I glanced at her. “You’ve been in our house again.”
“What!” She shot up, ready to defend the lie. “I have not!”
“The picture, the one next to our bed.”
She looked away, toward the fountain.
“Scarlett was polite enough, at the bar. I’m not going to be. Not anymore. Bring the picture to the house, leave it in the mailbox, and I’ll have someone get it for me. You have one day.” I rose, looking her in the eye. She stared at my lips. “Don’t come into my house again.”
“You led me on,” she said, her entire body trembling. “Beforeshecame along.” She threw a hand toward Scarlett’s statue.
“I led you on,” I repeated, truly dumbfounded. When the fuck did this happen—in her dreams?
“Yes, you never had sex with me! Everyone else did! I deserved a chance! Even aftershecame along you were still sleeping around—just never with me. Then after you got withher, youbelongedto her. She sunk her claws in and refused to let go!”
Maggie Beautiful could never be called a traditional mother. She never sat me down and had “the talk” with me. She never warned me about the dangers of having sex. Such as diseases and unwanted pregnancy. Her version of teaching me about the laws of sexual attraction and what it could do consisted of making me watchFatal Attraction, and later, as a reminder,The Hand That Rocks the Cradle.
InFatal Attraction, the scene where Michael Douglas’s wife discovers the family’s pet, the bunny, in a steaming pot was a particularly gruesome scene that never left me. Maggie Beautiful made me watch it more than once, and she would repeat Glenn Close’s eerie line periodically—I will not be ignored, Brando!Then she would come back to herself and ask me—“Is that the kind of life you want, Brando? If you sleep with women, make sure you never double-cross them, never lead them on, and let them down easy if you don’t love them. If you don’t take my advice, be kind and don’t keep pets. Remember the bunny.”
My past was no secret. But for the most partIremembered the fucking bunny.I never led any of them on. I gave them what they wanted—how they wanted it—when we were together, but I never went back after a time or two.
Still, I had a few who refused to quit. Some of them would drop by Maggie Beautiful’s house unannounced, drive up and down the block but not stop. Others would call at all hours of the night. But I never fucked Janet/Jane.
A vision of her boiling Jet, our cat, came to me, and a prickle of unease slid up my neck.What is she doing with the pictures she steals?
The thought was deserted, though, when I felt the air stir, and a different sort of unease slithered along my skin like a cold snake. I turned my back on Janet/Jane, but she followed me all the way to my truck, accusing me of leading her on.
I will not be ignored, Brando!
“Get in.” I motioned toward the door.
Ettore was out there, hiding in the shadows. There were too many innocent people around, and if it happened that Ettore killed me, I refused to die in this woman’s arms.
What a male way to think!I could hear Scarlett in my head.
The honor would be for you, I thought back. And then to myself,Hell.I’m losing my fucking mind.
“Are you going to sleep with me now?” Janet/Jane whispered.
“I’m taking you home. Give me an address.”
She told me, but she pouted, about to go on another rant.
I held my hand up. “Enough.”
“I—” She hesitated when we came to her house, her hand on the truck’s door.
I thought it was ironic that Scarlett was married, with a successful career, and home in bed, preparing for another day at work while Penny and her friends, along with numerous guys, were outside of the place Penny shared with Janet/Jane, partying like they were eighteen again. Penny and Jane had always tried to make Scarlett feel immature.
“One day,” I said, the warning clear in my voice.
“What if I can’t deliver?”
My eyes narrowed and she scooted closer to the door. “The picture, Jones.”
She bolted, running straight for the thick of the crowd.Like that could save her.
When I arrived at the house on Snow, the entire place was lit up, the scent of grease and beer drifting in the wind. Music bumped lowly, mixed in with laugher and friendly taunts.
