Amanda's Blue Marine (23 page)

* * * * *

Kelly killed some time calming himself down after Mandy left him and then he drove away from the reception at about 9:30. He didn’t know how long it would take for Mandy to talk to Henderson and her parents. They were all together tonight so she might be able to get through it quickly, but he assumed there would be arguments and it would consume some time. He couldn’t just sit in his apartment and wait. He felt as jittery as he had when waiting for the kickoff in a big game in high school, except this wasn’t a sports event, it was a turning point in his life. He finally drove to the parking lot at Amanda’s condo complex and, after nodding to the security guard who knew him by now, pulled into one of the visitor’s spaces.

She had to come home sometime, and when she did he would be waiting for her.

The night was quiet and he was amazed at how little traffic noise there was in this prosperous, well groomed part of town. Every once in a while an expensive car drove past him and the driver looked in at him as if he suspected Kelly of casing the development. Kelly smiled to himself at the expressions he might provoke when he produced a detective’s badge and flashed it at one of these jokers, but he was in too good a mood to let residential snobbery ruin his evening.

He settled back and lit a cigarette, vowing once more to quit. Now he had a real reason to do it.

Amanda loved him. She had said so.

His mind kept returning to how she had felt in his arms, melting, passionate, so weak with longing she was unable to stand. They had gotten so carried away that he could not credit his own behavior when he thought about it. When he recalled what they’d done in that empty ballroom he could feel his face warming. What if someone had walked in on them? Amanda would have been mortified. Despite her individual response to him he knew that she was pretty straitlaced in general and would have been paralyzed with embarrassment at being discovered in such a situation. He realized that only once before in his life had he come that close to losing his grip entirely and that was when he was a sophomore in high school. The captain of the cheerleaders, a senior girl with an eye for the cute younger players coming up, had singled him out for attention. On a snowy afternoon when her Neanderthal boyfriend was home recuperating from an injury she had taken Kelly’s hand and led him down to the boiler room. There they could spend a free period undisturbed and get to know one another. They got to know one another so well that when the janitor arrived with his bucket they were both naked. They had to dive under a pile of discarded gym mats to hide until the old man, who fortunately couldn’t see too well, finally finished wringing out his mop. Hearts pounding, they listened to him drag his burdens across the basement floor and go out of the room, closing the door behind him. Kelly had dreams about it for months afterward, imagining himself expelled or at the very least kicked off the football team, reliving the custodian’s arrival and the sound of the door opening as he and the girl froze, not daring to breathe. When the janitor finally left they fell back on the floor and resumed their exploration of each other’s bodies until the last bell rang.

Of course, he had been only a kid then. What was his excuse now?

He had none. He was a mature adult who had taken another mature adult into an empty room in a public building filled with people and made love to her. They would have completed the act if not for the circumstances but the inappropriate choice of location would have remained the same.

She was an assistant district attorney and he was a detective. Had they both lost their minds?

He felt like he was losing his. Nothing mattered to him any more except his relationship with Amanda, and the prospect of consummating it consumed him. He looked at his watch and saw that only ten minutes had passed since his arrival.

He sighed heavily and took a deep drag on his cigarette.

He had a feeling he would be smoking a lot while he waited.

* * * * *

Amanda drove straight to her parents home in a plush suburb ten miles out of downtown, so pumped from her time with Kelly that her hands were shaking as she gripped the steering wheel. She knew she had to face this showdown, and she had to do it now. She had delayed long enough. Her confusion was leaving Kelly off balance and uncertain where he stood, which wasn’t fair, and keeping Tom in the dark, which was deceptive. She planned to talk to Tom alone first and then share the news with her parents.

At the gate which surrounded the estate she pressed a panel on the monitor clipped to her car visor. The wrought iron gate swung open as she approached it and she steered the newly repaired sports car down the long paved driveway flanked by poplar trees. The imposing colonial was not just a mansion but rather part of a small compound which featured servants’ quarters and a guest house along with a pool and tennis courts. The brick front two story colonial was set back from a grove of evergreens and flowering shrubs, fronted by a circular entrance leading to a carport at the side of the main house.

Mandy pulled her car under the overhang behind Tom’s Mercedes. No one else appeared to be at the house, which was good since this promised to be a confrontation and she didn’t want an audience for the conversation.

As she came up the front walk the door was opened by Hattie Rollins, the housekeeper who had worked for Mandy’s parents for twenty years. She eyed Mandy with distaste.

Hattie was a professional eavesdropper and always heard it right. “It was just a gesture, Hattie, Mom makes a big deal out of everything. Where is she?”

“In the solarium with your father. Congressman Henderson is in there with them too.”

Mandy nodded and walked down the entry hall to the back of the house.

“Can I get you anything?” Hattie asked as Mandy went through the screen door which opened to the solarium, a big enclosed deck winterized with glass panels and filled with plants.

“No, thanks. Talk to you later.”

Hattie, disappointed that she wasn’t going to get an earful, pretended to rearrange some flowers on a hall table and then departed, vowing to resume her reconnaissance at another time.

“There she is,” Tom greeted Mandy as she appeared in the flower room. He was holding a wine glass and came over to kiss her cheek.

Mandy sighed inwardly. He was going to make this difficult and all she could think about was her recent lovemaking with Kelly. Her lips and her nipples were still tingling from the exquisite pressure of Kelly’s caressing mouth. She wanted one thing: to get this onerous duty over with and go back to him.

“I think you would prefer to hear it alone,” she said to Tom.

Now he was getting concerned. “Does it have something to do with tonight’s event?” he asked.

Mandy could see that the light was beginning to dawn. “Tom, just come with me,” she said, edging toward the adjacent book lined room.

“I don’t see why your father and I can’t hear what you’re going to say,” Margaret interjected querulously.

“I agree,” Jonathan Redfield said, but his expression was worried rather than irritated.

Mandy gave up in exasperation. “Fine,” she said. “Since you’re all determined to air this like it’s a public news broadcast, I came here to tell Tom that I can’t marry him because I’m in love with someone else.”

They stared at Mandy as if she had just announced that she was joining the French Foreign Legion. Tom’s mouth fell open and Jonathan set his shot glass on a side table.

“I don’t know why you are, either, Mother. Since you’ve been here the whole time and not in China with Tom you should have been aware of what was happening.”

“I told you she was going to do this,” Margaret said in an aside to her husband. “That detective did everything but undress her in front of the Mayor tonight. I was humiliated.”

“Oh, get over yourself, Mother. It takes a lot more than a sweet, three second kiss before a supportive audience to humiliate you.”

Tom’s mouth finally closed and he seemed to find his voice.

"I can't believe this, Amanda. You are throwing me over, trashing all of our plans for the future, for a roll in the hay with this... kid?"

"Kelly is thirty years old, Tom. I'm twenty-eight. You are forty-five. Which member of this trio is age inappropriate?”

“Amanda,” Jonathan said sharply.

Mandy ignored him. “If I was old enough to be your wife and stepmother to your children, why is Kelly who is two years older than I am a kid?” she demanded of Tom.

He lifted his shoulders. "You know what I mean," Tom replied irritably.

"No, I don't. Unless you mean that he isn't a member of your country club and doesn't have lunch with the president of the town council." Mandy could feel her anger rising. "Kelly served six years in the Marine corps and has spent seven years on the police force. He was wounded in Iraq and has been shot on the job. He was decorated for valor twice by the Marines and received a citizens' medal for bravery tonight, delivered with speeches given by your golf buddies, Commissioner Foster and the Mayor. I believe you were present for the ceremony. Exactly what constitutes maturity on your planet?"

"Your boy toy is a stupid flatfoot who's spent too much time saluting the flag. He’s a testosterone freak who doesn't know he's playing a fool's game," Tom said snidely.

"Are your constituents aware of your attitude toward the police?" Mandy asked pointedly. "They might vote differently at the ballot box if they knew you have nothing but disdain for the cops you pledged to support in your last election."

"I can't believe you fell for that dimwit jock’s macho theatrics," Tom said disgustedly, ignoring her last comment. "You're trading a pile of muscles for a functioning brain."

"I see. So the next time my life is in danger, we'll call on an intellectual, like, say, yourself to save me?" She couldn't resist the opening he'd given her.

He surveyed her sourly. "I don't know why we ever let women into law school," he said darkly. He refilled his wine glass and bolted half of it.

"No, Tom, he doesn't. He hasn't asked to see my portfolio. His approach to relationships is a little different from yours."

"But I'm sure it has dawned on him that you're hardly impoverished," Tom persisted. "Even he can't be that oblivious."

Margaret hmmphed and her husband shot her a warning look.

Mandy sighed and shook her head. She couldn't possibly explain Kelly's complete indifference to financial gain to somebody like Tom, who lived for it.

"Then that's why he's marrying you," Tom said, with a slight lift of his shoulders. "Your monthly check would keep quite a few cops happy."

"He isn't marrying me. We haven't even discussed it."

Tom stared at her. "Then why are we having this conversation?"

Mandy forced herself to say nothing, buying some time. She was rattled by Tom’s blunt reaction, surprised that he had made no effort to temper stark reality or soften his blows. She had expected some prevarication or persuasion, not this instant hostility. But she should have been ready for it. She had seen him before when presented with an obstacle he hadn't anticipated and watched his good natured facade crumble in the face of opposition. She knew there was another side to him, a tough campaigner behind the mask of the genial politician. But she had never indicated that his plans for acquisition and management of her money might be in jeopardy. She hadn't cared much about that end of it and had accepted his interest in it as part of their deal. But now when he saw that plum disappearing from his orchard his response was turning ugly in a way that actually amazed her.

Mandy suddenly realized that Tom had misjudged the situation. His ego had not allowed him to consider Kelly a real rival, and he had also underestimated Mandy’s determination to fight for what she wanted. He had only seen her placate and mollify and indulge her parents. It had never occurred to him that she might want Kelly enough to defy them. He had never considered that she might change everything in her life for a cop Tom viewed as a poorly paid municipal employee with delusions of grandeur.