Accompanying Alice (24 page)

She rubbed her chest provocatively against his, dropped her head back, eyes open, lips parted…full…promising. He couldn’t resist her. He bent to her again, immersed himself in her.

As though they had a will of their own, his hands moved deeper between them, across Alice’s breasts. She released a soft sigh of pleasure and frustration when they peaked at his touch. Her hands moved restively up and down his back. His fingers opened a button on her blouse, knuckles grazed her skin. In some distant part of his brain, he knew he shouldn’t do this, knew it would only make things worse when he had to call another halt. But she touched him where reason did not, filled his heart, took away the pain, the loneliness, the internal affairs and undercover cop’s constant sense of not really belonging. He undid another button, let himself be dragged deeper into the moment by her inarticulate murmur of encouragement. He’d stop soon,
he promised himself, but not yet. He couldn’t let her go yet—

From somewhere out of the lengthening dusk, car doors slammed, then sneakered feet slapped on concrete.

“Could not.”

“Could so!”

“Bet ya!”

“You’re on.”

The sound of boys’ arguing voices carried over the clang of the backyard gate opening then closing. On reflex Gabriel shoved Alice’s buttons back through their buttonholes and thrust her behind him, grabbing his own shirt off one of the swings in the same move and sliding it on. Mamie’s sons rounded the corner of the house, crossed the yard and burst into the tent they’d set up earlier. Gabriel seized Alice’s hand, kept his voice low.

“Come on,” he urged.

“Wait,” Alice protested. “I’ve got to get—”

“Leave it. Let’s get out of here while we’ve got the chance.”

Alice tugged her hand free. “Gabriel, what’s with you?” she asked, matching the pitch of her voice to his. “This is
my
backyard. I’m allowed to be—” She stopped suddenly as a thought struck her, and she reached out to feel his cheek. It was warm and, she imagined, red. The idea delighted her. “You’re embarrassed.”

Gabriel stuffed his hands in his back pockets, swung away from her. “Ah, hell.”

Alice laughed soundlessly. “You are!”

He looked over his shoulder at her. “Aren’t you?”

“No.” Alice tilted her head, surprised. “It’s weird, but I’m not. Oh, if we’d been caught, I might be. But we weren’t. I don’t know, maybe I’m finally starting to mature, after all.”

“You’re maturing and I’m regressing then,” Gabriel said dryly. “It’s been twenty years since the last time I was caught doing any heavy necking on the swings, but I can still feel Aunt Sarah’s broom on the back of my head.” His quiet laughter was full of self-mockery. “You make me feel about as in control as a teenager on his first car date, Alice,” he said. “I’m not sure I like that. I know I can’t afford it. At least not until this case is over.”

Alice cupped his cheek in a palm, stood on tiptoe to brush a light kiss across his lips. “You make me feel incredible,” she told him softly. “Alive, sexy, special, beautiful, adolescent, more than myself, confused... I don’t think there’s anything you don’t make me feel. Even though it’s only temporary—”

Temporary,
Gabriel thought,
not permanent. Transient.

The damned words that spelled out what he was. Had always been. He didn’t think he’d ever hated them more.

“—just learning that there can be more to life than...” She laughed softly. “Learning that maybe there’s more to
me
than I thought. That makes it worth it.”

She hesitated, and for a moment the night held only darkness and possibility, the murmur of boys squabbling in the tent near the house. Then Alice dropped her hand from Gabriel’s face and drew a settling breath, turning to collect the pizza box and cooler of drinks from the play structure, becoming herself again. “I thought you might be hungry so I brought out a few different kinds of pizza and some beer, only I didn’t know if you drank beer, or what type—light, regular, dark, dry—so I brought out some pop and some diet pop and some juice boxes, and—”

“Alice.”

She looked back at him, waiting. Gabriel studied the darkness around his feet. It was crazy, but what he wanted to say was,
“When we make love it won’t be temporary. When we make love, it’ll be for keeps.”
Instead he took the pizza box from her. “When I’m not driving I drink beer with pizza,” he said. “Let’s take this back inside and have some.”

Chapter Nine

T
he party was breaking up by the time they got inside. Aunt Kate’s nylon stockings were rolled down around her knees and she was carrying her teeth in a glass. Uncle Delbert had stripped to his undershirt and loosened his pants. Mamie and George were nowhere in sight. Alice’s sisters, Grace’s Phil, and Skip, who had arrived late, milled about near the front door
ty
ing
up
two black plastic garbage bags filled with the evening’s litter.

“Oh, Alice, there you are,” Helen exclaimed, sliding neatly away from the possessive hand Skip had settled on the middle of her back. “We’ve been wondering where you’d gone. We’ve got to go, but you should know Skip has a proposition for you.”

“Helen, I don’t think now’s the time.” Skip squirmed uncomfortably. “I really think it would be better if I wait until after I’ve talked to my partners to ask—”

“Nonsense,” Helen said firmly. “No time like the present.” She turned to Alice. “Skip thinks maybe he and a couple of friends of his would like to invest in a bookstore
with a coffee shop or vice versa,
or
just a coffee shop with wifi or…” She glanced at Skip
.
“Anyway, t
hey thought maybe in an office building, you know,
with a
captive audience, and that maybe you could scout locations, put the plan together, oversee the design, hire and fire—you know, run it.”

Alice turned from Skip, to Helen, to Gabriel and back again. “What?”

Skip shrugged uneasily, nodded. “I know your store is shutting down and I mentioned the possibility. There’s nothing firm yet, you understand, but the idea makes sense, and I could use the investment—”

“Ahh.” Alice ran a hand through her hair on a puff of disbelieving laughter. Was the man really desperate enough to try buying Helen’s affections by attempting to solve her sister’s unemployment problem? If so, then for all the years her mother had said he’d been coming around, Skip had a lot to learn about Brannigans in general, and Helen in particular. Where matters of the heart were concerned Brannigans dealt strictly from the gut, never from the size of the pocketbook. She sent Gabriel a didn’t-I-tell-you-about-her and damned-if-you-didn’t-hit-the-nail-on-the-head-about-him
l
ook. “Ahh.” She laughed uncomfortably again, shook her head. “Skip, I appreciate the offer, but you look like she’s railroaded you into this, so I really don’t know what to say.”

“Don’t say anything,” Helen urged. “Just think about it. Keep your mind open to the options. Skip’s going to talk to his partners tomorrow. He’ll be at the picnic tomorrow night
—
you’ll discuss it then. Now, Gabriel—” Helen grabbed Phil’s arm and pulled him forward “—this is Phil, the bridegroom. Phil, Gabriel. We got him a tux this morning. He’s your new usher. That means we’ll put Skip with me and let Gabriel escort Alice. Now you don’t have to worry if your brother’s wife goes into labor. We’re still two by two. Right? Well!” She kissed each of her sisters quickly. “Gotta run, got people arriving at the airport and train stations simultaneously in the morning, got car pools to figure out. Meg, will you—”

“No.”

“Edith?”

“Uh-uh.”

“Sam—”

The screen door slammed behind them. Gabriel looked at Alice. “Did you ever feel like you were living with a tornado instead of a sister when you were growing up?”

“Frequently.
It
got worse after she went to the Point.”

“Who went to the Point, Alice dear?” Aunt Kate asked fuzzily from behind her.

Alice turned. “Helen.”

“Oh, Helen!” Aunt Kate rolled her eyes as though th
at
subject was a lost cause. “I don’t understand why they want to let women play army, anyway, but I guess that’s none of my never mind, is it? I tried, but when your father let her go off—humph, well! Let me tell you—”

“Aunt Kate,” Alice interrupted, “did you need something?”

“Hmm? Oh, no, dear, everything’s just fine. I just came out to say good night.”

Alice brushed her aunt’s cheek with a kiss. “Good night, Aunt Kate. Sleep well.”

“Thank you, Alice dear. You, too.” Aunt Kate sighed, patting Gabriel’s hand. “You sleep well, too, young man, and since we couldn’t get you to sleep somewhere else tonight, I
do
hope you’ll at least
think
clean thoughts while we’re here.”

“Aunt Kate,” Alice warned.

Gabriel’s lips twitched.

Aunt Kate waggled a placating hand in the air and headed for the bathroom. “I know, I know, it’s none of
my
affair, and it really shouldn’t be yours, either. But that’s all right, don’t listen to me, go ahead and fornicate right here in the living room. I promise I won’t listen...” Her voice trailed off behind the click of the bathroom door.

“Fornicate?” Outraged, Alice pulled the cushions off the couch. “Listen?” She dumped the couch cushions on the floor and made a gagging shuddery noise. “What does she think I’d do? Bellow for her benefit? Oh,
no
.” She slapped a hand over her mouth and blushed crimson, mortified. “Did I say that out loud? I can’t believe I said that. Strike that. Oh, God, that’s so tacky!”

She heaved on the strap that opened the sofa into a queen
size bed. It resisted. “It’s this family,” she ranted, tugging at the bed. “These women! Grandma Brannigan says they’re all shatter-pated. Of course, she would say that—they’re my mother’s relatives. But they make me so crazy I don’t know what I’m saying—” she sneaked a glance at Gabriel over her shoulder and her flush deepened “
—doing.
When they’re around I do the most unbelievable things—things I’d never do.” Still struggling with the bed, she shook her head vigorously at Gabriel. “If you’re around at all after the wedding you’ll see right now I’m not myself, I’m somebody else. I’m living in the
Twilight Zone.
In a second we’ll hear the doo-doo-doo-doos, and Rod Serling will show up to tell us the story of Alice in Nuttyland, about a woman haunted and hunted by her relatives and their raving idiosyncrasies.”

Trying not to laugh, Gabriel took the bed strap from her and pulled straight up. The sofa opened without a squeak. “They care about you, Alice. All of them.”

“Phooey.” Alice glared from him to the bed, then spun about and headed for the hall linen closet. She returned with pillows, blanket and sheets, and started to make the bed. “Honest to John,” she muttered. “
“Fornicate in the living room.”
As if I’d really consider—” She stopped abruptly, gazing down at the bed and blushed again. “Well I suppose I did actually consider that, didn’t I? Oh, jeez, am I that depraved that I’d…when they’re…” Her blush deepened. “Oh, no, I don’t believe it. I might have if she hadn’t… Oh, Gabriel.” Embarrassed, she sat down on the edge of the bed and covered her face with her hands. “I’m sorry. Oh, God, you must think I’m a sex-starved lunatic coming on to you like that when they’re—and I’ve only known you—”