“Your order, please.”
The meal was delicious, generous helpings of sautéed mushrooms smothering steaks grilled to perfection, mounds of sour cream piled on baked potatoes, strawberry shortcake with banana whipped topping. And for Dawn and Ginney, plenty of Long Island Iced Tea.
Tom kept the conversation going, and in his usual rare form. He had everyone laughing, even Randy on occasion, who, in spite of his calm exterior, sat seething and totally preoccupied with all the attention James was lavishing on Dawn. One small comfort was that he appeared to be paying an equal amount of attention to Ginney. Still, each and every time he put his arm around Dawn, Randy had to fight back the urge to yank him across the table and throttle him.
When it was almost nine, Randy glanced at his watch. He could leave now and not have it look as if he was bailing out because he was uncomfortable with the situation. But then he noticed something. He wasn’t sure at first, because she hid it so well, always so in control. But it was a fact. Dawn was getting a little tipsy, more frequent laughs, rather talkative. She even at one point referred to something that happened between them on a farm call, and looked right at him as if nothing had changed and they were still together.
The sliding doors between the restaurant and the dance floor were pushed open and the weekend band began to play. They weren’t very good, but they were, “Family,” Momma Leone told them in Italian, as she passed between the tables urging everyone to get up and dance.
Dawn smiled, said something in Italian in return, and Momma Leone cupped Dawn’s face in her aged hands, squeezed gently, and walked on.
Randy marveled at such a sweet exchange, and apparently James was moved as well. “Would you like to dance?” he asked Dawn, much to Randy’s chagrin.
“Certainly,” she said, and she and Ginney laughed when she stood up and had to sit right back down again because the room was spinning. “Oh Jesus.”
“Here, lean on me,” James said, helping her to her feet and wrapping his arm around her waist.
Randy watched as they walked to the dance floor, and absentmindedly picked up a butter knife and started flipping it back and forth.
Tom took it from him, frowned, and nudged him. “Man, what’s the matter with you? You gonna put up with this?”
Randy looked at him.
“Go for it.”
Ginney smiled drunkenly, echoing his sentiments. “Yeah, go for it.”
Randy glanced from one to the other, sat there and stewed a moment, and finally stood up. When Dawn turned from James she found herself in Randy’s arms, so warm and strong, and so very familiar. Even the shape of his cast.
“Hi,” she said, and he laughed. She was shit-faced. Dawn Fioritto, founding daughter. “Have we met?”
“Several times,” he said, and she nodded and looked away.
“I think I’d better go home now.” She turned and headed for the table, maneuvered her way through the chairs, and reached for her purse. “I’m going to go home now,” she said, and looked around for the door.
Ginney nodded. “I think I should go too.”
“Can you drive?” Dawn asked. “Are you all right?”
James rose then, observing the two, and offered to drive them both home.
“Thank you,” Dawn said, and stared at her keys as if she didn’t know what to do with them now. Randy reached over her shoulder and took them from her. “I’ll take you home, come on.”
“No,” she said, and shook her head. “I don’t want to go with you. I don’t even know you,” she said in a bitterly sarcastic tone. “I hate you.”
Randy glared at her, the feeling mutual right about then.
“Give me my keys.”
Randy shook his head.
“Hey listen,” James said, glancing at Tom for help, who just shrugged, offering none. “I’ll take them both home, and you two can continue this tomorrow when you’re both in a little better mood. All right?”
“No, there is no tomorrow,” Dawn said. “He’ll be busy.”
Randy shook his head in disbelief. Me? Too busy for her? It was always the other way around.
“Let’s go,” Dawn said, forgetting all about her keys, as she and Ginney linked their arms around James’s. “I’ll see you in the morning, Tom. Okay?” she said, glancing back at him over her shoulder.
“Okay.” He nodded, waving, and then looked at Randy as if he couldn’t believe Randy was going to just stand here and let her walk out.
Randy shook his head; this woman had shot him down just one too many times. And yet... “Dawn,” he heard himself saying.
She turned. The band was playing a song she’d never heard before, and sounded far, far away. “What? What did you say?”
“I said I love you.”
Dawn stared at him, just stared, and reached out her hand.
“No more games, Randy.”
He shook his head. “No more games.”
Randy woke to the sound of running water, looked beside him for Dawn, and closed his eyes. She was in the shower. He could hear her mumbling, and after a while, got up and went in to check on her. She was still in her jeans and bra from last night, when any movement whatsoever nauseated her. And apparently she wasn’t in much better shape even now.
A forceful spray pelted her head and body.
“Dawn, this water is cold.”
She looked at him through the cascade streaming down her face. “It is? I thought so.”
He adjusted the temperature. “Do you want some help?” he asked, referring to her clothes.
“No,” she said, wearily, and then, “God, what do they put in those drinks?”
Randy smiled. “I’m going back to bed. Call me if you need me.”
Dawn eventually turned the water off and sat on the edge of the tub, peeled off her clothes, which she left in a heap, dried off, and put on her robe. She made her way to the chair on the other side of the bedroom, held onto the windowsill for balance as she eased herself into it, and dug her toes into the carpet, for fear of falling off the face of the earth.
She looked at Randy, traveled the contour of his body under the sheet with her eyes, and wondered if they’d talked. She couldn’t remember. The sound of his breathing was comforting. When she closed her eyes, it sounded like the wind. The words to a sonnet came to mind then, but vanished in an instant. And she fell asleep.
Randy woke her at the usual time, and offered her two options. “Stay home or get dressed.”
“Let me think,” she said.
He hoped she’d stay home. She’d be captive then, sleep it off and be here when he returned so they could talk and get it all out in the open.
“I promise,” she’d said last night, and he’d relented, because with the most solemn look on her face, she also said she loved him. “On my honor.” And for once he believed her.
“Well?”
“Help me braid my hair,” she said.
Randy knelt down beside her and smiled.
Tom had something new to razz her about, and never let up. As the morning dragged on, Dawn found herself growing more and more agitated with him.
“Good, you’re mad,” he said. “The juices are flowing. Now it’s time to eat.”
Dawn looked at him. At this particular moment, she didn’t care if she ever ate again. “Maybe tomorrow.”
Tom laughed. “It’ll be worse then. You gotta do it now. Here.” He used a napkin to tear off a piece of donut, the way she always did, and handed it to her. “Eat.”
She took it from him, groaned, and put it in her mouth.
“Chew,” he said, demonstrating. “That’s it. Okay, a little more. Now swallow.”
Dawn shook her head and smiled.
“So.” He took a sip of coffee and sat down next to her. “I take it you and Randy made up.”
Dawn shrugged. “I think so.”
“Well, it was about time,” Tom said. “I can’t stand everything falling apart.”
Dawn looked at him. “
It’s not like it was your fault.”
“Whose fault was it then?”
Dawn stared, took another bite of donut after he handed it to her, and forced herself to chew. “I don’t know. Maybe it was yours.”
“Yeah right.” Tom laughed. “Blame me.”
When it was close to eleven and Randy still hadn’t come by the barn, Dawn phoned Linda and made plans to meet at the club. They whiled away the afternoon as they brought each other up to date on what had taken place over the last few days. Tom had said he’d feed, so Dawn went on home, and was pleasantly surprised to find Randy’s truck parked in the garage in Linda’s spot. She wondered how long he’d been home.
He wasn’t in the living room or in the kitchen, so she walked down the hall, and found him stretched out on the bed on his stomach, feet hanging over the side, and apparently sound asleep. She tiptoed up next to him and leaned over to see his face. That’s when he grabbed her and pulled her onto the bed next to him.
“Where have you been? I’ve been waiting for you for hours!”
Dawn laughed. “You have not. Your engine was still warm.”
“So what,” Randy said, and planted a series of sloppy kisses all over her face. “A minute, an hour, what’s the difference?”
Dawn smiled. “My worrying about where you were and being late is what started all this.”
“Not really,” Randy said, and smiled. “But speaking of which...”
Dawn tried to pull away but he wouldn’t let her. “Not until you tell me we’re going to talk like you promised.”
Dawn nodded.
“Okay,” he said, releasing her and getting up to walk across the room and sit down. “Where do we start?”
Dawn sat up and looked at him. “How about the dictionary?”
Randy flushed, somewhat embarrassed to be reminded of that. “How about your novel?”
Dawn sighed. Not this again. “Do you want me to stop writing it? Is that what this is all about?”
“No. Why? Would you?”
Dawn stared.
“I didn’t think so.”
“Randy...” She looked at him. “If I asked you to give up being a veterinarian, would you do it?”
“No. It’s what I do. It’s my job.”
“Right. And writing’s my job.”
“What about the racetrack?”
“So I have two jobs. What’s your problem with that?”
Randy hesitated and shrugged. He didn’t know. “I guess it’s because you’re writing about the racetrack.”
Dawn shook her head. She didn’t understand why that should bother him. “You still don’t think I’m writing about you, do you?”
He stared.
“Randy! I told you, it’s not you.”
“I know. Just someone like me.”
Dawn sighed.
“Are you writing about a doctor now too? A doctor not exactly like...”
“No. No, no, no,” she said, over and over again. “No.” Then she glanced at her watch, and did something that took Randy totally by surprise. She started unbraiding her hair. He watched her, silently, watched as she separated the strands, and then shook it loose and wavy onto her shoulders.
He wet his lips with the tip of his tongue, still watching her, watched as she reached for a pillow and laid back, watched as she unbuttoned her blouse and looked at him.
“Is there something you want?” he asked, lowering his eyes down over her.
“Yes,” she said. It was the first time ever between them that she’d initiated their lovemaking.
“Go all the way then,” he said, wanting her to undress completely. Wanting to watch. To sit there until he couldn’t stand it anymore. Every inch of her...his. And there was no more talking.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Ben was glad to see Dawn and Randy together again, and asked them who they thought they were fooling all the other times.
Dawn smiled. “Apparently no one.”
“So what are you two up to?”
Dawn shrugged. “Oh, just dinner and then going home.”
Ben nodded and looked at Randy. “Dr. Martin wants to talk to you.”
“Me? Why?”
“I don’t know. He said to have the nurse page him. And that it had nothing to do with me.”
Randy could guess, and it wouldn’t surprise him. James struck him as a basic up-front kind of guy. And sure enough, when Randy had him paged and the two men met in the lounge at the end of the hall, it was about Dawn, and quite direct.
“I asked you about her, Randy, and you set me up. Why?”
Randy apologized. “I don’t know. But the day you asked, and the circumstance surrounding everything... I didn’t know what to say. Dawn makes me a little crazy sometimes.”
James nodded. “I can see that.”
“Again, I’m sorry.” Randy smiled. He liked this guy. “Trust me, telling you I didn’t think Dawn was attached was not something I enjoyed doing. It’s just that there’s times I really don’t know where I stand with her.”
“She is a bit of a puzzle, isn’t she?”
Randy looked at him.
“I talked to Ginney about her, who by the way is rather nice herself. She sobered up fairly well after a little fresh air. We went for coffee. In fact, we sat at the coffee shop for most of the night. Talk about a life, one could write a book about it.”
Randy smiled. “I think somebody already is.”
“Oh?”
Randy laughed, as if he were just kidding.
“So is everything all right with you and Dawn now?”
Randy nodded. “For the time being.”
Now it was James who laughed. “You’re right. She does drive you crazy. Why all the conflict?”
“I don’t know, maybe because we come from two different worlds.”
James sympathized. “I know the feeling. My wife and I, ex-wife I mean, were planets apart.”
“Thanks for the encouragement,” Randy said.
“Any time,” James replied, and laughed again. “You might need it.”
Randy studied him, smiling. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
James shrugged. “Do you know who she is? Who her family is, to be more specific?”
“Yeah, I know,” Randy said, and couldn’t help adding, “Do you want to hear how I really had my arm broken?”
James stared. “You’re kidding, right?”
Randy grinned. “Maybe. But I’d stay away from her if I were you.”
Ben meanwhile, complained to Dawn about the way the nurses fussed over him. “They never leave you alone, ever. They even wake you from a sound sleep to find out if you’re comfortable. I’m serious.” And his therapy was going well, even by his account. “I won’t do that damned occupational therapy though. I’m a horse trainer, I told them. I don’t need to learn to play with building blocks.”
A nurse smiled at Dawn, shrugged, and Dawn smiled back. Ben could be difficult at times, but seemed to have a point there. “How about speech therapy?”
Ben looked at her. “Why? I can talk. I hear myself.”
Dawn laughed, feeling all was right with the world. She and Randy stopped at the racetrack afterwards, so he could check on a horse he’d treated earlier, debated about where to eat and stopped at a restaurant neither had ever been to, only to be greatly disappointed. They were both still hungry when they got home, and ended up eating the rest of the Oreos, stale by now, with milk.
“I think one of us ought to learn to cook,” Randy said.
Dawn agreed. “When will you find the time?”
Randy laughed, wrestled her for the last cookie, split it in half, and fed it to her.
“Speaking of time. I don’t know if I told you or not, but Uncle Matt and Aunt Rebecca are having a pre-engagement, engagement party for Linda and Harland.”
“A what?”
Dawn smiled. “I think it’s to give some semblance of family continuity and spontaneity.”
Randy
looked at her and laughed. “Oh, by all means then.”
Dawn laughed as well. “I’m serious, so we’re going to have to shop. Okay?”
“Okay. But how many horses am I going to have to worm to pay for this?”
Dawn chuckled. “No gifts, not at this one,” she said. “But you do need a dinner jacket.”
Randy did a double take.
“Sorry, but it’s going to be formal.”
“When?”
“Next Saturday.”
“That’s kind of soon, isn’t it?”
Dawn nodded. “Like I said, they want it to appear casual and spontaneous. And you have been curious about my family, so...”
Dawn and Randy literally “slept” together over the next few days, and nothing else. That’s how hectic Randy’s schedule was, and day three, Dawn had cramps.
“Didn’t you just have a period last month?” Randy asked, dramatizing the situation when he finally got home at a somewhat decent hour.
Dawn snuggled in bed next to him. “Tom hired a new groom today. His name’s Fred.”
Randy tucked his arm under her pillow. “How’s he working out?”
“Okay, I guess,” she said, sleepily. “Did you see Ben?”
“No, I never got a chance. How is he?”
“I don’t know; I’m not sure. He said he fell in therapy.”
“Oh, wonderful. Did you talk to James?”
Dawn yawned. “Yes. He said these things happen sometimes, but that he’d look into it.”
Randy moved his arm, and then moved it again when it still wasn’t comfortable. Two more days and the cast would come off. He could hardly wait.
“He wanted to be a jockey,” Dawn said.
“Who?”
“The new kid, Fred. Tom’s going to let him pony.”
Randy smoothed her hair, and moved his head closer to hers on the pillow. “Shhhh,” he said softly, always feeling guilty whenever he came in at night and woke her up. “Go to sleep.”
Ben had better news the following day, and though somewhat embarrassing, he told Tom and Dawn anyway. His catheter had been removed. Tom and Dawn gave him a round of applause. He blushed. And with this out of the way, Tom went over the training schedule with him.
Winning Odds Trilogy Page 38