Free ClarenceBN by Sarah M. Anderson Page A

wind her up again.
    As he patiently brought her to the verge of another orgasm and then expertly pushed her over the edge, a new thought popped up in her head. I love this man . There was no ‘could,’ no ‘falling for.’ Just a fact that she was unequivocally realizing for the first time.  
    Christmas. She’d see how things went between now and Christmas. And then . . . the New Year was only another week away. A new year—a new start.  
    Then maybe they’d talk about something more.
    For the first time in a very long time, Tammy was hopeful about the future.
    *****
    Clarence lifted Rosie Two Horses out of her wheelchair and onto the exam table, where he could check the diabetic sores on her legs and get her cleaned up.  
    Mentally, he was planning his trip into Rapid City after work. It was Thursday—not one of the nights he usually had dinner with Tammy and he had to make good use of his time. He was going to look at diamond rings. Christmas was six weeks off and he probably had enough money saved up for a nice ring, but he didn’t want to leave it to the last minute.  
    He hoped she’d say yes. He wanted to think she would—Halloween had gone off without a hitch, if he didn’t count Mikey getting hopped up on Pixie Stixs and pinballing around until he hit his head and gave himself a nice goose egg. If they could just make it through Thanksgiving . . .
    But despite all the good things—the good times they spent together, both alone and as a family with Mikey—Clarence was worried about the proposal. He was going to be forty in less than three months.  
    Yeah, that worried him because Tammy was so focused on staying in the here and now—what happened when she really considered the future? He was practically an old man. Would she want more kids? Would she decide that, good as Clarence might be for right now, maybe he wasn’t the best choice for the future because he had such a head start on her?
    That was the thought that kept him up at night. He wasn’t young and he was actively not getting any younger. He wanted to be what she needed for both now and forever, but he didn’t know if that was possible.
    Only one way to find out. He was going to ask. And he was going to make damned sure he had a diamond in his hand when he did so.
    Lost in thought and focused on his job, Clarence didn’t see the guy walk into the clinic. But he heard it when Tara said, “What the hell are you doing here?” in her meanest voice, which was usually enough to stop everyone from angry patients to would-be criminals in their tracks. Anyone who got through Tara had to go through him—or Nobody, if Clarence had already gone home.
    “One second,” he said to Rosie as he ducked his head out through the dividing curtains. He didn’t recognize the guy standing in front of Tara—medium height, thin build, shoulder-length black hair that looked as if it’d been cut short and since had grown out. The guy had on a green army-style jacket and what might be combat boots under his jeans.  
    But he didn’t have that lean and hungry look that went with a junkie looking for a fix and the Clinic didn’t exactly operate with a flush of cash. In other words, he didn’t look dangerous—certainly not the kind of guy Clarence would have to set down the hard way. Maybe the kind of guy he’d have a beer with, one former military man with another, but that was it.  
    Clarence was on the verge of turning back to his patient when the guy said something to Tara and she all but exploded out of her chair. “No way in hell, Ezra.”
    All the warning bells went off in Clarence’s head. Ezra? The Ezra—Tammy’s old flame and Mikey’s father? The dickbag himself—here, in the Clinic?
    “You can’t just waltz in here and—” Whatever else Tara had been about to say died as Clarence plowed his way over to the reception desk.  
    “Problem?” he demanded as he glowered at Ezra the dickbag. Yeah, the kid—and so help him, the guy really