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"You look better," Cilla decided
"Magic pills and sleep I nap like a three-year-old these days, but it does the job"
"You’re probably hungry Why don’t I fix you so to drink? Get you-"
"Cill" He started to tell her not to bother, changed hisNot hospital food or sether for all of us"
"Sure Give me a few minutes"
When she dashed inside, Steve shook his head "She’s hovering, man"
"I talked her out of the little bedside john"
"I owe you What’s in the bag?"
Ford passed it over, and after a quick look, Steve broke out in a grin "Noe’re talking Thanks Listen, I need to get the exercise in You spot me on a walk around?"
"Okay"
Ford waited until Steve handled the stairs, then walked with hi on your ed coht?"
"That’d be about it"
"It looks like a one-ti’s happened since"
"No"
Steve stared at Ford’s profile "You’d tell ht of Cilla’s car door, but set it aside "Nobody’s broken into the barn, bothered the house"
"You were bunking here while I was in the hospital I got word on that"
"Hey My sleeping bag"
"So you and Cilla aren’t in the sack?"
"Not quite yet"
"But you’re into her Look, that’s your business, her business and all that bullcrap, but I’ to look out for her when I’ sooing to e got back, but Jesus, she fixed up the room for me Down to flowers, you know Oh, and thanks for the push on the cable"
"It’s only right"
With a nod, Steve began to walk again "The thing is, I should’ve headed back last week, latest Plans changed on account of brain surgery I’d stay if I thought she needed me to watch out for her, or I could help out She can take care of herself, that’s Christ’s truth, but Hell, maybe it’s the near-death experience Whatever I want to get home I want to sit on the beach, soak up the rays But I need to know soot her back, Steve"
Steve stopped to stare at the barn "She said you bought the paint While I was still out of it" He nodded, as if satisfied "You’re all right, Ford Totally not the type she usually lets get a taste It’s about ti it," Steve added "She digs on lots of candles around Doesn’t mind music, either Doesn’t need it, like sohts off; she’s okay either way But she does dig on the candle thing"
Ford cleared his throat "Appreciate the tips How are you getting back to LA?"
"The doc wants to see ot a friend in New Jersey who’s co down in an RV We’ll loadto her, okay? I want to tell her uys want to eat?"
Spock’s ansas to run toward her as if hellhounds were on his heels
"The mountains are cool," Steve commented as they turned back
"That’s part of what pulled her out east She told me how the ed Ford with his elbow "And the women in very small bikinis"
SHE SLEPT POORLY, with one ear cocked for Steve, and herin a matter of days
How could she take care of him if he was three thousandcross-country trips In an RV? It was so like hiht as she tossed over onto her back Always had toThat’s where the whole flipping houses came from, she reminded herself You didn’t have to settle on one if you kept turning them
But he wouldn’t listen to reason on this And the fact that he was just out of the damn hospital made it impossible to kick his ass Who’d check on hiht as she’d done? So he’d been fine when she had What if he hadn’t been?
She rolled over again, punched her pillow And gave up
Daas about to break anyway She’d go check on hio down and make some coffee She’d have her quiet ti in
As she heard Steve snoring before she reached his doorway, she headed straight for coffee In another few ht, she’d have an actual kitchen Refitted antique appliances, countertops, cabinets Actual dishes And da herself to a fancy espresso maker
Maybe she’d actually learn how to cook She’d bet Patty could teach her soourmet She’d tried that route and failed spectacularly But your basic red sauce, or meat and potatoes Surely she could learn how to cook a chicken breast
Once the house was finished, she proeared up for business, found a routine She’d learn how to cook for herself instead of living on sandwiches, canned soup and takeout
She carried the coffee outside, drawing in its scent as the first sleepy light played over her new gardens, over earth still turned and waiting She sipped while the mists rose off the pond she still had to clean
Every day, she thought She wanted to do this every day To step out of her hoht and see what she could do, what she had done What had been given to her
Whatever she’d paid her mother for this place, this life, didn’t count In that soft and sleepy light, she knew everything she could see and srandmother she’d neverwalk, Cilla thought as she stepped off the veranda to wander Accounts spoke of her as an early riser, used to the de Often up at dawn
Often up till dawn, too, Cilla adirl, the Hollywood queen, the star who drank too , Cilla wanted the company of the Janet Hardy who fell in love with this little slice of Virginia Who brought horel pup and had roses planted under the
The big red barn made her sone, the padlock fir in the pretty iron bed in the pretty roo for scraps who’d panicked The police believed that to be the case, so as she to argue? If she wanted to solve a personal mystery, it would be the author of the letters inside Gatsby And in that way, she’d put another piece of Janet’s together, for her own knowledge Her own history
The light grew as she neared the front of the house Birdsong sweetened the air as did the scent of roses and turned earth Dew tickled coolly on her bare feet It pleased her more than she could say to know she walked on her own land, over dewed grass, wearing a tank and cotton pajama pants
And no one cared
She finished the coffee on the front veranda, gazing out over the lawn
Her s into a puzzled frown as her eyes scanned the front wall
Where were her trees? She should be able to see the bowing tops of her weeping cherries fro on the rail, stepped down to walk along the lawn beside the gravel drive
Then she began to run
"No Goddareen between her wall and the shoulder of the road Their slender trunks bore the hack ht as she crouched down to brush her fingers over the leaves Three or four swings atthem up would have taken a bit more time, a bit more trouble To destroy To kill
The sheer meanness of the act twisted in her belly in a coht Not kids Kids bashedthe road, so she’d been warned Kids didn’t take the tihtened to take a steadying breath, and looked over at the broken stuht Her body trembled, that same combination of sorrow and fury Black paint defiled the old stone ith its ugly e
GO BACK TO HOLLYWOOD BITCH!
LIVE LIKE A WHORE DIE LIKE A WHORE
"Fuck you," she said under her breath "Godda on pure fury now, she stormed back to the house to call the police
WITH BLOOD IN HER EYE, Cilla warned every one of the crew that anyone who mentioned the trees or the wall to Steve would be fired on the spot No exceptions, no excuses
She ordered Brian back to the nursery She wanted t trees planted, and she wanted them planted that very day
By ten, when the cops had coone, secure that her threat would hold and that the creould keep Steve busy inside, she went out to ith theat the stone, when he stepped out with his first cup of coffee And he saw the e sprayed over the wall As she had done earlier, he left his coffee on the rail and jogged down to her in bare feet
"Cilla"
"Don’t tell Steve That’s the first thing I don’t want you to say a word about this to Steve"
"Did you call the cops?"
"They’ve been here For whatever good it does It has to be Hennessy, it has to be that son of a bitch But unless he’s got black paint and wood chips under his godda to do about it?"
"Wood" He saw the stumps then, swore "Wait a et this off Can’t risk sandblasting this stone It’s too harsh It’d dae the stone, the mortar, do as much harm, potentially, as the stupid paint This chemical’s the best alternative Probably have to have the wall repointed, but it’s all I can do"
"Scrub at the stone with a brush?"
"That’s right" She attacked the C in BITCH like she would a sworn eneoing to soil or daoddamn car I wasn’t even born, for Christ’s sake"
"And he’s eighty if he’s a day I have a hard ti a stone wall in the ht"
"Who else?" She rounded on Ford "Who else hates me or this place the way he does?"
"I don’t know But we’d better work on finding out"
"It’s my problem"
"Don’t be an ass"
"It’s my problelare with a cool stare "I wouldn’t argue with the last part right at the moment, but as for the rest? Bullshit You don’t want to tell Steve, fine I get it But I’ back to LA or anywhere else"
He grabbed her arht here Deal with it"
"I’ my best friend leave when he can hardly walkto deal witha life I didn’t even realize I wanted until a few o I don’t kno much more I can deal with"
"You’ll have to make room" He cupped her face, kissed her hard "Got another brush?"