Naked Treats Read Free

must reserve my other Sundays. I’m
sorry.”
    She did sound sorry. It must be something very
important that kept her from accepting his offer. Perhaps some
other client. An arrow of pain shot through his gut.
    “I see.” Another man watching Rose at the stove,
another man sitting across from her at the table, peeking through
the sheer lace of her apron. Or did she even wear the apron with
this other man? A second pain shot through him.
    “I do have most of my Friday evenings open,” she
offered.
    “Friday?” His usual night to party. The night he
dated Paige or Kathy or Dawn or whoever, and brought her back here
for a night of wild sex. Was he really willing to give up a sure
thing to have Rose here, naked, but only cooking his dinner?
    “Fridays would be great,” he said.
    “Wonderful,” she purred. “I’m busy this coming
Friday, but I can come the Friday after that. What time should I
arrive?”
    “Seven?”
    “And what would you like to eat?”
    He thought about the dark delights that hid behind
her lacy apron. He swallowed hard.
    “Surprise me.”
    Oh yeah, he had it bad.
    ****
    The following Sunday morning Rose sat in the brightly
painted family visitor’s room at the Mid-Orange Correctional
Facility. She never got used to the sight of the armed guards
stationed at strategic points around the room, the same guards who
also dispensed sets of dominos and decks of cards to approved
visitors. In one corner, a group of toddlers gathered around a
television set to watch a Disney video. Seated in anxious knots at
the other thirty or forty tables scattered around the room, adult
visitors awaited the arrival of their incarcerated loved ones from
the cell blocks.
    Finally, Rose spotted Mikey coming through the metal
door. Always a slight kid, he’d bulked up a lot in the eighteen
months he’d been here. He told her being bigger kept him safer. She
didn’t like to think about what he meant by that. And she still
couldn’t shake the thought that if she’d been paying closer
attention to him instead of throwing herself into culinary school,
she might have prevented him getting into trouble in the first
place.
    Their parents had died suddenly several years before,
leaving Rose, only nineteen, as the guardian of her two younger
siblings. Keeping them fed and going to school every day had seemed
a major accomplishment at the time. She hadn’t meant to let Mikey
go astray.
    Visitors and inmates were allowed a short hug, and
Rose almost cried when Mikey clung to her for several seconds past
the regulation twenty. They sat down across from each other and she
dealt out the playing cards as usual. They played gin together
every time she came. The game gave them something to focus on for
the hour she was there.
    After the second hand, she leaned across the table
and looked him in the eye.
    “I’m going to get you out of here, Mikey.” She’d been
making that promise to him every time she visited. Saying the words
did nothing to dull the sharp edge of guilt she always carried. But
now, with Zack Cranston paying her double for Friday nights, she’d
have the money to cover a new attorney’s retainer in a matter of a
few months.
    “Yeah?”
    “Yeah. I just got a big raise from one of my clients.
In no time you’ll be getting a visit from one of those hot-shot
lawyers at Feinstein, Jackson and Lowe. Once they hear how the DA
railroaded you, I’m sure they’ll take your case. If they’re half as
good as I’ve heard they are, you’ll get that appeal and you just
might make it home for Christmas.
    Mikey’s hand covered hers and squeezed.
    “I’m counting on turkey with all the trimmings,
sis.”
    “Cranberry sauce, pie, the works,” she promised.
    Mikey’s eyes went shiny.
    “Thanks for believing in me.”
    “What kind of big sister would I be if I didn’t?”
    “You’d be surprised. Lotsa guys in here, their
families don’t stand by ‘em. I’m lucky to have you watching out for
me.”
    Rose