by Eva Charles
“Is your cooking so bad I’ll need my sense of humor? Maybe I should pick up a pizza on my way over.”
“No.” She laughed. “You have a great sense of humor, when you’re not stomping around my office. It always makes my heart a little lighter.”
I wanted that. Despite every behavior to the contrary, I wanted to make her heart a little lighter. I couldn’t explain why I wanted it so much, but I did. “Emmie?”
“Hmmm?”
“Any chance you’ll take the ring off before Thursday?” Okay, it was a dumb question, but you never know for sure unless you ask. I’ve always believed that. But there was just silence on the other end. Enormous, throbbing silence. “Probably too soon,” I said flippantly, trying to pass it off as a joke, half-expecting her to tell me not to push my luck. But the snappy comeback didn’t come.
“I’m willing to give the friendship a second chance. But I’m not ready to take my ring off, yet.”
We said good-night, and I tossed the phone on the bed beside me. Not ready, yet. She could’ve said never, or not for you, asshole. There was hope, and being the guy who deep down wanted nothing more than to be pussy-whipped by her, I was latching on to it. I needed all the hope I could find.
12
Mark
I pulled up in front of a gray, two-family house with black shutters and a fenced backyard. The front yard was immaculate, with neatly trimmed hedges and edged beds. Clay pots with bright red geraniums lined the front steps. It was a quiet street, in a modest, well-kept neighborhood.
My head was in the trunk when I heard the screen door bang. “Mark! Mark! You’re here!” Teddy flew down the steps, with his mother close behind.
“Hey buddy, slow down.” I caught him by the waist and lifted him high off the ground, before he reached the street.
“You’re eating dinner over,” he cried as his feet hit the pavement.
“Yep. Did you cook?”
He shook his head and giggled. “No. Kids can’t cook on the stove. What do you have?” He peered around me, into the trunk.
“Teddy. That’s not polite.”
“It’s okay. Teddy and I are old friends.”
“It’s okay, Mom. We’re old friends,” he parroted.
I stood on the sidewalk, drinking in Emmie. Head to toe, every inch of skin. The parts I could see, and the ones covered by the Carolina-blue and white sundress wrapped around her body and tied at the waist with a bow. Such a pretty package. But that tie was not my friend. It would be taunting me all night, daring me to tug on it—just a quick tug, it would tease, and the fabric will fall open and you can feast your eyes. The best part of the dress was it left most of her shoulders and arms bare.
I was still fantasizing about the talking dress, when I realized we hadn’t said hello. “Hi,” I said. It was such a simple, innocuous word. But tonight, it was a language unto itself. Loaded with innuendo, packed with nuance and promise.
A shy smile spread across her flushed face. She heard it too. “Hi.”
While we stood on the walk like a couple of kids at a middle school dance, Teddy was busy checking out the contents of the trunk.
Note to self: Don’t leave anything in the trunk you don’t want little eyes to see.
“Wow! You have a lot of balls.”
Emmie’s hand flew to her mouth, and I started to laugh, too. “A lot of balls. But I might have some other things in there, too. Let’s see. Hmmm, what do we have here? Looks like a couple of lacrosse sticks, helmets, and you’re right, a bucket of balls.” His eyes were wide as he caressed one of the sticks and stuck his stubby fingers into the net. I remembered the first time I touched a lacrosse stick. The moment had all the awe of a religious experience. “Have you ever played lacrosse?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know how.”
“It’s not hard. It just takes practice. How about after dinner we go in the backyard and I’ll show you how to cradle the ball in the net?”
“Can you show me how to throw the ball, too?”
“Yeah, I can show you how to pass the ball. Do you want to hold your stick?”
His face lit like a Christmas tree. “It’s for me?”
“All for you, but you need to wear this every time you play.” I handed him a helmet.
“Mom! Mom! Look at the shark on the helmet! I’m going to show Grammy.” He clutched the stick and helmet, and ran up the stairs and inside the house.
“Grammy?”
“My motherin-law. She lives upstairs. We usually all have dinner together before she goes up to her apartment for the night. I hope you don’t mind.”
“Of course not.” Not exactly what I had in mind for the evening, but I could roll with it.
I shut the trunk, and pulled out a bouquet of flowers from the front seat. “These are for you. Wild flowers. I remember how much you liked them when you were at Meadows Shore. Especially the jasmine. Not as exciting as a lacrosse stick, but I thought you’d like them more.”
“They’re beautiful. You shouldn’t have—especially the lacrosse stick and helmet. He didn’t need all that.”
“I had a lot of fun in the sports store picking out that stuff. Probably more fun than he’s going to have playing with it.”
“Mmmm.” She brought the bouquet to her nose, and closed her eyes. “The jasmine smells so good.”
My fingers itched to touch her. But it seemed too forward, even for me. Our relationship wasn’t there. And maybe it never would be. But I needed to touch her, so I brushed some loose strands of hair off her face. “I had fun picking the flowers, too. I’m glad you like them.”
“You picked the flowers?”
“I want to give you exactly what you like. I had some time to kill this afternoon so I stopped by to see my grandmother.” My voice was thick, and rough. She heard it, and stood frozen, an anguished look on her face. Too strong. I’d come on too damn strong and scared her.
“I think Grammy is watching us through the window. Why don’t we go inside and you can introduce us.” I grabbed the wine, and followed her gorgeous ass up the stairs and inside.
The house was neat as a pin, with fresh vacuum tracks in the rugs. Everything sparkled—at least it seemed that way.
A huge sense of pride swept over me for the little girl who’d been abandoned in a bus station, and pulled herself up and out of the dregs. She made a home, not with money she’d inherited, but with money she worked hard to earn. I died a little when I thought about what I’d done to shake her security. Fortunately, there were no ramifications for her.
“Mark, I’d like you to meet my motherin-law, Ruth Landon. Ruth, this is Mark Harrington.”
“It’s very nice to meet you, Mrs. Landon.”
Ruth grunted, but said nothing that passed as an actual word. She scowled at me as though Emmie were a teenager who had just invited a boy, who hadn’t showered in a month, home for dinner.
“It smells good in here.”
“It’s roast chicken and vegetables. Nothing fancy. I hope you like chicken.”
“That sounds great. Unless one of my sisters-in-law takes pity on me, or I go visit my grandmother, I rarely get a home-cooked meal.”
Ruth still hadn’t said a word. Not a single word. But her scowl told me everything I needed to know about what she was thinking.
“Can I help with something?”
“You cook?” Emmie asked, not sparing me the smirk.
“I can whip up a mean bowl of cereal with milk. Sometimes I even toss in a banana or some blueberries.”
Not even the tiniest hint of amusement in Ruth’s face, but Emmie laughed, and that’s all I really cared about.
“Where’s Teddy?”
“He’s in the cellar,” Ruth answered. “I told him to get that stick out of the house. We don’t bring sticks into the house.” The disgust dripped from her voice.
I liked it better when she wasn’t talking.
“We have a finished basement,” Emmie explained. “Teddy’s pl
ayroom is down there.”
“If you don’t need any help with dinner, maybe I’ll go down and let him give me a tour.”
Emmie
“I can’t believe you let a strange man downstairs alone with your son,” Ruth hissed as soon as she thought Mark was out of earshot. “That’s how children get abused.”
I had lunch with him, and breakfast, where I spilled my whole life story—most of it, anyway. I spent an entire weekend with his family, and his brother and cousin were friends. “He’s not a stranger.” He wasn’t, not really, but my stomach churned, and I rushed toward the basement steps.
Mark was standing at the top of the stairs, and he didn’t look happy. There were no little jokes, and his mouth was drawn in a thin grim line.
“I would never hurt Teddy, or any other child…”
The disgust on his face pricked my heart. “I know.”
“Maybe I should go. It might be easier on you.” He tipped his head toward the kitchen, where Ruth was waiting.
“No. Please don’t,” I pleaded. “Teddy would be so disappointed. He’s been looking forward to having dinner with you all week. He even cleaned his room in case you went up there.”
“What about you?”
“Ruth is…”
“I don’t give two shits about Ruth. What about you?” He kept his voice low, but it was firm and demanding. He expected an answer.
Yes, I wanted him to stay. Teddy hadn’t been the only one who was excited and cleaned his room, and put on clean underwear that matched. Not because I had any plans for him to see it, but because it made me feel pretty and feminine. And because a part of me wanted to feel like that again. A part of me wanted to be more than Teddy’s mommy and Ruth’s dutiful daughter-in-law.
“I…I want you to stay, too. Please.”
He nodded. “I’m going downstairs to see the playroom. If you don’t trust me to be alone with Teddy, by all means come along.”
“You don’t understand how scary it is to raise a child. To send them off into the world alone.”
“No, I don’t. But I know my share of overprotective parents. It’s the reason I’m cutting you some slack for entertaining the possibility I might be a child molester… You coming?”
I shook my head as if in slow motion. I felt like a deer caught in the headlights. Torn about what to do. Was I being too overprotective, or was I bending to the whim of a man who I desperately wanted? “I’ll go finish dinner.”
“Maybe you should come.” He took my hand. “I don’t know a thing about raising kids, Emmie.” His voice was softer now. “I would never hurt Teddy, but you’re right, there’s no way you’d really know that. And I haven’t given you much reason to trust me. Come downstairs, at least for a little while.” He put his hand on the small of my back. “But you go first, so I can have a good view of your tight little ass while you descend the stairs. Might even give it a good slap, if you don’t start behaving yourself.”
It was an outrageous comment. He was trying to change the mood, just like he had that night in the pool.
“You wouldn’t dare.”
“Dare? Did I hear a dare?” His eyes twinkled madly. “The one thing I will never back down from, ever.”
“No. I was just saying that’s something you would never do. Not if you know what’s good for you.”
He gripped my hand tighter. “Oh, it’ll be good for me.” Mark leaned closer until his hot breath was a half-inch from my temple. “Not only will I do it, Sunshine, but you’ll beg me to do it again.”
13
Mark
When we sat down to dinner, all those words Ruth had been holding back spilled out all over the nicely set table, like projectile vomiting. The accused during the Inquisition were treated with far more respect than Ruth showed me.
“Exactly what type of work do you do?”
“I represent professional athletes in contract negotiations.”
“Dirty business.”
I rested my knife on the edge of the plate. “It can be. Although, the dirtiest aspects don’t normally involve the contract negotiations. It’s once the contract is in place and one side violates it, or wants to violate it, that it gets messy. I make an effort to stay away from that part of the business.”
“But your company is knee-deep in that part of the business.”
Did Emmie share all the ugly details, or did ole Ruth hit the Google this afternoon? “The agency I work for, yes, ma’am.”
“Mark works with all the famous players,” Teddy chimed in proudly. As if I were the first man to land on the moon, or someone who flew Apache helicopters into war zones.
“My son had an honorable job. He served our country, and was flying helicopters into dangerous places to protect all of us, so spoiled boys who’ve never spent a day protecting anything but their paycheck could kneel at the flag.”
I caught Emmie wince out of the corner of my eye.
Ruth had a mean streak a mile wide, and a chip on her shoulder the size of Texas. And she didn’t care for me. That was abundantly clear. I wanted to say, “Your son died protecting freedom and rights, including the right of those boys to kneel at the flag.” But I didn’t say anything, because she was a Gold Star mother who had a right to be pissed off. Plus, Emmie was mortified, and I didn’t want to make the situation any worse for her.
“How do you like the area, Mrs. Landon?” I asked, hoping to steer the conversation into an area free of landmines.
“It’s not home.”
Okay.
“Teddy, what did you do today with Grammy?” Emily asked, I’m sure hoping to change the direction of the conversation, too.
“We went to the park and the library, and got some ice cream.”
“Ice cream.” Emily squeezed her lips tight.
I don’t think she was all that excited about Grammy buying the kid ice cream.
“What flavor did you get?” I asked, hoping to lead Ruth into a bit more hot water. My parents would have referred to it as instigating trouble. I was a born instigator.
“Birthday cake.”
“Was it good?”
He nodded, and his little eyes sparkled. He looked like a mini version of his mother, with darker hair. “We’re going outside to play lacrosse after dinner,” he announced. “Are we done, yet?” He was halfway out of his seat before the words were out.
Emmie motioned for him to sit, but before she could answer his question, Ruth spoke up.
“You know we don’t go outside after dinner. Bath and thirty minutes of reading. We borrowed all those nice books from the library today. Then you can watch one show before bed.”
What kind of people didn’t let little boys play outside after dinner? It was the best part of summer.
Teddy didn’t say a word at first. He let his begging eyes do the talking for him, and right now, there wasn’t a puppy on earth cuter than him. The kid had skills I could appreciate.
“Mark’s here and he’s teaching me how to pass the ball. It’s a special night. You said so. You put on the stinky perfume and used fancy plates.”
Emmie’s face went pink, deep pink, from the tips of her ears all the way down her neck and chest, as far as my eye could see.
“We normally don’t have company for dinner—that is special. I think it would be okay to go outside for a little while. Just this one time. I don’t think you’ll get much reading done thinking about those lacrosse sticks, anyway.”
“And the shark helmet.”
Emmie beamed at him, and her face glowed. “Especially the shark helmet.” She winked at Teddy with both eyes, and the love she had for that little boy poured out everywhere, all over the room, dulling the nastiness Ruth spewed earlier. It was worth the price of admission. Double the price.
“Maybe Mark can teach us both how to put the helmet on so that it protects your head. Those balls seem pretty hard.”
“I brought a few game balls that are hard, but you should probably use the practice balls in the y
ard.” I raised my eyebrows, and nodded at Teddy.
“Hard balls—just what we need around here. Before you know it, we’ll have him in the emergency room getting stitches or worse, and we’ll be calling someone to repair the broken window. It all costs money.”
I caught Emmie’s eye. The rainbows and unicorns were gone, replaced by tension so thick you could slice it.
“Teddy, you won’t forget to put on your helmet before you pick up the stick, will you?” I asked. He shook his head. “Otherwise you’ll have to hang up your stick for a while until you can remember to put it on. Got it?”
He nodded. “I won’t forget.”
“I know you won’t. I’ll show you and your mom how the helmet should fit. You too, Ruth, if you’d like.” I was done calling her Mrs. Landon. She was lucky I didn’t call her what I wanted to call her.
“I’m going upstairs,” Ruth cackled.
“You don’t want to stay for dessert?” Emily asked. “I used your chocolate sauce recipe.”
“The one my son liked.” I was going to kill this woman before the night ended. “No dessert for me. I have a headache, and tomorrow’s going to be a tough day with Teddy all out of his routine tonight.”
She got up out of her chair, and I stood too. She kissed Teddy on the cheek. “Good-night, angel.”
He wound his arms around her neck. “I love you, Grammy.”
It was more than she deserved. Just my opinion.
“It was very nice to meet you, Ruth.”
She took a good long look at me, turned and huffed out.
Emily mouthed, “I’m so sorry,” and I jerked a shoulder in response.
“Teddy, go wash your hands and get the helmet.”
“Why do I have to wash my hands to play lacrosse?”
“You don’t want to get the new stick all greasy, do you?”
He shook his head, and bounced out of the room.
“I’m really sorry about Ruth.”
“I’m sorry, too. For you. Is she always like that when you invite a friend over?”
“I’ve never invited a male friend over before. This is the first time for all of us. Tim was her only son. Tonight was just another blow for her.”
Even God wasn’t this pissed off at the world when his only son died. I wasn’t in the mood to cut Ruth any slack. “Everyone’s allowed to have friends, Emmie.”