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She heard the soft ringtone of her cellphone and scooted into her room, but it was Hank — yet again — and she sent it to voicemail and slid the phone into her pocket. He wasn’t due to call for another three days, and being early wasn’t a good sign. She shut out the inevitable worry that he might be in trouble, and reassured herself that he could take care of his own business, as he somehow always managed to.
“JesusChrist, comeon,” whined Mitch as Jeff Baker struck out. “Two lousy runs, that’s all we need. Thefuckin’money these motherfuckers get...” Wes shot him a look. “Shit, sorry...” Ridge shot him a much angrier look. “Apologies, everybody,” he chuckled nervously, “I just get a bit too passionate.” There was also the considerable stack of empty cans by his armchair; Maggie shrugged it off, but Ridge scowled at his friend, the closest to chastisement she had seen from him.You ain’t in the bar, knucklehead,the look seemed to convey.
“Don’t worry on my account,” Raven said to him quietly. “I have a brother, and his friends were over a lot at my parents’ house in Illinois. They could get pretty animated about their video games,” she remembered.
Raven’s text ringtone sounded in her pocket. It was Maggie, messaging from the kitchen, and it instantly made her laugh:
He’s hotter than a heatstroke in hell. Seduce him and be happy!
“Just a high school friend,” Raven said, without actually lying. Ridge smiled and then joined the group in another disappointed groan; the game had begun to slip away from the Rangers. With only a couple of at-bats remaining, they needed two runs to win, and it was hard to see them pulling it off.
Raven sidled through to the kitchen, escaping the tension and despair of the living room crowd, and found Maggie cleaning up. “Look, I haven’t dated a guy for a while,” Raven whispered. “I don’t want to rush into anything.”
“Who said anything about dating?” Maggie grinned as she slid plates into the dishwasher. “I bet he’s justhuge...” she said.
“Shush!” Raven squeaked, turning crimson. “I’m just getting to know him. He’s been through a lot, with the Navy and his injuries, and I don’t want to scare him off.”
“I’m kidding, I’m kidding, calm down,” Maggie said, hugging the red-faced Raven close. Maggie would have gone a deeper color still had Raven been honest about her afternoon voyeurism. She could still hear the pleading tone of Maggie’s repeated requests to be penetrated; her only regret now was that she had been able only to hear, and not to see. She silently rebuked herself for the thought;get a hold of yourself, missy.
A wave of depressed complaints emanated from the living room; the Rangers had lost, unable to scrounge up the runs needed, even after a great comeback. Ridge stretched and then ferried empty cans into the kitchen.Please God, let him ask for my number. Please.
The group chatted amiably and helped clear up before it was time for Ridge to drag a drunk and inconsolable Mitch to his car and head on home. He stood at the front door, tall and dark and irresistible, his large, muscular hands enfolding Wes’s in a big handshake, then delicately cradling Maggie’s back as she gave him a kiss on the cheek. Raven felt her tininess as he approached her; he was well over a foot taller than her, and although Raven was a slender girl, quite used to men with bodies far broader and thicker than hers, Ridge’s body seemed to overwhelm her. He put out his arms and brought her to his torso for a hug, his hands slipping down her back to rest on her flanks, then gently pulling away and letting her kiss his cheek. His amazing scent filled her nose and then her mind, distracting her almost to the point of forgetting to say goodbye.
“It was really nice to meet you, Raven,” he was saying. All she could think of was kissing his face again. “Listen, I don’t know if you’d enjoy it as much as I do, but I’m involved in a small, informal martial arts tournament tomorrow night and I’d love if it you could be there.”
“Really?” was her staggered response.
“With me, it’s not all sitting on the sofa watching sports, you know?” He grinned and promised to text the details to everyone. His hands left Raven’s sides — with a slight but genuine reluctance, she felt — and she watched as he escorted Mitch to his highly polished Chevy Colorado and pulled away.
Wes cleaned the grill while Raven and Maggie finished up inside. “Holy mother of God,” Raven managed. “It’s been a long time.”
Maggie hugged her friend again. “Honey, he’s just a million-dollar man. I wasn’t even reallytalkingto him, and still, I’m gonna need to changemypanties. Yours must be soaked.” They giggled together for a moment before Raven’s straightened face and twinkling eyes told her friend the truth. “I knew it, you juicy slut.”
Raven brushed off the mockery. “He’s fighting tomorrow,” she said, still taken aback by the invitation. “Do you think I should go?”
“OfcourseI do, air-brain! Watch him kick some ass, then get him to give you a ride.” She grinned. “And ride, and ride and ride...” Maggie added lasciviously.
Raven soared on a wave of liquid ecstasy.
CHAPTERFIVE
“You have seven new messages,”intoned the mechanical voice. Raven hardly needed to listen to any of the messages to recognize who had left them and what he wanted. With increasing frustration — bordering on desperation in the most recent voicemails — Hank was asking for, begging for, and eventually insisting on having her help. It was money that he needed, entirely unsurprisingly. He explained at length that there had been a misunderstanding, something for which he had been responsible had gone missing — and Raven didn’t need more details to understand whatthatmight have been — and that he was now in a degree of trouble which varied from message to message. The most recent one made him sound as though he was expecting to have his door bashed in at any moment.
Raven took a series of deep breaths and called him. “Oh, Raven, I can’t tell you how glad I am...”
“Hank, just keep it buttoned for a minute, OK? You need to listen to me.” This was her firmest tone, one that insisted on not being interrupted.
“Alright, I’m sorry,” he said, unusually obedient.
She sighed. “You’re my brother and I love you. And the last thing I want is for you to be in trouble.”
“Thanks, sis,” he said.
“Shut it. I don’t have the kind of money yourfriendsare going to need,” she said flatly. “I can’t write you a check like before, or go to Western Union like the time before that. I told you to start looking for work. Have you found anything?”
Silence on the line was exactly what Raven had expected, but the opposite of what she had hoped for.What is it, she wondered,that makes people ignore the evidence of history and go on believing in people? What makes us do it?
“I tried, I really did,” he said at length. “But I just don’t see myself as a busboy or a construction laborer,” he explained. “It wouldn’t be enough.”
