Hijinks

by Debra Kayn

  “Cute,” he mumbled.

  He limped behind her, letting her drag him through the house. The situation was out of his hands. He mumbled cuss words with every step. He was a man. Men fixed things. Instead, she led him through the house like a scolded child.

  “Sit at the table.” She released his hand. “I’ll get the controls.”

  “Find the candles first. That way you don’t fall or bang into anything.” He pulled out a chair and sat. Trying to save his manhood, he added, “I’ll get us out of here. Domo’s a computer. Men run computers. Hell, men created computers. It’ll be a breeze.”

  So much for not sounding pathetic. He rubbed the back of his neck. He’d sunk to a new low.

  The deep darkness in the house, blinding him to a world of black, brought out things he never noticed before. Like how the coconut scent of her shampoo intoxicated him, or the slightest gasp she took right before she held her breath when he touched her.

  He rubbed the heel of his hands against his eyes. Why was he fighting about figuring a way out of this house when he was right where he wanted to be? He’d wanted to talk with her, and now he had the perfect opportunity. She couldn’t run from him, and she’d have to listen. He smiled, letting himself celebrate having control back on his side, for the time being.

  “I found the candles.” Ruffling came from the kitchen. “I just need to find matches.”

  “Bottom drawer.” He leaned back against the chair. “There’s a lighter we used for the barbeque last summer.”

  “You’re right.” She flicked the trigger and a small flame lit the room. “I can’t believe you remembered.”

  “You love order and never change anything inside the house,” he said. “Besides, I remember everything about you.”

  In the glint of light, her face lit up with an angelic glow. His breath, shallow and harsh, sounded loud to his own ears. He’d never met another woman who took his breath away the way she did. The high cheekbones, the heart-shaped lips and her enormous eyes stopped other men in the street. He’d seen it happen many times, but she stayed oblivious to her effect on others.

  “Here you go. You light the candles, and I’ll go back and hunt up all the remote controls for Domo.” She set out three large candles in front of him. “Don’t worry about letting them burn. I have tons more.”

  “Why do you have so many?” He lit the first one and watched the flame grow.

  “Aroma therapy. There’s one for every emotion you want to bring out. In a few minutes, we’ll be stress free and calmer.” She ducked behind the counter. “And, I use them when I take a bubble bath.”

  “Oh?” His hand shook.

  She popped back in sight. “Yes. Why?”

  Apparently, he didn’t know everything about her. They’d shared a shower before, but never a bath. Shannon in bubbles. Shannon wet. Shannon lounging on her back. He cleared his throat. He couldn’t allow himself to go there yet.

  “No reason. I just pictured you more a shower person.” He stood, uncomfortable sitting down when all his thoughts headed south. “Do you need any help?”

  “Nope. Hang on.” She hurried out of the kitchen and returned quickly. “I found all six controls in the other room. Although, I don’t know how this is going to help us if Domo is shut down.”

  “He’s not. If he’s controlling the lights, he’s still there.” He glanced at her. “Not that I think he’s real.”

  She stared at the candle flame. He went back to holding the control toward the light and reading the buttons.

  “I don’t either,” she whispered.

  He glanced at her. “You don’t either, what?”

  “I don’t think Domo is real.” She lifted her chin. “You always made fun of me for talking to him, but I know he’s a computer.”

  He set the control down and walked around the table. He hooked his thumb under her chin and tilted her head. “I teased you, not because of your conversations with him, but because I enjoyed making you angry enough that you’d stop talking to him, and pay attention to me.”

  The skin between her brows pinched together. She owned his heart, and had no idea how he craved her attention. How much he needed her.

  “That doesn’t make any sense.” She moved away from him. “Are you saying I neglected you when we were together?”

  “Nope, not at all. Teasing you was a hidden talent of mine.” He swung his arms. “Making you smile again after ticking you off was a lot more fun.”

  She smiled and glanced away.

  “You remember, don’t you?” He sat across from her. “The night we attended the concert...”

  “You teased me until I dumped my soda over your head.” She rubbed her lips together and blushed.

  He grinned. It was the first night they’d made love. He thought he’d died. “Best night of my life.”

  “Mine, too,” she whispered.

  He dropped the control and reached for her hand. “It doesn’t have to end, babe.”

  Shannon opened her mouth, seemed to change her mind, and pulled her hand away. “We need to see if the remotes work.”

  “That can wait.”

  “No.” She pushed half of the controls toward him. “We can’t stay locked in here together.”

  He pushed the power button, frowning when a red light flashed on the end of the device. “Why not? I mean, not forever, we both have jobs, but you’re on vacation—”

  She frowned. “How would you know I took time off?”

  “Linda.”

  “It doesn’t matter. We need to open the house.” She aimed the control at the panel on the wall and pushed a button. “None of the buttons work. I should be able to manually turn on the oven and set the temperature from any room in the house. I even tried aiming at the control board in the living room when I was in there and nothing happened.”

  “Are you dating anyone else?”

  “Maybe...” She snorted. “Of course not. It hasn’t been that long since I broke up with you.”

  “Nine months.” He waited. “Plenty of time to go out on a few dates, so why haven’t you?”

  “That’s none of your business.” She wrinkled her nose. “Are you dating other women?”

  “No.” He waited, but he’d lost her attention. “What are you thinking?”

  “I’m hungry.” She stood and crossed the kitchen. “Who knows how long the electricity will be out? We can snack on the food your mom sent with me.”

  Why was she denying what they had together? She acted as if she was scared to talk with him. He set the control down and watched her work around the kitchen from the dining area. What would he do if she told him it really was finished between them?

  Chapter 5

  Shannon placed her hand on the wall and sidestepped around the room, lighting the way with the candle, until she encountered the metal barrier covering the window. They continued working together inspecting every room upstairs for anything that stood out as a possible way to break out of the house. Neither one of them found any hint of a possible escape.

  “Nothing in this room either,” she yelled.

  Her frustration grew. They’d covered the whole house from top to bottom. Even the two-story chimney blocked with some hidden shield made the fireplace unusable. The paper Alex burned only filled the living room with smoke and forced them into the kitchen until the area cleared.

  Alex showed up in the doorway, holding a candle. “Let’s go downstairs. Stay close. The candles help a little, but you don’t want to stumble on the stairs.”

  “I wonder how people lived without electricity in the olden days. It feels like we’re living in a cave.” She held on to the railing, while Alex guided her with a hand on her back.

  “I’m sure they found ways to entertain themselves.” Once at the bottom of the steps, he took her candle from her and held both of them in front of him.

  “Without light you can’t even see to play checkers or read a book.” She walked behind him into the kitchen and plucked a l
eftover dinner roll off the plate she’d set out earlier.

  “I imagine people took part in physical activities to break up boredom. They exercised and kept in shape. Look at the pictures of Neanderthals in history books. They were all skinny and their days were filled with physical exercise. They had it going on.” He sat down at the table and pushed the candles to the middle of the table.

  She pinched off a corner of the bread and popped it in her mouth. “I doubt if they thought surviving and gathering food was fun.”

  “But, you forget. They had all day and night to have sex.” He wiggled his brows. “It was all that nakedness, ugh-me-man attitude and chest pounding. It drove women crazy, and men had the added bonus of dragging their women by their hair and not having to speak in poetry and express love in words. It’s a real turn on...or so I’ve heard.”

  She threw the rest of her roll at him, and missed her target. “That’s pathetic.”

  “Believe what you will, but you have to admit we’re bored. There’s no phone, no internet and not a working television in sight.” He stared at the candle.

  She watched him. They’d always enjoyed having sex. She missed being with him. More than the absence of an intimate relationship, she missed the companionship. He was her best friend.

  Linda filled her girlfriend quota, and she loved her friend with all her heart, but the relationship she had with Alex went much deeper. They shared secrets, dreams and invested their lives in one another. They’d planned for the future, talked about having children and thought they’d have all the time in the world together.

  Then Alex had moved to New York to join a law firm. They’d remained together even when he was away, but he’d become more determined to have her move there with him. The thought of leaving Seaport broke her heart. This was her home. A home she struggled to find for the first eighteen years of her life and now that she had it, she wasn’t willing to go back to a life of living in different places and moving whenever the urge hit.

  “Maybe we should try it?” Alex leaned forward.

  She cleared her throat. “Try what?”

  “Having sex to make the time go faster.” He grinned. “I’ll let you do anything you want with me. Then when you’re done, I can have my turn.”

  She laughed, remembering the past and how easy it was for them to fall into bed together. “In your dreams.”

  “You can’t fault me for trying.” He winked. “I’ll leave the offer open. Just let me know if you change your mind.”

  She tapped her nails on the ceramic tiles of the table. Her body hummed at his suggestion. She squirmed and crossed her legs. Jeez, why did he have to bring up sex? She glanced at him. He watched her too closely. From the hooded, warm look, he was thinking the same thing.

  “I’m thirsty.” She stood too fast, and her chair scraped against the floor. “Do you want a bottle of water?”

  He chuckled. “Sure.”

  She opened the fridge, the light inside came on and she removed two bottles. Warm from all his sex talk, she pressed one bottle to her neck and let the coldness shock her back to normal.

  “Have you heard from your parents lately?”

  She handed him the other bottle, and took her seat across the table from him. “Not directly. I received a Christmas card notifying me they deposited money into the account they set up at the bank for me. They wanted me to splurge on something special for myself for the holidays.”

  “But you’re not going to touch the money...”

  “No.” She snapped the top off the bottle.

  His mouth tightened. “Are they still in Africa?”

  “No, that was months ago.” She gazed at the drink and shrugged. “The envelope came from Singapore, but they call Belize their,” she curled two fingers of each hand in the air, “headquarters now.”

  He leaned his elbows on the table. “I’m sorry. That has to be rough. I know how much their absence bothers you.”

  “It’s okay.” She shrugged, belying how much it hurt to have no connection to a normal family. “After twenty-seven years, I don’t expect anything different from them. They’re happy. I’m happy. We’re just...different.”

  He studied her and she must’ve passed his assessment, because he nodded. “Still sucks.”

  “Yeah, well, all I can do is learn from it.” She ran her finger through the condensation on the outside of the bottle. “I know what’s important to me, and I choose to live differently. I think everyone has to make their own choices once they’re adults.”

  What was she doing? She didn’t owe him an explanation. They’d hashed out this topic before, for hours. She wasn’t going to change. Her opinion that parents should remain in one place and raise healthy, happy kids went on her list of must do’s.

  “It’s time to take the dog out,” Domo said.

  Shannon folded her arms on the table and laid her head down. “I hate this.”

  “It’ll be okay. Worse thing that can happen is we’ll be stuck here until your vacation is over and your customers start coming to the shop. Someone will wonder where we are.” He rubbed the back of her head.

  “It’s time to take the dog out,” Domo repeated.

  She pushed herself up. “Shut up, Domo.”

  “You’re going to hurt his feelings.” Alex lit a different candle and extinguished the first one.

  “You don’t even like him, so don’t tell me how to treat him.” She marched away from the table and stepped over to the sink, wishing she could see out the covered window.

  Enough was enough. If she stayed any longer in the house, she was going to do something crazy, like throw herself at Alex and make him drag her across the floor by her hair. Him and his stupid ideas.

  She opened the second drawer from the bottom, stuck both hands inside and felt around. There had to be something useful in the junk drawer besides pencils and extra buttons. She banged her fingernail against something heavy.

  By the shape, it was a hammer she latched onto. “Yes.”

  Shannon marched from the kitchen. “Alex, bring a candle to the living room.” She tossed the order back as she passed.

  Once Alex appeared with minimal light, she went to work. As if striking a home run, she swung with all her might at the window closest to the front door.

  The instant she connected to the metal, the tool fell out of her grasp. She cried out, clasping her hands together and shoving them between her thighs. Pain ricocheted through her palms, up her wrist, and almost to her elbows.

  “Ow. Ow. Ow.” She danced awkwardly around the room. Electric tingles pricked her skin. Sharp pain shot clear to the bone, leaving a throbbing ache.

  Alex stopped her, and pulled her hands free. “Sh...it’ll be okay. Give it a few minutes and the pain will ease.”

  “How do you know?” She moaned, fighting back tears.

  He massaged her hands, digging his thumb deep into the heel of her palm. “Every boy has swung an aluminum bat at an unmoving object. It hurts like hell, and we never do anything stupid like that again.”

  “Great. Now you’re comparing me with a stupid twelve-year-old boy.” She sighed as the crippling pain eased.

  “I seem to be striking out on impressing you today.” His lips twitched, and she caught a glimpse of his dimple.

  “Well, your jokes are lame and all you talk about is sex, but you do give pretty good massages. I’ll give you that much.” She gave him a consolation prize by smiling. “Thanks. I’m feeling much better now.”

  “Good.” He moved away and picked up the hammer. “Let me show you how a real man does it.”

  “Bring it on, caveman.” She lifted her hands, waving her fingers and winced.

  “You laugh now, but just wait. I’ll have us out of here in no time.” He turned around and raised his hand. “In fact. Let’s make a little bet.”

  “What? That you can defeat a Smart House?” She snorted. “Good luck with that.”

  “I’m serious.” He pointed to the window. “If I
manage to get us out, you have to go to the courthouse square with me on New Year’s Eve.”

  “And if you don’t?” she asked.

  “I go with you to the square. I’ll even let you kiss me at midnight.”

  “Since I’m going anyway, if we get out of here...deal.” She walked to the couch in the corner of the room and sat. He took his time posturing. She rolled her eyes, but enjoyed the show.

  He rolled up his sleeves. Then he adjusted his slacks. He widened his stance, flexed his muscles a couple of times and began his attack at the corner of the barrier. The hammer never even left a dent in the metal.

  Ten minutes later, Alex changed tactics. Using the pronged part of the tool, he tried to wedge the points between the windowsill and metal. He leaned all his weight against the handle and groaned as he pushed. She laid her head down on the arm of the couch and yawned. He’d have to spend hours beating against the window to get anywhere.

  Her eyes grew tired. She rested to the sound of bangs filling the room. She loved Alex for trying, but the house did not want them to leave.

  Chapter 6

  Shannon woke from her nap to music blaring throughout the house again. Lying on the couch, she grabbed the throw pillow and covered her head. Sometime in the middle of the night, she’d stirred long enough to hear Alex still pounding on the window.

  All the screaming, pleading and threats did nothing to make this nightmare end any faster. She only succeeded in getting a headache and having Alex tell her to rest. She lifted her head and peeked at Alex. He sat sprawled in the recliner, eyes closed, and one arm thrown across his forehead.

  He slept even less than she had in his determination to pry away the window barrier. Antsy, she had to think. She did her best problem solving while working.

  She eyed Alex. Well, if she wanted to rescue them, she needed a substantial plan. If she was going to work, she needed a willing person to help her.

  She threw the pillow across the room, hitting Alex in the stomach. He shifted, but remained asleep. “Alex?”