Crimson and Clover (13 page)

“We can always ask.” Katie stuck out her hand. “Partners, then?”

Maureen grasped her hand and shook it. “Partners.”

“Can anyone get in on this, or is it private?” Jay’s voice cut across the soporific hum of the dryers and both girls turned toward him in surprise. Maureen recovered first.

“The best news, Jay! Katie and I are going to be partners in a clothing design business.”

“That is good news.” Jay dropped into the chair next to Katie’s and removed one hand from the deep pocket of his black trench coat. Katie enjoyed the little thrill that shot through her when he took her hand and laced his fingers with hers.

“Did you come down here to do your laundry?” she joked.

His answering smile made her melt. “Hardly. Nicky’s coming round to get Stuart and Adam at one o’clock and I thought I’d catch a ride with them.”

Katie snickered at the thought of those four crammed into Nicky’s 1954 Ford Prefect with its pitted gray paint and lone remaining hubcap. “Be careful in that car. I think it’s just hanging on by a prayer.”

“That and elastics,” Maureen put in. “Scares me to tears every time he drives it.”

“Clear something up for me.” Katie tilted her head. “Nicky won’t be here for two hours and you’re sitting in a launderette. How’d that happen?”

With his free hand, Jay shook a cigarette from the pack he pulled from his pocket and put it between his lips. He fished around in the same pocket and pulled out a Zippo. “As to why I’m sitting here, I was passing by and saw you two through the window.” He lit the cigarette and stowed the lighter back in his pocket. “As to why I’m here so early … ” He smiled into her eyes.

“Ah, get a room.” Maureen’s grin belied her nasty tone.

“What a perfectly wonderful idea.” Jay got to his feet and pulled Katie from her chair.

Maureen caught Katie’s glance toward the dryers and waved her on. “Go shag the lovely man, Katie. I’ll bring your wash home. After all, what are partners for?”

• • •

The frantic rhythm of her heart began to slow and Katie lay still, listening to it. She could hear Jay’s heart beating, too; faster than hers, but slowing from its former frenetic pace. His warm weight was sprawled on top of her, his face nuzzled in her neck. She let her hands drift down the planes of his back and noticed his skin was beginning to cool. The quilts were bunched in an untidy tangle at the foot of the bed and she tried to snag one with her toes to pull up over Jay’s shoulders. After a few unsuccessful tries, she gave up and wrapped her arms around him instead. He took a deep breath and sighed.

“I’m sorry about your blouse,” he murmured.

A quiet laugh shook her as she remembered the haste with which Jay had divested her of her clothing. Her blouse had ended up a casualty, ripped halfway to her waist. “I’m not. Besides, it was worth it.” She turned her head on the pillow. “Better now?”

Black curls tickled her face as Jay raised his head. “No.” He gave her a look that reached to the depths of her soul. “I still want you more than ever.”

“Me, too,” she whispered and blew his hair away with a softly exhaled
whoof
.

One elegant hand rose and pushed the hair back from his forehead. “You’ll tell me if I’m too much for you?”

“Fat chance. I’m as bad as you are.” The chill air in the room was beginning to reach her now that Jay had propped himself on his elbows. “Can you grab one of those quilts?”

“Oh, yeah.” He jerked one of the quilts over them before rolling to his side and pulling Katie close. “Come here, love. You’re shivering.”

Katie sighed and snuggled against his chest. “What time is it?”

“I don’t know and I don’t care.” Jay slid his fingers through her hair and kissed her forehead. “I could stay here like this with you for days.” His sigh sounded aggravated and Katie felt a shiver of apprehension.

“What is it?” she asked, not sure she wanted to know.

One of Jay’s hands came around to stroke her cheek. “Nothing bad. I promise. It’s just that I thought once we’d been together, it would be … I’d feel … ” A note of frustration crept into his voice. “I thought it wouldn’t be so
urgent
. I thought I’d be able to stop thinking every bleedin’ minute about touching you and kissing you and being inside you.” His lips were hot against her forehead. “But I can’t. It’s worse now than it was and I didn’t fucking think that was possible!”

His words were so close to her earlier thoughts that she jerked in surprise. “I was thinking the exact same thing before you got here,” she said in wonder. “I was thinking I was some depraved fool or something.”

His laugh rumbled against her cheek. “If you are, then so am I. I must say, I’m relieved to know it’s not just me.” His voice grew serious. “I’ve never felt like this, Katie, and I don’t really know how to deal with it. I wasn’t having you on when I said I could stay with you like this for days. If it starts to bother you … ”

She put her fingers over his lips to stop the flow of words. “Never.” She shook her head. “It will never bother me, Jay, because I feel the same way.”

He took her hand in his and gently kissed her fingertips. “Then I’d say we’re well-matched.” Lifting her hand higher, he moved his lips across her palm, over her wrist, and down her arm to her elbow.

Little tremors shook her as desire for him flooded her body. “What about your rehearsal with Stuart and … and Nicky … and … ”

“Fuck them,” Jay muttered against her shoulder before continuing his slow, hot kisses up the side of her neck.

“But what if Nicky comes looking for you? Oh!” She closed her eyes and buried her hands in his hair at the gentle bite on her earlobe.

“If he’s into watching,” Jay breathed in her ear, “then he can bloody well takes notes. I want you, Katie.” He rolled her onto her back and spread her legs. “Right now.” He slipped a hand between her open thighs and she felt his smile against her lips. “And you want me, too.”

“Yes, I do,” she gasped, and opened her legs wider. “Right now.”

“Damn, Katie!” Stuart dropped his fork onto his plate, the resultant clatter making Katie wince. Though the plate was nowhere near Haviland, it was one of her good ones. After all, she’d wanted this dinner for the two of them to be nice and she’d been looking forward to spending Thanksgiving with the only other American she knew in London. “You’re part of the silent majority.”

“So what if I am?” Katie narrowed her eyes at him across the table, her ire rising at his accusatory stare. She hadn’t intended for dinner to turn into one of those tedious discussions she’d had to put up with in the Haight. “Pulling out of Vietnam now will do more harm than good. If we just give up, do you honestly think Hanoi will stop at South Vietnam?”

“Fuck Hanoi and fuck South Vietnam.” Red patches appeared on Stuart’s cheeks. “Nixon just wants to keep this war going … ”

“Bullshit!” Katie interrupted. “Johnson was the one who made it a war. He did nothing — nothing! — to try to win because he was making tons of bread off those Baby Hueys that kept getting blown out of the sky. Nixon’s having to clean up that mess and he can’t do it overnight. At least he’s bringing some of the boys home.”

“In a box!”

“Less boxes than Johnson brought home.” Katie felt her ears grow hot. This was not what she considered interesting dinner conversation.

“And if my brother comes home in one of those boxes, then I should just be glad that he’s one of a few?”

“No.” She took a deep breath. “Look, I don’t want anyone to come home in a box, dig? But if we just give up and leave then we’ll have to just do this again sometime in the future. Maybe not in Vietnam, but somewhere else, because the Viet Cong and other bastards like them will think we’ll just sit back while they take over the world.”

“You’re giving them too much credit,” Stuart scoffed. “They can’t take over the world.”

“Forgetting Tet, aren’t you? No one thought they could mount an offensive like that, either.”

“Oh, come on!” The red in his cheeks spread to his forehead. “Westmoreland had his head up his ass and … ”

“Enough!” Katie held up both hands. “I refuse to fight the Vietnam War over Thanksgiving dinner. In fact,” she forestalled another outburst from Stuart. “I refuse to in any way discuss, debate or dick around about the Vietnam War anywhere at any time. We’re just going to have to agree to disagree about this and let it go.”

Stuart opened and closed his mouth a few times, but the flush of anger began to fade from his face. “All right, then,” he conceded. “No more war talk.”

Katie breathed a sigh of relief. She couldn’t remember how they’d gotten started on the war anyway, since it was one of the things she avoided discussing like the plague. All it did in her opinion was start fights between friends and raise blood pressure levels to dangerous heights. She loved Stuart like a brother and didn’t want something like a war neither of them could do anything about to ruin that.

“How’s the turkey?” she asked, her voice neutral.

A ghost of a smile touched Stuart’s mouth. “Delicious.” The tension seemed to drain from his body and he sat back in his chair, abandoning the aggressive posture he’d assumed during their disagreement. “It’s really cool you cooked Thanksgiving dinner, man. This is one of the things I’ve really missed.” He picked up his fork and directed his attention to his meal.

“I may live in England now, but I’m not giving up my American traditions.” She grinned. “Just wait until you see what I have planned for Fourth of July.”

Stuart’s laughter rang through the flat. “That’s not exactly a big holiday over here, you know.”

“Hey, I did the whole Bonfire Night thing. They can put up with a little Colonial rebellion for one day from me.”

Snickering, Stuart helped himself to more dressing from the dish in the middle of the table. “Don’t tell my mom, but I think this dressing is better than hers.”

Katie felt a blush of embarrassment warm her cheeks. “Thanks. I’m glad it turned out. It was our housekeeper’s recipe and I’m afraid she’d haunt me if I messed it up.”

“You had a housekeeper?”

Mouth set in a thin line, Katie cursed herself for her slip. “Well, yeah.” She hurried to implement damage control. “Remember, my mom died when I was just a little kid. Dad needed house help and someone to look after me.”

Stuart’s eyes sparkled with amusement. “You had a mammy?”

It was Katie’s turn to drop her fork to her plate with a clatter. “Not funny, Stuart.”

His eyes widened with surprise. “What’d I say? All I meant was … oh, shit.” Understanding dawned on his face. “I forgot you grew up in Birmingham. Man, Katie, I didn’t mean anything by it.”

With a sigh, Katie let her irritation fade. “Damn. Isn’t there anything these days that doesn’t ruffle someone’s feathers?”

“Well, there’s always music.” Stuart smiled. “Didn’t some cat say, ‘Where words fail, music speaks’?”

“Yeah, I think it was Hans Christian Andersen.”

“The guy who wrote that mermaid thing?”

The look of astonishment on Stuart’s face was so funny that Katie had to laugh. “Among other things. Don’t you Texans study literature in high school?”

“They taught it.” Grinning, Stuart attacked his dressing. “Doesn’t mean I ever listened.”

“So let’s talk about music, then. How’s it going with the band?” She already knew a lot about Shadowed Knight from listening to Jay, but she wanted to steer the conversation in a less confrontational direction. As she’d thought, it drove all thoughts of war and civil rights from Stuart’s head.

“It’s so outta sight, man, you wouldn’t believe it.” His cheeks turned red again, this time with excitement. “When this album comes out, people’s minds are going to be blown. That fucking Jay is a genius, man. A genius!”

Katie agreed with that statement. She’d heard Jay playing some of the new music during her frequent visits to his house and had been left in awe of the things he could do with a guitar. “He’s pretty good, all right.”

“Pretty good?” Stuart started to protest, but was stopped by the look of mischief on her face. “Smart ass,” he muttered. “But it’s not just the guitar. The things he and Nicky are talking about doing with the production are just far fuckin’ out.” Some of the animation faded from his face. “Sometimes I wonder, though.”

Her curiosity was aroused by his tone and thoughtful expression. “Wonder about what?”

“Well … ” He shrugged. “I just hope that stuff comes off as well live as it does on the recordings. I guess we’ll find out soon enough.”

“Uh-huh.” She jumped up and retrieved the pumpkin pie from the counter. “When are y’all leaving?” Just the thought of the band leaving make her jittery and that irritated her. It wasn’t that she expected Jay to hang around playing guitar under her window for the rest of their lives; she knew the score going into things and frequent absences were part of it. Her track record was her cause for concern. If Jay Carey came back to her after a long time apart, he’d be the first person in her life that she’d really cared about to do so.

“We’re leaving just after Christmas whether Adam likes it or not.” Stuart’s eyes got wide when he spied the pie she held. “Hot damn, Katie. Is that pumpkin pie?” He slid off his chair onto one knee. “Baby, will you marry me?”

Despite her misgivings about Jay’s leaving, she laughed at Stuart and nudged him with her foot. “No, you big doofus. Now get up so you can eat some of this and tell me what you meant about Adam.”

Stuart hopped back onto his chair and took the pie from her. “Jay didn’t tell you?” At the negative shake of her head he shrugged. “It’s really not that big a deal, but Adam wanted us to play London first thing. I guess he wants to show off a bit and playing little pubs in random villages isn’t big enough for him.”

“You know, I wondered about that, too.” Much as she hated it, she was kind of on Adam’s side. She’d never forgive him for the things he’d said and done, but she had to admit he had a point. “Why not start out in London?”

Stuart shook his head as he sliced the pie into six large sections. “No, man, we don’t want to do that. See, I was like Adam when Jay and Nicky first told us we were going to play at every wide spot in the road all over England. But it makes sense for us to really hone our sound, get our shit together, you know?” He took a bite of the pie and closed his eyes. “Jesus,” he muttered around a mouthful. “I’ve missed this.”