Rock Chick 01 (19 page)

Tod and I finished the macaroni salad and
made the brownies and because we were both pumped up on adrenalin
by being held at gunpoint and shot at, we made chocolate pecan pie.
The whole time we did this, I fielded phone calls. Some of them
were (obviously bogus) Rosie or Duke sightings, most of them were
from girlfriends and the conversations with my girlfriends were all
the same.

Question: Was it true, had I hooked up with
Liam Nightingale?

Answer: (a hesitant) Yes.

Option: (pick one or multiple choice) Squeal
/ Shout / Curse / Scream / Shriek (usually the word: Ohmigod!)

Question: Had we
done it
yet?

Answer: We’re taking it slow.

Then a lot of yelling about what was taking
me so long, questions about how Lee kissed (“you
have
kissed
him, haven’t you?”), more resurfacing of the nasty bra-bow rumor,
etc. I thanked God that I had such a long apprenticeship at being
cagey and a master liar because it sure came in handy.

After all of our grueling activity, Tod and I
headed up to my balcony with the phone and an egg timer and
collapsed into lounge chairs.

I didn’t trust myself not to fall asleep and
get burned to a crisp, so we set the timer and every fifteen
minutes we turned.

Unfortunately, we eventually forgot to set
the timer, the phone finally went silent and I fell into an
unscheduled Disco Nap. Fortunately, I was not the kind of redhead
with freckles all over that burned within seconds of the sun
touching my skin. Not to mention, I’d re-dosed with factor 8 before
hitting the lounge and was already nursing a pretty deep base
tan.

I was lying on my stomach and I felt
something on my shoulder. I whirled around on my lounge chair and
brought my hands up in the karate position that all of Charlie’s
Angels used.

Lee was crouched beside me.

“I thought I told you to stay in the house,”
he said, his voice was low but not angry, his eyes were on my hands
and I could see the corners crinkled in a semi-smile at the sides
of his cool sunglasses.

Since I didn’t need to karate-chop him, I
dropped my stance.

“I did stay in the house. Then the house got
boring and we couldn’t get a tan in the house. Anyway, Tod’s
protecting me.”

We both looked to Tod who was on his stomach
on the lounge. His gun was unattended on the balcony floor and
Chowleena was lying on her side in the shade under Tod’s lounge.
They both were fast asleep.

Oopsie.

“He’s from Texas and he’s a drag queen. He
has quick reflexes,” I assured Lee.

Tod opened an eye and looked between me and
Lee.

“Am I off duty?” he asked Lee.

Lee nodded.

Tod got up, taking his gun with him, patted
his leg to call Chowleena and said to me, “Got a fund raiser
tomorrow night, you on Drag Duty?”

Tod and the rest of the drag community of
Denver often did fund raisers where they lip-synched their hearts
out and gave their tips to charity. Stevie and I were Tod’s
alter-ego, Burgundy Rose’s official drag hags. It was the only true
workout I got, lugging around Burgundy’s sequined dresses. They
weighed a ton. As Tod said, “They don’t call it drag for nothing,
girlie.”

I nodded to him. “If I’m alive, wild horses
couldn’t keep me away.”

Tod’s eyes moved to Lee. “It’s a drag show
for charity. You bringing Indy?”

Lee stood and since Tod was no longer wearing
his high heels, he went from looking down on Lee to looking up.
Tod’s gaze didn’t waver.

“If I’m not workin’, I’ll be there.”

Tod looked again to me. “Swear to God, you
fuck this up, I’m calling the white jackets.”

Then he and Chowleena left.

“You find Rosie?” I asked Lee, coming out of
the lounge.

“No.”

“The diamonds?”

“No.”

“Is Duke back?”

“Yes.”

“Is he safe?”

“Yes.”

“No diamonds?”

“They’re gone.”

“Fuck!” I stomped my foot. “Who has
them?”

“That’s a good question.”

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” I snapped again. “Did you
talk to Terry Wilcox?”

“Yes.”

“How’d that go?”

I had lifted my hand up to shield my eyes
from the sun so I could look at him. During my questioning, Lee was
looking beyond me to the alley and into the backyards of my
neighbors. When he answered, his eyes shifted to me.

“I gave him your excuses for missing dinner
on Wednesday.”

“What were those?”

“You’d be with me and I’d be fucking your
brains out.”

My vagina went into spasm and my knees went
week.

“How’d he take that?” I asked, trying to
pretend I wasn’t about to collapse.

“He wasn’t pleased.”

“Erm, can you explain what you meant earlier
by ‘declaration of war’?”

“Only if we do it inside, we’re exposed up
here.”

I grabbed the phone, the timer and my sarong
and walked into the bedroom. I threw everything on the bed and tied
the sarong around my hips. Lee closed the door behind him and
pulled off his shades.

He walked up to me, tossed his sunglasses on
the bed and untied the sarong from around my hips.

“I just tied that,” I told him, grabbing for
it.

He ignored me and threw it on the bed, out of
my reach and put his hands on my hips, drawing me to him.

“I thought you were gonna tell me about this
war thing,” I reminded him.

“Simple. He wants something. That something
belongs to me. He begins his campaign to get what he wants and I
begin mine to keep it.”

I was trying not to be pissed off but it was
hard.

“I don’t belong to you.”

“I know that and you know that but men like
Coxy don’t know that. He acquires things, even humans, especially
women. His men don’t work for him because they respect and trust
him, they do it because he pays them a lot.”

Okay, that made sense.

My hips were against his hips and his hands
were going up my back, pulling the rest of my body into contact
with his.

I ignored it.

“Have you dissuaded him from this war?”

“Not likely.”

“What happens now?”

“I deal with it. You hear from him, see him,
you tell me.”

I could do that, that sounded easy.

Lee’s hands made it to my shoulders and my
entire torso was pressed against his.

“What time is it?” I asked.

Lee’s head came down and his lips were on my
neck.

“Quarter to two,” he said against my
skin.

“Ohmigod!” I shouted and tried to pull away
but Lee’s arms tightened and brought me back. “I have to take a
shower, we have to get to Dad’s. I’m supposed to be making the
hamburger patties.”

“Your father can make the hamburgers. We’re
gonna be late.”

I stared at him in horror. “Late? We can’t be
late! Dad loves you, Lee, but he’s not exactly jumping for joy that
we’re together. We can’t be late the first time we go home for a
barbeque!”

Lee’s face changed and his eyes became
warm.

“Are we together?”

Oh crap.

I started thinking fast.

“We’re not,
not
together.”

“I’m not entirely certain what to do with
that.”

I explained, “We’re not exactly together and
were not,
not
together. We’re in together-limbo. We’re
test-driving together to see if we want to buy it.”

“We go to your Dad’s late, I could convince
you to buy it.”

I was pretty certain he was right so, in
self-defense, I put my hands against his chest and pushed.

He didn’t budge.

I changed tactics.

“How are
you
so sure you want to buy
it?”

“I’m sure.”

“How are you sure?”

“Trust me, I’m sure.”

“How?”

“I have an idea, why don’t we shower
together?” he suggested.

“That isn’t telling me how.”

“No, but it would be showing you.”

“So ‘how’ is a showing thing, not a telling
thing?”

“’How’ is show and tell, I just feel in the
mood to show.”

Grr.

On to Plan C.

“When you show me the how, do you want me to
have my mind on hamburger patties?”

He smiled his killer smile.

“Your mind wouldn’t be on hamburger
patties.”

I was pretty certain he was right about that
too.

This took me to Plan D.

“Lee, give me a break. It’s my Dad and I
promised him I’d be there early to help.”

He watched me for a second then he relented,
sort of.

“Okay, but you have to give me something to
go on.”

I was starting to get panicked and a little
desperate.

“Something, what something?”

Lee’s arms dropped away.

“You pick.”

I was running late. Dad was going to be
hacked off. Terry Wilcox had thrown down the gauntlet to Lee over
me. There was still the whole Rosie Fiasco going on, someone had
the diamonds and yet everyone was still looking for them. And
lastly, Lee and I were in together-limbo and until we had three
sane seconds, that was where we were going to stay. I didn’t have a
lot of time to do anything creative.

So I kissed him.

Or, at least, I started out kissing him, my
mouth open under his, my arms around his neck, my tongue sliding
against his.

When it ended, he was definitely kissing me.
One arm around my back, the other hand twisted in my hair, his
tongue sliding against mine.

“Christ, you’re good at that,” he said when
he lifted his head.

I blinked.

“I am?”

His eyes were hot on me when I looked into
them.

“Yeah, you are and I like it that you have to
ask.”

At his answer, I pressed deeper into him but
his hands were at my waist, pushing me away.

“If you don’t get in the shower now, the
family will do without macaroni salad and brownies.”

I pushed against his hands. “Maybe we can be
a little late.”

His hands tensed but he kept me away.

“I’m not talkin’ late, I’m talkin’ no
show.”

I stared at him.

“Indy, get in the shower.”

I got in the shower.

* * * * *

I was sitting in my Dad’s backyard with Kitty
Sue.

It was my backyard too, since I grew up there
but I’d been away from home long enough for Dad to have reclaimed
it. That was, he had enough time with me out of the house and not
worrying him every second of the day that he was able to make the
yard look nice, rather than just something he mowed every two weeks
in the summer.

Dad’s house was in Bonnie Brae, about eight
blocks from Kitty Sue and Malcolm’s. When I was really young, it
seemed it took forever to get to Ally. As I grew older, that
distance lessened until one or the other of us walked it several
times a day.

“How’s it going?” Kitty Sue asked, her eyes
on me and her mind on Lee and me.

Lee and I had made it to Dad’s fifteen
minutes before everyone else was due. This was fifteen minutes
after I promised Dad I’d be there. Dad blamed Lee even though I
told him it was my fault for falling asleep in the sun.

I’d caught a second to talk to Lee when Dad
put the hamburgers on the grill.

“Don’t take it personally, he never liked any
of the guys I brought home.”

Even though this was true, it was not what
Lee wanted to hear. After I said it, his eyes cut to me and I
realized my mistake at bringing up the subject of the other guys I
brought home.

Then, trying to smooth things over for
myself, I made matters worse.

“Even if I’d chosen Hank, Dad would find
something to be crotchety about. That’s his job, he’s a dad.”

When Lee had cut his eyes to me, he hadn’t
moved his body. After I said my last, he turned full-body to me and
cut me off from view of everyone else.

“Was Hank a choice?” he asked.

Uh-oh.

“I’m just saying,” I responded.

“You’re just saying… what? Exactly.”

“I’m trying to make you feel better!”

“I wasn’t feeling badly. I know your father
has an issue with you and me. He’ll come around. I don’t need
thoughts of you and Hank in my head. Jesus, Indy.”

Hank walked up. “You should know, you have an
audience.”

I peeked around Lee and saw everyone quickly
turning their heads away.

Great.

Hank threw his arm casually around my
shoulders, like he’d done a million times before. Except this time,
Lee’s eyes narrowed,
at me
.

“I need a beer,” I said, kind of desperately,
and I left.

By the time I settled in beside Kitty Sue, I
was into my third Fat Tire beer and had eaten a burger and a goodly
amount of macaroni salad and Kitty Sue’s oriental slaw. I’d worn a
pair of cut-offs made from a pair of old army-green pants and a
black tank top with a thin design of red roses laced with gray and
white barbed wire that snaked up my waist, across my torso, over my
shoulder and down my back. It was too hot for cowboy boots and
anyway, boots looked ridiculous with shorts (and I’d tried that
look on numerous occasions) so I’d worn a pair of black thick-soled
flip flops. My cut-offs were already feeling tight at the waistband
and I hadn’t even had brownies or pecan pie yet.

I’d successfully avoided Lee since our little
discussion. This was not hard, I’d had a decade of successfully
avoiding Lee at family gatherings.

I turned to Kitty Sue and surprised myself by
answering honestly, “I’m fine. Lee’s fine. Lee’s more fine than me.
I’m having troubles adjusting. Lee seems pretty sure of himself.
Lee seems pretty sure of everything.”

This, I realized, was true about Lee always.
I’d never met someone as confident in my life. Well, maybe Hank,
but Hank’s confidence was quiet and assured. And there was Lee’s
best friend, Eddie, of course. But Eddie was like Lee’s twin,
separated at birth, cut from the same cloth. Lee’s confidence, and
Eddie’s, wasn’t like Hank’s, it was cocky and assertive.