Unlovable (29 page)

“
I’ll never watch another
movie like that again.” He began mimicking the music from the
horrid shower scene, laughing at my tightly pinched expression.
“You are sick!”

“
Mags,
Psycho
is a classic, it’s one of the
all-time greats.”

I shivered. “Speaking
of
Psycho
,” I got
up from the couch, “I’d better go home and check on my mom.” I
couldn’t help but smile as he tried not to laugh.

20

Seth

“
Game’s over, kid,” Booker
said when we got back into the car. We’d spent the morning at
George Kiefer’s funeral, and Booker was a mess. He hated funerals.
They only served to remind him of everyone he’d lost. We hoped the
services would draw out the killers. It didn’t, just sorrow-laden
family members and friends.

“
Game? What game?” I flipped
on the radio and searched for something to calm his
nerves.

“
I’ve gotten the okay for
you to tell Maggie about us,” he said heavily.

“
Why?” I’d been waiting for
this, dreading it beyond measure. I wasn’t ready to tell her, not
yet.

“
She needs to know before it
all blows up in your face. Things are getting dangerous, Seth.
These guys want us dead.”

Before he died, Mr. Kiefer told his
wife the men were heroin dealers and they wanted revenge on us, but
he didn’t live long enough to tell his wife their names, so we
still can’t ID them. Disgruntled drug dealers commonly mouthed off
about getting even with the cops who arrested them and it was
usually just talk. Evidently, these two were serious.

“
She’s under constant
surveillance. I spoke with the city sheriff and requested a local
detective be assigned to watch over her whenever I was
unavailable.” The captain readily agreed. He’d lost his son to a
heroin overdose last summer and was more than sympathetic to our
cause. He wanted the two men brought to justice, and he committed
to do whatever it took to make it happen.

“
You’re wearing yourself
ragged, Seth. The longer you wait, the harder it’s going to
be.”

“
What exactly do I tell her?
'Hey, Maggie, I’ve been lying to you all this time. I’m really a
cop, MET to be exact. Oh, and one more thing, we believe your
mother is somehow involved in a heroin ring, so despite the fact
that you have major trust issues, don’t let this mess with your
head.' ” I wasn’t being fair, this wasn’t Booker’s
fault.

His tone softened. “Listen, Kid. She’s
going to find out sometime. Besides, if you tell her now we can
search her place and clear her mother’s name.”

“
Her mom’s not involved, I
told you that already. She’s a drunk, a mean, heartless drunk, not
a junkie!”

“
You know that, and I know
that, but the chief isn’t going to take our word on it. We need to
search the house.” Booker still had doubts about Maggie’s mom, and
out of respect for me, he’d held off on questioning her. He
desperately wanted to search their trailer, but purposefully hadn’t
gotten a search warrant. For that, I was grateful.

He changed the subject. “We have a
stake-out scheduled Thursday night, and it’s your turn to ride
shotgun.”

“
I rode shotgun last time,
and I also did the food run, twice. Why don’t you ever ride
shotgun?” He playfully tapped his captain bars in answer to my
question.

I was more than happy to let the
argument about Maggie drop, even though I knew he was right. She
had to be told, but if we could just wait a little longer, maybe
she’d be so crazy in love with me that she’d take it all in
stride.

Yeah, right, who was I kidding? She
was going to flip out.

“
Someone broke into Cole’s
house again, and I’m putting a security system in for him this
afternoon. He still hasn’t finished the upstairs, so it will go
quickly,” Booker said. “I could use your help.”

“
I thought he didn’t want a
system. What happened to protecting the indigents from the brutal
winter?”

“
They swiped his
TV.”

21

Maggie

Thanks to Parent-Teacher conferences
tonight, there was no school tomorrow, which meant a three-day
weekend, I could hardly wait. I had it up to my eyeballs with my
insuperable Calculus class. If I never saw another derivative
again, it’d be too soon. To celebrate the long weekend, I refused
to study for Monday’s test until Sunday night, late. Seth quieted
the radio as we pulled up in front of my house.

“
I have some bad news. I’m
going out of town tonight and won’t be back until noon
tomorrow.”

“
Do you have to
go?”

“
Sorry, I’ve got some things
to take care of, although I won’t be having fun if that helps.” It
was the third time since we started dating that he had to go out of
town to take care of
things,
yet he’d never say exactly what it was he’d be
doing.

“
While I’m gone, think of
something fun you want to do when I get back.” He leaned over and
kissed me good-bye.

“
You’re leaving now?” He
nodded weakly. “Fine, I’ll see you tomorrow.” I got out, slamming
the car door a little too hard.

“
Don’t be angry, Maggie,” he
said, lowering the window and leaning across the leather
seat.

“
I’m not angry, I’m
disappointed. I was looking forward to being with you.”

“
That’s a good thing,
right?”

I turned to see his grin smoldering in
my direction and melted. “Yes, Pollyanna, it’s a good
thing.”

“
I thought you slept through
that movie?” I shook my head. “I’ll try and call, love
ya.”

I moped into the house, tripping over
several empty alcohol bottles strewn across the floor. “Hoffman
must have been here again, not even she can drink this much by
herself.” I cleared the discarded bottles to a chorus of soft
snores before searching the fridge to see if she had eaten anything
and found several more unopened bottles inside. I was tempted to
toss them except I didn’t want to suffer her wrath when she
discovered them missing, besides, she’d only buy more. I covered
her up, went into my room, and sunk my teeth into my vampire
romance novel till I fell asleep.

Early the next morning, I awoke to an
icy cold house. I turned the thermostat up, but the heater didn’t
turn on. “I know I paid the electric bill.” I tried a light switch,
still no response.

I opened the front door, and
my eyes landed on the problem; a bright yellow
Termination of Services
notice tacked
to the doorframe. I called the power company and was informed that
my check was never received, but they’d be happy to reinstate my
service as soon as the balance was paid.

My mother must have forgotten to mail
it, it wasn't the first time. Thankful that we had a gas stove, I
turned the burners and oven on, at least we'd have some heat. Next
in my effort to warm up, I pulled on Seth’s fleece, drawing in a
deep breath. “Mmmm.” It still smelled like him, although the scent
had faded somewhat.

After a bowl of Honey-Nut Cheerios, my
new favorite cereal, I grudgingly took out my Calculus book. My new
plan was to study while Seth was gone, then I could spend all my
time with him when he got back.

Before long, the sky outside went
gray, and subsequently, so did our trailer making it impossible to
get through my work. It also was getting colder. I piled all of our
blankets on my mom to keep her warm and did some jumping jacks to
get my blood pumping. The phone rang, saving me from having to jog
in place.

“
Hello, beautiful,” said the
delectable voice on the other end of the line. “I’m about 30
minutes away, I’ll stop by and pick you up.”

“
No, my mom didn’t mail the
electric bill, and we have no power here, I’ll meet you at your
house. I need to keep moving to stay warm.”

“
Maggie, I don’t want you
outside by yourself. The killers are still out there
somewhere.”

Oh, brother, he was too protective.
“All the attacks have been at night, it’s only noon,” I reminded
him.

“
Maggie, please.”

“
Seth, I’m
freezing!”

“
I’ll b—”

“
Seth?” My phone battery
died and without power, there was no way to charge it. I checked on
my mom once more, her skin was toasty warm, shut off the stove to
prevent any accidents and left.

Seth’s overreaction made me a bit
jumpy. More than once, I felt as though I was being followed and
increased my stride. He came tearing into the driveway ten minutes
after I’d arrived, skidding to a stop.

“
You don’t listen very well,
do you?” Agitation ruled his face as he flew across the
lawn.

“
Would you prefer me
frozen?” I snapped back at his Neanderthal attitude.

“
I prefer you alive.” He
grabbed me and planted a searing kiss on my mouth. Instantly, my
heart began its familiar dance in my chest. I wondered if all our
disagreements would end up like this.
I
sure hope so
. He set me free all too
quickly, his mood considerably lighter. “Sorry, I’ve been worried
about you.”

“
I locked my windows and
doors like you told me. In any case, the murderers have never
broken into a home to kill someone.” Silly boy. “You look tired,
have you been out necking all night with another girl?” My subtle
attempt to evoke a confession fell flat.

“
I was with Booker,” he
said. I cocked an eyebrow at him suggestively to which he rolled
his head. I took his hand, leading him toward the house. We could
finish this conversation inside, it was freezing out.

“
Maggie, we need to talk.
There’s something I have to discuss with you.”

I dragged him straight to the kitchen,
forcing him to sit down on a stool, I stood facing him. “Did you
really miss me?” I didn’t give him time to answer before stretching
up to his neck, kissing its length. “I missed you,” I whispered
against his skin, he smelled wonderful, which reminded
me.

“
You know the jacket you
gave me?” he muttered what sounded like a yes. “I can barely smell
you on it. You need to wear it around for a few hours and make it
smell good again.” He nodded and pulled me to his mouth.

Yep, he missed me!

Dragging myself out of his arms, I
said, “I really wish you weren’t such a great kisser.” He looked at
me as if I had lost my mind. “Hear me out. If you kissed like Zack,
you know, all wet and sloppy,” I involuntarily shuddered, “I
wouldn’t want to kiss you all the time. And if I didn’t kiss you
all the time, I wouldn’t have to force myself to stop kissing you
all the time either.”

“
I think your brain’s
frozen. Have you eaten today?”

“
Yes.” Evidently, he didn’t
appreciate my logic.

“
Well, not
enough.”

He led me around to the counter where
we made up some chicken salad with nuts and cranberries. While we
ate, Seth wore the fleece to ’stink it up’, as he said. He offered
to sprinkle some of his aftershave on it, but I protested,
insisting the smell came from off his skin.

I drained the last of my milk and set
the cup in the sink. “We should probably check on my mom, she may
have sobered up.”

“
I’ll make up a sandwich for
her.” He gathered the chicken salad and whole wheat bread from the
fridge.

“
What did I ever do to
deserve you?” I worked my arms around his waist from behind,
resting my cheek on the back of his yellow shirt while he began
making up the sandwich.

“
I was thinking the same
thing.”

“
You were wondering what I
did to deserve you too?”

“
Now you’ll have to kiss me
for that remark.” He twisted around to face me, licking his lips
repeatedly, until they glistened with spit.

“
What are you doing?” I held
his face at arm’s length.

“
I’m making my kisses wet
and sloppy so you won’t have to force yourself to stop,” he said,
innocently.

“
Don’t you dare!” I quickly
wiped off his mouth before he could kiss me.

“
Spoil all my fun.” He
turned back to the sandwich.

On the way to my house it began to
sprinkle, I unrolled my window a crack to smell the damp air. Since
it was still a little chilly out, I turned on the seat warmer
instead of rolling up the window. Seth laughed.

I shrugged. “I love the smell of
rain.”

“
Do you think your mom’s
awake?” He handed me the now
Seth
stinky
fleece. Mmmm.

“
I don’t know. If she is
she’s probably upset I’m not there to insult.” I said it jokingly,
though we both knew it was the truth.

“
Maggie, she’s hidden behind
the alcohol for so long, she doesn’t know how to show her feelings
anymore.” He pressed my hand to his lips.