Loving Daylight

by Ryan Field

  Actually, she felt like pouring a drink over Robert’s head when she saw her brother, Jaydin, cross through the front door. Her shoulders went back and her eyes popped, so she walked over to him and said, “What on earth are you doing here and who is running the bar?” He wasn’t dressed like a servant. He was wearing a tuxedo, and it wasn’t rented. “And where did you get that formal?” He hadn’t been invited to one of these Christmas parties since he’d moved in with Mickey and opened Applejacks.

  He didn’t have a chance to answer, because Larson LaFramboise stepped up behind him and said, “He’s my guest tonight and Grace is taking care of the bar. I invited him earlier today, and I loaned him one of my formals.” He tipped his head to the side and raised his eyebrows as if he was defying her to argue with him.

  Jaydin shook his head and said to Larson, “This is a mistake. I feel like a fool, and I’m certainly not a welcome guest of your parents. I should leave before they see me.”

  “I’ll handle my parents,” Larson said. “You are like a brother to me, and you’re welcome in my home at any time.” Then he placed his palm on Jaydin’s back and led him into the house without blinking.

  Sienna turned and watched them walk toward the living room. She pressed her palm to her chest and wondered when they’d resumed their friendship. Then she felt a hand on her shoulder and she turned around fast. Avenir was standing behind her, wearing a black tuxedo. His other hand was in his pocket and there was a huge grin on his face. “I like that dress,” he said. “It looks great from behind.” Then he reached down and gave her a harmless pat on the buttocks.

  “Stop that,” she said, “and be good.” But she wanted him to do it again. He looked handsome in his black formal. His thick hair was neatly styled with product and his tanned face looked both gentle and rugged at the same time. “I don’t want any gossip.”

  Then Karla shouted his name from the other side of the hall. He looked up and smiled, but he whispered to Sienna, “I have something of the utmost importance to tell you later. It’s about the painting your grandmother keeps talking about. I think you’ll find it very interesting.”

  Sienna’s head went back and she gave him a confused look. When he spoke this way and used words like “utmost importance” he sounded like an old man instead of someone in his early twenties. And he sounded this way often. There was something very odd about Avenir that she couldn’t pinpoint yet.

  She lifted her head as if she was about to speak. But before she could open her mouth, Karla pounded toward them. Karla wore a red sequined dress that flowed and gathered in awkward places. It bunched up in the back and made her behind look larger than it already was. Her hair was teased and big, with a ridiculous tiara wedged between lacquered curls. She grabbed Avenir by the arm and said, “It’s been so long since we’ve seen you, cousin. You must come with me right now so I can introduce you to a few old friends in the library. They are dying to know what you’re up to over at Oceanview.”

  Avenir pulled his arm back and looked at Sienna. “Would you like to come, too?” he asked.

  Karla’s eyes opened wide and she stared in Sienna’s direction.

  Sienna smiled and said, “You go with Karla. I’ll stay here a little longer and greet the guests.” She didn’t say this because she wanted Karla to think she was dedicated. She said it because she didn’t want to get trapped in the library with Karla’s dull, lifeless friends for the next hour.

  The evening moved slowly, but it wasn’t completely unremarkable. Sienna was in the dining room when Karla finally noticed that Larson was with Jaydin. The two guys were standing near the buffet with small plates in their hands, and Larson was filling his face with food. They were laughing and talking as if no one else was in the room. Sienna was behind them having a conversation with the former mayor of Glendale Harbor, the one Robert LaFramboise had defeated because he’d bribed his way into office (she didn’t have proof, but she’d heard talk around town). Sienna watched Karla walk up to her son and place her palm in the middle of his back, then she heard Karla say, “Jaydin, I didn’t know you’d be here tonight, dear.” Sienna clenched her teeth and remained quiet. She knew that Karla was implying that Jaydin had crashed her party. The protective instincts Sienna felt for her brother kicked in and she wanted to push Karla’s face into the punch bowl.

  Larson stepped away from his mother and said, “I invited him. He’s here with me.” He looked her directly in the eye. His voice was soft, but with an emphatic tone.

  Karla forced a smile and pressed her palm to her throat. “Ah well,” she said, “we’ll talk later, dear.” Then she raised her pointy chin, shifted her body to the right, and left them alone without even welcoming Jaydin to the party.

  When she was gone, Sienna overheard Jaydin say, “She doesn’t seem too happy about me being here.” He put his plate down on the buffet and stared at the floor.

  Larson shrugged his shoulders and popped a small canapé into his mouth as if he couldn’t have cared less. She’d always thought that Larson was dumb, just another jock with a great body going through life clueless. But lately she’d been noticing that there was more to him then she’d realized. Since Mickey’s death, he’d begun to help Jaydin at the bar without having to be asked first and he’d quit smoking. She hadn’t seen him picking up different women every night of the week. And he’d stopped parking in the handicapped parking space out front. He still wasn’t a genius, and he’d never become a brain surgeon, but she was beginning to think he wasn’t a complete moron.

  At the end of the party, Sienna was in the front hall saying good night to the guests. The high heels killed her feet and she couldn’t wait to go back to her apartment and spend some time with Latte. The poor thing had been alone all day and she was worried about him. Avenir was talking to one of Karla’s friends near the staircase, but he kept glancing in her direction. He was smiling at first, but when he saw Robert LaFramboise and Bowen walk over to her, he shoved his hands into his pockets and frowned.

  Sienna felt a hand between her shoulder blades, and then the hand slid down to the small of her back. When she jerked forward and turned around to see who was there, Bowen stared down at her with a huge grin on his face. She pressed her palm to her chest and smiled. “You scared me to death,” she said. “I didn’t know anyone was behind me.”

  He smiled and rubbed his hand up and down her back with innocent, gentle strokes. “Robert tells me that you live on the property, above the garage.”

  Robert was standing next to Bowen. He was rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet. “I raised her like my own daughter,” he said.

  She ignored Robert and looked Bowen in the eye and smiled. He seemed like such a nice man, with a strong fatherly approach. She couldn’t understand why Avenir had been ignoring him all night. “Yes,” she said, “I have a nice little hideaway.” She couldn’t tell him that it was a dump and that she was counting the days until she could leave. It was pointless to mention that Robert had swindled her out of half the Harrington fortune when her mother died because she hadn’t left a will. And she would have sounded like a loon if she’d mentioned the hidden painting and her mother’s lost will. So she smiled and lied.

  Bowen moved in closer, but before he could even say anything, Avenir was standing beside Sienna and his hand was wrapped around Bowen’s wrist. He lifted Bowen’s hand up over his head and held it in the air. Then he grabbed him by the collar, pushed him into the wall, and said, “Get your hands off her.”

  Bowen’s eyes widened and his face went blank. “What are you talking about? I wasn’t doing anything wrong, Avenir. Have you lost your mind, buddy?” He could have been laughing, but Sienna couldn’t be completely sure.

  Robert stepped away from them, but his mouth was open. He reached to move an expensive vase on a pedestal so it wouldn’t get broken if there was a fight.

  “Avenir,” Sienna said, “What are you doing?” The murky, serious expression on his face frightened her. Bowen hadn�
�t done anything wrong, and Avenir had no right to cause a scene. “Take your hands off him.”

  Avenir ignored her. He squeezed Bowen’s collar even tighter and shouted, “Leave her alone or I’ll make you a very sorry man.”

  The house went silent, and the few remaining guests stood there waiting to see what would happen next. Sienna spread her arms wide and shook her head. “I can’t believe you’re behaving like this, Avenir,” she said. “You’re way out of line, and I’m leaving.” Then she clenched her fists and stormed out the front door.

  Avenir let go of Bowen and followed her down the front walk. When they reached the side of the house, not far from the garage, he grabbed her arm and said, “I was only trying to protect you. I know Bowen very well. You should be mad at him, not me. Why can’t you see that?”

  She yanked her arm out of his hand and turned to face him. She bent forward and pointed her index finger in his face. “You don’t own me,” she said. “Bowen wasn’t doing anything wrong, and he’s a very nice man. You made me look like a fool in front of everyone. And now I’ll have to apologize to both Karla and Robert tomorrow, and then I’ll have to apologize to Bowen.”

  He lifted his arms in the air and said, “Apologize to Bowen? Why would you apologize to him?”

  “For your rudeness,” she said. “He was just saying good night, and then you decided to go after him like a maniac.” She turned and walked toward the garage. She’d thought that Avenir was a gentle man, but now he only seemed like crazed lunatic with too much testosterone.

  “Sienna,” he shouted. “Wait. I was only trying to protect you from him.” He made a fist and punched a cement urn.

  But Sienna didn’t turn around. She folded her arms across her chest and disappeared behind the garage. And when she went upstairs and looked out the front window to see if he was still there, the driveway was dark and empty. And there was a broken cement urn, tipped sideways, on the edge of the driveway.

  Chapter Eleven

  Avenir went to Applejacks the night after the party to try to smooth things over with Sienna. But when he sat down in his usual place at the bar, Sienna turned her back to him. He noticed that she was wearing the tight, low-rise jeans that made his heart race with excitement, and a black V-neck sweater that made his stomach jump. She wouldn’t even look at him. She went to the end of the bar and murmured something in Grace’s ear, then went into the back room alone.

  Grace came over and smiled. “Can I get you a drink?” she asked. “Sienna doesn’t want to talk to you right now.”

  “She’s that mad?”

  “I can’t talk about it,” Grace said. “I promised Sienna.”

  He frowned and said, “I’ll have a vodka and tonic.” Then he looked Grace in the eye and asked, “Do you think she’ll come around?”

  Grace shrugged. Her loyalty was to her friend, not to him. “I don’t know,” she said. “But at least you did the right thing by coming here tonight.”

  “Huh? I thought she didn’t want to see me.”

  Grace laughed. “You don’t know women very well,” she said. “She’s mad as hell right now, but if you hadn’t shown up tonight she would have been even madder.”

  He shrugged his shoulders and shook his head. “Just tell her I’m sorry and that I’ll never do it again,” he said. He wasn’t even sure why he was sorry. He was trying to protect her. But it seemed like the right thing to say. And he knew that Sienna’s behavior wasn’t completely abnormal. She didn’t know Bowen was a bloodthirsty vampire with no scruples.

  Grace smiled and said, “I’ll tell her, but I’m not sure she wants to hear it from me.” Then she looked to see if Sienna was watching them and said, “Get her a cat toy,” she said.

  He blinked and stared at her.

  “Sienna found a stray kitten and she’s keeping it,” Grace said. “She named it Latte and she’s absolutely in love with it. If you buy her something for the cat, it will help smooth things over.”

  Avenir laughed and shook his head. He hadn’t had a chance to talk to Sienna since the party, so he had no idea she’d found a stray kitten. “Thanks,” he said, “I can use all the help I can get right now.”

  He sat there the rest of the night sipping his drink alone. He spoke to Jaydin for a few minutes, and bought a drink for Larson. Since Larson and Jaydin had resumed their friendship, Larson seemed like a new man. He didn’t wind up at the back of the bar, drunk and messy, with different women each night. There was a sense of calmness about him that hadn’t been there before. And it seemed to have happened overnight.

  But Sienna wouldn’t speak to Avenir. If he caught her looking in his direction, she turned her head and focused on something behind the bar. She made Grace take care of all the customers at his end of the bar so she wouldn’t have to go near him. And at the end of the night, when it was time to leave, he stood outside the bar and waited for her as he’d done so many times.

  When she finally came out, Grace was with her. She gave him a foul look and said, “I’m taking Grace home tonight. Her car is in the shop and I’m her ride.” Then she stared down at her shoes and crossed past him.

  Grace smiled and shrugged her shoulders. And when she knew Sienna wasn’t looking, she mouthed the words, “Cat toy,” to him. Then she lifted her hand and made a circle with her index finger and her thumb.

  He drove back to Oceanview, gripping the steering wheel and grinding his teeth. He almost forgot to turn off his headlights when he got out of the car. Mavis was waiting for him in the kitchen. He told her all about what had happened with Sienna. She handed him a tall glass of blood and said, “Here, drink this.”

  He sat down at the table and she placed it in front of him. “I’m not that hungry,” he said.

  She put her hands on her hips and frowned. “You need your strength,” she said, “Just drink it. I’m going up to bed now. I’ve had a long day chasing ghosts in this place.”

  “Ghosts?”

  “I think there’s more than one,” Mavis said, “but I’m not sure yet. It could be just one with a feisty soul. The west wing door is left open constantly, and I caught a chair levitating through the front hall early this morning.”

  He drank the entire glass of blood and said, “I’ll check it out. I haven’t gone through the west wing yet because there hasn’t been time.”

  A few minutes later, he stood from the table and switched off the kitchen lights. Then he went into the dining room and lit a candelabra because the electricity in the west wing hadn’t been turned on yet. He didn’t trust the old wiring in that end of the house and he didn’t want to take the chance of losing the entire place in an electrical fire.

  When he was upstairs, he turned right and walked to the end of the hallway. The door to the west wing was partially open. So he held the lit candles in front of him and crossed inside. As a vampire, he could see well in the dark. His eyes had become accustomed to walking through darkness. But he wanted to look for details and signs, and he needed some extra light to do this. He had a feeling that the ghost was trying to tell him something, and he didn’t want to miss any clues.

  All the doors were closed. But then he heard a click, followed by a squeak. The door at the end of the hall slowly opened, and he knew there was no one there. Then he heard music coming from the end of the hall. He wasn’t sure what kind of music. It was soft and had a tinny sound, as if it were coming from an old fashioned record player with a crank and handle. He followed the music. And when he reached the open door and the music became louder, he took a quick, shallow breath and cleared his throat.

  Avenir hadn’t heard that song in years, not since the last time he’d seen Adriana on that Easter Sunday outside the church. The band at the picnic had been playing the same song that day. He remembered the name, “The Love of My Life.” He took a deep breath and smelled lilac perfume, the same scent that his beloved Adriana had used all the time.

  He walked into the dark room and placed the candelabra on top of a round pie cru
st table. His eyes darted back and forth. There were cobwebs everywhere. They swooped from a high four-poster bed like sheer draperies. The tops of the tables were thick with dust, and the rugs and fabrics smelled like old, wet towels. There was a Victrola in one corner of the room, playing “The Love of My Life.” And above the fireplace mantle, directly across from the bed, was a long, narrow portrait of Adriana. It had been his favorite image of her. She was sitting on the edge of a white tufted cushion, wearing a teal blue gown and a soft gold necklace. Her thick curls had been piled on top of her head and the right corner of her mouth went higher than the left.

  He looked around the room and shouted, “Adriana, are you here? Are you here now?” He knew she wouldn’t contact him verbally; ghosts didn’t do that sort of thing. But he wanted her to know that he understood.

  Suddenly, a window at the other end of the room opened wide and a cold breeze blew past him. The wind caused the draperies to flutter. The crystal chandelier swayed and clinked. And then a cluster of old papers flew off a desk behind him. The papers blew up high, toward the ceiling, and slowly fell around his body.

  He watched the papers plummet, one by one, and then he stretched out his hand to catch the last one. When the yellowed page was in his palm, he turned it around and saw that it was handwritten. It said “Page One” on the bottom, and on the top it read, “Loving Daylight.” This was the short story Adriana had written, the one she’d been telling him about the day he’d kissed her.

  For a moment, he held it in his hands without moving a muscle. Then he smiled and looked around the room. “It is you, Adriana. I know it. I know you’re trying to tell me something, but I’m not sure what it is. Give me a sign. I’ll figure it out.”