My short holiday story is called “All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Knees” and features Dom & Kate on the Christmas BEFORE they got together in The Bird Day Battalion. It’s smooshy and totally G-rated (sorry, lol)!
(Edited to fix the fact that apparently the link wasn’t working! It is now!)
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Dominic ignored the metaphorical daggers he knew Kate was aiming at him and continued on into the kitchen to make a quick sandwich. He’d missed lunch because his mother had raised him with some sense of decency, so he hadn’t ordered anything without Katelyn. Now he was starving, which lowered his patience and yet did nothing to lower the horny, a counterproductive combination if there ever was one.
“Dom,” Kate sighed, with one of those woman tones that somehow said fifty-jillion things and nothing at all.
She dropped her keys on the counter with a clack.
He didn’t say anything as he got out the sliced chicken and cheese. It was a testament to how much he loved Kate that he was suffering through a chicken sandwich when his mother lived next door. She always had the best salami and prosciutto wrapped around fresh mozzarella… the extra drool that this thought elicited helped him get down Kate’s dry 12-grain bread.
Dom hated 12-grain bread.
“‘M not schtupid y’know,” he mumbled around a bite.
Katelyn blinked, but remained mute.
“You’ve been doing the avoiding thing you like to do ever since I started hinting you should move in with me,” Dom continued after he swallowed. “I’ve watched you do this with every boyfriend you’ve inadvertently tortured me with over the years. True, maybe it was a little arrogant to think it’d be different with me. But, if you’re not ready to move in together, just say so. I just figured that, you know, we’ve known each other our whole lives, so there’s no need for the getting to know you dating period and, obviously, sexually speaking, we are very compatible—”
“Ugh, please stop,” she said, holding a hand up and looking towards the hallway.
“Ugh?” he asked.
Really, what was wrong with this woman? Dom wondered.
First, she keeps him waiting for years, and now she was backtracking faster than a politician at a debate. If she wasn’t ready to move in with him, what would she say when he asked her to marry him?
He frowned at his sandwich.
“Dominic,” she said in that annoying ‘I’m about to lecture you’ tone she had.
He looked back up and narrowed his eyes at her.
She smiled that sheepish, just-been-caught smile. She had no idea how sexy she was when she did that. Or how much he wanted to just give her whatever she asked for. But Kyle was right; he had to put his foot down at some point. First, it was 12-grain bread, and no Valentine’s Day. Next, she’d be asking him to get up and run with her in the morning. Or wear her mother’s knitted sweaters. A guy had to have limits.
“Dom,” she said in a much softer tone. “Dom, I’m not opposed to the idea of us moving in together, but you know how much this place means to me, and every time you bring it up you imply it’s me who should move—”
“Well, excuse me for not relishing the idea of living next to my mother for the rest of eternity,” Dom interrupted. “Not to mention, you never changed the locks, so your parents have keys to this place and could walk in whenever they like. It honestly never occurred to me to move in here.”
Katelyn’s eyes darted towards the direction of next door and she winced a bit.
“First, I hardly ever see your mom, or dad for that matter. They spend more time visiting people than they do here. And my Mom and Dad wouldn’t show up unannounced,” she said, but her eyelid twitched the way it always did when she wasn’t being truthful.
It probably wasn’t normal that he found even that to be sexy.
Dom shook his head and stuffed his hands in his pockets to keep them from touching her. It was a habit he’d picked up somewhere around puberty when all he did was think about touching her.
He took a deep breath.
“You and I both know that my mother would be over here all the time if I lived here. And you hardly ever see her because you hardly ever leave the house.”
Katelyn gave him an affronted huff and dropped her purse on the counter by her keys. She glared at him in silence for what felt like an eternity in man minutes, but was probably not nearly enough in female minutes. Then she walked over to the kitchen island and started making herself a peanut butter, honey, and banana sandwich.
He stifled a shudder of disgust at all the sugar in the thing.
“I have a job in Lincoln now,” she finally said, chin in the air.
“And I’m happy for you, babe, but you do telecommute half the week.”
“To save gas!”
A little dab of honey came down the side of her mouth and her tongue darted out to catch it.
He felt himself harden, and instead of distracting him from their argument, he felt a sudden panicked urgency to get her to see reason. Like that last drive in the fourth quarter of a game, this wasn’t the time to get complaisant. He knew Katelyn Anderson like the back of his hand, obviously not all of her grown up quirks and philosophies, but the basic core of her. And he knew the more she felt pressured, the more she was inclined to run from any decision at all.
“Skate,” he said softly in that low, husky voice that always made her mouth part and her eyes glaze. “Babe, I love you, and I’ve loved you for so long that I just want to get started on our happy ever after. I’m sorry if I’m pushing you into something you don’t want, but you’re going to need to tell me what you do want if this isn’t working.”
She tilted her head to the side and sighed. A curl of hair stuck in the honey on her lips and he wanted to liberate it with his tongue. But she reached up and pushed back her wild brown curls behind her ears. She stuck her hands on her hips, then she smiled that spunky little crooked smile he had fallen in love with at the age of thirteen.
“You’ve been talking to your sister again, haven’t you?” Kate asked. “You always start speaking like a Hallmark card after you’ve been talking to Demetria.”
“I do not!”
“Um, ‘get started on our happy ever after’?” Katelyn repeated in a faux male voice.
“Fine. I’ve been talking to Demi. Is that a crime now, too? My girlfriend’s been avoiding me for the last two week. Desperate times, babe.”
“Just as long as you don’t start talking about the universal collective or whatever Zen stuff she’s into these days in Boulder. I’ve always thought Demi and Kellie should write travel brochures together. They’d sell like hot cakes.”
“You could use a little more Zen in your life, and you’re deflecting again, Skate. Why is it so hard for you to discuss our future like two rational adults? If I bring it up lately you either bolt or you try and distract me with sex. I definitely preferred the sex tactic to this one, just so you know.”
Katelyn sighed heavily and came forward.
“I’m sorry, Dom, I just… you know what this house means to me,” she repeated.
“What I know is it’s your security blanket because you hate to take chances.”
“I took a chance on you.”
“Exactly. So, I know you have no trouble changing your mind about something when you want to. You didn’t want to do that thing in bed until I showed you how good it could be and now it’s your favorite thing to do.”
She blushed crimson and stuffed some sandwich in her mouth.
“There’s a difference between taking a chance on a person and ignoring an obligation,” she said around a mouthful of food. “I took out a thirty year mortgage, Dom.”
“And you are not the first person in the history of house buying that is allowed to change her mind. It’s like, almost paralyzing for you. The rules say… the rules say…” he said in a mocking voice. “To hell with the rules, Kate! It’s just a house. Live a little.”
She stared dull-eyed at him and leaned on the counter, mouth in a straight line.
“First, why is it that you and everyone else says that when they want me to do what they want? Second, I don’t want to change my mind. It’s not just a house. It’s my house.”
“So is this just about the house or about moving in with me in general? You understand why I might be confused, because you loved outdoing me exchanging candies on Valentine’s Day when we were kids, and now apparently I’m not allowed to take you out and give you a gift.”
“You are allowed to give me gifts. Anytime. Just not because the calendar told you to. And it’s different with kids. When kids celebrate it, it’s about observing rituals and communal solidarity and teaching kindness like any other holiday. With adults it’s about obligation—”
“God, please don’t start on the lecture again. I get it. You hate the concept of Valentine’s Day. But I like the idea of taking out the woman I love and showering her with gifts. I don’t like the idea that the guys at the high school are going to ask me, ‘so what’d you get Kate for Valentine’s?’, and when I say ‘nothing’, I look like a jerk.”
“Well, that’s their problem,” Katelyn said with her chin in the air again. “We’re already going to go out for my birthday to Lo Sole Mio. I talked with the manager who’s friends with Mom and they’ll save us a nice table, and I’ll even wear a nice dress and heels, and… what?”
Dominic continued to stare incredulously at her for a beat before replying.
“I am supposed to get us reservations, not you. The man is supposed to do all that not the woman!”
Katelyn put her hands back on her hips, and her mouth parted as wide as her eyes narrowed.
In the back crevices of his mind he could hear Andrew’s warning buzzer, err, err, err…
“That has easily got to be the most sexist thing I’ve heard you say since that BS at Thanksgiving about taking care of a woman so she doesn’t have to work.”
“Well, you wouldn’t have to work if you lived with me.”
She glared at him for so long he was beginning to wonder if some guy somewhere had worked out the math conversion chart for the length of the stare translated into the degree of stubborn irrational female mad that would follow. She picked up her sandwich and slowly took a bite, all without releasing the predatory glare.
He took a deep breath in and out, and started over.
“What I mean is, if you wanted to not work you wouldn’t have to, but if you wanted to work, you could. That better?”
She slammed her sandwich back down on the plate and walked right past him into the living room.
He followed her.
“See you’re doing it again, first you change the subject to Valentine’s…”
“You changed the subject, Dominic,” she sneered.
“…and then you leave the room.”
“I left the room because you said I should curb my habit of smacking people when I’m upset. And I’m not going to get rooked into giving up my home, and then my job, like Kandace did and the next thing you know, I’m lurking in bushes and squatting at my sister’s house!”
“What on earth are you talking about?” he asked, thoroughly confused.
“Nothing! Never mind. Just forget it. This is not the time or place to be having this discussion.” She turned around as she said it and stopped.
He didn’t.
Her eyes widened and she started backing up.
Dom hooked one arm around her and the other in her hair and kissed her with everything he had. He was so damned confused at this point – houses, jobs, Valentine’s – all he wanted was to make her happy and to figure out what would make her happy with him.
When Kate’s hands had made their way into his hair, and she started making those sexy pre-surrender mewling sounds, he pulled back. He grinned at the dazed and aroused look in her eyes.
“I love you,” he said.
“I love you, too,” she said, her eyes softening even more.
When she leaned in for more kisses, he leaned back.
“At least say we can celebrate Valentine’s here at the house.”
“I told you—” she cut off as he squeezed her tighter.
“Dom…” she sighed.
He could sense weakness of resolve, but then the doorbell rang.
“Ignore that,” Dominic said as his lips dipped to meet hers again.
“Wait, Dom, there’s something I need to tell—mmpff—”
He kissed her until her leg wrapped around his and she started doing that thing he loved with her hand on his…
“Dominic! Sweetheart, I saw you sitting on the porch. Open the door! I need to talk to you about your father,” Ramona Valentini called through the door.
His brain screeched to a halt.
“Annnd, I rest my case,” Dom said.
Kate grimaced and dipped her forehead to his chest.
He reluctantly let her go and walked over to open the front door. His mother quickly cupped his face in her palms and bussed him on the cheek before brushing past him into Kate’s home.
“Hello, Katelyn, how are you?” Ramona asked, then without waiting for an answer, turned back around to face Dominic.
“Your father is being completely unreasonable about Nonna and her beaux again, so I need you to go next door and make him see reason.”
“Mom, Kate and I were sort of in the middle of something…”
Dominic looked over at Katelyn and saw she was scooting around the couch about to escape to the kitchen. He tried to side step his mother to stop Kate, but Ramona grabbed his ear.
“Ahh, Mom!”
“Go next door and talk to your father. You can play hide the salami with your girlfriend later.”
Dom could hear feminine laughter coming from the hallway even as his eyes locked on the extremely embarrassed gaze of his girlfriend standing by the door of the dining room. He looked to the right and saw Kandace leaning against the wall of the hallway.
She raised a finger and waved it at him.
“You’re totally right about the hitting thing. She really goes all violent when she gets mad. We’re always ‘use your words, Katie’,” Kandace drawled in a sing-song, “… but no dice.”
Ramona turned and gave Kandace a confused look. Katelyn looked like she wanted to melt into the floor.
Dominic sighed. An overbearing mother, potential random in-law visits, and apparently a run-away flighty sister all in the same house…
And Kate really wondered why he didn’t want to move in here?
–Copyright 2013, Genevieve Dewey.
Read on… CHAPTER FIVE.
You’ve seen my Downey Trilogy Playlists on YouTube, well it’s only fair I share my Dom & Kate writing songs.
The Good Life Playlist:
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Katelyn put the brochure back on the rack by the front door of her sister Kellie’s office and tried to stifle another irritated sigh.
“Sorry, Katie,” Kellie said breathlessly as she entered the office. “I just got a new assistant last week and it’s crazy this time of year, everyone wanting to go on romantic cruises. You know how it is.”
No, actually, I don’t, Katelyn thought.
She would rather poke her own eye out with a dull spoon than be stuck on a large boat with thousands of strangers, and no escape route, or way home, or…
“I’ve got you penciled in for fifteen minutes but I’m sorry, that’s all I can spare today. So if you could just briefly outline what this is about?” Kellie tempered her bossy tone with a quick smile and a pat on Katelyn’s back.
“I was thinking we could pool our resources and send Kandace and Steve on a trip together. You’d know the best package being a travel salesman.”
Kellie looked taken aback. She walked around her desk and sat down before answering.
“It’s salesperson, Katelyn, and I’m actually an event planner, not a—”
“I know. Point is—”
“And I own Anderson Adventures – a highly successful travel and event organizing business, I might add – which technically makes my title CEO and—”
“Kellie, can we just, please, focus here?”
Kellie raised her eyebrows and clasped her hands in front of her on the desk. She had on her Bitch-in-Heels face, but Katelyn could recognize a little twinkle in her eyes. She took that as license to continue.
Katelyn sat in the little chair in front of Kellie’s desk and mirrored Kellie’s body-language.
“I think if they could just get away from the kids and the routine of their everyday lives they might, you know, be able to recapture what they had and reconcile.”
“And I think it’s best if we both just butt out and mind our own business. Kandy is a big girl and she can make her own decisions. If she wants a divorce then—”
“But she doesn’t! I know she doesn’t! It was all his idea.”
Kellie raised her eyebrows so high they almost disappeared under her platinum bangs.
“It was his idea she should cheat?”
“That was just… she over-reacted because instead of reassuring her he wasn’t cheating, he suggested counseling, and a trial separation—”
“And instead of doing that, she just files for divorce because he stayed at his parents for an extra week.”
“Over Thanksgiving! Who does that?”
“Someone who’s trying to give his wife space to think about what separation means.”
“The point is, she only did it after she filed for divorce and because she thought he already had someone on the side, and he did nothing to reassure her. What’s once compared to many times?”
Kellie scoffed and sat back in her chair.
“Mature adults don’t cheat just because they think, maybe, possibly, the other person did first,” she said, looking at Katelyn like she’d lost her mind.
“She just got insecure, that’s all,” Katelyn defended, even though she secretly agreed. “He should have stayed and reassured her, instead of ‘giving her space’. Everyone knows Kandace and ‘space to think’ is a bad combination. Especially after he just got done calling her flighty and irresponsible and reminded her she would need a job if she left him.”
“Everyone calls Kandace flighty because she picks a new career every year,” Kellie responded.
She clasped her hands on her chair handles and swiveling it back and forth lazily. Her facial expression was somewhere between completely unconcerned and mildly amused.
“Where is your sisterly solidarity, Kellie Ann!?” Katelyn spit out.
Kellie heaved a long sigh and leaned forward again in her chair. She looked at her watch pointedly. Kate pursed her lips and continued to glare. Kellie’s eyes softened a bit and her lip hitched a little like she knew just how much she was pressing her little sister’s buttons. She chuckled and reached her hands forward to grab Katelyn’s hands.
“Tell me something, baby sister. This sudden desire to help Kandace patch things up with her husband wouldn’t have anything to do with the fact she just moved in with you, would it?” Kellie asked.
Katelyn flushed and squirmed.
“How do you know about that? It just happened yesterday.”
“Mrs. Dickerson.”
That woman was a menace to society, thought Katelyn.
“What would you do, if she insisted on staying with you and Andrew?” Katelyn asked, going for the best defense is an offense approach.
“Helping her helps both of us – all of us. As a family,” she ended weakly.
Kellie raised her eyebrows again and her eyes sparkled in humor.
“Look, Katie, I do think that Kandy realizes she made a mistake and wants to patch things up, but just doesn’t know how. But I also think it’s really not our place to interfere, even as her sisters. Sisters are just supposed to be there for each other, not micromanage each other’s lives.”
“This coming from the biggest micromanager out there!” Katelyn couldn’t stop herself from saying.
Then she sighed in defeat.
“Sorry, Kellie, that was mean. It’s just… it’s Valentine’s Day tomorrow and I figured it would be the perfect time to play a little cupid.”
Kellie laughed and stood up. She went over and opened the door in a very unsubtle ‘time to go’ way.
“I’m sorry to kick you out, Katelyn, but my assistant will be back any minute and we have a big project to discuss.”
As Katelyn made her way to the door, Kellie continued, “Does this mean you’ve gotten over your aversion to Valentine’s Day? Me, personally, I think it’s fun watching Andrew try to surprise me every year. He never does, but he tries, bless him.”
“I didn’t think you listened when I said that. It seems like nobody in this family takes me seriously about V-Day. But I’m willing to take one for the team because it’s Kandy’s favorite holiday and their anniversary this weekend.”
“Good to know,” Kellie said mysteriously.
She smiled gently and she suddenly appeared more like the girl Katelyn used to play Barbies with, rather than the battle-axe she had become.
“And I always listen to you, Katie-belle. I just don’t always agree.”
Katelyn smiled and walked over to hug Kellie. When Kellie pulled back, she grabbed a brochure from the huge rack against the wall and handed it to Katelyn.
“Here. If you won’t take my advice and butt out, this is the hotel they stayed at on their honeymoon. It’s a theme hotel in Lincoln. Each room has—”
“A theme?”
“Yes, like the middle ages, or space adventure—”
“Oh, I remember her talking about that! She went on about it for weeks!”
“Probably to cover her disappointment they didn’t actually leave the state for their honeymoon, or at least stay at a casino across the river—”
“But she doesn’t even like gambling.”
“Do you have a pathological need to interrupt or is it just rudeness?” Kellie asked in her bossy, older sister tone.
Katelyn rolled her eyes and walked through the door, sending her sister a prune face over her shoulder.
Kellie laughed a bit and continued, “Anyway, you might just accidently-on-purpose lose that in front of her to remind her of the good times.”
“Let’s just hope it doesn’t remind her of the bad times,” Katelyn mumbled.
“Hmmn,” was all Kellie said in response.
She poked her head out the door and addressed the secretary in the lobby.
“Next time my sister visits, don’t make her wait fifteen minutes before calling me, understood?”
Then she shut the door smartly.
Katelyn gave the secretary a superior look and thought, well, maybe Kellie had a little sisterly solidarity left in her.
Just as she made it to her SUV, her phone rang with Dominic’s ring tone. She sang a few bars of Johnny Cash’s Ring of Fire before answering it.
“Thought we were meeting for lunch?” Dom asked without even saying hello. “It’s a good thing I took the day off, or I’d have to be back in class by now.”
She slapped her hand to her forehead.
“I’m sorry, Dom! I was downtown visiting Kellie and—”
“You used that excuse yesterday, babe. Might want to dust off a new one, or several.”
“What? I mean, I know, I’m sorry. But, I have to get on 180 just now and you know how I hate inner city traffic. I’ll call you back as soon as I get home,” Katelyn said in a rush and hung up before he could reply.
She swallowed the guilt again and started her car. As Katelyn made her way to the west edge of town she tried not to think about the fact she’d just given him more ammo for the ‘flighty’ comment yesterday. It wasn’t like she didn’t want to live with Dominic, it was just that she loved that little home. And now he wanted to use Valentine’s Day to ask her to give it up? It was like he was ignoring everything she had ever said about hating it!
Ok, true, maybe she didn’t actually hate it as much as she said. It was more in the realm of general apathy. And it was also true it might have been a little overkill to say he couldn’t get her anything at all, but she had hoped he would take it as a hint to drop the idea of them going out. Then it would give her a little more time to work up the courage to tell him she had no intention of moving.
She frowned. That seemed even a little convoluted to herself.
But, even so, she was reasonably certain she had a right to be annoyed that he was showing such disregard for her feelings about the holiday and her home. Everything was always on his terms and his turf. He had just assumed she would move in with him without even discussing it with her. She ignored the little Kandy-sounding voice in her head that said, ‘duh because you’ve been avoiding him‘, and told herself it was perfectly natural to want to put off an unpleasant confrontation with the man she loved.
She was still endlessly repeating this in her head (and almost had herself convinced it was true) when she pulled into her driveway.
“Just because he’s used to having it his way in every other aspect of his life doesn’t mean he can push me into this decision,” Katelyn mumbled to herself as she fished her house keys out from her purse.
“That’s cute, two and a half decades of knowing each other and I never noticed you talk to yourself,” a voice said from the corner of her front porch.
Katelyn dropped her keys and jumped.
“Dominic!”
She clutched the front of her sweater.
“You scared the piss out of me!”
She glared at him then narrowed her eyes even more at the sight of him looking perfect and dashing as always.
How did he do that?
Every day he pulled off some irresistible combination of dangerous, disheveled, and delicious. She knew for a fact he just got up in the morning, took a shower, sprayed some man-stink on, and that was that. She had to spend an hour getting ready, and still her hair always frizzed out and looked like she had done nothing to it.
“Not my problem you’re so unobservant you didn’t notice the guy sitting on your front porch,” Dom replied.
He waggled his eyebrows and got up from the porch swing. She turned around and picked up her keys to unlock the door while he continued speaking.
“First, you leave me hanging last night for supper—”
“We never had formal plans, and something came up, and—”
“Then you don’t even throw me a bone and come over after the game—” Dom continued.
“Oh, please, you only invited me over so I could help you clean up after my brother and brother-in-law—”
“Now you stand me up for lunch—”
“I told you I honestly lost track of time,” she said and turned back around.
He was lounging against the railing on the porch by the steps with his hands in his pockets.
She sighed. He was like sin in a man-shaped package. And her sister wondered why she was avoiding him? A nun would have no willpower around Dominic Valentini in full flirt mode.
“And I haven’t gotten any nookie since practically New Years…” Dom continued in a soft purr.
“Oh, what a load of bull! It was last week, ok, maybe the week before that, but I had my period, and that totally doesn’t count—”
“I got blue balls, babe, it’s not pretty. Maybe you could put on that sexy nurse outfit you wore on Halloween and tend to my—”
“Oh, for God’s sake, Dominic! And who says nookie any more, I mean, really?” Katelyn spit out and crossed her arms, but she couldn’t help laughing a bit.
He had always been able to get her out of a bad mood even when they had just been friends. Now that they were dating, he had even more ways to cajole a laugh out of her.
Why am I avoiding him again? She wondered. Oh, yeah, the house.
She frowned at him. He stopped lounging against the railing and sauntered over to her, all the while grinning and clearly unfazed by her menacing look.
Oh man, not on the front porch, Katelyn thought as she recognized the mischievous twinkle in his eyes.
She backed up until she hit the door, fumbling behind her for the handle.
Mrs. Dickerson was going to have a field day with this, her panicked mind continued a beat before he squished her against the door.
It seems like he’s always squishing me against something, she thought in irritation. Then Kandy’s voice in her head mocked, probably because he knows you secretly love it.
“I’m starting to think you’re avoiding me, Skate,” Dom whispered against her lips.
He had one hand flat against the door above her head and the other against the door next to her waist. The entirety of him was pressing against her.
The entirety of her was now gooey and fuzzy headed.
“Are you avoiding me, babe?” Dominic asked while trailing his lips, without actually kissing her, along the edge of her jaw.
“Ahhhh… ummm… Why… um, whhhhy would I be avoiding you?” she managed to get out feebly.
His lips moved to her neck and his hips ground against hers.
“Dom-Dominic… there’s… there’s people out here!” She squeaked out the last word as his tongue licked the lobe of her ear just the way she liked it.
Dom’s head lifted and he raised his eyebrows. His hand above her head lifted from the door and looped behind her, scooping her flush up against him as he stepped back. His other hand turned the door knob, opened the door, and twirled her out of the way of it opening – all in one swift move.
“Exactly why we should take this inside,” Dom said with a grin. “Great idea, Skate.”
Then he let go of her abruptly and walked right into her home like he owned it.
Katelyn gritted her teeth and glared at his back. It was a good thing she was so madly in love with him, or she might actually hate him for the way he always seemed to get his way.
–Copyright 2013, Genevieve Dewey.
CHAPTER FOUR will be posted 11/30/13 at 9am Chicago time.
In case you missed the excerpt last night on Facebook, I’m sharing just a quick scene from the Dom & Kate novel, The Good Life. No, this scene doesn’t have either one of them present, but I did warn you the novel will feature Kyle Anderson’s story, too. Don’t worry, there’s plenty of Dom & Kate sweetness in the novel!
(Side note, in case you hadn’t heard, A World of Joy from Grey Mouse Publishing will contain a quick Dom & Kate Christmas scene, full of fluffy shmooshiness. It will be released Nov 27th!)
~~~
Kyle Anderson was still marveling at Demetria Valentini’s disingenuous ‘who me?’ attitude three hours into his shift downtown. He tossed the thick police file that Chief Sheridan had just given him in a skidding twirl across Detective Tommy Gates’ desk. Tommy stopped the file with his hand just short of the edge.
“Remind me, should some woman ever manage to remove my frontal lobe and spine, to never ask you to be my best man. I like you too much,” Kyle said.
Tommy puckered his lips, scrunched his eyes, and half raised an eyebrow in response. Kyle barked out a laugh. Gates looked like the love child of Jessica Rabbit and the Godfather whenever he did that.
Which… was pretty close to the truth, come to think of it.
Kyle sat down, leaned back, and propped his legs up on his desk. What a ridiculous waste of time that so-called ‘family meeting’ had been. Who would have thought one’s best friend marrying one’s sister could turn into such a pain in the ass?
“I mean, for starters, Tommy, who in their right freakin’ mind has a wedding during football season in Nebraska?” Kyle asked facetiously.
“Well, I guess if it’s an off weekend…”
“Naw, man for real? Would you? This violates an unspoken code written in the DNA of every person born within the state.”
“Well, technically, I was born in New York, so…”
“Your birth certificate says Nebraska.”
“Your Witness Protection tax dollars at work,” Tommy answered with a grin.
Kyle glared at him. Tommy’s grin widened.
“If it’s unspoken, why are we speaking of it?” he continued in a cheeky whisper.
“Unspoken, as in, goes without—never mind, point is, even you, transplant to this fine state, would not pick a game day for your wedding.”
“Prooobably—” Tommy drawled.
“And I bet that hot blonde you’re seeing wouldn’t either,” Kyle interrupted.
Tommy snorted.
“Ginny wouldn’t give two tinker’s da—”
“Valentini played professional football, for crying out loud!” Kyle interrupted again. “That’s how I know she’s behind this!”
“Who?”
“Now he’s all ‘whatever you say, ladies’ without any regard to the lineup. Not me, never! Nor would I ask you to be complicit in such an atrocity as my best man.”
Tommy stared at Kyle, mouth ajar, eyes narrowed and confused. Then he shook his head.
“You’re right, Anderson, this is easily the worst crime I’ve heard of this year, hands down,” he drawled with faux seriousness.
He swung back around to his computer and started typing.
Kyle glared at his back.
“Mock away, Gates. Mock away. You’re not the one having to stand up at the altar next to a granola flake,” Kyle paused and channeled his inner Kandace by dramatically smacking himself on the forehead. “What am I saying? What altar? Because now she’s somehow worked her juju magic on the only sensible sister I have, and gotten Kellie to move it to the park.”
“Who? Katelyn?”
“No, Demi!”
“Who’s Demi?”
“The granola flake!”
Tommy turned around again and slowly arched a brow over an irritated eye.
“This is Katelyn’s wedding we’re talking about?”
“Yeah,” Kyle answered with a long, drawn-out sigh.
He cracked his neck to relieve some of the tension family meetings always gave him. Tommy went back to staring intently at the fingerprint scan running on his monitor.
“Y’know, Anderson, it’s not that I’m not just deeply fascinated by the details of motor mouth’s impending marriage, but…” he trailed off and frowned at the file.
Kyle laughed.
“I haven’t heard anyone call her that in too long to remember. She really never shut up when we were kids, did she? Now she pretty much hides in libraries and museum basements.”
Gates grunted but didn’t reply.
Kyle knew Tommy’s mind was already reengaged in whatever he had been working on, probably the Duncan case. Kyle grabbed the other file and got to looking busy in case Tommy asked him to assist on that. He’d rather eat broken glass than assist on that case. Nothing good ever came out of cases involving dirty politicians linked to organized crime. Kyle Anderson preferred his cases a little more straight-up gangland and less white collar corruption—less chance of accidentally ending up working a desk job in Alaska. He’d rather accidentally end up dead from a guy in saggy jeans than work a desk job.
He spent a good solid ten minutes trying to let it go, but he just couldn’t. Just like he couldn’t seem to get the image out of his head of Demi sitting on that damn ottoman like a Buddhist monk pretending like she didn’t grow up on corn and beef brisket and homecoming parades like the rest of them. She hadn’t been back to Nebraska in God knows how long, and now she just swoops in and takes over, and suddenly everyone had lobotomies…
“On frickin’ game day! She’ll probably have us dancing naked in the park next.”
“Are we back on this again? Who is this Demi the Granola Flake?”
“You know, Dom’s sister. Demetria Valentini. Always hung out with Grace Butler?”
Tommy shrugged without turning around.
“Moved away to Estes Park ages ago to run some sort of woo-woo shop for the tourists—”
“Anderson,” Tommy interrupted.
“Yeah?”
“If this diatribe isn’t eventually heading towards an eye witness or a lead on the Duncan case, wrap it up. I’m on a deadline here. Press conference at six.”
Kyle rolled his eyes at the back of Tommy’s head then looked back down at his file.
“No offense, but, you’ve been a real dick since you got back from Chicago,” he said.
Tommy grunted and said nothing.
“Come on, if it was your sister getting married and someone tried to hijack it…”
“Eh, newsflash, Kiki got married, which was why I was in Chicago. What’s that about the Duncan case? Oh, you’d love to help? Why, I thought you’d never—”
“Asshat,” Kyle interrupted and opened his own file.
Tommy’s chuckles filled the cubicle. Suddenly he stood up, yanked a flashdrive out of his computer, and grabbed the Duncan file. He popped Kyle on the head with the file then turned around and walked backwards as he spoke.
“Anderson, I’m going to need to have a sit down with this Valentini chick. Anyone who can get the most affable and laid-back cop on the planet this riled up needs to be a friend of mine,” Tommy said with a devious grin.
“Ha!” Kyle barked with an answering grin. “You been hanging out with your gangster pops so long you’re talking in mob code? Next thing y’know you’ll be calling her a ‘real stand-up gal’.”
Tommy snickered and turned around. As he walked away, he crooked his free hand behind him, middle finger expressing his parting thoughts.
Kyle’s phone rang and he snatched it up.
“Kyle! Thank God! I need your help,” Katelyn’s panicked voice squeaked in his ear.
“Hold on, what’s the matter? Are you hurt?” Kyle asked urgently, all senses suddenly alert.
“No, no, it’s just I need your help. The most horrible thing has happened!”
“What’s happened?”
“Demi invited Isabel to the wedding!”
Kyle scrunched his brows. Contradictory thoughts swirled in his brain, not the least of which was he wanted to shake his sister for panicking him over frivolous histrionics.
“Katie, horrible is when there’s been an accident and someone’s in the hospital. Horrible is when your house has caught on fire—”
“Kyle, for crying out loud! I know I’m overreacting, but it doesn’t change the fact that Dom just left my house to pick her up at the airport right now! The wedding is not even for three more weeks!”
“And I should be concerned about your fiancé picking up his ex-wife at the airport because…?”
“First of all,” Katelyn enunciated each word slowly and acerbically, “who invites the groom’s ex-freaking-wife to his wedding? Second of all, who goes to their ex-husband’s wedding at all, much less arrives three weeks early unless they want to get in the way?! Why would Demi even suggest this?”
Katelyn’s voice cracked with a breathless sort of desperation. Kyle lifted his lip in a snarl.
“Well, Dom must think it’s no big deal or he wouldn’t be picking her up at the airport,” he suggested cheerfully even though, basically, he wanted to go find Demetria Valentini and wring her flaky neck.
“Kyle Jeffrey Anderson, if you do not get in your car and drive the few minutes it will take you to get to Eppley Airfield and pick Isabel up before Dom gets there, I… will… never… forgive you,” Kate ended in a low, ominous growl.
Kyle winced. Few things in life caused his twin to break out an ultimatum. Katelyn Anderson avoided unpleasantness with her loved ones the way everyone else avoided paying bills. She was the people-pleaser twin. He was the people-pounder twin. They were both friendly, laid-back people until confronted, at which point, Kate would retreat, and Kyle would bust some skulls.
“I’m on my way,” Kyle said with a heavy sigh. “You might wanna—”
“I’m texting him right now that you’ll do it instead,” Kate interrupted, relief practically pulsating in her tone. “Just pick Izzy up, flirt like crazy, and make her forget all about Dom.”
“You realize this is completely—”
“Huh-uh.”
“Ridiculous and unnecessary—”
“Nope.”
“Even Kandace would think this is—”
“Don’t want to hear it,” Kate cut him off with a click.
Kyle raised his eyes to the ceiling, stuffed his phone in his pocket, and put his Omaha Police jacket back on. He left a note for Tommy that he was in the field following a lead then got in his car to head up to the airport. It might be utterly absurd as far as requests went, but it beat sitting at his desk and stewing over what a mess Dom was allowing Demi to make of this wedding.
Besides, Isabel Alesio was hot—movie star hot. Flirting with her for an afternoon because his sister had caught a temporary case of completely unwarranted wedding insecurity would not be a hardship. By the time Izzy was ensconced in her hotel room this evening, Katelyn will have remembered that Dominic voluntarily left said hottie before he even knew he could have a chance with Kate. Therefore, there was no reason for anyone to get worked up over Demi inviting her.
But Kyle was still going to wring Demi’s granola neck anyway.
–Copyright 2013, Genevieve Dewey.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“So, she’s joking, right?”
Dominic Valentini tossed the remote down on the couch in disgust. He got up to grab some more beers from the kitchen while he waited for an answer from Kyle and Andrew. They didn’t say anything even after he handed them the beers, so he deliberately shook a beer and opened it right under Kyle’s nose.
“Hey! Jackass,” Kyle said caustically, wiping his front.
“This is serious. Why d’you think I invited you jerks over in the first place?” Dominic retorted.
Andrew looked over and shared a look with Kyle.
“Because Katelyn stood you up again and we wanted to duck our girlfriends and-or wives for a few hours?” Andrew answered disingenuously.
“Kyle,” Dominic said slowly. “This is your sister I’m talking about. Your twin sister. Surely you should know the answer to this question.”
“Sister… so, you have a twin sister…” Andrew began in his Darth Vader voice.
“Obi Wan was wise to hide her from me,” Kyle and Andrew finished in unison.
Dom sighed in irritation. He had obviously waited a few too many beers in to start this conversation.
“To reiterate—”
“Oooh, fancy pants words,” Kyle interrupted. “You’ve been hanging out with Katie too much, dude.”
Dom pinched the bridge of his nose and continued.
“Katelyn claims that she doesn’t want to go out for Valentine’s Day. I only brought it up once, and ever since, she refuses to even allow me to finish my freaking sentence. I either get the ‘commercial exploitation’ speech or she changes the subject. This is the first I have heard of this date aversion. I knew she disliked Valentine’s, but I had no idea she took it to this extent. I mean, when we were little—”
“Hey, speaking of, remember that time when Katie had that huge crush on what’s his name – we used to call him Booger?” Andrew interrupted.
“Humphrey,” Kyle said.
“Who in their right freakin’ mind names a kid Humphrey?”
“Mnnnn,” Kyle said. “Damn shame.”
Kyle and Andrew took a second and shook their heads in mutual disgust. Dominic clapped his hands to get their attention. He was starting to get that panicky feeling in his gut. He only had a couple days left to figure this out, and it was seriously pissing him off how un-seriously these two were taking this subject.
“Gentlemen, can we please focus here?”
“I was focusing. I’m agreeing with you,” Andrew said, leaning back on the couch and crossing his legs on the coffee table. “Katie made this really huge papier-mâché heart and gave it to Booger right in front of the whole class. Embarrassed the hell out of him. She obviously hasn’t always hated it.”
“I can’t believe you didn’t know she doesn’t celebrate Valentine’s Day at all anymore,” Kyle answered in such a perfectly bored voice that Dominic realized he was serious.
Worse, he realized his problem was more serious than he had initially thought.
“Why on earth would I know that?” Dom asked. “There’s a difference between expressing a dislike for a holiday and being a complete scrooge about it.”
“Wrong holiday,” Kyle interjected, now with the bored cop face to match his tone.
Dom glared at him and continued, “We’ve never dated before. Since friends don’t get each other candy and flowers, I had no idea that a general disdain for a holiday meant I’m not allowed to take my woman out on a date or get her a gift.”
“Just so you know, she’s fine with all the holidays that have some sort of historical or religious context to them,” Kyle answered patiently, looking cross-ways between amused and unconcerned. “That way she can bore us all to death with a lecture on the true roots of the holiday. Like last Easter—”
“Forget why, Kyle, and answer the original question,” Dominic interrupted.
What was it with these Andersons and their constant love of deflection? he thought.
He took a deep breath and continued, “Is she really serious that I can’t take her out anywhere, and absolutely under no circumstances, should even think about getting her a gift, especially not jewelry?”
“It’s a trap!” Andrew said in his Admiral Akbar voice. He leaned forward and started laughing.
Kyle laughed too, and grabbed the bowl of peanuts.
“You ask me, it’s really about the fact our birthday is right after and she’s gotten tired of getting stale pink candy and heart shaped gifts. Yes, she’s serious.”
He mirrored Andrew’s previously relaxed pose on the couch and smiled grimly, the rest of his face inscrutably blank.
“Alright, then, game plan,” Dom stopped, let out a long breath, and scooted to the edge of his chair.
He clapped his hands together.
“How about, she and I just celebrate at home and I get her something nice, but make it practical—”
“Err, err, err,” Andrew started making warning buzzer sounds.
Dom picked up the remote and threw it at him without breaking eye-contact with Kyle. Kyle’s cop face slipped a little and his lip twitched like he was struggling not to laugh.
“I get her something that I know she wants like a book or something to soften her up,” Dom continued. “But then I can still surprise her with—”
“You can’t get a woman a book for Valentine’s Day. Even I know that,” Andrew interrupted again. “Kellie and I always—”
“Yeah, I don’t think he needs advice from a guy who hasn’t seen his own balls in at least a year,” Kyle interjected. “And it’s bad enough I got him asking me how to romance one sister, I don’t need to know about what you and my other sister do to celebrate Valentine’s Day.”
Kyle got up and started arranging the beer cans for another round of beer bowling.
“This is not like you, Dom. Since when do you need to consult us on what to get a woman? If Katie doesn’t want to go out, what’s the big deal? Money saved.”
“It’s different with her! I mean, this is Katelyn! You know how long I’ve wanted to be in her—”
Kyle held up a hand and shuddered. “My sister, dude.”
“Life. The point is, this is our first ever Valentine’s Day together and I want it perfect.”
“Am I allowed to speak? That is, if you two morons would like some advice from the only married person in the room?” Andrew asked in such a perfect imitation of his wife Kellie’s lofty, bossy tone that both Kyle and Dominic laughed.
“Shoot,” Dom said.
“You always gotta keep them guessing, so things don’t get stale—”
“They just got together three months ago,” Kyle interrupted with the patented Anderson eye-roll.
“Sheddit,” Andrew replied then turned back to Dominic. “She says she doesn’t want something, fine. I don’t believe it, but fine. Get her something she can’t give back, something more symbolic. Like a trip or something.”
“And the fact your wife’s a travel salesman has nothing to do with this, right?” Dom interjected.
“Salesperson. And she owns an event planning company. But no, I’m not talking about anything fancy. I’m talking about a night at a hotel or something. I was going to say earlier that’s what Kellie and I do every year. I surprise her with a new restaurant and a night at a hotel.”
Kyle looked surprised then shook his head. “If she doesn’t want to celebrate the day then it won’t matter what he gets her. She’ll be pissed anyway. This ‘I hate V-Day’ thing has stuck around a lot longer than any of Katelyn’s other soapboxes she stumps the hell out of.”
“‘A man and woman should show appreciation for their mate all year long, every day’,” Dominic said in a falsetto voice.
Andrew curled his upper lip in disgust and Kyle started laughing again.
“Yeah, I’ve been listening to the whole diatribe a lot longer than you have, Valentini.”
“‘And it’s totally sexist’,” Dom continued in his faux-Katelyn voice. “‘Why is it always the focus on the woman? Jewelry, chocolate, teddy bears, why nothing for the man?’ she says.”
“Uhhh, because “Ladies, time for the annual blow job” wouldn’t pass the censors?” Andrew said.
“You only get it once a year? Shit, don’t answer that,” Kyle said in disgust and shuddered again.
He clapped Dom on the shoulder.
“It’s either ‘Do, or do not. There is no try’. You’re going to have to go all in and change her mind about it, or accept you’ve got the only woman on the face of the planet that doesn’t want a date on Valentine’s.”
“But… come on, Kyle, how am I supposed to know if the no gift part is something she’s serious about, or just something she’s saying, but totally doesn’t mean? Because in three short months I’ve learned ‘oh, I can’t possibly decide on dessert’ means ‘you order dessert and I’ll eat half’. Maybe she just really means get a gift, but not a particularly Valentiney-type gift.”
“This must be an Anderson woman thing,” Andrew said. “Took me a full four dates to realize ‘Men paying the tab is so antiquated’ didn’t mean Kellie wanted to go Dutch. It apparently meant I was to let her offer to pay the bill then say, ‘no, let me, please’. Because then I gave her the choice or such feminist shit. But, notice, I’m still paying the tab… which is some pretty clever female trickeration if you ask me… I’m just sayin’…” Andrew trailed off at Kyle’s dark look.
Kyle turned back toward Dominic.
“You’re both morons. I don’t understand the big deal. Just take her at her word and don’t get her a present then go whole hog on the birthday present. Problem solved,” Kyle said slowly in his passionless cop voice again.
Dominic could tell he was going to be of no further help so he played his trump a bit sooner than he wanted.
“The big deal is, I wanted to ask her to marry me and it seemed like Valentine’s would be the perfect way to do it. In my experience, chicks dig that sort of stuff.”
Kyle spit out his beer.
“Way to bury the lead, Valentini,” he said.
“I mean, you never hear women talk to each other and say things like, oh, he asked me on this random Tuesday in March,” Dominic continued. “It was so romantic.”
“Hey, man, that’s great,” Andrew said, reaching over and shaking Dom’s hand. “Welcome to the family. Or their family, whatever.”
“But I suppose, her birthday could work, also,” Dom finished as he shook Kyle’s hand too.
“I’ve changed my mind,” Kyle said, back to his ebullient self. “Since she’ll be mad either way you should definitely pop the question on Valentine’s. If anything could change her mind about the holiday, it’ll be you asking her to marry you. Unlike Kellie, Katie’s not uptight, she’s just—”
“Shows how well you know your sister!” Andrew interrupted. “I’ll have you know Kellie really knows how to let loose in the—”
“Arrgh! Stop with the speaking about my sisters and sex!” Kyle shuddered.
Andrew chuckled.
“I was going to say, before the baboon interrupted,” Kyle continued cheerfully, “that Katelyn sometimes needs a firm hand. She needs a take charge person in her life. It’s part of why I’m glad you two finally got together. It comforts her or something to have someone else make decisions for her, no matter what she says otherwise. When we were little I was always the one that had to try something first and tell her it was ok. But as soon as she had some structure, she was all about having fun and being wild.”
“So I should just go ahead and plan something, and ignore it if she gets mad that I surprised her on Valentine’s,” Dominic proposed. “We all know how she hates surprises.”
Kyle nodded enthusiastically, practically bouncing on his heels.
“She won’t get mad this time, I guarantee it. Just put your foot down.”
Dom narrowed his eyes. “You guaran—”
“Plan something and get her a really big ring,” Andrew interrupted. “If that doesn’t work then screw the mad right outta her.”
Kyle lost his mischievous grin and started pounding on Andrew.
“Police brutality!” Andrew half shouted, half laughed then started punching back.
Dom chuckled and flipped the channel to the Red Zone to check scores.
Come to think of it, that wasn’t a half bad plan… Dom thought to himself and moved further down the couch to avoid the flying fists and feet.
He fished his phone out and texted Katelyn:
Done at your parents? Game’s at half I can kick the guys out and you can come over.
Can’t. I’m babysitting Kandace’s kids.
He frowned and texted back:
Thought they were staying at Steve’s?
Kandace said she wants to talk. She’s staying the night. Sorry!
Dominic released a frustrated breath.
Then come over later.
It was silent for so long he set it down on the coffee table. Finally it beeped.
Don’t wait up. Love you.
Dominic stared at the read out.
Don’t wait up? What the hell kind of answer was that? At this rate, it would be Valentine’s next year before he got the woman to stand still long enough to ask her.
Andrew and Kyle had gotten bored punching each other and moved on to mocking the hair piece on the commentator’s head. Dom grunted, propped his feet on the table, and joined them.
He could put his foot down tomorrow.
–Copyright 2013, Genevieve Dewey.
Read more… CHAPTER THREE.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Out of all the ways Katelyn Anderson had planned to spend the evening, hiding behind a giant juniper bush hadn’t even ranked in the top twenty.
This was taking procrastination to new levels, the tiny voice inside her head mocked.
You’re just being a good sister, the other voice enabled.
“This has seriously got to be the dumbest thing you have ever convinced me to do,” Katelyn said while trying to prevent a branch from poking her in the rear.
“Yeah, well, we’ve established you need to get out more,” Kandace replied, unfazed.
Kandy scooted a little further down along the house behind the shrub. Kate gritted her teeth and tried to follow her. It was extremely awkward since she refused to get on her hands and knees like Kandace. Instead, she sort of duck walked in her bulky snow gear after her older sister.
“Kandy,” Katelyn whispered. “Kandy, do you at least have a general time frame in which we can expect his arrival? Because I am freezing my ass off and Dom said he was going to come over, so I should at least call him and cancel—”
“Shhhh,” Kandace hissed and waved her hand at Katelyn to silence her.
She ended up smacking Kate in the face with her dirt and snow covered glove. Katelyn stared in exasperation at her profile and reminded herself how many times Kandace had her back over the years. She turned her head to try and see what Kandace was shushing her about.
A car door slammed and she heard the clack-clomp of high heeled boots on cement.
“Well, that was certainly an adventure. I appreciate you going with me,” a male voice was saying from the general proximity of the front porch.
“Oh, no problem, Steve,” a high pitched, breathlessly sweet voice chirped out. It was followed by a quick giggle. “It was really my pleasure.”
Then another quick giggle.
Katelyn had no idea who the girl was, but she hated her already. It wasn’t just because the other voice belonged to her currently suspected of cheating brother-in-law. Perky, effusive people bothered Katelyn on principle alone, and doubly so on chilly February nights when she could be sitting in front of a fire with her not-at-all-insanely-perky boyfriend. Just the thought of Dominic’s large, calloused hands holding her warmed her a bit.
She smiled until she remembered she was currently avoiding him. Not because he’d done anything wrong, unless being practically perfect in the boyfriend category was a crime, she just didn’t trust her will-power around him. Sort of like avoiding the snack aisle while one was PMSing; less chance of giving in to temptation leading to regret, but sadly… less pleasure.
Katelyn’s thoughts were interrupted by a sort of growling, mewling sound. When she realized it was her sister making that sound she thought,
Oh God, please no, I didn’t bring any bail money…
Katelyn grabbed Kandace’s arm and yanked her until she turned her face to look at Katelyn. The hurt and brewing tears in Kandy’s eyes had Katelyn letting out a defeated breath. She grimaced in commiseration.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, then,” Steve said and they could hear the jangle of his keys.
The girl clomped away in an almost skipping manner.
Katelyn tried to move some branches aside to get a better look at the supposed interloper. All she could see in the dark was that the girl was wearing a wool pea coat, a short skirt, and high heeled platform boots. In February. In Nebraska. Katelyn’s insta-hate ratcheted up a notch. People who had no regard for proper seasonal dress also bothered Katelyn. Her sister’s potential competition was a perky, skipping, flaunter of the rules. In other words, Kandace 2.0, with an extra side of bouncy.
Katelyn reached up and absentmindedly ran her hand up and down Kandace’s back in sympathy.
“Well, that doesn’t prove anything. I mean…” Katelyn’s whisper trailed off as Kandace sent her a death glare.
Kandace started pushing through the rest of the shrub towards the front porch. Katelyn frantically tried to stop her, but her glove covered fingers couldn’t get a grip on the back of Kandace’s parka. Kandace came out the end just as they heard the bolt snick on the front door.
Katelyn fell out of the edge of the bush and tackled her sister before she could make it to the steps.
“No! No, you can’t.”
“Katie, butt out!”
“Butt out? Are you kidding me? You’re the one who dragged me here! And it is my duty as your sister to stop you from doing something stupid right now. This isn’t proof of anything,” Katelyn hissed in a fervent whisper.
Kandace’s mouth dropped open and she stared at Katelyn incredulously. She put her hands on her hips.
“I’m serious, Kandy,” Katelyn continued. “If it was a date, wouldn’t he be dropping her off, instead of the other way around?”
“Maybe they’re taking turns driving,” Kandace said with her chin in the air, but looking a little less certain. “If it wasn’t a date, how come he left the kids with his mom when he knew I was available?”
“I don’t know, but if it was a date, wouldn’t he have invited her inside? And it’s barely past suppertime. Usually dates don’t end until much later.”
Kandace started wringing her hands and looking back and forth between the now dark porch and the street.
“Maybe he just wasn’t ready to introduce her to his mom. I mean, you’ve met her. Darth Vader has a more charming personality.”
Katelyn expelled a quick huff of amusement then she sobered.
“Kandace, I don’t want to be cruel here, but you’re the one who moved out. If you want to know what he’s doing and who he’s doing it with, maybe you should consider moving back in with him. Technically, it’s not cheating if it happens after you’ve left him,” Katelyn said.
“Uh, duh, yeah, it is!” Kandace hissed and started angrily walking towards the sidewalk. “We aren’t divorced yet, and my kids are in that house! I have every right to be concerned about who he’s bringing around them.”
Katelyn tried to hurry after her, but it felt like each of her toes had turned into miniature popsicles. Her breath plumed out in front of her as she spoke to her sister’s rapidly moving back.
“Kandace, like I said five times on the walk over here, and at least twelve times on the phone since you left him last month, I sincerely doubt he’s going to bring anyone around your kids when you haven’t even formally divorced.”
Kandace abruptly stopped walking and turned around. Tears were running down her face and her eyes sparkled in the faint light of the street lights.
“That didn’t stop him from cheating the first time, did it?” she squeaked.
Katelyn sighed and reached out for Kandace’s gloves. Their hands slid out from each other at first, and they both let out a slight laugh at it. Katelyn smiled a bolstering smile.
“Kandy, you only suspected him of cheating. You have no real proof, and it was his idea to go to marriage counseling with you. That’s not the sign of a guy wanting out.”
“Says the woman who didn’t even notice her best friend was pining for her for years. The hottest guy in town, no less. Gee, it really sucks to be you,” Kandace said.
Katelyn didn’t take it personally. If there was anyone in the Anderson family that could outdo Katelyn in the fine art of deflection, it was Kandace.
“At the risk of sounding like a broken record, you moved out, not the other way around,” Katelyn said.
“I moved out because my husband spent more time on business trips – where he did God knows what with God knows whom – than he did at home with me and the kids. And believe me, I tried to kick him out, but as he so kindly pointed out, the house belongs to him. The car belongs to him. The credit cards belong to him. The damned dog belongs to him. Well I don’t belong to him!” Kandace practically screamed the last sentence out.
A light went on in a room across the street and a dog started barking. Katelyn grabbed Kandace’s arm as best she could with her gloved hand and dragged her down the street quickly. They didn’t speak anymore even after they got into Kandace’s mom-mobile parked two blocks over.
Halfway down the interstate drive to her house, Katelyn dared to bring up the Forbidden Topic.
“Ok, again, Kandy, I don’t want to be cruel or anything, but, can I just point out—”
“No.”
“Kandace—”
“No!”
Katelyn sighed a frustrated, long, pointedly drawn out sigh.
“We don’t know if he cheated for sure but we do know you did,” Katelyn said it anyway.
Kandace growled a bit and sent her sister a furious glare.
“I spent the night at Brian’s house once and after I found lipstick on Steve’s shirt. What am I supposed to assume? He’s always gone—”
“The lipstick could have been from his mother, and he’s always traveled a lot—”
“And he said he wanted a trial separation if I didn’t pick a career and stick with it—”
“Well, that is a little harsh as far as ultimatums go, but, Kaden is already in kindergarten so I can see why he would want to encourage—”
“Then he took the kids and stayed two whole weeks at his parents without me—”
“But wasn’t that Thanksgiving trip your idea?”
“Why are you taking his side?!” Kandace screamed.
Katelyn winced as it reverberated in the car.
“I’m not,” she countered softly. “I’m just trying to play devil’s advocate. That’s all. I’m one-hundred percent on your side. I promise.”
Kandace started sobbing and Katelyn dug a tissue out of the console.
“I know I screwed up, OK? I don’t need reminding I’m a screw up. A jobless, husbandless, flighty, stupid, screw up! It’s two days from Valentine’s Day and he’s already got a new woman to spend it with, and I’m going to be all alone! I don’t even have my kids. Errr!” Kandy squealed out at the end.
“You’re not a screw up and you’re not stupid, come on,” Katelyn started to say.
“I’m a Beauty school, Nursing school, and Interior Decorating school dropout!”
“Well… but, again, you got straight A’s in all those classes,” Katelyn parried with a wobbly smile. “And, technically, you haven’t dropped out of Culinary school yet.”
Kandace laughed in a shaky, self-deprecating manner and looked down at her hands.
“Besides, you’re not employed because you’ve been a stay at home mom for the better part of a decade which is not the same as being jobless,” Katelyn continued with a cheerful smile. “As far as the kids go, you still see Kaden and Alex almost every day. And Valentine’s Day is way overrated anyway. It’s a completely manufactured holiday designed to support the greeting card industry and jewelry stores. It’s for suckers and lovesick fools.”
Katelyn’s phone buzzed on the console. Kandace released a tear-filled chuckle as Katelyn looked at the read out on her phone. Dom’s abs showed on the screen. Kandace raised her eyebrows and Katelyn flushed. Dominic had put that on her phone the last time he’d stolen it and she couldn’t figure out how to fix it.
“You shouldn’t talk and drive, y’know,” Kandace mumbled as she reached for the phone.
“Well, I think it’s slightly less dangerous than you driving in your state,” she answered as she swatted her sister’s hand.
She pressed speaker phone to answer it. Kandace made a ‘tuh’ sound.
“Hey, little girl,” Dominic voice filled the car, all deep and sexy. “Wanna get in my van? I got candy if you show me your underwear…”
“Dom, honestly, what if someone else answered my phone?!” Katelyn asked.
She sent her sister a reproving look as Kandace covered her mouth to muffle her laughter.
Dom chuckled and Katelyn couldn’t help grinning in return.
“They’d learn their lesson, wouldn’t they? And why would someone else answer your phone? Seriously, Skate, where are you? Thought we were going to order Chinese and mock MacGyver together at your place.”
She winced and glanced at Kandace again. Kandy raised her eyebrow.
“I’m sorry, Dom! I was running errands downtown this afternoon and I thought I’d pop in and visit Kellie and it took longer than I expected before I got to see her. My own sister! You’d think she was the Pope or something the way her secretaries block for her. I’m just leaving Omaha now.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Kate could see Kandace’s mouth drop open at this blatant lie.
“It’s cool. You can just stop at my place on your way—”
“Ahh, can’t, I just passed the exit and I forgot I have to stop by Mom’s.”
“Okaay,” Dom drawled out. “We’ll do it another night then. But as your boyfriend and oldest friend, I feel compelled to point out you’re getting to be almost as flighty as Kandace the last few weeks.”
Katelyn winced and sent another guilty glance in her sister’s direction. Kandace rolled her eyes, but she didn’t look offended.
“Hey! You don’t get to call her flighty. I get to call her flighty, because she’s my sister, but my boyfriend does not get to call her flighty,” Katelyn said in a falsely cheerful tone.
“I think I’m exempt from the boyfriend clause because we’ve known each other our whole lives. We’re all practically family.”
“Ha! I don’t let family members do to me what you do,” Katelyn paused as his deep laughter filled the car. “And if we’re ‘family’ then you won’t mind when I say I’m throwing out the stinky socks you keep leaving at my place. Leaving them with me does not automatically equate with me washing them.”
Dominic’s laughter turned into a chuckle.
“I resent the implication I would be so underhanded,” he replied in good humor. “If I wanted someone to wash my stinky socks I’d drop them off next door to you at my mother’s. Besides, I wouldn’t have to remember to search for my socks if you lived—”
“Ah… hold on I have to merge in traffic. I better call you back,” she cut him off quickly, and hit off.
She swallowed the guilt as Kandace stared at her in open mouthed confusion.
“You gonna to tell me what that’s about?” Kandace asked.
“Nope.”
“So, I’m supposed to listen to you poke in my life, but I don’t get to know why you’re lying to Dominic about where you were, or why you got off the phone so fast?”
“Ok, let me first point out – again – that you dragged me out to Lincoln to spy on your husband, not the other way around. And what am I supposed to say? I’ve just been lurking in bushes spying on my not-at-all-flighty sister’s husband like a teenaged stalker?”
“That might be an excuse I’d buy for lying about where you were, but not for getting off the phone so quickly,” Kandace pointed out. “You were all keen about him coming over earlier tonight and now you’re avoiding him.”
Katelyn sighed.
“He’s been hinting rather heavily lately about me moving in with him.”
Kandace moved in her seat abruptly to better face Katelyn.
“That’s great, Katie! Wait… isn’t it? Why is that not great?”
“Well… I just didn’t want to be all happy when you’re going through your troubles because no one likes it when you’re unhappy and someone is all in your face with their cheerfulness.”
“Like Tits McGee back there on my front porch? It’s not the same, Katie! We’re family and you know what a huge supporter I am of you and Dom as a couple. Need I remind you if it weren’t for me, you might not even have gotten together at Thanksgiving?”
Katelyn rolled her eyes. Kandace was always taking credit for anything positive that ever happened in Katelyn’s life.
“And also, I’m not buying for one second the reason you’re avoiding Dom is because I’m staying the night tonight,” Kandace continued. “Please tell me you’re not torturing the man again with that bad habit you have of changing your mind every two minutes? For a woman that likes lists and rules so much, you sure are fond of indecision.”
Katelyn sighed again and glared at her sister.
“It’s… complicated.”
Kandace snorted.
“No, Steve and I are complicated. You and Dom are an open book. You’re both single, no kids, and crazy about each other. The only true wrinkle in your relationship is you live a town away from each other. At some point in time it would be inevitable that one of you would move in with the other.”
“Well, why does it have to be me that moves in with him? I just got that job at MWAC in Lincoln. Ashland is closer to Lincoln than Gretna—”
“Oh my God, by like, a handful of minutes! Are you kidding me?” Kandace argued with an eye roll.
“Why are you always mocking me?”
“Why are you always saying stupid things?”
Katelyn stuck her tongue out.
“Oh wow, are you two years old? For real?” Kandace laughed.
Katelyn smirked because at least her sister was smiling and laughing again. Then she allowed herself an irritated huff.
“He’s been trying to get me to go out with him for Valentine’s Day,” Katelyn said in disgust.
“Gasp! The horror,” Kandace drawled mockingly. Katelyn shot her another dirty look.
“You know I hate that holiday. He should know I hate that holiday and yet he’s insisting on asking me every two second what I want, where should we go out, etcetera, and I just know it’s so he can officially ask me to move in with him!”
“Again… the horror,” Kandace said.
“Earlier, I figured if you were there he wouldn’t bring it up, but now I’m not so sure.”
“First, that really was dumb of you since everyone knows I’m all Team Dom & Kate For Evah,” Kandace said in a teeny bopper voice.
Katelyn snorted and rolled her eyes.
Kandace continued in her normal voice, “Second, no one in the family takes your ‘I hate V-Day’ thing seriously, so why should he? You only say that because you’ve never had a boyfriend in February before.”
“I do not!” Katelyn replied fervently. “Even if I had had a boyfriend I would hate the commercial exploitation of romantic relationships for the sole purpose of selling things!”
“Which is what dateless shut-ins all over the world tell themselves to make themselves feel better that they’re home alone watching the Lifetime Channel and eating candies they bought themselves.”
Katelyn glared at Kandace again. Kandace just grinned unabashedly. She turned full in her seat and ticked off points with her finger on her palm:
“So, Dreamy Valentini is choosing to ignore your inexplicable hatred of the lover’s holiday and shower you with attention. Instead of tolerating this show of affection, you’ve decided it has to be because he wants you to move in with him – which, again, I’m failing to see the problem with – and, instead of just dealing with this, you’ve decided to give the man mental whiplash while you avoid a confrontation. As usual.”
“Kandace,” Katelyn smacked the steering wheel. “I like living in Mom and Dad’s house. I just took out a mortgage on that place. Responsible people don’t just bail in the first year of their mortgage. And I like our small town feel. Gretna is practically like living inside Omaha these days. I don’t want to give Dominic an opportunity to officially ask me because then I’ll have to say no, and it will make things awkward between us. You know I fear the awkward. Honestly, you’re going to sprain an eye muscle if you keep rolling your eyes, Kandy.”
“Whine, whine, whine, avoid, avoid, avoid…”
“For crying out loud, I was all on your side with this Steve business. The least you could do is…” Katelyn trailed off as she recognized their mom’s car in front of her house.
Katelyn and Kandace shared a quick look.
When they walked through the door, they saw their mother sitting on the couch with packed bags next to her. Katelyn’s heart jumped to her throat.
“Oh my God, don’t tell me you left Dad!”
Bridgette blinked in confusion then scoffed.
“Of course not, these are Kandy’s bags. If she’s going to carry on with this tom-foolery then she can stay with you. We simply don’t have the room at our retirement village,” Bridgette stopped and turned to an opened mouth Kandace. “I’m sorry sweetheart, when you first showed up we thought it would just be for a few days. It’s been almost a month. Don’t you think you ought to at least try and patch things up with Steve? There’s children to consider.”
Their mom smiled a fond, though slightly condescending smile. Kandace’s mouth remained open but her eyes narrowed. No one spoke. After a long moment of pointed silence, Kandace walked forward, grabbed her suitcases, and marched down the hall.
They heard a door slam loudly and Katelyn met her mother’s chagrined eyes.
“Oh, you’re joking, right?” Katelyn said to no one in particular.
–Copyright 2013, Genevieve Dewey.
Read more… CHAPTER TWO.
I put up this poster on Facebook the other day to mixed reviews. What do you think? Some think it is too soft for the series, and they have a point. I was thinking that at the heart of the series (no pun intended) is love and family, so that was the theme I was going with. I’d really love more opinions before I go to the expense of making posters to give to fans. Thanks!
On a related note, have you read all of the supplemental scenes? If not, here are the links that can always be found on this website. I hope you are busy reading Third Time’s The Charm; I cannot wait to hear your opinions!
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NEW BEGINNINGS (A young Tommy Gates Flashback)
This short scene features a young Tommy Gates and Kyle Anderson (from Bird Day Battalion & V-Day Aversion) and is set shortly before the flashback scene in the first chapter of First, I Love You in which Mickey finds Mary & Tommy.
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HER PRINCE (A Mickey Downey & Mary Gates Flashback)
This scene features a nineteen year old Mary Gates, freshly arrived in New York, talking with her new best friend Claire (Anderson) Underwood about the mysterious new man she started seeing, Michael…something or another.
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CONVERSATIONS AT 30,000 FT (A Maeve Downey & Ginny Sommers Missing Moment)
This is a quick missing moment from Second of All set aboard the flight to Dublin that both Maeve and Ginny are on. Don’t read if you don’t like spoilers!
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LETTERS FROM MICKEY DOWNEY (Letters Mickey Downey wrote to his loved ones)
These are the letters referenced in the Downey Trilogy that Mickey wrote to his loved ones over the years. In the books, the reader rarely gets to see the contents of these letters so I have begun sharing them as Wednesday blog posts. Check back as I add more.
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THE GOOD LIFE (A Dominic Valentini & Katelyn Anderson Flashback)
Right now this flashback is the prologue to the Dom & Kate novel “The Good Life” but it is possible it may not make it in. It will stay here in any case.
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SPECIAL DELIVERY (A Kiki Downey & James Hoffman Missing Moment from First, I Love You)
A love scene shortly after James and Kiki first “hook up” as Kiki puts it. — Warning! 18+ For Sexual Material! Published in A World of Romance Anthology
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SECOND CHANCES (A Mickey Downey & Mary Gates Flashback)
This is a flashback to when Mary tells Mickey she is pregnant with Tommy, and Mickey persuades Mary to be his mistress. — Warning: 18+ For Language and Brief Sexual Material!
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Get a glimpse into how Mickey and Mary began with this flash-fiction:
by Genevieve Dewey
Mary set the shoes back in the light brown box and started to place the lid on, but at the last second, set the lid back on the bed. Again.
Just one more time won’t hurt. Then I’ll give them back, she thought. Her stomach twirled from equal parts guilt and pleasure.
She pulled one pump back out of the little bag in the box and traced the high arc on the red bottom, breathing in that fabulous new shoe scent. She closed her eyes and replayed the look on Michael’s face when he had given them to her like one of those old film strips stuck on loop.
He had such amazing eyes. She had never seen such a vibrant shade of green and they left little to the imagination of his thoughts.
He’d said he wanted their third date to be extra special and he was going to take her someplace fancy. Or, at least, that’s what she thought he had said since she was too distracted at the time by his hands under her sweater. His warm, strong, rough, yet strangely gentle hands. She had never been particularly intelligent—nor stupid, either—but she could swear on a stack of Bibles she lost at least twenty IQ points around this man.
But now that some of the haze had worn off, it did seem a little… unusual for a gift. He claimed the high heels were castoffs from a client’s wife, but they had clearly never been worn. The box, too, was impeccable, and they were exactly her size. The shoes were–hands down–the most sinfully extravagant thing she had ever worn, much less been gifted with. And that was why she had to give them back tonight.
But not just yet, her mind whispered and she opened her eyes with a long sigh.
Mary slipped the shoes on and stood awkwardly in them. She grinned like a fool at herself in the full length mirror. She could almost imagine herself on a stage in a fabulous gown singing encore after encore. And there Michael would be, smiling and cheering the loudest…
Her right ankle started to wobble and she quickly sat back down on the bed. She wore heels all the time but nothing quite this high or delicately made. She slowly slipped them off again.
Nope, she thought, put them away and quit daydreaming all this poppycock and nonsense.
The phone ringing in her tiny apartment startled her and she dropped the shoe she was holding in the box like a kid who stole a cookie.
“Ninny,” Mary said out loud with a self-deprecating laugh.
She threw herself across the bed and grabbed the phone, hoping against all odds and good sense that it was her mother. She had been gone six months, surely they missed her?
“Please tell me you’re not bailing on choir practice again,” Claire Underwood said without preamble.
Mary let her chin drop to the bed. It shouldn’t still matter, but they were her parents, and she was all alone, except for Claire, and maybe…
“Claire? If a man gives you a pair of shoes after the third date, that’s… ok, right?”
Claire was silent for so long Mary was beginning to wonder if her phone had been disconnected. She had paid the bill this month, hadn’t she?
“Did you put out already?” Claire finally asked.
Mary rolled over and scrunched her nose.
“Well…”
“Oh my God! Are you serious?! Mary, this is Brooklyn, not Podunk, Massachusetts! What if this guy had AIDS or something?”
Mary rolled her eyes at the hysteria in Claire’s voice. True, Claire was a solid five years older than Mary, and married, but she had never shown any signs of being a prude.
“Claire, we’re in the twentieth century, not the middle ages. And aren’t you from Nebraska or something? Talk about middle of nowhere…”
“Mary, I’m just saying, you don’t know anything about this guy!”
“Well, I didn’t mean to sleep with him. Our first date we talked all night, and then the second, we went ice skating, and then when he picked me up for the third, well… we never actually made it out the door. Oh, Claire, he’s just got these hypnotizing sort of eyes…”
“Good Lord, stop, cheese alert! And why is this the first I’m hearing of him? We’re supposed to be best friends and yet you had two dates, sex, and a pair of shoes without telling me? Are they designer? No, wait, hold on, buzz me in.”
Mary sat up.
“What, you’re here?”
But all she got in response was the click of the entryway phone being hung up.
Mary put the phone back on its cradle, ran across the apartment—which really was a matter of steps—and slapped the button. She opened the door and waited for a breathless Claire to make it up the steps. Stupid Super (as Mary thought of him) had promised to fix the elevator since the first day she moved in six months ago. Everyone from here to Queens knew to just take the stairs.
Claire skidded to a stop in the doorway, grabbing the stitch in her side. She raised a hand and waved it wildly.
“Shoes,” she gasped. “Bring me the shoes.”
Mary laughed at the dramatic action and tone. She had always thought that Claire had missed her calling in the theatre.
She brought the shoes to Claire and opened the box with a flourish.
“Oh my saints alive! Louboutins!”
“Is that good?”
Claire squinted her eyes and examined the shoes like a judge in court.
“Are you sure they’re real?”
“Well, how would I know?”
“Mary, these shoes, if they’re real, cost more than a month’s rent!”
“Well, I gathered that much! They reeked of expensive. So does he, actually,” Mary finished with a wide grin.
“What’s his name? Spill!”
“What about practice?”
“Didn’t want to go anyway,” Claire replied and flopped on the grungy tweed couch.
She clutched her purse on her lap and practically panted like a dog at the shoes.
“His name is Michael… something.”
“Something?”
“Well he told me, but I forgot. Doorly or something. He’s some sort of finance guy for a shipping firm or something.”
“Or something? You have sex with a guy and he gives you shoes after the third date and you don’t even know his last name?”
“Well, I didn’t grill him over it or anything. I have his business card somewhere. Who cares what his last name is?”
“Right, because you’re too busy sticking your tongue down his throat. Give me the Fabio scale.”
Mary giggled. It amazed her she had only known Claire for a few months but felt closer to her than her own sisters.
“Mmmnn, he’s more classically handsome. Distinguished…”
“You mean old?”
“No! I mean, I think he said he would be turning thirty this year, so only—”
“A good solid ten years older than you,” Claire interrupted, eyebrows lost in her brown curly bangs. She looked both scandalized and titillated.
Mary sat criss-cross on the other end of the couch.
“I’m going to give them back. He’s supposed to be picking me up for another date tonight and he wanted me to wear them. I’ll just wear those black suede ones you lent me instead. He won’t tell me where we’re going, just that it’s fancy.”
Claire opened her mouth but there was a knock on the door.
Mary jumped up and opened it, ignoring the ‘For Pete’s sake, look who it is first’ from Claire.
She gaped in stunned confusion at Michael standing there in that gorgeous, fur-lined, winter coat of his.
“How did you get in the building?” Mary asked.
“Ah, well, this building is actually owned by my employer. He owns quite a number of these rentals.”
“Oh,” she said weakly, staring at his handsome features and the hint of mystery in his smirk.
“Ehem.”
“Oh! Um, this is my friend Claire. Claire, Michael.”
He nodded curtly and brushed past Mary into the room. Then he turned and dismissed Claire.
“Sorry I’m so early, I just wanted to do this in person.”
Mary’s stomach dropped to her toes. He wasn’t going to dump her, was he? Right in front of her friend?
“I’m afraid I have to cancel tonight,” he continued gravely. “Something’s… come up. But I hope you’ll keep my gift and allow me to reschedule?”
She felt slightly mesmerized by the intensity of his gaze and the soft lilt in his voice. His words were so formal but there was a slight Brooklyn-Irish accent to it. She couldn’t quite figure out if he was covering the streets with a veneer, or was a rich man trying to seem less posh. She didn’t much care, truth be told. She just liked the way he made her feel.
“Sure, that’s fine,” Mary managed to say after a moment. “Um, I actually forgot I was supposed to go to choir practice tonight with Claire anyway.”
“Ah,” he said and pivoted back toward Claire.
Claire was almost rudely staring at him with her eyebrows scrunched.
“And, what church?” Michael asked.
“Our Lady of Angels,” Mary answered for Claire since she was still gaping at him like a statue.
Michael seemed to start a bit then frowned and looked down at his leather shoes.
“Have we met? You seem… familiar… sort of…” Claire trailed off weakly.
Michael shrugged and dismissed her once more with his body.
“I don’t think so,” he replied while looking at Mary.
It was Mary’s turn to be taken aback because his eyes were no longer soft and expressive like she had been gushing over in her memories. Their emerald depths were now icy-cold and aloof, as was the rest of him.
He reached out with a gloved hand and ran the back of one finger along the side of her face.
“I’ll call you after I finish my errand. Enjoy your practice,” Michael said then leaned down and gave her a brief, chaste kiss. It still somehow managed to make her lips tingle and her toes curl.
Then he was out the door in a matter of seconds.
“He seems… intriguing,” Claire said after he shut the door behind himself. “And wow! The way he looks at you. Like there’s no one else in the room, literally. I doubt he could pick me out of a line up. They’d all be described as curvy nineteen year olds with milky-white skin and wild, curly red hair.”
Mary giggled so hard she snorted. She leaned up against the door, trying not to feel disappointed.
“Guess you get to keep the shoes a little longer,” Claire continued with a cheeky grin. “Which means, I get to wear them!”
Mary laughed. “Do you think you might’ve met him before?”
Claire shrugged without looking up from the tennis shoes she was taking off.
“I’m always seeing people come and go at the store. Probably just saw him buy groceries once.”
“Probably,” Mary replied faintly.
She ignored the stirrings of worry and focused on his kiss. Intriguing, yes… and also, young, rich, and gentlemanly. How often did one find that combination?
Maybe her Prince Charming had finally come.
–Copyright 2013, Genevieve Dewey
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(A Flash fiction featuring a young Tommy Gates and Kyle Anderson from the Downey Series)
NEW BEGINNINGS
by Genevieve Dewey
Tommy’s favorite thing to do after school was cut through the park and play Hunt the Bad Guys in the baseball diamond. He’d walk straight to Aunt Claire’s house like he was supposed to, wait for his mother to call and check on him before she left for her other job, then sneak out while Claire watched her soap opera. Mama would freak if she knew he was wandering around alone—Omaha was by far the biggest town they had lived in so far—but the way Tommy saw it, he was only a couple weeks from turning ten. And once you hit the double digits, you were practically an adult.
He always began his game by sneaking behind the man-sized trunks of the cottonwood trees nearby and ambushing the bad guys that were after him and his mom with a gun he’d made out of wood and rubber bands. Then he would run a Coke bottle along the fence and imagine the chink-chink-chink was the sound of prison bars closing. There was weeping and teeth gnashing and the classic ‘I would’ve gotten away with it if it hadn’t been for him!’. The grand finish was pretending the snow-like seeds in the air were confetti celebrating his victory over the bad guys. He was never a cop or anything like that, though, in this game. Just a regular kid. That was why they were throwing the party, because he was a kid hero. And Mama would say, “That’s my little man!” and the kids would have to stop teasing him. In his mind, the bad guys often had the amalgamated faces of the boys who teased him. Ironically, it was the one constant in his life, other than Mama and Uncle Jack. Everywhere they lived, there were always bullies who taunted him about his run down, out-of-date clothes and having no family.
The best part was after Tommy’s victory over the bad guys, his father would come out of hiding—because he wasn’t really dead—and he’d bring with him a whole score of aunts and uncles and cousins and Tommy would have a big boisterous family like Aunt Claire had. Uncle Jack always joked that the Andersons had made an Olympic sport out of having children, so they did their part as Underwoods by not having any. Tommy reckoned he just said that to take Aunt Claire’s mind off the fact she couldn’t have her own kids. But Tommy figured there’d be nothing more fantastic than having a big family because it meant he’d never be alone. There’d always be someone he could count on wherever he went.
He was laying in the browning grass watching the fluffy white clouds glide behind the water tower when he heard the tell-tale crunch of leaves. He grabbed the rubber-band gun and rolled over like soldiers did in the movies. In front of him was a boy a few years older than Tommy in a Catholic school uniform. He had neatly combed brown hair and a big grin.
“Oh, sorry, didn’t mean to scare you. Aunt Claire told me to come look for you,” the cheerfully bored-looking boy said. Tommy always figured ‘cheerfully bored’ was the best way to describe that type of person that never seemed to mind having nothing to do. This kid was one of Aunt Claire’s many nephews and nieces that came to visit from time-to-time. Tommy couldn’t remember what his name was… something with a ‘K’.
“I’m Kyle, remember? From the picnic on Sunday?” Kyle said then flopped down on the ground next to Tommy, head on his crossed arms. Tommy stared in stunned silence for a moment then mirrored his body language.
“I’ll just pretend I found you in a bit, if that’s alright with you. I just gotta get away from Motor Mouth for a while.”
“Motor Mouth?” Tommy asked.
“My sister. She never shuts up. And I mean never,” Kyle said. “And she constantly follows me around. It’s the pits having a sister sometimes. And I got three of ’em.”
“What a pain,” Tommy said, but really, he figured it would be neat to have a pesky little sister.
“Saw you playing cops and robbers, but I figured you wouldn’t want me to bug you or anything. I’m going to be a cop when I grow up, I figure. Or a fire fighter.”
“I’m going to play professional hockey,” Tommy said. This was the nicest any kid had been to him in the four months they had lived here and he wondered how long it would last. He hoped this was one of those Anderson kids that lived nearby in Ashland. It really was hard to keep them all straight. It’d be nice to think he could finally have a friend, even if it was just a sometimes friend.
“Hockey?”
“Yeah, and I’m going to get rich and famous and buy my mom a mansion and a billion servants so she never has to work again.”
Kyle nodded his head a few times on his arms.
“Your mom’s the new choir director at St. Augustine’s, isn’t she? What’s your dad do?”
Tommy pressed his lips together and glared at the letters on the water tower until they merged a bit.
“He died. He was in the military,” Tommy finally said.
He had made that one up on the first day of school. He figured with Offutt Air Force base south of town people would buy it pretty easy. The truth was he had no idea how his dad died or what he had done for a living or even what his name was. Mama refused to talk about him. Tommy figured it had something to do with the bad guys that made them be on the run. He liked to imagine his dad had died a hero protecting them, like somebody in the military would. So that was going to be his story as long as they lived here.
“Oh. Sorry,” Kyle said softly after a minute. “That’s tough.”
Tommy shrugged.
“Kyyyyyyle,” a girlish voice called out.
“Ugh,” Kyle sighed as he got up from the ground. “Well, it was nice while it lasted. C’mon,” he held out a hand to help Tommy up. “Bet your mom’ll be by to pick you up soon anyway.”
“Yeah,” Tommy mumbled.
As they cut across the park towards the Underwood house Tommy felt a shiver cross his body. He stopped and looked over his shoulder. He scanned up and down the park but it was just kids and moms and parked cars. He figured he was just beginning to get as paranoid as Mama was so he shook it off with a laugh and jogged to catch up to Kyle and Motor Mouth. Tommy’s relief at Kyle’s welcoming smile and the idea he might have made a new friend had him on cloud nine all the way home. It also caused him to miss the Rolls Royce that pulled away from the curb and followed them there.
Copyright 2013 by Genevieve Dewey, All Rights Reserved.
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You can read more about The Downey Series HERE.
Genevieve Dewey 