What I liked was Noc’s home and not because I
wished that for Josette and me.
I liked it because there was great beauty in
having all that was Noc surrounding me, making me feel safe and
warm and peaceful, none of which I’d ever had. I loved being in his
home in a way I knew that could be my home, far less grand than any
I’d ever known, but indisputably far better as well.
But I couldn’t request from Noc that he allow
Josette and me to live with him.
Firstly because it was far too small. For Noc
and I to have what I wished Noc and I to have when we had our alone
times, Josette obviously could not be with us.
Secondly, because this was an intimacy I
felt—for some unfathomable reason I still understood as
accurate—was one Noc needed to invite.
And he would not do that with Josette
accompanying me.
However, I was Franka Drakkar and I knew what
I liked.
So I shared it.
“The brick walkways of the first property you
showed us, as well as the drive and garage, for Mr. Hawthorne will
need somewhere to keep his vehicle that’s safer than the street for
when he’s with us, as will Josette and I when we acquire our own
conveyances,” I declared.
The woman stared fixedly at me, something she
did often when I knew she found my speech odd.
I ignored it and carried on.
“The wrought iron around the veranda and
balconies of the second, with the large tree in front that offered
shade, its two stories and lovely cornices and ceiling roses. And
the privacy and maturity of the garden in the courtyard of the
third.” I drifted out a hand. “Alas, I’ve nothing to share that I
like of this, except the large lawns, which I do believe I may need
to relinquish in order to have other things that are
priorities.”
“I like to find my clients exactly what they
want, but I will say that’s likely,” she muttered.
“And lastly, proximity to Mr. Hawthorne,
which I should have said first,” I finished.
At this, Noc slid an arm around me and pulled
me close to his side. Therefore, I returned the gesture.
“I can work with this,” the agent said.
I should hope she could, she was being paid
to do just that.
“I’ll sort some listings. Do you have a
direct email or would you like me to continue sending them to Ms.
Rousseau’s assistant?” she asked.
“Send them to me,” Noc answered. “It’ll all
go faster that way. I’ll get your number from Franka and text you
my email.”
“Excellent,” she replied.
“Not to hurry us along or anything,” Josette
began. “But are we done here? Just because, you see, Noc said we’re
going to the mall after this and there was that blouse I decided
against that I haven’t been able to get out of my mind since, and I
was hoping it’d still be there.”
“We’re done here,” Noc decreed, looked to the
agent and lifted his chin. “Thanks for your time, and you send us
some listings, we’ll be in touch.”
“My pleasure. I hope to see you again
soon.”
Josette and I also gave our farewells and Noc
guided us out.
We were in his SUV when he shared, “Babe, you
don’t have to live in the city. You want nature around you, I’m
sure they have places that might not be close but they’re not
far.”
“Yes, but you’re in the city,” was my
reply.
“Yeah, but I’m also not getting to you by
sled, sweetheart,” he returned with humor. “It won’t take half a
day to make an hour’s drive.”
I turned from viewing the road before us to
look at Noc and only then did I repeat, but more definitively this
time, “Yes, but
you
are in the city.”
He glanced at me and back to the road, but
even with only having his profile, I watched his expression warm
before he said, “Gotcha.”
I nodded smartly, looked behind me to smile
at Josette, who smiled back, and then I looked back to the
road.
* * * * *
I was engrossed in my perusal of a very
attractive dress hanging on a rack in the mall when I heard Noc
make a noise.
I looked up to him to see that his expression
was no longer vacant (this being because I knew he was bored out of
his mind, for we did not simply pick up some baby gifts and
Josette’s blouse, we became distracted by other things so our quick
trip to the mall was nothing of the like).
Now he looked alert and I turned to see what
he was regarding.
It was Josette, skipping toward us, waving
her telephone and looking joyous.
I couldn’t help it, her demeanor made me
smile.
My lovely Josette, she so enjoyed the
mall.
She stopped on a sway and cried, “I have a
dinner date tomorrow!”
My smile died.
“I beg your pardon?” I queried.
“Say again?” Noc asked.
“Glover,” she stated, rolling up to her toes,
and back, and again, grinning like a lunatic. “That man we met on
Bourbon Street. You know. The large, tall, handsome
Maroovian-non-Maroovian one with the lovely smile?”
I knew no such man.
“No, I do not know,” I stated.
“That guy, baby, the one Jo was talkin’ to
for, like, two hours,” Noc explained.
I turned to him, vaguely remembering, and
back to Josette when she started talking.
“He gave me his number. I texted. He texted
back. We’ve been exchanging them, like,
bunches
. He’s been
being very sweet. I was looking at the jeans over there,” she
tossed an arm behind her but didn’t turn that direction, she kept
grinning at Noc and me, “and he called and asked if I wanted to go
out to dinner tomorrow night. And I said
yes
!” She nearly
shouted her last. “Isn’t that
divine
? He’s coming to pick me
up at seven at Valentine’s.”
“He’s doing nothing of the sort,” I spat.
Josette blinked and her smile faltered.
I felt Noc move closer to me.
“I’m sorry?” Josette whispered.
“Am I to understand he’s arriving at
Valentine’s home to put you in a car and take you for a meal?” I
inquired.
“Yes,” Josette kept whispering.
“That’s unacceptable,” I declared.
Josette blinked again and her shoulders
fell.
“Frannie—” Noc started.
I jerked my head his way. “It’s
unacceptable.”
“You were drunk and unnecessarily flirting
with me so I think you missed she’s into the guy and he was
way
into her,” Noc replied.
“I do not care,” I retorted and again turned
my attention to Josette. “I forbid this to happen.”
“Franka,” Noc clipped as Josette’s entire
expression fell.
I again looked to Noc.
“Josette was not a common servant with no one
to look after her even when she
was
a servant,” I bit out.
“She’s a young woman of means with family who cares for her. Thus,
he will behave like she is as such, which means he will behave
appropriately. In other words, he’ll arrive at Valentine’s home at
seven tomorrow to sit with us for drinks and dinner. Through this
time spent with him, I’ll understand what he does to make his
living. I’ll ask questions to ascertain his moral character. I’ll
observe his behavior toward Josette. And only
then
will I
allow the
possibility
of a future
dinner date
. This
being after he’s proved himself a gentleman in his intentions
toward Josette once we’ve spent some time with him and he has our
approval.”
Noc stared down at me.
I looked to Josette.
“Telephone him back and share this,” I
ordered.
Josette stared at me.
“Sweetheart, that’s not how it’s done in this
world,” Noc told me.
I returned my gaze to him. “This matters not
to me.”
“The dude is gonna think you’re crazy, worse,
he’s gonna think Jo’s crazy and he’s totally gonna beg off.”
My brows snapped together. “Why on earth
would he do that?”
“Because, Frannie, this is not how it’s done
in this world,” he answered. “A guy likes a girl, he texts her,
calls her, asks her out, takes her to dinner, gets to know her
better. They like each other, that keeps happening. Beyond that,”
his eyes slid to Josette and back to me, “we won’t go there right
now.”
I considered this information.
Then I turned to Josette and decreed, “Fine.
Then telephone him back and share that Noc and I will be attending
this dinner with you.”
Josette’s mouth dropped open.
“Frannie…” My name from Noc’s lips was
shaking with mirth.
I scowled at Noc finding nothing amusing.
“
What?
” I clipped.
“You can’t invite yourself on a double date
if the guy didn’t ask us along, especially on a first date.”
My voice was rising. “Why not?”
He shook his head, his amusement plain. “You
just can’t.”
“Then who’s going to look after her?” I
demanded to know.
Noc’s amusement didn’t leave but the warmth
in his expression heightened.
“We’ll make sure she texts us, tells us where
she is, how she’s getting on, when he brings her safe home.” He
looked to Josette. “That cool with you?”
“Definitely!” she chirped.
“It’s not cool with me,” I put in and Noc
looked to me.
“He’s not asking
you
out,” he
noted.
I continued scowling at him before I made a
decision. “All right, then we shall go to this same restaurant and
sit at another table so we’ll be close in case anything untoward
happens or I observe something that displeases me in his behavior,
or Josette needs me.”
Noc started chuckling as he got close and
curved an arm around me.
Tipping his head down, he said quietly,
“Right, Momma Bear, the gig is, you’re gonna have to let your
little cub explore on her own eventually. I met the guy. We talked
for a while. He seemed good to me. If he wasn’t, if I got a bad
vibe from him, anything, I’d be the one throwing a wrench in on his
action. But what I got from him, I liked. And what Jo got from him,
she
liked. So you’re just gonna have to stand down.”
I did not wish to stand down.
I stared into Noc’s eyes.
I turned my head toward Josette and saw the
hope and excitement shining in hers.
Blast!
“Tell him he has you home by ten,” I
demanded.
Noc burst into laughter.
Josette’s face became wreathed in smiles.
With the side of his fist under my chin, Noc
turned my face to his and tipped it up so he could drop a short
kiss on my lips.
When he finished doing that, he looked to
Josette.
“I’ll talk her into letting you have until
midnight,” he said.
Well!
“Now I gotta teach you two something else
women do in this world,” Noc continued, no longer sounding
entertained, now sounding beleaguered. “That being the fact that a
woman has a first date with a guy, she uses it as an excuse to buy
a new outfit. You both got more new outfits than you can get
through in a month. But I’m thinking none of them at this point are
the right one for dinner with Glover.”
“You’re correct, Noc, I’ve been going through
all of them in my head since I said yes, and Frannie, we
must
find something he will
most
like to see me in,”
Josette declared.
Gods, now Josette was calling me Frannie.
I sighed.
But she was quite right.
Nothing we’d bought previously would do.
Thus it was time to get to work.
* * * * *
“Have you lost your mind?”
Much later, after Josette had insisted Noc
and I have an evening alone together, we left her at Valentine’s
and returned to Noc’s where I now sat on the sofa staring up at him
standing in front of me holding one glass of wine (mine, which he
had halted in delivering to me after I’d said what I’d just said)
and one bottle of ale (his).
“No, I have not,” I pointed out the
obvious.
“You are not gonna do that,” he declared,
still standing several feet away from me and not offering me my
glass. “More,
I’m
not gonna do that, but
you
definitely aren’t gonna do that so to make myself perfectly clear,
we
are not gonna do that.”
“May I have my wine, darling?” I requested
quietly.
He looked down to his hand like he forgot he
was holding it before he took the last step toward me and offered
me my wine.
I took it and immediately sipped.
“Confirm you heard me, Frannie,” he demanded,
not sipping his beer, instead glowering down at me.
“Come sit beside me,” I invited
cajolingly.
“Nope,” he shook his head. “I gotta cook but
I’m not doin’ that either until I know we’re both on the same page
with this.”
“Noc, my dearest, I
am
quite good at
this,” I assured. “I’ve had years of practice and I can’t imagine
the skills I have do not translate to this world. I’ve watched
carefully and I’ve planned everything precisely.”
“Right, this is the deal, babe,” Noc returned
tersely. “You go into an attorney’s office, any attorney, but
definitely an attorney known as the fuckin’
Savage
, of all
fuckin’ things, create a distraction in hopes that I’ll be able to
follow you and go unseen into his office to hack into his computer
to get his schedule so you can set something up so he runs into
Circe, you’re an accessory to the crime
I’m
committing. A
crime the fuckin’
Savage
will lose his fuckin’ mind about if
one of us is caught. And you do not piss off an attorney, Frannie.
My guess, and I’m betting a pretty damn good one, you especially
don’t piss off one known as the Savage.”
“It’s a crime to look at someone’s,
erm…computer diary?” I asked.
“It’s a crime to break and enter, even if you
don’t do any breaking in order to enter, and it’s also a crime to
help yourself to unauthorized access of a private or business
computer.”