A Basic Renovation

by Sandra Antonelli

  Lesley scooted into him and made a cat-like sound. ‘Guess neither one of us is as antiquated as we think, huh? Can I ask you something personal?’

  ‘More personal than nose hair?’ He closed his eyes and breathed in the scent of her skin. She smelled of little white flowers, of sunshine, sweat, of sex, of him. It was an incredibly arousing combination.

  ‘Mm-hm.’

  ‘All right.’

  ‘Why are you still single? How come you never married?’

  ‘I don’t know. Kyle, work, being a single parent.’

  ‘Why didn’t you want to marry Stefanie?’

  Dominic nestled his nose into the back of Lesley’s neck. His teeth began to nibble. ‘I didn’t love her,’ he answered between bites.

  ‘You didn’t love her?’

  ‘No.’ Dominic pushed her knees apart. His hand skimmed over the curve of her bottom, one long finger slid along a little moisture-filled hollow then dipped inside. A breath hitched in her throat. It made him smile and he went on speaking a little absently, ‘I cared about her, but I didn’t love her. I know that now. Hell, I guess I knew it then too, but to tell you the truth, I’ve never loved anyone before.’ You mean, a little voice inside his skull piped up, you’ve never loved anyone before now.

  Stunned, his eyes opened into a mass of silky hair. Steady there, Dom. You like her. You like her a lot, but that was just the drug of sex talking. Still, just to be sure, he rolled her onto her back and gazed down into her face. Jay-zuz, she was beautiful. She was lush, flushed with desire, and ready for him. And he wanted her too. He lowered his head to kiss her as senseless as he felt.

  Lesley bit her bottom lip. ‘Did you ever think that had anything to do with how all the women you boys chose were never good enough for your mother? I mean, she hated me from the get-go, she made life hell for Lily and Heather, and Stefanie was a regular target fo—’

  ‘You know, Lesley,’ Dominic pulled back slightly, frowning, ‘when a man is naked in bed with a woman he’s about to make love with, the last thing he wants to hear, the last thing he wants to talk about, is his mother.’

  The last time Lesley had snuck out of the house was back in eleventh grade, to go midnight swimming in the pool near Barranca Elementary School. The difference was, then, it had been dark and her parents had been asleep. This time it was morning, and Dominic’s sixteen year old son was sitting in the kitchen eating Cap’n Crunch, dog asleep on his lap.

  Dominic had a peek around the corner. ‘Oh, hell,’ he whispered, ‘he’s usually not up this early.’

  ‘Is this going to upset him?’

  ‘Upset him? No, but I think it’s best if we avoid questions right now because he won’t be backward about being forward and just plain asking.’

  ‘What do you want to do?’

  ‘What do you want to do? It’s your call. You’re the one doing the walk of shame.’

  ‘Walk of shame?’

  ‘You know, when you’d creep home the next morning wearing the same clothes you had on yesterday and it’s obvious to everyone what you’ve been up to.’

  ‘There’s no shame in what we were did,’ Lesley quirked an eyebrow, ‘is there?’

  Dominic raised his own brow in response. ‘No,’ he said, touching her messy hair, ‘I’m kind of hoping you’ll be shameless again.’

  ‘Dad?’

  ‘Oh, boy, here we go,’ Lesley mumbled.

  Dominic shrugged and answered his son, ‘Yeah?’

  ‘Can we have pancakes?’

  ‘Pancakes?’ Dominic had another peek around the corner. Wait here, he mouthed. Lesley’s handbag hung off the back of a chair in the dining room, right in front of the kitchen archway. ‘Pancakes,’ he said. ‘Yeah, pancakes sound good. You can make ‘em.’

  Kyle didn’t look up from his comic book. ‘You make them better.’

  ‘OK. I make them better.’ Dominic snatched up the handbag without a sound. ‘I’m just going to get the paper. First.’

  Kyle didn’t move.

  Backing up, Dominic took Lesley’s hand and led her to the front door, one eye on the kitchen.

  The Albuquerque Journal stuck out of a clump of straw flowers. Dominic yanked it out and shook off the morning dew. He tucked it under his arm, pulled Lesley close, and kissed her long and slow. ‘I’ll see you in an hour or so,’ he said, handing over her purse. ‘I’ll bring breakfast.’

  Mouth tingling from his good bye, Lesley drove off in her Bronco. Normally she would have popped in a CD to listen to, but right then the only music she wanted to hear was the blood singing through her veins. Waking up beside Dominic would be very easy to get used to. It seemed perfectly natural, as natural as the way his big body had fit so tightly into her, despite their difference is size. There was nothing clumsy about it or how he touched her. It all happened innately, as if it were meant to be, as if they were meant to be.

  Of course, that wasn’t the brightest thought to have. In the back of her mind she knew there was more to this effervescence than a few astonishing orgasms at the hands of a staggeringly skilled lover, but that wasn’t something she wanted to mull over now. Feelings in the junkyard part of her brain were made of the kind of stuff that got a girl into trouble, and Lesley had had enough trouble. She was not dumb enough to have a fling with a man like Dominic.

  Besides, flings were over in a night or two. This had a little substance to it. This was a passionate affair.

  That’s right. It’s a passionate love affair, an affair of the heart, an affair to remember…

  Lesley tightened her grip on the steering wheel. Diamond Drive meandered right through the middle of the Los Alamos public golf course. Twelve holes lined the east side of the road while six more sat on the west side, just below the Jemez. Lesley had to stop at the pedestrian crossing as a group of golfers crossed the road. A sneaky man in a red tartan hat took advantage of the foot traffic and shot across the street in his electric cart. An impatient driver in a silver SUV leaned on his horn. The siren of the approaching fire engine picked up where the horn left off.

  Golfers scrambled across the pavement, the SUV took off, tyres squealing. Automatically, Lesley pulled off to the shoulder to let the bright red truck scream by, her thoughts still focused on Dominic.

  Crap. She was humming. Humming. What the hell was wrong with her?

  OK. All right. Previous relationships had been about love. She had loved Terry. She had even loved Enzo. The fact was that, for her, love had to be there before the sex. But this time she swore to herself it was an affair. Anything else was stupid and dangerous. This was a sweaty festival of carnal delights and help with home renovation. Both would end in September.

  Really? Then why did you think how right it felt, how natural it was, how you could get used to waking up beside him every morning?

  ‘Oh, don’t get all carried away on a wave of oxytocin,’ she said out loud.

  An orange box of Peanut Butter Cap’n Crunch lay sideways on the table. Kyle stuffed his hand into it and ate the cereal one round morsel at a time. Dominic always thought it was funny how his son sat slouched at the table, while he read a comic book and shoved breakfast into his mouth as if it were popcorn.

  As his bare feet slapped across the kitchen tiles, Dominic knew that if any breakfast food company had ever made a cereal that tasted like popcorn, he’d probably sit at the table, reading the newspaper, and gobble handfuls of the stuff the same way Kyle did his Cap’n Crunch and Cocoa Puffs. Smiling to himself, he opened the fridge and reached for the OJ. ‘Sorry about the pancakes. You want eggs?’

  ‘Nah. I’m happy with the Cap’n.’ Kyle glanced up over the top of his Fall of Cthulhu horror comic. ‘So did it work?’

  Since there weren’t enough eggs to make breakfast burritos, Dominic decided to grab some bagel sandwiches from Ruby K’s and take them over to Lesley’s. He’d had filed away the fact she liked onion rings and bagels weeks ago. Grinning to himself, he shut the fridge with a nudge of his elbow. �
�Did what work?’ he asked and drank straight from the carton.

  Kyle set the comic book down and grinned. ‘Did you convince Lesley not to sue Grandma?’

  ‘Where did you get the idea she wanted to sue anyone?’

  ‘Please, I’ve seen enough Law & Order to know after the whole Starbucks thing and jail, and the talk you two had last night, Lesley’s got a case against Grandma. I’ve got to say I’m a little shocked that you’d go that far. It’s like you’re a spy sleeping with the enemy for God and country or something, but way to win one for our team. You da man!’

  Carton of orange juice in hand, Dominic stared at his son for a moment. ‘Oh, glory days and duck shit.’ So much for all the sneaking around. He put the juice on the table beside the comic, pulled out a chair and took a seat. ‘Listen, Kyle, you’ve got this wrong. It’s not what you think.’

  Kyle snickered. ‘I figured out she wasn’t gay. I saw the way she looked at you, so not what I think? You got sloppy, Dad.’

  ‘Sloppy? How’d you know she was here?’

  The boy’s face went a little pink. ‘You’re wearing boxers with your t-shirt – company clothes – Her purse was in the dining room, I could hear her talking to you in the hall, and you’re not uh…exactly…um…quiet in the bedroom.’

  Dominic didn’t know whether to laugh or be annoyed with himself. So he scratched his chin. It stung. After the painful whisker burn he’d left on Lesley’s breasts he made sure he’d given himself a really close shave so that next time…

  Next time.

  Oh, boy. There were going to be lots of next times and since that was the case, his son needed to know. Dominic exhaled and tried to be forthright. ‘OK, fine. You heard us. I’m not going to tip toe around and worry that I’m doing something sordid, or something that will scar you, or give you the wrong idea because you’re almost an adult. You’re old enough know how things work with consenting adults. So, I’m seeing her.’

  ‘You’re seeing her or you’re…you know, it’s like…with Greta?’

  Dominic didn’t even think about the answer. ‘I’m seeing her,’ he leaned forward and settled a hand on his son’s arm, his tone gentle yet concerned, ‘and I’m going to see her a lot. Is that a problem for you? Because I really like her, I don’t want this to be an issue. If it is we need to talk about it.’

  ‘She’s cool,’ Kyle shrugged in the nonchalant way teenagers do. ‘I like her, but Dad, she’s…well…’ Kyle started to laugh. ‘I heard you and Uncle Terry in the kitchen the other day and it makes me wonder…um…don’t you think it’s kind of…’ Kyle’s face scrunched up for a second as he thought, ‘Yeah, well…well, whatever dude. It’s weird, but not weird. OK, it’s unusual, it’s something from that Mexican soap opera I saw a few weeks ago, but you’re the one…um…dating her and if you like her and it makes you happy…well, like I said, whatever, bro.’

  ‘Thanks for your approval.’

  ‘Sure.’ The boy dug into the box of cereal and shoved some into his mouth.

  Dominic stood, dropped a hand on the back of his son’s neck, squeezing. ‘You’re a remarkable kid. I think I’ll keep you.’

  ‘Oh, great,’ Kyle crunched, as his dad pressed his forehead to his, ‘here comes the love.’

  Chapter 18

  The parking lot at the Santa Fe Whole Foods was too small for the number of patrons it attracted. The Cherokee was boxed in. Lesley couldn’t get out of the passenger side. She was trapped by three young children hanging on to a shopping cart overflowing with green and brown paper bags, while Dominic’s door was blocked by gleaming black Hummer trying to make a space between a lamppost and rusty Toyota Corolla.

  ‘He’s going to scratch my paint. Hey, jerkweed, you’re going to scratch my paint!’ Dominic leaned on his horn. ‘Why did I come here,’ he grumbled, ‘on a Sunday morning?’

  ‘You wanted brownies. You said a picnic needed brownies.’

  ‘I’ve got to stop thinking with my stomach.’

  ‘I could have made brownies.’

  ‘Yeah, you could have, but these are the best brownies you’ll ever have – if we can get to them.’ He looked out his side window and snorted. ‘That’s right lady, put the groceries in your car before your kids.’

  ‘You do so much better trapped by bears than people.’

  ‘I do so much better with food in my stomach.’

  Lesley started to laugh.

  ‘What’s so funny?’

  Chuckling, she shook her head. ‘I just remembered how you and your brothers were territorial at the dinner table. Marcus used to sit there with an arm around the top of his plate, like kids do when they think someone’s copying their answers on a maths test. You were adults, but you acted like nasty little boys.’

  ‘You’ve got a brother, right?’

  ‘Sean.’

  ‘Is he older or younger?’

  ‘Older.’

  ‘What did you two fight over?’

  ‘Not the last pork chop or lettuce leaf.’

  ‘What then?’

  Lesley made a face. ‘It’s stupid.’

  ‘It always is. So tell me.’

  ‘Well, besides who was hogging all the room in the backseat, we used to…It’s dumb. It’s really dumb.’

  ‘Come on, come on, tell me.’

  Sheepish, she looked down at her hands. Her hair fell forward across her face so just the tip of her nose poked out, the way it had when Dominic noticed her looking through paint samples in the store weeks ago. There was something about it now that was so right, that made her so lovely, he forgot to breathe.

  She sighed. ‘All right. We used to slap the crap out of each other just to be the one who cleaned Grandma’s dentures.’

  For a second, Dominic looked at her, his face completely blank. Then he burst out laughing. ‘Oh, that’s sick. That’s just sick.’

  Lesley joined in, head turning, hair swinging. ‘I know. We thought it was fun to drop the effervescing tablet into the glass. One time, Sean got so mad Grandma chose me he grabbed the Polident out of my hand and shoved it in my mouth.’

  ‘In high school, I had a girlfriend named Saskia. She used to wait until her sister, Sasha, went to sleep to get back at her. She’d smear anchovy paste on Sasha’s lips or put ex-lax in her hot chocolate.’ Dominic reached across to tuck Lesley’s hair behind her one ear, letting his fingers trail down her neck. ‘In tenth grade, she slathered a whole jar of Vaseline into Sasha’s hair. Poor thing had the greasy look for about a week.’

  Lesley took his hand. Her thumb ran over the back of his knuckles. ‘When I was eight, Sean blow-torched my Barbies. When I was fifteen he put super glue on the toilet seat. They don’t lie when they say it forms an instant bond when applied to most surfaces. You can include your butt as most surfaces.’

  ‘That was cruel. Did you use nail polish remover to get unstuck?’

  ‘A whole bottle.’

  ‘That’s nothing, you know. We used to beat the crap out of each other, just for the hell of it. One would look at the other one wrong and wham. Marcus broke my nose – twice, but I cracked his skull with a crab mallet so I guess that made us even. Did your brother ever hit you?’

  ‘Sure. He slapped me around until I wised up and discovered I could drop him with one crack to the nuts.’

  Dominic smiled and shook his head. ‘Yeah, Christian was a dirty fighter, too.’

  ‘Later on it became stuff like the glue, but mostly it was psychological torture. You’re ugly. You’ve got a big ass. Guys don’t want girls with thunder-thighs like yours. That kind of stuff hurt a lot more. I mean, I was twenty-six before I realised my thighs did not resemble twin Hindenburgs. Siblings do awful things to each other sometimes, don’t they?’

  In a second, Dominic’s smile faded as one very awful thing brother had done to brother popped into his mind. Jayzus, that was the last damn thing he wanted to think about now, or ever. He pulled his hand from her fingers, looked out the windshield, and exhaled. ‘Oh
look, a parking place!’

  Lesley hadn’t exactly missed the abrupt way he’d had changed the subject from cruel sibling torment to how much he loved Whole Foods for the way you could get a free lunch from the samples. A few minutes inside the store and Dominic had eaten preserved lemons and fat green olives stuffed with sun-dried tomatoes, nibbled giant capers and spicy-sweet yellow peppers, all to cover what she suspected had been an instance of childhood sibling torture he wasn’t proud of. He’d done something that was worse than gluing your sister’s butt to a toilet seat, and she was pretty sure Terry had been the victim.

  The Brennan family had always protected Terry. The favourite, the little miracle, the baby brother who had come so close to dying as a child had always been off limits. If Dominic had crossed that line his punishment would have been severe. In fact, Lesley bet he probably still paid for the transgression now.

  She shook her head, shook off the ire that rose as she thought of the injustice and Brennan family insanity. Then she reminded herself all families were nuts in their own way. With a grandfather like GP, hers was certifiable.

  Lesley looked at Dominic, a handsome, over-drawn, too tall, orgasmic man who was gobbling cheese like it was popcorn, and smiled, heart all a flutter.

  Stop that. Stop that right now.

  She took a deep breath. ‘Now isn’t that better than the jar of orange crud you packed in the picnic basket?’ She held out a toothpick-speared chunk of New Zealand smoked cheddar.

  Dominic swallowed the buttery knob of Dutch Havarti in his mouth and took the cheese she offered. ‘I happen to like that jar of crud packed in the picnic basket.’