Seaside

Ali's phone rang as they were about to get up and head toward the beach. When she saw who was calling, she responded loudly, "God DAMMIT." Then in the cheeriest voice ever, she said. "Hi Jason, how's the world of ink slinkers?" Whoever Jason was, started talking and talking. Ali interjected an occasional no and no way or an occasional grunt. All the time Ali was on the phone, she shook her head and gave her phone the famous middle finger. "All right, Jason, I'll do it. Send me the usual agreement with the terms you outlined. Let me review it; if acceptable, I'll return it to you signed. Or I may add in revisions and additions."

After putting her phone away, Ali went to the parking lot and screamed, "SHIT." Walking back to where Alex and Fred were, she explained. "I just picked up an assignment I did not want for the author whom I despise. But the money is too good, and to boot. They are giving me a dream setup with a new high-end laptop, a set of monitors, a printer, and a ton of other stuff to knit it all together. This gig will earn me way over my regular rate. And it could move me into the top tier of freelance editors if everything goes right. So, I guess I'm gunna do it. I'll be a gnome for the next month or so."

After breakfast the following morning, a van from Miami rolled up to where Ali was staying. Two folks got out and went into her place while Ali stood outside and listened to what they were saying. The laptop, monitors, and printer were all set up by noon. The new setup was able to improve the internet connection massively. And Ali disappeared inside what became her cave.

She would surface in the morning to have breakfast with Alex and Fred, then disappear into her cave. In the afternoon, Maria and Juan would come over with some wraps, sliced fresh fruit, and water bottles. Otherwise, Ali was a gnome, a recluse. Three weeks later, the mortal remains of Ali wandered out of her cave and towards where Alex and Fred were. She fell onto the stool next to Alex and feebly looked up, muttering. "It's done. I sent it in two hours ago and got an auto-response. That Jason had gotten the complete set of files. Thank god, I can leave my cave. And return to the world of living and spend some time with you two guys. OH? Has anything been heard from Ms. Karen?"

Fred could feel that his new best friend was back, so he started head-butting her, demanding that she pay attention to him. With that, Ali leaned over and began rubbing his ears. Which he loves, and to show his love. His front paws landed on her lap as he stretched to give her a wet sloppy kiss. Ali gave him a big hug and a kiss on top of his head. "Thank you, Fred. I needed that so much."

Alex sat back and watched them and smiled. "Oh, Ali? You asked about Ms. Karen. I got a picture of the license plate of the SUV she is driving along with her picture and sent them to some old friends of mine that I used to work with. They ran it, and no surprise, it's a rental from Miami. The rental agency had her driver's license. Here's the surprise, it's a fake. A perfect forgery, but still a fake. Most of the time, her license would pass muster. But the Feds prodded the system to double-check, which returned as a forgery. They have the name she's using, and they were able to find where she's staying in SoBe. She is the younger sister of the kid I shot, stopping a hijacking. Her daddy promised that he would get even with me. Her family rarely leaves their home turf in the city. So, she has a babysitter now. If I know my old friends, they have her hotel room and car bugged, and she has a shadow when she leaves the hotel. She ain't going nowhere."

"Alex? Like you are going to be, OK? Safe? What do you think could happen?" The concern in Ali's voice was genuine.

While Ali was talking, Alex reached down and petted Fred's head. "Ali, thank you. As you know, Fred will signal if he senses anything that could be trouble. You saw him alert when he saw Ms. Karen. If you looked around now, you might be able to pick out a couple of cops watching the beach like hawks. Nothing will get close here as long as she's doing the cool babe thing in SoBe. Don't worry. I'm not. Right, Fred?" Fred answered with a series of loud barks as he wagged his tail.

Ali smiled and leaned back slightly. "Folks, I am so tired. Tell you what I am going to do. I'm going to wander back to my hideout. Crawl on top of the bed and then. Then I will closely examine the inside of my eyelids. See you guys tomorrow?" With that, Ali stood up, then, turning to Alex, she hugged him and kissed his cheek lightly.

The next morning, Ali stuck her nose outside and looked around to see if she saw anyone who might be a cop watching the area and failing. Then she heard Alex shout at Fred. "Fred, look. There's your friend. Go get Ali." Fred tore across the beach and ran up to her, and began doing what he loved doing, herding. Ali had a four-legged escort to Maria's and Juan's place. Alex was sitting at his usual place and smiling happily. After Ali sat down, she asked Maria for a regular Café Americano. Then Alex commented. "So? You were looking around to see if you could find the cops out here? Right? And did you?"

Ali looked down and shook her head, "Noo. But you knew that didn't you? Fuckwad. By the way, fuckwad. So that you know, while I was doing my thing and being a gnome. You and your buddy here were on my mind almost always. I wish I had a picture of you two on my desk and a picture of Tio Maria and Tia Juan."

Maria came to where Ali was sitting and gave her a cup of coffee and a smile that said, welcome back. Alex waited a moment until Maria stepped away. "Ali? You see the kid over there renting beach chairs and umbrellas?" She nodded, thinking he couldn't get out of his way. "He is a sharpshooter. Likely as not, he has a long barrel rifle close to him. He can take out anything on this beach. If you look towards the breakwater, you'll see some guys fishing there. Guess what? They are sharpshooters too. Nothing moves here they don't see. Some cameras cover the entire beach, and others the approaches to the beach. The cameras feed into a place nearby that monitors them, and they stay in contact with the guys on the beach. The Feds believe something will happen, when or what they don't know yet. But it will. When it happens, they will be ready."

"Alex? Can they watch the beach too, where Fred chases the birds, and we go swimming"?

Alex chuckled, "Give the lady a gold star. Nothing moves out here that they don't see. Girl, being out here now is like being on a stage."

One of the many beautiful things about the shack was that the customer had a choice. They could either take it or leave it. That made ordering simple and easy. When Juan dropped the day's omelet in front of the twosome, they dove in and devoured everything on the plate. This time it was a fresh seafood omelet with the usual fresh fruit garnish. The instant they finished, Fred began to dance about, knowing that he would be chasing down them nasty little birds again. And this time, yes, he would catch one of them.

It was another lazy morning. After breakfast, Fred chased all the shorebirds away, at least for the moment. While Ali and Alex sat together on the beach, watching, enjoying his attics. When the two of them got up and started walking towards the water hand in hand, Fred flew over to them. And they all went for their morning swim. Life was settling back into an enjoyable pattern. Then they left the water and returned to where Ali had left her beach bag. Her phone was buzzing, telling her someone had left a text. That interruption made her growl. She took the phone out and, looking to see who had called, made her growl change into an expression of disgust. Ali looked up from the phone, "Alex? The damm asshole of a publisher sent me a text. I need to see what he thinks he wants."

Standing on the beach dripping wet, Ali called her client. Their conversation went on for several minutes. Ali mostly listened, nodding, with the occasional yes or OK tossed in. Then the call ended. And she tossed the phone into the beach bag. Ali took a deep breath. Then let out an almost primal scream, "YEESSS!!! The publisher met yesterday and last night with the author and his agent. They loved what I did in editing and rewriting the book. The author wants me to be his editor for all his future books. This book will be taken to the Bonn Book Fair. That fair is the principal book fair in Europe before the holiday season. In the next couple of weeks, the literary critics for many major outlets will get a pre-publication copy of the book. The people in my world will know who the editor is. That will take me to the first rank. Alex! I can't believe it. It has happened." Suddenly Ali became like a little elfin fairy dancing gleefully around and around.

Alex and Fred watched her dance recital and shook their heads in amusement. "Hey, lady," Alex called out. "I gotta take the beast home before he gets cranky. Give him breakfast and fresh water. You wanta come wid us?" Ali's eyes exploded with one of her patented smiles. She enthusiastically nodded as the wild mop of red hair on top of her head flew in all directions. Ali and Alex walked towards Alex's house, hand in hand. Fred pushed his way between them.

After they walked into Alex's house and Ali looked around. Alex commented. "That is the first time Fred ever walked with me back here from the beach. Usually, he is racing around with his tail wagging, leading the way. Not today. Me thinks the change in his behavior had something to do with you being there. Anyway, let me get his water and food set out."

Ali chimed in, "Can I do his water?" Before getting an answer, she had Fred's water bowl in her hands, which was quickly filled and put back in place. Then she began exploring while Alex fixed the pup's food. After putting the food bowl down, Alex began to look around for Ali. Then he heard a question from her coming from the bedroom. "Hey, Alex? Did you know that you have a naked woman in your bed?" After that, there was a soft giggle.

Alex was standing at the door leading to the bedroom. "Woman! You're nutso. Do you know that?"

Ali sat up in bed, with the sheet pulled to her neck, and smiled. "Hey, handsome man. Come join me, and we can make love and discover another side to ourselves." Alex slipped into bed next to the woman stealing his heart. The two of them slowly began to explore each other. At first, they traded a thousand soft kisses like the warm summer rain as their hands began to explore each other. Alex found how sensitive and soft Ali's breasts were. When he tweaked her nipples, her response was a mixture of yes and a low long groan as she pushed her breasts into his hands. Next on the grand tour for Alex was her flaming red mound. His fingers slipped in and out of the kinky hair found there. He heard her passionate screams of surrender. Going on, he discovered the little nub. All the while, Ali wrapped a hand around his cock, which she wouldn't let go of. Mixed into her moans was a warning, "Alex, you keep doing that. And I promise I will squirt all over your hand, baby."

Along the way, he had slipped his knees between her knees. As he did that, Ali opened her legs and thrust her hips up to offer her man easy entrance into the wet pussy that awaited him. Then, holding his cock he began to tease, to slap her pussy with his hard cock. The result was even more cries as Ali begged,,, then demanded,,, then screamed that he needed to give her his cock. Finally, the damp gates that would take him into the center of this woman's being were opened. They spun out into a new world for them. That ended when they exploded together in a chorus of cries and fell into each other's arms as their eyes closed.

"GOD DAMM it, Fred!" Alex exploded. "ALI! I am going to kill your damm dog."

With that, Ali sat up in bed and groggily called out. "Come here, Freddy. What did my sweet little puppy do to his daddy."

"I'll tell you what your damm mutt did. He stuck his ice-cold nose in the middle of my back while I had a wonderful dream about us running around a field of wildflowers. That was the most wonderful dream I've had in ages and ages."

Fred had his paws on the bed and looked at his mommy, saying, 'I'm sorry. But I was lonely and needed to hear daddy.'

"Alex, I'll make you a deal. OK? Let's go back to my place. I need to grab a couple of things. I've heard that down the road from here is a place that does great hamburgers. And I need one. That work for you, Mr. Alex?"

"Hey, Miss Lady, for your general fund of information. If we go up the coast, there's a small town that's called Nuova Venezia. People from Vence originally settled the town. Today it is the home of many commercial fishing boats that work in the Gulf. They have great fresh seafood there that is done exactly how you would find it in Vence. Many of the locals there speak the version of Italian you'd hear in Vence. That's someplace to put on the must go to list."

It didn't take them long to get dressed, and off they went to Ali's little cottage, with Fred sandwiched between his humans. As they walked up to the door, Alex saw the sign. "NO SNOW ALLOWED." Ali dashed off and returned with her beach bag full in two or three minutes. While she was gone, Alex looked around the small living room. The only thing in the room was a long table with an ultra-high-end lap tap connected to three monitors. In the corner was a large printer, and several black boxes with blinking lights were scattered around. As Ali returned, she went to where Alex was confused by her computer setup. "Alex, this setup allows me to rewrite a lengthy manuscript easily and quickly. It's my lifesaver. Anyway, let's go and find that hamburger. Along the way, we can talk."

Ali tossed her beach bag over her shoulder, and the threesome headed toward Alex's car. "You know, Fred will be confused. He has always ridden in the front seat." As Alex opened the car door for Ali, Fred jumped in and sat in his usual seat. Alex pointed to the backseat, which got Fred to whine. As if he was saying, 'Who me, ride in the back?' But he did move when Ali began sitting down. Alex hopped in and saw the mini-drama playing out as Fred got in the back. "Ali, you know you are changing Fred's whole world too?"

That got Ali to chuckle. "Ya know, Mister Boss Man, you guys aren't the only one that has seen their world change. When I got here, I intended to hang out for a month or maybe two months. Soak up sunshine and eat tons of fresh seafood. Then I would return to where I came from, The Big Apple. Well, what can I say? Shit happens? I met a man here who is like me in so many ways. He's hiding out here, too, like I was. He's very independent. And he's a little dinged up. But this man and his crazy dog have shared so much with me. They took me by the hand and showed me warmth and friendship. In return, they asked for nothing. Somewhere along the way, I found myself loving both of them. Alex, you are the warmest, most loving soul I have ever met. I want to be with you, to be your sidekick." Stopping, she took a deep breath as they zoomed over another bridge. "I've been married and divorced. I don't want to get married anytime soon, but I sure do want to be with you all the time. Lord, I pray you are good with that."

"To answer the unasked question, I spoke with the agent who has the rental on the cottage I'm still in and extended my stay until the snowbirds begin to arrive. I also asked him where I might find a permanent place to live. I'm sure you know where all the mangroves grow that leads out to the creek. I'm told there are several irregularly shaped lots out there. I'm thinking of buying one and building a jack up house there. So? Mister Boss Man, do you want to help me to design a house?"

Ali's question got Alex laughing as they got off the bridge, then he turned down a hidden side street. "Ms. Alison, You are a thief. I get what you're saying about not getting married any time soon. But, you done stole my dog. Look at poor old Fred now. Usually, Malli's are bonded to one person. And Fred was until you came along." That got Ali to giggle as she nodded her head. "Like that wasn't bad enough. You done stole my heart too. Woman, you got sticky fingers. But yeah, I realized how good I feel being with you. Yes ... yes, Ms. Alison, I do love you too. And yeah, I want to be with you from now on. I guess I'm tired of hiding. Lady, you have shown me the way out of my hiding hole and back into the world of the living. Thank you, dear lady."

A few minutes later, they pulled into the parking lot of a small restaurant that offered a large patio to sit outside. Found a table that was back away from other people there so Fred wouldn't be tempted to go towards anyone or take off towards someone's prized pink toy poodle. As they sat down, Alex pointed to a spot between them, and in a flash, Fred was sitting there. With that, Ali leaned over and scratched Fred's ear as she told him what a good puppy he was. Then looking up at Alex, recalling a phone call with one of her old friends from back home. She smiled, knowing that this was no rebound romance. This was the real thing for both of them.

When the waitress came over, Ali greeted her with one of her magnetic smiles. She ordered Alex a hamburger with no onions. Cause she didn't wanta kiss onion breath. And the same for her. Also, a raw burger for the cute little puppy who's being such a good boy staying at mommy's feet. Oh, and a bowl of water for him too. Mister Man over there can have only one beer cause he's driving. And I'll have a beer too. Alex butted in and asked for a basket of onion rings too.

When the waitress returned, she had that warm, welcoming smile. First, Fred got his water. Then the lovers got their beer. Next came the basket of Onion Rings. When Ali saw it, she exploded. "My god, baby, this is huge. Like enough to feed six people."

With that, Alex snickered as he leaned over to the woman who had taken over his life, and he whispered. "You want huge? I'll give you something huge."

Ali returned the favor as she pushed her chair close to the crazy man. "Promises, promises. You men are all alike. Making promises on what you can't deliver on." They continued along the same path until they saw the waitress returning to their table. Ali pushed her chair back to where it was before their whispered exchange began. As the waitress placed her hamburger in front of her, Ali looked toward the waitress. "This thing is huge. I could eat half of this and keep the rest for breakfast." With that said, Ali turned her attention to Alex. "And you, mister, don't say a word." That made the waitress laugh as she put down the rest of the order. Ali first broke off a small piece of the raw hamburger and gave it to Fred, who promptly devoured it and licked her hand. Turning to Alex, with one of her killer smiles. "Baby, you could learn something from my sweet little puppy. To be appreciative of what you get." And on and on, the two of them exchanged loving comments. As they walked out to the car, holding hands and softly smiling, Fred pushed his way between his two humans. They knew that they had just begun a voyage that would take years. Together, they would find new worlds.

Fred stood at the foot of the bed and looked at his two humans piled on each other as the morning sun streamed into the bedroom. He had a schedule set in his mind. By this time, his playmate should be up and headed toward to shower after he was let out to explore the backyard. Alex knew what was about to happen. Fred would pester him to get a move on by pressing his cold nose in the middle of his back. "Freddd, don't even think about it."

Hearing that, Ali smirked. Then she called out. "Fred? Come here, baby. You have to let the old man adjust to the changes in his life. Last night my dear Fred. Daddy was showing off to me a whole new set of exercises. I think the old man is tired from all the new calisthenics." Alex rolled out of bed and listened to the conversation between the woman who had changed his life and his dog. There was an almost primal scream somewhere in the back of his mind. Any remaining questions disappeared into the morning mist. He knew. She was the one, and they would be together no matter what life tossed their way.