Jillian: The fun buzz is wearing off. Enough about you and Ryn’s genitals.

Jackson: Love you. Pissed as fuck that you left, but I still love you.

Jillian: Told U to make me lol not cry. <3 U 2! TTYL

“Pussy,” she whispered to herself with a big smile.

*

“You’re staring,” AJ said with his eyes still closed.

“Just making sure you’re still alive. Is that kind of gruesome?” She picked at the frayed knee of her jeans while sitting cross-legged on the bed beside him.

He peeked open one eye. “I wouldn’t expect anything less from you.”

“Do you think there’s a manhunt for you?”

“You make me sound like a criminal.”

“You did escape.”

He pushed himself into a sitting position with a grimace and a low groan. “I did, out the front door.”

“True. So are you hungry?”

“Not really, but I’m guessing you’re going to make me eat.”

Jillian leaned forward and kissed the corner of his mouth. “Yep.” She popped the p. “Continental breakfast near the lobby. Maybe they’ll have cloth napkins and it can be our first official date.”

“You and your cloth napkins. I don’t get it. You really don’t think we’ve had an ‘official’ date because we haven’t had cloth napkins?”

“How many times do I have to tell you? A girl’s gotta have standards.”

He eased out of bed wearing only half a grimace. It was progress. After a shower and packing up their minimal belongings, they ate breakfast sans cloth napkins and continued southeast, taking the byways through southeastern Utah into southwestern Colorado.

“Let’s stop here.”

“A brewery?”

“Food and beer. No beer for you. You have drugs.”

“I’m actually feeling a little better today.”

Jillian wrapped her arm around his waist as they walked through the deserted parking lot for a late afternoon lunch. “I noticed. You’ve been eyeing my boobs all day.”

“Because you’re not wearing a bra.”

“The shirt has a built-in shelf bra.”

“I see your nipples.”

She laughed. “It’s a little chilly today. What are you going to get? Bacon cheeseburger? Steak and fries?”

“Probably just a salad.”

“Fuck the salad. You need some meat and potatoes.”

AJ opened the door for her. “Maybe they have a good Tofurkey dog.”

“Ooo … wouldn’t that be grand.”

The waitress sat them near a large wall of windows with a picturesque view of the lush valley sprawling all the way to the majestic Rockies. Jillian ordered for both of them, a veggie burger and the house burger both with fries and two beers after AJ gave her an intense glare when she tried to order him an iced tea.

“Do you happen to have any cloth napkins?” AJ asked when the waitress brought their food.

“Sorry, sir.” She shook her head.

Jillian sniggered. “Nice try, Sarge.”

“She’s not going to get a good tip.”

“Absolutely not. Teach that bitch a lesson for not being more accommodating.” Jillian squeezed ketchup and mustard onto her bun. “Don’t roll your eyes at me. I’m not the one who asked her about the cloth napkins.”

“True, but it wouldn’t be an issue if it weren’t for you.”

“God … this is to die for,” she mumbled over a very unladylike mouthful before catching how inappropriate her words were. “Shit. That’s not what I meant. I just meant that it’s good or—”

“Stop.” AJ trapped her feet between his under the table and leaned forward. “If you choose to die for a sandwich, then I’ll respect that.” He sat back and shrugged. “It’s not a bad way to go. I’d much prefer it to this cancer shit in my fucking brain.”

Wiping her mouth with the non-cloth napkin, she grinned. “I love you, Aric James.”

He nodded with an intense look, the kind that made her feel his eyes everywhere, but most especially between her legs. Grasping his sandwich with both hands, he lifted it from the plate. Before taking a bite he slowly licked the sauce that had squeezed out along the edge.

How desperate was she to be envious of a cooked piece of meat? It had been a while since she’d had sex or even brought herself to orgasm. AJ took a big bite then slowly licked his lips. Thankfully Marvin Housby saved the day. Jillian giggled.

“What’s so funny?”

Jillian felt herself blush which was a very rare occurrence for her. “I was getting…” she looked around the restaurant “…turned on by you looking at me and then your tongue lapping along your sandwich.” Her laughter turned into an actual snort as she lost control of the moment. “But then it reminded me of Marvin Housby.”

“Marvin?”

She nodded. “Greta told me he masturbates to the pictures on the ValuPak coupons, like the girls on the Hardee’s ads.”

AJ cleared his throat, blotting his napkin against his mouth to hide his own humor.

“You looked like one of those girls on the Hardee’s commercial, and I looked at you like Marvin Housby and burger babes.”

“You think I look like a girl?”

“No. Just the way you were tonguing your sandwich.”

“I wasn’t tonguing my sandwich.”

The growly beast that sat across from her brought such life to an otherwise barren existence. The uniqueness of their love could never be compared to anything else. Luke had the best of her and she didn’t want it back—not ever. But AJ filled her lungs with life after death, he gave her so much hope that there was in fact light beyond the darkness.

“What’s the first thing you remember?”

“About what?” He dipped a French fry in ketchup.

“Your life.”

All she wanted to do was crawl inside his head as he looked out the window past the mountains to many years ago. Just a glimpse, that’s all she needed, a small piece of his innocence.

“I’m not sure. I think it’s the first time my mom took me camping. My father had been deployed for almost a year and so we went camping with my aunt, uncle, and my two cousins in Northern California.”

He smiled at the window. For a small moment in time he wasn’t fighting the cancer or PTSD. It was just a boy and a memory so special he kept it safe for over forty years.

“It was in the fall like now, and cold, as in freeze-your-ass-off cold. I must have been three or four. We huddled around the smallest fire ever. If any of us breathed too hard it nearly snuffed it out. My mom made s’mores except she forgot the graham crackers so we just sandwiched burnt marshmallows between two pieces of milk chocolate. I went to bed with sticky hands but my mom didn’t care. She still zipped me up in her mummy bag with her to keep me warm. When we arrived home my dad was waiting on the front porch.”

Jillian—Jessica—knew how it felt to not know if or when her father would come home. Every time he walked through the door felt like Christmas.

They finished eating, letting his childhood memory linger in the air around them like a delicate bubble that neither wanted to pop. Eventually their waitress popped it for them.

“Can I interest either of you in dessert?”

They both shook their heads so she handed AJ the bill. “Your daughter has your smile.”

AJ shot a lethal scowl at the back of her head as she continued on to another table.

“Lunch is on me, big daddy.” Jillian grabbed the bill.

“No tip. Not one penny.”

*

A private call to an unreceptive and pissed off McGraw and thirty minutes later they were pulling into a parking lot of a sporting goods store.

“Did you forget your yoga mat?”

“Funny, big daddy, but you know I don’t do yoga.”

“If you call me that one more time—”

“Make it good … really good. Maybe even a little sexually deviant.”

AJ glared at her as she killed the engine. Big daddy’s eyes slipped to her boobs again.

“Wait here.”

“Why?”

“It’s a surprise.” After blowing him a quick kiss she shut the door and jogged to the entrance. Less than ten minutes later she and two employees pushed out carts overflowing with gear.