A Basic Renovation

by Sandra Antonelli

  Lesley’s eyes widened. ‘What…Wait a minute. Your mother? You think your mother—’

  ‘I’m so sorry. I don’t know what’s wrong with her. Maybe it is dementia. She’s always been…abrasive, but since my dad died she’s gone a little further off the deep end. But this, this is…incomprehensible. Dementia or not, whatever the maximum is for a crime like this, that’s what she deserves.’

  Head shaking, John sniffed a couple of times and hooked his thumbs into his belt. Lesley began to laugh hysterically.

  Dominic fumbled with his sunglasses and tried to keep his voice calm as his bowels clenched. Steady. Don’t shit yourself. ‘I’ll fix it. I’ll fix it all and she’ll pay for it. I swear to God. I’ll fix it, Lesley. Fabian’s already started cleaning it up. Edgar’s got the plywood and Jim Salazar’s coming up from Española to replace the glass as soon as possible.’

  ‘Y-y-our,’ Lesley stuttered and rose, ‘m-mother? Y-y-our m-m-m…’ She wiped her eyes with the shoulder of her shirt. Her mouth opened, her lips moved, but no sound came out. She glanced to John for help.

  ‘It’s wasn’t your mother, Dominic,’ John said. ‘It was Mr. Witteveen.’

  ‘Who?’

  ‘Mike Witteveen, the former owner of Lesley’s property. He was caught red-handed. Or orange-handed in this case.’

  Dominic managed a very intelligent, ‘Huh?’

  Lesley took a deep breath, blew it out, and sank back down into the chair. ‘Mike’s the guy who splattered coffee all over me,’ she said, ‘the one who got me banned from Starbucks. Your mother? That’s hilarious.’ And it must have been because she started giggling all over again.

  This did not add up. He couldn’t quite wrap his brain around it, so Dominic stared at her. ‘What is so funny?’

  Sniffling, she reached forward and grabbed his forearm. ‘This has nothing to do with your mom. Mike used a key he’d kept to get into the house. He broke the windows, spray-painted graffiti all over the walls and set fire to a couple of old lawnmower tyres in a garbage can he dragged into the living room.’

  ‘Tyres make a lot of smoke,’ he murmured because it was the only thing that came to his mind that made any sense. ‘Why?’ Dominic spread his hands.

  John unhooked his thumbs. ‘From what he was yelling, Mr. Witteveen is unhappy about my aunt marrying Lesley’s grandpa. He decided to exact his revenge. Apparently, Lesley was the easiest target.’

  ‘Oh, thank God.’

  ‘Thank God?’ Lesley’s attention snapped back to Dominic.

  ‘As nuts as she is, I love my mother and I don’t want her to go to prison.’ Dominic flopped into the seat beside her and dumped his sunglasses on a small table with water stains.

  ‘We all love our mothers.’ John’s eyes met Dominic’s.

  There was a flicker of something behind that hazel gaze before it shifted to Lesley. Dominic had the impression he’d just been scrutinised, judged, and approved.

  ‘I’ll go in the back, Lesley.’ John said. ‘Tell the officer at the Control Room window to come get me when you’re ready. I’ll take you back to pick up whatever you need.’

  After Tilbrook disappeared though a door, they sat quietly for a few minutes and Dominic was grateful for the time to regroup. He looked over at Lesley. She was cold. Goosebumps covered her forearms. Her nipples stood out from her white t-shirt, black ash marks made them look like peaks of burnt meringue.

  He’d been such a fool to get caught up in the idea of moving in together. Before anything else happened, she needed to know.

  ‘Dominic?’ she said.

  Yeah, he’d been a huge imbecile. ‘Hm?’

  Her sigh was weary. ‘John’s offered to let me stay at his place.’

  ‘Did he?’

  ‘Yes. I’m going to take him up on the offer.’

  A massive idiot indeed. ‘You are?’

  She nodded with unhappy eyes. ‘I’m too old to play house.’

  ‘Play house?’

  Lesley groaned and she turned towards him. Say it. Just say it. ‘I can’t believe my mother was right. I thought I was too old, too jaded, too something to want the whole package, but I do. I need more. I want the same thing Stefanie did. I love you and I want all of you.’

  ‘I see.’ Dominic’s short nails made a sound on his jeans as he scratched his right hip. ‘I guess I knew that,’ he said.

  ‘I don’t want to hurt you, and I know I would if we moved in together. What I want would gnaw away at me.’ Lesley lowered her gaze, unable to maintain contact with his hot blue eyes. She looked at her knees. They were smudged with oily soot. ‘I don’t want to be another Stefanie.’

  ‘You’re not Stefanie, Lesley. You’re nothing like her. You’re not even close.’

  Lesley felt her throat tighten. She lifted her head and swallowed.

  ‘It was a mistake. Asking you to move in was a mistake. I didn’t think it through like you did.’ Exhaling hard, Dominic scratched his hip again. He stood and glanced down at the pockets of his jeans. His thumb rubbed over the smallest denim pouch. ‘You were planning to walk away, weren’t you?’

  Tears burned her eyes and she blinked them away. ‘Yes. I’m going to walk away.’

  ‘OK,’ he nodded. ‘I get it. I can’t blame you. I know I misread it for both of us. I’m sorry I got it wrong.’

  ‘It’s all right. I think we were kidding ourselves to think it would work.’

  ‘The sex was great, wasn’t it?’

  ‘It’s been wonderful.’

  ‘Is that it for us then?’

  ‘I think it’s easier this way.’ She cleared her throat.

  He sighed. ‘Would you do me a favour, before I go, Lesley?

  ‘What?’ She couldn’t look at him.

  Dominic hadn’t pictured it happening this way, it wasn’t what had come to his mind when he’d decided moving in together wasn’t the answer, but he knew this was right. ‘There’s something stuck inside my right pocket, the useless little one at the top. All it does is collect fuzz, pennies and the occasional lump of something. Whatever’s jammed in there has been poking me for the last few minutes. My fingers are too big. I can’t get it out unless I take my pants off first.’

  Without a word, Lesley scooted forward. She felt his breath stir her hair. Dear Lord, she wanted to cry. She wanted to break down, curl up on the floor and bawl.

  But she didn’t.

  She’d been stupid to believe that this was more than a fling. The bald truth was this relationship was limited to certain parameters that didn’t allow for anything else but sex that blazed as fiercely as a flash fire and burned out almost as soon as it started.

  Lesley pushed the facts away. As usual, she’d been dumped. As usual, she would cry about all the destruction later.

  Later, later, later. She dipped a forefinger into the little pouch and felt something wedged in the very bottom of the left side of the worn denim. Pulling out her index finger, she hooked her thumb inside and rolled out a soft object with a hard bump at one edge.

  ‘What is it?’ he asked leaning over slightly to examine what she’d found.

  Swallowing the lump that kept rising, she held up a semi-flattened bulge of royal blue. ‘It’s ribbon.’

  ‘Kyle’s supposed to check pockets before he does the laundry. He makes sure he gets all the loose change, but he misses tissues and ribbon.’

  ‘There’s something in this. It feels like a rock.’ Lesley began to unwind the length of satin fabric. As she shook it out and her heart nearly stopped.

  It was a rock all right.

  Tied to the end of the ribbon was a fair-sized ruby framed by twin diamonds that were set into a platinum band. She looked up into Dominic’s face. Hot aquamarine eyes gazed back.

  ‘I like you in red,’ he said, pulling the blue length free of the ring. It slid on her finger easily.

  Dumbstruck, Lesley felt herself blink.

  Long fingers skimmed into her hair and Dominic held her face between his
hands. ‘You thought you could walk away? I love you. Don’t you know? If you leave me, I’ll come after you. I’ll go caveman on your ass. I’ll grab my club, track you down and drag you back here, by your hair if necessary. Don’t make me do that. Don’t make be a savage brute. Save me from that. Stay here. Stay here with me. Marry me.’

  Chapter 23

  ‘Where’s my dad?’ Kyle yawned and plopped onto a chair at the kitchen table. His dog skittered into the kitchen and began licking his bare feet.

  She set down the pen she’d been using and pulled Dominic’s old R.E.M. concert t-shirt over the tops of her thighs. With a little grin, she pointed to the French doors. Dominic was out on the deck, watering potted geraniums.

  As the boy raised a hand and waved at his father, Lesley covered the list she’d written. Insurance. Smoke damage. What’s covered? Mrs Lesley Brennan. Sugar soap. TSP, Dawn dishwashing liquid. Lesley Ann Brennan. Valspar Duramax Exterior paint. Call Kelly. Dominic and Lesley Brennan.

  She needn’t have bothered. The boy’s smirk said he’s already seen it. ‘So,’ he said, trying to keep his smile from being so huge, ‘how’d he do it?’

  Lesley stared at the dog with a slightly severe expression. Clementine sat for a moment and then rolled onto her back to expose her tummy. A tiny, self-satisfied smile tipped up the corners of Lesley’s mouth. ‘How did who do what?’ she asked.

  ‘How did Dad ask you to marry him?’

  She looked at Kyle, eyebrows arched. ‘You knew he was going to?’

  ‘Yeah. He asked me permission, like I was your father or something. Do you like the ring? I thought an engagement ring was supposed to be a diamond, but he said he could give you whatever kind of damn ring he wanted to, as long as it was significant. So what did he do?’ Kyle hopped up onto the counter and sat. ‘How’d he pop the question? Did he get on his knees? Give you flowers? Take you to dinner?’

  ‘You’re a bit of a romantic, aren’t you Kyle?’

  He shrugged. ‘I guess. So what was it?’

  ‘A bonfire and a mariachi band.’

  ‘Are you shi—serious?’

  ‘No. After the bonfire, he made me think he was about to dump me. Then he asked if I’d keep him from becoming a savage by marrying him.’

  Kyle made a face. ‘That sounds pretty lame.’

  ‘Actually, it made my toes curl.’

  ‘Then how come you’re not bouncing off walls or all lovey-dovey off in his room right…Oh, fu…fudge, um…you said yes, didn’t you? You do love him, right?’

  Lesley nodded and smiled gently. He thought she look all soft and pretty despite her age. ‘Yes,’ she nodded, ‘I said yes, and I do love him. Is all this all right with you?’

  ‘Sure. You’re cool.’ Kyle hopped down from his perch and picked up Clementine. She licked his neck. ‘I know you’re marrying my father, not replacing my mother, blah, blah, blah, but am I supposed to call you mom? Because I never knew mine. I mean, I refer to her as Mom and stuff, only I never called anyone Mom, even though my dad made sure I had an appropriate mom figure when I was a little kid.’

  ‘Your Grandma?’

  ‘No, my Godmother, Willa, Dad’s friend from college, and I never called her Mom either, not even by accident. Do you…uh…do you want me to call you Mom or Mother or something?’

  ‘Why don’t you just go on calling me Lesley?’

  Kyle chuckled. ‘You know, we’ve sort of had this discussion before, haven’t we? When you took me to the hospital after I broke my arm I asked you if I was supposed to call you Aunt Lesley. Grandma didn’t like that. I wonder what she’d do if I called you Mom. What do you bet she tells me I’d hafta put evil and step in front of it first?’

  Lesley stood in the middle of the smoke-stained house. Things weren’t as bad as she remembered they’d been on Friday. The worst damage was limited to the open living room. The walls and ceiling had suffered the most. The smell of fresh paint had wiped out the stench of cat pee and now the paint smell had been replaced by the acrid stench of scorched wood, burnt rubber and lighter fluid.

  Dominic’s arm slipped around her waist. ‘The easy part of cleaning is going be removing the stains, inside and out. That oily black soot will rub off with a lot of soapy water, a little Tri-sodium phosphate cleaner and elbow grease. You’ll have to slap on another coat of paint in two small areas. Fabian’s already onto the mess outside. I personally matched and mixed forty gallons of Desert Sand exterior paint for you, and I checked to make sure you’ve still got enough interior colour left to repair the damaged patches in the living area.’

  ‘I have two choices,’ she said looking at the surface beneath her feet. Mike Witteveen had dragged an old garbage can into the house, dumped in two small tyres he’d found cushioning scaffolding in the driveway, and lit the thing like an outdoor barbecue in the living room. Lesley shuffled her boots on a large scorch mark, a dark ring etched into the blonde wood. ‘I can try and sand all of it or I can pull out this section and lay new floating floor.’

  ‘There’s another option.’ Dominic pulled her closer to his chest.

  She dropped her head back and looked up at him. ‘What, sisal carpeting?’

  He chuckled. ‘No. I was thinking in a different direction. I was thinking lunch. We could go back to my house and have lunch.’

  ‘Lunch? It’s only…’ she glanced at her watch, ‘eleven?’

  ‘Yes, doll-baby. It’s eleven. I’ve been at the store since six and I’m starving.’

  ‘I can’t get enough of you either.’

  Dominic kissed the top of her head. ‘While I’m flattered you think I’m tops in the sack, I’m afraid I won’t be able to perform without a bit of food.’

  ‘Didn’t you say you’d starve to death just to watch me come?’

  ‘OK,’ he turned her, let her go, and took a step back, ‘go ahead. I’ll watch.’

  Smirking, Lesley ran a hand down the front of her little pink tank top, her thumb brushing over a nipple. With intent jasper eyes, she drew down the strap on one side, began to slip aside the fabric to expose soft, pale flesh at the rise of her breast, and paused. ‘Do you mind if Edgar plays voyeur too?

  He shot a glance over his shoulder. The wiry Trujillo’s delivery man was carrying in off-cuts of plywood. Dominic burst out laughing. ‘I can’t wait to marry you.’

  ‘Want to run off to Vegas like my grandpa?’

  ‘No way. I want the big production.’

  ‘You’re kidding?’

  ‘Nope. Me in a Tux, you in a big white dress, flowers everywhere, hideous cake with six tiers. I want it all.’

  ‘I just want you.’

  ‘You’ve got me.’ He reached out and touched her cheek with his big thumb. ‘Forever and ever, you’ve got me, Lesley. I love you.’ Sweaty, hot and speckled with bits of the woodchips he’d stacked near the entrance of his store, he pulled her back into his arms and held her. The smile on his face felt big and dopey and he sighed with ridiculous contentment. ‘Have you told your parents yet?’

  Lesley snuggled against him. ‘You know, for people moaning about me being middle-aged and unmarried, they didn’t take it so well. Although she was pleased it meant I’d be living close by, my mother said I was an idiot to have anything to do with a Brennan again. My dad sat there and shook his head. GP was tickled, but everything tickles him since he found John’s aunt. That reminds me.’ She looked up at him. ‘I’ll be busy setting up their reception during the day, but will you come next Thursday night for GP and Eilish’s nuptial service?’

  ‘I’ll be there.’

  She squinted one eye. ‘Have you told your mother?’

  ‘‘Course I have. I told her before I asked you. Why do you think I believed she was the one who tried to burn your house down?’ Dominic chuckled and slid his hand down her spine. His smile faded a little and he sighed. ‘About my mother, Lesley…’ his fingers ran up and down her back, ‘I’m afraid she’s always going to be an issue. She’s never going to warm
to the idea of you, or any woman attached to one of her sons because nobody does it better than Mom.’ Dominic laughed. ‘Jay-zus, that sounds Oedipal.’

  ‘Yes, and thanks for the visual. That image will haunt me for the rest of my life.’

  ‘Sorry. Sorry. My mother’s scary enough. I just wanted to prepare you for her behaviour, not scare the bejesus out of you with a local Irish version of Greek Tragedy.’

  Chuckling softly, Lesley reached up to touch his face. ‘You love me, Dominic. You make this town someplace I want to live. Maybe it sounds idealistic and trite, but since we love each other, we can handle anything, Peggy included.’

  Dominic’s dopey smile returned. He kissed the tip of her nose and his stomach growled.

  Eight minutes later, they were back at his house. Clementine rushed into the foyer, barking and bristling at Lesley. Growling, the dog bounced upwards, snapping and nipping sharp little teeth at Lesley’s fingers.

  ‘Oh, no you don’t, you little tick!’ Lesley barked back. ‘This is not going to be another female battle for attention or affection from a Brennan boy. I get enough of that from Peggy. You sit!’

  Head drooped in doggie shame, Clementine plopped her butt on the rug in the foyer. Then she rolled onto her back.

  ‘Good girl! What a good girl!’

  Dominic watched Lesley bend over to pat the little dog. The sight of his fiancée’s bottom made him forget he hadn’t eaten since breakfast.

  Next thing he knew, Clementine had trotted off and he was walking Lesley backwards into the living room. He sat her against the arm of the big leather sofa. His mouth sank into the soft part of her neck while his thumbs pushed down the straps of her top. From collarbone to ear, he bit gently. The instant his fingers found her breast, a tiny growl came from her throat and a shot of raw need nearly blew off the top of his head. He peeled the stretchy cotton from her and slid that small wonderful mound of flesh into his palm.

  As air rushed from her lips, Lesley’s hands rushed to unfasten his belt. When she yanked his shirt free from his dirt-stained shorts and began to undo the buttons, loud music and rumbling explosions rolled down the hallway. Her fingers stopped unbuttoning. ‘Kyle’s here,’ she whispered against his ear.