Now and Forever 5, Love's Journey (8 page)

“I think I’ve always been a prude in your
mind, Pete.”

“So, did you have a good time?” Peter
clicked off the television.

“I did, thank you,” Sam responded, calming
down.

“Are you going to ask her out again?”

“Maybe. Why all the interest?”

“Simply showing love and concern for my
father,” Peter said, carrying a half-empty bowl of pretzels into
the kitchen.

“You’re up to something,” Sam said, his eyes
narrowed as he unbuttoned his shirt.

“I’m interested in who is going to have
access to our living room on Saturday nights and if you’re going to
be seeing Pat, then we’ll have to make up a schedule.”

Sam laughed. “Pete, you’re something! Do you
think I’m going to be making out in our living room with Pat
Weiss?”

“It’s your house too.”

“Pat has her own house.” Sam turned toward
his room.

“Aha! So you
are
going to be making
out with Pat, but at her house! You fell for that one, Dad,” Peter
said.

“You’re impossible. I’m going to bed,” Sam
said, unable to keep color from his cheeks.

“I’ll bet you’re a real mover with older
ladies,” Peter said, laughing.

“Goodnight, Peter,” Sam growled.

Chapter Five

Peter checked the window before sitting down
to practice the piano. Often he’d see Lara in her leotard
stretching her legs at the barre.

“What do you want to hear today,” he called
to her.

“How about
Liebesträume
first? Then
Beethoven? The sonata you’ve been practicing?”

It had hurt Peter to play the
Liebesträume
, Bianca’s song, the first time, but now he
played it for Lara every day. It became her piece.

Sam offered to take Lara with him when he
went birding. Even though she couldn’t see the birds, she’d get out
of the house, breathe fresh air, sit in the sun and listen to bird
songs. Peter volunteered to go along and watch out for her while
Sam looked for birds.

“I don’t know, Pete. I don’t trust you with
her.”

“You think I’m going to seduce her in a
field?” Peter asked, raising his eyebrows.

“Are you?”

“Give me a little credit,” Peter replied,
offended.

“Credit for what?”

“For thinking about something besides
sex.”

“Do you think about anything besides music,
art and sex?”

“I do.”

“What, for example?” Sam stood with his
hands on his hips.

“Uh…uh…food! I think about food.”

“Okay, okay. But if I see any funny
stuff…”

“What time do we leave?”

“Six a.m.”

“Oh my God!” Peter moaned.

“You’re coming, you said so. Bring the
breakfast, since you spend so much time thinking about food,” Sam
said smiling as he went to the kitchen to start dinner.

* * * *

The next morning at five forty-five, a
bright-eyed Sam loaded tired and crabby Peter and Lara into his car
and drove out to a prime bird-sighting location. Peter spread a
blanket down out of the way of Sam’s birds. He brought out Danish
and coffee. Then he took Lara’s hand and led her to the blanket.
She sat down cross-legged, took a Danish Peter offered and rejected
the coffee.

“No coffee?”

“Too dangerous.” She tore off a piece of the
cheese Danish and put it in her mouth.

“Dangerous?”

“Too easy to spill on myself…it’s hot. I’ve
already got burns from trying to drink hot liquids.”

“Tell me about yourself.” Peter changed the
subject, sipping his coffee.

“What do you want to know?” Lara ripped off
another piece of her Danish.

“Where did you grow up?”

“My parents owned an apartment on the Upper
West Side of Manhattan. I went to private school where I studied
ballet with my regular courses.”

“Do you like the city?”

“It’s my home. When my parents were killed,
I moved into a small place of my own. I sold it after the attack.
The apartment was trashed too.”

“Do you want to go back?”

“I can’t do anything until my eyesight
returns.” Lara moved her hands over the grass tearing off little
pieces.

“Will it?” Peter tore his cherry Danish in
half.

“Dr. Weiss says it will. She said when I
recover from the trauma, I’ll be able to see again. I can’t wait.”
She piled up the pieces of grass on the blanket.

“Will you go back to the city then?” Peter
took a bite of his Danish.

“I can’t stay here. My future aunt made it
clear she wants me out as soon as possible,” she stated without
self-pity.

“What does your uncle say?”

“Not much. He’s done a lot for me. But he’s
going to marry Fran.”

“He can dump the bitch,” Peter said with
heat.

“Doubt it.” Lara laughed.

“How about if I seduce her and then tell
him?” Peter inched closer to her on the blanket and reached out to
touch her hair, but pulled back before making contact.

Lara laughed harder.

“She’s not very pretty. I don’t think I
could pull it off.”

“She’s not?” Lara shifted position, pulling
her knees up to her chest.

“You’re much prettier than she is.” Peter
finished his coffee and put the cup down.

“With these bruises? I must be
colorful—flesh, black, blue, red, purple…multi-colored, like one of
the Muppets.”

Peter laughed. “Bruises fade, your beauty is
here to stay.” Peter colored at his own boldness. He picked at a
dandelion growing at the edge of the blanket.

Lara smiled.

“Did you have a boyfriend in New York?”

“I don’t remember. After the attack I lost
most of my short-term memory along with my sight,” she said, her
face clouding over.

“Forget it,” Peter said, taking her
hand.

Lara whipped her hand out of his and put it
behind her back. “I don’t like to be touched…surprised.”

“But before…”

“I know…that was strange.” She licked her
bottom lip. “Got a girlfriend?”

“Not at the moment.” Peter picked a daisy
and took off the petals one by one.

“What are you doing in Willow Falls?”

“I’m teaching a Survey of Western Art course
for a year.”

“So you play piano and teach art?”

“Actually, I teach art first and play piano
second.”

“You’re good on the piano. How are you at
art?”

“Brilliant, of course!” He chuckled.

She laughed. “I never got to college…too
busy dancing.”

“It’s never too late. Maybe my dad could get
you some of the college required reading books on tape?”

“What a great idea! Will you ask him for me?
I hate to ask anything more of him.” She trained her sightless gaze
on the ground.

“Sure.”

“Your dad is so wonderful. You are
lucky.”

“He likes you. If he was younger, I’d be
suspicious something was going on,” he teased.

Lara laughed again.

“You’re funny. I like your voice. Why no
girlfriend?”

“I’m taking a vacation from women.” Peter
tossed the petal-less daisy aside.

“How come?” She raised her arms over her
head and stretched.

“Need to sweep out some old cobwebs.”
Peter’s gaze rested on her chest.

“You haven’t met anyone attractive?” Lara
teased, smiling.

“I guess not,” Peter stared at her breasts,
pushed out when her arms were raised.

“I’m sure you will at the university,” Lara
said, folding her arm with the cast across her chest, breaking his
view.

“I stay away from students. It’s a real
no-no for professors to date students.”

“You mean, sleep with students, don’t
you?”

“I guess…” Peter blushed.

“You’re embarrassed. I’m sorry.” She sat up
straight.

“How did you know?” His eyes searched her
face.

“I can hear it in your voice. It’s amazing
how many signals and cues I get to people’s behavior through other
senses.” Lara finished the last of her Danish.

“I better be careful when you’re around,”
Peter said, recalling how she picked up on him staring at her
chest.

“Can you tell me what some of the birds look
like?”

When Sam returned to the blanket an hour
later, he found Lara laughing at Peter’s funny descriptions of the
birds and their personalities. Upon Sam’s return, Peter and Lara
gathered up the garbage, leftover food and blanket. Peter took
Lara’s hand to guide her to the car. Sam got behind the wheel as
Peter opened the trunk. Lara turned toward him with the blanket and
fell against him, twisting her ankle. She let out a brief cry of
pain and shifted her weight to lean against him. He steadied her
with an arm around her waist.

Lara looked up at him with her sightless
eyes and he couldn’t help himself. He brought his mouth down on
hers briefly, tenderly. Lara let him kiss her, then she pushed away
from him.

The kiss was sweet.

“I didn’t mean to take advantage of you,
Lara. But you look so beautiful…”

“It’s okay…friends kiss friends sometimes.
Especially when the friend is a dumb, helpless blind girl. Chalk it
up as your good deed of the week.”

“It’s not like that. You…you…” Peter took
her arm but Lara wrenched away from him, slamming into the car.

He grabbed her before she hit the ground.
Lara pushed away from him and felt her way along the car until her
hand bumped up against the door handle. She opened the door, got
into the backseat, and slammed the door . Peter slid into the front
seat next to his father.

“Brilliant maneuver, Romeo,” Sam said, then
turned the key in the ignition.

* * * *

On the outskirts of town

Rex stood in the deserted parking lot of The
Wet Tee Shirt. The sun was high in the sky at one o’clock in the
afternoon. His breakfast finished, it was time to get down to
business.

“Mrs. Clarkson, your next payment is due
Friday. Please don’t be late. I’d prefer not to call Herb,” Rex
said into the phone before he hung up. Then he dialed again.

“That’s right, Miss Sands, your next payment
is due on Friday. Please don’t be late. I’d hate to call Mr.
Clarkson and tell him what you’re actually teaching his wife on
Wednesday afternoons,” Rex said and hung up.

Deena had heard about these women having a
lesbian affair from Alf Hodges, the mailman. Sometimes he’d make an
unexpected afternoon delivery and catch them practically in the
act, hastily pulling down skirts and buttoning blouses, he’d
confided to Deena. He laughed when he thought of what high and
mighty Herb Clarkson would say if he knew. Deena laughed with
him…all the way to the bank.

This was a good one, a secret involving two
people, double the pay-off. Rex was collecting three hundred
dollars a month from each of them. The payments arrived at a
mailbox at one of those professional mailbox places. Every couple
of months he’d move to a new location or a new box number so
there’d be no trail. And he was shortchanging Deena by forty
dollars each month, he gave her two hundred and kept four hundred
for himself.

Deena came through for him and this week he
started working as the bouncer at The Wet Tee Shirt. He was making
two hundred fifty dollars a week, not nearly enough for a decent
lifestyle. But he smiled to himself, knowing that soon he’d be
raking in money from his blackmail victims. This job was merely a
means to an end.
Getting paid to gather dirt. Not bad when you
see it like that.

Ah, Deena. Rex stopped for a moment, his
cell phone in his hand to think about her and her luscious body
with those big breasts…all for him. She’d caved and slept with him
on their second date. Rex took her to the fanciest place in
Riverton, a town fifty miles away and she rewarded his generosity
with the best sex ever. Deena was surprisingly sweet and
affectionate in bed.

They had sex a couple of times a week at her
place, because he didn’t want Alan to know about him and Deena. Rex
often took her for a nice meal first. Sometimes he bought her a
scarf or a necklace; nothing expensive, something to keep her
happy, and bought with the money he owed her.

Soon Rex would have his own place. He wasn’t
ready to move out yet, though. He hadn’t discovered Alan’s secret.
Rex had bugged Alan’s bedroom and the living room and learned
nothing. Next he had to bug Alan’s office. He could feel Alan was
up to no good in some way and Rex was determined to find out what
it was.

Staying at Deena’s sometimes worked out well
for Rex. Deena couldn’t afford a big apartment, but she kept the
place clean and stocked his favorite gin. She also made some of his
favorite foods from time to time. After having sex, Rex and Deena
would stay up late watching television. She hugged him and touched
him often. Rex had never had much affection as a child and he found
he liked it. He was growing used to being with Deena. In fact, he
began to look forward to it.