family room and we listened to Janis Ian and we held hands. At a quarter to ten she made a phone call and asked how Ben was doing and then she wished him a good night. When she hung up she came back into the family room and said, "Watch this."
She stood with her feet together, held out her arms, then closed her eyes and touched her nose with her right index finger. She giggled when she did it, then opened her eyes. "Do I pass, officer?"
I picked her up and carried her to her bedroom. I said, "Ask me that in the morning."
"Studly, you probably won't last until morning."
CHAPTER 23
I woke the next morning relaxed and warm and at peace, with Lucy snuggled beside me in her king-sized bed, small beneath light gray sheets and a comforter. Her breathing was even, and when I burrowed under the sheet and kissed her back, she said, "Mrmph."
I touched my tongue to her skin, and she said, "Sleepin'."
Her back was salty with sweat dried from the hours before. The bed and the room smelled of us and our lovemaking and the warmth of our bodies, and under it was the sweet smell of her fragrance and shampoo and soap. I lay there for a time, enjoying the warmth of her and the memories that the smells triggered, and after a while I could smell the food from the night before and the jessamine that grew around her home. Lucy's bedroom was large, her bed facing toward double French doors that opened toward the backyard.
There were drapes, but the drapes were open so that I could see the used-brick patio and the Weber where we'd grilled the hamburgers. Three or four cardinals and maybe a half dozen sparrows were clustered around the bird feeder, chirping and scratching at the seed. We had cardinals in L.A., but you rarely saw them. The patio and the yard beyond it were filled with bright light, and somewhere there was the two-cycle whine of a lawn mower. It seemed as if there was always the sound of a lawn mower in Louisiana. Maybe that was the nature of this place, that the land was so fertile that life grew and expanded so quickly that a never-ending maintenance was in order, and without it the people who lived here would be overcome. I wondered for an instant if it could be that way with love, too, but then the thought was gone.
I eased out of the bed, careful not to wake her, then pulled on my underwear and went into her bathroom. I brushed my teeth with my finger, then went out to the kitchen. We had probably burned twenty thousand calories last night, and it was either make breakfast or fall upon Lucy and end up arrested for cannibalism.
I washed the dishes from the night before, then searched through her cupboards and fridge until I found Bisquick and frozen blueberries and some low-fat cottage cheese. There was a pancake griddle in a tall drawer beside the dishwasher, but I found a large skillet instead. Old habits. I poured a cup of the blueberries into a little bowl and covered them with water, then found a larger bowl and made a batter with the Bisquick and the cottage cheese and some nonfat milk. I sprayed the pan with butter-flavored Pam, then put it on a medium fire. While it was heating I ran out into the garden, clipped a pink rose, then ran back inside. I drained the blueberries and was mixing them in the batter when Lucy Chenier squealed, "Somebody help! There's a strange man in my house!"
She was standing on the other side of the counter, wrapped in a sheet. I gave her Groucho. "Don't be scared, little girl. That's not a chain saw. I'm just happy to see you."
"Ho, ho. Keep dreaming."
I held out my hand, fingers spread. She laced her fingers between mine. Her fingers were warm and felt good. I said, "Good morning."
"Good morning." We grinned at each other. She made a big deal out of looking around and shook her head. "You cleaned up. You're making breakfast."
I turned back to the berries. "We're a full-service agency, ma'am."
She let the sheet drop and came around the counter and snuggled against me. "You can say that again, trooper." She looked ort from under my arm at the batter. "Pancakes. Yum. What can I do?"
"Find me a spatula?"
She did.
I gave her a kiss. "Will you