Color of Forgiveness (53 page)

Dylan’s lips press tightly together as they
exit the elevator. “I am fucking happy,” he grunts. Chad busts out
laughing.

“Bro, you say some of the funniest shit.”
Dylan bites the inside of his cheek to keep from smiling.

As soon as they step outside, Dylan yanks
out a pack of cigarettes. His fingers shake as he tries to get the
first one out of the pack. The first drag is like fucking
heaven.

“Since the two of you were back there pawing
at each other like a couple of mutts in heat, I’m assuming you
finally decided to dig that stupid giant meathead of yours out of
your scrawny ass. Good thing you did because I had some good plans
for bringing you some pain.” Chad smiles from ear to ear as he
pounds his fist into his palm. “So, what’s the story with you
two?”

Dylan takes another long drag and blows the
smoke out slowly. Walking towards a bench, he sits down and Chad
follows. He holds his cigarette between his index finger and thumb
so that he can casually flip Chad off while still holding the
cigarette as he continues to stare straight ahead. Chad guffaws
loudly. He takes another long puff before staring down at it.
“Well, it all started when Sabrina showed up in Nyssa and got
shot…”

“What the fuck?” Chad shouts, his eyes big
as saucers, his mouth hanging wide open.

With a sigh, Dylan leans back, his cigarette
smoldering in the corner of his mouth and crosses his ankle over
his knee.

* * *

“She’s so tiny,” Myra whispers peering into
the incubator. Jillian doesn’t even look real to her. Her skin
looks so soft and velvety with its downy hair on it.

“I know,” Dylan whispers back.

“Look at how little her fingers are and her
little toes,” she says. She stares at the baby for a few more
minutes before she looks up at him. “I’ve never seen a baby this
small before.”

“Me neither.”

“She’s so beautiful.”

Dylan nods. “She is.”

They grow quiet. Each of them lost in their
own thoughts. Myra watches the baby in fascination. The way her
eyelids flick rapidly like she’s dreaming, the way her tiny fingers
twitch, how her little legs occasionally jerk. Dylan squeezes her
hand. “You ready?” he asks. “Wanna go back and see Nat?”

“Yeah,” she says with a nod. She smiles,
staring back down at the baby one more time.

Walking out into the hallway, Myra frowns,
trying really hard not to think about her own baby and all the
things that could go wrong. But the thoughts rocket through her
anyway. Dylan stops and looks down at her. “What’s wrong?” he
asks.

She stares at his shirt. “Nothing…”

“That’s bullshit. What’s wrong?”

“I just…” She looks up at him. “Do you think
our baby will be okay?”

Dylan sighs and rubs a hand over his jaw. He
studies her face for a moment. “There are no fucking guarantees,
and we have no damn control over what’s going to happen. I can’t
believe I’m going to say this shit, because I’ve certainly not been
practicing it, but I
am
trying to learn from my mistakes.”
She nods as she feels his arms wrapping around her. “I think we
just have to believe that everything is going to be all right, and
that if something does go wrong, we’ll deal with it, together.
Because all we have right now is each other.”

She nods, smiling.

“I’m going to take very, very good care of
you and this baby so no worries, okay?”

“Okay,” she whispers. He smiles before
leaning down and touching her lips with his very softly.

* * *

“Isn’t she beautiful?” Natalie asks
Dylan.

“Nah,” he says with a serious face before he
smiles broadly. “She’s gorgeous.” Natalie smiles back at him even
brighter.

“Thanks. I’m just so glad she’s doing so
well. It helps that she’s a girl. Did you know that premature girls
do much better at thriving than boys do?” Natalie says.

“It’s because guys hate premature
ejaculation, I mean ejection,” Chad says in a loud voice with a big
dumb grin on his face.

“Chad! Shame on you,” Sherri says, scolding
him like he’s a three-year-old.

Dylan glances at Myra. Her cheeks are rosy
and one hand covers her mouth, trying to hide her laughter.
Sorry,
he mouths, rolling his eyes. Her eyes crinkle up, and
her shoulders shake as she giggles behind her hand.

“Chad?” Natalie shouts, her eyes narrowing
as she points to the door. “Out… now.”

“Oh, come on,” Chad says, whining like a
baby. “I was just stating a fact and that shit was funny.”

“
Now
,” Natalie shouts louder,
continuing to point towards the door.

Chad grumbles with his head hanging low and
leaves the room.

“Myra, I apologize for my husband’s
behavior,” Natalie says, clearly perturbed.

Myra clears her throat and Dylan has to
fight a grin as he watches her try to compose herself. “That’s
okay,” Myra says in a shaky voice like she might giggle at any
moment.

“I have five children, in case you hadn’t
noticed,” Natalie says in a heated voice.

Sherri steps up and looks at Myra. “I
apologize for Chad as well. I know I taught that boy better than
that.”

“It’s okay. Really,” Myra says.

Sherri touches Dylan’s arm. “Dennis is
watching the boys today and I’m getting ready to go home to cook
dinner for them. Do you and Myra want to come over and eat with
us?”

He looks at Myra. “Dinner?” he asks, raising
his eyebrows.

Myra eagerly nods. “Sounds wonderful...”

Dylan looks back at his mom and nods. “We’re
gonna go back to the hotel and change first and then we’ll be
over.”

* * *

On the way back to the hotel, Myra scrolls
through her text messages. She giggles when she reads Susie’s.

Answer ur damn phone.RU sitting around
pouting, moping & missing doucheyface? –S

Where’s Porter? He better not be downing
donuts. Has he caused a donut shortage in Nyssa? Do I need to ship
some Krispy Kremes? Oh, that won’t work because they’d never make
it to the FedEx truck ;) –S

Serious here. How’s Natalie & the baby?
Have u heard frm D? Where the fuckola ru, woman? Pick up! –S

I’m coming to Nyssa. I want to be a
detective. I watch CSI. I could wear a shirt that says Susie the
Stalker Slayer –S

I got Jeffypoo back for making me lose an
eyebrow. Don’t u want 2 hear abt it? –S

Where are you? *screams in agony & rips
out hair from other eyebrow* -S

Myra smiles as she types out a quick message
to her.

Can’t talk. No need for you to be a
detective. I shot the stalker, twice, with my gun. Told you I could
take care of myself. W/Dylan in Boise. Oh, & he loves me &
the baby! ILY ! Going to dinner w/his family–M

Smiling, she silences her phone, knowing her
message is going to drive Susie insane. She looks at it as a little
sweet revenge for all of the naughty things Susie has done to her
over the years. Dylan opens the door to the hotel room for her and
she steps inside. She gasps when he pushes her up against the back
of the door, and his mouth descends on hers, kissing her slow and
deep. “We’re supposed to be getting ready for dinner,” she whispers
against his mouth.

“Mmhm,” he hums into the kiss. His lips move
to her neck. “I’m gonna help you out of your clothes.”

“Oh. Okay,” she says, giggling. Her breath
hitches when she feels his warm fingers on her bare skin underneath
her shirt. She sighs, smiling happily. There will be no arguing
from her… she wants this just as much as he does so she decides to
help him out of his clothes as well. She tries hard not to be
embarrassed later when they show up to dinner thirty minutes
late.

CHAPTER 15

“Holy fucking fiery shit balls, Myra,” Susie
mumbles breathlessly. “You actually pulled the trigger? You pulled
the trigger and shot that loony psychotic nut case?”

Myra hums in agreement. “I was scared to
death, but I did it. I had to save myself and Porter.”

Dylan lifts his head from her naked chest
and stares deep into her eyes. She gives him a small, reassuring
smile as her fingers play with the soft strands of hair on the nape
of his neck. Reaching his hand up, he cups her cheek, rubbing his
thumb gently across her skin. Closing her eyes, she leans into his
warm, calloused touch.

“Porter…” Susie says with disgust before
snorting loudly. Myra can just picture her rolling her eyes and
curling her lip up in a sneer. “I so called that one. Instead of
grabbing a donut, he grabbed a cookie. That man is a foodaholic
just like me. I know a fellow hoghead when I see one. I can’t
believe he let that psycho sicko into your house. He should have
known better.”

“But he had no idea. Apparently, she had a
lot of people fooled.”

Susie continues shouting out her
disagreement on the subject as Myra looks back down at Dylan.
They’re back at the hotel room, having had dinner with his family.
Both of them are naked and in bed, and Dylan can’t seem to keep his
hands and lips off of her. He drags his lips down to her
bellybutton and below, kissing tenderly over her flat stomach.
Holding her breath, she watches his lips move as if he’s whispering
something before he lays his scruffy cheek against her, causing her
heart to flutter.

She gets drawn back into Susie’s ranting.
“You are seriously messing with my tiny pee-wee brain here. I’ve
never touched a real gun in my stinking life. The closest thing I
have ever done to get even close to live guns is watching
Justified
on TV. That guy on there is
so
hot, wearing
that cowboy hat and talking with that yummy twang. He’s just
sexified on
Justified
. Damn, I’m good. Sorry. Hot guy got me
off topic. What was I talking about?”

Myra smirks because she knows Susie’s merely
talking to herself, not her, and will answer herself in a few
seconds. Myra smiles when she hears her immediately start blabbing
again. “Oh, yeah, I remember... guns. I mean I’ve never even seen
you with a gun and just can’t even remotely imagine you whipping
one out and going all Rambo and shooting someone.”

“Well, remember we met after I got out of
college so you didn’t know me when I lived in Nyssa. Dad and
Grampie were both into guns since dad was on the force, and they
wanted to make sure that I could take care of myself. So we spent a
lot of time doing target practice.”

“You are such a total badass.”

“Hardly,” Myra says with a half-laugh.

“Well, I’m so glad that Natalie and the baby
are doing okay. What about Jackie? Have you talked to her yet?”

“No, I haven’t had a chance to. She left me
a couple of messages today but everything’s been so crazy that I
haven’t been able to call her back yet.”

“So, I noticed when you were telling me what
happened, you neglected to tell me about the I.L.Y.’s that
apparently took place for you and your little beautiful cupcake
that’s baking away in your oven. And that reminds me, I am
so
going to get you back for that evil text you left me. I
can’t believe you sent that crap and made me suffer for hours…
hours!
”

“I texted you that we were going to dinner
with Dylan’s family—”

“Yeah, yeah, I don’t want to hear it. So is
Dylan with you right now? Is that why you haven’t fessed up on the
lovey dovey stuff?”

“Yeah…” Myra can’t wipe the grin off of her
face as she stares at Dylan. His fingers are drawing a slow path
down the valley between her breasts while his lips softly ghost
across her skin causing her nipples to harden and goose bumps to
spread.

“Are you guys
naked?
”

Myra’s face floods with warmth. “
No
,”
she says, feeling Dylan’s hardness rub against her thigh. The man
is
very
naked and
very
hard at the moment, and Susie
would literally die if she knew. Myra tries to keep her breathing
as normal as she can, but it proves to be quite challenging when
Dylan’s mouth makes a circular path around her breast again.

“Well, that sucks. Naked Dylan could have
made this conversation a hell of a lot more exciting. Tell him you
have to go take a shit or something and go hide in the bathroom so
you can tell me all about his declaration of love.”

“Gross. I’ll tell you later.”

“You suck. You really suck making me suffer
like this. I want every sordid detail later, you hear me?”

“I know.”

“Well, I have a story for you. I
have
to tell you how I got Jeff back. I so owed that man for goosing me
the other day and making me fall on my ass and for causing me to
lose an eyebrow. It does involve a gun.”

Myra laughs lightly. “Okay. I can’t wait to
hear this.” Her eyes widen when Dylan’s fingers slide lower and
lower until he slips them between her clenched thighs.
Stop,
she mouths, starting to panic. Dylan merely smirks devilishly and
completely ignores her.

“Well, last night when he got home from the
gym he went upstairs to take a shower, and I snuck into the
kitchen. The night before, I’d put several pitchers of water in the
fridge so they would get really, really cold. I took them out and
loaded Tucker’s Super Soaker water gun with the freezing water.
Then I went up to the bedroom, giggling like a hyena. The bathroom
door wasn’t closed all the way so I flung it open as hard as I
could, bouncing that sucker off the wall loudly and yelled at the
top of my lungs, ‘
Guess what?’
And I mean I bellowed it. The
shower curtain went flying open, and his eyes were bulging out of
his head and looked big enough to rival one of those gray alien’s.
His mouth was hanging open so far I thought I saw his tonsils
jiggling around. I scared the ever living shit out of him. There
should have been a turd lying in the bottom of that bathtub.”