A Trashy Affair (24 page)

Stan’s voice came across loud and clear. “Sure. Very well-written. You told me to put it in the circular file.”

Wally glanced at Merlin to see if he knew circular file meant the same thing as trashcan. He did, but kept his face stoic. Jane might have to rewrite that letter, but it
would
be printed.

“Actually, the letter came in as an e-mail, so I dumped it in the virtual trash. It’s probably still there. You can’t get rid of anything on a computer.”

“Get it out of the circular file or wherever and run it on Sunday.”

“You got it, boss.”

“Sorry about the misunderstanding. Stan and his computers. He’s always losing documents and having to find them again. Stop by the advertising department and discuss the layout you want with them. You’ll have to put a name on it, this being a political issue.”

“Not my name, say Falcon Enterprises.”

“Good enough. Tell them I said to have the proof ready
before
Thursday.”

The editor stood to get Merlin moving out of his office. In a few minutes, he’d be on the phone confirming the flip-flop on the recycling issue with Bernie. They shook hands again.

“Thanks, I know my fa—my grandpa would approve. He loved the land.”

Jesus, he’d almost said “father” with Freeman on his mind. As Jane liked to say, “Recycling program saved, check. Letter to paper, check.” But, he still had to drop off his dry cleaning and keep an afternoon appointment with his headshrinker way up in Alexandria at the VA hospital, a two-hour drive both ways. He imagined his PTSD specialist doing handsprings of joy over his progress.

Chapter Twenty-Two

“Where were you? You never came home for lunch. I worried about you! There’s a sandwich in the refrigerator if you’re hungry.”

The little chicken hawk attacked the big, white rooster again, this time in their own kitchen. Merlin needed to remember his name meant falcon. He started to tell Jane she wasn’t his mom, the way a surly teenager might reply, and stopped himself. She worried about him. He formed a softer reply.

“I had a lot of stuff to do.”

“And you couldn’t call?”

“Well, there’s that law about not using cell phones while driving, and I couldn’t have it turned on at the hospital.”

“Hospital? Were you ill, visiting a friend, or what?”

He’d let slip about seeing a psychiatrist before, why couldn’t he just say the words? “I—um—had to drive to Alex to see my shrink at the VA hospital. I go once a week when I’m not offshore. He says I’m doing good.”

“Oh, Merlin.”

That earned him an undeserved hug for keeping a regular appointment. What would happen when he told her the real news? Something better than a hug?

“Put some coffee on—please. I have lots of things to tell you.”

He got the real sugar out for himself and the fake stuff for her, took the milk carton from the refrigerator and put it on the table before he indulged in the simple pleasure of watching Jane prepare coffee. The slightly burnt aroma of dark roast filled the kitchen. He settled into a chair and beckoned Jane to the other seat with a crook of his little finger.

“That gesture could be considered sexist, Merlin.” But, she sat anyhow. He sort of wished he’d pulled her onto his lap.

“I know, sugar lips. Bernard Freeman is buying back my townhouse and agreed to support the recycling program. Your letter will run on Sunday above a pretty ad asking people to save the environment. Best of all, you have a good chance of getting your job back, and maybe Nadia will be fired. I can’t guarantee those last two, but don’t let your parents convince you to stay in Montana past Christmas. You have a life waiting for you right here. So, check, check, check, check.”

“Incredible! But why all those checks at the end?” Jane poured the coffee and took her seat again.

“You do that all the time, even when you don’t say the word aloud. You make coffee and your lips move: water, check; spoons, check; mugs, check. My shrink would say you want to impose order on a chaotic world, but I think it’s cute. I often wonder if you do that when we’re in bed together. Foreplay, check; orgasm, check; cuddle time, check.” He rested his big chin in his hands and grinned at her.

“I do not! You make me so crazy in bed I can’t think straight.” Jane searched the table for something not too breakable, messy, or lethal to throw. She settled on a spoon and flung it at him. Merlin batted it aside.

“Hey, regaining my sense of humor is a sign of recovery. Don’t knock it. Making you crazy in bed is good, right?”

“You know it is. Tell me how you accomplished all this?”

Merlin sat up straight and waved his hands in a mystical gesture. “No bloodshed, few harsh words uttered, only my special brand of magic—and a magician can never reveal his secrets.”

****

Of course, Jane did not accept his answer. He didn’t break after that especially long and satisfying bout of sex following his revelations. She continued to wheedle, cajole, and plead all week. No, he told Freeman he would honor his grandparents’ promise, and he meant to, but he did enjoy Jane’s means of persuasion.

Thursday night, they sat down to a New England boiled dinner made with a picnic ham, cabbage, carrots, potatoes, turnips, and onions. Not bad, but needed seasoning. He shook some Tony’s Cajun spices over his portion. Frozen yogurt topped with fresh strawberries for dessert, good, too.

With all that hulling, vegetable scraping, and paring the garbage strainer in the sink overflowed with the papery skins of the onions, the core of the cabbage, the peels of the potatoes and turnips

As Jane dealt with the dirty dishes, he tried to show his housebroken ways by emptying the garbage into the kitchen trashcan and taking the bag out to the receptacle by the garage.

“You got anything else needs to go to the curb,” he asked. “It’s garbage night.”

“Let me empty the wastebaskets in the bathrooms and my office, then take the stuff next door to Mr. Babin’s trashcan.” Jane rinsed a dish and put it in the washer.

“Why? Did the wheels on your bin break again? I can fix it.”

“No, Burl Oubre is making up new rules to hassle me since I spoke against giving him the garbage contract. He says if my cart has been altered, his men can’t pick it up. Ridiculous, I know, but I simply do not care anymore. I mean how much longer will I be here?”

“As long as you want, a lifetime maybe.”

She cocked her head at him, but he could not go any farther than that right now. He wasn’t completely well, had not fulfilled all his promises to her yet. “I’m taking the bin to the curb, and they
will
pick up our trash.”

“Don’t be rough on Mellow and O.J. They have to do what Oubre tells them. Mellow has a record and can’t get any other kind of job.”

“Mellow and O.J.? You made friends with these guys?”

“Better than making enemies. I tried with Nadia, too, but she befriends no one.”

“I’m taking the trash to the curb. Hurry up and get the rest. Looks like rain again tonight.”

Jane unhappily complied. When Merlin returned from the garbage run, she had the phone in hand. “It’s your granny. She wants us to come have lunch with her at the Villa tomorrow. I’m supposed to wear red, and she wants you in a suit.”

Merlin took the phone. “What the heck, Granny? Is it dress up day at the home? A surprise. I do not like surprises, you know that. But, I’ll love this one. Right. Tell, or we won’t be there. Okay, okay, fine. Eleven before the frozen yogurt machine runs low.”

He set the phone back in its cradle and smacked his forehead trying to bring life back into perspective. “She won a family portrait gift certificate from Stella Musemeche playing
bourree
. Stella should know Granny is a killer at card games, but evidently her mind is slipping. Great, we get to have lunch with my family. The red dress is so all of the women blend for the photo, men in dark suits. Do you have a red dress, or do we need to go shopping, too?”

His pained tone made Jane laugh out loud. “You are spared a shopping trip. I do have a red dress, though it is a dark red. That okay?”

“Makes no never mind to me, babe.”

A gentle rain tapped on the windowpanes like the fingers of small children. “You want to go upstairs and listen to the rain?” she asked, soothing him.

“Hell, I want to do more than that, lady in red.”

She offered her hand, and he took it. They actually did listen to the rainfall on the metal roof for a while before getting naked and going at it. He’d been sleeping so well in Jane’s company, he dozed off without concern after they finished.

But, Mother Nature can be a real bitch. The storm intensified and threw down hail hitting that roof with a sound like machinegun fire. His gunner was hit, dying. He had to get him to safety. He called in his coordinates, cried for help.

Then, Jane talked him down to a soft, safe landing in her arms. She had twice his courage, staying through all that. Would she remain permanently with a nut case like him if he asked?

How could he risk losing what they had now by popping that question?

Chapter Twenty-Three

CLANG, CLANK, CHUG. Merlin jumped off the treadmill, letting it run, and bolted for the street. Sure enough, the garbage truck ignored their receptacle and rolled up to the stop sign to make its turn.

“Hey, you sonsabitches, you didn’t take my trash!”

“Sorry, sorry,” Mellow said, his big belly shaking like his namesake Jell-O at Merlin’s rage. “That receptacle done been altered. We can’t take Miss Jane’s can no more.”

“This is no longer Miss Jane’s can. It’s mine, crazy Merlin Tauzin’s garbage can. Take it before I shove it up your ass.”

Jane shuffled up behind him in her robe and the bunny slippers, which had slowed her down. “You aren’t crazy, and this is not Mellow’s fault. Let them go. I give up.”

She clung to Merlin’s arm. When he shook her off and headed for the garbage truck, pushing the cart before him at ramming speed, Mellow’s eyes popped wide.

“What you say, O.J.? If this Mr. Tauzin’s receptacle, can we take it?” he called over the rumble of the truck engine. O.J., not leaving the safety of the cab for nothing, stuck an arm out the window and gave a thumbs up.

“See, we takin’ your can. We takin’ it right now. Let me get it up on the lift. There it go, all that nasty garbage into the truck. You have a good day now, Mr. Tauzin.” Mellow climbed onto the back of the truck, and they got the hell out the crazy white man’s way.

“Merlin Tauzin, you listen to me.” Jane grasped his jaw to make her point. “I never want you to call yourself crazy again. If you keep saying that, using that, people will believe it. You are not insane.”

“I was again last night.” There, he stated it simply, the reason why he could not ask her to commit herself to him permanently.

Jane smoothed his deep frown lines with her fingertips. “No, you had a bad episode and we dealt with it. Merlin, I could never love a crazy man.”

“Yeah, that’s what I think, too.” He reversed the garbage can, sent it spinning toward the driveway, and followed after it at a trot, running away.

Jane placed her hands on her hips. Cars passed on the street. She didn’t give a damn if all of Ste. Jeanne Parish saw her standing there, unemployed, in her bunny slippers. She had just told Merlin Tauzin she loved him. He’d taken her words and twisted them to fit his own warped image of himself. Well, if he thought he could get away with that… She went after him.

Damn him! As she came around the back of the house impeded by her footwear, he scooted out the front door and went upstairs. Jane kicked off her slippers and ran after him barefoot. His sweats sans any underwear lay in a heap by the bathroom door. The water already beat against the sides of the small shower, but the door remained unlocked—negligence or an invitation? She shed her robe and nightie intending to find out. He’d already soaped his long body and had his head stuck under water, an ostrich hiding in the sand but with his black plumage still very noticeable. Under her care, he’d lost some of his gauntness. That pleased her immensely, but did not let him off the hook.

Beating on the glass enclosure, Jane shouted, “Did you play the crazy card with Bernard Freeman and over at the newspaper? Did you?”

“Can’t hear you.” He had his eyes shut tight as he lathered his hair.

Jane opened the enclosure and stepped inside. Cupping her hands around her mouth she repeated, “Did you play the crazy card with Bernard Freeman?”

He turned and flicked his hair, shampoo, and water out of his face. “Well, hello there.”

“Do not get distracted simply because I am here naked. Did you play the crazy card with Freeman to get your way?”

“Nope. He might have thought that in the beginning of our discussion, but not by the end. Okay?”

“How about at the newspaper? Did you threaten Wally Burch?”

“Not there, either. I told him Freeman would back recycling, and I bought an ad. That’s all.”

“Truly?”

Merlin made the sign of the cross, carving it out of lather still on his chest. “Cross my heart and hope to die.”

“Stop that! I don’t want you dead for any reason.”

“Good, because I’m feeling very alive right his minute.” He nudged her belly with his erection. “Kind of tight in here, but we have this handy little ledge.”

He swept the plastic bottles of shampoo and body wash off the shelf and replaced them with Jane. Spreading her legs wide, he scraped some of the soap from his body and worked it into her cleft, circling the hot button of her clit over and over. She rested her hands on his broad shoulders, partly for support, and partly to dig her nails into his flesh as her arousal grew. He put his wet lips on hers, worked his tongue into her mouth and his penis into her honey hole, flicked both of them in and out, in and out. Jane moved to grasp his hips and urge him on. They both came before the hot water ran out.

She rested her head on his chest. “A crazy man could not make love like that.”

“How many crazy men have you been with, Jane?”

“Oh, get out and let me wash my hair. We have to get ready for our photo shoot.”

By the time she finished her shower Merlin had scraped away his dark beard and put on the blue boxer briefs she’d bought for him. “I guess I should wear a T-shirt under my dress shirt, huh?”