How I Came to Sparkle Again (33 page)

The restaurant was lit by red lanterns hanging above and candles on the table. It was uncomfortably dark, but fortunately not so dark that Tom and Lisa didn’t spot Jill as they walked out of the lounge.

“Join us?” Jill asked.

“For just a sec,” Lisa said, and slid into the booth next to her. “It’s our last night together in a while.”

“Lisa is a park ranger in the summer,” Jill explained to Mike as Tom sat next to him.

“Can’t pay the bills all year on a ski instructor’s salary,” Lisa said plainly.

Tom winced.

“Drinking at the Dragon tonight? What gives?” Jill asked.

“Lisa doesn’t want anyone to know about our torrid affair,” Tom said. “So we come here and drink covertly.”

Lisa kicked him under the table.

“Are we crashing your party?” Tom asked. “Are you guys on a date?”

“Nah, you’re not crashing our party,” Mike answered, relieved at how Tom and Lisa took the pressure off. “Cassie’s having dinner at a friend’s house, so it’s my rare night out.”

“Nice,” Lisa said, looking back and forth between them for any signs.

“Are you hungry?” Tom asked Lisa. He pointed to the menu. “Because we could have the Sizzling Happiness meal.”

“We’re really not intruding?” Lisa asked.

“Not at all,” Mike reassured her.

“Sizzling Happiness, huh?” Jill asked.

“Oh yes,” Tom said. “Trust me. You and Mike will be so glad you had the same Sizzling Happiness that Lisa and I are about to have.”

“What do you think, Mike? Would you like some Sizzling Happiness?” Jill asked, laughing.

Mike smiled as he held her eyes for a moment, and then with mock seriousness he answered, “I think I desperately need some Sizzling Happiness.” Jill blushed.

Lisa asked, “Jill, how long has it been since you’ve had some Sizzling Happiness?”

“I don’t even know,” Jill answered, looking down and smiling uncomfortably. Mike found it completely endearing.

“I think some Sizzling Happiness would be really good for you,” Lisa said. “If you have the opportunity to have some Sizzling Happiness with Mike here, I think you should take it.”

So Mike ordered it for them as well.

The Sizzling Happiness jokes got bolder and lewder as they each enjoyed a few drinks. Jill now would look him straight in the eye in an almost challenging way each time she said “Sizzling Happiness.” It was sexy. It was sultry. Each time she said it like that, he had the impulse to jump over the table and take her.

The jokes and the smoldering stare-downs continued as they ate their spicy Szechuan pork and Kung Pao chicken. Mike chewed his food slowly, aware of all the sensations in his mouth, aware of his hunger to kiss Jill indefinitely. He watched her pick up some vegetable chow mein in her chopsticks and bring it to her mouth. Something about the way she watched her food to make sure she didn’t drop it caused her to lower her eyes the same way she would if she was kissing. He could imagine it, his fingers in her hair behind her head, his lips on hers, their bodies pressed up against each other. She glanced up and caught him looking at her, smiled, and turned her attention back to picking up fried rice with her chopsticks.

Finally, Lisa rubbed her full belly and groaned, “Tom, I can’t take any more Sizzling Happiness.”

“So you’re saying you’re completely satisfied?” Tom asked.

“Yes, I’m completely satisfied,” Lisa answered.

Tom replied, “Well, you know what they say about Chinese food—you’re hungry for more of it in about an hour.”

Which made Mike think about that kind of all-night sex, the kind where maybe you take a short nap or have a snack, but otherwise it’s more or less a marathon. He imagined Jill’s skin next to his, imagined touching her everywhere.

Just as the Sizzling Happiness jokes wound down, the fortune cookies arrived.

“You know the game, don’t you?” Lisa asked Mike.

“The game?” Mike asked.

Lisa explained, “You read your fortune out loud and then add ‘in bed’ to the end. Observe.” She cracked her fortune cookie and then read, “The last wish you made will come true … in bed.” She gave Tom her naughtiest smile.

Mike picked one, cracked it, and read, “You will soon develop a new interest … in bed.” He laughed and looked at Jill. “Excellent.”

Tom was next. “You are the master of every situation … in bed. Remember that, Lisa.”

“I’ll look forward to that tonight,” she replied.

Finally, Jill took her cookie. “Concern for another brings an unexpected reward … in bed.”

Mike was glad to hear it.

“Hm,” Lisa said, and made her eyebrows go up and down as she looked at Jill.

After dinner, Lisa and Tom said they needed something at the grocery store.

“So, wait,” Jill said to Lisa. “Is this ‘See you in October’?” She turned to Mike and explained, “Lisa hates good-byes. She does her best to sneak off before anyone knows she’s leaving.”

“And I would have if it hadn’t been for you meddling kids,” Lisa replied like every villain on
Scooby-Doo
.

“Okay, I’ll pretend it’s not happening,” Jill said, and hugged her for a long enough time that Mike wished he were Lisa. “Thank you,” Jill whispered in Lisa’s ear. “Thank you for everything.”

“Oh, quit that,” Lisa whispered back. “Now let go of me so I can go get lucky.”

Jill laughed and let go. As Lisa and Tom walked away, Lisa looked back and gave Jill a little smile. Jill waved and teared up. Mike took her hand.

“Hey, want to take the scenic route?” he asked.

“It would feel good to walk off some of that food,” Jill answered.

“Is it okay if I hold your hand through town?”

“I don’t know. Will it ruin my reputation?” she teased.

“Yes, but you’d be doing me a big favor. My boss, Pete, and his wife, Barb, keep wanting to fix me up with Barb’s friends, and it’s getting harder to dodge that bullet. If this hits the rumor mill, I’ll be off the hook.”

“So, you’re just using me,” she joked back as they walked down the street.

“Yes,” he said with mock seriousness. “If you had the same suspicions about Barb’s friends as I do, you would do the same thing.”

“Okay,” she said. “But you owe me.”

“That’s fine. I don’t mind owing you.” He gave her hand a little squeeze.

So they walked up Main Street, and then, instead of walking up a block toward their houses, they walked down a couple blocks to the riverfront park.

The moon had come out and reflected on the rushing water. He caressed her hand as he held it and they strolled along a sidewalk that ran beside the river through the park. He was well aware that every time he had tried to tell her something about what he felt for her, it had resulted in even greater confusion; so this time he didn’t. He just put his hand on her face and kissed her long and slow. He hoped she could feel what he wanted to say but could find no words for.

And then he thought of Cassie coming home to an empty house. To a house without Kate. And to a house without him because he was making out with Jill—Jill, who wasn’t Kate. Those thoughts broke the spell. “Cassie’s probably home by now,” he said.

Jill nodded.

He took her hand again, and she rested her head against his arm as they walked back up to town. It felt strange being with someone other than Kate. It felt both exciting and wrong all at once.

It was the time of year everyone in town dreaded—melt-off, where it seemed mud was everywhere, where basements flooded, where everything that had been buried by snow all winter resurfaced—leaves they hadn’t raked, clutter they hadn’t picked up. Melt-off was a transition, and transitions were messy and uncomfortable. He saw his grief like the snow that remained in patches in people’s yards—very deep near the house, where a winter’s accumulation of snow had slid off the roof into a pile so high that it had almost reached the eves. Still, in the glow of the streetlights, he could see other places in their yards where the snow had melted off and the new green tips of bulbs were breaking through the surface. It still felt too early and too cold for anything to grow, yet despite that, life had begun to return.

As they approached his house, he said, “Want to come in for a drink? After Cassie goes to bed, we could…” He let his proposal trail off.

Jill hesitated. “Part of me does, but at the same time, Cassie … I don’t know where the line is between discretion and betrayal.”

“It’s all new territory to me,” Mike said. They passed his sidewalk and continued on to the Kennel. When they reached it, he gave her a good-night kiss.

“I wonder what exactly your unexpected reward will be,” he said.

She smiled. “Yeah, I wonder. And I wonder what your new interest will be.”

“Hm … I have some ideas,” he replied, and kissed her once more.

*   *   *

When Jill walked into the Kennel, Hans glanced up from an action movie he was watching, said hello, and then did a double take. His eyes narrowed. “I know that look,” he said, and bolted for the window to see who might be out there. He put his hands on the windowsill and watched Mike walk back home. Hans raised his eyebrows and pointed back and forth between Mike and her.

“I don’t know,” she finally relented. “It’s not that easy.”

“You’re a smitten kitten,” he accused.

“It’s just, you know, Kate hasn’t been gone that long. And I’m still technically married. And I need to go back into nursing to make a living, and so I’ve got no business starting something I can’t finish.”

“Wait a minute. Are you saying you’re
leaving
?”

“Eventually, yeah,” she said apologetically. She didn’t tell him that she had sent off two applications just this week—one to a podiatrist in Denver and the other to a dermatologist. She was rethinking the dermatology position, though. Some pretty young people got skin cancer at these high elevations, and she wasn’t sure she could cope with that. No, they weren’t babies, but still, if she could avoid any type of nursing where anyone died, that was the goal.

“But you have a dog named after beer. You belong here,” he said.

Rather than argue with him that, no, she did not
belong
in the Kennel, she simply said, “Thanks,” because it was nice to be welcome.

“Mike’s a good man,” Hans said. “No one in Sparkle needs a nurse?”

“I haven’t seen any want ads,” Jill replied.

“That’s not how it works around here. It’s all word of mouth.” He paused and thought. “Okay, I just thought of one possibility. Kaitlyn. She works at the health department in Colorado Springs. Big commute, but doable. She’s engaged to some rich dude. It’s possible she’ll quit. Okay, I thought of another. Heather. It’s possible we had relations a couple years ago. She was a nurse for that knee doctor guy, you know, next door to the bike shop. She’s married now and very pregnant. I mean she’s out to here,” he said, holding his hand two feet in front of his belly. Maybe she’ll be taking some time off. Jaqueline. It’s possible we had relations a few years ago. She’s a school nurse at a few local schools, including this one. Rumor has it she met some rock climber dude from Utah and is spending her summer vacation with him to see where it leads.”

“Good leads,” she said. “Thanks.” But she was thinking she wanted a real opportunity—not a temporary one and not one where she’d have to wait to see if it even came to pass. Next week, she decided, she would get on it and actually go to Denver to pick up applications and check out different places.

“Consider this. I was talking to Travis back in February and he was telling me how he was nailing the home care nurse when his mom walked in, but that’s not the important part. The important part is that he had a home care nurse. What about that? Surely there are enough people having big wrecks up here that there’s a need, right?”

“Probably,” Jill replied.

“Or, how about this? When Travis and I were ice climbing in Yellowstone last year, we met a bunch of nurses. All but one was from Boise. They had come out to visit their friend who was spending the summer working as a nurse there in the national park. Apparently some of the bigger national parks have nurses. So you could do ski patrol in the winter and work national parks in the summer. Works for Lisa. Maybe you guys could even work at the same park.”

“Fun,” Jill said, but she didn’t really like that idea. She wanted a home. “Well, hey, thanks for the brainstorming session.”

“My pleasure.” Hans turned his attention back to the TV, and Jill took off her coat and hung it up. And then, without looking back at her, he said, “Jill? Mike is the only guy I can think of that I’d let anywhere near you. Just sayin’.”

“Yeah?” She was touched.

“True, that. This winter, I got wind that a few different guys wanted to tap that, meaning you, and I let it be known that if they did, they better have a good dentist.”

“Really?”

“No busters messed with you, did they?”

“No, they did not,” Jill said.

“Enough said. But I think about Mike, too. Do you know how many married women hit on me every year?”

“No,” Jill answered.

“Lots. And I don’t want Mike to end up with a woman like that—someone who is going to screw him over. He’s been through enough, you know? I mean, I don’t know the guy that well, but you know how it is here. We all know each other well enough.”

“Yeah,” Jill replied, and went to the bathroom to brush her teeth.

She looked at herself in the mirror as she let Hans’s last words sink in. She hadn’t considered that, really. She hadn’t considered that if she didn’t end up with Mike, he would end up with someone else. It had just seemed like the two options were her or no one. And she sure hadn’t considered that the new woman might possibly be a person who lacked morals or character. Had Jill not been looking at herself in the mirror, she wouldn’t have seen the glimmer of fear in her own eyes, and she might not have known just how deeply she did care.

chapter thirty-three

SNOW REPORT FOR APRIL 24

Current temperature: 38F, high of 50F at 3
P.M.
, low of 32F at 4
A.M.