The Cocktail Collection

by Alice Clayton

  I tried to keep my weight off my stuck foot, since every time I pushed down to try and get some leverage, it seemed to get even more wedged in. I started to think about what might be under that porch, what might have ahold of my foot.

  One of those dolls . . .

  That’s it! My phone was in my pocket, thank God—but who was I going to call? Simon was back in San Francisco by now, and I had no idea how to get hold of Hank. Mr. Montgomery? No, he was too old. I didn’t want to call 911, because while in my own head this constituted an emergency, in the grand scheme of things, it really wasn’t.

  You know who you have to call.

  Oh, man.

  And do it quickly, before the doll takes another bite.

  I called the librarian.

  “Well, well, well.”

  “Lookee what we have here,” I finished, peering up at Clark.

  “I couldn’t have said it better myself,” he answered, walking slowly up the steps.

  When I’d called him, he said he’d be right over. And he hadn’t laughed, just asked if I was all right and did I need anything. I told him a margarita would be nice. He’d ignored that request, but he had brought his toolbox. Rubbermaid. Red. Stamped with Clark Barrow on the side—in case someone tried to take it?

  Sunday Evening Clark was much more dressed down: faded jeans, running shoes, untucked plaid shirt over a white undershirt. I suddenly said a prayer that it wasn’t a tank-top undershirt, that he was the kind of guy who wore T-shirts, and then mentally slapped myself for giving a shit what he wore under his faded plaid shirt. That looked soft and comfortable and warm. I shivered. It was getting cold out here, playing buoy on the sea of porch.

  He knelt down in front of me and assessed the situation.

  “One would think it unwise, Vivian, knowing the condition of this rotten wood, to traipse about so carelessly,” he said as he poked at the wood around my left leg, which was buried to midthigh. I’d been sitting half on and half off the broken wood for the better part of twenty minutes, and was starting to get more than a little agitated.

  “One would think that after getting punched in the nose one would be unwise to provoke me,” I said sweetly.

  He turned his gaze from my leg to my face, his eyes calculating. “You’re the one stuck in the porch. You sure you want to pick a fight with me right now?”

  He had me there, dammit. “Okay, fine. No fight picking. But do something, Clark.”

  “I’m waiting for the magic word.”

  “Um, now?”

  “Really?”

  “Asshole?”

  “Come on.”

  “Clark!”

  “Vivian.”

  “Oh, fine. Please help me, Clark. Please, please, please?” I managed, gritting my teeth.

  “That wasn’t so bad, was it?” he smiled, his face lighting up.

  “Still not out of this porch here,” I said.

  He nodded. “As personally gratifying as it is to see you like this, there is a bit of storm coming and I’d rather not be out here when it hits. So let’s see what we can do here, shall we?”

  “Yes, shall we?” I repeated, leaning back so he could get a better look at how I was wedged.

  “Pardon me, I need to get a little closer here. I just—Ah, yes, I can see it there.” Clark had leaned across me, one arm on either side of me as he peered through the broken board to the ground below. His head was almost flush with the floor. And flush with what else was on the floor. Flush with my— Oh my. I unexpectedly felt his breath on my bare thighs. I was dressed in running shorts that left little to the imagination, and my imagination was bombarding my senses with the most inappropriate images.

  All I could think about was if he just moved about three inches to the left, he could probably get me off with his jaw alone. And how in world had I never noticed that it was so very strong, so very chiseled, so very lightly covered with Sunday-evening stubble? Stubble that could so very easily drag back and forth across the inside of my legs, up and down, and right and left, and then up, up, and away toward my—

  “I’m going to have to go down,” he said, and it took all the strength I had not to bury my hand in that flippy soft brown hair and take him at his word.

  “Sorry?” I asked, panting. I was panting, for Christ’s sake! Over a librarian?

  Mmmm, over a librarian . . .

  “I have to go down beneath the porch. Believe me, I’m not looking forward to it. Who knows what’s under there?” he said, turning toward me. All I could see was bandage, and the bruises that were fading from purple to yellow around the edges, and the spell was broken.

  Still breathing a little heavy, I warned him to watch out for dolls. And watched as he hurried down the steps, around the side of the house, and began removing the latticework cover on the side of the porch with the utmost care.

  What the hell! Lusting after a librarian, when there was a cowboy on the loose? It was clear that lusting after Hank had addled my brains. I was seeing things, imagining things, getting hot over the slightest touch, even from a guy like Clark.

  The wind blew more forcefully across the porch, and I shivered. What the hell was taking so long?

  “Hey! You want to put a little hustle on over there?” I finally called out, when the third piece of lattice was placed carefully onto the porch.

  His head popped up over the edge. “Do you have any idea how old this is?”

  “Do you have any idea how much it’s going to suck if you’re caught underneath there in the rain?”

  He looked at the sky, getting darker by the minute. “Point taken.” He pried off the last of the lattice, then disappeared.

  I could hear scrambling coming from beneath me, and then I could feel the ground shifting a little under my stuck foot.

  “Vivian? It’s just me. Don’t be alarmed.”

  “No kidding, Clark. Who else would it be?”

  “Well, pardon me all over the place. I was just concerned that if you were surprised, your first instinct would be to kick. So let’s see what we can do about getting this free.”

  Then he put his hands on my leg. Wrapped his hands around my ankle, turning it slightly. “Okay, it’s wedged into a cement block, but I think I can get it loose. Bear with me a moment, Vivian.”

  “It’s Viv. And be careful, huh?” I called down.

  “Impossible woman,” he muttered. His hands traveled a little farther up my leg, inside, and then around the back of my knee. And then I felt . . . well, it felt like . . .

  “Clark! Did you just lick—”

  “No!” he yelled, wrenching my foot free at that exact moment and pushing it up through the porch. I fell backward, my leg pulling clear of the wood and my heart pounding. I saw him crawl out from beneath the porch, dust himself off, and then walk toward me.

  I pointed at him. “You licked my leg.”

  “I did nothing of the kind,” he said. But the tips of his ears were red.

  Flap-flap-flap-flap.

  “Ah crap, I forgot about that.”

  “You’re kind of a two-crisis girl, aren’t you?” He laughed, reaching behind his toolbox and picking up a lacrosse stick.

  “That’s what you brought to kill a bat?”

  “It was either this or my squash racket.” He took a few practice swipes at the air. “Besides, we’re not going to kill it. We’re going to catch it, then let it go.”

  “There is no we. There’s a you, as in you are going to get the bat!”

  “It’s your house, you should be helping me,” he said. “And for someone who acts so tough, you sure are scared of a little thing like a bat.”

  “I’m not scared!”

  When he had the nerve to make a bowing gesture, as if to say well then, go ahead on in without me, I grumbled, “Okay fine—I’m a little scared. I’ll help
you, but you’re going in first.” I stood up and brushed off my shorts. I now had another scrape to match the one on the other leg. Honestly.

  I rummaged in the garage until I found a rake and a bucket, then rejoined Clark on the porch. Stepping over the hole, I huddled behind him as he opened the front door. We went inside, alert and listening.

  “Is something burning?” he asked, sniffing the air.

  “Dammit, my dinner!” I wailed, rushing past him and into the kitchen. “Motherfucker!”

  “Vivian!” Clark exclaimed, hurrying past me to turn off the burners. Smoke billowed from the oven, my chicken breasts now charred beyond recognition. Rice? Now a cake in the bottom of the pan. And the vegetables? Crust. I started throwing the pots into the sink, probably slamming them a little harder than necessary. I was pissed at the porch, pissed at the house, pissed that my leg hurt, and pissed off that I still had a bat in the house. A bat in the house!

  “Were you expecting someone for dinner?” Clark asked from the doorway to the dining room. His face looked tight—hurt?

  I glanced past him and saw the candles burning on the table. “No, that was just for me,” I replied, pushing past him and blowing out the candle.

  “You lit candles just to eat alone?”

  “Yeah. So?” I asked, turning back to him. I saw the bat. It was perched on the lacrosse stick, just behind his head.

  “Oh. Boy. Um, Clark?”

  “I think if you want to light candles, even if it’s just you, that’s perfectly okay,” Clark said, nodding at me.

  “Right. Agreed. But right now? You need to—”

  “I mean, after all, if you don’t think you’re good company, no one else will, right?”

  “Totally. Can I just—”

  “I eat most of my meals alone too, although I’ve never thought about lighting candles. Not sure a guy doing it would be seen as being quite as empowering as it is for a girl, rather sad actually. But shoot, I’ll try anything once I suppose. So good for you, Vivian. Light a candle why don’t you, you deserve it. Even if it is just chicken or—”

  “Duck.”

  “Or duck, exactly, even if it’s—”

  “Fucking duck, Clark!” I yelled, lunging in with my rake and swatting at the bat.

  Clark hit the deck and I knocked the bat off the back of the lacrosse stick. “Bucket! Bucket!” I yelled, and he slid it across the floor. Slamming it down on the bat, I sat on top of it, giving a war cry. “Wahoooooo!” I lifted the rake high over my head in victory.

  It caught in the chandelier and damn near ripped the entire thing out. And as it hung from the ceiling, swinging back and forth, I sat on a bucket in the middle of my dining room, with a bat under my butt, and a librarian under the table.

  Cue lightning and thunder.

  Cue crashing rain.

  There was nothing I could do but laugh.

  There were no leaks, though—so there was that.

  chapter nine

  Clark could rally, I gotta give him that. Twenty minutes later the bat was set free, the windows were all closed against the torrent of rain that was lashing at the house, and I was perched at my kitchen table with one Mr. Clark Barrow at the stove. Wearing an apron he’d found hanging in the pantry, he was scrambling me some eggs and making toast like it was his job.

  “Well, what else were you going to do?” he’d asked when he’d first suggested helping me make something else for dinner.

  “Order a pizza?”

  “You’ve got eggs and bread; how about I make us something to eat? It’ll give the rain a chance to slow up before I head home,” he said, and I agreed. And now here he was, cooking for us both.

  I’d warned him about how temperamental the stove was, but he had the hang of it. “My Nana used to have a stove just like this one, I’m used to it,” he said, expertly flipping the burners and lighting it just so.

  “I’m impressed,” I said, and I was. Sure, it was just eggs and toast, but I’d punched the guy not too long ago, yet here he was, making me dinner. Nice guy.

  I had no idea what to do with a nice guy. I’d never dated a clean-cut, Backstreet Boy type; I’d always stayed in the heavy metal/alternative, dirty, tattooed-boy section. I could appreciate what a Nick Lachey had to offer, sure, but my type was always going to be a Dave Navarro, a Chris Cornell.

  A nice guy? Hmmm.

  Shaking off the feeling, I sipped my wine. “So, tell me about yourself, Clark.”

  “Me? What’s there to know?”

  “Oh, I bet plenty. Tell me about the man, the myth, the legend.”

  He raised an eyebrow at me, then nodded at the wine. “Pour me another glass and you’ll get all three.”

  Yeah, I poured. He talked. Born and raised in Mendocino, he’d gone away to college at Pepperdine, history major, minor in library sciences. His family had always been heavily involved in the area’s historical society, preserving old homes, churches, restoring and repurposing older buildings. He confirmed what Caroline had already told me, that much of the town of Mendocino was in fact a historical site. Most of those efforts were privately funded, although he worked with homeowners to apply for and receive federal grants, like the one my aunt had received. The library was his main job, although hours had been cut steadily over the last few years and there was now a pretty small staff that assisted him.

  “No one does pure research anymore, not without the Internet of course. Sure, we’ve adapted pretty well, but for the most part, the library here exists for a pleasure reader. Although with Kindles and iPads, we’re even starting to see those readers begin to slip away. Plates?” he asked, bringing the pan with the scrambled eggs to the table. I helped him butter the toast, and we settled ourselves around the kitchen table. There was still a rake stuck in the chandelier in the dining room and it was raining too hard to go out to the barn for the ladder so, yeah, that was out for tonight.

  “Well, I’ll be down for my library card just as soon as I can.” I forked up a mouthful. “Mmm, these are great, Clark. You want some hot sauce?” I asked, sprinkling Tabasco over everything on my plate.

  “I’ll pass. Do you read a lot?”

  “I’ve been known to, sure,” I said, hoping my face wasn’t as pink as it felt.

  “Last book you read that changed how you felt about something,” he said.

  I thought quickly. Not sure I could tell him about Loins, and how it changed the way I now saw baguettes. “Um, let’s see. Black Holes and Baby Universes.”

  “Wow, impressive. Hawking. How did you think it compared to A Brief History of—” The kitchen was suddenly plunged into darkness. “I wondered when that was going to happen,” he said.

  “What happened?” I asked, looking around in the dark. I had a flashlight in here somewhere.

  “Power goes out in town when there’s a bad storm. They usually have it back on within a few hours, though, not to worry.”

  “I’m not worried.” I fumbled in the drawer until I found it. “Ah, there we go!” I said, turning on the flashlight.

  “What wattage is that thing?” he asked, holding up his hands.

  It was a bit bright.

  “No dimmer on this thing, sorry,” I said, trying to cover it up a bit. “Wait, I know!” I hurried into the other room, dodging the rake, and grabbed the candles. Striking a match, I lit them quickly, then set them down on the kitchen table. “See? Even breakfast for dinner can have ambience.”

  I looked across the table at him, hair rumpled from the bat fight, mud on his T-shirt from being under the porch, and an intense-looking smile. And the bandage, God bless it. I smiled back at him, then took a bite of toast.

  “So, Clark, does your family still live here in town?”

  “Oh no, now it’s my turn to ask the questions.” He grinned, slapping another coat of strawberry jelly on his toast. He licke
d each finger; jellying toast by candlelight was a messy business. “So where are you from, exactly? I’ve been trying to place your accent all week.”

  Damn. Had it really only been a week? “My accent?”

  “Yes, it’s very specific. Not just generic back east, although I’m fairly certain it’s in that general area.”

  “It’s in that general area, yes.” I nodded, enjoying where this was going. Philadelphia natives did have a very specific accent, although most couldn’t place it.

  “It’s not New York.”

  “State or city?” I asked.

  “It’s neither. And it’s not Boston. It’s not New Jersey, although I admit my knowledge of that accent is limited by my addiction to The Sopranos,” he said with a half grin.

  “You’re close. Philadelphia. Specifically, a little town just outside the city.”

  “Philadelphia. So tell me, what do you do back there in Philadelphia?”

  “Well, until recently I owned my own software company.”

  He dropped his toast. “You owned your own—what?”

  “Yep. I’m a software engineer by trade, got lucky with a program after college and went out on my own.”

  “So what did you specialize in?”

  “In a nutshell? I write programs that do data mining. You know, look for needles in a cyber haystack? Just sold a new program a few months ago.”

  “You said until recently. Are you not doing it anymore?” he asked, looking fascinated.

  “No, after all of this kind of fell into my lap I decided to sell my little company to a bigger company. They’d been making offers for years, and to be honest, my heart just wasn’t really in it anymore. So when they offered again, I sold it. Well, I’m in the beginning stages of selling it.”

  “Who are you selling it to?”

  “Franklin Logistics and Software.”

  This time he choked on his toast. “You just sold your company to Franklin L&S?”

  I passed him his water. “Well, going through the process, but yep.”

  “Wait— Vivian Franklin. Franklin L&S. Any relation?”