Chapter Twenty-Two
Jackson
“Any idea how you did?” Shelby blurted out as C.J. sat on a tall backless stool to take the weight off her feet for a minute before heading back out into the mad throng of people that had flooded the convention center.
“I was good. I got help from that one security guy who is always helping with costumes… Ray, I think his name is? Anyway, he was in there, and let me play off him for a minute.” She sighed deeply. “They asked how much of the work I’d done on my own. I don’t think they liked that Jackson helped me with the wings.”
I cursed and kicked the nearest clothing rack. “Well, you should’ve just said you did it. I didn’t build anything, I just helped with some final additions. I wouldn’t have had the first idea how to build that from scratch.” I took her hand in mine and rubbed my thumb across the back of her glove.
“It’s better to be honest, Jackson. If I won because I was supposed to do these amazing designs, and then I couldn’t replicate them without you, how would that make me look?”
Shelby nodded. I looked for something else to kick.
“It’s better to get a slower rise to success than a fast drop to infamy for being a fraud.” Shelby reminded us. I shook my head, but kept my feelings to myself. I was worse than an idiot for not asking her to leave me out of it. That costume was her baby. She’d spent hundreds of hours on it; I’d spent maybe six. It wasn’t fair to her to lose out because of that.
“It’s okay Jackson. Besides, you have bigger things to worry about. What happened with you and security?”
I pulled up another couple of stools so Shelby and I could sit with C.J. and told my story in short form. “I thought I was going to be eighty-sixed. The guys were sympathetic, but that was a lot of muscle, and once they got me out of the line of sight of the audience, I was up against a wall with my arm pinned so high I thought they might actually break it.” C.J. gasped and a stupid grin split my face. “They asked what I was thinking, and I explained that I was not going to let any asshole threaten my girlfriend with rape. Dude was lucky to be alive, and conscious,” I shrugged. “They agreed. Said you take a lot of crap because you’re a legit model, not just a cosplayer.”
C.J. shrugged and looked at the floor, and Shelby nodded. “Hell yeah, she does,” she drawled. “Mostly from the same guys who stalk her and end up at whatever functions she’s doing.”
I clenched my fists in my lap. My brain was on fire, jaw clenched tight.
“Hey, it’s no big deal,” C.J. added quickly. “Especially now that I have my very own “hacker tracker” business with my new partner.”
“Really? When did this happen?” I squinted at her.
“About five minutes after you left with security, when my lips moved faster than my brain and I said you and I were going to start our own private investigation business.” She raised her face and gave me a sheepish smile.
“I’m going to chase cheating husbands?”
“No, you’re going to chase cyberbullies,” she corrected.
“Well, fuck yeah I am. I do that all the time already. I’ve uncovered fraud, embezzlement, and one of your viewers who was making big donations, then stealing the money back.” I locked my hands behind my head. “Well, he tried to get it back. He won’t be bothering you or anyone else anymore.”
She clapped her hands and wiggled on her stool. “So, you’re not mad?”
“I’m a little surprised, but this time your lack of a filter has worked out pretty dang well. I’d still love it if you worked on that, though.” She frowned, but it passed quickly and was replaced with sheer, fierce victory. I felt like I’d been had, but damn, if she wasn’t the finest thing ever to put on wings, I didn’t know.
“Well, shit,” Shelby looked at us in turn with an expression of sheer disbelief. “You have a job here now.”
C.J. nodded at her, but the weight of what she said almost dragged me off my stool. “You’re staying.”
“Well, I do have that meeting at Stanford…”
“Screw Stanford, you’re staying in LA with C.J., and being geeks together, and having geek sex, and being parents to that smelly fur ball together.”
“Stiles isn’t stinky!” I groused. Shelby just held out a hand, like I’d proven her point.
“Whatever. My point is, I was planning to come to California before I was coming to visit C.J. If we have a plan and I can make money,” I looked at C.J. out of the corner of my eye, “and we can make a lot of money, then why shouldn’t we go for it?” I jumped off the stool and sent it clattering to the floor. “I’m staying in California. So, LA better be ready for cowboy boots and Duluth trading company, because I’m not giving it up for all y’all’s surfers and such.”
Shelby laughed and C.J. covered her face with her hand.
“You know,” Shelby mused, “the cowboy thing could be your signature. It’ll make you stand apart and people will remember you. I mean, we don’t exactly expect a slow drawling, sexy as hell cowboy when we call the GeekSquad.”
C.J. peered over her fingers. “The model and the Marlboro man,” she quipped.
“Hargrave Rivers LLC,” I corrected. She and Shelby grinned in unison.
“Well, my break is over, and I would love to get the next two hours of pictures and ass-grabbing over with. So, my tall, dark, and handsome cowboy, how’s about we go play nice with our future customers?”
“With these guys, it’s more like future nemeses.” I added, rolling my eyes.
“We need to get you a duster with pockets for your tools and stuff, then bring you to these dressed as McCree from that shooter game.” Shelby looked me over like she was taking my measurements already.
“Or, we could not, and I could be taken seriously,” I replied, waving her off. I’d seen the way people looked at me when they saw how I walked, or my boots. Even Shelby and company when I’d started talking the night before. Everyone was surprised that I was a techie because I talked like a Texan. The last thing I needed was people underestimating me more because I looked like a damned caricature of a cowpoke when I was working.
C.J. gave Shelby a look that shut her up, while I picked up the stool I’d knocked over. I held out a hand to each lady, and they hopped down from their seats and we walked out onto the convention center floor. A wall of noise hit us as I swung the steel double doors open to let C.J. and her wings through, and I took a couple shallow breaths before I took up a position at her back. Two men joined us, large enough to make my six and a half feet feel small.
C.J. was incredible. She opened her wings to the amazement of the children who flocked to her, and managed to keep their handsy fathers at bay without losing character or charm. She had her picture taken with fans of every age, and then the pseudo celebrities and past-science fiction heroes came forward to take their pictures with her too.
When one or another of my favorite actors wandered by, C.J. even wrangled pictures with me in them, for my own collection. She seemed to be right in her element. Meanwhile, just being around all those people, even though they were ignoring me completely, made my skin crawl and my palms damp. At a word from one of the security guys walking with us, she extended her floor time, but told Shelby and I that we could wait for her back in her dressing area if we were tired.
I almost took her up on it, then looked her over, from her sweat beaded forehead down to her stripper heels. If she could stick it out, so could I. I told her so, and Shelby agreed. Shelby added that it was a high, watching people love her work, so she always loved staying with C.J. for as long as possible, feeding off the amazement at what they accomplished together. As I watched that signature hip pop and felt, more than heard, the gentle whoosh of the wings as they opened, I understood exactly what she meant.
Finally, C.J. was finished, and we all dragged ourselves back to the changing area. I carefully tucked the winged costume away and double locked the case, using both the provided combination lock for the locker, and adding my own digital signature to the inside of the locker itself, in the form of a monitor that was synchronized to C.J.’s phone.
“I really lucked into it with that cool security system you have installed at your apartment,” I declared as we secured the bags and shut the locker, spinning the combination lock to reset it. “I added a battery pack so your monitor will work here. So, in effect, your system thinks that this is home, and your cell phone is away. If anyone opens the locker, it will immediately tell you, and you’ll see their face and everything.”
“I’d rather no one mess with my stuff. You know, we can just take it home and bring it back,” C.J. worried out loud.
“No, honey, you can’t,” Shelby quietly reminded her. “The judges are cracking down on people who make changes after the competition has started. If you take it home, you’re disqualified, automatically.” C.J. folded her arms and stared at the locker door. For a moment, I thought she might demand to stay the night.
“Thank you, Jackson, for understanding how important this is to me,” she said quietly as she took my arm. “I will make sure my phone goes directly on the charger and turn the volume all the way up for the rest of the night.” I leaned down and kissed her carefully. She was still in full makeup, and as hot as smeared lipstick sounded in my head, having encountered it earlier, I’d realized the reality was just waxy and strange.
C.J. was still on her weird “no real food” kick, so I begged her to let me pick up salads for us and promised I’d help her work it off, as Shelby gagged behind us. I let her drive the Jeep, since she knew the area so much better than I did, and she was far more alert.
“I swear, if I hadn’t spent the last six hours almost exclusively by your side, I’d think you’d been snorting cocaine,” I teased as the song she was singing along with, loudly and off-tune, thankfully ended. It was the worst, and most amazing thing I’d ever heard, and as I watched her face nearly split with her happy grin, I would’ve listened to the torturous karaoke all night, just to see her like that.
“Well, it’s your fault,” she retorted. “I was coming down hard from the energy of that wild, awesome debut of War Angel, and beyond worried about leaving her there all night.” She looked over at me as we waited for the traffic signal to let us through the intersection. “You thought ahead. You made War Angel safe, and you didn’t even tell me.”
“You were so mad at me this morning I didn’t want to make things worse by asking if you were worried about theft. I’m crazy smart, remember?” She snorted and rolled her eyes, then reached over and slid her hand so far up my thigh, my body reacted automatically and my pants started to feel tight.
“What are the chances we could work off a burger and a beer?” she asked. Her hand was now over the growing bulge in my pants, massaging it gently as she looked straight ahead. I swallowed hard and stammered, then cleared my throat.
“If you want to work off dinner, we should eat first, then have sex. Which is not how it’s going to happen if you don’t stop that.” I pressed her hand harder against me, then gently placed it safely on my knee. She giggled and squeezed then rested it there as the light finally changed and we could turn into The Habit, the burger joint that had been wafting insanely mouth-watering aroma into the Jeep.
We were close enough to home that we took our burgers and deep fried green beans to go. Once we were back at the apartment, C.J. stuck to her word and immediately plugged her phone in, and cranked the volume as high as it would go. She checked the monitor, panicking a little at the black screen she got until I reminded her that it was aimed at the door, and black was exactly what she should see, unless someone activated the light sensor on the other side. I ate the most incredible burger I’d ever had, made even better by the accidental starvation of being too busy and distracted to stop and eat for hours, and pulled out the bed while C.J. took a long shower to wash off all the makeup and weird lotions and things she’d had to use for her cosplay.
I’d opened a couple of beers for us, but dozed off waiting for my gorgeous girl to finish her shower. It wasn’t until the air got cool and woke me up that I realized I was on top of the blankets and she was curled up under them next to me. With a soft curse, I untangled myself from the monstrous cat that had decided I was his favorite pillow, and slid under the covers next to her, careful not to let my cold skin steal her warmth.
I was exhausted. I could only imagine how tired she was, even though she was a lot tougher than me. Letting her sleep was the best thing for her. But, watching her breasts rise and fall with her steady, deep breaths, only made me want to touch her more. Her face was all soft in sleep, the angles and tightness of worry and healthy skepticism smoothed out until she looked like she was still just a kid.
I inched closer to her and watched the corners of her mouth tilt up in the ghost of a smile. Encouraged, I gently lifted her and slid my arm under her neck, pulling her ass up against me and wrapping my arm over her. She snuggled in without waking, and the damn cat pressed up against the backs of my legs, pinning me in place between them. I had hardly thought up an insult for him, when my thoughts slid away on the silk filaments of the cobwebs that fluttered through my mind and I faded back to sleep, my woman in my arms, exactly where she belonged.