Not That Kind of Girl (30 page)

“I’m doing the talking. You’re doing the listening.”

Bea’s eyes went wide. “All right, Gloria.”

“Now.” The old woman took a breath. Bea watched her chest tremble with the effort. “You knew Eli was right for Roxie, didn’t you?”

Bea stiffened in her chair, realizing that Gloria must have heard what she’d said to Eli at the baby shower. But how could she have? It had been noisy and Gloria was seated on the other side of the room.

Gloria waved her unspoken questions away. “I saw you talking to him. I knew you were telling him to go after her. My question is this: do you know why, exactly, you did that?”

Bea laced her fingers together and let her hands fall to her lap. Bea had known for a while now that Gloria had a special affection for her, that she’d taken her under her wing. To what end, Bea hadn’t understood until quite recently.

But she didn’t want Gloria wasting her precious energy on anything that wasn’t urgent. And this topic, though fascinating, wasn’t urgent.

Unless Gloria really was dying. Bea tried hard not to cry.

“Go on,” Gloria said. “Tell me how you knew. There’s no time to waste.”

Bea offered her a brave smile and took her cool and dry hand in her own. “It felt right, somehow. It’s hard to describe.”

Gloria smiled back. “Find a way.”

Bea inhaled deeply and let her eyes sweep across the hospital room, noting how the evening shadows made even the flowers and balloons look sad and gray. “I don’t know, Gloria. I’m not sure there are words for it.”

“Oy! You used to know sixty different ways to tell newspaper readers that a man hit a home run. Give it a shot.”

Bea chuckled, but stopped when Gloria closed her eyes and seemed to go limp. “I’m resting, not dead. Try to find the words.”

Bea rolled her eyes. One of the things she loved about Rachel was that she’d inherited not only her mother’s caring heart but also her preference for pointed conversation.

“I sensed some kind of complementary energy, I guess,” Bea said. “I know this is going to sound very strange to you, but it was almost as if their
flavors
were what made them go together.”

“Go on.”

“Well, it was like Eli’s qualities had a certain flavor to them. Every time I met him, his energy tasted pleasing and pure but incredibly strong at the same time. It was a wonderful combination. And Roxie, well, she can be tart on the surface and sweet-spicy inside, like Chinese food.”

Gloria blew out a puff of air, her eyes still shut. “So Eli is fine wine and Roxie is sweet-and-sour pork?”

Bea laughed. “I know. It’s ridiculous.”

Gloria opened her eyes. They were sparkling again. Her grin was wide. “It isn’t the words you use to describe the hunch that matter, Bea. It’s the hunch itself. Always go with the hunch, no matter how it comes to you. Me? I relied on a spectrum of humming sensations that would course through me, but I’ve also had that sense of flavor you talk about.”

“Seriously?”

“Absolutely.”

“Do Rachel and I hum?” Bea asked.

“So loud it’s deafening.”

Gloria was obviously exhausted from the talking. Bea patted her forearm and told her she’d see her first thing in the morning.

“No,” Gloria said, grasping at Bea unsteadily. “Bea, I’m counting on you to carry on the work. Use your gift. Follow your hunches. They are never wrong.”

“I will, Gloria.” She bent down to kiss her forehead.

“Swear to me,” she whispered.
“Swear it.”

Bea stood by the bedside and studied Gloria—frail and ashen, yet, for that instant, her eyes burned with a fierceness that belonged to someone at the peak of health.

“You want me to hook people up? You want me to help people find their beloved? As my
job
?”

Gloria nodded, her eyes welling with tears.

“Well, okay. Why not?” Bea said, not wanting to agitate her more than she already had. She tucked in the blankets around her bony frame and kissed her forehead once more. “Now you rest.”

*   *   *

Roxanne had never pretended to be a gourmand. In fact, she’d never pretended to be a decent cook. But in honor of Sondra and Carole’s visit that evening, she’d whipped together one of her staples—fettuccine Alfredo with grilled chicken, a nice salad, and garlic bread. Eli had been put in charge of dessert and made brownies from scratch, which he planned to top with vanilla ice cream.

Roxanne had to admit that cooking in the middle of Utah didn’t pose any additional challenge. Eli had a huge walk-in freezer downstairs stocked with enough meat, fish, and staples to last through Armageddon. And a quick trip to the Panguitch Grocery Coop scored some salad makings and a loaf of fresh Italian bread, and they were set.

Sondra and Carole arrived early, because Carole wanted to give the couple a chance to pack up and get plenty of rest before their drive the next morning. That was thoughtful of her, but Roxie suspected it was all part of Carole’s plan to ensure she wouldn’t have to spend much time in Roxie’s company.

Dinner was pleasant. Roxie accepted compliments all around for the meal. Sondra’s starstruck enthusiasm over Roxie’s Web site had dimmed a bit, but she still managed to ask Roxie a dozen questions about its day-to-day operation.

“Not that I’d ever want to compete with you or anything, but I was thinking how cool it would be to set up my own site—maybe one just for the former partners of serial cheaters.”

“Sondra,”
was all Carole had to say about that.

After a quick cleanup of the kitchen, Eli asked Sondra to help him with evening rounds down at the kennels. Awkwardly enough, that left Carole and Roxie alone in the living room, with nothing to do but sip wine and alternate their gazes from the sunset to the fire in the fireplace. After a few moments of tense silence, Roxie realized it would be up to her.

“Carole.”

“Roxanne.”

They spoke almost at the same time, which provided a good laugh.

“You go first,” Roxanne said.

“No, you,” Carole said.

Roxie put down her wine glass and tucked her legs beneath her in the big leather armchair. She hadn’t anticipated having a one-on-one conversation with Eli’s mother, but figured she’d take advantage of it. “I just want to reassure you that I don’t intend to hurt Eli. I don’t have my claws out.”

Carole blinked, sipping her wine.

“He’s been incredibly good to me. We haven’t known each other long, but there’s been this
potent
attraction from the start. We both feel it, we enjoy it, and we want to see where it goes.”

Carole nodded slowly.

“I know you don’t approve of what I do for a living, but I assure you it won’t influence my relationship with Eli.”

“Hmm, interesting,” Carole said. “Of course, I have nothing against you personally, Roxanne. You are a lovely and intelligent woman.” Her words were carefully meted out and Roxanne wondered whether she’d rehearsed them in advance. “But no mother wants to see her son walk into something with ‘heartbreak’ written all over it.”

“Ah.” Roxie crossed her arms over her chest. “You think I’m going to break his heart?”

“Oh, I know so.”

Roxie nearly choked. She might not have her claws out, but this mama bear sure did—even though her cub was thirty-two years old and could clearly take care of himself and nearly everyone else in his orbit. “What makes you so certain?”

Carole sighed deeply. She placed her wineglass on a side table and leaned in toward Roxanne. “You’re a bitter girl. Someone hurt you very badly and one day Eli will do something really stupid—because all men do. Who knows? The issue may even be something completely beyond his control, something he has nothing to do with!” Carole nodded with certainty. “But you will turn that bitterness on full blast and you’ll rip him to shreds. It may not happen right away, but it’ll happen.”

Roxanne was dumbstruck. And it occurred to her that if they’d had this conversation a week ago, Carole would have been dead right about it all. But not now. Not after what Roxie had learned about herself, Eli, life. Not after what Eli had so lovingly shown her.

“Look, Carole,” she said, lowering her voice and speaking as calmly as possible. “I am not perfect, but I’m working on being the best person I can be. How about you? Have you never made a mistake? Have you never gone off course and had to steer yourself back? Have you never had to ask someone to give you a second chance?”

Carole pulled her mouth into a tight line.

Roxanne went on. “So, yeah, I had some bad experiences and I let them get to me, but I’m learning to let it go, a little bit every day, because I don’t want to live like that anymore. Eli’s been helping me find a different approach. Now, if that’s not good enough for you—if my desire to do better and my sincere affection for your son aren’t enough—then I guess you’re shit out of luck, and
you’re
the one who’s going to be bitter.”

They sat in silence. Roxie’s heart was pounding. She could hear her breath sawing in and out of her nostrils. Carole’s face had gone as red as the sunset. Just then, Sondra and Eli clomped up the porch steps.

“Point taken,” Carole said, reaching for her wineglass and raising it, a wry smile on her face. “To second chances.”

Roxanne clinked her glass to Carole’s. “I love him, you know. I love him so much my heart hurts,” she said. The words spilled from Roxie’s mouth and then they were out there. She couldn’t take them back.

“I love him, too,” Carole said.

Just then, the front door flew open. Sondra came rushing in with a gust of evening air, her eyes alive with excitement. Eli followed behind, looking slightly sheepish.

“Guess what, Mom?” she announced. “You and I are going to fly to San Francisco to lend our moral support at the vicious dog hearing! Doesn’t that sound like the best idea
ever
?”

*   *   *

After twelve-plus hours in the truck, they longed to stretch their legs. Besides, Roxie needed to practice her newfound pack leader skills in an environment in which Lilith had only experienced fear and instability.

Eli walked at Roxie’s right side, and Lilith was on the leash to the left. As Eli had shown her, Roxie’s eyes were to the front or slowly scanning the horizon. She did not talk to Lilith or look at her. She walked with the short leash loosely draped over her fingers, her arm limp at her side, not a twinge of tension anywhere. They’d been walking like this for about twenty minutes, and it had been the best twenty minutes Roxie had spent in the company of her dog within the San Francisco city limits.

“How does it feel?” Eli asked nonchalantly.

Roxie smiled at him. “Surreal. Fabulous. Wonderful.”

“Don’t get too worked up,” he reminded her.

Roxie chuckled. “Whatever you say.” She stretched up and kissed him on the cheek.

They rounded the corner of Sanchez Street and, of course, they encountered Mrs. Delano. Roxie whispered to Eli, “This is the Sweeping Lady I was telling you about.”

Eli nodded. No one else would have known, but Roxanne could see Eli plugging into the woman, her movements, her energy.
“Yikes,”
he said under his breath.

“Good evening, Mrs. Delano,” Roxie said. She and Eli stopped as she continued sweeping her driveway. Lilith sat down calmly at Roxie’s side without being asked.

Suddenly, Mrs. Delano stopped her
swshh
ing in mid-stroke. She glared at Lilith and then at Roxie and Eli, her brow furrowed.

“This is Eli Gallagher,” Roxie said. “Eli, this is Mrs. Delano.”

Though Eli offered his hand, she gripped the broom with a vengeance.

“We don’t get many cowboys in this neighborhood,” she said, checking him out from boots to the brim of his hat. “Are you one of those Chippendale fellows?”

“No, ma’am,” he replied, biting the inside of his cheek.

It took concentrated effort and a couple of deep breaths for Roxie not to bust out in a guffaw.

Mrs. Delano nodded toward Lilith next, and her frown intensified. “Good thing you finally put her on drugs,” she said. “Safer for everyone.”

Roxanne smiled at her. “Well, have a nice evening.” Their little pack began to move off down the sidewalk.

“Your old flame was here the other day, asking a bunch of questions.” Mrs. Delano paused, then chuckled. “He looked like somebody threw him under a bus.”

Roxie felt her entire body seize in anxiety. Her back and arm went rigid. Immediately, Lilith began to pull at the leash and whine. Roxie didn’t even look at Eli. She knew what she had to do. She took three seconds to breathe, remember her place as pack leader, and feel the stability move back into her flesh and bone. Lilith quieted.

Roxie turned slowly. “Thanks for letting me know,” she said to Mrs. Delano.

“He was asking about some young blond woman he thinks you’re carrying on with. He kept asking about her. He wouldn’t let it drop. It was like he had some kind of obsession problem. Ha! I told him I’d never seen her.”

“Well, thank you. Have a nice evening.” With that, Roxie turned again and they headed toward the house. “What the hell was that about?” she wondered aloud.

“Who knows? The only thing that matters is that you did real good, Ms. Bloom.” Eli slipped his hand around her waist. “Damn good.”

“I did, didn’t I? And it felt great!” She smiled up at Eli. “Now all I have to do is keep it together when he’s standing right in front of me, breathing fire, evil seeping from every pore of his body.”

Eli shrugged. “No problem.”

“It’ll be a snap,” she said, opening her front door. She and Eli stepped across the threshold first, then she motioned for Lilith to join them. She toddled in, tail wagging, head held high.

“Roxie.” Eli reached for her, pulling her up against the front of his body. She felt the heat coming off his skin, the ease coming into her from him, the way it always did.

“You’re going to do great.”

“I am,” she said, nodding gently.

“I will be right there the whole time.”

“I know.”

“Raymond Sandberg is just a sad, angry, lost guy, running around chasing phantoms and making threats. He can’t touch you. And he can’t touch Lilith.”