Judy ate each shrimp with delicate precision, savoring the taste of fresh seafood in her mouth. The crab legs she cracked like a pro, pulling out the succulent white meat as her eyes rolled up in her head with each bite. Johnnie seemed happy to eat chicken with carrots and steamed broccoli and Cotter watched them in amusement. Several diners observed the small family, amazed that a child Johnnie’s age actually ordered the vegetables and ate them.

He expected them to order lavish desserts, but instead, they both opted for chocolate ice cream; two scoops each. Johnnie, providing the waitress with a large and overly charming smile, asked for sprinkles to be added to hers, and Cotter gorged himself on a large slice of carrot cake.

“You have a beautiful family,” the waiter said. “You daughter looks a lot like you.”

“That’s what they say happens when you feed them, they start to look like you,” Cotter replied, settling the check.

Johnnie held both their hands, walking in the middle of them as they left the restaurant and walked over the bridge to the hotel. The silence between husband and wife palpable, but smoothed over by Johnnie, amazed at the people who looked like statues but were actually moving. Her daughter was happy and vibrant. Judy on the other hand, was torn. She wanted all of this on a regular basis and a life with him, but she needed the truth. If he couldn’t be truthful with her, then there was no need to continue the charade. Her lips remained pursed as they climbed into the elevator. The cough, almost gone and she almost felt normal. He was right, the desert air had done wonders for her in such a short period of time. Cotter opened the hotel room door for a twirling Johnnie who grinned from ear to ear.

“This has been the best day of my life!” Johnnie exclaimed, kicking off her shoes in the hotel room. “I love, love, love having you as my Daddy!”

“Get dressed for bed, honey, and I will come and tuck you in,” Judy said, turning to look at her husband, married to her on paper. “You son of a bitch! Was that your plan, win the child over to make it difficult for me to cut your ass loose?”

“Yeah, it was,” he said. “I don’t want to leave and you don’t want me to go either. So, say what’s on your mind.”

“I want the truth, Cotter,” she said. “Tell me the fucking truth about your relationship with my husband, how he died, and why he sent you to us. He didn’t send you for this. I deserve some honesty.”

Johnnie walked out of the room, her eyes wide. “Mama, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing baby, let me tuck you in,” she said, following the child to the second bedroom.

Cotter undid his tie and grabbed a mini bottle of the first thing he saw from the bar. Opening the glass container, he poured half into a cup, followed by a splash of Coke. He took a seat on the couch, loosening his tie a bit more. Swallowing the contents in one gulp, he made himself another and waited her return. The fight had left him. Adding a period to make bad people permanently stop was no longer his path. What he needed going forward was her as his wife and that child who called him Daddy. He inhaled as the bedroom door opened and she stepped out, looking for him.

Cotter handed her the glass and patted the seat next to him. Judy took the drink and sat forlornly, giving him the side eye. She took a sip of the drink which was too strong for her and passed it back.

“Are you ready to talk?”

“Yep,” he said, taking a drink from the glass.

“How did you know Caleb?”

Sighing deeply, he said, “I am a skip tracer of sorts. Caleb did a bad thing to someone who wanted him tracked down and made to pay for the wrong he’d done. I tracked him down. I made him pay.”

“You killed my husband?” she asked incredulously.

“I closed an open contract,” he said. “In the end, I stayed with him as he transcended, but before he left, he asked me to bring you the box. I didn’t open it, but knowing what I did about the man, concern for any woman who had married him, plus the child, became a priority. Finding you and the kid in that freezing house, starving, did something to me. I don’t regret closing the contract. A man who leaves his wife and kid in that state doesn’t deserve my pity.”

“Why did you stay?”

“You guys needed someone,” he said. “You needed a man to make you his priority. A year on the road, I had nothing to go back to. Nothing to look forward to in my life. You gave me a purpose. I love being with you two. If you can forgive me, I want to stay. If you can’t, I understand.”

Judy touched his hand. “I can forgive you.”

It was too easy. She couldn’t simply forgive the man who’d taken her husband’s life. Then it dawned on him.

“You opened the contract, didn’t you?”

Swallowing hard, she lowered her head. “Yes, I did.”

“I knew it!” he said loudly, slapping his knee and spilling the drink.

“How did you know it?”

“The phone calls, the money,” Cotter said. “You paid the 50 and he took the rest. Where did you get that kind of cash?”

“I worked here in Vegas,” she said. “First in Atlantic City, saving every dime I could get my hands on. I spent a chunk of it on the land and the materials to build the house, but that is my home. I love that house.”

“That house is a death trap,” he said.

“Yes, but it is all we have,” she said. “My mother, the con artist, never had anything until her final years. She was so used to hustling that she couldn’t for the life of her soul stop and enjoy the bounty she’d finally received. She died penniless with her throat cut, by whom, I still don’t know. I didn’t want that for my child or me. I also didn’t want Caleb Morrow as my husband.”

“Please tell me what he did so bad that you had him skip traced. I need to make sure I don’t do the same damned thing,” Cotter said.

“He lied to me,” she said.

“That is no reason to make a man vanish,” Cotter said.

“He lied consistently about everything until whatever he touched turned to shit,” she said breathing deeply. “I caught him one night in Johnnie’s room. She was only about 4 at the time. He was helping her get dressed and taking entirely too long. It sickens me at what I saw. I couldn’t have him around our daughter.”

“Did he...?”

“No, but her panties were off and he was aroused.”

“Shit.”

“I put in a call to Jimmy the Flint to get him a gig, but then the month turned into six, the calls home had women in the background and then someone sent me a photo of him with an underage girl,” she said. “That’s when I made up my mind. I had a policy on him that had a double indemnity clause. If his death was an accident, I would get $1.5 million.”

“So, when you turn in the death certificate to the insurance company, you will be rich,” he said.

“Hey, you are $50,000 fatter for your efforts,” she said.

“True, but where does this leave us, Judy?”

“Cotter, I feel stupid for saying this, but I don’t want you to leave,” she said. “I want a life with you. Color me stupid for loving you, but I do.”

“Glad to hear it, because if you didn’t, I was going to find a way to make you,” he said, leaning over to kiss her. “I love having a family. You as my wife and my adorable spunky daughter have changed everything for me. That and a hot shower.”

“So, we are doing this? Man and wife?”

“And kid, or kids, in a house powered by the sun,” he said. “This summer, I will take you to meet my family. My niece finishes at Northwestern in May, so we will go to her graduation.”

“You promised Johnnie you’d take her to Disney World,” she added as if they hadn’t discussed her paying to have her husband killed and him fulling the wish.

“Depends on whether or not you are too fat with my son to travel,” he said, touching her tummy.

“Just like a man to want to walk in the door and get somebody pregnant. I just spent two years locked away. I want to drive, travel, and have some damned fun first,” she said.

“And you can do all those things, but promise me, we won’t wait too long,” he said.

“The way you were going at me a few nights ago, I probably already am,” she replied.

“I wasn’t too rough, was I?” he responded, his voice laced with concern.

“No, not even close. You are lucky I am still sick,” she said. “if not, I would have worked your ass over.”

“Hell, where are them pills?” he said jumping to his feet. His movements were halted by a knock at the door. Instinct kicked in as he ran in the other room for his weapon. She hid behind the couch as he stood away from the door. The actions were too normal for them both. He thought as fucked up as all of it was, she was probably the perfect woman for him, as long as he didn’t disappoint her.  If his life were to end, he didn’t want to look up and see One Way coming in his direction. That man didn’t care how you died, but one way or another, you were leaving this world, by his hand or an ostensibly creative method of transcending the plane.

“Yeah, who is it?” he called out in his deepest voice.

“It’s Archangel,” the voice said.

“What?’

“Open the door, Stop,” the voice said.

Carefully, he turned the handle on the door to see a man in glasses with dark wavy hair. He held a Bible in his hand. With one hand, he pushed Cotter out of the way and entered the room, closing the door behind him. “Where’s the child?”

Judy raised her head from behind the couch. “In the other room sleeping. Who are you?”

“I am Archangel,” Gabriel replied. “I came to make your marriage official in the eyes of the Lord.”

“Say what?” Judy and Cotter said in unison.

“I am also here to baptize the child,” Gabriel said. “Please fetch her for me.”

“Hold on there, buddy,” Judy said, stepping forward, but the look Gabriel gave her halted her in her tracks.

Gabriel removed his glasses. “Forging a document is one thing. Lying to God is another. I traveled all the way to Vegas to make this marriage viable in the eyes of the Lord. Please don’t waste my time. Do as I ask.”

Cotter shooed her to fetch a sleeping Johnnie, and she returned with the sleeping girl in her arms. Shoving his weapon in his waistband, Cotter took the child from her arms and presented the sleeping angel to Gabriel. A small vial of water came from his black jacket, dabbing several drops on her forehead, sealing each drop with a kiss, and saying a prayer over her sleeping form and making the sign of the cross into her skin.

“You can take her back to bed now,” Gabriel said to Judy.

Judy complied, taking Johnnie back to the room and tucking her into bed. She joined Cotter in the living room, who stood next to Gabriel, she noted who was indeed a very handsome man who wore a wedding ring.

“Stand next to your husband,” Gabriel said as he opened his Bible and read a scripture. “Take her hand, Cotter.”

He said the words they both had heard many times before in movies, Judy having heard them herself. This time, the words felt different. Permanent.

“What God has joined together, let no man put asunder,” Gabriel said. “By the power vested in me, I pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss your bride.”

Gabriel, extracting his phone from his pocket, pressed a few buttons for the Bridal March, then looked at Cotter with half a smile.

“That will be $50,” Gabriel said.

“Get the hell out of here!” Cotter replied, frowning a him. “I just paid you five grand for the two documents.”

“Yes, you paid for the documents, and now you have to pay me for the service,” he told the man. “You are lucky I don’t make you pay for my plane ticket and flowers for my very pissed off wife.”

“Thank you, Archangel,” Judy said shaking the large warm hand of the clergy man. “Will you bless our marriage with a prayer before you leave?”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Gabriel said, asking them both to bow their heads.

He said a prayer of understanding and faith, dabbing both of their heads with oil as an anointment. Cotter begrudgingly paid him the $50 and Judy threw in a 20 for the flowers for his wife. She also kissed his cheek, which Cotter didn’t appreciate.

“Ain’t no need to kiss him,” Cotter growled, frowning again at Gabriel, but more at himself. A surge of jealousy went through him seeing Judy’s lips touch the good-looking man’s cheek. He’d never met the man in person and always assumed he was an old bastard with gray hair, not a vibrant, very heterosexual man.

“He flew all this way to make sure we were right with God,” Judy said. “Can I also buy you dinner?”

“Nope, flying home soon as I get to the airport,” Gabriel said. “Blessings to you both.”

He left, leaving the scent of his cologne in the room which seemed a bit vacant without his presence. Judy and Cotter both laughed. Placing her hand into his, he led her to the bedroom where they disrobed and climbed into bed.

“Judy, have you noticed that since we’ve been here, you haven’t coughed much?”

“I noticed,” she said, snuggling close to him to find that sweet spot of connection.

“You know what that means right?”

“No, husband, what does it mean?” she asked, placing a light kiss on the hairy chest.

“It means you are well enough to wear my ass out,” he said chuckling.

“I guess it does at that,” she said, slipping her hand deep under the covers to find he was ready for the party. “Cotter, call me stupid, but I have fallen in love you with you. I don’t know if it’s because you saved my life or because of you I have hope to really live one.”

“I love you too, and Johnnie,” he said.

“I know you do,” she told him as she shifted her weight and lay her body on top of his. Slowly they made love until she increased the pace, turning the sweet lovemaking into a no holds barred scene from a porn movie. He found himself biting into the pillow at the passionate ending, holding her close as he caught his breath.

“I’m yours,” he whispered into her ear.

“Yes, you are all mine,” Judy said, clinging to his body.

He would sleep that night like a newborn. A happily married man and a father of one. The elusive thing he never thought he’d master, he had. He’d been honest with a woman and the whole world didn’t fall apart for him telling the truth.

I deserve this.

I earned this.

I earned them.

He was uncertain if he would ever return to work, or if he would take sporadic jobs here or there, but his hunting days for two-legged prey had come to an end. Cotter Wihlborg was going to live an honest life as husband and father on a little spread in Rocheport, Missouri in a handmade house lit by solar power.

For the first time in his life, he couldn’t wait to go home.

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-  Fin -