C's Comeuppance: A Bone Cold--Alive novel (17 page)

“Norm, that you?” There was a slight pause. “What you doing at Wiley’s?” There was a low whistle from the corner of the room. Score one point for Lyla.

“Damn it all, Lyla. You got Caller-ID at the store? Ain’t that a waste of money? Don’t you have to answer the phone and be sociable anyway?”

“Norm, it is absolutely none of your business why I have this.” She paused. “There’s an echo on the line here. Am I on a speakerphone?”

C caught the deepening of her voice and from the raised eyebrows and digging elbows, he wasn’t the only one in the room that figured Norm was in trouble now. Two for Lyla.

“All the better to hear you with, Lyla.” The old man raised his chin. “Is Bertie there?”

“As a matter of fact, she is. Would you like to speak to her?”

“Well, I wasn’t taking bed-check.” There was a group nod. One point for Norm.

“Bertie!” Lyla didn’t cover the receiver and the timbre of her voice made the speakerphone buzz. “Norm wants to talk to you!”

They heard the cash register ring and the scraping of the front door in the wake of Lyla’s soft thanks-and-come-again. Heavy footsteps from the other direction portended Bertie’s arrival at the phone.

“Yes, you old buzzard? And get me off this damn speakerphone if you want to talk to me!”

“Alberta! I don’t know how. Wiley just left it here and told me to use it.” From the corner of his eye, C even caught Tib’s quick smile at the old man’s theatrics.

“Like I believe that!”

“Well, put Lyla on, too.”

“We can’t both be on, you old fool.”

“You should get a speakerphone.” Two points for Norm. An official tally had appeared on the wipe-off board above the secretary’s desk. The only cigarette smoker in the group was attending.

“Lyla, come here. The old fool’s got something to tell both of us. Probably shackin’ up with something young enough to be his granddaughter.” Her voice became more direct. “That what you doing? You find some un-sweet young thing that’s after all your money?”

“I’m going to ignore that, Bertie. Lyla on?”

“Yes, I’m on. You know, I do have customers, Norm. What’s up?”

Norm turned and hit at C, indicated it was his turn. He whispered. “I got ’em warmed up for you. Now go to it!”

C scooted closer to the speaker. “Lyla?” There was a twinge of dread in his stomach. Now what was that doing there? Surely it didn’t have a thing to do with the presence of the game warden. Or worse yet, the development of a conscience.

There was a pause. “Is that you, C? What are you doing in town? Don’t you have any better sense than to be sitting with Norm down at DamSite?”

“Sense doesn’t really enter into it, Lyla. I’m calling you with good news.”

“Good for whom?”

“Good for you, of course!”

“Should I be listening very, very carefully? Like I was trying to open a safe and the tumblers have to fall just so?”

The audience nodded.

“Probably.”

“Go on.”

“I just wanted you to know that I won’t be needing any of your generous hospitality this time.” He paused for effect. “I’m staying out at Norm’s.”

One of the women choked and the other laughed. The men couldn’t tell which since the phone landed with a clatter on the counter or floor and it took a minute for it to be retrieved. In the interval, the scorekeeper aced out Norm and C’s side and declared them to be the winners.

“Girls,” Norm called into the speaker, “girls! Are you two okay?” By this time there was no attempt to maintain silence and the men were openly discussing the phone call. Tib had spread his arms across the doorway and was laughing with the rest of them.

Bertie recovered first. “Norm Hudson! Are you out of your everlovin’ mind?”

“Why? What’s wrong with the arrangement? Suits me. Suits C. Doesn’t matter if it suits you and Lyla or not! Why, I’d have thought—”

“Norm.” It was Lyla’s voice now. “Push that damn speaker button, pick up the receiver and hand it to C. Do it now.” Her words were measured. The room did a collective intake of breath.

“Well, la-di-da.” C reached over to the box, pushed the button off and picked up the receiver. “Sweet sister-in-law, what can I do for you? I’d have thought you’d be happy.”

“And get Wiley off the extension I heard him pick up.”

“He’s hanging up.” Wiley clicked the phone back down and mouthed an epithet C certainly couldn’t disagree with.

“Sam know you’re back?”

“You know, I don’t have to check in with him any more. But to answer your impolite question, he expects me.”

“What are you and that old man doing? Did you force him into this?”

“I would think the last time someone forced Norm into doing anything was the last time that person used force.”

“Damn straight!” Norm exclaimed. He turned to the scorekeeper. “We get another point for solidarity.”

“This is a collaboration made in hell, surely you know that.”

“No, that’s what you’ve got with my brother.”

“How long are you going to be staying?”

“That’s really none of your concern.”

“Okay.” She drew the word out and C felt the hairs stand on the back of his neck as if she was breathing on them. She lowered her voice. “Have you seen Jemma?”

“What makes you think I would?”

“The other half of my hellish collaboration.”

“Then you’ll be happy to know that you’re well-informed.”

“C, please, please, don’t screw up her life.”

“You’re one to talk. I hardly recognize T after you got hold of him.”

“Enough of this. You’ve made your bed. Please try to occupy it alone.”

“You’ll be the second to know.” He clicked the receiver down and looked at his audience. “I think that went well, don’t you?” He couldn’t help but notice Tib’s look of disapproval. He mentally shrugged it off.

In the rest of the room, there were nods and soft murmurs of assent. “Now,” Norm began as he swung one ankle to the other knee and took a firm chomp on the unlit cigar, “let’s talk about your courtin’ Jemma.”

***

“I don’t think you should drive.” Jemma felt along the back of Mandy’s head. “There’s a small bump here.”

“But Aunt Jemma, I got mama’s car. How am I going to get it to Grandma’s otherwise? And I feel fine now. See?” She bounced up from the couch and danced around.

“No. We’ll go home and get Grandmother and bring her back and she can drive the car home. That bump goes down some more, tomorrow you can drive to school. And since you’re staying with us while Doree and James Thomas are out of town, that’s that!”

“Aunt Jem—ma.” The girl sat down on the couch. “That’s no fair. I just got my license!”

“And you just bumped your head!” Jemma singsong-ed back at her. “Amanda Jessica Lovelace, you know I’m right!”

“Ohhh.” Mandy fell back against the cushions. “Well, tonight we decorate the halls for homecoming and I need—”

“What would you have done to get to school if you’d not gotten your license this afternoon?”

“Brendie would have picked me up tonight.” She propped her elbow on her knee and rested her chin in her hand, shot her aunt a look out of the corner of her eye. “I can call her and she can still come by and tomorrow I can drive if I behave myself tonight.”

“Right.”

“But you owe me one.”

“I hardly see how.”

“Well, if you hadn’t been kissing Eddie C, I wouldn’t have fainted and bumped my head, and then I could have been driving tonight like I’m supposed to.”

“I’m with you so far, but what do I owe you?”

Mandy scooted deeper into the seat cushion and a smile played at the corners of her lips. Jemma sat back and watched an idea conceived and born. “So since I can’t use my license like I should, I’m really socially deprived right now. So, you need to make it up to me.” She beamed a smile Jemma’s way. “So since Eddie C seems to be interested in you, perhaps you could get him to come to the homecoming dance Friday night and sing? Or play? Dance with the homecoming court?” She put her arms on Jemma’s shoulders. “I mean, you
can
keep him interested for the rest of the week, can’t you? Whatever you’ve been doing, you can continue, can’t you? Please, Aunt Jemma? It’s just the only way I can get my social standing back.”

“You’ve been listening to Doree too much.” Jemma disengaged Mandy’s hands and put them in the girl’s lap. “I am not asking Charles to the homecoming dance.”

“Charles? Ohmigod, you call him Charles?” She clasped a hand to her chest. “Do you know, that he said in a magazine interview that the only women he’d ever let call him Charles were his mother, his grandmother, and his wife? Ohmigod, Aunt Jemma—where have you been hiding all this sex appeal?”

Jemma turned and looked over at Carolyn who was seated behind her desk and quite unable to hide her laughter. “You have kids. Help me here, Carolyn.”

“You’re on the verge of getting America’s most eligible womanizer into the sack—last thing you need from me is help!”

“That’s not the kind of help I was asking for!”

“Oh, you mean, what to do about Mandy’s request? Well, c’mon now, Jemma, don’t you think you can get him to say yes?”

Chapter Sixteen

C
slammed Norm’s truck driver’s door and headed to the rental he’d parked beside the leaning garage. What had he been thinking to go into town with the old man and leave his wheels out at Norm’s house?

“Now, boy, you running off before supper?” Norm stood beside the truck and lit a cigarette. “You ain’t mad about what the boys said, are you?”

C turned to give him the benefit of his temper and opinion. “Look, you ol’ buzzard, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. I’m out of here for a while.” He pointed the remote entry to the sports car over his shoulder and clicked. “Don’t wait up!”

“Well, you lock that gate behind you and remember Jemma lives in a sick house! Don’t you go be—”

“If I’m not welcome back here…”

“Nah, boy, you’re welcome. Haven’t had this much fun in a year!” He crossed the dirt drive and climbed up the rickety porch steps. “Want I should leave you some supper on the stovetop?”

C waved him off and gunned the vehicle down the drive. If he’d known he was going to be living in the boonies, he’d have rented a Jeep. Truth was, he hadn’t given any thought to where he’d be staying when he did the rental. The only thing on his mind had been getting back to Jemma—getting back and seeing if he was remembering a dream or a real possibility.

He wasn’t to the gate before he called T.

“Heard you were back in town.” His brother didn’t even try to keep the humorous tone out of his voice.

“I think I’ve found what finally travels faster than light—gossip in Jinks!”

He stopped in front of the gate and fiddled with the gate key, retrieving it from the ashtray. “T, I need to see you.”

“So come over.”

“Lyla there?”

“Of course.”

“I need to see you alone.”

“We’ll go down to the dock.”

“
Alone
alone. Meet me at your new property.”

“It’s almost suppertime, C—”

C closed his eyes and sighed deeply. He realized he was clutching the phone when his fingers started to cramp. He jerked the car into park. “Win, please. Do I have to beg?”

There was no sound from the other end of the line.

“You still there?”

“Yeah, C. It’s just, it’s just you haven’t called me Win in, in so long.”

“That alone should tell you something.” He swallowed. “If I recall, the last time we batted the nicknames around you were in handcuffs being led off the stage, calling C-C.”

“And you were right behind me calling Win.” C heard him let out a deeply held breath. “Give me about fifteen minutes and I’ll be there.”

***

Jessie promised to be standing on the front porch when Jemma and Mandy pulled in for the great car exchange but instead was on the kitchen phone. Mandy bounded up the back steps as if to prove to Jemma that bump on the head or no she was in perfect shape. Jemma could see her through the kitchen screen door, pulling on her grandmother and urging her off the phone and out the door. Mandy had a mission and Jessie stood between her and the outside world.

It had been difficult for Jemma to elicit a promise from Mandy that she wouldn’t spread the word about fainting after seeing Eddie C kissing her aunt. The teen had put her considerable negotiating skills to good use. Jemma had to give it to James Thomas for raising a daughter who had obviously listened very well to the art of the deal as her dad went from loan officer to president of the bank. In exchange for Mandy’s silence on the true nature of her bump, Jemma would ask C to the homecoming dance for the express purpose of dancing with the homecoming court. In a way, she rationalized, it was the ideal test of his true convictions. A man just in for an easy lay would pack his bags and go home at the thought of a dozen giggling teenagers stepping on his feet. Her biggest decision for the moment was whether or not to ask him in person. Did she want to see him squirm as well as hear it?

Did she just simply want to see him?

The slamming of the screen door jerked her from her reverie. Jessie was striding down the steps with a vigor that belied her arthritis. Not only were some days better than others, but Jemma felt her mother’s illness came and went with the need for sympathy. There was none needed this evening if her I’ve-got-something-on-my-mind-and-I’m-going-to-give-you-a-piece-of-it walk was any indication. Jemma’s unease increased. Only six people knew C had declared some sort of intentions for her, didn’t they? C, herself, Mandy, Carolyn, Sam, Lyla. But the press of Jessie’s lips said she knew something was going on and she didn’t like it one bit!

Jessie didn’t wait for Jemma to put Doree’s car in reverse. “Well, I hear you have a double life!”

“Found out about my gig as a Playboy pinup, right?” She cleared the driveway and headed back to the office, half her mind praying for the three traffic lights she’d encounter to all be green. “They were looking for slightly overweight gals with big—”

“That’s enough, Jemma! I have never been so embarrassed!” She crossed her arms on her chest and looked straight ahead.