Hale's Point (20 page)

His singing voice had the same sandy quality as his speaking
voice, but he interpreted the lyrics—his lyrics—with such restrained emotion
that the result was mesmerizing.

When the waitress placed a drink in front of Harley, she
became aware of the silence in the room. All faces looked toward the stage,
their attention not just respectful, but enrapt. Harley was filled with awe at
Tucker’s power to so completely captivate an audience.

When the song was over, there was a hushed moment, as if
every person in the club were taking a breath, and then came the thunderous
applause, which Tucker seemed to find embarrassing. His next song had a more
varied and complex melody. Again the audience was wildly enthusiastic, and
again Tucker reacted almost shyly to the accolades. As the applause died down,
Tucker leaned toward the mike and said, “This will be the last song.” The
audience groaned. “I didn’t write it,” he continued. “It’s an old blues tune
Rob and Larry and I used to play together.”

The song was lively, funny, and very ribald. The audience
seemed delighted and some began clapping to the music and whooping at the
particularly risqué lines. Unlike the preceding songs, Rob and Larry had played
this one many times. This familiarity showed in the way they wrapped it up,
with a perfect synchronization of guitar and piano flourishes as Tucker held
one endless final note.

Applause exploded from the audience, and many, including
everyone at Harley’s table, chose to underline it by standing. Doug’s bellowed “
Yeah!
” was soon followed by cries of
“More!”
Tucker answered with a small
shake of his head. He set his guitar down and reached for his cane, then looked
directly into the audience for the first time, his eyes searching until they
met Harley’s. She made no effort to hide the pride that she knew must glow in
them. Smiling, she nodded to him, as if to say he had done well. He smiled,
too, for the first time since he took the stage, and Harley felt a warm and
intimate connection between them, as if they were the only two people in the
room.

That connection was broken when the house lights went up and
people sat down again. Jamie relinquished his spot next to her, and Tucker took
it back with a territorial glare at the younger man. Before she could say a
word to him, Doug descended, leaning over Tucker with one beefy hand on the
table and the other on the back of his chair. “Good set, man. You still got it.
Can I book you for Fridays? You’ll be here for the rest of the summer, right?”

Tucker rested his arm on Harley’s chair and lightly touched
her upper back, bared by her off-the-shoulder blouse. “Yeah, I’m staying till
R.H.
comes home. I’ll play on Fridays. I’d like that.”

As Doug left, Mimi and Kitty rose and headed toward the ladies’
room. Phil took advantage of his wife’s absence to hiss, “Tucker, damn you,
what are you trying to pull, asking Kitty here? Is she supposed to be my date?”

“I told you you’d love her.” Tucker said. “Have you talked to
her at all?”

“I haven’t seen her in six months!” Phil growled. “What the
hell am I supposed to talk to her about?”

“Ask her if she’s been needing any helium balloons.” Harley
didn’t have the slightest idea what that meant, but apparently Phil did. He
just shook his head and went back to his moping.

Rob and Larry played another set, which Tucker declined to
join, and the outing broke up at about one in the morning. Harley and Tucker
followed Mimi, Jamie, Brenna and Kitty out onto the downhill sidewalk.

“Poor Jamie,” Harley whispered to Tucker. “I really like him,
and I’d love for things to work out between him and Brenna, but she hardly
looked at him. Even when he sat next to me and… and…”

“Started fondling you? He was being too obvious. She saw
right through that. Now, if you had fondled
him,
that might have impressed her.”

“You think so?”

“Trust me, I know her type. She wants his devotion just as
much as she wants every other man’s. The only reason she ignores him is because
she knows she already has it. For him to come on to you only reinforces that
knowledge, because it’s just a transparent ploy for her attention. For you to
come on to him, on the other hand, would be a genuine threat, because he might
switch his devotion from her to you. Her only recourse would be to start
responding to him.”

“Sounds like you’ve made quite a study of the subject.”

“I’ve known a few
Brennas
.” He
glanced at her, smiling, and it dawned on her that, despite his professed
aversion to game playing, his comment was intended to make her jealous. Feeling
slightly giddy from the Bloody Mary, Harley decided it was a game two could
play.

“Thanks for the advice,” she said, fluffing her hair and
adjusting her blouse downward so that it revealed even more of her shoulders
and chest. Jamie had parked his Saab two cars up from Tucker’s Jag. He stood
holding the door open for the three women as Harley and Tucker approached.

“What advice?” Tucker asked. “What are you going to do?”

Harley walked up to Jamie and put a hand on his shoulder as
he closed the car door. She noticed that Brenna sat next to the front passenger
window, where she would have a good view.

“Good night, Jamie,” Harley said. Putting her arms around
him, she whispered in his ear, “This’ll give Brenna something to think about,”
then gave him a long, lingering kiss on the mouth. It seemed to take Jamie a
second to realize what was going on, but when he did, he became an avid
recipient, locking his arms around her and returning the kiss with enthusiasm.

When it was over, he gave her another kiss—a soft one on her
cheek—and whispered, “Thanks,” into her ear.

Brenna’s blue eyes were as round as headlights when Harley
turned away and walked down to the Jag. Tucker, eyebrows raised, held the door
open for her.

“At least tell me you didn’t enjoy that,” he said, settling
into the driver’s seat and turning the key.

She smiled coquettishly. “But that would be a lie.”

Yanking on the stick shift, he said, “
I’m
the one who doesn’t lie, remember? You’re allowed.”

“You can’t mean you
want
me to lie to you. You? Mr. Honest-as-the-Day-is-Long?”

The car squealed away from the curb. “There’s a first time
for everything.”

It had become cool, so Tucker left the Jag’s roof up for the
drive home. They rode in companionable silence until he pulled into the
driveway and killed the engine. Turning to her, he asked, “Did you have a good
time tonight?”

She nodded. “It was great.
You
were great. I mean, you’re a terrific musician. I had no idea.”

It was dark inside the car, and his eyes were huge. That
rare, shy look hid in them. “Thanks.”

“Doug told me about Chet and the record contract. It’s a
shame things didn’t work out.”

For a long moment he stared at the windshield. Finally he
looked back at her. “What else did Doug tell you?”

She met his eyes. “He didn’t tell me what happened in Miami,
if that’s what you mean.” Tucker’s careful lack of response told her it was. “But
I’d like to know. I’d like you to tell me.”

There was another thoughtful pause. “Until I came back here,
I hadn’t thought about Miami in years. Or talked about it. I prefer it that
way.”

Deciding that wasn’t exactly a direct refusal, Harley pressed
on. “Whatever it was, don’t you think I could understand?”

“Frankly, no.
I
still
have a hard time understanding it. How could I expect you to? You’re very
bright, but you’re also very young, and… I don’t want to insult you, but you’re
kind of judgmental. I don’t want you judging me and finding me lacking.” He
reached out and brushed his fingers across her temple and through her hair,
leaving tingling trails of sensation. “I care what you think about me.” He
shrugged. “I don’t know why I should, but I do.”

She nodded. “Okay.”

Tucker got out of the car and came around to open her door
for her. Eyeing her intently, he took her hand to help her out, then shut the
door, encircled her with his arms, and pressed her back against the car. His
mouth found hers and closed over it in a deep, hungry kiss. This time,
resistance never entered Harley’s mind. With her arms around his waist, she re-turned
the kiss with a hunger that equaled his.

I want him,
she thought, in sudden
amazement.
I want him to make love to me.
How did this happen?
Crushed between his warm body and the smooth, cool
car, captured by his strong arms and eager mouth, she went limp with surrender.
Am I weak? Have I lost control?

Wasn’t it all right to be weak sometimes, especially if it
felt so good, so right? Wasn’t she allowed to lose control once in a while? She
couldn’t go her whole life picking and choosing what happened to her. She had
always wondered what it would feel like to get carried away by passion, to lose
herself to it, to ignore good judgment and do something crazy. Perhaps tonight,
for the first time, she would find out.

He tore his lips from hers and she felt them on her cheek,
then her earlobe. His breath warm and rasping in her ear, he murmured, “I couldn’t
stop thinking about you tonight. I could barely stand to look at you, I want
you so much. It’s downright painful.”

Spontaneously she kissed his throat, and a sound rose from
it, a moan of pleasure. Then suddenly their mouths were locked together again,
breathlessly, their tongues meeting in a flickering dance. With one hand he
held her in a tight embrace; the other stroked her hair, her neck, a shoulder,
then felt along the ruffled neckline of her blouse until it found, between her
breasts, the drawstring bow.

Without breaking the kiss, he tugged on it. The drawstring
loosened, and the blouse slipped down a bit. He lowered the fabric that covered
her left breast, then paused for a moment, his hand hovering over it. Harley
felt the cool night air on her bare flesh, and she swore she could hear her
heartbeat, as well as his.

The coolness gave way to a delicious, spreading warmth as he
caressed her, his large hand more than covering her small breast. Although his palm
felt rough, he touched her with exquisite gentleness, as if he were afraid of
hurting, or scaring, her.

Ending the kiss, he whispered, “You can’t imagine what you do
to me,” and nuzzled her hair.

She didn’t have to imagine. With his hips pressing her against
the car, she could feel, even through the many layers of her skirt and the
fabric of his trousers, how aroused he was. She wondered what it would feel
like to take him into her. Would it hurt? Perhaps, but she knew in her heart
that he would take great care to be considerate of her. He would be wonderful.
He would be careful and tender.

She wanted her first time to be with Tucker, and she wanted
it to be tonight. The deal they had made just the previous day barely entered
her mind; her many misgivings evaporated in the wake of the sensations that
enveloped her.

Yes. Tonight
.

Her nipple tightened beneath his touch, and he moaned again.
His thumb found the stiff little bud and brushed across it, sparking an
electric thrill. She gasped in astonishment. “Tucker…” She needed him. “Tucker…”

He froze. “I know,” he mumbled into her hair. “I know, I’m
just… I’m sorry.” He pulled back a bit, removed his hand from her breast, and
pulled the white, ruffled cotton up to cover her. “I know we have a deal. I
didn’t mean to go this far, I just… I just wanted to kiss you, and…” He
shrugged helplessly.

Harley was speechless to find him backing off, giving her the
space he thought she wanted, doing the responsible thing. Now she was the
impulsive one, and he was going by the book. Things were turning around, and
Harley’s mind reeled in confusion.

He began retying the drawstring that secured her blouse. “I didn’t
mean to take advantage of you or renege on our deal. It’s just that you’re so…
God, Harley, I can’t even think straight when I’m with you. I can’t see you
without wanting to kiss you, and I can’t kiss you without wanting to… I’ve
got no self-control with you. I’m like some goofy adolescent, all hormones and
heat. I want you so much… too much.”

She wanted to tell him that she wanted him, too. She wanted
to tell him that he could abandon his self-control, abandon the deal… but she
didn’t. As ardently as she desired him, it was not in her nature to be the one
to initiate things. She simply nodded and said nothing.

He took her face between his palms. “I promise you I’ll keep
to our deal. I won’t try to rush things. We’re doing this your way. I agreed to
that. That’s the way it’ll be.” His eyes were so enormous, so sincere. A lump
filled Harley’s throat and she nodded again. He kissed her forehead lightly. “It’s
late. You must be tired.”

Taking her by the hand, he led her inside. At the bottom of
the stairs they said good-night and went to their separate rooms.

Chapter 10

During the ensuing weeks,
Tucker fulfilled his
promise. He rarely touched Harley, and his infrequent kisses were light. Even
though she knew why he restrained himself, his doing so struck her as bizarre,
considering how strongly he had come on to her at first. It was almost like
being courted. He joked about their old-fashioned, platonic relationship,
saying it was the first time he had actually been forced to get to know a woman
before he could go to bed with her. Unaccustomed though he was to the role of
gentleman suitor, he nevertheless played it well. Were it not for the
transparent longing she occasionally glimpsed in his eyes, she might even have
thought he had lost interest in her.