Tab Bennett and the Inbetween (25 page)

“Does anyone want more wine?” Nina asked, breaking the spell of Allison’s lullaby voice.

“Oh God, I do.” I help up my glass, wishing I had a straw I could drop directly in the bottle.

“Do you know when is Matthew coming home?” Nina asked as she poured me another glass.

“I’m not sure. Not for a while though.” I looked over my shoulder, hoping he wouldn’t suddenly come downstairs and make a liar out of me.

There’s a lot of lying involved in maintaining a secret identity. Superman made it look so easy; with only a pair of black plastic glasses and a reputation for bad timing, he managed to fool newshound Lois Lane for years. But it was hard for me. I found myself on the verge of revealing something all the time. “They didn’t really give me a return date.”

“They picked a strange time to take a road trip,” Nina said. “What with you in the throes of a nervous breakdown.”

Trudy was about to scold her when the door to the dining room opened and Alex stepped in.

“I thought I heard voices,” he said, smiling at each of us. He was dressed in a pair of dark blue jeans and purposefully rumpled white shirt with the sleeves rolled up halfway. He looked good, sexy in a sort of effortless way. “Tab, why didn’t you tell me you had guests? I’d have come down sooner,” he said, giving me a quick look that promised trouble when we were alone again.

“I didn’t know you were back,” I replied honestly.

“Well, I am.” He looked at me, waiting for something, while I tried to guess the outcome of the Council meeting by the way he was acting. He cleared his throat.

“I don’t believe we’ve met,” he said when I failed to supply the necessary introductions. “I’m Alexander Hilldale.”

“This is Nina and Trudy; we grew up together.” He shook hands with each of them and then turned the full force of his smile on poor, unsuspecting Allison. “This is Allison. She started at the bank a few weeks ago.”

“It’s my pleasure,” Alex said, shaking her hand.

Flabbergasted is not a word I use regularly, but it really is the best way to describe Allison’s reaction to him. She said something that sounded like “Platthhhh” before she retreated to the furthest corner of the room. While he chatted with Trudy and Nina, Allison stood by the windows, practically hidden behind the drapes, just staring at him. She hardly blinked the whole time. She couldn’t seem to pull her wary eyes away. And Alex knew she was looking at him. I caught him glancing over at her a time or two when he thought no one would notice.

“I’ve intruded long enough,” he announced when Trudy finished showing him every picture of her kids she had on her cell phone. “I’ll go back upstairs and leave you ladies to your get together.”

“You can stay,” Trudy said.

“Have a glass of wine with us,” Nina offered as she leaned forward over the table, giving him a little peek at the deep V of her soft pink sweater.

“Or some pizza,” Trudy tried again. She was married with two children but she’d obviously forgotten all about them for the moment.

“That’s very nice of you but I should go.” He looked at Allison who stood tucked into the curtains like a shy three-year-old, confusion plain as day on his face. “I’ll wait up for you, love.” He looked at me and then at Allison and then back at me, his eyebrows raised. “Good night ladies.”

The door swung closed and after a moment of silence Nina said, “Robbin who?”

We all laughed.

“It’s not fair,” Trudy lamented, looking at herself in the mirror over the sideboard. “The only sleepover company I ever get at my house is my mother-in-law.” She sighed. “And you get that. He’s so…”

Trudy said charming. Nina said hot.

“You’re both right but trust me, the charm wears off when you live with him.”

“But he stays hot, right?” Nina asked seriously, eliciting a round of giggles.

Allison came back to her seat at the table. Her cheeks were still pink, flushed. She tucked her long hair behind her ear as she sat down. “He is very handsome, isn’t he?”

“Do you have a boyfriend, Allison?” Trudy asked. “Tab’s got a couple of single cousins she could set you up with. They’re almost as good looking as Alexander.”

“Except Matt is taken,” Nina reminded us.

I nodded without enthusiasm, ignoring the twist in my stomach at the thought of Allison dating Francis or George.

“I don’t date very much,” she said.

Sensing that she’d been loosened up by the wine, Nina and Trudy pumped Allison for information. Once they got her going, she told story after story about her life on the road with her parents who traveled as part of their work. Some of her stories were really funny. For a while I forgot she was planning to kill me and laughed along with the others. The flush of color stayed in her cheeks and it softened her.

“So how did you meet Rivers?” Trudy asked.

She looked at me before answering, almost as if she was asking my permission. I shrugged my shoulders, not sure what else to do. If she suddenly wanted to talk, I wouldn’t stop her.

“I was living in Ohio at the time, working on my own. Rivers came into the diner where I waited tables. She ordered a cup of coffee but I could tell she was hungry by the way she watched the plates so I bought her a grilled cheese. We started talking and she broke down and started crying. She told me she had left home without much money or a plan. She wanted to get as far away as she could, so she bought the bus ticket that brought her to Ottoville but she didn’t have anywhere to go after that. I asked her if she wanted to stay with me until she got on her feet. We lived together for about six months before we both left Ottoville, but not together. We stayed in touch though. She sent me postcards from all over the country and I’d stop in Ottoville to collect them from the diner when I passed that way. It was a good way to keep track of her. When she was ready to come home she got in touch with me and asked me to bring her here. So I did.”

Allison reached for her worn out backpack. She fished around inside and pulled out a bundle of post cards, tied together with a teal satin ribbon. “I brought these for you, Tabitha. I thought you might like to see them and I don’t think Rivers would mind. Not anymore.”

She held them out, waiting for me to take them but I couldn’t make myself reach out. I wanted them, wanted them very badly, but my hand wouldn’t move. Maybe it was because I had to take them from Allison, I don’t know. The bundle of cards looked like trouble to me. She set them on the table.

“Thank you. That means a lot to me.”

“I knew it would,” she said. “That’s why I brought them.”

Although I could tell that Nina and Trudy were both curious about the postcards sitting in front of us and what they might reveal about the time when Rivers ran away, I didn’t untie the bundle and share them. I wanted to be alone when I read them. I wasn’t expecting to find any big secrets; I mean who writes their secrets on a postcard? But I didn’t know if seeing her big, looping handwriting again or reading ‘wish you were here’ directed at someone other than me would make me cry.

“We should go,” Trudy said after a few minutes of half-hearted office gossip. “It’s late and Tab needs some rest. Come on ladies.” She gathered up the dishes and glasses. “Allison, could you grab that box?”

Nina and I waited in the hall while Trudy and Allison went into the kitchen to tidy up.

“So that was weird, huh?”

Nina slipped her arms into her cream wool coat and tied a pink scarf around her neck. “Which part? Allison’s moon monologue or all the ‘my parents were traveling hobos’ stuff? ”

“She’s right in the kitchen,” I said, laughing as quietly as I could.

As if on cue, Allison came out. “Thank you for having me over, Tabitha. It was very nice of you to include me. I’m sorry if I talked too much. Sometimes I get carried away. I’m afraid I don’t have a lot of experience with girl’s nights.”

“Don’t be silly,” Nina said. “You didn’t talk too much.”

She winked at me while Allison shrugged into her shapeless gray coat.

“I’m glad you came. And thanks again for the postcards. I’ll get them back to you as soon as I can.”

“You should keep them. I know Rivers would rather have been writing to you anyway. She loved you, you know; you were a sister and a best friend combined. She used to say that all the time.”

I blinked away the tears that welled up in my eyes.

“Trudy!” Nina sang out. “Come on Allison, it’s time to go.”

*********

Just after dark the next day George Appeared out on the back lawn. We’d just had supper and Alex was washing the dishes. I was sitting behind him on the counter holding the dishtowel and trying to give the impression that I was about to get to work on my half of the job, drying, when what I was really doing was a combination of day dreaming and checking out his butt. I intended to let the dishes drip dry.

One minute the yard was empty and the next there was an intense ball of light hovering above the ground. I hopped down from the counter and went to the window. The ball of light grew larger and larger until suddenly it was George.

“I can’t wait until my Elf powers kick in.” I mumbled under my breath as I watched George walk slowly across the yard. He was moving at a snail’s pace, favoring his right leg. At first I thought he was carrying something but as he got closer I could see that his arm was in a sling.

Alex walked up behind me and pulled the dishtowel from my hands; he snapped the towel at my butt.

“Look at George,” I said, ignoring the light sting. “Why is he limping?”

Alex looked out at George, his eyebrows raised in surprise. “Don’t unlock it until you’re sure it’s him.”

“Who else would it be?”

“Just wait until he’s on the porch.”

Up close, my usually handsome cousin looked even worse. The right side of his face was bruised, the eye swollen shut. His lip had been split too; a little blood was spattered across the front of his shirt.

“What happened to you?” I said, opening the door to let him in.

“Nothing.” He went to the fridge, took out the milk, and drank it right from the carton.

“You look horrible.”

He couldn’t manage his usual rakish grin, but he tried. “You should see the other guy.”

Obviously George had no intention of giving me a straight answer. I couldn’t figure out why he was being so evasive. I thought we’d gotten pretty close over the last few months. I expected him to tell me what had happened.

Alex folded the dishtowel and hung it up over the sink to dry.

“Did They do this to you?” I asked.

George took another long sip of milk. He shook his head, saying, “No, it wasn’t They. Would you tell her it’s nothing? I mean, I got into a fight, obviously, yes. But it’s not serious. I’ll be better by morning.”

Alex seemed satisfied with this answer. He nodded once and turned to me. “George says not to worry.”

I rolled my eyes at him then turned my attention back to my bruised and battered cousin. “But you don’t fight.”

“Not for fun, not at the slightest little perceived insult I don’t. But when the situation calls for it, I assure you Princess, I fight.” He sounded huffy. Afterwards I realized I insulted him without meaning to, wounded his sensitive male pride or whatever. I wanted to take it back as soon as I said it.

I looked at Alex for help but he didn’t bail me out; he nodded in agreement.

“That’s what I meant. Not that you can’t fight but that you don’t.”

He gave me a curt nod, making it clear that it would take more than a little backpedaling to get into his good graces again.

“Francis asked me to tell you that the scout returned safely but without much to report. They are not obviously preparing to attack. Her report has created stronger resistance among the Generals who were reluctant to go to war in the first place. Francis and Bennett have called Estella in to the Center. They expect her in a day, two at the most.”

Alex nodded but I was confused. “Why? What will she do when she gets there?”