by Karen Booth
Lisa tossed the roll to Alex before pushing up the sleeves of her sweatshirt. “That’s why you pay me the big bucks.”
Alex laughed. “Did you end up calling in sick?”
“Yes. Can’t you tell how sick I am?” She feigned a cough and took a swig of Diet Coke. “I’m practically at death’s door. I think I might need a kidney or something.”
Alex laughed again, feeling as though she could relax for the first time in more than a week. Their friendship had seen Alex through a lot—losing her younger brother in a car accident three years ago and losing her dad to a heart attack last year. There’d been plenty of hard times for Lisa too—most recently, losing her husband, not to illness or a tragic accident, but to a blonde from Santa Monica. Alex had certainly logged her miles with Lisa on that one, hours and hours, day after day of anger, crying, more anger, and finally the bitter conclusion that life, ultimately, plods ahead.
Lisa had started to return the favor by referring her to John T. Lewis, Attorney at Law. Alex’s first meeting with him had gone well, although she would’ve been less disoriented during the first five minutes if Lisa had warned her Mr. Lewis was smoking hot and himself, newly divorced. In the end, Alex regained her composure, received many words of reassurance from her new lawyer and then a reality check about how much it was going to cost to get divorced. John T. Lewis may have been handsome and compassionate, but he was also ruthless in mediation and that did not come cheap.
“How much of your stuff are we packing?” Lisa asked. “We could be here for a lifetime. You guys have a ton of stuff.”
“We’re just packing the things that are most important to me. The studio will pack up other stuff if they need to. Some of it will stay where it is.” She zipped the roll of tape across the top of the cardboard box, labeling it with a Sharpie. “Want to help me take this first load out to the garage?”
Alex and Lisa crossed the circular cobbled stone driveway, past the center fountain. Alex punched a few numbers into a keypad to open the fourth garage bay where a car sat, shrouded in a gray canvas cover.
“Do you ever drive this thing?” Lisa asked as Alex set down her boxes in the corner.
“No. I’m terrified to let the boys ride in it. No airbags, all of the seatbelts are lap belts.”
“Let’s take it for a spin.”
“Now?”
“Yeah. We gotta eat at some point. Let’s run and grab some lunch.” Lisa pointed skyward. “Beautiful day for a drive.” The cover resisted when she tugged on it. “A little help?”
As the cover slumped to the garage floor, Alex’s stomach flipped at the sight of the car, a mint condition 1970 Mustang Boss 302 in what was known as Grabber blue. The color was darker than sky blue, lighter than royal. Glenn had bought her the car as a birthday gift after Page was born. She’d driven the same model Mustang in high school, except that one had been a rusty piece of junk she’d eventually driven into the ground. She appreciated the sentiment of it when Glenn gave it to her, but had been so frustrated by the impracticality. She would never put their child in that car, even after he’d accused her of being a mother hen. Now that money was tight, every impractical, expensive thing Glenn had done over the course of their marriage ate at her like crazy.
“Tell you what,” Alex said. “Let’s do a few more boxes and I’ll get the keys.”
Alex had forgotten what a blast it was to be behind the wheel of the Mustang, an adventure to remind her of what she’d been like seventeen years ago. She had plans and aspirations then, things she wanted to do. Now life revolved around doing things for others and although she loved being a mom and at one point had loved being a wife, she wondered how the person she used to be had vanished. She’d only accomplished one thing on the mental life list she’d written in high school. She had married Glenn.
When they got back to the house, Alex parked next to the fountain. “I want to vacuum the floor mats and wipe down the dash before I put it back in the garage.”
As she pushed the remote to close the gate, her neighbor, Peter, ducked past it, jogging up the steep driveway.
“Hey, Alex. I see you took the Mustang out for a drive.” Beads of sweat glistened on Peter’s forehead as he struggled to catch his breath.
Lisa pulled back her shoulders and Alex shot her a look that could suggest only two words: “Please. Don’t.”
Alex squinted in the sun, looking at Peter. “I was about to put it in the garage.” How does his hair look like a perfect blond helmet when he’s been running?
Peter planted his hands on his hips and swiveled back and forth to stretch, flaunting his tanned physique. “Why don’t you introduce me to your friend?” he asked, with a lecherous gleam in his eyes.
Lisa practically lunged for him. “Hi, I’m Lisa. I’m Alex’s best friend.”
Peter grasped her hand and stepped closer. “Where have you been keeping this exquisite creature, Alex?”
Lisa tittered. Alex blinked, fighting off the urge to roll her eyes.
“Do you need something, Peter?” Alex asked.
“Is Glenn around? Thought I might ask him one more time about selling the car.” He left Lisa’s side, manhandling the car, running the tips of his fingers along the edge of the hood. “Man, this baby is sexy.”
Alex worried that Peter might start grinding his crotch against her car, maybe sprawl out on the hood like the bad girl in an 80s hair-band video. “Glenn’s out of town right now.” And so what? “But, you know, it’s my car. What did you have in mind?”
Lisa cocked an eyebrow, confusion clouding her face.
“Last time I talked to Glenn about it, he talked me all the way up to fifty grand before he said no,” Peter said. “He was a bit of a sadistic bastard about it, really.”
Alex took the hem of her shirt and wiped a smudge on the side mirror. “Yeah, I don’t know. That seems a bit low to me. No wonder he turned you down.”
Lisa cleared her throat and Peter twisted his lips, looking back and forth between Alex and the car. “I guess I could go up another three grand.”
“Make it five and you have yourself a deal.”
Chapter Six
In no make-up with her wet hair piled on top of her head in a loose knot, Alex still radiated beauty. She’d said she had big news when she got to David’s, but took a shower first, complaining about feeling grubby from a day of packing cardboard boxes. David’s initial reaction was that the announcement of the shower was the big news. It had planted a very hot image in his head, one he planned to take to bed that night and hoped to see for real one day.
Alex filled a large pasta pot at the sink. “I sold my car today.”
“Your car?” He leaned and peered out the kitchen window. “How did you get here?”
“Not that car. I sold the Mustang. Our creepy neighbor Peter has been eying it for years.” She lit one of the eight burners on the stove and set the pot on to boil. “He paid me cash.”
“Wow, Alex. Did you get enough money for it? Glenn’s going to freak when he comes back.”
“I don’t care what Glenn thinks.” Alex furrowed her brow. “Next year’s tuition is due and somebody’s got to pay the lawyer.”
“I told you I’m happy to loan you money. You don’t need to go around selling stuff. I hate that.”
“Don’t you think it’d be a little weird for you to give me money so I can divorce your best friend?”
“I don’t think you can call Glenn my best friend anymore. He’s my oldest friend.”
“That’s between you two.” Alex began slicing tomatoes, but stopped to flip on the under cabinet lighting, filling the room with a soft, golden glow. “Can we open a bottle of wine? I could use a drink.”
“Of course.” David made a beeline for the wine cabinet at the far end of the kitchen, grateful for a change in the conversation that involved Alex getting tipsy. “Cabernet or Merlot?”
“Um, surprise me.” She turned quickly and her hair tumbled out of the knot. She laughed
as she bent at the waist and gathered her hair, twisting it into its previous arrangement. Her top slid to reveal her bare back and she tugged it back into place when she’d righted herself. “Whoops.”
David stood, frozen, a bottle of wine in each hand, unable to do much more than replay the last few seconds through his mind in slow motion.
He cleared his throat. “Okay. I’ll surprise you.” He returned to the counter and cut the foil from one bottle while he watched Alex slice cucumbers. He studied her hand, clutching the fat handle of the chef’s knife, driving with every slice.
“You know, I never picture you as the guy home alone every night.”
David smirked. “True. Usually I’m not. Although, I’m not alone tonight.” He cranked the corkscrew, thinking about what Alex had said and what he might do if Tyler and Page weren’t in the house, if he had her alone, especially if he’d had a glass of wine to take off the edge. Nerves were never an issue with women and this was only Alex. Only Alex. She had his number and she didn’t even know it.
She stared and set her finger to her lower lip. “Um, you can only unscrew the cork so far. You’re going in circles.”
His sight dropped to his hands. The wine was indeed open. He shook his head. “Just got distracted for a minute.” He filled their glasses. “Cheers.”
“Cheers.”
“I want to do a cheers.” Tyler padded into the kitchen.
“Of course you do, buddy,” David replied. “What do you want? Orange juice? Or do you want the hard stuff?”
Tyler narrowed his stare. “What’s the hard stuff?”
“Milk, of course.” David wrapped his arm around Tyler’s shoulders while they stood in front of the open refrigerator.
“I want the hard stuff.”
“I like it. Not afraid to live on the edge.” David grabbed the carton and poured Tyler a big glass of milk. He held up his own glass and clinked with Tyler. “Cheers.”
“Cheers!” Tyler chugged down the milk without stopping.
Alex watched them, her eyes flickering back and forth. “You two are going to make me cry. You’re so cute.”
“You always say I’m cute,” said Tyler, with a frothy milk moustache. “But I don’t think you’ve called Uncle David cute before.”
Alex blushed. “Of course he is.”
David relished the flush of pink on her skin before he downed the rest of his wine and poured himself another glass. Great. I’m cute.
****
David promised to swim with Page and Tyler after dinner and the boys ran to put on their trunks the instant they were excused from the table. He and Alex finished the last of the dishes at the sink, she washing and he drying. The sky had grown darker, their reflection visible in the window above the sink. We look good together.
Alex had given up on keeping her hair in a bun and left it to fall in soft waves over one shoulder. The way she tilted her head to the side and left her bare neck exposed as she scoured the pan, rubbing back and forth, gave him an all too familiar tug in his stomach. It tortured him to stand next to her as the hot water rushed from the tap and the steam rose to meet their faces. She’d never smelled better than she did at that moment—sweet and soft, powdery and floral at the same time. Alex would never describe herself as any of those things, but she didn’t see herself the way he did.
“So, did I tell you about the movie that the band’s song is in?” he asked.
Alex turned off the tap and dried her hands. “I remember something about it.”
He placed the pans back in one of the center island drawers, the metal clanging. “I didn’t think it was going to be a big deal at first. It’s one of those dark teen movies, which isn’t exactly my thing, you know.”
“What’s it about?”
“There’s a dead boy and he’s stuck in purgatory and the devil tells him that he’ll help him get his girlfriend back if he can convince her to go to hell.”
“Sounds uplifting.”
He shut the drawer as Alex snapped and folded the kitchen towel. “I know, but they eat this shit up. The movie just started screening and it’s testing through the roof. Last Love is playing during the opening sequence and the end credits. Now they’re going to do a soundtrack, which was on the backburner.”
Alex smiled warmly and grazed David’s arm with her fingertips. “That’s amazing. Sounds like you could make some money out of it.”
“I don’t really care about the money. It’s just cool to know somebody cares about that song.” Glenn had always said Last Love wasn’t the band’s finest moment, but it meant the world to David.
“Of course they care. It’s an incredible song. So beautiful. Definitely the best love song you ever wrote.”
David’s heart quickened as he dared to peer into Alex’s icy blue eyes. He’d held the secret about that song since the day he’d written it and the inspiration was standing right in front of him. Should I just tell her?
“Thanks,” he nervously glanced at his watch, his hands inexplicably cold. “Guess I’d better go get in the pool with the boys.”
Chapter Seven
Tyler sailed through the air, arms and legs flailing, landing in the deep end with an enormous splash. They’d been staying with David for two weeks, and Tyler had decided, since they’d taken an after-dinner swim with Uncle David for three nights in a row, it was now part of the routine. He bobbed up to the surface, gasping. “Do it again!” He dog-paddled to David and wrapped his arms around his neck. “That was awesome!”
David laughed. “Okay, buddy, coming right up.”
Tyler directed his sights into the water.
“That’s right. Put your foot right there.” With a hoist and a groan from David, Tyler was airborne again.
Alex rolled up her jeans and perched on the hand-painted ceramic tiles that edged the pool, listening to the waterfall’s gentle cascade from the hot tub into the shallow end. A warm, late April breeze swirled as darkness fell. The stand of palm trees beyond the pool area, lit from beneath, created swaying shadows against the house and the retaining wall at the back of the property. Alex lazily kicked her legs, the water caressing her feet and ankles as she watched David and Tyler play.
Page was at the bottom of the pool. Not again. She tried to ignore it, but couldn’t bring herself to keep him completely out of sight. He’d taken to the practice a few days before, seemingly hoping she would panic after witnessing his freakish display of holding his breath. She watched as he floated to the surface, draping his head and arms in a lifeless pose, bobbing into a dead man’s float. He sneakily lifted his head to take a breath before dipping his face back into the water.
Tyler paddled back again and this time David put him on his back and swam over to Alex.
“Aren’t you getting in tonight?” David asked her.
“No. I’m good.”
He furrowed his brow. “Hey, Tyler. Why don’t you go show me one of your cool jumps off the diving board?”
Tyler needed no further invitation. He let go of David and began to swim to the ladder at the deep end.
Alex cringed. “Sometimes I wonder if he’s swimming or if it’s controlled drowning.”
David laughed and walked along the bottom, resting his arms on the pool edge next to Alex. His legs floated as he set his chin on his hands. “You okay?”
A sting came to her eyes and she looked to the sky, avoiding David’s gaze. “I’m just thinking about stuff. I’m fine.”
“Sometimes I think you seem a little too fine.”
“Uncle David! Watch me!” Tyler launched himself off the diving board, spastically twisting in mid-air.
David smiled and cupped his hands around his mouth. “Good one.” He shook his head. “He’s such a great kid. I know this has been hard for you three, but I feel really lucky that I’ve had this time with them.” He set his hand on Alex’s knee, leaving her with a pleasant tingle. “I’m serious. You’re way too together. I’m worried about you.”
Alex
pursed her lips, catching the concern on David’s face until she was drawn to the sight of his bare chest, the indentations above his collarbone, beads of water glistening on his skin. Damn. “Trust me. I’m not together. I’m just putting on a show for the boys. Page keeps asking questions about Glenn, and I don’t know what to tell him. I’ve left dozens of messages and I still don’t know where the hell he is. I don’t really want to say anything about a divorce until I’ve at least talked to Glenn.”
“Well, I’m sure it’s really confusing for both boys.”
“Uncle David! Mommy!” Tyler bounced on the end of the diving board. “I invented a new jump. It’s called the Spinner Frog Kick.” Tyler performed an uncoordinated sequence of twists, a punch, and a kick as he descended into the pool.
David raised himself up onto the pool deck and grabbed a towel from one of the chaise lounge chairs. Alex pretended to stretch her neck, watching as he scrubbed his hair and blotted his broad shoulders, then his well-made arms—long, but muscular, like his legs. David caught her looking and smiled.
Alex’s face flushed with heat. “Oh, I was just admiring your tattoo.” Among other things. “I’ve always thought it was cool.”
David peered down at the elaborate Celtic knot in dark blue and black on his left shoulder. “I always thought I’d get more, but never got around to it.” He draped the towel over the chair. “You know, I’ve been thinking. I love teaching Page the guitar stuff, but I can talk to him about other things, too.” He sat next to her on the pool edge. “Your ponytail’s about to come out.” He pulled the hair binder from Alex’s hair. He gathered her locks in his hands, and made a new ponytail. “Haven’t done that in a while.”
“Probably not since your hair was down the middle of your back.”
“Don’t remind me. God, I looked like such an idiot.” He dug his hand into his hair.
“I don’t think thousands of girls were screaming for a guy that looked like an idiot. You were quite the Rock God. Admit it.” She nudged him in the ribs and stole another peak at his chest and stomach. It was hard not to when he was sitting right next to her.