31. Clarry

CLARRY

I heard the clamoring at the side door to the parlor—a whole lot of banging and rattling and clattering and general clumsiness—and I smiled, because I knew it was him.

Albeit I was kinda surprised when I opened the door and saw him standing there on his crutches with a grocery bag full of ingredients in one hand, a nineties CD boombox in the other, and a bag of honeycomb clenched in his teeth.

" Mmm-rr-grr-mmm-nnnnmm ," was all he managed to mumble.

I laughed as I plucked the bag of honeycomb from his teeth. "What was that, my beautiful boyfriend? I missed a word or two."

He grinned back. "I said, I might need a hand here. These crutches are a total pain in the ass."

"Allow me."

I took the grocery bag and the boombox off him and let River hobble his way into the parlor.

"What on earth is this?" I asked, setting the boombox down on the bench beside my mixing bowl and plonking the grocery bag on the counter. "I thought we were doing popcorn and a DVD in bed tonight."

He kissed me, almost slipping off his crutches as he said, "I wanted to surprise you with something else first."

I bit my bottom lip. "Oh River, you know I'm not good with surprises."

He tickled my ribs playfully, before almost sliding off his crutches again. "I think you're gonna love this one."

"Where did you even find this thing?" I was pointing to the boombox, blowing the dust off the top of it.

"I found it in my old man's store, tucked behind a stack of canned wieners and a whole heap of blank VHS tapes. You gotta hand it to my old man. Just when you think something vanished in the nineties, never to be seen again, suddenly there it is on a shelf in the back of his store."

"Speaking of vanishing. I think I may have figured out where Mavis and Dwight might be."

River's eyes lit up. "Where? Nobody's seen them since the day the Ritz blew up."

"I know. I'll never forget the look on their faces when Harry told them the destruction of the Ritz was now a matter for the authorities. They were like two criminals already planning their escape."

"They practically winked to each other and waltzed right out of town," River agreed.

"Well now they're going to waltz back in time to open a whole new chapter. The magazines in Tinsel Town are abuzz with news that a movie star from Hollywood's golden years has bought the abandoned Hanging Gardens of Babylon . Apparently, she and her beau intend to restore it to its original glory and bring some style and elegance back to Los Angeles. Sound like anyone we know?"

River shuffled close to me on his crutches. "U-huh. And it sounds romantic as hell to me."

He leaned in and kissed me…

Pressing close against me…

Before I kissed him back on his wavering crutches .

"Speaking of romantic," he said. "I may well have the perfect evening planned for you and me."

I arched one eyebrow. "You do?"

"Mm-hmm. Although I may need your help."

"To do what, exactly?"

"Well, first of all, I need you to get your mixing bowl ready and pull the ingredients out of the grocery bag I brought over. Cream. Sugar. Pecans. Oh, and don't forget the honeycomb."

As I set up the spinning mixing bowl and began to pour the ingredients into it, I heard River click a CD into the boombox.

A moment later, the Righteous Brothers' "Unchained Melody" filled the parlor.

From my right side, River's strong hand appeared, running its way down my forearm to grip the wooden spoon and take control.

From my left side, his other hand appeared, reaching down to my hand and taking it in his.

Over my shoulder, his face appeared.

His lips kissed my neck.

His chest pressed against my back.

His right hand took the spoon from mine, tossing it aside, and before I knew it he had plunged our fingers into the sugary, creamy, yumminess inside the bowl.

Together we molded it like clay, letting it spin and swirl and twirl in our hands.

He lifted one of my hands from the bowl and licked the cream off my slick, sweet finger.

He nibbled my earlobe.

He breathed into my ear—"I love you, Clarry. I will always love you."

"Oh River!" I shuddered, ready to melt into his arms. "And I will always love—"

Suddenly his left crutch slid out from underneath him.

River slipped backward, and with his arms wrapped around me, he took me down with him .

He hit the floor first and I landed on top of him…

Before the bowl full of cream and sugar and pecans and honeycomb followed, splashing over us with a splodge and splatter, covering us in a gooey, gorgeous mess.

And the moment it did, River burst out laughing.

Wide-eyed I stared at the creamy chaos all around us… and my perfect boyfriend's face spattered with cream and a few stray pecans and a chunk of honeycomb caught in his eyebrow… and I burst out laughing too.

I couldn't help but pull the honeycomb out of his brow and smile. "Oh wow, so this is what my hero looks like, huh?"

River kissed me, then pulled a pecan out of my hair.

"Yep. And this is what my hero looks like too."