Following the route they’d taken when she’d dropped him off, she drove up to the two faux-marble pillars at the entrance to the development. She followed the main street through the complex. Neither his Toyota Tacoma nor his work truck was in front of any of the houses or in any driveway of the main street. She decided to take the first side street. After several turns, she thought she’d spotted his truck. She pulled up next to it and realized the truck had a lockbox attached to the cab and a sign that read, “Lawn and Gardening.”
Disappointed, she took the next street, San Sebastian, until it dead-ended. She turned around and drove for ten minutes, landing in one cul-de-sac after another. She feared there was no way out of the maze-like development.
Then she saw his yellow work truck with the white toilet logo was parked in a driveway and his black Toyota Tacoma with the “SNAP” sign on the side panel was parked across the street. She pulled up behind the work truck and got out of her car. Closing her car door, she turned and stared at the tiny single-story house. She walked toward the aqua doorframe with the crisp new paint and looked in the front window. Blinds raised, the place appeared to be exploding with people.
Luke, bare-chested, sexy as ever, was pointing his finger at—no, he was shoving a man who appeared to be thirty or so. There was a young woman standing behind the thirty-year-old guy. Luke and the younger man seemed to be arguing. Then the younger man moved toward Luke. She heard Luke yell, “You won’t treat my daughter like that!”
Too scared to ring the doorbell, she rushed back to her car, climbed behind the wheel, and watched. Mesmerized, she saw a third male, a teenager wearing a baseball cap, grab Luke. The teenager appeared to be trying to restrain Luke. The three males closed in on one another, overpowering the tiny house. Alex saw Luke raise his hand. Then Luke turned and started to walk toward the front door. She had to leave before he saw her spying on him.
She drove back to her house, relieved he’d told her the truth about his daughters and grandson living with him. She was also certain Luke had told her the truth about being divorced. If his wife were there, she would have rushed in and insisted they stop arguing, and then she would have pulled her grandson to her protectively—or, maybe, she would’ve learned not to intervene?
◆◆◆
The next morning, a few minutes before her alarm sounded, her phone rang.
“Why’d you call four times last night?” Luke asked. “You okay?”
“I wanted to tell you I could go hunting with you. As a matter of fact, I was going to go to your house last night, but—”
“You were going to come here?” Luke raised his voice. “Didn’t I tell you about my daughter?”
“I thought you’d be excited that I could go with you.”
“You’re gonna love the hunt,” he said.
CHAPTER 34
Dreading a Saturday afternoon without the boys, Alex decided to cancel the hunting trip. She called Gabe to tell him she’d changed her mind about going away and would pick up the boys at noon as scheduled. He said it was too late. He’d already bought tickets for some sporting event and told her how excited the boys were about it.
Alex knew if she insisted on seeing the boys, then Gabe would definitely tell them he’d bought the tickets, but their mother wouldn’t let them go. She decided there was no point in staying home if she couldn’t spend the day with the boys. She might as well go hunting.
Right after she finished throwing the last few toiletries into her suitcase and loading the ice chest, the doorbell sounded. She opened the door and greeted Luke.
“Did you pack an orange hat like I said?” he asked, and without waiting for an answer, he held out an orange cap with a brown grease stain around the inside rim.
Alex frowned. “It clashes with my pink ski jacket.”
“This is about safety, not style.” He picked up the cooler and suitcase.
She put the hat in her jacket pocket, surprised at how easily he transformed himself from the sensual dancer and accomplished tennis player to hunter. He was the perfect chameleon.
After loading up his truck, they buckled themselves in and were on their way.
He yawned. “Excuse me.”
“Tired?” she asked.
“Yeah. Did too many service calls today.”
“Luke, why don’t the technicians cover for you?”
He cleared his throat. “Oh, I meant I had to inspect everything. Can’t trust some of the guys with the more complicated jobs. If you want something done right, sometimes you gotta do it—I mean check it—yourself.”
“Luckily, I can trust Seth with my patients.”
“You can trust Seth,” he repeated with a smirk. “You seem to spend a lot of time with that fella. Why’d you pick him to be your whatever-they-call-it for the kids?”
“Court-appointed monitor.”
“Yeah. Why’d you pick him?”
“I couldn’t have asked Liz to give up time with her husband.”
“So, this Seth has all the time in the world to spend with you?”
“It’s not like that,” she said, knowing how possessive Luke was. But there was no reason for him to be jealous of Seth. He was her partner, and they had a business relationship and nothing more.
“Whatever,” he said and then changed the subject. “Alex, wait until you see this place.”
“How often do you go there?” she asked.
“Yearly, when my number gets picked in the lottery. It’s the only vacation I ever take.”
“Why only once a year, if you love it?”
“Did enough traveling in the Marines: Germany for three years, ’Nam for two tours of duty, and Korea for two years.”
“Why two tours of Vietnam?” she asked.
“It was my duty.”
“What about your wife and family?”
“Alex, that’s the past. You know you’ve got to me like no other woman. I think about you whenever we’re not together.”
She hated how he was so reluctant to talk about his family, but it felt good to hear him compliment her. She tried to remember the last time Gabe had told her something nice. It had been a long time ago, and she hungered for it. For the time being, she decided she would settle for lust masquerading as love.
Luke smiled at her. “When I come to your house at night, it’s like a sanctuary for me. I have no worries there.”
“Why haven’t you ever invited me to your house to meet your family?” she asked, recalling the frenetic scene within his house.
“You’ll meet my family in due time.” He took a deep breath. “And I wish you could have met my daughter who passed. Besides, I’ve told you about my other daughter. She’ll be fine with you, but it will take time.”
“You could bring them to the club,” she offered.
“Um,” he said and turned up the CD, signaling the end of the conversation. As he hummed along with the music, she drifted off to sleep.
Several hours later, Luke pulled into the semicircular driveway of the Panguitch Lake Lodge and stopped the truck. He slid close, wrapped his right arm around her, and pointed with his left to the row of cabins. “Amazing, huh?”
“Beautiful.” Alex gazed at the snowcapped mountains thrusting into the peacock-blue sky. Then she looked down at the row of six grungy gray clapboard cabins.
“That one’s ours, the second from the end.” He gave her a peck on the cheek. “I’ll be right back. I’m going to get the key from the manager.”
She climbed out of the truck, walked to their porch, and peered through the window. In the sparsely furnished room, a blue-and-green-plaid couch—probably there since the place had opened—faced the window. The other side of the tiny room housed the kitchen alcove with a long wooden table and two benches.
Luke tapped her on the back. She jumped and turned around.
“Nice, huh?” he asked.
“Cozy,” Alex said and returned to the truck for her purse. As she turned back toward the cabin, she looked across the alleyway at the neighboring cabins. Two white men were standing on their porch. She nodded to them. They didn’t respond.
She walked into the living room and was assaulted by the smell of Pine-Sol. “We should leave some windows open,” she said.
“It’ll be cold, but whatever you want,” he said. “I’ll bring in our stuff.”
Alex placed her purse on the wooden table and inspected the galley kitchen with the bottom-of-the-line appliances. She walked down the dark, narrow hallway to the bathroom. Awful—the only word to describe the yellowed plastic shower curtain caked with green mold along the bottom. She grimaced. When showering tonight, she’d have to remember to maneuver herself into the stall without touching the curtain.
She closed the door to the bathroom and made her way to the master bedroom. As she sat down on the double bed, it sagged and creaked. She considered the paper-thin walls and the squeaky bed and decided they’d have to be especially quiet when they made love tonight.
Returning to the living room, she saw Luke had dumped his hunting gear onto the floor—clothes and boots sprawled everywhere. “Luke, where’s everyone going to sleep?”
“We get the master bedroom with the door.” He winked. “Clay and his wife will get the loft.”
“And the other one?”
“Thomas.” Luke hesitated and then looked around as though he hadn’t considered that. “The sofa,” he finally said.
She glanced at the threadbare couch. “Does it open?”
“Why do you care? You thinking of sleeping with Thomas?” he asked and laughed. “Let’s check out the hunting grounds before it gets dark.”
◆◆◆
Silent except for the crunch of the snow beneath their boots, they traversed the snowy embankment around Panguitch Lake. The descending sun made the greens and golds of the treetops disappear into blackness. He reached over and tucked a strand of her hair back beneath her pink cap.
“Tomorrow, you’ll have to wear the orange cap I gave you.” He took her gloved hand in his bare hand, and they walked deeper into the woods, their shadows blending together in the dusk.
After what seemed like only a few minutes, Luke said, “It’s getting dark, so we’d better head back.”
They turned back, and just as they approached the road to their cabin, Luke’s called out, “There’s my man.”
Under the post light, Alex saw two black men standing in front of a Chevy Blazer. And she also saw their neighbors were watching them.
Clay, a handsome man neatly dressed in jeans, a black turtleneck sweater, and a jean jacket, greeted Luke. “Great to see you, my man.”
Thomas, the other man, turned to her. “You must be Luke’s woman.” He put his hands on her shoulders, pulled her to him, and bear-hugged her. Alex’s nose pressed against a gasoline stain on his olive-green overcoat. Repulsed, she drew back.
Clay extended his hand. “Alex, pleasure to meet you,” he said, his voice strong. Leaving the perfect amount of space between them, he shook her hand. She liked him but could do without Thomas. Then she realized Clay’s wife was not with them.
“Clay, wasn’t your wife supposed to come?” she asked.
“Wife?” Clay looked at Luke and then said, “Oh, she got sick at the last minute.”
“Is she okay?” Alex asked, feeling the balance suddenly shift. She was now the lone woman with three men in a cabin in the woods.
“Are we gonna bag a deer or what?” Luke asked and high-fived Clay.
Laden with duffle bags, an ice chest, and rifles, Clay and Thomas walked into the cabin.
“Cleaned out my freezer to make room for the venison,” Clay said as he put his gear in the far corner of the living room, out of the way. He hung his jacket up on one of the wall hooks.
Thomas dropped his duffle bag on the floor, threw his coat onto the sofa, and parked his rifle in a corner of the room.
“Hey, we gotta use the living room,” Clay said. “Don’t crap it up.” He removed his orange wool cap, revealing thick hair slightly graying at the temples.
Thomas retrieved his jacket from the floor and put it on a hook. “Mr. Clean here hasn’t stopped criticizing since we started. Let’s eat.”
Luke nodded toward Alex. “She was up all night cooking.”
“I always appreciate home cooking.” Clay took a soap dish from his bag and went into the bathroom.
Wondering why Clay’s wife hadn’t sent any food and why he’d made the remark about home cooking, Alex went to the kitchen. She heated the soup on the stovetop and slid the pot roast and potatoes into the oven.
“The soup looks great.” Clay said and reached above her to take several plates down from the shelf.
She smelled his aftershave—fresh and spicy.
They all took turns washing up in the one sparse bathroom.
Clay set the table. Thomas plopped the bucket of chicken on the table and sat down on one of the benches. Luke sat on the other bench, leaving room for Alex.
As soon as the soup was warmed, Alex ladled it into bowls for Clay to take to the table.
After the soup was served, Alex sat down beside Luke and watched the men as they stared at the matzoh balls dancing in their bowls. Then, as though an orchestra conductor had signaled a concert to commence, they brought their spoons to their lips.
Silence.
“Excellent,” Clay finally said.
Alex smiled at the irony of the three black hunters feasting on her “killer matzoh ball soup,” a revered family recipe from Bubbe Yetta, a tiny woman who’d never left her Romanian village until she’d followed her husband to America.
His mouth full, Thomas asked, “When you guys were growing up in New York, did you ever have this Jewish soup?” He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
“No,” Clay said and then asked, “But Alex, has Luke told you about the crazy stuff we did as kids?”
Luke shook his head. “I don’t think she needs to know about any stupid stuff we did.”
“I’d love to hear.” Alex glanced over at Luke as he was signaling Clay to stop.
Clay looked mischievous. “This one time, we were with our friend Spud, and—”
“She doesn’t need to hear that,” Luke said.
“Sure I do,” she encouraged, curious about his past.
Thomas scraped his spoon along the bottom of the bowl, leaned back, and waited for Alex to clear the bowls from the table. Then he took out a cigarette.
Clay snarled. “Go outside with that.”
“Come on.” Thomas lit his cigarette. “It’s not like we’re in your truck.”
“Not in here.” Clay glared at Thomas.
“You guys sound like the odd couple,” Luke said and laughed.
Thomas grabbed his coat and left.
“He went ballistic when I stopped the truck and made him go outside to smoke.” Clay shook his head. “You should see his work truck.”
“You work with Thomas?” Alex asked.
“For now,” Clay said. “California Pool and Spa Cleaning pays my tuition, and that’s all I care about.”
She took the pot roast from the oven with towels since there were no potholders.
Thomas burst into the room, slamming the door behind him. “Don’t know what’s up with the guys next door.”
Luke went to the window. “They’re standing outside and looking over here.”
“Ignore them,” Clay said.
“Yeah,” Luke agreed. “We got a whole bucket of chicken and her pot roast to go through.”
Clay reached for a piece of chicken. He looked up at Alex and said, “Luke tells me you’re a doctor.”
“I’m a chiropr
actor,” she said.
“Don’t you need physical strength for that?” Thomas asked.
Before she could respond, Luke said, “You should see how strong she is.”
She knew he was referring to her prowess at tennis and had no knowledge of her work. She listened as they talked, telling stories about the rich people on their routes—the men who treated them as though they were invisible, the housewives who assured them the snarling dogs don’t bite the people who work at the house, and the scantily clad teenage girls who came to the door and gave them dirty looks if they so much as glanced at them.
“Well, we’d better get to sleep if we’re hunting at four,” Clay said.
Alex began to stack the dishes and silverware.
Luke put his hand on hers. “I’ll take care of the dishes. You’ve got bathroom priority.”
“Thanks,” she said and went to the bedroom to grab her robe before proceeding to the bathroom.
Careful not to touch the grungy shower curtain, she showered, donned her bathrobe, and walked from the bathroom to the bedroom. Then she closed the bedroom door, got between the cold sheets, and waited for Luke.
He showered and crawled into bed next to her.
“You won’t believe how exciting your first hunt will be.” He kissed her forehead and rolled over.
“Did you know all along that Clay’s wife wasn’t coming?”
“I really wanted you to come. Let’s not discuss that now. We need our strength for hunting.”
“Are you going to sleep?” she asked.
“That’s the idea.” He laughed. “I can’t have any smell on me. You wouldn’t believe how a deer can track a human by smell, especially if there’s a trace of sex.”
Sure that he was teasing her, she reached over and stroked his back.
“Alex, it’s bad luck to have sex, and we’re here for you to see your first deer kill.”
Sex Happens Page 22