MAKE ME A MATCH (Running Wild) (9 page)

She knew she was talking too much, but she also knew she was a brilliant conversationalist when she drank wine. Next she told him about trying to stop smoking before it yellowed her teeth and gave her wrinkles and made her breath smell bad.

“Besides, it puts guys off sex in the morning, and I really like sex in the morning, don’t you?”

“Oh, yeah.” His voice was husky and he cleared his throat. “Afternoon, evening’s okay, too. And then there’s holidays; holidays are good.” He grinned down at her and gave her a long, speculative look with his eyebrows raised. He took her arm in a gentlemanly fashion.

“Would you consider yourself highly sexed or just ordinary, Eric?”

He definitely found her as funny as she figured she was.

“Is this a quiz, Tess?”

“I’m doing research. For my job.” Wow, she was inventive when she’d had too much to drink. It made her pulse kick up, too.

“I’ve never really run a comparison survey.”

“My boss says sex is biology. We should use it for courtship.”

“Instead of pleasure? Your boss has obviously spent too much time making out with the wrong kind of lovers.”

“Only one wrong one.” Tessa told him about Bernard and the Christmas party, but he didn’t find it funny the way she expected him to.

He growled, “Dumb ass needs his butt kicked.” For some reason that made her deliriously happy. “A guy like that could cause you real trouble, Tess.”

She opened her mouth to tell him that blundering Bernard was too busy making out with his assistant to bother with her, but just in time she remembered that was privileged information. So instead she told him about Clara’s resistance to computers, and how much easier it would be to do her job if Synchronicity was computerized.

“You should come over to my office and talk to Henry, my office manager. He’s a whiz at computers. He computerized my entire business, and he just finished setting up an astrology program for Anna. Which wasn’t the best move he ever made.”

“Why not? I’m gonna get Anna to do my chart. I want to find out when I start to live happily ever after.” She was sort of happy right now, though. She jumped over cracks in the sidewalks and said she hoped her mother appreciated it. She quoted Jabberwocky and then cried when an ice-cream truck drove by.

“It reminds me of being little and having that excited feeling, like anything was possible. And then you grow up and find it isn’t.”

He handed her tissues and hugged her until the tears stopped.

“I’m enjoying the hell out of this, but I think you need something to eat, Tess. ” He bought them burgers in a fast-food joint because that’s what she said she wanted.

“Grease, the grease will settle my stomach,” she insisted. “Or was that olive oil? Grandma Blin always claimed it was a cure for hangovers. But maybe you had to drink it before you drank.” Famished, she wolfed down a veggie burger and fries and a vanilla shake

But she realized afterward that it was the coffee that did it. After the second cup, she burped twice, really loud, and then suddenly wasn’t drunk anymore, but man, she was embarrassed. She covered her eyes with her hands and moaned.

“Headache? I’ve got Tylenol here somewhere.” He started fishing in his pocket.

“No headache. I’m just mortified. I was drunk. You got me drunk.”

He nodded. “Oh, yeah. But I didn’t take advantage of you, did I?”

Not that the thought hadn’t crossed her mind. That must be what any port in a storm meant. Damn wine made her horny. How could she have kissed him that way, leaning into his pelvis right there on Granville Street? Why couldn’t she be the kind of drunk who didn’t remember anything?

“Is it too late to go to Karen’s?”

“Nope. I’ll call and tell Karen we’re on our way. They’ll be waiting.”

She noticed his hands on the cell phone. He had workman’s hands, big, with veins showing, nails broken, knuckles swollen. Clean, though. It was so refreshing to be with a guy who didn’t have manicures.

He also didn’t have the sports car she expected.

“Here she is, my pride and joy,” Eric purred, opening the passenger door to an orange Volkswagen van with a white top. “She’s a classic, nineteen seventy- two, super reliable, great for carting things around. Henry’s mother, Gladys, had her sitting in her garage, mint condition. Gladys wanted to buy a red Cadillac, if you can believe that, so she let me have this baby for a song.”

Tessa hoped it wasn’t a very long song, because this baby was downright ugly. It, too, was clean, and about all you could say for it was it got them where they were going. But who was she to criticize his taste in transportation? Personally, she was with Gladys, she’d have gone for the red Caddie in a heartbeat.

There were cracks in the sidewalk leading to Karen’s condo, and someone had used spray paint on the wall. Karen’s adorable sons dove at Eric the moment the door opened, crawling up his legs, wrapping their arms around his waist, shouting for his attention.

Simon was a big, muscular boy, tall for five, with Eric’s blue eyes and Karen’s smile. Simon was thin and angelic looking. Both boys had masses of curly red hair. Karen introduced them to Tessa, and after a bit of prompting they released Eric and shook hands formally with her.

Simon gave her a suspicious look. “Are you one of my Uncle Eric’s girlfriends?”

“Heavens, no.” Tessa gave a nervous little laugh and her face got hot. “He just gave me a ride over to your house.”

“Cause Uncle Eric has lots of girlfriends. Auntie Sophie says he does catch and release,” Simon told her. “Like with fish, but Uncle Eric does it with ladies.” He burst into giggles and Ian did, too, both of them chanting “Catch and release, catch and release. ”

“Boys, put a plug in it.” Eric picked them up, one under each arm. “We’re outta here, see you later. Bye, ladies.” He didn’t quite meet Tessa’s eyes.

“Sorry about that,” Karen said when the door closed behind them. “They’ve just got so much energy. Come and sit down, I’ve got fresh coffee made.”

“That’s what’s great about kids, ” Tessa managed in a feeble tone.

Lots of girlfriends ? Catch and release?

Lucky she didn’t have any feelings for him anymore. Eric Stewart was obviously the desk clerk at Heartbreak Hotel, and she’d be wise to remember it.

Just before ten, Eric unlocked the street door and walked along the dim hallway to his apartment. What had Karen told Tessa in the two hours he’d been out with the boys sending shoe clerks batty? He’d gone from getting kissed brainless on the street and asked about his sex drive to frostbite that damned near took his nose off when he stuck it out and offered her a ride home. He’d actually been looking forward to being alone with her again. He’d heard Tessa and Karen laughing when he came in the door. And then he’d suggested the ride home, and she’d given him that look that would have frozen his blowtorch in mid-flame.

“I’ve called a cab, thanks anyway,” she’d snapped at him. Maybe she was getting her period. Maybe she had personality disorder.

Women, who knew? She’d managed to knock the hell out of a perfectly good mood, so he’d stopped at a pub on the way home just to confirm that bar bunnies still found him irresistible. They did, but it must be his age, because tits and ass just didn’t appeal the way they once had.

His building was so old there wasn’t even an elevator, which made him glad he’d chosen an apartment on the main floor. At least nobody complained about all the junk he dragged in. Hauling tons of scrap iron in and out also saved him what he’d have spent on a gym membership, so there were lots of perks to both the place and his hobby.

He unlocked his door and went in, flicked a couple of lights, and gulped down a glass of water. He looked at the dog he was building and decided not to make life-altering changes tonight. The message light was blinking on his machine, but he wasn’t in any mood to listen. Whatever it was would keep till morning. He was heading for the shower when the phone rang.

“Eric?” It was Karen, and the tension in her voice set alarms off in his head. “Eric, where were you? I’ve been calling and calling. The police came here just after you left.” She took a quick little gulp of air, and he waited for the worst, heart hammering.

“Eric, Jimmy’s dead.”

I don’t know whether to kill myself or go bowling

It took a moment to sink in, and then a horrible thought struck him. Could a guy die from a broken nose? He didn’t think so. He’d never heard of it happening, but he wanted desperately to call Sophie and find out. Could it take a whole week to happen?

His throat tightened. “How—what did he die from?”

“He was just walking along the street. The detective said that they’re, ummm, the police are treating it as a suspicious death. The coroner has to do the— the autopsy before they can say for sure what happened.”

Jesus.

“I’ll be right over.”

“Anna’s here now. It’s okay, you don’t have to come. I just wanted you to know.”

Would Anna be able to calm Karen down? She’d probably spout some crap about karma, and things being written in the stars, and it all being for the universal good, and souls choosing their destiny. Was that going to be much help?

Karen was still talking. “I called her when— when I couldn’t get you. She’s staying tonight.” Karen sounded like a small, frightened girl. “I have to work tomorrow.”

“No, you don’t, sweet pea. Take the day off. I’ll call the witch for you right now, tell her why you can’t make it.”

“No, no, I have to go to work. There’s this thing with a customer. I need to talk to Junella.”

She sounded hysterical, so he dropped it. Maybe it was better for her to work, keep her mind off it.

“What about the kids? Want me to take them somewhere, give you a break?”

“Sophie’s taking them to Science World. Anna called her already.”

“What else did the cops say, sweet pea?”

“They asked a lot of stuff about the fight you had with Jimmy, they already knew about that. And they asked if I’d seen Jimmy this week. The last time I saw him was at the pub a week ago.” Even dead, Jimmy Nicols was managing to make waves.

“Anna’s doing my weekly horoscope on her laptop. She says this is a difficult transit, but it’s coming to an end soon.”

“That’s great, Karo.” Eric closed his eyes and shook his head. Somebody oughta tell the cops to talk to Anna. They could get her to do one of her fancy charts and figure out exactly what was what, save the coroner a lot of trouble.

“You didn’t—they didn’t ask you to identify the body or anything like that, did they, Karo?”

Now Nicols had become the body. It didn’t really have a bad ring to it.

“Bruno went.”

Good old Bruno. Thank god he’d married Anna.

“You sure you don’t want me to come over tonight?”

“I’m fine, honest. Anna brought me some melatonin. She says it’ll help me sleep. Sophie said it was okay to take it.”

“Let me talk to Anna for a minute. And you call me if you need me, anytime in the night, whenever. Do you want me to come over early and talk to the boys?”

“Oh, Eric, yes, please.” He could hear relief in her voice. “I’ll tell them myself about Jimmy, but I’d like you to talk to them, too. Come early and I’ll make blueberry pancakes.”

His eyes filled with tears. The kid knew they were his favorite, and in spite of everything, she wanted to please him.

Sweet pea, what am I ever going to do with you
?

Karen handed over the phone, and while Anna talked to Eric, she tried hard to figure out how she felt about Jimmy being dead.

Shocked, horrified. No one should end up murdered, if that’s what had happened. But there was also an overwhelming sense of relief, and that was followed right away by terrible guilt.

Jimmy was the father of her sons. She’d slept with him; she knew exactly how he snored and farted, how he moaned when he came. At first, his lovemaking had mesmerized her with its intensity, swept her along with its wild, uncontrolled energy. She’d been so happy, knowing that he wanted her. And she’d believed in him, in his dreams of getting rich, of buying a wonderful house for them to live in.

“I’m gonna be somebody,” he’d say, his fierce dark eyes glowing. That was in the beginning, when he was working steady, when they’d go riding along the dikes on their bicycles. She had those good memories.

Simon barely remembered his father, Ian not at all. She thought of them, asleep upstairs. Jimmy hadn’t exactly been a doting father.

“Take him, I’m not good with kids,” he used to say when Simon was a baby. They’d fought over that, too, because he didn’t cherish the boys the way she did. He hadn’t cared enough to come back and see them, after that last terrible fight.

He was out of work, and he’d gone out drinking, dropping the kids with the sitter. She was exhausted when she came home and furious when she found out the kids weren’t there. He’d come home and fallen asleep on the couch, and she woke him up and raged at him. And he’d hit her, hard.

Eric wasn’t around, so she called Sophie. Her sister had barged in the door within twenty minutes, taken one look at her, put ice on her nose, and called the police. Then Sophie had phoned Eric, ignoring the threats Jimmy was mouthing, the fist he kept shaking in her face.

“Don’t try that shit on me, Nicols. You’ll end up in jail so fast it’ll make your head swim. And if I were you,” Sophie had said in a deadly voice Karen had never heard her use before, “I’d get out of here before Eric arrives. And I’d stay gone, if you know what’s good for you.”

Jimmy had rammed some clothes in a gym bag and roared off in their old Toyota, just ahead of the cops. And he’d never come back. Now, he never would.

Anna was off the phone now, brewing a fresh pot of chamomile tea.

“I did Jimmy’s chart once, when you two were first together,” Anna confessed, her white blond hair swinging as she reached into the fridge and brought out cream. Anna was the only person Karen knew who put cream in chamomile tea.

“It was so bad I figured I’d made a mistake.” Anna poured the tea into two mugs and handed one to Karen.

It was good that Anna had come over, but now Karen wished she’d go, because now she had to talk, answer questions, think of words, pretend she wasn’t about to fall apart.

“The planets indicated violence and tragedy, and I never told you, Karo. I should have. I blame myself.”

“The police asked if I knew who might have wanted him dead,” Karen remembered. She gave Anna what felt like a smile and lifted the cup to her lips. She was still shaking so much the hot liquid slopped over, so she set it back down. “I told them that apart from my sisters, and especially my big brother, I couldn’t think of anybody.”

Anna’s round blue eyes widened and she whistled between her teeth. “Good going, kid. I always did want to know what the inside of a cell felt like.”

“I didn’t really say that,” Karen confessed. “Even though it’s the truth. I said I couldn’t think of anybody. They asked me a lot of questions about the fight in the pub, about Eric hitting Jimmy. Whether I knew Jimmy was coming there that night, whether Eric did. I told them of course I didn’t know. I wouldn’t have gone if I thought he’d be there. And Eric didn’t know either. How could he?”

“There are no accidents; everything happens for a reason.”

Somebody was going to kill
Anna
one of these days if she kept saying things like that.

“They can’t think Eric had anything to do with it, can they, Anna?”

Anna bristled. “Whatever they think, it won’t change the truth. Eric doesn’t have it in him to really hurt anybody, he’s a peaceful soul, his chart shows that clearly. Right now there’s a lot of disruption, but it’s all connected to Venus, which is the planet of love,” she said. “There’d have to be lots going on with Mars if he was going to get in trouble with the law, and there isn’t.”

Karen felt relieved, even though she knew Anna could be making half of it up.

She wanted to ask what her chart showed. She wanted Anna to tell her that she was going on a long trip, that there was a handsome stranger in her future, that she’d wake up one morning knowing how to manage the boys without hollering or dissolving into tears when they used her economy-size can of mousse to make snow on the living room rug, or plastered four hundred Band-Aid strips along the walls in the upstairs hallway, or poured an entire box of laundry soap into the machine and turned it on, laughing with glee when the soap bubbles reached the ceiling.

She loved them, but they scared her. She didn’t know how to handle them. She didn’t want them growing up like Jimmy. But she didn’t want them growing up like her either, loving but never feeling good enough, strong enough.

“Simon’s kindergarten teacher told me this afternoon that Simon’s a gifted child. She’s recommending him for special classes.”

“I could have told them that years ago.”

Tears name to Karen’s eves when Anna said that.

She knew her sister loved her nephews, but Karen had wondered at times if she really liked them. She never offered to baby-sit, she never took them places the way Eric did. It was always Bruno who did things with them, not Anna.

She and Anna and Sophie were close, but they were very different. Basically, Anna and Sophie were smart. Karen wasn’t. Sophie had breezed through medical school. Anna had graduated with honors in education, whereas she’d barely scraped through high school.

What would happen when Simon had homework that she couldn’t begin to understand? He’d think he had a stupid mother.

Karen had also told Tessa what the kindergarten teacher had said. Tessa had never been brilliant in school either. Both of them squeaked through agreeing that rocket science and brain surgery were probably boring as hell anyway.

“Simon’s lucky he’s got you,” Tessa had said, and she meant it. “You can teach him the really important stuff that lots of smart guys never learn, like hugs and surprises and compliments and laughter.”

“Love,” Karen said, nodding. Tessa made her feel better in a way that her sisters couldn’t. “If I had a choice,” she confided, “I’d want my boys to grow up to be just like Eric. He’s good at loving.”

Tessa nodded, but Karen could see that she wasn’t convinced. She would be, though, it was just a matter of time.

Then Tessa had made Karen laugh telling her about the guy she’d dated right after her divorce. He’d invited her for dinner and then came to pick her up in a motor home. He’d bought steaks and potatoes and expected Tessa to cook them.

“What’d you do?”

“Told him I needed salad things, got him to stop at a supermarket where the produce guy let me out the back door and called a cab for me.”

“Ever see him again?”

“Trailer trash? Never. I did date the produce guy a couple times.”

Karen wondered if the time would ever come when she’d want to date anybody. Eric had asked her about a membership to Synchronicity and she’d refused. She was a widow now; that was different from being divorced.

She sort of wished Tessa was here instead of Anna right now. Maybe together they could figure out how a smart mother would go about telling her boys that their father was dead.