Lucia in Love

by Heather Graham

  “What on earth are you doing out there?”

  “Trying to get in.”

  “I thought you were sleeping!”

  Lucia smiled awkwardly. Ryan stepped in with an answer. “We were sleeping. Lucia lost her key, so she came up to my place to wait for you to come back, and we both dozed off.”

  “Oh,” Dina said flatly. But she kept staring at Ryan, politely inquiring.

  “Oh,” he said, and smiled.

  Dina liked Ryan a lot, Lucia knew. It was easy to like Ryan. But after the events of this evening, Lucia didn’t appreciate the intimate little smile the two of them were sharing.

  “Dina, I’m sorry I woke you up, but would you mind if I came in? It’s very late.”

  “Sorry,” Dina said. Yawning, she stepped back. Then she smiled at Ryan again. “Want some tea, some coffee? Espresso? Cappuccino?”

  He shook his head. “Nothing, thanks. I’ll see you two sometime tomorrow, I imagine.”

  His eyes fell on Lucia. Feeling them brush over her, she trembled, and it seemed as if her flesh came alive again, wanting him, even as she watched him walk away.

  She would have loved to have stayed in his bed through the night, sleeping with him, their limbs entwined, their arms around one another. It had been so good just to touch him again….

  The thought warmed her, and she suddenly needed very badly to be alone. She wanted to hug what they had shared that night to herself. She wanted to savor it in her dreams. She had remembered so much, and she had forgotten so much. Once it had all been hers. The fullness of the night, the sweet intimacy of his loving. Once it had been so easy….

  And tonight it had been as if their time apart had been washed away. There hadn’t been an awkward moment, only the beauty of being together, of touching, of being touched. She loved Ryan, and she loved what he did to her, and… there was no future in it.

  Tonight she didn’t care. She simply wanted to cherish the memory.

  Dina was staring at her curiously. “How’d you lose your key?”

  “Pardon?”

  “Your key. How did you lose it?”

  “Oh,” she murmured. “I lost everything. I took a walk, forgetting that the tide would rise and wash my things away. I lost my key and my bag and everything.”

  “Oh,” Dina said, nodding gravely.

  “Don’t nod at me like that!”

  “Like what?”

  “Like you don’t believe me.”

  “Who said I don’t believe you.”

  “It’s the way you’re looking at me.”

  Dina grinned mischievously. “Guilty conscience, cuz?”

  Lucia groaned and headed for her room. She heard Dina locking the door; then she heard her cousin laughing softly again. “Don’t worry, I won’t mention the hour of your arrival to anyone.”

  “Dina, I did fall asleep—”

  “Yes, I’ll bet a man like that can be exhausting.”

  “Dina—”

  “Good night, Lucia.”

  “Dina—”

  “Hey!” Dina laughed. “Quit while you’re ahead.”

  Lucia had to quit. Dina had stepped into her own room and closed the door. Lucia could still hear her laughing softly.

  “Oh, God help me!” Lucia moaned.

  She needed help. She realized that when she tried to sleep. Her memories were bright and colorful, keeping her awake, and though she cherished them, they were painful, too.

  She just didn’t know what to do.

  When at last she did sleep, it was already morning.

  * * *

  When she awoke she realized that she had left her bathing suit in his apartment. She had other bathing suits, but the idea that it was in his apartment made her uneasy. She wasn’t sure why—none of her aunts was going to go up and snoop through his belongings.

  Maybe she just wanted to see him.

  She dressed in a different suit and one of her oversize beach shirts, then left her room. Dina had left a note saying that she was already down at the beach.

  Ryan might well be there, too, Lucia thought, but she decided to take the chance and try to see him. Maybe he had slept late, too. Maybe he was making coffee and orange juice, and perhaps she could help him make breakfast. They had done it that way all winter; he had done the eggs, and she had fried the bacon. Sometimes they had just had cereal, but she had sliced the bananas while he had poured the cornflakes.

  It had been so nice to do things together. They had always talked while they prepared the meal. He had told her about his projects and asked her advice. She had explained restoration methods. They had talked about the president, about the state of the world, about anything and everything….

  Dina would never have run away, Lucia thought. But Dina hadn’t known what it was like to love him and wonder when he would leave her for the next woman who caught his attention. He had never lied. He had never even lived with someone before, as he had been living with her, even for that brief span of time….

  Dina would have fought for him. And maybe she would have been right.

  Lucia sighed, pushing the elevator button. She didn’t want to analyze things at the moment—she just wanted to be with Ryan. This vacation wasn’t so long that she could waste time.

  She stepped off the elevator and headed for his door. She frowned, seeing that it was open a crack. There were loud, angry voices coming from inside, Ryan’s—and someone else’s.

  She paused, standing by the elevator. She was interrupting something, she realized. She should head back downstairs.

  It was Gino Lopez, she realized. She shouldn’t be eaves-dropping, but she didn’t seem to be able to move. The men were shouting with total disregard for the fact that they might be overheard.

  “You owe me!” Lopez thundered. It was a threat, Lucia realized.

  “I don’t owe you a damn thing,” Ryan retorted. “I paid you back—”

  “Yes, yes, you paid me back! But who else would have given a kid still wet behind the ears a loan like that?”

  She heard Ryan exhale slowly, straining for patience. “You gave me the kind of loan that could have put me into your debt forever. You gave me the kind of loan that had killer interest attached to it. Because that’s what you want, Lopez, to have your debtors owing you forever—and willing to do your dirty work just to stay alive and afloat. Well, I paid you back. I paid you back with the sweat of my brow and the labor of my own hands, and I hate the fact that I was fool enough to even get involved with you. And I won’t do anything for you now. So just get off my property. I won’t be threatened, or bribed.”

  “I could kill you!” Lopez threatened.

  “Don’t be a fool. You’re getting to be an old man. If you touched me, I’d break your neck.”

  “My son—”

  “Lopez, get the hell out!”

  The argument was coming to an end, and Lucia didn’t want to be caught standing where she was. She ducked quickly into the elevator and pressed the button for her floor.

  Instead she found herself on the third floor, standing face-to-face with Theresa. “Lucia! I was just looking for you. There’s a husbands’ and wives’ tournament at one of the courses today, and—oh, Lucia, I know that this is an awful imposition, but—”

  “You want me to watch the kids. I don’t mind at all.”

  “Dina is already down there, but I’d feel better if both of you kept an eye on them.”

  “Sure,” Lucia said. “No problem.” Theresa was still staring at her doubtfully, so Lucia kissed her on the cheek. “Go! The kids will be fine, I promise. Dina wouldn’t let anything happen to them, and neither would I. Good luck, and have a good time.”

  There was a clattering on the stairs that flanked the elevator. Startled, Lucia and Theresa looked at one another. Then Theresa’s eyes narrowed as she saw the figure disappearing down the staircase.

  “Lopez!” she said. “What on earth is going on with that man? He’s harassed everyone here!”

  L
ucia shook her head. Everyone including Ryan. She wondered what the man had wanted Ryan to do. She wished she had the nerve to go back and ask him.

  But she couldn’t go back up. She had just promised Theresa that she would get down to the beach and watch the children.

  She kissed her cousin again. “Forget Lopez. Have a good time. Get going, okay?”

  “Okay.” Theresa gave her a dazzling smile and stepped into the elevator with her. When they reached the ground floor she saw Bill waiting for them anxiously. He looked at Theresa. “Is it okay?”

  “It’s fine, Bill. Go,” Lucia said with a smile.

  He flushed. “I’ll make it up to you one day, honestly, Lucia.”

  “You don’t need to make anything up to me. They’re my cousins, and I love them to death.”

  He flashed her a bright smile. “When you have your own little army, Theresa and I will watch them for you. I promise.”

  “If she doesn’t get started soon,” Theresa teased, “we’ll be too old.”

  “Watch it,” Lucia warned. “You’d better go before you make me change my mind.”

  “Yes, watch it!” Bill warned Theresa. He grabbed her arm and dragged her to the car, waving to Lucia. Lucia waved back.

  She watched them leave, then remembered that she didn’t have a key. She ran quickly up to Aunt Faith’s, garbled out an explanation about her lost key, then took her aunt’s. She avoided more questions by saying she was watching the children, then hurried back downstairs and out to the beach.

  It seemed that it was just her and Dina and the kids that day. Lucia kept watching the building, wondering if Ryan might come down. But he didn’t appear, and she tried to quit watching for him, because Dina was watching her.

  “Missing someone?”

  “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “Oh, Lucia! You’re so transparent.”

  “I’m not missing anyone.”

  “I keep getting this feeling that the two of you have a certain chemistry.”

  “We do not.”

  “Aha! You see, you knew instantly who I am talking about!”

  “Dina!”

  Dina laughed and rolled over on the beach blanket. The twins, busy building sand castles, looked at her and shrugged to Lucia. Little Tracy, playing with a pail at Lucia’s side, started giggling.

  “Would you stop!” Lucia sighed.

  “Sure. When you confess. You have met him before, right?”

  “Dina!”

  “Okay, okay, but just remember when you want to talk about it that I’m here.”

  “And that you’re all ears?” Lucia asked her.

  “Exactly.”

  At four o’clock Theresa and Bill returned for the kids, flushed and happy, because they had won the tournament.

  Dina and Lucia congratulated them warmly, then watched the children go upstairs with their parents. Dina stood and yawned. “I feel like a sand pile. I’m going up for a shower. You coming?”

  Lucia hesitated, then shook her head. “I’ll be along in a few minutes.”

  Dina shrugged. “Whatever you want.” Then she smiled knowingly. “Still waiting, huh?”

  “I just want to swim without the kids for a moment, that’s all.”

  “I’ll take up your bag, huh? After last night…”

  “Take it,” Lucia said.

  “Sure you’re not ready?”

  “I just want a few minutes alone.”

  “Sure,” Dina said disbelievingly, but she collected her things and waved cheerfully—then winked.

  Lucia groaned inwardly and waved her cousin on, then stood up and stretched, too. It was getting late. The colors on the horizon were beginning to change.

  She was waiting for Ryan, she realized. She wanted to see if he would come down to the beach with her, now that she was alone.

  She waited a few minutes longer, then walked down to the water. The distance wasn’t very great—the tide was already rising.

  She walked along the water for a while, splashing with her feet. It was warm and nice. She looked back to where she had been lying with Dina. Dina had already taken their things up, but there was someone else there now, stretched out on a towel with a newspaper lying over his face. For a moment her heart beat quickly and she thought it might be Ryan, but then she realized that it was a much older man.

  She walked slowly back, thinking that it might be one of her uncles. She still wasn’t sure—the paper covered all of his face.

  Then, as she got nearer, the wind picked up in a sudden gust, and the paper was blown away.

  It wasn’t one of her uncles. It was Gino Lopez.

  Lucia almost turned around and walked the other way. Then she paused, thinking that there was something a little bit strange about the way he was lying. She frowned, standing still as the surf encroached and the night began to fall.

  He was on a towel, and he was wearing bathing trunks. His hands were folded over his stomach, and he was staring straight up at the sky.

  Straight up, his eyes wide and unblinking.

  Lucia took a step closer to him. He was still staring straight up. He hadn’t even realized that his newspaper had blown away.

  She took another step, and then she realized just what was so strange about him, and why he was so oblivious and unblinking.

  He was dead.

  She brought her hand to her mouth, holding back a scream.

  She had to call the police. She had to call the police right away. She shouldn’t be holding back her scream; she should be screaming as loudly as she could.

  But she didn’t scream—she panicked in cold silence. It was almost night, and the beach was deserted. All that she could hear was the insistent pounding of the surf.

  The police!

  She still couldn’t move. She realized very slowly that she was afraid, and not because Lopez was dead. She was afraid because she didn’t know how Lopez had gotten to be down here, dead on the beach.

  She delicately reached out a finger and touched him. He was ice cold and stiff, and she let out a scream just at the feel of him.

  The police, the police, the police…

  But Gino Lopez had been the nastiest sleaze in the entire world. He had fleeced countless people. Countless members of her own family.

  “Oh, no!” she breathed out loud, shaking her head. No. None of them would have murdered Gino Lopez. No matter what Lopez was saying or doing or threatening, they wouldn’t have killed him.

  But they were such a close-knit group. What if one of her uncles had gotten furious on behalf of one of her other uncles? The family was so close and so important. No, they were not murderers! But what if it had been accidental?

  Or what if…?

  Suddenly she heard the sounds of argument again in her memory. An argument she had heard just this morning between Gino Lopez—and Ryan Dandridge.

  No… Oh, no!

  She swallowed, afraid that she was going to be sick. There was a dead man in front of her, and either the man she loved or one of her dearly cherished relatives just might have done him in.

  Ryan. She had to get Ryan. Whether he was guilty or not, she had to see him. She had to know. She had to bring him down to see the body. She had to get him to call the police.

  She jumped up and hurried along the wall, then went racing past the white picket fence toward the elevator. She punched against the up button, but the elevator didn’t come. She heard giggling.

  “Hey, kids! Don’t you dare play with the elevator!”

  The giggles faded. Lucia sighed, wondering which of her little cousins had been guilty. She heard quick footfalls as the children ran away and, a moment later, the elevator appeared.

  She stepped in and rode it to the top, then ran to Ryan’s door and beat fiercely on it. It seemed to take forever and ever for him to answer. When he threw it open he was in cutoffs and a tank top. His eyes widened, then narrowed. “Lucia?”

  “Did you do it, Ryan?”

  “Did I do wha
t?”

  Lucia burst into the room and swung around to stare at him, her hands on her hips. “Did you do it?”

  He shook his head, baffled. “Did I do what, Lucia? Did I take that blonde to dinner? Yes, I did. Guilty as charged. But—”

  “Stop it!” she shrieked.

  “Lucia, you stop it! Do you need a drink? Or have you already had a few too many?”

  “I’m calling the police.”

  She hurried to the phone. When she picked up the receiver, he wrenched it out of her hands. His features were taut and wary and furious. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “Lopez!”

  “Lopez?”

  “Don’t you dare act so innocent with me! I heard him threaten you today, and I heard what you said to him. And now he’s lying down there on the beach. Dead.”

  “Dead?” he inquired very slowly, as if she had lost her mind.

  “Dead! Deceased! Cold as ice. He’s down there, I’m telling you! And you—”

  “And I what?”

  Lucia bit her lip. “We need to call the police.”

  He stared at her hard, then dialed the police emergency number and reported that there was a dead man on the beach. When he hung up the phone, he asked, “Happy? Now come on. We’re going to go down and see him.”

  He grabbed her hand and dragged her in tense silence from his apartment to the elevator. He kept her hand in a deadly vise all the way down to ground level, and then all the way over to the wall, where he suddenly stopped short.

  “A dead man?”

  She looked over the wall. There was no blanket—and no man. There was nothing but water. The tide had come in completely in the time it had taken her to bring Ryan down.

  “He was there!” she said, and pointed.

  “Sure he was,” Ryan said. She spun around, staring at him, and realized that he didn’t believe a word that she had said.

  Suddenly they heard the sound of sirens.

  Ryan groaned aloud, leaning against the wall. “Great. I gave them my name on the report, not yours.”

  “He was there, I tell you!”

  A black-and-white patrol car came sliding into the parking lot. Two tall officers got out of the car, then approached Lucia and Ryan. Ryan smiled at Lucia as a heavyset, grim-looking officer drew a notepad from his back pocket.