“At the rate you’re giving money away? I don’t think so, dear.”
“Well, it’s that or nothing.”
“I thought you might say that. Look out the window.”
She glanced out at the parking lot. There was a guy behind the wheel of Jake’s taxi, waving at her. “Hey!” she shouted, to no avail. She would’ve run after him, but he was already pulling into the street. “Donna, that’s not Jake’s taxi, it’s his uncle’s.”
“It’s part of the collateral on the loan, dear.”
“Which you can’t just repossess when you feel like it.”
“Well, we’ll leave that up to the courts to settle. You know how long that can take. If you won’t come home, at least stop giving money away. Don’t make me take the next step.”
Late that night, a furious Jake finally tracked the taxi to a chain-link fenced lot behind an abandoned service station in a seedy neighborhood.
“Look at the bright side.” Lilly was worlds perkier than she had been of late, trying to ease the situation. “It’s a good thing you forgot to give Rachel her watch, or we’d never have found it.”
“I’m still mad at you.”
Though it didn’t temper his undying love for her. He couldn’t imagine ever not wanting to do what was best for Lilly.
She lapsed into silence, which would last all of five minutes before she took another stab at winning him over with her sweet talking ways. She’d been like that ever since she’d called him away from the computer. Lucky for him, one of the Murdoch Masons pickups was in the garage for the winter.
He’d donned his dad’s Don’t mess with masons, we mortar our victims T-shirt as a warning. But she ignored the hint.
Not that she was coming on to him, because nothing could be further from the truth. She’d securely stowed the come-hither looks. In his experience, women didn’t pass up using pretty smiles and gentle nudges to gain forgiveness, especially when their quarry was as mad as he, but Lilly certainly wasn’t lowering herself.
“What the hell was so important at the store that you couldn’t wait five minutes for me to get off the computer?”
“Ha!”
“Okay, ten minutes.”
He was just beginning to think she’d chosen to be quiet after all, when she said, “Girl stuff. You sure it’s safe to be here?”
“Stay close to me.”
He should have his head examined for issuing the invitation when he didn’t want her there in the first place, but he needed a second driver.
For a defunct station, there were a lot of vehicles, maybe a dozen. The yellow taxi stood out like a sore thumb. They crouched near the fence.
“I sure hope you’re gonna pipe down and be useful,” he whispered.
“What can I do?”
“Pick the lock on that gate.”
She laughed lightly, then said, “Oh, you were serious,” when he didn’t join her.
“Well, as an alternative, can you hot-wire the car?”
“Uh, no, I always left that to the chauffeur.”
“Lucky you.”
“Are you trying to make me feel useless?”
“That’d be the plan, yes.”
He crept around the perimeter, searching for an easy way in, keeping his eyes open for evidence of a guard dog. “Well shit! Look what they did to my car.”
“What?”
“They wrecked it.”
“Eww, it looks worse than I thought.”
At that, he stopped dead in his tracks and turned, and Lilly ran smack into his chest. Would’ve felt good, too, if he weren’t having a bad day.
“You knew it was wrecked?”
“Well…” She shifted from foot to foot. “I wasn’t sure. I heard this funny crash kind of noise about a block away from where he, you know, repossessed it.”
“Stole it.”
“Yeah that. I heard this huge bang and I saw a lot of commotion, people jumping out of their cars, running out of stores, that sort of thing. But I couldn’t see who it was. So I didn’t know for sure. And I didn’t want to tell you it was wrecked and then find out I’d worried you for nothing.”
“Oh man, if he killed somebody with my uncle’s taxi—”
“Relax. I’m sure there would’ve been an ambulance if he’d hurt anybody, and there wasn’t. Not even by the time you arrived.”
“You saying I was slow?”
“I’m saying you took so long, that by the time you arrived, a victim could’ve been reincarnated.”
“No such thing.”
She huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. “Sometimes you make me so mad, I hope I turn into an angel right before your eyes.”
“You’re pretty much a devil right now.”
“You wish,” she said, and he caught her grin under the one unbroken lightbulb in a square block.
“Stop that. Let’s get in there and see if it’s driveable.”
“I thought you didn’t have a key.”
“Sure I do.”
“But you said—”
“I just wanted you to see how much trouble you caused.”
“And the lock on the gate? I know you don’t have a key to that.”
“Piece of cake.”
“Don’t tell me. You have some illegal, high-tech opener.” He said nothing. “So what’re we waiting for?”
“Oh, uh, checking things out takes time.”
“What d’you think?”
“I think it looks like he hit a telephone pole.”
“Hm.”
“Did he?”
Lilly shrugged, her head tipping toward one shoulder. It was little movements like that that were so endearing and made it difficult to stay mad at her.
“Better get your lock gizmo.”
Jake fetched what he needed from the pickup, feeling Lilly’s gaze resting on his back like a curious kid checking over Santa’s shoulder.
“That’s it?” she said.
“What?—it’s a work truck. A bolt cutter’s a tool.”
She snickered, and while he was absolutely positive she didn’t mean it to be sexy, it surely was. He was having a devil of a time staying mad at her, when he’d be perfectly justified in doing so.
“Let’s go,” he growled.
They were through the gate in seconds. Still no sign of a dog, so maybe Mooch hadn’t gone far. As Jake strode over to the taxi, he could see he wouldn’t be driving off with it. He didn’t have to open the hood to know the radiator’d been smashed into a sieve.
He stared at it for a minute, then opened the trunk and handed Lilly a trash bag. “Bag up our stuff; otherwise we’ll never see it again. The merchandise, too. I’ll look for Mooch.”
He hunted for half an hour. Then he and Lilly sat side by side for another half hour, hoping Mooch would return to the familiar car, but he didn’t.
“I hate to say it, but this isn’t getting us anywhere.” It hurt to give up, but what was the point of sitting there all night? “We could be home making lost and found signs or something.”
“It’s all my fault,” Lilly said for the hundredth time as she climbed into the truck and slumped in her seat, brushing nonstop tears off her cheeks.
Jake drove away slowly, looking for eye shine under every bush, behind every barrel. “You say Donna had some guy take the car to make me mad and drive us apart so you’d come into line with her plans? Is that right?”
“That’s what she said on the phone. Right before, ‘Don’t make me take the next step.’ “
“What a bitch.” He tugged at Lilly’s hand until she scooted across the seat, then he held her close, relishing how she eventually sighed and softened against him. “We’ll advertise under Lost and Found.”
“We can call the animal hospitals, too. Shoot, I feel so bad.”
“I know. Me too.”
He dipped his head and nuzzled the top of hers, and she pulled back, just like that, and said, “We need to talk.”
A frisson of fear leaped on
top of his misery—and he’d thought things couldn’t get worse. “You’re breaking up with me?”
“No!”
“Then geez, don’t say that.” He covered his pounding heart with his hand.
“You really thought I was breaking up with you?”
“Ye-es. What’s a guy supposed to think when a woman starts the ‘We need to talk’ speech?”
She bucked up with a sniffle, and grinned. “Heard that a lot, have you?”
“Once is all it takes. So what’s up?”
“I can deal with Donna picking on me. But having her cause you trouble…” She shifted away slightly, though the emotional distance was immeasurable. “I mean one day I’m independent and you’re going along fine, and then bam, all of a sudden, I’m living in your house, riding in your car, and Donna’s making your life a living hell.”
“C’mere.” He hugged her back to him as he drove, tucking her beneath his arm where she could rest her head on his chest.
“Maybe if I get my own place, she’ll let up on you.”
“No.” Maybe if he pounded Andrew into the ground, they’d think twice before making Lilly feel this bad again. “We’ll deal with it. Together.”
Two days later, Jake was slumped at Susannah’s kitchen table, absently toying with the saltshaker while he waited for her to get ready. She was perched on the chair across from him, arranging a stack of coupons to correspond with the food aisles in Dierbergs.
He’d tried throwing himself into his work to forget his problems. Now that he’d seen his CATS program in action, up close and personal, he knew what else it needed to take it to the top, that one extra step that always put his work above everyone else’s.
He converted his own wristwatch and picked a code word that didn’t fit in everyday speech, not his anyway: Angel. There wasn’t an undercover cop in the country who wouldn’t give up his own mother for one just like it.
Eventually, Susannah couldn’t stand his brooding anymore. “What’s the matter, sugar?”
“Take your pick.”
“Still mooning over that stray cat?”
“He wasn’t just a—” Jake took a breath and composed himself. “He was my stray cat.”
“And you miss him.”
“I even miss the little mouse parts he left in the taxi.”
“Ugh.” Susannah grimaced, but just as quickly put on a bright face and said, “There now, see? He’s a hunter, he won’t starve.”
“We’ve been to all the shelters. I call them every day. Put up flyers with his picture. Called an ad into the newspaper. I don’t know what else to do.”
“Sounds like you’ve done all you can, sugar.”
“Hasn’t been enough.”
“Mooch is smart. He found you once, maybe he can do it again.”
“Why the hell didn’t I put a tracking device in his collar?”
“So that’s what you’re beating yourself up over.”
“Yeah.”
He spilled some salt, and while making circles in it with the bottom of the shaker, he debated whether to tell her the rest. Might as well.
“I don’t get women.”
“Jake Murdoch, shame on you. Lilly’s living in your house this very minute. Why would you want others?”
He blinked, decoding that. “I mean I don’t get women.”
“Oh. Did you and Lilly have a fight?”
“She’d have to perk up to fight.”
Susannah patted his shoulder, which didn’t console him at all. “She misses Mooch.”
“She thinks I can’t forgive her for losing him.”
“Is she right?”
“No, of course not.” Although he might blame her just a little for taking the taxi in the first place. “Did she tell you they had a special connection? Whenever her arm hurt, he’d be all over her, getting as close as he could. She didn’t mean for the car to get stolen. I know it wasn’t her fault.”
“Have you told her that?”
“Only a hundred times a day.”
Susannah’s hands stilled. “She really loved that cat. Why, when we were clearing the garden, he’d come nosing around—you know how cats just love to help, poking into everything you’re trying to do. Oh, Lilly got such a kick out of playing with him.” She laughed, reminiscing. “She’d wiggle little branches underneath the dry leaves. He’d pounce on them. My, I never had so much fun working in the garden before.”
“She talks about moving out.”
“Oh. Oh my.” She put her hand on his, making him stop with the saltshaker. “Well, let’s think about this. It hasn’t been that long since she buried her husband, right? Maybe things are moving too fast. Maybe grieving for Mooch now reminds her all over again of how she lost her husband. It was pretty sudden, wasn’t it?”
He nodded.
“And there was that explosion in the store; she came pretty close to death there, too. Why, I’m sure all of it’s been so overwhelming, just all piling up on her, like.”
“I didn’t think of that.”
First Brady, then her own near-death experience. She hadn’t dealt with that well at all, talking to angels—ha Now Mooch was gone. Jake remembered how devastated he’d been over Angie, and that was before he knew she’d died. Damn. What Lilly must be going through if this renewed even a smidgen of her grief over Brady. He sat up straighter, working this out in his own mind, analyzing it, getting a handle on it so he could fix it.
“I remember the first time I said something about death—I don’t know, how she’d catch her death without a coat on, something like that. All the joy just went out of her, like turning out a light. Geez, poor thing, it’s probably all catching up to her at once. I need to help her through this.”
Susannah bounced to her feet. “Good boy.”
He laughed ruefully. “But what do I do? It’s not like I can suggest she go see someone about it. I mean, I tried that for her arm. She’d have my head.”
“You can be supportive.”
“That’s a chick word.”
“So?”
“Guys have a different vocabulary.”
Susannah chuckled. “Oh, I see. Well, think romance.”
“I do wonderful romance.”
“I don’t mean sex.”
He blinked. “I love her. I can’t be romantic without sex.”
“Lord, sugar, this could take all day.” Susannah slipped a cardigan on over her blouse. “Come on, take me shopping, and I’ll explain the difference.”
Lilly checked her saliva in the small ovulation predictor; still no ferning. Was the damned thing defective or what? She threw it into a bathroom drawer and slammed it.
She could already be pregnant. Considering how important that was, she reasoned she ought to just intuitively know. But she didn’t. She was running out of patience and frazzled from worrying about running out of time. This was one thing she had to get right.
And when she got back to heaven? She was giving them a piece of her mind about how come they could send her back and manage long-distance electric shock therapy, but not a two-way phone connection? Gimme a break.
Please.
If she failed, would she go through Transition again where she could complain, or directly to the back of that horrendous line? If the latter, she wouldn’t get the opportunity to tell anybody anything for a long, long time.
Lilly stared at the two photos Jake had snapped of himself, all bare-chested and sweaty. Yum. Nothing sexier than a man with brains and brawn. Tucked into the frame of the dresser mirror, they never failed to bring a smile to her heart and a stupid grin to her face. What a ham.
In spite of his pain over losing Mooch, he’d turned up the charm on her. Fresh daffodils and hyacinths on her dresser every morning, so they were her first sight of the day. Sure, they were right out of his mother’s garden and he didn’t have to go far or put much thought into it. But he did. A pretty crystal vase. A peachy floral bow. Gentle curls of ribbon artistically scattered around the b
ase, echoing the colors of spring.
She’d seen no prior evidence of this side of him, so she figured he was getting tips somewhere. And that wasn’t all. Either he was banking on chocolate as an aphrodisiac or he’d been talking to Betsy, because suddenly there was homemade Snickers pie for dessert and a bite-sized Snickers bar on her pillow every night. Then came the Easter M&M’s sprinkled in her lingerie drawer.
He hadn’t confined this to the bedroom, either. New honeysuckle-scented candles lined the edge of the bathtub. A pretty bottle of bath oil sported a new floral ribbon to match the one on the vase, so she was pretty sure these little touches didn’t come from the store.
More candles on the breakfast table.
“Power out?” she asked without thinking.
“It’s not romantic if the power’s out.”
Boy, did she feel stupid.
Not as stupid as Angie, though. What on earth had been going through her mind to leave Jake? He would have stuck with her to the very end.
Falling in love really screwed with a person’s mind.
It hurt to see Jake hurting. He wasn’t sleeping well since Mooch went missing. She watched him pace the backyard at night, heard him calling the cat’s name softly in hopes he was nearby and just needed a little more help getting to the right house.
He called the shelters every day. He drove by and checked each one every day. Many of the small cities that comprised St. Louis County had their own animal control departments, and he checked all of them, too.
Clearly Jake wasn’t the giving-up or leaving kind of guy. He should run as far from her as he could get, as fast as he could go.
Yep, falling in love really screwed with a person’s mind.
The first day of spring came and went. The succession of blooming bulbs and flowering trees reminded her that the third anniversary of her wedding was just around the corner. Of course she wouldn’t celebrate it, but she couldn’t just forget it either. It had happened, she’d been in love and happy for a while, and it had made her who she was today.
It was also the day she’d met Jake. Now there was a strange thing to think about. If she were going to live for years to come, every anniversary would evoke both sad and happy memories. Talk about a mixed bag. Fortunately, Jake would only remember the date as a good one, the one on which they’d met.
A Date on Cloud Nine Page 23
