The Lucky Ones(72)

Truth was, she liked this Roland even better than the other one.

And she told him.

His chest moved in silent laughter as she lay across his body. They were both sweating together, breathing together, dripping wet together.

“When the beautiful girl you’re crazy about tells you she might be in love with you, it makes you a little wild,” he said. “Not too wild?”

“The perfect amount of wild. I didn’t know you had it in you.”

“I believe, technically, you had it in you.”

She grinned and kissed his chest.

“I love it in me,” she said. “Feel free to have it in me again anytime. Or right now.”

“Thirty-minute nap,” he said. “Then we go for episode two of Wild Kingdom.”

“Take your nap. I’ll wake you.”

He kissed her forehead and rolled over. She went to the bathroom, and by the time she came back, he was already breathing the rhythmic breaths of deep sleep. Men.

She looked at him and his long muscular back and remembered how she’d seen it, as if for the very first time, that day at the ocean’s edge when they’d crossed a line a foster brother and sister shouldn’t cross. Maybe it was for the best, really, that she’d left and gone to live with her aunt. Maybe it was for the best that years passed between that day and this one. Instead of her thirteen years away from this place acting as a wall between them, the time apart had become a bridge, the path from what they had been to what they could be.

The room was stuffy from the day’s heat and fragrant with the scent of sex. She cracked the window, and when Roland didn’t wake from the sound, she pushed it all the way up.

Not tired enough to sleep, Allison sat in the window bench. She thought about reading but there wasn’t quite enough moonlight to read by and she hated reading on her phone, but that was fine by her. She watched the water instead, watched it shimmering in the glowing deck lights. She wondered at the strangeness of the day, how it had begun with death and ended with sex. But was it that strange? Her best night with McQueen, the one night she cherished most in her memories, had come when she’d returned home after attending her aunt’s funeral. McQueen had surprised her with his kindnesses during that difficult time, hiring a car to take her there and bring her back, sending a spray of roses, orchids and lilies to cover her aunt’s casket. He’d even been waiting at her apartment when she arrived. He’d wanted sex from her, of course, but that night she’d wanted it from him even more. She’d spent three days in the company of death. And sex was almost the opposite of a funeral. A funeral said “life ends.” Sex said “life goes on.” No wonder she and Roland had fallen on each other like wild animals tonight. After learning one of their own had taken his life, they’d needed the reminder they were still alive.

Allison was almost asleep in the window seat when she thought she saw something moving on the beach. People? An animal? She took the old binoculars off the hook and trained them on the patch of beach just beyond the deck. She didn’t see anything at first, but then the binoculars picked up a red flame. A bonfire on the beach. Someone was having a cookout. This late at night? Well, why not? It was a nice night, warm and dry. She saw the burning logs. She saw the dancing sparks. She saw a square beach blanket next to the fire and one person lying on it.

Her eyes adjusted to the dim light. No, it wasn’t one person on the blanket but two. Two people, one on top of the other. Allison knew she shouldn’t be looking but there was something about the couple that made it impossible for her to look away.

The woman on top had hair the same color as the fire.

The man underneath her had black tattoos on his naked arms and chest.

Allison slowly lowered the binoculars and turned her head from the scene as if she could still see it.

Now she knew one more secret hiding in this house.





Chapter 21

Allison pulled on her jeans and Roland’s flannel shirt and went down to the sunroom. She turned on a lamp, pretended to read a book and waited. Five minutes later she heard the deck creaking, the sound of people climbing up the staircase from the beach. Outside the French deck doors, Deacon and Thora paused, wiped their feet and brushed sand from each other’s clothes. They came inside and saw her, smiling like nothing in the world was different.

“You’re home early,” Thora said. “Did you bring my burgers?”

“In the kitchen,” Allison said.

“Didn’t Dad tell you all not to come back until morning?” Thora asked.

“He did, but we didn’t feel like staying out all night.”

“Don’t tell Dad you disobeyed an order,” Deacon said. “He’s in a horrible mood.”

“What’s wrong?” Allison asked.

“Kicked me out of his room when I tried to make him take his meds,” Thora said. Allison could tell she’d been crying, too.

“He used to never lose his temper with us.”

“It’s not really his fault,” Thora said. “The poisons in the bloodstream mess with the brain. He’s been a lot testier. Then again, it could just be the fear talking.”

“Was he really bad?” Allison said.

“He wasn’t any fun, that’s for sure,” Thora said. “I had to go for a walk on the beach to calm down.”