‘Are you ready?’
She shook her head.
‘Why not?’
She hesitated, not sure he was going to like what she had to say. ‘I want to help Van. His band’s in a competition, and they leave tomorrow. If I remember right, the van blows up, with the instruments inside. With Van inside, as well. I told him to sleep at Bette’s tonight.’
Rowan’s eyebrows went up.
‘But you know, I want to do more.’
Rowan looked at her hard.
‘Not because I love him, but because it’s right.’ When he didn’t respond immediately, she said, ‘You said we could make changes for the better.’
‘Yeah?’
‘Well this would be for the better.’
‘That’s what you think.’
‘It’s no different than changing the theater. In your opinion, that’s a change for the better. But what about all the people whose lives it will affect in a negative way?’
‘Like who?’
‘The developer who was going to turn it into a bookstore.’ Even to Dori, that didn’t sound like a big deal. She stared at Rowan. ‘Seriously, I want to help him.’
‘What else have you done?’
She swallowed hard.
‘I saw Violet one night at the Creamery. She had her sketch pad out, and I told her I thought she was good, that I thought she should go to the Rhode Island School of Design. She was accepted, you know. She just turned them down. Out of fear, more than anything else. Fear that she wouldn’t be good enough. I told her I thought she had a lot of talent, and that I’d seen plenty of artists in New York with less ability than she had …’
‘So, basically, you want to help Gael? You want to use Van’s truck to get rid of the coke.’
Her eyes widened. ‘How do you know?’
‘I did my research before coming back. I know what happened in 1988. Van’s truck blew up. Gael was arrested for coke. There was a bust at the Creamery. And you want to put the drugs in the van, don’t you? And take the instruments out.’
‘You don’t think I’m awful, do you?’
He shook his head. ‘The opposite.’ And now he put his arms around her. ‘The fact that you want to help him is why I love you Dori. That’s why.’
And they were kissing again. She wondered why kissing felt so amazing with Rowan. Bryce had stopped kissing her a few months into their relationship. He’d seemed to decide that if they were going to be together forever, he shouldn’t have to waste any more time on foreplay. But Dori had always loved kissing. Was it because of the way she’d felt with Rowan, when kissing could consume them for hours at a time?
He cradled her head in his hands and let his lips linger on hers. Then he was moving, kissing the hollow of her neck, planting small kisses into the v-neck of her shirt, so that she no longer felt like standing any more. But Rowan wasn’t ready to have her sit, or to let her pull him back to the bed. He pressed her up against the wall, forcing her to stand tall while he moved down her body.
She thought of Luke. Thought of the games they’d played together. Wondered whether she and Rowan would find themselves in similar kinky situations. Of course, they would. The first time he’d fucked her after twenty years was as part of a Frank-N-Furter sandwich at The Majestic. There really weren’t any limits to what they might do together, were there?
But now, Rowan stopped. Yes, they might have all the time in the world. Except for now, with Dori’s family due to arrive home any minute.
‘We’ll hurry,’ he said. ‘You know Van’s at Bette’s?’
She nodded.
‘Okay, let’s do it.’
They walked downtown together, under the shade of the maple trees and past houses she remembered. Houses that had been torn down. She tried to memorize everything this time. She tried to pay careful attention, knowing that this was it. She would never go home again. Not the way she had on this trip.
‘We should go, Dori,’ he said, after they’d arranged everything to Dori’s satisfaction. ‘We can’t do any more than that. We’ll have to hope for the best.’
‘Everything’s in place?’ She wanted one final bit of confirmation.
‘Yeah. I have the stock in my name. It’s set.’
They slipped out the back of the café, and Rowan took both of their phones in hand and punched in the codes. ‘You’re calling me. And I’m calling you. I’ll see you in 2008. Okay?’
God, that sounded weird, didn’t it? Not ‘See you tomorrow.’ Not ‘See you later.’ But ‘See you in the future.’
‘Kiss me first,’ she begged, and he did, hands in her hair, mouth pressed to hers. It was the last feeling she had before she picked up her phone, dialed in the number he’d given her, and hit enter.