by Lee Damon
Giggling, Midge put the muffins on a plate and pushed it, together with the butter dish, toward O'Mara. "Here. Pull up a chair and help yourself. Uh, I'll make another pot of coffee; this one seems to be empty."
As Kitt and O'Mara moved toward the table, Ez caught his sister's eye and gave her an intently questioning look while asking, "Did you... enjoy the sunrise? Where did you go?"
"Ogunquit Beach, and it was beautiful." She slipped her hand into O'Mara's and smiled happily at Ez. "We also had a long talk, and it's going to be all right eventually. Isn't it?" she asked O'Mara, turning to him for reassurance.
"Oh, yes, love. No question." He didn't have time to say more before Ez sprang to his feet and grabbed his hand in what to a weaker man would have been a bone-crushing grip.
With a rather dreamy look on her face, Kitt stood and watched the two big men grinning exultantly and pounding each other on the shoulder.
"What in the world—Ouch! Watch where you're tramping!" Midge dodged around the men to reach Kitt's side. "What's gotten into them? Did somebody win the lottery?"
Kitt beamed down at her and explained, "Sort of. O'Mara and I... well, I guess it's mostly what I... we've finally... or I've finally—"
"Thanks," Midge said with a long-suffering look. "I'm really tickled to have such a thorough explanation. Can't tell you how pleased I am that you and O'Mara, or is it just you, or maybe it's O'Mara and Ez, or perhaps we should consider—"
Laughing, Kitt dropped into a chair, shifted it sideways and crossed one long leg over the other. "Sorry, Midge. It's just that it's a bit difficult to explain. You see, there was something I needed to tell O'Mara, but it was a very hard thing to talk about, and I thought it would take a long time before I could do it, but it didn't and I told him this morning."
"Terrific. I think I know almost as much now as I did after your first explanation. No," she admonished, holding up a staying hand, "don't spoil it by telling me anything that makes sense."
"All right, I won't." Kitt laughed, reaching over to pat Midge on the cheek. "I'll let Ez explain it all to you. It will give you another excuse to sit on his lap," she teased gently. "Isn't that where all little ones perch when they listen to a story?"
"I'll see if the coffee's ready," gasped Midge, blushing furiously and running for the door.
"What's gotten into the pixie?" asked Ez, settling back into his chair.
"She's getting the coffee," Kitt said blandly as she rose and started stacking the used dishes. "I'll just get all this out of our way. Well, perhaps not quite all. Ez, how about giving me a hand?" She gave him a compelling look that brought him to his feet, and he followed her inside, passing Midge on her way out with the fresh coffee.
"What is it?" asked Ez as he helped Kitt rinse and stack the dishes.
"I've told him the basics. No real details. I... I can't... just cold facts... it's too... oh, when I talk to him about it, I get upset and that upsets him and so does what I'm saying, and then I get even more upset because he's—"
Ez placed his hand across her mouth, cutting off the breathless jumble of words. "Calmly, calmly now. Just take a deep breath and quietly tell me what you want me to do." He moved his hand until only one finger was across her lips. "Just the basics, huh? Did you tell him how it all ended?" She shook her head. "Do you want me to tell him?" She nodded, her eyes wide and pleading. "Okay, but not today. Next weekend, I'll bring up all the documentation and let him read it for himself. Anything else?"
She pulled his hand down and held it in hers. "Could you... would you fill him in on the details? Once I know he knows, then I think I can discuss it with him. The hardest part is telling him for the first time... I mean, for me to have to tell him and know that it's... hurting... and making him so angry... not with me, but because it happened to me and... well, I think it would be easier on him if you told him first, and then we... he and I... could talk about it. Don't you think so?" She clutched his hand and looked at him appealingly.
"Oh, Kitt," he sighed, putting his arms around her and holding her gently. They stood quietly in the middle of the kitchen, her forehead resting on his shoulder, and communed in their own special way.
After a few minutes, he held her away from him and looked reassuringly into her troubled eyes. "I think you're probably right. It would be easier on him if I filled in the blanks. The important thing was for you to be the one to tell him that you were married and what kind of a marriage it was—at least, to tell him enough so that he realizes why you pull away from him."
"I did. I just couldn't—"
"It's okay. I'll talk to him about the rest." He turned her toward the living room and the door to the deck, his arm around her shoulders bringing her along with him out into the sunshine.
As soon as she saw them coming through the door, Midge poured their coffee. She and O'Mara were sitting opposite each other at the table, and he reached out to draw Kitt to a seat at his right while Ez dropped into the remaining chair. Hero ran frustratedly around the table until Ez leaned over and lifted Midge out of her chair and into his lap. With a whoop of satisfaction, Hero jumped into the empty seat and settled into his "people" position, looking around at the laughing humans with a puzzled frown.
"I told you your dog was a total eccentric." O'Mara chuckled, leaning toward Kitt and pushing her disheveled hair back from her face. "Everything okay?" he asked very softly.
"Just fine." The smiling face she turned to him suddenly seemed years younger, the strain lines erased and the pallor chased away by the delicate flush of healthy color across her cheekbones.
He glanced from her to Ez and back again with a questioning look. "Something?"
Seeing that Ez and Midge were engrossed in their own conversation, Kitt leaned closer to O'Mara and said quietly, "Later on, if it's okay with you, Ez will fill you in on some details you should know. I think... well, we both think it will be easier on you... and me, too... if he tells you and answers any questions and...." Her voice trailed off and she looked at him with a mixture of uncertainty and appeal.
"Okay. You're probably right. While you gals are upping the reading tastes of the local populace this afternoon, Ez and I will go out to my place and have a talk. Okay if we take Hero along to amuse Gus, or vice versa?"
"Sure. Ah... will you be coming back later?"
"What's your next dumb question?" His expression was only mildly interested, and Kitt grinned at him unrepentantly.
"Hey, you guys," Midge interrupted, "Ez says he doesn't have to go back until morning. His first class isn't until eleven. So, why don't we all do something interesting tonight?"
O'Mara and Ez locked eyes, grinned, and chorused, "All of us together? Just how interesting do you want it to be?" They broke up in laughter at Midge's outraged expression, highlighted by the tide of fiery red that spread over her neck and face.
"Never mind them," Kitt consoled. "We've got all afternoon to think up something really nasty to pay them out."
"F'sooth," said Ez, chuckling, "now what do you think a couple of bits of baggage like you two can do to us?"
"Idiot!" O'Mara groaned. "I'm not sure yet about the little one, but you should know better than to toss a challenge like that at the big one. Got a wicked, evil turn of mind, has my Kitt."
"Warty toads, the both of you!" Kitt laughed. "You just wait and see what's going to happen to you." The morning was rapidly warming up under a bright spring sun, and the four of them lazed on the deck for another hour, enjoying the tangy air and watching the boats on the river. By unspoken agreement, they kept it all very lighthearted— laughing, teasing, talking about tastes and hobbies, and making tentative plans for the next weekend. Finally, Kitt glanced at her watch and broke up the party.
"Ugh! Eleven, already. I've got to change and get downstairs. What do you think, Midge, can the two of us do a fast inventory of the paperback fiction in half an hour? I'd really like to get an accurate idea of what we need before we spend time going through catalogs and order f
orms."
"Don't know why not." Midge wrinkled her small nose in disgust. "There isn't what I'd call an overabundance of it. Can't imagine why the Baxters let the stock get so low."
"Well, if you two are going to start talking shop, we're off." Ez set Midge on her feet and then stood up to stretch. Wrapping one big hand around her neck, he walked her over to the stairs and stood on the second step down, turning to face her at eye-level. With a teasing smile, he declared, "It's all up to you, pixie." His hands closed over her shoulders as she leaned forward to fold her arms around his neck and kiss him.
Kitt and O'Mara watched them for a minute, and then turned to each other with quirked eyebrows.
"He should patent that technique," O'Mara said thoughtfully.
"If we were smart," Kitt mused, "we'd be getting this whole courting routine on film, complete with sound. We'd make a fortune."
"Hmmm," murmured O'Mara, standing and bringing Kitt to her feet facing him. "At the moment, I'm more concerned with my own courting problems." His eyes gleamed as he watched the flush deepen on her cheekbones, and he took her hands in a loose clasp, gently tugging until she stepped close to him. He smiled slightly, watching her trying to evade his eyes, but he finally captured and held her gaze. "Kiss me?" he asked in a whisper.
She hesitated, her eyes searching his for any hint of demand, but all she could see was warm anticipation, undemanding, leaving it up to her. Finally, she leaned forward, tilting her face up, and he bent his head so she could touch his mouth with hers. It was a tentative kiss, very light, and she seemed poised to back off at any second. He could feel the tension coursing through her, and he held totally still, letting her decide where she wanted to take them. When she tipped her head slightly to shape her mouth more closely to his, it took all his control to remain relaxed and keep his hands loosely entwined with hers. It only lasted for a few seconds before she drew back and looked up at him in a mild daze.
"I did it," she said wonderingly. "I really did it."
His mouth widened in a slow smile that had more than a hint of satisfaction in it. "Little acorns," he murmured.
Suddenly, her tension was gone, and she laughed joyously. "I'm not at all sure I want to be a mighty oak tree. Couldn't I be a willow or a lilac?"
"More like a monkey puzzle tree." He chuckled, starting toward the stairs with her beside him. "You're every bit as mad as old crazy bear there."
"I'm working on it," she said blandly. "It's all suddenly coming back to me. Wonder why?" She slanted a teasing look at him and felt joy bubbling through her at the promise in his eyes.
"Sassy, too." He laughed, kissing her fleetingly on the cheek. "We'll see you later. Oh, by the way, we're all eating out tonight. No, I'm not telling you where." He paused behind Midge, enclosed her small waist in his long hands and plucked her out of Ez's arms, swinging her around and setting her down beside Kitt. "Enough, Ezekiel. You can continue this dalliance at a more propitious time. Besides, much more of such carrying on and you'll both be tumbling down the stairs." Laughing and pushing Ez ahead of him, he called back, "Stay out of mischief, you two. We'll be back around five."
A moment later, a piercing whistle sounded from the parking lot, and Hero leaped from his chair, dodged between Kitt and Midge and scrambled down the stairs.
"Why do I keep thinking that's my dog?" Kitt asked of the blue sky.
"Well, you know, man's best friend. I never heard anyone mention woman's best friend." Midge chuckled as they gathered up the coffee cups and headed inside.
Chapter 10
Kitt and Midge did manage to compile a checklist of the deficiencies in the paperback fiction section, but they had little time during the afternoon to work on the order which Kitt would need to take to the distributor's warehouse. It had turned into a golden spring afternoon, and half of the population of eastern Massachusetts seemed to have decided to "take a ride to Maine" for the day.
"Don't they have bookshops in Massachusetts?" groaned Midge in mid-afternoon.
"Of course they do, but it's more fun to drive two hours to romantic Maine to pick up a book on exotic plants than it is to walk four blocks along dirty city streets," explained Kitt with a straight face.
"Romantic Maine?" Midge squeaked disbelievingly. "Have you ever spent a winter here? Try jogging around at twenty below with a sixty-mile-an-hour gale whistling in off the ocean and snow up to your bippy, and then tell me about romance. You're nuts, truly nuts," she declaimed positively.
"Why would you be jogging around in weather like that?" asked Kitt with great interest, turning her head to hide the glint of laughter in her eyes. "I thought all you Maine-iacs hibernated in the winter." She turned back to Midge, her eyes widened in alarm. "You mean I've got to go outdoors in a mess like that? Oh, dear, I thought now that everyone had inside plumbing—"
Kitt began to chuckle as she watched a puzzled Midge slowly catch on to the joke. It was the last break they had for the rest of the afternoon. After the last customer left at ten past five, Kitt collapsed across the cash register with a "Whew" of relief, while Midge dropped bonelessly to the floor in the middle of the main aisle, spread-eagled on her back and looking as if she were about to melt into the carpet.
"Lordy," Kitt moaned, "if it's like this on a Sunday in April, what's it going to be like in the summer? I swear, at one point there must have been fifty people in here climbing over each other."
"Um," Midge mumbled. "Try to concentrate on the money you've made. And don't even look at the kids' area."
"I'm trying not to look at any of it. Do you know any psych, majors? They could certainly find all the base material here for a study on why people don't put things back where they found them. Just look at that reading table. It's covered a foot deep with stuff from all over the shop."
"Far as I'm concerned, it can stay that way until morning," Midge said emphatically. "And before you get the idea that I'm dumping all the cleanup on you, remember that I don't have any classes tomorrow. I can be here any time after eight, and with both of us fresh and fully functional, we can put this place back together by ten with no trouble."
"Ah, the optimism of youth," declaimed a deep voice from the back door, and Ez and O'Mara strolled lazily down the aisle.
"This place looks like a nor'easter struck it," O'Mara said, chuckling, as he sat down on the desk and reached over to push Kitt's tousled hair back from her face. She wrinkled her nose at him when he added, "At least a Force-Seven gale from the looks of you two."
There was a slight thud as Ez dropped, cross-legged, to the floor above Midge's head. With assumed clinical detachment, he leaned forward to peer, upside-down, into her face. "Gadsooks! It blinks! Its nose twitches! That rather interestingly shaped chest is moving up and down! I do believe it's alive, O'Mara. Perhaps a little mouth-to-mouth resuscitation will revive it completely." Cradling her head in both hands, he started to bend down further, only to be halted by Kitt and O'Mara's laughter. He looked up at them crossly and chided, "Please. No levity. This is a serious scientific experiment."
"Looks more like a gorilla examining his dinner," said O'Mara, still laughing.
"Or a vampire bear selecting his favorite vein," chimed in Kitt.
"I'll overlook the gorilla crack, but really, Kitt, a vampire bear?"
"Whoever saw a bat that size?" she demanded convincingly.
With a quick twist and a flip, Midge was on her feet. "I," she stated firmly, "don't care if it's a gorilla, a bear or a bat—I'm not going to be anybody's dinner." With a gleam in her brown eyes, she bent over and rested her elbows on Ez's shoulders, purring into his amused face, "That resuscitation sounds interesting, though."
The words were hardly out of her mouth before she found herself pulled down into his arms and thoroughly kissed.
Shaking their heads and grinning, Kitt and O'Mara quietly disappeared up the stairs.
"Where's Hero?" Kitt asked a minute later, realizing that her dog hadn't come in with the men.
"
We left him with Gus for the evening. Gus was feeling a bit abandoned when we told him that the four of us were going out to dinner, but he perked up when Ez said that Hero could stay with him." He caught her hand, pulling her around to face his inquiring look. "I also bribed him with a promise that you'd come to dinner Tuesday night. You will, won't you?"
"I'd like that." She smiled at him, and then, suddenly realizing that something had seemed different about him downstairs, stepped back to run her eyes quickly from his neck to his feet and back again. "My, my," she said wonderingly, taking in the full effect of the slim navy slacks and the muted navy and hunter-green plaid jacket that had obviously been tailored to the wide shoulders and taut waist and hips. The dark green silk tie was held in place against the pale blue shirt with a small gold lion's head tietack.
"I'm not at all sure I can live up to all this elegance," she teased, running a finger over one of the brass buttons on his jacket and then flattening her hand to stroke her palm over the soft wool. She was suddenly speechless as she realized what she was doing and froze, raising startled eyes to meet his amused gaze.
"Don't stop now, love. I'm waiting with bated breath to see where you're going with this."
"Oh!" seemed to be all Kitt could manage, but she didn't draw back when he brought his free hand up to hold hers against his chest. She felt suspended in time, held immobile by the compelling look in his eyes, the air around them glowing golden in the light from the lowering sun shining through the window wall. Bemused, she pressed her palm against his chest, feeling the steady beat of his heart. Turning her other hand slightly, she slowly moved her thumb over the inside of his wrist until she found his pulse. Everything seemed to fade to insignificance except the two of them standing so still in their golden cocoon while his life force flowed through her body from hand to hand, his heartbeat vibrating against her palm and his blood surging rhythmically under her thumb, influencing her own rhythms until they blended with his. Simultaneously, they closed their eyes and concentrated their special sense of each other on opening the channel between them again.
