QUEENIE BABY: On Assignment (9 page)

Intrigued by his response, I turned to him and said, “So men crave danger and are attracted to dangerous or unattainable women, right?”
 

“Sounds about right,” he agreed, adding, “not me, of course.”

“No, of course not. But what happens when you attain the unattainable? When dangerous becomes everyday life? How do you adjust? Or does a man simply start looking for the next unattainable woman?”

He thought about my questions for a moment. I watched the firelight play off his chiseled face. Finally, he said, “I don’t know about other men, but for me it’s not just about the chase.” He turned towards me. “It’s about this,” he said indicating the bonfire. “It’s about putting down roots, raising a family together, and going through the adventures of life together that replaces the excitement of danger.”

I held his gaze, unsure of what to say. A few seconds ticked by and he looked back towards the fire. “This was supposed to be us,” he said sadly.

I put my hand on his shoulder. “I have to go,” I said standing up. He didn’t try to stop me. But I could feel Rick’s eyes on me as I made my way over to my sister.

 
“I have to go now,” I said to her.
 

She nodded. “Can you put Tiffany’s car seat in my car on your way out? Dan had it in his truck because he had her over at his mom’s house today. I don’t want to forget it in the morning rush.”
 

“Sure,” I replied. My sister was the great delegator. If you’re going that way, can you . . . ? If it wouldn’t be too much trouble, could you . . . ? I guess that’s how she managed her crazy life.
 

“The doors are unlocked,” she called as I walked back towards the bonfire to say goodbye to everyone.

Granddaddy called me a party pooper for leaving so soon. I reminded him that we had already partied enough last night. Dan asked me if I wanted to do a shot for the road. I declined and thanked him for dinner. The kids clung to my legs and begged me to take them home with me. I didn’t blame them. No sign of Rick, though. Well, it was probably for the best. No need for any more drama today. We’d made our peace and all was well. I headed to Dan’s truck to grab the car seat.

Ten minutes of cursing my sister later—who designs car seats anyway and why are they so hard to take in and out of a car? Argh! What a pain. Rick was leaning against my car as I approached carrying the car seat. “What are you doing with that?” he asked.

“Doing a favor for Ashley, what else?” I said as I marched by him towards Ashley’s van which, of course, was parked back near the storage building.
 

I heard him following me. “Here,” he said, “let me help you with that.” He took the car seat from me and I opened the door to my sister’s van. It looked like her living room, only there was cereal strewn all over the carpet and sippy cups in all the drink holders. “Wow,” he said.

“Yep,” I agreed. “This is what having kids looks like.”

“They ought to use your sister’s car to teach abstinence in schools. Why is this so hard to do?” he asked struggling with the car seat.

“Those things are impossible,” I said. “Let me try.” I leaned in and peered around the side of the car seat. “Push it through the hole in the back. No, the other one,” I corrected.

“Women always say that to me,” he joked.

I rolled my eyes. “Sex jokes, really?” I said. “When we’re trying to install a car seat?”

“Hey, you’re the one talking about holes,” he said. “Got it!” He snapped the buckle into place.

I stood up and came face to face with him. We were both breathing hard from wrestling with the car seat. The interior light timed out and we were left in the bright moonlight. “Do you know how beautiful you are?” he asked softly.

I didn’t move or say a word. I knew I was in dangerous territory. Then his hands were on my hips and he pulled me in closer. I tilted my head to look up at him. His lips touched mine and I was suddenly seventeen again. Sure of myself and sure of life. Safe in that little nook of time between childhood and adulthood. My senses were flooded with the feeling that summer would never end; that we would always be young and wild. I could almost feel the sun on my back as his lips caressed mine gently. Then my hands were on his chest and he wrapped his hands in my hair. His lips left mine and found their way down my neck sending shivers of excitement through my body. I’d like to say just like old times, but honestly this was ten times better than our teenage fumblings. My lips touched his again as his hands found the top button on my jeans. My brain signaled that this was getting out of control, but my body gave an all systems go. I fell back onto the floor of the van, scattering toys and sippy cups. He lowered his body to mine and I felt his frame hard and unyielding against me.
 

His mouth found mine again and he ran his tongue lazily over my lips. Like it was a decade ago and we had all the time in the world. My body ached for him. I wanted to be skin to skin with him inside me. He made quick work of the buttons on my Oxford shirt. His hands found their way to my breasts and I gasped. I clawed at his shirt, desperate for his skin on mine. He pulled it over his head and tossed it outside the van. Oh, to hell with it! I thought and sat up on my elbows. I shrugged out of my shirt and bra and flung them out the van door with a defiant flourish.

There was fire in my blood as the hair on his broad, hard chest teased my sensitized nipples. He pulled away to slide my jeans off and then I pulled him back towards me hungrily. His delicious, earthy taste and masculine smell filled my senses. Yeah, this was so much better than I remembered. In the distance I heard a dog barking excitedly.
 

“Hurry,” I urged, wanting him in me more than anything else in the world at that moment.

He pulled away to shrug out of his jeans. I heard a rustling at the corner.

“Rick?” I heard my sister’s voice. Oh no, not now! “What the hell is going on?” she said shining a flash light into Rick’s face.

Dan emerged from the darkness on the other side of her. “Told you they were gettin’ busy back here! Someone owes me twenty bucks!” he yelled back to the crowd.

Rick shielded me from view as I searched around for my clothes. “My clothes are on the ground,” I said to his back. He leaned down and threw me my pants and my shirt.

“You might need this,” my sister said throwing my bra around Rick. “Sally was running around the yard with it in her mouth,” she added.

“Ewww!” I exclaimed dropping the slobbery bra. I pulled my shirt and jeans on and edged around Rick. He pulled on his shirt and buttoned his jeans. My sister shined the flashlight on me. “Put that thing away!” I yelled. “Stop acting like a cop busting some teenagers at make out point.”

“Then stop acting like teenagers at make out point and get a room!” my sister huffed. “You know my kids ride around in that van and you’re rolling around having sex in it. Disgusting!”
 

“No,” I said right back at her, “your van’s disgusting. I can’t believe the health department hasn’t condemned it yet.”
 

“I can’t believe you two!” she said and turned on her heel.

Dan was laughing and shaking his head. “You should have heard your sister squeal when that stupid dog came running by us with your bra her mouth. The kids started playing tug of war with it.”

Rick had been completely silent up until now. “Can you give us a few minutes, Dan?” he asked.

“Oh, sure,” Dan said. “Just don’t—you know—in the van. I don’t want Ashley up my ass about it for the rest of the week.” Dan walked away still guffawing.

Rick turned to me. “Don’t suppose I can talk you into coming back to my place?” he asked hopefully.

I made a face and shook my head. “Nope. This will do it for me. I need to go home.” I was so confused and frustrated. Part of me wanted to follow him home and spend the night wrapped in his arms. You know the parts. And the reasonable part of me thanked God that Ashley interrupted us. What was I thinking? Jumping in a van with an old boyfriend. It made no sense.

“I understand,” he said reaching out to stroke my cheek. “That was almost the most amazing sex I’ve ever had.”
 

I leaned into his hand and kissed his palm. “Me too.”
 

“I want to see you again, Diana,” he said.

“I don’t know what I want anymore, Rick,” I replied softly.

*****

I had a good cry on the way home. As I was going over the bridge, I decided that this little interlude with Rick was nothing more than nostalgia. He was no more a suitable partner for me now than he had been twelve years ago. Sure he was sexier and more charming than egotistical, bossy high school Rick. But he was still fundamentally the same person. And Rick Ellis was not the man for me. I knew that at eighteen. And I knew it now.
 

After getting an excited sniff over from Max (he seemed to appreciate dog drool much more than I did), I took him for a quick walk and filled up his bowl. I took a long shower to wash all the grime of the day away and sat in the shower and cried a little more for what might have been. Rick’s words were running through my mind on an endless loop. “This was supposed to be us,” he had said. Maybe he was right. Maybe we should have had the minivan and the kids on the two-acre lot with the above ground swimming pool. But maybe, just maybe, this was exactly where I was supposed to be.
 

I gathered up my guitar and pulled a pick from inside my pajama pocket. I sat down on the couch and strummed a few notes, thinking back again to what Rick had said. The fire from that moment still burned in my brain; the nostalgia for lost youth. I picked out a melancholy chord and strummed softly, waiting for the next note to find its way from my brain to my fingers. And there it was. And again. A song took shape. I slowed it down, sped it up, and finally settled somewhere in the middle. I set the guitar down and picked up the yellow pad on the coffee table. The words were easy. I was living them.

*****

I didn’t sleep well and woke up bleary-eyed and cranky. Coffee helped, but I was still a little groggy as I made my way towards Greene’s Staffing. Mark had asked me to come in at eight to help him before the day started to get crazy. Argh! Mark. I wasn’t ready to deal with that situation. The Mark Attraction had simply faded into the background with all that had happened with Rick last night. I opened the door to Greene’s expecting some peace and quiet before the phone started ringing. Unfortunately, crazy had already ramped up into full gear at the office. I made my way around a dozen or so light industrial temporaries milling around in the small lobby. Mark was on the phone looking pretty agitated for eight in the morning.
 

“No, Mr. Hagen,” he said into the receiver. “I wasn’t aware we had a special arrangement with your company that included a thirty percent cash discount. Since when?” he asked. “I see. Did you discuss this with Carol? Well, I am sorry about the confusion. I will send your team back over right away. There won’t be any more cash discounts, though. This is part of an ongoing investigation. Yes, thanks. You too.” He disconnected and stood up.

“Okay guys, you can head back over,” he said to the temporaries.

They looked at him like he was crazy. “Yo, man. The bus is gone until noon. We stuck here,” said one guy near the door.

“Yeah,” another guy with dreadlocks and facial tattoos chimed in. “I told you when you rung me up today that I don’t have no wheels.”

“No one has a car?” Mark asked incredulously.

“How we gonna afford a car makin’ eight bucks an hour?” the man asked. “We legit. We ain’t no gangbangers. You find some dude workin’ for eight bucks an hour driving a car and he’s hustlin’.”

“Where’s Miss Carol?” another asked. “She wouldn’t have dragged us all the way up here fo’ nothin’.”

“Carol is recovering from a back injury and should be in on Monday,” he said looking to me for assistance.

If I had more energy, I would have let him twist in the wind a little longer. “Good morning, Gentlemen,” I said pleasantly. “Marcus, right?” I asked the guy with the dreads.
 

“Yes, ma’am,” he responded looking me up and down appreciatively.
 

“Sorry about the confusion this morning. I’m sure Mr. Greene will make sure you get paid for your time here. Right, Mr. Greene?” I asked. Mark nodded. “Okay, so you’re going out to Crofton, right?”
 

“That’s right,” said Marcus. “Ain’t no bus until the 109 at noon.”

“If we could get you over to the hospital by nine, there’s a 108 that will get you to Crofton by nine-thirty.” I looked at Mark. “Okay if I call a couple of cabs to take them to the hospital?” I asked.
 

“Sure thing,” he replied with obvious relief.

Half an hour later all the temps were on their way. Mark touched me lightly on the arm. “Thank you for your help. You were wonderful.”

I smiled. It was good to be appreciated by your boss. “Thanks! How did they end up here instead of at work?” I asked.

“I pulled them from the assignment. The receivable report shows that Mayfield Manufacturing hasn’t paid a bill in three months. They owe over fifty-thousand.”

“Wow!” I couldn’t believe it. “Who’s in charge of collections?” I asked.

“Our accountant and Carol,” Mark said. “He’s supposed to let her know which accounts he’s having problems with and then she gets in front of the customer if necessary to collect. I left a message at Mayfield yesterday, but never heard back, so I decided to get their attention by pulling their workers. Which worked. The manager says he’s been paying cash at a thirty percent discount the last three months.” He paused.

“What!” I cried. “To who?”

“He said it was to someone identifying himself as Mr. Greene. He thought it was a great way to come in under budget and didn’t ask a lot of questions.”

“What did the accountant say?” I asked.

“Haven’t been able to get a hold of him,” he said grimly.

“You can’t think that Carol is involved in this?” I said, getting riled up.

“No, I don’t,” he said. “But I’m going to have to involve the police soon and I want to make sure that she hasn’t been set up to take the fall for this.”