SHANE. “Hand me those tongs, this side of the chicken is done,” I said toward Ripp.

“Fuck, I don’t know where they are,” he screamed back.

“They’re right beside you, Jesus,” I hollered as I held the lid of the barbeque grill in the air, “right where you set them. And why the fuck are we screaming?”

He turned and looked at the table on the edge of the deck. As he reached for the tongs, my phone rang.

“Phone’s ringing, Dekk,” he screamed as he tossed me the tongs.

I grasped each piece of chicken with the tongs, and flipped them over on the grill. Ripp and I had somewhat of a tradition of eating barbequed chicken every Saturday evening. I loved to eat healthy, and enjoyed our tradition. Ripp wasn’t as concerned as I was with food, and typically would eat whatever someone handed him. He worked harder in his exercise routines to get rid of it.

I used this as a means of making him eat healthy. It was my way of letting him relax a little from his rigorous exercise regimen.

I closed the lid of the grill and pulled my phone from my pocket. Kace.

Okay, this is weird. She never calls or texts.

I pushed redial and called her phone back.

“Who was it?” Ripp asked.

“Kace,” I said and turned to face away from him.

She answered the phone and began to talk a hundred miles an hour. I could understand about every other word.

“Slow down…slow down, what’s wrong?” I asked.

“I left,” she responded.

“Like left, left?” I asked.

“Left, left,” she responded.

“Can I come to where you are? Juth for a little bit? I need to thee you,” she asked.

“Are you okay?” I asked as I turned to face Ripp.

I placed my hand over the mouth piece of the phone.

“Can she come here for a bit?” I whispered toward Ripp

He shrugged his shoulders, turned his palms up, and nodded his head.

“Yeah you can come here, you have a way to write down the address?” I asked.

“Tetht it to me,” she said.

“Your voice sounds funny, you have a lisp,” I said.

“I’ll tell you about it when I get there,” she said.

“Alright, I’ll text it to you. Who’s the most beautiful woman in the world,” I asked.

“Right now, I hath no idea. I’ll thee you in a minute,” she laughed.

She hung up and I placed my phone in my pocket. We had never seen each other on the weekends, only during lunch at the diner across the street from her office. My mind raced. I thought of all of the possibilities. It had been about a month since we first met at the diner, and I knew she was becoming fond of me – she never hesitated to tell me.

I suspected there had to be something to drive her over the edge. Her lisp had me worried. I stood and stared at the barbeque grill.

“Dekk, you alright?” Ripp asked as he walked up to my side.

“Yeah. Yeah, I think so,” I responded.

“You sure? Your friend alright?” he asked as he opened the grill.

“I don’t know. I have a feeling something happened,” I responded.

“Like?” he asked.

“I don’t know. But I know this. If she so much as has a fingerprint on her, I’m going to go beat the brakes off of that dirt bag. Where’s my fucking hoodie?” I asked.

“It’s on the lounge,” Ripp responded as he pointed toward the lounge chair.

“Brother, if he touched a hair on her head, you’ll have to beat me to him. I’ll beat his ass for you. Until he’s a pile of bones. No one beats a woman that I know about. Not and gets away with it. So, I got this, Dekk. I got it. Just because that’s how we do it here in Texas,” he laughed.

“I’m serious,” I said.

“So am I,” he responded as extended his arm and made a clenched fist.

He nodded toward his hand.

“C’mon do it,” he said.

I gritted my teeth and made a fist.

He nodded his head again, “I got this.”

I bumped his fist with mine.

And I knew.

Ripp had my back.