Rock Chick 01 (46 page)

I stared at it in horror.

My birth control pills,

I’d forgotten them, totally and
completely.

Holy crap.

I grabbed it and looked. The last one I took
was Monday. I was all over the place these days, I wasn’t in my
normal day-to-day schedule. I was two pills behind, too late to
catch up and I’d been having sex. A lot of sex. Apparently a lot of
unprotected sex.

I slapped the pills back down on the
table.

“I didn’t do it on purpose, I swear,” I told
him.

“I know you didn’t,” he said, his hands back
to massaging my foot.

“We have to stop having sex, like,
immediately.”

His hands stopped massaging, “That’s not
gonna happen.”

“Lee! What if I’m pregnant?”

He grinned “Then we’ll make a beautiful
baby.”

I yanked my feet out of his lap, stood up and
started to jump up and down.

“Ohmigod, ohmigod,” I chanted.

Lee stood and pulled me to him.

“Calm down,” he said but I could tell he was
kind of laughing.

“This isn’t funny!” I yelled “We can’t get
through a week without having a break. This is too new, too fast,
too weird, too much. Ohmigod, ohmigod,” I began chanting again.

This was a serious, life changing moment and
I needed Van Halen.

No, no Van Halen wasn’t going to do. This was
a Metallica Moment.

I could tell by the feel of his body against
mine that he was not kind of laughing anymore, he was flat out
laughing.

“Why are you laughing?” I shouted.

“Because you’re cute,” he said, looking at
me. “And you’re funny and you’re over-reacting. This isn’t the end
of the world, you don’t even know if you’re pregnant and you’re
moving in, for fuck’s sake.”

“Why’d you show me the pills?”

“Because if you’re pregnant, we shouldn’t
waste time movin’ in together. If you’re not, we should take
different precautions and we shouldn’t waste time movin’ in
together.”

“Why do I have to move into your place, why
don’t you move into mine?”

“I could do that.”

I stopped freaking out and stared. “What do
you mean?”

“We’ll put my shit in storage and I’ll move
to your place. Doesn’t matter to me.”

I was beyond staring and went straight to
gawking.

“What about your view?” I asked.

He shrugged.

“I only have one bathroom,” I said.

“We could make that work.”

“I have a yard, you’d have to mow the grass.
I don’t think Stevie will keep mowing my side if you live
there.”

“Your yard’s the size of a postage stamp. I
think I can manage mowing the grass.”

“It isn’t secure, there isn’t even an alarm
system.”

“Vance will put one in.”

“What about the Command Center? I don’t have
a room where you can put your top secret PI stuff.”

He started laughing again. “Do you want to
move or do you want me to move, make up your mind.”

“I don’t know,” I said, and I didn’t.

“Well you have to figure it out now because
one or the other of us is moving in tonight. No more fucking
around.”

“I can’t figure it out now. I’m too stressed.
I may be pregnant. I think I need to go out and buy vitamins or
something.”

He pulled me deeper into him and I could feel
his body shaking with his hilarity. I didn’t think it was
hilarious, I thought it was scary as shit.

When he pulled himself together he said,
“We’ll move to your place. It’s close to Fortnum’s and you have
good neighbors. And I like your bedroom. I’ll rent this place
out.”

Somehow, that made the panic ease but not
totally subside.

He looked down at me.

“Happy with that?” he asked.

I nodded.

He got that soft look on his face and the
melty look in his eyes, my knees started to buckle and I leaned
into him.

Then the door buzzer went.

“Fucking hell,” he muttered.

He let me go and went to the door.

When he came back, he said, “Darius is coming
up.”

I’d already met Eddie in Lee’s shirt, I
wasn’t going to gallivant around in front of Darius in Lee’s tee. I
mean, I was possibly pregnant. Pregnant women didn’t run around in
front of just everyone wearing nothing but panties and t-shirt.

I grabbed my coffee, topped up and ran to the
bedroom.

I slapped on some happy makeup, lots of
glittery eyeshadow, thick mascara and dewy-blush. I topped some
jeans and the black belt with rivets that Lee gave me with a white
t-shirt that said, “I shot J.R.” in black and slid on my black flip
flops.

I flip flopped my way back to the coffeepot,
poured some in a travel mug and headed to the balcony where Darius
and Lee were lounging.

I stood in the French doors. “Hey
Darius.”

He’d watched me while I approached and he
nodded and gave a bit of a smile but didn’t say anything.

I turned my gaze to Lee. “I gotta get to the
store.”

“Take the Crossfire, I’ll take the Duc in
this morning,” Lee said.

“The Ducati’s here?”

“Yeah.”

Wicked.

I kinda wanted him to take me to work on the
Ducati but I wasn’t going to ask.

“I’ll take you out on the bike tonight,” Lee
offered, the crinkles showing beside his eyes.

“Get out of my brain,” I returned, putting my
hand on my hip.

That made him give me an out and out
smile.

“Walk me to the door?” I asked.

I watched him get up and I started to turn
toward the front door, then came around and looked at Darius
again.

“We’re having a family barbeque on Saturday,
Ally’s place. I’m sure everyone would like to see you,” I told
him.

Lee dropped his chin and gave a couple of
shakes of his head in that “I don’t believe she’s such an idiot”
way.

“Thanks Indy, I got things to do,” Darius
said.

“Okay, come after you’re done,” I said to
him.

Darius shook his head.

“Then come before, bring your Mom and your
sisters. I haven’t seen them in ages.” I kept going.

Lee’s hand wrapped around my upper arm and he
turned me and marched me toward the door. I twisted around and I
could see Darius grinning.

“See you later!” I called, already around the
couch and in the kitchen.

As we passed, Lee snatched the Crossfire’s
keys off the kitchen counter and at the front door he pulled me to
a stop.

“What’d I say about trying to save
Darius?”

“What? I just asked him to the barbeque.”

“You’re a nut,” he said.

I put a hand on a hip. “Excuse me?”

Lee shook his head. “Nope, not gonna happen.
I’m not biting. We are
not
fighting today. No matter how far
you push it.”

I’m
so
sure. Like
I
wanted to
fight.

I got up on my toes and kissed him, giving
him a quick peck and then grabbed the keys out of his hand.

“What was that?” he asked.

“A kiss good-bye,” I told him.

He took two steps forward and I took two
steps back, slamming into a wall. His hands went to my ass and
pulled me against him and he kissed me breathless.

“
That
was a kiss good-bye,” he
said.

I took in a shaky breath.

It sure was.

* * * * *

Ally and Tex were behind the coffee counter
at Fortnum’s when I got there. There were six people waiting in
line and three people who’d already ordered and were waiting for
their coffee. Every chair and couch had someone’s ass in it, all of
them drinking coffee.

Motley Crue was blaring “Girls Girls Girls”
from the CD player.

I looked at my watch, it was ten to eight.
We’d only been open for twenty minutes.

Apparently people
would
pay to have a
guy who looked like a serial killer serve them coffee.

“Holy shit,” I said.

“Get your butt behind this counter, woman!
Does it look like there’s nothin’ to do and you have time to stand
around gawkin’?” Tex boomed.

I walked around the counter, saw Annie, the
blonde, helmet-head lady who yelled at me during the Rosie riot.
She was staring at her cup with a reverence normally only befitting
the unveiling of front row tickets. She looked up at me.

“Where do you find these guys?” she
breathed.

“Luck,” I said and got to work

We were so busy, for hours I thought of
nothing but coffee, milk, syrup and all the money that was being
shoved into my cash register. We’d never been this busy, even with
Rosie. We had good crowds, but this was crazy.

By ten thirty, the crowd had died down. Duke
came in and manned the book counter which was also seeing business.
We had a goodly number of folks sitting, reading and enjoying their
coffee.

“Are we still ticked at each other?” Ally
finally had the chance to ask me.

“Well, since you being pissed at me went hand
in hand with me being pissed at Lee… and since Lee and I are no
longer on a break… then no, we aren’t ticked at each other.”

Ally grinned. “Good.”

That’s the way it was with best friends. You
got mad, you got over it.

I turned to Tex. “But you’re a traitor and
I’m not talking to you ever again,” I told him.

“You get number seven last night?” he
asked.

I stared at him, not knowing what in
the
hell he was talking about.

Then it dawned on me.

Orgasm number seven.

Yikes.

Maybe I
did
share too much information
with Tex last night.

Since I got number seven last night and
number eight that morning, I didn’t answer.

It must have shown on my face because Tex let
out a booming laugh then said, “You have no reason to be mad and I
don’t wanna hear about it.”

“What’s he talking about?” Ally asked.

I turned to her. “Orgasms.” Her eyes got
round. “Never mind. Do you know when you can take a pregnancy
test?”

Now her eyes were about to pop out of her
head. “No way.”

“I don’t know. I fucked up, I forgot to take
my pills for a couple of days.”

“No
way
!” Ally shouted and a couple
customers looked up.

“I didn’t do it on purpose,” I said.

“This is great,” she said. “I’m calling
Mom.”

“No! Don’t call Kitty Sue! Don’t call
anyone
. This is not great. I don’t want a baby. Well, maybe
I want a baby… maybe I want Lee’s baby… but not now. He hasn’t even
seen all my underwear!”

“You aren’t getting any younger,” Ally
said.

Dear Lord.

“Just answer my question,” I said.

“What question?”

“Pregnancy test.”

“I think you have to miss a period. I’ll run
down to Walgreen’s and look at one.”

Then off she went, luckily Walgreen’s was
only a few blocks away.

“Tex, can you make me a skinny vanilla latte,
please?” I asked.

“So you’re talkin’ to me again?” he
asked.

“Just make me one!”

“Who’re you? The Man?”

“No, I’m The Woman who wants a vanilla
latte!”

“Fine. Jeez. I’ll make you a latte. I’ll make
it decaf so you’ll calm down.”

“If you make it decaf, you’re fired,” I
said.

“Caffeine may not be good for the baby,” Tex
replied.

That’s when I screamed,
full-on-
Nightmare-on-Elm-Street
-scream-your-lungs-out.

The customers jumped and stared.

The bells over the door went. I stopped
screaming and saw Eddie coming into the store.

He didn’t look happy.

In fact, he looked scary unhappy.

His mirrored shades were off and his dark
eyes were intense.

My frustration at my crazy, fucked up life
went out the window and I walked up to him.

“You okay?” he asked.

I felt my stomach pitch. He wasn’t talking
about me screaming.

By the look of him, I was assuming something
happened to someone I loved. Seeing as I was a cop’s daughter, this
moment was always in the back of my mind. For me, especially coming
from Eddie, it could be anyone, Lee, Dad, Malcolm, Hank or dozens
of other guys who were friends of mine or Dad’s.

I opened my mouth to answer and I heard then
saw the Ducati. It stopped in front of the store, Lee pushed down
the stand and swung his leg off. He came inside.

His mouth was tight, his eyes were blank, his
expression was grim.

He looked at me, then at Eddie, then back to
me.

“You okay?” he asked.

“What the fuck is going on!” I shouted.

“She needs caffeine.” Tex said, handing me my
latte.

Lee came closer to me, both he and Eddie were
less than a foot away, crowding me in. Tex was still beside me and
Duke had wandered over, feeling the vibe, and was standing close
behind me.

Bad news was coming.

“Cherry Blackwell’s car exploded this
morning,” Lee said.

I stared at him.

What the fuck?

“Jeez-us. She the loopy-loo you scrapped with
last night?” Tex asked me.

I ignored Tex and said, “Please tell me she
wasn’t in it.”

“She wasn’t in it,” Lee said.

I let out a breath and then took a sip of
latte. Even in that tense situation, I noticed that the latte was
divine.

“What happened?” I asked.

Eddie answered, “We don’t know. Car’s still
too hot to get near it. They’re guessin’ she was four, five feet
away when it went. She got hit with flying debris and she was
burned by the fireball. She’s at Swedish Medical Center.”

“Is she okay?” I asked.

“No update yet,” Eddie said.

Jeez, I didn’t like Cherry. In fact, I hated
her, but I also didn’t like the idea of her getting hit with flying
debris from a car explosion. The only person I’d want that to
happen to was Osama bin Laden but I would prefer for him to be
in
the car.

I looked at Lee, he was still looking grim. I
realized that they may have parted badly but she had still been his
girlfriend. Twice. I slipped my hand in his.