Saturday Night Special (16 page)

Bubbles seemed taken aback by Bella’s sincere gratitude. She shrugged and appeared embarrassed. “Sure. No problem.”

“Johnny,” Bella said. “When I was in that car and I thought I was gonna get killed, I realized I’ve been wrong to say no to you. If you’ll still have me, I’d like to marry you.”

Johnny’s eyes lit up. “And kids?”

Bella bit her lip. “Can we maybe just do the wedding thing first? Figure out the kids later?”

Riley rolled her eyes.
Oh yeah. That’s a good plan.
Who gets married without talking about all the important stuff? She looked at Aaron and thought about her desire for lots of kids.
Shit.

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Johnny kissed Bella and the two of them stood up. “We sure can, muffin. Why don’t we go home and celebrate?”

They said their goodbyes while Riley looked around the table. “And then there were five,” she muttered.

“Jo,” Trev started. “I’ve been a dumbass.”

Johanna nodded. “You can say that again. But you’re
my
dumbass.”

Trevor’s eyes lit up. “Does that mean you’ll take me back?”

“Gonna have to. Somebody’s gotta be this baby’s daddy.” She rubbed her stomach and Riley thought Trev actually went pale beneath his sunburn.

“Baby?”

“I’m pregnant.”

Trev raised his fist in the air and let out a holler loud enough that it must’ve had people from three blocks away turning their heads. They all laughed as he stood up, picked up his wife and spun her around. “Come on. I’m taking my gal out for a fancy supper. I’m gonna be a daddy!”

They said goodbye and walked off hand in hand.

Bubbles sighed sadly.

“You okay, Bubbles?” Riley asked.

“Two more happy endings. And here I am still stuck in this shithole city, hooking for a living. You know, I’m starting to think my Richard Gere’s not coming to save me.”

“So maybe you should go out and look for him.” Riley leaned closer. “Come back to Baltimore with us. Start over fresh in a new city.”

“Doing what?”

“You can work at my family’s pub. I need an assistant in the kitchen and my sister Keira’s knocked up again. We’ll need another waitress.”

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“I don’t have a lot of money saved up. Costs a lot of money to keep me looking so stylish. I wouldn’t be able to afford a place to stay for a while, even with the offer of a job.”

Riley laughed. “I know a place that’s about to be empty that you can rent for super cheap until you get your feet under you.”

“Um, Riley,” Aaron interrupted. “This place?”

“I’m not living in your apartment, Aaron.”

He frowned. “Why not?”

“Do you want a list? Number one, it’s tiny. Number two, there’s no air conditioning. It’s the beginning of June. Do you know how hot Baltimore gets in July and August? I’m not sweating my ass off. On top of that, you don’t have a tub—just a shower, there’s like zero parking around your neighborhood and the commute to the pub would be murder.”

Aaron grinned. “Is that all?”

She gave him an exasperated look, but he just waved her off with a chuckle. “So where are we living?”

“Until we find a place of our own, I thought we’d stay with Pop, in Tristan’s old room.” She didn’t want to admit the idea of leaving the old guy alone without proper warning was worrying her. She knew she and Aaron would move out eventually and Pop would be on his own, but she wanted to give him time to get used to that idea.

Aaron looked at her for a long time and she wondered how far he—or she, for that matter—would take this argument.

“Fine. We’ll stay with your pop. That’s closer to the police station anyway and it’s not like I own anything of value. I furnished my whole apartment with stuff picked up at garage sales and the Salvation Army Surplus Store.”

She smiled, overwhelmed with relief. “Really? You sure you don’t mind.”

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He leaned close and kissed her on the end of her nose. “I don’t mind. I’m crazy about your pop, you know that. We’ll stay with him for a while, save up some money, and take our time finding a house. One with a yard.”

“A house sounds awesome.”

“So the issue of where we’re living is taken care of, but are you seriously planning to take a hooker home to wait tables at your family’s pub? Sorry, Bubbles, no offense intended.”

“None taken,” Bubbles replied.

“Yeah. That’s what I’m planning,” Riley answered.

Aaron looked exasperated and Riley laughed. She loved having this effect on him.

“Don’t you think you should run this idea by your pop?”

“Fine. I’ll call him. But I’m telling you right now, he won’t mind.” Riley was certain she could convince Pop to let Bubbles work at the pub. “So it’s settled,” Riley said.

“Awesome!” Bubbles rose quickly and headed for the sidewalk. “I’m gonna start packing up. Maybe get that fresh hair dye after all. A new start definitely calls for a new color.”

“Definitely,” Riley agreed, saying goodbye.

“I’ll call you later, Riley,” Bubbles said before walking away.

“Your pop’s gonna kill you. You know that, right? And your brothers are gonna want to hurt me for letting you bring a hooker home.”

Riley shrugged. “She’s a nice person who’s down on her luck. My family is awesome. They’ll wanna help her. I just know it.”

Aaron wanted to contradict her, but he couldn’t. Her words were the truth. The Collins family was nothing if not compassionate and kind.

“So,” Riley said, leaning back against her chair. “What’s next?”

Aaron grinned at her. “Honeymoon boom-boom.”

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They entered their hotel room hand in hand, walking slowly. Now that tragedy had been averted, both of them were feeling the benefit of time finally being on their side.

As Aaron closed the door behind them and started across the room, Riley remained by the entrance. “Hey. Aren’t you forgetting something?”

He turned to look at her, confusion in his eyes. “I don’t think so.”

She gestured at the door behind her. “Has the passion already died, sugar? Where’s my hot sex against the door?”

He grinned, coming back to stand in front of her. “I thought you might prefer a shower first. We
are
sort of sticky.”

“True that.” She reached up and lightly ran her finger along the bruise darkening beneath his eye. “Does this hurt?”

He shook his head. “No, it’s—”

“I love you.” She blurted the words, unable to hold them in any longer. “I really, really love you.”

He leaned closer to her, his face covered with the most genuine smile she’d ever seen. “I know that, Riley.”

“It’s just…I’ve never said those words to you and I wanted to.” Her comment sounded inane and she fought against the urge to roll her eyes at herself.

“I’m glad you wanted to say it. In fact, if you wanted to say it, oh…maybe fifty, sixty times a day for the next century or so, I wouldn’t complain.”

She huffed out a breathy laugh. “Not too greedy, are you, sugar?”

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“With you, I’m the greediest man on earth. I want everything. Your heart, your body, your friendship, your soft cries as you come and as many babies as you’re willing to give me.”

“Eight.”

He looked at her quizzically. “Eight?”

“Thought maybe we could try to beat my folks’ record.”

Aaron tweaked her nipple through her T-shirt before engulfing the entire breast in his large palm. “It wouldn’t be a hardship to try.”

“Horny bastard.” Her teasing words ended with a slight squeak when Aaron cupped her mound with his other hand and rubbed hard.

He pushed her back against the door in a move she was beginning to crave more than Saturday nights. Leaning forward, he kissed her thoroughly and she wrapped her arms around his waist, pulling him even closer. Sometimes she thought she could pull him completely inside her and it still wouldn’t be close enough.

For several moments, they kissed and touched. When Aaron pulled away, their shirts stuck together and they laughed.

“Shower,” she said. “We definitely need a shower. And I hate to break this to you, but I’m out of clean clothes. We may have to run out later for a little shopping. And for food. We didn’t get to eat again.”

Aaron nodded. “We’ll order room service. Less opportunity for mishaps.”

Taking her hand, he led her to the bathroom, where they took the longest hot shower in the history of indoor plumbing. It took three shampoos to get all the mashed potatoes out of her hair, but Riley didn’t mind since it was Aaron doing the scrubbing.

His hands, lightly massaging her scalp, felt like heaven.

Walking back to the bedroom, they crawled beneath the sheets and cuddled. It seemed neither of them was in a hurry to rush the evening and for the first time since they’d eloped, Riley felt like she was on a real honeymoon. Lying in his arms and 131

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making plans for the future, Riley knew she’d been blessed in this marriage she didn’t even know she wanted. Hell, she still couldn’t even remember the wedding part. As soon as they got home, she was going to have to sit down and watch the DVD he’d bought.

“You know, this might sound silly, but there’s a part of me that sort of thinks my mom set this marriage up.”

“Your mom?” Aaron asked.

Sunday Collins had passed away from cancer when Riley was only ten years old, but her memories of her mother were solid in her mind. She recalled helping her in the restaurant kitchen, listening and watching as her mother shared all her secret recipes and tricks of the trade with her. Riley knew from a very young age that she wanted to be just like her mother when she grew up, knew she wanted to create masterpieces with food.

“She told me once she could see inside your heart.”

Aaron looked down at her. “You never told me that.”

Riley shrugged. She tried to discreetly brush away a tear, but Aaron grasped her wrist, pulled her hand away. “Let it fall.”

She looked at him, confused.

“You always stop the tears; always find a way to twist everything into a joke. Don’t do that this time.”

She blinked rapidly. He was right. Humor had always been her life preserver. Well, humor and Aaron.

She decided it was time to tell him the one thing she’d never told anyone.

“A few days before she died, my mom called me into her room. She was in a lot of pain at the time, but she didn’t want to take the drugs because they left her too out of it.

She knew her time was limited and she was trying very hard to say all the things she wanted to say. I think she was trying to help me—help all of us—put our lives in some 132

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sort of order. There she was—seven kids between the ages of nine and eighteen—and she was dying.”

“That sounds like your mom. She was an amazing woman.”

Riley smiled. “She was the best.”

“You’re a lot like her.”

Riley shook her head at his words but he disregarded her dismissal.

“You are. You have her talent for cooking. You make magic in the kitchen. I think you both use food to show your love for your family and friends. You have her strength of will and you have her love for life. She’d be proud of the woman you’ve become, Riley.”

Every word he spoke felt like a gift and Riley held on to each of them tightly. “I hope so. The day she called me in, she said, ‘Hold on to Aaron. He’s your true friend and he loves you. I know he’ll keep you safe for me.’”

Aaron reared back, shock evident in his features. “How could she have known that?

We were ten.”

Riley shook her head. “I don’t know. I just know she was right. You’ve never left my side, never failed to be there for me when I needed you. I love you so much.”

He kissed her as she gave in to the tears and, for several long moments, held her tightly, kissing, wiping the tears away until there weren’t any more.

“Aaron,” she whispered. “Will you make love to me?”

He tightened his grip around her shoulders briefly before turning and rising over her. She opened her legs and welcomed him in. As he slowly thrust inside her, she felt the rightness of it.

They came together, not in a flurry of passion and heat but with the same comforting, peaceful style they’d shared through years of friendship. Aaron kissed her as he gently rocked inside her. Their eyes met and held, neither of them willing to drop 133

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the connection. She wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist.

She wanted to hold on to him with everything she had, everything that she was.

“You’re so soft,” Aaron whispered as he stroked the skin at her waist.

She smiled, moving her hands to his shoulders, squeezing the firm muscles she found there. “And you’re so hard.”

He rubbed his nose against hers and pushed into her deeper. “Are you complaining?”

“Hell no. Hard is good.” She thrust her hips upward to meet his next return and both of them gasped at the pleasure the movement produced. “Hard is
really
good.”

He kissed her for several moments. When he pulled away, she reached up to cup his cheek, his beloved face hovering just above hers. “I was the world’s biggest fool not to see what was standing right in front of me all this time. You’ve always been with me, watching over me, taking care of me. I honestly don’t know what I’ve done to deserve you, Aaron. Hell, I’m not sure I
do
deserve you, but I swear I have no intention of ever taking you for granted again.”

Aaron kissed her forehead and moved inside once more, before holding still within her. “You act like this is a one-sided deal. Riley, I can’t imagine my life without you.

You make me a better person.”

She giggled, but he thrust inside once more, quickly turning her chuckle to a moan.

“I’m being serious,” he said.

She leaned up and nipped his chin lightly. “Sugar, no one’s ever accused me of making them a better person. In high school, I was voted ‘Person Most Likely to Share a Jail Cell’, remember?”