by Tami Hoag
“No,” Genna rushed to assure him. “I love your family. They’re wonderful.”
“Yep. The Weird Wonderful Hennessys they call us back home.”
“Your aunt Roberta is priceless.”
He laughed fondly. “She’s a fruitcake, but she’s sweet, isn’t she?”
They fell silent for a moment. It was an awkward silence, something they hadn’t experienced in their relationship even when Genna had disliked him. The sounds of the evening grew almost unbearably loud around them. A click sounded on Jared’s front porch, then a dot of red glowed, indicating Grace had slipped out for one of her secret cigarettes.
Jared turned and braced a hand on either side of Genna’s head. “Listen, I know we haven’t had any time alone this week. I was thinking maybe later I could slip over for a while and—”
“Not tonight, Jared,” she said, shaking her head and lying through her teeth. “This isn’t a good week for me.”
Damn, he thought, as if they didn’t have enough obstacles in their way all of a sudden, now Mother Nature had to get into the act. He brushed Genna’s hair back from her face. “We don’t have to make love, just be together. We need to talk—”
She shook her head. As badly as she’d craved time alone with Jared this week, her emotions were too raw tonight. She needed to be alone, to build herself up for what she was certain was coming: the end.
“Genna, we need to have a serious talk.”
So you can tell me it’s over? No thanks.
“Not tonight, Jared. Please. Don’t push it, okay?”
Just push off. Right, Genna?
He heaved a sigh and looked away. “Will I see you tomorrow?”
“Um—no—I have some things to do tomorrow.”
“Baking for next Easter?” he asked sardonically, stepping back from her.
Sudden tears sprang to Genna’s eyes. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing.”
“I thought you were taking your family to New Haven tomorrow anyway. I thought your father wanted to go to the shipyard or something.”
“Yeah, well, there’s no reason you can’t come along. I’d like you to come along.”
“I can’t.”
“Fine.”
Another silence fell, this one more awkward than the last. Genna was glad darkness had fallen as well. If she looked as much an emotional wreck as she felt, she didn’t want Jared to see her.
“You’re coming to Mom’s party.”
The way he said it made her wonder what he’d do if she refused him. “Yes.”
“Good.”
Silence.
“So …” she started, searching frantically for something to lighten the mood. “What is your dad doing in the garage?”
He flashed a weary version of his famous grin. “He’s working on a special fireworks display. He’s got a board of sparklers spelling out Grace in pink and purple with an exclamation mark that has a built-in rocket launcher that’ll shoot up Roman candles.”
“Sounds exciting,” she said in a tight voice, closer to tears than ever.
The party would be the last she’d see of Jared for weeks, and afterward nothing would be the same. Part of her wanted to spend every minute of every day they had left together wrapped in his arms. But she wouldn’t do that. If Jared was ready to let the relationship go, she wasn’t going to make a scene. She wasn’t going to cling to him and embarrass both of them.
It hurt, but she would tough it out. She was a grown-up. She’d made her own decision to love Jared, knowing what that meant. She’d just have to handle it now.
Jared didn’t miss the tension of restrained tears in Genna’s voice, or the desperation in his own. “Genna, what’s wrong?”
He’d intended to wait until he was sure they would have uninterrupted time to talk about whatever it was that seemed to be pulling her away from him. He’d sworn he wouldn’t push her into anything. But the prospect of her tears scrapped his intentions.
Genna gulped back the knot in her throat, wishing Jared hadn’t put his hands on her shoulders. She could never think straight when he was this close. “Nothing. Why should anything be wrong?”
“You tell me, honey,” he begged, his fingers massaging her tense muscles.
Across the yard Jared’s back door slammed and Alyssa called out, “Daddy, are you coming to tuck me in?”
Jared cursed under his breath, then turned and called back to his daughter, “I’ll be right home, Lyss.”
“You’d better go,” Genna whispered, misery welling in her chest so she could barely breathe.
Jared didn’t move. He could feel Genna slipping away from him. He wanted to know why. He wanted to stop it from happening.
“Dad-dy!”
“Damn,” he muttered. Cupping Genna’s face with one hand, he leaned down and kissed her. Her lips were soft and trembled beneath his in a way that made him want to hold her and protect her forever.
“Da-ad-dy!”
“See you at the party,” he said. Then he turned and loped off across the grass.
Genna watched him snatch Alyssa up in his arms and disappear into the house. Without turning any lights on, she went inside her own lonely little house, climbed the stairs, and sat on the empty bed, where Jared had made love to her.
Silver moonlight spilled through the open window, lighting the room almost as adequately as a lamp. Genna let her eyes roam over her bedroom, her possessions, and mementos. She had a good life, a fulfilling life. Why did it suddenly seem to stretch before her like a vast wasteland?
Why? That was a good word on a moon-drenched night when she sat alone. Why couldn’t Jared Hennessy want her for more than the summer?
A long, soft sigh escaped her as she stretched out on the bed and lay looking out her window at Jared’s house. Her eyes were remarkably dry. There was really no sense in crying. Life was life and there wasn’t anything she could do about it. She might have been able to change Jared’s outward appearance, but she couldn’t change what was in his heart—no more than she could change what was in her own.
ELEVEN
“HELL OF A party, isn’t it, Jean?” Roberta exhaled a jetstream of blue smoke into the night air. She had borrowed one of Grace’s “flowing robes” to wear for the occasion, a chartreuse organdy creation with a kelly green sash. It hung on her like a sack. It made Genna think of the little boys who played shepherds in the Christmas pageant at school, dressed up in their father’s bathrobes.
Amy stood on the other side of Jared’s aunt. She leaned behind Roberta and gave Genna an incredulous look. Genna cracked the faintest of smiles.
“It’s a lovely party, Aunt Roberta. Can I get you a soda or something?”
“Yes, Jenny, yes, you can.” She grabbed Genna’s hand in an affectionate death grip and stared at her with glassy eyes. “My word, you are such a wonderful girl. I just can’t tell you. I just can’t. Please do get me another soda and put a little ‘or something’ in it, will you?”
“How much ‘or something’ has she had?” Amy asked as she and Genna made their way to the long refreshment table set up along the back of the house.
“Probably none. She’s a little different.”
“Bonkers, you mean.”
Amy’s gaze raced greedily from one end of the table to the other. Spotlights from the side of the house illuminated the bowls and platters of every size and shape, which were crowded onto the red checkered tablecloth. There was everything from cracked crab to barbecued ribs to fresh strawberries to chocolate cake. Thanks to Genna’s donations, there seemed to be an inordinate number of desserts.
Amy grabbed a plate and made one enthusiastic sweep down the table. Genna picked out one stick of celery for herself and mixed a drink for Roberta.
“J.J. sure knows how to throw a party.”
“Mmmm,” was all Genna had to say, an understatement at the very least.
Brightly colored Chinese lanterns were strung all around the backy
ard; they even hung around Flurry’s White Castle doghouse. Blasting rock music, the traveling stereo system of a Hartford radio station was set up on a flatbed truck parked in the alley. The tuxedoed deejay was dancing on the lawn with Grace, who had outdone herself in a gown of cotton-candy pink with a white feather boa.
As with Jared’s first party, the entire neighborhood had been invited. Genna spotted Theron Ralston in his new Willard Scott toupee shoveling shrimp dip onto a paper plate. Theron never passed up free food or a chance to spy on his neighbors. The rotund Mrs. Ralston was trying to eat potato salad and pump information from Bill Hennessy at the same time. Bill went on chewing his bubble gum, making notes in his steno pad, smiling and nodding absently. He had buttoned up the collar of his shocking-blue Hawaiian shirt and worn a thin black necktie for the occasion.
Two more of the Hennessy clan had arrived: Jared’s older sister Anne, a sculptor with her mother’s taste in clothes, and brother Quinn, an oceanographer. Anne was accompanied by her husband, Armand, and their two children. Quinn had come with his new bride, Kate.
Several of Jared’s teammates were present as well. Genna recognized Brutus, the mountain with the mohawk haircut. Dressed in black leather pants and vest, and a black bow tie, he and Aunt Roberta were dancing to a hot tune by the Models. Handsome wide receiver Cory Cooper had captivated Marie’s attention.
Neighborhood kids darted through the throng with water pistols. Flurry ran past with a sandal in his mouth. The yard was crowded with people laughing, dancing, singing—in general having a disgustingly good time, Genna thought crossly. She’d gotten almost no sleep the night before and it was definitely showing in her temperament. She was more in the mood for a military coup than one of Jared’s parties. And it was all Jared’s fault, she had decided in a fit of irrational rationalization. She hadn’t wanted to get involved with him in the first place, then he’d gone and made her fall in love with him.
“Lighten up, Gen,” Amy said, her voice like metal grating on concrete. “You’re in a lousy mood. Again, I might add.”
“Thanks for saying so,” Genna said sarcastically, sticking her celery into the patch pocket of her blue and white plaid dirndl skirt. She tossed back a good portion of the drink she’d mixed for Roberta.
“Don’t mention it. What’s the matter? Is Jared trying to put the flamingos back in the yard?”
“I’ll have you know I put them in a closet, Amy,” Jared said. He shoved his water pistol into the shoulder holster he wore strapped on over a pastal blue T-shirt that molded to his muscular chest. “I had to move them again, though. They scared the wits out of Aunt Roberta.”
“I hope you don’t mind my saying so, boss,” Bernice said, joining them, “but that wouldn’t take much. She’s a few numbers shy of bingo, if you know what I mean.”
“I know what you mean, Bernice.” Jared smiled, resting a hand on the woman’s shoulder. “And you can say anything you want as long as you keep me supplied in homemade pasta.” He sent a sizzling look Genna’s way. “Right, Gen?”
Genna glared at him and polished off the rest of Roberta’s rum and Coke.
“Besides, Bernice,” Jared went on, “you’ve got a place with me as long as you keep calling me ‘boss.’ It builds up my self-esteem.”
“Build it up any more and you’ll have to push it around in a shopping cart,” Genna said sardonically.
Bernice laughed. “You’ll never have to worry about getting a big head with Genna around, boss.”
Jared’s lips twitched threateningly. His eyes crinkled at the corners with barely suppressed merriment as he gazed down at Genna. Her smoky eyes burned a furious warning at him.
“Naw,” he drawled, “that’s not what I worry about when Genna’s around.”
She supposed he could have said worse. Just the same, she ground her heel into his foot as she pushed past him, smiling too sweetly. “Excuse me. I promised to get your aunt a drink.”
Jared tried to pass a grimace off as a smile. “I think I could use one myself.”
Genna wove in and out of the crowd at the refreshment table, absently filling a plate as she went along, trying to lose Jared. He caught up with her at the beverages.
“My, what a healthy appetite you have, Miss Hastings,” he commented, raising a brow at the sight of her plate heaped with barbecued chicken.
Genna’s brows lowered in annoyance as she mixed a drink for Roberta, not paying any attention to what she was doing. “I happen to like chicken.”
“You happen to be one. You’ve been avoiding me all evening.”
“What would give you that incredibly stupid idea?”
“Ha!” he said with a laugh, straight white teeth gleaming under the spotlights. “You put on more moves going through that crowd than Walter Payton!”
Genna pouted as she stirred the drink with a glow-in-the-dark swizzle stick. “Who on earth is Walter Payton?”
Jared ground his teeth. “Never mind.” He started mixing himself a drink without even looking to see what bottles he was picking up.
“Is that my drink you have there, Jillian?” Roberta rasped. She stood with her arm around Brutus’s lean waist. Brutus looked down at them and grinned maniacally, revealing a gold tooth with his initial engraved on it in old English script.
“Yes, it is. Here you go,” Genna said, pushing the plastic cup into the woman’s hand and taking an involuntary step back toward Jared.
“Spartacus here is going to breathe fire for us later on, aren’t you, darling?” Roberta patted the enormous man on the back the way she might pat a faithful Great Dane. Her cigarette dangled from her lip. “Breathe fire. Isn’t that something? I think that’s really something.”
She took a big gulp of her drink. All the color washed out of her face. “Mother Malone! You sure know how to pour a soda, honey!”
Brutus threw his head back and laughed. He sounded like Vincent Price with a gland condition. Carried away by his festive mood, he grabbed a bottle of Bacardi 151 by the throat and poured half a quart into his mouth. Standing in profile to his audience, he used Roberta’s lighter, spewing a stream of fire from his mouth that would have done a flamethrower proud.
“I suppose you’re going to try to tell me he’s a Rhodes scholar,” Genna said to Jared as the unlikely couple danced away, laughing.
J.J. shook his head and said on a long sigh, “Naw …”
He took a sip of the drink he’d mixed and choked. His face turned red, his eyes teared up. When he tried to talk he sounded like Marlon Brando in The Godfather. “Listen, Gen, you and I have to have a serious talk before I go. There are some things we need to get straightened out between us.”
Genna’s heart went to her throat. “Um—a—I’d love to, but I—I—”
Boo Boo Paige walked by nodding a greeting. In desperation Genna latched on to his arm. “I promised Otis this dance.”
It was a testimony to adrenaline-induced strength when she actually managed to drag the lineman into the crowd.
She had another close brush with destiny after she had danced Boo Boo into the ground. Luckily, Bill Hennessy walked by at just the right moment with that special look in his eyes, and Jared fell into step with the rest of his brothers as they marched toward the garage.
Later he cornered her at the edge of the patio, where she was providing the silent half of a one-sided conversation with Amy.
“J.J., why’d you invite her anyway?” Amy complained, giving Genna a disgusted look. “She’s no fun at all.”
“Don’t worry, Amy, all she needs is a small adjustment to her biological party barometer. It’s been off kilter ever since I’ve known her. Right, Gen?” He looked down at Genna with a smile designed to melt female hearts. She glanced away. Sliding an arm around Genna’s waist, he gave Amy the last of his fading grin. “Excuse us, Amy.”
“Where are you dragging me? Genna asked in a huff as Jared towed her off the patio. He was half-carrying her, his hand digging into her side. She tried to s
quirm out of his grasp, but he was oblivious to her efforts.
Jared said nothing to her at all. He’d had it with her coolness. If she wouldn’t let him talk to her rationally, he would let his body do the talking. Give him the brush-off, would she? Ha! No woman could be as hot in his arms as Genna was and not care about him. She practically went up in flames when he touched her. And she’d told him she loved him. He had every intention of reminding her of that little fact. She couldn’t just use him for the summer and cast him aside!
He pulled her around the corner of the garage, out of sight of the party crowd, and into his arms. His mouth swooped down and captured hers before she could even pucker up. His lips were hard and demanding. It was a kiss that burned with frustration and penned-up need. He didn’t ask, he took, his tongue demanding entrance to the warm, sweet-sanctuary of her mouth. Helpless to do otherwise, Genna gave him what he wanted and received the heady pleasure of feeling his big body shudder against her.
Jared molded their bodies together with his embrace, his hands chasing shivers down her spine, his fingers splaying over the soft flesh of her bottom. Deliberately he drew her hips to his. Genna gasped, dizzy with the sudden intoxicating plea sure. Through the thin fabric of her blue plaid skirt she could feel him, hard and urgent against the aching softness between her legs.
The uncertainty she felt about her relationship with Jared conveniently vanished from Genna’s mind. The future was suddenly nothing more than an abstract concept. Need was real. The overwhelming desire to be held and touched and loved by this man was real. She loved him, wanted him, and she couldn’t think of a single reason not to give herself to him right there and then. The sounds of a hundred people partying on the other side of the garage couldn’t penetrate the drum beat of her heart pounding in her ears.
Jared dragged his mouth from Genna’s, trailed it down her throat as she arched it for him, then gathered the last of his sanity and pushed himself away from her. Lord, he’d been ready and willing to take her there along the side of the garage, where anyone could have happened across them.