Heck of a kiss

Chapter Nine

When the boys had left, I came back into the cozy living room to find Lesley still sitting in her chair waiting, the expression on her face told me I was not leaving until I had told all. Rolling my head to release the tension in my neck, I flopped onto the sofa and looked over at Lesley.  “Well, that was interesting; you planned this all behind my back, good job.”

“Are you mad?” When I shook my head Lesley continued. “Originally we were going to have it when you were at work, so it wouldn’t bother you, but you got off early.”

“Why did you think it would bother me?”

Lesley ran a hand over her jeans pursing her lips before answering. “Be honest, seeing Jabe freaked you out.”

Laughing sheepishly, I nodded, “Okay, honestly I did freak a little when I turned and saw Jabe standing there; I would be lying if I didn’t mentally kick myself for being such a jerk for breaking up with him.”

Cocking her head to the side, Lesley shrugged. “Maybe it was good for both of you, like you said, you didn’t know each other really, without Chad you changed like crazy, and Jabe did too. Your relationship wouldn’t have lasted anyway, that doesn’t mean that you can’t be friends again.”

Shooting her a look, I said; “Lesley, it was very awkward, I can’t go from being that close to being ‘just friends’ it’s not gonna happen.”

Impishly she smiled, “We’ll see, you seemed pretty tight tonight, what did you talk about?”

Giving an indelicate snort I shook my head before replying. “He found out about my second job, he wasn’t happy with me. He thinks it’s too dangerous, which it is, but Lesley, I could be a firefighter, or a marine, there are much more dangerous professions out there, at least as a pick-up man, I’m not being shot at, or having a roof fall on my head.”

Lesley raised her eyebrows mischievously. “Oh, so he cares.”

 Shaking my head I laughed at Lesley’s remark. “He cares because he doesn’t know if he can trust me to save his butt from the bronc. Anyway, that was not all we talked about, we talked about Chad too. Thinking about being in the same job brought up bad memories, anyway when I reminded him that it was an accident he seemed to calm down a little.”

The mischief fled Lesley’s face and she looked down biting her lip. Mentally kicking myself for mentioning Chad I asked. “Are you okay?”

Slowly Lesley answered, “I don’t think it was an accident.”

Leaning forward I gaped at her, shocked. “What do you mean?”

“Because something bad was going on at the rodeo, Chad found out about some drug ring operating out of the rodeo, he was totally torn up over it; finally he told me he was going to alert the authorities. But that day he never came home.”  Tears sprang up in her blue eyes and she bit her lip, looking down and wiping a hand over her eyes. “I didn’t believe him at the time, and I talked to the police after the accident but they found nothing out of the ordinary about his death. Someone left the gate open and the bull got out. Chad was just, in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

I felt like the breath had been knocked out of me. I sat staring at Lesley my mouth gaping open. I had finally come to peace with his death and now it might not have been an accident. Immediately I began to run through the faces of my co-workers, trying to imagine them doing something that awful.  “There might have been foul play involved?”

Slowly Lesley shook her head. “I don’t think that there was any ‘might’ about it. It’s seems like too much of a coincidence that Chad died the same day he was going to go to the authorities.”