Bo (10 page)

Taken by surprise, I bent over as the wind rushed out of me.

“That’s for forgetting where you belong, asshole.”

I knew he had to have hurt his hand, too, when he held the thing up and blew across his knuckles. “Wearing armor under there or what?”

Righting myself, I patted my belly, only flinching slightly. “Nothin’ but pure muscle.”

“Nice to have you home, loser.” He hooked an arm around my neck.

I tripped him, and he fell flat on his ass on the gravel driveway. “Awesome to see you too, pecker breath.”

I turned to Lily, Shane’s pretty wife of two years, swooping her into my arms.

“Don’t you listen to Shane. He was damn worried about you.”

Setting her gently on her feet, I raised an eyebrow at her swollen belly. “I’d say he’s got enough to worry about himself.”

“True enough. And if you’d kept in touch you’d know I’m due in July,
Uncle Bo
.” Lily pinched my arm with a twist of her fingers. “But you’re gonna do better now, aren’t you?”

Physical abuse. It was how we Mavericks showed our love and concern.

Shane had stood up and brushed off his backside, and with Veronica approaching across the lawn he watched every step she made.

He let out a low whistle that wouldn’t reach her ears. “Holy shit, bro.”

Lily, who was a looker in her own rights, merely rolled her eyes and shook her head.

“And you can keep that thought to yourself,
bro
.” I jammed my elbow into Shane’s ribs. “Besides, V could probably kick your ass. She has massive Muy Thai moves. She’s more than a pretty face, just like Lily here.” I winked at my sister-in-law then turned my gaze to V striding toward us.

The setting sun behind my woman made the damn sundress appear little more than sheer gauze wrapped around her body.
Hmm.
Very hot, but not a view I wanted to share. I quickly hustled to her side, looping an arm around her hips as I escorted her the rest of the way to Shane and Lily.

Lily—blonde and petite aside from the burgeoning baby belly, with a batch of freckles across her nose and on her shoulders—looked like a glass doll next to my brother. He’d managed to close his mouth, and he towered over his wife with a linebacker’s muscular frame that hadn’t gotten soft since his days as a high school defenseman.

“Veronica, this is my older brother Shane and his lovely wife Lily. Y’all, Veronica Hartley.”

Shane shook her hand. Lily hugged her arm. Shane ogled her until I socked him on the shoulder, and Lily commented on her hair. Thus V was welcomed into the madcap fold.

She was laughing at something Lily said, the two of them scanning Shane and me in a disquieting manner, when the telltale thunder of motorcycle pipes sliced through the air.

“She still got the Indian?” I asked Shane.

He crossed ham hock-sized arms over his chest. “Yup. But she doesn’t have Dana anymore so don’t mention her.”

“I thought it was Anna?”

“That one was before Stella,” he said.

“Holy shit. Someone sure gets around.”

Shane knocked me on the back of the head. “Not you for a change.”

Lacy dismounted from the classically restored, maroon and maize ’37 Indian Sport Scout wearing raggedy jean shorts, military boots, and a S*M*A*S*H*E*D* T-shirt in olive green. Three guesses who’d been the rebellious kid in the family growing up. At thirty, she didn’t look a day over twenty and was apparently still breaking hearts all over Chesterfield County.

Chick’s hearts.

“V, C’MERE, DARLIN’.” I held my hand back to her and she stood beside me. “Meet Shane’s twin, Lacy.”

Lacy left her helmet behind and long-legged it over. She pumped V’s hand like it was a tire jack. “Veronica. Wow.”

Lacy’s look was a little too appreciative for my liking, and since she was proving herself to be a ladykiller, I stepped up. “Okay now don’t get any funny ideas. She’s taken and she’s straight.”

“Pleasure to meet you, Lacy.” Veronica returned each hand pump, her eyes glowing. “Very pretty name.”

My sis sighed and disengaged, pushing her fingers through long nearly-black hair. “Well, I got lucky. Mom was gonna call me Shanna. Can you imagine? Shane and Shanna?” She shuddered as she glanced over at her twin. “Thank fuck she came to her senses. Bad enough sharing a womb with that lug, would’ve sucked to share a name too.”

V laughed at all the right places then Lacy turned to me and affected Ma’s voice, “What you standin’ there for, boy? C’mon over here and gimme some sugah!”

Lacy shrieked when I lifted her in my arms. She punched me in the arm when I asked, “You broke up with Dana?” just because Shane had told me not to.

“She got clingy. I hate that.”

“Jesus, girl. Why don’t you just grow a dick while you’re at it.”

“Don’t have to. You’re dick enough for both of us.”

V observed the sibling interplay with a wide smile.

“Where are the ’rents? We don’t warrant a welcome home?” Shane wrapped Lily in his arms, his hands joining across her round belly.

“Pop’s helping Ma cook,” I said.

“No shit? And he hasn’t set the kitchen on fire yet?”

“Bet there’s steam blowing out her ears though.” Lily covered Shane’s hands with hers, lifting them to her lips.

“Don’t go gettin’ frisky on me now, woman. Got dinner to sit through.” He winked at me. “Pregnancy hormones. So awesome, braw.”

“Not gonna be so awesome when I make you sleep in the front room if you think you’re gonna start talkin’ about our sex life out in the open.” Lily pushed him away.

Lacy hooked one of her arms, V the other, and off the trio swished to the house.

Shane and I lagged behind.

“Nice catch,” Shane remarked.

“You better not be watching her ass.”

“’Course not. Eyes only for my Lily.”

We started after them, crossing the yard.

“Gang’s all here except Thomas, huh?” I asked.

“Nerd boy has finals.”

“You are such a useless waste of gray matter.”

“
Awww
. I love you too, brother.”

Thomas was the youngest of the family. At twenty-four he was in the graduate program at Clemson studying Historic Preservation. Introspective and brainy, Thomas was completely atypical from the rest of the rowdy, boisterous Maverick clan. Although, come to think of it, I guessed we all marched to the beat of a different drum: Shane, the high school biology teacher, Lily a hospice nurse, Lacy the mechanic . . . and me, the ex-Jarhead.

“I bet Tommy’s a freak in the bed though.” Shane bumped my shoulder.

“I don’t really wanna think about that.”

“What? C’mon. The geeks get all the hotties.”

“Pussy hound.”

“Only pussy I hound dog over is Lily’s.”

“Sweet.”

“What about you and the doc?”

I tilted my head, watching the sway of V’s hips ahead of us.

Shane’s big shoulders jerked as he stopped in the middle of the yard. “
Aw yeah
, you’re so screwed, blued, and tattooed, braw.”

I couldn’t disagree.

We ambled inside after the women, the kitchen filled to capacity. Veronica wasn’t just taken under wing, she was set to work along with the rest of us.

Doors and windows open, big fan blades turning overhead in the overheated kitchen, we finally sat down to dinner with crickets chirping and squirrels chuckling from outside.

“Shane.” Dad linked hands with Ma on one side and Lily on the other, nodding at my big brother.

Around the table, hands joined and voices silenced.

“Dearly beloved—”

Ma cracked him one on the back of his head.

Lacy and I snuffled our laughter.

“
Ow!
Gotta be like that? Okay. Fine.” Shane ducked his head. “Dear Lord, we give thanks for the bounty of this table and for the family and friends joined around. Thank you for returning Bo to us safe and sound while so many have fallen in battle. Please grant peace upon those families who’ve lost good men and good women for the sake of our country. Amen.”

“To the soldiers.” My dad raised his glass.

Ma wiped her eyes and kissed my cheek. “To the fallen.”

I couldn’t speak, too choked up, but I managed to clink my glass with the others, and when all was said and done, I brought V’s hand to my lips, because she was the one who’d saved me from myself.

The cheers grew more boisterous, less solemn after that, and Lacy rounded it out with, “Amen and pass the gravy!”

Platters of home-cooked food passed between us, and bottles tipped over empty glasses. The meal was fun and fun-loving, and I was absolutely grateful to be home again with V right next to me.

“Hear tell you’re a doctor.” Shane asked V over dessert of banana cream pie.

“A psychologist to be exact,” she replied, narrowing her eyes on him.

Lacy made the sign of the cross, grinning, and Shane pushed half-off the bench like the Polter-psych was catching.

That didn’t stop him from putting V through the hillbilly paces. “So how did you meet our
Beauregard
?”

Asswipe. He might be my older brother, but he wasn’t that much bigger. Ass kicking, coming later.

You know, brotherly love and all that
.

“Actually, she was my psychologist.” Yeah, I was ready to own up to my shit.

There was a momentary silence around the table, not the praying type but the awkward kind after I outted myself. V turned pale. Clearly she hadn’t intended to tell them.

Then Shane chuckled. “Oh, don’t worry, Missus Doc. We always knew he wasn’t right in the head.”

“And you ain’t been right since birth, brother.” I knocked the bench back, going for him with a big grin on my face.

Ma reached over and took both us by the ears, cranking hard. Probably wouldn’t be cool to pull some Krav Maga moves on my mother. The harder she twisted the more docile we became until we sat side by side muttering obscenities at each other under our breath just for the old-time sake of it.

“Veronica sure is better than those blonde milkweeds Bo used to date.” Lacy sucked back on her whiskey. She’d be driving nowhere tonight.

“Milkweeds? I thought they were
pussy willows
.” Shane refilled his glass.

My shoulders stiffened, and I was about to whack the both of them, but there was no need to stick up for V because she braced her elbows on the table and said, “The
she
you’re talking about is right here, and I prefer to think of myself as a
Venus
Flytrap.”

The table exploded with laughter, and everyone drank to V the Venus Flytrap.

I wasn’t sure about the carnivorous plant, but as I watched her over the rim of my glass, I knew one thing. She was all things womanly, she was Venus beautiful, and she’d trapped me with more than her honeypot.

A steady hum of arousal circled between her and me. The straps of her dress dripped lower off her shoulders, and she licked her lips, looking at me.

Honey. Pot.

“What about your folks, Veronica? Is your family here in South Carolina?”

“No.” She rolled the tumbler between her hands. “I don’t have any family to speak of.”

She clammed up after that, sitting beside me with an expressionless face.

While Lacy and Dad cleaned up the mess from the meal, and Shane, Ma, and Lily made new sleeping arrangements, I led V upstairs.

“You okay?”

“I’m fine.”

Towing her inside the bedroom, I brought her against me. “You
are
fine, but something unsettled you.”

“Bo”—she kissed my chin—“I’m okay.”

“You can’t kiss your way out of this. What has you spooked?”

“The question of family.”

“When are you going to tell me?”

“When I can.”

She turned from me and dropped the straps of her dress down her arms. The full expanse of her skin appeared, the semi-vivid, semi-haunting tat delineating her curves from shoulders to the base of her spine. With a sway of her hips, the sundress pooled at her feet. She stepped out of it, shooting me a look over her shoulder as she shimmied the panties from her legs.

Naked before me, she pivoted.

“You look like you’ve been cast in gold.” I could hardly breathe.

Her nipples peaked. The red bloom of hair on her mound pulled me closer.

I sucked the tip of her breast into my mouth and scooped my hands beneath her ass.

“
Mmm.
You’re so good at loving me.” She drifted back, sitting on the edge of the bed.

Spreading her thighs, she sifted her fingers up and down her slit. Moisture gleamed.

I stalked to her with single-minded intent. I was going to fuck her wide open.

She wagged a finger at me. “
Uh uhn
,
Beauregard
. No nooky, right?”

I’d been waiting
allll
evening for her to bring up the Beauregard thing. In fact, I was surprised she’d waited this long to pull out the
ha ha ha’s
about my full first name.

“You think Beauregard is funny,
Ronnie
? What about this?” Falling to my knees, I wrapped her thighs around my head and slid my tongue up her pink wet cunt to coil around her clit.

Her hips strived against my face.

I looked up, locking my eyes on her with one last tongue lash along her flesh, dipping into her sweet hot hole, before I pushed back.

Adjusting my throbbing cock in my jeans, I limped to the door. “You’re gonna be screaming my name in your sleep.”

Her sandal hit the door beside my head, and I left with a hoarse chuckle.

****

The next morning Lacy cut out early before breakfast. She didn’t want to get roped into going to church since she claimed she and God were not copacetic due to her sexuality.

Nothing dampened her spirits though. As she hugged me goodbye she promised to come visit me soon so she could explore some new stomping grounds. She also mentioned it was a good thing Veronica was attached to me; otherwise she’d consider her fair game.

Shane and Lily joined the family for church but made their excuses right afterward. Shane had orders to assemble the baby’s crib, and Lily looked like she couldn’t wait to play drill sergeant over him.

After lunch—a much quieter meal than the night before—I planted a helmet on Ma’s head and parked her on my bike just like I said I would. It was one hell of a thrill ride while she alternated between hooting, hollering, cussin’ me out and egging me on.

Cheraw had little to boast about, but it was a good ol’ southern small town with a neighborly feel—the kind I’d tried to distance myself from—a quaint downtown, and of course, barbeque. I told V I was taking her out, and half an hour later I toured her around the little town on my bike. We ended up at Bill’s BBQ, the same local dive with the same amazing ribs I’d grown up on.

“Well, if my sore old eyes don’t deceive me. Bo Maverick?” And the same old waitress with the high shrill voice approached our table.

Rebecca was my mom’s age, give or take, but tacky was her middle name, and she wore it loud and proud, along with dangly flashy earrings, a platinum blonde Marilyn Monroe wig, and neon pink lipstick. She’d taken over proprietorship when her dad, the namesake of the joint, had passed on years ago.

She hauled me up to her bosom and smothered me in a hug, no small feat given a man of my size, but her arms latched onto me like pythons.

She only turned me loose to shout to all and sundry, “Y’all! Lookee who it is here! Beauregard Maverick done come home!”

People rushed V’s and my table, which was supposed to be an intimate two-seater, crowding close to shoot the breeze, shake my hand, welcome me home, and thank me for my service to our country.

Rebecca finally shooed the well-wishers away and stopped yammering long enough to take our order. She disappeared to the kitchen like a southern smack-talkin’ whirling dervish.

Embarrassed and touched, I fiddled with a paper napkin. “Sorry about that.”

“Don’t be. I like seeing you in your element.” V firmly freed the shredded napkin from my grip.