*
When Rae returned to L.A. the limo dropped her off at the beach-front mansion she called home, and although there were several cars in the driveway no one answered when she called out. It was odd that not even a maid was around but maybe Carlo had not made it back from Bali yet. She stripped off her clothes in her bedroom, tied on a soft bathrobe and stepped out on the balcony to watch the sunset over the ocean. What she saw froze her heart. Carlo was lying naked on a chaise lounge by the pool while a young man gave him oral sex and naked woman stood over his face and urinated. She must have gasped or screamed as she stumbled back inside because they all looked up and Carlo shouted, “Oh fuck!” Rae moved quickly to the door and locked it and barely made it to the toilet before she threw-up.
Carlo never went to the urologist, he admitted that he had been “fixed” long ago. He said children took a wife’s attention away from her husband and he would never let that happen again. They struck a deal, he led his life and Rae led hers living under the same roof, more or less. He agreed to create a charitable foundation and fund it with millions of dollars and put her in charge, and more and more he was out of the country making his break the bank movies. She gave money to worthy causes, served on the boards of several organizations but Hope Center for girls was her favorite. She donated time and money to help runaway girls who had fled shattered lives with hopes of fairytale endings in the city of dreams. Rae had been one of those girls and somehow her dream had come true, although not entirely.
One night she stayed late telling stories to the girls about her Texas childhood and even the stern house mother, Mrs. Newton, was shaking with laughter at the thought of the glamorous DeLuca girl as the Boll Weevil Queen. A car pulled up out front and a man guided a teenage girl with two black eyes and a bleeding lip up the front steps. Mrs. Newton answered the door and Rae heard her say, “Well it was kind of you to bring her yourself Detective, we’ve missed seeing you.”
The officer said something as Rae walked up behind Mrs. Newton and peered over her shoulder. Sean McClure stopped mid-sentence as his eyes met hers.
They went for an In And Out Burger for old times’ sake and marveled that nearly twelve years had passed. His eyes were still tender and spoke of every good thing he felt in his heart.
“How can it be that you’re even more beautiful?” he asked and she blushed and said the same could be said of him. They were hesitant at first, talking around things, and sharing inane facts about their lives.
“How about we go to Harvelle’s and have a drink?” he smiled as he asked her.
“Good idea,” she said.
“I have an eight year old daughter,” he told her with obvious pride, “we named her Reagan.”
“Your wife was alright with that?” she asked.
“It was her idea, she’s in love with the DeLuca girl like everyone else. She has no idea about us. How could she live with the truth, knowing that you were once mine?”
“That’s good, and your Reagan, do you have a picture of her?”
He smiled and his face fairly glowed as he showed picture after picture of the pretty little girl playing soccer and doing gymnastics, it touched Rae deeply to see his fatherly side.
“You’re so lucky, she’s a treasure and she’s blessed with your eyes.”
“You don’t want kids?” he asked, and continued, “I guess not, being a model and all.”
“No, that’s not it, I do,” and she tried to blink back tears. “I’m always crying around you it seems.”
“What is it Rae, what has he done to you?”
The tears poured down her face and he led her out of the bar. He drove as she talked, she told him about Carlo, about his lies and their bargain. How hollow it had all become, the fame and the money. Was she any better off than if she’d stayed in a trailer park in Texas? She was still withering away.
“I’ll be watching him, the bastard. I’m a detective now, if he’s into kinky sex he’s probably into drugs, I’ll catch him at something and he’ll get what’s coming to him.” He said, gripping the steering wheel and finally pulling off the road.
“Don’t bother, he’s not worth it,” she said.
“You should leave him, stop leading this half-life, I didn’t save you from the bus stop for nothing. You should be happy, have kids, the works.”
“Funny you should say that, I went to a sperm bank yesterday and asked some questions. It just didn’t feel right, some unknown man.”
She looked in his eyes and she knew they were thinking the exact same thing.
“You have a wife and daughter, there’s no way.”
“I never wanted anything more than I wanted you Rae, I was a mess when you left, I stayed drunk for months and nearly ended my career. There was no escaping the memory of you, and to make things worse, your face and your body were plastered on half the billboards in town. You seemed too perfect to be real but you had been mine, in my bed, moving under my hands and my body, and always in my heart. I never got over you, have my baby.”
She was speechless for a moment, “I won’t break up your marriage or take you from your daughter. If you can give me a baby and walk away the answer is yes, absolutely. I would love a baby of ours but I won’t ruin other lives to have it. I would go away and raise it on my own.”
He started the car and drove to the Four Seasons, when he stopped in front he said he hadn’t thought that someone might recognize her. Rae said she was certain they would but what did it matter? They checked in and three ladies from Texas squealed and asked if they could have their pictures taken with her, she obliged and signed pieces of paper they thrust at her.
In the room they fumbled with buttons and zippers and fell into bed, his body felt familiar under her hands, as firm and hot as she remembered. She had dreamed of him over the last years as her infatuation with Carlo had waned and the lukewarm sex had cooled to merely tepid and then evaporated completely. For ten years she had been married to a man twenty five years her senior, and in truth Carlo had been married to the DeLuca girl, an image and nothing more.
Sean’s mouth on hers was like a drug and she clung to him as he moved to her neck and breasts whispering her name. Her hands were all over him, she was a wild animal, out of her mind with wanting and need. She wrapped her legs around him and pulled him to her.
“Look at me,” he said and she realized her eyes were closed. “I can’t leave you alone; I won’t be able to, if you have a baby. I’ll want to be with you, it’s all I ever wanted. Can’t you find a place for me in your life?”
She was panting with lust, but she closed her eyes again and moved away from him, then she sat on the edge of the bed and gathered a sheet around her to cover her nakedness.
“Go home, Sean, to your wife and daughter. I don’t know what I was thinking. God, I’m so selfish, so used to having whatever I want, but I’m not so far gone that I’ll ruin all of our lives. Even if I had a child and you could walk away, wouldn’t he ask who his father was someday?”
*
She went back to the mansion by the ocean and for the next few months she grew colder and colder. At first she wore sweaters and then coats, layer upon layer of clothes. She turned the heating system to one hundred degrees and while the household staff was sweltering she was freezing to death. In was the end of summer and she spent full days in the bath tub adding hot water, trying to get warm. She saw her doctor and he could find no cause, her temperature was completely normal, he sent her to various specialists and they all said the same.
Carlo returned from Bali and was sure Reagan had taken leave of her senses. She told him to stay on his side of the house and adjust the temperature as he wished but in her room she needed warmth and craved the heat.
She interviewed a string of applicants to take her place as director of the foundation; they came to her bedroom and sweated more than just the interview. She could see the thoughts in their eyes, “the great beauty has lost her mind.” Finally, she appointed a young woman w
ho had degrees in both social work and women’s studies, a woman who seemed tough yet compassionate. She began to thaw out after that and when the weekend arrived she attended the fateful wrap party with her husband, the great director, who it turned out was from Progreso, Mexico just across the Texas border, not far from where she had grown up. His name was Hector Sanchez and he wasn’t the least bit Italian after all.
*
“After you settle up at the tax office you’ll want to pay a visit to the Green brothers,” Reverend Bertram told Rae as they stood outside his church office and he pointed first to the tax office, then to the building at the end of the street. “They’re the only contractors I’d trust with that fine old house. They’re kin to the Mary’s somehow, I believe. Doc Green is a distant cousin is what I’ve heard, although it’s hard to believe since they were always a clan of women. Always four sisters and not a man to shake a stick at, but how could that be? Generations of sisters who had daughters but no men around, it’s strange if you let yourself dwell on it. I liked the Mary’s, they didn’t attend regular services but they came during the week and prayed and left flowers and a generous offering in the collection plate.”
The reverend was tired, Rae could tell, so she said goodbye and went to the tax office and then to the red brick building to find the Green brothers.
The wind had taken a ferocious turn and small cyclones of debris twisted down the street and sidewalks as it pushed her along. She knocked on the door of Green Brothers Contractors and heard shouting inside. A wild-eyed old man swung the door open and motioned her in.
“Hurry, hurry, before that wind gets in! That kind of wind stirs things up and I don’t just mean leaves!” he winked and then scurried to the far end of the room, his battered trench coat flying out around him. Rae followed and he stopped behind a long, metal table covered with beakers and bottles of fluorescent liquid and an ancient microscope. Petrie dishes and jars of powder and old Bunsen burners were strewn about. He seemed to be conducting some sort of experiment and didn’t appear to remember that she was in the room.
“I hate to intrude but I’m looking for the Green brothers, the contractors.”
He looked her over, “You’re not from UPS? For the love of creation I’ve got the fate of mankind right here in front of me and when they say “next day delivery,” by God that’s what I expect! You say you want the boys? Well, they’re somewhere, go find them.” He was busy lighting a burner and setting some ominous looking potion bubbling.
“I was told I might find them here, I really don’t know where else to look.”
He stared off behind her and said, “Ah, Theodore, show this young lady out then call that delivery service and inform them that she arrived without my package. You’re lovely dear girl, but not very adept at your job.”
The younger man crossed the room with an odd clicking sound and a slight catch to his gate and said, “I’m Teddy Green.” He extended a hand that was missing two fingers then turned to the old man and said, “she’s not here to deliver anything Pop, I’m sure your box is on its way.” The side of his face had a long healed scar that stretched from one eye to the edge of his mouth and old burns on his scalp that rendered him partially bald. His eyes were a wonderful golden-brown, intelligent and kind and he didn’t speak with the local misuse of grammar.
He motioned for Rae to follow him to the front of the workshop and below his baggy cargo shorts she could see his prosthetic leg. He pulled out a chair for her to sit in and then walked/clicked behind a desk and lowered himself to sit as well.
“What can I do for you?” he asked and she could see him sizing her up, as a would-be client and as a woman. He looked at her with an appreciation in his eyes that she had only known from one man in Los Angeles since she’d turned thirty.
“I’m Rae, I’ve just moved to town and bought the house at the bend of Temptation Road. I was wondering if you and your brother might possibly restore it for me.”
He sat quietly and she went on, “I would help with the work and I don’t think it’s as bad as everyone says, it seems to be sound and in the right hands it will come back to life. It can be… it will be my dream house, my home. I’m really hoping that you’ll consider…”
The door opened then closed with a bang, a gust of wind sent stacks of papers from the desk flying and whirling.
The old man shouted, “And they called the wind Mariah! Confound it will someone lock the door until all that bluster moves on?”
Teddy didn’t make a move to gather the papers as they settled willy-nilly around the room. He turned his eyes on the person who stood next to the desk and asked, “Did you finish with that carriage house? Good, this is our newest town resident, Miss Hart, if I’m not mistaken.”
Reagan smelled his fresh forest scent even before she turned her face up to look at him. Her heart beat so hard and fast she was sure it was visible for all to see. When their eyes met she couldn’t make a sound; he was, of course, the unnervingly handsome mystery man she’d seen at the Inn on her first night in town. The man she’d kissed on the porch and felt she could fall in love with as he held her body close to his without making a sound.
“This is Fletcher, my brother. Fletcher, I’m pleased introduce Reagan Hart.” Teddy said, giving his brother a lopsided smile then turning his attention back to Rae. “So you’re not a Mary? That’s odd, with you buying the house and all.”
She stood up and extended her hand to the brother; he held it, staring down at the pale, smooth skin and long tapered fingers. He was enthralled by its delicacy and gracefulness and the way it fit perfectly in his own hand.
“Fletcher,” she said, as if testing the sound of it, “Mary-Reagan is my given name; it just doesn’t work as a California name. I’m from Texas originally, when I started working as… a model, I dropped the Mary.”
Fletcher continued to hold her hand and without realizing it, smoothed his fingers over it as she babbled on. He looked directly at her when she mentioned that she was a model and he seemed on the verge of actually saying something. She wasn’t sure if he recognized her as the woman he’d kissed on her first night in town, he gave no solid hint of recognition, but he still held onto her hand as if it were something rare that only he had discovered.
She looked into his eyes in the lighted room, they were so amazingly large and deeply blue in his sun-touched face. Those blue-black eyes drew her in so that she wanted desperately to move toward him and press her face to his neck and inhale and let her lips and tongue taste his skin. He looked as if he’d spent untold days working hard in the brilliant sunlight high up in the mountains. He radiated health and strength, his muscles were well defined under his thin chambray shirt, and he was disarmingly handsome. Beyond all his physical attributes, Rae simply felt as if he belonged with her and she belonged with him.
“She bought the Mary’s house and wants to hire us to restore it, I’m ready for a challenge like that. What do you think?” Teddy asked, and his brother looked as if he wanted to answer, but he let Rae’s hand fall at last, then turned and walked away. “Alright,” Teddy said, “we’ll go out there at sun-up and get a feel for things, then we need the rest of the week to finish a job we’re doing now. How about you meet us at the house next Wednesday and we’ll get started?”
“Are you sure he wants to work on the house, is he okay with working for me?” Reagan asked, watching Fletcher’s broad back and long legs disappear up the narrow set of stairs.
Teddy laughed and his eyes had a mischievous glint, “he definitely wants to do this job, believe me!”
*
The following Wednesday morning she dressed in sweat pants and layered on a tank top and two sweatshirts against the autumn cold. She drove to the house and when she stepped out of the car the sun was already warming the top of the mountain. She stood at the cliff edge of the property and the view across the valley was a tapestry of red and gold all the way to Grandfather Mountain and beyond. A small breeze moved the fallen leave
s and they rattled as they knocked into each other, twirling like corkscrews from the trees to the ground.
She wandered back toward the house, past the runaway garden, the leaves of the old plants were huge and the twining vines seemed to move, the heavy sunflower heads turned to watch her, she was almost certain. She felt that if she stood among them for more than a moment she might be lost, swallowed into the whispering foliage and the green darkness and the fertile black earth. The ground had absorbed the sun’s heat and reflected it up into her body, so she peeled off the sweat shirts and kept walking.
The house somehow looked better that morning and she realized that in just a few hours the Green brothers had managed to haul away truckloads of debris. Rae hopped up on the porch and came face to face with Fletcher Green, shirtless and as splendid as a carved statue. He dropped his eyes, stepped off the porch and carried a load of rotted wood to a pile at the edge of the property.
Friendly guy, Rae thought, oh well, he’s probably been swooned over by too many love struck mountain girls.
“Reagan, come in, take a look around, this old place is a treasure for sure!” Teddy smiled a big; ‘I’m in my element’ smile and motioned for her to come inside. One of the brothers had wiped most of the grime off the windows and sunlight was pouring in, the house was more magnificent than she’d imagined, and her heart soared.
It was high-ceilinged with large rooms that attached to one another willy-nilly and with no discernible order. The dining room opened to a side porch that was connected to a potting shed. The laundry room occupied one corner of an impressive library with floor to ceiling shelves stuffed to overflowing with leather-bound books. In the kitchen there were tall white cupboards and bracketed open shelves made from grey and white marble. There were stately French windows and one set opened outward over the deep farm sink to views of the garden. Right in the exact middle of the dreamy kitchen a grand piano stood where an island should have been.
The staircase in the front hall was a wide ornate work of art with woodland creatures, foxes and birds and squirrels, carved into the thick newel post and handrail. There was a second stairway leading upward from the breakfast room, it whimsically turned back and forth upon itself as it made its way to the second floor bedrooms, then the large cluttered attic and finally to a watch-tower ending at a miniature door to a widows-walk at the very top of the house.
Rae was in love with the rambling old house and she knew she’d made the best decision of her life to find it and make it her own. It offered up endless adornments to delight the eye and she was jubilant just standing in the enormous foyer with its breathtaking details. That space alone boasted a fireplace with a gorgeous mantle and wavy-glass-fronted curiosity-cabinets set into the walls, all with the same sprightly carved animals that frolicked on the woodwork of the stairway. She felt so powerful and euphoric just standing in her own piece of paradise that she only wished Fletcher would walk through the door at that exact moment so she could pull him down on the dusty floor and make love to him until he screamed her name.
“Teddy,” she said, blinking away the image of her naked body tangled with his brother on the floor and shocked at her wanton lust, “you know we didn’t talk about money, I have an idea what building materials will cost, but what about your fee and your brother’s.”
“We’re glad for the work, this is an important project for us as well, and the Mary’s were my father’s cousins several times removed. They were in their eighties at least, when we came to live with Pop. They were like aunts to us, kind of took the place of our mother. We spent a lot of time out here when we were boys. Pop would tend the garden and gather plants for his experiments and Fletcher, Quinton and I would play in the house, we know every nook and cranny. Don’t worry, pay what you can, our living expenses are low, it’s the work we love and now the house will come alive again.”
“Well, I should pay a retainer up front and what about lumber and supplies?”
“We have accounts with suppliers, we’ll give you those bills as they come and no need for an advance, don’t worry, it will all work out.”
Fletcher moved through the room, seemingly oblivious to Rae and Teddy, he’d put on a shirt and he disappeared up the stairs carrying a ladder over his shoulder.
“Okay,” Teddy said. “I better get to it, he wants to get started upstairs now. We’ll get an electrician out here tomorrow; the whole place needs to be rewired. It’s a big job, we could do it ourselves, but with plumbing and plaster and woodwork on top of that it would take a lot longer.”
“Right, yes. Get it done; I want to move in, what about the roof?”
“We’re going up there for a look after lunch,” he pointed to a longer extension ladder in the back of his truck. “You should go on out to Builders Supply on the highway, pick some paint colors and roof shingles. We can rebuild the cabinets here at the site, and those old soapstone counters will last forever. All the sinks and bathtubs need resurfacing or you can pick new ones. The faucets are solid, they’ll need polishing but they’re sound. If you want fancier fixtures there’s a plumbing showroom in Asheville, it’s a couple of hours drive each way.”
“Teddy,” she said as he turned to go, “I hope I haven’t offended your brother in some way that I’m not aware of, I would never…”
“No, no, Fletcher’s not very sociable and I’m sure you figured out that he doesn’t talk. Don’t mind him he loves this house and he thinks you’re God’s gift to the mortal world. He’s been pretty much a fan since that ad with you and the bullfighter was plastered on a billboard out on the county highway. Don’t tell him I said so, but when he heard they were taking it down he climbed up there and peeled off the section with your face. It’s still hanging on the wall in his room!” He said and smiled his lopsided smile. “We’ll be here until dark and you might want to make a wish list, write down your hopes and dreams, for the house I mean, what’s most important to you, how you want it to turn out.” Then he clicked up the stairs carrying a giant tool box in his fingerless hand.
Has my picture on his wall. She’d posed for that picture ten years before and Fletcher had saved it from being destroyed and he thought she was beautiful. Her stomach and her heart felt strange, good but strange. The way she looked had only been her meal ticket in the past, now a mouth-wateringly sexy man who’d never said a word to her harbored a secret crush on her, it made her beauty suddenly seem worthwhile. She walked outside, stepped off the porch and heard wood scraping above her. An upstairs window was being forced open, the old paint catching and cracking. When it was fully open Teddy leaned out, smiling and waving.
“Reagan, your bedroom will be in pretty good shape by next week, we’ll be finished with the paint and the woodwork and the fireplace should be working. We know you’re anxious to move in, Fletcher thought you might want to bring a bed and your things and sleep here soon. We’ll have the hall bath in working order too, and a makeshift kitchen. We can get someone out here to do some serious cleaning and scrubbing if you like.”
“I can clean,” Rae said, “I’ll get supplies and be right back. Should I pick up some lunch? Wait a minute, Fletcher said I might want to move in?”
“Well not in so many words!” he laughed and thanked her for the offer of lunch but said they had brought their own, then he disappeared back through the window.
Fletcher walked out the front door just then with another load of debris for the woodpile. He gave her a quick glance and a smile that caused a burst of pleasure down deep in her belly, and as he passed the garden she could’ve sworn the plants vibrated at his nearness.
*
Later on when the brothers were still hard at work long past sundown and Rae was exhausted from just watching the ferocity with which they worked, she drove down the mountain to the Inn.
Dody sat on the old sofa drinking a glass of wine, the empty bottle rested on a table beside her next to a UPS package.
“Hey doll, a package came for you today, why don’t we
open it and see if it’s a million dollars! Come sit with me a minute or two, I just got Coco to bed, you wouldn’t believe the homework they send home with an eight year old. You want some wine? I can open another bottle,” she tried to stand and sank back down on the sofa. “Guess you’ll have to get it yourself, I might have had a tad too much.”
“I’m fine,” Rae said, sitting down beside her and opening the small box. Inside was her new cell phone, she unwrapped it and began programming numbers into it as she spoke to Dody, “What about you? Did something happen, something with your boss or that Quinton Green?”
“It’s an old story baby doll,” she slurred, “the man I love don’t love me, but the funny thing is, he loves my kid.” She looked at Rae and she seemed to be thinking a little more clearly, “have you ever felt like your life is so messed up and your heart is nothin’ but a punching bag? It’s my own damn fault really, he ain’t done nothin’ wrong but try to be like a big brother to Coco, and him knowing what he knows about me and her daddy, how could he ever love me back?”
Rae’s heart began to ache, Dody was in love with Fletcher, that much she was sure of. The big question was, what did he feel for Dody? Maybe Rae was an idiot to think he would fall in love with her, he might simply be like Carlo, worshipping the DeLuca girl but not the real woman. Coco had told Rae her favorite pastime was playing checkers with Fletcher in front of the fireplace at the Inn and she’d heard Dody thank the delivery guy for a pizza that Fletcher had sent for her and the little girl. It was obvious he was the man Dody was love sick over.
“Yes,” Rae said finally, “I’m divorcing a man now who only loved the thought of me in a photograph, and I left a good man years ago because I wanted all that glittered. Seems like love isn’t as easy as we expect it to be, it’s more like in fairytales where the princess gets locked in the cellar or sleeps for a thousand years waiting for true love. I don’t know about you Dody, but even though falling in love is frightening, I still think it’s worth the risk.”
“Well I wouldn’t risk waiting around for Fletcher Green if that’s what you have in mind,” Wade Campion said, he was leaning against the door from the front hall, and neither Rae or Dody had noticed him. “All the women seem to fall for that quiet unreachable quality of his, for all the good it does them, and here’s poor Dody trying to trap him with her fatherless child. She can’t wait for me to roll into town so she can sleep with me and think about him while were going at it. Now Quint is just a college boy but he’s set his sights on you and that boy gets what he wants. Just think about it, he’s smarter than his brother and younger, and there’s nothing to compare with a young man when a thirty year old woman is in heat.”
“Where did you come from?” Dody asked, giving Wade the evil eye. “You better leave my child outta this, and her crazy daddy don’t even know she exists. As for Reagan Hart she don’t have no use for a mountain man like Fletcher or his ‘too good for the rest of us’ little brother, and Quinton ain’t a boy. Hell, if he ever gets out of college or finishes his doctoral thingamajig the whole town will throw a party or keel over dead from shock! Besides, some nice man called here lookin’ for her earlier, said he was an officer of the law from California. His name is Sean and I could tell he’s good lookin’ just from the sound of his voice.” She turned to Rae, “He said you’ve got his number and he wants you to call him so he can come out and talk to you. He’s in love with you, I just know it and he asked if you were here in North Carolina by yourself. I gave him this address, I hope you don’t mind, he just sounded like he needed to see you real bad.”
Wade smiled at Rae as if he didn’t care to hear a thing Dody had to say, then he said, “If you want a man who knows how to treat a lady, forget about the cop and these local boys. I’m from Knoxville and I have a way with fancy women.”
“Yes, I can certainly see that,” Rae said, slipping by him and up the stairs. She was going to her room to call her mother and then Alana from the new cell phone, then she was packing her bags and moving to the Mary’s house as soon as humanly possible.
*
In the following week Rae wandered around the Temptation Road property. She worked to pull some weeds and untangle a clutch of vines in the cutting garden only to find new sprouts spring up immediately in their place. One day a big white rooster joined her, strutting his stuff around the garden and pulling fat worms from the soft earth. He was just there from seemingly nowhere and he pecked at the ground around her feet, following her and making strange little noises if Rae was out of his sight.
Rae and Fletcher drove all over the mountain and Rae asked if anyone was missing a rooster, but no one was. She decided she liked him, when she sat on the porch swing he hopped up and sat with her. She stroked the red comb on top of his head after she got over being afraid of him and he would settle against her and fall asleep. Teddy named him Colonel Sanders and Rae became ridiculously fond of him. He followed her everywhere and cocked his head this way and that like a little mechanical bird, ogling Rae with his beady little chicken eyes.
Fletcher’s own eyes sparkled as he stopped before going into the house one day, he was assembling an antique four-poster bed in the master bedroom so Rae could move in that afternoon. She was sitting in a rocker on the porch, reading a book and petting the rooster that perched on her lap. When she looked up and into Fletcher’s delighted eyes she jumped, dropping the book and spilling Colonel Sanders onto the floor boards. Fletcher shook his head and laughed, the first sound she had ever heard him make, a deeply erotic lyrical sound, and she heard it still as he went on into the house and vanished up the stairs.
A few days later it was a red fox that climbed stealthily through an open window, and Teddy and Fletcher found Rae backed into a corner of the sunroom watching the animal sniff around. Fletcher tapped his fingers against the leg of his jeans and the fox ran to him and rubbed against him like a cat. Teddy told Rae to get used to it, the animals and the plants and the house yearned for company and most especially they’d been waiting patiently for the new Mary.
The next morning when Rae rolled around in her big antique bed not wanting to leave the divine comfort of its whisper soft sheets, mounds of feather pillows, and fluffy duvet, Teddy called from downstairs to let her know he was there, but he said Fletcher wasn’t with him. Her heart and stomach lurched and she wondered where he was, as she slipped into yoga pants, flannel shirt, a big cashmere sweater and socks. Then she showed off her new bed to Teddy as he handed her a cup of coffee.
“I went to that auction in Ashville last weekend, you know the night and day I was gone? I bought the bed and a few other things that I’m having shipped, but they were able to take the bed apart and put it in the Yukon. Isn’t it glorious? It’s been forever since I had things just for myself, I had a cottage in L.A. before I married Carlo but I was never there. Mostly I was in Milan with Alana DeLuca or traveling for work. Anyway that’s all over now if my damned divorce will come through, and this is the life I want. I ordered all the linens from a great store called ‘Feather Your Nest’ and now if you and Fletcher just get that fireplace working I’ll be in heaven, it does get cold up here in the middle of the night!” Rae said. She was happy in her scantily furnished room in her unfinished house and she was adapting to her pet rooster, but she wondered where the man of her dreams could possibly be. What had kept Fletcher away that morning?
*
Around noon he drove up and walked in the house holding a puppy. It was a chocolate lab and he handed it gently to Rae. Teddy said that Fletcher thought maybe she needed something more to love than a rooster and that it would grow to be a decent watch dog. Rae took the puppy and buried her face in the velvety softness of its fur, then she caught the front of Fletcher’s shirt and pulled him to her. His eyes turned dark and she stood on her tiptoes and pressed her lips to his and kissed him just a little too long. They both blushed and Teddy cleared his throat and asked what she would name the puppy.
“I don’t know, he feels
like velvet but that’s not a very good name for a boy dog,” Rae said, then she held him up and looked at his tummy to make sure he was a boy.
Teddy and Fletcher laughed at her then as Teddy put coffee beans in the grinder to make a fresh pot.
“He’s the color of a coffee bean,” she said, looking into Fletcher’s eyes and he smiled and nodded. “Coffee?” she asked and he shook his head. “Bean?” she asked laughing, and Fletcher nodded and took the fat puppy from her and nuzzled its fur with his eyes closed and a look of pure joy on his face.
“Bean,” she said, moving close to Fletcher and petting the puppy. She looked into his eyes when he opened them, he still held the puppy close as he smiled down at her, and she said, “He’s the best gift anyone’s ever given me, and I love him already.”
The three of them worked inside the house all day while a storm was brewing on the mountain and in the forest, the north wind blew in suddenly and left monstrous black clouds hanging over Temptation Road. The wind howled like a banshee all around the eaves and chimneys of the house trying to claw its way in. Snow began to fall and soon it was blowing and swirling so that it was impossible to tell if it was falling up, down or sideways.
Teddy bundled up as best he could and said, “This storm came on fast, I’d better go check on Pop.”
“Maybe Fletcher should go with you, it looks dangerous out there, the roads must be icy,” Rae said, holding the sleeping puppy and hoping Teddy wouldn’t agree with her.
“No, he’s nearly done with that bedroom fireplace; if you lose power way up here on the mountain you’re going to need it for heat. I’ll just be sure the old man eats a hot meal and doesn’t burn the place down, then I’ll come back if the roads aren’t too bad.”
She found that she could talk endlessly as Fletcher listened. Sometimes she would be chattering away and she’d catch him studying her face intently. One time she looked up and he was staring longingly at her mouth, his eyes were nearly black at that moment and she felt her face and body burning with lust for him. More and more she knew that she had never wanted anything more than she wanted to be loved by Fletcher Green. It hadn’t been her choice to go to Los Angeles, then she had stumbled into becoming the DeLuca girl and her life had simply unfolded from there of its own accord. But she wanted him; she desired a complete and entire life with him. He was her choice, his beauty and goodness and even his silence. She wanted to feel him inside her and then grow a baby from that act. From an act of love, something she’d never truly felt for a man, and the most certain thing she’d ever known in her life was that she was undeniably in love with him.
Downstairs her cell phone rang again and again, she finally went down and looked at the screen. Alana had tried to call and Sean and even her mother, but she had talked with her mother just days before so she knew it wouldn’t be anything important. In the kitchen she made two mugs of hot chocolate, then on a whim poured in a few splashes of bourbon and carried them upstairs.
She sat cross legged a few feet from where he worked, he lay on his back struggling with the rusty fireplace damper and she sat a mug next to him when he noticed her.
“Cheers!” she said lifting her mug, she took a sip and coughed, it was stronger than she expected.
He sat up and laughed, which was always a welcome sound, he wore a thin t-shirt and jeans even though it was cold, but fighting with the rusted metal of the old fireplace made him sweat. He reached for his zippered hoodie and wiped the chimney soot from his face and hands, then took a large swallow from the mug while his eyes held hers.
“A drinking contest, is that what you want?” she asked. “Okay then, you got it buddy!” She took another large swallow and her eyes watered.
He laughed loud and long and it was such a magical sound, always unexpected and wonderfully comforting.
They drank and she talked as he listened, then he finished his drink all at once and smiled at her like the cat who ate the canary and went back to work.
She ran downstairs, grabbed the bottle of bourbon, then returned to the bedroom and placed it on the floor between them. His eyes twinkled as she poured the amber liquid into their empty mugs. She lifted hers and drank and it was so strong she fought not to spit it out. He tilted his head to the side and his eyes were full of merriment that let her know he thought she was a light weight.
“Let me see you do better!” she said and he turned his mug up and drained it, then wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Hmm, so you’re a smart ass, huh?” she said and tried to do the same, but she coughed and sputtered while most of it ran down her chin.
He leaned back on his elbows and laughed loudly once again. The liquor coursed through her veins making her bold, she moved toward him and placed a hand on his chest, “is talking the only thing you don’t do?”
His eyes darkened and she was shocked at the implication of her own words. He lay on his back and pulled her on top of him, her hair fell across his chest and he sighed deeply as his mouth covered hers. The kiss was electric and ignited something within her that was new and scandalous. His hands were on her face and in her hair, his lips brushed her neck and then they were hot on her mouth again. They turned as one and she stared up at his face with wonder, her hands moved over his body, touching the firm muscles she had only dreamed of.
Their hands were unsteady as he unbuttoned her shirt and she tugged at his t-shirt, working her hands under the soft cloth onto his burning skin. She fumbled with the buckle of his belt as his free hand slipped into her pants to caress her smooth thigh and pull it higher and firmly against him, then his fingers moved farther up sliding between her legs as she moaned.
Outside the wind screamed and the house shuddered and shifted and rattled. Wicked huge snowflakes and hail knocked against the window panes as if begging to be let in. Wild creatures in the forest howled and screeched and braved the storm to draw near to the house. Ancient logs in the fireplace sparked to life and sent black smoke curling into the white and stormy night, and those who could see it all the way from town wondered if a miracle or a calamity had occurred. Rae and Fletcher were oblivious to it all, they were already lost in each other.
He moved away from her and stood up, then leaned forward quickly and scooped her into his arms. He carried her to the tall four-poster bed and laid her down amidst the layers of plump linens as she laughed happily. He pulled off his t-shirt and tossed it aside and she sat up and ran her hands over the sculpted muscles of his chest and arms. His hands peeled her shirt and pants away and she watched wide eyed as he stepped out of his faded jeans and stood naked before her. He blushed scarlet at the look on her face and he wanted to tell her that he hadn’t gotten around to washing clothes that week, so all his underwear were in the laundry basket.
Her hands were on his broad shoulders pulling him down on the bed, and they lay facing each other, letting their hands move as they pleased while they kissed. His hands caressed her narrow shoulders and back then released her intricate lace bra so that his lips brushed her upturned breasts before returning to her mouth. They kissed deeply, their tongues exploring and tasting unquenched desire. Her legs entwined with his as his long body moved above her and his fingers trailed down to the hot little triangle between her legs. She gasped at his touch and she heard him moan as she arched her hips and quaked beneath him.
“Oh sorry, God, I’m sorry!” Teddy said as he appeared in the doorway, and the couple sprang apart.
Rae gathered the duvet to cover them and Fletcher held her firmly against his chest.
Teddy didn’t make a move to leave the room but it was plain to see that he was embarrassed and looked terribly uncomfortable, then he spoke. “I brought someone with me from town, I wouldn’t have interrupted but he’s desperate to see you, Rae. He’s a police detective and it’s urgent, he said it’s been all over the news, your husband’s been arrested and you’re wanted in Los Angeles for questioning.”
END
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Temptation Road 2
Speaking of the Charmed Life