Chapter 12
Monday afternoon, Lily was in a panic. Her heart raced and she’d bitten her nails to the quick. She’d stared at her phone all day, but it remained stubbornly quiet. After she’d picked up the phone and replaced it without dialing six times, she called Tony. “Have you found anything out?” she demanded, before he could say hello. “I can’t stand waiting for the police to call.”
“Let me talk to my buddy again and I’ll call you tonight. Or I can stop by on my way home from work, if you’d like. I finish around eight.” His suggestion popped some of her anxiety.
“Perfect. Claire will be in bed.”
“Okay. See you then.”
That evening, Claire played a computer game before bed while Lily cleaned the apartment and burned off some of her excess energy. Rachmaninoff streamed from her playlist and Lily swayed to the music as she scrubbed. For the first time all day, she felt more at ease. The piano crescendos invigorated her; the decrescendos soothed her. She adjusted the volume of the music as loud as she dared to drown out her worries, much to Claire’s chagrin.
“Mommy, why can’t we listen to my music?” she complained from the office.
“Because we’re listening to mine right now, hon.” Lily peeked her head in the door. “Besides, you’re playing a computer game. You’re not even paying attention to the music.”
“Yeah, but I can’t help hearing it and it’s bothering me.” Lily cringed as her daughter’s whine increased.
“Well, you’ll just have to deal, kiddo.” She left before she could hear any more of Claire’s complaints. The doorbell rang, and Lily glanced at her watch. Tony was early. She raced to the door, eager for an update. Instead of Tony, Gideon sat there. “Hi, you’re a nice surprise.” Lily opened the door wide and touched her throat. “Come on in. Can I get you anything?”
“No, I’m fine, thanks. I came over to see if you want to go to a baseball game. My boss is taking a bunch of us and he gave me two tickets.” He held them out to her.
Lily reached for the ticket and their fingers brushed each other, sending a curl of heat up her arm. “Another one of our arrangements?”
Gideon’s face reddened. “Yeah, something like that.”
Should she tell him she’d go even if it wasn’t part of their arrangement? She wasn’t brave enough, despite how much she’d come to enjoy spending time with him. He was prickly and she was new to all of this. Instead, she took ticket and ran her fingers around the edge. “Steve’s not going to be there, is he?”
Gideon chuckled. “Nope, just some friends from my office and their husbands, wives, etc.”
“It’s next weekend?”
“Saturday at four.” Lily checked her calendar in her purse. “Claire has a sleepover that weekend. I’m free.”
“Wow, an entire weekend to yourself? What are you going to do?”
“I haven’t decided yet.”
“Okay, well now you have plans for Saturday. I’ll pick you up. One of these days I’ll have to include Claire though.” He smiled, and happiness softened his features.
“Yeah, she’s starting to get jealous of us,” Lily laughed.
He leaned forward, hands clasped. “How would you feel if I picked her up from aftercare and brought her to my apartment for dinner one night? I could ask Samantha to come too if you’d feel better about it.”
Lily met his gaze. This wonderful man wanted to spend time with her daughter. Her heart was full. “No, I don’t mind her being with you. If you’re free tomorrow, I have a meeting that’s going to run late.”
His mouth widened in a grin. “Tomorrow’s great. I’ll drop her off here when we’re done eating.”
She could accept his assistance, but she didn’t want to impose. “I don’t mind picking her up, Gideon. It’ll save you the extra trip.”
“Okay, don’t rush.”
Lily turned toward the office. “Hey, Claire, do you want to have dinner with Gideon tomorrow?”
Her daughter charged out of the office and skidded to a halt in front of her and Gideon. “Yeah!” she shouted as she jumped up and down.
Gideon laughed at her enthusiasm. “You haven’t tasted my cooking yet, kiddo.”
“You’re a great cook, Gideon.” She leaped onto his lap and hugged him.
“Okay, Claire, that’s enough,” Lily interrupted, laughing. “Go get ready for bed and I’ll be in to kiss you goodnight in a minute.” Lily accompanied Gideon to the door. As she clasped the cold knob, the doorbell rang again. Tony stood in the hallway with a bottle of wine.
“Hi, Lily, hey, Gideon,” he said as he came inside. “I thought a bottle of wine might be nice,” he added. “Gideon, are you joining us?”
Gideon’s face flushed and his nostrils flared. “Nope, I’ll leave you two alone,” he said. He headed out the door. It slammed behind him and Lily frowned.
She gauged the distance between the door and Tony, trying to decide if she should chase after Gideon or not. Why would he be jealous of Tony? Taking the bottle of wine from him, she returned a minute later with glasses and a corkscrew. As she arranged everything on the coffee table, Tony took in his surroundings.
“Nice place.” He stuffed his hands in his pockets.
“Thanks. Let me just get Claire into bed and I’ll be right back. Why don’t you pour?” She retreated into Claire’s bedroom, and returned five minutes later.
“Salut,” Tony raised a glass.
“Salut,” Lily replied.
“Gideon’s jealous,” Tony commented, his eyes crinkled in amusement.
“Why would he be jealous? He’s the one who asked you to help me out.”
“I don’t know why. I’m just telling you what I see when I look at him. And what I see is a jealous man.”
“No, it’s just him in one of his moods.” Lily swished the wine in her glass. The yellow-tinged liquid sparkled like sunshine in the light. Did she really mean enough to Gideon to make him jealous? She bit her lip.
Tony chuckled. “If you say so. After I got off the phone with you, Lil, I called the officer in charge of your case. He thinks they may have a lead, based on evidence in your apartment.”
She gasped. “That’s wonderful. Do they know who did it yet?”
“The guy said they may know more in a few days. I’ll keep at him and let you know.”
“Please do. This not knowing is killing me.”
Tony reached across the table and squeezed her fingers. “Try not to worry.”
****
The next day, Gideon arrived at camp with a note from Lily, allowing them to release Claire to him. After a series of questions and ID-checking, Claire ran out, the sounds of giggling flowing behind her.
“Hey there, ClaireBear.” Gideon smiled. Although he’d tossed and turned all night wondering about Lily and Tony, he was pushing all thought of them from his mind. He didn’t want anything spoiling his time with Claire. “Are you ready to try my cooking?”
“Yippee, it’ll be fun!” Claire skipped out the door. With a smile, he followed her. His chest swelled at her excitement. Having someone to prepare dinner for, even a child, was a new experience, and one he’d been ridiculously excited for all day.
When they arrived at his place, Claire explored the apartment while he fixed dinner.
“Hey Claire, what do you want to eat?” he called out to her as he checked out the fridge. The blast of cold air was refreshing after the summer heat. “I’ve got pizza, pasta and hot dogs.”
“Cool, look at me, Gideon! We’re twins!”
Claire sat in his basketball chair, trying to wheel herself over to him. He froze, the sight of this darling girl trying to imitate him more than he could bear. His heart pounded and his lungs constricted. Dwarfed in the specially designed chair, her pale legs barely reached the foot pedals and swung against the neon green frame. Her sneakers banged the metal and sent shards of pain into Gideon’s head with each clunk. She struggled to push the wheels and blew hair out of her face in frustration.
“Claire, no!” The image of her in a wheelchair burned itself into his brain and made bile rise in his throat – its sour taste made him gag. His ClaireBear ran, skipped, and jumped. She did not wheel herself around; her legs did not swing lifelessly. She was not like him at all. They were not twins.
If she were an adult, she would have recognized his tone and his expression for what it was—heartache. But she was only a child. She whipped her head up and her face fell. Her breathing quickened into small sobs and she whimpered. The chair banged into an end table. A lamp crashed to the floor. The base broke in half, the shade tilted and the plug pulled out of the wall. “I’m sorry, Gideon. I didn’t mean it,” she cried.
He didn’t answer, still caught in the vision of her in the chair. Claire catapulted from the chair and ran into his bedroom, where she flopped on the bed in tears.
Her sobs snapped him out of his reverie and he swore to himself. He hadn’t meant to yell at her, certainly hadn’t meant to scare her. He wheeled around the chair she’d left in the middle of the floor and into his bedroom. As he moved to the side of his bed, he lowered his voice and crooned.
“Shh, sweetheart. It’s okay, honey. I didn’t mean to yell at you.”
Claire rolled over and pulled her knees to her chest. It was the same posture he’d found Lily in after her break-in. She stared at him, her breath hiccupping. Gideon reached over and brushed the tears from her face, following the wet trail across her cheek and into her hair.
“I’m sorry, Claire.” He waited and let her focus on what he said, finding relief in his role of comforter of both Lily and her daughter.
She sat up and he patted his lap. She climbed into it and he hugged her as he rocked her back and forth. The warmth from her body melted the icy casing around in his heart. “I didn’t know you had a green chair.”
“It’s for basketball.” Various emotions rioted through him—sadness, grief, pride, discomfort, wonder. It was all he could do to focus on answering her questions. He wiped his sweaty palms on his thighs.
“How come you don’t use this one?”
“Because that one is specially made for basketball. This one doesn’t move the same way and isn’t as fast.”
Claire examined the chair. “It’s not green, either.”
Gideon huffed. “No, it’s not.”
“How come?”
Technical questions he could answer. Six-year-old girl questions, however, were tougher. Why wasn’t it green? He hadn’t ever thought about it before. “It just isn’t.”
Claire thought for a minute. “Well, if I had one, I’d want it to be pink.”
Again, his chest tightened at the thought of her in a wheelchair. Then he relaxed. She didn’t think his wheelchair was a big deal; it was a fun method to get around. She didn’t think about what he missed, what she would miss if she used one. His heart beat fast as he realized it didn’t matter to her if he was in a wheelchair. Had he focused on that thought, he never would have yelled at her in the first place. He should have remembered that children were pure and genuine. They could teach adults just as much, if not more, than adults could teach them. He kissed the top of her head.
“That doesn’t surprise me at all, kiddo.”
Claire twisted her fingers together. “I’m sorry I knocked over your lamp. I didn’t mean to break it. Are you still mad at me?” Her voice was quiet.
All the air left his lungs. “I’m not mad at you, Claire. I know it was an accident. Do you think you could help me clean it up?”
Claire jumped off his lap, and led him into the living room. Together, they discarded the lamp and moved the table into place.
“Will you put the chair back where you found it, Claire?”
“Okay. But this time I’m going to push it. It’s too hard to steer.” And she pushed it into his office.
“Now, why don’t you tell me what you want for dinner?” His hands shook from relief.
Afterward, they played board games and drew pictures. Gideon showed her how to draw a castle, and Claire spent almost an hour cutting out princesses and princes for it. Lily arrived when she finished.
“Hey guys? How’re you doin’?” Lily leaned to give Claire a hug. She caught Gideon’s eye and smiled. Her eyes resembled moss today—cool and deep. Her lips were full and curved and moist, and he could taste their sweetness in his mind. He wanted to drag her onto his lap and give her a proper kiss.
“Claire, can you go put those things away for me?” As the girl complied, he told Lily about Claire and the wheelchair. “I didn’t handle it well, and I’m sorry. I realize now I shouldn’t have yelled at her, but the image of her sitting there…” He searched for the words to explain how he felt. His throat constricted and his mouth dried up. He gulped and shook his head, unable to form the words.
“It’s okay, Gideon. I understand.” She touched his shoulder, her warmth permeating his shirt. “Can I pay for the lamp though?”
He shook his head. “It was ugly anyway. Don’t worry about it.”
“Listen, about last night.”
“What about it?” He wasn’t going to tell her how seeing her with Tony made him feel. If she wanted to spend time with him, well…
Before she could respond, Claire ran in and hugged her.
“It was fun playing with you today, Claire,” he said, grateful for the distraction. “Lil, Claire and I talked about her coming to the center again one day after camp. What do you think?”
“Please Mommy, please?” Claire begged.
“I think that would be great. Give me a call and we’ll set it up.”
Claire climbed on Gideon’s lap and hugged him. “I had fun today Gideon. Bye!”
Lily mouthed a thank you, and shut the door, but not before he saw regret in her eyes.
****
Once again, Lily waited for the phone to ring; only this time, it was for Tony.
By Wednesday morning, she still hadn’t heard from him. She’d spent two sleepless nights driving herself crazy as she tossed in bed. Each morning, her bed looked like a cyclone hit it—her sheets bunched up, her blanket half off like some lounging harlot. She dismissed her resolve to be patient, never a strong suit with her anyway, as she entered the office, closed the door and reached for the phone. As she was about to dial Tony’s number, it rang. She jumped and answered before the ring finished.
“Lily Livingston,” she squawked.
“It’s Tony. They got them.” His voice was scratchy, etched with relief.
Lily sank into her chair in relief. The tension in her back and neck loosened and she felt supple again. “Really? Who was it?”
“I couple of young guys posing as handymen in different buildings. They’d case the apartments, figure out which ones were the easiest to target, and make off with as much stuff as they could.”
“Why’d they pick mine?” If these guys thought she was an easy target, who else agreed with them? Would it happen again?
“Actually, yours was a mistake. They thought you had more valuables than you did. And, it turns out they left the most evidence in your apartment, so the cops were able to catch them quickly.”
“Oh, that’s just great. Now, how come no one called me?” She drummed her fingers on her desk in annoyance as she remembered how worried she’d been.
“The cops are busy collecting evidence, waiting for lawyers, and wrapping up their investigation,” Tony reassured her. “I know one of the detectives on the case, so he gave me a heads up a little early. They’ll be calling you shortly. The important thing is, it’s over.”
Lily agreed and a huge weight lifted from her shoulders.
“So I heard you have a free weekend. Any plans?” Tony asked.
Her face heated. “I’m going to the baseball game with Gideon on Saturday. Samantha and I were supposed to go out Friday night, but she has to work, so I don’t know.”
“Listen, there’s a new action movie coming out Friday. Do you want to go see it?” He sounded excited and it made her smile.
“Ooh, blood, guts and shooting—sounds like just what I need to relax,” she teased.