Her eyes opened wide at that comment. “You do?”
“Loved her. Always loved the wrong person. Maybe I should get a dog.”
“You hate dogs.”
“I love dogs.”
Now was not the time to remind him that he had never let her have a dog. “Okay, get a dog,” she said.
He gave her another goofy grin. “My little girl,” he said, and followed it up with a huge yawn. “I’m so sleepy.”
“Go to sleep, Daddy.”
“M’kay,” he said, and then he was out.
Tentatively, Sadie reached out and made a few passes over his head. Hal poked his head around the curtain, and Sadie withdrew her hand as if she had been caught doing something bad. She stepped outside the curtain.
“What did you guys give him?” she asked.
“Horse tranquillizers. They’re illegal, but we needed something powerful enough to make him stop yelling at us. How are you holding up?”
“I’m fine,” Sadie said.
“I know you are. Is there anything that gets you down, Sadie?”
“Humidity. Plays havoc with my hair.”
“I love a woman who can lie with a straight face. Do you think we should have called Luke? I feel bad that we left him,” Hal said.
“I don’t think so. Luke’s in a mood. The best cure is to let him brood with his books for a while until he emerges on his own.”
“I can’t get you guys. You’re more connected than any two people I’ve known, but you’re not together. There’s a divide between you, and it’s abnormal, like a gap between two teeth. Care to enlighten me?”
“Hal, I’m twenty eight, and I’m just starting to figure out who I am. There were a lot of bumps and mistakes along the way. Luke was one of those bumps. I hurt him, and I don’t think he’ll ever really forgive me.”
“Luke is smart, and he has a big heart, Sadie.”
“That’s the problem. Big hearts mean big hurts, and enough intelligence to stay away from whatever wounds.” She heard the despair in her voice. Things with Luke were better. They were talking. They were friends. But it wasn’t like it was before. He kept space between them, a buffering distance that Sadie tried hard to respect.
“Give him time. He’ll come around,” Hal promised. “Do you want some help getting your dad home?”
“Yes, please,” she said. She peeked around the curtain and saw Gideon still unconscious. If they could somehow wrangle him home and into bed before the medicine wore off, their lives would all be easier.
“Let me recruit a couple of orderlies.” He signaled toward the front desk. “Are we taking Mary’s car again?”
“Yes,” Sadie said.
“I didn’t know your dad had a girlfriend,” Hal said.
“He doesn’t.”
“Really? He and Mary were like a lot of long-term couples I know—comfortable with lots of bickering.”
“Apparently they’re friends. I didn’t know my dad had any of those.”
The orderlies arrived and, after studying Gideon and debating with each other for a while, decided to roll him out as he was. Mary met them at the emergency entrance. Sadie stood back while the orderlies stuffed her father into the backseat like a sack of potatoes, his rear end pushed high in the air. She took a picture for posterity, and possibly for future blackmail. Gideon would hate knowing he had been handled so unceremoniously.
Sadie and Abby followed behind Mary, Hal, and Gideon. Once home, Sadie retrieved the rolling chair from Gideon’s office. They propped him up and pushed him to the house, each of them taking a turn pulling him upright when he slid down in the chair.
“I used to think
Weekend at Bernie’s
was far-fetched,” Hal whispered. They dumped Gideon from the chair to the bed and tiptoed out of the room while Mary tucked him in.
“Thanks for everything, Hal,” Sadie said.
“Never a dull moment with you, Sadie. The amusement is worth any price.” He kissed her cheek and let himself out just as Mary eased out of Gideon’s room.
“I have those files you requested, Sadie,” Mary said. “My initial thought was correct: there are three open missing cases.” She and Sadie walked to her car. Sadie waited while she reached inside and pulled out a large stack of papers.
“Well, I know where the rest of my evening is going to go,” Sadie said. “Thanks, Mary, and thanks for helping with Dad.”
“No problem,” Mary said.
“You’re really good at dealing with him.”
“Years of practice,” Mary said.
“He’s going to need a lot of care until he recovers. If it wouldn’t be too much trouble, maybe you could pop in from time to time to smooth his ruffled feathers.”
Mary beamed and quickly wiped her expression. “I suppose I could try to find some time.” She tapped the stack of papers in Sadie’s hands. “Don’t stay up too late with those.”
Sadie promised not to get too involved in them, but she knew she wouldn’t go to sleep until she had read every word of the files. She stood in the driveway, waving to Mary, and then closeted herself in her room for the next few hours.
Luke woke with a start. He had somehow fallen asleep on an organic chemistry book so thick he would no doubt have a crick. It was his favorite time of the day, and he was about to miss it. He had slept in his clothes the night before so there was no need to get dressed. He hopped out of bed and sprinted down the stairs, stopping short in the kitchen to grab a cup of coffee. He hurried to the living room and leaned against the door. Sadie was in the middle of her first sun salutation: he hadn’t missed yoga.
“Join me,” she said when she noticed him lurking.
“I yawned when I woke up, so I’m good,” he said.
“Yoga is not normally a spectator sport,” she said.
“You know me—I need to observe a long time before I decide to join something.”
“You say that as if you ever have any intent of yogaing with me.”
“I don’t think you can use yoga as a verb, and I’m more than content to hang out here.” He sipped his coffee and smiled as she slipped into downward facing dog.
“Creeper, party of one, your table is ready,” Sadie said.
“Everyone needs a hobby,” Luke said.
“Come over here,” she commanded.
“Sadie, yoga is not my thing, okay? I know real men wear pink and all, but it’s just not me.”
“Luke, a good time to pretend to be too manly for yoga might have been before you screamed like a little girl when you saw a spider on the cereal box.”
“I swear it was a black widow,” he said.
“Captain Crunch is like manna to them,” she said. “Come over here and stretch with me, or I’m not going to let you watch anymore.”
Reluctantly, he set aside his coffee and went to stand beside her, mimicking the moves of the person on television. He would never admit as much to her, but the stretching felt good. His endorphins were beginning to flow when Sadie’s leg shot out, hooked around his, and pulled him to the ground. She jumped on him and pinned him.
“Ha!”
“Exactly what kind of yoga is this?” he asked. “Because I think I like it.”
“This isn’t yoga; this is me proving to you that I can take care of myself,” she explained. “I took you down and pinned you, so there.”
“Oh, is that what we’re doing?” He flipped her and pinned her arms over her head. “Thanks for filling me in. And may I add,
ha.
”
Somewhere along the way he had become freakishly strong, at least compared to what he used to be. Sadie struggled, but she was hopelessly stuck. Luke was enjoying her misery.
“I’m not even breaking a sweat,” he said.
She raised her head and bit his neck. He squealed and let her go. She grabbed his arm, wrenched it, and sat on his back. She would have gloated, but she was still out of breath.
“Really, Sadie, you’re going to tickle your attacker?”
“If that’s what it takes to win,” she panted.
He scissor kicked his legs to get some leverage and flipped again, pinning her beneath him. This time he kept his neck out of reach. Sadie fought furiously, but he was relentless. He pressed heavily on her, inhibiting her movements down to almost nothing. She writhed for almost fifteen minutes. Luke feigned boredom so she wouldn’t know how much energy it was taking to keep her pinned. Finally Sadie went limp, panting as she stared up at him. He watched the calculation taking place behind her eyes. When she raised her head again, he pinched his head against his neck to stop her from biting, but she bypassed his neck and went for his lips instead, kissing him. Now it was his turn to go limp—with surprise. Sadie used it to her advantage to flip and pin him.
When he realized what she had done, he tossed her off him. She landed hard on the floor beside him. “Sadie, why?”
“Because it worked.”
“Would you kiss an attacker?”
“If that’s what it takes to win.”
He said the words with her and sat up. “Do you want to know why I worry about you? It’s because of this, because you want to win no matter what. Do you know what a sensible person does? They run away. You get a foothold, you run away. Not you, no, you have to prove yourself. You have to
win.
”
“What’s so wrong with wanting to win?”
“When you win, there’s always a loser.”
“What are we talking about here, Luke? Because all of a sudden it feels like we’re not speaking in hypotheticals anymore. Are you still so angry with me?”
He opened his mouth to tell her that of course he wasn’t angry with her, that their past was ancient history and he had moved on, but the words stuck. With a start, he realized that he was still angry. Though it was buried deep, there was a cesspool of seething rage still bubbling inside him.
“Luke, I was a stupid, mixed up kid, and I’m sorry. Please, can’t you let it go?”
Could he? He didn’t know. Holding on to a piece of his anger felt safe. It kept his heart protected from her. “The ones you care about the most always hurt you the deepest, they say,” he closed the distance and clasped her hand. “Nobody ever meant more to me than you, Sade. I’ll work on it.”
Sadie wanted to push him, to point out that they had been coexisting in peace the last few weeks, to tell him how much she had grown and matured, to list for him all the little ways she had been trying to make amends. But she knew Luke too well; pushing right now wouldn’t help her cause. She squeezed his hand. “I miss my best friend. I miss things being the way they were. There’s distance between us, and I don’t like it.”
Luke didn’t point out that the distance was there for his own self-preservation. Sadie was a constant temptation. If he let go of his grudge, what was to stop him from falling for her again? And, even free of anger, he wasn’t sure he could ever trust her that way again. “I’ll work on it,” he promised again.
He lay down again. They stared at the ceiling, their hands still clasped. “You wear me out, Sadie,” Luke said. No one had ever required as much of him as she did. If she wasn’t taking a toll on him emotionally then she was giving him a beating in the literal sense. His muscles were starting to ache from pinning her down, and he was emotionally drained.
“Really? I feel energized.” She had worked up a good sweat while they were wrestling, and her synapses were firing on all cylinders. She felt ready to take on the world.
Abby entered the room and lay down on Sadie’s other side, groaning as she levered herself down. “What are we staring at?” she said when she was settled and looking up at the ceiling.
“Nothing. We wrestled, and now Luke’s trying to forgive me,” Sadie said.
“Ah. I wish I’d known that before I got down here. I’m afraid I’ll never be able to get back up again. It’s rather peaceful here, isn’t it?” Abby said.
“It’s nice,” Sadie agreed.
Luke smiled. He was the lone voice of sanity and reason among them, but for now there was nowhere else he would rather be. “What’s everyone doing today?”
“I have to check on Gideon,” Sadie said. “And then get started on the case. Mary gave me the files from the missing persons. I’m going to do some family interviews, see what I can find out. And then I need to talk to Ben to see if he knows any of them.”
“You’re not doing that by yourself,” Luke said.
“I’ll go,” Abby said.
He rolled his eyes. Having an eighty year old for protection wasn’t ideal, but it was better than nothing. He could offer to go, but he needed space, and he had his own work to catch up on. “What’s wrong with Gideon?”
“Abby shot him last night,” Sadie said.
“I should find that more surprising than I do,” Luke said.
“Got him right in the posterior,” Abby said, pride exuding from her tone. “Serves him right, cranky old codger.”
“I think Mary’s in love with him,” Sadie mused.
“Some women just aren’t sensible,” Abby said.
“Some men, either,” Luke said.
“Now, Luke, you’re plenty sensible. Except for those t-shirts you wear. And that haircut. You should do something about that. Also your girlfriend doesn’t speak a whit of English.”
“I wasn’t referring to myself, Abby, but thanks for your input,” Luke said.
Sadie giggled. Luke squeezed her hand. “Quiet, you,” he said.
“Your girlfriend really doesn’t speak English,” she said. “’Her de he de goody, bork, bork, bork.’”
“She does not sound like that,” Luke said.
“Abby?” Sadie said.
“She sounds like that, only the accent is more terrifying, more like she’s screaming ‘run for your life!’ all the time in Russian,” Abby said.
“You guys are being mean. Vaslilssa only has nice things to say about you,” he said.
“How can you tell?” Abby asked, and Sadie laughed again.
“So mean,” Luke said.
“Now, Luke, don’t be sensitive,” Abby admonished. “And don’t tell the Mata Hari on us.”
Sadie went into gales of laughter. She laughed harder when Luke let go her hand and poked her ribs. “So what if Vaslilssa doesn’t speak much English? We communicate just fine in the lab.” She was a couple of years ahead of him in her doctoral program. Watching her in the lab was what had first attracted him to her; that and her astounding Amazonian good looks.
“I know she makes your beaker boil, but I’m not sure that’s enough for a substantive relationship,” Abby said. “However, you’re young, and young men need to get these things out of their systems.”
“You know you’re saying all this out loud and I’m right here, don’t you, Abby?” Luke said.
“When you’ve put in eight decades on this earth, you earn the right to say whatever you feel whenever you want, Luke,” Abby said.
“Yes, but why do I have the feeling you were like this when you were our age?” Luke said.
“Because you’re a smart, smart boy,” Abby said. “Now, why don’t you put that brain toward working on how to get me off this floor? I think my bones are starting to meld to the wood.”
Sadie and Luke stood to help Abby off the floor. It took a lot of pushing and pulling to get her up. “I’m going to go check on Dad,” Sadie announced.
“Do you want me to come?” Abby asked.
“I think you should probably stay here and give him a while to simmer down,” Sadie said.
“What’s the cooling off period for shooting someone?” Abby asked.
“Definitely more than a few hours,” Luke said. They began to debate how long Abby would need to avoid Gideon as Sadie set off to see her father. She knocked and used her key to open the door when there was no answer. Gideon always locked the door, no matter what. Sadie always felt a little uncertain of her welcome, so she always included the knock.
She found him lying face down on the couch, looking grumpy. “How are you feeling, Dad?” Before he could blast her, she held up her hand to cut him off. “Let me guess: like someone who has been shot in the butt.”
“That woman should be in a home,” Gideon said.
“She is, she’s in our home, right next door,” Sadie said. She let it go and gave her father a pass since he was probably in a fair amount of pain. “Did you eat this morning? Did you take your pills?”
“I’m not a baby or an invalid, Sadie.”
“Did you eat? Did you take your pills?” Sadie pressed.
“No,” Gideon said. “Not hungry, and it doesn’t hurt that bad.”
Sadie ignored him, went to the kitchen, and prepared scrambled eggs, toast, juice, and coffee so black it could stand on its own—just the way he liked it. Before carrying it to him in the kitchen, she crushed some pain reliever and sprinkled it in the orange juice, stirring to make it dissolve. She set the tray in front of him and watched as he devoured it.
“Drink your juice,” she urged.
He downed it and then pulled it away for a better look. “Hey, there’s stuff in there. Did you drug me?”
“Just some pain reliever, Dad. Do you want me to make you a packed lunch before I go? You could keep it here until you’re ready to eat it.”