by Alison Tyler
‘Go back to your girlfriend, Alden.’
‘She’s not my girlfriend.’
I turned away, deeply frustrated. We were running around in circles, and I was exhausted from the prospect of continuing. Rubbing my hands up and down my arms, I realised I didn’t have a whole lot of choices. Here I was again, same place I’d been before with Alden. Or without him. I could walk home, but that would mean a hike of four miles. In the dark. Along a road with no streetlights. I sighed, feeling Alden tugging at me, although I was no longer paying attention to what he had to say. He had become little more than an annoyance.
‘I’m going home,’ I told him. ‘I don’t want to get involved in the gossip mill again. It’s just not my thing.’
‘You are involved.’ He said this simply and truthfully.
‘Maybe so, but maybe I’m not going to be any more.’
‘Don’t say that, Charlie. Let me make it up to you –’
‘You want to go out with me again, Alden? Then take me somewhere else next time. Somewhere your girlfriend and her idiot buddies don’t hang out clocking our every move.’
I turned around and started walking. In moments, I heard the sound of heavy footsteps behind me. I spun, ready to fully unload. Suddenly, I found myself livid. How dare he fuck me in the afternoon – fuck me twice! – and then let Sheila kiss him in the evening – in front of me? How dare he let her fondle him as if she were claiming ownership of her property? I started my tirade before my eyes could fully focus in the dark on who the man was.
‘You’re insane if you think I’m going to go through that again –’
Cody put his arm around my shoulder and leaned in quick. ‘Don’t yell at me, Kid. I didn’t do it.’
‘Oh, Jesus, Cody. I’m sorry.’ I felt myself flush. I don’t usually give in to public displays of anger.
‘He’s the one who should be sorry.’
‘Doesn’t matter. I didn’t care about him anyway.’
‘Liar.’
I laughed. ‘You going to walk me home, Cody? Like the gentleman rancher that you are? We’re talking about four miles.’
‘Not walk,’ he said. ‘You crazy?’
He led me back over to the hitching post where his beautiful dark horse was tied below one of the ‘No Barking’ signs. I looked at the sign, graffitied by some nameless jokester long ago. The ‘P’ in each ‘Parking’ sign had been changed to a ‘B’ in front of each of the parking spaces, as well as by the hitching post. Didn’t seem to keep the dogs from barking any, or the people from parking here. Every single space was taken.
‘You’re the one who’s crazy,’ I told him. ‘I’m from LA, remember? I don’t ride horses.’
He didn’t even respond. He simply hoisted me up on to the horse and immediately swung up behind me.
‘It’s dark,’ I told him.
‘You’re very observant.’
I was being more observant than he knew. I could feel his strong body behind me, his hard chest, the muscles in his arms as he held the reins, the crispness of his jeans. God, I was glad I hadn’t gone all out to put Sheila to shame and worn a dress. I’d been sensible in my clothing, up to a point. I was shivering, but at least I had on slacks.
‘Relax,’ he said. ‘You’re too nervous. She’ll feel that.’ He patted the side of the comely horse and we started off at a gentle walk. At once, the fact that there were no streetlights didn’t seem like such a big problem. The moon was a bright, shining disc above us, throwing plenty of light along the path. Cody took the pedestrian route, along the creek. I saw more by the moonlight than I’d ever seen during the day. The water gleamed, reflecting the silver-white of the moon. Trees stood out in bold outlines, and the cattails bowed gently in the breeze. As the horse stepped carefully along the path, I occasionally heard rustlings in the brush, but to my great relief we didn’t encounter any wayward animals.
In a longer time than it would have taken to drive, but a much shorter time than it would have taken me to walk, Cody delivered me to my doorstep. He slipped off the horse and helped me to my feet. I stopped on the first of my porch steps and looked back at him. I realised that I hadn’t ever told him where I lived, yet he’d obviously known. But, before I could ask how he knew, he said in a low voice, ‘The town talks. It’s like a living thing. If you listen closely, you can learn everything you need to know about everyone.’
‘Sounds like some fortune from a cookie.’
He shrugged. ‘Not out here,’ he wisecracked. ‘Don’t you remember? No Chinese restaurants for miles. It’s the one thing we’re lacking.’
‘All right. So exactly what do you know about me, Mr Cody Lassiter?’
‘Probably more than you can imagine.’
‘Like?’
He took a step closer and put his hands on my shoulders. ‘Like you should take a pass on Alden.’
‘Anyone would say that after the way he acted tonight.’ My ego still felt bruised. Not only had Alden been rude, but also others had seen me being ignored. I felt like a shunned girl at a junior high school dance, ready to go home and pour out my miseries into my diary.
‘Perhaps. But I could have told you that on the first night you showed up.’
‘You mean before the town even started talking?’
Cody was silent.
‘So why didn’t you?’
‘Would you have listened to me if I had?’
Maybe he did know me.
‘He’s a good guy,’ Cody continued. ‘You heard about the firecall the other night?’
I shook my head.
‘That’s right. You skipped town for a few days. You wouldn’t have heard.’
I waited, staring at him. So he knew that I’d been gone, too. Had he cruised by my cottage the way that Alden had? What was Cody’s real interest in me? He didn’t say. He simply continued with his story.
‘Teenagers out driving too fast. They took a curve at more than a hundred miles an hour. Flipped the car by Paperwhite Creek. The fire department had to use the jaws of life to get the boys out of the car. Alden was on the scene from the start, and it was messy. The kids are going to be fine, but they had to helicopter both to the hospital and it’s going to be several months of intensive therapy for one of them. People were talking about it all last week –’
‘I was gone last week,’ I said.
‘That’s right.’ Cody nodded. ‘You were.’ He didn’t ask where I’d been, and I almost would have believed that he knew – that he knew everything – simply from the look in his eyes.
‘Alden’s a good guy,’ Cody said again, ‘but he’s not the right guy for you.’
‘The right guy –’ I started, trying to prompt him into offering more information, but Cody would have none of it.
‘You want to stay for a drink?’ I asked next.
‘I had a drink.’
‘You want to stay for another?’
He shook his head. ‘I need to get back. But I wanted to see you home safe. I wouldn’t have been able to sleep tonight thinking about you stumbling home in the dark.’
‘So what are you going to think about instead?’
He was the one to grin now, and then he came forwards, wrapped me in his arms and kissed me. I was taken off-guard by how firmly he held me and how sweetly his lips met mine. Kissing him was different from kissing Alden. Different from kissing Johnny. Different from kissing anyone. There was no hesitation, no boyish charm. Cody was all man, and when he backed away I almost fell over.
Had I been going after the wrong guy this whole time? Cody righted me with one sturdy hand and then gave me his classic hat bow, tilting the brim at me before climbing back on to the horse. In his kiss, I could tell that he wanted me, but he clearly wasn’t going to make any more of a play for me. Not tonight. And I wasn’t going to force the issue. I felt that I needed a break – definitely from gossip, and maybe even from men in general. My mind was reeling.
After a moment, he turned around, leaving me on the fr
ont step of my cottage. I watched him go, listening to the sound of the horse’s steps as they grew softer and softer. Then I headed into the little house and poured myself a shot of whiskey. The house was deathly quiet. I almost wished I really had a ghost – just so I’d have a little company. I brought the drink out to the porch and sat down – drinking by myself while thinking of someone else. I was wondering how Mia had gotten on.
Chapter Twelve
The phone woke me early. Too early. I yawned and looked around for the clock, unable to figure out what time it was by the light filtering in through the thin lace-edged curtains. When the fog rolls in, it could be six in the morning or six in the evening. The whole sky turns an eerie white. Looking out the window felt like peering into a cloud. I caught the phone on the fourth ring and mumbled some sort of greeting into the receiver, shutting my eyes again and falling back on to the down-filled pillow.
‘You there?’ It was Mia.
‘Yeah. Oh, God, Yeah.’ I sat up quickly and slammed my head against the brass headboard. I rubbed the back of my head with my hand. ‘How’d it go?’ The previous evening’s events flooded into my brain. I thought of Alden and Sheila, and then of Mia making her grand entrance. ‘You looked great! Did you like him? Did he like you?’
‘Back up for a minute,’ Mia said, laughing. ‘It’s you I was worried about.’ That was just like Mia. ‘You seemed to leave with two guys. Then only one came back. The dark-haired one. And I thought it was the one you liked. The one who I was here to help with.’
‘Forget my messed-up world,’ I told her. ‘Tell me everything I missed.’
‘It’s a long story.’
‘So try me.’
‘Let’s go somewhere instead. I need a break from this one-horse town.’
As soon as she said ‘one-horse’, I thought of Cody. I felt myself flush, but Mia couldn’t possibly have known what I was thinking. It was all I needed for her to think she was here to create a diversion so I could continue peacefully with Alden, only to find out that I didn’t really want him any more. I wanted someone else.
‘Where do you want to go?’ I asked her.
‘You tell me.’ She laughed again. ‘I’m new to these here parts, Ma’am.’
‘You didn’t look new last night. You looked amazing.’
‘Where?’ she insisted.
‘Nowhere close by. Everyone talks. In fact, I heard last night from a knowledgeable source that the town itself talks, as if it were alive. So let’s go to San Lorenzo. It’s a good hour away. And if we meet up at a fancy restaurant, we’ll have less chance of spotting anyone local. People out here don’t get gussied up for lunchtime outings.’ I thought for a moment and then suggested a tiny little cafe I’d read about in the San Francisco Chronicle called Plate.
‘Plate?’
‘They serve small portions. It’s a French place, with a taster’s menu.’ I remembered a review I’d read about the place. The reviewer asked, ‘What’s next? Spoon? Fork? Tine?’
‘Sounds LA enough for me,’ said Mia, and I gave her directions and made a plan to meet her at noon.
But, when we got there, I looked through the window and saw Alhambra waiting tables. The lovely spiky-haired blonde was Geneva’s girlfriend and, if Nica was to be trusted, a notorious gossip. I’d only been in town a short while and knew enough to stay clear of her, aside from a quick hello. I sighed and motioned to Mia to walk the other way. I made a move to my ear with my hand, letting her know I’d call her on the cell. Back in the car, I got her immediately.
‘Shit, that was close,’ I said.
‘What’s the problem?’
When I told her, she exclaimed in mock horror, ‘They’re everywhere! We can’t escape!’
‘Well, this would kill our plan before it even really started,’ I told her. ‘Because Alhambra would tell Geneva that she saw the two of us together, and Geneva would either tell Alden and the rest of the firefighters or use the information as a way to blackmail me into joining NUDE or having sex with her.’
Mia giggled. ‘You’re that easy?’
‘Stop it. I’m trying to think of another place.’
‘Let’s just go back to the city.’
‘You’re sure?’
‘I can’t breathe here,’ she said.
‘Now you’re being silly. Even city people understand that the air is better out in the country.’
‘Maybe, but I like to be near buildings and fumes and stores and people. People who don’t know me. People who won’t try to blackmail me into fucking them.’
I shrugged, even though I knew she couldn’t see me. ‘OK. I’ll meet you at the top of St Regis in about an hour.’
That’s how we got back up to the slowly twirling bar, where Mia came clean about her erotic exploits with Noah Sweet.
‘He’s a god,’ she said over her first margarita. ‘A fucking god. You were absolutely right.’
‘He’s a big fish in a small pond,’ I corrected her, sipping my own drink.
‘Perhaps, but he’d be a big fish even in LA. Maybe not musically, but definitely looks-wise. Admit it, Charlie,’ she insisted. ‘He’s delicious.’
‘He’s definitely attractive.’ I didn’t have anything to lose by stating the truth.
‘And I’ll bet he’d get a gig in one of the clubs up on Sunset.’
‘You’re thinking of wooing him away, aren’t you? Kidnapping the cutey and taking him back to La-La-Land with you. You’ll fill his head with dreams of fame, and then watch as those dreams get crushed into dust. And by then you’ll have lost interest, and he’ll wind up penniless on the street, with his battered guitar case opened up and a hand-written sign propped on the blue velvet interior stating: “Will play reggae for food …”’
‘You’re so dramatic. Don’t you want to hear what happened?’
I nodded.
‘At the break, he came right over and asked if I was enjoying the music. He acted as if we knew each other, which threw me a loop. For a moment I was worried he’d caught on to some connection between you and me, and I had to fight to keep my head together. Oh, and you’re right – he does smell divine.’
‘Had he guessed about us?’
‘No. It was just his way of being forward without appearing to be forward. He said he thought he’d seen me at a show at some bar or restaurant called Rancho Ricardo, but I told him I’d never heard of the place. So then he introduced himself and squired me over to the corner booth that you’d so generously vacated. Where’d you go, anyway?’
‘Home.’
‘Had enough already?’
‘I had enough last night.’
‘Of the redhead, right? She had her hands all over your man, and he was clearly enjoying the attention. And the tension.’
‘How’d you know which was my man?’
‘That was easy. I looked for the guy in the crowd who most resembled Johnny. The fact that the redhead was draped over him like an expensive fox stole just made me more secure in my guesswork. Although I have to say, Charlie, the cowboy who followed you out was pretty fine himself.’
I wouldn’t comment on that. ‘What happened with Noah?’
‘He wanted to go home with me. Or me to go home with him. He actually told me that he had a waterbed, as if that would seal the deal. I turned him down flat, but gave him a little kiss, just to spark his interest.’
‘Did it?’
‘Did it what?’
‘Spark anything?’
‘Oh, man, Charlie. I could feel that he was definitely sparked. When he pressed up against me, things were clearly afire.’
‘Where’d you kiss him?’
‘Where do you think? You’re so fucking dirty,’ she said with a laugh. ‘On the lips.’
‘No, where were you? In the bar? Outside? On that old pool table?’
‘Right out the back door. Where the kids go to have a smoke. He was walking me out and we stopped right there, in the doorway. He held me against the doorframe and he k
issed me. I mean, really kissed me. For about five minutes.’
‘So everyone saw?’
‘Uh-huh.’
‘You planned it that way?’
She shook her head. ‘Not me. He did. He did all the work. I didn’t have to manipulate the situation at all.’
‘Oh, that Noah. He wanted all the little Sweethearts to see him.’
‘Well, they saw all right. I’m pretty sure that you’ll be old news after that kiss. His hands were everywhere, on my breasts, on my ass, and, when we parted, I was flushed like a schoolgirl.’
‘You don’t blush.’
‘He made me blush,’ Mia insisted. ‘It was pretty fucking amazing. If I hadn’t kept my wits about me, we would have gone back to his place for sure. But I want to drag things out some. I can tell from his kiss alone that things are going to be mind-blowing when we finally do it.’
We were silent then, both of us thinking about recent kisses. And then Mia said, ‘So what about you? Have you given up on your firefighter already? Have I come out here for nothing? I mean, nothing except an awesome kiss.’
‘No,’ I said. Then ‘I don’t know,’ and then ‘Maybe.’
‘Very forceful, Charlie. Way to make a decision.’
‘I like him. But I don’t know that I want to fight for him. And that’s what it seems I’m going to have to do. He was testing me last night to see how far he could go. I didn’t take the bait, and maybe I should have. Maybe I should have marched up to the bar and thrown a drink in Sheila’s face. But that kind of behaviour’s not going to get me off the gossip radar, is it?’
‘You’ve fought before,’ Mia said, looking at me over the rim of her drink.
Yeah, she was right. I’d put up a big battle for Johnny. And what had it won me? Another purple heart. Or broken heart. Wouldn’t it be nice if someone gave out medals when relationships went sour? You could compare your tragedies with your next mate: See, I won this broken heart when my ex slept with his former sweetheart. This one was for a fling I had that destroyed my two-year relationship. I still don’t know why I did it. At least, it would be something you could use to open a conversation with. How many broken hearts do you have?