Lesley watched her mother glare at her elderly grandpa. ‘Well, look who’s decided to show his face! What have you been up to, you horny old goat?’
From the open doorway, GP shot a look to his son-in-law and nodded. ‘Consider us even, son.’
Patrick looked heavenward then closed his eyes.
‘Daddy, have you spent the last two days at the Comfort Inn – with a woman?’
GP smiled. ‘No, of course not.’
Gina shot an I-told-you-so look to Lesley. ‘So where were you?’
‘With your husband.’
‘Uh-huh. Patrick was in Las Vegas. Golfing.’
‘I know. So was I.’
Gina crossed her arms. ‘Mm-hm. What did you do in Vegas while he was playing in the Frijoles Cup Golf Tournament?’
‘I saw Wayne Newton and got married by Elvis. Minchia, Number Five, put a sock in it and come give your new mother a kiss.’ With that, GP pulled a beaming Eilish Flanagan Rotolone into the house.
Numbed and bewildered, Lesley sat at John’s dining room table. He was still in his uniform when she arrived, twenty minutes early, but he let her inside and made a pot of coffee while she explained the events that brought her to his door.
John had grinned as she unloaded her fears over criminal reprisal and asked how to handle the issue of the not-exactly-stolen motorcycle. With matter-of-fact cop tone, he talked her through the procedure of making another police report, reminded her to contact her insurance company, and allayed her worry about being arrested for fraud. ‘Reports like this, family members taking motor vehicles from other family members, is far more common than people realise,’ he said, after a swallow of coffee.
‘Really?’
‘You hear about the wild things kids do, but parents can be just as crazy.’
‘So can grandparents.’
He broke into a big boyish grin. ‘That night when you and I fooled around, it didn’t make sense. I tried to figure out why. There had to be some reason for why you and I didn’t work,’ John sniffle-laughed and drained his coffee cup. ‘I didn’t know it would come down to my aunt and your grandpa. Love is in the air. Isn’t that just beautiful? Now we’re related.’
‘Oh, ish,’ Lesley wrinkled her nose over the rim of her mug, ‘I made out with my cousin.’
John puckered up and made a kissing noise. ‘So are we first cousins, second cousins, or second cousins twice-removed? How does all the removal stuff work anyhow?’
Lesley shrugged. ‘Hell if I know.’
‘I wonder when Aunt Eilish is going to tell my mother.’
‘Given GP’s recent affection for high melodrama, I’m sure your mother already knows. I’m sure everyone knows.’ Lesley set her mug down a little harder than she wanted to. She licked coffee from her hand and sighed.
‘Your house is almost done, isn’t it? You’ll be gone before September.’
‘I don’t think so. I have to finish the kitchen floor and bathroom tiling. The tubs need to be re-enamelled. There’s still the outside. I’ve got to re-pour the back patio. The landscaping and the exterior painting needs to be done. I’ve lined up someone to scrape back the old paint this week. Trust me. It’ll take until September.’
‘What I’ve seen, compared to how it was, has turned out great. I’m impressed.’
‘Want to buy it?’
‘No, thanks. Why don’t you keep it? Have a vacation home in the mountains.’
‘I’m tempted, but I need the income from the sale. You know something? I was just beginning to like it here.’
‘Really?’
‘Yeah, but life has a tendency to turn into a three-ring circus and, through no fault of my own, I always wind up as the main attraction. It’s like I can’t have a normal life in this town. Ladies and gentlemen, Lesley the freak!’
‘I think it’s your red shoes. What is it with you and red footwear? Every time I see you you’re in red cowboy boots or red sandals or red something. No wonder you feel like your life’s under the big top. Don’t you know only clowns wear red shoes?’
Lesley laughed. ‘Spoken like the guy who was the model for Krusty the Clown’s hair.’
‘Red shoes, Lesley. They’re so…special.’
‘Dominic likes—’ Lesley caught herself. ‘So, are we going to watch a movie or what?’
Laughing, John collected their half-empty coffee cups and stood. ‘Yeah, I know how you kiss and I’m sure he likes. Does your boyfriend know you turn to me in times of crisis?
‘What are you talking about?’
He took the cups to the sink and reached into the cupboard above to take out a box of microwavable popcorn. ‘Your motorcycle is stolen and you come to me. You find out your ex told everyone you were gay, you come to me. You get arrested and you ask for me. Your grandpa elopes to Vegas, your bike turns up, and where do you go instead of Brennan’s?’ John waved. ‘Hello. How does he feel about that?’
‘You invited me here, you doofus. He knows I was coming here to watch a movie with my old friend. He trusts me.’
‘If you ask me—’
‘I didn’t ask you anything.’
John put the popcorn on the countertop and turned to her. ‘But if you did, I’d say you’re in love with me instead of him.’
For a moment, the words hung in the air. Lesley opened her mouth to say something. Their eyes locked. Then their laughter exploded simultaneously, a big seal noise honking out of John.
Still chuckling, he began to unbutton his shirt as he moved towards the refrigerator. ‘You want a Coke?’
Wiping her eyes, Lesley nodded and watched her new cousin take a couple of Cokes out of the fridge. He wore a white t-shirt beneath the dark blue of his uniform. His firm chest was outlined by the cotton fabric. His waist was trim, his hips narrow. What was he, forty-four, forty-five? John was smart, handsome, funny, full of vitality and very, very kind. It just didn’t seem right that he was unattached. ‘What is a man like you doing alone? You’re a really good friend, John.’
‘I think that’s my problem. I always wind up the good friend.’
‘Is that what happened with you and your ex?’
‘Pretty much.’
‘Sorry.’
He shrugged and handed her an ice-cold bottle of Coke. ‘I’m strangely used to it.’
‘If it’s any consolation, I always wind up dumped.’
John grinned. ‘Nuke the popcorn. I’ll have a quick shower and change. Then we can watch Die Hard, and you can tell me all about you and Dr. Hardware before he dumps you.’
Chapter 21
Clementine slept on Dominic’s thighs until a thunderous snarl outside sent her skittering up his chest. Tiny claws made bright red scratches down the inside of his arm as she tried to burrow under his elbow. Dominic dropped the Jasper Fforde novel he’d been reading and grabbed her around the belly. He sat up, jerked off his reading glasses, and tucked Clementine on his shoulder the way Kyle did.
Tossing the spectacles onto the coffee table, he slid off the leather couch, puppy shaking in the crook of his neck. He’d never tell his son, but he’d grown quite fond of the little tick. Housebreaking issues aside, he didn’t regret getting a dog for one second.
With a yawn, he pulled aside the lightweight curtain and peered outside in time to see Lesley turned off the motorcycle’s engine. She’d been at her place all day tiling and dealing with furnace installation. He watched her pull off her helmet, peel off her leather jacket, and stuff gloves into a pocket.
Seeing her in the saddle of a Harley was a buzz almost as big as seeing her in nothing but red cowboys boots. When she slid off the bike his desire rolled out like a welcome mat.
Without any recollection of moving, or setting Clementine down, he had the front door open. He smiled, thinking of everything he was going to do. Lesley didn’t stand a chance.
Helmet in her hand, she gave him a look and exhaled, ‘You’re not going to believe this.’
‘Neither will you,’ he sai
d. He had every intention of making her believe, but a baser need had taken over completely. He dragged her inside, kicked the door shut, and pressed her against the wall, making the black-framed photos rattle and tilt. Without another word, his mouth was on hers tasting her, feeding from her, absolutely ravenous for her. Her helmet hit the floor with a thunk.
It took a moment for it to filter through his passion, to realise the throaty noise he thought Lesley was making was actually Clementine snarling. When the sound turned into sharp barking, Lesley jerked out of his arms.
‘Ow!’ she squealed, trying to dislodge a suddenly jealous puppy attacking her leg. ‘Hey! You little twit, get off! Sit! Sit!’
Dominic grabbed Clementine by the scruff and growled at her. Immediately, the puppy became submissive. She bowed her head in shame as she slunk off under the coffee table with her whippy little tail tucked between her legs. ‘Are you all right, Lesley?’
Lesley rubbed her ankle and calf. Her skin was streaked with pink scratches and smears of bright scarlet. ‘Her teeth are like little razors. Jeez, I thought Clementine liked me.’
He shook his head and smiled lightly, his desire tempered by concern for her pain. ‘I don’t know what it is with you and Brennan women, Lesley,’ he took her hand, ‘but they all seem to want to draw your blood. Come on. Let’s clean those bites.’
He led her down the hall to the master bathroom off his room. As she took a seat on the lid of the toilet, she watched him dig out cotton, peroxide, and Neosporin from the mirrored medicine chest over a white pedestal sink. ‘I got my bike back,’ she muttered.
‘Your bike?’ Dominic paused as he held a wad of cotton under the running tap.
The motorcycle, moron.
The motorcycle. How had he missed it? How had he forgotten the big red thing that had set him alight with lust as he watched her climb off of it, had been stolen? He lifted the saturated cotton in his hand. ‘Oh, yeah,’ he said, amazed desire actually made him blind, mindless and forgetful. ‘Did Tilbrook tell you? He didn’t mention it had been found when I spoke to him yesterday.’
‘No. He didn’t know because it wasn’t really stolen in the genuine sense of the word. My dad had it. He and my cousin took it. They couldn’t stand the idea of me riding it. When they saw it in the Smith’s parking lot, they loaded it on Toby’s pickup and hid it in the garage at my parent’s house. My mother claims she didn’t know.’
‘You’re kidding?’ He crouched down, took her ankle, and began to dab at her small wounds.
‘Nope. Oh, it was solve-a-mystery at Samuels Manor.’ Lesley gritted her teeth as her skin stung. Then she told him about last night, about her father’s fear of motorcycles, her mother’s chagrin over having an unmarried middle-aged daughter, a cousin who wanted to set her up with his nerdy buddies and the blackmailing grandfather who went to Vegas to get married before his daughter could kick up a fuss. By the time she was done, Dominic had cleaned the tiny bites and the worst of the scratches.
‘And I thought my family was insane,’ he said. ‘How old is your grandpa?’
‘Ninety-two.’
‘I hope I’m just as spry and sexy when I’m his age.’ Grinning, Dominic uncapped the Neosporin and squeezed some onto a Q-tip. Then he proceeded to apply it where needed.
Lesley’s eyes suddenly burned, but not because of pain. Dominic was so gentle; his fingers rubbed in the antibiotic cream with such careful tenderness it almost made her weep. When he glanced up at her though his lashes her nose started to run.
‘I’m sorry, doll-baby. I’m trying to be delicate.’
For some reason, his expression of concern was enough to crack the veneer of composure she’d held on to. She’d kept herself busy, slathering on tile glue, grouting and wrestling a garbage disposal unit into place instead of allowing the last few days under her skin, but it finally crept up on her. Pent up anger over her arrest and the not-so-stolen motorcycle, disbelief about GP’s Elvis nuptials, and the absurd depth and intensity of what she felt for Dominic broke through. Everything spilled out in a deluge of snot and hot tears she couldn’t stem.
Well, at least she wasn’t sobbing like a goose or shuddering helplessly. Besides an occasional sniffled, ‘Shit,’ it all poured out quietly as she sat on his toilet and made an ugly, screwed-up face, jerked a yard of toilet paper from a roll, and sank wadded up balls of tissue into the trash can near the door.
Despite her Niagara Falls performance, he gave her a soft, understanding smile and put away the first aid stuff. A lot of men would have done one of those let me kiss it better things, but Dominic seemed to know she didn’t want to be soothed or comforted. He simply put out a towel, had a seat on the edge of the tub, and waited for the rain to stop.
When the storm did pass, Lesley got to her feet and tossed one last toilet paper ball into the basket. She caught sight of herself in the mirror. The tip of her nose was red, mascara had pooled under her eyes and pink blotched her skin. John was right. There was nothing attractive about the way she cried. She looked like a Halloween hag. She bent over the sink to turn on the taps. Hands cupped, she splashed water on her face and neck.
Dominic moved beside her. He’d been waiting for a moment that wasn’t extraordinary or passion-fuelled. Sure, he could do a moonlit walk under the stars kind of thing, or even mention it over onion rings at Sonic, but with Lesley sniffling and blowing her nose, now seemed like a pretty good time. He peeled off hair stuck to her cheek and held out the towel. ‘Listen,’ he said, ‘You an—’
‘I know. I’ve been told I look like crap when I cry.’
‘I wouldn’t say crap, and that’s not what I wanted to talk about. You and I, we have to give it a shot.’
‘Give what a shot?’ Lesley splashed a bit more water on her eyes.
‘Us. You and me. Together. We need to try. We need to see.’
She froze. Water dripped down her throat and rushed into the sink.
‘If you’re worried about my mother, I’m a big boy. I can handle her. She knows where I stand about you. I told her. What do you think the spanking was for?’
Straightening, she turned off the faucet. There was a decidedly melancholy edge to her sigh. ‘This is impossible.’
‘Why?’
‘Because it’s supposed to be temporary,’ Lesley flicked water from her hands as she turned around. ‘It’s what we agreed on.’
Dominic lifted her fingers and dried them with the towel. ‘Did we? I think we’ve always both known it’s been something more.’ Tossing the terry cloth over his shoulder, he smiled, touching her cheek. ‘Glory days, I’ve fallen for you so hard I’m concussed.’
Despite her red-rimmed eyes, she snickered, ‘You sound like you just stepped out of some fifties movie. What are you going to say next? You send me, Lesley?’
Chuckling, he brushed a stray hair from her forehead, slipping strands behind her ear. ‘You can’t fool me or hide anything. I know you’re head over heels, too.’
‘Oh, Dominic, you’re like far out and groovy.’
‘Don’t make fun of me when I’ve been so honest with you. Something’s got to work. I love you, Lesley. You’re too precious to just let go.’
Dominic watched Lesley plop back against the edge of the sink. She looked stunned.
Or mortified.
Or sick.
Well, I didn’t see sick coming. This was not the reaction he’d been hoping for. Jay-zus Kee-rist, what if she doesn’t love you? Did you think of that? ‘Why do you look like you’re about to puke?’ he asked, swallowing a nauseating fear rising in his gut.
She licked her bottom lip and squeaked, ‘I love you, too.’
Dominic exhaled, not aware he’d been holding his breath until he let it go. ‘You do?’
‘Yes.’
‘Well, thank God. That solves everything.’
‘No, it doesn’t. It makes it all much more complicated.’
‘How is it more complicated?’
She frowned suddenly. �
�Don’t tell me you’re actually considering turning this into a long-distance relationship situation?’
‘Well—’
‘They don’t work. They never work.’
‘We might.’
‘Might? Oh, God, why did I say anything? Why did I have to fess up and say I love you? I’m so stupid.’
‘No. You’re so beautiful. You are so damn beautiful.’
Lesley groaned and smacked a palm to her damp forehead. Her soggy hair was scraggly, her face was blotchy. She knew she looked like Broom Hilda, minus the nose wart. ‘Why is it men say crap like you’re beautiful in the middle of a serious conversation or argument? What do you think it does, defuse tension?’
‘Doesn’t it?’
‘It makes me want to sock you in the jaw. It makes me feel like you’re not taking this, or me, seriously.’
‘I’m taking you very seriously.’
‘Then stop tucking my hair behind my ears!’
He leaned into her, her face between her palms. ‘How about I kiss you instead?’
She pulled his hands down and held on to his wrists. ‘How about you stop thinking with your Howitzer and focus on this situation. What are we going to do?’
‘Do you want to try the long distance thing?’
Lesley shook her head and let go of him. ‘I don’t think so. That will be more painful in the long run. No, thank you. I’ll take the hurt straight up when I leave in September.’
‘It doesn’t have to hurt. You don’t have to leave.’
She screwed up her face. ‘I don’t live here, Dominic.’
‘You could.’
‘Are you suggesting I move in with my parents? My mother has a ten p.m. curfew. That would put a real cramp on overnight trysts.’
‘Actually I was thinking you’d live with me.’
‘With you?’
‘Yes.’
‘What about Kyle? I think he might like some say in the matter of me living in his house.’
‘You’ve been given his tick of approval. He likes you a lot.’
‘I’m fond of him as well.’
‘I’ll grow on your parents. And your grandfather already likes me.’
A Basic Renovation Page 31