doing again. And another thing,” he said, looking at her matter-of-factly, but there was a tenderness in his eyes she had never seen before. “I want you to know that I love you.”
“I love you too,” she whispered softly. He had never said that to her before. “What does that do to the rules?”
“What rules?” He looked confused.
“You know, the rules. Does that mean we're still just dating, or is this a relationship now?”
“This is I love you, Maggie O'Malley. Fuck the rules. We'll figure it out as we go.”
“We will?” She looked thrilled.
“Yes, we will. And the next time I tell you what the rules are, remember to tell me I'm full of shit. By the way, what's your paper about?”
“Torts.”
“Oh, shit. Tomorrow let me see what you've got. I'm too drunk to deal with it tonight.” But they both knew he wasn't that drunk. He was more interested in taking her to bed and making love. He was definitely not too drunk for that.
“Will you really help me?”
“Absolutely. We're going to get you through college and law school in record time.”
“I can't do that,” she said seriously. “I've got to work.” It wasn't a plea for help, it was a simple statement of fact.
“We'll discuss that some other time.” He scooped her up in his arms then and carried her into the bedroom.
“Did you mean what you said?” she asked him as he set her down on the bed. “Or are you really drunk?”
“No, Maggie. I'm not drunk. And I meant it. I love you. I'm just a little slow at figuring things out sometimes,” although two months wasn't bad, especially for him. She smiled up at him, and he turned off the light.
17
GRAY CALLED CHARLIE IN THE OFFICE THE WEEK before Thanksgiving, and thought he sounded unusu ally glum.
“What are you doing for Thanksgiving?”
“Nothing, as a matter of fact,” Charlie said. He had been thinking about that himself. The holidays were always hard for him and he hated to make plans. For him, holidays were a time for people with families to gather around and share their warmth, and for people who didn't have any to feel the bitter chill of all they'd lost and would never have again.
“Sylvia and I were wondering if you'd like to join us for dinner. She's cooking the turkey, so dinner should be pretty good.”
Charlie laughed. “Actually, I'd like that a lot.” It was an easy, painless way for him to spend the holiday with his friend.
“You're welcome to bring Carole, if you like.”
“That won't be necessary, but thanks anyway,” Charlie said, sounding tense.
“Does she have other plans?” Gray could hear that something was wrong.
“I assume so. As a matter of fact, I don't know.”
“That doesn't sound so good,” Gray said, worried about him.
“It's not. We had a major blowout two weeks ago. Carole and I are a thing of the past. It was fun, but not for long.”
“I'm sorry to hear that. I take it you discovered a fatal flaw.” He always did. You could count on him for that.
“You could say that. She lied to me. I can't be with a woman I don't trust.”
“I guess not.” Gray knew him well enough to know that once the fatal flaw had been discovered, Charlie was gone. His job was done. Gray told him to come to dinner at Sylvia's at six o'clock, and a few minutes later they hung up. Gray reported the bad news about Carole to Sylvia that night. She was sorry to hear it too.
“He always does that,” Gray said, looking unhappy. “He always looks for that one thing, whatever it is, that means she isn't a saint and can't walk on water, and then bang, they're gone, and he hits the door. He just can't forgive women their frailties or accept that it still might be okay to love them, and give them a break for once. He never does. He's so fucking afraid that he might get hurt or they might die or leave him that he hits the ejector button if someone coughs. I've seen him do it every time.”
“I take it she coughed,” Sylvia said, thinking about it. Although she didn't know Charlie well, she felt as though she did from hearing Gray talk about him. He talked about him a lot. They were more brothers than friends. And in both cases, the only family each had. Gray had told her he still had a much younger adopted brother out there somewhere, but