Who's Taming Who? Page 12

  Cassie roused herself again before very long. She stirred just enough to start complaining about her face. She said that it hurt but she didn’t want to see a doctor and she sure didn’t want to get any shots. She was quite definite on that point, no shots!

  “I know what you mean, I don’t like seeing doctors either, not at all. And I really hate shots, but the doctor will stop your face from hurting so much and he will make sure it heals like it should without leaving any scars.” Frank smiled then tried to distract her. “I like the frog on your T-shirt.”

  Cassie had on red shorts and a red t-shirt with a big green frog appliqué on the front of it. Frank sat down in the chair beside her and told her a silly, funny story about a pet frog named Willie. Willie liked to watch talk shows from his aquarium while his owner took her afternoon nap. He also liked watching game shows almost more than catching flies. Lanie finished with the receptionist and paced while listening to Frank’s silly, touching story and waiting for Cassie’s turn to be seen by a doctor.

  Finally a harried woman in hospital greens called for Cassie to go into an exam room. Lanie started to carry her in. Suddenly Cassie was fully awake and rebellious.

  “I want Frank to come too!” the little girl protested, struggling. “He was telling me about Willie the frog.”

  At a nod from the nurse, he followed them into a small curtained off cubicle with a bed, leaving Tina alone in the waiting area.

  There was another wait once they got Cassie undressed and into the bed. The nurse took Cassie’s vital signs and told them that the hospital had already called a plastic surgeon to do the sutures on Cassie’s face because they wanted to be sure there were no scars.

  “Is that really necessary?” Lanie asked, worried. “Is it that bad?”

  “Not really, but it should take a couple of stitches. The plastic surgeon was just leaving his office when we called and said he’d come in. We just don’t want to leave any scars on that beautiful little face,” the nurse reassured her. “Would you?”

  “Of course not.” Lanie relaxed a bit.

  When Cassie dozed off, Frank went out to the waiting room to let Tina know what was happening. With Cassie and Lanie both out of her sight, Frank noticed how nervous and upset Tina seemed to be. He quickly searched for something to say to distract Tina.

  “Nice outfit, that black and blue sweater looks great with those black slacks,” he said rather lamely.

  “It’s just an old outfit I use for things like playing in the park with Cassie.” Tina seemed dispirited.

  Frank tried again, “This hospital seems fairly nice, as hospitals go.” He grinned. “At least the colors are cheerful and the chairs are fairly comfortable. I remember when hospital waiting rooms seemed to be made as deliberately uncomfortable and unattractive as possible, as if to encourage people to get up and leave.”

  “It may look better than it used to but I would still rather not be here,” Tina told him tensely. “Damn! I hate it when she’s hurt.”

  “So? What happened to her? How did she get hurt?” Frank asked gently as he put his arm around her shoulder. “Tell me about it.”

  “She fell off the swings in the park and the seat came back and hit her in the face. For a minute it looked like she was going to lose consciousness but she didn’t. She does seem sort of groggy though,” Tina told him, fighting back tears. “I hope she doesn’t get a scar. I always feel so responsible, so guilty, if she gets hurt while I’m watching her.”

  “Hey! She’s an active nine-year-old. It would be really strange if she didn’t get hurt occasionally.” Frank gave Tina a quick reassuring hug. “No matter who’s watching her.”

  “Now that I feel a bit better, tell me about that little scene I saw in the basement. I take it Lanie’s not mad at you anymore.” Tina relaxed a little and managed a weak grin for Frank. “She sure didn’t look angry to me.”

  “Believe it or not, for most of the time we were down there we only talked,” Frank told her. “We talked about everything and anything. It was our longest and most, um, intimate conversation ever. We needed it. We needed to really get to know each other. We didn’t even start kissing until after you called. Tina, I’m still stunned by one thing.”

  “What?” Tina pushed.

  “Tina, she never told me she had a phone in her pocket. I don’t know what would have happened if you hadn’t called.” Frank ran one hand through his wavy, thick hair. “Pardon me if I seem a bit distracted, but it was looking real promising for a moment down there.”

  “She wouldn’t have stayed down there much longer, no matter what happened,” Tina told him, beaming. “If it got to the point where she’d be late for dinner she would have called us. She’d never let Cassie worry.”

  “Still, it was the first time she’s ever shown me that she even wanted to be in the same room with me. I mean we enjoyed ourselves on the Mystery Train, but we were thrown together and there wasn’t any choice. This time, in the basement, she could have easily walked away and instead, she chose to stay with me,” Frank told Tina. As he put his thoughts into words he realized, “It’s a good sign.”

  “Considering how that rat Cal treated her and the emotional scars she got from him, it’s a great sign,” Tina confirmed.

  “So how’s your love life?” Frank turned the tables on her.

  “I’m doing better than Lanie was before she met you, but not much better,” Tina grinned, with irony in her voice. “I date occasionally, but there’s no one man that I’d really miss if I never saw him again.”

  “Sometimes that’s even worse than not dating at all. I’ve been there,” Frank told her. “Talk to Kate and Laura.”

  “Maybe I will and maybe I won’t. I want someone to date that I could care about but I’m not sure I want to get married yet,” Tina said. “Those two are lethal. It’s even more frightening when they work together. I’ve never seen them fail.”

  With a reassuring squeeze to Tina’s hand, Frank went back in to check on Cassie. Upon entering the room he found that the doctor had arrived and was just about to give Cassie a local anesthetic before putting in a few very fine and delicate stitches.

  While the local was being injected in several places under Cassie’s delicate skin, Frank held her hand and told her more stories about Willie the frog and his friend Larry the lizard. He talked about how Larry liked to get out of the aquarium and hide, and then he’d jump out scaring all the visitors who came to see his owner. Larry was a very bad lizard but his owner loved him anyway.

  The doctor quickly put a few very fine stitches in Cassie’s face and covered them with a bandage. He then cleaned and dressed Cassie’s scraped elbow. He checked the chart and took Cassie’s vital signs again. Then he gave Lanie explicit instructions to wake her every two hours and talk to her to make sure she was coherent. The he sent her home.

  “I’d admit her for observation but her vital signs are normal and I believe you’ll take very good care of her and she will rest better at home,” the doctor said. “Just bring her back if you see any problems. Watch her for forty-eight hours and take her to her own doctor as soon as possible. Call my office for an appointment to remove the stitches.” He gave her a card.

  Lanie picked up Cassie to carry her out but Frank went to her and took the sleeping child from her arms.

  “She’s a big girl, let me carry her,” Frank offered.

  He carried Cassie out to the car and put her in the back seat, fastening a seatbelt around the little girl and covering her with a blanket. Tina drove while Lanie sat in the back beside Cassie. Frank followed them in his own car. In spite of the injured child, he was a little excited. It was the first chance he would have to see Lanie’s home.

  “I have to stay with her tonight,” Lanie told Frank as she watched him carry Cassie into the house. “She’s drowsy because of the blow to her head; it might be a slight concussion. The doctor said I should watch her very closely tonight. He was very encouraging about her cheek. He said it wouldn�
�t scar.”

  “She is going to need her mother here when she wakes up,” Frank finished for her. “Why don’t you go take a quick shower while I fix us all something to eat?”

  “You may be a truly nice man after all,” Lanie said softly.

  “You don’t have to sound so surprised. I told you that all along.” Frank touched her gently on the cheek.

  Neither one of them noticed that Tina had slipped away, leaving them alone. Lanie showered while Frank got busy in the small, gleaming kitchen. He searched the refrigerator and started dinner. He made a salad, put some potatoes in the microwave, and got some steaks ready to grill. When Lanie came into the kitchen in clean black shorts and a soft pink T-shirt, Frank went in to wash up as well as he could, getting the basement grime off, without a change of clothes.

  By the time he returned the steaks were ready and they could sit down and eat. Lanie had opened a bottle of red wine. She was still a bit worried about Cassie, and only half-heartedly pecked at her food. Frank noticed her lack of appetite and decided to change things, shake her up, just a little bit.

  “Hey lady,” he teased, “I worked hard on that dinner. I had to tear up some lettuce and wash two whole potatoes.” His eyes narrowed. “You better eat it or I’m gonna have to get tough with you.”

  “Tough?” One eyebrow arched cynically.

  “You do know what happens to bad little girls who don’t eat all their dinner, don’t you?” he asked threateningly.

  “Yeah,” she deadpanned, “they stay thin.”

  “And they don’t get dessert,” he told her.

  “Did you make any dessert?” she asked.

  “No,” he admitted.

  “So?” she challenged back. “What else happens to bad little girls who don’t eat their dinner?”

  “Sometimes the cook puts them over his knee and gives them a real hard spanking.” He grinned, noticing that as they talked, she began to eat a little.

  “And sometimes the cook winds up with a knee in his groin and walks funny for a week.” She raised her eyebrows again, wiggling them at him defiantly.

  “I’m going to wash these dishes before I leave,” Frank said, reluctantly standing up. “You just keep eating your dinner.”

  “Are you’re leaving?” She was surprised. “Somehow I thought you’d want to stay and––”

  “I’m leaving,” Frank said firmly, “but I’ll be right back. Not to continue anything we were doing in the cellar but because I want to help you with Cassie. How can you get any sleep if you have to wake her every two hours?”

  “You’re coming over to help me care for Cassie but not anything else?” she pushed for clarification.

  “There are rules, Lanie,” he explained softly. “One of them is that you don’t make a pass at a woman who’s worried sick about an injured child.”

  “Really?” Lanie was mildly surprised.

  “But as soon as she’s feeling better, lady,” he whispered close to her ear, “you’d better run.”

  “What if I don’t want to run? ARGH!” Just as she started to reply with her question it happened, Frank bumped into her wine glass and spilled it all over her lap. He quickly handed her some paper towels before he finished gathering up dishes.

  “What are you?” She laughed. “An undercover employee of the dry cleaner’s association? In charge of sales for the paper towel manufacturer’s of the western world? Or just a total klutz?”

  “I’ve never been a klutz around any other woman but you,” he kissed her on the cheek before starting to wash the dishes, “my love.”

  True to his word, Frank went home, showered, changed into sweats and then came back. Lanie had already checked on Cassie once, so he sent her to bed with her alarm set for four hours. He set his travel alarm for two hours and stretched out on the sofa.

  Later that night as she slept alone and tossed restlessly, his sentence ran over and over through her brain along with two burning questions: Did it mean she really was special to him? Did he really mean to call her “my love?”

  Around two AM she heard Frank as he climbed the stairs and checked on Cassie. She called out to him as he left the girl’s room.

  “Frank?” she called softly. “Don’t take this as a pass or anything but you can come in here with me if you want to. You can’t get any rest on that sofa. It’s far too short for you”

  Frank grinned as he got into the bed beside Lanie, still wearing his sweats. It wasn’t the way he had envisioned his first night in bed with Lanie, but a starving man makes a feast out of crumbs.

  He awoke the next morning with Lanie in his arms. At some point during the night he’d removed his sweats, so he only had on an undershirt and his shorts. He laid there for a short time holding Lanie before he got up to check on Cassie. The little girl was fine except for being a bit grouchy about having someone wake her every two hours and ask her stupid questions.

  Frank quickly showered, shaved and dressed for the day. He looked into Lanie’s refrigerator and noticed that she had everything he would need to fix her a great breakfast. He mixed some pancake batter, set the table, and got out the butter and syrup. He heard a noise from Lanie’s room so he put on the coffee and started frying the bacon. Before long he had pancakes on the griddle, bacon drying on a towel, eggs ready to fry, and orange juice poured.

  Lanie entered the kitchen, looked over the breakfast and smiled shyly at Frank. “You really are the most remarkable man!”

  “I’ve been telling you that.” He pulled out a chair for her. “You just refuse to believe me.”

  They sat and enjoyed their breakfasts, then Frank had to leave. He had to get to the office. He was a bit disappointed that he didn’t get to say good-bye to Cassie but she was still asleep.

  As he left, Frank grabbed Lanie in a tight embrace and said, “I’ve got to uphold my evil reputation, you understand?”

  Lanie nodded silently. Her eyes were big and round and her breath seemed to be coming slowly and very deeply.

  Frank kissed her. The kiss started out gently but it soon deepened. Time stopped. Lightening flashed. Tongues met and dueled. They kissed her each other fiercely enough to cause her knees to weaken before Frank left on legs that seemed shaky, too.

  Frank was out of town on a business trip for most of the next week. He was tied up in meetings at corporate headquarters most of the time so he didn’t have time to call Lanie for several days. When he did, they avoided talking about their budding relationship; instead they talked casually about his trip, her daughter and her injury, and the landscaping work that was being done at his new house.

  She told him that Cassie was fine, and the doctor repeated that he didn’t expect the cut on her face to leave a permanent scar. He told her that corporate headquarters was boring and very political but the promotion he had been hoping for was official, he was now head of all retail and wholesale sales for the entire West Coast.

  She told him that the work remodeling his house had begun, the walls had been knocked down both upstairs and downstairs where rooms were being enlarged. The debris had been hauled away and the construction of the new rooms was ready to be started. In fact the crew was already working on the master bedroom upstairs.

  She also told him that they were digging the trenches to place the sprinklers and the holes to plant the trees the next day, plus grading the property. He said he would see her as soon as possible. Both of them were unsatisfied and restless when the short call was over.

  Chapter Twelve

  Surprisingly, Frank had some good luck the day after he made the last phone call. He finished all of his business at corporate headquarters much sooner than he had originally expected to, and he was able to catch an early flight home on Thursday instead of being stuck there until Saturday. He got into LAX around noon, and flew to John Wayne Airport by two in the afternoon. He had left his car and keys with Laura, so he called her to pick him up at the airport. She suggested having Lanie drive out to the airport but he wanted to surp
rise her.

  Truth be told, Laura was happy to get away from the office a little early so she was waiting for him when he came out pulling his luggage cart. He loaded his suitcases into the trunk and dropped Laura off at her house. He pulled up to his new house shortly after three that afternoon.

  His good luck continued because Lanie was still there as he turned his car onto his block. He could see her working in his yard wearing shorts and a tight T-shirt. It looked like she was digging something with a shovel as he pulled up to the newly graded driveway that led up to his house.

  Before he turned into the driveway he sat in his car and watched her for a minute, relishing all the emotions that poured over him at the sight of her. He had a real sense of promise and anticipation. She seemed to be working very hard even though she was alone. It looked like the rest of her landscaping crew had already gone home for the day.

  His good luck changed abruptly, and when it did, his good mood vanished just as quickly. He wasn’t watching where he was going as he pulled his car into the drive. Preoccupied with seeing Lanie again, he took his eyes off the newly curved driveway and didn’t notice that the freshly graded path was slick with mud. He didn’t even notice the yellow tape blocking off part of his old driveway, which had been dug up so that it could be planted and become part of the new landscaping.

  Actually, he didn’t notice any of these things until his car fishtailed on the slick, muddy surface and went off the drive and got stuck in the mud. As he looked out the windshield the driver’s side looked like it was muddier than the other side, so he got out of his car on the passenger side and barely avoided sinking up to his knees in the thick, gooey mud.

  It wasn’t all his fault, not really. It wasn’t anybody’s fault. His simple joy and anticipation at seeing Lanie faded, and the frustration and weariness set in. Her patience was also at an end. She was buffaloed at the whole mess, trying to fix a mistake that somebody else made.

  He was exhausted from the trip and also from what had seemed like dozens of long, boring meetings. She was frustrated, tired, dirty and muddy. He was hungry because he refused to eat the airplane food. She hadn’t had time to eat because of the obvious problems at the job site. He was shocked that the water had been turned on in the first place at the house. She was hot and every muscle ached. He was tired and stiff from the confines of the plane. She was irate that she had to send her men home causing them to lose part of their wages and putting her work behind schedule, not to mention the expense her firm would have to eat while trying to fix the muddy mess.