New Adult Romance 2-fer (41 page)

“Because he’s jealous?” she asked.

Gabriel actually laughed, and Lucy stared at him in stunned silence.

“No, he wants nothing to do with the family business…”  Gabriel’s features softened as he seemed to fall into his own thoughts.  “He just misses…”  He looked to Lucy embarrassed.  “He misses how things were before I graduated college and…”

“Became a tight-assed corporate shark?” Lucy offered.

Gabriel grimaced.  “Yes, that’s it exactly.”

Lucy enjoyed getting a reaction out of Gabriel, even a snarky one.  She looked at the picture in her hands again, and felt sorry for Gabriel and his brother.  Especially his brother.

“He just misses having a playmate,” Gabriel said bitterly.

Lucy locked her gaze on Gabriel’s face, really looking at him.  “He misses his brother.”

They stood there for a moment in a strange, comfortable silence.

Gabriel shook his head and took the photo out of Lucy’s hands and replaced it back on the wall, centering it perfectly.  “When did you get all insightful?” he said when he turned back to Lucy and gave her a surprisingly wide smile.  But his eyes were still leery.

“Oh, I’ve got loads of exceptional qualities,” Lucy said, backing away from him and feigning interest in the huge bag of Chinese food Laurel had just brought in and placed on Gabriel’s desk.  She also had a shiny red metal step stool in her other hand.

“Will this do?” Laurel asked, holding it up for Lucy and Gabriel’s inspection.

Gabriel looked to Lucy and raised his eyebrows.

“Y-yes,” Lucy stammered.  “Thank you very much.”

Laurel left the red stool right beside the black leather couch.  It was by far the brightest thing in the room, and just looking at it filled Lucy with an odd sense of triumph.         

~*~

Lucy didn’t want to look like a tanning bed reject, and she didn’t want that over done Malibu Barbie bronze.  But she did want to get rid of the unhealthy pallor that working at McDonalds for the last six months had given her.  She hadn’t realized it, but going to school, and going to work, and not hanging out with any friends had really given her no time to actually spend in the sun.  And she loved having a nice tan.

Lying out in the sun made her feel like her life battery was recharging, like her body and soul were filled with sunlight and she was gleaming with its energy.  She’d missed it.  Screw it if it wasn’t good for her.  The very air she breathed probably wasn’t good for her.  Of course, looking about her at the bright, clear periwinkle sky of Four Corners California, she had to admit that there wasn’t really any poisonous smog rolling overhead.  It was really quite beautiful.  There was even a thicket of trees, the beginning of a forest, right at the edge of her backyard.  It was actually at the edge of every backyard on the block, but Lucy liked to think that it was more part of her backyard than anyone else’s.

Lucy was lying out on a beach towel in the back yard, wearing a cute little pink and yellow bikini she’d picked up on her last shopping trip with Elaina.  That and the most gorgeous leather coat, blood red with Italian silk lining.  It came down just to the tops of her thighs, with a sweet matching belt.  She looked like a freaking spy in that coat.  Like Angelina Jolie in
Mr. and Mrs. Smith
…no, thinking back on it, she actually looked better.  She looked like the absolute—accept no substitutes—goddess of spies.

Lucy tactfully tied the straps of her bikini top around her again.  She hated tan lines, especially if she was going to be wearing anything revealing.   She was careful she was securely covered before she turned over—no need giving the neighbors a free show.

She adjusted her straps and put on her new pair of sunglasses.  Just looking through the amber lenses made the world so much prettier.  They weren’t even designer eyewear, yet they were elegant looking, and the moment she’d put them on and looked through them, she’d loved them.  Things that would be just too dark through black or gray shades popped out under the amber tones.  She sipped her green tea and checked the time on her I-Phone.  Twenty more minutes and she’d head in.  No need frying on her first day out. 

There was another week before the engagement party.  She was just glad she didn’t have to meet the parents beforehand—which was actually kind of strange.  Not that Lucy had met many of her ex-boyfriend’s parents.  Usually she’d get tired of them and would have tactfully dumped them before any such meeting would be discussed.  But Lucy had seen plenty of romantic movies where there was the whole meeting the future in-laws thing.  And it did strike Lucy as odd that she wouldn’t be meeting the parents until the engagement party.

Of course, if she thought it was odd, she could just imagine what they were thinking.  But maybe they were just strange, or archaically traditional.  Maybe they could remember the days when marriages were arranged and you didn’t meet your spouse until the day of the wedding.

The mere thought made Lucy shiver.  How horrible to have to go through such an agonizing wait, just to meet the person you had to spend the rest of your life with.  She was surprised there weren’t more cases of brides-to-be’s falling over dead from heart-attacks, just from the stress such a thing would cause.

No wonder they came up with divorce.

And just then she heard an odd scraping sound.  At first it came from far off, but then she realized it was getting closer, and from the street in front of her grandmother’s house.   She looked up and saw the most amazing sight coming her way.  A driveway led back to the white picket fence surrounding the back yard.  On the other side of the fence was a matching driveway, but no fence bisecting their yard.  Skating toward Lucy on the other side of the fence was a girl about Lucy’s age…but that was the only similarity. 

This girl was on silver and black rollerblades, with blue and yellow striped socks that came up to her knees, black tights under a blue and yellow catholic school girl skirt—much like the one Lucy had gotten Jeff Haas to don right before her father’s unfortunate run in with the law—and the craziest pink T-shirt Lucy had ever seen.  It said “Bad Kitty!” and had a blue cartoon cat licking its bloody front paws.  The rest of the T-shirt had the little feline’s bloody paw prints all over it.

And that was just her clothes.  She had pink and blue eye shadow on, too much eyeliner and mascara, and the red of her lips matched the bloody paw prints on her shirt perfectly.  The hair…jet black striped with hot pink, braided into two long ponytails that trailed from the top of her head down to her shoulders. 

Before her life had imploded, Lucy might have…no, she probably would have been cruel and dismissive, making fun of this girl to her disciples on the cheer squad…but she didn’t have any disciples anymore.  Hell, she didn’t even have any friends anymore, and if the last seven months had taught her anything it was all those friends she thought she’d had weren’t her friends at all.

That thought alone made a cool loneliness crawl across her flesh—even with the eighty-five degree sun she was sunbathing beneath.  Just looking at this girl, in her ridiculous get up, with her ears plugged into her MP3 player, dancing as she twirled around on her skates with uninhibited joy, made Lucy wonder how anyone could be so happy?

Before she knew it Lucy was slipping on a pair of shorts and a T-shirt and was padding barefoot across the lawn to the peeling white picket fence that separated the two properties.

“Hey there!” Lucy called out over the fence.  

The girl didn’t hear her, spinning with her hands held over her head, her plaid skirt swirling like a cyclone.  Lucy couldn’t help but smile.  And, though for the life of her she couldn’t understand why, she felt a twinge of envy.  Had Lucy really ever been that happy?  Even back before the FBI, courtrooms and special sauce?

Suddenly the girl stopped twirling, her bright green eyes locked on Lucy and her mouth fell open in a surprised O.  But that only lasted two seconds.  The shocked expression melted into a broad, lovely smile, as radiant as the morning sunrise.  The kind of smile you expected on fairy princesses in Disney movies.

A small, brilliant cut diamond glittered in her right nostril, making her all the more fairy-like.

With a quick little wink, and then a yank of the earphones, she extended her hand.  Nails painted half pink, half black.  Silver bracelets dangled from her wrists.  “I’m Abbey.  Abbey Adams.”  Her handshake was strong, not the limp wristed high class handshake of the privileged.  This was the hand shake that meant it.  She rolled her eyes, tossing her head back toward the house behind her.  “I live with my grandma too.”

“How’d you…?”

Abbey shrugged.  “Sorry…small town.  And your grandma Lillian is friends with my grandma Donna May.”

“Oh, that makes sense.”  Lucy gave Abbey another long up and down glance.  “I love that outfit.”

“No you don’t.”  Abbey said it with the same sweet, brilliant smile as before.

A laugh burst from Lucy’s lips.  “You’re right.  I don’t, but I’ve got to respect the commitment…to personal fashion, I mean.”

Abbey spun once on her skates as if showing off her look.  “Don’t worry.  Loads of people think I’m due to be committed somewhere with rubber rooms and a Thorazine drip.”

“And straightjackets?”  Lucy suddenly felt the blood rush up to her face.  She hadn’t meant to say that.  And now she was sure that this new possible friend was sure to think she was just a mean bitch.  Lucy opened her mouth to say something, but Abbey smiled that wonderful smile and twirled again.

“Don’t need to go anywhere for that!”  She reached out and grabbed Lucy’s hand and dragged her over to a picnic table under a tree, the kind with barely any paint left on it anymore.  “Got my own hanging in my closet upstairs.”  

An image of Abbey flashed in Lucy’s mind: Abbey twirling around on her rollerblades, mascara running crazily down her face, wrapped from the waist up by a straightjacket, a cadre of white clad orderlies chasing after her.

Lucy tried to shake the vision from her mind, and tried to change the subject.

“So, what were you listening to back there?”  Whatever it had been, the music had really made her happy.

“Bad Romance, by Lady Gaga.”

“Oh…”  Lucy hadn’t meant to sound so disappointed.  She had just wished they had something in common.  Lucy hadn’t given Lady Gage even a second glance.  Her personal fashion was truly deranged. 

“So I take it you don’t go for Lady G, huh?  More of a Kelly Clarkson type?”

Lucy knew she should be put off by this girl presuming about her.  Presume much?  But the chick was right. 
Behind
These Hazel Eyes
had been her ring tone…and she used to play
Walk Away
when she was getting ready for a hot date.  “She’s totally valid.  A great voice and she writes some of her own songs.” 

Abbey just sat there, her lips pulled tight over her teeth, yet a wide grin was breaking across her face.  “Fine, fine.  Clarkson’s not just the Idol freak.  She’s…”  She put her hands up to her head like she was receiving a vision.  “She’s valid.”

Now she’s just poking fun at me.
   “I like Pink too.”  Which Lucy did.  Pink rocked both musically and fashion-wise. 

Abbey’s sweet smile morphed into a wicked grin.  Lucy was sure little horns were about to sprout from her scalp.  “I love Pink!”  Abbey pulled the earphone cord out of her MP3 player as her thumbs scrolled through her song menu.  A moment later Pink was singing that she had just lost her husband, and she didn’t know where he went.

The little MP3 player must’ve been jacked up, because it sounded more like a boom-box than the usual tinny sound hand held devices had. Even with her skates on, Abbey climbed onto the top of the picnic table and started dancing to the music.

Lucy just sat there and smiled as she watched Abbey go to town.  A moment later Abbey grabbed Lucy by the hand and hauled her up on the table with her and against her better judgment Lucy fell into dancing with Abbey, not caring who saw.

Of course, right on cue Lucy heard her brother laugh.  She looked down to find him staring up at her and Abbey with triumphant, mean little eyes: regrettably he had hazel eyes too.  His hair was the same shade of mahogany brown as Lucy’s, but he kept it in a greasy, sloppy shag cut that almost covered his eyes.  He was wearing his usual uniform of worn jeans and a worn T-shirt, with the faded, peeling logo of some long defunct punk rock band across the chest.

Maybe Abbey and he would get along, which wasn’t exactly the way she wanted this new friendship to go.

“What the hell are you two freaks doing?” he chuckled cruelly.

So much for the two of them getting along.

Abbey shot him through with an acid gaze, and then she jumped off the picnic table and landed on the cracked cement of the driveway, just inches from where Seth stood.  His mouth fell open, as did Lucy’s.  Abbey had landed without a slip or a bobble.  Perfect balance—
she must live in those roller blades!

Seth gulped as Abbey looked down on him like an angry punk rock goddess, her hands balled in fists on her hips.  Seth’s eyes bugged out when she smiled.

“Glass houses,” Abbey said in a sing-song voice.

“W-what?” Seth stammered.