjoyable.

We rode to the outskirts of Kilgore.  My Pepaw and Nanny lived on the county line of Gregg County and Rusk County in a log cabin that was on thirty acres of land.  The front of their house over looked a pond that housed large mouthed bass and perch.  Wide pine trees covered the front of the property so you couldn’t see their house from the road.

I have so many memories here.  When I was growing up, I would spend summers here.  When I was finally eighteen and graduated, this is where I moved to, it is my safe haven.  Not to mention my Pepaw is a Vietnam vet.  He taught me to do things that normal little girls wouldn’t even dream about doing.  My dad refers to them as the ‘crazy loons’ across the way, but he loves them despite their faults.

We pulled into their driveway just as the sun was setting.  My Pepaw sat on the front porch, rocking back and forth very slowly.  Max stepped off, and then helped me to my feet.  We took our helmets off and laid them down on the seat before turning and facing my Pepaw who was now standing and watching Max with narrowed eyes.  He started to take a step forward when I stopped his advance.

“Pepaw, can you take down your trap for a little while.  Max doesn’t know where to step, and I don’t want to make any trips to the hospital today.”  I said in a sugary sweet voice.

The trap in question was an electrical fence of sorts, only on steroids.  If you stepped on the wrong stepping-stone, you’d have 120 volts of electricity shoot through your body; starting in your foot.

“The last time you said that, you brought some jackass here who got you beat up.  This jackass going to do the same thing to my Tinkerbelle, too?”  He grumped from the front porch.

I forgot to mention he’s a little loony, but he’s the sweetest man you’ll ever meet if you get into his good graces.  “Now, Pepaw, I’ve learned from my mistakes.  I love this man; when have you ever heard me say that before, huh?”

“You love me?”  Max said surprised.

“Of course, I love you, Max.  Why do you think I’m introducing you into all of this craziness?  If I didn’t have faith that you wouldn’t drop me like a hot potato, I would have never even entertained the thought!”

“Alright, boy.  You have five minutes to convince me.  Tink, go into the house with your Nanny.”  Pepaw said.

I spent the next hour on pins and needles.  I’d given it five minutes, and then went out to find them, but they were both gone.  Since one didn’t just go off walking on Pepaw’s land and survive, I stayed put and waited for them.  They showed fifty-seven minutes and thirty-seven seconds later laughing and carrying on.  Nanny refrained from saying “I told you so,” but just barely.  My breath whooshed out of me in a sudden burst of wind, and I took a running jump off the porch and launched myself into Max’s arms.

He caught me easily, and whirled me around, settling me on his back like a five year old.  I stayed though, because now I knew this was official.  If he could handle Pepaw, he could handle anything I threw at him from now until I died.  He was mine, just as I was his, and I was ecstatic. 

The ride home that night was a silent, cold, and wet one.  The bottom fell out once we hit Highway 42, and I about froze my ass off.  Texas weather was beyond unpredictable.  Normally the weather was cool, yet not so cool that you needed a jacket.  Tonight was different, it was a frigid twenty-eight, and it was bleepin’ raining.  There was nothing we could do, so we just endured.  If you didn’t ride in the rain, Max said, then you didn’t ride.  He wasn’t even the least bit sorry, and as soon as we pulled up into the driveway and he opened the front door, I was stripping my frozen clothes from my body and making a mad dash for the shower.

There was only one thing that would fix this, and that was hot water.  Max followed a few minutes later after letting Alpha out to use the bathroom.  The shower door clicked open, and I tensed with anticipation.  I wanted his body against me in the worst way.

Despite being colder than the North Pole while riding back, I still had my core resting up against his back.  What they say is true; it feels like a huge vibrator.  The bike does more for me in a twenty-minute ride then my own hand does in the same amount of time.  His casted arm went to the glass above my head, and he leaned into the water, letting it soak both of us.