The Reunion

Zeke reached up and gently combed her hair away from her face, looking at her in the soft light. He caught the tear that slowly rolled down her cheek with the pad of his thumb, wiping it away. The last thing he ever wanted to do was make her cry again but he had a feeling that the tumult of emotions twisted up inside her needed to be shed. He had overwhelmed her with the truth about the past two decades even though he knew she had to come to expect it from him or something far worse, what she would have had to face if she had run away with him all those years ago. But the past was the past and his future, their future, was full of promise and riches beyond monetary value. He loved her and he knew that she still loved him or she wouldn't have let him back into her life. She was his, she always had been and she always would be. "I love you, I've always loved you and I'm not leaving here without you again. Come back to California with me, Catie-girl. Marry me and be Mrs. Badass of Humboldt County."

There was absolutely nothing keeping her here in this godforsaken town other than the hope that Zeke would find his way back to her and he had. Running away with him sounded like the best idea in the world and this time the future, their future, was certain and there was nothing that she wanted more than to be a part of his life, no matter where it was. Cate nodded her head as tears of joy streamed from her eyes. She knew that it was one promise that he was going to keep. "Yes, yes, a thousand times yes," she cried, throwing herself across him and kissing him senseless before he had a chance to change his mind.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Three days later...

Zeke loaded the last of the boxes that were packed full of Cate's belongings into the rear cargo area of the Escalade and shut the door. She had given her furniture to a couple of her neighbors along with all of her kitchenware and the food in her fridge. While she called her employers to quit and turn her apartment keys over to the manager, he carried all of the boxes out to the SUV. He leaned against the rear door, crossing his feet at the ankles and his arms over his broad chest, waiting patiently for her to tie up all loose ends before they headed out of town to start their life together. A slow smile came to his face as he watched her walk towards him down the sidewalk, the skirt of her floral print summer dress swishing around her knees. He knew she wasn't wearing anything under her dress because he had flung her panties somewhere across the kitchen this morning and he had a feeling that whoever moved into her recently vacated apartment was going to be in for a surprise when they pulled out the refrigerator and found said pair of panties behind them. He also couldn't help but notice that she was having a tad bit of a problem walking and it had nothing to do with the uneven sidewalk and the sandals on her feet and entirely everything to do with him having his thick cock buried deep inside her pussy not even a half hour ago when he bent her over her kitchen table and fucked her hard from behind. "Ready?" he asked, pushing away from the rear of the Cadillac.

Cate brushed a wisp of hair away from her face as she walked down the uneven sidewalk to where Zeke had parked his vehicle, the flowing skirt of her light summery dress fluttering around her legs in the warm summer breeze, brushing against her naked flesh. When she woke up in the morning to find Zeke gone, she feared the worst, feared that he had left her yet again and was on the road back to wherever it was he had come from despite everything that he had said to her the night before and leaving her for a second time. But when he came through the front door carrying two large cups of coffee from the corner espresso stand and a bag with fresh donuts from the bakery, she was more than relieved, she was overjoyed. And he hadn't been much help for the past two days when it came to packing up her belongings because they just ended up fucking like two horny teenagers on her couch or kitchen table that were now sitting in the apartment of an elderly lady two units over. She smiled at Zeke as she got closer. He was looking as dangerous as ever leaning against the rear of his Escalade, the material of his black T-shirt with the muted gray letters USMC printed on the left breast, pulled taut over his hard, rippling muscles and tan cargo shorts that needed to come with a warning label all on their own. "Ready," she said, stopping in front of him.

He smiled and cupped the side of her face in his hand, lowering his head to give her a long, hard kiss that left her swaying towards him and weak in the knees before walking around to the passenger's side and opening the door for her. Once she was settled in her seat, he shut the door and walked around the front of the SUV and climbed in behind the wheel, sticking the key in the ignition and turning it over. He reached for his sunglasses lying in the console and looked over at her sitting in the passenger's seat right where she belonged, her sun-warmed skin glowing and a smile on her face that hadn't left since he proposed to her. He now knew that coming back to Oak Hills wasn't a mistake after all because the best thing that had ever happened to him twenty years ago was sitting right there next to him more beautiful than the day he had laid eyes on her. He smiled as he dropped his sunglasses down on his nose and shifted the Escalade into gear, easing out of her parking slot.

She reached up and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, looking over at him. He was still her protector, her savior, and he always would be. She only wished he had come back into her life sooner, had taken her with him the first time, but then he wouldn't be the man that he was today, the man that she loved with all of her heart, body and soul and was going to spend the rest of her life with. He had changed for the better even though she still would have taken him at his worst, and even though they lost twenty years they had so many more to spend together, making new memories and maybe even a rebellious little child of their own. As he pulled out of her apartment complex, taking the turn a little faster than he should have and accelerating down the road, she knew that she had her hands full and that he still had that bad boy streak inside him that was never going to cease to exist. "So, Zeke, do you still have that Harley?"

Zeke looked over at her as a slow, sexy and extremely dangerous smile came to his face. "What do you think?"

Cate threw her head back, laughing. He was still the badass of Humboldt County that had stolen her heart twenty years ago.

And this time they were speeding out of town together in the warm June sun.