Point of Attraction (4 page)

The porch light was out.

The motion detectors should have
turned it on. The lamp in the living room window shone brightly,
turned on by the auto-timer. The tall slender window in the dining
section of her kitchen also offered a soft light. Strange. She was
certain the porch light had gone out on other occasions, yet...
tonight, the house looked so dark without that light. She placed
the garage door opener on the seat beside her and stopped the
Subaru. While giving the place a wide scan, she reached behind the
passenger seat and grabbed the baseball bat she kept there and
waited.

Georgie’s body jerked with a gasp when
she saw headlights sweep across the front of the house.

Chapter Four

As quickly as her body tensed, it
relaxed when she remembered Mason was behind her. His headlights
sent a multitude of shadows dancing up, down and across the front
of her house. Then she saw what she was waiting for. It was Daisy,
her five year old silver gray and white Schnauzer coming to sit at
the gate.

Normally, Georgie would have driven
into the garage, closed the door behind her and entered the house
from there into the kitchen. Since she failed to enter, Daisy had
to go from the kitchen, through the laundry room, and out the
doggie door into the back yard and around the house.

When Georgie heard Mason open and shut
his car door she let the baseball bat slip from her hand back into
its place behind the seat, and got out of her car. Daisy
barked.

“It’s okay, girl,” she said with an
added shush.

“You really should leave the porch
light on,” Mason said, holding the door for her.

She forced back the urge to ask him if
he really thought her so foolish, but stopped herself with a scold.
That’s what three years of living alone will do for you, she
thought; you get snippy. “Actually, the motion detector should have
turned it on. It must be out." She eased the car door from him, but
didn’t shut it.

“Do you have an extra bulb? I can
replace it.”

“Nah. I’ll do it in the
morning.”

This time Georgie saw a mixture of
annoyance and satirical humor in his smile. He rubbed the back of
his neck before slipping off his hat and putting it back
on.

“Would it kill you, Miss Independence,
to let someone help you?”

Daisy whimpered and took off to the
backyard, before Georgie could answer. Daisy’s barking echoed back
from the small slope behind the house and through the trees. It was
fenced, so Daisy couldn’t go anywhere, but a skunk might still be
able to get in and do her dog some damage.

“Daisy! Come.” When there was no
response, Georgie stood on her tiptoes to look over the roof of her
car knowing full well her height would let her see nothing. She was
stalling. “Daisy! Come!” She sniffed. No skunk odor.

A soft, but cool, breeze swirled around
the awkward quiet settling between her and Mason, and Georgie
shoved her hands in her pockets. The large oak at the side of the
garage let loose some leaves and they sailed across Mason’s
headlight beams. It never occurred to her till this moment the
distance between her and her neighbors, though she could see a
patch of light on both sides and way up the hill. It was a
deceiving comfort. Most of her neighbors tended to fly away for the
winter. Georgie heard Daisy’s panting before the Schnauzer appeared
and sat once more at the gate.

“
Don’t need you stinky and
needing a tomato juice bath,” Georgie told Daisy, then turned to
get back in her car.

“Now what are you doing?” Mason
asked.

“I’m going to put my car in the garage,
Mr. Macho Handyman, then get you that spare light bulb.”

They both turned at the muted hissing
of car tires on the pavement seconds before headlights flickered
through the shrubbery bordering the property from the road. The car
made its way down the road with Daisy’s bark mingling with the
rustling of the breeze through the trees.

“
Hush, Daisy,” Georgie
ordered, then took a deep thoughtful breath. “Turn off your car and
follow me into the garage,” she told Mason, and turned the key in
the ignition. “The fence gate is locked.”

With an overdone swing of his arm, cap
in hand, he motioned her to move the car into its home. Georgie
closed the door and flicked the remote. The moment the garage door
began its slide up into the rafters, the interior light came on and
Daisy took off around the house.

~~0~~

“Have a seat,” Georgie told Mason as
she tossed the empty light bulb carton into the re-cycle container
then patted Daisy on the head.

After a moment she heard Mason politely
clear his throat, and turned. He was standing at the kitchen table,
looking down at one of the cushioned seats.

“Oh,” she said, a small laugh rumbling
inside her as she indicated the curled up gray and off-white tabby
cat looking up at him with yellow eyes. “That’s Max. My suggestion?
Take the other chair. He is very possessive of his territory and
doesn’t share.”

“At least you have an attack cat,”
Mason said, placing his cap on the table and taking the other
chair. “Your Daisy here is too friendly with strangers.”

As he spoke, Daisy nuzzled his hand,
and Georgie said nothing. She knew Daisy better than anyone... well
except for Sam. “Remember Daisy from the Great Gatsby?” she asked
as she pulled off her hat, fluffed out her hair, and reached for
her espresso/coffee maker from its corner.

“Sure,” he said, but he held up a hand.
“Oh, no coffee, thanks. A glass of water will be just
fine.”

“Okay.” Georgie pushed the caffeine
factory back into its corner and took out a glass while explaining.
“Daisy was cute, fragile, the epitome of what men wanted... until
they got her. And she was also Gatsby’s downfall. My feeling on the
character is that Daisy was a graceful moving shark. Sharks will
nuzzle you with the gentle swish of the finest silk, tasting you,
before...”

Mason smiled and withdrew his hand from
Daisy. “Maybe the fault lay in Gatsby.”

“Maybe.” Georgie smiled as she handed
him the glass of water and took the chair across from him. “Thank
you for putting in that light bulb.”

Daisy quickly sat beside
her, and Georgie reached down to run
a
hand over the dog’s dark gray head and short white Schnauzer
mustache. “And thank you for coming all the way out here to see me
home.”

“For a fellow writer? Any time. Thank
you for the water,” he smiled, taking a drink, “but I have to get
going. Work tomorrow.” He slipped on his cap. “You going to be
okay?”

Daisy got to her feet, alert, standing
guard between them, and Georgie patted the furry head. Max too
dropped to the floor and sat beside Daisy, both making a wall in
front of Georgie.

“I think I’ll be fine.”

Mason’s eyebrows rose and lowered as he
adjusted his cap at which Daisy’s ears twitched to attention. “Yup,
I think you’ll be just fine.”

Georgie laughed. “Here, I’ll let you
out the front door.” She reached for the gate key and led him
through the kitchen into the living room, turning up the thermostat
on the way. The drapes were open on the large wall-size window and
Portland lay before them in bright lights framed by tall trees at
each side.

“That is some sight,” Mason
said.

“Yes, it is. It’s why we bought this
house. It was the only lot with that natural break in the trees. No
upstairs, no downstairs.” The lump was thick in her throat. “Sam
and I thought we’d grow old here.” She swallowed and undid the
chain and dead bolt to open the door.

As they walked to the gate a car came
up the road, its headlights flashing across them as it went on by.
“Heavy traffic tonight,” Georgie said as she unlocked the gate to
the chain link fence to let Mason out. She closed the gate and
reset the lock.

“Make sure you call in that
theft.”

“I will. Promise.”

He turned to leave then stopped to look
over his shoulder at her. “Rain check on that coffee?”

For just a thought, a refusal played on
the tip of her tongue, but she swallowed it. She had done that much
too often, and she smiled. “For a fellow writer? Anytime.” It came
out so easy and painless it surprised her.

He touched the bill of his cap then
pointed to the house. “Go on in. I want to hear those locks
click.”

“Can’t hear them way out here, but I
get your message. Have a good night. By the way, BADGE 747 is
moving along just fine.”

“What?”

“Well, I told Jeffrey we were going to
go over our writing. Now, it’s not a lie.” Georgie turned and
started for her door.

“You’re rationalizing,” Mason called
back, the gravel crunching beneath each step.

“I know. Good night,” she said,
entering the house, then made sure she snapped the locks into place
as noisily as she could.

From the window, Georgie waved at
Mason. He waved back and got in his car. A small cloud of vapor
came out the exhaust pipe and Georgie watched as his black 4Runner
made the circle and went out the drive. With a smile she started to
close the drapes and paused. A car going down the road hit its
brakes as it neared her driveway, but didn’t turn in. Evidently not
all her neighbors were gone yet, she thought, wondering which one
could still be around this time of year. Living on a hill, small
though it was, they tended to get some snow and ice when lower
areas around Portland didn’t.

Just as the drapes sealed off Portland
her phone rang. The name and number on the lighted caller ID was
Cassie’s cell phone.

“Yeah, and?”

Georgie laughed. “Hello to you
too.”

“Did he make sure you got all the way
home?”

“How did your delivery go?”

“The world has another male to deal
with, strong and kicking, mother doing fine. Daddy almost passed
out, but he’ll recover. Now, don’t change the subject. M&M made
sure you got home?”

Georgie tucked the phone between her
shoulder and her ear while feeding both Max and Daisy. “Yes he
followed me home. Even changed a bulb for me too.”

“What?!”

Georgie jerked from the shrilly reply
and almost dropped the phone.

“Since when do you need
someone to
change
a light bulb?”

“Since a doctor friend of
mine told me, very clearly I might add, that I needed to get
back
in the game
;
that I needed the company of the opposite sex... that
I...”

“Stop, stop, stop.”

Georgie waited. There was no sound. She
finally asked, “Are you there?”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t think you were
done tossing my words back at me? God, I hate it when you do
that.”

Georgie laughed as she rinsed out the
empty cans before putting them in the recycling bin, then washed
the spoon and her hands.

“Georgie? Can I say something and you
not growl at me?”

Georgie thought a moment while drying
the spoon and slipping it back into the drawer, then decided to put
out a warning of her own. “Depends on what you say, I suppose.” As
she spoke, Georgie made her way down the lighted hallway to her
writing room and turned on her computer. One day she would get a
lap top, she thought as she looked out the window at the bright
Portland skyline before turning on the light. But as the little
lights flickered and bleeped on the computer, she smiled. This old
clunker was a gift from her family.

“Then I better not say anything,”
Cassie said. “I’ll wait. I have to get going. I need some sleep.” A
loud, somewhat overdone, yawn accented the remark.

“Oh, for God’s sake, just say it
already,” Georgie told her, letting the mini-blinds drop into place
then rolling the rod between her fingers to close them. “I’m not
about to lie awake all night wondering about this.”

“Like I really believe you
would.”

There was a soft sigh at the other end
of the line and Georgie felt the warmth of Cassie’s ever constant,
unconditional friendship.

“
I just wanted to say, you
sound... happy.”

“
Happy?”

Chapter five

Georgie brushed her teeth with a
vengeance, then looked into the mirror. “Happy. What was that
supposed to mean?” she asked. Unlike the fairy tale, Georgie’s
mirror offered no reply. Cassie had hung up with her traditional,
“Hugs, Kiddo,” before Georgie could ask for an explanation, not
that she’d get one. It was so typically Cassie.

And how was she supposed to sit at her
computer and write after that? An hour passed after doing
corrections before she finally gave in. Nothing new was coming out.
She could barely focus on the typos. Finally, with a sigh of
frustration, she tossed up her hands and turned off
everything.