“Is mother okay, Dad?”
“She twisted her ankle very badly on those darn steps. And she hit her head. Therefore they are holding her here in case of a slight concussion.”
Nick held back all the outrage that if they had listened to him in the first place they might not even have had those steps to slip on any more.
“But I’m worried I didn’t lock the apartment door, Nick.”
Nick cleared his throat to rid himself of his frustration. But his voice still came across with an edge. “That’s okay. I’ll come to the hospital and you can give me the key to the apartment and I’ll check on it.”
“I would be obliged if you would do that.”
He didn’t say, “I’m your son. It’s one of my responsibilities.” He hung up the phone.
Serena said, “Do you want me to come with you?”
He was already on his feet, shrugging his shoulders into his black trench coat. “It’s up to you.” He really meant, “Please do come.”
She must have sensed his need.
“Let me get my coat,” she said.
His father was in a private hospital room with his mother. Serena went straight to the bed and took hold of Maria’s hand, something Nick could never do. He saw Maria cling to Serena’s fingers and knew then that Maria might have fared better if she’d had a daughter.
“You two look very nice in your TV clothes. Don’t they, Stephen?”
Stephen bowed his head in Serena’s direction. “I remember once, a long time ago, seeing your father on television.”
Nick saw Serena glance at him, but he shook his head. He hadn’t mentioned anything about Redding Brown to his father.
“How do you know who my father was?” she asked Stephen.
“Your mother told me. Then I remembered I had his book at home.” Stephen looked at his son. “I bought a lot of books by journalists at one time, to try and understand my son’s career.”
Nick felt his mouth turn dry. He couldn’t add anything to this discussion. It was so weird. He’d never thought his father cared a damn about him or his career.
Stephen handed Nick the key to the apartment. “This is your mother’s key. Don’t lose it.”
Nick pocketed the key. “I won’t.”
Serena smiled one of her white TV smiles before they left. “It was a pleasure to see you again. I hope you’re feeling much better soon, Maria.”
Nick said, when they were heading toward Fraser’s Precious Gems, “You’ve sure got around them.”
“I’m not doing it on purpose, Nick. They’re nice old people. After all, you have been away a long time. And your dad just said he has tried to understand your career.”
“I’d never heard that one before.”
“Well, now you have. Maybe you haven’t given them a chance.”
Nick drove by the store and everything looked fine. He parked at the back behind the apartment and he told Serena to wait in the car.
“No way. I’m not sitting here alone in the dark.”
It had stopped raining now but the air was still damp. So were the steps. Nick took hold of Serena’s hand so she wouldn’t slip. It seemed ages since he’d held her hand, and he could feel the warmth of her skin create a heat on his own skin.
He had to let go of her hand to unlock the door, and they went inside. No lights had been left on, but a night light glowed in the hallway. Everything was so silent in the apartment that he could hear Serena breathing behind him. She moved up beside him.
“You should feel privileged,” he told her.
“Why?” She turned her face to him and her mouth was close enough to kiss.
“Because I was never allowed to bring my friends home. You’re the first. And you’ve been here twice already.”
“Do you figure I’m your friend?”
“I feel that you are.” And that was the truth.
“Is it easier for friends to part than lovers?”
Her face looked pale in the darkness. He lifted his hands to stroke her hair and tangle his fingers into the golden strands. He heard her breath come from her lips in a shudder. He traced her features with his fingertips. “Are you sure?”
“No.”
He wasn’t either, but he felt he had her acquiescence. He slipped his arm around her and led her to the room that used to be his when he was a boy. None of his belongings resided here. Everything he’d ever owned here was at his own apartment. It was a small, brown looking room, but in the dark all he saw was glorious white silk, gold hair and soft flesh. He helped her off with her coat and he laid it down over a small chair in front of a desk. Nick undid his tie and opened the top button of his shirt. Then he slid his hands up beneath her skirt and peeled down her hose. She kicked off her shoes and the stockings. All the time she gazed at him. With one hand roaming her thighs and one hand behind the nape of her neck he kissed her, thinking that this was the payoff for never having been allowed to have any toys or bring friends here.
His Serena was the brightest toy he could ever wish for. With her long legs wound around him he took her to the bed and lay her down on the crisp cotton sheet. He undressed and lay with her. She embraced him right away, her hunger as urgent as his own. He held back nothing on the small, creaky mattress because there was nothing to hold back.
Later in the night, when Serena was sleeping, he went along to the living room. On the bookshelves he found the journalism books his father had mentioned. He couldn’t believe that Stephen would need to understand him when he’d thought he’d done the best thing possible by getting out of his father’s hair.
He glanced down to the street and saw the pavement glimmering from the rain and the street lights. His throat choked up. Damn. Damn. He had been cared for after all and he hadn’t known it?
Serena woke up, aware of harsh sheets and prickly blankets covering her instead of her usual soft quilt. A watery light filtered in through a small window hung with beige curtains. She’d slept here all night at Nick’s parents’ place. Nick had been beside her at one point. After they’d made love all over the narrow bed and once off it. Had she really done all that with Nick? And why had she started their affair again? Or hadn’t it really stopped?
The door pushed open and he came in, wearing his black suit pants and his white shirt unbuttoned. “Hi.”
She thought he looked tired, with deep lines carved from his nose to the edge of his mouth. She heaved herself up on the hard pillow and drew the covers around her shoulders. “Hi. I didn’t expect to stay the night.”
“Me neither. But we had a lot to do with one another.”
She found she had to force a smile. The atmosphere between them was strange. “Yeah.”
He indicated his head in the direction of the hallway. “The bathroom is across the way. I’ve run the water a long time so it’s nice and warm if you want a bath. There’s no shower here.”
“He said accusingly. So they’re old fashioned, Nick. So what?” She knew it was his parents who were causing Nick to be in this funk. It wasn’t their lovemaking. That had been sheer ecstasy.
“It was never just that.”
“But part of it. I bet when you were a kid you couldn’t stand their old-fashioned ways.”
“That’s true.”
“It’s probably why your own furniture is so modern and clean.”
He pushed his hands into his trouser pockets. “It’s how I like things. Simple, not cluttered.”
“That’s how you’ve tried to live your life as well. Simple, no clutter.”
His expression was so grim his jaw began to throb. “You’re right.”
“I know Nick, because it’s me as well. That’s why I never wanted to go this far with you.” She drew herself out of the bed and she saw his eyes alight on her naked form. She saw the grimness turn to lust, and she felt the heat that he generated throughout her body burn into her veins.
He withdrew his hands from his pockets and came to her. “But we have gone this far. We’ve go
ne so damn far we’re right out in space, hanging on for dear life. We had to do this again. That weekend in the hotel wasn’t enough, was it?”
Breathless from his fondling hands, she shook her head. “No.”
He returned to bed to set fire to the sterile environment of his boyhood once more.
•
Nick’s mother came home from the hospital the following Monday afternoon. Serena went with Nick to help him, and they managed to get Maria up the steep steps into the apartment. Nick was right, Serena decided. The Frasers did need to move into a home that was brighter and more modern, where the heating would work better, with less drafty surroundings and bathroom facilities that were designed for the elderly.
She asked Maria about it when Serena was making Nick’s mother tea.
“I think we’re going to have to,” Maria admitted. “I can’t manage those steps like this. I’ll talk to Stephen.” Serena placed the tea things in front of Maria on the table.
“I’ve never had anyone do this for me,” Maria said.
“You never had a daughter.”
“No. I didn’t want children.”
“But you had Nick?”
The distinguished female head nodded. “Yes. I did. Late in life. I was past having a child by then. You know, if you are going to marry Nick, I wouldn’t leave it much longer.”
Serena wasn’t sure what was going to happen with Nick. She’d begun a sexual relationship with him again, right here in this apartment. His parents would likely be shocked if they knew. “I don’t know about that,” she said and changed the subject. “Do you want your tea?”
When Serena got home on Friday, she went straight around to Ginny’s house. Ginny came out on the steps wearing a pair of slim jeans and a long sweater. She’d had her dark hair cut short.
“Hair looks nice,” Serena said.
Ginny placed her palm at the back of her head and posed. “It’s a style that makes it easier to handle. Where have you been?”
“Working harder than hard.”
Ginny’s green eyes twinkled. “Nick Fraser keeping you going?”
“It’s a lot of work putting on a heavy weekly news show.”
“It shows that you’ve put in a great deal of effort. It’s very good. You’ve even got me watching Steel TV. Usually I avoid the news like the plague. I loved the interview with your mother this week.”
“That’s good. We were unsure about that type of program.”
“Oh, no. It’s great. Nick asked her a few tough questions and you could see her hesitate. Having met your mother, it’s quite humorous to watch.”
“I don’t even want to watch it. I get embarrassed about her politics.”
“Ah, don’t be. She’s fantastic. And beautifully preserved.” Ginny opened the screen door. “Why don’t you come in for coffee?”
While they drank coffee Ginny filled Serena in on the West Vale gossip, which wasn’t much. When Serena was about to leave she offered Ginny money for caring for Pascal, but she wouldn’t take it.
“It’s enough of a perk that I have someone famous living next door.”
“Ginny, that’s ridiculous.”
“It’s true. Now go see that brat of yours. He misses you when you’re not here.”
When Serena had reacquainted herself with Pascal and her house, she put away the Porsche and drove the Jeep down to the local garage for an overhaul.
“Seen your program,” Lester Finch told her as he poked around under the hood of the Jeep. “This looks about as good as it did last spring when I looked at it. Oil change and some anti-freeze should do it.”
“All right. Shall I leave it?”
“You can come and get it later. Do you want a ride home?”
“No. I’ll walk. Thanks.”
The colors of the autumn leaves were now beginning to dull a little, and the air was fragrant with smoke, but there was still a warmth to the air as Serena strode back through the village to her house. She realized she had expanded as a person in the past weeks. It wasn’t all Nick. Some of it was her renewed relationship with Seth and the family outings with her mother. But most of it was Nick. He’d taken away the heavy weight of her father’s legacy and replaced it with some good times.
These last few nights, after lovemaking, they had talked a lot about their philosophies and the places they had visited in their lives, mentally and physically. They both had hilarious stories of goof-ups while on air, and they related so much on that plane. Serena thought she was as much a tonic for Nick as he was for her.
If he wasn’t leaving, she thought as she pushed her key into her front door, then she was sure she would be planning a wedding.
She found Pascal sleeping by her desk. The number one showed up on her answering machine and she pressed play.
“Serena. It’s Angela. I called Steel TV but they told me you were at home today. They wouldn’t give out your cell phone number, but your home number was written on the card you gave me. I want to make arrangements for that interview. Could you meet me by Max on Wednesday afternoon at two o’clock? If you’re not there I’ll know that you don’t want to do the program anymore. I hope to see you.”
“Yes,” Serena told Pascal. “Yes. Yes. Yes.” And then she let out a loud, “Yahoo!”
Chapter Seventeen
Nick typed in more items about Stuart Redding Brown and then stopped. He really wasn’t very interested in the man anymore. He was more interested in the man’s family, Serena, Reeva, Seth. Stuart Redding Brown had already documented his own life in his book and in his newscasts. He’d died because he’d been blown up in a country that had been besieged by war in that moment of its history. For some reason Nick had lost something more than his intense interest in Stuart Redding Brown. He didn’t quite hold all of his philosophies quite so dear any more.
Leaning back in his chair, Nick stared at the computer monitor. Then he twirled the chair around and stared out of the window instead. What he wanted to do, deep down inside himself, something he’d wanted to do all his life, was write his own books. Not just one book but lots of books. Non-fiction, fiction, whatever. He just wanted to explore some of the themes he’d tried to explore in his teens, before he’d gone on the run to learn more about life.
He picked up his coffee cup and drained the rest of the contents. A day without Serena made him introspective. Or had it been meeting Serena that had made him have more darn feelings about things? He felt as if he’d opened a wound and let it bleed. But it wasn’t all uncomfortable. It felt quite good to feel.
The phone rang and he hoped it was Serena, but it was his mother and that surprised him.
“Nick. You don’t mind me phoning?”
“Of course not. What’s up? How’s the ankle?”
“It’s very painful. Your father is out at the moment and I wondered if you’d like to come over for a while. I’d like to talk to you.”
“Sure.” Already he’d turned back to the computer and was using the mouse to save and close his files. “It’ll take me about half an hour.”
“I’ll have the tea on.”
“Mom.”
“What?”
“I’d rather have a beer if you’ve got it.”
“Yes. We have beer. Of course. You can have one of your father’s.”
His mother was walking again now. She limped to the door to open it. “I haven’t been out yet.”
“Do you want me to take you out?”
“No. It’s all right. Sit down. I’ll get your beer.”
“I’ll get it.”
He went to the refrigerator where he found half a dozen bottles on the top shelf. He rummaged in a drawer for a bottle opener while his mother put a tall glass on the table beside her own tea things. She sat in the chair he held for her. When his mother was comfortable he sat down in the chair next to her. Not across from her. Not at the other end of the table. But next to her. He never would have done that before, but he felt something had changed. He was beginning to
suspect it might have been himself who had done the changing.
Maria put her hands on the table. Nick saw she was a little shaky. “I’ve convinced your father to sell, Nick.”
He smiled with his relief that things would go right. “That’s great. You won’t regret it.”
“There’s not much time left for regrets, is there? But I can’t live here anymore, unfortunately, so we have to move. You said you’d help?”
“Absolutely. We’ll find somewhere nice and comfortable for you.”
Maria almost reached to Nick’s hands on the table. “Your father is a very stubborn man. He hates to admit he’s wrong. So he told me to let you know we have to move because of me. It’s nothing to do with the store or his heart. He’s fine.” She smiled. “You understand. Don’t say anything to him.”
“I understand. I’m just pleased you’re giving me the chance to help you. If you don’t get moving now I might be gone again by the time you made up your minds.”
His mother glanced away at the fridge. “Do you want another bottle of beer?”
Did she not want him to leave again? Or was that his imagination? Nick didn’t want to ask in case it was his imagination.
Before he went home, he stopped in at a real estate agent’s office close to his parents’ store and talked about listing the store and apartment. He had sent the ball rolling.
There was a phone message from Serena at home, but she didn’t answer her phone when he called back. He wondered what she wanted. Was she lonely? Did she need him? He was amazed at how anxious he could feel about her when he wasn’t with her. He missed her and he was so pleased that they were together again.
He called again later but she still didn’t answer her home phone or her cell phone. He was watching Pat McHaney’s This is Science show on Steel and hoping the phone would ring when the doorbell pealed.
It was Serena in jeans, leather jacket, leather gloves and leather boots. Her hair was in a braid.
“Guess what, Nick?”
He closed the door and leaned against it. He’d never seen her so spontaneous. “I hope you’ve won the lottery.”
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