The rest of the summer flew by, and he didn’t see her again, even working in the yard when the idea to offer to cut her grass occurred to him. But he saw that she had a lawn-cutting service, and that put an end to it.
When he returned to school, the firm laid off the part-time college students, and he went back to the gym. When Kendall commented on his physique, it confirmed he’d made the right decision. Lathering up in the shower, he was thinking about taking his clothes off in front of Kendall. They were thinking on the same wavelength.
Chapter Two
Saturdays were Kendall’s catch-up day. She wrote out bills or paid them online, grocery shopped, called her father in Detroit, and did what she could to get ready for the next week. The following Thursday was Thanksgiving. She was looking forward to staying home, having refused several kind invitations to eat with colleagues. In celebration, she would buy a prepared turkey dinner with all the fixin’s from the local grocery store, including a pumpkin pie.
Dressing for the tundra since it appeared another wintery blast was on its way, she got into the car and pulled out of the garage in time to see Mark come up the driveway. She rolled down the window.
“Where are you headed?” he asked.
“Grocery shopping, post office, and hardware store.”
“Can I come?”
“You want to run errands with me?” she asked. “I don’t know, Mark. That sounds a little desperate. Should I be worried about you?”
He laughed out loud. “No, don’t be worried. My plans fell through when my mother and grandmother split a couple of bottles of wine playing Monopoly last night. They’re both passed out. I’m not even sure they’re alive. And I want to spend the day with you, so here I am. Pretty lucky to be desperate enough to be with you.”
“Aw, well, get in,” she said, pressing the unlock button on the passenger door.
She wound around the streets of Mount Airy and headed out of the city to shop. “Once in a while I need stuff I can’t get in the neighborhood. I hate to give other stores my business, but it’s just the way it is when you live in the city.”
They talked more about the advantages of living in town. “I knew when I took that job in North Philly that I wasn’t moving to the suburbs.”
“Where did you grow up?” he asked.
“Detroit. Right in the city. My dad still lives there. So I wouldn’t be satisfied out of an urban area. Plus being single, I was afraid I’d get too bored. And after a few years I stopped going out. It’s nice to hear the sounds of the city.”
“I’ll definitely stay in the city,” he said.
“Are you going to come back here to go to nursing school?” she asked, surprised that she hoped his answer was yes.
“Yep, I’ll be taking classes right online. The only problem is I have to work, and I want to move out of my mother’s place.”
Biting her tongue, she was just on the edge of saying I’ll rent you the place over my carriage house.
“Don’t be in a hurry to move out,” she said. “I don’t think nursing school is that easy. It might be nice to have that buffer during finals or when your clinical rotation starts.”
“I’ll have to find a way to make it work. This might sound petty, but my grandmother’s cigarette smoke is driving me nuts and I’ve only been home twenty-four hours.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. That would make me crazy, too.”
“I don’t know when I got to be so picky,” he said, laughing.
“It’s just age. You notice more and are less tolerant, unfortunately.”
She pulled into the parking lot and they made a loop until she found a space. “Saturday at the grocery store. There has to be a better way.”
“Can you have groceries delivered?”
“I could, I guess. Then I’d never leave the house on the weekend. Although I’m not sure that would be too bad.”
“If I lived at your place, I’d never want to leave, either.”
“Is that due to my exceptional decorating talent or because I don’t smoke?”
“Well, that, and because you and Dolly are there.”
“Isn’t that nice?” she said, smiling at him. “Well, ready or not…”
“Tell me what you’re shopping for and I’ll help,” he said, getting out of the car.
“Believe it or not, I’m really here to order my Thanksgiving dinner, already cooked.”
“Are you having a big crowd?” he asked, looking down at her.
“No. No one. Just me and Dolly.”
“Can I come over?” he asked.
She reached for a basket. “You want to eat Thanksgiving dinner with me?”
“I do. My mother and grandmother are going to Delaware for a long weekend at my sister’s house, and I don’t want to go. Since we’ll both be alone, I’ll even cook for you.”
“Ha! That’s okay, let’s order dinner, and we can chill out instead of cooking. You don’t happen to play chess, do you?”
“Play chess? Is the sun yellow? Yes! We can play chess on Thanksgiving.”
They wandered around the store together, stopping to look at interesting items, comparing prices, reading labels. They stopped at the deli counter and ordered Thanksgiving dinner with all the accompaniments. She admitted that she couldn’t eat turkey without turnips. He had to have green bean casserole with mushroom soup. Since those items weren’t offered in the dinner package, they would prepare them together.
“Where’s your dad going to eat?” Mark asked.
“I have three sisters who live in the suburbs. They take dinner over there and use my mom’s china. It’s just like the old days.”
“Do you ever go?”
“No, unfortunately. I always have cases scheduled on Friday.”
“Next year, I’ll drive you to Michigan,” he said. “If you tell those ingrates now you want the time off, they can’t refuse you.”
“Probably not,” she said. “Why would you want to go?”
They stopped in the vegetable department to discuss this phenomenon. “I’ve always wanted to go to Detroit. And I’d like to meet your family.”
“So we’re planning a year in advance. What makes you think you’ll still be interested?”
“I just know I will be. I’ve always been interested in you,” he said. “Now I’m old enough to find out if you’re interested in me.”
Biting her lip, she stood quietly, thinking about what he said. “So you had a childhood crush on me?”
“Yes. And my mother knew, too. Ha!” He laughed and, in the levity, grabbed Kendall’s hand. “See, it was love at first sight, only I was just a kid.”
They stopped and looked at each other, smiling. “Are you holding my hand?” she asked.
“I think that’s what it’s called,” Mark said, holding their hands up. “Do you have a problem with it?”
“Well, I guess not. But it’s hard to shop and push the cart holding hands.”
“Oh, true. Sorry. I’ll let go.”
But he kept holding on to it, and Kendall started giggling.
“This is a surgeon’s hand,” Mark announced, holding her hand up again. “What do you know about that? These hands save lives!”
“Aw, thank you for your confidence in me,” she said, giggling.
They each put a hand on the cart handle and pushed, only he purposely was pushing in the opposite direction than she was. “I can see the first problem with dating someone sixteen years younger than I am,” she said, laughing out loud. “I’m playing with a child.”
“Okay, I’ll stop. We want to get home and get the chess set out.”
“I thought we were doing that tonight?”
“Do you have other things to do today?” he asked.
“I do. I have to call my dad. I do that every Saturday. And then I try to accomplish one thing on a list I have. This weekend, I have to go to the hardware store. Then the goal is to get the Christmas decorations out so I can have them ready to decorate the tree next wee
kend.”
“Oh goody,” he said. “Can I help with that, too? Remember, I’ll be alone at home, all by myself.”
“If we’re still talking to each other after Thursday, you can decorate the tree with me,” she said.
“Why wouldn’t we be talking to each other?” he asked. “I’ll be on my best behavior. I promise.”
Bending down to get in her face, he moved his eyebrows up and down, and she burst out laughing again.
“Dr. Williams?”
They stopped horsing around, looking around them for the speaker, and standing a few yards away was a balding man with his mouth hanging open. Kendall was speechless for a moment.
“Roy! What a surprise! And what are you doing in this part of town?”
His eyes were riveted to Mark’s and Kendall’s intertwined hands. “Kendall, you’re the surprise,” he said, still looking at their hands and then over to Mark.
“Just Thanksgiving dinner shopping with a friend,” she said, smiling.
“I guess that’s why you refused my invitation.”
“Well, yes, I guess it is. I wanted to stay home since I have to work Friday. But anyway, why are you here? You live on the other side of Philadelphia, don’t you?”
“Yes. I wondered if you’d be here today. I know you often grocery shop here on Saturday,” he said.
“Wait, Roy, you followed me here?” she asked, mortified.
“No, I didn’t follow you. I just went by your house, and when you didn’t answer, I came out here.”
“So you’re stalking her,” Mark said. “That’s not nice.”
If Roy was intimidated by Mark, he did his best to hide it, but that comment hit its mark. “I guess it sort of seems like I’m stalking you, Kendall, but I’m not. I’m just a friend.”
“Well, it was nice seeing you,” she said. “I think. We have to keep moving to keep on our schedule for the day. Have a nice rest of the day.”
“I hope you won’t mention this at work.”
“I’ll take it under consideration, Roy. Goodbye.”
They pushed the basket away, and unconsciously, Mark slipped an arm around Kendall and she didn’t flinch. It was as natural as if they were really a couple.
“I don’t know what to make of that,” she said when they were far enough away from him. “Talk about timing. If I’d have been here alone, who knows what would have happened? I wonder if he’s having a breakdown of some kind.”
“So that’s not usual for him?”
“Well, he’s annoying and persistent, but I thought that I’d made it clear yesterday that it wasn’t going to happen.”
“Okay, so he’s the guy who asked you to have coffee after work?” Mark said.
“Right. We’ve worked together for years. I liked his wife, and that was one of the many reasons I wouldn’t go out with him. Plus I don’t like workplace romances. They never end well. And finally, I’m not attracted to him. It’s not even an issue for me.”
“Gotcha. So you’re saying it was a good thing I was here, is that what you’re saying?”
She pressed her lips together to keep from laughing again. Finally, she nodded. “It was a good thing you were here with me, shopping. And you calling him out for stalking me, well, I can’t tell you what it might mean. I might have to speak to my partners about this. For him to show up at the house and then come here, well, it’s creepy.”
“Very creepy. Are you about done? I want to get you out of here in case El Creepo returns.”
“Yes, although I’d looked forward to puttering through the whole store. Now he’s ruined that for me.”
“I’ll bring you back tomorrow,” he said. “Screw that guy.”
They pushed the cart in unison this time, to the checkout line, talking the whole time about relationships and how tenuous they are.
“You think just because you know someone well and think you have an understanding with them that they’ll stand up to scrutiny,” she said. “But guess what? I just learned again that it’s not true. Trust can be easily misplaced. Scary.”
They went through the checkout, and as they loaded up the back of her SUV with groceries, Mark turned to her. “I make a vow to you right now that you can trust me,” he said, his brown eyes so earnest that she felt tearful.
“Wow, Mark, you can trust me, too. I’ll always be truthful to you.”
“Kendall, I’ll always respect you.”
“And I’ll respect you, as well.”
“Well, now that we have that out of the way, what do you think the old boy thought of us together?”
“I shudder to even imagine,” she said. “But it’s none of his business. I’ll know if he says anything at work because I have a good relationship with the nurses. So if he blabs, I’ll know. And my response will be that he was just jealous.”
“Watch your hands,” Mark said, shutting the tailgate.
“Do you want to drive?” she asked. “My hands are shaking.”
“Okay,” he said, taking the keys and, in the same movement, kissing her on the lips.
In a car two rows away, Roy Cramer watched, grief stricken.
In a tony neighborhood in Jenkintown, Roy’s car crept along the road at ten miles per hour. Flashing red lights got his attention, and he came to a stop at the curb. In the rearview mirror, he watched a police officer get out of his patrol car and walk forward. Roy rolled down his window.
“What did I do?” he asked.
“Can I see your license and registration?”
Roy fumbled in his back pocket for his wallet and got the license out, handing it over. “I have to go in my glove box for the registration.”
The officer waited patiently while Roy looked through years of expired insurance cards and registration certificates until he found the current one.
“What did I do?” he repeated.
“You were driving thirty miles an hour under the speed limit, and back there you didn’t stop at the stop sign.” He looked at his license and saw the MD after his name. “Where do you practice?”
Roy told him, adding, “What does that have to do with it?”
“Are you on your way home from work?”
“No. Not today.”
“What were you doing?”
“I was at the Walmart over on City Line Avenue.”
“City Line Avenue isn’t exactly in your backyard. You don’t look like a Walmart kind of guy, either,” the police officer said.
“Yes, well, sometimes it’s the only store where I can find what I need.”
“What did you buy today?” he asked, looking in the backseat.
“This time they didn’t have what I wanted,” Roy said, his voice an octave higher, sweat on his forehead.
“You’re almost home,” he said, handing Roy his paperwork back. “Drive carefully.”
“I was driving carefully,” he mumbled, and the officer looked at him, but decided to let it go.
“Here’s a warning, then. If I stop you for driving recklessly, which is what you were doing at ten miles per hour, you’re getting a ticket.”
He walked away before Roy could get a word in again. As soon as the cop pulled his car around Roy’s and sped off, Roy drove home. He wondered if Kendall had already complained about him. He was still heartsick.
They really did make a beautiful couple, the young man and Kendall. Roy sat in his garage, safely turning the car off before he closed the garage door, and imagined Kendall and the boy in bed together. He’d seen her in a summer top and shorts before without all the girding of her breasts and ass like she did at work, and she had a body that was in constant motion. Her breasts were huge, and her ass was big and round. Her legs were long, and he imagined them around the young man’s waist.
Roy opened the glove box again and dug through it for napkins from his frequent McDonald’s trips, and unzipped and pulled his already erect penis out. To visions of a naked Kendall having intercourse with a handsome young man, Roy masturbated until he ejacu
lated, jerking forward in his seat against the steering wheel, catching his deposit with the napkin. When he was done, he started crying, promising himself that the next time he saw her alone, he was going to try to have sex with her.
The ride home from the store was restful after Mark asked for and got permission to turn the radio on. They sang along with familiar rock music, laughing when Kendall didn’t know the names of some artists that were popular now. Mark was happy to teach her.
“I’m stuck in my genre of music,” she said. “But this is nice. It’s very musical.”
He pulled into her driveway, and she hit the garage door opener. “I wonder if the neighbors are watching,” Mark said. “You know they’re a bunch of gossips.”
“So what?” she said. “Let them talk. They’re just jealous if they say anything negative.”
They unloaded the car and Mark helped put the groceries away. There were a few personal items that she’d slipped into the basket when his back was turned that she had forgotten about, so when he danced a disposable enema package around the counter, she screamed and grabbed it away from him, and also the box of tampons he perched on his head.
“You are really a little boy,” she said, laughing.
“Tell me about it,” he replied, teasing her unmercifully.
After everything was put away, Mark asked what the next thing on her list was.
“You think I’m kidding,” she said, getting out her list. “We can check off grocery shopping. Darn, we forgot the hardware store. And I need to call my dad in a few minutes.”
“What do you need from the hardware? I’ll run up to the place on Germantown Avenue.”
She got out the carton that the lightbulbs she liked had come in. “Get six of these. And I need a new rechargeable battery for my hand vacuum.”
The list was long, but she had everything written down in neat, small printing with serial numbers next to each item.
“I thought all doctors had horrible handwriting,” he said. “This looks like a machine printed it.”
Whispers of Winter: A Limited Edition Collection of Winter Romances Page 97
