Thigh High (17 page)

“That must have been rough.” Did he equate Celia's easygoing sexuality with the women his father ran around with?

“For a long time I thought I'd be just like him, but eventually I realized what I want.”

Her heart stilled while she held her breath. “And what's that?”

“Mostly I want peace. The kind of peace in a family that comes from fidelity and trust. The dramas I grew up with are behind me and that's where they'll stay.” He spoke firmly and with conviction. He'd put a great deal of thought into his answer. He cleared his throat.

“Peace sounds like a good thing to want,” she said. Without prompting, she went on to explain her own dreams. “I want my education, a career, my own business someday. But I'd like a stable family life too. I want someone I can depend on.”

The fish shack cook slammed the wooden flaps down over his order window as he shut down for the night. The noise made Kat jump and the encroaching gulls take a few steps back.

Taye wiped at his mouth with a paper napkin and stood. He held out a hand for her.

“Greasy,” she said, wiping her mouth with a paper napkin. “But delicious.”

Taye looked about to speak when her cell phone rang. He frowned at the interruption. “It's late for a call. Could it be business?”

“Not at this time of night.” She dug the phone out of her purse and answered it. “Hello? Kat Hardee speaking.”

“Hi, Kat, could you come get me?” The feminine voice was shaky rather than slurred.

“Celia? Where are you?” There was no music in the background, just a lot of yelling and metallic clattering sounds. It wasn't the bar, but she couldn't place the noises.

“I'm in the hospital emergency department. I'm in no shape to drive and I don't have my purse so I can't call a cab.”

“What happened?” Then she realized she was wasting time with questions. “Never mind. I'll be right there.”

Taye watched, a concerned expression flitting over his features. He'd take her wherever she needed to go. She could count on him.

“You hang on,” she said into the phone. “We're not far away.” She flipped the phone closed and dumped her trash in the bin. “We've got to hurry,” she said, and broke into a run back down the pier.

Taye ran beside her. “What happened, did she say?”

“No. She needs me to pick her up from Emergency. She's got no money and she can't drive.” She looked at him. “If something awful's happened to her I'll never forgive myself.”

“She was drinking, that's why she can't drive. She can't be seriously hurt. We saw her two hours ago.”

But anything could happen in two hours, she thought. She felt a tug on her arm and he slowed them both to a walk. “If she'd been involved in anything serious there's no way a hospital would release her this quickly. So logic says whatever happened is minor.”

She calmed a little, but her heart still thudded. “You're right. I panicked. I always panic with hospitals.”

“You'll feel better when you see her for yourself.”

Grateful for his calm and reason, she steadied her nerves. “All she needs is a lift home,” she said as her pulse returned to a more normal pace. “That's all she asked for.”

In spite of what he'd said, all kinds of scenarios raced through Taye's head as he hurried to the hospital. Kat sat tense and silent beside him. Blessedly, she hadn't started pointing fingers at him. Yet.

He'd been the one to separate the women tonight. If she didn't blame him already, she would soon. “I'm sorry, Kat. You were right, we should have stayed at Harry's or got Celia out of there.”

“We shouldn't have left her alone. What if?” Her eyes, when they turned to his, were moist and tearful. “What if the wrong type of guy got hold of her?”

“She'd kick his ass. Besides Celia's too smart to be in the wrong place with the wrong guy.” He hoped, but one of the rowdies she'd been dancing and flirting with might have got the idea she was up for anything. Even rough sex. But what did he know? Celia might like all kinds of rough.

Still, two hours was too damn short a time to be heading home if anything serious had happened. But then, if it hadn't been serious she'd still be waiting for someone to attend to her.

“Any chance she's fine and she took someone else in for attention?”

“I don't think so. She doesn't have her purse with her,” Kat said, turning her face to the side passenger window. “She may have been mugged in the parking lot.”

“I doubt it. There were a lot of people coming and going, and the bartender said the regulars were a good bunch. There are lots of reasons she'd be at a hospital without her purse.”

Kat nodded and lapsed into silence again. A too-short silence. “I should have asked more questions, but the clattering and banging made it hard to hear. Celia's voice was low. She sounded tired. I didn't want to aggravate her.”

“There's the hospital, I'll let you out at the emergency entrance, then go park.”

“Thanks.” She jumped out as soon as he pulled to a stop.

By the time Taye parked and found the women, he'd calmed down again.

Celia sat in the waiting area with a square white dressing on her forehead near her scalp line. She was holding her head. Kat squatted on her haunches, hand on her friend's shoulder. A blood-spattered shoulder.

Taye jogged over. “What happened? How are you?” She looked like a truck had run over her face.

Kat looked up at him while Celia covered her head with her hands to hide the bandage along her hairline. In spite of looking like an accident victim, she was still vain enough to worry what he'd think. “She tripped getting into a car, split her scalp open on the door and got dropped off here. Her purse must still be where she dropped it.”

“Where's the guy she was with? Did he go back for her purse?”

“Married,” Celia said. She shook her head. “Ow! Remind me not to do that, will you?”

A married man. Figured. It wasn't enough that she was free and easy with her body, she had to mess with marriages too.

“Don't look at her that way, Taye; the guy wasn't looking to hook up, he was just seeing her home safely. She sent him away as soon as she could.” Kat's expression was defensive.

He backed down and schooled his features into bland disinterest. He'd had enough of people of both sexes who felt marriage was only a stepping stone to be trampled in their pursuit of selfish pleasure. “Can you stand and walk? Or should I get a wheelchair?” he asked Celia, his voice flat with impatient displeasure.

He was stuck with the situation for now.

“I can walk, it's just a few stitches.”

Kat clucked and supported Celia on one side as they shuffled out of the hospital.

On the way home, he swung into the parking lot at Harry's and dashed inside to check with the bartender.

“Anyone turn in Celia's purse? She lost it in the parking lot,” he said. Then he took a few more minutes to explain what happened.

The bartender shook his head. “Celia isn't too fussy about who she goes home with. She's a good sport, but not always aware of collateral damage.”

Exactly as Taye suspected. “You told me you had a good bunch of regulars here, that Celia would be fine.”

“She was fine when she walked out. It wasn't the first time she left with the guy. He's married, got a couple kids. That's a lot to lose for a woman like Celia. Can't say as I blame him for leaving her to her own devices.”

Taye nodded. “She wants her purse back, so call if anyone turns it in.”

“Sure thing.” The bartender went back to serving.

“Your purse wasn't turned in,” he said when he climbed back in behind the wheel. Both women were in the backseat to allow Celia to lean on Kat.

Kat spoke. “You'll stay with me tonight,” she offered with a glance at Taye in the rearview mirror.

He nodded and focused on getting everyone home. “She may need to be woken at regular intervals,” he said to Kat.

“No,” Celia interjected. “There's no concussion. I didn't black out, not for a moment. This is just a gash. If it weren't on my scalp it would hardly count.”

“Scalp wounds are ferocious bleeders,” he conceded. She must have looked god-awful when she walked into the hospital.

Kat fussed some more, but when Taye left her at her front door, she fumed at him. “You shouldn't think the worst of people, Taye.”

“Right.”

 

Next morning Celia, sporting two black eyes, slid into the kitchen chair across from Kat. “You look horrible,” she said after assessing the discoloration.

“Thanks, sugar. I wanted to faint when I looked in the mirror and saw my face. The doctor warned me I'd probably wake up like this, but still, it's a shock.”

“I was thinking maybe the guy you were with knows where your purse is.”

She shrugged. “It's possible that it fell into the car instead of outside when I planted my face.”

“Can you call him?”

“And say what to his wife? I was thinking of doing your husband last night, but I fell on the way into your car. Have you seen my purse?” Celia rolled her eyes. “That's almost as bad as asking if she found my panties.”

Kat tried not to sound like the prude Celia thought she was, but it was damned difficult. “You said he was giving you a lift home, that's all.” To hell with worrying how she sounded. “You wouldn't have actually…?”

“Wouldn't I? I haven't slept with a married man yet, at least not to my knowledge, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't. I was still pretty angry about Jason. So I'm not sure what would have happened.” She shifted in her seat, but her gaze was bold and unflinchingly honest.

“So you're not sure if being angry with Jason would drive you to sleep with a married man.” There were issues here that went beyond her experience. She reconsidered. “Were you angry with Jason or yourself?”

Celia rolled her eyes. “Here we go with the analysis.” She sipped her coffee, defiance in her gaze. “Look, I shouldn't have fallen for a guy with kids. He wants a different woman. His kids
need
a different woman.” Finally, a crack in the tough-girl front. Celia cared deeply for this Jason.

“Why do you feel like you're not the kind of woman he and his children need?” Insecurity could play out in a million ways. For Kat, it meant awkward shyness with Taye, a man she wanted more than anything. A man she was so desperate to have she even pretended to be someone she wasn't just to have him for a short time.

“I'm not nice in the way you are, Kat. I'm different. We're not destined for the same things.” Her hand trembled as she lifted her coffee mug. She set it back down.

“You think you're not good enough for Jason. Or good enough to mother his children.” That's why she'd reacted the way she had. Why she'd carried on so wildly in the bar. To prove she wasn't worthy.

“At least I know who I really am,” Celia said. “I'm not fooling anyone, or pretending to be something I'm not.”

The flare of accusation and anger in her friend's gaze made Kat back off. “What are you going to do when you see Jason at the shelter on Wednesday?”

“I don't know.”

“He'll see the bruises around your eyes and you'll still have stitches.”

“So? If he sees the truth, maybe he'll back off and understand I'm not the Goody Two-shoes he thinks I am.” She rested her head in her hands. “Remind me not to meet guys anywhere but in bars. The men elsewhere are dangerous.”

Kat chuckled. “Are you sure you don't want me to stay home with you today? I'd want company if I were you.” She had deliveries to make, but she'd left her friend alone last night and look what happened.

“That's another way we're different,” Celia said. “If you were in my situation, I wouldn't offer to help you. I'd be selfish with my Saturday.” Celia patted her hand. She grinned and shook her head without wincing, which was an improvement.

They were different, and the idea of trying to be more like Celia, more freewheeling with her heart and body, suddenly seemed stupid.

“As much as I appreciate your offer, I have a lot to do. You'd just get in the way with your fussing.” Celia finished her coffee. “I need the landlord to get me into my place and get a new lock. I also have to call in about my lost credit cards and identification. I'll spend all day either on the phone or waiting for someone.”

“Well”—Kat still hesitated—“if you're sure. I feel awful that I left you last night. I feel as if I've broken the code by putting a man before my girlfriend's safety.”

Celia frowned and gave her a derisive look. “Oh puhleeze, I'd have left you in a New York minute if Taye Connors had come into Harry's looking for
me
.”