Читать книгу A Cache of Trouble: A Cassidy Callahan Novel - Kelly Rysten - Страница 11
ОглавлениеMission Beach was busy with beach walkers, tourists and kids. Rusty, decked out in swim trunks and a loose t-shirt, was scanning the crowds. I was trying not to study the ground. Ignore the tracks, Cass, just enjoy the day. I’d started out this morning in shorts and a t-shirt over my swimsuit but the beach beckoned and I’d left my clothes in the Explorer. The sun felt good and the beach stretched out in front of us.
“Let’s see if the water is cold,” I said.
Rusty smiled, continuing his search. Rusty was on a mission at Mission Beach. “We will, but first we need to make contact, then we can do whatever we want.”
“What are we looking for?”
“A grown up kid on a red bike, or a worn out skateboard, or a yellow surfboard or talking to a group of girls, who knows. You won’t recognize him until you meet him once. Let’s try the taco stand.”
We walked over to the taco stand and the old man at the booth smiled broadly.
“Rusty! Long time no see! Where have you been?”
“I’m looking for Cody. Any idea where he can be found these days?”
“Good luck. I think he lost his job at Belmont Park but last I heard he was trying to get on at Tacky T-shirts. There was a cute girl working the morning shift. He was trying to decide if she was worth getting up at eight o’clock for.”
Rusty smiled. All this sounded normal to him. We walked down to Tacky T-shirts. I looked around and saw a few tacky t-shirts that I liked. I’d have to remember this place on the way back to the truck. Rusty approached the counter.
“I’m Rusty Michaels and I’m trying to find my brother, Cody. Sam said to check here.”
A girl in short shorts, a Hawaiian shirt and a flowered name tag that read Alissa answered, “He’s out for his tenth break of the afternoon. He should be back any time. He didn’t tell me he had a brother.”
“He’s got two. What time does he get off today?”
“Four.”
“Tell him not to leave, we’ll be back at four.”
We left the shop and headed for the water.
“It’s always like this finding Cody. At least all the locals on the boardwalk know him. I’m surprised the t-shirt shop hired him except that he draws in customers. Well, when he’s there. He gets a kick out of having his picture taken with young tourists, makes a point of maintaining a surfer dude look just for the pictures. I think he makes more money off the pictures than he does at any job he’s had.”
We waded out into the water. It was cold but not too cold. After an hour of getting nearly soaked in the surf we figured we might as well just get wet so we swam. It was so pleasant to have a day with no one’s life hanging on the line, no searches, no uniforms, no work pressing. After swimming we walked the beach and ate tacos. Sam had worked the taco stand for twenty-three years and would have told me all about Rusty’s wild childhood at the beach but Rusty suddenly found something else to do. Late afternoon rolled around and we were laying on the beach soaking up the sun. I’d dozed off, and the voices above me were faint.
“It’s not four o’clock yet. Go finish your shift.”
“Aren’t you going to at least introduce me?”
“She needs the rest.” Rusty gave me a kiss on the shoulder. “I’ll be right back.” He got up and followed Cody back to the t-shirt shop, talking as they walked. “…seen the news lately?” He was going to tell Cody about the mine. Maybe that’s why I was so tired. Maybe my days and nights were still mixed up. I turned over to keep from frying my back. When the skin on my front felt toasty I thought I’d had enough sun for the day and headed for the water to cool off. I came up out of the water after a wave washed over me and noticed Rusty standing on our towel looking up and down the beach. I hoped that wasn’t a worried expression on his face. He worried too much and I hadn’t been gone five minutes. When I waved my hands so he would see me a younger version of Rusty came up behind him and pointed me out. Wow, I thought, he’s a Coppertone model, a Hawaiian cruise poster boy. I hoped Jesse’s marriage was stable. They met me halfway up the beach. Rusty handed me a bag.
“I never would have taken you for a camouflage girl,” Cody said.
“That’s because you’ve never seen me in the woods,” I answered.
“Cassidy, this is my brother, Cody. Cody, this is my fiancée, Cassidy Callahan.”
Cody flashed me a toothpaste commercial smile.
“It’s good to meet you,” I said.
“Where’s your bike?” Rusty asked.
Cody looked around. He walked over to the boardwalk and pulled a very worn skateboard out of a corner. It had a strap attached to it and he slung it across his back. Then he walked off down the beach and came back with a red bicycle that looked like it had been made for a ten year old kid.
“Want a ride home?” Rusty asked.
Cody looked me up and down.
“Sure. I usually bike home to make a few social calls but I guess I can use a lift today. So,” he said turning to me, “what do you do in the woods that you need camouflage for?”
“Thanks to Rusty, I’ve kind of become Joshua Hills’ official tracker.”
“What? You mean like Chase Downing does? You’re kidding.”
“Chase was the tracking teacher at academy. He didn’t teach me much. He seemed to know what he was talking about though. I’m sure the rest of the class learned a lot more.”
“Chase is an interesting guy. I go surfing with him sometimes. He walks the beach and tells me what the people did as he walks along, describes them to me, it’s like watching people without them knowing.”
“Rusty hates it when I do that. I was nice today. I don’t think I did that once, out loud.”
“Nope,” Rusty said, “you showed good self control. Notice anything I should be aware of? Any drug dealers making a hand off? Any potential purse snatchers or carjackers lurking in the parking lot?”
“I’ve been trying to remain oblivious to all that. I just wanted to enjoy the day.”
“That’s my girl,” Rusty said, then turning to Cody he continued, “Cassidy tends to see things that other people don’t. She’s somehow tuned in to odd behavior. She spots crimes before they happen, reads tracks and knows more about the people than if I had met them and talked to them myself. I don’t know how she does it.”
“So, if there was a troublemaker in a crowd you could spot them?”
“I’m not going to say I could for sure. I wouldn’t just do it to point fingers at people. What if I were wrong? But I have spotted odd behavior and been right a lot.”
“Well, what about this crowd. I happen to know that there is one troublemaker in this crowd. Can you see who it is?”
I studied the people around me and ruled out all the families, all the older couples, all the little kids. Of course any of them could have been the one but I didn’t think so. There were bike riders out for exercise; nope, not them. There were roller bladers and skate boarders. I was looking for someone with nothing better to do than get into trouble. My attention kept coming back to one older boy on roller blades who glanced at every tote bag and purse he skated past. He was followed by two other boys who were watching and waiting for him to try something.
“The boy in the green t-shirt, tan shorts and roller blades,” I said, “he skates by open purses and tote bags and pulls things out that look interesting.”
“Bingo,” said Cody.
“You figured that out in five minutes observing a crowd of people?” Rusty asked.
“I can see him doing it. It isn’t hard to guess when people are openly looking for something to steal. They stand out to me. How do you think I spotted that bank robber? Let’s get out of here before the kid steals something and you have to run him down.”
“That kid gets caught every other day,” Cody said.
“Are you ready to go?” Rusty asked us both.
“After we get to the truck can you give me five minutes? I don’t want to meet your parents in a wet swimsuit.”
I opened the back of the Explorer and found my shorts and t-shirt. I looked in the suitcase for a hairbrush, found it, and then trotted off to the restrooms to change and freshen up a little. Looking in the mirror I was glad I’d spent so much time outdoors. The sunburn wasn’t too bad. I dried my hair with the hand dryers and then brushed and shaped it a little. I really needed to wash and dry my hair properly but there was no time for that. Well, they’d just have to take me for who I am. I changed clothes quickly, avoiding the sandy puddles on the floor and in five minutes I was back.
“Okay,” said Cody, “she’s a keeper. Any girl who says five minutes and keeps her promise is a keeper. I always figure a half hour for every five minutes they ask for.”
“Look out everybody!” Cody announced as he busted in through the door of a two story Cape Cod beach house three miles from the ocean. “Rusty brought a girl home!” He carried his bike up the stairs, disappeared into a cluttered room and dropped the bike and skateboard.
“We don’t go much on formalities here,” Rusty explained.
Rusty’s mom appeared from behind the stairs. “Rusty! What are you doing here? You didn’t tell us you were coming. And what’s this I hear?”
“Mom,” Rusty said giving his mother a big hug, “this is Cassidy.”
“Oh my,” she said when she saw me. “It really is you. We were so afraid we would never get to meet you. We caught the news program by chance and recognized Rusty in some of the shots so we started recording the news. When they aired the story about your engagement we were stunned. We didn’t know.”
“Nobody really knew. We knew we wanted to get married last fall but decided to wait until I finished academy to announce our engagement. That was in January and then I started work with the search and rescue team. It’s only been recently that we have had a chance to make any wedding plans.”
“Well, we taped it all. If you’d like to see…”
“Mom, we came here so we could forget it. We need to just clear our heads while we’re here. Cassidy has had one tough track after another and I just got her back out of the mine. I don’t want to watch her be lost to me again. We just need a couple of days to regroup.”
“Well, regrouping is our specialty. Your dad will be home in an hour or so and dinner will be ready shortly after that.”
“Can we have the attic?”
“I don’t know if you want the attic. Cody has been having friends over at all hours of the day and night.”
“I’ll talk to Cody.”
Rusty took the suitcase and started up the narrow stairway. At the landing he knocked loudly on the first door he came too. Loud rock music blared out as the door was opened.
“I’m taking the attic over for two days.”
“But…”
“It’s just two days. You’ll survive.”
“Hold on…” Cody dashed down the hall and up a set of pull-down stairs at the end. We heard scuffling, bumps, furniture being moved around and the sound of bare feet coming back down the stairs. Cody reappeared carrying a pile of clothes and assorted odds and ends, then disappeared back into his room.
Rusty carried the suitcase to the pull-down stairs and then clunked up to the top. The attic was a long narrow room that ran the length of the house from front to back. Double doors overlooked the backyard. The floor under the lowest part of the roof was lined with odds and ends. There were a couple of mattresses, board games, beanbag chairs and low coffee tables. A small TV was hooked to an electronic game system and there were bookcases filled with paperbacks in every imaginable genre along with Nerf balls and piles of bedding. The center of the room was dominated by an ornate pool table. The floor had plush carpeting to cut down on noise and the finished undersides of the roof were lined with posters of young people doing adventurous stunts: surfing, motorcycle racing, skateboarding, freestyle skiing and more. Rusty opened double doors that led out onto a balcony and dragged a mattress to the doorway. Then he went to the pile of bedding and found several comforters and put them on top of the bare mattress.
“It’s not a posh hotel but I’ve found it’s one of the most pleasant places to sleep.”
I went out onto the balcony and looked down into the backyard. There was a flagstone walk all the way around a small swimming pool. A tiny patio stood between the back door and poolside. How they got the equipment in that small area to dig a pool I’d never guess.
“Are you finding everything you need up there?” Rusty’s mom called up the stairs.
“Yeah, Mom, we’re fine.” Then he turned to me and asked, “Ever played pool?”
“I haven’t played in years. I used to play a lot when I was living at home. The ranch hands have an old pool table in the bunkhouse and we’d play in the off season.”
“Your dad let you go in the bunkhouse?”
“The guys were considerate. They kept things clean when Jesse and I were around. I learned how to play poker there, too. I lost a lot of pocket change to them, especially Old Frank and Steve. They’d never take more than pocket change from me.”
“You want to try it?”
“Nine Ball or Eight Ball?”
“What?”
“What version do you want to play? I’m used to Nine Ball, where you have to shoot the balls in order. Most people play Eight Ball. But we can do either. I just think Nine Ball forces you to think more and provides more of a challenge.”
“I think I better wait until after dinner to take you on.”
I had more luck at Nine Ball than I did skill. I was not very good at leaving the ball set up for the next shot and so the target ball always ended up hidden behind a higher numbered ball, forcing my opponent to try complicated bank shots to get at the target ball. It was one of the things that made Nine Ball interesting.
I found the rack and then set the balls: one ball at the point, nine ball in the center and balls two through eight in a diamond shape around the nine ball. I slid the rack to the marked spot and then carefully removed it.
“Okay,” I said, “you break.”
Rusty chose a stick from a row of them on the only flat wall. I chose one too, after rolling a couple to make sure they were straight. Rusty was amused watching me, but then traded his stick when he discovered how warped it was.
He broke. His shot scattered the balls all over the table and two fell into pockets in the confusion. I think they got scared and dove for cover.
“Okay, now you have to hit the one ball, or you can also use it to hit any of the other balls in. First one to sink the nine ball wins. If you miss the lowest numbered ball or sink the cue ball, it’s ball in hand.”
He studied the table. He took careful aim at the one ball and almost made it. He might have sunk it if he’d been a little more gentle. It clung to the edge of the pocket begging me to sink it, but to just shoot it meant I’d scratch and it would be ball in hand. I bounced the cue ball off the side of the pocket barely nudging the one ball over the edge. The two ball lay across the table. There was a lot of green to cover and the seven ball was guarding the logical pocket. I used the two ball to sink the seven ball.
There was a bump and some thumping downstairs, talk drifted up the stairs and we heard footsteps coming up to the attic. Rusty’s dad made his way up the stairs and across the room.
“Uh oh,” he said, “who’s stripes?”
“Nobody, Cassidy’s creaming me at Nine Ball.”
“I am not. You got two in and then I got two in. But the two ball is a tough shot. It’s almost hidden behind the five ball. I can hit it but I can’t sink it. Or I can maybe try a bank shot and try for the side pocket, but that’s a long shot.”
I decided just touching the ball was a better move defensively. I gave the cue ball a gentle tap and it slid between the five ball and the eight ball, just barely tapping the two and leaving Rusty with the cue ball, eight ball and two ball in a nice, neat row. They were all lined up in front of the corner pocket except for the lousy eight ball in the way. My luck was holding out.
“I’m Bill,” his dad said giving me a firm handshake.
“I’m Cassidy,” I replied, “it’s good to meet you.”
“Likewise.”
Rusty was forced to make a bank shot to hit the two ball. He studied the angles.
“You’re right, it does force you to think. Instead of choosing the easiest shot on the table you’re stuck with the toughest one.”
“Not always. It’s good practice. Once you play Nine Ball for a while you will think Eight Ball is too easy and too cluttered.”
He tried a bank shot but missed. I lined up on the two ball.
“I missed,” he admitted, “it’s ball in hand.”
“Are you sure you want me to do that? I usually just keep shooting unless the cue ball goes in.”
“Go ahead, it’s your rule. It’s my miss. It’s ball in hand.”
“Okay,” I said, “you asked for it.”
I picked up the cue ball, placed it on the table with the two ball and nine ball neatly lined up on the corner pocket and sunk the nine ball on an easy combo shot.
“It was your own fault,” I said, “if you’d have just let me shoot you probably would have won.”
“Do the games always go that fast?”
“No, usually you end up sinking the balls in order until you finally get to the nine ball. Combo shots that make the nine ball sinkable are hard to spot. So the games are usually longer.”
“Bill?” Rusty’s mom shouted up the stairs, “Find out what people want to drink with dinner. I’m putting it on the table now.”
“Got beer?” Rusty asked.
“Just ice water for me,” I added.
“Got it,” said Bill and headed for the stairs.
The table for six nearly filled the small dining room behind the stairs. Beyond it was a small kitchen painted in a cheery blue with white trim.
“I’m sorry to drop in on you for dinner.” I apologized, “I know you weren’t expecting us.”
Cody laughed.
“Nonsense,” Rusty’s mom answered, “I never know how many to expect for dinner. If it wasn’t you it would probably be a group of people Cody brought home from work. You are still working, aren’t you?”
“Barely,” answered Cody.
His mom shook her head.
Rusty passed the roast and I took a small piece. “Take another one,” he said. “Cassidy never eats right when she goes out on a call. She ends up eating backpacker food and giving most of it to kids who go do damn fool things like exploring abandoned mines.”
“Well, you have to admit the boy did look remarkably well for being trapped in a mine for three days,” Rusty’s mom countered.
“Trevor did great. I told him to let me know when he was hungry. There was no way to tell time so I didn’t know if he was eating only once or three times a day. I had only two days worth of food in my pack but cooked a meal whenever he was hungry. I can’t believe a ten year old boy only went through four backpacker meals in three days.”
“And what did you eat?” Rusty asked.
“I finished off whatever he left behind,” I admitted.
“So,” Rusty said, “take another slice, there’s plenty.”
I humored him by taking a second slice but then skipped the potatoes. My appetite worked the other way around. I hadn’t eaten much for days so I needed to build back up slowly.
The doorbell rang. Rusty’s mom gave Cody a glare.
“Set another place,” she said in a firm tone and then got up to answer the door. She opened it and I heard footsteps on the hardwood floor as someone followed her through the living room. They turned the corner around the stairs and there stood Chase Downing, my tracking teacher from reserve academy. He was definitely in a more informal setting now because his wavy hair was dark salt and pepper and fell over his collar in disarray. He wore a holey t-shirt, baggy shorts, and flip-flops.
“Well, well, well, look who’s here,” he said to Rusty. “And with the only student I’ve had some respect for, too. Callahan, how have you been?”
“Busy,” I answered. “Will it ever let up?”
“It’s got its ups and downs,” he said.
“It’s had a lot of downs lately. But it’s still busy. You haven’t talk to Strict lately, have you?”
“I stay to myself down here. I don’t take just any case. They know when to call me. I used to take a few calls up in the desert but I haven’t gotten any lately. Maybe I have you to thank for that.” He took the last chair and Cody handed him a plate, fork and knife. Cody went to the refrigerator, pulled out a can of Bud Lite and handed it to Chase. He popped the top with one hand. “So, what have you done that’s interesting, lately?”
“How much of the news have you seen?”
“None. I try to pretend the news doesn’t exist.”
“Well, that wasn’t the most interesting thing I’ve done lately anyway. I was sent on an afternoon’s search that turned into a three day track. We had two rainstorms that nearly wiped the trail. It was slow reading and tough terrain.”
“You find your man?”
“It was a fourteen year old girl but yeah, I finally found her. Last news we had of her she was doing well.”
“That’s good, I guess. I’ve developed a cynical attitude towards these searches. Sometimes I think stupid people should pay the consequences.”
“What kind of cases do you take then?”
“I like to do clean up work. Rid society of people who plague it.”
“They should have called you on this latest raid then. I tracked two guys up out of a canyon, well, one of them left the canyon. When I got up top there was only one trail. The other guy was down in the canyon. The guy that made it to the top was tracked down and the apprehension was made.”
“And the guy in the canyon?” Chase asked.
I looked at Rusty. I couldn’t say it. I just couldn’t tell them about it and then it all came back to me. I’m surprised I didn’t jump when the shot went off in my head. I bolted from the table and ran up to the attic.
After a while I heard footsteps on the stairs but it wasn’t Rusty. I’d know his footsteps anywhere. It was his dad. I sat on the balcony, my feet hanging off the edge, legs through the wrought iron rail surrounding it, hands tightly gripping the supports, trying not to cry, trying even harder now that Bill was beside me.
“How long ago did this happen?”
I swallowed hard trying to control my voice, “Two weeks ago.”
“I don’t want to sound cruel, but I’m glad this is tough for you. We see it the other way too often, where it’s a macho thing to be able to bring down a man. It should never be easy. But if it’s the right thing to do there’s nothing you can do about it, and in the canyon it was the right thing to do. Everybody downstairs knows that. You’re allowed to mourn for criminals, too. I’m glad to see you’re one of those who does.”
“I don’t even know who he was.”
“It doesn’t matter. He was a person and every life is precious. Don’t let it be any other way.”
“Did you tell Rusty that the first time he…”
“I even told him that before he became a cop. I told him that when we was six and wanted to be a cop. And as I tried to get him to value life I also told him that some day he’d find a life so precious he wouldn’t want to let it go. And when he discovered that life he should hold onto it with all his heart.”
“He has. I haven’t made it easy for him but he listened to you, and he did what you said.”
“I know, I could see it in his eyes when you came out of the mine.”
He came and sat with his feet hanging off the balcony too.
“Thank you,” I said, “you’ve been a good dad for Rusty. Nobody else could have stuck with me through the things he has. He has been nothing but patient and kind even when I fill his life with grief.”
“I doubt he sees it like that.”
“The first time he saw me I was in danger. I’d been carjacked by a bank robber. I’ve been stalked by a crazy murderer and attacked by animals. I’ve been in a car wreck and an avalanche. Seems like every time I turn around something bad happens to me and Rusty takes it all in stride. I don’t know how he does it.”
“How do you do it?”
“I’m too busy dealing with whatever happened to worry about myself. I just do what I can whether it means running or stalling or fighting or hiking for the Jeep. When Rusty proposed I almost said no. In a way I did, but he was crushed and I couldn’t stand to see him like that. I just thought it wasn’t fair to put him through all the trouble that happens to me. But then, when I saw his response, I knew he’d be there whether we were married or not. I knew putting any more distance between us would only hurt more. So I said yes. And I love him with all my heart... I feel like I’ve doomed him. But I’ll try, I’ll really try to stay out of trouble.”
Just like Strict and Schroeder, he had that look about him. It was a mixture of sadness and wonder. They seemed to wonder how an innocent looking kid like me could cause so much trouble. They worried about what that might mean for the future, for their jobs. And yet they always sat back and marveled as I came through each and every crisis that befell me. Now I saw that same look on Rusty’s dad and he had barely met me.
“Since I graduated from academy things have been better. An emotional roller coaster, but better. The mine was rough on Rusty. You know the story from the news. It was easier for me. It was just a dark camping trip with a kid for me. But Rusty’s had a hard time with it. That’s why we came here. We both needed a break. He needed to do something fun. We went to the beach today and had a blast. That was good for him. I could see the worry fading away while we were at the beach. He needs more days like that.”
“How does Rusty respond when you have these things happen to you?”
“While they are happening he does everything by the book. He knows the drill. Afterwards, when we are finally alone, he just needs to hold me close. He says he just needs to…”
“…feel you be alive,” he said, finishing my sentence for me.
“Yes, exactly.”
“I used to have the same response when I was in uniform. Something would happen, a bad car wreck involving a woman, or a violent crime against a woman, and I’d come home and just hold Bev and be thankful everything was really still okay. I didn’t know it wore off onto Rusty.”
“Maybe he just takes after you.”
“Maybe. Are you ready for round two of dinner? Come downstairs and tell the family a little about yourself.”
The mood was rather subdued when we got downstairs. Nobody knew how to act. Everyone was still sitting around the table, just talking until Bill and I walked in. I took my plate, microwaved it, then sat down and started eating again, waiting for the conversation to begin.
“Cassidy, I’m sorry,” Chase said.
“There’s no need to apologize. You were just making conversation. I’m sorry I reacted badly.”
“So,” said Bill, “tell us a little about yourself. Where did you grow up? Do you have any family?”
So I told them about growing up on a quarter horse ranch, raised as a boy, hunting, tracking, camping, cowboying.
“I can rope, flank and tie a calf almost as quickly as the ranch hands. They are better at it because they are big guys and handle the horses day in and day out. Every once in a while we will have a friendly competition and I hold my own when they challenge me. I’m pretty handy on a horse.”
“But I can’t watch her do it anymore. I watched her get thrown once, and the horse fell on top of her. I thought I’d lost her right then and there. But she got up, dusted herself off and got back up on the horse again.”
“Ranch procedure, you know that.”
“Yeah, but I’ll never understand it. One of my favorite things to do is watch Cassidy stalk deer. There is a place where we like to go camping and nearby is a meadow where deer graze. She can get into the herd and lay there with the deer all around her. She has taught me how to do it a little but I’ll never be as good at it as she is. And she knows how to be invisible in the woods. A time or two I’ve looked for her when she was trying to stay hidden and she is impossible to find if she doesn’t want to be found.”
Chase followed all this with interest.
“Rusty asked me to teach him how to track and we spent two days out in the hills by the ranch, me walking, him tracking. He’s getting better at it. I tend to hide my tracks without thinking about it so it has been good practice for him.”
“Cassidy, do you mind me asking? How old are you?” Rusty’s mom interjected, “You don’t look old enough to have done all this. When I first saw you I thought you were fifteen.”
“I’m twenty-five. Eighteen years on the ranch, four years in the Marines, one year of marriage, no kids, no messy divorce, one ugly plane crash, six months of…of, well, and then I met Rusty.”
“It took me forever to get her to go out with me,” Rusty said.
“No it didn’t, we went out the very first day we met.”
“That wasn’t a date, that was an interrogation.”
“An interrogation over pizza.”
“If she was a date she was the sorriest looking date you ever saw. Black eye, ripped up clothes from being roughed up, tape marks from being tied up. After she went through all that, we lost the guy and she tracked him down for me. I didn’t even know she could track. There she was all bruised and beaten and she takes off after the guy that did it to her, leads me to a mobile home park, finds the trailer he’s holed up in, almost got her head blown off.”
Rusty’s dad watched us with professional detachment. The others looked like they were listening to campfire stories. I ate and talked. Rusty’s mom didn’t say much but she listened carefully. Cody and Chase enjoyed the stories. I think Chase was trying to piece together just how a girl like me could have come about. He knew how hard it was to make a good tracker and to have one, especially of the female persuasion, land on his doorstep was particularly intriguing.
Slowly night settled over the house.
“You aren’t really going to make Cassidy sleep on the floor in the attic, are you?” Bev said.
“No, I’m going to make her sleep on a mattress on the balcony. She’s used to tents and worse. In the mine… What did you do in the mine? I never thought to ask.”
“I only had my day pack so we just slept on the ground.” There was that worried hug again. “The mattress will be fine.”
We climbed up to the attic and Rusty pulled up the stairs from the inside. He wrapped me in a warm hug, hands straying, but more as a comfort to him than anything sensual. He was still feeling the worry and the stories over dinner hadn’t helped. He led me out onto the balcony where the night breezes were blowing lightly. The pool shimmered below in the starlight.
“If you wake up in the night and you can’t sleep, wake me up too,” he said with a gentle kiss.
“Okay, why?”
“I chose the attic for a reason.”
We lay on the mattress out on the balcony, snuggled close, watching the stars. Now I was too curious to sleep. The breeze tickled my skin. I watched as the lights in the surrounding houses slowly went out one by one until we were finally in the dark.
“Darkness doesn’t bother you after the mine?”
“No, it didn’t even bother me when I was in the mine. It’s like I tell kids when I speak at schools. If they are lost in the forest, the place where they are is no more dangerous than the place they intended to be. So many people get scared and panic when they get lost, but there is no need to. Wherever they are is just as safe as where they wanted to be. When it’s dark all the same things are there that can be seen in the light. If there’s nothing to fear with the light on, then why worry when it is off?”
“You can’t sleep?”
“How do you expect me to sleep when you’ve got me curious about something?”
He smiled then got up and looked over the railing at the downstairs windows. All dark. He went to the little window facing the front of the house and looked out. All dark. He put his ear to a wall in the corner of the attic. He smiled again.
“You? Curious?’ he said. “You never get curious.”
“Ha,” I said, “you know better than that. You probably did this to me on purpose just so I wouldn’t go to sleep.”
He smiled again. He went to a corner of the balcony and pulled out a rope ladder. “If the house catches on fire, and you’re stuck in the attic, climb down this ladder to the backyard and run, through the gate to the meeting spot. That’s what my dad always said when I was little. What I heard is, this ladder is your easy access to the pool. The ladder’s nice and quiet and, if we go down this way, the stairs won’t creak and the porch light doesn’t flash on like it would if we went out the back door. Follow me.”
“I don’t have my swim suit. It’s drying downstairs.”
“Who needs one when nobody’s up?”
Skinny-dipping in Rusty’s parent’s pool? My heart rate suddenly doubled. We stepped silently down the rope ladder and padded over to the pool.
“It’s been warming in the sun all day. I hope it’s not too warm. I’ve come out here at night and found the pool bathwater temperature.”
“You really think I’m going to swim at your parent’s house in the nude?”
“You don’t have to,” he said taking off his t-shirt and teasing me with it. He took off his boxers and eased into the pool. He gave me a pleading look.
I glanced around at all the windows I could see before slipping out of my tank top and panties. I slipped into the pool, delighting in the cool caresses, scared to death the porch light would come on. Rusty motioned for me and I swam towards him, trying not to splash. It’s amazing how noisy the water was even though we were trying to be quiet. Each little drip and splash seemed magnified. I put my arms around Rusty’s neck and he waded out to deeper water. He stopped when the water became neck deep. He laughed at me as I dunked myself trying to stand up. Then he caught me around the waist and pulled me to him so I could hold on.
“Arms around my neck. Feet around my waist. Now, if you want to float just let go with one or the other.”
“If I stay like this, do you really think we will last ten minutes in the pool?”
“It depends. It’s your choice.”
Gulp, okay. I took that to mean he wouldn’t mind rushing up the ladder and making love until we crashed out. I had to admit, it was one of the more pleasant ways to get to sleep. I let go with my hands, laying back in the water.
“Mmm,” he said softly, “I think ten minutes is stretching it.”
I looked up into eyes full of longing. I felt hands encircle my waist, then fingers wandering up my front, fingers teasing my nipples. Shivers ran down my body and my legs tightened around his waist. Oh yeah, I thought ten minutes was definitely stretching it. He put his hands under my back pulling me up for a kiss. It was deep and sensual, with a lot of tongue. His hands on my back tightened. I wrapped my arms around his neck, hugging tight, skin to skin. I lay back again, the water lapping around my breasts, the cool breeze causing my nipples to contract.
“Oh, babe, you feel so good to me,” he said, hands roving.
I reached down behind me under the water and felt his hardness. I rubbed the end gently against my bare backside. I gave it a gentle squeeze and he tensed.
Some invisible something above caught my attention. A noise? A movement? There were some disadvantages to being constantly in tune to my surroundings. I filed it away as harmless, hoping the distraction hadn’t brought binoculars.
“What is it, Cass?”
“Nothing, nothing we need to worry about anyway.”
His hands, those wonderful hands drew me back.
“Are you ready to go back upstairs?”
I glanced at the balcony and busted out laughing, quickly stifling the noise.
“What?” Rusty asked, wondering what could be so funny under the circumstances.
“The ladder is gone,” I answered still laughing quietly. “I thought I heard something.”
He looked.
“Cody!” he whispered loudly.
I looked more closely, it wasn’t gone, it was very carefully left just out of reach. We weren’t stranded completely.
“It’s okay,” I said, “we can get it back. He was only trying to have some fun.”
“I’ll kill him,” Rusty said.
“No, no you won’t, that’s what he expects. You won’t go storming after him. It’s not that big a deal. Leave it to me.”
“Not a big deal? Now you’ll never come out here with me at night again.”
“Voyeuristic little brothers are not what I was worried about. I think it’s funny.” I found the rescue hook on the back wall of the yard and tried to hook the ladder. Rusty took it from me and tried, too. He had an extra foot or two of reach, but it didn’t help. “I think you’re going to have to boost me up,” I suggested.
I stood in Rusty’s cupped hands and he boosted me up over his head. I almost cracked up again as I thought about the view he was getting. I hooked the ladder and started pulling.
“Too bad my hands are busy,” Rusty quipped.
I laughed, “If the top of the rope comes down too, then you can kill him.”
I pulled the ladder down and Rusty lowered me, my breast brushing against his cheek on the way down. We were both laughing as we started up the rope ladder. I remembered our clothes left by the side of the pool and dashed back for them. Rusty checked the attic to make sure we really were alone and we tumbled back onto the mattress, laughing at our predicament.
“Now where were we? Oh ya, I remember. I was right about here. And, let’s see, my hands were busy so that only leaves…”
Oh, yeah, whatever he had in mind was fine with me. It sure felt good, gentle flicks sending pleasure every which way until I could hardly stand it anymore, then those tantalizing hands. Oh wow, my back arched as the feelings took over everything. It was like being tumbled in the surf except it was good. Instead of water it was electrifying sensations rolling over me. I reached for him, a lifeline in the sea of feeling and he came to me all kisses and the sensations rolled over me again. He rejoiced in it, feeling me be alive and in love. The worry was erased and all the cares in the world fell away for just a moment while everything was just us.
