Black dress to my knees over jeans and a skeleton key on a silver chain is my thing today and Caleb frowns.
I'm freezing still, hence the dress and jeans. Last night under cover of darkness Ben and I took a rare ninety-minute opportunity by bowing out of a late supper downtown and let them take the kids and we stayed home with Lochlan. In the backyard of Daniel and Schuyler's place I had a quick reminder on which is the throttle and which is the clutch and then I stripped out of my clothes as fast as I could, jumped on the bike, gunned it and almost threw myself off in the process but then got it under control and drove around on the grass in the freezing night, BUTT FUCKING NAKED. Touchy brakes, damn.
It was easily the greatest moment of my existence and the very first thing I ever put on my bucket list way back when I saw Vanishing Point at the drive-in and exclaimed loudly that I was going to do that for a living, like the girl in the movie. Ride around naked on a motorcyle in the yard, all damn day long. The boys laughed.
It was a tiny 250cc bike that I thought they were going to fix up for Henry to learn but I'm slow and it's too small for my son and too big for me. I still couldn't put my feet down flat on either side and holy shit that leather is cold on my bony ass and I was shivering so badly I wasn't sure if I was actually smiling or grimacing in pain but it was SO. AWESOME. Lochlan grabbed me, wrapping his sweater around me before carrying me inside to redress and he asked me how it was and I couldn't speak for shivering but he said it was good right? and I nodded so hard I must have looked like a bobblehead and he laughed. Ben put the bike away and then ran a hot shower for us and I shivered right up until he pulled me under the water and he let me shave his handsome face (ALSO BUCKET LIST WOW) then I slept so hard maybe I should do that every night.
In fact, I think I will.
I'm still smiling standing in Caleb's doorway this morning while he evaluates my outfit. What is the key, is that Tiffany?
It's the key to the castle. I took all the keys and left a generic one when we came here. I'm so proud of the fact that I did that, moving from room to room pulling keys out of doors and putting them into the pocket of my dress until the cotton ripped and they spilled out all over the floor and then PJ put them in a big ziploc bag and packed them in with the bedding in a big box that said Master Bedroom.
Caleb's whole face frowns. (Yes, your brother bought me an old drafty castle. I flipped it and doubled his money but the new owners won't be able to lock any of the seventeen damned doors. )
He changes the subject, asking what happened to the grass.
Uhh. The bike-
A motorcycle?
Yeah. The one I rode last night! I-
Do I want to know?
YES YOU DO.
No, I don't. What I want, is for you to have your bucket list item checked off now so we can move on to the next thing.
Uh. What? I already did-
I thought today it's windy enough and sunny if you want to make it rain I think the gate would be a good place for it. You'll have the most fun.
You want me to deploy five grand all over the beach? We'll be picking it up all summer.
Five thousand is a small price to pay to see you laugh.
I've laughed for less.
I'll give you five hundred thousand if I can make you cry.
Shame, I seem to do that for free.
Okay then let's just go before we wind up arguing.
Once to the ledge, he puts his arms around my waist and I lean out over the cliff and start sliding the bills out one at a time. Trust is a strange game with Caleb. I'm awkward at first and then I get my wrists into it and soon the money is flying into the air in a steady stream and I laugh and yell that I'm making it rain. Caleb whoops. I didn't know he could whoop. He only whooped in Vegas that one time when we recreated Indecent Proposal. Also with so many bills my fingertips will be blackened forever.
Then as quickly as it begins I am out of money, it stops raining and the clouds clear away leaving only blue skies and a weirdly-sated princess standing above a cliff littered with paper bills like a ticker tape parade. I think we'll be able to recoup most of it but only if we do it today.
I'm anxious to tell the boys all about it and last night too but when we get to the kitchen August is there. August who has a few days to himself and came out for a visit.
Everyone stops when I see him and my eyes well up involuntarily. He's here. I rode the bike with no clothes. I made it rain. Caleb slept with a guy. We're all getting along.
This is probably the part where I die, right?
