by Jeny Heckman
“Look, Raven,” Donovan said, sounding exasperated. “I have no idea what you’ve been doing to get by the last two months. It sounds like you’ve lost complete control of your faculties. You are washing out, and quite frankly, Amanda will become a huge draw as a result of this fundraiser.”
She looked at the bottle and wondered if he could actually kill her with words. Shrugging, she gulped again, trying to gain courage.
“It’s for the homeless though, right Donovan? This is all for those poor homeless people?”
“Do I need to remind you who handed you your life, Raven? Don’t you understand that I can also take it all away? Would you like to see what I can really do?”
“No.”
“Splendid. I will see you in ten days.”
And without saying goodbye, he was gone. She sat down on a tree root sticking high up off the ground. Dazed and numb, she remembered sitting on the floor of her condo in her fluffy socks and feeling the same exact way.
She looked at the bottle, then drank deeply before raising her head. Finn was through the trees a few feet away, listening intently to his friend Ray. His shirt was off, sunglasses perched on his forehead, arms crossed over his chest and one hand running through his beard. His strong oblique muscles vee’d down into his cornflower blue board shorts. He was hers or at least was for now. Her golden man.
“Oh, dude, check this.” Ray became animated. “I just heard Texas traded Colt Stone.”
“What? That’s stupid.”
“Right?”
“To who?”
“Seattle.”
Raven stood and walked out of the trees toward the keg.
“They’re trading the best tight end in the league to Sea…” Finn’s voice stopped. “Hold up man, to be continued.”
She weaved just a little and brought the three-quarters empty bottle toward her mouth but missed and poured it down her chest.
“Come on, Rave.” Finn laughed. “Let’s go for a walk.”
“Aren’t ya havin’ any fun?”
“Sure, but getting fresh air is fun too.”
She smiled at him, not quite realizing she stood in the fresh air and followed him to the beach. She held his hand as the sun began to set.
“So, what’s going on?”
“What?”
He took the bottle from her, uncorked it, and drank a little. She reached for it too, but he held it at arm’s length.
“You’ve had enough.” Moving her in front of him, he placed a hand on her waist to support her better. “Now, what happened? Who was on the phone?”
“Oh, him.”
“Him?”
“Donovan… He’s such a dickhead,” she slurred. Finn had just taken another shot, and this caused him to draw up short with a snort of laughter.
“Okay,” he said, still chuckling. “And what did the dickhead want?”
“Well, he hates my hair and says I look like a terrible cupcake or something. Then he said when I do the concert, in a week, I have to do my old set, but I don’t wanna. Oh, and his twelve-year-old karaoke mistress, well, I’ll be opening for her.”
He stopped laughing and let go of her as she staggered a little way ahead, then turned around to face him.
“What do you mean concert? Where, in Seattle?”
“Oh yeah, we stopped talking ’round then. We had sex though,” she said, giving him a feline smile.
“Raven,” he cautioned.
“We had such a great sex time.” She stepped toward him, and he stepped back.
“A great sex time?” He grinned at her and brushed the hair back from her face. “God, woman, you’re so wasted.” She took another step toward him. “Seriously, you’re really drunk and gonna make my life very hard.” He paused, then added, “Literally and figuratively.”
“I’m not a little drunk.” She stood in front of him, eyes slightly unfocused but sparkling. “You’re so pretty. Did I ever tell you I think you’re pretty? Like a little golden man.”
“Guys are not pretty. They’re hot or sexy or something manly like that,” he retorted as she began to unbutton her shirt. “Wait, Raven, there are rules here.”
“We had sex in the water.” She removed her blouse, and he scraped his teeth against his upper lip, staring at her black lacy bra. “And on my table.”
“Stop.” She took off her skirt, and he looked down at the matching panties and groaned. “I swear you got my libido confused with a twenty-year-old.”
Raven grinned and decided she was winning. The sun had set in an afterglow of soft amber color, the peaceful tranquility juxtaposing the fire circulating through her blood. He looked helpless, scanning her body, as she removed her lingerie.
“Raven, there’s rules,” he said again with considerably less conviction. She walked up to him, grabbed a fistful of his hair.
“Fuck the rules, Finn,” she whispered.
****
Surprise warred with lust inside him. Good guy? Bad guy? Fucking horny guy?
“Aw, shit,” he gasped when she pulled the small tie on his board shorts and reached for him. Trying to pull away, he looked down the beach, but she was suddenly like a spider monkey, all over him and all at once. “What is it with you and the outdoors?” She pulled back and looked into his face through sexy lashes.
“Yep,” she said breathlessly. “Very, very pretty.”
“Okay, wait, damn it,” he cried, as she placed his hand on her breast, automatically causing him to squeeze.
“No.” She pulled his shorts down, then pushed him onto the sand and straddled him. “Come on Finn, just have some fun with me.”
He gave up trying to stop it and kissed her. Moving her off him, he laid her down on the soft sand, on top of their clothes. Feeling her body clamp down hard around him, he pulled back a little and watched her. Eyes closed, back arched, her magnificent breasts on display, she gyrated her hips on his. He could see the pressure building in her and felt it deep within him.
Overwhelmed with how beautiful she looked, he closed his eyes and listened as she made the little noises he’d grown to anticipate. Raven opened her unfocused eyes and hooked an arm around his neck, drawing him down to kiss her. When he opened his eyes again, she was staring into them.
“I love you, Finn.”
Before he could say anything or process what he’d heard, an intense almost painful orgasm spread from his center and throughout his body. It was several minutes of clinging to each other and breathing hard before either could speak and even then, Raven just hummed. He reeled, trying to understand what the hell had just happened. He laid his cheek between her breasts and felt her heart beat fast as she stroked his hair.
By the time they got to his place, she was only sleepy. He carried her up the stairs, removed her clothes, and laid her in bed before climbing in himself. Putting an arm behind his head, he stared at the ceiling. She turned to him in sleep, and he automatically drew an arm around her, bringing her close. She wouldn’t remember what she said that night, in the same way he’d never forget it. Not knowing where or if that fit in his life scared the hell out of him.
****
The blinding light was the first thing she recognized. Blinding sunlight and shocking pain, like someone was shanking her brain with a chard of glass over and over again. She opted to pull the covers up over her head and open her eyes in that cocoon first. Then, she exposed herself to a little more light until she could tolerate it without whimpering. Noticing Finn’s sunglasses sitting on his nightstand, she grabbed at them greedily, before placing them gingerly on her face. The slight extra pressure caused her to whimper again. What had she done to herself?
Pulling the soft white duvet up over her breasts, she stared at the ceiling. Raven didn’t know where Finn was and was quite sure she didn’t want him to see her like this. Instead, she tried to piece together the night before. Volleyball, drinks, Nate announced his wife’s pregnancy, which caused her to smile again despite herself, then more drinks. Then she g
ot a phone call. Who had it been? Her face paled to paper white. Donovan. She was tipsy and talked to Donovan. What had she said? She couldn’t remember. Then she was on the beach with Finn and…
“Oh my God. Oh my God!” She sat up and yelped again. “I did not,” she announced to the room. “I…”
“Ah, yes… Yes, you did.” Finn had been sitting in a chair. He folded the paper, stood up, and threw it on the table. He walked to the kitchen for the tray he’d prepared. “You were like a super sex freak on the beach,” he said when he returned.
She paled even more if that was possible. Sitting down on the bed, he placed the tray between them. There was a large glass of water, some peppermint tea, a banana, some crackers, and some aspirin on it. She snatched the aspirin and uncapped the water.
“Shut up.”
“Oh, shut up is it?” He gave her thigh, the closest thing to him, a gentle squeeze. “Now that I know you can bend around like that babe, it opens up a whole new world for us.” He grinned more broadly when all she did was blanch, causing her to wonder what precisely she had said and done. Chuckling, he stood up and walked back to the kitchen table to retrieve his coffee. “Eat something. It’ll make you feel better.”
Dee called to him through the open window. Raven scrunched down into the bed. She was embarrassed his grandmother was there, and she was in Finn’s bed. He padded to it and looked down at the foot of the stairs.
“Morning, Dee.”
“Good morning, dear. I was just going to go to the market. Can I get you anything?”
“No, I don’t think so.” He turned to Raven and called, “Do you want anything different at the store?” She hissed at him to be quiet, and he gave her a perplexed look, before turning back to his grandmother. “I think we’re good.”
“Okay, well, tell Raven I want her to stay for dinner with us tonight.”
“Okay, I will. Love you.”
“Love you too, dear.” And she was gone.
“So, can you stay for—” He turned toward her and got beaned with a pillow.
“Are you crazy? Oh my God,” she squeaked.
He let the pillow drop, looking over at her with a strange expression on his face. She could see her reflection in the mirror next to him. Face pink, hair disheveled, his sunglasses on crooked, and one long, tanned leg was on top of the covers. She looked horrible, but he merely gave a slight shake of his head and smirked at her.
“What in the hell’re you doin’?”
“Now your grandma knows I slept here last night, with you, in this bed.” She pointed at the covers.
“So?”
“So! So! She’s from a different generation, Finn. She’s gonna think I’m a total slut.”
“Well, there was last night. Ow!” She had thrown another pillow at him, and he roared with laughter. “She lived through the sixties, Raven.” He walked toward the bed. “She’s smoked pot, probably still does.” He crawled over the blankets. “She wears flowers in her hair.” He set her tray on the floor. “Have you checked out how she dresses? She was front and center of the sexual revolution in this country.”
He took both her hands and held them over her head as he hovered above her. “Do you honestly think she cares if her thirty-six-year-old grandson, whom she loves, has sex with a thirty-four-year-old woman she respects, in his bed, at his house? Besides.” He leaned down and kissed her. “We haven’t had sex in this bed…yet.” He widened his eyes devilishly at her.
“No, I will vomit on you.” When he pulled down the covers to reveal her breasts and take a nipple into his mouth, she amended, “Okay, fine, but I’m leaving your sunglasses on.”
Chapter 24
Dee made a dinner of poi, lomi-lomi salmon, rice, and pineapple. Asking the couple to set the table in the garden, she heard Raven gasp when she turned the corner into paradise. A warm wind blew through the ornamental grasses. The sun seemed to light from within the bright yellow flowers, gardenias, and orchids of every color, and the old banyan tree moved as if alive. Finn’s grandmother watched as the impact of color and scent took Raven’s breath away and to Dee, there was no higher compliment.
“Oh my God, Dee,” Raven exclaimed and turned back to the woman, as she padded out the door. “This, this—I’ve never seen anything so incredible. How did you do all this?” Pleased, the older woman put an arm around Raven’s waist and tilted her hand back and forth.
“Oh, a little of this, a little of that. You go on now. We’ll have all night to admire my handiwork.”
“Pretty cool, right?” Finn said, coming out to help her set the table. “The woman can literally grow anything.”
“It’s so incredibly beautiful. If this were my backyard, I’d never leave it.”
“Yeah, she tried to teach me how to do this growing up, but I just wanted to go surfing and chase girls.”
They sat enjoying their dinner, talking about Nate and Annie’s announcement from the night before, leaving out Raven’s drunken forays. Finn cleared the dishes and returned with a bottle of chardonnay. He seemed to read something in Raven’s face, so he grabbed her a bottle of water, then handed a glass of wine to Dee. Afterward, he stepped down onto the grass and walked in worn, frayed jeans and bare feet around the garden.
“You still want to increase the size of this koi pond?” he asked, raising his voice to be heard.
“I think so, but let’s wait until after summer.” Dee looked around the garden restlessly, trying to figure out how best to broach the topic she most wanted to discuss. Finally, Raven gave her the perfect opening.
“Hmm,” Raven said, closing her eyes and breathing in the scents. “I can see why you picked Demeter.”
“Demeter?” Finn queried, stepping onto the deck.
“You know, Demeter from Greek mythology.”
“Oh, wow, I forgot all about that.” He sat down and turned his attention to his grandmother. “Sorry Dee, how’s your project going?”
“Well, it’s been pretty interesting…enlightening,” Dee said.
“Enlightening, huh. How so?”
“It’s how some people respond to the gods today. They pray to them.”
“Yeah, I could see some people still believing in all that, especially maybe in Greece.”
“Well, no, I meant here.”
“Here?” He glanced over at her and looked alarmed at what she was sure was a flustered and anxious face. He leaned forward and took her hands. “Hey, you okay? What’s going on with you?”
“Well.” She gulped her wine, took a big deep breath, and decided to test the waters. “Something very—well, strange happened a few weeks ago.”
Finn looked briefly over at Raven, with a concerned frown. He moved aside Dee's glass and put a forearm on the table, and an arm around her shoulders, peering at her.
“What’re you talking about?”
“Oh,” she said nervously, “you’re going to think I’m so crazy, but I promise it’s all real.”
“Okay, Grandma, you’re scaring me a little now.”
Knowing that he only called her Grandma when he felt intense emotions, she tried to think about how to say things. Coming up with nothing, she decided to jump in with both feet.
“On April seventeenth I was out here working when the wind started acting funny,” she blurted.
“Funny?” Finn looked intently into her eyes. Raven moved her head back and eyes cast downward as if making a calculation. “Funny how?”
“It slowed down, then sped up, then kind of swirled up.”
“Swirled up?” he asked cautiously, eyes narrowed like she was a time bomb about to go off.
“Damn it, Finn. Sit back and drink some wine; you’re making me nervous.”
He did what she asked, and she continued to tell them about the strange water spout in the ocean and the golden beam of light. She explained how her own feet guided her to where she was supposed to go. Finn kept scrubbing a hand over his face, as Raven just gazed at the woman with apprehension.
“Called to you?”
“I got the box out of where I had it and when I touched it, I felt like I was eighteen years old all over again. But then I didn’t only feel that way, I-I looked it.”
“Grandma, what in the hell are you talking about?” he asked in an almost melodic voice like she was crazy.
“I’m telling you, I looked down at my hands, and they were young. I sat cross-legged on the floor. My eyes were clear without my glasses. I was young again.”
“You were dreaming.” He stood up and reached down to her. “Come on, let’s let you lie down awhile.”
“Please just listen, okay? Let me tell you all of it.”
“Finn,” Raven said quietly, “come on, sit down.” He did and let out a shaky breath.
“I took out the box and set it on my lap. I could never open it before. It’s always been sealed shut but it just opened, and there was this kind of round thing inside. It was like part of a ball that looked like frosted glass, but it wasn’t glass. It was like exposed electricity, only not electricity.” She was disheartened because she couldn’t articulate it well.
She chanced a look at Finn, who had his head in his hands, then at Raven, who had a hand on his back but just smiled back at her, sympathetically. Dee focused.
“The thing sparked. It had all the knowledge of the world, and when I touched the surface, a woman came out.” Finn’s head snapped up to look at her and narrowed his eyes again.
“A woman came out of a crystal ball? Is that what you’re trying to tell me?”
“She was ghost-like and flowy, and her hair was long. She had a cloth around her eyes.”
“Kinda like you this morning,” Finn quipped, looking back at Raven and standing up.
“She said her name was Themis.”
“Themis?” Raven spoke hoarsely. “The Titan lady…Themis?” Finn glared at her but looked back at Dee.