v Ashley - Golden Trail

Keira bent and he lost sight of everything but her behind as she gave Blondie a rubdown.

Layne turned back to the night.

“You lose hold of that again, boy, any ‘a that, I’ll hunt you down and shoot you. Understood?” Dev declared.

“So that shit you handed me about the HOA is just that? Shit?”

“Fuck, Tanner, when I was your age, I’d join the fuckin’ HOA patrol if it meant I could come home to that,” Devin answered.

Layne didn’t reply, he fell silent, took the last drag of his cigarette, stubbed it out in the ashtray on the table and sipped his beer while Devin enjoyed his stoagie.

Eventually, he said, “I need you to go to bed early, soon as Keira leaves.”

“Why?” Devin asked.

“’Cause you’re sleepin’ on the couch, I wanna talk to Rocky and if you’re on the couch the only place to do it is upstairs.”

And Layne wasn’t talking about the weight room.

“Gotcha,” Devin said instantly, knowing Layne wasn’t talking about the weight room.

Layne kept speaking. “I know I briefed you yesterday but I’ll repeat that we need more than the tail Astley’s been chasin’ to make him come to heel. I told you Rocky was in a luxury apartment complex but I didn’t tell you I talked her into signin’ the lease and I did it at a time when I thought she was far from hurtin’. With him cuttin’ her off, she’s gonna be hurtin’. I’m not in the position with her yet that I think she’ll take help from me. Her brother doesn’t have it, neither does her Dad. Short-term, maybe. Long-term, negative. That means time is against us, Dev. I don’t want her worried more than she already is. We need somethin’ on this guy that’ll make him take the pressure off Rocky fast and then we need something that’ll make him go away almost as fast. The dirtier, the uglier, the better.”

“If this is time sensitive, I can make him dirty,” Devin offered quietly.

“I’ll let you know if it comes to that but humiliation only comes on the heels of bein’ outed for shit you did yourself. I don’t only want him cowed, I want him brought low. You make shit up, with this guy, we’ll be treated to righteous indignation and that doesn’t help us and might even hurt.”

“And if there isn’t anything to find?”

“There’s somethin’ to find, this guy is an asshole. You just need to find it.”

“You said he’s investigating you,” Devin noted.

“Got nothin’ I’ve done I’m not proud of outside of walkin’ away from those boys and everyone knows about that.”

“Nope, you’re right, Tanner, you haven’t but the shit you’ve done could be made to look dirty. This guy isn’t afraid of not playin’ fair, you gotta be ready for that to happen,” Dev returned.

“Not worried about that either, Dev, people in this town, includin’ my boys and Roc, know me and what kind of man I am and, not includin’ my boys but definitely Roc, know him and what kind of man he is.”

“Yep, boy,” Devin said softly, “that girl knows what kind of man you are.”

His tone made Layne turn his head to look at Devin. “What’s that mean?”

Devin kept peering into the night, puffing on his stoagie.

“Dev,” Layne prompted.

Devin didn’t turn his head when he replied, “You don’t wanna know.”

“You’re wrong,” Layne returned, he wanted to know and this was communicated further to Devin because Layne’s voice was rumbling.

Devin looked at him. “Okay, then, you’re not ready to know.”

Layne straightened from his slouch in the chair. “Not in the mood for a mystery, Dev.”

They stared at each other across the table then Devin asked, “You want her back?”

Instead of answering outright, Layne said, “You spent the evening with her.”

“You want her back,” Devin stated.

“Dev –”

Devin straightened, pulled the cigar out of his mouth and leaned toward Layne. “Tanner, that girl knows exactly what kind of man you are,” he repeated and finished, “and you scare the snot out of her.”

Layne felt the muscles in his neck get tight and he said, low and curt, “I’d never hurt her, old man.”

“That ain’t what scares her,” Devin shot back.

“Come again?”

“How’d this start?” Devin suddenly asked.

“How’d what start?” Layne asked back.

“You and her, why’s she back in your life?”

“She had some stupid ass scheme…” Layne started then stopped, it hit him, it hit him so hard it suddenly all became clear, he turned away from Devin and looked out into the night.

“Boy,” Dev prompted.

“She came to the hospital when I got shot,” Layne answered quietly.

“Right,” Dev whispered.

Layne closed his eyes and muttered, “Fuck.”

“Right,” Dev whispered again.

Layne opened his eyes and whispered into the night, “Jesus.”

“You’re as domesticated as I suspect you’re gonna get, dog, kids, house in a small town, office over a coffee shop. That don’t mean you don’t got dark and wild in you, boy. You got dark and wild in you, ain’t no gettin’ it out. Trust me, I know. A woman can see dark and wild. She can be attracted to it. She can want it. She can even fall in love with it. That don’t mean she can live with it.”

Layne stayed silent.

Dev sat back in his chair, put his stoagie to his lips and puffed.

Then he took it out and spoke. “Far’s I can see, you got a lotta shit you gotta deal with. Her soon-to-be ex, whatever’s happenin’ at that church but the biggest mission you got on your plate is to convince her that comin’ home to dark and wild is a good thing but, more, convincin’ her to be home and take a chance on the fact that that dark and wild may mean one day you won’t be comin’ home.”

“Nothin’s gonna happen to me, Dev.”

“I know that, you know that, your girl, she don’t know that. So she’s gotta think it’s worth the risk.”

“Her father was a cop,” Layne pointed out. “Anyone knows the score, it’s Rocky.”

“A cop who got shot,” Devin said and Layne turned his head to look at his friend.

“What?”

Devin turned his head too. “A cop who got shot. I remember her story, boy.”

“So she knows the score.”

“And, I’ll repeat, Tanner, that don’t mean she can live with it.”

“She’s close with her Dad, she’s close with her brother, she’s fine.”

“Wild dreams,” Devin replied.

Now the old man was just irritating him and he let it show when he said, “Dev, that doesn’t make sense.”

“You told me she shared your wild dreams. You went huntin’ for yours. She ever leave this town?”

Layne stared at him then answered, “No.”

“Somethin’ means the world to you, you think one day you’ll lose it, you got two choices. You cut yourself off from it so, when you lose it, that don’t destroy you or you hold it so close, it can’t ever go away but, if it does, you got as many precious memories as you can bag. Thinkin’ about your girl, do either of those sound familiar?”

Layne suddenly found he was struggling to get enough oxygen in his lungs.

“Well, Tanner? Do they?”

“You know they do, Dev.”

“So what you gonna do?”

Layne reached for his smokes and looked to the night.

“Two cigarettes, that’s tellin’,” Devin muttered.

“Shut up, Dev,” Layne muttered back.

Devin shut up. Then he stubbed his stoagie out in the ashtray and got up. He moved around the table and stood behind Layne’s chair as Layne fired up a cigarette.

On Layne’s exhale, Devin said, “I’ll leave you to your smoke.”

“Obliged,” Layne murmured.

Devin moved to the door and Layne knew there’d be a parting shot even before he heard Dev hesitate in sliding it open.

“Grab hold, Tanner,” he whispered into the night then Layne heard the door open.

“Fuck,” Layne whispered one second after he heard it close.

Rocky’s warmth was pressed against him, her head on his chest, her arm heavy on his stomach, her knee resting on his thigh – pinning him to his back in the bed.

Her head shifted, her arm tightened around him and she slid up so her lips were against the underside of his jaw.

“You need to wake me up, baby, I need to get to work,” she whispered.

* * *

Layne’s eyes opened and he saw dark.

But what he felt was Rocky’s warmth pressed against him, her head on his chest, her arm heavy on his stomach, her knee resting on his thigh – pinning him to his back in the bed.

Layne stared into the darkness and let the smell of her, the feel of her, the warmth, the softness, Rocky pressed close, pinning him to the bed for the first time in eighteen years, penetrate.

He closed his eyes and focused on those sensations and the golden trail they left.

Then he opened his eyes and smiled.

* * *

The night before, after Layne sat outside brooding in the dark through his second cigarette and to the end of his beer, he entered the house to find Jasper and Keira preparing to leave and Rocky and Tripp in the kitchen putting the finishing touches on cleaning it.

Layne’s eyes went to his watch and he saw that Jas had half an hour before Keira’s curfew and Keira lived at most a ten minute drive away so either his son was trying to ingratiate himself with Cal and Violet by taking her safely home with time to spare or he was going to take Keira somewhere so he could make out with her.

Layne was guessing the latter.

“Be back, Dad,” Jasper called from the front door, his hand in Keira’s.