She Left Me Breathless (28 page)

“That’s what happens when you have not one, but two prodigious daughters who are a lot smarter than you,” she laughed.

Voices coming from the kitchen pulled her from her thoughts. She pushed the door open and immediately saw Fred Rick busily cooking something on the stove.  

Fred Rick looked over his shoulder and smiled at Rachel with perfect white teeth. “Good afternoon,” he said as he transferred whatever was in the skillet onto a plate.

“Hi, Fred Rick, you wouldn’t happen to know where my daughter is by any chance?” she asked.

“I sure don’t, sorry but if you find her or Sydney, can you tell them that dinner is ready.”

“Have you checked the garage?” Edna asked.

Rachel turned and for the first time, noticed that Edna was sitting at the small table off to the right side of the bar. “Oh, hi, Edna, I didn’t see you sitting there,” she said as she approached the table.

Edna laughed. “I’m just sitting here blending in with the woodwork,” she said, taking a sip of her coffee.

“You may do a lot of things, but I wouldn’t say just blending in is one of them,” Rachel laughed. “Is there any particular reason why I should check the garage?”

“Just go see for yourself and that’s all I’m going to say,” Edna chuckled.

Rachel’s right eyebrow shot upward, a grin playing at the corners of her mouth. “Okay, I will just go and do that right now.”

Edward had been stewing for quite some time after the mysterious phone call about his wife. The more he thought about it, the more pissed off he got. He walked over to the kitchen counter. He picked up the bottle of whiskey and refilled his glass. He tilted his head back, downed the contents of the entire glass in one long swig, and then refilled it.

“Who the fuck does she think she is?” he growled. “She’s my damn wife and this shit is going to stop and it’s going to stop now!”

He staggered over to the table and snatched up his keys. He nearly fell into the wall on his way to the door. “She’s coming home and that’s final,” he yelled, jerking the door open with a bang.

The sound of softly playing music greeted Rachel as she stepped inside the garage. As she came around the back of what looked like a car, she stopped dead in her tracks. She looked down at the ground and all she could see were two pair of dark blue legs sticking out from under the car.

 “What exactly do you two think you’re doing under there?” she asked, raising her voice slightly in order to get their attention.

She heard Sydney mumble something and then heard Alyssa laugh and then the two of them, slowly slid out from beneath the car and looked up at Rachel.

Rachel covered her mouth with her hand to keep from laughing. They looked like twins. Sydney and Alyssa were each lying on a small rectangle shaped board, dressed in identical dark blue coveralls with grease stains smeared all over their face. They were a sight for sore eyes to say the least.

Rachel placed both hands on her hips. “What do you think you’re doing young lady?” she asked, looking at her daughter.

“Having a blast,” Alyssa laughed.

“And what about you?” Rachel asked, directing the question to Sydney.

“What she said,” Sydney answered, motioning toward Alyssa with her hand.

Sydney and Alyssa looked at each other, then looked at Rachel and then back at each other and then they lost it. Both were laughing so hard that Rachel couldn’t help but join in.

Rachel was the first to pull herself together. “Fred Rick wanted me to let you know that dinner was ready.”

“We better get cleaned up then, huh,” Sydney said to Alyssa, nudging her with her shoulder. “You two are staying for dinner, aren’t you?” she asked, looking at Rachel.

“Not tonight but thank you. It’s getting late and we really need to be heading home.”

“Oh, Mom. Do we have to?” Alyssa whined.

Rachel grabbed a clean rag off of the workbench. “Come over here,” she said to Alyssa. She wet the rag with some spit and tried to wipe the grease off of Alyssa’s cheeks.

“Mom, you’re embarrassing me,” Alyssa whispered as she tried to swat Rachel’s hand away.

Sydney looked at Rachel and laughed.

“You’re not getting into my car looking like that young lady.” She stopped to look at Sydney. “And I’m glad you think it’s so funny,” she said, shooting Sydney a look that was supposed to be menacing as she continued to wipe Alyssa’s face off.

“As a matter of fact I do. I think it’s extremely funny,” Sydney answered with a look of her own that was anything but menacing and it caused Rachel to do a double-take.

“You do, do you?” Rachel asked, her eyes narrowing. She gave Sydney a look that could only be defined as smoldering and full of raw “I want to rip your clothes off” desire.

Sydney suddenly found it hard to swallow as she watched Rachel move slowly toward her, a grin playing at the corners of her mouth.

“You have some grease on your face,” Rachel whispered as she used the rag to wipe the smudges off of Sydney’s cheeks.

Rachel was so close that Sydney could feel her warm breath on her skin. She reached up and covered Rachel’s hand with her own to stop the motion. “If you knew how bad your touch affected me right now, you would stop doing it,” she whispered, her voice husky with desire.

Rachel looked at her through heavily lidded eyes. She leaned in so that her lips were touching the edge of Sydney’s ear. “I think if I knew how much you liked my touch, the last thing I would want to do is stop doing it,” she whispered.

Sydney felt chills start from the bottom of her feet and run all the way to her head. She had no doubt that every single hair on her body was standing on end. A movement out of the corner of her eye caused her to look over Rachel’s shoulder. Rachel turned to see what she was looking at.

Alyssa had stripped off her coveralls and was standing there with her hands on her hips looking at them. “You two do know that it’s not polite to whisper in front of other people, right?”

“Yes, baby, we do and you’re right,” Rachel laughed.

Sydney bit her lower lip to keep from laughing and had to turn her back in order to hide the smile on her face. She stripped off her coveralls and tossed them on the floor next to the one’s Alyssa had discarded.

“Come on you two. Let’s go before Fred Rick sends out a search and rescue party for all of us,” Sydney said as she wrapped an arm around Rachel and Alyssa’s shoulders. 

Oh no, this can’t be good,
Edna thought as she looked at the disheveled looking man standing on the other side of the door. She was sure she could smell alcohol dripping from every pore of his body. “May I help you?” she asked.

Edward made a grunting sound and then pushed his way past her, shoving her off to the side as he staggered into the foyer. “Where’s my fucking wife?” he snarled.

“I don’t know who you’re talking about,” Edna said, playing dumb as she followed him into the family room.

“I know she’s here God damn it! Now where is she? Never mind, I’ll find her myself,” he yelled.

“I think you need to stay right where you are,” Edna said, trying to reason with him.

“And I think you need to mind your own damn business,” he growled.

“I need to find Sydney and find her quick,” Edna mumbled as she ran toward the kitchen. She pushed the door open with a bang. Sydney was sitting at the bar with Alyssa. She immediately got to her feet when she noticed the look on Edna’s face.

What’s wrong?” she asked.

Edna glanced quickly at Alyssa and with her head, motioned for Sydney to come over to her.

“What’s going on? You’re whiter than a ghost,” Sydney said.

“Rachel’s husband’s here and he’s drunk and he’s searching for her now. You need to hurry,” she whispered franticly in Sydney’s ear.

“Are Jed and Frankie still here?” she asked, her mind racing a mile a minute on how to handle the situation.

Edna nodded. “They’re working on the pump motor in the pool room.”

“Okay, you stay here with Alyssa,” Sydney said as she took off out the door.

“You ready to go home, sweetheart?” Rachel asked without looking up from the printout she had lying on the desk in front of her.

“You’re the one who’s fucking coming home and you’re doing it right now,” Edward yelled from the doorway.

Rachel jumped up from the desk. She felt the color drain from her face. “Edward ... wh ... what are you doing here?” she asked in a shaky voice.

“Did you think I wouldn’t find out about your little secret?” he growled. “You’re going to quit working for that dyke bitch and get your ass back home where you belong.” With each word, he inched closer and closer to Rachel and with each step, she took a step of her own, backing away from him.

“That bitch may own your company but she doesn’t own you,” he yelled, causing spittle to fly out of his mouth.

“She is my, my boss and she can have me do whatever job she wants me to do,” Rachel said, raising her chin in defiance.

 “How dare you disobey me,” he said, grabbing Rachel by the wrist. He drew his free hand back to strike her.

“Please, no , Edward,” Rachel cried out, jerking her arm free. She held her hands up in front of her face to ward off the blow that she knew was coming.

At that instant, Sydney, followed by Jed and Frankie ran into the room. Jed and Frankie grabbed Edward by his arms. Sydney rushed over to Rachel and pulled her toward the door.

Edward struggled to break free. “Get your fucking hands off of me,” he yelled.

Frankie was a goliath of a woman with brown spiky hair and stood nearly six and a half feet tall. She looked down at Edward and grinned as she tightened her hold on his arm. “We’ll be glad to do that just as soon as we throw your sorry ass out the front door.”

With Edward struggling and cursing the whole way, Frankie and Jed forcefully dragged him out into the hallway and out the front door.

Once they had him on the front porch, they released his arms.

“Don’t ever come back to my house again, Edward, because if you do, you’re going to jail for trespassing,” Sydney said from the doorway.

He pointed his finger at her. “You’re going to be sorry you ever met me and you have no idea who you’re messing with,” he threatened.