by Misty Simon
She snorted. “All because I wasn’t willing to battle him in some game on his phone.”
“And why did you continue to use the same site? It sounds like there weren’t many good ones on there.” I placed my hands around the teapot, loving the warmth of it and anticipating the slight zing Earl Grey with sugar and lots of cream would bring to my tongue.
“Because all the other ones weren’t that great and Melanie swore by it. It’s how she met Brett. I want a Brett.” The plate of cookies appeared on the table, perfectly arranged and scrumptious looking.
I dug in to the cookies and glanced at the microwave clock to see if the steeping process might be done.
“You can pour.” Gina pulled two delicate teacups from the cupboard above the stove and placed them in front of me.
“I just don’t know if you’re going to find a Brett on this site. Why not try the old-fashioned way?”
“Go to a bar? Blind dates? No, thanks. Can I have Max?”
That made me bobble the teapot and almost put my tea in my own lap.
Gina laughed. “I’m kidding. But it would be nice.” She sighed. “Does he have any friends?”
The outside doorbell at the bottom of the stairs saved me. The last thing I wanted to admit was that I hadn’t really met any of Max’s friends. And I was pretty sure she didn’t want to date the only friend of his I did know—my brother.
“I’m not expecting anyone,” she said, staring at the interior door to her right like a creeper was directly on the other side. Not that they could be since Gina had her house locked up tight and whoever it was had only rung the doorbell downstairs. You couldn’t get up here unless Gina opened the downstairs door for you.
I guess there could have been an unwanted someone downstairs. I wouldn’t have put it past Craig to try again even after the way Gina had cut him down in mid-puppy-dog-eyed stare, but I had doubts. Max had texted about twenty minutes ago to let me know he was stopping at my apartment across the road and then heading over to Gina’s. I had a feeling that it was my man who was expected, not the unwanted man Gina didn’t want to see.
I texted Max to see if it was indeed him.
His quick text back with a big YES was all I needed.
“It’s just Max. Is it okay if I go let him up?”
“Yeah, whatever. I guess you’ll be leaving then. I’m sure you’d rather spend time with your boyfriend than your mopey friend.” She sank back against the couch.
“Never. If you want him to go away, I’ll send him back to the apartment. I can catch up with him later.”
Gina rolled her head toward me with watery eyes. “Really?”
I gulped. I really did want to see my boyfriend, whom I hadn’t been with in almost three weeks, but Gina was important. Max would understand. “Really.”
“No.” She sat up straighter and arranged her hair a little better. “Tell him to come up. Maybe we can order some dinner and play games.”
“Sounds good.” Letting myself out the door to the small landing at the top of the stairs, I shut the door behind me and calculated how long I would have to greet Max properly before Gina came looking for us. I figured one long hello kiss would not be out of order. Hopping down the stairs, I spotted Max through the glass insert in the middle of the door to the outside. His dark hair was shiny in the old-fashioned streetlamp the borough had recently installed to give the town that Old World feel they said brought in more tourists.
I yanked open the door and went to pounce on him but saw he was carrying flowers a split second before I would have leapt. “Oh! Are those for me or are you masquerading as a delivery boy again?” We had met years and years ago in elementary school when he had hung out with my brother, but he’d been out of my life for years after that when he went to live with his grandmother. It wasn’t until he’d come up from Washington DC to look into my late ex-husband’s dirty money schemes that I’d met him again. He’d been staying under the radar by pretending to be a delivery guy for Monty the florist, but eventually I had remembered him, and his cover was blown.
Now I smiled at him with my arms outstretched. But he wasn’t looking at me. Instead, he looked at the flowers clutched in his hand while using the other hand to rub his chin.
“Was the question really that perplexing?” I joked. “If they’re for Gina instead, to make her feel better, then that’s even sweeter, and I will instantly forgive you for not bringing me flowers.”
Finally, he looked up at me and wiggled his jaw back and forth with his fingers.
“These were just delivered to my jaw. The guy came around the corner, saw me, threw the flowers with the vase at me, and then ran off, booking around the corner.”
“What?” Running myself, I got to the corner and peeked around the front of the Bean, but I saw no one even walking on the street, much less running.
Returning to Max, I stroked his face. “Are you okay? I’m so sorry. Did you recognize the guy?”
“I will be, and no, I didn’t recognize him.”
I took the card out of the flowers as I relieved him of his floral burden. He smiled his thanks, then grimaced.
“Hurts?”
“Yeah. I’m strong but my jaw is not made of steel. That vase is heavy.”
Petting his jaw, I tried to make it better, or at least not worse. “I want to get you ice right away but can you hold on for just a second more? I want to know whom these are from before I decide if I want to give them to Gina or not.”
“It’s fine. The sting is going away. I think it surprised me more than anything. The guy was a little thick around the middle and had blond hair, but other than that I didn’t get much more of an impression.”
“Hopefully he signed them so we can call it in.” I turned the card over in my hands, hoping against hope that they were from a special someone that was going to get his ass kicked for coming around where he was not wanted.
“What are we going to call in? A drive-by flowering?”
Leave it to Max to try to make a joke out of it. “Maybe.” I handed the flowers back to him to break the seal on the small envelope.
“What is taking so long? I gave you enough time to get in a good kiss before I came looking for you.”
As Gina stepped out onto the stoop with me, I whipped the card behind my back. Max was not as fast with his vase of flowers.
“Oh, Max, how sweet. Did you bring those for Tallie or for me?”
Poor Max—he looked at me with pleading eyes, and I figured lying to Gina would not make the situation better no matter whom the flowers were for. She’d had enough lying for the day.
“Some guy just threw them at him.” I waved the card at her. “I was going to find out who they were from before we brought them up or threw them out, depending on whether I thought it would be worse to give them to you or not.”
“I’m a big girl, Tallie. I can decide for myself.” She held her hand out, palm open flat. “Hand the card over. I can handle this.”
I had a hard time actually letting go of the card when I held it out over her outstretched palm. She took the decision out of my hand, literally, when she snagged the card and turned away from Max and me.
I heard the growl and stopped her from ripping the card into shreds just in time.
“Don’t do that. Whoever it is, they threw the vase at Max and hit him in the face. That’s evidence.”
“I want to burn it. Burn it all. Flowers, vase, card. That dirty bastard.”
“Craig?”
“Yes. What is he thinking? I guess I wasn’t direct enough when I told him I’d boil him in a vat of coffee if I ever saw or heard from him again.”
Max laughed. “I bet that was worth the price of admission.”
Gina sniffed and put her nose in the air. “I thought it was pretty magnificent myself, but I guess it didn’t make the impression on him that I meant it to if he had the gall to come here with these flowers.”
A group of people walked toward us on the sidewalk. “Let’s
take this inside.” I shooed them both in front of me. “No need to bring anyone else in on it before you figure out what you’d like to do. And Max needs ice for his jaw.”
Her face went from anger to concern in a heartbeat. “Oh God, Max, I’m so sorry. Get upstairs. It’s open. I’ll be up in a second.”
I waved Max on, but stayed outside with Gina. I was not about to leave her. Mama Shirley was not the only one who could be brutal if she wanted to be, and I was sure that leaving Gina on her own right now would only lead to one of those moments where I’d have to bail her out of something or other.
Placing my arm around her shoulders, I brought her in for yet another hug. “This is hard, I know.”
“You’re wrong.” She shrugged out from under my arm. “It’s not hard. It’s irritating and aggravating, but it’s not hard. I’m tempted to call his wife and tell her what he did. Fighting that temptation, because I don’t want to deal with her or him, is the hard part.”
“Would it gain you anything?”
“Satisfaction?” She laughed, but it wasn’t full of mirth. “No, it won’t get me anything, and I don’t want to deal with that woman any more than I want to deal with her husband. When you came downstairs it finally hit me that I’ve seen her before. She went to high school with us, but was in a much different group. And she used to come in for coffee until I encouraged her to go somewhere else because she was always measuring my floors and trying to tell me that she could make the place shine if only I’d sell it to her.”
“Wow, that’s a double whammy. Bitchy wife and philandering husband. What a pair.”
“No kidding.” Blowing out a breath, she wrapped her arms around her torso. “I’m good now. Let’s get up there, make sure Max has his ice, order some pizza, and dig out a bottle of wine. I think I want to be sloshed tonight and then sleep like the dead instead of making someone dead. You’re right, it wouldn’t be worth it. Satisfying in the moment, maybe, but in the end, he’s not worth doing jail time for. And she’s not even worth thinking about. I hope they suffer together.”
“That’s my Gina.”
“Yep, that’s me.” She hugged me and then kept her arm around my waist while we trooped through the side door and up the stairs. She was going to be okay. I’d make sure of it.
And if I ever saw Craig again, I’d take a piece out of him, not just for hurting my friend but for hitting my boyfriend. He’d better not show his face around here again if he knew what was good for him.
Chapter Two
We played games, drank wine, ate enough pizza to make me have serious concern that I might burst, and then I tucked Gina into bed. All in all, I felt it was a good end to a crappy day.
“You don’t think Gina’s in any danger, do you?” I asked Max as we made our way across the street to my family’s funeral home. I lived on the third floor in an apartment. I couldn’t have asked for quieter neighbors.
“From the guy who threw the flowers?” Max tucked my hand into the crook of his arm, and I melted just a little bit more. All those years ago when I followed him and my brother around like the pesky little sister I was, I would have never guessed this was where I’d end up.
“Yes.” The gentle summer breeze that blew across the sidewalk brought with it the smell of fresh-cut grass and mellow sunshine. Nine at night and the horizon had just darkened. I loved summer, and I was happy Max was here for a ten-day vacation. Gina would get over this latest loser in the long stream of losers and find her own happy again. Maybe Max did have a friend I could introduce her to. It was worth asking.
But not now.
He squeezed my hand. “I don’t think she’s in danger. From what you told me, Craig seems like the type to sneak around, but he got scared earlier and he ran. Maybe he thought I was dating Gina now. Maybe he’ll stay away.”
“It’s funny you say that. She asked if she could have you.” I used my key to open the back door of the parlor so we could walk straight up the private stairs. If I could avoid my mother, I would be happy. She’d been asking for weeks when Max was moving up here and if he was going to live in my apartment with me. The answers were that I had no idea, since we hadn’t even talked about him moving up here from Washington DC, and as much as I adored him, my apartment was sometimes even too tiny for me and my cat Mr. Fleefers.
As soon as we entered and I locked the door behind me, Max enveloped me in his arms, and we finally got to that proper greeting. His kiss was sweet and intoxicating and, unfortunately, interrupted by my mother.
“There they are! Look at you two lovebirds.”
I groaned and leaned my head against Max’s chest before stepping back. We hadn’t even talked about love yet. I was certainly not going to let my mother be the one who introduced the topic.
“We’re heading up, Mom. Are you going home soon?”
“Yes, of course I am, you silly goose. Daddy asked me to come out and grab a few things from the storeroom while he showered. I’m heading back to the house now.”
Daddy. I held in a groan. I hadn’t called Bud Graver “Daddy” in almost twenty years. I hadn’t yet figured out why she still called him that.
She looked us up and down and I stepped back while clearing my throat. Heaven knows why. I was a grown woman. But she was my mom.
Wrapping the plastic bag around her wrist, she cocked her hip and seemed to be settling in for a talk. Anything but that.
“So, what are you going to do this week? You know your brother Jeremy’s on vacation. Tell me you’re at least taking the week off from cleaning, Tallie. I know Daddy needs you here, but people can clean their own houses for one week.”
“I was thinking I might just help Tallie clean, Mrs. Graver. How hard could it be?”
Mom and I looked at each other and burst out laughing.
“Yeah, I think you might want to find something else to do. But thanks for offering.” I leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.
“I told you he was a keeper. Get him to move up here, honey, before he gets away,” my mom tried to whisper out of the corner of her mouth. Of course, it came out a whole lot louder and, with Max standing close, there was no way he had missed it.
Love. Moving. Keepers. I think she’d covered all the awkward conversations now. Time to get her moving along.
“Maybe we could come over for dinner one night this week,” I said, throwing myself onto the altar like a sacrifice to not start conversations I wasn’t yet ready to have.
“Oh, that would be so much fun. I’ll call you about it.”
“Sounds good. We’ll see you later then.”
“Bye, Mrs. Graver.” Max kissed the back of her hand. “Have a great night.”
She blushed like a schoolgirl. Max had some of his own suave moves. “Oh, isn’t that sweet? You two are shuffling me along so you can be alone together. I think that’s wonderful, and I’m going home to tell your dad right now. He’ll be happy to know that you’re here, Max. He always did like you. Don’t hurt my baby, and he’ll keep on liking you, too.” She reached up to pat his cheek but chose the one where the flowers had hit earlier.
Fortunately she didn’t even notice when he flinched, just hitched up her grocery bag of items and trotted out the door I had just locked.
“Sorry about that.” And I really was, for all of it. The patting had looked like it hurt no matter how soft her hands were.
He worked his jaw from right to left as he had earlier. “No worries. Your mom’s a lot stronger than she looks.”
“No doubt. Do you need me to kiss it and make it better?”
The gleaming eyes told me to make a run for it right before he grabbed me. We raced up the stairs, where he caught me right outside the door to my apartment. I’d missed him. And I looked forward to having him here this week. And if talk did turn to love or moving, I hoped I would be ready with the right words. I hadn’t done such a great job in the relationship department a handful of years ago. This one was far too important already to mess it up.
I jolted awake and nearly knocked Max off the bed when the siren at the firehouse next door blared in the middle of the night. I had trained myself to sleep through it when I’d first moved over the funeral home my parents and brother owned. It also helped that my father had installed soundproofing up here at my request.
Tonight, though, I’d had a hard time falling asleep and had wandered to the window a few times to soak up the moonlight and watch the few cars driving on Main Street. I had been restless even with Max’s arms wrapped around me in the Murphy bed that I’d lowered from the wall.
So, it was no surprise that I heard it and shot straight up in bed. As softly as possible I removed myself from under Max’s arm and went to the front windows of my apartment, where I’d be able to see the direction the fire truck headed. The lights could be mesmerizing as they strobed across the brick buildings of Main Street in our small town. Pennsylvania liked its sirens and its volunteer firemen.
But though the siren blared and the lights flashed, they didn’t get far. In fact, they pulled across the street and stopped outside Gina’s.
What on earth?
“Max. Max!” I shook him, then ran to my closet for a hoodie to throw over my pajamas. No time to waste on a bra, and the hoodie would cover up any sagging. Plus, the dead of summer could still get a little chilly outside in the middle of the night.
He sat up, his hair going in all directions. “What’s going on?”
“The fire truck is in front of Gina’s house. I have to go over there.”
Points for him that he was out of bed and stepping into his jeans before I’d finished my second sentence. “See if you can get a hold of her. She might not be able to answer, but maybe she can. Just check.” He went to the window as he pulled a shirt on over his head. “I don’t see flames. But an ambulance just pulled up.”
“Oh no. That could mean anything.” They came out for all reasons, generally anything that involved a call to the emergency line at the police station. What had happened? Was Gina hurt? Had I left her alone and Craig had come for her? My stomach tried to claw its way up my throat.