Beware of Doug

by Elaine Fox

  Tricia gave a squeal of delight and threw herself into Brady’s arms. Lily watched his hands grip her naked waist and felt a spasm in her stomach.

  “I just called your parents. And Silverman,” he said. “His ser vice said he’s going to call me back in a minute. You can’t keep doing things like this, Tricia.”

  Tricia smiled and caressed his face with one hand. Brady pushed her back and away from him.

  “You live a long way from all of them, Brady,” she said, sultry as a cat, moving toward him.

  “There are mental health facilities here,” he said. “I can call them just as easily as Silverman.”

  Lily wondered what he meant. Would they actually send a paddywagon for her? Arrive with a straitjacket and cart her off?

  “Brady, do you remember,” Tricia began, moving closer and winding her arms around his neck. She murmured something in his ear, and Lily watched Brady’s body stiffen. Was it from remembered desire? she wondered. Was Tricia recounting some incredible sexual feat they’d performed?

  She should go back to sleep, try to ignore what was going on out there. It was none of her business, really. Brady had made this bed, she thought, literally and figuratively. She backed up and sat down on her mattress. Doug leapt up beside her. She put an arm around him.

  Tricia’s laughter cascaded up to Lily’s window, and she had the awful sensation that Brady had decided it wasn’t worth it to fight it, that he could just give Tricia what she wanted and be done with it.

  Lily sprang to her feet and moved back to the window, pushing the curtain aside in time to see Tricia haul off and slap Brady across the cheek with her hairbrush.

  His head snapped to the side, but he recovered quickly. He grabbed her wrist and spun her around, arm behind her back, so that he could talk low and fast into her ear.

  They were facing Lily so she could see the look of ecstasy on Tricia’s face—and the look of fury on Brady’s.

  She should help him, she thought. She spun for her closet and plucked her robe off the hook. Then she raced down the stairs to the front door, Doug hard on her heels.

  Hand on the doorknob, she paused. This was none of her business. Brady wouldn’t want her out there, would he? Would he think she was horning in where she wasn’t needed?

  Oh, to hell with it, she finally thought. They were out there on her front lawn and—

  “Get your hands off me!” Tricia’s shrill voice rang out.

  Lily jerked open the door to see a completely nude Tricia standing in front of a kneeling Brady.

  What in God’s name had been going on? For a second Lily thought she’d interrupted something horrifyingly intimate, until she noted Brady’s posture. She wasn’t sure…but she thought…maybe…

  She took a few steps forward. Brady was gritting his teeth. Good God, Tricia had kicked him in the crotch.

  Lily ran down the steps, failing to close the door behind her so Doug ran with her. She reached Brady and knelt beside him. One glance at his face confirmed her suspicions. Tricia had racked him. Not only that, but when she’d hit him with the hairbrush the bristles had left a bright red abrasion on his cheek.

  “Lily,” he said in a tight voice, “it’s all right. I can handle this.”

  Laughter of the hysterical sort threatened Lily’s composure, but she squelched it. “I think that’s pretty obviously untrue.”

  “Who the hell is this bitch?” Tricia said, advancing on the two of them.

  Brady pushed himself to his feet, obviously in pain. “Don’t take another step, Tricia. She has nothing to do with this.”

  Tricia’s eyes narrowed. “Oooh, so protective. I bet she finds that really attractive.”

  “Don’t you think you should put on some clothes?” Lily asked, rising to her feet as well but standing just behind and to the side of Brady.

  “Why?” Tricia struck a model’s pose, one hand on her hip. “Jealous?”

  “Tricia, just put on your clothes before your parents get here.” Brady’s voice was hard.

  Lily looked from him to the pools of white on the lawn that used to be Tricia’s outfit. Two smaller ones lay nearby: her underwear. Lily thought about picking up the clothes and handing them to her, then decided she didn’t want to touch any of them.

  “Brady,” Lily said, moving close behind him and putting one hand on his arm. “I know a guy on the police force. Do you want me to call him? They can keep her quiet until her parents come.”

  Brady turned halfway to her, looking at her askance. “No, Lily. Just, please, go inside. I can handle this myself.”

  His tone was so abrupt, so cold, she backed up a step.

  “I’m just trying to help,” she said.

  “Well, don’t.” He kept his back to her. “Tricia and I have done this before. I can handle it.”

  Lily felt mortification form a lump in her throat. She looked from Brady—a muscle jumping in his clenched jaw—to Tricia.

  Tricia smiled knowingly and swept a hand up her naked torso. “That’s right. Brady and I have done this before…”

  Sixteen

  Lily sat with Doug next to her on the wooden love seat outside Hyperion Espresso in the heart of town, trying hard not to think about Brady and the strained scenes between them yesterday. Maybe she’d been hard on him in the afternoon, but the way he’d looked at her last night, with Tricia, like she was the last person on earth he wanted to see, had cut her to the quick. It seemed to her he looked more unhappy to see her than the crazy naked woman.

  “So, Penelope, what happened with your ex-husband?” Megan asked.

  Lily brought her attention back to the moment, telling herself she’d been way too self-centered lately; she needed to concentrate on her friends. Brady could just figure out his own life, without her help.

  Lily shifted her eyes to Penelope. Their dogs lay at their feet. Penelope’s Labrador retriever Wimbledon chewed on a piece of ice. Megan’s Bernese Mountain Dog Peyton lay looking up at her mistress with adoring eyes, and Twister, the mutt that had gotten Megan and her fiancé together two years ago, sat up next to Megan’s chair, giving a doggy grin and an air sniff in the direction of every passerby.

  They sat under the shade of the awning on William Street, sipping iced coffee drinks and fanning themselves with their napkins.

  Penelope had just sat down with her iced mocha and now looked at the two of them with a trace of guilt in her eyes.

  “Wait,” Lily said, “should we wait for Georgia?”

  Megan shook her head. “I’m not sure she’s going to make it at all. She had about seventeen thousand errands to run before she could even think about coming. We’ll catch her up on it later.” She looked back at Penelope and grinned. “So dish.”

  Penelope smiled. “You won’t believe it. I couldn’t believe it. First of all, Glenn was very apologetic for even being there, for imposing all of this on me. But he said he didn’t have anyone else to talk to.” She gave a one-shouldered shrug.

  “What about what’s her name? His new wife?” Lily asked. She pulled the straw from her mocha and licked whipped cream off the end of it.

  They had all spent years being angry about Glenn and his new wife. After being with Penelope for ten years, and knowing from the start that Penelope had wanted a family, Glenn had finally divorced her because he said he didn’t want children. Then, not even a year later, his new girlfriend was pregnant, and they had gotten married.

  Now, just a year after that, he was popping up on Penelope’s doorstep again. Lily could not think of one single reason that would be good enough.

  “That’s just the thing,” Penelope said, leaning toward them, her voice hushed so that no one could overhear. Not that there was anyone on the busy sidewalk who would be within earshot long enough to hear anything of substance.

  Megan and Lily leaned toward her, too.

  “He can’t talk to her because she’s the problem. It turns out…” Penelope looked furtively around them. “Glenn’s been having doubts
about whether the marriage is going to work.”

  “Oh come on,” Lily scoffed, poking the straw back into her drink.

  “No, really. He said she’s just awful to him. She even threw a plate at him one night. It nearly hit him in the face.” She leaned back, eyes wide and amazed.

  Lily and Megan looked at each other with identically skeptical expressions.

  “Would it be awful if I said I wish it had?” Lily said.

  Megan snickered.

  Penelope frowned and shook her head. “I know, I know. He was awful to me, but he seems truly miserable now. He said the baby’s really cranky and doesn’t seem to like him. Takes after Abigail, he said, and gets upset every time he touches her.”

  “What an awful thing to say!” Megan protested.

  Lily frowned. “Why was he laying all of this on you? I mean, why in the world should you care if he’s unhappy or not?”

  Megan laughed. “Thank you for taking Georgia’s place. I was worried we wouldn’t thoroughly examine the who-gives-a-shit side of things.”

  “Well, it’s not like he was nice to Penelope when he left,” Lily protested. “Why should she be anything but happy that he’s miserable now? I know I am.”

  Megan tilted her head, nodded, and sipped her drink. “A good point,” she said, swallowing. “What did you say to him, Pen?”

  Penelope was looking at her mocha, stirring the whipped cream into the ice with her straw. “Well, I have to admit I felt a moment of satisfaction myself, until I thought about that little girl, the baby. But Glenn swears he’s not going to abandon her.”

  “Like he did you,” Lily said.

  “But why did he come to you with this?” Megan persisted. “I mean, we all know you’re a nice person and everything, but why would he think you of all people would sympathize with him?”

  “Because,” she said slowly, still looking at her drink, “he said he realized that he’d never stopped loving me.”

  Lily choked on her drink. Megan patted her on the back.

  “He knew he’d never really loved Abigail,” Penelope continued. “He only married her because of the pregnancy—”

  “Does he think that makes him look better?” Lily asked. She placed her drink on the table at the end of the love seat and wiped her hands, wet from the condensation on the cup, on her shorts. “He married her, and he should have meant it.”

  “I know. But he said he doesn’t love her, doesn’t even feel like he can trust her, and that she doesn’t love him either.” She shrugged, then looked up at them almost shyly. She gave a little smile. “He said he realized how wonderful being a parent could be, though, and that he’d give anything to have a child with me, the one woman he ever truly loved.”

  Lily and Megan both stared at Penelope, speechless.

  Lily, with so many emotions swirling, chose one out of the bunch and thought, She’s going to marry him, and I’ll be the only one left. Alone. Single and childless. Of course there was always Georgia, but she was rarely alone, and she certainly didn’t want children.

  But this wasn’t about her, Lily reminded herself. She had to focus on Penelope, who did not deserve to be jerked around by that asshole Glenn. She deserved someone wonderful and caring, someone who would make her feel good about herself.

  Brady would do that, Lily thought, wondering how she could be so sure of that. But she was.

  Brady…

  The very thought of him arrested her brain waves. She pictured his face above her as he’d entered her, his ember-colored eyes, his warm, strong body, his tenderness, his touch…

  If Penelope wanted Glenn back, she thought suddenly, her heart lightening, then Brady was—

  Right in front of her.

  “Hello, ladies.” He stood before them in running shorts and a tee shirt, his face damp with sweat along the hairline. His heightened color accentuated his golden eyes, and that ever-present iPod highlighted his well-defined biceps. She scanned his tan, muscled legs and remembered vividly the weight of them across hers.

  She had to look closely to see the scratch from Tricia’s hairbrush on his face. Without the fresh blood it was only slightly visible.

  He gave Megan and Penelope a smile.

  Lily couldn’t help noticing that he didn’t look at her.

  Beside her, Doug let out a yip. She grabbed his collar and held tight. But while he rose to his feet, Doug did little more than snuffle at Brady, occasionally pulling against Lily’s hand.

  Brady looked as sexy as she had ever seen him. She couldn’t believe Penelope would not be struck dumb by his overwhelming masculinity, all thoughts of Glenn vaporizing in the heat from his eyes.

  “Brady!” Penelope said brightly. “How nice to see you!”

  “You’ve caught us indulging in a little afternoon cake and caffeine,” Megan said. “Care to join us?”

  Lily was the one who was struck dumb. Could she sit here and watch Brady talk with Penelope? Flirt with Penelope? Would he sit here and flirt with Penelope, right in front of her, after what had happened Saturday night?

  There’d be no reason not to, she reasoned. She’d made it clear yesterday that Saturday night was not to be repeated. So it wasn’t as if she was supposedly falling in love with him.

  “Lily?” Megan’s voice interrupted her thoughts.

  “Huh?” She looked over at her friend.

  “Brady was just asking if you’d seen the doctor.” Megan studied her with a bit more awareness than Lily would have liked. Or was she imagining that?

  “No, ah, not yet. Tomorrow.” She swallowed. “But I feel fine. All better.”

  Brady nodded. “Good. Oh, and I’m sorry about last night,” he said casually, as if he’d been playing his stereo too loud and she had complained. But his eyes were guarded. “I hope you were able to get back to sleep.”

  “Yes, sure. I was fine. I hope everything turned out all right for you? And for, uh…?” She didn’t want to say Tricia’s name, in case he felt private about it, but since he’d brought it up she had to ask.

  She had heard cars pull up about an hour after Brady had made her go away, so she’d assumed her parents had come to get her. Or the therapist, Silverman. There’d been voices in the dark, Tricia’s protesting, then crying.

  Lily hadn’t gotten up, however, not even to watch out the window. She’d just lain in bed thinking about Brady’s tone when he’d told her not to help, to go inside, Tricia and I have done this before.

  “Everything’s fine.” He nodded once. “I’d better get going. Nice to see you all.” He smiled at Megan and Penelope, the wattage fading when he got to Lily, and went inside the coffee shop.

  “What was that all about?” Megan asked. Then added, “Unless it’s none of my business. Which I guess it pretty plainly is.”

  Penelope chuckled and said, “Mine, too, but I’m also dying to know. What happened?”

  Lily sighed. “Remember that woman who showed up the day Brady moved in? The crazy one?”

  They both nodded, and she told them the rest of last night’s story, omitting the previous night’s complications and all the ensuing emotions she’d been battling since then.

  “It was strange, though, how adamant he was about refusing my help,” Lily couldn’t help adding at the end, glancing behind her to be sure Brady wasn’t coming out the door of the shop. “I mean, I thought we were friends, but he treated me as if I was sticking my nose where it didn’t belong. Do you think I shouldn’t have gone out there?”

  Megan shook her head. “I don’t know how you could have stayed inside with all that going on. Especially after she kicked him in the crotch. I don’t know why everyone talks about Achilles’ heels when guys are so much more vulnerable in that area.”

  “I think I’d have been afraid to go out. That woman sounds dangerous,” Penelope said.

  “I do have to say, though,” Megan continued, “that it’s pretty obvious to me why he sent you back inside.”

  “It is?” Lily’s heartbe
at accelerated.

  Megan was altogether too perceptive; had she picked up on something between her and Brady? Would she say it in front of Penelope?

  Of course she wouldn’t. But still, the last thing she wanted was for Megan to figure out her feelings and realize what a horrible friend Lily was, to steal a guy intended for one of the women she was closest to.

  Though she hadn’t stolen him, exactly. More like borrowed.

  “He was embarrassed.” Megan’s tone made it sound as obvious as if she’d caught him on the john.

  “Oh absolutely,” Penelope said.

  Megan turned and looked in the window of the coffee shop behind her. “Did he leave? I don’t want him to come out here and hear us talking about him.”

  Penelope nodded. “I saw him come out the door and go the other direction, up Princess Anne Street.”

  Lily’s heart sank. He was avoiding her. Maybe it was too awkward, her sitting here with Penelope. Too many potential expectations all sitting at one table.

  “So think about it,” Megan continued. “You’ve got your biggest mistake stripping on your front lawn in front of your new neighbor—who is in fact quite close to your boss’s, er, wife.” She laughed, in a kind of amazement at how true that title would be before long. “Not to mention that you’re also his landlord’s daughter. And so your landlord’s daughter comes out to help after you’ve just been whacked and racked by a naked woman…I’m surprised he could look you in the eye today at all.” She sat back in her chair and sipped her drink.

  “Whacked and racked!” Penelope laughed.

  Lily thought about this. “I guess you could be right.”

  Could be even worse if you’d just slept with the landlord’s daughter, Lily considered, the night before The Mistake showed up.

  “But what I want to know is,” Megan said.

  Lily braced herself for one of Megan’s famously blunt, on-target questions.

  “What did Penelope say to Glenn?” Megan finished, turning back to Penelope.

  Lily exhaled in relief. “Yes. What did you say?”

  If she’d told Glenn she wanted to try again, Lily couldn’t help but feel just a little off the hook for sleeping with Brady. After all, that would mean Penelope didn’t want Brady after all, so no harm no foul, right?