Waking Up To Love (Lakeside Porches Book 4) (20 page)

“Yeah, well, there’s no damage. I checked it out already.”

“Let’s see another five hundred, just in case you’re wrong.” When Rand squawked in protest, Les challenged him. “I can still make you tow it back to the shed.”

Rand’s face reddened. He stuffed his hand in the inside pocket of his jacket and came out with another envelope.

Les riffled through the bills. “Get in the cab.”

Although she’d tired several times, Lyssa hadn’t been able to reach Kyle, and she hadn’t wanted to leave a hysterical voicemail. Manda’s phone hadn’t answered, even for voicemail.

In desperation, she’d called the local AA office, where a gentleman reminded her of the acronym HALT: don’t get too hungry, angry, lonely, or tired. She was all four, and dinner had looked like a good next step. The man recommended a grill in Watkins Glen on their route home.

She and Rand ate steaks and salad in cold silence, while their waitress kept Lyssa supplied with ice for her swollen forehead. Rand drank a bottle of cabernet by himself and wove a little as they left the restaurant.

It was dark, sometime after seven, as she and Rand faced each other at the far end of the parking lot, where Rand had parked the white Miata away from other cars to preserve its pristine condition.

With a good meal in her, Lyssa still felt drained, but she had stopped shaking. She managed a civil smile for Rand. “I’ll take the keys.” Since they’d already decided she would drive home to Tompkins Falls, she expected him to hand over the keys without a fuss.

“Suppose I won’t give them to you?” He dangled them out of her reach.

Spare me.
She tried to make her laugh sound happy and teasing. “We agreed I get to drive your car home. No fair changing the rules.”

“You and your rules. I’m sick of them, Lyssa. Let’s spend the night here.”

“Charming as you are, Rand, that’s not happening.” She turned away, and he grabbed her from behind.

His hot breath assaulted her ear, and his hands groped her breasts. She slammed her elbow into his side, spun out of his grip, and faced him.

“Don’t make me hit you again,” she snarled.

“That red hair comes with so much passion.” Rand lunged for her, but his fingers barely brushed her before she backed out of his reach.

Her move threw him off-balance. As he stumbled toward her, waving his arm, groping for support, she sidestepped. He broke his own fall with his left hand. Though he yelled with pain, Lyssa hadn’t heard a bone crack.

He rolled onto his back with a groan and sat up, tucking his left wrist under his right arm. “You could have stopped my fall.” His tone was angry and accusatory. “What is wrong with you, woman?”

“Fortunately, nothing, which is why I’m able to drive us home.” She snatched his keys from the pavement where they had landed. “I hope you haven’t stolen the car, too.” She flung the words at him before sliding into the driver’s seat and slamming the door.

She muttered to herself as she jammed the key in the ignition. While the engine revved, Rand hauled himself upright. He swayed a moment and pressed his eyes shut.

Seeing his instability, she wondered if he needed immediate medical attention or if he was just drunk. She hoped it would keep until Tompkins Falls.

She backed the car to his side. When he made no move to get in, she reached across the seat and unlatched his door for him. He slid into the bucket, pulled the door shut and fumbled with the seatbelt.

“I’ll help you click that.”

“Big of you.”

As they eased forward, she opened their windows and let the cool night air calm her and sweep away the alcohol fumes. A light breeze carried the scent of decaying leaves and abandoned apples under the row of crabapple trees that bordered the lot.

Fall was half gone already. She’d imagined apple picking with Manda and long walks by the lake, but they’d done none of that. Nor had they made the promised visit to Seneca Falls.
Maybe one weekend soon
.

She hadn’t accomplished much on today’s snitch assignment, she reflected, since the Tullys hadn’t shown. Brad had reacted suspiciously when she’d raised the question of grade fixing, but Kyle had cleared him already. Rand had shown himself capable of violations she hadn’t foreseen. Stealing a plane and flying without a license were, to her mind, more serious than throwing a reefer on the lawn and slashing tires and abandoning Kyle on a dark road.
Ego-driven and dangerous.

As they sped along the highway north along Seneca Lake Rand slept, snoring loudly. Lyssa loved the powerful way the little car hugged the curves and soared up and down hills. She wanted to fly, just as they had in the sailplane this afternoon, wild and free.

As she crested a hill, though, flashing lights ahead on the right brought her back to reality. She downshifted and rolled cautiously toward the speed trap. Two unlucky drivers were stopped on the shoulder.
That could be me
.

An officer waved her through with his flashlight. She nodded to him.
Thank God I wasn’t drunk
.

“You were lucky,” Rand taunted, his voice thick with booze.

Don’t bite.
“How’s your wrist feeling, Rand?” When he didn’t answer, she let it ride, and he dozed again. His hand on his thigh was swollen, and one finger looked bent.

As they exited the highway and headed toward Tompkins Falls, she nudged him awake. “Shall I drop you at Urgent Care or at your place?”

“My place, but I need you to help me.” He lifted his hand and let if fall with a groan.

In your dreams
. He was asleep again when she parked under the glowing Urgent Care sign at the Tompkins Falls Medical Building. Two young nurses, just finishing a smoke break, spotted them arriving.

“Hot car,” the brunette said to Lyssa. “What’s the deal with your friend?”

“He sprained his wrist when he fell an hour ago. He’s either asleep or passed out.”

The other nurse woke Rand and helped him out of the car.

“Hi, beautiful.” Rand slurred his words and slung his good arm over her shoulder.

“Hey yourself, handsome.” She rolled her eyes and waved away his alcohol fumes as she wrapped an arm around his waist. “Let’s go inside where the action is.”

“We’ll help him fill out the paperwork,” the brunette promised Lyssa. “You need a ride home?”

“I’m good, thanks.” Lyssa handed her the keys to the Miata and watched their procession until the double-doors swallowed them up with a
whoosh
.

She needed to unwind. It was a straight shot on River Street to the marina and a short walk from there to Lakeside Terrace. As she began the two-mile trek, Manda’s phone still was not answering, so she tried Bree.

“Hey, girlfriend, what’s happening?” Bree asked.

“It’s a long story. I’m walking home from Urgent Care, down River Street. Got time to talk?”

“How smart is it to walk through that section of the city in the dark of night?”

“It’s totally deserted, and I need the fresh air.” She ignored the shadowy figure that slunk along the side of a warehouse toward the river. Instead, she told Bree about the near crash with the sailplane.

“Did you let them check you out at Urgent Care?”

“No, I’m okay, really, just a bump on the head and a fierce resentment. Before we get into that, a faculty friend, Bethany, wants to join us for the Ithaca thrift shop run. Is that okay with you?”

“Better than okay.”

“Blast, it’s starting to rain. Let me put on my jacket.” That accomplished, she resumed the conversation, but Bree wasn’t on the line. “Bree? Are you still there?”

After a click on the line, Bree came back with, “Sorry, I just ducked into the kitchen for something. So what’s the deal with Urgent Care anyway? Why were you there?”

Lyssa filled her in with the details of Rand’s fall outside the restaurant, then launched into the illegal flight and the crash. She had walked less than half the distance home when a police cruiser pulled up in front of her and flashed its lights.

“Why are the police stopping me?”

“Hanging up now,” Bree said with a laugh.

“Did you call them?”

“Call me tomorrow, Lyssa.” Bree broke the connection.

Lyssa huffed.

The cruiser had parked with one front wheel on the curb so the front bumper was in Lyssa’s path. “It’s late to be walking alone through this part of town,” the officer on her side of the car said with a stern voice. He gestured out the window to the abandoned mills and derelict parking lots. “Can we drop you somewhere?”

The driver emerged, and Lyssa looked into his green sea-glass eyes. Exactly like Bree’s, and he had the same curly black hair. She hadn’t made the connection when she’d met him at Lakeside Terrace the week before. “Officer Shaughnessy, do you have a sister named Bree?”

He grinned, and a smile spread across Lyssa’s face. “You probably don’t remember me. I live upstairs from Manda and Joel Cushman. I’m Manda’s sister Lyssa Doughty.”

“The missing boyfriend and the pot-smoker who slashed his tires, right?”

“Right. Well, the slasher outdid himself this time.” A sob rose in her throat. “I’d love a ride home, Officers.”

Officer Shaughnessy helped her into the backseat. “We’ll have you there in five minutes. You can tell us all about it on the way.”

Kyle burst from Overlook Park onto Lakeside Terrace to see a police cruiser parked at Lyssa’s door. Lyssa sat in the back chatting through the wire mesh that separated her from the officers in the front.

“Are you all right, Lyssa?” As he reached for her door, though, the driver sprang from the car and confronted him, hand on his holster.

“Stand back and give me your name.”

Kyle raised his hands. “Er, Kyle Pennington, Lyssa’s friend.” He said to Lyssa, “That idiot Rand Cunningham called me and said you’d gone missing from the hospital and he was afraid for your safety. What—?”

“Lyssa’s fine,” Officer Shaughnessy said calmly. “She’s had a stressful day, and she accepted our offer of a ride home. We have her statement now. As long as she’s all right with you being here, we’ll release her.”

They both looked at Lyssa, who had her palms against the car window and her nose pressed to the glass. She nodded, her eyes pleading to be set free.

As they drove away, Lyssa buried her face in Kyle’s chest. “I was so scared,” she said over and over as he held her.

“That idiot Rand. I’d like to throttle him.”

“I’m so glad you’re here.”

The rain worsened. “Let’s get you inside where it’s warm and dry.”

They trudged up the stairs side by side. Kyle shook their jackets and hung them on the coat tree.

He turned to see Lyssa in the warmth of her kitchen, setting apple cider to heat on the stove. She rummaged in the refrigerator. Soon the island held a chunk of cheese, half an apple pie, and four Cadbury chocolate bars.
A four-bar crisis?

“Sweetheart, you need a hot shower and dry clothes. Shall I take it from here?”

“Thanks.” But she stood staring at him with her hand around a chocolate bar.

“What do you need, luv?”

She executed a hip swivel that quickened his heart rate.
Recalculating
.

“Um . . .” She licked her lips.

Her shyness made his jeans tighten. He gave her a crooked smile. “Fancy a little shower sex?”

“I do, actually.”

Chapter 7

Lyssa drew on her pink fleece robe and a pair of thick wool socks. She’d left Kyle snoring softly and started a pot of coffee.
What should I do?
On the one hand, she desperately needed a meeting. On the other, she didn’t want to walk out on her first lovely sexy morning with her longed-for lover.

While the pot hissed and gurgled, she stepped onto the porch. A bracing updraft made her wrap the robe close around her body and tie it tight.

A layer of fog hid Chestnut Lake, like a puffy white boa sleeping in the valley between the vineyards. She forgot the coffee as she gripped the railing and watched the sky lighten above the eastern shore. A breeze swirled around her for a moment and she inhaled the clean fresh morning air.

The thought came unbidden.
Kyle is the man I want to wake up to
. Her heart quickened as she remembered their night of lovemaking.

“This lake mirrors my mind every morning,” Kyle said from behind her.

She turned with a laugh and accepted the steaming mug he held out. He’d dressed already, in clothes wrinkled from a night hanging on the bathroom door.

“You’re foggy brained, are you?”

“Happily so.” His gaze grew serious. “I want us married, Lyssa. It isn’t right that we’re sleeping together and not being public about our intentions.”

The breath rushed out of her, and she gave him a tremulous smile. “I don’t want us sneaking around anymore. But married? Just like that?”

“I don’t see us going backwards with our relationship, do you, luv?” He gave her a lopsided smile that set her heart racing and her insides fluttering.

“No. I was just telling the universe I want to wake up to you every morning.”

“Then . . .”

“Kyle, I have to keep it in the day right now. I am overwhelmed by what happened with Rand yesterday, that wouldn’t have happened if I weren’t being your snitch, yours and Justin’s. We’ve got to stop the charade,” she said firmly, “no matter what Justin wants.” Her forehead creased with pain.

Kyle’s happy smile slipped away. “What is that bruise above your temple, Lyssa? How did you get that?”

His angry tone rattled her even more. The mug slipped from her hands and shattered as it hit the decking. Hot coffee splashed on her socks. She jumped away from the fragments and the steaming puddle and stripped off her socks. “Please, Kyle, it’s too much to talk about the future right now. How can we convince Justin to let us be?”

He steered her indoors. “I’ll handle it with Justin. Did you cut yourself just now? Burn your feet?”

“No, no. I’m just . . . My head hurts, and I need a meeting. And I need us to get our lives back and sort out what’s next.”

Kyle gathered her close. “Agreed. I’d like you to fill me in on what happened yesterday and how you got that nasty contusion on your noggin. Can you do that?” He soothed her with loving strokes and feathery kisses, as she told him bits and pieces of yesterday’s bungled plans and the nightmare landing in the sailplane.

He hissed through his teeth. “I’d like to kill Rand Cunningham with my bare hands. And to think he had the nerve then to call me from the hospital, still drunk, and scare me to death that you were missing somewhere.”

She told him how she’d come to walk home from Urgent Care after leaving Rand with two nurses. “I should have called a cab or called you, but I desperately needed to talk with someone from the program. So I called Bree and talked to her while I walked in the rain. I must have been out of my mind. Thank God she called her brother, Peter, who’s a policeman. He was the one driving the police car last night.”

“So, the statement you gave the police. Was that about Rand’s unauthorized flight?”

“Yes.”

“Good. And I intend to say all this to Justin so he understands the enormity of what he’s created with his clever little scheme. At Urgent Care, did you have them see to your head?”

“No, I think it’s just a bad bump.” She rested her aching head on his shoulder. “Kyle, I need very badly to go to an AA meeting this morning. There’s one at half past the hour. Would you mind terribly?”

“Not in the least. Do you want me with you or not?”

“Not this time.” She kissed his mouth.
Delicious
.

“Ah, you’re planning to tell all about our night of unbridled passion?” He teased her into a smile.

“It certainly was that, but it’s no one’s business. I do need to spill about yesterday’s flight and the many layers of deception. And I want to have coffee with Joel after, if he’s willing.”

“I promise, no hysterics. I had a wild day yesterday, and I feel hungover today. I didn’t drink or drug, but I’m in turmoil and can’t seem to shake it. The low point yesterday was riding in a sailplane that was used without authorization, flown by an unlicensed pilot. We very nearly crashed into a row of trees on landing.

“Honestly, I do have a nice life, and I’d like to live it with some sanity.” She tapped her pencil on the tiny notebook in her lap. “I’d appreciate any and all suggestions this morning.”

Lyssa’s leading question at the Early Risers meeting prompted one old-timer to read a passage from the AA literature about emotional hangovers. Lyssa jotted furiously during the ensuing discussion about emotional sobriety. Just as her hand cramped, the discussion turned to someone’s issues with parenting. She reviewed her notes and annotated them with smileys and stars.

When Joel looked her way near the end of the meeting, she pointed her finger back and forth between them and mouthed, “Can we talk?” His nod was barely perceptible, but it was enough for her to settle back and listen for the rest of the meeting.

The backroom of the Bagel Depot cleared out with a babble of private conversations. She and Joel placed their orders, and he steered her to a quiet table in the dining room.

She answered his easy questions about her work at the college while they waited for their food.

“Morning, Lyssa, Joel,” Bree said with a cheery smile as she set down their orders. “I don’t mean to interrupt, but I want to know if Lyssa is okay. Did Peter and his partner come get you on River Street in the pouring rain?”

“Yes, and thanks for calling them. I should have done it myself. I wasn’t thinking straight.”

“You had me worried, girlfriend. Enjoy your breakfast.”

Once Bree had moved on, Joel asked, “Did I have the police outside my house again last night?”

Lyssa’s hands shook. “Yes. Around nine, I think. Maybe later. I tried calling Manda and got no answer, not even voicemail.”

“She was charging her phone while we were out at a charity function.” He jotted something on a business card and slid it across the table to Lyssa. “My cell, for emergencies.”

“Thank you, Joel.” She picked up half the bagel but couldn’t hold it steady enough to take a bite. She set it down and licked a dab of peanut butter from her finger.

“Besides the sailplane, tell me what’s going on. In fifty words or less.”

Lyssa told him about the agreement to help Justin and Kyle flush out faculty involved in the security breaches at the college. She skipped over the glider ride, as requested, and told him about Rand’s drunken fall and her decision to drop him at Urgent Care in Tompkins Falls. “Bree just filled in the rest.”

Joel covered her hands with his, and calm washed over her. “Now,” he said, “try the bagel again and listen to me.”

She savored the first chewy peanutty mouthful.

“Lyssa, from all reports, you’re doing a great job at the college. And I can see, from what you’ve said, you’re going over and above to help my uncle at a difficult time in his role as president. This isn’t a new problem. The computer violations at the college go back a long way, and they’ve had devastating consequences for students, including your sister. Justin knew that when he took on the presidency, and he didn’t hire you to spy or to put yourself in danger. If you won’t tell Justin you’re done with that role, I will.”

“Actually,” she mumbled around a mouthful, “Kyle’s telling him right now.”

“I’ll make sure Kyle succeeds. Justin doesn’t always listen the first time. Or the tenth.” Joel picked up the remaining half of his bagel. “Your turn.”

She nibbled a stray raisin as she pulled her scattered thoughts together.

“Why not start with how you’re working your program, who you’re hanging with, and what you’re doing to find a sponsor?” Joel suggested.

She held her warm mug between her hands as she gave him the list of meetings she attended regularly. “Bree has been a good buddy for me, and we travel together to a women’s meeting in Clifton Springs Friday nights. She and Manda and I shop together some Saturdays, and Haley Forrester comes along, too. As for a sponsor, I’ve looked around at my meetings and have asked a couple people who politely declined because they’re over-committed. Thanks for reminding me I need to keep looking.”

“Why not ask Gianessa?”

“She’d be perfect, but I never see her at meetings. I think she’s consumed with baby care right now.”

“All the more reason to ask her. She needs to get out more. And she, more than anyone I know, can help you use the program to deal with difficult men like Justin and Kyle.” He took back his business card and jotted Gianessa’s cell number below his. “She wouldn’t mind that I’m giving you her number.”

“You think Kyle is difficult? Why do you say that?”

“I’m guessing it’s the brotherhood that persuaded you to get into the spy business. Am I right?”

“By brotherhood, you mean Kyle and Justin joining forces?” At Joel’s nod, she sat tall, elbows on the table. “You’re absolutely right. Is that why you want to make sure Kyle succeeds in getting me out of the spy job?”

“Exactly. Justin is a force. Kyle is a strong self-directed person, but he needs an ally when he goes up against Justin.”

“That explains a lot.” Lyssa set down her mug with a thud, and coffee sloshed onto the table.

Joel handed her a napkin. “Bottom line: Gianessa and I are the only two people on the planet that can handle Justin, and sometimes we have to join forces to do it.”

“I don’t know, Joel. I think Miriam Sekora is right up there with you.”

“The new provost?” At Lyssa’s nod, Joel said, “Interesting. However, my point is, you can learn a lot from Gianessa about handling Justin, the manipulator. Also, she’s intuitive and insightful. She can tell you what makes Kyle tick, more than you can understand on your own.”

“You’re right. I need to call her and ask her about sponsoring me.”

“Do it today.” Joel touched her forearm and waited to speak until she looked him in the eye. “Lyssa, whether you and Kyle have figured it out or not, Manda and I think the two of you are meant for each other. I’d rather see you acting like a couple in love than sneaking around, pretending you don’t know each other. As a trial run, why not come to our apartment for dinner this evening, just you and Kyle, Manda and me? If you feel compelled to contribute something, how about one of your apple pies?”

Lyssa’s smile lit up their little corner of the Bagel Depot. “I accept, for both Kyle and me.”

“Come down at six-thirty.” Joel held her gaze. “Lyssa, I’ve learned the hard way that relationships are tough enough without adding deception to the mix. Manda and I were saying on the way home last night, the two of you need to focus on communicating and building trust. We want to see you happy and settled. And right now, you’re anything but.”

When Lyssa called to ask Gianessa about sponsoring her in AA, Gianessa said, “For three months I have asked the universe to send me a sponsee. I am so glad it’s you, Lyssa.”

“That gives me happy chills,” Lyssa said. “It was my wise brother-in-law’s suggestion. Gianessa, I’m so glad you’ll take me on, and I know I’m a mess.”

“If you’re free, come over, and we’ll take the babies for a walk on the drive. The birches are glorious right now.”

They hadn’t progressed twenty feet when Lyssa understood why she’d gotten the job of pushing the side-by-side stroller. It left Gianessa’s hands free to wave, punctuate, and gesticulate as she talked.

“You are Italian?”

“What gave me away?” Gianessa laughed at herself. “Pop came from the heart of the fashion district around Milano. In fact, he and his sister Ariella have a restaurant there now—Ariella’s American Bistro. Same menu as Gianni’s Italian Restaurant that he owned in San Francisco.”

Lyssa’s laugh made Jack look around and Jill wave her hands. She answered her new sponsor’s questions about meetings and work and life in Tompkins Falls. During a lull in conversation, Jill and Jack jabbered nonsense to each other.

“Hear them?” Gianessa asked. “I swear they have their own language, and they’re not sure yet if they want to share it with us.”

“They’re just over a year? Both walking?”

“Both running now. Nanny and I have our hands full. But we’ve stalled enough, Lyssa. What crisis prompted this request for a sponsor?”

Lyssa closed her eyes. “God, don’t let me get hysterical around these sweet children.”

Gianessa touched her arm. “You’ve discovered why I wanted our first talk to be with the babies.”

Lyssa’s mouth flew open, and she turned wide eyes to her new sponsor. “You planned it this way, you wise woman, because you know I need to work on emotional maturity.”

Gianessa stood smiling like the Mona Lisa, against a backdrop of glowing yellow leaves in the Cushman birch grove. “I like that you pray to your god for help with your emotions. I have confidence you’re ready to work hard. Am I right?”