Another Saturday Night and I Ain't Got No Body (A Page Turners Novel)

by Marts, Jennie

  “Um…uh…hi,” she stammered. She tried not to let her mind wander to him in a shower, soaping up those abs and that chest. Even though it was still early in the summer, his chest was already tanned. The smooth skin of his shoulder was marred with a quarter-sized scar that looked suspiciously like a bullet wound.

  “Can I help you with something or did you stop by to torture me again?” he asked.

  “Oh, gosh, no.” The shower scene had her flustered, and Sunny thrust forth the plate of brownies. “I really wanted to say how sorry I am about that. It was just a misunderstanding. I saw your car behind me and I thought you were following me. And I let my imagination get away from me and I thought you were going to attack me. A single girl can’t be too careful, you know.” Did she really just tell him she was single? Her mouth was dry, she was talking too fast, and she couldn’t stop staring at his chest. An inch long line of scar tissue ran diagonally across his left pec, and Sunny had an insane urge to reach up and run her finger along the pale white line.

  She took a deep breath and tried to slow her words. “My name is Sunny, and I live next door. I made you some brownies and was hoping we could just put this whole crazy-rapist thing behind us and start over. I really am sorry.”

  “Warm brownies are a good start,” he said, drawing her attention back to his face. He smiled mischievously. “In retrospect, I can see how you may have been scared when you thought I had followed you home.” He stepped back from the door, with almost a look of ‘I dare you’ in his blue eyes. “Want to come in and join me for one? I’ve got milk.”

  “Okay, I guess, maybe just one.” Sunny moved past him into the cool front room of the house and caught her breath as he reached behind her to shut the door. His arm barely brushed hers, and she could make out the tattooed shape of a shield across his forearm, the lettering too small to read. She hoped he couldn’t hear the thump of her heart. She was both thrilled and a little scared to be in the house alone with him as she followed his faded jean-clad behind into the kitchen.

  He set the brownies on the counter. As he reached into the cabinet for glasses, she couldn’t help but admire his muscled forearms as she watched him flex. He turned and gave her a slightly cocky smile that told her she had been caught checking him out, and that possibly he had flexed on purpose. Sunny looked out the kitchen window, grateful that at least she hadn’t actually begun to drool.

  “The milk's in the fridge. Why don’t you pour while I find a shirt?” He headed down the hall away from the kitchen.

  Figuring it would take a few minutes to pull a shirt on over those amazing pecs, Sunny decided to look around and see if she could figure out where Walter was or what this guy was doing here. She quickly rifled through the mail sitting haphazardly on the counter. Nothing there but some junk mail and a notification that Walter may have already won two million dollars from Publishers Clearing House. Wouldn’t Ed McMahon be surprised if this shirtless guy opened the door? I’m not sure which would hit the ground first, the giant check or Ed’s jaw.

  Sunny opened the fridge to a scant offering of milk, eggs, cheese, lunchmeat, and an assortment of condiments in the door. No clues there. She could live for a week on scrambled eggs and bologna sandwiches.

  Why am I letting Edna’s paranoia get to me? Could I be this desperate for excitement that I’m looking for clues between the mayonnaise and a bottle of ketchup?

  She finished pouring the second glass of milk when her mystery man ambled back into the kitchen. He was still barefoot but now wore a washed-out blue t-shirt depicting a group of stick figures roasting hot dogs around a campfire and the caption, It’s all fun and games ‘til somebody loses a wiener.

  “Nice shirt,” she said and tried not to laugh at the juvenile humor.

  “Thanks.” He picked up a brownie and took a bite. “Nice brownies.” His tone held an undercurrent of innuendo but she couldn’t tell if he was flirting with her or not. He finished his first brownie, took a swig of milk, picked up a second one, and sat down at the round kitchen table.

  “I’m Jake Landon, by the way,” he said, before sinking his teeth into the brownie.

  “It’s nice to meet you,” she said, meaning it. “So how do you know Walter?”

  The smile fell from his face, and Jake’s eyes suddenly couldn’t meet hers. He stared out the window into the yard. “We’re related.”

  “Related how?”

  “Related, as in family. What, are you writing a book?”

  Sunny leaned back, surprised at his snappish remark. “No, sorry.”

  “No. I’m sorry.” Jake sighed. He returned his gaze to hers. “Look, it’s a long, boring story. Let’s talk about you, huh?” His smile was back, and he asked, “What do you do?”

  She spent the next fifteen minutes regaling him with stories of second-grader high-jinx and the office gossip of fellow teachers.

  “You must really love your job,” he said. “Your face lights up whenever you mention the kids. It’s kinda cute.”

  Sunny blushed to her toes. I must have skipped the chapter in the Man-Manual on conversation because nothing could be less exciting than some semi-adorable stories about kids to reel in the men.

  “What do you do?” she asked, hoping to divert the attention from herself and her obvious lack of clever conversational skills.

  “Oh, a little of this and a little of that. Did I see you have a dog?”

  “Yeah, that’s Beau. He’s my room-mate, cat-chaser, and garbage disposal all rolled into one. Do you have any pets?” She mentally kicked herself for starting another titillating train of conversation.

  “Nope. Just me. I’m not home a lot, so it’s hard to keep a pet.”

  “A little this-and-that requires long hours, huh?” Okay, I can still be a little witty.

  “Exactly.” He got up and put his empty glass in the sink.

  “So, where is Walter?” she asked, trying for innocent nonchalance. “I haven’t seen him around in awhile.”

  “I don’t really know. I got in late last night, and I thought he would be here when I arrived.” His face held a mixture of anger and barely disguised hurt. “He told me where to find the hide-a-key, so I let myself in. I’ve been waiting for him to show up.”

  “That’s weird. Walter is always around. I can’t even remember the last time I saw him.”

  “That is weird,” Jake agreed. Then he deftly changed the subject and asked her to tell him about the neighborhood.

  Sunny filled him in on who lived where and the inner-workings of the small cul-de-sac. He laughed at her description of Edna, whose house flanked his other side. Sunny didn’t share Edna’s late night observation of his arrival or her suspicions that he had a gun tucked into his well-fitting Levi’s.

  He chuckled. “I can’t wait to meet her.”

  “She’s a hoot. You’ll love her.”

  Sunny relaxed into the conversation as they chatted like old friends. She liked the sound of his laugh, but still noticed how adept he was at changing the subject at any mention of his suspicious family relationship to Walter.

  Glancing at the clock above the stove, Sunny realized over an hour had flown by. “I’d better get going. I didn’t mean to take up your whole morning.”

  “I liked talking to you. It’s nice to know someone in the neighborhood.”

  “If you need someone to throw frozen meat nuggets at you, I’m your gal.”

  He laughed as he walked her to the door. “Seriously, Sunny, I’m glad you came by this morning. Thanks for the brownies.” There it was again. Either he was flirting with me or he had a seriously sexy way of saying ‘brownies’.

  “You’re very welcome.” Sunny headed across the lawn. Beau scratched and whined at the kitchen door. “See ya around,” she called, as Jake waved and closed the front door.

  She found herself grinning as she remembered how he caught her checking him out. Edna had to be mistaken. He obviously knew Walter somehow, and she never saw evidence of a gun or anything s
uspicious in the house. Although, she had only been in the kitchen and living room. Maybe if I had asked to use the bathroom, I would have found his Hit-Man Aftershave in the medicine cabinet. And he did have that scar which made her heart race a little, both out of fear and excitement.

  Sunny let herself in and knelt on the floor to pet Beau. He was licking her face hello when suddenly the house was rocked with a violent explosion!

  2

  A piece of concrete crashed through Sunny’s kitchen window, and glass rained down on her back as she flattened herself onto Beau. He whined beneath her, and she hugged his trembling body. Or maybe that was me trembling.

  She waited a beat to make sure no other explosions followed then slowly raised to her knees. She ran her hands along Beau’s sides and it appeared that neither she nor Beau were bleeding, which surprised her considering the amount of broken glass on the kitchen floor.

  Sunny heard the crackling of fire before her head cleared the now shattered window. She peered out to see Walter’s garage engulfed in flames. Oh, no! Her first thought was of Walter’s classic convertible he kept in the second bay of the garage and how much he loved that car.

  “Sunny! Where are you?” Jake’s panicked voice called from the yard.

  The kitchen door scraped along the broken glass as Sunny pulled it open. She felt the heat from the fire press against her as she stepped outside. “I’m here.” Her voice was weak with shock.

  Relief washed over Jake’s face as he rushed toward her and pulled her into his arms. “I’m so glad you’re okay,” he said into her hair. “I already called 911.”

  His heart pounded against her chest, and she held on tightly for a moment as she closed her eyes and breathed in his clean, soap scent.

  Sunny pushed back and looked frantically around. “We’ve got to check on Edna!”

  No sooner had she started to run across Walter’s front lawn than she saw Edna stumble across the driveway, moving in the direction of Sunny’s house. Her clothes were dusty, and she looked dazed. A trickle of blood ran down the left side of her face, stemming from a nasty gash above her eye.

  “Edna, are you okay?” As Sunny wrapped her arms around Edna, she was aware of how small and frail the older woman really was. Edna’s big personality couldn’t make up for her petite shoulders that now shook in Sunny’s embrace. Tears of relief blurred Sunny’s vision.

  “Yes, honey, I’m all right.” Edna gripped Sunny’s arms to steady herself. “The blast knocked me to my knees, and I think I bumped my head on the kitchen counter. Do you know what happened?”

  “Walter’s garage exploded,” Jake explained, coming up behind them. “Are you all right, ma’am?”

  “You!” Edna cried, staring at Jake in surprise. “Who are you? What are you doing here? Are you responsible for this?” Edna fired questions at him, her face a register of fear and shock.

  “I’m Jake Landon. I’ve been staying here. Walter’s my…relative,” he said.

  “Edna, it’s okay. Jake’s a friend,” Sunny said. She had never seen Edna so upset.

  They heard the sirens of the fire trucks, and Jake ran to the side of the house for the garden hose.

  He sprayed water on the garage and their surrounding houses, including Walter’s, to keep the flames from spreading. The fire trucks pulled into the driveway, and several yellow-coated men piled out, like clowns from a small car. They worked quickly in unison to put out the garage fire.

  Edna and Sunny were wrapped in scratchy wool blankets and led to an ambulance that had pulled in behind the fire engines.

  Within an hour, the fire was out. The two women watched, huddled together, holding hands, as the garage folded into itself and collapsed into a smoky pile of rubble.

  * * *

  That Wednesday night, Sunny and Edna walked into Starbucks to the excited and shocked gasps of the Pleasant Valley Page Turners Book Club. Sunny had called Maggie and Cassie, her two best friends from college, and filled them in on the explosion at Walter’s, but this was the first time they had all seen each other since the fire. The smell of dark coffee mingled with Maggie’s expensive perfume as she hugged Sunny, but the real attention was showered on Edna as she limped toward the book club members.

  “Edna, honey, are you all right?” Cassie embraced Edna and gently guided her to the table.

  “Oh, thank you, dear. I’m sure I will be just fine.” Edna eased into a chair, reveling in the role of the victim. She touched the large white bandage on her forehead. “The doctor insisted I needed stitches, but I told him I would be fine with just this little bandage.”

  Sunny rolled her eyes so hard she might have actually caught sight of her brain. Hello. My house was rocked by the explosion too. Who’s pulling out a chair for me? Okay, maybe that was a little selfish, especially because while Edna stumbled from her home, bleeding from a head wound, Sunny had been wrapped in Jake’s arms, pressed against his amazing chest.

  Sunny shook herself to clear those thoughts from her head. Jake was smokin’ hot, but his arrival to their quiet neighborhood, coinciding with Walter’s garage going up in flames, still made her suspicious. What really worried her was the fact that Walter was still missing. Having a huge fireball on his property should have drawn him out of the woodwork. She had overheard Jake speaking with one of the firemen about a missing person’s report being filed for Walter, so at least he had taken that step, but she still felt like he was hiding something.

  Though tempted to blurt out her suspicions about Jake and the odd timing of Walter’s disappearance, Sunny was afraid she wouldn’t be able to talk about Jake without letting on that although she was suspicious of him, part of her still lusted after his body. And even if she played it up, Edna did get hurt, and Sunny didn’t want to take the attention away from her.

  “You look like you recently had a lobotomy,” Maggie told Edna. Her usual sarcasm didn’t hold much weight as she tenderly touched Edna’s shoulder after sliding into the seat next to hers.

  “I’ll get us our coffee,” Sunny told Edna.

  “Oh thank you, dear,” she replied with a heavy sigh, reminding Sunny more of Scarlett O’Hara than her elderly neighbor.

  Sunny returned to the table a few minutes later to see no one had handed Edna an Oscar yet, but it wasn’t from her lack of trying. She would have to settle for the frothy concoction of a mocha java chip frappucino with whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles that Sunny set in front of her before pulling up a chair next to Cassie’s niece, Piper.

  Sunny took a sip of her plain vanilla latte and tossed her purse into the multi-colored pile of bags under the table. Piper’s gray backpack leaned against Maggie’s expensive leather bag, which lay across Cassie’s denim purse, a quarter-sized stain visible just under the strap. “So, what did you all think of the book?”

  “It was sooo depressing,” Cassie said. She tended to like upbeat books where everyone lived happily ever after. The mother of two, she had been married for close to fifteen years, and lived her own happily ever after with an adoring husband. They had met in college, and Matt had fallen for this fun, flirty, petite blonde with a mass of curly hair that framed her cute pixie face.

  “It’s about a kid who had a nervous breakdown. It’s supposed to be depressing.” Maggie flipped a lock of her long, dark hair over her shoulder, and took a sip of her latte. “Gosh, I had the best day today. I found a great parking spot, my hair didn’t frizz, and I had the most wonderful nervous breakdown.”

  “I started to read it last week, but there was a Sex and the City marathon on cable and I just love those girls–they’re so sassy,” Edna said.

  “How far did you get?” Sunny asked.

  “Pretty far, a good twenty pages or so, enough to know Holden was a sniveling whiner who needed to grow up,” she said.

  “That’s what the book is about, Edna,” Piper said. “I loved this book.”

  Cassie’s niece, Piper Denton, had come to live with her several weeks ago. She was finishing out h
er senior year of high school, and with her all black ‘emo’ outfits and dark eyeliner, Piper seemed to also be trying to figure out some of the growing up stuff.

  Maggie stretched her long legs as she crossed one gorgeous high-heel booted leg over the other. “It felt like I was reading a blog from a sixteen-year-old kid who was venting all his anger at the world and grownups in general.” With her lawyer’s salary, she could afford to always dress to the height of fashion. Her tall, slim build, olive skin, and dark brown eyes cut an impressive figure in her power suits as she blasted defendants in the courtroom. Her gorgeous looks clashed with her piercing tongue and biting sarcasm. Her intelligence only fueled her dry wit, and her deadpan comedic remarks frequently had the group in stitches. Though Sunny couldn’t help but envy how her expensive wardrobe fit her so well, the compassion and loyalty Maggie had for her friends made up for any fits of the green-eyed monster.

  “I thought it was boring,” Cassie said. “The kid smoked, drank, and basically hated everything.” She snuck a glance at Piper, who wore a bored expression on her face as she stared out the window.

  “I think our next book should have some more spice in it,” Edna said. “I like those scenes with the hot stud who gets steamy with the busty girl next door. This book didn’t have any shower scenes or mention a single ‘throbbing member’.”

  “Yeah, well, I haven’t seen a ‘throbbing member’ in so long that I forgot what they look like,” Sunny said, and they all hooted with laughter.

  Maggie smirked. “I think you’d recognize one if you saw it again. They still look like a worm wearing a turtleneck.”

  Edna giggled as she doubled over in her chair. “Oh stop. I think I peed a little bit.”

  Cassie smiled. “So, Sunny, what can we do to get one back in your life again? Sometimes they’re fun to have around.” A blush crept across her cheeks at her bold comment. “But only when you’re older, and in love.” She stared pointedly at Piper, whose attention was now riveted back on the group of women.