When Love Finds a Home (20 page)

"Yeah." She took a
deep breath and fought the urge to retreat. She started to answer, and the
words died as Anna leaned in and kissed her. The kiss slowly intensified until
her arms slid around Anna's waist. A hand cupped the back of her head as
another settled on her lower back pulling her closer yet.

The moment was interrupted as
shouts of approval erupted in the living room.

"Hurry up, you two,"
Julian shouted. "The Spurs just scored again."

"Remind me to swat
him," Anna said and laughed softly before stealing another quick kiss.
"Promise me that this can be continued at a later time."

"I'm looking forward to
it," Rona replied, surprised to realize how much she meant it.

Chapter Twenty-one

Rona stared at the television
feigning interest in the final moments of the game, when in truth all she could
think about was the woman sitting less than five feet behind her. If she were
to turn around and reach out her hand, she could touch Anna's warm smooth skin.
It had been a long time since she'd been held in someone's arms like that.
Almost two years had passed since Mary's death, and even before her death, she
had been in so much pain lovemaking wasn't possible. At first, they thought it
was nothing more than a cold, but the cough wouldn't go away. Mary waved off
Rona's concerns, insisting it was nothing more than allergies caused by the
smoke-filled bars they played in. The band was beginning to get some
recognition. On average, they played four nights a week. Sometimes, when they
were lucky, they were booked six nights a week.

Lenny, the band's lead
guitarist and backup vocalist, was the first to mention Mary's loss of lung
capacity. She occasionally failed
to hold
the note for the duration needed. Then it started to become more and more
noticeable. By the time Rona was able to convince her to see a doctor, it was
too late. The lung cancer was inoperable. That was when the real nightmare
began.

From the beginning of the
relationship, Mary handled their money and paid the bills. Rona assumed they
were doing all right financially. She knew they weren't rich, but they lived a
simple lifestyle. On those rare occasions when she did want something like a CD
or new clothes, Mary said they could afford them. Rona received a rude
awakening when the gigs stopped coming in. That's when she learned they had
been living on credit cards and owed over twelve thousand dollars. They had no health
insurance and very little cash. When they were no longer able to make even the
minimum payment on the debts, the credit card companies began to get nasty. The
phone was disconnected for failure to pay and mercifully stopped the endless
calls from collection agencies. It was much easier to ignore the collection
notices that arrived in the mail, and after the first encounter with a
collector who came knocking at their door, they learned to ignore the insistent
knocking that seemed to increase with each week. Since they had no health
insurance, Mary was at the mercy of free clinics for checkups and a county
hospital that insisted on full payment before each treatment. She applied for
government assistance, but a mountain of red tape delayed it until a few weeks
before she died. The medical card helped some but still didn't cover
everything.

After Mary's diagnosis, the
band tried to hang on, but without a lead vocal, it quickly fell apart. Lenny
left first. He joined the Navy. Zac went home to Lubbock and Eric moved to
California. Rona quickly discovered how immersed their lives had been with the
band. The only friends she had were those who began showing up after the band
began to make a name for itself. They were the first people to disappear when
there was no longer a band. She and Mary quickly found themselves alone. Rona
got a job as a night watchman, but she quit as soon as she realized that taking
care of Mary was a full-time job. With no income, Rona was forced to sell her
keyboards and equipment to help pay for the medical treatments and buy food.
The only thing from the band they kept was Mary's battered old Martin guitar.
On her good days, Mary could find some comfort in strumming the songs she once
sang. When the money from the equipment was gone, Rona sold the car, then their
meager household furnishings, and when everything else was gone, she turned to
her family in desperation.

Her mother hung up the moment
she mentioned Mary's name. Then Rona swallowed her pride and called her father.
She never made it beyond his secretary. When Rona insisted on speaking to her
father, the woman told her in a quiet, embarrassed voice that her mother had
already called to warn him Rona would be calling to ask for money. He didn't
want to talk to her. She considered calling her brother and sister, but they
were merely carbon copies of their parents. When she hung up the phone that
day, she swore she would never again make any effort to reach out to her
family.

The landlord of the small
apartment she and Mary had shared for nearly four years was decent enough. He
didn't push too hard for the rent while Mary was living, or immediately after
her death when Rona sank into a seemingly bottomless pit of depression.
Eventually, though, even his tolerance ran out. When he evicted her, all she
had was a small suitcase containing a few clothes, Mary's guitar and ring, and
the battered notebook containing her songs.

The guitar and suitcase were
stolen the first week she was on the street. She had fallen asleep in an alley
with the notebook in her arms. Mary's ring was on a chain around her neck. The
suitcase was beside her with the guitar resting on top of it. When she awoke,
the suitcase and guitar were gone. She checked all the pawnshops in the area,
but the Martin never showed up. With nothing to keep her in Austin, Rona gave
up and started walking with no destination in mind. She simply wanted to go
someplace new where there wouldn't be a painful memory on every corner.

One night shortly after she
arrived in San Antonio, she was sitting beneath a bridge when a homeless guy
tried to grab her note
book. She managed
to fight him off. It was then that she realized how much the contents meant to
her. It took her two days to find the perfect spot, an abandoned building that
she could easily and discreetly access through a back fence. After prying up a
couple of loose boards from the floor, she removed Mary's ring from around her
neck and secured it inside the notebook by slipping it over one of the clamps
before closing it. She carefully wrapped the binder in a large piece of plastic
she found before tucking it beneath the floor and stomping the boards back into
place.

It had felt so wonderful to be
able to play a piano again, but her true enjoyment came from creating music and
lyrics that made people stop and listen. She would never sing the words to
"Lover's Dream," because they were too painful and her own voice was
mediocre at best. She had written the song for Mary, who had a beautiful voice
with an amazing range. Perhaps she could write again. If she could find a
full-time job, she could purchase a small keyboard.

She sensed movement behind
her. With a quick glance back, she saw Julian follow Anna out to the kitchen.
Would it look odd if she followed them? She wanted to talk to her again.
You
want to kiss her again,
a small voice teased. She gave the thought some
consideration and decided it was true. She did want to kiss her again and make
love to her. The fantasies and masturbating weren't enough. She wanted to touch
Anna.

A sudden rush of warmth washed
over her. What sort of lover would Anna be? She was a great kisser. Rona didn't
have a wealth of experience, but she suspected there was a smoldering fire
waiting to burst into flames of passion within die quiet woman.

It wasn't long before Hector
and Pietro drifted away toward the kitchen. When Lupie and Polly followed, she
gave up thinking about getting Anna alone and turned her attention back to the
game. Memphis was losing badly. Tammy didn't seem to care. She and Mrs. Pagonis
were sitting on the couch engrossed in a quiet conversation. The twins were in
the corner playing with five or six of the younger Pagonis children. Mr.
Pagonis was dozing in his recliner and Gina was helping three-year-old Ellen
wrap her baby doll up in an old blanket. Rona let the peaceful atmosphere
settle around her. This felt right. She would like to have a house filled with
running children, but she couldn't envision them being her own. She was
thirty-six and for the first time in months, there was a slight glimmer of hope
in getting her life back on track.

"You look a million miles
away."

She turned to find Gina
sitting down beside her. "I was just enjoying the peacefulness."

Gina smiled. "It does get
a little loud when we're all here," she admitted.

That wasn't what Rona had been
referring to, but she let it go.

"You play the piano
beautifully," Gina said.

Rona glanced down.
"Thanks. It's been a while since I've played."

"Would you consider
giving lessons?"

She looked up, surprised.
"You want to learn to play the piano?"

"No. It's not me. Julian
and I have been thinking about sending the twins. I think it would be
beneficial to them."

"What will you do when
they grow up and want to join a band?" she asked, sounding a little
harsher than she intended.

Gina tilted her head to one
side. "Is that what happened to you?"

She smiled. Gina had turned
the question back on her. "Something like that," she admitted.
"What did you have in mind as far as lessons?"

"I've made a few calls
and it seems like the norm is one lesson per week, and the cost ranges between
twenty and twenty-five dollars an hour. We would prefer that they have their
lessons individually. We'd also like to start them out with thirty-minute
lessons. I'm afraid an hour is too much."

"That sounds good, but I
don't have a place to hold lessons."

"If you don't mind, you
could come to the house. We haven't actually purchased a piano yet."

"Don't."

Gina looked at her in
surprise.

"Pianos are expensive and
they're costly to maintain properly," Rona said. "If you want the
kids to take lessons, buy an electronic keyboard. You can get a good one for
much less than a piano will cost. That way, if the kids don't want to continue,
you won't be stuck with an expensive mistake."

"That's a good idea. When
can you start?"

"If you're serious, I can
start anytime. I work until six."

"Great," Gina said.
"Let me go find Julian and we can work out the details."

As Gina rushed off, Rona
leaned back. If she charged ten dollars per lesson that would bring in an extra
twenty dollars a week. That wasn't much, but eventually she'd be able to
purchase a used keyboard of her own. Maybe she could even find a band that
needed a songwriter. She stopped. She didn't want to think that far in advance.
It was tempting fate to want something too badly.

Chapter Twenty-two

It was after seven when they
finally pulled into Anna's driveway. The twins were in the backseat with Tammy,
telling her about an animated creature that was a sponge or something. Rona
tried listening to them, but Anna's quiet presence beside her was distracting.
They hadn't had an opportunity to be alone since the kiss. Just thinking about
it made her pulse quicken. As the car pulled into the driveway and they waited
for the garage door to rise, Rona wondered how late Tammy and the kids would
stay up. Would she and Anna make love?

When Anna pulled the car into
the garage and pushed the remote to close the door, Rona practically jumped out
of the car.

"Come on," Tammy
urged the girls as she helped them out of the seatbelts. Rona opened the back
door to help Karla out of the car.

Once inside, Rona struggled to
maintain a semblance of normal behavior as they all made their way to the den.
Twice she looked
up to find Anna watching
her. When their gazes met, Anna gave her a small suggestive smile that made a
thin sheen of sweat break out along her hairline. Rona fanned herself with a
magazine from the table beside the couch.

"Is the heat too
high?" Tammy asked.

"No, why?" Rona
stammered.

Tammy started to say something
but stopped and looked from Rona to Anna. She grinned slightly. "Girls,
it's time for bed." They began their normal complaint, but tonight she
scurried them off. "I'm exhausted too. Good night." Without waiting
for a response, Tammy left.

"Were we that
obvious?" Rona asked, staring at Anna.

"Hey, it wasn't me
fanning myself."

"It was your fault."

Anna tried to look innocent.
"What did I do? I was just sitting here minding my own business."

"Yeah, right."

Anna moved to the couch and
turned to face her. "It was those looks you kept sending me," she
said as she brushed her thumb over Rona's cheek. "You have beautiful
skin."

Rona turned her head slightly
and kissed Anna's hand. "Would you mind if we saved the talking for later?
I've been wanting this all afternoon." She leaned forward and kissed Anna.
As the kiss deepened, she began to push her back onto the couch.