Chapter Seven

 

 

 

Kelly woke to the sound of a lawn mower and cursed under her breath. Andy was here. It was his day to mow and do any other yard work that needed to be done. It felt like she’d just gotten to sleep. She opened one eye and peeked at her watch. She actually had just gotten to sleep. Then the night came rushing back to her fast enough and hard enough to take her breath. Oh, she’d been home for hours, but she’d been wide awake because she couldn’t put what had happened between her and Alex out of her mind. She hadn’t been able to stop berating herself for her breach of protocol. Fuck! It was much more than a breach of protocol. She would have ridden the man like a racehorse if she’d been able to touch him. Thank heaven there was at least that. Thank heaven his situation had prevented her from making things even worse. She had masturbated with her client. She had been intimate with Alex Valens, a man she barely knew, but how well they were acquainted didn’t matter. What was relevant was that he was her client. She did not have sex with her clients! She did not get personally involved in any way! Okay, so it was only masturbation. Okay, so it was relevant to his situation, but allowing him to see into her personal life, into her desires and needs, her using his arousal to elicit her own—that was not acceptable under any circumstances.

She threw back the covers and made her way to the bathroom to pee, doing her best to convince herself that the rules didn’t really apply to her, that her methods were unorthodox and by word of mouth. Lots of people did far shadier things and passed them off as tools to help people sexually, and they weren’t even looked at askance. She really tried to convince herself that she’d done nothing wrong. But the rub of it was not that she shouldn’t have masturbated with him, if she thought it would help her client, but rather that by the time they were both in the throes of passion, she sure as hell wasn’t thinking of Alex Valens as her client. He was a virile man, an exciting man, and goddamn it, in spite of the really crap hand he’d been dealt, he was a damn good lover. Her stomach bottomed as she thought of his eyes locked on her, his breathless requests as to how he wanted her to touch herself and his excited inquiries as to what it felt like when she did. By the time they’d both had their release, she was thinking of him as lots of things, but none of those things was as her client.

“I left without saying goodbye,” she whispered to herself in the mirror as she washed her hands. “I didn’t even leave him a note as to why I couldn’t see him anymore.” For a moment, the thought of not seeing Alex Valens again felt like the worst sort of gut punch. The truth was that she had never experienced such raw, honest intimacy in her life, and he had taken her there without so much as touching her. How was that even possible? The man was a mess. Clearly he was seriously haphephobic. He was a disaster, and with her track record with relationships, she wasn’t exactly a catch. She might as well have been haphephobic herself. Intimacy issues much? The whole situation, if not nipped in the bud right now, was a disaster waiting to happen, and Alex Valens had enough serious shit to deal with without her complicating his life further. And no matter what, she couldn’t pretend that he was just a client, not now. Not after what had happened between them.

The lawn mower growled loudly just below the bathroom window as Andy worried the high grass close to the house into submission. Damn it, she wished he’d go away. She had to think. She needed to talk to Myrna. Fuck, she needed to talk to Myrna right now. She had to know that Kelly could accept no more appointments from Mr. Valens, and the man being who he was, he’d probably already had his PA call.

She stumbled into the bedroom and punched in Myrna’s number. Her friend would have been up for hours with the two kiddos who ran on a sugar high whether they’d had any or not.

“What?” came the curt answer. “Lane, stop using my curling iron on the dog,” her friend yelled away from the speaker. “Sorry, hon, what’s up?”

“I need you to make excuses if Mr. Valens’ PA calls to make an appointment. I can’t see him again.”

“Jesus, hon, did he hurt you? Damn, I knew you should have taken Tuck with you. Private executive apartments have disaster written all over them. I’ll cancel his appointment right away.”

Kelly did a mental head desk. “He’s already called?”

“Several hours ago, actually. What the hell did he do to you, sweetie?”

“Mom’s cussing! Mom’s gotta put money in the Language Box,” Lana called in the background.

“Go outside and play, you little heathens.” Myrna hissed. “Right now! I’m talking grown-up stuff with your auntie, now, move! Go bug Andy. I hear him out there.”

Kelly heard scrambling and a shriek, then more scrambling, and the sound of the mower got louder then softer again. She waited until Myrna half-whispered, “Sweetie, what the fuck happened? I’ll cancel that bastard right now and I’ll be over in one second.”

Kelly disconnected and dug through the stack of clothes over the back of the captain’s chair for her baggy sweats and a tank top. By the time she was dressed, Myrna was already making coffee in the kitchen. God, she wondered what she’d do without the woman.

On the table, there was a pastry box from Jake’s Cakes and the room smelled of French roast. The noise from the mower had receded to Myrna’s back yard, every once in a while accompanied by the sound of Myrna’s not-too-subtle brood pestering Andy, who never seemed to mind.

Myrna nodded to the table and nabbed a stack of napkins for the cheese Danish. “What did he do to you, sweetie?” she asked. She settled in across from Kelly and patted her hand in a motherly fashion that would have made Kelly laugh if she hadn’t actually needed to be mothered, or at the very least big-sistered, at that moment.

“He didn’t do anything to me. That’s the problem, Myrna. It’s what I did to him.”

The screech of the chair legs on the kitchen tiles overpowered the gurgle of the coffee maker as Myrna scooted closer for the skinny. “What did you do to him, hon?”

Over coffee and two cheese Danishes each, Kelly told her friend the gory details and Myrna listened with a wide-eyed look of titillation that suggested to Kelly that she might not quite get the gravity of the situation.

“Fucking hell,” Myrna half-whispered when the story was finished, then shot a quick look over her shoulder to make sure her kids hadn’t caught her in a violation of the Kieran family language code. If they knew the half of it, the woman would be buying pizzas for her two and all the kids in the neighborhood every day for a year. Kelly often marveled at her friend’s capacity to speak G-rated language around the twins, their friends and their mothers, but cuss like a sailor when it suited her. She very seldom mixed languages and even this morning, it was only because she was worried about her friend.

“Frankly, I don’t see what the problem is.” Myrna spoke around a mouthful of chocolate chip muffin. “You’re both consenting adults. I mean, you work with consenting adults, and you set the rules. And to be honest, sweetie, I can’t see that you’ve broken them.” She raised a hand before Kelly could argue. “Oh, I canceled your meeting with the very sensual Mr. Valens, but if I’d known the situation before I’d done so, I’d have tried to make you reconsider.”

“I wouldn’t. I won’t. I can’t!”

“Can’t what, Auntie Kell?” A tornado in the form of the Kieran twins burst through the door with Andy right behind them. Lana, the oldest of the two by four minutes, never missed anything. Fortunately she was instantly distracted by the remaining pastries, as was her brother. Myrna ordered them to take only one each, and not to get their dirty fingers all over the rest, and to save some for Andy.

Andy, who was used to the drill, elbowed his way in and grabbed a bear claw, then helped himself to a cup and some coffee. They all had a routine. Andy mowed both their lawns, then he had a coffee break at whichever house the scent of coffee was coming from while the two women informed him of any other yard work or basic handyman jobs they wanted him to do for the morning.

“Can’t what, Auntie Kell? Can’t what?” Though Lana was easily distracted, she never forgot.

“I can’t keep the two of you in milk,” Kelly said. She grabbed two glasses from the cupboard and filled them from the gallon of milk she kept on hand just for the twins, who could have easily been an advert for the dairy industry.

“Now take your donuts and go out on the patio, you two, so we can talk without having to scream over you.”

Lane stuck his donut in his mouth and grabbed another one before ducking under his mother’s arm and heading out onto the patio.

“I noticed you’re starting to get aphids on the roses again, Ms. K.,” Andy said, looking after the twins as they pushed and shoved their way out of the door. “I’ll take care of them. I brought the sprayer.” Andy Matthews might have looked like a kid, but he was a chemistry genius and had come up with some really effective organic and non-toxic treatments for ordinary garden pests.

“Well, aren’t you just on the ball today, Mr. Matthews,” Myrna said. “Kelly, do men glow, because I do believe our lovely lawn boy is glowing?”

“It’s going really well with Jenny,” he said around a blush that was almost neon. The discrete ‘I owe you majorly’ nod wasn’t actually necessary because Myrna knew the whole story. Myrna knew almost everything, even when she wasn’t supposed to.

“You’re the one who’s responsible for sending Alex Valens our way, right?” Myrna was never subtle.

The blank look on Andy’s face was the first, and probably only, hint of coy Kelly had ever seen with the guy. “Oh, Alex. Right?” Then she remembered Alex Valens was not the man’s real name, so the kid was not coy at all, just not quite sure what lies had been told.

Myrna’s phone played a loud piano riff that sounded like it belonged in a strip club. She checked the screen and pushed away from the table. “It’s Terry. Fingers crossed it’s good news.” She slipped out onto the patio with the kiddos, leaving Kelly to instruct Andy on weeding the front beds and dead-heading the geraniums in the planters, information to which he was clearly only half-listening.

“Thank you,” he said. “For the pears.” This time his smile was as big as his blush.

“I’m guessing you got the results you’d hoped for.”

“Way more than I’d hoped for, Ms. B. Way more. I don’t know how I can ever repay you.”

“Well, for starters, you can remember my death threat. I asked you not to say anything.”

The blush was back with a vengeance. “I know, and I’m sorry, but I didn’t think you’d mind under the circumstances. Le…er…Mr. Valens is such a nice man, and his situation is not his fault. I just thought maybe you could help him. That’s all.”

“I know, Andy. Never mind. You’re just too nice for your own good. I understand that. But it doesn’t mean the threat doesn’t still stand. I think a dead body under Ms. K.’s roses would never be found. Plus I hear corpses are great fertilizer.”

“Well, that is true if you take into account the basic components of the human body. When it decomposes—”

“Damn! Damn, damn, damn!” Thankfully Myrna’s curses, spoken with feeling, but not loudly enough for the little darlings to hear, interrupted the decomposition expose, and none too soon, either.

“What? What is it? Is Terry all right?” Kelly asked. Terry was Myrna’s ex. They got along like a house afire ever since their divorce. The man worked in PR, and he had managed some juicy concert and theatre tickets for his ex and her friend in the time Kelly had known them, but this wasn’t one of those times.

“He’s fine. But he says even with his promise of his first born”—she nodded her head out to the patio where an argument on who was stronger, the Hulk or Iron Man, was well and truly in progress—“he still couldn’t get us tickets to Alexander Valentine’s exhibition. Damn, I was so sure he could swing it.”

“I know, sweetie”—Kelly patted her friend’s arm—“but we both knew that it was a long shot. I hear that there’ll be a virtual exhibition on his website the next day. That’ll have to do, I’m afraid.”

“The sculptor, Alexander Valentine?” Andy asked.

“Is there any other?” Myrna said. “Half of the exhibition is new work, work that no one has seen before.”

“And no one will see again once they end up in the gardens and foyers of the rich bastards who can afford them,” Kelly said.

“But the money’s for a good cause,” Andy added quickly. “I’ve been on Le—er…Alexander Valentine’s website, and I’ve read in The Oregonian all about the new women’s and children’s hospital. It’ll be amazing. Why not let those who can afford it foot the bill?”

“No argument there,” Kelly said, “but they shouldn’t be the only ones allowed to appreciate Alexander Valentine’s genius. That’s all. I mean would it have hurt to leave the exhibition up for a few days and open to the general public? I bet Valentine wouldn’t appreciate the fact that his work’s going to be just one more way of shutting out the ordinary people, the people the hospital is supposed to benefit.”

“No, he wouldn’t appreciate that at all,” Andy said, then he added quickly, “Or at least I don’t think he would, based on…you know…what I’ve read about him…you know. So you’re really big fans? Both of you?”

“Hell yeah,” Myrna said. Her fan girl alter ego obviously didn’t care about the Kieran rules on language.

Kelly nodded enthusiastic agreement.

“There has to be some way to get tickets.” Andy spoke as though he were trying to solve a chemistry problem. He got that look in his eyes he often did when his thoughts were somewhere else—the nerd look, Myrna called it. Then he heaved a sigh and swallowed back the last of his coffee, nabbing another bear claw for sustenance. “I’ll get right on those aphids and the weeding.” He slipped out of the door, oblivious to their thank yous and goodbyes—definitely the nerd look.

 

Outside the door, once Andy was out of noise range of the Kieran twins, he pulled his iPhone out of his pocket and punched in his cousin’s number. “‘Sup?” he said, when Dillon picked up. “You sound like someone just ran over your dog.”

“Not a good time, dude,” Dillon said. Whatever he was doing on the other end of the line, he was clearly distracted. “Not a good time.”

“Oh sorry, cuz. This won’t take but a minute.”

“Make it quick, then.”

“It’s just that you know the woman I told you about, the tutor with the canned pears? You know, Kelly Blake?”

“What about her?” Andy had been accused of being obtuse from time to time, but even he could tell that he had his cousin’s complete attention at the mention of Kelly Blake.

“Can you nab a couple tickets to Lex’s big charity exhibition? I owe her majorly and it turns out both she and her secretary are huge fans.”

“Oh, are they now?” Dillon said.

“Yes, well, and while you’re at it, you might want to mention to Lex, though I don’t know if he can do anything about it or even if he already knows, but that the exhibition is only for one night, and only the rich and entitled will have access. I can’t imagine him being happy about that. Kelly Blake’s secretary’s ex is doing the PR for the event, and even he couldn’t get his hands on tickets for them, and well, I work for both of them, as you know, and I really, really owe Ms. B., I mean if it wasn’t for her—”

“A big fan?” Andy could tell his cousin was taking notes.

“That’s right. Big fans. Really disappointed that they couldn’t get tickets too. I bet Lex has no idea, does he? I mean, I know he stays as far away from these things as he can, what with all the rubbing shoulders and all, but really, he should at least know what’s going on, don’t you think?”

“Yes, Andrew, I most definitely think Lex should take more of an interest in what’s going on.” Dillon always called him Andrew when he had something up his sleeve. “I’ll see that these two ladies get tickets and I’ll discuss the arrangement with Lex. Don’t you worry, cuz, I think you might just have taken a huge step toward paying off your debt. Thanks, Andrew. Oh and, cuz, might be good if you didn’t let them know that the tickets are due to your generosity. I have a plan in mind, and well, you know Lex’s circumstances. I think I might be able to work out something from this, something really good for him too.”

“Sure. No worries.” Andy liked Lex a lot, and his situation really sucked. He’d said it to his cousin, and he’d say it again, if anyone could help Lex Valentine, it was Kelly Blake.

“Thanks, cuz,” Dillon said. “You’ve just made my day a whole lot better.”

He disconnected, and Andy smiled at just how happy Ms. B. and Ms. K. would be when they found out they had tickets to the big event.