I looked at him and muttered semi-hysterical y, “I have to get going. I have to take a shower. I have to go to work and, after work, I gotta find Dad and sort this mess out.” I was pushing against him to get up and we got in kind of a slapping match with our hands (wel , I was slapping, Eddie was more in control and defend mode). Final y he grabbed my wrists and held them between our bodies.
“Jet, calm down.”
“I can’t calm down. I have things to do, I can’t just—” He interrupted, “Have a life?”
“Exactly!” I was so relieved he understood I sagged against him.
His eyes got weird and he shook his head. “Jet, you are not going to find your Dad. If your Dad gets in touch with you, you phone me.”
I glared at him.
I did not think so.
It was time for me to take things in my own hands.
“I have to figure this out, Eddie. If I don’t, I could lose my job at Smithie’s and I need that job. Smithie is a good guy but there are limits to the times cops can come and shut him down because of me.”
Then, like an idiot, I forged ahead, planning my day verbal y, “I’l work late for Indy, make up the hours, go out tonight, hit the spots where Dad hangs out when he’s in Denver—”
“Aren’t you forgetting something?” he interrupted.
I stared at him, confused.
“We have a date tonight,” he said.
Damn, I forgot that too.
He looked at my face and his jaw tensed. “Christ, you’re kil er on a guy’s self-confidence.”
I was such an idiot. No I was beyond idiot, though I didn’t know what beyond idiot was.
“I’m so sorry,” I said, leaning into him a little.
He let go of my wrists and his arms went around my waist. He tucked his face into my neck and right below my ear he said, “If you’re real y sorry, you can make it up to me tonight.”
Eek!
“Eggs,” I said, trying to stay focused even as a shiver ran through me.
He pul ed his head from my neck and smiled at me, dimple and al .
I was pretty certain he felt the shiver.
Then the dimple disappeared and he looked at me. “I’l take you to work but I have to ask you not to go anywhere without someone with you, it’s not safe. Can you promise me that?”
I thought about it, I thought about lying about it, I decided I could and said, “Sure.”
He watched me for a beat.
“Mom,” I reminded him, thinking to change the subject and coming off his lap.
I grabbed his hand and pul ed him up from my bed.
It was not a picture I’d soon forget, Eddie sitting on my bed. In fact, I hoped it was burned into my memory forever.
He didn’t resist but, the minute he stood, his hands came up and rested on either side of my neck, right where it met my shoulders.
“You wouldn’t lie to me, would you?” he asked, watching me closely.
“About?” I tried wide-eyed and innocent.
He wasn’t biting.
“Anything,” he said.
I took a deep breath and decided to be honest. “Maybe, but only if it was important.”
“Like your Dad being in deep shit, that kind of important?”
I bit my lip.
He sighed.
“You have my card?”
I nodded.
“Program me into your cel . Cal me if you need anything and do not do anything stupid.”
I could do the first two, the last one I wasn’t so sure about.
*
Eddie dropped me off in front of Fortnum’s and I walked in five minutes after opening time. The line at the espresso counter was five deep but the minute Tex saw me, he pointed the portafilter at me and boomed, “We got rules around here, Loopy Loo!” I’d been working there for over three months and the only rule there seemed to be was that nothing but country or rock ‘n’ rol could be played on the CD player. I didn’t even want to remember the day I put in my Coldplay CD, Al y went berserk.
I figured Tex wasn’t happy with me doing a no-show the day before and I felt like a total heel. I started to say something when Tex continued.
“Next time you get in a bar brawl or wrestle with some guy holding a knife, you cal me.”
Al five customers turned around and stared at me.
I stared at Tex.
“What?” I asked.
“I’m Fortnum’s designated bodyguard,” Tex told me.
I looked at Duke, who was working behind the espresso counter with Tex.
“He kinda is,” Duke said.
I had to say, I was a bit alarmed that Fortnum’s needed a designated bodyguard. I didn’t have time to think about it because Indy came up behind me, grabbed my hand and pul ed me behind the book counter.
“I guess Lee told you,” I said to her when we stopped and I caught a look at her serious face.
“Yeah, he told me. Are you okay?” she asked.
“Sure,” I said, trying to make it sound like I had it al together.
She didn’t buy it and her eyes narrowed.
“Jet?”