“
I just wanted to tell you
that we should go to Rudy’s bar after dinner. I think he can help
us with this whole thing. In fact, I know he can.”
“
How?” asked Dex, ever
demanding.
Bird smiled. “I’ll let him
tell you that. But we must not mention it to anyone, you
understand?”
“
No,” Dex said. “Enlighten
us.”
I could see Bird was tired
and wished Dex wouldn’t push him so when he was trying to help. He
smiled politely. “The people downstairs. They wouldn’t like it.
They would try and stop us and I think it’s best if we do things
without them knowing. Just trust me with that. If Rudy can help us
we need to do it as cleanly as possible.”
“
Help us help them,” Max
mused.
“
Right,” said Bird. He got
up and pointed at me. “And help her.”
My eyes widened. So much
for that. But before Dex and Maximus could ask what that meant (and
from the looks on their faces, I could tell they wanted to), Bird
opened the door and led the way with his arm.
“
Come on, dinner is getting
cold,” he said a bit too loudly, for the benefit of the listeners
downstairs. He jerked his head for us to join him.
Maximus got up first and
followed him out the door. I scuttled after him while Dex closed
the door behind us. I felt him brush up beside me as we walked down
the hall.
“
What are you keeping from
me?” he asked gruffly in my ear. I melted a bit from the feel of
his hot breath on my neck and the roughness of his
voice.
“
Nothing,” I whispered.
Then, remembering my lecture about sharing, I relented. “I’ll tell
you later.”
We walked down the stairs
and into the living room. No surprise, everyone else was seated and
waiting for us.
Sarah and Will were on
opposite sides at the heads of the table. In a cozy row on one side
sat Miguel, Shan and a place for Maximus. The other side was for
me, Dex and Bird.
“
How are you feeling
Perry?” Will asked as I took my spot near him. He had his hands
clasped in a prayer-like gesture, his shirt was neatly buttoned all
the way to the top. His eyes were kind as always but his smile was
a bit forced. He must have been on edge like everyone else. There
was an air of tension floating just above our heads.
I attempted my most
convincing smile and said, “I’m doing much better, thank you. I’ve
always been so clumsy. My mother used to tie couch cushions to me
when I was a kid cuz I fell down so much.”
To my surprise, everyone at
the table roared with laughter. Was this what it felt like to be
Patton Oswalt? Granted, it was a nervous type of laughter but I’d
take anything.
Will cleared his throat
after the chuckles died down and proceeded to lead us all in a
quick prayer of grace. I bowed my head and kept one eye open on
Shan and Bird. They repeated the prayer without
hesitation.
We started on our salads
which were actually quite tasty. I remarked on how crisp the greens
were and Sarah informed me that she had a lovely garden out back,
behind the house. She did so without a hint of malice or sarcasm.
It seemed everyone was on their best behavior.
Sarah looked as done up as
her husband. Her big, dark glasses even had tiny rhinestones in the
frames which added some punch to her simple, high-necked burgundy
dress. Her hair was in a long dark braid going down her back. Now
that it wasn’t in a bun, I could see how marvelously long it was
and how it didn’t have a single speck of grey hair. For someone
that was at least fifty, I found that to be amazing. Actually the
more I stared at her face, especially the way it looked in the low
light of the dining room, the younger she looked. How funny to look
so fabulously young for your age and not even be able to see
it.
Shan and Miguel cleaned up
well, too. Miguel still looked like a rat bastard with that
contemptuous glint in his beady eyes, but at least he was in a
pressed rodeo shirt and his hands looked clean. Shan actually
looked quite handsome without some grimy hat on his head. He was
hunched over slightly, I suppose from his chest pains of earlier
but his face was open, a sun-beaten but fresh complexion. Inside,
in this situation, he looked younger too, somehow.
He was explaining something
to Will about some tricks a local rancher had taught his horse to
do, and as he was moving his hands around, flashes of silver and
shine caught my eye. He had silver rings on almost every finger on
his hands. Most were solid but a few had some gorgeous turquoise
jewels on them. I then noticed a few beaded and metal bracelets on
his wrists and a few rope necklaces disappearing into the V of his
neckline. One necklace lay on front, a tiny suede pouch at the
bottom. I hadn’t recalled seeing so much jewelry on him before. As
unusual as it was though, to see a man decked out in that much
bling, it kind of suited him.
“
So, Perry,” Shan said,
catching my eyes on him. I played it cool and smiled, avoiding
looking straight into those yellowish brown eyes of his. “Tell me
about how you and Dex first met.”
Oh crap.
I looked at Dex and smiled,
letting out a laugh I hoped came across as ‘oh this old story’
rather than the nervous one it was. Dex did the exact same
thing.
What was our story? Did we
have one? Could we just tell the truth? We met at a lighthouse. I
know, we met on the beach. No, we met online. Wait, what if they
quizzed him?
“
Do you want to tell the
story, sweetie?” I asked him, patting him on the arm like a good
little wife would do when she didn’t want to hog the
spotlight.
He cocked his head at me
with a smile that usually accompanied a wagging finger. “No,
sweetie, you can tell it.”
“
I’ll tell it!” Maximus
announced from across the table. We both looked at him in unison.
This was new. I gave him an uneasy smile as a means to continue.
This could totally ruin our cover but at the same time it was easy
for just one person to tell it. Whatever it was, we were about to
find out.
He looked at Will with his
aw shucks grin. “After all, I was only the best man at their
wedding!”
I rolled my eyes without
thinking, then looked around to see if anyone noticed. They hadn’t.
This was going to be something else.
I reached over with my left
hand and placed it on top of Dex’s which was resting on the table.
We exchanged a loving look for show but we both read the underlying
one beneath. We were in this together whether we liked it or not. I
tightened my grip as Maximus spun his fiction.
“
Well you see, Dex and I
were buddies in college. We were in the same band. Dex was the
singer, I was the bassist–”
“
You were a singer?” Sarah
exclaimed, the first time she sounded mildly impressed. “Sing us
something!”
Dex chuckled while shaking
his head. “I’m afraid ‘were’ is the operative term here. You
wouldn’t want to hear me sing now.”
I knew that wasn’t true.
Dex’s voice was spine-tingling good but I knew he wasn’t going to
do a stirring rendition of “Amazing Grace” at the dinner table for
Sarah, either.
“
Yup, he was the singer.
Our fantastic singer,” Maximus continued. I detected the smallest
trace of animosity in his lazy drawl. “And well, Perry was a
groupie.”
“
I was not!” I exclaimed
before I realized what I had said. My heart caught in my throat but
everyone was laughing, even Dex.
Maximus tilted his head at
Miguel who seemed amused by all of this. “She says she wasn’t a
groupie, but we all know it was true. You should have seen the
other bands she went for. If you ask the right people around New
York, y’all may just hear the legend of Perry and her fateful night
with Mick Jagger in the bathroom of a Burger King.”
I burst out laughing. I
couldn’t help it. My fake bio was getting better by the minute. I
knew people at the table were watching me for my reaction so I just
went with it, shaking my head with good humor at that cheeky
red-headed Cajun. I wasn’t sure how he was making all of this up on
the fly.
Dex wanted in, so he turned
to me with playful eyes. “That was you?!”
I ignored him and Maximus
continued.
“
So naturally, Perry was
going after me. I mean, why not?” he grinned. “I’m taller, stronger
and I have a really big…bass.”
At least that comment made
Miguel snicker.
“
But alas I had to turn her
away. You see, I had a girlfriend at the time and I am a romantic,
one woman guy. And I guess, in her depressed, rejected state Perry
went after the next best thing. Dex. Even though, I personally know
she only went after him to get closer to me. In fact, Perry,
marrying him may have gone a little too far.”
“
Hardy har har,” I said
while everyone laughed. Everyone except Dex, that is. He had fallen
strangely serious, almost glaring at Maximus. I’m sure it looked to
everyone else like he was playing up the jealous card but I think
it had to do with how closely his story imitated real life, with
Abby. I hoped Maximus had the right sense to quit while he was
ahead, though I could now see he was just feeding off of the
attention.
“
And the rest is history,” I
said, putting an end to it.
Sarah laughed from her end.
“Is it? I have to say I’ve never met a married couple with so much
sexual tension between them. You two must be dynamite in the
bedroom.”
My eyes widened. I took my
hand off of Dex’s. Maximus and his side of the table burst out
laughing.
“
Sarah, please,” Will said,
embarrassed. “That’s not the way to talk at the dinner
table.”
She pointed in Maximus’s
direction defensively. “He was talking about the size of his
bass.”
“
I think everyone’s
maturity level in this room took a huge step down,” Bird remarked
humorously, man of few words so far.
“
Well, you’re right Sarah,”
Dex conceded, a wicked little smile widening his mouth. “Not that
I’m one to kiss and tell but poor Maximus didn’t know what he was
giving up when he passed this one my way. Ka–BOOM!”
He slammed his fist down on
the table for emphasis. The silverware rattled.
I put my hand up to my
face. This was so embarrassing. On so many levels. I mean, I
couldn’t believe that Sarah picked up on the sexual tension. You
know, I could always sense that there was this current of something
running between us, but I thought it was in my head, like
everything else in my life seemed to be. But obviously it wasn’t
and I hoped to God it wasn’t only radiating from me. It made me
rethink the way I acted around him. Was I always staring at him
with a stupid look on my face? I thought it would have been more an
angry, confused and annoyed face.
Then the actual thought of
being “dynamite in bed” with him made me feel sticky hot and
flushed, like I was blushing all over my body. Dirty, inappropriate
thoughts were swirling around in my head. Flashing images of our
naked, grinding bodies, his sweaty, tattooed chest above me, while
those hands of his roamed roughly all over me, that baritone voice
snarling animalistic groans in my ear. It would be dynamite. It
would be tectonic. I think the world would implode. I think I was
about to implode at the dinner table.
I swallowed hard and
blinked, shifting my body away from Dex ever so slightly. I gave
everyone a sarcastic smile that said ‘boys’ and breathed out air I
had been holding onto. I could tell Dex was watching me but I was
going to avoid looking in his general direction for the next hour,
in case I actually attacked him over our main course.
Fortunately, the
conversation after that was turned on to more casual topics and I
was able to calm down inside. The food was very pleasant and
totally homemade. The mutton we had was unlike any mutton I had
before. It wasn’t tough at all and went exceedingly well with the
rich gravy which had touches of fennel and mint in it. I told Will
he could open his open restaurant here on the ranch if he wanted
to.
He laughed appreciatively.
“Red Fox needs some better places to dine, that’s for
sure.”
“
You’ll just have to get
rid of the ghosts first,” Sarah crowed. “Or was it a curse? I can’t
remember what we had decided on this morning.”
This was the first time
tonight anyone brought up what was really going on. It had been the
elephant in the room and we had all been avoiding it. Leave it to
the matriarch though. We fell silent, heads turning to look at
her.
She sensed it and shrugged,
not caring one bit. “We can’t ignore the real reason why our guests
are here. So let’s talk about.”
Will looked down at his
food, chewing slowly for a few moments before saying, “We can leave
that for another time. Maybe after dinner, with some coffee and
dessert.”
“
Oh, how nice,” Sarah said,
her voice dripping with venom. “What a lovely after dinner
conversation.”
She folded her hands in
front of her and ‘looked’ around primly. “Now that Shan and Miguel
are here, I think it’s only fair to let them in the conversation we
had earlier. Especially since Shan became the subject of that
conversation.”