by Chal, Bella
“I’ll be careful,” Kurt said with a worried frown.
“That’s why I don’t want anyone to know about you and me. If this really is something to do with me, I don’t want you caught in the backlash. Right now the only people who know are you, me, and Uncle Charlie. I haven’t even told Julie anything. Let’s keep it that way.”
“Aye-aye, sir,” Kurt said, then drank the rest of his beer. “Got any more?”
Chapter 7: Polly
Julie sat the mug of coffee in front of Polly. “Okay, spill!”
Polly stirred in a spoonful of sugar into the black coffee and said, “He was a perfect gentleman.”
“Damn, I was hoping you got lucky,” Julie said with a grin. “Gimme the juicy details.”
“Have you ever been to Vic and Anthony’s? The steakhouse?”
“No, but I’ve heard about it. Jack takes clients there sometimes.” Julie took a sip of her coffee, then blew over the top of the mug to cool it quicker.
“The place is gorgeous, super high-end, with chrome and black leather everywhere. He must have dropped a couple of hundred on dinner and wine.”
“But he didn’t make a move?” Julie asked with an incredulous expression.
“Oh, he made a move, it was just polite,” Polly shared with a grin.
“Tell me,” Julie hissed as she leaned closer over the table.
Polly sipped her coffee and ordered her thoughts. Trey had been attentive and entertaining throughout dinner, telling funny stories of his school adventures. After dinner he’d taken her to the Waterwall Park at the foot of the Williams Tower near the Galleria. He kissed her there as the mist flowing around them. “Dinner, then to the Waterwall at Williams Tower for some kissing,” she confessed with a blush.
“And you didn’t drag him back to your place?” Julie asked with a chuckle.
“No,” she said with a shake of her head. “I almost expected him to feel me up or try to push it more, but he dropped me off with a hug and a kiss goodnight.”
“So why didn’t you make a move?” Julie asked, appearing genuinely curious.
Polly knew Julie was more comfortable with casual sex than she was. In fact, Julie’s relationship with Jack started with them falling into bed the day they met, unintentionally conceiving Jackson in the process. While she considered her answer, she sat back and sipped her coffee.
“I did want to,” she admitted with a sigh. “I even had to rub one out later just to get to sleep.”
Julie laughed at that and shook her head. “So what’s a big deal?”
“I can’t explain it,” she said. “I think about him all the time, but not sexy things.” There was a tense moment before she admitted, “I keep wondering why he wants to be with me.”
“Because you rock, that’s why!” Julie said as she leaned forward again. “Listen, I know you aren’t the kind of person who just jumps in the sack with a guy, but he’s putting in the time and taking it slow for you. Why don’t you think you deserve to be happy with him?”
Polly felt her frustration boil over, “I don’t know! I’ve never felt this confused about a guy before! I usually either like them or hate them. I’m not used to worrying about a guy’s motives, but I just can’t seem to get comfortable with him. It’s a gut thing, not a head thing. Does that make sense?”
“Trust your gut, then,” Julie said with a serious expression. “Always trust your gut.” The front door opened and Julie glanced behind Polly with a smile. “Wow, Kurt, what are you all dressed up for?”
When Polly turned to look she felt her heart skip a beat. Kurt had gotten a short haircut that suited his face better than the unkempt mop he’d had before. He was wearing a pair of khaki pants with a navy blue blazer over an open-necked white shirt. The outfit wasn’t tailored like Trey’s had been on their date, but his broad shoulders and deep tan made him look absolutely stunning.
“Hey, Polly, I didn’t expect to see you here,” he said in his easy Cajun accent.
“Uh... Hi,” she said, finding herself at a loss for words.
When he bent down to give her a one-armed hug, the cologne and his own warm scent mixed together to make her stomach flutter. She had the mad impulse to rub her face against his chest and purr. Kurt pulled back again to give Julie the exact same kind of friendly hug.
“I had some job interviews, no big deal,” he said. “Is Charlotte around?”
“Wait,” Julie said as she stood. “You’re moving to Houston?”
“Maybe,” he said with a shrug. “I’m just testing the waters to see what the job market’s like. Charlotte’s gonna come here in a few months and I figured I’d take a look, too.”
“But what about your Uncle Charlie?” Julie asked. “I figure you’d be taking over his business someday.”
“Naw, he’s got his sons working for him. Helping me was just a favor he did for Meemee.”
“What do you mean?” Julie asked.
“I’m happy to tell you the whole story, but I gotta go to the bathroom. Be back in a sec.”
“Try not to wake Jackson,” Julie said. “He’s napping on Jen’s bed. Little booger went in there when I wasn’t looking and zonked out.”
When Kurt turned to leave the room, Polly’s eyes followed his ass as he walked away. Looking back, she saw a grin on Julie’s face that said she’d noticed. Polly said, “He looks like his Uncle Jack in a way.”
“Yeah, he’s got those same brown-black eyes and strong jaw.” She said as she sipped her coffee. “You know he’s hot for you, right?”
Polly sighed and nodded. “He is cute, just not the kind of guy I’m looking for.”
“Yeah, and I planned to marry someone ten years older than me with kids and a crazy ex-wife,” Julie said an ironic tension in her voice. “If Trey doesn’t feel right, maybe your heart’s trying to tell you something.”
Jackson’s happy squeal interrupted their quiet conversation when Kurt came back carrying him. Polly was a little disappointed Kurt had changed into his more usual jeans and a t-shirt. He said, “Someone was already awake when I went in to change.”
The toddler was patting Kurt’s cheek with his fat hand making loud smacks. Polly put her hands out to take him, but Jackson clung to Kurt’s neck and refused to let go.
“He’s mine,” Kurt said as he sat across from Polly with a grin. Standing the happy boy on his lap, he helped him bounce up and down. “Where are your sisters, little man? I bet Aunt Charlotte took them to play somewhere. What do you think? Wanna hang out with me?”
“Da!” Jackson shouted and waved his pudgy arms. “Da! Da!”
“I’ll take that as a yes,” Kurt said with a bright smile on his face.
Watching Kurt play with his baby cousin pulled at her heart in a way she never expected. When Polly glanced at Julie there was a look of love on her face as she watched Kurt and Jackson. It transformed her friend from beautiful to angelic. Julie glanced at Polly and gave her a significant look and nod towards Kurt when their eyes met.
“So how did the interviews go?” Polly asked.
“Pretty good, actually,” Kurt said. “I think I’m going to get an offer out of two of them.”
“Wow,” Polly exclaimed. “Then what are you gonna do?”
“Depends on the offer. If the money’s good enough I’ll start working now and see how I like it. If it doesn’t work out, I can always go back to Morgan City and stay on with Uncle Charlie,” Kurt said. Jackson grabbed onto his lower lip and squealed as he pulled it down. “Ow,” Kurt said to the boy.
* * *
The back door opened to the excited voices of the girls and Charlotte talking about playing at Bigger Bounce. When they came through the kitchen, the girls went around to hug everyone at the table.
Charlotte plucked Jackson out of Kurt’s arms and the boy howled in protest. “Fine,” she said as she handed him back to her brother. “I just wanted a kiss, you little rat.”
“Da! Da! Da!” Jackson shouted at her emphatically.
“How’d your interviews go?” Charlotte asked Kurt.
“Good. I should hear something tonight or tomorrow.”
“All right, children,” Julie called, clapping her hands to get the attention of the noisy crew. “It’s time to clean up for the night, so let’s get everyone in the tub while I get clean clothes.”
“Julie-Mom, can we have bath bubbles?” Jen asked, pleading with an exaggerated expression. “Please?”
“I’ll help bathe them,” Charlotte offered. “Let me change into something I can get wet.”
“Yes, but let Aunt Charlotte pour it,” Julie said to her step-daughter. Turning to the adults she added, “I had to use Jack’s ShopVac to get all the bubbles out of the bathroom last time I let Jen pour.”
“Do you want me to get the red beans going?” Kurt asked.
“Oh, would you?” Julie asked as she took Jackson from him. “Jack will be home in a couple of hours so if we wait much longer they won’t have time to cook. The sausage is in the fridge and the beans have been soaking since last night. Do you need the recipe?”
“No, I got it,” he said and tapped his forehead. Polly got up and followed him into the kitchen.
“Can I help?” she offered as Kurt got the big cast iron pot out from the cabinet under the countertop stove, put in a dollop of corn oil, and carried it to the table.
“Sure, grab a large onion and start chopping,” he said nodding to the cutting board drying in the rack next to the sink.
Polly dug around to find a sharp knife, then took the cutting board back to the table. Peeling and discarding the skin from the onion, she began to cut it into bits. Kurt brought the other ingredients the table along with another knife and smaller cutting board.
“I guess red beans and rice is a staple for you guys,” Polly said as he began to chop the sausage and put the bits into a large bowl.
“Yeah, we make a big pot most Mondays and then eat it all week. You can put the onion with the sausage in the pot since we cook them down together at first.”
“How did you learn to cook?” Polly asked. She was impressed with his adept handling of the knife as he chopped with the speed and precision a chef.
“Charlotte and I had to learn to cook from when we were about Jen’s age. This dish is hard to screw up, so Mom usually let us do it.” He swept the remaining sausage into the bowl and grabbed the bell pepper. “Did you cook growing up?”
Polly smiled at the memory and said, “Yeah, Julie and I were my Mom’s slaves and she taught us both how to cook southern food like meatloaf, turnip greens, and potato salad. Dad taught us how to cook seswaa. It's a traditional Botswanan beef stew with onion and pepper.”
“That sounds good,” Kurt said. With the bell pepper and onion in the bowl, Kurt split up the celery between them and started chopping. “What’s your favorite food?”
“Right now it’s your Meemee’s Thanksgiving turkey. God, I still have dreams about it.”
“I know what you mean,” he said with a grin. “I like spicy food from all over. Thai, Tex-mex, you name it, I like it. And steaks, of course.”
Polly’s cell phone interrupted their conversation by playing her special ringtone for Trey. After pulling it out of her purse, she pressed to accept the call and said, “Hey!”
Trey said, “What’s up? How’d work go?”
“Work was fine. How was your long day of interviewing accounting interns?”
“Jeez, I know I’m just a intern myself, but you’d think people who actually study accounting might be able to find a few mistakes in a spreadsheet. There wasn’t a single person today who caught all six errors the simple test Uncle Jack came up with. What are you doing for dinner?”
“I’m eating over here at Julie and Jack’s. Kurt is teaching me how to make red beans and rice.” She didn’t think about what she was saying until after the words had left her mouth. The silence at the other end of the call went on long enough for her to say, “Hello?”
“Should I be worried?” he finally asked with a growl.
For the first time, Polly caught his real feelings in his voice and it pissed her right off. “I don’t know, Trey, are you twelve years old?”
His response had an abrupt, offended tone. “I’ve got work to do. I’ll talk to you later.”
Realizing he’d hung up on her, Polly sat the phone down hard on the table as she fumed. Kurt grabbed the celery she had left on the cutting board and cut it up while she tried to process what just happened. Despite weeks of wishing he’d open up and show her the real Trey, glimpsing his hostile jealousy rubbed her the wrong way.
“Trouble?” Kurt asked as he cut a few cloves of garlic into tiny pieces.
“Nothing I can’t handle,” she said. “What’s next?”
Kurt got up and carried the pot full of sausage, onion, celery, and bell pepper to the stove. He handed her a wooden spoon and turned the heat up high. “Now we cook this down for about twenty minutes, then we add the beans for ten minutes more.”
While she stirred the fragrant mix, Kurt got out a glass jar full of a red powder, some bay leaves, a large container of chicken stock, and the garlic he’d minced. Catching the smug smile on his face as he turned made her angry enough to rule him out once and for all. “Have you read any good books lately?”
The smile left his face as soon as she’d said the words. “No, I don’t read much.”
“I read all the time,” she said as she mentally confirmed his answer as a strike against him. “I especially love world history. It gives so much insight into the politics going on in Asia and Africa.”
“Yeah?” he prompted, looking uncomfortable and clearly uninterested.
“So what kinds of things are you interested in?” she asked, unable to hide the challenge in her tone.
“Outside of work, I play guitar, cook, hunt, work on my car, and go fishing. That’s about it.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever been fishing, and hunting just seems so cruel.” she said, mentally counting strike two. Kurt was frowning, which Polly saw as a kind of perverse victory. She stirred the pot to keep the ingredients from sticking to the bottom, savoring the rich scents that billowed up.
He reached into the refrigerator and pulled out a beer. “Last winter, a herd of a dozen or so wild deer came into our yard. They came right up to me and let me pet them.” He twisted off the cap off the beer and threw it in the trash with an angry grimace.
“I don’t understand,” Polly said as he pulled a long swallow from the long neck bottle.
“They was skin an’ bones, starvin’ to death. After a hundred years of killin’ all the predators to protect our farm animals, the deer ‘round there breed like crazy. Without the hunters keepin’ the numbers down, all those deer I was playin’ with last winter starved to death before spring.”
“Oh,” Polly said. The story was odd and he'd told it lightly, like he was just a story instead of something tragic. She could see Kurt's temples pulse as he poured the beans in while she continued to stir up the ingredients.
“The only cruel part about huntin’ is people who don’t eat their kills. There ain’t no difference between taking meat huntin’ and picking up meat in a market.” His shift to a disdainful tone made her feel judged and that he'd found her lacking. She intended to mark him off her list, but didn't like feeling like he had marked her off instead.
When Kurt added the chicken broth to the pot, a fragrant steam rose up. After putting in the bay leaves and garlic, he lowered the heat, then washed his hands in the sink. He said, “Stir it a few more times and cover it. I’ve got some things I need to do.”
Polly watched him walk away with his beer, then heard the sliding glass door to the patio open and close. She’d tried to anger him on purpose, she realized then. Trey had made her mad, but she’d taken it out on Kurt. She put the heavy cast iron cover over the large pot of beans, then stood there feeling confused and upset.
She could hear Charlotte and the girls gi
ggling as they went into the living room, then the television went on. The sounds of the happy cartoons and laughter perversely soured her mood even more.
It wasn’t fair, Polly told herself. She and Trey talked for hours over dinner about a thousand different subjects. He was familiar with most of her favorite books and movies, had traveled enough to have an informed view of politics, and was heading into a career of his own. He was her perfect match.
Kurt didn’t read for pleasure, worked a blue-collar job, and spent his time doing things she could barely relate to. So why did he make her pulse race so hard? Why did she care if he liked her? Having no answer, she got herself a beer and went to watch cartoons with the girls and Charlotte.
* * *
When the doorbell rang, Charlotte jumped up to answer it. Polly heard her say in a dry tone, “Trey, what a surprise.” The girls called for him to hug them as he came in, then returned to watching their cartoons.
“Hey, someone said there might be red beans and rice for dinner,” Trey said as Polly stood up to greet him. Still feeling angry that he’d hung up on her, she let him cross the room, glaring at his approach.
“I’m sorry,” he said as he stopped in front of her. “I was rude and I wouldn’t blame you for never forgiving me.” The chastened look on his face seemed sincere, but she let him suffer for another moment in silence.
“Never is a long time,” she said at last, shaking her head at him. He leaned in and gave her a quick kiss on the corner of her mouth. When he pulled back she saw Charlotte heading towards the sliding doors to the patio.
Julie came out of her bedroom with a clean smelling Jackson dressed warmly for bed. “Hey Trey,” she said with a smile. “I meant to call you before, but I got side-tracked.”
“Polly told me about dinner. I hoped you wouldn’t mind me inviting myself over.”
“You’re always welcome. I need to feed the little man, but the rest of us will eat in about an hour after Jack gets home.”
“Anything I can do?” he offered.
“We still need to put on a pot of rice and grill the chicken,” Julie said as she opened the fridge to get the food for Jackson. She balanced him on one hip as she heated it briefly in the microwave. “Jack tells me you’re doing a good job for him.”
