Kiss the Girl (20 page)

She took a deep breath and threw herself into the fray.  “Listen,
Tyrese
, do you know where we can find Mary Jane?  We’re both worried about her.  The kids who came to collect her last night were armed, and it didn’t s
it so well with Erik
.  We both care about her, though.  All we want to know is that she’s safe.  Is she?”

“Safe.” 
Tyrese
seemed to think that one over.  “Yeah, I guess she is.  Safe and sound in her little apartment on the other side of the river.”  He showed his teeth in a twisted parody of a smile.  “Far, far away from the stink of people like me.  Good enough for you, doc?”

Nixie caught her breath at the depth of pain in his face, and even Erik looked taken aback.  “How do you know Mary Jane?” he asked abruptly.

“Me?  I don’t.” 
Tyrese
sh
ook his head.  “I never did
.  That’s where the trouble started.” 

Nixie chewed her lip.  This was bad. 
Tyrese
was in love with Mary Jane. 
How did Mary Jane feel about that, she wondered.  And how did Erik feel about how Mary Jane felt? 

“Well, okay.  That’s what we needed to know,” Nixie said brightly.  She tucked her hand into Erik’s elbow and started hauling him toward the door.  “We’ll just swing by her place on the way home and make sure that everything’s, you know, okay.”  Erik’s arm was like a steel cable in her hands but she ignored that and kept pulling. 
Tyrese
opened the door and she flashed him a grateful smile as she steered Erik through it. 

“Thanks,
Tyrese
.  See you around.”

The door closed in her face and Nixie turned to Erik.  He was staring thoughtfully at the door.  “Huh,” he said. “You think Mary Jane actually knows that guy?”

“You’ll have to ask her that.”  Nixie scratched at something disgusting in her hair.  “Oh,
ick
.  I think there’s beef jerky on my head.”

Erik surprised her by laughing.  “Yeah, I think there is.  Come on, princess.  I’ll get you home, then swing by Mary Jane’s.”

Good luck with that conversation, Nixie thought.  But she kept her mouth shut.  His heart wasn’t any of her business, now was it?

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Erik frowned at his cell phone while Nixie gazed studiously out the windshield.  I am deaf, she thought to herself, as if she could make it so by concentrating hard enough.

“What the hell does that mean?” Erik said into the phone as they cruised down Constitution.  “Jesus, Mary Jane, you were abducted last night at gun point
--”

Nixie couldn’t hear Mary Jane’s response to that, but the fact that she
worded it strongly enough to derail
Erik
mid-sentence pointed to serious irritation

“Can I at least swing by and see for myself that you’re
--”

Uh-oh, Nixie thought.  Another interruption.  This did not bode well for Erik’s courtship.  She resisted the urge to pat his knee.  She didn’t dare risk a look at him, because she knew her own face would betray all sorts of sympathy, and that
was probably the
last thing he wanted. 

“Because I care about you, Mary Jane.”  He pushed the words through gritted teeth.  He sounded more terminally pissed than caring, but Nixie figured he’d had a hard twelve hours.  The object of his affection had been snatched away, first by armed teenagers, then by
a renegade CPA
.  And she didn’t seem at all interested in soothing Erik’s
bruised
ego. 

He glanced toward Nixie and lowered his voice.  “I was hoping I could take you out to lunch
.  We need
to
talk
.”

Deaf, Nixie chanted in her head.  I am deaf.  La la la la la. 

“Oh.  No, sure.  I understand.  I’ll
call you later
.”  Erik flipped the phone shut and tossed it onto the console between them.  Nixie didn’t speak, and neither did he.  They drove in tenuous silence until Erik turned into the Watergate complex. 

He angled the
Jeep
into a spot near the front doors and cut the engine.

“Are you coming in?” Nixie asked, unaccountably cheered by the prospect.  For years, she’d dreamed of what it might be like to be completely alone.  No advisors, no press, no assistants, no directors, managers, or foreign dignitaries.  Nobody but herself and her thoughts. 

As it turned out, she and her thoughts weren’t such good company.  Her life had always been packed wit
h people who orbited her mother
like planets spinning around the sun.  Nixie had never learned to make friends, at least not lasting ones.  She’d never had to.  What was the point?  People were always leaving, but there were always new ones coming, too.  Love the one you’re with, right? 

She thought of another long, solitary Sunday afternoon with nothing to do but plan her next culinary disaster and suddenly she was regarding Erik with naked hope in her face.

“Are you hungry?  I was
going to try an eggplant roula
d
e
this afternoon.”

“Eggplant what?”

“Eggplant roula
d
e
.  B
ig slices of eggplant sme
ared with filling and rolled up?
”  Nixie frowned.  “At least I think that’s what it is.  The recipe is a little complicated, but I like a challenge.”  She realized with a start that she was pretty hungry herself, but not for eggplant.  What she really wanted was a taste of the Viking
doctor’s lovely, firm mouth.  G
eez.  She must be lonelier than she thought
.

“Eggplant,” Erik said slowly.  “Smeared with something and rolled up.”

“Forget I offered, okay?”  His lack of enthusiasm made her feel suddenly needy and pathetic, so she threw a little exasperation into her voice.  “You make it sound like I’m trying to poison you.”

“Are you?  I’m trying to decide.”

Nixie sighed and shook off the moment.  His mouth was still appealing, even curled up as it was in disdain for all things vegetable.  “I was trying to be nice, Erik.  You just got dumped.  I thought maybe you wouldn’t want to be alone with your misery all afternoon.”

He patted her knee.  Zingy little shock waves rolled up her thigh and on into parts better left unmentioned.  “That’s sweet.  But I didn’t get dumped.”

“No?  The
n why did your girlfriend
ditch you for an ultra-hot
criminal accountant
, then refuse to let you take her out for brunch?”

Erik smiled.  “See there’s the problem right there.  You think Mary Jane’s my girlfriend.”

“She’s not?”

“No, of course not. 
She’s my best friend.  Has been
for years
.” 

“I see.” 

“Which is not to say that I wouldn’t snap her up in a heartbeat if she showed the slightest interest
.  The older I get, the more I’m convinced that s
he’s exactly what I want.
”

“And that is?”

“Somebody smart, funny, driven and absolutely
unfamous
.  Somebody
normal
.”
  He glanced at Nixie.  “No offense.”

“None taken.  But what are you going to do about her being... How to put this delicately?”  She tapped her lips and pretended to think.  “Not into you.”
  She gave him a sweetly concerned and patently false smile.  “No offense.”
 

He shrugged.  “
Nothing really valuable in life is free, Nixie.  I’m not afraid to
wait
for it.
  Or work for it.
”

She had one hand on the door.  She needed to end this conversation, get back to her apartment, clean up and start on the eggplant.  She did
not
need to sit here any longer, contemplating his beautiful mouth, and the prospect of a man
--
any man
--
thinking
she
was everything he’d ever wanted.  W
anting her enough to work
for her.  Lucky, lucky Mary Jane. 

“Well, as long as you’re okay.”  She opened the door and slid out.  A small flurry of leaves and straw wrappers fell out at her feet.  “I’m not on till Tuesday,” she said.  “See you then.”  But she was talking to an empty truck.  He’d opened his door and was rounding the hood, fingers tucked into pockets, a smug grin on that mouth.

“What’s this now?”  Nixie smacked at her jeans and gave him a dismissive look.  “There’s no eggplant for you, mister.  That was a pity invitation, and I’ve decided you need psychotherapy more than pity.”

“Why?  Because I’m goal-oriented and not afraid of a little rejection?”

“Ha.  Tell it to the judge when she issues Mary Jane’s restraining order.”

“Besides, I wouldn’t eat eggplant on pain of death.”

“No?  Then why are you coming up?”

“Because my mom needs a little talking to about how she uses my spare key.”

“Ah.”  Nixie’s enthusiasm deflated.  She’d been enjoying their little spat, and thought he had been too.  As it turned out, he was just keeping up his end of the conversation.  All he wanted to do was drop her politely at her door and go yell at his mom.  How...lowering.

“Well, let’s get going,” she said, starting for the lobby at a brisk trot.  “I stand still in all this dirt much longer and something’s bound to start sprouting.”

Erik kept pace easily.  “Your head was made for a flower garden.”  He reached over and plucked out a leaf.  “Looks good on you.”

Nixie hardened her heart as she strode through the posh lobby.  She avoided the mirrored panels on the walls.  She knew what she must look like.  No wonder Erik didn’t want to have
lunch with her.  She’d gotten used to the smell herself, but boy was she turning heads here at the Watergate.  She punched the elevator button and gave a face-lifted socialite and her pocket-dog a nod. 

“I’m not a flower garden sort of girl,” she told Erik.  “I always figured I’d have a Victory Garden someday, though.”

“Hell, no.  You’d just grow eggplant.  Nobody eats eggplant.”

“I do.”

“You’re...unusual.”

She caught sight of her dirty face in the polished metal elevator doors.  “Tell me about it,” she muttered.

The doors opened with a discreet
bing
, and Nixie stepped into the lift.  Erik followed
, put a hand across the door and looked a question at the socialite
. 
She
shook her head and firmed up her grip on her dog, who squirmed desperately to get on the elevator.  Nixie smiled at them.

“Sorry.  I almost got run over by a truck.”

“Half a truck,” Erik said. 

The door swished shut on the socialite’s frozen brow. 

“I think she was trying to register sympathy,” Nixie said.