Asking for Trouble (The Kincaids)

by James, Rosalind

  “I did not talk about her weight,” Alec protested. “I just said, I’m not sure I’d want to lift her into any cars.”

  Rae was laughing again, and if Alyssa hadn’t already known what those pills had been, she’d have had a pretty good idea by now. “I think most men would be a whole lot happier to pick Alyssa up than to pick me up. She has the figure I always wanted. Aren’t I right, Joe? You’re not her brother. Wouldn’t any guy be happier to pick her up?”

  “Uh . . .” he said. “Is there a good answer to this question? Because it doesn’t seem like it to me. I abstain.”

  Rae didn’t seem to care that he wasn’t answering, because she went on. “I know Dr. Handsome in there would have been happy to pick her up. In fact, that’s exactly what he was doing. Pretty good work, Alyssa, scoring the ski doctor. See, that’s why I wanted to look like you. That kind of thing never happened to me.”

  “Hey,” Alec protested. “I seem to recall some fairly hot pursuit.”

  Rae waved an airy hand. “You don’t count. You hit on everybody.”

  Alyssa had to laugh at the way her brother’s mouth fell open at that one. “What did that guy give you, anyway?” he asked. “I thought it was for pain. It’s like some kind of truth serum, and I don’t think I like it. I’d like the filter back, please.”

  “It worked on the pain, though,” Rae said. “I mean, it still hurts, I just don’t care anymore.”

  “He drugs my wife, then he puts the moves on my sister,” Alec said. “Not a good bet, Liss,” he added. “By the way.”

  “Oh, I don’t know,” she said. “Rae’s right, he was pretty handsome. He liked me, too.” Maybe she’d turned thirty, but some guys still thought she was cute. And maybe it wasn’t very nice of her to care about this right now, but she wanted Joe to know it.

  “Probably give you an STD,” Alec muttered, and Rae said, sharply for once, “Alec!”

  “Oh, thanks,” Alyssa said. “Like I’m going to go back and do him on the exam table. Thanks a lot. I might not have been getting out much lately, but I’ve still got more restraint than that. Just.”

  “Sorry,” Alec said, looking a little shamefaced. “I should have asked for a pill for me. Can’t you go faster?” he demanded of Joe. They were finally down the mountain, headed down the highway to Truckee. “I’d like to get there sometime tonight. Why don’t you let me drive?”

  “Road’s icing up, this late in the day,” Joe said.

  “There’s sand on it,” Alec said. “And you’re in a four-wheel-drive.”

  “And you’re too keyed up,” Joe said. “Not a good idea. It’s going to take us a whole lot longer to get there if we spin out along the way.”

  “Let him drive, Alec,” Rae said, sounding sobered and a little scared.

  Alec reached a hand around for hers, and she grabbed it and held on. “Be there soon, baby,” he promised. “Gabe’s waiting for us, and he’ll fix you up. We’re almost there.”

  She nodded. “So you don’t think Dr. What’s-His-Name was Alyssa’s dream man? Come on, talk to me. It helps.”

  “Whose name is Cliff?” Alec asked with another squeeze of her hand. “Nobody. That’s like being named . . .”

  “Rock,” Alyssa suggested, adding her bit to the distraction element. “Brock. Linc. Shane.”

  “Lance,” Rae went on, and they were both giggling now. “Magnus. Thor.”

  “Wyatt. Ranger,” Alyssa managed. “Talon.”

  “Talon? Somebody’s named Talon?” Desiree demanded. “Like, I’ve got you in my talons? That’s just wrong.” She had a hand over her mouth to stifle the giggles, but it wasn’t working.

  “I knew one,” Alyssa admitted through her own laughter. “In LA. I don’t think his parents picked it, let’s just say. He spent more on waxing than I do. He waxed his legs. He said it was for surfing, but I had my doubts. Eww, the Amazing Hairless Man.”

  Alec groaned as the two of them continued to laugh until they were gasping with it. “What women talk about when they’re together,” he said. “The truth comes out.”

  “We talk about ourselves,” Rae said, wiping her eyes. “And each other, and life. We don’t sit around and talk about men. That’s just what men like to think. And you’re the one who brought it up.”

  “Yeah, well,” Alec said, “I’m just saying, ol’ Cliff’s real name is probably Roger. Bet he hands that card out ten times a day. Major player.”

  “How do you know?” Alyssa challenged. “Maybe he was overcome by my beauty, not to mention my alluring curves. Which is what I am, FYI. That is the preferred terminology. Curvy. You’ve lost all your moves.”

  “I used to have some, though,” Alec said. “And I’m telling you, major player. Don’t go there.”

  “Don’t worry,” she said. “I’ve got no plans to swap bacteria with Dr. Cliff. I was just messing with you. I’ve been your sister too long not to recognize the species.”

  “My former species,” he corrected, still holding Rae’s hand. “Are we just about there?” he demanded of Joe. “I’m not asking to drive, because Rae doesn’t want me to. But we’d better be just about there.”

  “Couple more minutes,” Joe said, and he was right, they were pulling off the highway within five minutes, into the parking lot of Tahoe Forest Hospital, and Alec was thumbing his phone. The next thing they saw was Gabe coming out to meet them, pushing the wheelchair himself. Another gentle lift down by Alec that had Rae uttering a hastily stifled exclamation and grabbing his arm all the same, and Alec was pushing the chair beside his brother.

  “Got the MRI machine all warmed up and waiting for you,” Gabe promised.

  “Thanks, bro,” Alec said. “Saturday night, too.”

  “Called in a couple favors,” Gabe said. “Don’t worry,” Alyssa heard as Gabe punched the big square button beside the front doors and they opened with a hiss. She saw Gabe put a hand on Alec’s shoulder, could almost feel the unspoken communication her brothers shared. “If you’re going to mess with a knee ligament, the MCL’s the one you want to mess with. She’ll be all right. I promise.”

  Gabe was as good as his word. Less than an hour later, they were leaving with more pain pills, and Rae in a knee brace and with crutches that Alec refused to let her use, instead carrying her again.

  “Too slick out here,” he said when she protested. “And you’re too tired.”

  “Going to go ahead and stay at the house tonight?” Joe asked when they were in the car, headed back to North Lake Tahoe again. “Better, I’d think.”

  “Gabe thought so too,” Alec said. “Keep the leg elevated, keep ice on it, dope her up. I don’t want to put her in the car for hours tonight, even in the back seat. Too painful, with her so tired. Bad idea.”

  “Of course we’re staying,” Rae said. “Quit talking about me like I’m not here. ‘Dope her up?’ And anyway, you have a date with Joe tomorrow, Alec. I was going to ski on my own. I’ll just hang out on my own instead and watch movies. I’ll be fine.”

  “Uh-huh. I’m going to leave you in pain, alone, with no way to get in touch with me, while I go have fun in the mountains,” Alec said. “Yeah, that’s happening. Nope. We’re going home tomorrow, and I’m taking care of you, and there’s no point talking about it anymore,” he went right on over her protest, “because we’re done.”

  “Alec . . .”

  “No.”

  “You’re way too bossy,” she grumbled.

  “When you’re hurt, you bet I am,” he said. “We’re done.”

  They drove the rest of the way in relative quiet, everyone feeling the effects of the strenuous day and its unexpected conclusion, until Joe stopped in town, pulled into a spot.

  “Hang on two minutes,” he said. “Alyssa, could you give me a hand?”

  “Sure,” she said, hopping out of the car. “What are we doing?”

  “Picking up dinner. I called ahead,” he said, opening the door for her into an Italian restaurant hung with tiny white lights
.

  “Joe Hartman,” he told the woman at the register. “Picking up.”

  “What are we having?” Alyssa asked, hefting one big brown bag while Joe took the other.

  “Lasagne, vegetables, rolls, and salad,” he said. “I know we had pizza for lunch, but that’s what sounded good to me, and easy to heat up back home. What do you think?”

  “If it tastes as good as it smells,” she told him, hefting her bag again just to get a whiff, “I’d say you did great.”

  Back at the cabin, Alec and Joe, after some conferring, made a chair out of their forearms and carried Rae up the long flight of stairs to the cabin’s front door, Alyssa running ahead to open it, and then up to the second level, depositing her on the bed in Alec and Rae’s bedroom.

  By the time they had her there and Alyssa had set the crutches down within her reach, Rae was gasping. “Boy, that hurts. Pills or not, that hurts. I want a bath, but oh, getting in there isn’t going to feel good.”

  “I’ll put you in,” Alec said. “And I’ll take you out, too.”

  “You’re not sitting around staring at me in the tub,” Rae protested.

  “No,” he said with exaggerated patience. “I’m going to help you get undressed and put you in the tub. Then I’m going to sit outside the bathroom until you call me. And then I’m going to come take you out of the tub and help you get dressed again.”

  “We could take her up to my room, if you want,” Joe said. “I’ve got a big tub up there with jets. Might feel good. You could get in there with her. It’s a good size.”

  “No,” Rae said. “Thanks, but no. I don’t want to. I don’t think I can handle getting jostled. I’m sorry, Alec. I know I’m grumpy. But it hurts.” She was tearing up now. “I’m sorry. It’s just that it hurts.”

  “OK,” Alec said. “Everybody out.”

  Alyssa left the room ahead of Joe, and he closed the door gently to the sound of Alec saying, “Baby. It’s OK.” And a muffled sound that, she realized, was capable, competent Rae starting to cry.

  The Water’s Fine

  Joe stood with his hand on the doorknob. “Why don’t you use my bathroom?” he asked Alyssa. “They’re going to take a while in this one, and it’d feel good. Like I said, whirlpool jets in the tub. It’s pretty nice.”

  “You want your shower, though,” she said.

  “Nah. A little mountain dirt never hurt anyone. I can wait. You’ll give me a chance to get started on a beer. Get your stuff and come on upstairs.”

  He was pulling a towel out of the bathroom cupboard when he saw her head appear cautiously around the door. “Come on in,” he said over the noise of the water. “I started it for you. It takes a while to fill. The button for the jets is here,” he indicated. “Take your time.”

  He grabbed a shampoo bottle that was slipping out of her grip and set it on the stone edge, marveling as always at the amount of stuff women needed to take a bath. A bar of soap, a stick of deodorant, an electric shaver, and he was done. Groomed.

  “You weren’t kidding,” she said. “This is the biggest bathtub I’ve ever seen.”

  “Yeah, well, sometimes you don’t want to go all the way down to the hot tub,” he said. And sometimes, you needed to be close to the bed when you got out, because you had a woman wrapped around you and you needed to get her on her back just as fast as possible.

  He got out of there before he could think any more about Alyssa being in his bathtub, or about the long, hot, soapy times he’d had in there. He loved doing it in the water, the way it felt when you had a woman floating over you, your hands on her breasts to hold her there. He’d had some very willing playmates in that tub who’d seemed to enjoy doing it that way as much as he did, and he’d appreciated every single one of them. But there’d never been anybody he wanted to play with more.

  It took a while, but eventually, everybody was clean, and he was sitting around the table with Alec and Alyssa, eating lasagna and drinking wine.

  Alec had taken Rae’s dinner up to her to eat in bed.

  “She’s too tired,” he explained to the others. “When she gets like this, she doesn’t want to talk to me. She doesn’t even realize she needs to eat. She needs the food put in front of her, or she won’t even do that. She’s got two speeds, 60 miles an hour or crash. She doesn’t know she’s on the reserve tank until it’s empty.”

  “Like you,” Joe told Alyssa. “After your first day of work.”

  Her fork stilled as she stared at him. “You got that?”

  “Sure. You were worn out, you were cold. You needed to take a shower and change your clothes and eat, and you didn’t have the energy to think about me, let alone be . . . grateful, or whatever.”

  “You got that?” she asked again.

  “Just because I’m a man,” he said, a little irked now, “it doesn’t mean I’m stupid. Alec isn’t stupid about Rae, and I’m not stupid about you.” He realized what he’d said, clamped his mouth shut before he could say more.

  “First day was hard, huh, Liss?” Alec asked, breaking a silence that was starting to get uncomfortable.

  “Yeah,” she said, looking down at her plate and mushing around her lasagna.

  “How’s it going now?” he asked. “You liking it? Good move?”

  She hesitated, playing with her salad now. “I like a lot of what I’m doing. In fact,” she said, looking up, “I worked up a whole fundraising package this week. I wrote a good letter, at least I think I did. I’m nervous about showing it to Helene, though. I brought it with me. I was planning to ask Rae to look at it, but would you guys?”

  “Sure,” Alec said, taking another sip of wine. “Go get it.”

  She ran up to her room, came back a minute later with a piece of paper in her hand.

  “Long,” Alec said, flipping the sheet over. “Two pages? Do people really want to read all that?”

  Joe could see her stiffening, getting defensive. “This isn’t the final version. It’ll have pull quotes and pictures and all sorts of things. You want to engage the person. You want to pull them in, make them care. It’s not just, bam, business proposition. It goes to people who’ve already contributed, and it’s part of the package we leave behind when we do a call, too. Well, when Helene does a call,” she corrected herself.

  “I thought you were doing them too,” Joe said.

  “No. Not anymore.”

  He frowned. “That was the whole point, I thought, that you were getting an opportunity to learn all aspects of the development business.”

  “I know.” She looked unhappy. “But Helene always has these other things I need to do, and she says . . .” She hesitated. “That I’m not ready, and I’m wondering if she thinks I ever will be. I was supposed to do some presenting last month to some potential donors, but it ended up with her . . . ‘taking the lead,’ she called it, because she’s the Director, but I’m wondering if I’ll ever get the chance to do it myself, because I haven’t even gone on any of the calls since then. “

  She tried to laugh, gave a shrug. “Oh, well. I guess I was overconfident. I guess raising foundation money is different from selling other things.”

  “I wouldn’t think so,” Joe said. “Sales are sales. Alec could sell ice to Eskimos, and you’re the same.”

  “Well, hopefully I’ll get the chance,” she said.

  Alec wasn’t paying attention. “This is actually a good letter,” he said, looking up. “Really good.”

  “You think?” she asked with an edge of uncertainty that didn’t sound like Alyssa. He should have checked in with her about the job, Joe thought. Set aside the way he felt about her as a woman, and cared a little more about her. He should have checked.

  “It’s dynamite,” Alec said, handing it to Joe. “Here, you read it.”

  He didn’t want to read it. He knew what those letters said. But Alyssa was looking at him, nervous, expectant, so he started in.

  There’s no box in Antoine’s house with a lock of his baby hair stuck in an
envelope, the picture he painted in kindergarten, his report card from fourth grade. That’s because Antoine has never had a family. Born addicted to crack, he spent the first days of his young life battling through the ordeal of withdrawal from a drug he never chose to take. When he left the hospital, it was for a foster home. When he’s asked how many homes he’s lived in since, Antoine has to stop and think. And he has to count.

  Joe skimmed down the sheet.

  Sixteen-year-old Vanessa has a dream. In fact, she has two dreams. One, to become a lawyer, and the other, to become her younger siblings’ guardian. “That’s what pushes me when I don’t want to study for my Biology test,” she says. “Whenever I think that this is too hard, whenever I start to feel sorry for myself, I remember, I need to do it for them. And I need to do it for myself, because nobody else is going to do it for me.”

  What do Antoine and Vanessa have in common? They’re both foster children, and they both need your help.

  Joe handed the letter back to Alyssa. “It’s good.”

  “You didn’t read the back, though,” she said. “Did it not hold your interest? I tried to pull you along, get you into it.”

  “No,” he said. “I don’t have to. I can tell it’s good.” He could see her disappointment, but he couldn’t help it. He couldn’t read any more.

  “I don’t see why you’d be scared to show that to your boss, Liss,” Alec said. “Looks good to me, better than a lot of the ones I’ve read, and Rae and I read a lot of those things when we were figuring out where to donate. But show her tomorrow. She may have suggestions.”

  “Thanks,” she said.

  “So you know how to write a letter,” Alec went on, as always zeroing right in on the weak spots. “But not make presentations? Really? I’m with Joe here. I’d think you’d have been good at that. Where’s the problem?”

  “Oh, you know.” She tried to laugh it off. “Maybe I’m not cut out for this after all. Or maybe my boss just doesn’t like me.”