“So how’s it going with you and Cindy? She still on the non-date kick?” Edward laughed.
“It ain’t funny, bro. That sister of yours is a complicated piece of machinery. Ever since Eric roughed her up, her moods have been unpredictable. Every millisecond, it’s like watching an overwound pendulum swing from one extreme to the other.”
“She told me about her crummy job. Sounds like she’d be better off quitting and finding something better. Life’s way too short to spend day in and day out doing something you hate, especially when you have the choice to do otherwise.”
“Convincing her she’s got that choice is the problem.”
Cricket yipped outside and pawed at the door.
Hank let her in. “It amazes me how two siblings raised in different homes can be so alike. Cindy’s every bit your female clone. She’s obstinate, independent, unreasonable, easily ticked off and—”
“Good looking, intelligent, and talented?”
“Not the adjectives I was looking for, but, yeah, she’s all those things, and more. I just don’t understand her half the time.”
Edward laughed again. “Welcome to my world. I live in a perpetual state of bewilderment. I don’t get Audra’s affinity for pink, her love of scented candles, or why she gets teary-eyed when I surprise her with flowers. Most of all, I don’t understand how she picked a bum like me to spend the rest of her life with. But I’m glad she did.”
“So, how do I convince a crazy chick like your sister to pick me?”
Chapter 29
“Thank you, Newburgh. It’s been a pleasure being here with you tonight. You’ve been a great audience.” The comedian put the mic back in its stand and took a long, deep bow.
Hank rose with the crowd for a standing ovation.
Beside him, Cindy clapped hard and hooted a gleeful cheer. Her toothy, whole-face smile lit up Hank’s world. “Great show, wasn’t it?”
“It sure was.” The featured comic had kept the audience in stitches. But nothing brought greater satisfaction than watching Cindy throw her head back, hold her stomach, and stomp her feet with rip-roaring laughter.
With one last bow, the performer left the stage.
Hank nudged Cindy’s elbow. “No use fighting the crowd to the parking lot. Let’s sit awhile and I’ll get you another bottle of that orange cream soda you’ve been raving about.”
Cindy threw an over-the-shoulder glance at the bottleneck of bodies funneling through the door. “Good idea. I already had four of those babies, but another one wouldn’t hurt.” She dropped back into her seat at their tiny table, her face still beaming with a happy glow.
Hank put in an order and a waiter returned with two soft drinks.
“My ribs are still hurting from laughing so hard.” Cindy arched her back and rubbed her midsection. “Thanks for bringing me here tonight, Hank. Best show ever.”
“It was good to see you let loose and laugh yourself silly.” He couldn’t be happier.
* * * *
As expected, traffic on the hills and curves of the back roads was light. Hank propped an elbow on the open window frame and enjoyed the woodsy-fresh scent rushing through the Jeep.
Despite the chill in the air, Cindy sat with bare feet resting on the outside mirror and her pant legs billowing in the wind. Oncoming headlights illuminated her and glinted off pearly teeth. She repeated punch lines and chuckled every few miles. Just listening to her made Hank laugh too.
Cindy lifted her orange cream soda bottle and held it toward him. “Cheers, big guy.”
“Cheers.” Hank clinked his root beer bottle against hers then took a swig.
With a few big glugs, Cindy finished her drink and dropped the empty container into the trash box in the back seat. “How much longer until we get home?”
“Thirty minutes or so. Why?”
“All that soda I drank is catching up with me, if you know what I mean.”
“Small wonder, seeing how many you put away.”
“I know.” She broke into a silly laugh. “And as dark a night as it is tonight, I’d be afraid to pull over and dart off into the woods. Last thing I need is to get snake bitten, fall off another ledge, or end up with a wicked case of poison ivy.”
“We’ll be going through a town soon, and I’ll look for a place to stop.”
“Thanks. I think I can hold out until then.”
Cindy’s punch lines and chuckles became fewer as dark, wooded miles passed. She pulled her feet inside and planted them on the floorboard. “How much farther to civilization?”
“Ten minutes, maybe.”
She squirmed. “Can you make it five?”
“I’m already going over the speed limit, Sassy.”
“Okay, ten minutes then. Eleven might be too late.” She reclined her seatback a notch and crossed her legs. “Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream.”
Her strained song sounded as though it was being sung through clenched teeth.
Hank cleared his throat. “Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream. If you see a crocodile, don’t forget to scream.”
A backhanded slap struck Hank’s arm. “Are you crazy? Don’t you dare try to make me laugh at a time like this. I was singing to get my mind off the fact that I’m about to explode over here.”
“Sorry.”
“Look!” Cindy ratcheted her seat to its upright position. “I see lights up ahead. What is it? A gas station or a store, maybe?”
“It’s a bar.”
Tavern On The Hill, ahead on right. Hank zoomed past the roadside sign and approached the parking lot.
“Pull in, Hank.”
“There’s a better place up ahead a few—”
“I’m dying here, Hank. I said pull in!”
Hank rolled into a space near the front door. “Cindy, I don’t think you’re going to be comfortable in there. It’s a—”
Cindy threw open the door and ran before the Jeep came to a full stop.
Hank shook his head. “She’ll find out.”
* * * *
Red letters of a restroom sign glowed on the back wall of the dimly lit room. Billiard balls clacked somewhere to Cindy’s left as she wove around tables and clusters of faceless, people. “Excuse me. Pardon me. Make a hole. Coming through.”
Behind the bar, a mirror traced her movements toward the back of the room. She might have laughed at the sight of her punk rocker, wind-spiked hair if not for her desperate situation. But right now, nothing was funny.
Two minutes later, immensely relieved, she washed up and left the restroom.
“Behind Closed Doors” crooned from speakers mounted high on the walls, and a buzz of conversation and laughter filled the barroom. A pretty bartender, raven-haired and nicely tanned, met Cindy’s gaze and lifted her hand in a friendly wave.
Cindy waved back and started for the door.
Whoa. She stopped mid stride and froze.
In a shadowy alcove where the bar curved toward the wall, two women slow-danced cheek to cheek in one another’s embrace. Couples, all women, dotted the stools around the bar. Some held hands, and others sat with arms draped around their partner’s shoulder. In the billiards area, girls chalked the ends of cue sticks and shot pool. More girls sat together at tables, drinking tap or bottled beer.
Girls, girls, girls. Not a guy in the house.
Cindy’s heart jackhammered her ribs. Head lowered, gaze to the floor, she set a course for the door. A few more steps and she’d be close enough to the door to make a run for it.
“Cindy? Cindy Giordano?” A woman’s perky voice called from behind.
Cindy stopped and turned. The wide-eyed brunette hurrying toward her struck a chord of familiarity, but Cindy couldn’t quite place her.
“Oh my gosh, it’s so good to see you. Remember me?”
High school memories came flooding back. “Madeline Murphy
?”
“Yeah, it’s me. Mattie.” Mattie’s smile lifted chunky cheeks into roundish mounds under her eyes. “I knew it. I just knew it.”
“You knew what?”
“That you’d come out one day.”
“Come out? Oh, no, no, no. I’m afraid you’ve got that all wrong.”
“Aw, come on, Cindy. You don’t have to—”
“You’re mistaken, Mattie. I just stopped in because I had to use the bathroom.”
Madeline didn’t have to say it, but her face said, yeah, right. “Once you make peace with who you are, it’s quite liberating.”
“I know who I am. I’m a woman who loves guys.” Cindy didn’t remember walking backward, but her heel stopped when it hit the door. She pushed it open. The cool breeze that whipped by smelled like freedom drifting through prison gates.
Madeline followed her outside and stood with the door propped open with a shoulder. A petite blonde with an asymmetrical hairstyle joined Mattie and linked arms with her.
A few cars over, Hank leaned against the Jeep’s driver’s side fender, his back facing the barroom entrance. Judging by his stance and the low beeping noises coming from his direction, he was playing a game on his smartphone.
“See that guy over there by the camouflaged Jeep.” Cindy pointed. “That’s my boyfriend. I’ve got to go. Nice seeing you, Mattie.”
Cindy walked around the Jeep. “I’m back, Hank.”
Mattie and Crazy Hair watched from the barroom doorway.
Hank slipped his phone into his back pocket. “Feel better?”
“Much.” She slid her hands up Hank’s chest, rose on tiptoes, and pressed a lingering kiss on his lips.”
“Cindy?” The scent of wintergreen rode on his breath. He couldn’t look more perplexed. “Did you conk your head on something in there?”
“No, I didn’t hit my head.” She combed her fingers through his hair. “Do you want to kiss me or not?”
“I’ve wanted to kiss you since the day we met.” Hank spit out a mint, and brushed soft, warm lips against hers. His next kiss came with tender affection that turned her legs into rubber.
Hands the size of dinner plates held her firmly, caressing and rubbing warmth into her back. Sweet, sensual, and adoring, Hank’s touch was nothing like Eric’s. Hank would never pin her against the car or let his hands wander into forbidden territory then apologize as if he’d strayed by accident. Making out with Hank was different. Better. Awesome, if she were honest.
Cindy opened an eye to a slit. Madeline pecked her girlfriend’s lips and led her by the hand back into the tavern.
She could stop kissing Hank now, but wasn’t sure she wanted to. Another minute, or two, or twenty would do quite nicely.
Hank seemed thoroughly absorbed in the moment. But his passion came with a quiet air of respect, and a touch that said she was precious to him. That she was more than a friend, and that maybe his feelings for her were deep enough to be called—
The thought struck fear in her heart. She stepped back, trembling. “We-we should go now.” Without waiting for a reply, she hurried to her side of the Jeep and got in.
The vehicle dipped slightly as Hank slid behind the wheel. “Cindy, what’s wrong?”
She couldn’t bring herself to look at him. “Nothing. Can you just take me home?”
* * * *
Hank started the Jeep and got back on the road.
In the passenger seat, Cindy sat with arms crossed, feet pulled up onto the seat, and knees pointing away from him. Silence shrouded the Jeep’s interior as miles slipped away.
Something that sounded like a whimper came from Cindy’s side of the car.
“Talk to me, Sassy.”
“I can’t.”
The wobble in Cindy’s whispered words convinced him she was crying, or was on the verge of doing so. And he didn’t have a clue why.
* * * *
The sight of the porch sent Cindy’s anxiety level through the roof. In just a few short minutes, she’d have to get out of the Jeep, face Hank, and admit what an awful, self-centered person she was. Using him like she had was inexcusable. She’d had nothing to prove to Madeline Murphy or her goofy-haired girlfriend. Mattie hadn’t so much as crossed her mind in years.
Pea gravel crackled under the tires as the Jeep pulled up to the porch rail. Hank opened his door and the dome light turned on. He flashed a small smile and started around the front of the Jeep. Seconds later, he opened her door.
“Don’t forget your purse,” Hank said as she took a step away from the vehicle.
“Thanks.” She reached back and grabbed it from the floorboard.
Hank climbed the porch stairs beside her and stood quietly as she dug for her keys.
“Here they are.” She jangled the key ring. “Wo-would you like to come in?”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” He stared at her for a long, awkward moment. “Why are you upset? Is it about what happened between us outside the bar?”
“Yes.” She hated to admit it.
“I don’t understand. It’s not like I pushed you into it. After all, you’re the one who initiated the whole thing.”
“I know.” The sob that barked out of her came as a surprise. “Something happened inside the bar too.”
Hank caressed her arms. “Calm down and tell me about it.”
A ball of words lodged in her throat. She had a lot to say, and none of it good.
“Come on, Sassy. Tell me.”
“I didn’t realize I was in a lesbian bar until I came out of the bathroom. More than likely, I was the only straight person in the place. It’s not like I hate or even dislike gay people. It’s just that—”
“I understand. You felt out of place.”
“Yeah, I did. Before I could get to the door, one of my old high school classmates called my name. I barely remembered her since we hadn’t seen each other since graduation. We said hello, and then she dropped a bomb and asked me when I came out.”
Hank smiled.
“It’s not funny, Hank. She didn’t believe me when I told her I was straight. Before I knew it, she was following me out the door. I-I panicked and told her you were my boyfriend.”
Hank’s hands slid off her arms. All traces of his smile vanished. “And you kissed me just to prove to someone you hadn’t seen in years that you were straight?”
“I’m sorry, Hank. It was stupid, impulsive, and—”
“Cindy, don’t say another word. Please.” He walked to the rail, gripped it tight, and hung his head.
Tears dripped down her face. “Hank, I—”
Hank turned abruptly and stood close. “My feelings for you are deeper than you could ever imagine. All I’ve wanted since we met was to be close to you, hold and kiss you.” His eyes glazed with moisture. “But I think this is where you and I part ways.”
“No, please don’t say that.”
Hank descended the wooden steps.
“Hank! Please don’t leave.”
He got into his Jeep and backed out onto the road.
Cindy crossed the gravel lot and chased after the Jeep’s taillights. “Hank! Come back!”
The Jeep turned at the intersection. And Hank was gone.
* * * *
The traffic light near Dunkin’ Donuts turned yellow then red. Hank came to a stop and loosened his white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel. Why had he reacted so harshly when he loved Cindy so much? The road in the rearview mirror may as well have been shouting for him to turn around and go back.
But no, he couldn’t go back. Or wouldn’t. Not now, when his anger would only make him spew words he’d regret. Part of him wanted to use vengeful words to wound her as badly as she’d wounded him. His heart ached to go back, forgive her, and tell her how much he loved her.
Time. That’s what he needed. Time to sort out his feelings. Cool down. Figure out where to go from here.
T
he car behind him gave a short beep of the horn. Green light. Hank continued toward home.
Chapter 30
Cold damp sand saturated the seat of Hank’s boxers, and the thin blanket draped around his shoulders had done little to insulate his bare upper body against the chill of the pre-dawn hours. But he had not dared risk going back to the warmth of his bed where he would have surely drifted into another few hours of restless sleep.
Light fog over the lake dissipated with the rising sun, leaving a layer of mist floating on the water’s surface. Peaceful. Quiet. If only he could, by osmosis, absorb the serenity of the lake at dawn, he could once again rest easy.
Hank picked up his smartphone and brought it to life. Six o’clock on the button. He pushed Marcus’s number.
His friend answered right away. “Hey, brother. I was wondering when you’d call me back. Did you get my voicemails?”
“I got ’em. Sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner.” He hadn’t been in the mood to talk to anyone lately. Not his parents, Edward, or friends. Nobody. Sooner or later, he’d have to return their calls too.
“You sound down and out. Nightmares still haunting you?”
“Yeah, but they’ve taken a new twist, and—” He coughed to cover the anxious quaver in his voice. “It’s more than just the dreams that’s killing me. Marcus, I-I’m so messed up in the head right now, I—” Clamping his jaws would only hold back his emotions for so long. But it was all he could do to hide his pain from Marcus.
“It’s okay, Buddy. I understand. Sometimes the problems of life are overwhelming. I’m here to help you in any way I can. Always.”
“Thanks, man. I know you have to leave for work in a few minutes, but would it be okay if we talked later? You know, after you get home, have dinner, and relax a bit?” He hated having to burden Marcus with his problems at all.
“I’ve got a better idea. How would you feel about spending this weekend with me at my place in Virginia? Wouldn’t be but a five or six-hour drive for you. Darlene, her mama, and baby Daniel will be staying at Darlene’s grandmother’s for a few days, so it’ll be just you and me at the house. No interruptions.”
More Than a Soldier Page 24
