Return to Me (9 page)

     "Did you visit 415 Lancaster St
reet this afternoon Ms. Frey?" He doggedly rephrased his question, apparently choosing to ignore her last statement.

     "Yes I did."

     "Can you tell me the reason for the visit?" It wasn’t a question.

     "I was selling girl scout co
okies." She needled him, watched his head cock to one side and wondered if he would take her bait. Was almost disappointed when he didn’t.

     "Well. Ms. Robertson alleges that you harassed her in her home during the visit in question. Maybe you shouldn’t sell your cookies in that neighborhood anymore."

     "Or what?” Lord, had that really come out of her mouth? She knew that thumbing her nose at a police officer was never a smart idea, knew that she was in a no win situation at the moment, but couldn’t seem to help egging him on. His cool attitude and aloof demeanor irritated the hell out of her and she had the perverse desire to find the chink in his armor and crack it wide open.

     "If you bother her again we will be forced to bring you in for questioning."

     "I'll be arrested."

     "Yes."

     "Paige what’s going on here?" Erik rounded the corner and planted his feet at the base of the porch, arms crossed over his chest.

     "Howdy-doody here
is threatening to arrest me." She hitched her thumb in Guys general direction, taking satisfaction in the way his eyes widened, then narrowed. Bingo.

     "So let him." Erik shrugged. "I'll just bail you out. Maybe we'll even sue the Helena PD."

     "You've been warned." Guy turned on his heel.

    
"Nice to see you again too." She called after his retreating form.

     "What was that about? Did he really say he would arrest you?"

     "More or less. If I harass Hailey again."

     "Why that bitch." Erik swore, leaving Paige to ponder if he was referring to Hailey or Guy.  "He's really a cop then."

     "I guess it sure looks that way." She sighed. "Can you believe it?"

     "Not really."

     "Thanks for coming out here when you did. It was starting to get ugly."

     "Yeah I thought you could use some help. What a waste."

     "Hmmm?" She queried absently.

     "That fine ass and such a foul temper. And they let him carry a gun." Erik tsked.

     "You’re incorrigible you know that?" Paige hooted with laughter. "Is the food ready yet? I'm starving." She was mildly surprised to realize it was the truth.      Despite the stress and emotional upheaval that had succeeded in battering her throughout most of the day, she was hungry. Ravenous, in fact, and the heady scent of meat roasting on charcoal reached all the way to the front yard.

     "Come on, Killer, let’s go eat, and after that we can swim."

     "Are you kidding?" She shoved him ahead of her. "It’s too cold for swimming. For crying out loud, Erik, it’s October. In Montana."

     "So? We did it in Alaska."

     "It was August when we were in Alaska and that was a hot spring, not a back yard pool."

     "Details.
Besides the pool is heated." He scoffed, handing her a paper plate, which promptly slid from her fingers to land on the deck with a soft thud.

     "Oops, thin plate.
And the heater barely works. If it’s even on."

     "Here tak
e mine. I'll get another one." He deftly slid a second plate under the thick burger, ketchup only, the way she always ate them, and fished out a second bun for himself from the plastic bag next to the grill.

     "Mmmm. So good
; hard to believe I’m eating right now but I can’t help myself, you’re a grilling machine. The grill King." She pronounced, sinking to the cool stone of the patio and shifting her plate to her left hand in order to dip her fingers into the water. "Okay this pool is seriously cold. You can forget that swim."

     "You’re done with the burger already?"

     "Almost. I told you I was hungry."

     "Glad to see you’ve got your appetite back. That’s one thing I’ve always admired about you Paige. You bounce. Was it hard seeing
them again?" He slipped an arm around her and scooted closer until they were seated hip to shoulder.

     "Hailey? A little, to tell you the truth. I really used to like her. I remember all the fun we had together as kids and in a way I miss it. But who really stays friends, close friends, with kids they ran around with in grade school?"

     "Besides us?"

     "Besides us."

     "And don’t forget junior and high school."

     "That too but by sixth grade I was already enrolled at Saint Teresa’s, remember?"

     "We still had weekends and holidays." He reminded her.

    
"Yeah." She leaned into him with a sigh. "I’m surprised you were never closer with her." Erik had been just as much a fixture in her life as Hailey.

     "Let’s just say you were the glue that bonded Hailey and I together. When you weren’t around..." He shrugged.

     "You never liked her all that much."

     "I didn’t trust her."

     "I did. Until today." She muttered, methodically chipping away at the cherry red polish that adorned her toes. "What a bitch. Why would she lie like that? And filing a fake police report?" Paige shook her head, disgusted. "Isn’t there a law against that?"

     "Yes but it’s hard to prove, most of the time. Then again, they can’t prove you harassed her either."

     "Well I didn’t."

     "I know that. You wouldn’t lie about it if you had argued with her."

     "When she gave me the cold shoulder, I took the hint and left."

     "Are you going to call her?"

     "Hell no. What for?"

     “What about him? Paige?"
He prompted when she remained silent.

     "I don’t know," S
he responded honestly. "I don’t know anything about him anymore." She sighed. "He could be married, or have children, or both."

     "Well we know he's not gay
. You’re welcome, by the way." He added at her startled glance.

     "He coul
d still be a married man now." She continued after a moment. "Or seeing someone. Anyhow, it doesn’t matter. Or did you fail to notice the death stare he leveled on me the whole time he was here? Trust me, Erik; he was here on business and business alone. If he could have gotten someone else to take the call, he would have. Guy doesn’t want me now."

     "Do you want him?" Erik’s tone was measured, his inquisitive eyes missing nothing.

     "I don’t want someone who isn’t willing to give me the time of day unless he's arresting me." She exhaled.

     "Good for you, honey."

     "I still think about him."

     "I know." H
e sighed.

     "I wish things had turned out differently..."

     "But they didn’t."

     "No," S
he swallowed, "they didn’t."

    "I can’t believe you talked me into this."

     "Don’t be such a wuss."

     "That’s easy for you to say. You’re a mutant."

     "It’s just water. We go on the count of three."

     "Wait-"

     "One-"

     "Erik-"

     "Two-"

     Icy water hit her with a resounding splash as they plunged into the deep end. Erik came up grinning, Paige came up screaming.

     "What the
Hell
happened to three?"

     "It was implied." H
e laughed, "Gee Paige; you've got water up your nose. And you really should have used water proof mascara this morning."

     "I hate you." S
he coughed and sputtered, gasping with the effort it took to tread water.

     "Dive a couple of times," H
e instructed, "Then you won’t feel the cold quite so much. In fact," He continued, splashing past her, "the water will feel warmer than the air."

     "Ye
ah that’s called hypothermia." She muttered, but swam hard to the four foot shallows anyway, curling her body into a flawless underwater dive as she went. She loved to swim, although the frigid water was a blunt shock to her system, invading every cell and tissue to bring her startlingly, vividly to life.

     She forced herself to go deeper, streamlining through the underwater world until she reached the bottom and pressing her body flush against the flat coral blue tile, imagining the bottom dropping out beneath her. She pictured herself falling, falling, falling into a vivid underwater paradise of brightly colored fish and rainbow sprays of light swirling around her.

     The tap on her leg combined with the burning sensation in her lungs served to pull her from the beautiful fantasy world daydream. The solid gray shape bumped her again, higher on her thigh this time. Water flooded her suddenly open mouth and she saw black spots an instant before she felt the pain. And then she was being pulled up fast and hard, roughly propelled through water that was clouded and bubbly and tinged with red.

     "Holy shit!" Erik gasped, flinging her over the side of the pool before hauling himself onto the deck to kneel beside her, turning her roughly onto her side and whacking the middle of her back as she vomited up a healthy dose of chlorinated pool water. "That’s it Paige, breathe, breathe, that’s the way."

     "Erik." She gasped, fire burning through her entire body.

     "I've got to call for help. Don’t move."

     "Don’t-leave me here." She groaned, but he was already gone. She struggled to breathe, tried in vain to pull her shaking body away from the edge of the pool, away from that...thing, and then panicked when she couldn’t draw air fast enough, when her muscles refused to cooperate.

     "That’s right.307 Mockingbird Lane, white house with brick trim, mile long drive way, right. Yes." She heard him speak into the phone, heard the whoosh of the sliding glass doors and his footsteps pattering on the tile. "Shark attack.
You heard me. Just get here." He growled into the handset before tossing it aside.

     "Honey lean forward," H
is arms came around her and the next thing she knew a thick white blanket was wrapped around her. "Can you sit up on your own?"

     "I-I think so." He
r teeth chattered. "It hurts." She flinched, staring at the top of his head as he bent low in front of her and wrapped a white towel around her injured leg. "Is it gone?" She asked numbly.

     He looked at her quizzically.

     "My leg.” She croaked, violent shivering making both her movements and her voice jerky.

     "Oh," H
e tried to smile. "No, it’s not gone. He just took a little test nibble, from the look of it."

     "A...test...nibble?"

     "Well you might need a couple of stitches." He admitted, applying pressure to her wound.

     "Oh my God."

     "No, no," He rushed on, "Tiny stitches, Paige. Teeny tiny stitches. It’s not that bad."

     "Why is...there a...a...shark-in the pool?"

     "Don’t try to talk; an ambulance is on its way. You're going to be fine." He glanced at the pool behind them.

     "Erik?" Her eyes darted fearfully to the deceptively calm surface of the
water. Evening had given way to night; moonlight glittered along the surface that winked back at her. Tranquil waters that hid a monster; she gulped the night air, nausea threatening to overcome her.

     "Paige? Paige?" Erik’s voice grew dim in the background, fading away altogether as the darkness engulfed her.

***

    
Consciousness returned to her by slow, groggy degrees and her first coherent thought was a profound sense of gratitude when she realized she was in a hospital bed and not bleeding poolside at the homestead. Her second thought gave consideration to which she would rather deal with, if given a choice, the shark or Guy, who had apparently taken up residence in the corner of the room sometime during the night. He was standing there, his back to the wide double window, watching her through eyes that revealed pretty much nothing. The shark was looking better by the minute.

    
"Trouble seems to follow you lately."

    
"I have no idea what you’re talking about." Her chin came up a notch.

    
"Where's your bodyguard"?" Guy asked, lowering himself into the chair beside her hospital bed and peering over the edge of a shiny chrome bar to inspect the thick gauze that encased her left calve.

    
"I don’t know. I just woke up." She told him, plucking at her white linen blanket and gazing curiously at her wounded leg. The pain had receded to mere mild discomfort and her leg was indeed whole and intact, as promised by Erik.