Native Affairs (11 page)

Fox rolled his eyes. “You take this Miss Manners thing too seriously, do you know that?”

She was about to protest when he raised his hand, forestalling her. “All right, all right. Far be it for me to question your judgment on etiquette, though I think Paula is the last person on earth who would care.”

“I’d care,” Cindy said, and he relented.

“I’ll call you later, okay?” he said softly, stroking her hair.

“Okay,” she said, and then touched his arm. He studied her, waiting for the question he could sense was coming.

“Drew, why do you have to give a deposition on a Saturday night? Is it an emergency or something?”

He looked as though he regretted bringing it up. “Sort of,” he hedged.

“What does that mean?”

He sighed heavily, his shoulders slumping. It was a gesture of resignation, and she knew that he was about to tell her.

“You know that guy who gave me this?” he said, pointing to his taped ribs.

She nodded mutely.

“Well, I tracked him down in a bar, and when I tried to pick him up he created kind of a ruckus. He came at me with a broken beer bottle, but somebody got in the way and took the cut instead. I have to give my version of what happened and swear to it.”

Cindy licked her lips, which were suddenly dry. “Drew, that could have been you.”

“It wasn’t,” he said firmly. “It wasn’t me, and I don’t want you to think about it anymore.”

“I’m not sure I’ll be able to follow those orders,” she replied, looking away from him.

The phone rang inside the apartment, and Cindy quickly unlocked the door. “I have to get that,” she said, glancing back at Fox.

He leaned forward and kissed her briefly on the forehead. “Go ahead,” he answered. “I’ll call you later,” he repeated.

She left the door ajar, and she heard him whistling as he walked away.

* * * *

He didn’t call. All that evening, every time the phone rang, Cindy was sure it was Fox. But she heard from three tenants, Paula’s aunt, and her own mother, everyone but the person she most wanted to be on the other end of the line. As it got later, she began to worry. What could have happened to him? She knew that he would have kept his word if it were possible, and the only conclusion she could come to was that something was wrong.

Paula returned from the hospital around eleven-thirty, so exhausted from her double shift that she didn’t pause for conversation but just stumbled into bed. Cindy fretted for another hour and a half, and then went to bed, certain that she would not be able to sleep. She had pulled the phone with its long extension cord into her room, and she drifted in and out of a fitful doze, waiting for it to ring.

When it finally did, she jumped up so suddenly that she knocked over the lamp on her bedside table reaching for the receiver. She winced as it crashed into the wall, and then plunged to the floor, making enough noise to wake Paula, and possibly several of her deceased relatives.

After scrabbling for the receiver in the dark, Cindy lifted it to her mouth and said, “Drew?”

‘‘Yeah, it’s me.” He sounded very tired.

“Drew, what happened? Where are you? Are you all right?”

“I’m fine. I’m at the county jail.”

Her heart missed a beat. “You haven’t been arrested?”

“No, no. Although it would hardly surprise anyone if I had been.” He paused, and she heard a deep inhalation. He was smoking.

“I got held up after I gave the deposition,” he explained. “The assistant DA who took it brought me over here to look at a lineup. A jumper I caught a few years ago got out on parole and killed a woman. He was using an assumed name, and I had to identify him as the person I returned to custody, and the victim’s daughter had to identify him as the guy she saw leaving her mother’s house.” He didn’t say the experience had been harrowing, but she could hear it in his drained, toneless delivery.

“Killed,” Cindy repeated. “He killed a woman?”
 

“That’s what the prosecutor thinks,” Fox replied. “And from what I know of the guy I certainly wouldn’t put it past him.”

There was a brief knock, and then Cindy’s door opened. Paula entered the room, wearing two ounces of lace lingerie and a pained expression.

“What broke?” she demanded. “I heard a noise.”
 

“Just a second,” Cindy said into the phone, and then covered the mouthpiece.

“The lamp fell,” Cindy replied to Paula, “but it didn’t break. I’m sorry. I knocked it over in the dark.”
 

Paula, her shadowy form outlined by the hall light behind her, folded her arms. “Who’s that on the phone? As if I didn’t know.”

“It’s Drew,” Cindy answered patiently.
 

“Somebody ought to buy that guy a watch,” Paula stated irritably and slammed Cindy’s door behind her.
 

“I guess Paula heard the phone,” Fox said when she got back on the line.
 

“Yes,” Cindy said, not going into the rest of it.
 

“Look, I’m sorry I woke both of you up. I just got involved and the time sped by. It wasn’t until later that I realized you might be worried when you didn’t hear from me.”
 

“I was worried. I couldn’t sleep.”
 

“It was only a phone call, Cindy. It wasn’t like we had a date firmed up and I missed it.”

Cindy was silent. Was he chastising her, asserting his independence?
 

“You still there?” he asked, his tone lighter.

“I’m still here.”

“All right,” he said. “I’m a jerk. I’m not used to anybody worrying about me, that’s all. I really was tied up with the police until a few minutes ago. I would have waited until morning to get in touch but I’ll be gone by then.”

“Gone?” she repeated faintly, her spirits sinking further.

“Yeah, I have to drive up to Alabama for an extradition hearing. The state police just located the guy and it’s set for first thing Monday morning. I can’t get a flight in time so I have to take my car. The town is a long distance from the nearest airport and it’s actually faster to drive.”

“Drew, you can’t drive. You’ve had no sleep for two nights running,” she said, distracted by visions of him gliding onto off ramps and into telephone poles.

“Cindy, I have to get there. Unless this creep is extradited to Georgia he’ll get away with defrauding a bunch of old people in his nursing homes of all their retirement funds. He fled jurisdiction when the feds caught on to him, and I want to make sure he is punished for it.”

Cindy took a breath. “Drew, is your life always like this?” she asked him.

“Pretty much,” he answered. “I’m not exactly what you’d call reliable.” He paused. “But I guess you’ve gathered that.”

“When will you be back?”

“I don’t know. It could be over fast, with just the hearing, or it could take several days.”

She didn’t know how to handle it. How could she press him for information he didn’t have?

“Cindy,” he said, “you’ll hear from me. I don’t know when, but you will.”

“Okay, Drew.” What else could she say?

“Cindy?”

“Hmm?”

“It’s nice that you care what happens to me. I like that.” A smile came into his voice. “Look for me...”

“Yes, I know. When the sun goes down.”

“That’s my girl.”

“Drew, be careful. Take care of yourself.”

“I will. Goodbye, princess.”

“Goodbye.”

Cindy hung up, falling back on the pillows. She glanced at the lamp which lay in a heap, its shade askew, on the rug. Automatically, she got out of bed and righted it, standing it back on the table.

Could she take this? Could she take Fox’s lifestyle, the pattern of leaving at a moment’s notice with no set time of return? He was going off into danger every time he left, and no amount of rationalizing could dismiss that fact.

Cindy shook her head and climbed back into bed. It appeared that she was going to find out if she could live with his precarious adventures.

Because whether she liked it or not, she was falling in love with Andrew Fox.

Chapter 6

Five days later Cindy was seated on the floor of Paula’s living room with a stack of index cards. She was methodically sorting the cards and then clipping them to the typed pages they outlined. A casual observer witnessing her apparent concentration would not have guessed her inner turmoil.

Paula entered the room and displayed her hand like a model on television selling dishwashing lotion. “How do you like it?” she asked. “Mango frappe.”
 

Cindy glanced at the iridescent orange nail polish and nodded. “It’s very... shiny.”

“Not to mention seductive, long wearing, and non chip,” Paula added dryly, quoting from the sales copy.

She watched Cindy bite the cap of her pen, holding it between her teeth and nibbling at it like a ferret.

“Is that what you do instead of smoking?” she asked.

Cindy looked at her uncomprehendingly. “What?”

“Never mind. I take it you haven’t heard from him.”

Cindy shook her head.

“You have nothing to add?” Paula probed.

Cindy shrugged. “What is there to say? I have no claim on him; he doesn’t have to report to me daily as if I were his mother. He said I would hear from him, and I will. Eventually.”

“How very mature,” Paula said. “And how understanding. Everyone knows there are no phones in Georgia. Or post offices or Western Union operators.”

Cindy threw her a dirty look.

“I know, I know,” Paula said, holding up her hand. “But if you ask me, he’s using this trip to put emotional distance between you.”

“Nobody asked you,” Cindy pointed out.

“Has that ever stopped me from offering an opinion before?” Paula asked rhetorically.

Cindy sighed and uncoiled her legs, stretching them. “Paula, look at it logically. As of this moment, I have been out with him twice, only once on an actual date. Why should he feel compelled to keep me posted on his every move? I believe that he’ll call me when he gets back, and that’s sufficient.”

Paula nodded patiently. “All that sounds wonderful, but I happen to know that you haven’t eaten a square meal since he left. You may be convincing yourself with your splendid reasoning but I’m not buying it.”

“Then don’t,” Cindy said shortly, getting up. “Go back into your bedroom and frappe your toenails.”

“Oh, oh,” Paula said. “Getting a little miffed, are we?”

Cindy put her hands on her hips and stared her down. “I’m getting a little miffed, yes. Your attitude toward Fox changes with the light. One minute you’re wishing me luck and urging me onward, and the next you’re making wisecracks about his disappearing act. What’s going on, Paula? Are you trying to drive me crazy?”

Paula considered that. “Okay, you’re right. I am vacillating about this whole thing. Sometimes when I see how happy you are with him, I want it to work out and I encourage you. Then, at other times, I remember what he used to be like…” She left the sentence unfinished for Cindy to draw her own conclusions.

“People can change,” Cindy said. “They grow up and different things become important to them.”

“Possibly,” Paula said, her tone unconvinced.

“Definitely,” Cindy confirmed. “Now go back to your manicure and let me get this work done.” She sat back down and started shuffling papers.

“I guess I know when I’m not wanted.” Paula sniffed and marched out of the room.

Cindy looked up after she’d gone, and her expression was thoughtful.

* * * *

The next afternoon Cindy was sitting at a table in the back of the reference room when a long shadow fell across the page she was reading. She glanced up and Fox was towering over her, his expression wary, as if he were unsure of the reception he was going to get.

“Hi,” he said. “I’m back.”

Cindy smiled. “Hello, Drew. I’m glad to see you.”

“Yeah?” he said, tilting his head to one side and looking at her askance.

“Of course. How did the trip go?”

He pulled out a chair and turned it around, seat forward. Lifting one leg over the back of it, he dropped into it.

“Fine,” he replied, folding his arms across the top of the ladderback. “We put that guy away where he’ll never cheat anybody again.”

“That’s good,” she said, closing her book carefully. She couldn’t help comparing this return with his previous one, when he’d opened his arms and she had run into them. But that was before the lake, before they both realized how much was at stake.

He glanced around at the floor-to-ceiling stacks nervously, as if viewing a lineup of his enemies. “Looks like you’ve got a few books here,” he said, raising his eyebrows. Cindy thought he looked out of place in this arena of higher learning—his tough, lean exterior bespeaking knowledge of a very different kind.