Getting Some Of Her Own (9 page)

“You're working the hell out of it, babe,” he said in what he considered an appreciative remark on her looks. “That's a classy dress.”

He handed her a long sprig of white orchids, and it didn't surprise her that he would choose novel and exotic flowers. She thanked him, put the orchids in a tall vase half-filled with water and went back to him.

“If we leave now, Jay, we'll be right on time.” She handed him her coat, a street-length black mink that she hadn't expected to use in North Carolina, but which had come in handy, and strolled with him next door to the Shepherd home.

In response to Jay's ring, Kix opened the door. “Thanks for coming,” he said, shaking Jay's hand. “I'm glad to see you both again. And Susan, thanks so much for those pecans. You won't believe how many times I've eyed those nuts over there on the ground rotting. I made some pecan pies that were very popular with my guests.”

“Let me know when you make some more,” Jay said, “and I'll be there. I love pecan pie.”

“Who is it, darling?” Susan didn't want to believe that Cassie was a phony, but the woman was expecting them at six o'clock, and Jay rang the bell at one minute past six. She walked into the foyer just as Kix said, “Susan and Jay.” Cassie's disappointment was unmistakable, and Susan couldn't understand why.

However, Cassie quickly recovered, and allowed her face to crease in smiles. “Oh, it's so good to see you both. Come on in the living room.”

Jay looked at Susan, but spoke for the group's benefit. “Don't you have any pecans stashed away over there? If you have, I'll take 'em out to Kix. I can practically taste that pie.”

She had several bushels. “I do have some, and I had already planned to give them to Kix, but not with the proviso that he make pies for you or anybody else.”

Cassie left them and returned with a tray of hot hors d'oeuvres. “Darling, that pie is so fattening. You shouldn't serve it too often.”

Kix took the tray from Cassie and put it on the coffee table. “Sure it is, but I don't force anyone to eat it. Having those nice fresh pecans made my last pies very special.” He looked at Susan. “If you have too many next year, say the word, and I'll gather the extra ones.”

“Give me a call and I'll help you,” Jay said.

Cassie sat down, crossed her knee and assumed a queenly air. “Oh, for goodness sake. Much ado about nothing.”

Susan selected a marguerite from the tray of drinks, sipped it and said nothing. If Cassie needed to show off, the next time, she would have to do it with different guests. As a decorator, she had spent a good deal of time in homes and observed many couples interacting with each other. Something was wrong in this marriage, and her mind told her to keep her distance.

The long hour and a half approached its end, and at seven-fifteen, Susan stood, smiled at Jay and said, “I think we'd better be getting on to dinner.”

“Right,” Jay said, stood and extended his hand to Kix. “I've enjoyed the opportunity to get to know you better, and I look forward to you and Cassie being my guests.”

Susan's eyebrows shot up. Jay had said the perfect thing, as smooth and as affected as Cassie. She hadn't wanted to overstate her “pleasure” at being Cassie's guest. “Yes,” she said. “Thank you both so much.” To Kix, she said, “I'll bring those pecans over to Cassie.”

His smile didn't reach his eyes, so she knew that something—or someone—had displeased him. “I wouldn't hear of you dragging a bag of nuts over here. Let Cassie know, and I'll come get them.”

 

 

Susan and Jay had hardly reached the street when Cassie said to Kix, “She's not fooling me. Jay Weeks is not interested in Susan Pettiford or any other woman.”

“What do you mean, ‘She's not fooling you?'” he asked, staring down at her. “What business is it of yours who she dates? If you want to talk about this evening, we'll do that. You were not one bit gracious to her, and I was embarrassed. She'll call you about those pecans, and see that you don't forget to tell me.”

“You don't need her pecans. You can buy as many as you can use.”

“Of course I can, but I also appreciate her neighborliness, and I wish you would. How about going out to Moe Robinson's place for some pizza and beer? I want something different.”

“I'm dressed up like this to eat pizza and drink beer?” she asked him, looking aghast.

“You're always dressed up, sweetheart. Tonight, you're just a bit more so. Let's go.” He knew he'd gotten to her, for she prided herself in always looking as perfect as possible. He pressed his finger against her right nipple and made a rotating motion. “You blush beautifully, and you look good, too,” he said, ensuring for himself an hour of good loving when they returned home.

“Do you think she's better-looking than I am?”

So that was it. “Who? You mean Susan Pettiford? Baby, you've got to be joking.”

 

 

Cassie couldn't know that Jay Weeks's sexual preferences were of no interest to Susan. She needed a date, and Jay was an acceptable man who she knew. “Let's take my car,” Jay said to Susan as they walked away from the Shepherd residence. “If it wasn't Kix's night off, we could go to Gourmet Corner.”

“I've heard so much about that place,” Susan said. “Let's plan to go there.”

“It's definitely not overrated,” Jay said.

They went to Sam's Gourmet Burger Castle after Jay said that, in view of Cassie's estimation of herself, it was unlikely that they would encounter her and Kix at a hamburger restaurant, gourmet or not. Instead, they met Lucas and Willis, who appeared to be having a “working” dinner. Susan waved to them and, although she couldn't figure out why, it annoyed her that Jay pretended not to see them.

“You could have said hello to my friends,” she said to Jay.

“That's right. I could have,” he replied.

This man can be bitchy
, Susan thought.
He and Cassie would make a fine pair.
She decided then that she shouldn't spend too much time in Jay Weeks's company.
Lucas has been more than nice to me,
she thought, recalling his Christmas greeting and his thoughtfulness the night the snow storm caused a power outage.

“What was that all about?” Willis asked Lucas. “I thought she'd at least come over to say hi.”

Lucas rapped the table lightly with his pen. “Unless she wanted to make a scene, how could she? Weeks continued walking when she tried to get his attention. I never did cotton to that guy.”

“Me neither,” Willis said. “I could do without that dude forever. Don't tell me that something's going on between those two.”

“All right. I won't. She couldn't be that stupid.”

 

 

In spite of her reservations about Cassie, the woman's invitation to cocktails provided an opportunity for socializing, for doing something other than working and sleeping, and Susan supposed she should be thankful for that. In New York, she'd enjoyed an active social life, although she couldn't claim many women friends.

She usually shunned women who were insecure about their men, as Cassie was about Kix. Nonetheless, she phoned Cassie the following morning and asked her to tell Kix to come for the pecans.

“Thanks, I'll let him know,” Cassie said, and added, “Darling, you looked smashing last night, much too lovely to be in the company of a man who has no interest in women.”

Stunned by the woman's temerity, Susan stammered, temporarily at a loss for words. “Wh—what did you say?”

“You're wasting precious time with Jay, darling.”

Best to ignore that. If I give her a taste of my razor tongue, we'll never be friends.
“Let me know when Kix is coming over for these nuts,” she said. “I've got to get to my shop. See you.”

 

 

Tuesday afternoon at the end of the tutoring session, Susan walked with Rudy and Nathan down the corridor toward the front door. She noticed that Rudy's coat was not properly buttoned and stopped.

“Wait a second, Rudy. I'll button your coat.” She knelt in front of the child and was securing the bottom button when Lucas entered the front door. Rudy opened both arms to Susan, who hugged the child, relishing the feel of that warm little body in her arms. As she released Rudy, she looked up into Lucas's censoring gaze.

“May I see you in my office, Ms. Pettiford, after you excuse the children?” His words, and especially his tone, brought to her mind a tongue-lashing she received from her third-grade teacher for having spread her arms and embraced a heavy spring rain.

“Uh . . . of course,” she said, wondering what had displeased him this time. “I'll be there in . . . uh . . . five minutes.”

“The door isn't locked,” he said. “They can let themselves out of the building.”

Without responding verbally, she grasped the children's hands and walked out of the building with them. “Wait a minute, Rudy,” Nathan said. He climbed into his grandmother's car, spoke with her and got out of the car. “Miss Pettiford, you don't have to worry about Rudy. My nana and I will take her home.”

Susan went around to the driver's side of the car and spoke with Ann Price. “Thank you so much for taking Rudy home. It's dangerous for her to be alone in the streets after dark.”

“No problem, Miss Pettiford. Somebody doesn't care about her, and it's a pity.”

Susan walked back inside, preparing herself for what she expected would be Lucas's fury. He waited for her a few steps from where she had left him. With his fists at his hips, and in a voice so quiet and calm as to be frightening, he said, “What do you think you're doing?”

“What do you mean?” He starting walking toward his office, so she stepped in stride with him.

“You're making that child dependent on you, and that little boy, too. They always leave with you, holding your hands.”

“You need a course in humanness,” she said as they entered his office. “I told you how these children treat Rudy. Nathan is the only one who doesn't, and he seemed to empathize with her, so I put them together in the front row. They have become friends, and Nathan is protective of her. She is the only one of these children who has no one to meet her and take her home. Imagine that six-year-old little girl walking from here to Salem Court and Market Street in the dark. I've been driving her home but, thanks to you, I couldn't do that tonight, so Nathan asked his grandmother if they could drive her home.”

“I don't need a course in humaneness, Susan. I'm trying to do this job according to the rules. Even so, she will become too attached to you. I saw her hug you after you buttoned her coat.”

“You can hardly call that rag a coat. It's almost threadbare, and two of the buttons are missing.”

“I suppose you're planning to buy her another one.”

She'd thought about it, and by damn, she'd do it. “Come to think of it, that wouldn't be a bad idea.” His gaze softened, and his eyes took on that same haze that she saw for the first time when he released himself into her. A feeling of dizziness unbalanced her, like a sudden attack of vertigo, and she closed her eyes and grasped the arms of the chair.

“Susan, are you all right?” His voice had that same huskiness, that same loss-of-control tremor that she heard the first time he had her in his arms. Why was this happening to her, now that she had no right to embrace it? She reached down, picked up her pocketbook and briefcase and stood, praying that she could make it as far as the corridor.

“What is it? What's wrong?” he asked. But even as the words left his lips, he bounded out of his chair and rounded the desk.

“Don't. Please don't touch me. I . . . I have to go. I'm in a hurry.”

“Don't lie to me. You're afraid of the way you'll feel in my arms. Aren't you? Tell me you've never remembered the way I made you feel. Say you don't ever think of the way you went wild beneath me. Tell me you don't want to have me buried to the hilt inside you. Tell me that, and you'll be a liar.”

“Please. Let me go.”

“Not until you tell me you haven't thought about it once since that night. Tell me, and you may go with my blessings!”

“All right. Damn you! I think about it all the time. But that's all I'm ever going to do about it. Think. Now—”

His hands gripped her shoulders, and seemingly of its own volition, her body moved to him, and she was tight in his arms. He stared down at her, and she couldn't stop the trembling of her lips and chin. Would he never . . .

“What are you waiting for?” Susan said in a voice she didn't recognize.

His mouth was on her then, hard and strong. And so sweet. She parted her lips, and he possessed her with one thrust of his tongue deep into her mouth, anointing every centimeter, testing and thrusting, simulating lovemaking, until her nerve ends seemed to ignite and hot blood raced to her loins. Suddenly, he moved away from her, though he didn't release her.

Annoyed and ashamed of the way she kissed and caressed him, she broke away, grabbed her bag and briefcase and ran to the door, but when she would have opened it, his hand closed over the knob.

“There's no point in running, Susan. This dance is not over.”

She brushed a few strands of hair away from her face, an act that she knew betrayed her nervousness. “What you don't know, Lucas, is that it never started.”