I took a calming breath, squared my shoulders and forged ahead.
I walked in the kitchen, trying to look cool and casual, as if I had guys over all the time and didn’t feel like an idiot in my Dodgers nightshirt.
Eddie was sitting at the table. He’d topped the jeans with a tight, red t-shirt and had a mug of coffee in front of him. He looked up at me when I walked in, his eyes moved the length of me and I could see the dimple come out. I didn’t know what to make of that but decided to consider it a good thing.
Then Mom spoke and my attention swung to her. “Hey doll face. Don’t worry, Eddie and me introduced ourselves. I’m making him eggs.” She threw one of her gorgeous smiles at Eddie then her eyes turned back to me, “You want coffee?”
Mom was standing at the counter, her wheelchair positioned by the table. She’d put on a lilac t-shirt dress that had peach flowers embroidered on the v-neck. It was essentially a modern-day muumuu. It was easy to put on because, if she stood up, gravity did a lot of the work and it was stretchy so she could shove her bum arm through. It was simple and inelegant, but with her coloring, it looked smashing on her.
“Thanks Mom. In a second.”
My brain was beginning to kick in and worry was starting to envelope me.
I turned to Eddie and said, “Can I talk to you a minute?”
I didn’t wait for him to answer, just turned around and walked into the living room. I heard him follow me.
I needed somewhere private to talk and looked around. The living room was no good, Mom could hear (and she’d be listening, for certain). The dining room was part of the living room and I couldn’t take him to Mom’s bedroom.
I sighed huge and took him to my room.
My room was boring. My old apartment was part of a big Victorian mansion that had been sliced up into apartments decades ago. It had all sorts of wonky rooms, wood floors and I’d made the most of it with fun little knickknacks, Christmas lights covered in flowers, that kind of stuff. I hadn’t had time to make this new space fun, not only my room but also the entire apartment, all my old stuff was still in boxes in the corners. The space was boring and depressing and, looking at it through what I imagined were Eddie’s eyes, kind of embarrassing.
He followed me into the room and didn’t even look around. He was watching me.
“Can you close the door please?” I asked.
He did as I asked and when he turned back to me, I launched in.
“Listen, Eddie, Mom doesn’t know Dad’s in town and I don’t want her to know. They don’t get along and it’ll just upset her. In fact, I don’t want her to know any of what’s been going on. She had a stroke eight months ago and I don’t want her troubled with this. If she knew about all this stuff, she’d be worried sick, her blood pressure would get out of control and I don’t even want to think….” I paused, not wanting to get upset, took a breath and finished, “So you can’t say anything.”
I waited to argue, for him to tell me I was wrong or being unfair or that I should warn her or to disagree with me in some way but instead he said, “All right.”
I blinked at him.
“All right?” I asked.
“Yeah, all right,” he repeated.
I stared.
He was far more awake, his hair was still messy but it suited him (in a big way) and he was watching me closely.
“That’s it?” I asked.
“Nope,” he answered.
I knew it. Here we go.
“Okay then, what?”
He took a step toward me, pulled me into his arms and kissed me. It was a serious kiss including tongue; no brush on the lips this time and there was absolutely no need for a do-over.
It was delicious.
When he ended the kiss and started to lift his head, I pressed my fingers in his hair at the same time I went up on tiptoe, my mouth following his. I didn’t care if it seemed needy or greedy, all I knew was, I wanted more.
He made a noise that sounded an awful lot like a groan and he kissed me again, walking me backwards, his mouth on mine. He shifted us and we were falling onto the bed, him on his back and me on top of him. We bounced, our lips disengaged and I was about to say something, trying to cut through my Eddie Daze, when he flipped me on my back and rolled over on top of me.
He wasn’t messing around, it wasn’t play, this was serious stuff. We were full-on necking and groping; mouths, tongues and hands everywhere. It was unbelievably fantastic. All of this was leading somewhere and I wanted to go there. I wanted it bad.
All of a sudden, he pulled his mouth away and tucked my face into his throat.
“Eddie?” I whispered against his skin, confused at the quick change and not liking it (at all).
“Your Mom. My eggs,” was all he said.
Damn! I totally and completely forgot.
Furthermore, if I kept this up, I’d be late again for Indy.
I was the worst daughter in the world and the worst employee in the universe. If I didn’t sort all of this out soon, I’d be out of two jobs and Mom and I would be living on the street eating cat food out of tins with our fingers.
I jerked away jumping off the bed but Eddie grabbed a handful of my nightshirt and yanked me back.
“Hang on there, Chiquita,” he said and I came off my feet and landed in his lap.
I looked at him and muttered semi-hysterically, “I have to get going. I have to take a shower. I have to go to work and, after work, I gotta find Dad and sort this mess out.”
I was pushing against him to get up and we got in kind of a slapping match with our hands (well, I was slapping, Eddie was more in control and defend mode). Finally he grabbed my wrists and held them between our bodies.
“Jet, calm down.”
“I can’t calm down. I have things to do, I can’t just—”
He interrupted, “Have a life?”
“Exactly!” I was so relieved he understood I sagged against him.
His eyes got weird and he shook his head. “Jet, you are not going to find your Dad. If your Dad gets in touch with you, you phone me.”
I glared at him.
I did not think so.
It was time for me to take things in my own hands.
“I have to figure this out, Eddie. If I don’t, I could lose my job at Smithie’s and I need that job. Smithie is a good guy but there are limits to the times cops can come and shut him down because of me.”
Then, like an idiot, I forged ahead, planning my day verbally, “I’ll work late for Indy, make up the hours, go out tonight, hit the spots where Dad hangs out when he’s in Denver—”
“Aren’t you forgetting something?” he interrupted.
I stared at him, confused.
“We have a date tonight,” he said.
Damn, I forgot that too.
He looked at my face and his jaw tensed. “Christ, you’re killer on a guy’s self-confidence.”
I was such an idiot. No I was beyond idiot, though I didn’t know what beyond idiot was.
“I’m so sorry,” I said, leaning into him a little.
He let go of my wrists and his arms went around my waist. He tucked his face into my neck and right below my ear he said, “If you’re really sorry, you can make it up to me tonight.”
Eek!
“Eggs,” I said, trying to stay focused even as a shiver ran through me.
He pulled his head from my neck and smiled at me, dimple and all.
I was pretty certain he felt the shiver.
Then the dimple disappeared and he looked at me. “I’ll take you to work but I have to ask you not to go anywhere without someone with you, it’s not safe. Can you promise me that?”
I thought about it, I thought about lying about it, I decided I could and said, “Sure.”
He watched me for a beat.
“Mom,” I reminded him, thinking to change the subject and coming off his lap.
I grabbed his hand and pulled him up from my bed.
It was no
t a picture I’d soon forget, Eddie sitting on my bed. In fact, I hoped it was burned into my memory forever.
He didn’t resist but, the minute he stood, his hands came up and rested on either side of my neck, right where it met my shoulders.
“You wouldn’t lie to me, would you?” he asked, watching me closely.
“About?” I tried wide-eyed and innocent.
He wasn’t biting.
“Anything,” he said.
I took a deep breath and decided to be honest. “Maybe, but only if it was important.”
“Like your Dad being in deep shit, that kind of important?”
I bit my lip.
He sighed.
“You have my card?”
I nodded.
“Program me into your cell. Call me if you need anything and do not do anything stupid.”
I could do the first two, the last one I wasn’t so sure about.
* * * * *
Eddie dropped me off in front of Fortnum’s and I walked in five minutes after opening time.
The line at the espresso counter was five deep but the minute Tex saw me, he pointed the portafilter at me and boomed, “We got rules around here, Loopy Loo!”
I’d been working there for over three months and the only rule there seemed to be was that nothing but country or rock ‘n’ roll could be played on the CD player. I didn’t even want to remember the day I put in my Coldplay CD, Ally went berserk.
I figured Tex wasn’t happy with me doing a no-show the day before and I felt like a total heel. I started to say something when Tex continued.
“Next time you get in a bar brawl or wrestle with some guy holding a knife, you call me.”
All five customers turned around and stared at me.
I stared at Tex.
“What?” I asked.
“I’m Fortnum’s designated bodyguard,” Tex told me.
I looked at Duke, who was working behind the espresso counter with Tex.
“He kinda is,” Duke said.
I had to say, I was a bit alarmed that Fortnum’s needed a designated bodyguard. I didn’t have time to think about it because Indy came up behind me, grabbed my hand and pulled me behind the book counter.
“I guess Lee told you,” I said to her when we stopped and I caught a look at her serious face.
“Yeah, he told me. Are you okay?” she asked.
“Sure,” I said, trying to make it sound like I had it all together.
She didn’t buy it and her eyes narrowed.
“Jet?”
“No, really, I’m fine.”
She moved closer to me and squeezed my hand. Then she said in a quiet voice, “I know you think you’re pulling the wool over everyone’s eyes but we all know that everything isn’t fine with you. Talk to me, Jet. Maybe I can help.”
I didn’t know what it was, maybe the hand squeeze, maybe the quiet voice, maybe because she’d always been so nice to me. Whatever it was, I took a breath, trying to think of some way to evade her question and then, instead, it all came pouring out. Everything. Dad leaving us, Mom breaking down, Lottie going to LA, Mom’s stroke, us making do and the current situation with Dad.
I finished with, “And if all that isn’t bad enough, I’ve got a date tonight with Eddie and I have absolutely no clue what to wear.”
Throughout my story, she looked concerned, sometimes mad, sometimes like she was going to interrupt but, at my final comment, she smiled. “That last bit, I can help you with. The rest of it, Lee can help you with.”
I knew Lee was a private detective. I also knew that he was really good at what he did and I knew that he was really expensive. He drove a fancy car, had a fancier motorcycle, had a huge workforce and had some kind of plush offices in Lower Downtown Denver. I couldn’t afford Lee and I couldn’t afford to owe anyone else a favor.
“I can’t ask Lee…” I started.
“You can ask Lee but you don’t have to, I will,” Indy assured me.
“Indy, I’d really like to take care of this on my own.”
“Lee says it’s dangerous.”
I laughed.
“Did you not hear my story? I can take care of myself, and everyone else. I’ve had a lot of practice.”
Indy looked at me. “I don’t know, I’ve had a run-in with the criminal underworld of Denver and it wasn’t much fun.”
I was curious but didn’t ask.
“I’ll be safe and I’ll be smart, I promise,” I assured her, wishing I was just as sure and knowing I was anything but.
“What’re you gonna do?” She asked.
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Find Dad first. Find out what this is all about. Then take it from there.”
Immediately she said, “I’ll go with you.”
No.
No, no, no.
I couldn’t have Indy coming with me, if something happened to her both Lee and Eddie would be pissed at me not to mention Duke, Tex and the entirety of the Denver Police Department (Indy’s Dad was a cop as was Lee’s Dad and his brother, Hank).
“I don’t think…” I started to say but then Tex was there.
“I’m comin’ too,” he said.
I closed my eyes. This was spiraling out of control. I opened them again.
“Please listen to me—”
“No way, Loopy Loo. You aren’t hoardin’ all the action.” He turned to Indy, “You’re drivin’ because we can all fit in your silly-ass car. When we see a break in the coffee action, I’ll go home and get my shotgun.”
My mouth dropped open and I was pretty sure my eyes bugged out of my head.
“Don’t worry, Jet. Just as long as we don’t get into any situations that require grenades, we’ll be fine.” Indy said this like she wasn’t joking.
Tex looked at Indy for a beat. “I’ll pack a few, just in case,” he said. Then Tex lumbered away and I stared at him, mouth still open.
Indy looked at me and, bizarrely (I thought), she laughed.
We left Duke and Jane in command of the bookstore after the post-lunch caffeine rush and we all climbed into Indy’s dark blue VW Beetle.
We swung by the hotel where Dad stayed, but they hadn’t seen him. We also swung by a couple of bars Dad went to when he was in town and asked around. No one at the bars had seen him either. Then we headed out to Lakewood, a suburb to the west of Denver, to visit my Dad’s friend Bear.
Bear was nicknamed Bear for obvious reasons. He was nearly as big as Tex (who was incredibly tall), hairier than Tex (who looked like a demented, gray-blond Santa Claus with a russet beard, Bear looked like he’d been asleep for one hundred years and hadn’t had a shave when he woke up) and both were built to last, as in solid.
Bear was a sometimes plumber but most of the time bum. He was just as fun and crazy as Dad but had more staying power. He’d been married for over thirty years to the long-suffering Lavonne.
Lavonne, on the other hand, didn’t have staying power.
She left Bear at least once a year; however, for reasons known only to Lavonne she always came back.
I hadn’t seen Bear in over a year, back when times were better and he and Lavonne had come to a big picnic in Washington Park that I had for Lottie when she came to visit.
Tex, Indy and I walked up to Bear’s house, which was a one-storey, cracker box house that had yellow aluminum siding and a mess of kid’s toys in the front yard. This was telling because Bear and Lavonne’s two kids were the same age as me and Lottie and had moved out of the house nearly a decade before.
I knocked on the door and Bear answered. His eyes got big, then they got panicked, then they settled on cagey.
Not good.
“Jet! Shit! Haven’t seen you in ages, girl. How’re you keepin’?”
“Hey Bear.”
He pulled me into (you guessed it) a bear hug and then let me go. His eyes moved to Indy briefly and then stayed on Tex.
I introduced everyone. Throughout the introductions, Bear pretended to be cordial but he
was anything but relaxed.
“What brings you out here?” he asked, not taking his eyes off Tex and not moving from the door.
“Dad’s in town,” I said.
Bear’s eyes finally came to me. “Is he?” Bear lied. He totally knew Dad was in town.
“He’s in trouble, Bear. Can we come in for second and talk?”
Bear didn’t move from his body blockade of the door.
“Wish you could, girl, but Lavonne’s workin’ nights and she gets a little cranky when her beauty sleep’s disturbed.”
At last, Bear spoke the truth. Lavonne got cranky when the sun rose, when it set and when the earth revolved around it. Then again, Lavonne had been supporting a ne’er-do-well for thirty years, albeit a lovable one, that would make me cranky too.
“Do you know anything about Dad?” I asked.
“Un-unh, haven’t heard from Ray in ages,” Bear said.
Back to lying.
Damn.
I sighed, then ran down my latest adventures with Dad, Slick and Slick’s knife.
It was then, Bear looked angry.
“What’re you doin’ workin’ at a titty bar?”
Wonderful.
“That isn’t the point.”
“It is the point. You need money?”
Like Bear had money.
Before I could answer, Tex boomed, “Let’s stay focused here, people.”
Bear tensed, still angry and he glared at Tex.
I moved into Bear’s line of sight. I didn’t need two big, hairy men wrestling amongst a bunch of rusty tricycles. I had to find Dad and then find a Killer Eddie Date Outfit and make sure my legs had a clean, close shave. I didn’t have time to go off target.
“Bear, I really need to find Dad.”
Bear looked at me.
“I haven’t heard from Ray. All right? If I do, I’ll call you. And I won’t tell Lavonne you’re workin’ at a titty bar. She’d have a shit hemorrhage.”
With that, we had no choice but to say good-bye. Then we trooped back to Indy’s Beetle. We sat in it, me in the back, Indy driving, Tex in the front passenger seat.
We stared at the house.
“Do you think your Dad’s in there?” Indy asked me.
“No, but I think Bear knows where he is,” I said.
“Maybe we should drive around the corner and hang out for awhile, watch the house,” Indy suggested.