NED GOT UP and went inside. When the door opened all the way, the light flashed from the living room, the brightness obscuring Chelsea as she stood by her car. Ned came back out with two more beers, handed me one, and stepped down into the front yard headed for his car. Chelsea met him halfway.
Ned handed her the other beer and shot her his best Ned smile. “Go easy on him, he’s my partner.” He winked.
He walked on, toward the street. Chelsea whispered loud enough for me to hear, “Idiot.”
She came over and sat on the porch right where Ned had sat. She took a drink, and said, “Nice evening.”
“Yes, it is.”
Why was she here?
Silence. We sipped our beers. My heart thumped hard in my chest. She had to be able to hear it. She had to know how I still felt about her. I really wanted to believe her presence meant something related to our relationship, but knew it couldn’t. How could it?
I said, “What’s going on? Why are you here?”
“I thought I needed to apologize for what happened out there today. Things just got away from me, and I’m sorry.”
“I understand.”
“No. It was a good job you did, and I shouldn’t have acted like a complete bitch.”
“You weren’t a … complete bitch.’’
She smiled and shoved my leg.
I loved that smile, would pay a great deal to see it more often—like every day, from now until the other side of forever.
We didn’t need to say another thing. I was content to just sit there with her the whole night.
She broke the silence. “I was going to call you when I transferred back to LA. I really meant to.”
I didn’t reply. I wanted her to continue.
“I kept meaning to pick up the phone … and …”
“I know,” I said. “How have you been?”
I’d let her off the hook. She smiled again. “Good. Really good.”
“You going to tell me how you worked your way out of that deep hole and won a transfer out of North Dakota?”
She took a long slug of beer, brought the bottle down, and stared at it. “That, my friend, is a long and ugly story.”
“Can’t be too ugly since you made it out. You’re now team leader for all of bank robbery. That’s really a good crack.”
“Maybe another time.”
“Okay, sure.” By her tone, I knew I wasn’t likely to hear the story, not for a long while, if at all.
More silence. I wanted to reach out and touch her shoulder, her neck—the lobe of her ear, run my fingertips gently through her hair. The memory of our naked and sweaty skin moving together, touching, sliding, jumped out into the forefront of my thoughts. The way she returned a kiss was electrifying, like nothing I’d ever experienced.
“I also came here to talk,” she said.
“I figured as much.”
“The way things went down today … I mean … well, the RAC has pulled me as the liaison for the team.”
“Ah, man. Did you tell him about us?”
“What? No. Nobody knows, and I intend to keep it that way. It’s just that I’m running the entire robbery bureau, and he now thinks your team is going to need more … attention. More time devoted to it than I’ve got available.”
I wasn’t sure I believed her.
“So you’re saying that we’re loose cannons and need to be reined in. That’s why you drove all the way out here tonight, to tell me to power it down.”
“Yes, that and to discuss a couple of other things.”
“Hey, you want to go inside and sit on the couch?” My heart skipped a beat waiting for the answer, the couch a big tell in her true reason for the visit and in how this meeting would end.
“No, it’s kind of nice out here.”
“Go on, then.”
“This is a little sensitive, and I could get into trouble for telling you this.”
“I understand.”
“Your team was brought in for one specific problem: to chase one particular group of bank robbers. This crew mostly involves the Rollin’ Sixties Crips. They’re hitting us pretty hard, at least twice a week, and we can’t get a handle on them. They’re a unique and involved problem I won’t go into right now. I was going to put you on them tomorrow.”
“But?”
She took another drink of her beer, more of a dainty sip, to allow her a moment to muster her words, and then said, “Here’s the sensitive part—”
“Wait, let me guess. I embarrassed the FBI today, and now they wanna get even, take us down a couple of notches first, before they give us the real case.”
She froze and stared at me. I’d hit it right on the nose.
“I’m sorry,” I said, “I didn’t mean for this to happen this way. Seeing you in the office like that caught me off guard, and then, with all those agents watching me and my guys as if we were … Well, I just let my mouth overload my ass. I promise you, it won’t happen again.”
She waved her beer bottle. “I should’ve known you’d have figured it out. And it’s done. We’re going to have to live with it. It was partly my fault.” She smiled again and nudged my leg. “I should’ve listened to you when you said you’d get him after lunch. My God, Bruno, that took a jumbo set of balls to say something like that.”
“Yeah, I’m not normally like that. You know me.”
She cut her eyes away, a little embarrassed by the comment.
She said, “You’re going to be assigned a new liaison. His name’s Jim Turner. He’s really a great guy, so take it easy on him, okay?”
“Can do.” I wanted to lean over and kiss her but didn’t have the nerve. I didn’t want to risk shoving her away emotionally. I could wait; go slow with her until she was ready.
She got up to leave. “One thing though, Bruno, you really need to get a handle on Ned. I know you don’t want to hear this, but I think he might be a bad influence on you.”
“No, that was all me today. Ned had nothing to do with it.” I reached out a hand, held my breath to see if she’d take it.
She did. Her skin was warm and soft to the touch. She smiled and held on. “I’ll see you tomorrow at the office.”
“Thanks for coming by and for the heads-up. I promise, I won’t let you down.”
“I know you won’t.” She held my eyes a moment longer, turned, and slowly pulled her hand from mine, fingers extending to the tips, until they parted. She headed for her car. All I could do was watch her go. She hesitated at the car door, got in, started up, and headed off down the street leaving my chest hollowed out.
The door behind me opened with a flash of yellow light. Dad stepped out. He sat on the stoop next to me. He didn’t say anything for a long time. He wanted me to say it and I couldn’t.
“That Chelsea I saw out here?”
I nodded.
We both said nothing.
He patted my leg. “It’s getting late, why don’t you come on in?”