Too Wylde Read Online Free PDF Page B

from the young muscle heads and soulfully
unshaven artist wannabes flocking around them, sharing a bottle of
good Chilean cabernet, and to hell with the idea that women only
drank white --
    -- Nina in a classic summer frock, showing
off her tanned taut legs, arms and back, the Converse SWAT boots
her private joke; Lizzy in sleek black tights with a black
miniskirt and knee high leather boots.
    "I love you, Nina," Lizzy said.
    "What?"
    "I love you."
    Nina laughed. "Somewhere there's a guy
groaning and touching himself."
    Lizzy smiled her serene smile. "Really."
    "Okay."
    "Is it hard for you to accept that when it's
said to you?"
    Nina weighed that question, tipped her glass
and emptied it. Lizzy picked up the bottle and poured for Nina,
graceful as a geisha.
    "Yes," Nina said.
    "Thank you. For trusting me."
    "I don't know why."
    "Your heart knows you're safe with me."
    "Am I?"
    "Yes. And you know it."
    Nina tilted her glass. Lizzy picked up hers
and they touched glasses.
    "Here's to knowing," Nina said.
    "Yes."
    They drank their wine together as their eyes
drank each other in.
    ***
    Later, over pate and fresh baguettes, the men
in their life.
    "How's Jimmy?" Nina said.
    Lizzy considered that question. The weight of
the words. Conscientiously spread pate evenly on the baguette
slice.
    "Nina, have you been with men like
Jimmy?"
    Nina snorted. "Honey, not to swell your head,
but there aren't many men like Jimmy. And that's both bad and
good."
    "Have you?"
    "Yes," Nina said. "I have."
    "What should I know about a man like
him?"
    "Oh, Lizzy..." Nina said. "You could write a
book."
    "You could," Lizzy said. "That's not my gift.
But I need, I want, to understand. Will you help me?"
    Nina slowly shredded a baguette slice, rolled
the pieces into little balls, popped them in her mouth.
    "Men like Jimmy," she said. "Wow. Where to
start?"
    "Just let it flow through you," Lizzy
said.
    Nina nodded. "Layers, Lizzy. Think layers of
armor. On top, there's what he wants you to see. Or, rather, what
he *thinks* you want to see. Or what he thinks the rest of the
world wants to see. But that's not real. Jimmy, Jimmy's got
secrets. Not just his doings in Lake City, which we're not going to
talk about...but his whole life. Lots of secrets there. So what do
we do when we run into a man with secrets? We want him to tell us.
But if everything he's about is having and holding secrets, the
normal way, the sitting and listening, the pillow talk, the
day-to-day-ness...that doesn't work."
    Lizzy nodded. "Yes. Eight fold armor."
    "Yes. He's a warrior, though I hate that
word, every wannabe in the world flings it around so much it's lost
it's meaning."
    "What does it mean to you?
    "Warriors are defined by war. It shapes them.
Shapes their thinking, how they relate to the world. They only find
their true selves in the fight, in the battle...and most of their
lives they live impatiently between battles. Does that make
sense?"
    "Yes. Like you."
    Nina stared Lizzy in the eye, not the mad dog
look, just a deep and honest appraisal. "Yes. Like me."
    "It's not only the men who are warriors."
    "Not on my fucking planet."
    They both laughed, turning heads across the
restaurant.
    "And..." Lizzy said.
    "He's defined by secrets he holds and fights
he enters into. And being prepared for that. And Jimmy...Jimmy in
particular -- he's got a deep hurt. A wound. A wound with a capital
W. That's one of his deepest secrets."
    "Yes," Lizzy said. "He has terrible
nightmares. More lately. Something happened to him."
    "The war?"
    Lizzy paused, closed her eyes, tilted her
head as though listening to a voice, far away.
    Opened her eyes.
    "Yes. I know that I can trust you with
this."
    "No. You can't. Jimmy and I aren't
necessarily on the same side of the fence. And you know it. I
respect Jimmy, but if it comes down to it, I'd take him in if it
came to that."
    "You love him too."
    "No."
    Lizzy shrugged, a graceful flexing and
mounding of her thin, muscled shoulders. "We both do, Nina.