Lucy was looking at me, as were the girls, as I told him "Dammit, Muddy, I*told* you: I was just saving MY ass; you were just close enough to get in on the deal."
Muddy gave a wry laugh, and said "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, tonight, it's my turn – I was making ME happy, and YOU were close enough, friend."
That said, he stood up, and stuck out his hand. I stood up, too, and we shook hands – then gave each other a hug before he quickly headed back into the kitchen. Ricky and the headwaiter were watching me, as were the girls and Lucy. The best I could do was give them a lopsided smile as I gestured that we could leave. I tried to tip Ricky and the headwaiter, but both flatly refused, thanking ME, instead.
We were the center of another Zone of Silence as we left; back outside, the valet managed to fiddle around long enough to get a bonus 20 seconds of watching Lucy and the girls before I got the keys from him.
All three of them were quiet on the way back to the hotel; only when the doors closed on the elevator for our ride up did Lucy finally say, "You are one surprising son of a bitch, you know that?"
Surprised, I looked at her and asked, "Who? Me?"
"Yes, you, you son of a bitch."
"What'd I do?"
"It's what you DIDN'T do, bastard."
"Okay, what*didn't* I do?"
"You were obviously involved in some pretty scary stuff while you were in the Army. But you don't say*shit* about it. Not even mentioning that you'd done anything serious, like saving someone's life. Yeah, you told me you were in the Army, and yeah, you told me that you'd gotten some self-defense training. But you never said a *damn thing* about any of the rest of it."
"Didn't figure it mattered. Like my buddy Popeye says 'I am what I am'; I don't figure the how and why of it are as important."
That got me a dirty look, followed with "Yeah, but that's still the kind of stuff that people close to you should know."
Sandra and Robyn were watching this with considerable interest – but being careful not to draw attention to themselves.
I asked Lucy "Honestly, now, if I had told you about any of this before, would you have taken it as bragging, or as simply telling you about myself?"
That slowed her down, some. I could see her thinking it over for a bit before she hesitatingly admitted "I don't think I would have taken it as bragging; but I probably would have thought you were just trying to impress me."
"So not saying anything about it, and letting you find out about it on your own, was a*bad* thing?"
That settled her down some more, and I just stood there looking at her, waiting for her response. She finally blushed, and conceded "No, it wasn't. Not a BAD thing. Just really, really surprising." She thought a few more moments, then added "It's like finding out you're not who I thought you were."
"Perhaps I'm not. But am I better, or worse than what you thought?
Did I somehow mislead you into thinking what you did?"
Grudgingly, she said, "No, you didn't do anything to mislead me. If anything, all you've done has been to try to get me not to mislead *myself*. And you're a LOT better person than I thought you were. I guess that's why I'm so mad – not really at you, but at ME, for being so mistaken about you, and not giving you the credit that I knew you deserved."
She started leaking around the eyes about the time the elevator door opened; I took her in my arms, and guided her and the girls toward her room. At the door, she fished the keycard for her room out of the small purse she'd been carrying. I handed it to Robyn, who used it to open the door; she and Sandra followed us into Lucy's room. We hadn't any more than closed the door before all three were shedding their shoes; a woman thing, I could only guess as I eased Lucy toward one of the chairs by the smallish table in her room, and then took one on the other side. Robyn and Sandra both discretely found seats on Lucy's bed.
After a bit, Lucy looked up at me, and said, "I'm sorry. I*knew* that there was more to you than you've shown so far, and I*knew* you were a better person that you've let on, and I*knew* you weren't the kind of person to brag or anything like that. It's just that when Mr.
Waters, I mean Muddy, told us what you did, it scared me – thinking that you might have been hurt or killed back then, and I'd have never known you. And being scared made me mad, and I took it out on the wrong person when I really didn't have to be scared or mad, either one."
I reached out to her, and she put her hand in mine, as I told her "It's okay, Lucy. What's already happened is over with. I don't do that stuff any more, and I'm not in any danger – except maybe loving you, and Robyn, too much. There's more stuff that I haven't told you for a couple of reasons. First, some of it I can't talk about, for reasons I'll explain. Second, some of it is just stuff that I really don't think makes any difference, or at least, SHOULDN'T make any difference."
"Why can't you tell me some of it?"
"Because I was in the Army Special Forces. You've heard of the Delta Force, right?"
She nodded, and I went on "Well, I was doing stuff kind of like that.
Sometimes I had to go places and do things I can't talk about. What I did is probably not so secret now, but until someone officially tells me that, I have to follow the rules, okay?"
She nodded, and I continued by telling her "While we're kinda on the subject of honesty, I guess I should tell you that I did some other stuff that you might think was dangerous, too. I mean, aside from being in the Army kind of stuff. For example, I jumped out of airplanes a few times. Fortunately, they let me wear a parachute when I had to do that."
That last bit made her smile, and the bit about the parachute finally made her laugh, a little.
She sat there for a couple of minutes, deep in thought, as the three of us watched her. Finally, she looked up at me, then turned to look at the girls. She turned her chair a bit, so that she was more-orless facing all of us, and said "Well, if tonight's the night for truth, then I guess there are a few things*I* need to say."
She looked at Robyn and Sandra and said "The first truth is that I know you two have been making love with him."
Robyn and Sandra both turned white as sheets before she went on to say, "It's okay. You're not in trouble, and I'm not going to say anything to your parents, Sandra. I just want you to know that*I* know, and I'm okay with it. Hell, I've been making love with him, too, as I'm sure you both know, or have guessed. I'm just glad that you both had enough sense to find someone like him that would be patient and gentle and caring as I'm sure he was."
Both of them were sitting there, jaws working, but no noise coming out, as she told them "In fact, I kind of envy you. When I was younger, I lost my cherry to a guy that wasn't ANY of the things he is. It hurt, and I was sore for DAYS afterward. In fact, it was a long time before I could really*enjoy* making love, and really understood what a wonderful thing it could be. Even more important, it was a long time before I found someone that I was comfortable with, someone that I could trust, someone that I could just*be* with and not have to worry about what either one of us was doing or thinking. That someone was HIM. So I understand, very well, what it was like for you, and what made you want him to be your first."
By this point, Robyn and Sandra had finally managed to stop looking like fish, but were still pretty much in a state of shock.
Lucy looked at Robyn, and said "Robyn" – Robyn pulled herself together enough to look at Lucy – "I don't know when you lost your cherry. I don't*care* when you lost your cherry. I think I know who you let have it, but I don't need to know the who or how or when.