Dangerous Curves Ahead (Watchers Crew) (16 page)

“How is that any different than a traditional marriage?”

“There’s an exit clause called divorce,” Holly chuckled. “Irreconcilable differences, infidelity, incompatibility, these are all a natural part of human existence, as well. They’re likely to happen over the course of a relationship. People use those excuses to walk away. Don’t do that. Walking away is so damned easy. Staying and working things out, that’s harder.”

Holly pulled me into her arms and I came.

 She rubbed my back just like my grandmother used to do.

“Talk to Christopher.,” she said as she let me go. “Tell him how you feel. Otherwise, you’ll fall into the trap of hoping he figures it out and solves it for you, and that won’t happen. Two heads are better than one. Three and four are even better. And if you don’t know how to talk to him, you can talk to your girlfriends. Ellie and Shakira are lovely girls with good heads on their shoulders. And you can always come and talk to me. No topics are off bounds. You’re apart of the family now. When I collect people I don’t let them go.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

On the drive back to my place, my belly was full and my heart was light. But the gears in my head were turning. I was going to talk with Christopher about my jealousy issues. Though they seemed insignificant now when he twined his fingers with mine and pressed his lips to my knuckles.
I knew he didn’t have feelings for Mrs. Robinson, or the bopsy twins, or any of the other girls he had sex with. They weren’t the woman he loved. I was.

What was there to be jealous of? He always made time for me. As soon as I thought to miss him, he’d call or text or come over. When I was with him, I had his full attention. Even if he had another woman’s breast in his hand, he still looked out for me.

Should I even bother him with any of this? Was it a big deal?

It was my issue. Not his.

We pulled up to my place. Christopher cut the engine. He leaned over and kissed me. “Let me walk you inside.”

“You’re not coming in?”

He shook his head. “I’ve gotta handle something with the guys.” He unbuckled his seat belt. He looked up and smiled at the disappointment on my face. “It shouldn’t take too long. I’ll be back tonight.”

He got out and opened the door for me, taking my hand. It was that time of the day that was after noon but before evening. The sun was still visible on the horizon, but the bright orb was sinking fast. Storm clouds moved in and muted its rays.

“Are you guys playing with other women?” I asked.

Christopher wrapped his arm around my shoulder and tucked me into his side, right in the spot where I fit him so perfectly. “I don’t know? Maybe?”

Now is the perfect time to say something, Mary Katherine. Don’t expect him to read your
-

“Do you have a problem with me playing with random women?”

His mother, Ellie, Kira, they were all wrong. Christopher always knew exactly what I was thinking, exactly what I needed.

“Kira doesn’t like it when she doesn’t know the girls Owl plays with,” he said. “They agreed he’d only play with girls she knew or girls that came to the parties at the house. Is that something you want?”

I remembered Kira crouching on the ground outside the garage when Mrs. Robinson came over to play. She’d said she didn’t like watching Owl play with others. But then she’d stood next to me and watched the boys bring Mrs. Robinson to a shattering climax. We’d both sighed as we’d felt the aftershock of that climax.

Thinking back on it now, it didn’t really bother me that Christopher had played around with Mrs. Robinson. He clearly didn’t have feelings for her, and neither did she for him. It had been fun for them both. And if I was honest, I kind of enjoyed watching it. Way more than when I’d tried to watch the online and DVD porn. What happened with Mrs. Robinson had been real, not fake. Like with Ellie and Hawk.

“We can talk about it when I get back. I won’t be long, I promise.” Christopher let me into my place using my key. He paused in the doorframe and smiled at me. “You know, I really thought my family would freak you out, and you’d turn and run. I was nervous about that.”

I stood rooted to the spot in my foyer. He reached out and ran his hand over my rosary. His fingers counted the beads that rested over my heart. It had a calming effect on us both.

“I don’t want you to run away from me,” he said. “I want you to stay.”

I reached my hand out to the small table where I kept my mail. “You should take this.”

“Is this your spare key?”

I shook my head. “It’s your key, for whenever you want to come over and stay.”

He captured the keys in his hand and my mouth with his lips. He pocketed the key, stepped out, and shut the door behind him.

For the next half hour I tried to focus on my work, but I couldn’t. My heart was light, cushioned in a cocoon that knew it was love. But my mind wouldn’t rest. It wanted to focus on any and everything except my manuscript, which was a problem because my deadline was looming large. I needed a distraction to wrangle my muse.

I looked at the clock to see it was only 4:30pm. Next to the clock was a postcard from a local art museum that featured the contemporary religious works that Principal Stafford and I had talked about. It was just the distraction I needed.

There was only an hour left until the doors to the exhibit closed when I got there. I walked the halls looking for meaning in the water-colored angels, collages of scriptures, and expressionistic renderings of prophets. I wondered what Christopher would think about the Fall of Man installation that used a recycled tire as the skin for the serpent. I’d like to believe he would’ve humored me and come along, but I doubted he’d actually enjoy himself here.

“Mary Katherine?”

I turned and saw John Stafford standing next to an expressionistic painting portraying the Temptation of Eve.

“It looks like great minds think alike,” he said as he walked up. “Do you mind if I join you?”

I was about to say no, but then I thought of Holly and her boyfriend who she traveled with because her life partner liked to stay home. I thought of Hawk who liked rough sex from time to time, but always treated Ellie with love and care. I liked art and literature and foreign movies. I suspected that my boyfriend wouldn’t care for any of those, just like I didn’t care for racecars, video games, or Adult Swim.

I remembered how much I liked my conversation with John. He was fun, in an academic and brainy kind of way. There wouldn’t be any harm in hanging out with him at this exhibit. I wasn’t about to give him my spare key. Nor did I think of him as a potential lover. I didn’t want another lover. I wasn’t built that way. But I wouldn’t mind a new friend.

 John was truly engrossed with the exhibit. We walked the halls together, stopping and discussing each painting in turn. John was just as insightful and engaging to talk with as he’d been at dinner. He interpreted one painting of Jesus on the cross with an army of birds flying out of his back as the death of the
Old Testament
and the birth of
The Book of Revelations
. I thought it was about forgiveness. In a portrait of Jesus in a boxing ring with gloves, which I interpreted as turning the other cheek, John found metaphors in the bloodstained wrappings on the prophet’s hands and the name written across his boxing shorts that read “savior.” With each painting and sculpture he encouraged me to think deeper. It was exactly the distraction I needed. My mind shoved aside the writer’s block and creative thoughts sprang forth.

We stood staring at an abstract painting of the Mother Mary for long moments without speaking. I turned to him with a thought to see that he wasn’t staring at the painting. He was staring at me.

I knew that look. It was full of interest and desire. When his eyes caught mine, they asked if I felt the same? Disappointment settled all around the creative wellspring in my head. It looked like this friendship would be over before it had ever truly began.

Before I could set John straight, I heard someone calling my name. I looked down the hall to see Ellie. Her eyes flickered to John, whose eyes were still glued to me. I stepped away from him and toward Ellie.

“Hey Ellie,” I said embracing her and then bringing her between John and me. “This is my friend, Ellie. Ellie this is John Stafford. He’s… a friend.”

“It’s nice to meet any friend of Mary Katherine’s.” Ellie shook John’s hand.

There was an awkward silence as we stood next to a sculpture of Mary Magdalene.

“Will you excuse me for a moment, ladies?” John said. “I’ll be back in a second, Mary Katherine.” He rested his hand on my lower back before taking off in the direction of the men’s room.

I looked at Ellie. “I didn’t know you liked religious artwork. I would’ve invited you. John and I are just friends. Well, not exactly friends.” The words all tumbled out of my mouth in a jumble.

“You don’t have to explain all of your relationships to me, MK," she said. “All that matters is that Crow is cool with it.”

I stood stiff as a board, as though a cross was on my back. Why did I feel guilty? I hadn’t done anything wrong.

“But it’s fine if he doesn’t know,” said Ellie. “That is, if you guys have decided on a more anarchical relationship?”

I didn’t know what that meant? “I’m not in any relationship with John. We’d talked about coming here when we had dinner with my parents.”

Ellie arched an eyebrow at the last statement. But then she reached out and gave me a squeeze. “Mary Katherine, you don’t have to explain any of this to me. I’m not going to judge. But if you need to talk about anything, you can call me. Okay?”

“I think I do need to talk about… a lot of things.”

“Okay.” She gave my hand another squeeze. “Why don’t you come over for dinner tomorrow? I’m baking pie.”

“I’d like that.”

John came back at that moment and Ellie took her leave. I was no longer excited to see the rest of the exhibit and tried to beg off. He insisted on walking me to my car.

“I had a good time,” he said as we reached the parking lot.

“I did to.” And I had until he took an interest in me instead of the art. Much like he was doing now. “Listen, I-”

John’s lips crashed into mine. It surprised me, which was why I didn’t push away immediately. Before I could tell him to stop, he pulled away with a grin.

“That was probably a little forward of me,” he said.

“It was. It was very forward.”

“No, I understand. That was too soon. I can take a step back. We can go slower. But Mary Katherine, I think there is something between us.”

“No,” I said. “There isn’t. I don’t have the same type of feelings for you. I thought we could be friends, but I was wrong. If you feel something, and I don’t, we can’t be friends. I’m going to go.”

I got in my car before he could protest.

Chapter Twenty-Three

“I’m all for women’s liberation,” Christopher said around his fork. “But I’d keep you locked in a kitchen with the way you bake, El.”

Ellie giggled and served him another helping of her pie. I was too busy unbuttoning the top of my jeans to feel an ounce of jealousy. He was right. Ellie was a master with an oven. She said it all came down to science. A recipe, she insisted, was a procedure. And she was good at following procedures.

Around the table, everyone shared stories of their day. Hawk and Eagle groaned about a particularly tricky car repair. I chatted with Ellie and Owl about a book we had all read. Kira and Christopher chatted about a television show they were both watching.

And then the conversations changed. Hawk and Kira argued over a super hero comic book. Owl and Christopher discussed mufflers. Ellie got up and went into the kitchen.

Eagle turned to me. “So, Mary Katherine?”

I waited, but he didn’t complete the sentence. Tonight showed me that everyone accepted me into this circle. Except Eagle.

“Yes, Eagle?” I cocked my head and studied him as he studied me. “What’s your real name, by the way?”

“Privileged information. So, you write chick lit?”

“I write romance novels that explore female empowerment and the ideals of love in today’s society.”

Eagle’s eyes sparkled, like I’d thrown down a gauntlet. “I like assertive females. A woman who knows her own mind, who knows what she wants, and goes after it, is damn sexy.”

“Then we should get along.”

Eagle grinned, holding my gaze, but he didn’t respond. I wasn’t sure if I’d passed his test or not? I decided I wasn’t going to win this staring contest. I got up and went into the kitchen to help Ellie.

“You having a good time?” she asked.

“Yeah,” I said. “Everyone’s so great. You guys are like a family.”

“We are a family. The bonds I made with these people are stronger than those with my blood family could ever be.”

“Ellie, I wanted to talk to you about what you saw the other day. That guy… It was…”

“You don’t have to explain.”

“But I don’t want you to think poorly of me.”
 

“I don’t.” Ellie reached out for my hand. “You’re trying to figure all of this out, I can see that. I was just as confused when I started seeing Hawk. In fact, I already had a boyfriend.”

“John was never my boyfriend. It wasn’t even a date. We bumped into each other and he got the wrong idea. I love Christopher. I only want to be with Christopher.”

“Then that’s what you should do.” Ellie said it like it was that simple.

She placed a try of drinks in my hand. We brought the drinks back to the table. Everyone had finished their slice of pie. One piece was left. The boys tapped out. Ellie and Kira looked at me. I wasn’t interested. I’d need to spend the next month working these carbs off. I put my napkin on the table in surrender.

Ellie and Kira faced off.

“We could split it,” Ellie offered.

Kira scoffed. “It’s barely enough for one of us.”

“I have an idea,” said Eagle. “Let’s have a little contest. Winner gets the treat.”

“What kind of contest?” Kira raised an eyebrow. But it was clear to see that she was on board with whatever Eagle was about to suggest.

Eagle got up and disappeared into the living room. When he came back he held two pink, metallic eggs in his hands. Both orbs were attached to wires and rectangular joysticks.