Homecoming (44 page)

“I’m glad you don’t have any,” Jill admitted. “I don’t hate them, but I like you just the way you are.”

“You were never tempted?”

“Not really. They were pretty popular when I was in college, but it was still the edgier kids who got them, and I was never edgy.”

Lizzie slipped into a pair of bone-colored heels, took one last look at herself in the mirror and picked up her tote bag. “I’m ready to go slay dragons.”

“You look really, really good,” Jill said, knowing she probably looked like a love-struck dope.

“Thanks. I hope I look good enough to talk people into handing me every bit of their liquid assets.”

“You do to me. If I’ve got it, you can have it.”

Lizzie leaned over and whispered into Jill’s ear as she put a hand on her breast and gave it a gentle squeeze. “I’ll just take your heart. That’s all I’ll ever need.”

***

On Friday morning, when Jill’s alarm went off at seven-thirty, she lay perfectly still, waiting for the boys to start whining. Curiosity got the best of her after a few seconds of silence and she cautiously opened her eyes. The bed was empty, but when she put her hand on the spot where Lizzie should be, the lingering warmth from her body made her smile.

“Lizzie?”

“Give me a second,” she called up.

“Just checking to see if you were still here.”

“I am. Take your shower.”

Jill didn’t mind being told what to do, so she followed orders. When her hair was almost dry, the bathroom door opened and Lizzie entered, carrying a mug and a plate. She was wearing one of Jill’s T-shirts, which just covered her butt. It was a little big on her, which was strangely sexy. It was amazing what attracted you when you were falling in love.

“I like your shirt.”

“You don’t mind my Donald Ducking it in your kitchen?”

“Donald Ducking…?”

“He wore a shirt but no pants,” she explained. “I don’t want to show my butt to your neighbors, but I was pretty sure no one could see in.”

“You may shake your cute little ass all over my house. We’ve got plenty of privacy.”

Lizzie placed the plate on the vanity table, then bent and kissed Jill’s cheek. “For you. I felt like playing housewife today.”

Jill grasped her by the hips and tumbled her into her lap, with the small stool she sat on squeaking under their combined weight. “What a nice way to wake up. If you ever want to quit your job, I could think of a hundred things to keep you busy.”

“Check with me after I’ve paid off my student loans.” She took the fork and cut a bite of pancake, then moved it around while making airplane noises. “Here it comes. Open the hangar.”

Jill opened her mouth and the bite slid inside. “Mmm… You don’t have to play tricks to get me to eat pancakes. Perfect amount of syrup, by the way. Full coverage, but not oversaturated.”

“I like to make you happy.” She cut another bite, readying it for when Jill had swallowed.

“You do,” Jill said soberly. “You really do. When are you leaving?”

“When you do. I’ll drop you off at work, then keep going.” She placed a soft kiss on Jill’s cheek. “Are you sure you don’t mind my taking Freyja? I’m going to put a lot of miles on her.”

“I don’t want you going with some guy you found on Craigslist, Lizzie. I’ll feel much better knowing my trusty Freyja will be with you.”

“I’ve been all over New England with people I found on Craigslist.” She started to poke all around Jill’s belly and sides. “You’re not going to get all maternal on me, are you?”

“No,” she said, giggling under the assault, “but you hadn’t found a ride back from Portland to Massachusetts. You’ve got enough things to worry about this weekend. The last thing you want is to be online every minute, trying to hitch a ride.”

Lizzie held her tightly and placed a long, soft kiss on her lips. “I like that you worry about me. But I’m not going to stop hitching rides with strangers. I don’t like to waste fuel when I don’t have to.”

“I get that. I do. And I wouldn’t have insisted if you weren’t trying to hit four cities in three states in three days.”

She made a face. “It doesn’t sound like much fun when you put it that way. I wish Donna hadn’t moved all the way to Portland. That’s the leg of the trip that’s gonna take the most time.”

“I haven’t been there in years. How long will it take you?”

“About four hours. Donna’s gonna take the afternoon off work so we can have some alone time.”

“Sounds good. Then you’re going to see Kristen tomorrow?”

“Uh-huh.” She put the next bite in, then kissed Jill’s cheek again. “That’ll take about three hours from Donna’s house. I’ll stay over at Kristen’s on Saturday night, then do all four boys on Sunday. I’m gonna have to start early to get ’em all in.”

“Are they expecting you?”

“The boys aren’t. But Chris and Tim and Adam all live within a half hour of each other. If one’s not home, I’ll move to the next. I’ll catch them all at some point. It’s not like any of them ever go anywhere.”

“Nervous?”

“Not really. I love all of my siblings, but if they can’t accept me as I am, I’ll make do. When you’ve got six brothers and sisters, the stakes aren’t as high to make each of them like you.”

Jill had been unable to get a nagging worry to leave her alone, and it flared up again. “But you don’t seriously think they’ll give you a hard time, do you?”

“Nah. Mark won’t like it, but he won’t say so. Lisa will hate it, so I’m not going to tell her at all. Mark can handle that mess.”

“The other boys won’t mind?”

She seemed to think for a minute, even though Jill knew she’d been mulling this over in her mind for quite some time. “They might be shocked, and my being with you will knock them for a loop, but they’ll be fine. They’ve all been around plenty of gay people, and none of them are particularly narrow-minded.”

“Good. I don’t want to have to worry every minute you’re gone.”

“Aww…” She tickled under Jill’s chin. “You don’t have to worry even one minute. I’m a big girl.”

“You’re
my
girl,” Jill said, looking into her eyes, “and I’m protective of you.”

Lizzie took a bite of the pancake, and chewed thoughtfully. “I didn’t like it when my boyfriends said I was theirs. But it’s fine when you do it.” She kissed Jill’s cheek, then wiped a dot of syrup from it. “Apparently I don’t mind having double standards.”

“I can’t help it. Even though I know you can take care of yourself, I want to watch out for you.”

“That’s part of being in love.” She tilted her head and they shared a long, sweet kiss. “You
do
still love me, don’t you?”

“I do,” Jill said, grinning. “Four days and counting.”

Lizzie put the last bite of the pancake into Jill’s mouth. “Let’s get going. I don’t want you to be late. Meet you downstairs.”

Jill watched her leave, wishing she hadn’t wanted to go alone. Only four days in and she could hardly stand the thought of not seeing her all weekend. Being in love was
harder than it looked.

A few minutes later, Jill hefted Lizzie’s backpack onto her shoulder and followed her out to the car. Lizzie was wearing her crisp white shirt over her favorite black leotard, black leggings, with knee-high black leather boots. Jill thanked her lucky stars that Lizzie wasn’t going to get into a car with a strange guy from Craigslist. Not that Lizzie wasn’t attractive every day, but today she was off the charts. And if Jill had been forced to spend the day thinking of how some stranger would be gazing at that stupendous ass, perfectly highlighted by those leggings…she wouldn’t have been worth a thing at work.

***

Jill was walking home that afternoon when her phone rang. She pulled it from her pocket, not bothering to see who it was. “Hello?”

“Jill?”

The voice was completely familiar, even though she’d only heard it a couple of times in twenty years. “Hi, Mark.”

“Hey. I’m in Burlington and thought I’d wait for traffic to die down before I went home. How about dinner?”

“Uhm, I’ve got something at eight, but I’m free until then. Does that work?”

“Sure. I’ll come by your house. Is that good?”

“Okay. I should be there by five-thirty. You’ve got the address, right?”

“Yeah, I do. My GPS can find it.”

“Great. See you soon.” She picked up her pace, a thread of anxiety stirring in her gut. Lizzie had been sure Donna wouldn’t call the other kids to tell them her news, but you never knew…

Jill had barely gotten the front door open when she heard Mark’s truck pull into the driveway. She was going to cut through the house and tell him to come in the back, but her eyes scanned the kitchen first. Damned good thing. Lizzie had left a note on the refrigerator. “Don’t fall in love with anyone else while I’m gone.” That wasn’t too bad, but she’d added drawings of stick-figure women kissing and lying on top of one another. Her attempt at showing the figures with their heads between each other’s stick legs was funny—to Jill. She was pretty sure Mark wouldn’t like to see that the figure on the bottom was named Lizzie and the one on top Jill.

The front bell rang and she stumbled over the annoyed, frantically fleeing cats getting to it. “Hi,” she said as she opened the door. “I’m about to have an uprising here. My cats were headed for dinner when the bell rang, but now they’re hiding like little chickens.”

He walked in, looking a little sheepish. “Is it okay that I surprised you? I didn’t think I’d be in town long, so I didn’t call to set something up.”

“Of course it is. Come on into the kitchen.”

He followed her, commenting, “Your house is awesome, Jill. Damn, don’t ever let Lisa see this. She’d kill me for not making enough to buy a nice place.”

Jill thought about that while she portioned out a snack for the boys. Mark had been a very good student, always trying his best to please his teachers at every level. His hard work got him to summa cum laude, no surprise to Jill. His mind had always shown him to be a cut above.

“All that matters is that you do something you love,” she said, while filling up the water bowl.

“I like what I do,” he said thoughtfully. “But I’d like it a lot more if I didn’t have to worry about money.”

“Lisa doesn’t work, right?”

“No, she never has.” He corrected himself immediately. “I mean, she works constantly. Just not for money.”

“I’m sure it was nice for her to be home when your kids were young.”

“Yeah.” He nodded, then stuck his hands in his pockets and looked around the kitchen idly. “But they’re not young any more. I have no idea how I’m going to pay for them to go to college.”

“No savings?” she asked, even though that was an indelicate question.

“Not much. Hell, I couldn’t reliably pay the rent on the apartment we live in. Saving money’s pretty much impossible.”

She stopped, stunned by that comment. “You can’t pay the rent…?”

“Got any beer?” he asked.

“Sure. But I’m ready to go if you are.”

“I like to have a beer or two before I go out. Saves ten bucks.”

“Right. That makes sense.” She took two beers from the fridge and they went outside to drink them. A very annoying cool wind had been blowing all day, reminding her that summer was on the way out, but it was still warm enough to sit outside for a while.

He started to play with the label on his beer, cutting a stripe down it with his thumbnail. She’d almost forgotten she’d asked a question, but when he began to talk it came back to her. “You know The Foundation owns the shop, right?”

“Oh, sure. I mean, I didn’t know that, but it makes sense.”

“In exchange for the apartment, I open the shop to the public and do free tours on the weekends. Then everything I earn is mine to keep.”

“Wow. That’s…nice,” she said, frankly amazed that he’d gotten such a sweetheart deal.

“I know how lucky I was to fall into this,” he said. “But there are a lot of weeks where I don’t make a cent. What I make in the summer and fall has to carry me all year.”

“How’d…” She wanted to make sure she framed the question sensitively. “How’d you wind up being a blacksmith? I never knew you were the creative type.”

He shrugged, then took a drink. “I’m not, really. For a few years I worked in Brattleboro, at a small accounting firm. But the lead guy retired and sold his client list to a bigger place in Bellows Falls. They promised we’d get a chance at a job, but that was just a promise.” He let out a heavy sigh, his slumped posture showing just how badly he’d been beaten down. “I was going to look for work in a bigger town, but Lisa had her mind set on staying in Sugar Hill.” He shrugged. “You know how it is. She’s really close to her parents, and she’s comfortable there.”

“I understand that. It’s a great place for your kids to grow up, and being close to all of their grandparents is really nice.”

“Yeah, it is. So I looked for work for a long time, trying to find anything close. Then old Mr. Rooney said he was thinking about retiring, and he asked me if I’d like to take over for him.”

Jill blinked in surprise. “Just like that? You hadn’t worked for him?”

“Nope. He knew I wanted to stay in town, and that I didn’t have a job. So he taught me the basics and I took over. I’m still learning, fifteen years later.” He shrugged. “I’m not a natural. I can copy things I see, but I’ve never created anything on my own. I just don’t have that kind of eye.”

“But you like it?”

He smiled, shrugged and said, “It’s a job. Does anybody
like
having to work?”

As he said that, it hit Jill that this was Mark in a nutshell. He’d worked hard in school, but just to please his parents and his teachers. His efforts were never based on true intellectual curiosity. Now he was working for himself, and didn’t have that same carrot of approval dangling in front of him. He wasn’t a lazy guy, but he didn’t have the drive, that need to be successful that all prosperous business owners had. He was just getting by, and always would be.

Luckily, his sister was nothing like him. Mark needed to please others. Lizzie needed to please herself. Years ago, Jill would have preferred Mark. Her battered psyche was drawn to kind souls who demanded little from her. But now? She smiled to herself. Now she loved the feistiest member of the whole clan. The one who was going to keep her on her toes for the rest of her life.