The Queen of Cool (12 page)

“
You think she’s really
there?” Lisa asked.

Lo shrugged.

“
I guess we’ll find out,”
Lisa repeated. “We’re all homeless now. Without Mom’s
house…”

Unwilling to finish the statement, Lisa went
into the office to get the rest of the computer files. Lo nodded in
her direction and went to get some water for Mutt.

Q

Wednesday, early morning—2:05 a.m.
Fairmount Historical District, Fort Worth

Days: 18

“
Follow my
voice.”

Gasping, Lo sat straight up in bed. She
blinked at the bright-red alarm clock radiating 2:05. She shook her
head to clear the fog. She could have sworn she heard…

“
Follow my
voice.”

Lo put her legs over the side of her bed.
Still groggy from sleep, she tried to decide whether to get up or
go back to sleep. She strained her ears and heard nothing.
Convinced she had been dreaming, she lay back on the bed again.

“
Follow my
voice.”

Throwing off her covers, Lo catapulted out
of bed. Her bare feet padded across the reclaimed maple floors. She
stood at her door for a moment with her ear against the wood.

“
Trust me.”

Opening the door, she went through the open
living room and kitchen. She must have imagined the voice – that
voice – Don’s voice. Again. She was walking back to bed when she
heard a noise. Spinning in place, she trotted back to the living
room.

And her eyes were covered with a dark silk
sash. Her hands flew to her face when she heard:

“
Follow my
voice.”

“
Don?” Lo asked.

This had been one of his favorite games. He
used the silk to surprise her with gifts: a BMW when she got her
driver’s license, the perfect Koi pond, the gym in the basement,
anything big, special and just for Lo.

Strong male hands took her arms. His
familiar wedding ring pinched into her wrist. His thumb stroked the
top of her hand.

“
Don?”

A chuckle came from deep inside his chest.
Moving, his hands tugged on hers. Lo’s longing for her husband
welled inside. She didn’t know who this was or what was going on,
but she couldn’t care. Even if this was a dream or hallucination,
she didn’t want to miss even a second of it. She followed him.

He used his hands to direct her through the
apartment. She heard the hum of the refrigerator when they passed
the kitchen. She felt more than heard them reach a door. They went
through one door, then the next. By mistake, she took an extra step
forward and ran into the man’s body. Like Don, he was taller than
she was, muscular, and smelled like...

“
Don?”

His full lips caught hers. She felt the pull
of his stubble against her chin. His tongue flicked through her
teeth. Her desire rose from deep inside her very being. Her hands
flew to his face to feel his wide cheekbones and designer nose.
When he broke off, she felt a desperate yearning to be kissed
again.

He opened a doorway and took her hands
again. She stepped forward and felt a wave of cool air. Her ears
picked up the hollow sounds of a large open space. The man stepped
downward.

“
I won’t ever let you fall,
Lo,” he said.

Lo hopped into his arms. He carried her down
the stairwell. Unable to stop herself, she kissed his neck and
face, finally catching his lips. Their lips engaged in a ferocious
dance. At the bottom of the stairwell, he set her down and pressed
her against the wall. While her feet chilled on the cold floor, a
fire raged through her body.

“
Please let me see you,” Lo
said. “Please.”

“
Always so impatient,” he
chuckled. “Don’t you want to be surprised?”

“
I’ll pretend,” Lo said. “I
promise.”

His hand moved over her head to pull off the
slip of silk. Standing in front of her was Don Downs. He wore his
usual Saturday uniform: a collared blue plaid shirt and jeans; his
brown leather belt matched his custom Sorrell boots; a day’s worth
of stubble on his face. Lo stared.

“
This is a dream,” Lo
said.

“
Look around,” Don
said.

Lo looked around and saw she was inside the
four-car garage. He’d taken her down a stairwell to the garage.
Next to two open spots sat Don’s Ford F-350. The horse and camping
trailer stood at the end of the garage.

“
Could you have gotten here
in a dream?” Don smirked.

“
How?” Lo stepped forward
to touch him. She kissed his lips before holding him close to her.
“How?”

“
Magic,” Don said. “Plain
and simple.”

“
Are you back? Can you
stay?”

Don’s sorrow-filled eyes answered her
question.

“
I’ve missed you so much,”
Lo said. “I want to be with you.”

“
Oh Lo,” Don said. “That
doesn’t solve anything.”

“
I can’t live without you.”
Lo felt tears drop from her eyes. “Can you take me with
you?”

He shook his head.

“
Please?”

He shook his head.

“
Abracadabra?” Lo said the
only magic word she could think of.

He brushed her lips with his.

“
You have to stay Lo,” Don
said. “The girls need you. I need you here.”

“
Oh God!”

Lo broke down. Don’s arms surrounded her in
warmth and love. After all these days and nights of yearning for
him, he was here, right here, to comfort her greatest loss. In a
swift motion, he picked her up and carried her to his truck. He
fumbled with the super cab doors. Once open, he set her on the
bench, pushed the front seats forward and joined her in the cramped
space.

She felt his weight on her when he moved
into the truck. Her lips tingled from his rough unshaven face. Her
fingers moved through the threads of his hair and into his shirt to
feel his bare skin. His hands moved over her body. Intense and
soft, his hands grabbed her and stroked her. Every movement seemed
encased in stardust.

Lo tried to focus on every sensation. When
she felt the full of him, she knew he was there, right there, with
her. She gave herself to him absolutely and without hesitation. For
all the times they’d done this simple act, she’d never experienced
him this completely. They rose together, fell together only to rise
again. They were insatiable.

“
You’ll be the death of me
little lady,” Don chuckled.

Lo kissed his lips.

“
I can feel myself fading,”
Don said.

“
Don’t go,” Lo
said.

“
I don’t want to,” Don
said. “Never ever, since the moment I saw you with the girls in the
backyard, I never wanted to be away from you.”

“
Then what happened?” Lo
asked. “You were with this woman and…”

“
I don’t know,” Don said.
“I feel like I should remember something but… I don’t.”

He looked away from her. In the tight cab,
she saw him weakening. He looked at her.

“
They’re calling me,” he
said.

“
Who?” Lo asked. “Stay with
me. Please.”

He grabbed her shoulders with a savageness
that shocked her. His face was less than an inch from hers.

“
Never doubt I loved you,”
he said. “I see now how much you loved me. I see now all the
sacrifices you made for me – to be with me. More than anything, I
see that you never wavered, even for a moment, in your love for me.
I’m so sorry for every moment of jealousy and doubt.”

“
I love you.”

“
Only love could bring me
here. Our love. Your love for me,” Don said. “You’ll find out what
happened to me, to us. I know it. But never, not for one minute,
believe that I didn’t love you. You were my life, my
everything.”

“
Thank you for everything,”
Lo said. “For loving me. For caring for me. For this place. For our
life together. For being my everything.”

“
I won’t ever let you
fall,” Don repeated.

He faded a bit. He grabbed her shoulders
again. With an intensity she never knew from him in life, he kissed
her hard.

“
Please don’t leave me,” Lo
said.

But he was gone.

Stunned, Lo didn’t move. She knew sorrow
would overwhelm her. She knew it would set in: she was alone and he
was gone. She knew the ripping, tearing of her being would begin in
a moment.

But for this moment, she was consumed with
love for Don, her husband, her life.

“
Thank you,” she said to
whatever god, goddess, or mystical force that had brought him back
to her.

Tucking herself against the back of the cab,
she let grief take her away.

Q

Wednesday morning—8:05 a.m.
Fairmount Historical District, Fort Worth

Days: 18

Lo woke to the sound of footsteps moving
above her. She heard Yazmin’s distinctive voice calling for her.
Tucked against the driver’s seat of Don’s truck, she felt
surrounded by him. Before falling asleep, she’d found his gym bag.
Her head lay on one of his old shirts and his sweatpants were
draped over her legs. She leaned forward to close the truck
door.

She scooted back against the super cab seats
and closed her eyes. She wanted to linger in her memories of last
night in Don’s truck.

Don had loved this truck. He used it for
adventure, and to hunt and fish in the wild places of Texas. After
a day out, he’d use this truck to come home to her. At least once
in the spring and once in the fall, they would pack their horses
and head to southern Colorado. They rode all day and made love
under the stars at night. While Don had a Mercedes coupe he drove
to work, this truck was his home base.

She had no idea why the truck hadn’t been
seized. She was just glad to be right here, right now. She closed
her eyes, hoping that sleep would take her away.

The door to the truck opened.

“
There you are,” Yazmin
said. “It’s not very nice to worry me.”

Lo opened her eyes.

“
Did he come last
night?”

Lo nodded.

“
Good,” Yazmin
said.

“
How did you know?” Lo’s
voice was low with surprise.

“
The destruction of a love
like yours disrupts the very glue of our world. It must be set
right,” Yazmin said. “I knew he would come to you.”

“
Will he come
again?”

“
Only God knows,” Yazmin
said.

“
LO!” Mandy’s voice came
from the top of the stairs. “Yazmin! Is she down there?”

Lo closed her eyes with regret at the panic
in Mandy’s voice.

“
Yes, she is here,” Yazmin
said. “She found our way into the garage.”

Yazmin gestured for Lo to come out, and
Mandy flew down the stairs to them.

“
Was it… amazing?” Yazmin
whispered.

Lo nodded.

“
Then you must hold on to
those feelings, those memories, and never let them go. We have
enough hardship in this life and very little true love,” Yazmin
said. “Come on now; Mandy needs you.”

She helped Lo out of the truck. Yazmin held
the sweatpants and Lo stepped into them. She hugged Mandy.

“
What are you doing?” Mandy
asked.

“
I realized how to get into
the garage,” Lo said. “When I saw your dad’s truck, I… I had to get
in. I guess I fell asleep.”

“
Come along girls,” Yazmin
said. “Standing here does not get the coffee made.”

“
We need to get Alisha in
an hour and a half,” Lo said.

“
Do we have time for your
huevos rancheros?” Mandy asked.

“
Of course,” Yazmin said.
“Up the stairs; both of you.”

Lo was about to follow Mandy up the stairs
when her eyes caught a glimpse of something deep blue. Bending
down, she snatched the silk sash from where it had lodged between
the wood stair and the wall. She closed her hand and continued up
the stairwell. It wasn’t until she was in her room that she dared
open her hand.

She was holding the deep-blue silk sash Don
always used when he wanted to surprise her. The sash had hung on
his tie rack. She held it to her nose and took in a deep breath. It
smelled like Don.

Whatever magic brought him to her, she was
going to hold on to every fragment that came her way.

Q

Wednesday morning—9:45 a.m.
Airport Freeway, between Fort Worth and DFW Airport

Days: 18

“
Did you see Dad last
night?” Mandy asked.

They were driving down Airport Freeway on
their way to pick up Alisha at DFW Airport. Because she could, Lo
drove Don’s truck, and Mandy sat in the passenger seat. Mandy had
been chatting about one topic then another during the entire
drive.

“
What do you mean?” Lo
asked.

“
I did,” Mandy said. “I saw
Dad last night. He was holding the blue silk sash you have tied
around your neck.”

“
This?” Lo tugged on the
blue silk sash she’d tied in a loose half-Windsor knot over her
white starched shirt. “I..”

“
He used to do that,” Mandy
said. “He’d come and get us, Alisha and me, when he was going to
give you something. He’d play with the sash in his hands like he
was getting up the nerve to put it on your eyes. He did the same
thing last night.”