| The Courtyard Chapter 5 |
| “It’s a good thing that I like my steak well done,” Gertie remarked as she took a bite of the slightly charred meat. Lance looked up sharply from his task of cleaning the baked beans from Carol’s shirt. “I’m telling you that I just looked away for two seconds. That’s all it took.” “At least he’s not making us eat those green hamburgers again,” Willie joined in as he looked at his blackened hot-dog suspiciously. “Green hamburgers?” Hanna asked with a note of surprise in her voice. Lance rolled his eyes, then informed her, “It was an ancient Indian recipe.” “I didn’t realize that American Indians hunted cattle,” she teased. “Well, the ancient I’d believe,” Gertie chimed in and waved her fork at Hanna. “You must be an incredibly brave person to face Sarah in her private domain, then to eat this man’s cooking.” “You went up to Sarah’s room?” he asked in exaggerated shock, then did a quick assessment of her body. “Well, I don’t see any blood, so it couldn’t have been too bad.” “I was only up there for a minute,” Hanna supplied. “I took a sandwich up to her and we had a nice little chat, but the poor thing looked like she could barely hold her head up.” “Daddy?” Carol’s tiny voice asked for attention as she held up her hot-dog. “Can you get the black stuff off?” Gertie and Hanna tried to suppress their giggles, but failed miserably and Lance shot them both a glance. “I can see that I won’t be getting any support from this crew,” he said with sarcasm as he cut away the dark portions of his daughter’s food with a plastic knife. It didn’t help matters any when Carol ended up with a pencil thin hot-dog. “It’s nice to know that you have some faults,” Hanna teased. He had just opened his mouth to respond when Carol interrupted again. “Daddy? Can I have a plain hot-dog?” she asked, holding up what was left of her meat in disgust. “That is a plain hot-dog Princess,” he returned, then Gertie started to raise from the table. “She means an uncooked hot-dog,” she explained, chuckling to herself as she walked back into the house to open another pack. Lance looked back down at his daughter and sighed heavily at her innocent look. “The last has finally turned.” Carol looked up at her dad warily, then smiled when Hanna started to laugh. She wasn’t sure exactly what was going on, but at least she understood that she wasn’t in any trouble and she gave a little giggle as well. “Did you see my room when you were at the villa?” Willie asked Hanna. “I saw the entire house,” she returned. “Which one was your room?” “The one with the floor to ceiling shelves,” Lance supplied. “Oh yes,” she nodded. “That room will be perfect for all your video games.” “I’ve got a bunch of model cars too. I won’t have to keep them in the boxes anymore,” Willie added. “I’ll have somewhere to put my trophies too.” “Do you have a lot of trophies?” she asked solicitously. “Only three right now. One for swimming and two for baseball.” “Willie is the resident athlete,” Lance said. “He’s determined to have a whole wall full of trophies by the time he graduates high school.” “Yeah,” Willie agreed. “Michael’s dad has a whole room with nothing but trophies.” “He’s a golf pro,” Lance added. “Does that mean that you’re going to be a golfer?” Hanna asked with a lift of an eyebrow. “Maybe,” Willie said with a shrug. “Mister Perez says that I’m good, but I’m not as good as Michael.” “That comes with practice,” Lance assured him. “Maybe we can set up a driving range out at the villa,” he suggested and received a wide eyed look from his son. “I don’t think there’s much to it, just a couple of distance markers, but you’re going to have to pick up the balls yourself.” “I will!” he promised excitedly. Lance smiled at his son, then looked down at his daughter once more when her head leaned against his arm. “What’s the matter Princess? Are you getting tired?” She gave him a small nod. Gertie walked out just then with a cold hot-dog for Carol. “I hope she’s not coming down with what Sarah has,” she remarked. He put his hand against his daughter’s forehead. “She’s not hot.” He watched as Carol reached out for her hot-dog then took a bite. “She’s hungry so she’s probably just tired. What were you doing today?” he asked. “She was a whirlwind,” Gertie answered for her. “Well, that’s normal,” he returned, then leaned down to give his daughter a kiss of the forehead. “Why don’t you finish you hot-dog, then I’ll take you upstairs and read you a story.” She looked up at him, then tugged on his sleeve as she stretched to whisper in his ear. “You want Hanna to take you to bed?” he said aloud and saw a surprised look on Hanna’s face. Lance leaned close to his daughter as they stared at the topic of their discussion. “You know, if you give her one of your pitiful looks, I’ll bet we can talk her into it,” he said, then both of them put on sad faces. Hanna couldn’t help but laugh at the pair of them. They were so cute. * * * “I’m completely stunned,” Lance said as he walked Hanna out to her car later that evening. “Carol has never let anyone put her to bed except for Gertie or me. You must have some sort of magic spell that works on my kids just as well as it does on me.” Hanna smiled in appreciation. “I think I won her over when I told her that I still had my old Barbie dolls,” she admitted as she turned into his arms next to the driver’s side door of her car. “I have to admit that I was a little nervous at first, but I thought that everything went pretty well. Your kids are great and they obviously adore you.” “We do have our problems, but what family doesn’t?” he asked hypothetically, then he fell silent as he stared into her eyes. It felt so good just to hold her that he wanted to take that moment in time and make it last forever. “Tell me when I can see you again,” he whispered huskily. Hanna snuggled against him to keep from shivering. The unseasonably warm day had turned cold once the sun had set. “Is tomorrow too soon?” she asked, anxious as always, to see him. “I can cook dinner for you this time,” she suggested. He gave a disappointed shake of his head. “I’m afraid that I can’t tomorrow. I’ve got a late meeting and it could take several hours. What about Tuesday?” he offered instead. “I think my schedule is open for lunch.” She groaned slightly. “How am I going to get through a whole twenty-four hours without seeing you again?” she asked. “Hopefully just as miserably as me,” he returned with a smile, then hugged her tight as he sighed. “Why did you have to wait so long to come into my life?” he asked. “I feel like we’ve lost so much time.” “Well, for one thing, we were both married,” she replied logically. “And I was still in high school when you had Sarah.” “Thank you for making me feel really old,” he returned jokingly. She laughed softly. “I couldn’t resist. Sarah did the same thing to me earlier when she didn’t know who the Eagles were,” she confessed. “Obviously my daughter is sadly lacking in her classic rock knowledge. I may have to strap her in a chair and force her to listen to my Simon and Garfunkle albums.” “Ooo, the Sounds Of Silence is one of my favorite songs. I’ve got the Bridge Over Troubled Waters album too.” “You have no idea how glad I am that you didn’t ask who they were,” he teased. “You don’t have to worry there. I’m a big fan of sixties music too. Maybe we can catch a reunion tour sometime. One band or another is always getting back together.” “Do you think that you can stand to be seen with this old man at a rock concert?” “I’d be proud to be seen with you anywhere, anytime,” she assured him quickly. “And thirty-eight is far from senile. I use to hate it when Tommy called me his old lady,” she shivered partially from the memory and partially from the nip in the air. “Tommy didn’t have many endearing traits, did he?” “It was the longest six months of my life,” she returned caustically. “But, that’s in the past and doesn’t bear repeating,” she said. “Besides, I’m looking forward to the future more now than ever.” “I like the sound of that,” he said, then gave her a light kiss on the lips. He gently brushed away a wisp of hair that drifted across her cheek in the breeze. “I’ll give you a call tomorrow and we can act like teenagers on the phone for awhile.” “Is that allowed with a couple of old fogies like us?” she asked with a smile as she slipped her fingers into his hair. “At our age, talking is probably the safest thing for us to do,” he returned swiftly. Hanna giggled, then received a longer kiss tinged with a taste of their earlier passion. “Good night,” she said softly, then he opened her car door for her and she was reluctantly on her way home. He watched until he saw her tail lights turn out of sight, then he went back into the house. “Gertie! What are you doing?” Lance asked in concern when he walked into the kitchen to see her standing on a foot stool. His hands immediately went to her waist to steady her as she stretched to return a serving plate to the top most shelf. “I’m putting the dishes away. What does it look like I’m doing?” She slapped his hands away as she backed down the three steps. “Why didn’t you just leave that for me to do? Or you could have called for Willie to help.” “That boy is neck deep into his video game,” she said, tossing her hand in dismissal as she turned away, then paused to look back at him over her shoulder. “And, judging from the look in your eye, you’re in pretty deep yourself.” He gave her a smile as his hands slipped into his pockets. “Does it show that much?” Gertie chuckled softly as she moved back to the sink so that she could continue drying the dishes. “I’ve known you a lot of years, Lance. I was here when your first building went up and I was here when you brought two of your children into this house.” She glanced up at him when he picked up a second dish towel to help. “I was here when Debbie died and I held you in my arms when you were grieving. I’ve seen you go through good times and bad. I know you better than my own kids. I think I would recognize the fact that you’re falling in love.” He gave her a sideways look as a smile inched up on his face. “She’s great, isn’t she?” It was her turn to give him a curious look. “You’ve never asked my opinion before. Why would you be asking me now?” “Don’t play with me Gertie,” he warned half-heartedly. “You know that your a part of this family and your opinion matters to me.” She turned her head to hide a brief smile. “You could do worse.” “I could do worse?” he repeated with a lift of his brow. She couldn’t hide her smile any longer and nudged him with her elbow. “You know perfectly well what I thought of her. She’s a beautiful lady, inside and out. Much too good for the likes of you, if you ask me.” “I didn’t,” he returned jokingly, then turned his attention to the plate he was drying. Gertie watched him out of the corner of her eye as he lapsed into silence. Something was on his mind and she was never one to butt out. “You look serious all of a sudden. Is there trouble in paradise?” she asked, switching his overly dried plate for a wet one without him even noticing. “This may sound really strange,” he hesitated as he tried to capture his thoughts. “But there aren’t any problems between us at all and that kind of bothers me.” She nodded her understanding. “You can’t really believe that there is someone so perfect out there waiting for you,” she surmised. “Something like that.” He tried and failed to think of a better way of explaining his feelings. Gertie looked at him once more and realized where his hesitation was coming from. “You’re thinking about Brenda, aren’t you?” she asked point blank. He backed up from her slightly as he stared at her face as if he expected it to change at any moment. “Okay, now you’re starting to scare me.” “It doesn’t take a mind reader to know how much that...that...woman hurt you,” she said fighting to keep her anger in check. “She was nothing more than a bitch in heat, excuse my language, and she didn’t deserve your second look.” “No, Gertie, tell me what you really think,” he teased lightly. “You can joke about it all you want to, but I’ll never forgive that woman for what she did to you. Thank God you had the good sense to keep her away from the kids.” “That wasn’t too hard to do. Brenda wasn’t exactly the maternal type.” “The last thing that you have to worry about with Hanna is if she’s anything like Brenda. I can tell you right now she’s not. Brenda was a two timing slut and I think her husband was an idiot for not divorcing her when he found out. They are two totally different women and, if you’re smart, you won’t let this one get away from you.” Lance put his fists against the counter, the dishes completely forgotten as he looked at her in amazement. “Have you always been this blunt?” “Yes. You’ve just never listened to me before.” She tried to give him a stern look, but they both ended up laughing. * * * “Hi,” Jodi said cheerfully when Hanna opened the door for her. “I was bored so I thought I’d drop in to see what you’re doing.” “Nothing, unfortunately,” she returned, receiving a shocked expression. “I don’t mean that the way it sounded. I’m just bummed because Lance canceled out on me for lunch today.” “So now you’re sitting in the living room playing video games and eating ice cream,” she said with certainty as they moved into the room and she was able to see the evidence for herself. Hanna wagged her finger at her as she passed. “I’m going to have to get new friends. I’m not sure I like the fact that you know me so well.” She grabbed the remote up to click off her television and took her favorite spot on the couch. “At least you’re not wearing your bumming clothes,” she said speculatively as she glanced at her jeans and light weight top. She gave Jodi a curious look, but didn’t comment as the conversation turned to her day with Lance and his family. An hour and a half later, Hanna was certain that something was going on. “Why do you keep checking your watch?” she asked when Jodi glanced at it nearly every five minutes now. “I thought you said that you didn’t have anything to do today.” “I don’t, but someone else does and it’s getting kind of late.” Hanna shook her head rapidly after trying to decode what her friend was saying. There were times when Jodi would lapse into, what they jokingly called, her blond moments. “Do you want to explain that to me in English?” she asked hopefully. “No,” she returned succinctly, then checked her watch again. “Jodi,” she began in all seriousness. “You know that I love you, but you’re driving me crazy. What is going on?” When the doorbell rang, Jodi sprung to her feet with a huge smile. “I’ve got to go,” she said cheerily. Hanna looked at her friend warily, a bit apprehensive of her bizarre mood as she slowly rose from the couch to get the door. Jodi was right behind her with a slight bounce in her step which drew another slanted look from her. “Lance!” Hanna said in surprise when she found him on her stoop. “Hi babe,” he smiled, then gave her a swift kiss before addressing the second woman. “Hi Jodi. Thanks for the help.” He gave her a peck on the cheek, then took Hanna by the hands and started pulling her out the door. “You’d better hurry,” Jodi instructed as she snatched her friend’s keys from the hook by the door and shoved them at Lance. “It’s getting late.” “What is going on?” Hanna repeated, but didn’t put up much of a struggle as Lance lead her down to his car. “You’ll see,” he promised, then kicked the car into gear and zoomed out of the parking lot. Fifteen minutes later, they were pulling onto a tiny strip of dirt at the edge of the Pacific. “We’re here,” he said as if in explanation. “Okay,” she said softly as she glanced around and saw nothing but beach and highway. “But why are we here?” He tossed a black and white checkered wool blanket into her lap from the back seat, then reached back again to retrieve a glass and a bottle of champagne. Finally, he gave her his full attention. “The first of many sunsets,” he informed her. She was stunned into silence for several moments as she stared at him in wonder. Her eyes continued to follow him as he walked around the front of the car and opened her door. His smile was mischievous as he held out his hand to assist her out. Hanna remained speechless as he laced his fingers through hers and they walked down to a tiny strip of sand that made up the beach. Then he popped the cork on the champagne and filled the glass. Once he had settled in behind her, his legs straddling her body, he wrapped the blanket around his back and folded the edges over Hanna to keep her warm. She leaned back into him, her eyes closing as her head rested against his shoulder. “I can’t believe you did this,” she said dreamily. “How did you manage to get away from work?” she asked as she handed him the glass which she had been holding. “It wasn’t easy,” he admitted, accepting the champagne flute and taking a sip before handing it back to her. “I was with a particularly obnoxious client and I practically had to sell my soul to get out of there in time. Just remember this sunset when I go bankrupt.” She laughed out loud. “Thanks for the guilt,” she returned and took another taste of the sparkling white wine. Her head tipped to one side when she felt his lips leisurely caress the column of her throat, her eyes closing to capture the sensation. “Don’t close your eyes,” he whispered softly into her ear, allowing his lips to brush the delicate shell. “The sun’s about to drop behind the clouds on the horizon.” Her eyes opened obediently, but she could do nothing about the liquid feeling of her bones. His slightest touch made her tremble inside and, with his arms and legs wrapped around her, she was having a difficult time thinking about anything else but him. Was it the roar of the ocean that filled her ears or the sound of his gentle breathing? The salt of the air blended with his cologne to make a particularly heady fragrance and the color of the sky paled when compared to the kaleidoscope inside her spirit. The bright blue of the sky slowly began to fade as the clouds on the horizon captured the final rays in a constantly changing array of golds, oranges, then reds. All too soon, the skyline merged with the sea and the first of many stars dotted the heavens. Neither one of them spoke. They simply savored one precious second after another until the seconds became minutes, then minutes turned into hours. * * * Jodi and Hanna grabbed either side of the handmade quilt on the king size bed and pulled it off, then immediately started on doing the same with the sheets and pillow cases as Jodi grilled her about the past several days. “Come on Hanna. Do you expect me to believe that nothing has happened between the two of you yet?” she asked in doubt. “Even the people who don’t know you can see the sparks flying between you and Lance. I had at least half a dozen people, all women of course, asking what was going on between the two of you. I didn’t know what to tell them. Is it serious or not?” She smiled for a moment, distracted, as she shook a pillow from its covering. Is her relationship with Lance serious? she asked herself. She’d like to think so, but neither one of them had spoken a word in that direction. She wasn’t sure if she was ready to make another commitment after the disaster of her first marriage, but Lance made the thought very tempting. “It’s serious,” she finally whispered, then looked up at her friend. “But I don’t know if I should tell you any more than that. You did conspire against me, you know.” “Conspire against you?” she repeated incredulously. “Are you telling me that you’re actually mad at me for making sure you were home when Lance got there?” Hanna gave her a smile. She just couldn’t feign anger for long when she was so happy. “No, I’m not mad at you. Why should I be?” The two of them gathered the bed clothes and started out of the room. “You helped to give me one of the best nights of my life.” “Am I to assume that your relationship with Lance has progressed then?” she asked in a hushed whisper, conscious of the fact that they weren’t alone in the villa and passed several rooms where people were dutifully working on cleaning. “If by progressed you mean have I slept with him yet, then the answer is no,” she returned. “You know better than anyone what I went through with Tommy and I’m not about to jump out of that particular frying pan and into the fire.” “But Lance isn’t anything like Tommy,” she stated, her eyes watchful for any prying ears. “You don’t have to tell me that,” she returned easily, giving one of the guests a nod when he looked up at their passing. “But he has three kids to consider too. He’s not willing to rush into anything either.” “Because of Brenda?” she asked. Hanna turned startled eyes on her friend. “You know about that?” “Everyone knows about that. You know what our circle is like, Hanna. Everyone’s nose is in everyone else’s business. It doesn’t even matter if you know someone personally or not. If the story is good, it’s going to be told and Brenda was a favorite topic of our crowd for a long time.” “Somehow that isn’t much of a comfort. In fact, it makes me wonder what people are saying about me.” “You and Lance are drawing a lot of speculation, but no one really knows anything and you have a lot to do with that,” she said accusingly. “You won’t even tell your best friends what’s going on!” Hanna chuckled at that as they descended the staircase to the main floor. “I kind of like the idea of being a mystery,” she admitted as they walked through the door to the courtyard to get to the other side of the house where the laundry room was located. They hesitated when they saw two other people with an armload of bed clothes staring off into the foyer. “What’s going on?” Jodi asked, following their line of vision to see Nicki speaking heatedly with another woman. The man only spared her a glance as he continued to watch the scene. “I’m not really sure, but Nicki laid into that woman as soon as she saw her coming into the villa,” he returned. “Who is she?” Jodi asked, straining to hear, but only catching a word or two over the distance. “That’s Brenda,” the woman supplied, leaving little doubt in her tone that she was expecting to see quite a show. Hanna and Jodi exchanged shocked looks, then moved further into the courtyard to get a better view. “What is she doing here?” Jodi asked, her eyes riveted on the scene before them. “I have no idea,” Hanna responded honestly, her heart fluttering in her chest. She wasn’t sure if she should be angry or worried. “As far as I know, Lance isn’t even in contact with her anymore.” Just as she said his name, the man appeared heading directly toward Hanna and Jodi in the courtyard until he heard Nicki’s raised voice from the foyer, then he paused. He hesitated for only a second, then he marched out to see what was going on and Brenda threw herself into his arms. Nicki watched the reunion stiffly, then she glanced passed them and saw her friends standing in the courtyard and immediately stormed toward them. “I can’t believe that bitch had the nerve to show her face here,” she ground out between clenched teeth, then folded her arms across her chest as she joined them, turning to watch Lance speaking with his ex-girlfriend. “What does she want?” Jodi asked. “Lance, of course,” Nicki returned bitingly, then shot Hanna a glance. “I’m sorry love, but I just can’t sugar coat it. Brenda has had designs on him from day one.” Hanna gave an unconscious nod, Nicki’s words piercing like an arrow through her heart as the scene before her began to take a surreal edge. Brenda with her arms wrapped around his waist as she gazed up into his face. Lance looking down at her with his hands on her arms. He turned, his eyes locking with Hanna’s for the briefest of seconds, then he walked off with Brenda out of their sight. Hanna’s eyes fell to the tiled floor and focused on a pale red petal that had dropped from the bougainvillea. She was numb inside. She wasn’t sure what to think of what she had just witnessed and her mind irrationally turned to the fact that the courtyard needed to be swept again. “We’d better get these sheets and blankets to the laundry room if we want them to be dried by the time we’re ready for bed,” she said dispassionately, then walked off on her original errand. Jodi shot Nicki a concerned glance, then followed Hanna. * * * |