Seems Like Old Times (21 page)

Lee bent forward to ease the burning ache in the pit of
her stomach. That night, on the road to San Francisco, a drunken driver crashed
head on into the car Jack Reynolds was driving. He was killed instantly, and
Judith returned to Miwok, her pelvis crushed, her dreams of glamour and fortune
shattered as completely as her hip.

o0o

Miriam didn’t return to Miwok until four o’clock Wednesday
afternoon. She looked sheepish, yet floated about three feet in the air and
bubbled with enthusiasm as she told her about the brave, dashing, handsome and
exciting rodeo riders. When Lee asked about one particular handsome and
exciting ex-rodeo rider, she was surprised to see Miriam grow flustered. Miriam
soon went upstairs to lie down a moment--the ride back had been a long one. A
half-hour later, Lee peeked in the guestroom and found her aunt sound asleep.
Lee chuckled and pulled the door quietly shut.

She spent Wednesday and Thursday discarding, recycling,
and boxing clothes, appliances, dishes and so on for charity. She worked with
Janet
Lettice
on which furniture should be kept,
which discarded, and when the
painter,
drapes and
carpet would arrive. In between, she spent hours on the phone with New York.
She decided to skip the special about Moscow. It would have taken her away from
the action for too long, and if she made the jump to Nighttime News, it
wouldn’t be at all feasible to do a major report for the competition.

Friday morning, Tony called and asked Lee to dinner with
him before the dance.

She thought she should check to see if her dress needed to
be pressed. She’d brought a Bill Blass original with her. It was a smooth dove
gray silk dress with thin straps and a jet-beaded bodice. Taking it out of the
closet, she studied it a long time. It was too elegant for a dance at the
gym...but it looked terrific.

She sorted through the few clothes she'd packed, trying to
decide if dressing one of them up, a scarf here, a new belt there, or a pin, or
a corsage, or a jacket, would work. She remembered watching a rerun of
Gone
With The
Wind
and how Scarlett O'Hara make a gorgeous
dress out of drapery. She eyed her bedroom curtains with mock desperation.
Too flimsy.

She tossed the clothes aside.

She hadn’t brought--and didn’t own--anything befitting an
oldies dance. Her clothes were too sophisticated. Hell, she was too
sophisticated. What was she thinking, going to such a thing?

Her angst grew. From a bureau drawer she took out the
small jewelry box she'd brought with her and poured through it. Boring!
Everything in the box was plain, practical--expensive--but boring. Now what?

Shoes! She dived onto the floor of the closet. She'd only
brought a few pair, and tossed them out to the middle of the floor, one by one.
They were all pumps--stylish, business-like, but more for comfort than
something one would wear to a dance--except for dark gray silk with four-inch
heels that looked great with the Bill Blass dress.

She sat on the floor. Shoes, jewelry, and clothes covered
the carpet, the bed, and the bureau top. She was definitely losing it.

o0o

Gene
Cantelli
helped Tony carry
the baseball bats and helmets to his car after the team practice. Gene wasn't
an assistant coach because the hours his shop was open usually conflicted with
games and practice, but he had a good arm and batting eye, and Tony welcomed
his help working one-on-one with the boys whenever his schedule permitted. This
Friday afternoon, though, the sun was bright and the air crisp and clean, Gene
left his part time assistant minding the store and took off to find Tony's
Bruins. He helped Ricky and Paul with batting, Jimmy and Bobby with throwing accuracy,
and had a special fondness for Micah, a fatherless boy who needed help with
every fundamental. If ever a kid might run the bases backwards, Micah was the
one. But he had a big heart, guts, and a fantastic desire to learn. Gene gave
the boy all the time he could.

"Hey,
paisan
," Gene
said to Tony as the boys ran off to meet parents and carpools for their rides
home, "I heard you’re taking Lee Reynolds to a high school dance."

"Yeah.
So?"

"What are you? Last of the big-time spenders?"

"It’s not a date. It’s a charity thing. That’s the
only reason I asked her."

"Ah...charity."

"Why don’t you come see for yourself?"

"I would, but I’m taking Miriam to a play in San
Francisco. Tom Stoppard. I want to show her that even
us
cowboys got some
culcha
."

Tony eyed him. Gene and Vic had been friends a long time.
Tony thought of him almost as a big brother. He’d never known Gene to care what
any woman thought of his culture, or anything else. "You seem to like her
quite a bit."

Gene walked in silence a long time. "I’ll tell you a
secret, Tony. For a long time I went out with girls a lot younger than me. I
thought it’d keep me young. Instead, they were a constant reminder that I’m
getting old. Miriam, though, sees my age as just fine. Around her, I can be
myself. I really like it. I really like
her
. She’s smart, attractive,
sexy
as hell, and she’s got a great sense of humor."

"Interesting," Tony said.

"Yeah...that it is. No one is more surprised than me,
paisan
, let me tell you. Say, why
don’t you
come over to the saddle shop. I’ve got some new
gear I’d like to show you."

"I’d better not. I'm taking Lisa to dinner first. I
can't
go smelling
like horse gear. That stuff gets in
your pours and there's no getting rid of it. Besides, I'll have to pick up some
clothes at the cleaners. They won't be ready until four-thirty, then the place
closes at
five,
and if I'm late--"

Gene gave a belly laugh. "I'm sure glad this date
doesn't mean anything to you."

o0o

That evening, Lee’s hands shook as she put on silk stockings
held up with a black garter belt. She poked a fingernail right through one leg.
Nervously, she tossed the stocking aside and got a new one. Next, as she dabbed
on Joy de Jean
Patou
perfume, her fingers slipped and
a bunch of it splashed onto her cleavage. She put the perfume vial down and
took several deep breaths trying to relax, but all they accomplished was to
make her head feel light.

This wasn't a date, she repeated. But who was she trying
to convince?
And why?

o0o

Tony couldn't find a decent tie in all fifty or so that he
owned. Everyone he knew gave him ties for father's day, his birthday,
Christmas. You'd think that at least one of all those people had good taste.

He settled on a gray, brown, and
rose
print tie. He thought it would go well with his casually cut, soft tannish-gray
Armani suit, and a white shirt.

He shaved and nearly slit his throat. Wearing a piece of
toilet paper to stop the bleeding--he sure hoped he remembered to take it off
before he left the house--he began to dress. His tee-shirts were all wrinkled.
As he set up the ironing board, he stopped and wondered what the hell he was
doing.

He put on his socks and noticed that one was black and the
other navy. At least his shoes matched. He switched to two black socks.

Luckily, the nick stopped bleeding before he put on his
shirt. Then he tried to tie the damn necktie he'd picked out. His thumbs kept
getting in the way. Maybe he should use a clip-on.

He could imagine Lisa's face if he showed up with some
dorky clip-on tie. She'd cancel the date right then and there.

He sat on the bed. He hadn't even left the house and he
was already exhausted.

o0o

The last time Lee had stood in her bedroom getting ready
to go on a big date was the night of the senior prom. She remembered doing
everything she could to make Judith happy with her, as usual. And as usual,
nothing seemed to work.

She was so upset over her difficulties with
Judith,
she had even fought with Tony. That made it easy,
then, to say yes when Ken Walters asked her to the prom. She and Ken were like
two peas in a pod. Their coloring was the same, their interests, their straight
A
grades. Judith was ecstatic. Ken was every mother's
dream. Good looking, honor roll student and filthy rich. When Ken was accepted
at Harvard, even Lisa was impressed.

The problem was, when Tony found out she was going to the
prom with Ken, he started seeing another girl. Lisa was consumed with jealousy.

That situation lasted about a month,
then
Tony and Lisa got together again. Ken was furious.

In retrospect, Lee couldn't blame him. Ken thought she’d
broken up with Tony to go with him, when all she was doing, she realized later,
was using him to make Judith happy. It was not one of her finer moments. She
should have expected the trouble such deception would cause.

Ken had gotten even, though. On prom night, he stood her
up.

She'd never forget her humiliation, standing at the window
in her fancy prom dress, watching the empty street as the minutes ticked away.
And Judith's outrage--at Lisa, not at Ken.
Lisa had failed
her again.

An hour and half later, Tony showed up
wearing a tuxedo, with prom tickets in his pocket and a gardenia corsage in his
hand.
Lisa burst into tears.

Judith was beside herself with rage as Lisa walked out the
door with him. It was the first time she had ever openly defied her mother.
Always before Lisa had tried to please, to give in to Judith's
wishes.
Not this time, though. The end of her high school years had come
and she had almost...
almost
...missed celebrating it with the one person
who was more important to her than anyone else in the world.

She paid for defying Judith, though. In a sense, the cost
had been the life she'd known, because that was the beginning of the end.

Now, she applied her make up with great care. Just a couple
of minutes before six o'clock, she reached for her dress and slipped it over
her head.

Standing in front of the mirror in her
old bedroom, the smells of
make up
and shampoo,
perfume and bath oils mixed around her just as they had long ago.

Her stomach jumped and twisted like a demented acrobat as
she looked at the clock and studied her image again.

Jewelry! She looked at the ugly holes in her earlobes with
a shudder. Reaching for the box with her diamond stud earrings, she put them
on.

A small diamond pendant on a platinum filigree chain was
perfect with the dress.

She had just fastened the clasp when the doorbell rang.
She froze, remembering prom night...hearing the bell and seeing Tony, standing
in her doorway, looking more handsome in his black tuxedo than she'd ever seen
him.

I won't let Ken do this to you, Lisa. You're going to
your prom, and you're going with me.

Now, she slowly walked
dawn
the
stairs. Taking deep breaths to compose
herself
, she
waited a moment then pulled open the door.

He stood in front of her, his expression wary. Then, as he
looked at her, his face slowly crinkled into that old, familiar smile. Warmth
filled her. She noticed the casual Armani cut of his suit, his tie, the way
every hair was in place, the scent of Polo. She was relieved that he’d gone to
this trouble for her. She’d have felt awfully foolish in her Blass original if
he were in jeans. But then, Tony had always been a cool dresser.

His breath caught as she stood before him, her
sophisticated beauty dazzling in the understated elegance of her gray dress.
From the wives of highly paid major leaguers, he had learned to recognize
designer originals. That was one. He couldn’t believe she’d gone to such
trouble tonight.

"Hello, Tony," she said.

"Hi."

She realized she'd kept him standing in the doorway far
too long. "Would you like to come in? Miriam already left for the city
with Gene or she’d have loved to see you."

"Well, if you’re ready," he said, gesturing
toward his car.

"Yes, I am." She grabbed her tiny purse, and
shut and locked the door.

His hand barely skimmed her elbow as he walked her to the
Jeep Cherokee parked in the driveway. "My only other car's a truck that
smells to hay and horses."

"This is fine." She climbed in, and suppressed a
small smile. If only her fellow newsmen could see her now, Lee Reynolds, star
anchor, dressed in a designer original worth a few thousand dollars, riding in
an SUV on the way to a high school gym. Somehow, though, it felt right. It felt
comfortable.

They drove to Miwok's finest restaurant, the Hillcrest
Lodge, situated, appropriately, at the top of a small hill.

After the waiter prepared and served their Caesar salad.
Tony asked Lee about living in New York, and she told him about her job. He
asked her about her friends, and she told him about the offer she was given to
switch to Nighttime News from her current situation.

"Your job means a lot to you, it seems," he said
quietly.

"I love my work."

"That’s great."

"That’s also why I’m hesitant to change networks,
even though it’s the best way to reach the next level."

He put down his fork and waited until he had all her
attention. "Lee Reynolds can work anywhere she wants," he said.
"You're one classy lady. Take your time. You should be happy and proud of
what you're doing."

His words warmed and filled all the empty corners of her
heart. Tony had always offered unconditional support and understanding, and in
a sense, he just did again.