Asking for Trouble (16 page)

Rae waved an airy hand. “You don’t count. You hit on
everybody.”

Alyssa had to laugh at the way her brother’s mouth fell open
at that one. “What did that guy give you, anyway?” he asked. “I thought it was
for pain. It’s like some kind of truth serum, and I don’t think I like it. I’d
like the filter back, please.”

“It worked on the pain, though,” Rae said. “I mean, it still
hurts, I just don’t care anymore.”

“He drugs my wife, then he puts the moves on my sister,”
Alec said. “Not a good bet, Liss,” he added. “By the way.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” she said. “Rae’s right, he
was
pretty handsome. He liked me, too.”
Maybe she’d turned thirty, but some guys still thought she was cute. And maybe it
wasn’t very nice of her to care about this right now, but she wanted Joe to
know it.

“Probably give you an STD,” Alec muttered, and Rae said,
sharply for once, “Alec!”

“Oh, thanks,” Alyssa said. “Like I’m going to go back and do
him on the exam table. Thanks a lot. I might not have been getting out much
lately, but I’ve still got more restraint than that. Just.”

“Sorry,” Alec said, looking a little shamefaced. “I should
have asked for a pill for me. Can’t you go faster?” he demanded of Joe. They
were finally down the mountain, headed down the highway to Truckee. “I’d like
to get there sometime tonight. Why don’t you let me drive?”

“Road’s icing up, this late in the day,” Joe said.

“There’s sand on it,” Alec said. “And you’re in a
four-wheel-drive.”

“And you’re too keyed up,” Joe said. “Not a good idea. It’s
going to take us a whole lot longer to get there if we spin out along the way.”

“Let him drive, Alec,” Rae said, sounding sobered and a
little scared.

Alec reached a hand around for hers, and she grabbed it and held
on. “Be there soon, baby,” he promised. “Gabe’s waiting for us, and he’ll fix
you up. We’re almost there.”

She nodded. “So you don’t think Dr. What’s-His-Name was
Alyssa’s dream man? Come on, talk to me. It helps.”

“Whose name is Cliff?” Alec asked with another squeeze of
her hand. “Nobody. That’s like being named . . .”

“Rock,” Alyssa suggested, adding her bit to the distraction
element. “Brock. Linc. Shane.”

“Lance,” Rae went on, and they were both giggling now.
“Magnus. Thor.”

“Wyatt. Ranger,” Alyssa managed. “Talon.”

“Talon?
Somebody’s
named
Talon?”
Desiree demanded.
“Like, I’ve got you in my talons? That’s just
wrong.”
She had a hand over her mouth to stifle the giggles, but it
wasn’t working.

“I knew one,” Alyssa admitted through her own laughter. “In
LA. I don’t think his parents picked it, let’s just say. He spent more on
waxing than I do. He waxed his
legs.
He
said
it was for surfing, but I had my
doubts. Eww, the Amazing Hairless Man.”

Alec groaned as the two of them continued to laugh until they
were gasping with it. “What women talk about when they’re together,” he said. “The
truth comes out.”

“We talk about ourselves,” Rae said, wiping her eyes. “And
each other, and life. We don’t sit around and talk about men. That’s just what
men like to think. And you’re the one who brought it up.”

“Yeah, well,” Alec said, “I’m just saying, ol’ Cliff’s real
name is probably Roger. Bet he hands that card out ten times a day. Major
player.”

“How do you know?” Alyssa challenged. “Maybe he
was
overcome by my beauty, not to
mention my alluring curves. Which is what I am, FYI. That is the preferred
terminology. Curvy. You’ve lost
all
your
moves.”

“I used to have some, though,” Alec said. “And I’m telling
you, major player. Don’t go there.”

“Don’t worry,” she said. “I’ve got no plans to swap bacteria
with Dr. Cliff. I was just messing with you. I’ve been your sister too long not
to recognize the species.”

“My former species,” he corrected, still holding Rae’s hand.
“Are we just about there?” he demanded of Joe. “I’m not asking to drive,
because Rae doesn’t want me to. But we’d better be just about there.”

“Couple more minutes,” Joe said, and he was right, they were
pulling off the highway within five minutes, into the parking lot of Tahoe
Forest Hospital, and Alec was thumbing his phone. The next thing they saw was
Gabe coming out to meet them, pushing the wheelchair himself. Another gentle
lift down by Alec that had Rae uttering a hastily stifled exclamation and
grabbing his arm all the same, and Alec was pushing the chair beside his
brother.

“Got the MRI machine all warmed up and waiting for you,”
Gabe promised.

“Thanks, bro,” Alec said. “Saturday night, too.”

“Called in a couple favors,” Gabe said. “Don’t worry,”
Alyssa heard as Gabe punched the big square button beside the front doors and
they opened with a hiss. She saw Gabe put a hand on Alec’s shoulder, could
almost feel the unspoken communication her brothers shared. “If you’re going to
mess with a knee ligament, the MCL’s the one you want to mess with. She’ll be
all right. I promise.”

Gabe was as good as his word. Less than an hour later, they
were leaving with more pain pills, and Rae in a knee brace and with crutches
that Alec refused to let her use, instead carrying her again.

“Too slick out here,” he said when she protested. “And
you’re too tired.”

“Going to go ahead and stay at the house tonight?” Joe asked
when they were in the car, headed back to North Lake Tahoe again. “Better, I’d
think.”

“Gabe thought so too,” Alec said. “Keep the leg elevated, keep
ice on it, dope her up. I don’t want to put her in the car for hours tonight,
even in the back seat. Too painful, with her so tired. Bad idea.”

“Of course we’re staying,” Rae said. “Quit talking about me
like I’m not here. ‘Dope her up?’ And anyway, you have a date with Joe
tomorrow, Alec. I was going to ski on my own. I’ll just hang out on my own
instead and watch movies. I’ll be fine.”

“Uh-huh. I’m going to leave you in pain, alone, with no way
to get in touch with me, while I go have fun in the mountains,” Alec said.
“Yeah, that’s happening. Nope. We’re going home tomorrow, and I’m taking care
of you, and there’s no point talking about it anymore,” he went right on over
her protest, “because we’re done.”

“Alec . . .”

“No.”

“You’re way too bossy,” she grumbled.

“When you’re hurt, you bet I am,” he said. “We’re done.”

They drove the rest of the way in relative quiet, everyone
feeling the effects of the strenuous day and its unexpected conclusion, until
Joe stopped in town, pulled into a spot.

“Hang on two minutes,” he said. “Alyssa, could you give me a
hand?”

“Sure,” she said, hopping out of the car. “What are we
doing?”

“Picking up dinner. I called ahead,” he said, opening the
door for her into an Italian restaurant hung with tiny white lights.

“Joe Hartman,” he told the woman at the register. “Picking
up.”

“What are we having?” Alyssa asked, hefting one big brown
bag while Joe took the other.

“Lasagne, vegetables, rolls, and salad,” he said. “I know we
had pizza for lunch, but that’s what sounded good to me, and easy to heat up
back home. What do you think?”

“If it tastes as good as it smells,” she told him, hefting
her bag again just to get a whiff, “I’d say you did great.”

Back at the cabin, Alec and Joe, after some conferring, made
a chair out of their forearms and carried Rae up the long flight of stairs to
the cabin’s front door, Alyssa running ahead to open it, and then up to the
second level, depositing her on the bed in Alec and Rae’s bedroom.

By the time they had her there and Alyssa had set the
crutches down within her reach, Rae was gasping. “Boy, that hurts. Pills or
not, that hurts. I want a bath, but oh, getting in there isn’t going to feel
good.”

“I’ll put you in,” Alec said. “And I’ll take you out, too.”

“You’re not sitting around staring at me in the tub,” Rae
protested.

“No,” he said with exaggerated patience. “I’m going to help
you get undressed and put you in the tub. Then I’m going to sit outside the
bathroom until you call me. And then I’m going to come take you out of the tub and
help you get dressed again.”

“We could take her up to my room, if you want,” Joe said.
“I’ve got a big tub up there with jets. Might feel good. You could get in there
with her. It’s a good size.”

“No,” Rae said. “Thanks, but no. I don’t want to. I don’t
think I can handle getting jostled. I’m sorry, Alec. I know I’m grumpy. But it
hurts.”
She was tearing up now. “I’m
sorry. It’s just that it hurts.”

“OK,” Alec said. “Everybody out.”

Alyssa left the room ahead of Joe, and he closed the door
gently to the sound of Alec saying, “Baby. It’s OK.” And a muffled sound that,
she realized, was capable, competent Rae starting to cry.

Joe stood with his hand on the doorknob. “Why don’t you use
my bathroom?” he asked Alyssa. “They’re going to take a while in this one, and it’d
feel good. Like I said, whirlpool jets in the tub. It’s pretty nice.”

“You want your shower, though,” she said.

“Nah. A little mountain dirt never hurt anyone. I can wait.
You’ll give me a chance to get started on a beer. Get your stuff and come on
upstairs.”

He was pulling a towel out of the bathroom cupboard when he
saw her head appear cautiously around the door. “Come on in,” he said over the
noise of the water. “I started it for you. It takes a while to fill. The button
for the jets is here,” he indicated. “Take your time.”

He grabbed a shampoo bottle that was slipping out of her
grip and set it on the stone edge, marveling as always at the amount of stuff
women needed to take a bath. A bar of soap, a stick of deodorant, an electric
shaver, and he was done. Groomed.

“You weren’t kidding,” she said. “This is the biggest
bathtub I’ve ever seen.”

“Yeah, well, sometimes you don’t want to go all the way down
to the hot tub,” he said. And sometimes, you needed to be close to the bed when
you got out, because you had a woman wrapped around you and you needed to get
her on her back just as fast as possible.

He got out of there before he could think any more about
Alyssa being in his bathtub, or about the long, hot, soapy times he’d had in there.
He loved doing it in the water, the way it felt when you had a woman floating
over you, your hands on her breasts to hold her there. He’d had some very
willing playmates in that tub who’d seemed to enjoy doing it that way as much
as he did, and he’d appreciated every single one of them. But there’d never
been anybody he wanted to play with more.

It took a while, but eventually, everybody was clean, and he
was sitting around the table with Alec and Alyssa, eating lasagna and drinking
wine.

Alec had taken Rae’s dinner up to her to eat in bed.

“She’s too tired,” he explained to the others. “When she
gets like this, she doesn’t want to talk to me. She doesn’t even realize she
needs to eat. She needs the food put in front of her, or she won’t even do
that. She’s got two speeds, 60 miles an hour or crash. She doesn’t know she’s
on the reserve tank until it’s empty.”

“Like you,” Joe told Alyssa. “After your first day of work.”

Her fork stilled as she stared at him. “You got that?”

“Sure. You were worn out, you were cold. You needed to take
a shower and change your clothes and eat, and you didn’t have the energy to think
about me, let alone be . . . grateful, or whatever.”

“You
got
that?”
she asked again.

“Just because I’m a man,” he said, a little irked now, “it
doesn’t mean I’m stupid. Alec isn’t stupid about Rae, and I’m not stupid about
you.” He realized what he’d said, clamped his mouth shut before he could say
more.

“First day was hard, huh, Liss?” Alec asked, breaking a silence
that was starting to get uncomfortable.

“Yeah,” she said, looking down at her plate and mushing
around her lasagna.

“How’s it going now?” he asked. “You liking it? Good move?”

She hesitated, playing with her salad now. “I like a lot of
what I’m doing. In fact,” she said, looking up, “I worked up a whole
fundraising package this week. I wrote a good letter, at least I think I did.
I’m nervous about showing it to Helene, though. I brought it with me. I was
planning to ask Rae to look at it, but would you guys?”

“Sure,” Alec said, taking another sip of wine. “Go get it.”

She ran up to her room, came back a minute later with a
piece of paper in her hand.

“Long,” Alec said, flipping the sheet over. “Two pages? Do
people really want to read all that?”

Joe could see her stiffening, getting defensive. “This isn’t
the final version. It’ll have pull quotes and pictures and all sorts of things.
You want to engage the person. You want to pull them in, make them care. It’s
not just,
bam,
business proposition.
It goes to people who’ve already contributed, and it’s part of the package we
leave behind when we do a call, too. Well, when Helene does a call,” she
corrected herself.

“I thought you were doing them too,” Joe said.

“No. Not anymore.”

He frowned. “That was the whole point, I thought, that you
were getting an opportunity to learn all aspects of the development business.”

“I know.” She looked unhappy. “But Helene always has these
other things I need to do, and she says . . .” She hesitated. “That I’m not ready,
and I’m wondering if she thinks I ever will be. I was supposed to do some
presenting last month to some potential donors, but it ended up with her . . .
‘taking the lead,’ she called it, because she’s the Director, but I’m wondering
if I’ll ever get the chance to do it myself, because I haven’t even gone on any
of the calls since then. “

She tried to laugh, gave a shrug. “Oh, well. I guess I was
overconfident. I guess raising foundation money is different from selling other
things.”

“I wouldn’t think so,” Joe said. “Sales are sales. Alec
could sell ice to Eskimos, and you’re the same.”

“Well, hopefully I’ll get the chance,” she said.

Alec wasn’t paying attention. “This is actually a good
letter,” he said, looking up. “Really good.”

“You think?” she asked with an edge of uncertainty that
didn’t sound like Alyssa. He should have checked in with her about the job, Joe
thought. Set aside the way he felt about her as a woman, and cared a little
more about her. He should have checked.

“It’s dynamite,” Alec said, handing it to Joe. “Here, you
read it.”

He didn’t want to read it. He knew what those letters said.
But Alyssa was looking at him, nervous, expectant, so he started in.

There’s no box in
Antoine’s house with a lock of his baby hair stuck in an envelope, the picture
he painted in kindergarten, his report card from fourth grade. That’s because
Antoine has never had a family. Born addicted to crack, he spent the first days
of his young life battling through the ordeal of withdrawal from a drug he
never chose to take. When he left the hospital, it was for a foster home. When
he’s asked how many homes he’s lived in since, Antoine has to stop and think.
And he has to count.

Joe skimmed down the sheet.

Sixteen-year-old Vanessa
has a dream. In fact, she has two dreams. One, to become a lawyer, and the
other, to become her younger siblings’ guardian. “That’s what pushes me when I
don’t want to study for my Biology test,” she says. “Whenever I think that this
is too hard, whenever I start to feel sorry for myself, I remember, I need to
do it for them. And I need to do it for myself, because nobody else is going to
do it for me.”

What do Antoine and
Vanessa have in common? They’re both foster children, and they both need your
help.

Joe handed the letter back to Alyssa. “It’s good.”

“You didn’t read the back, though,” she said. “Did it not
hold your interest? I tried to pull you along, get you into it.”

“No,” he said. “I don’t have to. I can tell it’s good.” He
could see her disappointment, but he couldn’t help it. He couldn’t read any
more.

“I don’t see why you’d be scared to show that to your boss,
Liss,” Alec said. “Looks good to me, better than a lot of the ones I’ve read,
and Rae and I read a lot of those things when we were figuring out where to
donate. But show her tomorrow. She may have suggestions.”

“Thanks,” she said.
 

“So you know how to write a letter,” Alec went on, as always
zeroing right in on the weak spots. “But not make presentations? Really? I’m
with Joe here. I’d think you’d have been good at that. Where’s the problem?”

“Oh, you know.” She tried to laugh it off. “Maybe I’m not
cut out for this after all. Or maybe my boss just doesn’t like me.”

Alec groaned. “Not again. Liss, you have to learn to get
along on the job.”

“Like you?” she asked tartly, clearly trying to rally.

“I’m an entrepreneur. It’s different. I don’t have to get
along. I’ve got Rae to smooth everything over. But you can’t afford that. As an
employer, I’m telling you, you can’t afford another short stay. You can’t
afford another job where you had a personality conflict. Face it, at a certain
point, it’s not them, it’s you.”

“Don’t you think I know that?” She blew out a frustrated
breath, and Joe could see the effort it took her to confess the truth. “I’ve
tried everything I can. I’ve stayed late, I’ve come in early, I’ve taken on
extra work and cleaned up the database and organized the office.
Me.
I’ve organized, and you know that
isn’t my best thing. But nothing ever seems to be quite good enough. She’ll
tell me this letter isn’t good enough, I know she will. She’ll take it and ‘fix’
it, and it’ll end up being her letter. And, yeah, maybe every job hasn’t worked
out, but I’ve always been able to get along with people, most people. I
want
to. I’m
trying.
And I
can’t.”

“Maybe it really is a personality conflict,” Joe put in.
“They can happen. How do other people do?”

Alyssa shrugged. “Most people really like her,” she said
reluctantly. “Dr. Marsh does, the Director. He thinks she’s great. So maybe it
is
just me.”

They dropped the subject then, though Joe made a note to
talk to her again about it later, when Alec wasn’t there. He had a blind spot
when it came to his sister, that was for sure. He couldn’t seem to see what Joe
saw, how hard she was trying. How rough a road she’d had to travel at times,
and how bravely she was doing it.

Alec took himself off to bed after dinner, and Alyssa helped
Joe with the dishes—a mercifully simple endeavor, since he could tell she
was tired—and then went to sit on the couch, where, despite a stern
talking-to about what a bad idea it was, he joined her, refilling his wine glass
and hers before sinking down beside her.

“I’m sore,” she told him. “Are you?”

“Not too bad. Going to be up for it tomorrow? I warn you,
I’m going to make you show me your rescue technique first. No Alec up there to
dig me out, which means it’s all on you.”

She leaned her head back against the couch and sighed. “I
was listening, I
promise.
I’m happy
to demonstrate. Just ask me.”

“All right,” he said. “What’s your beacon set to, tomorrow?”

“Send,” she said triumphantly. “In case I get buried. In
which case I don’t panic, and I try to keep my arms in front of my face to give
myself a pocket, and I wait for you to come for me. Hoping, of course, that you
won’t be buried too. That’s the part you left out, don’t think I didn’t
notice.”

“Well, if that happens,” he pointed out reasonably, “there’s
nothing to practice, and no point in thinking about it. But back to the matter
at hand. What do you do when I go down?”

“I flip my beacon to Receive, and then I use the techniques
my very, very good teacher showed me today to find you, and then I use my
shovel that my teacher gave me to dig you out. See what a good student I am?”

“Mmm,” he said, smiling at her. “You’ll do,” and she smiled
back and drank her wine, and he let himself enjoy being here with her, because
it was a pretty good place to be.

“Why are you so different here?” she asked after a minute.
“Is it skiing? Has that been the secret ingredient?”

“Am I different here? How?”

“Well, everywhere, really,” she said. “Since I moved to San
Francisco, and on this trip, especially. You’re more talkative. More . . .
pushy.”

“Pushy?” He had to smile again. “I’m pushy?”

“Well, yeah. Or assertive, maybe. Like you’re making the
plan, and you’re telling us. You’re telling
me,
especially. Notice that, how you’re telling me? Because you are.”

“Is that bothering you? And by the way, I do run a staff of
programmers, you know. It’s not just you. And before you say anything,” he went
on, holding up a palm, “I know, I’m not the boss of you. Because I’m sure I’m
going to hear that next.”

“Well, maybe you’re all right. Maybe it’s not
so
bad,” she told him, sparkling at him,
pulling her legs up under her and sipping her wine while the fire blazed and
the quiet enfolded them, and
damn,
but
he liked her. “And I know that you’re a big deal. It’s just that I’ve never
seen that side of you. And OK, I’ll admit it, I’m a fan. Today, with Rae, you
were great. Skiing up to find her, going to get the car, telling Alec he
couldn’t drive. You did all the right things, and I was so glad you were there.
It’s just different, because I’ve never seen you like that before this year.
You’ve always been so quiet.”

“If that’s true,” he said, her words filling him with a
pretty good glow, “maybe it’s because you’ve always seen me at your parents’
house, and when I’m there, I’m a guest.”

“A guest? You aren’t a guest. By now, you’re part of the family.”

“No,” he said, and just like that, the glow was gone. “I’m
not. People always say that, and it’s not true. Do you really not see the
difference? You’d better, if you’re going to help those kids. I am not part of
your family. I’m a guest, and I’m careful that I don’t wear out my welcome,
because I want to be invited back.”

“But . . .” She looked shocked. “That’s not true. That’s not
the way it is.”

“Yes,” he said, “it is. Think about it. When you were a
teenager, you could have moods, because you could afford to. You know you
could. I saw them. And that was because you knew that no matter how bad your
mood was, your parents were never going to kick you out. You were never going
to be so much trouble that they didn’t want you anymore. You could stomp off to
your room and slam the door if you wanted to. If I’d done that, if I’d said I
didn’t feel like doing the dishes, do you think your parents would have invited
me again?”