Therefore I opened my eyes and I saw Brooks’s body lying atop a yellow-gold T-shirt. That T-shirt was what my head was lying on top of too. Under it, I felt soft and hard. And beyond it at a downward angle there was a flat area covered in T-shirt with my arm wrapped around it. Beyond that were very, very faded men’s jeans with a man’s lower body inside them, one of his legs cocked, knee to the sky, the other one of his legs straight, my legs wrapped around it.
What on earth?
In order to support a little of my weight, I pulled my arm up from where it was trapped between me and some solid heat and tilted my head back to look right into the beautiful black eyes of Johnny Gamble. Eyes that were shadowed by a beat-up baseball cap.
Brooks was dead to the world with his face tucked in Johnny’s neck opposite where I’d had my face tucked in Johnny’s neck with my head further supported by the crook of his arm, since he had one arm holding Brooks steady and the other one bent so his head could rest on his hand.
Never . . .
Never . . .
Never . . .
Was he more beautiful.
“Hey,” he whispered.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“You were out,” he stated.
I blinked at him.
“He was out too, but he’s a mover,” he told me, gently jostling Brooks who didn’t flutter an eyelash. “Kept my eye on you two, he got out from under your arm, you didn’t feel it. So thought it best to move in and make sure it was all good.”
“So you laid down on my blanket and cuddled into me?” I asked.
“No. I sat down on your blanket, until you cuddled into me,” he answered. “That was when I laid down.”
Oh man.
He was close, very close, my body still pressed to his side, my arm still wrapped around his stomach, my legs still tangled with his, and suddenly I lost track of the conversation.
“You look good in that baseball cap,” I told him and his lips hitched.
“And you look good in that dress, spätzchen. But just to say, you look a lot better in that dress than I look in this cap.”
“I’m not sure that’s true,” I replied.
“I am,” he returned.
And there came the thrill down my spine.
“Margarita night got out of hand,” I shared and got a white flash through his black beard.
“That tends to happen with you.”
That got a tingle and not along my spine.
“I needed a nap,” I defended myself.
“I kinda noticed you like to crawl back into bed after you crawl out of it after you down some margaritas.”
That got a shiver.
Johnny felt it and took pity on me, gently jostling Brooks again.
“He’s cute,” he noted.
I moved my attention to my nephew, took my arm from around his stomach, laid my hand on Brooks’s diapered booty and whispered, “He’s the whole world.”
A change came over Johnny. I knew it because I felt it since I wasn’t looking at him.
Then I saw it when I lifted my eyes back to Johnny and the whole world became something else, and that something else started and stopped in the infinity of Johnny Gamble’s black eyes.
“You want some?” he whispered.
“Yes,” I whispered back immediately.
“How many?” he asked, still whispering.
“Fifteen, but I’ll take one if he’s healthy and happy.”
His heated eyes warmed a different way. “Fifteen is a tall order, spätzchen.”
“Thus me being happy with just one.”
His eyes dropped to my mouth and his voice became a growl. “Fuck, I wanna kiss you.”
Some sanity returned and I started to pull away, but his hand came from under his head so he could round me with his arm and keep me where I was.
“Johnny,” I breathed.
“We need to talk,” he decreed.
“I’m not sure—”
“Which is why we need to talk. It’ll give me time to make you sure.”
Oh man!
“Johnny—”
“After your sister leaves.”
“Jo—”
I cut myself off that time because he’d mentioned Addie.
“But I’d like to meet her while she’s here,” he went on.
I wasn’t listening.
My head drifted around and I saw that the festival had grown a great deal during my nap. I also absently noticed I—and now Johnny and I—still had a lot of attention.
What I didn’t notice was my sister anywhere.
I shot up to sitting on my hip as panic bolted through me.
Johnny came up with me, holding Brooks tight to his chest.
“Iz?”
“Addie,” I whispered.
“Izzy,” he growled, obviously feeling my change in mood, and my eyes cut to him.
“How long was I asleep?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” he answered.
“How long have you been here?”
“Watched you maybe five minutes. Been with you and Brooks fifteen, maybe twenty.”
“Was I asleep when you first saw me?”
“Yeah.”
“The souvlaki guy isn’t that far away.”
“Say again?”
I leaned into him, lifting a hand to press it tight to his chest, the tips of my fingers at the base of his throat, and said, “Addie. She went to get souvlaki. She said she’d be right back. It might take fifteen minutes to get souvlaki but it doesn’t take longer.”
“Maybe she’s having a wander,” Johnny suggested.
“She was in a bad mood when she took off. Not mad, just . . . whatever is happening I think was getting to her.”
“Call her,” Johnny ordered.
That was a good idea.
I turned to the picnic basket, which also held my phone, this move necessitating me untangling my legs from Johnny’s. I dug it out. I looked to Johnny and he held my nephew and my eyes as I called my sister.
She didn’t answer.
“Where are you?” I said into her voicemail. “Call me.”
Then I hung up, broke eye contact to bend my head to the phone and text.
“No answer?” Johnny asked.
I shook my head and texted.
When I looked to him, he said, “Pull up a picture of her, give me your phone. I’ll give you this little guy and you look after him while I go look for her.”
“You’d do that?” I asked.
“Fuck yeah,” he answered.
“Okay, I’ll . . . okay,” I mumbled, head bent to my phone again to find a photo of Addie. I turned the picture I found to him and said, “That’s her.”
“Almost as pretty as you,” he muttered, reaching out to the phone and taking it at the same time shifting like he was going to hand Brooks to me, but I didn’t go for Brooks.
I was so relieved Johnny was there and I could stay at the blanket and wait for Addie should she return but he was going to go out to look for her that I didn’t think.
I just did.
And what I did was lean in and press my lips hard to his.
I did it grabbing tight to the side of his neck, and when I was done, I left my hand there.
“Thank you,” I said with feeling, giving his neck a squeeze.
“Welp, Mayberry seems to have a good effect on my sister. I go to get some souvlaki and goody two-shoes here scores herself a hottie.”
I jerked my head back, my hand on Johnny staying where it was, and I saw my sister with a little cardboard tray in one hand, a huge soft drink cup with straw in the other, standing at the edge of the blanket.