Finding Isadora (12 page)

Again I felt the rapport between them. Suddenly suspicious, I narrowed my eyes and studied Grace
’s now-flushed face. My mother and Jimmy Lee, hippies from the sixties, didn’t believe in fidelity any more than they believed in marriage. Grace thought Gabriel was a hottie, and, despite their age difference, my mom was no slouch in the looks department herself. If Jimmy Lee wasn’t in jail, if I wasn’t here to play chaperone, would Grace and Gabriel be getting it on?

It always drove me crazy when one of my parents got involved with someone else. I couldn
’t accept their opinion that fidelity was abnormal and unhealthy, and I always worried they’d break up and my family would fall apart.

Now I squinted at Gabriel. He was probably into that free love stuff, too. He
’d never married Richard’s mother, and no doubt he’d had scores of lovers since then. He probably had scores of lovers right now. Not that his lovers were any of my business. I only hoped they wouldn’t include my mother.

With a start, I tuned back in to what Gabriel was saying.
“I’ll try to get him released on an undertaking to appear.” He glanced between my mom and me. “The court may ask for a recognizance. That’s a specified sum of money Jimmy Lee would forfeit if he didn’t show up in court.”

“
We don’t have much in the bank,” Grace said.

“
So Jimmy Lee said.”

“
I have two thousand,” I said, knowing it wasn’t much.

“
With any luck,” Gabriel said, “it won’t come to that. But the judge will require him to hand over his passport, so bring that along tomorrow, Grace, okay?”

She nodded.
“Is there anything more we should know?”

“
That’s it for now,” he said. He drained the last swallow of wine, eased Woodstock off his lap, and rose. As he walked past me, the fly of his jeans was at eye level. Faded denim, dusted with smoke-colored cat hair.

Well-worn denim hinting suggestively at what lay beneath. My fingers itched to pull those cat hairs off one by one. My theory about familiarity breeding sexual indifference was definitely not proving true. I leaped to my feet and took a couple of steps away.
“Grace, do you want me to stay with you tonight?”

She hugged me.
“No, hon, I’m okay. I’m putting my trust in Gabriel.”

“
Then I’d better be on my way. I’ll try to swap shifts with one of the other vets so I can go to Jimmy Lee’s hearing.”

“
Family support is good,” Gabriel said. “Shows he has a serious connection to this community.” His gaze drifted down to my shoulder. “How you getting home?”

I yanked my drooping sweater into place.
“By bus. I don’t own a car.”

“
I’ll drop you.”

“
You don’t have to.”

“
I’ll drop you.” For the first time, he sounded tired.

I realized it was almost midnight and he
’d been working all day. “Thanks,” I murmured.

At the door, my mother reached out and gripped Gabriel by both shoulders.
“Thank you.”

He nodded.
“Try not to worry. It’s early days yet. See you in the morning, Grace.”

He and I rode down in the elevator in silence. When we walked through the bland lobby and out into the cool evening, I said,
“I’ll handle your fees. Grace and Jimmy Lee don’t have any money. If you need a retainer now, I can write you a check.” I bit my lip. “Though maybe I’ll need my two thousand for that recognizance you mentioned, in which case…”

He stared at me in the pallid artificial light above the apartment entrance and I stopped babbling.

“My car’s over there,” he said, and started to walk down the street.

I followed, keeping a clear foot away from him on the sidewalk.

He unlocked the passenger door of a beat-up old black Volvo, pulled it open, then started around to the driver’s side. Richard would have waited for me to get in, then closed the door behind me. When he’d first done it I’d been startled because it was one of those old-fashioned gestures my parents and their friends branded as chauvinistic. I’d quickly learned that Richard didn’t have a chauvinistic bone in his body, and I appreciated his gestures as courtesies. Ones he’d obviously learned from his mother and stepfather, not his dad.

Chuckling to myself, I hopped in. The roof light, which hadn
’t come on when the door opened, flickered to life.

Gabriel opened the driver
’s door and began to get in, then froze. I followed the direction of his gaze and hurriedly hauled up my sweater again. Then his gaze dropped and again I followed it, to see my nipples were beaded, poking at the loosely knit cotton.

I crossed my arms across my chest and he unfroze, with a muttered,
“Fuck.” He swung into the car and slammed the door so hard it made me—and the car—jump. The roof light flickered again and went out, and I was grateful for the relative darkness.

Did Gabriel think I was coming on to him?
“When I put on this sweater, I thought I’d be alone with Grace.” The words blurted out clumsily.

He gripped the steering wheel with both hands and lowered his head to rest on them. In a measured, gravelly tone, he said,
“I know. Sorry, I shouldn’t have looked.”

“
It’s, uh, okay.” Any man would look at a woman’s nipples. He was a man; I was a woman. For one treacherous moment, I wished it
were
that uncomplicated.

Gabriel sighed, straightened, and turned on the ignition.

“So, uh, about your fees?” I said.

He pulled away from the curb.
“That’s between me and Jimmy Lee. He’s my client.”

“
But I’ll foot the bill. Like I said, he doesn’t have any money.”

“
We’ll deal with it later.”

“
We’ll find a way of paying. You can’t do this
pro bono
.” I knew that lawyers sometimes worked free for clients who couldn’t afford the fee, and I didn’t want my father to be a charity case.

Gabriel glanced toward me, cocking an eyebrow.
“I can do what I want.” His lips twitched in a wry grin. “Usually.” The grin widened and he shook his head at some private joke. “Where are we going? Do you live with Richard?”

“
No.” The word burst out, making me feel foolish. After all, soon my fiancé and I
would
be living together. “I’m in the West End. If you go over the Burrard Bridge and turn left on Davie, I’ll tell you where to go from there.”

We drove in silence and my thoughts turned away from my disconcerting reaction to Gabriel to more serious matters.
“I can’t believe Jimmy Lee could face a murder charge.”

“
If the woman survives, he won’t.”

I shivered.
“It’s so awful, what happened to her. And here we are, hoping she survives so the Crown won’t charge Jimmy Lee with a more serious offence.”

He shook his head.
“None of us is that selfish. We all want her to survive for her own sake as well as your father’s.”

It was true. I knew it as well as he did, and the thought was reassuring.

“You going to be okay tonight?” he asked.

I nodded.
“Like you told Grace, there’s no point worrying yet.” I thought again of the way he and my mother had connected. “You two got along well.”

“
She’s a fine woman.”

“
Yes, she is. And she and Jimmy Lee are a wonderful couple. They’ve been together for more than thirty-five years, and they’re as much in love as ever.” Grace would be mad if she knew I was warning Gabriel away from her, but I couldn’t help myself.

“
On the subject of couples,” he said, “I’m surprised about you and Richard.”

Immediately defensive, I said,
“Why?”

“
You’re not his usual type of woman.”

“
Oh? And what’s his usual type? Bright young lawyers with classy clothes?”

He chuckled.
“Well, yeah, maybe. But what I was really thinking was, someone whose parents are pretty much the opposite of Grace and Jimmy Lee.”

The comment defused my annoyance.
“I’m sure that’s true.”

“
With me as a father, he got enough of that anti-establishment stuff to last him a lifetime.” We had stopped at a red light and he turned to me. “So, I’m curious. He’s met your parents, right? How do they get along?”

I bit my lip, then chewed on it.
“You know what it’s like at a zoo? The people stare in at the animals, and the animals stare out at the humans?”

“
Two different species with mutual curiosity?” The light turned green and he pulled away.

“
Uh-huh. I’m sure my parents will come to see what a great guy Richard is, but he’s not the type of person they’re used to. You’re the kind of man they hang with. As for him, he thinks they’re eccentric. Holdovers from a different age.”

“
Dinosaurs. Your parents and me.”

I glanced quickly at him. The panther thought he was a dinosaur?
“Hardly that.”

“
From a different age, you said. Eccentric, curiosities, no longer relevant.” There was an edge to his voice.

“
You’re not. I mean, look at you. You do valuable work representing low income people and working for the Multicultural Center. As for Jimmy Lee and Grace, okay, some of their strategies are straight out of the sixties, but the causes they’re fighting are topical and important. I mean, the animal testing thing in cosmetics is reprehensible and—”

He held up a hand.
“Hey, you can stop with the argument. I’m on your side. I’m only glad you can see the relevance of what your parents and I are doing. I wish Richard did.”

“
He does,” I protested. “It’s just that—” Oops. Would I ever learn to shut my mouth around him?

“
What?”

“
Nothing. That’s between the two of you.”

“
Tell me.”

I shrugged.
“It’s no big news, I’m sure. Richard’s problem isn’t with the work you do, it’s with the fact that you… I mean, that he felt as if you put your causes ahead of him.”

He didn
’t turn to look at me but, in the light from a streetlight, I saw his jaw tighten. “Diane was always there to look after him.”

“
He wanted you, too,” I defended my fiancé. “You didn’t even show up when he graduated from law school.”

Now he did turn toward me, his expression flat.
“Of course he’d have told you that.”

“
Why didn’t you attend? What was more important?”

A light flared in his eyes.
“You really want to know?”

“
Yes.”

“
A welfare mother was arrested for murdering her abusive boyfriend. It was an emergency.”

“
Did you tell Richard that? Did you apologize?”

He shook his head impatiently.
“Apologies and explanations don’t do any good.”

I gaped at him.
“That’s not true. They help a person understand, and feel less hurt. Like right now, when you explained it to me, that changed my perspective.”

“
I explained it to
you
,” he echoed, under his breath. And then, even more softly, so softly I wasn’t sure I heard correctly, “Why did I do that?”

Why did he? As I stared out the window, wondering, I realized we were nearing my apartment.
“Turn left here.”

“
I’m no good at apologies or explanations,” he said.

“
You could learn.”

“
Old dog.”

“
Don’t try that one on a vet. Dogs, like people, are never too old to learn.”

Too late, I realized I
’d probably lost any hope of making my future father-in-law like me. But to my astonishment he gave a low chuckle. “Score one for the vet. The lawyer must be tired tonight.”

I opened my mouth then closed it again, and we rode in silence until I said,
“It’s just up here. The lighted entrance on your right.”

The street was lined with cars
, so he double parked. “Nicer than your parents’.”

Was he accusing me of being too materialistic?
“It’s only a studio flat. It allows animals. And I can walk to work.”

“
It wasn’t a criticism.”

“
Oh. No, of course not. Sorry. And thanks for the ride. And for helping Jimmy Lee.” I reached for the door handle. “And I’m sorry for acting so … weird. I’m normally pretty, uh, normal.” Could I sound any more idiotic? “I guess I’m just worried about Jimmy Lee.”