Part 18 (1/2)
”Sure.” Lucy nodded, smiling.
But I'm leaving after the first of the year...
Well. She set down her gla.s.s and ladled a bowl of soup for Landy Walker, then shared noisy giggles with Jenny from the cafe over the unfunny subject of serving food to the same people no matter where they went. Lucy wasn't going to think about leaving. Not now. She was having too much fun.
”Being sixty doesn't mean calming down a lot, does it?” Kelly swept up confetti and cake crumbs while Lucy stripped the tables. ”That's encouraging.”
”It is, isn't it?” Lucy loaded the was.h.i.+ng machine and came back with a bottle of white zinfandel. ”I have no idea what one of them was doing in the laundry room-they must have gotten lost searching for the john-but this was sitting on the washer. It's been opened and it's still cold. What do you say?”
”Do you know how to play poker?”
”Badly.”
Kelly grinned, leading the way into the kitchen and putting away the broom and dustpan. ”All the better.”
”The cards are in the junk drawer.” Gert, in a robe, white socks and Birkenstock sandals, came into the room with Kinsey draped over her arm. ”I'm feeling much better. I can enjoy some wine and something to eat. Lucy, can you loan us some change?”
Lucy dug handfuls of quarters out of the pickle jar, accepting bills in exchange. ”We brought you home some stuff from the soup supper,” she said, ”but we were hungry for something besides hors d'oeuvres and birthday cake crumbs after the partiers went home, so we ate most of it.”
”It's all right.” Gert came out of the pantry with a jar of the salsa Lucy had made and a bag of tortilla chips. ”I'm feeling snacky anyway. How was the supper?”
They gave her a blow-by-blow report on the soup supper, lying shamelessly about Crockett and Boone's performances while they told attendees where to park. ”I doubt they're really playing poker.” Kelly dealt five card draw as she spoke. ”They're probably in jail. Tom can only cover for so much before he has to quit being the buddy and be the law.”
Lucy groaned. ”Oh, yuck. You deal like a lawyer.”
”I am a lawyer.”
”Not in your heart. In your heart, you're...well...not. I'll take three cards.”
After winning the first hand, Kelly asked, ”So what am I in my heart?”
”I don't know.” Lucy flinched at the hand she'd been dealt. She'd thought she and Kelly were getting along better, but there was no way a friend would do this to her. ”Maybe a used car salesman? I'll take three. Again.”
”None for me.” Gert smiled smugly. ”I don't need them.”
It was almost midnight when Lucy threw up her hands. ”I'm done. I've lost my entire twenty dollars.”
”And I don't have to be a lawyer anymore because I won it.” Kelly put the deck back into its box. ”I need to get home anyway.”
”No, you don't. You need to stay here. That gla.s.s of whatever it was you and Lucy concocted from fruit juice and beer after you drank a bottle and a half of wine sent you right over the edge.” Gert waved toward the back stairs. ”Your room's always ready.”
Kelly nodded, her eyes dark with fatigue. ”I'm not going to argue. I'm too tired. Although it does bear mentioning that Lucy and I didn't drink that wine by ourselves, Aunt Gert. You swilled at least a water gla.s.s full of it.”
”It was purely medicinal.”
Lucy and Kelly both snorted. ”For sure,” Lucy said. ”That'll hold up in court, all right.”
They loaded their gla.s.ses and plates into the dishwasher and went to bed, Kinsey trotting along beside Lucy.
”Got any PJs I can wear?” Kelly asked from behind them. ”I think the only ones in my room are from junior high and have rock stars on them. Remember Mr. Big? I was in love with their lead singer.”
”Sure.” Although Lucy didn't remember the band Kelly mentioned. The radio in Dolan's kitchen had always been tuned to a news channel and the music in the dining room was Irish-she hadn't been to a concert until her one-time fiance had taken her to see Bruce Springsteen. She'd been so enthralled by the Boss she hadn't wanted to leave.
Barely awake but with a Springsteen song playing in her head, Lucy gave Kelly a pair of pink plaid pajama pants and a matching tank top. ”Sleep tight.”
”Thanks. You, too.” Kelly hesitated. ”I was wrong about you, Lucy.”
Lucy shrugged. ”You were protecting your family from an unknown quant.i.ty who came out of nowhere. It's hard for me to fault that.”
Kelly shook her head, a skeptical smile on her face. ”Good G.o.d, woman, don't you ever hold a grudge?”
”Nope. Life's too short and I'm way too sleepy. Not to mention all the times I watched that movie.”
”Point taken, Pollyanna. Good night.”
Lucy put on pajamas, tossing her clothes in the general vicinity of the hamper before crawling into bed. Kinsey crept up to lie in the curve behind her knees, and Lucy reached to scratch her head. ”It was a nice day, Kinsey,” she murmured, and was asleep in minutes, the words and music of ”Born to Run” a lullaby for her mind.
While it was true that her purr was l.u.s.ty enough to nearly shake a bed, Kitty Kinsale scarcely ever meowed, and when she did it was very soft and polite. Gert said the little cat was asking, ”If it wouldn't be too much trouble, would you feed me now?” Boone called her rude names, but he spent as much time petting her and catering to her gently placed requests as everyone else did.
This being the case, Lucy was surprised to be awakened by an insistent cat patting her face and meowing. The clock on the table by the bed said it was 1:07 a.m., and she groaned. Even though she didn't usually sleep through the night, her uninterrupted slumber almost always lasted at least a couple of hours. ”What's wrong, Kinsey?” She scratched the cat's head and tried to make her lie down, but Kinsey responded by biting her chin.
”Ouch!” Lucy pushed her away and sat up. ”What's gotten into you?”
Kinsey ran to the bedroom door and scratched at it, another first, and Lucy climbed out of bed. Her eyes felt as though they were full of crumbled saltines. She pushed her feet into flip-flops and stepped into the silent hallway. Even though there was a nightlight on the wall, the steep back stairs seemed unusually dark as she followed Kinsey toward the kitchen.
Halfway down, she smelled it.
No, no, no.
She twisted around on the staircase and rushed back up, crossing the wide hall to Kelly's room and bursting in. She ran to the bed, yelping in pain when she tripped over the shoes in her path. ”Kelly!” she yelled. ”Kelly, get out now!”
Kelly moaned, yanking loose from Lucy's grasp. ”I just went to bed, for Chrissake. Where's the frickin' fire?”
”I don't know, but it's there somewhere. I can smell it. Come on!”
Still groggy, Kelly followed her from the room.
”Go down. Get Gert out. I'm going to get Boone and Crockett.” When Kelly hesitated, Lucy yelled again, ”Go now!”
Kelly headed down and Lucy went up, shouting all the way. She expected the men to meet her halfway, but they didn't, and she ran across the sitting area of the third floor to Boone's door, pus.h.i.+ng it open.
The room was empty, the bed still made. Lucy slammed the door and opened Crockett's. Empty too. They weren't even home yet, and she'd wasted precious time searching for them. The thought made her angry, even though the part of her mind that wasn't scared to death understood that they were adults who didn't have to report their comings and goings to her.