Night Vision (7 page)

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Authors: Ellen Hart

BOOK: Night Vision
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David figured he might as well let her believe what she wanted. It was as good as anything. “Our problems are between us. I can't talk about it.”
“Oh, you poor boy. I can't imagine, after being together for so many years.”
He didn't say anything, just tried to look tragic. “I think I'll stow my stuff.”
“Sure, hon. Whatever you want. There's food in the fridge. I could fix you something, but—”
He laughed, probably too loudly. “You're such a great cook. Remember that chicken tartare you made once?”
“That's what
you
called it.”
“That's what it was.”
“So I undercooked it a little.”
“It could have put an entire cruise ship in the emergency room.”
She leaned her head back and smiled. “It's so great to see you. It's been too long. Sometimes I think the best part of my life was years ago, when we were kids. When everybody I loved was still alive.”
“You mean Mom and Dad.”
“I miss them. You and me, we're all that's left. No kids to pass on the line. Sometimes that makes me feel incredibly depressed.”
David had never seen his sister actually high before, but he suspected she was pretty tight at the moment. Not slurring drunk, but not far from it. Maybe staying here wouldn't be so bad after all. But first things first. Joanna might not be a drunk, but she did like pills. And that's when he got an idea.
“I gotta pee,” he said, rising from the couch.
“Use the apple bathroom. I'm using the sailboat one.”
Exactly the information he needed. “Thanks. Be back in a sec.” If he could just find himself a little plastic bottle of speed, he might survive the next few days just fine.
T
he IHOP on Reindeer Lake was always pretty dead by eleven P.M. A few customers straggled in, but mostly Brandy Becker spent her time standing behind the counter, refilling salt and pepper shakers. Normally, she worked seven A.M. to three-thirty, but last week she'd asked for a schedule change. She didn't want to be home in the evenings right now. It was just temporary, she'd told her boss. She'd be back working days in no time.
Brandy had been a waitress for most of her forty-three years. She was the mother of one son, Todd, who'd just begun his second year of college at UW-Madison. She'd gone straight from her mother and father's home to a marriage with her high school sweetheart. When her husband died less than a year ago, she was on her own for the first time in her life—on her own and scared to death. She had a little house not far from the restaurant, so she could walk to work. She had an old Dodge sitting in the garage, but she didn't drive. She'd never learned. There was no need, since her husband could drive her anywhere she wanted to go. She had a couple of good friends, but mostly she worked because, when she was by herself, all she did was cry. But then she met Gordon.
Last May—she couldn't remember the exact date—she'd noticed
a man come into the IHOP for the first time. She knew most of the regulars, and he wasn't one of them. She hadn't waited on him that morning, but she did see him looking at her. He never smiled, so he wasn't flirting. He just watched. A few days later he came in again. This time he sat in her section. She brought him a glass of water and asked what he wanted. He seemed so glum that she decided then and there she'd try to cheer him up. Everyone always told her that her kind heart would get her in trouble one day, but she never believed it.
“Why so sad, hon?” she'd asked as she poured him coffee.
“Do I seem sad to you?” he'd asked.
“Yeah, hon, you do. I know what it feels like myself, but it always passes. You just gotta remember that.”
And then he'd smiled. He wasn't good-looking. Some people might call him “big,” but that would've been a charitable way to put it. Then again, there was something in that smile that warmed her clear down to her toes.
“You're very sweet,” he'd said.
“You keep smilin', you hear me?” she'd told him before he left. The next day he'd come in again. They'd talked a little more. She found out his name was Gordon and that he was a landscape designer, had his own business. He impressed her then as a man of substance and integrity. He'd never been married and didn't have any kids. And he
was
a deeply sad soul, she could see it even more clearly. They were both sad and lonely, both recently devastated by the loss of a loved one.
And then one day, out of the blue, he'd brought her a dozen red roses, the little ones she loved so much. She was so touched that she agreed to go on a date with him. He took her to his home on Whitefish Lake and asked if she'd like to take a ride on one of his boats. It was a beautiful early summer evening and he seemed so nice, so interested in what she had to say, that she said yes. After they came off the water, he fixed her dinner—fried fish he'd caught himself, a green salad, and garlic bread. She remembered it with great detail. She'd never had a man cook for her before. And when he brought out the apple pie he'd made especially for her, she fell in love, right then and there over the
plate of pie and ice cream. She felt guilty for moving on with her life so quickly, but Gordon was too wonderful to pass up.
As Brandy reached under the counter for another container of salt, a man she'd known pretty much all her life came in. Larry McColm owned the filling station across the street from the Laundromat. He was married with four grown kids. Sitting down right in front of her, he grabbed the menu but didn't open it. There was no reason to since he probably knew it by heart.
“What are you doin' here so late?” he asked, pointing at the coffeepot behind her.
“Gus changed my hours. It's just temporary. Hey, how's that new grandson of yours doing?”
He grinned while she poured him a cup. “He's amazing. Smart as a whip. He's crawling now, so he's into everything. Pulls out the pots and pans and bangs on them. But you know, the kid's actually got rhythm. Think maybe he's going to be a drummer.”
Brandy laughed, leaning into the counter. “Bet your daughter would love that.”
“Yeah, she'd probably insist that he practice over at our house.” He sipped his coffee. “Did I tell you we got another one on the way?”
“No,” said Brandy.
“Yup. Cindy's pregnant.” He leaned closer to her, put a finger to his lips. “I did the math. Just between you and me, I think there was some hanky-panky before the marriage ceremony.”
They both giggled.
“Yeah, well, young love,” said Brandy. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Gordon standing in the doorway. She had no idea how long he'd been there, but the look on his face told her he was still angry.
“Will you excuse me a second?” she said to Larry. By the time she came around the end of the counter, Gordon had taken a seat at a table by the windows. They'd had a bad fight last week. Gordon had scared her. He hadn't hit her, but he'd come pretty close. He'd left her house in a rage, slamming the door behind him. She hadn't seen him since that night. She was sorry for what she'd said and knew
without a doubt that it was only a matter of time before they talked about it and she could apologize. But he needed to apologize, too.
As she stepped up to the table, he said, “Who's that guy you're flirting with?”
“Flirting?” She was taken off guard. “I've known Larry since I was in third grade. He's happily married, Gordon. We were talking about his grandkids.”
“Yeah, right.” He scowled down at a newspaper he'd brought with him.
She sat down. “Look, I'm sorry about the other night. I shouldn't have raised my voice at you the way I did. But you had no right to open my mail.”
“That son of yours has it in for me. He's trying to break us up. I deserve to know what he's saying to you behind my back.”
It was true that Todd didn't like Gordon. He'd called him a lying SOB, said that he was trying to control her life. Maybe Gordon was a bit controlling, but Todd never saw the other sides of him. The tenderness. The generosity. Without being asked, Gordon had begun taking care of her lawn. He'd even planted some new bushes in front of the house and created a beautiful wildflower garden for her in the backyard. He told her he wasn't always good with words, but hoped that his gifts would show her how much he loved her. She hated the fact that they'd been arguing about Todd. They had to get past it, back to where they started.
“All right,” said Brandy. “I'll admit that Todd has his own opinions. But he doesn't know you the way I do. He can't break us up, sweetheart. You've got to believe that.”
“You swear it? Because—remember what I told you the first night we were together? I'm nobody's one-night stand. You're my woman now and I expect certain things from you, just as you do from me. I love you, Brandy. I want us to be together forever.”
“I know that. And I love you for it.”
“Then tell your son to back off. If he can't treat me with respect, he has no right to be in your life.”
Statements like that took her breath away. Maybe it was because
he didn't have children of his own. She knew he was a good man, she'd just have to trust that he'd come to understand how important Todd was in her life. In time, Todd would become central to Gordon's life, too.
“I'll talk to him,” said Brandy.
Gordon glanced over at the man sitting at the counter. “He's just a friend, huh?”
“Not even that,” said Brandy. “Just a guy I've known a long time.”
Staring at her hard, he finally seemed to relent. “I believe you. I've missed you.” He reached for her hand.
She wanted to say she felt the same way, but something odd happened. She opened her mouth, but the words wouldn't form.
Gordon smiled, then opened the newspaper and began looking it over. “Thought maybe we'd take a little drive this weekend, spend some time in the Twin Cities.”
“I work on Sunday.”
“Can't you get it off?”
“Let me talk to Millie.” She watched him flip through the pages. “You want something to eat?”
“Yeah, bring me the stuffed French toast and a couple of eggs over easy.”
She took the order back to the kitchen, clipped it up on the check wheel, then hit the order bell. When she returned to the dining room to get him a cup of coffee, she glanced over at his table. He was reading the paper with a look of such intensity in his eyes that it stopped her. An instant later, a wave of anger passed over his face.
“Gordon, what's wrong?”
Before she could get to him, he was out the door.
Walking over to the table, she glanced down at the section of the paper he'd been reading. It was a story about Joanna Kasimir, the actress. There was a big picture of her next to a smaller picture of a theater in St. Paul.
Brandy sank down on the chair to study the photo a little more closely. Secretly, she'd always thought she looked a bit like Joanna Kasimir. Blond hair. Pretty. Well, pretty years ago. But Brandy was a
little heavier and not at all glamorous. The story was about a play a Twin Cities theater was doing later this fall, with Joanna Kasimir in the lead role. Nothing particularly upsetting in any of that. Beneath it were a bunch of adds. One for a shoe store, another for a new tooth-whitening treatment. She couldn't imagine why Gordon had flown out of the restaurant with such a black look on his face.
As Brandy sat staring at the empty doorway, it suddenly occurred to her that she may have been a little too trusting. As quickly as the thought crossed her mind, she tried to bury it, but it popped right back up. Okay, she thought. Maybe she should take stock.
She'd been with Gordon for four months. With the exception of the last couple of weeks, they'd been incredibly happy together. She told herself—and everyone else in her life who would listen—that she was head over heels in love. And yet, against her will she was beginning to see cracks forming around the edges of that love.
“Be honest,” she whispered to herself. “You don't have a clue who this man really is.”
 
 
Bel Air, California
Spring 1989
 
 
J
oanna returned home from her meeting at Paramount around four-thirty. Thankfully, she'd remembered the six-pack of Coke for Gordon. After stuffing it in the refrigerator, she took a quick shower, changed into a pair of tight jeans and a beaded bright coral camisole, and then headed down to the guesthouse to tell her brother to stay away from the main house for the next few hours. She was on the walkway above the cabana when she looked down and saw that Gordon was in the pool, taking a swim. The sight of him stopped her dead in her tracks. None of the men who'd worked on her property over the years had ever had the audacity to take a dip in her pool. Good looks be damned. This guy had crossed a line.
Storming down the stairs, ready to give him his walking papers, she hesitated behind a deck chair when she realized he was naked.
“Oh, hi,” he called, stroking over to the side of the pool. He rested his arms on the edge and smiled. His teeth looked like extralarge Chicklets, the gum her father always chewed, but they seemed to fit his big, square face. “Thought I better clean up a little before I met with my employer.”
“Well, yes, about that—”
“I cleaned your pool filter while I was at it. The guy who does the maintenance is lazy. And this is just a guess, but I don't think he's got the chemicals balanced right. I think you'll find that the alkalinity is low. That's
not good for your skin—or the pumps. I've got a bottle of test strips in my truck. I can check it for you later if you want.”
“Well, actually—”
“You better look away while I get out. I'll get dressed and meet you back at the house.” He hoisted himself halfway out of the water and just rested there, flexing his muscles and grinning at her.
“Um, okay.”
Joanna looked over and saw that David and Diego's rental car was gone. With that situation handled, she headed back to her house. On the way up the flagstone walk, she tried to define what she was feeling. She was still angry that he felt he could just take a swim without even asking, but on the other hand, it was apparent he hadn't done it out of arrogance. He was confusing, and when it came to men, Joanna wasn't easily confused.
She was sitting on the terrace in one of the wicker chairs, drinking a beer when he trotted up the stairs. His hair was still wet. He'd tried to dry it, but it spiked in pretty much every direction. The fact that he didn't seem to care intrigued her. She'd set out a glass of ice on the glass table and placed the unopened Coke can next to it.

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