Chapter Fifty-Five

Pushing through the doors of the hotel, Stephanie stopped and looked for the young man who had taken her car that morning.   He turned from the lock box of keys and smiled broadly, remembering the pretty woman with the killer car.  Stephanie was fishing her ticket out of her purse when he stepped up.  

“Are you ready for your car ma’am?”  He practically rubbed his hands together in glee at the idea of getting behind the wheel of her car again.

Her fingers found the slip and she glanced at the young man.  “I am, Laurence.  You took good care of her for me, right?”

He took the ticket, “yes ma’am.  I’ll be right back with her.”  He hurried to the lock box and found her keys before heading away from the hotel.

Stephanie dug into her wallet for money to tip the young man, palming the twenty as Richie slipped his arm around her waist.  This was the first he had touched her or talked to her since they had stepped out of his hotel room.  She couldn’t figure out what she had done.  “Did I do something wrong?”

He leaned in and pressed his lips to her head.  In her boots she was nearly eye-to-eye with him. “Not at all sweetheart.  You look so damn good, I was ready to shove the guys out the door and keep you all to myself.  You’re trying to kill me with those boots tonight, right?”  With the amount of skin that was showing between the top of her boots and the hem of her dress, he had all he could do to keep his hands to himself.

She looked down at her feet and then back at him with an evil little smile.  “They’re doing their job then.”

He ducked his head and laughed.  “And here I thought you liked me.”

She smiled.  “I do.  I don’t dress like this for just anybody.”

He laughed again and took her hand, hauling her close.  “Glad to hear that sweetheart.”  He nuzzled her hair, kissing her head.  “Very glad.”

~

Jon, David and Tico looked at the pair from where they stood by the door.  “What do you make of her?”  David wondered aloud to no one in particular.  Jon studied the couple. Richie had his nose buried in her hair, she was smiling and holding his hand.  “Outside of the fact that she’s good to look at and hasn’t asked him for a damn thing?”  David and Tico nodded.

Jon looked over at Stephanie and Richie again.  They were still huddled together and her cheeks were red.  He was sure his friend was whispering all kinds of dirty ideas in her ear.   He smiled and continued, “I think she’s good for him.  He seems more settled, more relaxed than he has in a while.  Happier too.”

The trio moved toward the couple when they heard the growl of her car coming around the corner.  Jon nearly drooled.  God he loved that sound.

“Shotgun!”

Stephanie looked up and laughed at David who had his hand up as he called out his spot in the car just as Laurence rolled to a stop at the curb.  He got out and handed her the keys, just as you left her ma’am.”  

She took the keys and handed him the bill in her hand even as Richie was digging in his pocket to do the same.   “Thank you Laurence.  We’ll see you later.”  She frowned at Richie and turned to address his friends.  “I have a few ground rules before I let you get in my car.”

The three stood, expectant looks on their faces.  “You have that look.  You’re a mom aren’t you?”  David joked, forgetting for a minute that she actually had been.  He grimaced at the pained look that crossed her face.  And then he remembered.  “Sorry, forgot.”

She shook her head, “it’s okay.”   She took a deep breath and blew it out. Tonight was going to be interesting.  “All right, there is no eating, drinking or smoking allowed” she glanced at Tico, knowing that he liked his cigars.  “Sorry.”

“It’s okay baby.  I only chew ‘em mostly anyway.”

She opened the passenger door, lifted the lever on the seat and pulled it forward, “everybody in.”

Tico got in and slid all the way over.  Jon looked at David.  David looked at Jon, both waiting for the other to make the first move.  “I am not sitting in the middle.”

Jon pointed at the car, “get your ass in there man.”  He didn’t want to sit in the middle either.

David shook his head, “no way.  I’m not riding the hump.”  They went back and forth, neither giving in.

Stephanie looked over at Richie, “are they always like this?”

He nodded, “yep.  You do realize we’re just overgrown boys, right?”

She rolled her eyes.  Overgrown boys?  Okay, they asked for it.  “Jon” she turned her best mom glare on him.  “Get your ass in the car.  You’re the smallest, you get the middle.”  She turned her glare to David, “if you make one smart aleck remark, you’re walking.”

With more than a few grumbled oaths, they all piled into the car.  Stephanie buckled her seatbelt and glanced up t the rearview mirror, fixing her glare on two of the three in the back seat.  “You don’t get to comment on my choice of music, either.”

Jon grimaced.  She was going to make him listen to himself, he just knew it.  He nearly spoke up but found a meaty hand clamped over his mouth.  “Don’t make her kick your ass out.  You’re paying for dinner.”

He bit Tico’s palm.  “I am not.  And if she makes me listen to myself, I’ll gladly walk.”

Stephanie turned on the sirius/xm radio and Sebastian Bach’s gritty vocals on “18 and Life” filled the car as she pulled away from the hotel.  She glanced over at Richie as they moved down the strip, “how do you put up with this all the time?”

He just shrugged.  “He pays us well.”

She couldn’t help but laugh.  “It’s as good a reason as any, I guess.”   She did her best to ignore the bickering coming from the backseat.  “Where are we going anyway.”

He reached across the wide bench seat and covered her hand with his.  “The Mirage, sweetheart.  I got us tickets to the Cirque show and then Jon got us a late reservation at Japonais.  We can gamble some too if you’re up for it.”

They crawled down the strip, the traffic heavy on a Friday night.  The lights were just starting to wink on as they pulled up to the hotel.  As yet another valet drove off in her car, she stood and looked up and down the road in awe of the gaudy beauty of it all.

Richie watched her for a moment before taking her hand, “something interesting to see, sweetheart?”

She squeezed his hand, “all of it.  I’ve never been here before.”  It was yet one more place she and Mark had never gotten to see together.  Most of their travels had been limited to places they could drive to in a few hours.

He let her look for a minute longer, “We’ll take a walk later, sweetheart and I’ll show you whatever you want to see.”  He nudged her toward the doors to the hotel, “right now, though, we have to get inside.”

Taking one last look, she sighed quietly and followed him into the lush, tropical paradise that was the Mirage Hotel.