I had a lot of things I wanted to say, none of them I was ready to say.
I asked, “When did you know you loved me?”
He sighed and slid off me onto his side. He brought me with him so we were face-to-face.
“I knew that last time you tried to seduce me before you started avoiding me. When I was home on leave and you tackled me in your Dad’s living room and I told you that I thought of you like a sister.”
My heart lurched at the thought. That had been the most hated, humiliating, horrifying memory of my life.
“I didn’t tackle you,” I said.
“It was close to a tackle.”
Jeez.
Moving on.
“Why then?” I asked.
“Because what I wanted to do was get in your pants. It almost hurt physically to set you away from me. It did hurt when you got that look on your face after I told you that you were like a sister. It hurt to hurt you, that’s when I knew.”
“That was a long time ago,” I said to him.
His hand was resting at my waist but it moved around my back and pulled me to him.
“Yeah, we’ve wasted a lot of time. We’ve got a lot to make up for.”
He was nuzzling my neck but I wasn’t quite finished talking.
“You want to marry me?” I asked.
“No. I’m gonna marry you.” He lifted his head from my neck. “You’re movin’ in this weekend. We’ll get settled, get used to each other, spend some time up in the cabin, maybe go away somewhere with a beach. In a few months I’ll get you a ring then we’ll get married.”
I didn’t believe what I was hearing.
“You have it all planned out,” I said.
“Well… yeah.”
“That’s it?” I asked.
“That’s it. Isn’t that how it normally happens?”
I guessed it was but still.
I felt his body move against mine and knew he was laughing.
“Fucking hell, India Savage wants hearts and flowers.”
I went up on my forearm. Hearts and flowers! As if! I was a Rock Chick!
“I do not!” I snapped.
He was grinning at me. “Yes you do.”
“No I do not,” I retorted.
He rolled me on my back and onto me again. His hands went into the hair at either side of my face and he looked me in the eyes.
“I don’t do hearts and flowers but I promise you won’t be disappointed.”
“You are so cocky.”
“Honey, I don’t give a fuck if you don’t believe it’s gonna be good between us. I know we’ll both enjoy me proving it to you.”
Wow.
My breath escaped me and I stared.
He ignored my stare, rolled off me again, twisted me around and fit my back to his front and held me tight against him.
I expected my mind to whirl, instead, I gave into my exhaustion, his warmth and the sweet feeling in the pit of my belly that I was exactly where I was supposed to be.
* * * * *
I woke up, my body snuggled against Lee’s back, my cheek pressed against his shoulder blade.
I peered beyond him to the clock, it was five after six.
Unfortunately, as warm and comfy as I was, I was awake and when I was awake, I needed to get up.
Since Lee was still sleeping, I carefully pulled away and started to roll to the other side of the bed.
He turned, snagged me by the waist and tucked me into him.
I waited for something to happen and then realized he was still asleep.
“Lee.”
“Mm?” he mumbled, all sexy-sleepy.
“Honey, I need to go to the bathroom.”
His arm loosened and I slid away.
I picked up the red lace underwear, which Lee didn’t rip off me (though it was close). I put it on and slipped on Lee’s shirt, buttoning it up the front.
I went to the bathroom, brushed, flossed and washed my face. I grabbed an elastic hair band and tied my hair in a messy knot on top of my head and dug through the cabinets until I found my new toothbrush stash. I had three, not because I needed them for overnight guests, but because I was freakish about dental hygiene. I set one on the counter by the sink with the toothpaste in case Lee got up.
I walked downstairs, started the coffee going and let Chowleena out. I opened the gate between mine and Tod and Stevie’s backyard so Chowleena had plenty of room to move.
I was on my second cup of coffee, sifting through mail, sitting at my dining room table with both of my heels on the seat in front of me and my knees to my chest when Lee rounded the bottom of the stairs.
His hair was sexy messy and he had a day’s worth of stubble. He’d put on his jeans but had only buttoned enough buttons to keep them on his hips while he moved. His eyes were still slightly sleepy as if he’d just that instant woken up and they were on me as he stalked toward me.
“Hey,” I said.
He arrived at my side, wrapped his fist in my hair, tugged my head back and kissed me, hard and deep with lots of tongue.
When he lifted his head he said, “I don’t like wakin’ up and you’re not beside me.”
My heart stuttered to a halt and I blinked.
“Sorry,” I said.
He let go of my hair and stalked into the kitchen.
Jeez.
Guess Lee needed his morning coffee too.
The doorbell rang and I got up, went to the window and looked to see who it was at that ungodly hour. Likely, the world was coming to an end and Lee needed to save the day.
It was Eddie.
Shit.
I went to the door, grabbed the key off the hook beside it, unlocked and opened it, then unlocked the security door.
Eddie was dressed exactly like yesterday, except his jeans were even more worn, which meant they fit him all the better, and the white thermal tee had been exchanged for a black one.
I pushed open the security door and said, “Hey Eddie.
He walked in, pulling off his mirrored shades.
“Indy,” he said, “I’m lookin’ for Lee.” His eyes dropped down to my body and he took in Lee’s shirt. “I guess I found him.”
“Eddie,” Lee said and both Eddie and I looked into the house.
Lee was standing in the doorway to the kitchen holding a coffee mug, jeans buttoned, eyes cold, face blank.
Yikes.
This was weird.
Nobody moved, nobody said anything.
I decided to forge into the breach.
“Eddie, you want coffee?” I asked, sidling around him and into the living room.
“Sure, three sugars and cream. Thanks.”
I tilted my head and said, “You like it sweet.”
Damn!
Shit, shit, shit.
I’d flirted, I didn’t mean to, it just came out.
Eddie looked at me, an amused twinkle in his eye. “Yeah, I like it sweet.”
Shit.
“All righty then,” I said and hurried across the room.
Lee was still standing in the doorway to the kitchen and as I walked toward him, he didn’t move.
Moments before I’d have to stop, he stepped to the side but just barely. I had to squeeze by him and I felt the heat from his glare as I did so.
He moved out of the doorway and into the dining room when I went into the kitchen.
“Eddie,” I heard him say, “what’re you doin’ here?”
“Lookin’ for you,” Eddie replied.
“You found me.” This was not said in a welcoming tone and the bad vibes were snapping in the air.
“I heard about you and Indy being in a brawl on Colfax last night,” Eddie said.
Uh-oh.
Not a good way to start.
I pulled out a coffee mug.
“We weren’t in a brawl. I was pickin’ up a skip and Indy was supposed to sit in the car. She got a hankerin’ to test out her new stun gun so she followed me in, dropped anyone who came n
ear her, my back up came and we got out.” Lee waited a beat and said, “She’s a new-found fondness for stun guns.”
There was silence and then Eddie said, “Yeah, I heard that too. Willie saw her with it, said the floor was littered with her victims.”
More silence.
I held my breath as I spooned sugar in Eddie’s coffee.
Then I heard low chuckling.
I let out my breath.
Okay, they were bonding over my crazy antics which was somewhat embarrassing but at least they were bonding.
I walked into the dining room and handed Eddie his coffee.
“I’m going to go get dressed,” I told them both.
Lee’s eyes moved over me and I couldn’t guess what he was thinking.
“Bring my shirt back down when you’re done with it, would you?” he asked.
I nodded, wondering at his mood, guessing it was not good after the flirty incident and I scooted up the stairs.
I put on the red bra, a pair of red track bottoms that had a wide white stripe that ran from the side of the ankle, up the leg, across my upper ass, and down the other leg. To this, I added a thin, white, tank top that showed a bit of cleavage. I spritzed on some perfume, rolled on some deodorant, rubbed in some moisturizer and slapped on some powder, blush and mascara, not feeling like the full treatment. I slid on some red flip flops and headed back downstairs.
By the time I got there, Lee and Eddie were both sitting, or, more to the point, lounging in king-of-the-castle fashion, at my dining room table.
Jeez.
That didn’t take long.
I walked up to the table.
“It’s Tex’s first day with the morning crowd, I need to get to work,” I informed them, walking to the table.
Lee’s eyes had moved over me again as I approached and Eddie’s gaze came around, then dropped straight to my chest.
I ignored Eddie, stopped and handed Lee his shirt. He took it and shrugged into it.
“See you all later,” I said.
I started to go but Lee caught my wrist.
I turned back to him.
“You’re forgetting two things,” Lee said.
“What’re those?” I asked.
His eyes moved to my tank top. “First, you need to change into real clothes.”
Um… excuse me?
“Sorry?” I said, just in case he hadn’t just been totally out of line, I’d give him an out.
“You aren’t wearin’ that out of this house,” Lee replied.
I hadn’t missed it, he had been totally out of line.
I wasn’t sure if it was the room or just my head that started rumbling, like in the movies before the earthquake that swallows cars and whole buildings.
“Um, sorry?” I repeated, this time chockfull of attitude.
Eddie lifted up his hand and started inspecting his fingernails. I could mostly see just his profile but I knew he was grinning because I could see his fucking dimple.
“Maybe we should have this conversation upstairs,” Lee suggested when he saw my attention turn to Eddie.
“Maybe we should have this conversation in an alternate universe where Alternate Indy gives a shit what Alternate Lee wants her to wear.”
No way to miss the attitude in that.
Eddie stood. “I’ll just top up my coffee.”
“I’m sorry, Eddie,” I said to him as he walked into the kitchen.
“Don’t mind me,” Eddie returned, making a beeline to the coffee.
Once Eddie disappeared, I hissed at Lee, “Tell me you just didn’t tell me what to wear in front of Eddie.”
“I’ll tell you that when the image of you flirting with him isn’t freshly burned into my brain,” Lee replied.
Yep, I was right, Lee was not in a good mood about my flirting with Eddie.
I ripped my wrist out of Lee’s hand.
“It’s okay Eddie,” I called, “you can come back. I’m leaving.”
“You try to leave, I’ll carry you upstairs and change you myself,” Lee threatened.
Eddie leaned his shoulder in the doorway of the kitchen. “I’m thinkin’ you aren’t quite finished.” Then Eddie decided to throw down. “For what it’s worth, I’m with Lee. If you were my woman, there’s no fuckin’ way I’d let you out of the house wearin’ that.”
I glared at him. “Did someone ask you?”
“Nope. Just tryin’ to be helpful,” Eddie answered, grinned and walked into the room.
I opened my mouth to, I don’t know, scream, shriek, talk in tongues, when a sound came from the backdoor.
“Yoo hoo!”
Tod came in wearing his flight attendant uniform. “I saw Chowleena healthy and happy out there and your door open. I knew you’d have coffee, you always have coffee and I need coffee. The Beemer’s in the shop so we only have one car. I have to stay awake and go back to DIA and get Stevie later this morning and I’m dead on my feet. Your coffee’s so strong, you could melt nails in it and…”
Tod had been talking while he entered the kitchen through the backdoor and grabbed himself a mug o’ joe. He stopped dead in the kitchen doorway and his mouth dropped open. He stared between Lee and Eddie. Back and forth. Back again, and forth.
Then his eyes swung to me.
“What’re you doing? Collecting the straight, super-macho Village People?”
Eddie burst out laughing and Lee looked down and to the side but I caught the fact that his eyes crinkled.
I clenched my teeth.
Once Eddie quit laughing I said, “Tod, Eddie, Eddie, Tod.”
They nodded to each other.
Then I didn’t hesitate, I was being ganged up on, I needed back up.
So I asked Tod, “What do you think of my outfit?”
Tod looked around again, but this time only between me and Lee.
“Uh-oh, is there trouble in paradise?”
“Just answer the question,” I snapped.
“Okay, girlie, keep your pants on.” Tod went into assessment mode, looking me up and down. “Very cute pants. You know I’m not fond of flip flops but they work. Pretty bra but I only say that because I can see every inch of it. Normally, my motto is, if you got it, flaunt it, but with your bazungas, you really got it. You in that top and bra might cause traffic collisions. Are you prepared to live with that on your conscience?”
Great.
I avoided looking at Lee and turned in a huff and headed to the stairs. “Fine. I’ll change. I wouldn’t want to cause bodily harm.”
I went back upstairs, changed the track bottoms for jeans, put on a fitted, plaid, cuffed-short-sleeved, Western Style shirt with pearl snap buttons up the front and on the two breast pockets and switched out the red flip flops for brown leather ones and stomped back down the stairs and into the kitchen.
Tod was now sitting with the boys at the table, enjoying his coffee, Chowleena lying beside him on the floor. Chowleena followed me into the kitchen and I threw her a biscuit for her show of camaraderie.
“We girls have to stick together,” I told her as I rifled through my junk drawer looking for my crazy, thick-gold-Elvis-framed sunglasses that would be kickass with my shirt.
I found them as Lee walked into the kitchen. I threw him a glance that would pulverize rock and slid my glasses into the mess of hair on my head.
“Later,” I said, intending to walk right by him.
He stepped in front of me, advanced and backed me into the corner next to the fridge, by the coffeepot, a corner that you couldn’t see from the dining room.
“We haven’t talked about the second thing you forgot,” he said to me, his hands settling on the counter on either side of me.
Ignoring his fencing me in, I planted my hands on my hips. “And what’s that?”
His arms wrapped around me and kissed me.
After he finished, trying to recover from the kiss and not let it show, I said, “Move back.”
“You’re pissed,” he stated the obvious.<
br />
“Damn straight,” I said.
“We’ll talk about it tonight.”
“No we won’t, tonight is girl’s night out. I’m busy.”
“I’ll come and get you for lunch.”
“No lunch, no dinner, no tonight, today, you and me, we’re on a break. No talking, no seeing, no nothing. Maybe, if I’ve cooled down, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Indy, you can have space today but you’re in my bed tonight.”
“I don’t think so.”
“I’ll be here tonight when you get home.”
“I’m not coming home.”
His eyes got kind of scary and he leaned into me a bit. Considering he was pretty damn close to me, leaning in was seriously invasive.
“Honey, you forget, part of my job is findin’ people. Do you think you can hide from me?”
No, I didn’t think I could hide from him, but I was going to try.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” I repeated, shoved through his arms, huffed through the living room giving a wave and a farewell to Eddie and Tod, who both wisely kept quiet, and soared on my anger all the way down the block towards Fortnum’s.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Friendly Neighborhood Serial Killer
I almost made it to the door of Fortnum’s when I noticed, out of the corner of my eye, that stapled to every telephone and light pole down Broadway, for as far as the eye could see, was an acid green piece of paper with what looked like a photo with some writing underneath.
I thought someone really, really wanted to find their missing cat so I stomped up to check it out and stopped dead at what I saw.
It was a picture of Tex, no night vision goggles (thankfully) but with wild hair, a crazy-ass smile on his face looking like your friendly neighborhood serial killer. The picture was obviously color, copied in black and white which made it blobby and grainy and even more frightening.
Underneath his picture it said, “Tex” and underneath that it said, “New Coffee Guy” and underneath that it said, “Fortnum’s”.
Holy crap.
I snatched the flier off the telephone pole and prowled into Fortnum’s.
There were five customers, three standing in line, two waiting at the other end of the counter for their coffee. Tex and Jane were behind the counter.
I shouted, “What the hell is this?”
Then I waved the acid green poster around.