Until Series(136)

“Hey, baby,” I say, holding out my hand towards Liz.

“Hi.” Her smile is shy. She leans up to kiss George’s cheek and whispers something in his ear; he smiles and pats my back, takes his new wife from my side, and leads her out onto the dance floor.

“Did you have a good dance?” I pull her into my arms, tucking her head under my chin.

“Yeah, it was very sweet,” Liz says, as we sway slowly to the music.

“Good,” I say, my lips at the top of her head. I look around when I feel someone watching us. That’s when I see Tim on the other side of the dance floor with Kara.

“How about you have a dance with your brother?” I ask.

“Why?”

“I can tell he misses you. And I know you miss him.”

“I don’t know.” She bites her lip, looking across the room to where her brother is dancing.

“I’m right here if you need me; just rub your ear and I will come over to save you.”

“Okay,” she laughs, looking up at me.

“Okay.” I kiss her forehead, leading her towards Tim. When we get to where he’s dancing with Kara, he stops and whispers something into Kara’s ear. She smiles at Liz, and then walks off towards the restrooms.

“Can we dance?” Liz asks Tim. He nods his head, taking her hand, and leading her out onto the dance floor. I watch as he says something to her. She looks at me smiling, then back at Tim, who looks at me, giving a chin lift. I stand off to the side watching Liz. Kara comes to stand next to me.

“Tim told me some of the stuff that’s going on. Thank you for giving him that.” She nods towards the dance floor. “I know he messed up, and he knows he did too. We talked, and he wants to move closer to his mom and sister. I don’t have any family, so it would be good to have people around when the baby gets here.”

“Liz would like that.”

“He’s going to talk to the detectives that he’s working with and see if they can make a bust with the information he has gotten so far.” I think about November and July, knowing that Asher would kill himself if something ever happened to them because of something he did.

I turn towards her, watching her closely. “If you want to come to town and stay with us until things get sorted out with him, I think it might be wise for you and the baby,” I tell her, looking down at her round stomach.

Her hand rubs her belly, looking down. When her eyes meet mine again, I can see tears in them. “I might take you up on that offer. I don’t want to be away from him, but the people that he is dealing with scare me. They know where we live and that I’m pregnant. Tim keeps telling me that things are going to be okay, but I can’t get rid of the feeling that something bad is going to happen.”

“I’ll have Liz talk to him and see if she can help change his mind.” I say confidently. She smiles, looking across the room.

“You know, when she told him that the two of you were together, he freaked out about it. He ranted for an hour about you and your history with women.” She looks at me and smiles. “I can see that you really love her; I think that he sees that now, too.”

“More than anything,” I confirm, watching Liz walk towards me holding Tim’s hand. Just as she reaches my side, George picks Rita up, announcing he and his new bride are retiring for the evening. They leave the room with hoots and hollers following behind them. I smile at Liz, whose face has turned bright red.

“Let’s all have a drink and talk,” I say, looking at our group. The rest of the evening is spent talking and laughing. The next day, when we head home, I know that I need to find a way to put a ring on Liz’s finger, and make her mine permanently.





Chapter 8




Liz


It’s been two months since we got back from Jamaica. Two months of heaven. The week after we got home, I officially moved in with Trevor. I would love to say that he wasn’t his normal bossy self when he asked me to live with him, but sadly, he was himself. I had been at the house all day with Lolly. I cleaned and did laundry, and when Trevor came home with his work clothes covered with mud, his boots leaving muddy prints all over my freshly mopped floor, I was pissed. So I told him that he should’ve taken off his stuff before tracking mud into the house. He told me I didn’t have a right to bitch about it because I didn’t live with him. So I told him if that’s how he felt, then I was never going to live with him, and that I should move back to Mike’s. When I said that, he threw the beer that he’d just opened across the room, where it exploded against the wall. He yelled that he didn’t know why I wouldn’t unpack my bag and put my shit away, when I acted like we were living together.