Deaths of Jocasta (59 page)

I just shook my head at the presumption of our friends. We entered the house and headed up the stairs.

What’s Emma going to think, I suddenly wondered. Getting a bit above yourself, aren’t you, Micky? But it wasn’t her voice saying it. It sounded like Aunt Greta’s. And I didn’t give a damn about what she thought.

I let Cordelia into my room.

“You might not believe this,” I said as she put her arms around me and started kissing my cheek, “but you’re the first woman I’ve ever slept with in this bed.”

“Really?” she asked, looking up.

“Yes, really,” I answered. “I mean, I’ve fooled around out here. A couple hundred acres is very inviting, but…somehow I couldn’t, not with Emma right across the hall.”

“I feel privileged,” Cordelia replied. “But promise me one thing?”

“Uh?” I grunted, somewhat distracted by the movement of her hands.

“That sometime over this weekend, we’ll make love in the woods.”

“Anywhere you want,” I agreed.

Cordelia led me to the bed.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“Yes,” I said. “Believe it or not, I’m shy.”

“I know,” she replied. “I finally figured it out. Underneath that brazen smart-mouth lurks a shy woman. It took a while, although it should have been easy.”

“Why?” I asked, lying back under the gentle pressure of her hands.

“Believe it or not, I’m shy, too.” She got on top of me.

“You are?”

“Haven’t you noticed?”

“No. I’ve always seen a competent, strong-willed woman.”

“You must be in love.”

“I am,” I told her. “Did I mention strikingly beautiful?”

“Uh-huh,” she murmured skeptically, wrapping her tongue around my nipple, one hand delving under the waistband of my pants.

“You don’t seem shy,” I commented as her hand continued to move.

“No point in being reserved with you,” she said softly.

“Oh. I do have a bit of a past, don’t I?”

“That’s not what I meant,” she said, ceasing her explorations for the moment. “I always figured that someday I’d end up with someone…I could settle for. I never thought I’d get the one that I really wanted.”

“Me? You mean me?”

“Micky, you idiot,” Cordelia said. “Danny has carried a torch for you for years. I don’t think even Elly’s extinguished it completely. And Joanne? I always figured I was at the end of a very long line.”

I shook my head, disbelieving.

“When you walked into my life, what was it, six months ago?” she continued, “you just…after you arrived, I didn’t know where I was, but I wasn’t in Kansas anymore. Life with you won’t be boring.”

“No, it won’t.” I agreed with that.

She kissed me, then paused to say, “Getting you has done wonders for my ego. I feel like I’ve just been sent to the head of the class. Alex can’t make any more tacky comments about my love life. And Danny will have to stop trying to fix me up with other women.”

Then our kiss continued. My shyness vanished.

I don’t know when she stopped kissing me. I don’t know if she ever really did. All I know is that some time later, with the last faint glow of a summer sunset slanting through my window, I was lying in her arms, some deep part of me at rest, finally comforted and stroked to surfeit.

“I bet the gang is here by now,” Cordelia said, gently rubbing the back of my neck, “and wondering where we are. You need to make an appearance to convince them you’re alive and well.”

“I suppose,” I answered.

There was a knock on the door.

“Micky?” Emma’s voice called.

I jumped out of bed, not that I had any place to go. “Just a…”

Emma opened the door. I dived back toward the bed, figuring my back was less revealing than my front.

“Well,” Emma said, chuckling softly. “I’ve been looking for both of you, but I didn’t think it likely to find you in the same location.”

“Hello, Emma,” Cordelia said easily. “I suppose we’re an odd sort of couple.”

“Not in the least. I’ve always thought the two of you would make a wonderful pair. I just didn’t think it possible that both of you would have the good sense to realize it.”

Cordelia laughed. I was still fumbling with the sheets, trying to make them cover at least some portion of my body.

“I’ll tell your friends not to expect you for dinner. And possibly not breakfast either,” Emma said, and then her exit line, “And not only to have the good sense, but both of you at the same time. Wondrous strange, indeed.”

She closed the door.

I jumped back out of bed.

“Watch,” I said to Cordelia, running after Emma.

I yanked open the door, calling after her in the hallway. “We fooled you, didn’t we?”

She stared at me, standing naked in the hall.

Then I caught her and threw my arms around her, hugging her and picking her up.

For once, I confounded Emma Auerbach.

Cordelia was standing in the doorway, a big grin on her face when I set Emma down.

“Well…” she said.

“We’ll see you sometime, Emma,” Cordelia said, extending her hand to me.

“We might be down for supper,” I hedged.

“Ah, youth,” I heard Emma finally say as we closed the door, remembering to latch it this time.

“No, life with you won’t be boring,” Cordelia said as we lay back down. “I keep thinking that there’s nothing you can do that will surprise me. And yet, you keep surprising me.”

“Don’t feel too bad. I still surprise myself.”

“Good,” she replied, putting her arms around me. “That means we’re really in this together.”

Then she kissed me. I lied about dinner. We never made it.

J.M. Redmann has written six novels, all featuring New Orleans private detective Michele “Micky” Knight. The fourth,
Lost Daughters
, was originally published by W.W. Norton. Her third book,
The Intersection Of Law & Desire
, won a Lambda Literary Award, as well as being an Editor’s Choice of the
San Francisco Chronicle
and featured on NPR’s
Fresh Air
.
Lost Daughters
and
Deaths Of Jocasta
were also nominated for Lambda Literary Awards. Her books have been translated into German, Spanish, Dutch, and Norwegian. She currently lives in New Orleans, just at the edge of the flooded area.

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