Vodka On The Rocks (The Uncertain Saints Book 3) (20 page)

“What’s that on your neck?” I asked, squinting to see it better.

CeeCee yanked on her shirt.

“Nothing,” she muttered.

I grinned.

Sure
it was nothing. From what I could see of it, it was one hell of a hickey.

“Yeah, it’s her. She’s at the Save All Supermarket. I asked one of the cashiers to call me when she came back,” Casten said, pulling the ferret off his leg and handing it to CeeCee. “We’ll see you tomorrow.”

“You’re taking Tasha?” surprise leeching into her voice.

I smiled widely.

“He’s going to show me how it’s done,” I smiled.

CeeCee had the decency not to laugh until we were on the way out of the door.

It was extremely nice of her.

“Ma’am,” Casten repeated.
Again
. “Please put down the gun.”

I hid behind a display of Oreos, watching the scene unfold before me with bated breath.

Rona waved her gun around, barely able to hold the damn thing up, let alone shoot it.

“I told you, I have too many animals to go to prison!” Rona wailed in her old lady, wobbly voice.

Casten’s eyes narrowed.

“If you go to prison because you miss your court date one more time, you’re stupid,” Casten told her bluntly.

I blinked, as did Rona.

“What?” Head shaking in affront, unable to believe that Casten had said that to her.

Casten nodded. “Yes, stupid. You’d be stupid. This is all over a simple driving without a license ticket that you never took care of, which then turned into a warrant. All you need to do is pay your fine, which means you’ll have to appear in court. It’s a half a day thing at most, then you can go back to your animals.

“However, if you continue to ignore it and keep missing your court dates, then you’ll go to jail over something that is so inconsequential and could have totally been avoided, that it’s hilarious. Now come on, let’s go,” Casten snapped his fingers at her.

I pulled the box of Oreos down from the closest shelf, then opened the top.

Once it was open, I took an Oreo out and twisted the top off, licking the cream entirely off the cookie before I put it back and got another.

Yes, here was more proof that I was a stress eater.

This whole situation was damn near debilitating.

How could Casten stand to take in this crying little old lady?

I know I couldn’t do it.

Now, if it was a man that was just as big if not bigger than Casten with tattoos of red tear drops on his face that denoted him a killer,
then
, I would know that the man deserved to be taken to jail.

It wasn’t the case for this lady. She didn’t look like she
could
do anything wrong.

“Ma’am,” Casten sighed. “Put the gun down. I promise we can get this done in less than thirty minutes. Then you can finish your shopping and get home to your pets.”

I hadn’t realized that Casten was such a smooth talker until I watched in surprise as the woman placed the gun in her purse, passed her credit card over to the cashier and held her hands out in surrender.

“I’m done. But I wish you’d let me take my groceries home first.”

“You’re such a sucker,” I said to Casten.

He shrugged. “I’m not a mean guy. Not usually. And I wouldn’t have let her stay in there, even if she has given me the slip over fifteen times.”

I laughed, and Casten looked over at me with amusement.

“She’s good,” he promised.

I nodded.

“Oh, I watched her. That’s why you stayed for dinner. Helped fix her sink. Set up a dog house and promised to come back next week,” I told him.

He grimaced.

“She was lonely. I miss my own grandmother,” he said suddenly.

“She’s gone?” I looked at him.

He nodded. “She died a few months before I met you. She was a special part of my life. It’s her house that I’m living in.”

“Ahh,” I said. “And your mom? What are her plans since she just got remarried?”

“Florida with the new guy…for now. Mom can’t stand the obnoxious Texas heat anymore now that she has a heart condition, nor cold Northern winters. So her new man moved her down to Florida in hopes that the climate would remain about as neutral as possible,” he explained.

“Ahh,” I said. “My parents want to get a condo in Florida. Do they live on the ocean?”

He shook his head. “No, on the bay.”

I loved Florida.

When we were younger, my parents took us to vacation in Destin, Florida every year. It was so awesome being that close to the beach.

However, after about a week, I got tired of the sand in the unmentionable places, so I wasn’t sure that I’d want to live there year round.

“Do you plan to go visit?” I asked.

He shrugged. “Major holidays. When I do go, it’s only so I can take Rhea up there so she can visit with Mom. I don’t stay much past two to three days. Why?”

I shrugged. “I wouldn’t mind going to Florida again. I’ve always wanted to go deep sea fishing.”

He sighed.

“It’s fun for the most part. It’s only bad when some of the people that go with you can’t hold their stomach contents,” he informed me.

I could imagine.

My sister got car sick. I could only imagine getting sea sick.

“I need to stop by the clubhouse for a few, do you mind?”

I shook my head.

“No, that’s fine,” I conceded.

We drove down the darkened streets that led to Caddo, winding and turning until we arrived at a house directly on the lake.

The Caddo River and Caddo Lake were one and the same. Caddo River went up into what looked to be a river, while Caddo Lake furrowed out into a large, beautiful lake.

The sides of the River were lined with weeping willows, Spanish moss, and beautiful low hanging trees. It was truly one of the most beautiful places on Earth.

If I could live on the river, I’d be one happy girl.

Alas, living on the water cost a pretty penny, and it wasn’t in my immediate future.

“What’s going on tonight?” I asked as we pulled into the parking lot and parked behind a large group of bikes.

We were in Casten’s truck, seeing as he wouldn’t be able to get the old lady who doesn’t pay her fines on the back of his bike. The truck didn’t fit nearly as well into the parking spaces as all the other bikes did.

“Party, I suppose. That’s at least what it looks like,” he rumbled.

“You weren’t invited?” I asked.

He shrugged.

“Nobody needs an excuse to party. It might’ve been a last minute thing,” he swung out of the truck.

“My sister’s here,” I pointed out, following him out of the truck and walking alongside Casten to the front door.

“Yep,” he agreed, having seen Mig’s bike, too.

“Without a kid,” I added.

“Yep,” he agreed again.

“So that takes some planning. They have a kid and they can’t put the kid on the back of a bike, which means she had to plan ahead to get someone to watch Vitaly,” I informed him.

Casten pushed open the door, and my ears were assaulted as everyone in the entire place yelled, “Surprise!”

I blinked stupidly for a few long moments, then turned to survey Casten.

“You. Little. Shit,” I pointed at him accusingly.

He smiled broadly.

“Happy Birthday.”

I stared in utter surprise as everyone that I loved in my life came forward to greet me.

“But it’s not my birthday yet!” I cried.

My sister on one side, and my mother on the other, hugged me tight.

“Your birthday’s tomorrow. If we’d done it tomorrow, you would’ve known what we were doing,” my mother said.

I sighed.

“That’s just wrong,” I stomped my foot.

I wasn’t a big fan of surprises.

In fact, I’d much rather have known this was happening.
So I could prepare.

Crowds made me nervous.

I really couldn’t say why, either.

Nothing had ever happened to me to make me dislike them…it was just that I knew I hated crowds since I was forced to take a public speaking class in high school.

My heart started to pound in my throat as I was passed around to everyone, but Casten saved the day when he tugged on my hand and pulled me to a corner.

“You alright?” he wanted to know.

I nodded, swallowing thickly.

“Yeah,” I cleared my throat. “Just not a big fan of people…or crowds. Or crowds of people.”

He snorted.

“Welcome to the club. This many people gives me the hives. All I can see when there’re this many people in a confined space is a fire code violation,” he snorted.

I blinked in surprise.

“That’s…different. When would you have run a fire code?” I asked.

He gave me a droll look.

“Fire code isn’t necessarily just firefighters. Police officers have to come and enforce the code,” he said, sounding somewhat offended that I would’ve suggested he know anything about firefighters.

“Do you miss it?” I asked.

“Miss what?” he evaded, pulling my hand and leading me to the bar where he grabbed both of us a drink. Me a water, and himself a blackened voodoo.

“Being a police officer,” I drawled.

He grimaced. “Yes and no. I miss having the backup when I need it, but I don’t miss the fact that I don’t have anyone to answer to. I’m not constantly worried that I’m going to offend some poor, innocent soul and get my badge pulled because of it. I make my own hours. I take time off when I want to. I can pick and choose which cases I want. If one’s too dangerous, I just don’t do it. And if I need money, I’ll choose a higher bond one that’ll net me a shit ton more money.”

That sounded…reasonable.

“Those cases are the ones that require me to go all over the fuckin’ place to look for ‘em. I had one last spring that I took and followed him all the way to Hawaii. Took him all the way home, then flew back to spend some time there because I met some girl that wan…”

I gave him a look to shut up, and he did. Only he grinned in the process.

“That last part was a joke,” he lied.

“Uh-huh,” I snorted, turning my eyes to my sister.

She had her arms wrapped around Mig, her face pressed into his chest as he spoke to my parents.

“Do you want kids?” I blurted abruptly.

His face sort of fell, and I got a sinking feeling that I wasn’t going to like what he had to say next.

“I can’t…I can’t have kids,” he said after a long moment of silence.

I blinked.

“You can’t?” I asked. “Are you sure?”

He nodded, then shrugged. “Fairly sure, anyway. The trauma that I received when that bomb exploded was pretty bad. I got a good chunk of my arm and shoulder muscle taken out. Followed by some extensive damage to my lower stomach and top of my thighs. Which, in turn, got infected; the doctors think it might’ve caused me to be sterile.” He sipped his beer. “I got one of those sperm count tests done shortly after I healed almost all the way, and it was so low that it was almost nonexistent.”

I worried my lip.

“So…what about adoption?” I asked.

He shrugged.

“Never thought about it, to be honest.”

I would’ve explored the subject more, but my father chose that moment to walk up from the back of the clubhouse, carrying what looked to be a very large box, which looked like it was wrapped by him.

I smiled.

“Hey Daddy,” I called.

He grinned. “Hi, baby.”

He placed the box down in front of me, and I stared at it in wonder.

“What’d you get me?” I asked.

He shrugged. “Something your man thought you’d like.”

I turned to ‘my man.’

“So you know my daddy?” I concluded.

He nodded.

“Met a couple days ago,” he sipped his beer. “Explained what was happening to you, and why you were staying at my place.”

“Hmmm,” I hummed. “And what’d you tell him I wanted?”

I small grin kicked up the corner of his mouth.

“You’ll have to open it and see,” he tipped his bottle in the direction of my present.

Warily, I walked to the package and started ripping off the duct tape that my father had used to paste down the edges.

Then worked on the duct tape that held the box closed.

And grinned when I saw what was inside.

“You remembered!” I cried.

Offhandedly I’d mentioned to Casten that I wanted a pink riding jacket like some girl had been wearing on a crotch rocket.

He’d rolled his eyes at me and dismissed me…or I’d thought he had.

Apparently, he heard every word, because when I looked over at him, after slipping the jacket on my shoulders, he held out a helmet. The very exact one that I told him I wanted when I went online to price the jacket.

“You got it!” I squealed, grabbing the helmet from him and placing it on top of my head, strapping it down under my chin before turning to him.

“How do I look?” I asked, turning this way and that.

He smiled, his gleaming white teeth standing out starkly against the brown of his beard.

“You look good, darlin’.”

Did his voice sound deeper?

I could tell he would’ve used other words, had my parents not been there.

I threw my arms around his shoulders for all of four seconds before I moved to my father.

“Thank you, Daddy,” I squeezed him tight.

I blew my mom a kiss over my father’s shoulders, and she caught it before bringing it to her heart.

“You’re welcome, girl. You got a good one,” he muttered.

I leaned back and let him see my eyes.

“I did, didn’t I?” I nodded, removing my helmet. “How do you like him?”

He turned me so that I could see Casten.

He was standing with one side leaned against the bar height counter, his beer dangling from one finger he had curled around the rim.

He was speaking with my sister and Mig, and it struck me then how much I wanted my father to like him, because I could see myself spending the rest of my life with Casten if he allowed it.

“I like him,” my father confirmed. “And I think Jet would like him for you, too.”

I turned suddenly tear filled eyes to my father.